The Wall Street Journal has done what the plutocratic right routinely does–support reactionaries and fascists thinking they can use them as their tools to maintain their power. And, predictably, they lost control of their monster. Who will suffer? The rest of us.
I would like to join the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s desire to end Republican dysfunction in Congress . . . 'course the fact that only one of us was concerned about this being the state of Republicianism since the Reagan years and the rise of Gingrichism shouldn’t be mentioned.
And I’ll go there: The prime example of that is Hitler, supported by German industrialists and other members of the elite who thought they could use the Austrian upstart to further their power and wealth. We’re just fortunate that Trump is so stupid and incompetent.
…and a lot of passengers.
For the moment. It’s not going to end with Trump.
No kidding. There are a lot of people out there thinking: "THAT’S how easy it is? And there are ZERO consequences? Me next!
I agree that the next authoritarian won’t be as clownish as Trump. And therefore more dangerous.
But maybe, just maybe, Trump’s clownishness has pooped in the pool enough that the current generation of Americans who lived through Trump won’t fall for this crap again any time soon.
30 years from now after enough water has gone under the bridge & Trump’s been dead for 20, the next generation of authoritarians and their hothead know-nothing supporters may well succeed on the by then de-pooped playing field.
In other words, everything Trump touches turns to shit and hurts his followers. Even his attempt at authoritarianism.
The same guys who stole all the wiring and sold it for scrap? lmao
It seems to me this is all a direct result of gerrymandering your districts to the point where you can lose control of them. They’ve made them so powerful they can effectively run autonomously and unchecked. Instead of doing just enough to help nudge an election in their favor, they’ve made them big enough that they can effectively decide an election…and if they decide to pick someone else (like MAGAs) there’s not much you can do to stop it. It’s performing exactly as designed.
It’s like a robot uprising.
Capitalism is controlled by algorithms now, now humans. It’s a spreading, malignant, cancerous Skynet.
Did someone say robot uprising?
Finally it is my time to shine!
Oh wait, you meant it as a bad thing. Never mind.
Hopefully you are correct. But don’t some 30% or so still rabidly support him? A committed 30% can do A LOT of damage.
And there is the added harm of him setting such an extreme example, redefining the playing field. Politicians can adopt quite undesirable positions, which might appeal to many simply because “they aren’t quite as bad as” Trump’s.
Put the killer robots back in their crates please.
Tell the killer robots to stand back and stand by.
Regarding this Santos liar - where was the opposition research? Was this such a solid R district the the Ds didn’t even put up a fight? Now that he has been legally elected, I assume we are stuck with him. I guess the party could pressure him to resign but why would they and would he cave? He has all the qualities necessary to Trump’s running mate. I’d actually like to see that happen.
From wiki, that doesn’t appear to be the case:
Santos defeated Zimmerman in the November 2022 election[22][23] by around eight percentage points,[29] flipping the district (in what observers saw as a “mild upset”) and helping Republicans retake control of the House by a narrow margin.[3]
It really was political malpractice. This was an obviously endangered seat and Santos had already run for another Congressional district in 2020. The excuses I’ve heard are that the New York redistricting fiasco shortened the campaign timelines and the DCCC may have been districted because the chair was on the way to losing his own race. But everything the NYT uncovered was easily discoverable with a few phone calls.
Wait, I’ve got it: Santos is actually Gerald William Cotten, the bitcoin thief who fled to India and then allegedly died of a rare and previously-undiagnosed medical condition!
I wish that were the case, and I think there was a window of opportunity in the aftermath of Jan 6th.
If repubs had demonstrated a backbone then, everyone would accept how silly things got and MAGA would be all but dead now.
But instead, I see the same number of MAGAts everywhere as there was under peak Trump. Many have moved on to DeSantis now, but potato potasshole. They still believe all the same misinformation and worship at the alter of Tucker Carlson et al.
I’m hoping for a few of his (and Hannity’s) followers to unfollow him after getting called out, in court, again, for lying to the public.
I’m not hoping for much since it didn’t change anything last time other than to possibly give him the legal ability to lie now that he’s technically an ‘entertainment’ show that ‘no reasonable person’ would take seriously anyway. But one can hope.
But I’m still expecting a handful of videos that cut back and forth between various talking heads saying one thing on TV and admitting they didn’t believe it while under oath.
It’s not going to change anything either, but all we can really do is keep chipping away at the Fox empire.