# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2020, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140 "2020-06-22T07:01:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 33
**Author:** ![MN\_Maenad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@MN\_Maenad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MN_Maenad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/645 "2020-08-23T21:42:18Z")
57% of Republicans think that the number of deaths due to COVID in the U.S. is [acceptable](https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/08/23/trump-biden-live-updates/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_election-luf%3Aprime-time%2Fpromo#link-SOQVO2IPWBFVDECKUCXNAN65QE). Link is to a short WaPo article that I think is paywalled, but that sentence is pretty much it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/646 "2020-08-23T21:44:51Z")
Yeah, well, they think children in cages, separated from their parents is acceptable, too. So there’s that. IOW, doesn’t surprise me in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/647 "2020-08-24T18:13:08Z")
Well, the Republican party has now taken the step from a political party to a cult of personality. They decided against adopting an actual platform to run on, and instead just swear fealty to Trump. The slow trickling loss of any kind of principles by the Republican party is quickly becoming a flood. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/648 "2020-08-24T18:46:49Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > Well, the Republican party has now taken the step from a political party to a cult of personality. “Now”? The party did that when the chickenshits failed to convict back in February. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/649 "2020-08-24T19:10:39Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > Well, the Republican party has now taken the step from a political party to a cult of personality. They decided against adopting an actual platform to run on, and instead just swear fealty to Trump. The slow trickling loss of any kind of principles by the Republican party is quickly becoming a flood. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than their previous idea, which was to just completely recycle the platform from 2016, including all the statements about how the “current president” is responsible for how messed up the government is. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/650 "2020-08-24T20:06:29Z")
Candace Owens is being mocked on Twitter because she hasn’t been asked to speak at the Republican Convention, after all the water carrying she’s been doing for Individual 1. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/651 "2020-08-24T20:09:09Z")
Is Lindsay Graham speaking at the convention? The other Senator from South Carolina, you know, the one with darker skin, is going to speak. You would think a loyal soldier in a very close election battle would be front and center making speeches. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/652 "2020-08-25T01:31:38Z")
So Trump got renominated today and there’s no platform to discuss, so the Republicans can all go home now, right? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/653 "2020-08-25T01:40:14Z")
No, no, they have virus they need to spread around. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/654 "2020-08-25T02:48:42Z")
I am a bad person, because suddenly I am finding myself looking forward to the middle of September with the hope that there’ll be a huge spike in infections. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/655 "2020-08-25T08:37:36Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Candace Owens is being mocked on Twitter because she hasn’t been asked to speak at the Republican Convention, after all the water carrying she’s been doing for Individual 1. She’s now claiming that she would have totally “crushed” Obama’s speech. Ah, what might have been… ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/656 "2020-08-25T09:34:07Z")
Well to be fair there are precedence. For example I could totally kick Mike Tyson’s ass. It’s just lucky for him I never got the chance. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/657 "2020-08-25T11:41:06Z")
You didn’t? I [punched out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch-Out!!_(NES)) Tyson repeatedly in the late 80’s-early 90’s. He just kept coming back for more… ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/658 "2020-08-25T18:13:31Z")
Last night, Kimberly Guilfoyle said her mother was an immigrant, because she came from Puerto Rico. As AOC pointed out this morning, Puerto Ricans are citizens, not immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/659 "2020-08-25T18:36:04Z")
> **[Opinion | The Senate Is on Vacation While Americans Starve (Published 2020)](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/opinion/coronavirus-federal-reserve.html)** > > As many as thirty million households didn’t have enough food in the last week. Only the Fed has acted forcefully. **By Janet Yellen and Jared Bernstein** **Ms. Yellen is a former chair of the Federal Reserve. Mr. Bernstein is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.** > … Now, so-called real-time data show consumer spending slowing [overall](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/business/economy/coronavirus-economic-recovery.html) and deteriorating conditions for low-income households, who have become more anxious about how they will pay for their [rent](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/19/finance-202-economists-talking-up-k-shaped-recovery-stocks-surge-inequality-widens/) and their food. In a recent survey, 12 percent of American adults, or 30 million, reported that their household sometimes or often didn’t have enough food in the past week. (For Black and Latino households, the share was about 21 percent.) > > These numbers reflect the confluence of at least three forces: acceleration of the spread of the virus; expiration of the supplemental federal unemployment benefits; and the ending of various eviction moratoriums. **All three developments disproportionately affect low-income people and persons of color.** And aside from the grave ethical questions raised by ending crucial safeguards for the vulnerable, such actions endanger the economy as a whole. > … > My bold. But that’s a feature not a bug, right Unca Mitch? ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/660 "2020-08-25T20:07:23Z")
It is becoming nearly impossible to avoid concluding that the central strategy of the Republican Party is to push an agenda that will result in the most deaths. Some outlier commentators use the term “Death Cult” - I am beginning to believe them. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/661 "2020-08-25T20:36:18Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > It is becoming nearly impossible to avoid concluding that the central strategy of the Republican Party is to push an agenda that will result in the most deaths.- Apropos of that, see number 6 below. > **[The Platform the GOP Is Too Scared to Publish](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/new-gop-platform-authoritarianism/615640/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%2BTheAtlantic%2B%28The%2BAtlantic%2B-%2BMaster%2BFeed%29)** > > What the Republican Party actually stands for, in 13 points This is a very long article from The Atlantic that I have reduced to bullet points (with a fair amount of content/nuance lost). > …Once you read the list, I think you’ll agree that these are authentic ideas with meaningful policy consequences, and that they are broadly shared. The question is not why Republicans lack a coherent platform; it’s why they’re so reluctant to publish the one on which they’re running. > > 1. The most important mechanism of economic policy—not the only tool, but the most important—is adjusting the burden of taxation on society’s richest citizens. … > > 2. The coronavirus is a much-overhyped problem. It’s not that dangerous and will soon burn itself out. … > > 3. Climate change is a much-overhyped problem. It’s probably not happening. If it is happening, it’s not worth worrying about. … > > 4. China has become an economic and geopolitical adversary of the United States. … > > 5. The trade and alliance structures built after World War II are outdated. America still needs partners, of course, especially Israel and maybe Russia. But the days of NATO and the World Trade Organization are over. . … > > 6. Health care is a purchase like any other. Individuals should make their own best deals in the insurance market with minimal government supervision. Those who pay more should get more. Those who cannot pay must rely on Medicaid, accept charity, or go without. > > 7. Voting is a privilege. States should have wide latitude to regulate that privilege in such a way as to minimize voting fraud, which is rife among Black Americans and new immigrant communities. … > > 8. Anti-Black racism has ceased to be an important problem in American life. … > > 9. The courts should move gradually and carefully toward eliminating the mistake made in 1965, when women’s sexual privacy was elevated into a constitutional right. > > 10. The post-Watergate ethics reforms overreached. We should welcome the trend toward unrestricted and secret campaign donations. … > > 11. Trump’s border wall is the right policy to slow illegal immigration… The most important Republican priority in any such deal is to delay as long as possible full citizenship, voting rights, and health-care benefits for people who entered the country illegally. > > 12. The country is gripped by a surge of crime and lawlessness as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and its criticism of police. … > > 13. Civility and respect are cherished ideals. But in the face of the overwhelming and unfair onslaught against President Donald Trump by the media and the “deep state,” his occasional excesses on Twitter and at his rallies should be understood as pardonable reactions to much more severe misconduct by others. > > So there’s the platform. Why not publish it? > … > > The more complicated answer is that the platform I’ve just described, like so much of the Trump-Republican program, commands support among only a minority of the American people. …This is a platform for a party that talks to itself, not to the rest of the country. > … ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/662 "2020-08-26T00:27:45Z")
Republican National Convention speaker says it’s only reasonable that her brown son be racially profiled when her white skinned sons would not, > **[RNC speaker claims police would be right to racially profile her black son](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/rnc-racism-abby-johnson-anti-abortion-racial-profiling-republican-convention-a9688431.html)** > > Ms Johnson is a prominent anti-abortion activist ---
**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:** [August 26, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/663 "2020-08-26T00:33:19Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > This is a very long article from The Atlantic that I have reduced to bullet points (with a fair amount of content/nuance lost). It would be great if you could cross post this in the [What is the Republican Party Platform this Election](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-platform-this-election/919002/13) thread ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/664 "2020-08-26T00:38:59Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > It would be great if you could cross post this in the [What is the Republican Party Platform this Election](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-platform-this-election/919002/13) thread- Ok. I didn’t see that thread. On this new board, I don’t feel like I keep up with new threads like I did on the old board. Not sure exactly why. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=32) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=34)