Republicans

[Kyle]

[Mike]

[poorpete]

One underestimated reason I think 2016 turned out the way it did was the Senate races happening at the same time. And part of the reason I'm fearful that we'll get a similar turn. When Trump was fading after the Access Hollywood tape, Republicans were worried that his sinking numbers would capsize down-ballot races too. So they had a decision to make: nix Trump, or embrace him like never-before to make sure his voters would vote for Senators in competitive races. Senate seats were up in the competitive states of Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. GOP needed to win those Senate races, and did. That in-turn raised the Trump vote (note: no Senate race in Michigan, so that's an issue with my theory).

I'm worried it's going to happen again, that the GOP will embrace the lost-cause Trump to save their Senate seats, which in turn spurs a Trump comeback. But, maybe some good news: there are less statewide races in swing states this time. Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida do not have any Senate seats up-for-grabs this year. No governors races either. That makes those states strictly a referendum on Trump.

[Tahlvin]

It's different this time around, though. After the shit show that is #45, those incumbent GOP senators need to defend their 4 years of unflinching loyalty to Trump. That may work for the portion of their base that will vote GOP no matter what, but that's not enough. Independents are breaking strongly for Biden, and not-insignificant number of moderate Republicans are defecting. Plus, Biden isn't Hillary; he doesn't have Bill's baggage train holding him back. The election is still months away, and there's a lot that can change between now and then. But there's reason to hope.

And please, Lord, let RBG last for many years to come, but particularly until after the inauguration.

[Phoebe]

Republican rage over the loss of the Redskins name/mascot and other changes to company logos is really something to behold. Grown adults, spitting mad and personally affronted because some other group has decided not to enshrine racism in their public symbols, blaming "oversensitivity" and "snowflakes" for this historic calamity.

[Phoebe]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but being an alpha male does not mean watching your wife have sex with the Latino pool boy. At least now we have a more publicly available demonstration of why the alt-right neo-Nazis are so obsessed with calling people "cuck", an insult that makes no sense to any normal person.

[Phoebe]

Tim Scott is the only viable future for the Republican party. He's got some problems working out where those tax cuts actually went, but besides Romney (who is not the future) he is the most rational one. The sad thing is at some point they'll find out where the rubber hits the road in their racist strategy. All the people who are racist while patting themselves on the back and telling themselves they're not racist are going to encounter the people in their party who really are racist and think that Tim Scott isn't qualified just because of that.

[poorpete]

I've been thinking lately about "No Justice No Peace." I've always felt queasy about the "no peace" part, I've never yelled it, because I really do want peace. I am firmly pro-peace. But I've come to agree with its point. You cannot expect peace when there is no justice. And realizing "no peace" has two meanings, violence is one, but movement is another. It's asking for a problem to be solved, simply: the safest way out of this is for justice to be served, otherwise our brotherhood is untenable.

It's really the same side of the coin as "Law and Order." Law/Justice, Order/Peace. You expect them to work together. They need to. Trump only cares about Order, not Law. Peace (in the lack-of-movement way), not Justice. He wants protests to stop. He wants his friends pardoned. He wants people to be free to do wrong without consequence, for police to shoot, for his supporters to shoot, and for us to be at peace with that.

[Phoebe]

Amen, they don't want law and order, they want lawless order. Mr. Penzey or whoever runs the Penzey's spices had a great email about this while announcing that they are "looting" their own Kenosha store by giving away all its contents to groups that feed the hungry. We cannot have "order" in this country while our President and others refuse to respect the law. Likewise, there is no peace in a place where police allow and even encourage vigilantism and murder, while using their own powers to brutalize. The peace was already broken, so peaceful protesters are restoring the peace.

[Stan]

Deciding not to even have a platform is a nice way of admitting that the party is just a Trump cult of personality. Why confuse hard working people with issues?

[poorpete]

A simple leader test: are you an example or an exception?

[Phoebe]

The spectacle we saw last night was really something. Well, hoping for your sake you didn't have to see it; I was curious and dropped in at just the right moment to see things. Among the things I saw were the man making a duck-lip face, as he does, but the most exaggerated version ever, as he and his fam struggled mightily to reproduce the words to God Bless America in a sing-a-long. The opera singer was received as top quality and the ultimate sign of Republican class, by people who ... do not know opera. I do have to give that man props for having the balls to ADD HIS OWN EXTRA to Nessun Dorma - like he just took his big chance to smash out that note again, like Puccini himself would have wanted it that way. Ha ha ha.

[Ronster]

I am amazed how two people (or groups of people) can see the same things and think the opposite things happened.

I can imagine each group is saying "those guys are crazy, we're the sane ones"

I am in disbelief.

[bralbovsky]

I avoided the theatrics of both conventions.

Meanwhile, I'm getting serial texts from both parties asking for money.

I'm not certain I will send any money.

Having said that, each character has a different tone, and I'm collecting data to compare the verbs, noun, and adjectives in the texts to see if there's a qualitative difference.

[Phoebe]

The branding of our public national monuments with giant fireworks flashing the name of Trump was really something to behold.

[Phoebe]

Trump is bad, yeah, but what's really getting me right now is how far down the rot goes in the party. It's not like the DNC is a great organization, free from all problems and corruption, but at least some sort of moral compass appears to be functioning. I don't know that they have a great commitment to truth and facts, but it's a far better one than we see on the other side because they at least seek the appearance of non-contradiction and evidentiary support. Republicans appear as a class to be floating entirely free of such restrictions. If they don't like a fact, they just call it fake or attack the source and move on, unaffected by reality. Literally nothing stops the roll of this set of crazy beliefs short of actual death - the COVID deniers will deny deny deny until they are in fact dead from it. Tragic but it means taking other people down with them.

I'm not sure what one does in this situation - what is an ethical response to this? When an individual captured by this insane ideology presents to you claiming to have real moral concerns, at least you have a starting point: let's see what your moral principles are, and then we can discuss whether your political actions are in fact compatible with them. Usually we get to "I don't believe your facts" very quickly, however, and then what? How much responsibility to people bear for that, especially when they've been instructed for decades now to disbelieve any facts brought forth by their political opponents? How responsible are dumb people for being dumb? I sincerely wonder. It's easy to blame; I don't think the urge to blame is helpful even though I feel it. But I'm talking even in the slightest engagement, the barest communication, this shit comes out. What do we do with it?

I might add that the scruples I feel about blaming people for the moral and intellectual failures involved in their politics are counterbalanced by the fact that they support people who are attacking me and others like me ALL. THE. TIME. I mean by this that daily I have to address the problem. It's hard to describe if you haven't experienced it. The whole mention of "cancel culture" is nauseating under such circumstances.

[Mike]

If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend going to YouTube and looking at groups like VoteVets, Republican Voters Against Trump, and The Lincoln Project. They are all Republicans making ads to elect Biden and get Trump out of office. Ads are typically only a minute long, so you can watch five or six at a shot and have wasted almost no time. They are heartening, and I find it fascinating to see how Republicans make their best pitch at other Republicans. Although The Lincoln Project also has the stated goal of personally infuriating Donald Trump, so many of their ads are fun on that level too.

[Phoebe]

Yes, I like the strategy behind the Lincoln Project, because they know they've got his attention and that he will actually say stupid things to embarrass himself if they play it the right way and put out the right ads. Scary that he is so easily manipulated, too.

Anyway, I deeply appreciate most of these "never Trumper" Republicans who are working against him - especially one of the vocal and local ones here who is a SUPER good guy. It is heartening, and it is useful to see how they appeal to their former companions. In some ways it reminds me why I would not be a "never Trumper" Republican either, but at least the moral compass is working there. People like Jennifer Rubin and even Mona Charen have really impressed me by displaying an honest commitment to their previously stated values, which it used to seem that only Democrats offended. But they had limits, and they were able to acknowledge them openly and even argue for it.

I'm a little concerned about people like George Conway, though - to the extent that some of this Lincoln Project stuff is connected to people like that. I actually think his whole deal with his wife has been a scam and long con for these last five years. I think they knew exactly what was up and how they were going to play it so that they could be insulated no matter what happened; I don't think it's sincere. I used to think they were just two people navigating a really difficult marital crisis caused by the wife being, well, a terrible and dishonest person through and through. But now I think BOTH of them are terrible and dishonest people through and through, and that concerns me re: support for anything a Conway touches.

[Kyle]

The saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is just horseshit. Do I laugh at what the Lincoln Project is doing? Sure. Do I like them? Hell no. Look at some of the anti-immigrant, anti-muslim, anti-LGBTQ statements the founding members have made. They're monsters. I want nothing to do with them. If monsters want to tear down other monsters- great. They'll win no praise from me.

For the military, I'll say that there's been a huge shift in the military people I know over the last year. Most of them are angry at Trump and feels that he uses the military as a prop, costing lives of their friends and loved ones. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of Trump4Evah in the group too- but the anti-Trump anger is growing fast and is palpable. These new revelations were the match that a lot of people needed to light their hatred fires.

[poorpete]

Famous political leaders who are cynically gushing over Trump (Marco, Ted, Rand... Pence too) are for the most part angling for their 2024 presidential bids. It's pretty obvious. But these Never-Trumpers are also angling to 2024, because as much are honest that they want Biden to win, they will dishonestly turn-on-him in his first term, throwing their support to a Romney or Rubio who will govern competently but with a deep conservative bend, because that's who they really prefer.