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[NYT Opinion] The Great Republican Abdication: A party that no longer believes in American values.

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by crossover, Apr 22, 2019.

  1. crossover

    crossover Contributing Member

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    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/22/opinion/trump-republican-party.html

    So all the “fake news” was true. A hostile foreign power intervened in the presidential election, hoping to install Donald Trump in the White House. The Trump campaign was aware of this intervention and welcomed it. And once in power, Trump tried to block any inquiry into what happened.

    Never mind attempts to spin this story as somehow not meeting some definitions of collusion or obstruction of justice. The fact is that the occupant of the White House betrayed his country. And the question everyone is asking is, what will Democrats do about it?

    But notice that the question is only about Democrats. Everyone (correctly) takes it as a given that Republicans will do nothing. Why?

    Because the modern G.O.P. is perfectly willing to sell out America if that’s what it takes to get tax cuts for the wealthy. Republicans may not think of it in those terms, but that’s what their behavior amounts to.

    [For an even deeper look at what’s on Paul Krugman’s mind, sign up for his weekly newsletter.]

    In their chilling book “How Democracies Die,” Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt call this “the great Republican abdication.” The party’s willingness to back behavior it would have called treasonous if a Democrat did it is just more of the same.


    Levitsky and Ziblatt say that when mainstream politicians abdicate responsibility in the face of a leader who threatens democracy, it’s usually for one of two reasons. Either they have the misguided belief that he can be controlled, or they’re willing to go along because his agenda overlaps with theirs — that is, they believe that he’ll give them what they want.

    At this point it’s hard to imagine that anyone still believes that Trump can be controlled. But he is delivering on the Republican establishment’s agenda — certainly far more than any Democrat would.

    The key point is that Republicans are committed to a policy agenda that is deeply unpopular. By large margins, the American public believes that corporations and the wealthy don’t pay their fair share in taxes. By even larger margins, the public opposes cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid. Yet as far as I can tell, every G.O.P. budget proposal over the past decade has combined big tax cuts for the rich with savage cuts in Medicaid.

    overwhelmingly white.

    In a fundamental sense, Trumpism is the culmination of that strategy. Commentators keep calling Trump a “populist,” but the only way in which he actually caters to working-class white voters is by appealing to their racial animus. He may be successful in doing so partly because it’s the only thing about his political persona that’s sincere: All indications are that he really is a racist.

    His substantive policies, however, have followed the standard right-wing agenda: In 2017 he passed a huge tax cut, largely for corporations, that disproportionately benefited the wealthy, and almost succeeded in repealing Obamacare, in the process gutting Medicaid.

    And these policies have endeared him to the G.O.P.’s money men. “Deep-pocketed Republicans who snubbed Donald Trump in 2016 are going all in for him in 2020,” reports Politico.

    They’re doing so even though they know that Trump was installed in office in part thanks to Russian aid, that his financial entanglements with foreign governments pose huge conflicts of interest and that he consistently shows a preference for dictatorships over our democratic allies.

    As I said, the modern G.O.P. is perfectly willing to sell out America if that’s what it takes to get tax cuts for the wealthy.

    Once you accept this reality, two conclusions follow.

    First, anyone expecting bipartisanship in dealing with the aftermath of the Mueller report — in particular, anyone suggesting that Democrats should wait for G.O.P. support before proceeding with investigations that might lead to impeachment — is being deluded. Trump is giving the Republican establishment what it wants, and it will stick with him no matter what.

    Second, it’s later than you think for American democracy. Before 2016 you could have wondered whether Republicans would, in extremis, be willing to take a stand in defense of freedom and rule of law. At this point, however, they’ve already taken that test, and failed with flying colors.

    The simple fact is that one of our two major parties — the one that likes to wrap itself in the flag — no longer believes in American values. And it’s very much up in the air whether America as we know it will survive.
     
  2. larsv8

    larsv8 Contributing Member

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    The Republican Party needs to be destroyed.
     
  3. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    Inconvenient Facts

    Can we get a cartoon summary for the Trumpanzees please? Thanks.
     
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  4. Buck Turgidson

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    It needs a reckoning.
     
    #4 Buck Turgidson, Apr 23, 2019
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2019
  5. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    It needs an enema
     
  6. peleincubus

    peleincubus Member

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    I dunno about destroyed. Democrats have a reckoning coming as well. Government as a whole here and in most parts of the world is corrupt. Out to get what they can.

    People like Andrew Yang and others like him is what is going to save this world. If what I have read about the environment changing is only half true. It's going to be a tough road.
     
  7. TheresTheDagger

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    Even if every single word of the OP's post were true and ANY headway was possible to be made in convincing Trump voters to change their support, it's comments like the below that keeps them locked in.

    The pure hatred, anger, resentment and scorn of the above type of comment underlies every single interaction with the left that Trump supporters have. They KNOW the left despises them and their values...their very way of living and thinking. There is no compromise with it.

    And as bad as Trump is, they would rather live 6 terms with Trump than 1 day answering to the above type of "thoughtful leadership".
     
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  8. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    Repugs know what they're doing...From white flight to white fright. They'll continue to be a minority party that bends and exploits institutional loopholes while crying that the system is unfair to them.

    And it will work.

    The party is as zombified and sold out as their opioid addled constituents.

    I don't think Dems will be that far off in terms of moneyed interests, but at least they're interested in governing rather than shirking responsibility and tearing down institutions a public official swears to maintain and improve.
     
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  9. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    A great column and absolutely true. What I wonder is if the Republicans here can handle the truth.
     
  10. havoc1

    havoc1 Member

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    Isn’t that the whole point of the article? Shouldn’t people be held accountable for supporting someone like Trump? What values of Trump supporters do the left despise? Racism? Tax cuts for the wealthy? The willingness to work with a hostile foreign power as long as it is beneficial to “the party” and to yourself? The apparent desire to have absolute power? The complete disregard for law? The complete lack of scientific literacy? The ability to stand (or tweet) in front of millions of people while telling an obvious and verifiable lie, only to have your supporters defend that lie? Which of those values should the left not despise?

    If you support Trump because you agree with his “values” then that is fine. But let’s not pretend that his “values” match up with anything noble. It has been shown by an independent special counsel that Trump is not someone who should be supported, and it honestly boggles my mind that people would still defend him after reading it. Trump supporters should have to defend their support for Trump because at this point it is so obvious to most that he shouldn’t have any.
     
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  11. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Contributing Member
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    stopped reading at Paul Krugman
     
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  12. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Unpatriotic, libtard, terrorist sympathizer, NPC, Muslim extremist sympathizer, Marxist...


    The difference is that moderates and liberals don't vote out of spite. Right wingers vote in a unqualified moron to "own the libtards". You may hate Hillary with her political corruption, but she was a centrist and wasn't chosen because liberals were made fun of.

    What you posted is the antithesis of what right wingers tout; "we care about facts, not feelings". Voting for Trump out of spite is the antithesis of that claim.

    GOP voters basically unleashed their id on to the nation by voting for Trump.
     
  13. mdrowe00

    mdrowe00 Member

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    ....HEY!

    ...don't forget about us reverse-racist Negroes who can't think for themselves long enough to get off the Democratic plantation...

    ...we're part of this, too, and demand to be included!:D
     
  14. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Candice Owens have all you hive mind black people figured out. She's a genius!
     
    mdrowe00 likes this.
  15. dmoneybangbang

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    Likewise the your side resents the other.
     
  16. MystikArkitect

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    I hope the Republicans realize what they’re doing before it’s too late. They shield themselves with cloaks of religion, children, and nationalism to hide their flawed thinking.

    Sell out whatever you can however you can for as long as you can. When **** hits the fan just hope you’re so filthy rich it doesn’t matter to you. That’s the inherent principle of current conservative thinking. The poor conservatives are easily manipulated to follow these tropes by creating boogie men they can use as hate fuel. Immigrants, blacks, Muslims and LGBTQ.

    McCain ran at the wrong time.
     
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  17. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    Trump is good.
    Liberals are evil.
    Putin's the despot
    who's been misunderstood.
     
  18. Sweet Lou 4 2

    Sweet Lou 4 2 Contributing Member
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    Fat chance. They will drive this country to chaos - all the while blames the Mexicans, blacks, College students, transgender, women, and others for the fall of this country until the very end when it's too late.
     
  19. jo mama

    jo mama Contributing Member

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    what values are you referring to?

    the values that trump exemplifies have nothing to do with conservatism, fiscal responsibility or the teachings of jesus...things republicans and true conservatives used to claim they were supportive of. i think that is one of the things that is so shocking to many of us...trump made his supporters totally flip on their core beliefs and principles...just to be inline with this narcissitic, childish, pathologically lying con-artist.

    look what this one person has life-time conservatives and evangelicals now fully supporting and defending...protectionist trade policies, tarriffs, subsidies, POWs arent heroic b/c they were captured, neo-nazis are very fine people, f***ing p*rn-stars, p***y-grabbing, mocking disabled people, ect.

    none of this is conservative, but people who have identified as conservatives and have constantly said how morals and decency count now think these things are acceptable.

    ill never understand it.
     
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  20. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    The Republican Party's problem is that its membership is filled with people. A weakness shared by the Democratic Party. Don't fool yourself into thinking voting in a crook isn't possible for Democrats.
     
    BruceAndre, body slam, B-Bob and 2 others like this.

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