# Republicans today are a danger to the US and the world **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 18, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848 "2018-08-18T21:42:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/81 "2018-08-21T00:27:02Z")
Not if they learned what to eat and how to eat it by any other method than trial and error. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/82 "2018-08-21T00:45:26Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > I think the danger to the US is to say that every person who belongs to a given political party is morally bankrupt. The people being labeled as morally bankrupt are not being tarred because of some inborn characteristic or some other generalized group label. They’re being called morally bankrupt for helping keep in power a morally bankrupt regime. There is no acceptable reason for casting a vote for any Republican in any race today. It’s the people who make that choice, commit that act, who are justifiably being judged. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/83 "2018-08-21T01:06:08Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There is no acceptable reason for casting a vote for any Republican in any race today. It’s the people who make that choice, commit that act, who are justifiably being judged. Okay, I just imagined a situation in which the Repbulican’s opponent is even more Republican than the Republican. That would be a borderline case. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/84 "2018-08-21T02:17:21Z")
This didn’t quite belong in MPSIMS from the beginning and it’s only gone downhill. Too ranty for GD I think so off to the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/85 "2018-08-21T15:25:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There is no acceptable reason for casting a vote for any Republican in any race today. It’s the people who make that choice, commit that act, who are justifiably being judged. We’ve got quite a dilemma in Illinois, where the Democrat-dominated state government has led the state to the brink of insolvency. Republicans running in my district are socially moderate. In a vacuum, I could vote that way in hopes of nudging the state back toward more manageable finances. But in today’s climate, I simply can’t. Any vote for any Republican at any level is a vote that supports Trump and the spineless GOP in Washington. I used to be non-partisan, but I honestly don’t think I’ll ever vote for any Republican ever again. I also can’t not vote. So I just have to hold my nose, vote blue, and hope Illinois’ Democrats can get their heads out of their asses. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/86 "2018-08-21T15:59:55Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > No. It’s just making a decision that you are going to be independent, create your own job, not rely on other people and isolate yourself from chaos. Being self-reliant is how this country was built. Creating your own job in an environment created for you by our ancestors hard work and sacrifice, living in a community that is protected from harm, domestic and foreign, having regulations that protect your air, your food, and your water, having transportation infrastructure, and services to monitor and protect that infrastructure, having access to a healthy, educated population to serve as your workforce, as well as economic stability that allows you to have customers to afford your goods or services, is the modern conservative’s definition of “self-reliance”. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It was built on slavery and genocide by people who were parasites, not “self reliant” > > And _nobody is_ self reliant unless they live in the forest eating whatever they catch with their bare hands. Until someone bigger comes along and takes that food out of their hands. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/87 "2018-08-21T16:13:30Z")
I wouldn’t say that 100% of the Republican party is evil. On the voter level, there is certainly the “deplorable” faction whose support of Donald Trump is rooted primarily in their hatred of the “other”, or their own greed. But I suspect that most of them are decent people who have been lied to throughout their whole lives to the point that their identity is tied in with preserving those lies. At the level of elected official however, with a few possible exceptions (Gohmert for example) most of them have the intellectual capacity to see through the lies. But here again we mostly divide into two categories. Those who truly are evil, and doing all they can to subvert Democracy, and hold onto power whatever the cost (for example McConnel, Nunes, and anyone directly involved in the Trump administration), but I think that most of the rest are simply cowards. They don’t necessarily like what Trump is doing or how the party has changed, but they are unwilling to sacrifice their careers making a stand that will just see them replaced by someone who more closely resembles Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/88 "2018-08-21T17:07:00Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > On the voter level, there is certainly the “deplorable” faction whose support of Donald Trump is rooted primarily in their hatred of the “other”, or their own greed. But I suspect that most of them are decent people who have been lied to throughout their whole lives to the point that their identity is tied in with preserving those lies. Anyone who votes Republican this November has had 3+ years to see what Trump is all about – not just the racism, misogyny and bullying, but the staggering disregard for facts, common sense and acting on behalf on the nation’s well-being (as opposed to his fragile ego). They may actually applaud these shortcomings as strong personality traits, or they may be willing to overlook them because the GOP agenda aligns with elements of their own. But either way, they are knowingly voting for a party that has enabled and supported the vilest human being to ever set foot in the Oval Office, let alone sleep in Lincoln’s bedroom. Decent people do not knowingly empower scumbags. QED, Republican voters are not decent people. ---
**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 21, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/89 "2018-08-21T17:08:49Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I was a Republican up until the 2000 election. It is possible to leave. At this point, given the Republican party’s continued support of Trump and the evil he does, I don’t see how any moral person can stay in the party. That doesn’t mean becoming a Democrat or even voting for Democrats. > More than one well known Republican has left, and good for them. The only thing I like about this administration is that it may finally be waking up some Republicans to just how large, and just how troubling, their voting base really is. Reasonable Republicans, Corporate Republicans, fiscally responsible Republicans and all the moderate Republicans should now be aware of just who they’ve been counting on for so long. By the hard light of day, these Republicans now realize the hot chick they took home from the bar for the last 20+ years is actually a 450 pound smelly, hateful gorilla. This isn’t new, the Republican base is the same now as it was for Bush or Bush Sr., or Reagan. It’s just now a little bit of light is being shown in the darkness of the heart of Republican base voters. The little white lie that more reasonable Republicans told themselves for years, that the majority of their party are somewhat rational and maybe even socially moderate, has been exposed. When a President like Trump has an 88% approval rating from Repubicans, you can’t lie to yourself anymore about what the Republican Party is really all about. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/90 "2018-08-21T17:10:35Z")
**Nomad** , I don’t think we’ve heard your views on _Truth isn’t Truth War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength_ Disregard this if Ignorance and Self-delusion are key parts of your philosophy. > [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > Yeah, it’s terrible that these people have … pushed the dollar up too. It’s rather irrelevant but since you brought it up … I think you might want to check your facts there, **Nomad**. It was under Obama that the dollar rose, especially in 2014. The dollar has actually fallen somewhat under Trump, against the Euro, and even against the Brexiting Pound. No big deal. _ **But you’re assumption that the dollar is up is metaphoric of the willful ignorance that now dominates Republican “thought.”** _ Pay more attention to Hannity’s financial news, or whoever your mentor is. Weakening the dollar is part of the plan to Make America Great Again — we’ll repay the dollars we’ve borrowed from China at a fraction of their original worth. Keep up with the program! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/91 "2018-08-21T18:02:10Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > The Modern Conservative movement is a danger because their world view that a small powerful wealthy elite, a tiny middle class service industry and a huge amount of poor labor who just barely survive is the most stable best way the world should run is objectively bad for most people… I don’t think that is a schemed master plan. I believe that it is the outcome of voters wanting to keep all their money, resenting some of it being given to the more poor, even if it injures those people who have less. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/92 "2018-08-21T18:05:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > …Also I used to wonder how in the south, a white man could commit a horrific crime against a black person and a jury would refuse to convict. The inspiration of the song “Strange Fruit” was the hanging of Thomas Shipp and Abraham Smith\* in Indiana.\* ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/93 "2018-08-22T05:07:47Z")
Republican filth everywhere today got a taste of what’s coming. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/94 "2018-08-22T20:58:51Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I don’t think that is a schemed master plan. I believe that it is the outcome of voters wanting to keep all their money, resenting some of it being given to the more poor, even if it injures those people who have less. To conservative thinkers in the late 60s who were horrified by the turmoil in the country around them, it was deemed a fat and prosperous middle class led to chaos and a pseudo feudalism would be much more stable. All of their economic polices from then on were aimed at making this a reality. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/95 "2018-08-23T01:30:05Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > To conservative thinkers in the late 60s who were horrified by the turmoil in the country around them, it was deemed a fat and prosperous middle class led to chaos and a pseudo feudalism would be much more stable. All of their economic polices from then on were aimed at making this a reality. I find that difficult to believe. I don’t believe anyone is that evil. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/96 "2018-08-23T05:18:00Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I find that difficult to believe. I don’t believe anyone is that evil. You may not wish to believe it but the thrust of Barry Goldwater’s 1960 manifesto, _The Conscience of a Conservative_, was an attack upon and desire to eliminate the things that allowed the rise of a middle class; public education and post-secondary education financing, progressive taxation, basic labor and occupational safety regulations, the return of civil and voting rights protections to the purview of states, et cetera, with the underlying notion that only the privileged few (i.e. like-minded conservatives) should make decisions for the country, and that expansion of the franchise was the undoing of politics. This wasn’t just about a few money-grubbing business leaders wanting to not pay higher taxes; it was the philosophy that conservatives had to “take back” the country and return it to a 19th Century socioeconomic state with only a small mercantile middle class. This was coincident with the “Southern Strategy” to appeal to traditional Democratic southern white voters (“Dixiecrats”) on the basis of racial prejudice and a romantic view of antebellum social “values”. At the time, such thinking was so radical that most pundits believed it could never become a major political movement, but after the oil crisis, stagflation, and the embassassing failure in Vietnam the movement came to the forefront with Ronald Reagan—our first “celebrity president”—as its public leader. And while it’s proponents have since tried to couch it in “family values”, “compassionate conservatism”, and “Mak[ing] America Great [Again]”, it is really about disenfranchising as many people in the middle class as possible and reducing social and economic mobility, hence the desire to try to create low paying and poor mobility jobs in coal country rather than establish programs to support and retrain workers in more advanced occupations with greater opportunities. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/97 "2018-08-24T03:31:08Z")
That is harsh ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/98 "2018-08-24T05:44:59Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I find that difficult to believe. I don’t believe anyone is that evil. Those are the _moderate_ right wingers. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/99 "2018-08-24T12:36:17Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > …Being self-reliant is how this country was built. But you know, with slaves. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848/100 "2018-08-24T12:50:31Z")
… and a _lot_ of government money and support. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-today-are-a-danger-to-the-us-and-the-world/819848.md?page=6)