What makes you think we don’t understand “some group” or “some party”?
There really are idiots, fascists, neo-Nazis, dupes, religious fundamentalist who want to be the Christian equivalent of the Taliban, racists, bigots, and all manner of intolerant people out there. It’s not a matter of a lack of understanding - I understand quite well. They’re people opposed to everything I value in civilization. I do understand them, that’s why I despise and in some cases fear them.
“Understanding” does not automatically bring agreement or a liking for the other party. Sometimes quite the opposite.
So do please stop with the attempt at gaslighting.
Your comments certainly imply you don’t associate with many Republicans. They run the gamut, just like those on the left. The Republicans I know are perfectly rational human beings who support that party for a variety of reasons. Many of them aren’t big fans of Trump but despise what the Democrats are doing to America. Others ARE big Trump fans for what he’s done or said, or for speaking up on behalf of a segment of America that the media and elites ignore or despise. Others are forced in the binary system that we operate to choose the lesser of two evils, and they deem the Republicans to be that.
Rather than call them “dumb motherfuckers”, one might be better served trying to understand why so many people are willing to vote for Donald Trump. If you think the 74 million who did are “idiots, fascists, neo-Nazis, dupes, religious fundamentalist who want to be the Christian equivalent of the Taliban, racists, bigots, and all manner of intolerant people,” and that the Republican politicians are “nothing more than Nazis in the Reichstag,” then perhaps you’re not open to hearing what they have to say (it also suggests you need to better study both the Taliban and Nazis before you throw around those comparisons).
I think they’re understood perfectly well. We just need to outnumber and outlast them. There’s no reasoning or meeting of the minds with people supportive of such an objectively depraved person.
Can you give me any examples of Republicans who even know what Democrats are doing to America? The ones who claim that fall neatly under the “idiots” label, because the things they’re constantly complaining about aren’t reality.
Agreed. But far fewer than the media would have you believe and certainly not 74 million people (which is how many votes Trump rec’d in 2020) or the even larger number that call themselves Republicans.
BOTH sides magnify the threat posed by the other side, because it motivates their base and keeps them from being interested in what the other side has to say.
Again, I agree…but if you make no attempt to understand and get to know them, then it’s easy to portray them as “idiots, fascists, neo-Nazis, dupes, religious fundamentalist who want to be the Christian equivalent of the Taliban, racists, bigots, and all manner of intolerant people” instead of human beings just like you and me, perhaps with different concerns or priorities or life experiences, but human beings nonetheless. And as soon as we stop seeing those who disagree with us as human beings, then you can indeed start making parallels to the Nazis and fear that we’re headed toward a future in which the lives of those we disagree with matter less than our own.
Not all Republicans are fascists, neo-Nazis, racists, bigots, and so on. But those who aren’t any of those things are duped by those who are, because they keep voting them in.
And a person can be brilliant yet make poor decisions at the polls. Being “dumb” isn’t all-encompassing.
Any Republican with a shred of intellectual honesty and integrity and respect for the constitution is voting D and has been for a couple cycles now.
The ones who somehow think trump or the totalitarian “freedom caucus” represent anything good or American are utterly propaganda besotted or stupid, evil, or both. They will live to rue the disaster they’re so desperately wanting to pull down on all our heads.
I do not doubt their sincerity. But sincerity in favor of a bad cause is still bad.
Your initial question encouraged me to think you might be open to an answer. Your second statement suggests you aren’t.
We could touch upon a variety of policies on the subjects of immigration, affirmative action, abortion, etc. the Democrats support that perfectly rational intelligent people might disagree with (just as there are perfectly rational intelligent people who support them). Just because someone disagrees doesn’t mean they’re an idiot. Hell, many of the policies or viewpoints espoused by Democrats just a few years ago are not supported by the current Democrat mindset, yet that doesn’t automatically mean they were idiots then (or now).
I’d like to agree with this statement, but my personal experiences say differently. The majority of my GOP acquaintances are decent, hard-working, and honest. But they continue to vote Republican because, well, they always vote Republican. They voted for Trump because ‘both sides’ or some such BS.
I’ve tried to be sypmpathetic to Trump supporters for the last eight years, but they’re making it very, very difficult. That they continue to support a man who normal mode of doing business invovles a great deal of fraud, is a rapist, who is currently arguing in court that he can’t be convicted if he sends Seal Team 6 to murder his political rivals says volumns about their character. Supporting Trump is a character flaw.
But Trump doesn’t trust any of these people. He never has. His circle has never extended beyond his own family. Trump doesn’t have proteges. He has lackeys who say stupid things on his behalf until they quit or he fires them. This is virtually everyone. So all of these people, how exactly do their actions match up with Trump’s methods?
I worry though what sort of damage can Miller and Bannon do in however long it takes Donald to decide they need to inspect the undercoating of the bus.
Or if you don’t want to name any, I will. I’m an educator. I hear folks talking a lot about education. One thing that’s a very common complaint from Republicans is the Common Core federal standards, which are so different and foreign from the way that they were taught back in the Good Old Days. There’s just a couple of problems with that: First of all, there’s no such thing as the Common Core federal standards. And second, the things that they complain about being so different are exactly the same things that they were taught as children. Their complaints, simply put, do not correspond to reality at all.
I wonder if we could dig in here a little. You talk not about people who disagree with Democrat policies, but you said
“Many of them aren’t big fans of Trump but despise what the Democrats are doing to America.”
Bolding mine. I wonder if you could give specific examples of specific policies that people despise, rather than generalities like “Immigration” or “abortion”.
I suspect what your friends despise are not policies of the Democrats, but rather the straw-man “policies” that they have been TOLD are held by Democrats.
The 30,000 feet view would be this: Republicans believe immigrants should have to follow the rules/laws and apply for permission to enter the country. I think this is a perfectly reasonable perspective. Democrats feel people in need and seeking to improve their lives should be allowed the opportunity to do so. Also a perfectly reasonable perspective. Thus, an example where perfectly rational intelligent people can have differing viewpoints.
An example of a specific “policy” Democrats implemented:
On President Biden’s first day in office, he voided a series of “safe third country” agreements the Trump Administration had brokered with several Central American countries requiring migrants to apply for asylum in their home country or the first country they pass through. This, and other such changes have contributed to the flood of illegal immigrants we’re experiencing that is posing such a crisis. A perfectly rational and intelligent person could disagree with BIden’s decision.