# I pit "normal" "good" Republicans for pretending that you're not enabling traitors **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 6, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828 "2021-01-06T20:12:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/81 "2021-01-10T19:07:03Z")
Remember something: their goal isn’t to govern; it’s to strip their opponents of power. It’s to discredit and smear their enemies. Again, I can’t overstate this: the Republican party has **radicalized**. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/82 "2021-01-10T19:17:04Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Remember something: their goal isn’t to govern; it’s to strip their opponents of power. It’s to discredit and smear their enemies. Again, I can’t overstate this: the Republican party has **radicalized**. I will remember that just a bit, since all what you said here was already taken into account. Being radicalized is now not being seen as proper by big business in America. It is not only the tool of the polls that we need to use, we have to constantly remind corporate America that they are not supposed to cuddle fascists that in the end are not their friends as much as they wanted to claim. [![](https://dk-legacy.s3.amazonaws.com/i/user/2722/TMW2011-08-17colorlowres.jpg) ](https://dk-legacy.s3.amazonaws.com/i/user/2722/TMW2011-08-17colorlowres.jpg) Just substitute Tea Party Tim with Trumpsters there. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/83 "2021-01-10T19:28:19Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Just substitute Tea Party Tim with Trumpsters there. In 2010, it was the Tea Party; in 2016, it was Trump. They’re escalating, radicalizing. They will continue to radicalize. That is because elites are not unified as the cartoon suggests; they are fractured and stratified, just like the classes beneath them. What has probably protected us up to this point is what remains of economic policies and institutions of the 20th Century (i.e. the welfare state, regulation, and so forth), as well as the separation of powers, although the separation of powers is now being weaponized as much as it is being used in our defense. If the economy collapses, and if it takes the middle class with it; if it hurts state and municipal governments ability to function and provide economic assistance and if our dollar declines rapidly, then what happened on Wednesday will be child’s play compared to what happens next. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/84 "2021-01-10T19:31:51Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > In 2010, it was the Tea Party; in 2016, it was Trump. They’re escalating, radicalizing. They will continue to radicalize. Latest I heard is that even the Marriott Hotel people have decided to not fund the politicians that supported the coup. So yeah, the bad guys are radicalizing more, but at the same time they are losing key support. So we all have to also do is a reverse boycott in favor of industries (I will have to join Twitter too now) that are doing the right thing now. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/85 "2021-01-10T19:52:21Z")
All well and good – I hope more follow. I’m especially encouraged by the actions of major tech companies. But we have major ecological problems heading into the future, and what I suspect is that Joe Biden is in a position where he has no choice but to succeed. He _must_ succeed as president, or there will be serious debate about democracy’s value and place in our society (i.e. whether we really need it at all). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/86 "2021-01-10T20:05:52Z")
I think this sums up nearly every GOP “_mia culpa_” I’ve heard so far: “ **The only thing I hate more than the population of the planet Alderaan, who totally deserved it, is consequences. Consequences and not having a job! I think any galaxy in which I had to face a consequence for my past work on this weapon would be a sad one. That would be divisive and the last thing we need**.“ > **[Opinion | I see no choice but to resign from this Death Star as it begins to...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/09/trump-cabinet-resignations-death-star/?outputType=amp)** > > The only thing I hate more than Alderaan is consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2021, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/87 "2021-01-10T21:29:25Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > It is, now. Um, bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/88 "2021-01-11T03:49:14Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > We’ve been searching for parallels for what happened on Wednesday, and it struck me that in some ways, this is analogous to the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. It was an attempted takeover by violent force that ultimately failed and resulted in multiple arrests. I agree. January 6 was our nation’s Beer Hall Putsch. Memphis and Tulsa and Rosewood and the NYC Draft Riots were our kristallnachts. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/89 "2021-01-11T04:51:48Z")
Not sure where this question belongs, but this may be as good a place as any: Has anybody with their finger on the pulse of conservative Christian voters, [the ones who considered Trump deplorably sinful but an acceptable vessel for the exaltation of their “righteous Christian” standard-bearer, evangelical VP Mike Pence](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/gods-plan-for-mike-pence/546569/), reported on their reactions to the insurrection attempt? I mean, those were their fellow Trump voters in the Capitol (not to mention all over social media) shouting that their adored Pence needed to be hanged, as in, extrajudicially executed for not completely abandoning his constitutional responsibilities. Is this causing any evangelical Republicans to rethink their choice to get into bed with the Trumpists? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/90 "2021-01-11T05:27:45Z")
“God works in mysterious ways. It is not for us mere mortals to question why God favors Dear Trump.” ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/91 "2021-01-11T07:33:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > January 6 was our nation’s Beer Hall Putsch. I’ve seen “Beer Belly Putsch,” but personally I like “Yee Haw Putsch” better. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/92 "2021-01-11T07:54:36Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > “God works in mysterious ways. It is not for us mere mortals to question why God favors Dear Trump.” Why is God the only one who gets to work in mysterious ways (and still keep His job)? ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/93 "2021-01-11T13:07:40Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > shouting that their adored Pence needed to be hanged, as in, extrajudicially executed for not completely abandoning his constitutional responsibilities. I have a conservative FB friend who responded to something I posted about the insurrection by pointing out that all the trouble was caused by paid thugs, who were undoubtedly the same ones chanting to hang Pence. I’m trying to decide if it is worthwhile posting a list of verified Trump supporters who were identified on the front lines, starting with the dead Air Force veteran. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/94 "2021-01-11T13:32:33Z")
It’ll probably just make them more determined to reject whatever you’re arguing. The human brain rarely reacts well to being told ‘You’re wrong,’ rarely agrees the first time even when evidence tells them they’re clearly wrong. And in our ego-driven culture, that’s magnified by a thousand. ---
**Author:** ![FriendlyCurmudgeon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friendlycurmudgeon/32/5786_2.png) [@FriendlyCurmudgeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriendlyCurmudgeon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/95 "2021-01-11T13:43:48Z")
As a non-American looking on, what happened was horrible however let it not be lost how powerful the media is. IMHO the American media on both sides played a large roll with the fueling the flames of divisiveness in your country over the past four years. You have a great country sad to see some of you at each others throats. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/96 "2021-01-11T14:08:56Z")
> [@FriendlyCurmudgeon](#): > > IMHO the American media on both sides played a large roll with the fueling the flames of divisiveness in your country over the past four years. Both sides? How did you get that conclusion? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/97 "2021-01-11T14:25:47Z")
It’s a fact of nature that no matter how out there the Republicans or Fox News gets, the Democrats or MSNBC must, ipso fatso, become equally crazy, forever and ever, amen. I think it’s Neutron’s FORTH Law (stack-based languages are the best, and every rightward move must be met with an equal and opposite leftward move). ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/98 "2021-01-11T14:31:42Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > Both sides? How did you get that conclusion? Well, you see…the right wing media reported lies, half-truths, etc, and inflamed and agitated the easily duped, while the left-wing media reported the truth, which inflamed and agitated the easily duped. See! Both sides! Ben gazzie! Buttery mails! ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/99 "2021-01-11T15:18:46Z")
I imagine quite a few evangelical men started their trek to DC right after they left church on Sunday. > **[A Christian Insurrection](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/evangelicals-catholics-jericho-march-capitol/617591/)** > > Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will. They do not worship the suburban God of peace and love that I am familiar with. Their God is an angry God, longing for vengeance on a world that has fallen to the degradation of liberalism. They must now obey the sacred laws of God, not the corrupt God of men. (This is just my commentary, not an actual quote) I’ve done quite a bit of reading on the very strong and deep long-running alliance between fundamentalist and evangelical religions and conservatism. It’s frightening. They love Trump without reservation. They think he is God’s gift to mankind to save a fallen world. Some of them may balk at publicly supporting civil war, but the idea that they are embarrassed by Trump’s behavior is really off base. His adultery and affairs…I’ve studied religious cults. The behavioral restrictions don’t apply to the leaders, there’s no judgment and everyone recognizes it as the way the world works. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828/100 "2021-01-11T15:23:47Z")
Spot on – they are not embarrassed by his behavior at all; they identify with it. They see themselves as Christian warriors, and Trump is their battering ram that they have used to knock down the walls of the enemy’s castle. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-normal-good-republicans-for-pretending-that-youre-not-enabling-traitors/929828.md?page=6)