# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 4) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 22, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678 "2025-02-22T21:08:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 184
**Author:** ![billy-jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@billy-jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billy-jack)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3661 "2026-03-16T19:28:58Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > If you’ve ever even hinted at a criticism of Trump, you’re officially on the left. The only allegiance that Trump will tolerate is to Trump and nothing else. As long as you worship the ground he walks on, applaud him at every opportunity, and follow his every order, you are useful to him. If you fail at any of those, you are a traitor who he thinks should be executed. While Trump considers himself to be a Conservative, there is nothing Conservative about him. He has never held any Conservative philosophy to guide him. Trump is actually an extreme radical. He wants to tear every great institution down with the belief that he can rebuild them to suit himself. Conservatives want to preserve our great institutions, not destroy them. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3662 "2026-03-16T21:35:28Z")
> [@billy-jack](#): > > Conservatives want to preserve our great institutions, not destroy them. They do? So where are they? ---
**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:** [March 16, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3663 "2026-03-16T21:45:18Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > They do? Absolutely they do! They just define “great” differently than you and I. Such institutions as racism, female subjugation, antisemitism, even folk remedies and superstitions that predate (and fully reject) science. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3664 "2026-03-16T22:00:16Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > If you’ve ever even hinted at a criticism of Trump, you’re officially on the left. Fuck, now I’m officially on the left? ---
**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:** [March 16, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3665 "2026-03-16T22:02:56Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Wait, now I’m officially on the left? You’re a rabid Marxist to the modern GOP. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3666 "2026-03-16T22:13:53Z")
So it’s like the old saying: _if you tell the truth once, they’ll never believe you again, no matter how much you lie?_ ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3667 "2026-03-17T00:47:27Z")
Newt Gingrich said: > [@](#): > > “Instead of fighting over a 21-mile-wide bottleneck forever,” Gingrich wrote, “we cut a new channel through friendly territory.” > > “A dozen thermonuclear detonations and you’ve got a waterway wider than the Panama Canal, deeper than the Suez, and safe from Iranian attacks,” Gingrich wrote. Wait, what? Cut a new waterway? Where exactly? Does he mean right through Abu Dhabi? The United Arab Emirates and Oman? Okay even if somehow we could get the world to agree to that, that’s not exactly “safe” from Iran. So where else? Cut across Kuwait and Iraq, and Syria? Would a dozen nukes do that? Then there’s the brilliance of donating nukes in friendly territory. “OMG, we candle let Iran get nuclear weapons. They would attack our allies. I know, let’s nuke our allies to prevent that from happening.” Egads, the stupid. The idea of using nuclear bombs for constructive purposes was considered and rejected for space travel as being unsafe - and that was dumping all the radioactive materials into space. And he wants to do that “in friendly territory”? Newt Gingrich is a man of ideas. He crafted the no compromise, all or nothing ideology that created the Tea Party, which is the precursor to MAGA. I mean, and I probably shouldn’t say this out loud, if we’re going to use nukes to widen the waterway and make it safe from Iranian attack, it would make more sense to use those nukes on Iran. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3668 "2026-03-17T00:59:12Z")
What kind of world do we live in? One where sentencing someone to 20 years of hard labor for promoting the idea that using multiple nukes on “friendly territory” to create a new waterway would be a great idea is considered to be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3669 "2026-03-17T01:02:01Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Then there’s the brilliance of donating nukes in friendly territory. Um, “detonating”? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3670 "2026-03-17T01:07:02Z")
America isn’t donating anything! We’re going to blast a huge trench through the UAE, and the UAE is going to pay for it! Also, the Strait of Hormuz has been renamed the Strait of Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3671 "2026-03-17T04:47:15Z")
Trump henchman Steve Witkoff carries around a pager that was gifted to him by the Mossad, which is clearly a good idea that has never had any negative consequences for anyone. > **[Not so diplomatic: Witkoff, Kushner, and Trump’s march to war in Iran](https://responsiblestatecraft.org/witkoff-iran-war/)** > > Reports indicate that two of the president’s key advisers offered misleading advice that helped push the US toward conflict > Witkoff is known as a staunch supporter of Israel. He counts pro-Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson as a “dear friend” and carries a custom pager gifted to him by Netanyahu and senior Mossad officials,… ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3672 "2026-03-17T05:07:11Z")
I bet you thought the _Acme Middle East Atom Bomb Construction and Ecological Demolition Company, LLC_ idea could not be topped here. You were wrong, friend. [Wrong, wrong, wrong!](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/republican-senator-blames-biden-strait-000508257.html) > [@](#): > > Sen. **Jon Husted** (R-OH) offered a bold new spin on Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. > > He says former President **Joe Biden** is at least partly to blame. > > Iran effectively closed the strait by firing on ships in the passageway after the U.S. and Israel began bombing the country on Feb. 28. That’s a problem for the global oil supply, as [20%](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/13/iran-war-oil-trump-drilling.html#:~:text=The%20Strait%20of%20Hormuz%20that,drill%2C%20baby%2C%20drill.%22) of the world’s crude oil flows out of it. Oil prices have predictably [surged](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/oil-guru-amazed-trump-turbocharged-043639230.html) after President **Donald Trump’s** aides reportedly [informed him](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/whoops-trump-reportedly-told-aides-034944430.html) that Iran might close the strait if the U.S. attacked. > > In recent days, Trump has [asked U.S. allies](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-pressures-nato-allies-boost-104350262.html) to help open the strait or escort oil tankers through it, but so far he has no takers. Additionally, Iran has bombed oil facilities and several U.S. bases in the region, while Israel has again invaded Lebanon. The Trump administration has offered [different justifications](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/07/trump-rationale-war-iran-story) for the war, and the president himself has given [vague assessments](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-gives-stunning-answer-fox-131351951.html) of when the war may end, or [what the war even is](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fox-doocy-asks-trump-finally-203931668.html). (The formatting is from the original.) > > On Monday, Husted appeared on Fox Business, where he placed the blame at Biden’s feet and another Democratic president, whom Husted did not name, but is presumably former President **Barack Obama**. The senator said previous Democratic presidents failed to ensure that Iran could not close the Strait of Hormuz, which [Iran never did](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-made-preparations-mine-strait-hormuz-us-sources-say-2025-07-01/) until this war began, and so Trump acted to ensure that Iran does not have that ability, which Iran is now demonstrating that it has by closing the strait: > > > [E]ssentially, Joe Biden and his entire team with the Green New Deal helped really put groups like Iran and their ability to finance wars and not stand up to them as they crossed red lines time after time. And now President Trump is having to fix the problems of the past. It was the failures of two Democrat presidents that put us in a position today where Iran had the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. They had the ability to send ballistic missiles into their neighbors, and they had the drones and the capacity to cut off the Strait of Hormuz. And now President Trump is having to remedy those problems. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3673 "2026-03-17T09:08:03Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Trump henchman Steve Witkoff carries around a pager that was gifted to him by the Mossad, which is clearly a good idea that has never had any negative consequences for anyone. Heh. I mean, as gag gifts go, that’s pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3674 "2026-03-17T09:22:44Z")
> [@Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH)](#): > > And now President Trump is having to fix the problems of the past. It was the failures of two Democrat presidents that put us in a position today where Iran had the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. If only we had a real President between Barack Hussein Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden, someone like Donald J Trump, who could have fixed that, if only… ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3675 "2026-03-17T10:05:05Z")
From **Monty’s** link > [@Monty](#): > > In recent days, Trump has [asked U.S. allies](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-pressures-nato-allies-boost-104350262.html) to help open the strait or escort oil tankers through it, but so far he has no takers. Jeez, let’s see. UK, you suck, France, you suck, Canada, you’ll be ours soon, Denmark, you’re losing a territory once it becomes American, Germany, you suck … Why doesn’t anybody want to help us? Fer fuck’s sake, the only answer to this is a great big DUH! ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3676 "2026-03-17T10:42:01Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Jeez, let’s see. UK, you suck, France, you suck, Canada, you’ll be ours soon, Denmark, you’re losing a territory once it becomes American, Germany, you suck … He’s also insulted NATO repeatedly while now needing members to tear up the whole purpose and geographical scope of the organization and risk lives for his war of choice. He’s gotten desparate enough to ask _Jhina!_ ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3677 "2026-03-17T13:09:37Z")
Gingrich appears to have gotten his brilliant idea from [this blog post](https://www.chinatalk.media/p/its-time), apparently overlooking the disclaimer at the bottom: “The views expressed above do not necessarily represent those of anyone with brain cells.” ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3678 "2026-03-17T16:00:29Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Trump henchman Steve Witkoff carries around a pager that was gifted to him by the Mossad, which is clearly a good idea that has never had any negative consequences for anyone. Who even carries a pager anymore??? ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3679 "2026-03-17T16:09:26Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Who even carries a pager anymore??? I am 50 years old, I don’t believe I have ever seen a pager, except on TV Medical Dramas. I do get the reason the Palestinians who met an unfortunate demise fairly recently chose pagers. Probably no longer policy, though. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678/3680 "2026-03-17T19:24:42Z")
Has he had it checked for explosives? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678.md?page=183) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-4/1014678.md?page=185)