"QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within" (By Republican Senator, Ben Sasse)

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hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
24,222
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I saw the "any common story" segment more as an acknowledgment that Americans aren't nearly as invested in shared causes as they were, not that he was calling for theocracy. The "loving God" bit could be an indication of what he liked, but it could simply reflect how there was a binding force at the time, too.

Really, it's just a relief to see a Republican making some effort to acknowledge the common good instead of the FYGM attitude that currently dominates the party and its followers.
Something something, Norman Vincent Peale blah blah.
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
16,094
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"In 1922, G. K. Chesterton called America “a nation with the soul of a church.” But according to a recent study of dozens of countries, none has ditched religious belief faster since 2007 than the U.S. Without going into the causes, we can at least acknowledge one cost: For generations, most Americans understood themselves as children of a loving God, and all had a role to play in loving their neighbors. But today, many Americans have no role in any common story."

I really don't know much about the 'religiosity' of America - but that Foreign Affairs article is atrocious. Not a single citation.
 
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woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
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Like always, this isn't really about whether we like the GOP messenger. I said the same thing when Bolton - a total shitbag - spoke up against Trump. This is really about the fact that most of the repugs in Congress refuse to repudiate Trump's Big Lie. This is just an example of what all of them should be doing right now.

If someone you like is saying this - then it's probably a liberal, and that person will not be listened to by any of the 30+ million conservatives who think this election was stolen.

I may not like Sasse, but I'm glad he wrote this. So that's him, Romney, McConnell, Cheney. Where are all the rest of them? They freaking know for a fact that Trump was lying. They have a moral responsibility to tell their constituents that.
 

nickqt

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2015
7,695
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Self reflection? Sasse was one of Trump's biggest enablers.
Here's the common refrain from lifelong Republicans who built the modern Republican Party:

"Dear God! The Republican Party is full of...Republicans!"

It's akin to listening to some LincolnProject grifter bragging about figuring out the Republican base was constructed of bigots and imbeciles in 2015, after their life work of constructing the Republican base to be reprogrammable bigots and imbeciles so they could make money.

What fucking heroes. They figured out what liberals have been warning them about for the past 25 years. Grats guys.
 

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
7,428
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Here's the common refrain from lifelong Republicans who built the modern Republican Party:

"Dear God! The Republican Party is full of...Republicans!"

It's akin to listening to some LincolnProject grifter bragging about figuring out the Republican base was constructed of bigots and imbeciles in 2015, after their life work of constructing the Republican base to be reprogrammable bigots and imbeciles so they could make money.

What fucking heroes. They figured out what liberals have been warning them about for the past 25 years. Grats guys.

Yeah. Republican party in 1981:

 

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
34,004
8,040
136
I disagree. I think its the religious right that ruined the Republican party. Being conservative and christian means you naturally have a predisposition to conspiracies like QAnon as you are told to take things on faith and not question. Think about it your entire religion is just one big conspiracy theory, the idea that some guy in the sky and some guy in hell are fighting with each other to control you.
Your point of view, in my opinion, makes a lot of sense and is one that is easy to come to when you have experienced such brainwashing personally and have escaped it and have left you angry and enraged, having been promised so much and having it all ripped away by doubt and logical clairity. What it fails to account for, however, and again in my opinion, is what I would claim is the fact that long before or without any religion at all humans are still beset by moral issues.

Moonbeam delivers the message I would give, however different the language used may be.

What Republicans experience, what the Religious experience, it is not unique to them. For theirs is the human experience. We simply target them and point fingers as it is "other" from us. Though we (some of us?)((in some ways??)) have a penchant for critical thinking, we too are not without our flaws. Never forget that their need to believe is ours as well. Any advantages we bear do not prevent us from falling prey to our baser instincts. Including social maladies much like their own.

It is the nature of knowledge. We do not have the position, the experience, or time to proof all the knowledge we learn from others. We all rely on authority to tell us what the truth is. We place our faith in institutions and hope that they have not been corrupted or misguided. Otherwise the truth that we know would not necessarily be the truth. Science is only science because it can be proven, as in replicated and verified. But much of what we know has never been verified by us personally, how could it?

So do not mistake what we have as being all that much different from theirs. It may have been built from a better foundation, but all it would ever take is a re-write of the history books and one generation to turn reality upside down. To disavow that which was once truth. To claim things for reasons other than their own merit - and have an entire nation of "enlightened" fellows believing whatever they were told to believe. Point being, the risk of relapse is ever present. And maybe we wouldn't even know it if we did. Again, we are all only human.

Furthermore, I speak of this with a purpose. If we learn to recognize the root of these problems we face. If we learn our baser instincts. We can seek to address them rather than the facade we place on top of them. Religion isn't the issue, their need for it is. Trumpism is much the same. Strike at the root cause, their need for it. However unlikely, but if we were to achieve victory over their fears - we would also have victory over them.
 
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VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
7,017
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Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA) claims she has filed impeachment charges against Biden. But apparently so far The Congressional record doesn’t show that she actually has.

I'm assuming this QAnon queen can’t file impeachment charges unless she actually acknowledges that Biden is President.
 

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,189
14,114
136
Yeah. Republican party in 1981:


Wow. I had no idea that audio existed. This is same person who authored the most famous racist dog whistle of all time, the Willie Horton ad during the '88 election. I remember conservatives at the time saying, "but it isn't racist! It doesn't even say anything about him being black."
 
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SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
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Wow. I had no idea that audio existed. This is same person who authored the most famous racist dog whistle of all time, the Willie Horton ad during the '88 election. I remember conservatives at the time saying, "but it isn't racist! It doesn't even say anything about him being black."

And of course on his deathbed he apologized to Dukakis for it like that somehow absolves him. I'd piss on his grave if I ever saw it.
 

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,189
14,114
136
And of course on his deathbed he apologized to Dukakis for it like that somehow absolves him. I'd piss on his grave if I ever saw it.

Yeah, we can piss on his grave, but the fact that he even apologized proves he damn well knew the ad was racist. As does the audio you just posted.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
24,222
10,877
136
Wow. I had no idea that audio existed. This is same person who authored the most famous racist dog whistle of all time, the Willie Horton ad during the '88 election. I remember conservatives at the time saying, "but it isn't racist! It doesn't even say anything about him being black."
All these years I've been on the planet, I've seen all of this shit go down. Dems had the audacity to recognize that the promise of equality for all was a joke and passed the 1964 Civil Right Act. Pulled the rug out from under all of the Dixiecrats, and the Republicans welcomed them with open arms to capitalize on the racists. Republican Party was now a majority party in the South. They still will not turn out the racists in their party because frankly that's who they are.