There’s the Republican who, even after the whipping up of a riot, continues to lie through his teeth, to steadfastly deny that Trump is a narcissistic, sadistic, psychopathic cult leader. Then there’s the Republican who pretends to have finally seen the light, who pretends that they didn’t recognise all along that Trump is a narcissistic, sadistic, psychopathic cult leader.
Which is more repulsive? The answer, of course, is “Yes”. Republicans are loathsome fuckers. All of them.
The really disturbing fact is that roughly 160 million voters thought/think otherwise …
There was an opinion piece in the Age that said “the Republican Party has to wash off the stain of Donald Trump”. An interesting comment was posted:
“Trump isn’t a stain, he’s the fabric. Without that forty or fifty per cent of Republican voters who still think Trump is the greatest, there would be, now, no Republican Party.”
Another commentator predicted (correctly in my view) that “Trump will almost certainly start his own party – the American People’s Party or Patriot Party, some name like that – and siphon off more than half of the Republican “base.””
Exactly. Trump isn’t the problem, just the corollary. Republicans have been corrupting assholes at least back to Eisenhower, and probably back to Roosevelt.
JF ,
Rumour has it they couldn’t find 3 wise GOP Magi so had to use MAGA instead as a slogan
Good news is that if POTUS gets impeached again he will not be allowed to stand in 2024
Steve R
I don’t think that is correct. I think barring Trump from being future president requires a separate vote from the Senate. But the idea that Trump, if not for impeachment and conviction, might still be electable is simultaneously hilarious and scary. (I don’t think he is, but Americans are pretty damn dumb.)
Marty,
You may well be correct on that as my assertion was based on ABC news radio station interview a couple of days ago.
This is what 538 had to say last time when the GOP held a majority in the Senate in Feb 2020
Steve R
Yes, but on the matter of disqualifying an impeached president from future office, only a majority of the Senate is required. https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-2/49-judgment-removal-and-disqualification.html
I imagine this will be something some Republican senators consider when deciding whether to support impeachment. How does it play for the Hawleys / Cruzs / and others who want to make a run for 2024 presidency? On the one hand, killing a Trump 2024 candidacy opens the field; on the other, it probably depresses the crazy vote.
Good point. That may well happen then, although I think it’d be a strategic mistake.
If Trump started his own party and splits the conservative vote, it is one of the best things that could happen to the Democrats since America does not have a preferential voting system.
Personally, I don’t think people will think much about Trump once the circus leaves town.
Yeah, it’d be great. Although it would also mean the chance of making the Democrats less revolting would have been lost.
It’s not at all clear to me that Trump will disappear. He will look to continue the con, and his efforts to avoid jail and/or bankruptcy, as long as possible. Plus, there are plenty of (justifiably) pissed-off Americans who (unjustifiably) see this fucker as their saviour. Trump was already contemplating setting up his own TV network. Given (rightly or wrongly) his being kicked off of Twitter et al, Trump may be thinking a lot harder about such plans.
When Ted Cruz was in the running for Republican nonimee for the presidency, I was having an email exchange with an American friend, and pointing out that yes, they may have Cruz, but we had Tony Abbott, and I launched (in my email) on a little diatribe about Abbott’s total unfitness for PM. My friend responded: “Our only point of disagreement may be that I can’t imagine that Tony Abbott, awful as he was, could approach Ted Cruz in offensiveness. Did Abbott, for instance, try to halt the functioning of the entire Australian government for his own advancement?”
I think that no matter how appalling our own pollies are, the Rethuglicans are far far worse. Then again, America has a far larger “Christian” far right base of uneducated hicks, who believe in conspiracy theories like QAnon, and don’t “believe” in evolution or climate change. It provides a very fertile ground for people like Cruz, Trump, McConnell, and the rest of the loathsome crowd.
Some commentators believe that America has been turning into a moral sewer since at least Nixon. And since Nixon was VP under Eisenhower, you’re probably right Marty!
Agreed. No question Australia’s “conservatives” are also unprincipled, incompetent, corrupting thugs. The treatment of asylum seekers, the development of the police state, the trashing of conventions and institutions is horrific and probably irreversible. And, they’re also happy to steal government: others may have forgiven those fuckers Fraser and Barwick and Kerr and 1975, but I haven’t. But for all that, Australia’s assholes are not within a country mile of America’s assholes. Arguably, the Democrats are by and large worse than Australia’s Liberals-Nationals.
I don’t think the Christian right is the fundamental problem, although they are of course disgusting and have been part of American awfulness for decades, if not centuries. Right now, however, they seem to be more hucksters hitching a ride, and/or dumb, gullible marks. And, historically, I get the feeling that the Christian garbage is sometimes as much packaging as content.
It’s hard to pick apart the various strands that make up the right in America, but certainly since the so-called “great revival” in the early 19th century, Christianity – or at least, the outward profession of Christianity – has been a central part of public life. Nobody could be elected who was not a staunch member of an established church. I am not a Christian myself, but I think that American Christianity, with its “prosperity gospel” is a revolting travesty of Christ’s most fundamental teaching.
I happen to like and admire much of America very much: it still has the best universities and research centres, the greatest number of Nobel Prize winners, and an immensely thriving arts scene. Its orchestras and conductors are world-class, and American composers are some of the world’s best.
But it is still an odd and unfathomable place. It is the only Western democracy without a thriving left-wing political party. It is the only Western country which still uses the death penalty (and uses it enthusiastically). It has a greater prison population per capita than any other country (655 per 100000 people; Australia’s rate is 170 per 100000). It is the only Western country where life expectancies of white males has decreased. It is the only country to use the imperial measurements.
It also has what is demonstrably and provably the world’s worst voting system, and with no proper oversight. We should be thankful for our Federal and state Electoral Commissions – America has nothing to compare.
I guess we can take comfort in that our own home-grown idiots: Malcolm Roberts of One Nation, the asinine Craig Kelly MHR, stand out for their utter inanities; in America they wouldn’t rate a mention; indeed would probably be seen as moderates..
The corruption and insanity of the voting system is key. It makes it impossible and mere foot-shooting to try to establish a third force.
No question that the official proclamation of Christianity is well-established American ritual, but it’s not clear to me how much reality underlies it. The awfulness and evilness of Trump, for example, didn’t slow down the “Christian” support for Trump one jot. They obviously don’t give a flying fuck that Trump is an immoral asshole, even in terms of their own idiotic values. American Christianity has always had a decent dose of hypocrisy.
As for the good of America, yeah I see it, but I can’t buy it. I can’t overlook the gratuitous, inexcusable awfulness and viciousness of the place. Which is why I’m much happier here, as a mathematical bum, rather than there, as a smug professor at some smug liberal arts college. The thought of raising my kids in America is a nightmare. The place is deeply fucked.
‘‘Twas unbelievable to see and hear that even Republican “Front Line” Senators could be so brain dead and conditioned to think (and act like lemmings) that they had to show Trump that he “could count on them”….hmmm
Now the conspiracy theory that “Left wing extremists infiltrated a peaceful loyal Trump protest” that day has emerged…
Laughable, but only if you’re not one of the many “gullible, faithful American Patriots”… methinks that…
The Project’s endangered – not sunk…
And this “Partnership” – rendered defunct?!
“Aye’ve” been kicked (in between bawls)
Due to late, late withdrawals…
And taken stick from your cock-ups…”Mike” Hunt?!
Anither “double take” – sayings credited to Rabbie Burns, but nonetheless fitting..
http://etims.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/quote-o-would-some-power-the-giftie-gie-us-to-see-ourselves-as-others-see-us-o-would-some-power-the-robert-burns-281774.jpg
https://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-the-best-laid-schemes-o-mice-an-men-gang-aft-agley-robert-burns-35-20-63.jpg
The assholes knew exactly what they were doing.
Another sad thing is that though not stupid, your head is so full of fake TV news and b.s. that you sound like idiots. Thinking for yourself is really pointless when it’s all based on lies and false narratives. This is like listening to Russian stooges explain why they have to kill Ukrainians. You are dangerously ignorant.
Uh, was that fun to post? Feel better now?