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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 13:38:06 GMT -5
...thanks to Trump, the Frankenstein monster the Republicans set free and find they can't control. W and GHWB put out a book, in which they criticize Trump pretty ferociously and confirm neither voted for him. 41 voted Hillary! W says he never liked Trump and calls him a blowhard! Fun stuff. I'll have to read it. So of course, in response, the Trump White House rips the legacies of the last two Republican presidents. www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/04/both-bush-presidents-openly-condemned-trump-book-claims-one-even-voted-for-clinton/?utm_term=.cabd4ccd5d62Between that and Trump and Bannon threatening Republican congress critters and more and more of the establishment types quitting the field rather than capitulate...It's really astonishing. I can't recall another time when presidents of the same party trashed each other. I really, really do not see how the Republican party cannot split in half. I know the Democrats have their woes, too, but I honestly don't think the divisions are as severe. Can establishment Republicans really continue to support an administration that essentially despises them and what they stand for? |
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Post by mikey on Nov 4, 2017 14:09:45 GMT -5
To be fair the W administration did fuck up royally on the Iraqi fiasco, he owns it.
We can only hope that the implosion of one or preferably both parties takes place before 2020.
Realistically though, both parties will most likely survive in tact through 2024 or beyond.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 20:47:45 GMT -5
I have plenty of criticisms of W's policies, don't get me wrong, but I've just never seen presidents go after other presidents -- especially their own party -- like this.
I dunno. I begin to wonder if both parties will really survive until 2024. Wouldn't surprise me in the least to see either implode, at this point, but the Republican schism is striking me more. It's more than a mere personality thing -- it looks to me like the two halves of the party don't have very much in common anymore. And it's looking to me like many on both sides are not willing to just grit their teeth and go along with the other any more.
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Post by Optimus on Nov 5, 2017 7:33:15 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2017 7:49:50 GMT -5
Heh. I was just now reading an article about Brazile and thinking exactly that, Opty.
I mean, I'm not a party loyalist type at all. I'm absolutely on team "if someone in your party does something heinous, call them out on it, and don't support bad measures just because your party is pushing them." Country before party, and so forth.
But much of this stuff is not that. A lot of it just feels like petty grudges, spite, sheer idiocy, and desperate, greedy bids for attention.
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Post by Amadan on Nov 5, 2017 11:25:28 GMT -5
The GOP will survive because there is nothing, nothing, they hate more than letting liberals win. They will burn the country to the ground before they'll willingly give liberals an inch. That is why they're aggressively trying to screw everyone from the poor to immigrants to federal workers to teachers to the elderly to the sick to the environment - any program that is championed even a little by liberals is a target.
Yeah, I'm feeling cynical and bitter. I am no DNC fanboy, as you know, and not even that liberal any more, but the sheer, petty, spitefulness of modern Republicans really is unprecedented.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2017 11:36:21 GMT -5
To be fair, I do know Republicans (in name, anyway) who are not on board with at least a lot of this stuff. But they are pretty much feeling the party has lost its way, and I'm not sure they'll stay Republicans unless that changes.
I'm hearing a lot of "we need a new party" amongst conservatives I know.
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Post by Amadan on Nov 5, 2017 11:44:10 GMT -5
To be fair, I do know Republicans (in name, anyway) who are not on board with at least a lot of this stuff. But they are pretty much feeling the party has lost its way, and I'm not sure they'll stay Republicans unless that changes. I'm hearing a lot of "we need a new party" amongst conservatives I know. Sure, they say that, but where are they going to go? Who is going to found (and fund) this new part of principled, conservative grown-ups? They gripe about Trump, but the inertia and institutional barriers required to create another party is enormous. In the end, they'll keep voting GOP and praying for a slightly-less-horrible-than-Trump candidate to deliver them. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2017 11:47:50 GMT -5
To be fair, I do know Republicans (in name, anyway) who are not on board with at least a lot of this stuff. But they are pretty much feeling the party has lost its way, and I'm not sure they'll stay Republicans unless that changes. I'm hearing a lot of "we need a new party" amongst conservatives I know. Sure, they say that, but where are they going to go? Who is going to found (and fund) this new part of principled, conservative grown-ups? They gripe about Trump, but the inertia and institutional barriers required to create another party is enormous. In the end, they'll keep voting GOP and praying for a slightly-less-horrible-than-Trump candidate to deliver them. I am hoping and hoping and hoping this isn't true. But I'm terribly afraid that it might be. |
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Post by poetinahat on Nov 6, 2017 1:21:03 GMT -5
How about this: Trump, who began as a parasite on the GOP, has thrived on the energy he's sucked from the Party - and has grown so much that he's become the host. But he never liked them, nor they him. So, before next election, he announces that they haven't delivered the goods - they've kept him from draining the swamp, and Making America Great Again. (I know, I know - but in Trumpvision, his words become reality as they leave his mouth, congealing as they hit the atmosphere.) So he runs for re-election in 2020 - as a candidate for the Trump Party. (He could call it "America First", but like Alexander the Great, he can't bear to have something that isn't named after him.) Of course, he can't possibly win. But he couldn't win in 2016. And recall that he registered for re-election the day he took office - and he's been raising campaign funds since then. And now the Republicans have no real leader, and they burned all their bridges in falling in line with Trump, who sees he no longer needs them. The hats were just the start. Now, he's got uniforms, with different indications of rank and function. His banners start by featuring the American flag. But as time goes on, the flag grows smaller, and his image - and the golden T - grow larger. Eventually, there is no flag. Eventually, there is no Election Day. Unless. The Democrats? Hillary is done, Bernie has gone. Between them, the rest of the Party spend their time wailing about how they deserve to win. And watching Colbert, Stewart and the like. Can one of them take the mantle and throw Trump off the island? Or will it be a maverick billionaire: Mark Cuban? The Rock? Elon Musk? Come back, Kinky Friedman; your country needs you. |
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