The GOP decline didn't happen because of Trump. He simply took advantage of it. That GOP will continue in it's anti democratic ways long after Trump is gone.
Copy pasted below:
Many Americans were shocked that Trump, after first considering a plan to seize voting machines, had orchestrated an attempted coup, knowingly dispatching armed attackers to Capitol Hill and then refusing for 187 minutes to call off the assault. And many Americans have been shocked anew to see elected Republicans, after initially condemning Trump’s attack on democracy, excuse his actions and rationalize the violent insurrection itself as “legitimate political discourse.”
But a sober look at history might have lessened the shock, for the seeds of sedition had been planted earlier — a quarter-century earlier — in that same spot on the West Front of the Capitol.
“The fact is that America is in trouble,” Gingrich declared. “It is impossible to maintain American civilization with 12-year-olds having babies, 15-year-olds killing each other, 17-year-olds dying of AIDS and 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can’t even read.” The pejoratives piled up in Gingrich’s shouted, finger-wagging harangue: “Collapsing … Failed so totally … Worried about their jobs … Worried about their safety … Trust broke down … Out of touch … Wasteful … Dumb … Ineffective … Out of balance … Malaise … Drug dealers … Pimps … Prostitution … Crime … Barbarism … Devastation … Human tragedy … Chaos and poverty.” “Recognize that if America fails, our children will live on a dark and bloody planet,” Gingrich told them.
Republicans have become an authoritarian faction fighting democracy — and there’s a perfectly logical reason for this: Democracy is working against Republicans. In the eight presidential contests since 1988, the GOP candidate has won a majority of the popular vote only once, in 2004. As the United States approaches majority-minority status (the White population, 76 percent of the country in 1990, is now 58 percent and will drop below 50 percent around 2045), Republicans have become the voice of White people, particularly those without college degrees, who fear the loss of their way of life in a multicultural America. White grievance and White fear drive Republican identity more than any other factor — and in turn drive the tribalism and dysfunction in the U.S. political system.
The disappearance of the Greatest Generation, tempered by war, brought to power a new generation of culture warriors.
But the biggest cause is race. The parties re-sorted themselves after the epochal changes of the 1960s, which expanded civil rights, voting rights and immigration. Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” began an appeal to White voters alienated by racial progress, and, in the years that followed, a new generation of Republicans took that racist undertone and made it the melody.
It is crucial to understand that Donald Trump didn’t create this noxious environment. He isn’t some hideous, orange Venus emerging from the half-shell. Rather, he is a brilliant opportunist; he saw the direction the Republican Party was taking and the appetites it was stoking. The onetime pro-choice advocate of universal health care reinvented himself to give Republicans what they wanted. Because Trump is merely a reflection of the sickness in the GOP, the problem won’t go away when he does.
Republicans and their allied donors, media outlets, interest groups and fellow travelers have been yanking on the threads of democracy and civil society for the past quarter-century; that’s a long time, and the unraveling is considerable. You can measure it in the triumph of lies and disinformation, in the mainstreaming of racism and white supremacy, in the erosion of institutions and norms of government, and in the dehumanizing of opponents and stoking of violence. In the process, Republicans became Destructionists: They destroyed truth, they destroyed decency, they destroyed patriotism, they destroyed national unity, they destroyed racial progress, they destroyed their own party, and they are well on their way to destroying the world’s oldest democracy.
Consider just a few of the milestones along this path of destruction — all of which, we can now see, made Trump possible, if not inevitable:
Long before Trump promulgated more than 30,000 falsehoods during his presidency, including disinformation about the covid-19 pandemic that contributed to countless deaths:
Long before Trump told the violent Proud Boys to “stand by” instead of condemning them:
As they avert their gaze from the cascading horrors of the failed coup, Republicans are instead looking to a familiar guide: Gingrich. The former speaker, now a board member of the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, announced this year that he is serving as a consultant to House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and his team.
No sooner had this been disclosed than Gingrich, on Fox News, threatened the imprisonment of lawmakers serving on the Jan. 6 committee, saying they’re “going to face a real risk of jail” after Republicans take over Congress. Throwing political opponents in jail for investigating an attack on the U.S. Capitol and a coup against the U.S. government?
Replied Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee: “This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels.” But Gingrich knows that. He’s the one who first started tugging at the threads.
Some outstanding points in there too.
What's ironic is that Donald Trump is the biggest gift to the democrats in history even as half the republicans still embrace him.
This is exactly what the democrats want in elections!
In ways both absurd and serious, the 45th president refused to let go of the spotlight or his party and redefined what it means to be a former leader of the free world.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/20/trump-first-year-former-president-527299
yes we all get it. Trump is evil incarnate. Evil to the bone. But then we look at what is supposed to be the answer according to you and it is Libs. Libs have not a policy or value that matches with the majority of Americans. They have not 1 policy that is working for America. America under Trump rarely has so many things right. And what do we do about it? Crawl I a hole and shake like a small child and hold our blankey tight? Or elect some one with many of Trumps policies but not his personality or other negative attributes.
My post was about the GOP, not Donald Trump.
Thanks mcfarm,
you left out the most important part.
the basis for our democracy……elections.
no matter how good a persons policies are if they refuse to abide by the results of any election that they lose….they are violating the core principle that defines who we are.
if they go one step beyond even that, try to overturn an election result using fraud and abusing their power in office, not only are they unqualified to hold office but they should be charged with crimes for defrauding tens of millions of Americans……who want to believe, so they let themselves be conned.
just because they are ok with being used/fooled by his agenda it doesn’t excuse the most unpatriotic, self serving, country damaging act in history.
the fact that half the Republican Party is ok with trump acting that way and condemn patriotic, honorable people in their own party like Liz Cheney is scary.
Surely I missed many issues/topics too and would appreciate other thoughts. I accidentally erased the previous page with those listed but joj intended for this thread to focus on party line conspiracy theories and DISinformation and related items........so let's focus on that.
As mentioned by your original source, the conspiracy theories of republicans are pretty bad stuff(the worst by far is the 2020 election-1 million X worse than any others for the republicans) but sometimes they are true and NOT conspiracy theories.
For instance the Mueller investigation was the most corrupt, biased investigation in history that featured those involved destroying and covering up the evidence. I’m as anti Trump as it gets but the truth is 100% on his side. They knew within months that Trump was completely innocent. So what did they do? Intentionally drag it out for 2 more years, bringing Trump people in and setting them up to tell lies to charge the with lying. creating crimes from the investigation that didn’t exist before the investigation And charging the 25 million cost to tax payers.
joj, you’ve defended that corrupt investigation and Mueller Several times here.
We were also told that Hunter Biden's laptop was a big conspiracy theory created by Russia to help get Trump elected and much of the mainstream media and all the democrats went with the fake news, manufactured conspiracy theory/DISinformation about what was REAL.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/88661/#88687
The fake climate crisis. What side believes a greening planet and booming biosphere with its best weather for life in the last 1,000 years, the previous time when it was this warm is actually killing the planet?…….the very thing causing the slight, beneficial warming and greening? scroll down at this link to see the last, Medieval Warm Period proof: https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/88287/#88297
Twisting things like 1 in 25 year rain events into 1 in 1,000 year events to support false narratives. And that ALL extreme weather caused by natural variation is from a fake climate crisis. https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/88256/
Telling us that the polar bears and other creatures are threatened with extinction….then polar bears increase in population by 30% over 2 decades. While the REAL climate optimum is providing them and all the rest of the creatures on the planet with much more food.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/79542/#79549
Polar bears eat seals and seals eat plants-photoplankton.
All creatures eat plants or something that eats plants. CO2 is the building block for all of life….a beneficial gas and atmospheric/agricultural plant/crop fertilizer. The optimal level for most plants/crops is double the current level. Humans rescued the planet from near CO2 starvation before the Industrial Revolution. Why do you think the planet is massively green up?
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/69258/
It’s not republicans that believe the anti/junk science/DISinformation/conspiracy theory related to the hijacking and actually rewriting climate history.
Before this century is over, this time frame will be known as the dark ages of climate science and biggest scientific fraud in history. 99.9% confidence.
Using this made up crisis to kill fossil fuels that are responsible for almost everything we have in the modern age. 6,000 important products made with petroleum.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/84689/
All synthetic fertilizer feeding most humans on the planet is made with or using fossil fuels. There is no viable replacement.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/39215/
Replacing them with batteries, solar and wind turbines the diffuse, intermittent/unreliable energy source from environmental hell that rips open the earth for mining(needs batteries to store the electricity using a technology not invented yet), destroys landscapes and ecosystems while killing millions of birds and bats……and only lasts 25 years then needs to be replaced.
https://www.masterresource.org/droz-john-awed/25-industrial-wind-energy-deceptions/
Fossil fuels are their own batteries. The energy is already in the fuel.
The total cost to completely convert to fake green energy is $433 trillion ….20 times the GDP. In other words impossible. the only reason it’s proceeding is because of governmental mandates, subsidies, grants and goodies from tax payer money that rewards crony capitalism and politicians and lobby money bribery.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/85535/#85776
Even if it were free, it would be a horrible idea.
If we turned back the climate clock to 100 years ago and cooled the planet by 1 deg. C and took out the 120 parts per million of beneficial CO2 from burning fossil fuels, 1 billion people would starve to death within 3 years and the rationing of limited food would cause food price to go as much as 10 times higher with only rich people able to afford eating. https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/39215/
Joj, what party is the one that embraces the tenets of climate religion that are defined by those things above?
As I say, if you believe in one party all the time, you believe in HUGE lies some of the time…..and you can always see the lies of the other party but are helplessly blind to all the lies of your own party! https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/77011/#89534
And really smart people, including scientists who think they are too smart for cognitive bias to control their thinking are affected too. They are just better at conjuring up convincing sounding theories and bs that sells and is embraced by mainstream media that no longer practices objective journalism.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/88909/#88910
All the climate crisis and fake green energy debunking threads here:
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/27864/
Just a reminder, I'm a practicing environmentalist, not a far right denier and believer in conspiracy theories, junk science or DISinformation and not part of the fossil fuel industry(like democrats believe).....in fact, I'm devoting a big part of my life to FIGHT that but being as portrayed/vilified by the people acting that way, accused of doing what they are doing:
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/87294/#87337
There is a difference between knowing what you are saying is a lie such as:
The Big Lie
Hillary Clinton is running a child pornography ring,
The Clinton's had Vince Foster murdered
Birther lie.
And believing something to be true that the moderator calls fake:
Climate crisis. Surely not all of the scientists who believe the theory of man made global warming being dangerous are conspiring to lie about this issue. Obama sincerely believes this is a problem to be solved. I'll grant that I don't know. But I wouldn't call him a liar even if I did think he was wrong.
As for the Mueller investigation which lead to more than 30 indictments and properly warned the sleepy populace that Russia engages in disinformation and continues to be a threat to our national security. I can't possibly convince you Mike, let alone get you to even acknowledge those points.
There is a difference between knowing what you are saying is a lie such as:
Thanks, joj,
You're apparently missing what's going on and the crux of many of the actual points, by imposing YOUR personal understanding/belief system of what's true and what's not true.
Your statement assumes that people who disagree with you on loony things know they are lies and make a conscious choice to believe them anyway, instead of the truth that you know and of course, they should also.
When you believe in DISinformation, then it's completely different because there's YOUR justification to believe in the lie.
But with your belief system, it doesn't allow for others to believe in lies with similar justification for you to believe in your lies. In other words, you question the sincerity of anybody that believes in what you know is an obvious lie.
I keep showing you crystal clearly what Mueller did but you refuse to embrace the truth and repeat the same things to justify believing the lies. None of it debunks 1 iota of THE stark truth. Are you intentionally believing in a lie, joj? I give you way more credit in the honesty department to even think that.
You seriously think millions of people that disagree with you are less sincere in believing their DISinformation/conspiracy theories?
Earth to Joj: People on the right believe just a strongly in their bs as people on the left do.
With regards to the climate crisis, I've explained this many times. People WANT to believe in things that will save the planet.
The United Nations created the IPCC as the worlds authority for all the governments to get their climate information from over 30 years ago. They hijacked climate science, rewrote climate history and here we are.
This is not speculation. I have 100 threads proving it over and over in dozens of realms.
It's as true as the law of gravity! Not an alternate truth but THE authentic truth!
It's why I'm here, man!
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/27864/
++++++++++++++++++++++
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/88832/#89036
U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked
PETER JAMES SPIELMANN Associated Press June 29, 1989:
https://apnews.com/article/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0
2nd link with the title:
The United Nations created the IPCC(InterGOVERNMENTAL Panel on Climate Change) as the world’s authority on man made climate change………so that they could hijack climate science to accomplish their agenda.
Their regular reports are used for believers of climate crisis religion, similar to how Christians use the New Testament (-:
Many climate scientists work for the government and most of the grant money to fund climate research targets climate change PROBLEMS. When applying for a grant, guess who will get funded first
One of the first things that the IPCC did was REWRITE CLIMATE HISTORY.
On face value, this sounds delusional/impossible but some of us watched them do it.
They did it to wipe out the Medieval Warm Period that was this warm 1,000 years ago and eliminate consideration of the 100+ previous studies that showed that this warming is NOT completely unprecedented and has to be caused by humans burning fossil fuels.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/88287/#88297
We now call the building block for all life, CO2 (a beneficial gas which is greening the planet, with it’s booming biosphere and increasing food for most creatures) ……pollution.