An open letter to my Republican friends...

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/03/an-open-letter-to-my-republican-friends.html

Let's talk about where your party is headed after Trump's Waco rally. It appears that actually winning the Presidency is no longer the goal of your party, or your apparent leading candidate. Glorifying a seditious, or treasonous, attack on the United States Capitol has told us everything we need to know. He's not aiming for election, he's aiming for a fraudulent coup because he knows he can't win enough votes to win. He might as well just come out and say that he'd like to set the constitution aside and become dictator, since that was the gist of his rambling, boring address on Saturday.

That's not going to happen. If you nominate him as your party's candidate for President, if that's his message, and he made it clear on Saturday, he is going to lose. Frankly, I think he opened the door for almost anyone else to win the GOP nomination if they decide to give it a try and run as a traditional, Reagan-Bush-Romney style Republican candidate. He'll derail that by running third party and ruining those chances but if he gets the nomination, your party is through, anyway.

I'll agree that there are millions of people in this country who have fallen victim to its lack of quality public education, the selfishness that has come with its prosperity and have little capacity for the truth. Selfishness and greed have eroded the value that Americans once placed on community and patriotic sacrifice that has allowed a base to form a MAGA party, draining the GOP of its resources, energy and leadership. Trump stays in the news cycle and lives off of their support. But there are millions more, including millions who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, who see how bad this has become, and are, at the very least, not going to turn out to vote him back in, if they don't actually cross lines and vote for the other party. A growing number of Republicans are now doing just that. Ever heard of Nicole Wallace? The Lincoln Project? Michael Steele? Steve Schmitt? In the polls and at the ballot box, a growing group of self-identified Republicans, in double digit percentages now, are declaring they've had enough of Trump and are moving on.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you for posting this great piece of writing! It is most definitely worth the read.

The author is so very right on.

I hope some intelligent republicans (if they exist) will read it.

Thank you.

[claudette]

2. Fortunately

I have NO republican friends nor do I want any. It’s a waste of time to try to be nice to them or logical in your arguments.

[Phoenix61]

3. Very well written. nt

[viva la]

4. What gives me vertigo-

is realizing how much the Gopers are willing to shove into the big hole to somehow support Trump. Everything they've always said they were for-- law and order, the police, the FBI, states rights, family values, civility, even VICTORY-- they'll sacrifice for him.

And sure, some are true Trumpers. They salivate for the guy. But I bet most of the McCarthy/JimJordan clutch are just scared of him. They'll pitch democracy into the hole because they're scared that he will... do what? Give them a nasty nickname? Suggest his supporters primary them?

Why would anyone do all that for this unpleasant, tawdry, craven narcissist? They can't possibly like him. And he's never going to win anything again. So it's like they're just cowards. They should take advantage of the moment to back away from him, but instead, they're sacrificing what little is left of their insides for him.

It's like mass hysteria, only the ones at the top KNOW it's all futile and bogus. They apparently just are too scared to even pipe down.

[Zorro]

5. They are afraid of their own voters

They fear a MAGAt might actually shoot and kill them if their party leader so desires. It is a consequence of their blind support for the NRA and 2A lunatics, their war on public education, and their embrace of religious nutjobs. Cowards all.

[viva la]

9. i think that's likely--

It's not just that they think they'll lose. They know some of these loons will do damage to any one Trump points them at. Physical damage.

[lees1975]

8. One look at analysis of the midterm elections tells you how deep his failure is digging into the GOP

I think you've hit the nail on the head that a lot of them are just scared of him. The anti-Trump faction in polling data has been in double digits among Republican voters for a while. I wish the prosecutions on his big crimes would move faster, so that he's where he belongs in prison long before the parties nominate their candidates. I'd recommend keeping a close eye out for cheating among the county supervisors and election people who are still in his pocket. He'll be convicted.

[Ray Bruns]

6. Here's my letter to my Republican friends: GFY

[rubbersole]

11. 👆 + 🖕

[republianmushroom]

7. like the posting

[usonian]

10. History makes a big deal of fascist "leaders" but not the rivals they destroyed along the way.

Trump, Marcos, Duterte, Putin, Capone, Nitti, Franco, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Xi ... sadly a long list.
But they all represent "personality politics" as much as either their political maneuvering, brute force, or demagoguery, and personalities conflict until they fall out of windows or just disappear.

If you hope or think that the bad guys will kill each other off, history shows otherwise.

Since they all "capitalize" on selfishness, hatred/racism, and seductive lies (and sometimes brute force), the end result is usually aggregation of power, rather than dilution. Followers just swap personalities to go with a "winner" who shares their delusions.

Here in the U.S., we have shown that a majority of people are against the fascist cause. The fascists are using political tricks to wag the dog. It's a last gasp as changing demographics and awareness among young people, who suffer from this the worst (need I mention school shootings?) have them cornered.

The expropriation of religion happens. Almost all of the above mastered it. And it's a hideous betrayal. Sadly, ministers of the "church of Mammon" (*) too often go along and "sanctify" the fascists.

This, too is becoming obvious to more and more people, despite the propaganda barrage from Fox et.al.

I urge a strong and united front against fascists, whether they mortally wound each other or not. Their actions mortally wound children, women, people of color and more.


(*) I read "The Enchantments of Mammon" by Eugene McCarraher. Review here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/22/enchantments-of-mammon-how-capitalism-became-religion-modernity-eugene-mccarraher-review

[niyad]

12. KNR