I went to a private Christian high school, and our US History class was basically The Basketball Coach’s GOP Politics Hour. This guy would tell us every day that Christians were being persecuted and that society was waging war on Christianity. Because abortion was still legal. Or because a public school teacher somewhere was fired for having her students read from the Bible every day.
I had that in a public high school.
Interesting story at WaPo about the dynamic between McCain and Trump/Spicer
I had thought McCain was growing a spine when he balked against the travel ban, but then he goes and votes the party line for DeVos, who clearly is not qualified to hold the position. McCain is in a real position to oppose Trump’s lunacy, and done the right way, he could win support from moderates of both parties.
This country could use a hero right now in Washington. But does he have the guts to stand up and put a stop to Trump. Mind you, I’m not suggesting they should oppose everything, no matter what, but draw a line at unqualified cabinet members, walls, and discriminatory immigration bans.
I’d rally behind a moderate Republican that was standing up to Trump.
Lisa Murkowski perhaps?
At one time, before Palin, I thought McCain was a principled legislator. He didn’t much buy into the craziness, he was pro-facts, and he seemed courageous enough to tell his party “no” on key issues. Based on what I knew at the time, I would’ve been fine with a McCain presidency. Not thrilled, but okay. Then Palin happened, and it’s like something broke inside of him. You get the odd moments of the old McCain, but by and large he’s a tool of the GOP now.
Except that there’s no natural constituency for “oppose Trumpism but still be a right-wing ideologue”. All the right-wingers are riding the Trump train to the end of the line.
I’m not sure where traditional Republicans are at this point, the party seems to be mostly a mix of the Christian Conservative movement that wants legislate their vision of morality onto everyone else, Tea Party anarchists who think their job is to destroy the government, and now the Trump/Bannon clique.
Honestly I think 2000 broke him when the Bush campaign ratfucked him in South Carolina.
Where have all the good Congressmen gone? Why aren’t there more Franks and Dodds? Where’s the DC street-wise SJW to fight the Religious Right? Isn’t there a politician not riding on corporate greed? Late at night I post and I tweet, and dream of what our country needs.
Fuck you, Dan! As if seven hours of non-stop Careless Whisper yesterday wasn’t enough. You bastard. :)
Yah, McCain’s an odd duck… Sometimes he seems to have a spine, other times he toes the party line for stupid crap.
I think that in some ways, he’s similar to Kasich (who, in case I haven’t mentioned, I like). Kasich is a reasonable, pragmatic man. But he also has some ingrained loyalty to the party. Now, he’s also seemingly more willing to give folks like Trump the finger, I think because he (rightfully) rejected the notion that Trump embodied the GOP.
But it’s annoying. I want there to be principled Republicans who reject all this stuff, but the teeming masses of garbage voters demand their pound of flesh, and these guys feel obligated to feed them.
Conservative Republicans have gone off the rails since Obama’s first term. That defeat rankled them to no end, and spawned the entire GOP strategy of embracing the far right, Tea Party and any other nutballs they thought they could appeal to in an effort to win by sheer numbers at the polls. When that failed again in 2012 they simply doubled down, setting the stage for Trump. It’s like they took Obama’s quip about “clinging to their guns and religion” and decided “hey, that sounds like the perfect way to redefine our party and ideology!”.
So now instead of the party concerned with fiscal responsibility, reduction of government, scientific and military advancement to stay ahead in the global race and all the other common sense things that used to define them, the Conservative GOP is now the party of “Guns, Jesus and GTFO Muslims and Mexicans!”. The fact that such a stance only appeals to maybe 25% of the entire country hasn’t seemed to have dawned on them yet.
And with enough voter suppression, gerrymandering, and Russian interventionism, it might never need to!
God we’re so fucked.
So far so good, I guess. They basically run every level of government at the moment.
Are you never going to dance again?
The Republicans in Congress won’t make a move against Trump because they fear him, and with good reason. He’s demonstrated himself to be irrational and vindictive and he now wields the power of the presidency. I think this will change over time, I really believe Trump is experiencing unending paper cuts that will eventually bleed him dry of this aura of invincibility. It’s going to be a rough ride in the meantime though.
I don’t believe that. I think there are significant numbers that would support traditional republican values (small government, fiscal responsibility) as opposed to radical tea party stuff, cronyism, wiping their asses with the constitution, etc.
I’m just glad I could share my fate with someone, lol
Which in an odd way may be exactly what we need. Now that the GOP controls literally everything, when they fuck up there will be no Obama to blame, no Clinton to blame, no excuse about the Executive or Legislative Branch blocking things or refusing to cooperate. When 'Murica realizes they are no better off after 2-4 years of total GOP control, or possibly even worse off, they will realize it was all bullshit and they will turn on the party.
In the meantime the Dems need to capitalize by becoming the party of the working man (again) and the Millennials. Get the media message out there blasting away every time the GOP controlled Congress passes something that directly hurts working people. Hammer on Trumps mistakes. Keep working the younger voters with promises of education reform, social services reform and healthcare reform. Bring the working man back to their side by touting plans for infrastructure improvement that will bring jobs, and take a page from the Trump book and say over and over again “we could fix this, we could help you, but alas we don’t have control of Congress!”.
That is the message you need to send right now to win in 2018 and 2020.