Wake Up, America! Wake Up! PLEASE!!

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Why Republicans Play Dirty
They fear that if they stick to the rules, they will lose everything. Their behavior is a threat to democratic stability.

The greatest threat to our democracy today is a Republican Party that plays dirty to win.
The party’s abandonment of fair play was showcased spectacularly in 2016, when the United States Senate refused to allow President Barack Obama to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February. While technically constitutional, the act — in effect, stealing a court seat — hadn’t been tried since the 19th century. It would be bad enough on its own, but the Merrick Garland affair is part of a broader pattern.

Republicans across the country seem to have embraced an “any means necessary” strategy to preserve their power. After losing the governorship in North Carolina in 2016 and Wisconsin in 2018, Republicans used lame-duck legislative sessions to push through a flurry of bills stripping power from incoming Democratic governors. Last year, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down a Republican gerrymandering initiative, conservative legislators attempted to impeach the justices. And back in North Carolina, Republican legislators used a surprise vote last week, on Sept. 11, to ram through an override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget veto — while most Democrats had been told no vote would be held. This is classic “constitutional hardball,” behavior that, while technically legal, uses the letter of the law to subvert its spirit.

Constitutional hardball has accelerated under the Trump administration. President Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency” to divert public money toward a border wall — openly flouting Congress, which voted against building a wall — is a clear example. And the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, manufactured by an earlier act of hardball, may uphold the constitutionality of the president’s autocratic behavior.

Constitutional hardball can damage and even destroy a democracy. Democratic institutions function only when power is exercised with restraint. When parties abandon the spirit of the law and seek to win by any means necessary, politics often descends into institutional warfare. Governments in Hungary and Turkey have used court packing and other “legal” maneuvers to lock in power and ensure that subsequent abuse is ruled “constitutional.” And when one party engages in constitutional hardball, its rivals often feel compelled to respond in a tit-for-tat fashion, triggering an escalating conflict that is difficult to undo. As the collapse of democracy in Germany and Spain in the 1930s and Chile in the 1970s makes clear, these escalating conflicts can end in tragedy.

Why is the Republican Party playing dirty? Republican leaders are not driven by an intrinsic or ideological contempt for democracy. They are driven by fear.

Democracy requires that parties know how to lose. Politicians who fail to win elections must be willing to accept defeat, go home, and get ready to play again the next day. This norm of gracious losing is essential to a healthy democracy.
But for parties to accept losing, two conditions must hold. First, they must feel secure that losing today will not bring ruinous consequences; and second, they must believe they have a reasonable chance of winning again in the future. When party leaders fear that they cannot win future elections, or that defeat poses an existential threat to themselves or their constituents, the stakes rise. Their time horizons shorten. They throw tomorrow to the wind and seek to win at any cost today. In short, desperation leads politicians to play dirty.

Take German conservatives before World War I. They were haunted by the prospect of extending equal voting rights to the working class. They viewed equal (male) suffrage as a menace not only to their own electoral prospects but also to the survival of the aristocratic order. One Conservative leader called full and equal suffrage an “attack on the laws of civilization.” So German conservatives played dirty, engaging in rampant election manipulation and outright repression in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the United States, Southern Democrats reacted in a similar manner to the Reconstruction-era enfranchisement of African-Americans. Mandated by the 15th Amendment, which was ratified in 1870, black suffrage not only imperiled Southern Democrats’ political dominance but also challenged longstanding patterns of white supremacy. Since African-Americans represented a majority or near majority in many of the post-Confederate states, Southern Democrats viewed their enfranchisement as an existential threat. So they, too, played dirty.

Between 1885 and 1908, all 11 post-Confederate states passed laws establishing poll taxes, literacy tests, property and residency requirements and other measures aimed at stripping African-Americans of their voting rights — and locking in Democratic Party dominance. In Tennessee, where the 1889 Dortch Law would disenfranchise illiterate black voters, one newspaper editorialized, “Give us the Dortch bill or we perish.” These measures, building on a monstrous campaign of anti-black violence, did precisely what they were intended to do: Black turnout in the South fell to 2 percent in 1912 from 61 percent in 1880. Unwilling to lose, Southern Democrats stripped the right to vote from millions of people, ushering in nearly a century of authoritarian rule in the South.

Republicans appear to be in the grip of a similar panic today. Their medium-term electoral prospects are dim. For one, they remain an overwhelmingly white Christian party in an increasingly diverse society. As a share of the American electorate, white Christians declined from 73 percent in 1992 to 57 percent in 2012 and may be below 50 percent by 2024. Republicans also face a generational challenge: Younger voters are deserting them. In 2018, 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrats by more than 2 to 1, and 30-somethings voted nearly 60 percent for Democrats.

Demography is not destiny, but as California Republicans have discovered, it often punishes parties that fail to adapt to changing societies. The growing diversity of the American electorate is making it harder for the Republican Party to win national majorities. Republicans have won the popular vote in presidential elections just once in the last 30 years. Donald Trump captured this Republican pessimism well when he told the Christian Broadcasting Network in 2016, “I think this is the last election the Republicans have a chance of winning because you are going to have people flowing across the border.”
“If we don’t win this election,” Mr. Trump added, “you’ll never see another Republican.”


The problem runs deeper than electoral math, however. Much of the Republican base views defeat as catastrophic. White Christians are losing more than an electoral majority; their once-dominant status in American society is eroding. Half a century ago, white Protestant men occupied nearly all our country’s high-status positions: They made up nearly all the elected officials, business leaders and media figures. Those days are over, but the loss of a group’s social status can feel deeply threatening. Many rank-and-file Republicans believe that the country they grew up in is being taken away from them. Slogans like “take our country back” and “make America great again” reflect this sense of peril.

So like the old Southern Democrats, modern-day Republicans have responded to darkening electoral horizons and rank-and-file perceptions of existential threat with a win-at-any-cost mentality. Most reminiscent of the Jim Crow South are Republican efforts to tilt the electoral playing field. Since 2010, a dozen Republican-led states have adopted new laws making it more difficult to register or vote. Republican state and local governments have closed polling places in predominantly African-American neighborhoods, purged voter rolls and created new obstacles to registration and voting.

In Georgia, a 2017 “exact match law” allowed authorities to throw out voter registration forms whose information did not “exactly match” existing records. Brian Kemp, who was simultaneously Georgia’s secretary of state and the 2018 Republican candidate for governor,
tried to use the law to invalidate tens of thousands of registration forms, many of which were from African-Americans. In Tennessee, Republicans recently passed chilling legislation allowing criminal charges to be levied against voter registration groups that submit incomplete forms or miss deadlines. And in Texas this year, Republicans attempted to purge the voter rolls of nearly 100,000 Latinos.

The Trump administration’s effort to include a citizenship question in the census to facilitate gerrymandering schemes that would, in the words of one party strategist, be “advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites
,” fits the broader pattern. Although these abuses are certainly less egregious than those committed by post-bellum Southern Democrats, the underlying logic is similar: Parties representing fearful, declining majorities turn, in desperation, to minority rule.

The only way out of this situation is for the Republican Party to become more diverse. A stunning 90 percent of House Republicans are white men, even though white men are a third of the electorate. Only when Republicans can compete seriously for younger, urban and nonwhite voters will their fear of losing — and of a multiracial America — subside.

Such a transformation is less far-fetched than it may appear right now; indeed, the Republican National Committee recommended it in 2013. But parties only change when their strategies bring costly defeat. So Republicans must fail — badly — at the polls.

American democracy faces a Catch-22: Republicans won’t abandon their white identity bunker strategy until they lose, but at the same time that strategy has made them so averse to losing they are willing to bend the rules to avoid this fate. There is no easy exit. Republican leaders must either stand up to their base and broaden their appeal or they must suffer an electoral thrashing so severe that they are compelled to do so.

Liberal democracy has historically required at least two competing parties committed to playing the democratic game, including one that typically represents conservative interests. But the commitment of America’s conservative party to this system is wavering, threatening our political system as a whole. Until Republicans learn to compete fairly in a diverse society, our democratic institutions will be imperiled.

Opinion | Why Republicans Play Dirty

They fear that if they stick to the rules, they will lose everything. Their behavior is a threat to democratic stability.
Click to expand...
 

Dear Republican Voters: Stop Blaming the Left. You're Trash. Own It


It's weird how some mean words from a liberal can make conservatives vote for white nationalism...





There's a narrative conservatives (and sometimes the media) love to push when trying to explain away how people who
say they don't support Trump still somehow can't stop themselves from blindly voting for Republicans:

Yes, it's the "Why do you keep making me hit you?" defense and, let me tell you, ain't nobody buying it anymore.

It had a good run, though. The right used it for years to defend voting for the very worst people they could find by blaming the left.
We were so mean to them! We called them racist and greedy and cruel so, naturally, they were simply ****** to go out and vote for the most racist, most greedy, and most sadistic people they could find. And then they would blame us for the declining state of their party.

Well, those days are well and fucking over. 60+ million people foamed at the mouth to vote for an incoherent imbecile who promised to deliver unspeakable cruelty to everyone white Republican voters hated. Moderates had a choice: Walk away from their party or jump on the Trump Train to fascism and white nationalism.

A hell of a lot of them put on their walking shoes and crossed the aisle. David Frum, Steve Schmidt, Jennifer Rubin, and
most recently Max Boot, and others have abandoned the Republican Party and become voting Democrats; not out of a sudden love of progressive values, but because they understand the existential threat the GOP under Trump has become to American democracy.

But then there's the Erick Ericksons of the right who decided that, gee golly whiz, those lefties are just so goshdarn mean that he just has to throw in with monsters:

But what values are those? Free trade? Trump is a tariff-loving protectionist. Fiscal responsibility? The debt and deficit have exploded under Trump. A strong foreign policy? We've never been weaker unless you count yelling "We're #1!" really loud as strength. Free market? Trump is using the government to reward his allies and punish his enemies. Small government? We're handing out billions to farmers to buy votes for Trump.

As for upending the constitutional republic, Erickson was suspiciously quiet
when Republicans abused the filibuster, blocked dozens of judicial appointments and stole a Supreme Court seat. He also no longer seems to mind Trump trying to turn the Department of Justice into his own personal mob enforcement agency or his obvious plans to use the Supreme Court to shield himself from criminal prosecution. If Erickson is OK with having a president who is, for all intents and purposes, an unaaccountable emperor (but only when that president is a Republican), then he should shut the fuck up about how "concerned" he is about the state of the republic. He clearly doesn't give a *******.

And that goes for all the sniveling little pissants hiding behind their hurt feelings as the reason they're still voting for Republicans: Fuck off. Every last one of you is a fucking liar.

You're trash. You've always been trash.
When liberals were polite, you were trash. When liberals got a little rude, you were still trash. Now that we're tired of your ******* and treating you like the trash you are, you're mortally offended and blaming us for being trash? Get the fuck out of here.

You laugh at sexual assault victims. You cheer Latino children being tortured. You get off on police murdering unarmed black men. You mock the disabled. You send death threats to high school students opposed to guns. You call for the ******* of homosexuals. You. Are. Trash.

I know it's hard to look in the mirror and realize that you're the worst that humanity has to offer but you made that choice.
No one ****** you to be a garbage person. You did that. You. You can stop any time you want, too. But you won't because deep down inside, you like being trash. Own it. That's why you love Trump so much. He told you that being trash is OK and you thought you could come out of the shadows and walk tall as a garbage person.

It's not working out the way you thought it would and that's pissing you off so very, very much but I couldn't care less. Blame us all you want for your weakness. No one believes your whining bullshit anymore. Not even you. You're trash .
 
Republicans and their identity politics are destroying America



Instead of acknowledging facts, Republicans continue to perpetuate the racially-tinged myths that have gridlocked our government. Instead of acknowledging facts, Republicans choose to pontificate about the illegality of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), while simultaneously defending the unconstitutional racial profiling by Sheriff Joseph Arpaio and the unconstitutional muslim ban by President Trump.


What happened to any semblance of political consistency? Republicans shouldn’t have to add falsities into their arguments, but they choose to. Republicans shouldn’t have to play to insecurities and fears to drive their party’s agenda, but they choose to. Republicans shouldn’t be willing to trick and misinform voters to win a political battle, but they choose to. Republicans are making a choice.



Rewriting our political and racial history using identity politics isn’t just immoral and dangerous, it’s a desperate choice. Identity politics are destroying our ability to have honest conversations. Identity politics are destroying our ability to govern. Identity politics are a tool for distracting away from actual policy debates.



Republicans know that it’s easier to distract than it is to discuss our obligations. Republicans know that nothing works more effectively to rile up the Republican base than identity politics. It’s no accident that Republican voters increasingly believe that the “takers” are lazy minorities who depend on the government and that immigrants here illegally are ******* the system dry.



What Republican politicians don’t publicly acknowledge is that statistics show that approximately 40 percent of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients are white Americans, and specifically, white southern Americans, many of whom are Republicans. If Republicans have the better argument, if Republicans have the better policies and if Republicans have the better ideas, shouldn’t they be able to rise above the identity politics that they purport to hate and argue facts?

Look no further than the health care debate for proof. Republican voters have been told repeatedly that a single-payer system would mean the end of the private markets. Republican voters have been told repeatedly that a single payer system means government-controlled health care. Republican voters have been lied to repeatedly. A single-payer system doesn’t mean the private market disappears, it just means that you don’t die if you can’t afford health insurance. It’s that simple. Isn’t that what being the greatest country in the world is all about? There’s nothing great about letting your citizens die from preventable and curable diseases, right?

As the most powerful nation in the history of the world, we can afford to improve the lives of all Americans. The question we must ask is whether that’s a priority. How we spend our money is directly tied to what kind of future we want to have and what kind of country we want to be. The notion that we can’t afford better schools, better roads, better health care and a better shot at the American dream isn’t outdated, it’s flat out wrong. We have choices.

We can afford what we want to afford. At the end of the day, our budget is a moral document. Our budget reflects our priorities and our preferences. Our budget reflects our fiscal and moral obligations. Republican politicians have made their choice, and now it’s our turn. If we want to pay for a public school system that isn’t funded in a way that keeps poor children in inadequately-funded schools, then that’s a choice that we can make. We can choose to give every baby a real shot at climbing the economic ladder. We can choose to ensure that every American has access to medicine when they’re sick, food if they’re hungry and an education that not only informs them but prepares them to compete in an evolving marketplace. We have that choice.

We understand that we won’t meet the needs of everyone or be the answer to everyone’s prayers, but we can certainly try to be. We have that choice. Not everyone will maximize their full potential, but that’s not a reason to give up trying. Whether we like it or not, we are in this together. We sink or we swim together. In order to succeed, we must have a real conversation about everyone paying their fair share. If you can afford to fly on a private plane, you can afford to kick in a little more to the communal pot to ensure that we are meeting our obligations. That’s not redistributing wealth, that’s being part of something bigger than yourself.

We are the greatest country in the world, but with greatness comes an obligation. We are obligated to continue to strive to be greater. We are obligated to live up to our highest morals and the standard of greatness that we constantly espouse. Every other country in the world is trying to catch up to us. We cannot take our foot off the pedal. We cannot let up. Luckily, we have choices about how we move forward.

At some point, Republicans will run out of distractions. At some point, our problems will become so severe and debilitating that coy responses and allegations of fake news won’t be enough. At some point, the American people will demand answers. When that day comes, it won’t be enough to attack Colin Kaepernick for silently kneeling to show his disapproval of our country’s moral failures. When that day comes, it won’t be enough to throw around terms like “welfare queens” or “leeches,” as if we don’t understand dog-whistle politics.

When that day comes, it won’t be enough to mock and malign the dreamers, who are examples of what makes America truly great. When that day comes, Republicans will have to tell Americans what they stand for, not merely what they stand in opposition to. When that day comes, Republicans will have to answer for the decades of distractions, divisiveness and identity politics that have hurt countless Americans. When that day comes, it will be a truly great day. But until then, we have choices.

 
I swear.....seems to me the right on here was saying it was all the Dems doing the complaining

GOP governor rips DeSantis' 'punitive approach' toward Disney after parental rights dust-up​


Amid an ongoing feud between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican governor from Arkansas weighed in on Sunday criticizing what he viewed as a "punitive approach to business."

But I don't believe that government should be punitive against private businesses because we disagree with them. That's not the right approach either," Hutchinson said. "And so, to me, that's the old Republican principle of having a restrained government."
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well fuckhead....since you really like trashing america.....and the parts that suit you.....why don't you open the door all the way........

starting at the top....just love the way you people bring up selective *******.....but then your cry baby ass couldn't handle it here ......so you took off to a safe country....what charges are you running from...... Port known for having gays....



Did Trump Pay $35M to Settle baby ******* ... - Snopes.com​

Since January 2019, claims have circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump has had to deal with multiple accusations that he raped children aged …

Donald Trump Accused Of ******* 13-Year-Old In Lawsuit ...​

A lawsuit has been filed against Trump for ******* a teenage girl in 1994. She met Trump at several parties thrown by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in the 90s. The woman who filed the lawsuit,...

The lawsuit accusing Trump of ******* a 13-year-old girl ...​

Fifteen women have now gone on record to say that Donald Trump sexually assaulted them. Out of all of their stories, one is the most explosive and …


Rep. Jim Jordan, Accused In Sex Abuse Cover-Up, Says, 'I ...

Tom Williams via Getty Images Jordan was accused in 2018 by multiple former wrestlers at Ohio State University of ignoring and covering up sexual misconduct by a team doctor while he was a


Here is a List of Republicans Charged/Convicted of Sex Crimes

...
Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail. Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found

List Of All US Politicians Charged Or Convicted of Sex ...

Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children. Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a baby.


Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers Pt. 16

424 Republican Judge James Troiano protected alleged ******* because he’s from a “good family” 425 Republican Judge Marcia Silva protected ******* by saying 12-year-old victim didn’t suffer ...

Trump and Republicans and their pals who are Pedophiles ...

In his plea agreement, the former pastor said that he sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl in 2005; had sexual contact with three girls aged between 7 and 9 …

Pedos in our Politics: Republicans & Democrats Now ...​

Aug 04, 2020 · Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls. Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge

Dennis Hastert Admits He Sexually Abused Former ... - HuffPost

CHICAGO -- Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in jail for bank fraud charges after admitting he had sexually abused students while working at a high school decades ago.


well fuckhead.....there is plenty more I can easily list them.....they are in several spots
on the internet





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Republicans Mount an Anti-Trump Revolution in Michigan, But It May Be Too Late​





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Republicans Mount an Anti-Trump Revolution in Michigan, But It May Be Too Late
© Scott Olson/Getty ImagesRepublicans Mount an Anti-Trump Revolution in Michigan, But It May Be Too Late
Last Saturday, former president Donald Trump scored a win when the Michigan Republican Party nominated a pair of election deniers he’d endorsed for Secretary of State and Attorney General. The following Tuesday, however, delivered a loss: Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock (R), a “Big Lie” loyalist vying to become the state house’s next Speaker, had been kicked out of the House Republican caucus amid growing concern over his support of fellow “Stop the Steal”-minded challengers against his incumbent GOP colleagues.
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Trump often demanded 'reciprocity' from governors who asked the White House to help with crises in their state: book​


  • Donald Trump frequently pushed for "reciprocity" when helping governors deal with crises.
  • Trump, for example, expected reciprocity when he agreed to dock a ship in California with passengers infected with COVID-19.
  • Reciprocity was "one of his favorite words," California Gov. Gavin Newsom told the book's authors.
Former President Donald Trump often asked for and expected "reciprocity" from state governors who asked the White House for assistance, according to a new book.

The revelations about Trump's interactions with various state governors were published in an upcoming book called "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," written by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.
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Georgia special grand jury to convene Monday to investigate Trump’s effort to overturn the election​


Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday will begin selecting a special grand jury to investigate Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

The move comes 482 days after The Washington Post published a damning recording of Trump pressuring GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" to make up the margin he lost to Joe Biden.
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Dumb, irrational, hypocritical, foolishness ! So people need to be sent back to grade school to learn commonsense, real morals, manners, and the correct dialogue needed to speak and record the English Language. The left concentrating on finding fault instead of truth in identity politics. Nothing is perfect but if you think that you can fill a room full of different nationalities, races, standards of living, values, education, males and females of different ages, sexual preferences and religious beliefs. And they are going to magically have become one identity when they leave. GOOD LUCK.
 
Page 72.

don’t forget to dislike STUBBYS posts
What are you trying to do, DAISYbooboo.jpg, get some of your fellow RightRETards to join you in your childish criminal acts? Trying to get others to join you? Well, let me tell you what's eventually going to happen, "boo boo" ... you're going to find yourself kicked out of the forums. So, I guess you desire some of your "buddies" to join you, huh? You're sounding more and more like the X Prez-Orange Orangutan.
The rest of them here KNOW I'm not joking!
Happy Trails DAISY BOO BOO!
 
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