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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

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

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let me file that under fuck it.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Republicans do not trust women.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

The revolution will be supervised.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / The GOP’s Nightmare Open Thread: TFG & His Biggest Fans

The GOP’s Nightmare Open Thread: TFG & His Biggest Fans

by Anne Laurie|  August 23, 20233:01 am| 105 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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These donors have an issue with their party’s voters, not their party’s candidates. https://t.co/BevlJmZ5es

— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) August 19, 2023

They greedily embraced Putin’s monster, their (very) Base adore TFG’s every lurch, and now the Republican ‘leaders’ can’t get rid of him. Sure, it’s bad for the country, probably the world… but more importantly, it’s bad for The Party!!!

At the National Review, sharing what an R.A. Lafferty character referred to as ‘the world viewed through a bile duct’, comes the lament — “What Is the Plan, Republicans?”:

May I risk the wrath of the hive mind and ask Republican primary voters what their plan is? Is there one? According to pretty much every poll I’ve seen in the last year, Donald Trump is running away with the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. This is not a favorability test; it means something concrete: It means that, instead of a new candidate being the Republican nominee in 2024, the Republican nominee in 2024 will be Donald Trump.

And the broader public hates Donald Trump.

I have no doubt that there are lots of Republican primary voters who do not know many people who hate Donald Trump. Perhaps you are one of them. But the thing is: Those people that you don’t know still get to vote. There are a lot more of them than there are of you. And like it or not, they are sending about as strong a message as it is possible to send that they do not want Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee in 2024. Unlike the party’s primary voters, they do not believe that the many charges against Trump are frivolous. The bringing of those charges has not caused them to like him more than they did before. The public’s impression of him has worsened, rather than improved, over time. Again, this may not be your personal experience, but the data are clear…

The harsh truth is that Donald Trump lucked out once, and then proved a terrible drag in every subsequent election. If he is nominated in 2024, he will prove a drag again. How do I know this? I know this because, helpfully, the voting public is letting us all know it before Republicans make yet another terrible mistake. If the party’s plan is simply to ignore this information for the time being, and then, when it all becomes horribly clear and the Democrats have won power once again, to pretend stupidly that Trump has been cheated once again, then it will deserve everything that comes to it.

The problem for the rest of us? We won’t deserve any such thing.

No, my dude, *you* and your editorial compatriots deserve much, much worse. But watching you meep and maunder is some small consolation, as the rest of us attempt to save the country from the GOP.

In my view the plan is to exist as an opposition entity, where the impurity of actually legislating is removed. https://t.co/T7YX6JlUex

— Jane Coaston (@janecoaston) August 17, 2023

Yeah kinda. It really isn't even that complicated though. It's just a fundraising grift. The rest is window dressing for the rubes.

— Robert Davison (@KolomokiExile) August 17, 2023

And campaigning and fundraising on that without delivering would be…the definition of a pyramid scheme, no?

— Blake Allen Murphy (@blakemurphy7) August 17, 2023

I think that was their plan even before Trump showed up, frankly. I always got the feeling they were really put out that Hillary didn’t win, because it meant they had to get in their own supermajority’s way all the time in order not to pass all the things they pretended to want

— Colin Young (@Hayes77519) August 17, 2023

Frankly, it’s not just the angry mouthbreathers on the sub-Fox channels, either…

There's no cultural or materialist reason they believe in space lasers. They're idiots. They're idiots in ways even the most idiotic liberals simply aren't.

— Not up for trouble, please stop asking (@agraybee) August 18, 2023

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Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    JCJ

    August 23, 2023 at 3:17 am

    I am still worried that when the GQP are having their debate in Milwaukee later today a portal to the underworld will open from all of the evil concentrated in one place.  It is going to be hot enough here to imagine Satan’s anus expelling the candidates onto the stage.   I hope the Milwaukee Bucks are able to exorcize the bad juju from the arena before the start of the season

  2. 2.

    p.a.

    August 23, 2023 at 3:21 am

    I’ve said before, a political party with >50% of members thinking the earth is 6,000 years old, is going bust.  That depth of stupidity isn’t localized to, oh, geology, or biology etc.  It’s holistic stupidity.  Combined with the bigotry and… 💥

  3. 3.

    Tony Jay

    August 23, 2023 at 3:35 am

    This is what the collapse of a major political party looks like in real time. It’s not a movie. We don’t get to speed through a montage of important images with newspaper headlines superimposed over them for context. It’s one day at a time and the big, doomed beast will keep on snapping and snarling and shitting all over the floor until the last true believer drops dead of brain-rot.

    Might as well savour what you can, it’s going to be ugly.

  4. 4.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 23, 2023 at 3:36 am

    Any political argument involving ‘the rubes’ gets my skeptical eye.  I was told that Roe vs Wade would never be overturned because campaigning on it was how Republicans got ‘the rubes’ to vote.

  5. 5.

    Tony Jay

    August 23, 2023 at 4:05 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I believe that’s referred to in political circles as the “Just The Tip” paradigm. Even with the very best will in the world, the longer the tease goes on with Marvin playing in the background, the odds of someone involved losing their tiny mind narrow to zero.

  6. 6.

    Doug

    August 23, 2023 at 4:05 am

    Oh, this has cheered my morning!

    Outwardly, I am calmly looking at my monitor. Inwardly, I am completely roflmmfao.

    [ETA: Hey National Review guy! December 2015. That was a really good time to stop Trump, for the sake of your political party. Better fire up the time machine.]

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 23, 2023 at 4:23 am

    The GQp has been trending fascist since Goldwater.  Reagan sped the process up, and Bush père et fils did nothing to slow it down.  This mess is a direct result of the GQp’s thirst for power without any principle to curb it.  Linsey Graham was right.  They deserve the doom they’ve prepared.

  8. 8.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 23, 2023 at 4:27 am

    @Doug: Mr. Peabody and Doc Brown both have indicated that their machines are unavailable.

  9. 9.

    ColoradoGuy

    August 23, 2023 at 4:28 am

    Rush Limbaugh and FoxNews has been self-selecting the most gullible demographic since 1990, nearly two generations ago. Rush came right out and told his millions of “dittoheads” he would do the thinking for them, and they were perfectly OK with that. TFG stepped right into that role, since Rush wanted to stay with his lucrative radio gig.

    Where did the GQP thought leaders think this process would end up? It didn’t start with TFG; it goes back a lot further than that.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 4:59 am

    Funny Mastodon post

    https://social.tulsa.ok.us/@BalooUriza/110935997099097829

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    August 23, 2023 at 5:05 am

    Made it to NY in one piece, mostly without incident. 16 hours door to door.

    Flight from Maui to LAX was 60% full, tops. Also had a short scheduled stopover in Detroit, where was surprised to find more non-fast food airport eatery options than in many a small town, passing by them while hiking from one plane to another over the distance between  gates 69 and 21.

  12. 12.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 5:05 am

    . If the party’s plan is simply to ignore this information for the time being, and then, when it all becomes horribly clear and the Democrats have won power once again, to pretend stupidly that Trump has been cheated once again, then it will deserve everything that comes to it.

    If by “the Party” he means the Trump base, then there is no plan for when they lose because they are completely convinced Biden is hated and the majority of the country love Trump. They watch doctored videos of people purportedly “booing Biden” and read only pro -Trump sources. They think Trump’s election is a slam dunk.
    It’ll be worse than it was last time when they lose this time.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 5:10 am

    The GOP base delusions about how popular their candidates are started well before Trump.

    They all thought Obama was “toast” in 2012 and a portion thought Obama only won because of “voter fraud” – not the majority as it is now, but a substantial portion of the base.

  14. 14.

    Ksmiami

    August 23, 2023 at 5:37 am

    @Kay: Kay, the GOP needs to lose elections for 10 years. That is the only way to restore sanity.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 5:57 am

    @Ksmiami:

    They all knew this after 2012! They did a big, elaborate post mortem after the 2012 loss where they concluded their Party was rife with grifters and scammers who had deliberately deluded their base.

    “Public perception of our party is at record lows,” Bradshaw said. “Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents and many minorities think Republicans don’t like them or don’t want them in our country. When someone rolls their eyes at us they aren’t likely to open their ears to us. Bradshaw added that the GOP “needs to stop talking to itself” and needs to open the tent in order to win presidential elections in the future. “We have become expert at how to provide ideological information to like-minded people but devastatingly, we have lost the ability to be persuasive with or welcoming to those who don’t agree with us on every issue,” Bradshaw said, noting they need to be “inviting and inspiring.” “Our standard should not be universal purity, it should be a more welcoming form of conservatism,” Bradshaw said, bluntly adding that the party “needs to do better with women” and it needs to address the “unique concerns” women voters have.

  16. 16.

    Wag

    August 23, 2023 at 5:59 am

    @Ksmiami:  Truth. Unfortunately, the GQP has gerrymandered their way into supermajorities in so many states that it’ll take a decade to wrest their rigor mortise stiffened fingers from the levers of power.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 6:03 am

    @Kay:

    “needs to do better with women” and it needs to address the “unique concerns” women voters have.

    Yes, as Dobbs so clearly did address.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 6:05 am

    @Kay:

    They learned they don’t have to change because it’s easier to divide our side through propaganda.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 6:07 am

    @Ksmiami:

    We should make it 20 for good measure.

  20. 20.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 23, 2023 at 6:07 am

    @Kay:

    Bradshaw said…[the GOP] needs to address the “unique concerns” women voters have.

    Gotta admit, Dobbs addressed those concerns. After all, saying “fuck you and your concerns” is addressing them.

    ETA: Ozark Hillbilly beat me to it, I see. :-)

  21. 21.

    satby

    August 23, 2023 at 6:08 am

    Paul Krugman got a lot of blowback for writing his column on The Politics of Spite in Oct. 2009, but he had their number back then.

  22. 22.

    satby

    August 23, 2023 at 6:09 am

    @NotMax: Glad you had a safe journey. Give our love to your mom.

  23. 23.

    MagdaInBlack

    August 23, 2023 at 6:12 am

    @NotMax: Safe and (mostly) uneventful, just the way we like it 😊

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 6:16 am

    @lowtechcyclist: ;-) For once I got there first.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 23, 2023 at 6:21 am

    @Baud: ​
     

    They learned they don’t have to change because it’s easier to divide our side through propaganda.

    I don’t see that. 2016 is really the last time divisions on our side resulted in losing elections.

    Gerrymandering, and to a lesser extent throwing barriers in the way of our voters voting, are the big reasons they haven’t had to change. Take Wisconsin, a purple state that would probably be tilting blue at this point if the legislature wasn’t massively gerrymandered in their favor. Similarly North Carolina, although it would still be a slightly red-leaning state, but the legislature has a red supermajority.

    We’re still paying for 2010.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 6:23 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I didn’t say that strategy is always successful.  I’m saying it’s easier for them and that’s the way they’ve decided to move forward.

    ETA: Gerrymandering doesn’t apply to statewide offices, and Wisconsin and NC still elect Republicans statewide.

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    August 23, 2023 at 6:26 am

    I just want one of them, just ONCE, to say “You know…the libs were right about trump all along”

    Just one of them, please FSM

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    August 23, 2023 at 6:26 am

    The icing on the excerpted “What Is the Plan, Republicans?” cake is that the author is Charles C.W. Cooke, another right-wing asshole who now lives in Florida. Sorry, Cooke — you knew the “no refunds” policy when you booked passage on the Ship of Fools.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 23, 2023 at 6:32 am

    I’ve thought ever since the GWB administration that the Republicans govern as an opposition party even when they’re in power. Sometimes they claim their own failures mean you should vote for them because they demonstrate the folly of relying on the government, and the “no party but an opposition party” model is how they can say that with a straight face.

    I remember wondering out loud if that sort of thing had ever been done before, and someone pointed out that the Soviet Communist Party’s position that they were forever and always carrying out the revolution was similar.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    August 23, 2023 at 6:37 am

    @lowtechcyclist: I wonder if it makes sense to attribute the loss in 2016 to intra-party divisions. They were a factor since the margin was so narrow, but the outcome required an entire flock of black swans. IIRC, there were more substantial Dem voter general election defections in 2008 due to the PUMA nonsense.

  31. 31.

    sab

    August 23, 2023 at 6:40 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: A couple of generations into a party preying on their rubes and all you have is younger rubes. They believe the lies that their elders cynically told them or they aren’t in the party any more.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 6:40 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t recall PUMA being a factor at all, except for some noise.

    In any event, by definition, fostering intra-party divisions only works in close elections.*  But the only election we’ve had since 1996 that hasn’t been close was 2008.

    *If it’s a blowout like in 1980, then the divisions are real, not the result of propaganda.

  33. 33.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    August 23, 2023 at 6:50 am

    @Baud: I’d be happy with Vir Cotto’s wish from Babylon 5:

    “I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price….

    “…can you and your associates arrange this for me?”

  34. 34.

    Mallard Filmore

    August 23, 2023 at 6:50 am

    @Kay: Bradshaw added that the GOP “needs to stop talking to itself” and needs to open the tent

    The GOP already has a big tent.  They have libertarians standing shoulder to shoulder with Nazis and the KKK.  How much bigger can they get?

  35. 35.

    David Chop

    August 23, 2023 at 6:53 am

    Not to bash any particular poster or Democrats in general, but:

    It’ll be worse than it was last time when they lose this time.

    The whole “when they go low, we go high” thing doesn’t work with these knuckle heads. I’m not saying we need to get down in the mud and start wallowing around with these pigs, just throw their own lazy bullshit right back at them. How our response to Trumps claims of ‘stolen, cheating, corrupt, etc.’ has been anything other than “Trump lost. Get over it.” is so so frustrating. While we’re at it, a healthy dose of “Fuck your feelings” and “oh bullshit” wouldn’t hurt either.

    We (and I include myself here) keep making the mistake of thinking well reasoned arguments and the moral high ground will win out over good (“good”) theater. They’re putting no effort into their bullshit claims, and we should put the same amount of effort into countering them. Hear bullshit, call bullshit.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 6:55 am

    @David Chop:

    I don’t know who you’re talking about, but Balloon Juice isn’t known for well reasoned arguments or the moral high ground.

  37. 37.

    Princess

    August 23, 2023 at 6:56 am

    : I don’t think there’s been enough attention on the reasons why Trump is too scared to attend and participate in the debate himself. This is a crowd of also-rans. 2015/16 Trump would crush these people like a bug. And yet he’s afraid to face them.

    Given that every accusation is projection with him, I can only conclude that he is a much diminished man in the way he claims Biden to be. Of course the media is giving him a complete pass.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    August 23, 2023 at 6:58 am

    @Tony Jay:

    This is what the collapse of a major political party looks like in real time.

    Yeah, the Tories appear to be imploding under Sunak’s weak leadership. The GOP is doing badly here as well.

    More seriously, the national GOP is falling apart. But they still have a great deal of control at the state level. Even DeSantis seems to be respected in his home state.

  39. 39.

    Lapassionara

    August 23, 2023 at 6:59 am

    @Princess: His attorneys have no doubt explained to him that every time he opens his mouth, he increases his legal jeopardy. That, and if some recent photos are any indication, he looks terrible in reality, as opposed to photoshop.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 7:00 am

    @David Chop: The MAGA crowd are lost to reason or insult. Engaging with them is a waste of time. Maybe wandering in the wilderness for 40 years might get their attention but I think the only real solution is death.

    It comes for us all.

  41. 41.

    Princess

    August 23, 2023 at 7:02 am

    @Lapassionara: All that is true too. But he’s been laying the ground to weasel out of this debate since long before his indictments. And everyone is giving him a complete pass on it.

  42. 42.

    Ksmiami

    August 23, 2023 at 7:05 am

    @David Chop: totally. We should just retort with- Sure, you murderous fucktard clowns… because that’s what MAGA is.

  43. 43.

    Ksmiami

    August 23, 2023 at 7:06 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: a new Covid variant that they rebel against could hasten their demise though…Sorry not sorry.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 7:08 am

    Donald Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, according to two people briefed on the matter.

    The former president – seeking to distract from the indignity of the surrender by turning things into a circus – in essence had his lawyers negotiate the booking to take place during the prime viewing hours for the cable news networks.

    Because, of course he did. I suspect he will be disappointed in the celebratory atmosphere.

  45. 45.

    Ksmiami

    August 23, 2023 at 7:08 am

    @Matt McIrvin: they hate good government or any semblance of it, so it only makes sense that they act like vandals in office.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    August 23, 2023 at 7:08 am

    @Baud: You’re right — divisions only matter in close elections, but IIRC, in terms of sheer numbers, more registered Dems defected in 2008 than in 2016. Luckily it didn’t matter because Obama was a great candidate who turned out new voters, had the enthusiastic support of most Dems and won handily.

    My point is if we’re studying the past to avert catastrophe in the future, we shouldn’t attribute the 2016 loss solely to intraparty squabbling. It was one of many factors and not particularly severe in historical context.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 7:09 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That may be spin.  I think they’re clearing the courthouse for security reasons when he turns himself in, so it makes sense to do it after hours.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 7:10 am

    @Ksmiami: ​ The ghost of Fauci is coming for yoooouuuuuuu!!!

  49. 49.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 7:12 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t know the numbers in 2008.  Turn out may have been higher, so that should be taken into account.   Also, the purpose of division is also to get people to stay home, not just to switch.

    But I absolutely agree that 2016 was the result of a host of factors, which is why the strategy of division has been less successful since then.

  50. 50.

    Butter Emails

    August 23, 2023 at 7:14 am

    The donors are only reaping the fruits of their labors. They have spent decades grooming this base with ceaseless propaganda and poisonous rhetoric, an effort that continues unchecked even as they bemoan the consequences.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 7:15 am

    @Baud: There will be nothing and nobody but Sheriff’s Deputies  inside the courthouse and a few lawyers and a judge. Fanni Willis will see to that. The “celebratory atmosphere” I am referring to are all the non maga folks showing up outside the courthouse to cheer his booking.

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 7:17 am

    @Baud: 2016 was the result of a host of factors,

    Not least of which was the 40 year campaign of “Hillary is Eeeeeeeeeevil!”

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    August 23, 2023 at 7:21 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The former president – seeking to distract from the indignity of the surrender by turning things into a circus – in essence had his lawyers negotiate the booking to take place during the prime viewing hours for the cable news networks.

    But isn’t he always turning things into a circus?

    I wonder how unhinged his social media reaction is going to be after his surrender.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    August 23, 2023 at 7:25 am

    A few days ago I read that ships are backed up at the Panama Canal because of drought and low water. Now I see shipping was temporarily suspended in the Dardanelles Strait west of Istanbul yesterday. The reason: firefighting planes needed an open space in which to scoop up water to fight a very large forest fire nearby. The eastern Mediterranean has seen a severe drought with deadly forest fires in Greece as well.

  55. 55.

    gene108

    August 23, 2023 at 7:26 am

    @Kay:

    An alternative, and more prescient 2012 post-mortem, “After Obama Victory, Shrieking White-Hot Sphere Of Pure Rage Early GOP Front-Runner For 2016”.

    The news report is at the link below. Worth the time to watch.

    https://www.theonion.com/after-obama-victory-shrieking-white-hot-sphere-of-pure-1819595330

  56. 56.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    August 23, 2023 at 7:27 am

    @Betty Cracker: In Al Franken’s “Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them” he has an entire chapter on Cooke

  57. 57.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 7:28 am

    @gene108:

    Heh. Definitely on point.

  58. 58.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    August 23, 2023 at 7:31 am

    @David Chop: These people are suffering from economic anxiety. If we reach out to them and offer them free college and single payer they’ll put aside their racism and sexism and become progressives.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 7:35 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Is there a Democratic woman who isn’t wicked?

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 7:36 am

    @Baud: No, but Hillary was their favorite.

  61. 61.

    Suzanne

    August 23, 2023 at 7:40 am

    There’s no cultural or materialist reason they believe in space lasers. They’re idiots. They’re idiots in ways even the most idiotic liberals simply aren’t.

    Yes this.

  62. 62.

    catclub

    August 23, 2023 at 7:42 am

    @ColoradoGuy: ​
      Fox News launched in 1996

  63. 63.

    catclub

    August 23, 2023 at 7:46 am

    @Ksmiami: ​
      “My party hates good government and works to destroy it. Elect me to run it.” This actually gets a lot of voters.

  64. 64.

    catclub

    August 23, 2023 at 7:50 am

    @Mallard Filmore: ​
     

    How much bigger can they get?

    Lyndon Larouche fans.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 7:50 am

    @Suzanne:

    I actually think there is a cultural reason for idiocy, which is that it signals a rejection of post-Enlightenment progress and human development. Being able to believe idiotic things and get away with it is a powerful feeling, historically reserved for royalty.

  66. 66.

    The Thin Black Duke

    August 23, 2023 at 8:06 am

    @Baud: Ignorance might be Bliss, but it’s temporary. Reality always has The Last Word.

  67. 67.

    Geminid

    August 23, 2023 at 8:07 am

    Florida Senator pRick Scott got another Democratic challenger yesterday. Former Rep. Debbie Murcacel-Powell announced her candicay for the Senate. Ms. Murcasel-Powell, who emigrated to south Florida from Ecusdor at age 14, flipped a south Miami-Dade district in 2018. She was one of seversal talented Class of ’18 members to lose in 2020.

    Murcasel-Powell told Politico that Scott is “a total fraud,” while a Republican spokesperson claimed that the former Congresswoman is “a socialist.”

  68. 68.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 8:08 am

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Reality needs to turn out.

     

     

    @Geminid:

    Who’s the other challenger?

  69. 69.

    Chief Oshkosh

    August 23, 2023 at 8:20 am

    Based on the GOP base members that I know, they are very happy with Trump as a candidate (and upset with the weaponization of…something…argle-bargle). They also like their chances because they are feeling powerful, after having ruined (ruined, I say!) Bud Light and maybe Target. They feel very powerful because of those boycotts. They feel that the effects of the boycotts show how many of them are out there and that they have the numbers to win.

    Sure, I get it, but man are these people in a complete bubble.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 8:21 am

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Everyone is on a bubble.  Some bubbles just model reality better than others.

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    August 23, 2023 at 8:25 am

    @Baud: There are at least two other candidates. One is a Navy veteran new to politics. The other is former Representative Alan “Ewww!” Grayson.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 8:28 am

     

    @Geminid:

    Grayson needs to retire. He didn’t even win his congressional primary.

  73. 73.

    Geminid

    August 23, 2023 at 8:29 am

    @Baud: Alan Grayson likes to hear himself talk. I think he’s about the only Democrat who does

  74. 74.

    Jay C

    August 23, 2023 at 8:31 am

    @Kay:

    you’re quite right: a disgracefully large percentage of this country’s citizenry exists in a (tightly) closed media bubble: the real MAGA “base” has been conditioned by decades of right wing propaganda to avoid/shun/utterly distrust any media outlet that doesn’t tell them exactly what they want to hear (usually just validation of their prejudices and hates). And the media environment of 2023 makes that epistemically closure unfortunately easy to maintain.

    That there are more of us than there are of them is likely a demographic fact. But the MAGAts will never be convinced of that (annoying things like facts/reality notwithstanding): since everything they choose to read/hear/follow tells them the exact opposite.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 8:33 am

    @Geminid:

    Maybe the Navy Vet could be like that guy in Virginia, who knocked the GOP out of the Senate and served one term.  Webb?

    That would be valuable work.

    (I don’t know anything about him, so maybe he’s the real deal and will have a long Senate career.)

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 23, 2023 at 8:37 am

    @Chief Oshkosh:after having ruined (ruined, I say!) Bud Light

    Yeah, they switched from Bud Light to Busch and Michelob Ultra.

  77. 77.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 23, 2023 at 8:39 am

    @p.a.: I’ve said before, a political party with >50% of members thinking the earth is 6,000 years old, is going bust.

    Yes, this, this whole mess on the Right stems directly from the whole willfully ignorance of young earth creationism.  Teach someone as a child that dinosaur fossils are made in a factory in China and they end up being an anti-vaxer and climate change denialist as an adult.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    August 23, 2023 at 8:47 am

    @Baud: James Webb was a good candidate for that race. He was relatively conservative for a Democrat, and Virginia was still a fairly red state. Perhaps more importantly, he was a decorated war hero. That was the year when dismay over George Bush’s Iraq War manifested at voting booths nationwide. Webb had credibility with Independents who might otherwise be sceptical of a Democrat.

    I was glad though, when Webb chose to retire in 2012 and cleared a path for the excellent Tim Kaine.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 8:48 am

    @gene108:

    I thought Obama would win in 2012 but i wasn’t sure. They were SURE he would lose. The Republican lawyer on the Bd of Elections assured me he would lose. “He’s toast”. I think Obama  was under 50% approval either the whole time or some of the time leading up to the election and the smarter Republicans told me that was why he would lose.

    They over interpreted Trump’s 2016 win and they’re still doing it. It’s like how the opposite-Party- to the White House -Virginia- governor- won and they decided from that they should all immediately start demonizing trans people and having the state punish companies and individuals for political speech.

    Media has helped with this by interviewing and analyzing excusively Trump voters.

    They never did any post mortem in 2020 because they all denied they lost so they lost again in 2022, in the same way.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 8:50 am

    The funniest part of this whole thing is according to political media DEMOCRATS are the people who are out of touch and in a bubble.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 8:52 am

    @Kay:

    If we’re out of touch with MAGA feelings, we’re out of touch by definition.

  82. 82.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 23, 2023 at 8:52 am

    @Jay C:

    the real MAGA “base” has been conditioned by decades of right wing propaganda to avoid/shun/utterly distrust any media outlet that doesn’t tell them exactly what they want to hear

    Before that they lived in small communities getting very little news from the outside world, and could rely on the bubble of their neighbors agreeing with their bigoted opinions and violently enforcing them on nonconformists.  We take for granted a level of contact with the outside world that didn’t exist before 1980, even 1990.

  83. 83.

    The Thin Black Duke

    August 23, 2023 at 8:53 am

    @Kay: Ultimately, I think ‘normies’ hate being preached at by these joyless sanctimonious prudes.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 8:53 am

    @gene108:

    They lost with anti woke/anti trans in MI in 2022 so they ran an anti woke and anti trans campaign in OH 2 weeks ago, and lost again. They’re now running an anti woke and anti trans campaign opposing Ohio’s reproductive rights amendment. They started that the day after they lost with it on Issue 1.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 9:01 am

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Yup. They’re weirdos too. Stalkers. One of our D Bd of Elections member was being followed by one of them after the Issue 1 vote when the Bd met to certify. The Trumpster was filming him with her phone. The county prosecutor was at the meeting because she oversees certification and she intervened. The Trumpster didn’t know she was the prosecutor (SHE – a girl!) so objected to being told to leave him alone. The prosecutor is a Republican and she was appalled he was bothered like that.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 9:02 am

    @Kay:

    I’m curious how they tie reproductive rights to trans issues.

  87. 87.

    Ken

    August 23, 2023 at 9:07 am

    Blake Allen Murphy: And campaigning and fundraising on that without delivering would be…the definition of a pyramid scheme, no?

    No. I’m not sure it’s even fraud, or we’d have to call the Libertarian and Green parties frau— bad examples. But any of the other minor parties, or for that matter Democratic candidates in the reddest states, are campaigning and fundraising with no real expectation of being in a position to deliver.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    August 23, 2023 at 9:10 am

    @Baud:

    They claim the laws will allow children to medically transition without parental consent. It’s not true but saying it allows them to send out flyers with photos of scaaaaary drag queens hoping for a visceral “hate” reaction. The campaign in MI was all … garbled – it took me, an obsessive, a while to figure out what they were accusing me of, but they’ve made it more blatantly hateful now but also more unhinged.

  89. 89.

    Baud

    August 23, 2023 at 9:11 am

    @Kay:

    Thanks.

  90. 90.

    Jay C

    August 23, 2023 at 9:16 am

    @Baud:

    I’m curious how they tie reproductive rights to trans issues.

    Simple: it’s all sex stuff.

    ICKY sex stuff.

    Icky IMMORAL sex stuff.

    Icky immoral sex stuff that RWNJs have been yammered at for years is Bad, Wrong, Evil and Destructive by all the media they consume, all the politicians they elect, and all the grifters preachers they follow. Not so much, I think, that they really give much of a flying about trans people; but on a political level, Democrats tend to support principles of toleration and nondiscrimination: so Bad, Wrong, Evil (and subject to punitive legislation) it is…

  91. 91.

    Ken

    August 23, 2023 at 9:24 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Dang. I forgot about Willis, who will undoubtedly keep the whole process professional.

    I would be tempted to announce, “Our apologies, but since it’s after hours we’re understaffed, and there may be some delays….” before turning Trump over to a trainee booking clerk who’s a two-fingered typist.

  92. 92.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 23, 2023 at 9:51 am

    They greedily embraced Putin’s monster, their (very) Base adore TFG’s every lurch, and now the Republican ‘leaders’ can’t get rid of him. Sure, it’s bad for the country, probably the world… but more importantly, it’s bad for The Party!!!

    Have they considered trying to cry harder?

    Too bad!  So sad!  The entire GOP can go fuck itself into the Sun!

  93. 93.

    Sasha

    August 23, 2023 at 9:54 am

    If you’re on the Trump Train, you:

    1.  are being conned and being taken advantage of, or

    2.  think you’re in on the con and taking advantage of others

    The funny part are people who think they’re #2 when they’re actually #1.

  94. 94.

    UncleEbeneezer

    August 23, 2023 at 10:10 am

    @Betty Cracker: To be fair, comparing defecting to McCain with defecting to TRUMP is not a fair comparison.  I know it’s obvious to everyone here, but I’ve known plenty of Normies who bought the “McCain is practically a Dem” bullshit.  Enough that if I suspend everything I know saying otherwise, and squint real heard I can SORTA see how these not-very-astute Dems, would think that.  Which isn’t to excuse PUMAs.  But I don’t remember anyone, even here thinking McCain was a literal threat to end Democracy the way that Trump clearly was/is.  Centrist/Conserva-Dems (who are wishy-washy on Abortion, LGBTQ Rights etc.) moving to McCain is not a huge stretch for them.  Jumping from Bernie to Trump is a much bigger leap.  So I don’t think it makes any sense to expect PUMA and BernieOrBust assholes to have defected at similar rates.  They were two very different elections and two very different GOP candidates that needed to be stopped.

  95. 95.

    S Cerevisiae

    August 23, 2023 at 10:14 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I read that Modelo is now the number one beer in the US, but I kind of doubt the MAGAts have switched to that.

  96. 96.

    Miss Bianca

    August 23, 2023 at 10:14 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The GQp has been trending fascist since Goldwater.

    In other words, my *entire fucking life*.

  97. 97.

    Paul in KY

    August 23, 2023 at 10:20 am

    I do want TFG as the GQP nominee, cause I am quite confident Pres. Biden will whup his ass again.

  98. 98.

    Paul in KY

    August 23, 2023 at 10:22 am

    @Tony Jay: Savour I will.

  99. 99.

    Paul in KY

    August 23, 2023 at 10:29 am

    @Ksmiami: I do think they should be laughed at and ridiculed as the stupid rubes they are.

  100. 100.

    BellyCat

    August 23, 2023 at 10:39 am

    @Baud: Being able to believe idiotic things and get away with it is a powerful feeling, historically reserved for royalty.

    Best explainer yet.

  101. 101.

    Chief Oshkosh

    August 23, 2023 at 10:44 am

    @Jay C:

    a disgracefully large percentage of this country’s citizenry exists in a (tightly) closed media bubble: the real MAGA “base” has been conditioned by decades of right wing propaganda to avoid/shun/utterly distrust any media outlet that doesn’t tell them exactly what they want to hear (usually just validation of their prejudices and hates).

    Slight modification of that: As one GOP operative said, they are reprogrammable meat sacks. It’s not so much that they ignore any media that doesn’t tell them what they want to hear, it’s that they believe whatever media tells them to believe, and they do whatever media tells them to do, as long as it is couched in terms of their prejudices and hates and is somehow recognized as coming from one of their daddy figures. The content on Tuesday could be the exact opposite of the content of Monday, but they’ll reprogram and believe Tuesday’s content happily, even viciously.

  102. 102.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 23, 2023 at 11:33 am

    @Sasha: The funny part are people who think they’re #2 when they’re actually #1.

    To borrow the immortal woids of Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) in Murder by Death, they look more like Number Two to me!

    (After which the Miss Marple character [actress unknown to me] asks, “What did he mean by that?” and Dora Charleston [Maggie Smith] replies, “I’ll tell you later, it’s disgusting.”) :^D

  103. 103.

    Kirk

    August 23, 2023 at 11:48 am

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    the Miss Marple character [actress unknown to me]

    Elsa Lanchester. Do yourself a favor and see the 1957 Witness for the Prosecution. She was nominated for an academy award (supporting actress) for that one.

  104. 104.

    Freemark

    August 23, 2023 at 2:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve been telling people that for 6 years. You could almost literally say the high/low humidity level on Election Day caused the loss because it was so close.

  105. 105.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    August 23, 2023 at 2:46 pm

    @Kirk: she is also great in Bell, Book and Candle

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