All this Trump disparagement is well and good and could lead to a Democrat administration in 3 years. And our national problems and issues will be as relevant as ever. So, at that point, what are the Democrats going to actually do to improve the state of affairs? Tax more, and spend more? Ideological division will be as bad as ever. Legislative gridlock. Count me pessimistic.
I would like to respectfully agree with the author, and add a missed dimension. People in this country of good faith - a two edged sword if there ever was one - have a very hard time seeing, acknowledging, and saying out loud what has been obvious to careful observers for fifty years - that the Republican Party took a hard right turn towards authoritarianism under Nixon, with every Republican president since being progressively worse. (Cue the "whatttabouts" here.) If you look carefully at what the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush II administrations really were, how they operated, the people in positions of great power and influence, the criminality, the absolutist ideology, the fealty to corporate power and unmitigated wealth hoarding, the moral vacuity, and so much more, the script for Trump was outlined with Nixon, codified with Reagan, perfected by Bush II, and brought to full reality show fascism-by-any-other-name with Trump.
TrumpCo didn't write this script. The John Birch Society did. The "City of Hate" did. The McCarthyites did. The FDR hating, Hitler admiring capitalists did. And yes, William F. Buckley did (literally) in "God and Man at Yale." But the worm turned under Nixon and Reagan, and the worst of the American human - i.e., reactionary Republicans and modern American 'conservatism' - has been on a relentless campaign of destruction of liberal democracy ever since. Hence Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Trump, a socio-political genealogy of progressively reactionary authoritarianism staring you right in the face.
We've had two fundamental choices since the Great Depression - social responsibility, aka social democracy, or barbarism. Turns out barbarism is pretty good at selling itself to people you would hope would know better. The only problem is, we're destroying a livable planet, and we don't have any f***ing time. Will Americans "do the right thing....after trying everything else"? Will it be too late if we do? I'll tell you this much - if we don't "do the right thing" and take responsibility for everyone in this country, and for this planet, then we are without fail screwed to the wall. But hey - Americans are a clever people. After all, they voted for Trump, right?
The SAVE act is just the first step to invalidating elections won by Democrats on accusations of "illegal" votes. Next step: Republicans refusing to seat Democrats from "contested" districts, and judges hand picked by the Orange One ruling in the GOP's favor on the flimsiest (or no) evidence.
Rather than give Americans what they actually want, Republicans would rather take from Americans their right to vote. And to protest. Who needs to be accountable to voters when you can get rid of democracy instead??
Passport in Regional Concentration: High ownership is concentrated in coastal or "blue" states, while lower rates are found in "red" states.
Lowest Ownership [passport] In states like Mississippi (20.6%), West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, less than one-third of residents have a valid passport.
Urban-Rural Divide: Residents in big cities (62%) and urban suburbs (64%) are far more likely to own a passport compared to rural areas.
Here's what the GOP offers (and it's not policy related):
Feelings of domination wrapped in cruelty, hypocrisy, and spectacle
For a lot of Americans of different stripes, feeling dominant and superior is much more meaningful than tangible things they can use. Trump didn't invent it, but he supercharged it and brought different groups into the fold. Plenty of voters just liked the aura: the opportunity to get straight talk from a big shot and vicariously live through him.
If there's a breaking point for them, it's viscerally feeling the pain and wrath of authoritarianism. The reason why Trump lost his gains with certain groups is that they were likely the first to feel the burning end of the cigarette of MAGA.
Why isn't anyone making the point that you can't get a driver's license without citizenship documents? Particularly in Texas, I had to provide a birth certificate and/or a passport or I couldn't get the "real ID" stamp.
Well, it depends on which dogs you're talking about. The MAGA "dogs" seem to eat everything their cult leader feeds them - even (in the polling of MAGA) the Iran war which everyone outside thought they'd be opposed to. But when Trump got elected he never pretended to represent or care about the whole dog pack and focused on the words, people and policies MAGA wanted, speaking and acting only in terms of revenge and increasingly stark cruelty. Until now he's had a Supreme Court and Congress that he selected and helped get elected, so why would he or they change and why would any Republican change since he's the only game for them and is actively trying to change the rules to keep it that way. The Republicans can't change their policies since they are part and parcel of the policies that need changing. If we have free and open elections they'll be thrown out, not changed. If the rules of the game can be further changed to favor them and their leader, or if they throw out the rules altogether then they won't have to change.
My understanding is that it would impose voter REGISTRATION requirements in order to obtain the verifying docs presented at the polling place. Passport or birth certificate. Good luck with that for approximately 37 million voting Americans (the estimates keep growing).
so a total redo/rebuild of existing registration process. For example in california To register online you will need:
Your California driver license or California identification card number,
The last four digits of your social security number and
Your date of birth.
if this is not good enough - and you need more - does this mean that everyone needs to re-register?
(from Ca.Gov - In general, you do not need to re-register because you are registered to vote for as long as you remain at the same address. However, there are cases in which voter registration can be cancelled if a voter has not voted in several consecutive general elections.)
I believe that’s correct. One would need to show up with one or more of these documents at their Secretary of State’s office. It’s also worth noting that women without passports who changer their name after marrying would have an especially difficult time, since that wouldn’t be the name on the birth certificate.
It is worth noting that Trump has asked the Supreme Court to rule that merely possessing a U.S. birth certificate does not make one a citizen of the U.S.
It's the old question of what drives MAGA. A nagging recollection of 1/6 when 140+ Repub House members refused to certify Mr. Biden's 2020 election AFTER the attempted coup has really held true since then, and for the hardest part of the MAGA base. Perhaps they've completely abandoned the premise of elections. And as Trump appears fearless as he encourages increasing scads of citizens to abhor his presidency, it may not really matter to him anymore, because it's no longer the point of his "activities."
Love this piece for its candid look at the current state of GOP dysphoria and a look at the historic circumstances that sent them down this path. It's succinctly written and concise with its arguments.
The Republicans and trump have one guiding principle: private splendor (for the trump/Epstein class) and public squalor (for all the rest of us). Why that is so difficult for working class voters to grasp is one of the great mysteries of our time.
All they care about is that the president should be a white male, get rid of affirmative action and put white conservative Christian men on top. Even conservative women want that.
Republicans are still better at doing it......and if VOTER ID goes for the stringent requirements they are proposing, people who don't normally vote won't bother trying to gather the required documents, and far too many urban people who do normally vote will not be motivated to take the effort particularly for the mid-terms……
For a party that once touted itself as “the adult in the room”; one that was willing to look reality in the eye and make the tough call they really do seem incapable of seeing that their ideas are unpopular.
Their belief they were the adult in the room is part of the problem as it gave them a sense of superiority and that their ideas whether popular or not were right because they were said adults while those on the other side were not. For politics to work, it has to be a negotiation between equal partners who iron out the differences without always getting what you want. The dynamic where one party sees themselves as the adult while the other is not, always leaves the temptation for the adult to take the reigns.
100% agree. I think the crucial negotiating part and the time it takes to do it is what frustrates them. They and their base want to impose their will and right this minute. That’s not the way this works nor is it the way it was designed.
All this Trump disparagement is well and good and could lead to a Democrat administration in 3 years. And our national problems and issues will be as relevant as ever. So, at that point, what are the Democrats going to actually do to improve the state of affairs? Tax more, and spend more? Ideological division will be as bad as ever. Legislative gridlock. Count me pessimistic.
I would like to respectfully agree with the author, and add a missed dimension. People in this country of good faith - a two edged sword if there ever was one - have a very hard time seeing, acknowledging, and saying out loud what has been obvious to careful observers for fifty years - that the Republican Party took a hard right turn towards authoritarianism under Nixon, with every Republican president since being progressively worse. (Cue the "whatttabouts" here.) If you look carefully at what the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush II administrations really were, how they operated, the people in positions of great power and influence, the criminality, the absolutist ideology, the fealty to corporate power and unmitigated wealth hoarding, the moral vacuity, and so much more, the script for Trump was outlined with Nixon, codified with Reagan, perfected by Bush II, and brought to full reality show fascism-by-any-other-name with Trump.
TrumpCo didn't write this script. The John Birch Society did. The "City of Hate" did. The McCarthyites did. The FDR hating, Hitler admiring capitalists did. And yes, William F. Buckley did (literally) in "God and Man at Yale." But the worm turned under Nixon and Reagan, and the worst of the American human - i.e., reactionary Republicans and modern American 'conservatism' - has been on a relentless campaign of destruction of liberal democracy ever since. Hence Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Trump, a socio-political genealogy of progressively reactionary authoritarianism staring you right in the face.
We've had two fundamental choices since the Great Depression - social responsibility, aka social democracy, or barbarism. Turns out barbarism is pretty good at selling itself to people you would hope would know better. The only problem is, we're destroying a livable planet, and we don't have any f***ing time. Will Americans "do the right thing....after trying everything else"? Will it be too late if we do? I'll tell you this much - if we don't "do the right thing" and take responsibility for everyone in this country, and for this planet, then we are without fail screwed to the wall. But hey - Americans are a clever people. After all, they voted for Trump, right?
The SAVE act is just the first step to invalidating elections won by Democrats on accusations of "illegal" votes. Next step: Republicans refusing to seat Democrats from "contested" districts, and judges hand picked by the Orange One ruling in the GOP's favor on the flimsiest (or no) evidence.
Putin must be giggling with glee.
Rather than give Americans what they actually want, Republicans would rather take from Americans their right to vote. And to protest. Who needs to be accountable to voters when you can get rid of democracy instead??
SAVE might not go like they think it will
Passport in Regional Concentration: High ownership is concentrated in coastal or "blue" states, while lower rates are found in "red" states.
Lowest Ownership [passport] In states like Mississippi (20.6%), West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, less than one-third of residents have a valid passport.
Urban-Rural Divide: Residents in big cities (62%) and urban suburbs (64%) are far more likely to own a passport compared to rural areas.
Here's what the GOP offers (and it's not policy related):
Feelings of domination wrapped in cruelty, hypocrisy, and spectacle
For a lot of Americans of different stripes, feeling dominant and superior is much more meaningful than tangible things they can use. Trump didn't invent it, but he supercharged it and brought different groups into the fold. Plenty of voters just liked the aura: the opportunity to get straight talk from a big shot and vicariously live through him.
If there's a breaking point for them, it's viscerally feeling the pain and wrath of authoritarianism. The reason why Trump lost his gains with certain groups is that they were likely the first to feel the burning end of the cigarette of MAGA.
Yep.
Why isn't anyone making the point that you can't get a driver's license without citizenship documents? Particularly in Texas, I had to provide a birth certificate and/or a passport or I couldn't get the "real ID" stamp.
And yet, Real ID is not valid, in and of itself, per the SAVE America act. It is only good for flying.
Even in the "old" days, to get a DL, you had to have a social security card, which requires a birth certificate.
Well, it depends on which dogs you're talking about. The MAGA "dogs" seem to eat everything their cult leader feeds them - even (in the polling of MAGA) the Iran war which everyone outside thought they'd be opposed to. But when Trump got elected he never pretended to represent or care about the whole dog pack and focused on the words, people and policies MAGA wanted, speaking and acting only in terms of revenge and increasingly stark cruelty. Until now he's had a Supreme Court and Congress that he selected and helped get elected, so why would he or they change and why would any Republican change since he's the only game for them and is actively trying to change the rules to keep it that way. The Republicans can't change their policies since they are part and parcel of the policies that need changing. If we have free and open elections they'll be thrown out, not changed. If the rules of the game can be further changed to favor them and their leader, or if they throw out the rules altogether then they won't have to change.
The voters will still vote for him in droves. Apparently they need more consequences.
Question: How would the SAVE Act work? Would poll workers be liable for reviewing and verifying the integrity of the documents at polling stations?
My understanding is that it would impose voter REGISTRATION requirements in order to obtain the verifying docs presented at the polling place. Passport or birth certificate. Good luck with that for approximately 37 million voting Americans (the estimates keep growing).
so a total redo/rebuild of existing registration process. For example in california To register online you will need:
Your California driver license or California identification card number,
The last four digits of your social security number and
Your date of birth.
if this is not good enough - and you need more - does this mean that everyone needs to re-register?
(from Ca.Gov - In general, you do not need to re-register because you are registered to vote for as long as you remain at the same address. However, there are cases in which voter registration can be cancelled if a voter has not voted in several consecutive general elections.)
I believe that’s correct. One would need to show up with one or more of these documents at their Secretary of State’s office. It’s also worth noting that women without passports who changer their name after marrying would have an especially difficult time, since that wouldn’t be the name on the birth certificate.
yup. i agree. Well this is a dumb idea. Feels like Rs may actually be more impacted than Ds?
Just about everything I've read and heard on the subject indicates that Democrats will be vastly more affected than Republicans.
It is worth noting that Trump has asked the Supreme Court to rule that merely possessing a U.S. birth certificate does not make one a citizen of the U.S.
Don't see much about the Epstein files in the news lately. Tail wags the dog... ?
It's the old question of what drives MAGA. A nagging recollection of 1/6 when 140+ Repub House members refused to certify Mr. Biden's 2020 election AFTER the attempted coup has really held true since then, and for the hardest part of the MAGA base. Perhaps they've completely abandoned the premise of elections. And as Trump appears fearless as he encourages increasing scads of citizens to abhor his presidency, it may not really matter to him anymore, because it's no longer the point of his "activities."
Love this piece for its candid look at the current state of GOP dysphoria and a look at the historic circumstances that sent them down this path. It's succinctly written and concise with its arguments.
The Republicans and trump have one guiding principle: private splendor (for the trump/Epstein class) and public squalor (for all the rest of us). Why that is so difficult for working class voters to grasp is one of the great mysteries of our time.
All they care about is that the president should be a white male, get rid of affirmative action and put white conservative Christian men on top. Even conservative women want that.
They can't become a minority soon enough.
They can't disappear soon enough.
Propaganda. And I guess the word I am looking for is stagecraft.
Republicans are still better at doing it......and if VOTER ID goes for the stringent requirements they are proposing, people who don't normally vote won't bother trying to gather the required documents, and far too many urban people who do normally vote will not be motivated to take the effort particularly for the mid-terms……
I would add three letters to your list: F.O.X.
For a party that once touted itself as “the adult in the room”; one that was willing to look reality in the eye and make the tough call they really do seem incapable of seeing that their ideas are unpopular.
Their belief they were the adult in the room is part of the problem as it gave them a sense of superiority and that their ideas whether popular or not were right because they were said adults while those on the other side were not. For politics to work, it has to be a negotiation between equal partners who iron out the differences without always getting what you want. The dynamic where one party sees themselves as the adult while the other is not, always leaves the temptation for the adult to take the reigns.
100% agree. I think the crucial negotiating part and the time it takes to do it is what frustrates them. They and their base want to impose their will and right this minute. That’s not the way this works nor is it the way it was designed.