# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/81 "2021-03-05T17:18:09Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > > [@D\_Anconia](#): > > > > Friend AOC doesn’t appear to agree… > > Are you capable of arguing in good faith? Not removing context? Not lying by omission? Or, is that simply impossible for you? Why don’t you try and add some fucking value to this board, with reasoned arguments, rather than bullshit partisan drivebys? He’s a Republican. So he’s more likely to be a stupid evil asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/82 "2021-03-05T17:20:30Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > Your attempts at false equivalency continue to fail. I’m certainly a liberal by American standards, and on the first point, I’d say that yes, it can be true if rent control is applied excessively and indiscriminately. But the absence of any rent control at all can be equally bad or worse for the poor, because a large supply of housing doesn’t help them if they can’t afford any of it. As with many complex policies, the devil is in the details. But it doesn’t help if one doesn’t see it as complex at all, and just simply and automatically sides with the landlords and the oligarchy, citing the wonders of “free markets” as a justification. > > This is an example of the problem with “the other side is always wrong”. You chastise conservatives for not understanding the complexity but then attribute their opposition as simpleton “free markets” justification. You do not understand the nuance of conservative opposition and it’s easier to just assume they are stupid and greedy. Bro, the modern conservative movement is defined by being stupid and greedy. It costs less and produces better results to have universal healthcare. But because conservatives are stupid and greedy, they want to spend more to have worse results. ETA: Conservatives aren’t inherently wrong, but they specifically choose to do wrong things, at least recently. Tell me what national policy conservatives are pushing that’s a good idea? ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/83 "2021-03-05T17:32:17Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The difference is that Earth’s roundness is a factually provable claim. Just go out in a spacecraft, fly ten thousand miles and take a gander at Earth - it’s round. Everyone has the same _definition_ of round. Flat Earthers aren’t saying “The Earth is round, but what you call flat, I call round.” Do you think it still makes sense for the Republicans to support Trump when he still insists and **still** pours gasoline in to the fire with his talking point that he won the election? ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/84 "2021-03-05T17:56:57Z")
When the other side embraces conspiracy theories about stolen elections, then there’s no nuance that needs to be understood. I reject the idea that I should be open-minded about all positions; I should be open-minded when someone attempts to argue and explain a position in good faith. I remember when more conservatives at least tried to do that. Being open-minded is a virtue, but not when that virtue is repeatedly assaulted with a tsunami of lies. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/85 "2021-03-05T18:10:43Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I disagree. It’s you who is dogmatic. It’s “my side poops rainbows, the other side is inherently evil”. It’s dangerous. Part of your dogma is to equate opinion and morals with facts. You compared “flat earth” with Republican opinion, which is silly. I can prove (to most people) that the earth isn’t flat. Nobody can prove, for example, that abortion is murder or not. Nobody can prove that rent control helps or hurts poor people (although people have tried). Being against abortion and rent control is not factually wrong or evil but that’s the position that a lot of Dopers take. I can prove anthropomorphic climate change is real. I can prove that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. I can prove that there’s not a child rape room in the basement to Comet Pizza in Washington D.C. When people talk about how the Republican party has lost it’s mind, they’re not talking about rent control. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/86 "2021-03-05T18:12:53Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I can prove (to most people) that the earth isn’t flat. Nobody can prove, for example, that abortion is murder or not. Nobody can prove that rent control helps or hurts poor people (although people have tried). Being against abortion and rent control is not factually wrong or evil but that’s the position that a lot of Dopers take. I don’t necessarily disagree with any of this; I disagree with dishonest arguments about voter fraud in an attempt to try to keep people from voting. If someone wants to claim that the US has a moral responsibility to take down a brutal dictator who potentially destabilizes an economically important region of the world, I can listen to that argument – hell I basically bought into it myself. But Republicans went further, lying about weapons programs and connections to terrorists that were outright falsehoods. If someone is philosophically opposed to single-payer medical insurance, that’s not being unreasonable. Claiming that it will lead to inefficiencies and lower quality care is a fair argument to make – I wish conservatives could be satisfied making those kinds of arguments. Instead they deliberately lie by claiming it will lead to the creation of a bureaucracy that decides who lives and dies. Politicians from both sides frequently over-sell and even outright lie to push their agenda, I agree. The difference is in the degree and the frequency with which Republicans do it. Republicans have given up on winning the war of ideas; they’ve instead used gerrymandering, dark money, lies, procedural warfare, the courts, and legislative power grabs to claim power wherever the Constitution is silent. They are an anti-democracy party. They shouldn’t be listened to; they should be resisted with every fiber of our being. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/87 "2021-03-05T18:43:21Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Republicans have given up on winning the war of ideas; they’ve instead used gerrymandering, dark money, lies, procedural warfare, the courts, and legislative power grabs to claim power wherever the Constitution is silent. They are an anti-democracy party. They shouldn’t be listened to; they should be resisted with every fiber of our being. Exactly. The only question left worth asking is, how can conservatives possibly justify continued support of the Republican Party? You can’t all be Lindsey Graham. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/88 "2021-03-05T19:06:19Z")
> [@Dinoguy](#): > > We were at the Vet’s yesterday and this guy kept ranting about Biden. As we were leaving he told us he’d say “God bless” but Biden wouldn’t let him say it. I think he made it up on the spot, but I got to thinking people who believe lies more than likely already agree with it in the first place. It’s a mind set that’s hard to change. The GOP, though, I keep seeing parallels here with Germany in the thirties like scapegoats: Hitler, the Jews, GOP, Liberals/Dems. **A strong leader who is vindictive but good at oratory: Hitler, Trump. It’s not hard to think of more. Who’s more evil?** All I can do is observe that only one of them killed Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/89 "2021-03-05T19:57:21Z")
The Republican Party. Brought to you by Tax Cheats! [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-groups-quiet-as-billionaire-donor-stands-accused-of-running-biggest-tax-fraud-scheme-ever/ar-BB1ehEog?li=BBnb7Kz](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-groups-quiet-as-billionaire-donor-stands-accused-of-running-biggest-tax-fraud-scheme-ever/ar-BB1ehEog?li=BBnb7Kz) ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/90 "2021-03-05T20:00:51Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > There is only one goal left in the Republican Party and its worshippers: owning the libs. They sided with a virus against their fellow citizens and the rest of humanity on Earth. Their hatred and desire to harm their enemies makes them, by any useful definition of the word, evil. Fucking evil. And don’t go (not you, of course, but the “enlightened centrists”) and say that there are some good ones out there. There aren’t. The good ones left. What remains remains because they are motivated by hatred. I have family, most of my family in fact, that still follows that path, and they are absolutely motivated by hatred. I am surrounded on all sides every day by republicans and trumpists, and they are completely full of hate. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/91 "2021-03-05T20:25:07Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > It’s you who is dogmatic. It’s “my side poops rainbows, the other side is inherently evil”. It’s dangerous. Part of your dogma is to equate opinion and morals with facts. More of your bothsidesism here? Democrats criticize democrats all the time. We do acknowledge flaws and work to alleviate them, as best as can be done with such a loos conglomeration of competing goals. > [@Deeg](#): > > Being against abortion and rent control is not factually wrong or evil but that’s the position that a lot of Dopers take. Those were exactly the examples of the “reasonable” discussions that we no longer have. To then go and say that Democrats or Dopers take the position of being against those is evil is simply wrong on your part. What we now have is questions as to whether COVID is real or not, or if it’s actually just a chinese plot. If global warming is real or not. If the fucking election was stolen or not. These are facts, not opinions. You think you can prove to most people that the Earth isn’t flat? Try it with a flat earther. They will lie and they will equivocate and use every bad faith argument in the book to try to keep from accepting the truth. Same with Republicans and climate change, COVID, or the election. You acknowledge that these are things that are true, that they are factually true, correct? Try to go convince a Republican that they are true. You will have the same experience trying to convince a flat earther that the earth isn’t flat. > [@Deeg](#): > > I also think it’s lazy. It’s easier to decide that one’s political opponents are wrong in everything rather than try to understand the nuance of their positions or learn from where they are coming from. No, what’s lazy is declaring that both sides are the same, it’s easier to just declare both sides just as wrong in everything rather than see that THEY FUCKING AREN’T. I know where they are coming from. They are coming from a place of ignorance and hate. > [@Deeg](#): > > Right now I think the Republicans have the better policy in a few areas Like what? There are some historically conservative positions that I can get behind, but the current Republican party? Fuck no. > [@Deeg](#): > > I find myself more aligned with the Democrats overall. Why bother, when both sides are just the same? > [@Deeg](#): > > I don’t think that makes me immune to reality. That’s not what makes you immune to reality. I don’t know what does, but your post demonstrates that you only have the most passing familiarity with it. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/92 "2021-03-05T20:28:55Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > You chastise conservatives for not understanding the complexity but then attribute their opposition as simpleton “free markets” justification. Yes, indeed, the conservative position _is_ usually simple. It is a simple answer to a complex problem, and it is almost always wrong. The nuance is on the side that recognizes that it’s a complex problem, that realizes that there is not an easy fix, the is willing and determined to not just write legislation to ameliorate problems, but also to come back and update that legislation as events dictate. The nuance is _not_ on the side that calls those actions being inconsistent, flip flopping, talking out of both sides of their mouth, or moving the goal posts. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/93 "2021-03-05T20:32:08Z")
Hatred. That’s why my family supports the Republicans. They _hate_ liberals. There are no good liberals in their book. I’m family, and they openly show their hatred and contempt for me, simply because I believe in reality. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/94 "2021-03-05T20:32:21Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Democrats criticize democrats all the time. We do acknowledge flaws and work to alleviate them, as best as can be done with such a loos conglomeration of competing goals And normally, Democrats do not censure or threaten impeachment when someone disagrees with them. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/95 "2021-03-05T20:47:48Z")
The issue isn’t the policy positions, it’s the arguments. The Republicans aren’t trying to convince their voters that cutting their employers taxes will result in the employers passing along the saving to their employees. That’s the kind of political argument I enjoy engaging in. They’re trying to convince their voters that their Democratic voting neighbors are going to burn down their houses, drag them into the street and beat them up and steal all their stuff while Joe Biden cheers them on. Maybe if you didn’t live in a swing state you didn’t see the campaign ads I did, but every Republican campaign ad I saw featured photos of violent protesters burning buildings (photos that, incidentally, turned out not to be of this summer’s protests but violent protests in other countries), with dialogue about how if this candidate wasn’t elected, these people were coming for you and there would be no police to help. It’s a dangerous tactic that carries a risk of putting me, personally, in danger of physical harm. And people believe it. My nephew’s employer had him carrying a firearm in his truck, convinced he was in danger from “Antifa” because the truck was painted with an American flag design. I would’ve thought this risk would be obvious to you by now, but apparently not, or maybe you’re comfortable ignoring it because you think it doesn’t affect you? What would make you get it? If someone actually kidnaps and murders AOC or Gretchen Whitmer, will you get it then? If a Trump mob “proactively”burns a minority neighborhood and kills all the residents, would you get it then? I though January 6th would be enough, but for some reason you’re still nattering on about tax policy and abortion rights like it’s twenty years ago. Now, I don’t think individual Republicans are all evil. Some of them are just brainwashed. The best way to understand the modern Republican Party is to recognize that it’s a cult and apply those paradigms. Not every cult follower is evil (although the leaders are), some of them are just gullible and brainwashed. And some of them are just perfectly normal people that are immersed. This happens when a cult is large, cohesive and generational. For example, there were\* people in the FLDS cult that believed that their leader, Warren Jeffs, was President of the United States. These people were not mentally ill, they just lived in a world where that was taught in their schools and homes, and they had no access to any contradictory information. This kind of immersion in false information is dangerous, and it seems to be the primary goal of the Republican Party. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/96 "2021-03-05T20:49:33Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > It’s “my side poops rainbows, the other side is inherently evil”. It’s dangerous. Republicans do indeed poop rainbows. Well, not entire rainbows. Just the green region of the spectrum. [https://images.theweek.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/7\_wexler.png](https://images.theweek.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/7_wexler.png) From this collection of editorial cartoons about Trump’s showing at CPAQ: [https://www.theweek.com/video/969819/7-scathingly-funny-cartoons-about-trumps-cpac-appearance](https://www.theweek.com/video/969819/7-scathingly-funny-cartoons-about-trumps-cpac-appearance) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/97 "2021-03-05T21:03:02Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I can prove anthropomorphic climate change is real. “Anthropogenic”. Useless pointless nitpick, except I’m trying to support your excellent points about Democrats holding themselves to higher standards than Republicans concerning factual truth and accuracy. Also the notion of anthropomorphic climate change gave me a good chuckle. Maybe we’d make more progress with Republican climate-science denialists if we anthropomorphized the phenomena? “Auntie Jetstream is getting more wobbly in doing her laps because the warmer air is making her weaker!” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/98 "2021-03-05T21:08:00Z")
Goddammit. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2021, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/99 "2021-03-05T21:09:55Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > They’re trying to convince their voters that their Democratic voting neighbors are going to burn down their houses, drag them into the street and beat them up and steal all their stuff while Joe Biden cheers them on. And make them get gay married. Don’t forget. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > If a Trump mob “proactively”burns a minority neighborhood and kills all the residents, would you get it then? It’s not like such things haven’t happened. > **[Tulsa race massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre)** > > The Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event is considered one of the worst incidents of racial v More than 800 pe... And they still don’t get it. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Now, I don’t think individual Republicans are all evil. Some of them are just brainwashed. But they are brainwashed to be evil. They may no longer have agency, but they still wish harm upon others. They still carry out evil acts. And they made the choice to become brainwashed, as it was easier to give up agency than to exercise it. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187/100 "2021-03-05T23:34:43Z")
Sure, lots of brainwashing, but also curious to be a fly on the wall WRT the frequency and type (with deets, man!) of death threats that Republicans, like Pence, have been getting. Also wonder to what degree that factors into their demented fealty. We’ll never know the answer to that, but even if that is a factor, still - fuck’em. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-republican-party-is-the-party-of-evil/937187.md?page=6)