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They already were...
trump is a giant piece of shit, but putting all the GOP's failures on trump makes it sound like when he goes away, everything will be fine.
That's as stupid as Biden thinking without Obama in office, they'd suddenly want to compromise and help Americans.
Though I do think if/when Trump goes away that things do get better. It's this old problem with nearly every movement is that without great organization and buraucracy, the movement dies with the charismatic leader. The MAGA cultists will certainly still be around but they'll find themselves with no one to rally around and god knows Trump and the GOP are doing nothing to systematize their movement because 1. they're not that organized and 2. they have no platform to systematize anyway.
So yeah I think you're right that the base problems are still there but much of the power they have now is in Trump and would go away with him.
Nah. Trump is a pretty bad symptom, but the whole party had been infected for a while. Hell, there could have easily been a Trump like candidate in 2012 if one of those candidates understood media like Trump did.
Trump doesn't understand shit. He just loves attention and will say things that get a reaction.
So in other words; he understands media.
No, he's a malignant narcissist idiot savant self promoter.
Having the combination of a constant need for self-promotion, no self-awareness and absolute shamelessness is ideal for a cult leader, but it doesn't make him smart.
To quote one of the people who know his level of intelligence and understanding best, he's a fucking moron.
We aren't saying he is smart, just that he understands media, especially compared to other Republican presidential candidates.
I think it is sort of like how toddlers "understand" how to manipulate parents. Or cats and owners.
That would be a good analogy. It isn't a great higher level understanding, but it is effective.
Understanding requires conscious reflection and analysis. He hasn't done either since the 80s at the latest.
No, he’s a malignant narcissist idiot savant self promoter.
That's what understanding media is, though.
No. There's no "understanding" about it. It's as instinctive as a fish swimming or a wasp (either kind) ruining someone's day.
I mean none of this happens in a vaccuum so of course Trump doesn't happen if the GOP hadn't aligned this electorate through fearmongering and culture war BS for decades. But the identity of the party today also depends on Trump - like, can you name one person in the GOP with the kind of sick charisma he has that could stoke the base the way he has? There are many that try but apparently Trump's ability to rile up the base is not easily replicated so without him around they have less influence over the base. That is why I think without him they would be weakened.
I agree with you and think infected is the correct term. Republicans are infected with dark money and Kompromat.
I think Trump is a nothing more than a hammer, a dull blunt instrument.
Putin is wielding the hammer.
I doubt it. There's plenty of grifters in that circle ready to jump into the spotlight. Don Jr I'd imagine would be the next in line, followed by Kushner, and the like.
Though I do think if/when Trump goes away that things do get better
What is the most recent example of republicans "getting better"?
I'd like to say for Dems it was Clinton to Obama, but did it really?
The harsh reality is republicans have been in free fall for generations, and Dems just jumped out of the plane a couple minutes later.
The quality of both keeps dropping, and while D will always be better than R, that's obviously not enough.
So yeah I think you’re right that the base problems are still there but much of the power they have now is in Trump and would go away with him.
They said the same after Nixon, Reagan, HW Bush, and little Bush....
Their power is our political system where unpopulated states are overly represented on the federal level. At the bare minimum we need to unfreeze the House so at least one part is tied to population rather than number of states.
People in flyover states can have 10x the reprentation as someone from a populous state, and that's in the House.
Well I said 'things will get better' meaning overall I think the world is better and the GOP as it is without Trump has less of a grip on their electorate. I definitely don't think the GOP gets better as I said: 'the base problems are still there'.
Yea I'm getting tired of the rose coloured glasses people have for conservatism. Like no, they were awful yesterday too.
I advise you give the article a read. It's not blaming Trump for the GOP's failures as much as it's making it clear they've lost control of the party in a big way.
Republicans are, by their very nature, servile fuckwits.
That is the nature of authoritarianism.
So much for the myth of American individualism; those who bray about it the loudest are the most ardent conformists, always adjusting their opinions to the party line and forever on the lookout for heresy among their peers. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a petty mob mentality par excellence, exemplifies this behavior: "Not only do we support President Trump, we support his policies, and any Republican that isn't willing to adapt [sic] these policies we are completely eradicating from the party."
This is the core of it. Even the ones who dared to criticize Trump after Jan. 6 walked it back once they realized the masses of his fans were still loyal to the orange crown. Trump will own the Republican party until he is dead because his fans won't turn on him under any circumstances.
Since his fans believe what they want to believe he might be alive forever, I mean there were people on a street waiting for J.F. Kennedy to come back because they believe he didn't die or something. I am not sure if they can get Trump out of the GOP ever again.
John Jr, but your point stands.
That's a scary thought, especially with deep fakes getting better all the time.
The emperor has no clothes, but the audience can't be bothered to read a elementary school level book.
The emperor has no clothes, but the audience can't be bothered to read a elementary school level book.
They heard there was a book about a naked man in the children’s section and shut down the library.
I wish I were optimistic enough to believe his death will do anything other than further radicalize the party. Even if he choked to death on a Big Mac on live TV, they'd blame the Jews or athiests or antifa or immigrants or whomever the villain du jour is that week.
Well, their implementation of it anyway. Tbf, their implementation of anything does not work:-P.
I’m not often in favour of the use of force, but the MAGA GOP and all its horrible circus are not doing anything in good faith and I do not think the game should continue if they aren’t going to play by the rules.
Imagine a basketball game where one team refused to dribble and used ladders to score, but the ref refused to do anything because of some made up technicalities.
“Nowhere in the constitution does it say a dog can’t be president”
“No no! It was a misspelling! They meant to say ‘In Sir’s Rectum-ist’.
Now my client, President Trump, does not, nor ever has liked anal sex! At least not in HIS Anus. So therefore he is still eligible to run for office once more!
Must I, your honour, bring up the fact that if you slightly misspell former President Barrack Obama’s name you can get ‘O-bum-a’?!?! And HE was given two terms in office even though his name was CLEARLY implicating him in butt-stuff!!!”
This is ridiculous! Why, every one of those words is perfectly spelled.
Cow coud a Trumfp law-persun du that? Hre in teh Unites States, we r great against!
Imagine a basketball game where one team refused to dribble and used ladders to score
Isn't that just the Harlem Globetrotters?
Make Harlem Great Again
Except they couldn't cause the fans would get so pissed they'd probably riot in the stadium. Hmmm.....
It's no accident that Trump is a heavy favorite of professional wrestling fans.
Well… something to do with brain damage ?
The GOP kind of asked for Trump to become this person. They're all sick people who take pleasure in exploiting people. They're all the same and can burn in hell.
It was hidden deep inside them all along 😊
He found all of the sexual deviants in the GOP, got photographic/digital forensic proof, and is blackmailing them?
Unless they are all closeted homosexuals, blackmail is useless at this point. They've seen that the base will punch the ticket for every "R" candidate regardless of any transgression aside from being gay or trying to work across the aisle.
It’s the natural evolution of capitalism to descend into imperialism and fascism. The republicans, or ‘classical liberals’ are just the vanguard, while the dems, or ‘neoliberals’ are the brake.
At best the dems are just slowing the speed of the descent. But without a systemic change, it’s inevitable.
The republicans, or ‘classical liberals’ are just the vanguard, while the dems, or ‘neoliberals’ are the brake.
Neoliberals aren't the brake; they're the pawl to the fascists' ratchet. Their function isn't to slow it down, but rather to stop the left from pulling it back.
Fascism doesn't have a "revolutionary vanguard" to usher in its final form like communist theory. Read "Ur-Fascism" by Umberto Eco for a good rundown of how fascism takes hold.
Many fascist movements fade away with time. We tend to only focus on the ones that got power, because that's when things go to shit. The ones that just fade away are boring and don't get talked about much. Selection bias applied to history leads people to believe that there's inevitability to things when there really isn't.
Odds are Biden will win the election, Trump ends up in a prison cell, there's some violence by some of the MAGAs but it's easily put down, support for MAGA dies off. Of course this isn't inevitable either, even a low probability of Trump becoming President again is scary and people should make an effort to prevent that from happening.
Saying that Trump winning is inevitable is simply not true, and only serves to demotivate people that might otherwise make an effort to prevent that outcome.
Natural evolution? What? When has late stage capitalism happened before now? And the analogy doesn't even hold up. Whack comment.
The analogy might be questionable, but the logical and inevitable conclusion of capitalism (markets and the profit motive) is the continued accumulation of power/wealth by those who own the means of production.
Barring very strong regulation that somehow manages to avoid capture or a perpetually benevolent ruling class it becomes defacto fascism.
A mix of greed, lack of morals, and sensitive kompromat serve as very efficient motivations
They'd be lost without a boot to gag upon