When they call for unity, remind them of their own track record...

[JHB]

Last edited Fri Jan 20, 2017, 09:08 AM - Edit history (2)

1992: After George H.W. Bush lost the election, Rush Limbaugh used his show to rally demoralized Republicans, railing that Bill Clinton was only "technically" president because he won with a plurality, not a majority, and so had no mandate. This frame of illegitimacy was the justification for the relentless hunt to find something, anything, to force him from office.

2000: The Republican candidate, short on track record but long on brazenness, squeaks into office having lost the popular vote but getting an EC win under circumstances ripe with politically-motivated interference with the process. The Democrats acquiesce in the interests of national unity. Rather than reciprocate in light of an obvious lack of mandate, the Republicans push a hard right agenda, hold secretive energy meetings and push through tax cuts that will double the national debt. The president's team is contemptuous of its predecessors, and having sneered at the Clinton administration for thinking non-state actors like Al Queda were threats, they drop counterterrorism as a priority and divert resources to other things. When he decidedly did NOT keep us safe, his people used the worst attack on us since Pearl Harbor as a springboard for their pet project to oust Saddam Hussein. Their ideological devotion to deregulation led to the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

2008: Obama wins hands down. No "plurality" shit this time, it's as clean a win as you could like. Republican reaction? Dust off the playbook they'd built up during the Clinton years and start at DEFCON 1. Total resistance. Despite job losses, bankruptcies, and millions of Americans standing to lose their homes, their Number One Priority was making Obama a one-term president. When that failed, they just kept it up and added more scandal mongering against Hillary Clinton.

Obeisance is not unity. If they want unity, they need to show some. We gave it to them the last time, and all we got was terrorism, war, floods, financial crisis, bankruptcies, and the absolute shredding of any stability in the Middle East.

This time, once again we have another ignorant, arrogant good salesman/terrible businessman who is contemptuous of expertise, leading a pack of ideologues, cronies, and opportunists set to grab power with both hands and ram through their wish list and use their power to attack their domestic critics. Unity? You get what unity you've earned: none.

[Dustlawyer]

1. +1!!! THIS

The Republicans have decided that when in power they will give the plutocrats whatever they want, the country be damned. We had wars for oil and so that the MIC could make more money. When in power opportunities to feather their own nests increase. Because of this they have decided to ramp up partisanship to 11.

They have been playing the long game as well. The U.S. Chamber of (horrors) Commerce, the Koch's and their network of greedy plutocrats have been donating money in just about every state and local race across the country. It doesn't take much per race to make the difference in those races. Their efforts have shown unbelievable results. It hasn't hurt that the Democrats have been ignoring this. Now that they share many of the same donors it makes me wonder what is going on behind the scenes.

The Democrats have not been aggressive enough to combat this tactic in the state and local races since most of their candidates get no help from the national organization. They cannot compete with the amounts of money going to the right so I am not throwing shade on all Democrats, they are just out gunned.

As long as we allow money in our politics we will never keep the pendulum swinging our way for long. We make gains only after a complete ass rape by a Republican administration. Take this election for example, Obama has turned the country around and has excellent approval ratings, yet we still have a change of Parties in power!

The last point is the media. Long been decried as "Liberal" it has been anything but. The RW propaganda has fueled the partisanship by throwing gasoline, no jet fuel, to the fire! We must do something about this are we cannot have the kind of government we want and need.

The root problem is the money, since we allow legalized bribery and added Super PAC's and the revolving door spinning so fast as to make you throw up. Next time we have all three branches, which may be right after the Trump/Pence dynamic duo, we need to have Democrats in place committed to ending this corruption before our country falls apart!

[dalton99a]

2. You don't help vandals.

[JHB]

3. Precisely.

[JHB]

4. Self-kicked in response to the Mussolini speech.

"Like never seen before".

Actually, there are several examples we have seen before. Really, really bad examples. That's what we're worried about.