Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Giving up is unforgivable.

In my day, never was longer.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / GOP Death Cult Open Thread: Keep A Sharp Eye on That Hawley Guy

GOP Death Cult Open Thread: Keep A Sharp Eye on That Hawley Guy

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GOP Death Cult Open Thread: Keep A Sharp Eye on That Hawley Guy

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

Senior editor, National Review at CPAC, today:

On the other hand, Hawley didn’t score a place on the infamous CPAC straw poll (possibly because his name wasn’t included?), where Ted Cruz and Rand Paul each got 2%, and home-team fave Ron DeSantis got 21%. So, Firebrand Josh is maybe extremely popular with a subset of Death Cultists, but not so much the ‘leadership’ and/or the broader Base?…

To be fair, the NYTimes‘ new Trumpist whisperer thinks he’s fan-fekking-tastic (if you wanna trust the NYTimes)…

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  3. 3.

    Calouste

    “In the name of the people” was also how the Nazi judges passed out death sentences to political opponents.

  4. 4.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    One thing to worry about with the likes of Hawley or even Trump if he runs again in 2024 is that red states are looking at substantial voter suppression, even to the point of wanting legislatures to insert themselves into the process to decide election results. If this happens in swing states like PA, MI, or WI, then we’re potentially screwed and democracy as we know it will be dead. I think that’s why it’s vital to fill as many vacancies in the federal judiciary as possible as well as pass a voting rights protection act with real teeth before 2022

  6. 6.

    Gravenstone

    Gotta love a mob too brain damaged to suss out a simple “Josh” chant would have sufficed to convey their ardor for the Nazi du jour.

  7. 7.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Just my take, but Hawley has no charisma or presence. DeSantis makes me want to take a shower. Despite their educations at our most prestigious institutions, they don’t register smart or pensive. In other words, shoe-ins.

  12. 12.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I think the one thing that amazes me, is how we got from so-called “freedom-loving”, “Shining City on a Hill” conservatives like Reagan and Thatcher, to “national conservatives” like Hawley and Le Pen. Reagan and Thatcher weren’t great people and their policies (along with Nixon) are a major reason we are in the place we are, but I think they still believed in free/fair elections and liberal democracy. People like Hawley and the modern Republican Party do not. Nor do the Nationalist Right in Europe. Cold War conservatives, they are not

  14. 14.

    bluehill

    I was hoping to not have to worry about elections for a while. but no. Repubs seem to be accelerating towards authoritarianism rather than veering away after 2020. How are the mid-terms looking? I’ve read the senate is more favorable for dems. No idea about the house.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

     I think they still believed in free/fair elections and liberal democracy. People like Hawley and the modern Republican Party do not

     

    Clearly, the way to make Republicans believe in free and fair elections again is to hand them landslide wins.

  16. 16.

    Chris T.

    Hawley has clearly studied history, and knows that the Führer didn’t make it to power after the Beer Hall Putsch, but rather, after the next one. He wants to be the guy in charge during the next putsch.

    As @sukabi: said, though, he doesn’t have the appeal. (I don’t see how Donald John Senior has the appeal, but somehow, he does. Not to me, but to all those crowds he rallied.)

  17. 17.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @debbie:

    It’s sad that Donny Jr. got 7% in that poll. I’m sure it chaps Cruz’s ass that the guy who accused his father of being the Zodiac Killer polls much higher than him, including his son; that his insane performance at CPAC didn’t net him many votes

  19. 19.

    drylake

    Hawley looks exactly like the kind of guy the phrase “pencil-necked geek” was devised to describe, so his appeal should be profoundly limited for the MAGA machomacho men. Not just that (its opposite in fact): did anybody catch that he used “irregardless” in a speech a few weeks back? I imagine Yale law has been trying to reach him for some time now to ask for their diploma back.

  20. 20.

    Chris T.

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s a natural progression. It happens over and over again. Authoritarianism appeals to some group of people, and something clicks somehow. It doesn’t always take, so it can only be proven in retrospect.

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    I’m glad Biden is president and that we have majorities in Congress (albeit slim ones) but I feel like this is only a pause…the republic is still in grave danger.

    go faster, be bolder, Dems!

  25. 25.

    MazeDancer

    So, apparently, the reason the Former Guy been laying low since Mr. Biden’s inauguration is he got plastic surgery.

    Just speculation from his sleekened, shiny face.

  26. 26.

    J R in WV

    Wife, a grammarian writer, hates irregardless more than any other grammar mal-formed nullity. You guys should hear her explode when she hears someone who claims to be highly edumacated and well spoken use that not-a-word.

  27. 27.

    Subsole

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It really does go back to Bubba C and Rush Deadboy.

    The Clintons terrified conservatopia. Because they pretty conclusively proved you could get all the good bits of conservatism without actually having to elect conservatives. (Which to some folks is a curse, but really they saved this country. Broke 12 years of GOP dominance and kept the left viable.)

    He essentially showed people that the GOP was America’s political appendix – it sits there not doing a damn thing useful, then it maybe kills you.

    Limbaugh and Newt and the rest was a reaction to that. “Pound the table, assholes. God, law and man have abandoned you.” kind of moment.

  28. 28.

    Subsole

    @bluehill: Midterms are never good for us.

    If we don’t make Manchin and Sinema give more of a fuck about “one person, one vote” than they do about bipartisan comity, it is going to be very very bad for us.

  30. 30.

    cain

    @Baud: ​
     

    To be second is a blessing! Just think what a loser Mo Salad is for being frist! He’s got no patience, you gotta time it just right to get 2nd!

  31. 31.

    cain

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​
     

    One thing to worry about with the likes of Hawley or even Trump if he runs again in 2024 is that red states are looking at substantial voter suppression, even to the point of wanting legislatures to insert themselves into the process to decide election results. If this happens in swing states like PA, MI, or WI, then we’re potentially screwed and democracy as we know it will be dead. I think that’s why it’s vital to fill as many vacancies in the federal judiciary as possible as well as pass a voting rights protection act with real teeth before 2022

    It needs to be the #1 thing after the pandemic.. we have less than two years to make this happen. We must hold on to power as much as we can against this scourge.

    Every ioita of energy needs to be towards defeating these assholes at the polls and keeping the polls open. Those rules about legislatures overruling an election only works for Republicans and Dems would never use that even if that option exists.

  34. 34.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    Clearly, the way to make Republicans believe in free and fair elections again is to hand them landslide wins.

    Clearly lol. That Georgia politician basically gave the game away when she said Republicans had to be given a chance to win (or something to that effect)

    @Chris T.:

    It’s a natural progression. It happens over and over again. Authoritarianism appeals to some group of people, and something clicks somehow. It doesn’t always take, so it can only be proven in retrospect.

    Hell, for a long time, the press refused to treat the Trump administration any different from other administrations. It took the gross mishandling of the pandemic, tear gassing peaceful protestors in front of a church so Trump could do a photo-op, refusing to accept losing an election and then the subsequent Capitol insurrection for them to call a fascist a fascist. Trump finally faced some consequences for his words and actions; to be a fly on the wall when he found out his Twitter account was wiped. It was great when all the major news networks (except Fox I’m sure) cut off his presidential address before the election was called when he tried to spread his BS about how he had “won”

  37. 37.

    Subsole

    @H.E.Wolf: Yeah. I was too.

    2010 and 2014 not so much.

    We have a bad, baaaaad habit of rolling over and going to sleep before we’re certain the fire is out.

  39. 39.

    West of the Rockies

    Hawley looks like Ethan Hawkes’ less attractive, developmentally-disabled cousin.  He’s got the same stupid, sad eyebrows and open-mouthed look of dull regard.

  43. 43.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Subsole:

    I’m sure Clinton did, considering he was a Dem from a southern state that had managed to be elected president. The Southern Strategy looked shaky at the time. It looks shaky once again with the 2020 Georgia results. Explains the current R freak out now

    @cain:

    Absolutely. It’s so breathtaking that the R’s are actually considering something so radical as the legislatures deciding the winner of presidential elections in their states

  45. 45.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Jessica Watkins [insurrectionist] tries to get out on bail after renouncing Oath Keepers–and fails

    we’re at the “‘before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times” stage

  46. 46.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Reagan and Thatcher weren’t great people and their policies (along with Nixon) are a major reason we are in the place we are, but I think they still believed in free/fair elections and liberal democracy.

    I can only speak to America, yet: Only because Black folx like me and my Parents were still corralled and constrained, electorally  speaking. That was, in America, what the Southern Strategy bought them; a turn from overt racism in exchange for post-Civil Rights Movement relevance in this new Political order.

    (Never forget that we came to find out that Reagan is on tape being a racist shitheel with Nixon.)

    And turning from that norm, both culturally and electorally? That was the real threat Bill Clinton — and Al Gore — brought to the table; that the South would turn away from White Supremacy, be it cloaked in Democratic or GOP party affiliation. (Or on edit, what Subsole said, although they put the emphasis differently than I would). For all their flaws and latent racism, they were building a Democratic Party that actually empowered Black folx, that could see the post-Reconstruction, racially-charged power centers of the American South actually over-turned — or so, I think, many feared.

    All that rage and anger in the 90s leapt up from the idea that Southerns might turn away from the bullshit Lost Cause ancestor worship that had put people like Strom Thrumond and George Wallace in power, and people like Newt and Mitch moved Hell and Earth to ensure that could never, ever come to pass.

    Y’all can likely draw the line, from there to today.

  47. 47.

    Zinsky

    Hawley is just building on Trump’s commonly used rhetorical trick of conflating the fate of the American people with the fate of Donald Trump.  Listen to one of the fat orange pervert’s speeches sometime – he is always saying things like, “the Democrats are out to get me – they are out to get you”  or “liberal elites are trying to silence me and are trying to silence you too” or “my opponents are trying to cancel me and they are cancelling you too”.  Anything bad that might happen to him is something bad that will happen to the United States.  His fate is everyone’s fate.   When, of course, nothing could be further from the truth.    Propagandists exploit people’s love of country and twist it into a love for themselves.

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    @J R in WV

    Respect for her principles. Sometimes it’s all one can do to hold the ire at bay.

    Went off on a gentle jag last night at one of the weekly Zoom RPGers who kept saying “a preventative measure” about how one preventates … well, anything.

    ;)

    (He also insists on pronouncing malware as “mallware” but that’s a battle for another day.)

  51. 51.

    BlueGuitarist

    @bluehill:

    Early guesses

    Senate 2022:

    3 very competitive seats held by each party

    R: PA (Toomey retiring), WI (Russia’s Johnson), NC (Burr retiring)

    D: GA (Warnock), AZ (Kelly), NH (Hassan)

    Potentially competitive

    R: OH (Portman retiring), FL (Rubio), IA (Grassley, 87)

    D: NV (Cortez Masto), CO (Bennet)

    House 2022

    President’s party usually loses seats in midterm.

    Gerrymandering and reapportionment could make that worse.

    Increasing the size of the House would probably be good, but hard to pass, and gerrymandering makes it riskier. Also worth considering changing reapportionment calculation method that favors small population states.

    Not to forget, state legislative elections and some elections this year: mostly city and county elections.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​
      You are showing your age. A person doesn’t start his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, MS, if he doesn’t mean to send a message. And Thatcher…. “There is no such thing as society.” Fuck her too.

  59. 59.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Mo Salad: I wish I understood what the deliberate mis-spelling of “First” meant.  I’m so old, I just don’t understand all this kidz lingo.

    [is it really a reference to Bill Frist?]

  60. 60.

    laura

    @Omnes Omnibus: a gentle reminder that when one comments on the Iron Lady, that “soulless ghoul” “suffering enthusiast” and “helmet haired” are always appropriate descriptors. A vile person.

  61. 61.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Emma from FL:

    The scary thing is I didn’t. He really said that. It’s up on Gab’s twitter account (ironic, I know)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Perhaps I confused their anti-communist rhetoric with their actual actions while in power. I do remember reading about him launching his campaign in Philadelphia, MS. I guess I’m not immune from society’s lionizing them, even if I do regard them as POS.

  62. 62.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Amir Khalid:

    I don’t see how laws giving state legislatures authority to overrule the popular vote would survive a court challenge. Can any constitutional-law type legal jackals weigh in on this?

    Well, IANAL, but I’ll try to answer. The US Supreme Court is 6-3 conservatives now and Barrett for example is on record as believing only “virtuous” citizens should be allowed to vote. I have the feeling that this SC is very hostile to voting and civil rights because when more people vote, their political party/movement tend to lose. The conservative justices (probably even Roberts) are all autocratic hacks who have no business being on the nation’s highest court. I don’t know about the other justices, but Barrett wouldn’t even give a straightforward answer of whether she believed Brown v Board of Education (the case that decided “separate but equal” was trash) was decided correctly. Like it was some gotcha question or something

  65. 65.

    TomatoQueen

    @West of the Rockies:  Calling you out for this abuse of vulnerable, and indeed often completely helpless people, to make unjust comparisons of them and someone who is dangerous, intelligent, and will never suffer any kind of neglect or ill-treatment.  Do I have any personal interest in the matter? Yes I do, as a parent, with the constant worry that the indifference and contempt of normals will someday lead to disaster for my child. Do I give a shit what you think? No. You’re an asshole, and you’re pied.

  66. 66.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    not really, he’s no comment on Russian Bounties on US Service people.

    The US has droned too many times badly for it not to be an issue, so every drone strike can be quibbled with and prompt outrage.

    the Former Guy accelerated drone strikes with out a single comment by the Usual Suspects,

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:I have fond memories of the defunct Malaysian TV station Metrovision, and its announcers who told us that the next show on was Baby Lawn 5. ​

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Just my take, but Hawley has no charisma or presence. DeSantis makes me want to take a shower. Despite their educations at our most prestigious institutions, they don’t register smart or pensive. In other words, shoe-ins.

    That’s funny. Good stuff.

    I don’t know who Republicans like, and at present I don’t much care. I am enjoying watching the Democrats get stuff done.

  72. 72.

    Matt McIrvin

    When they talk about “the people” they don’t necessarily mean you and me.

    Well, I’m a white guy, they might mean me. Probably contingent on my supporting them though.

  77. 77.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Always topical when the Iron Lady [spit] comes up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4-zDem1Sk

    The contempt in Elvis Costello’s lyrics is shared by many.  And for good reason.  Maggie didn’t need to express her brutal hatred of the poor across the Pond — we aren’t British voters, after all, [ETA] but she sure AF made sure British people knew it.  As for Reagan, he was a good actor.  And the American electorate was much, much, much whiter.

    I don’t think much more than that is necessary to explain why Reagan was able to dog-whistle, where today it requires an air-raid siren.

  80. 80.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It’s so breathtaking that the R’s are actually considering something so radical as the legislatures deciding the winner of presidential elections in their states

    The Constitution says that the state legislatures choose how electors are chosen, they could just select them; but I’m pretty sure their tenure in the state legislture would be greatly reduced.

  82. 82.

    Brachiator

    O/T. A little on the Golden Globes

    In a 43-second address during the Golden Globes telecast, leaders of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. vowed to diversify its ranks but laid out no specifics as to how its organization would evolve.

    An official noted, “Gee. We just don’t know any black people.”

    In a recent interview with Variety, former president Meher Tatna revealed the group has not had any Black members in more than 20 years.

    ETA. I joke, but the Variety interview is absolutely true.

  84. 84.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Brachiator: Don’t know much about the HFPA, but geez, you’d think there’d be some journalists from some sub-Saharan African country [OK, besides SA] and heck, maybe France or SA could send a Black journalist?  Or the UK?

  85. 85.

    RaflW

    I heard Pence got ~1% in the CPAC straw poll. All that groveling, admiring gazes, and he can barely get a souvenir tee shirt.

     

    Hahahahahahaha! Mikey deserves it.

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    @RaflW:
    I can’t blame Pence for not showing up at CPAC: it’s a gathering of people who recently wanted to hang him. And in the circumstances, he’s doing well to get 1% in that poll.

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @patrick II: Let people have their fun.  It might be the only bit of enjoyment they get out of any given day.  Who are you to take that from them?  You fun-sucking monster!

  95. 95.

    West of the Rockies

    @Jay:

    Thank you for the sympathetic interpretation of my comment.

    And, yes, I do apologize unreservedly.  My words were inconsiderate, unkind, and graceless.

  99. 99.

    Amir Khalid

    @Chetan Murthy:
    Thatcher hated everyone. She regarded the upper echelons of the Conservative party as weaklings. She saw the Royal Family as a bunch of “wets” who weren’t as heartless as she. Overwhelming force of character was her greatest strength in politics, but it’s a bad thing for an authoritarian to have.

  101. 101.

    burnspbesq

    So the EUA for the J&J vaccine was issued yesterday.

    Distribution of the first four million doses is underway as we speak.

    The first shots will likely go into arms on Tuesday.

    It’s kinda nice to have competent people in charge.

    ”Trump’s plague, Biden’s Cure” is simplistic, but it fits on a bumper sticker.

  107. 107.

    JWR

    Speaking of death cults, Kristi Noem, (AKA RWNJ Barbi Benton), was on Face the Nation this morning. She definitely and robotically talked over and didn’t answer any questions from Margaret Brennen, who did a pretty good job pushing back against the BS. (Noem’s a friggin’ robot!) Next up was Ronna Romney McDaniel, and just like Noem, she asked about Cuomo. “Why aren’t you asking HIM and Newsom about this virus stuff, huh? Huh? HUH?”

    Then Brennen asked her one Dem guest, Andy Beshear, why the last stimulus bill was bipartisan, and this one was not. Jeebus, lady! You just interviewed two R-bots and you’re STILL asking about why the Rs won’t sign onto anything pushed by Dems? (Oh well, baby steps.) And Chuck Todd asked the same stupid question on Press the Meat. Also too, Bret Stephens warned about overinflating an already recovering economy.

    Hoo boy. Why did I watch that sh*tshow, (I asked rhetorically?)

  108. 108.

    Comrade Colette

    @JWR:

    Hoo boy. Why did I watch that sh*tshow, (I asked rhetorically?)

    I haven’t watched any of the Sunday shows for 35 years. The result? I’m now 108 and three months and I don’t look or feel a day over 60. Try it. It worked for me, it will work for you!

  109. 109.

    James E Powell

    @JWR:

    @Comrade Colette:

    I’m with Comrade Colette. I don’t know how you do it, JWR, my TV screens would never survive it.

    Twitter was quite on fire with “WTF is with these Sunday shows?” this weekend and last. No one seems to know why they do it and what their goal is. I cannot believe that their audiences require right-wing liars. I cannot believe their audiences are big enough for anyone to care.

    I fear that those shows are still telling the Beltway press/media and the congress what “news” stories matter. I do not know if that is as true as it once was.

  110. 110.

    JWR

    @Comrade Colette:

    I usually don’t watch those shows, and don’t know why I did so this morning. I don’t usually hate myslef that much. But oh well, the damage is done.

    PS. I also listened to the first half hour of Trump at CPAC today, right up until his first use of “the China virus”. (Or was it his first “Sir” anecdote?) Hmm, I guess I really do hate myself that much. ;)

  112. 112.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Amir Khalid: 

    Thatcher hated everyone. She regarded the upper echelons of the Conservative party as weaklings. She saw the Royal Family as a bunch of “wets” who weren’t as heartless as she. Overwhelming force of character was her greatest strength in politics, but it’s a bad thing for an authoritarian to have.

    Her attitudes are actually very common among the lower middle class from which she sprang.

    Her father was the owner of a small corner shop, just one step socially above his working class customers, alternatively despising them for failing to work as hard as he had or sacrifice so much to “better themselves ” and fearing that he was only one bad thing happening from slipping back into their ranks.

    As for the upper classes, you will find a lot of overlap between the opinions of people like Alf Roberts and your average Marxist. They are all a lit of chinless wonders who have never had to lift a finger for anything their entire life, so weak and useless. Same goes for the Royal Family, who have believed that Society exists since at least George V and that, on balance, is a good thing. Add to this envy of the Queen, who, as Head of State, outranked her and you have an entire set of fears and grievances that drove her actions.

  113. 113.

    germy

    Elaina Plott:

    My name is Elaina. I was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I graduated from Yale in 2015. I now live in D.C., where I am a staff writer at The Atlantic.

    I was formerly a staff writer at Washingtonian and a Buckley Fellow at National Review. I’ve written lots of fun stuff for Pacific Standard, GQ, the Daily Beast, the New York Observer, Harper’s BAZAAR and Town & Country.

    (Bold mine)

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