Cypress (04-30-2021), evince (05-03-2021), Guno צְבִי (04-26-2021), PoliTalker (04-30-2021)
It is so good to see this, republicans are speaking out against the Trump cult.
"Don’t sit quietly and surrender one of America’s great political parties."
'GOP Democracy Report Card' 'Which Republicans supported American democracy when it needed it?'
https://accountability.gop/report-card/
"The bedrock of our democracy is the rule of law and that means we have to have an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing." Caroline Kennedy
"First, democracy is more than holding elections; it requires the development of civil society, meaning such complex and counterintuitive institutions as the rule of law, an independent judiciary, multiple political parties, minority rights, voluntary associations, freedom of expression, movement, and assembly. Democracy is a learned habit, not an instinctive one, that requires deep attitudinal changes such as a culture of restraint, a commonality of values, a respect for differences of view, the concept of loyal opposition, and a sense of civic responsibility." Daniel Pipes
Reading: 'Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America'
Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire
Cypress (04-30-2021), evince (05-03-2021), Guno צְבִי (04-26-2021), PoliTalker (04-30-2021)
I often hear people say we are not a democracy but a republic. That appears to mean something different from our democracy but what exactly isn't clear.
A republic is: "National sovereignty lies in the authority of the government, not in an emperor or monarch. The word republic comes from the Latin words res publica, meaning a "public thing". For example, the United States and India are republics, but North Korea and Cuba are also called republics."
https://www.britannica.com/topic/republic-government
"Democracy is government by the people especially : rule of the majority. A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections."
'Does the Constitution mention democracy?'
"The Constitution is organized into three parts. The Constitution established a Federal democratic republic. It is the system of the Federal Government; it is democratic because the people govern themselves; and it is a republic because the Government's power is derived from its people."
Banish word salad, call a spade a spade.
Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire
Gamewell45 (05-04-2021), PoliTalker (04-30-2021)
There's a shitload of F's and D's on that list.
The Republican party needs to rebuild and, IMO, won't be able to do it until 2026.
Peggy Noonan's article was written August 2020:
https://wacotrib.com/opinion/columni...7295b1f72.html
Some Never Trumpers helped create the conditions that created President Trump. What would be helpful from them now is not pyromaniac fantasies but constructive modesty, even humility.
The party’s national leaders and strategists don’t have a lot to be proud of the past few decades. The future of the party will probably bubble up from the states.
But it matters that the past six months Mr. Trump has been very publicly doing himself in, mismanaging his crises — setting himself on fire. As long as that’s clear, his supporters won’t be able to say, if he loses, that he was a champion of the people who was betrayed by the party elites, the Never Trumpers and the deep state: “He didn’t lose, he was the victim of treachery.”
Both parties have weaknesses. Liberals enjoy claiming progress that can somehow never quite be quantified. Conservatives like the theme of betrayal.
It will be unhelpful for Republicans, and bad for the country, if that’s the background music of the party next 10 years.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...mn/6249743002/
The Republican Party can still make a strong comeback
The Republican Party can once again come back stronger than ever before. But, just like in 1980, we need to look outside of Washington to do it.
"Hatred is a failure of imagination" - Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory"
I think of the US as a constitutional democracy as opposed to an absolute democracy.
Just as a constitutional monarchy has rules that the monarch must operate within, a constitutional democracy has rules that the democracy must operate within.
The practical meaning to this is, in an absolute democracy the majority could decide to suspend free speech and violate the rights of the minority.
But in a constitutional democracy, if the majority tries to suspend free speech and violate the rights of the minority, then the courts will overrule the majority.
PoliTalker (04-30-2021)
I think they're doing ok. They just need to keep undermining the Biden Administration and making them fail.
Some criminal investigations into the Bidens will be useful as well. Once the Republicans retake the House they can impeach Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Come 2024 the Democrats will be vulnerable and Mr. Trump can win his second term.
Thanks for input.
But trying to make Biden fail reminds this reader of FDR, some things seem to repeat themselves over and over again. A quote and a book on topic.
"Now it is true that I believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. I oppose this — in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything — even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H.L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." President Dwight Eisenhower
If you truly want to know how we got here read this history.
"The rise of conservative politics in postwar America is one of the great puzzles of American political history. For much of the period that followed the end of World War II, conservative ideas about the primacy of the free market, and the dangers of too-powerful labor unions, government regulation, and an activist, interventionist state seemed to have been thoroughly rejected by most intellectual and political elites. Scholars and politicians alike dismissed those who adhered to such faiths as a "radical right," for whom to quote the Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter politics "becomes an arena into which the wildest fancies are projected, the most paranoid suspicions, the most absurd superstitions, the most bizarre apocalyptic fantasies." How, then, did such ideas move from their marginal position in the middle years of the twentieth century to become the reigning politics of the country by the century's end?" Kim Phillips-Fein ('Invisible Hands')
Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire
PoliTalker (04-30-2021)
Spoken like a true QPatriot! So much brilliance and truth packed into one small sentence... if our goal is defining what the Republiqans stand for. After all, the *only* point, evidently, in voting for (R)s is to destroy whichever (D) administration happens to be in power. Never mind that whole bit about destroying the country too, right? As long as you can have the fascist fuehrer of your choice in power, it's all good.
"Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals." -- Mark Twain
midcan5 (05-01-2021)
There are other reasons to vote for Republicans. Protecting our Constitutional gun rights for example.
But since the Democrats rejected Mr. Trump's legitimacy and relentlessly undermined him, it seems perfectly fair for the Republicans to turn around and now do the same to Mr. Biden.
I challenge any Trump cult member to read this book. If you are still a fan afterwards I buy you a banana split.
"No one saw it coming,” but what they mean is that they consider the people who saw it coming to be no one. The category of “no one” includes the people smeared by Trump in his propaganda: immigrants, black Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, LGBT Americans, disabled Americans, and others long maligned and marginalized—groups for whom legally sanctioned American autocracy was not an unfathomable horror, but a personal backstory." Sarah Kendzior
'Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America'
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...in-plain-sight
Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire
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