# The Republican Party is the Party of Evil **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 4, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187 "2021-03-04T17:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 148
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2942 "2024-09-19T13:59:14Z")
I have only read the yahoo article I linked and have not seen it read other descriptions so this is a bit of an assumption. My understanding is she was brought in as an expert witness because of her role in Muslim advocacy and efforts against bigotry. She had answered numerous questions up to that point, and things had been professional. Her initial response was in line with the type of responses she had been giving without issue. Kennedy wanted to grandstand. Notice his first question was about her status in the Democratic Party. Only after establishing she was one of _them_ did he proceed to the terrorist stuff. Her role as an aid worker for Palestinian people means she deals with UNRWA, the UN agency for providing aid to the Palestinians. Despite transparency over who works for UNRWA and other safeguards, there was evidence some aid workers assisted the Oct 7 attacks. They were fired, but that has fueled rumors that UNRWA is entangled with Hamas. Those are the “facts” that set the stage for Kennedy’s assertions. What is crucial to note, and _nobody seems to have mentioned yet_, is that his real target was not Ms. Berry. She was just the mechanism and the pathway. His real target was to discredit the Democratic Party as collaborators with the Oct. 7 attacks. So to summarize, Kennedy used bigoted assumptions and assertions to connect Hamas and the Oct. 7 attacks to the Democratic Party. THAT was his goal and was likely successful for his constituents, the MAGA loons. ---
**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:** [September 19, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2943 "2024-09-19T21:00:09Z")
Kennedy clearly had a script to follow, and he was going to follow that script no matter what she said. In his script she equivocated about her support for Hamas and it wasn’t his fault she didn’t say her lines right. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2944 "2024-09-20T16:21:13Z")
Also, Kennedy is a known, out of the closet, racist and asshole. That’s gotta count for something. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2945 "2024-09-23T13:56:21Z")
The Montana absentee ballot apparently doesn’t have Kamala Harris as a choice for president. > [@](#): > > When Max Himsl opened his electronic ballot on Friday, he was dismayed to see a candidate missing from the list of options. > > Voting absentee electronically while living abroad, Himsl saw that under the options for president, only Republican Donald Trump and Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were listed. Missing was Democrat Kamala Harris. > > (snip) > > “This is very concerning to me,” said Himsl, who reported the issue to the Flathead County Election Department on Friday morning. Soon after he received an email notifying him that the Montana Secretary of State’s office was aware of and working to correct the error. > **[Should We Be Worried About This?](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/22/2272209/-Should-We-Be-Worried-About-This?utm_campaign=trending)** > > Uh... Daily Inter Lake When Max Himsl opened his electronic ballot on Friday, he was dismayed to see a candidate missing from the list of options. Voting absentee electronically while living abroad, Himsl saw that under the options for president,... ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2946 "2024-09-23T14:09:22Z")
Odds that it’s a legit error? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2947 "2024-09-23T14:15:02Z")
Dunno, but missing the name of one of the two major party’s candidate for President of the US seems like the kind of thing that ought definitely to be caught in inspecting the electronic ballot before it got sent out. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2948 "2024-09-23T15:01:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Soon after he received an email notifying him that the Montana Secretary of State’s office was aware of and working to correct the error. Did they leave the website open so people could vote while they where correcting this ‘error’? Any ballots that where received during that error should be nulled out and those folks allowed to vote again. A BIG notice should go on that website explaining the screw up. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2949 "2024-09-23T15:13:14Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Did they leave the website open so people could vote while they where correcting this ‘error’? > > Any ballots that where received during that error should be nulled out and those folks allowed to vote again. A BIG notice should go on that website explaining the screw up. I have no idea. The site I linked to is all I’ve seen about this. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2950 "2024-09-23T15:17:21Z")
Here’s more on it: > **[Montana Online Voting System Taken Down After Kamala Harris Left Off Absentee...](https://balleralert.com/profiles/blogs/montana-online-voting-system-taken-down-after-kamala-harris-left-off-absentee-ballots/)** > > Montana’s electronic absentee voting system hit a snag just as overseas voters were gearing up to cast their ballots in the upcoming federal election. According to Daily Inter Lake, the issue came to light when Max Himsl, a Montana resident living in... > **[Voting chaos as state is forced to shut down electronic polling system](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13879707/Voting-chaos-state-forced-shut-electronic-polling-major-candidate-left-off.html)** > > One state took its electronic absentee voting system offline shortly after it went live when prospective voters discovered one candidate wasn't on the ballot. > **[Ballot error shuts down Montana online absentee voting system](https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2024/sep/20/ballot-error-shuts-down-montana-online-absentee-voting-system/)** > > When Max Himsl opened his electronic ballot on Friday, he was dismayed to see a candidate missing from the list of options. > **[Ballot error shuts down Montana online absentee voting system](https://www.aol.com/ballot-error-shuts-down-montana-021700946.html)** > > When Max Himsl opened his electronic ballot on Friday, he was dismayed to see a candidate missing from the list of options. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2951 "2024-09-23T15:50:36Z")
Yet another case of Republicans saying "Well, _that_ car doesn’t run!'… while pouring sugar in the gas tank. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2952 "2024-09-23T15:52:57Z")
My question was wasn’t meant to be directed at you. But thanks for that research. At least the system was taken down. I could completely see them throwing up their hands, and saying “There’s nothing we can do about it” ---
**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:** [September 23, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2953 "2024-09-23T17:22:48Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I could completely see them throwing up their hands, and saying “There’s nothing we can do about it” And, if challenged in court by Dems, the SCOTUS rejecting it 6-3 because there’s nothing in the Constitution that says states must list all candidates for office on their ballots. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2024, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2954 "2024-09-23T20:00:52Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Odds that it’s a legit error? I’d say close to 100%. Trump is going to win Montana easily even without shenanigans (he’s +15% in recent polling), and altering the ballot in such a ham handed way was guaranteed to get noticed and investigated. So its a high risk with minimal reward. My guess is that everyone thought that someone else was going to check it and nobody did. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2955 "2024-09-23T20:56:16Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I’d say close to 100%. Trump is going to win Montana easily even without shenanigans Yeah. Either Trump idiots that wanted to make sure it was a slam dunk “har,har,har”. Regular idiots or both. This is like “Opps, we programmed in imperial units instead of metric.” Well maybe not quite _that_ bad. ---
**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:** [September 24, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2956 "2024-09-24T17:08:06Z")
This could go in any number of threads, but I felt it was worth sharing. Poker game. Six men, two of whom are public school teachers. We’re not talking politics, but one of the teachers makes a joke about how stressful it is to be gender-transitioning students every single day. We all laugh at the reference to Trump’s idiotic claim. Then, one of the non-teachers says, “But I did hear that one school in [posh western Chicago suburb] had so many kids identifying as cats that they had to put litter boxes in the classrooms.” He wasn’t being ironic or facetious – he actually thought it was true. The rest of us quickly set him straight. When I mentioned this incident to my wife, she said, “Oh yeah, my hair stylist told me the same thing.” And she (my wife) also thought it was true! GOP politicians still occasionally trot out this bullshit, despite its widespread debunking. So here’s a wholehearted FUCK YOU to the party that invented and continues to peddle this story because they know it’s just believable enough to convince people that “Woke” is out of control and their own schools will soon have litter boxes if the Democrat party isn’t stopped. ---
**Author:** ![BlueOhio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@BlueOhio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueOhio)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2957 "2024-09-25T12:14:29Z")
I don’t know, this could trying the trick out somewhere where it really won’t matter prior to trying it somewhere where it might. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2958 "2024-09-25T13:10:09Z")
Sometimes, telling these people the real reason you might find a bin full of kitty litter in a school classroom will make them hush. Other times, you’ll just get a lecture on what happens when we don’t let God into our schools. 🙄 ---
**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:** [September 25, 2024, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2959 "2024-09-25T13:49:57Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Other times, you’ll just get a lecture on what happens when we don’t let God into our schools. 🙄 I always tell such people that it saddens me to see how weak their faith is, that they think God can be “taken out” of anywhere and that belief in Him can only be instilled by coercion. How little they must think of the God they worship! And what poor ambassadors for Jesus these angry, insecure autocrats are… ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2024, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2960 "2024-09-25T14:53:30Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > “But I did hear that one school in [posh western Chicago suburb] had so many kids identifying as cats that they had to put litter boxes in the classrooms.” I have a colleague who earlier this summer insisted that a friend they knew with kids in a local school told them that the school was providing litter boxes. They could not be convinced that they were wrong, or that their friend lied to them. They left it at “I’ll ask them if they’re willing to come forward and give you the info firsthand, but I won’t tell you any more details so I don’t break expectations of privacy.” People are idiots in general. We lie. We get invested in obvious falsehoods and can’t let go. We tend to believe and repeat things that give us power or social capital or attention. The Republican party is overwhelmingly made up of people who intentionally take advantage of this aspect of human nature, and those who have succumbed to this aspect of their own nature. ---
**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:** [September 25, 2024, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/2961 "2024-09-25T14:58:24Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > > [@Akaj](#): > > > > “But I did hear that one school in [posh western Chicago suburb] had so many kids identifying as cats that they had to put litter boxes in the classrooms.” > > I have a colleague who earlier this summer insisted that a friend they knew with kids in a local school told them that the school was providing litter boxes. It’s a classic urban legend. People hear the story, believe it’s true, and then (consciously or unconsciously) boost its credibility by making it about friends or relatives to whom it’s actually happening. Decades ago these urban legends were about cacti full of tarantulas, but the GOP has succeeded in weaponizing them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187.md?page=147) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187.md?page=149)