I was thinking about this last night. I’ve lost a few friends down the rathole, but thankfully no one really close to me. I can’t imagine how bad it would be to have a parent or a spouse lose their minds like this. Is it even possible to deprogram them?
Basically the main thing the Dems should have done with the news of the McCarthy call was to keep it in play, keep it in the news, as long as possible
My thought is that if they’d spent yesterday and today doing a kabuki wrangling among themselves over whether or not to call Rep. Herrera Beutler as a witness, then ‘decided’ tomorrow morning to not call her after all and go straight to closing arguments, that would have been win-win.
The McCarthy call would have been in the news all weekend, and any of the (overrated IMHO) problems of calling her as a witness would not come up, because there would be no witnesses.
But they got buffaloed into making a decision before they could even think things through.
Maybe, but the first step would be to remove them from what is programming them.
Anytime I stop by my parent’s house, Fox is on.
What news? Not Fox News.
I just watched (audio-only) this video on YouTube.
Though I think the social psychologist, Karen Douglas PhD grasped a little bit for solutions, I found her assessment of the psychology of those who believe in conspiracy theories to be cogent and helpful.
It may be little better than a systematic cataloging of what many of us already know, but … for me … it gives me a place to go – a deeper understanding of what may underpin some of the stuff that makes this CT shit so compelling to people I love.
My challenge will be in approaching them with empathy and understanding without coming across as even the slightest bit patronizing or condescending.
But I do think it gives me a place from which to start.
Hopefully, it does for you and/or others, too.
True, but even though it can seem otherwise at times depending on who you know, most people don’t watch Fox News.
Trump supporters do. Or they have given up Fox for even further polarized outlets.
Everyone around here in Trumplandia does.
And for those Republicans who do not watch Fox News, they don’t watch CNN or MSNBC. If they watch news at all, it is their local news, which is like as not owned by Sinclair Broadcasting.
Republicans are very unlikely to see anything that bursts their bubble. If they did, then they already would have defected from the party.
I will say this: Sen Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who represents arguably one of the Trumpiest of states in the nation, deserves legitimate praise. He wasn’t doing a head fake when he indicated he might consider a conviction vote; he was for real. I won’t say he’s MLK brave, but he clearly cares about more than just his political career.
I agree, some begrudging credit. I’m sure it was easier for Cassidy because he was just re-elected and won’t have to face voters again for six years. The only one of the seven who faces any near term political consequences is Lisa Murkowski, who’s up in 2022. But Alaska just moved to a new jungle primary that means she can’t be knocked off in a Republican primary (again).
It’s true that Cassidy won’t have to face voters again for a few years yet, but considering how congress critters constantly feel pressure to raise funds, it’s a risk. He’s also facing swift and severe backlash back home. He could switch parties and run as a conservative democrat; Louisiana’s one of the few states where a real blue dog democrat can compete and win elections. Maybe that’s his plan B if things get too rough.
^ All this, plus the very real danger that Trump’s mob will be gunning for him. Literally.
My major association with Cassidy before this was his interactions with Jimmy Kimmel.* But I have to agree that for a Republican, on this vote and in his public remarks, he’s shown some actual courage and integrity.
*over 2017 health-care votes; Cassidy had made a promise to Kimmel, after Kimmel had disclosed issues with his infant son’s health. Then Cassidy had voted against the coverage the baby needed:
I confess I laughed out loud at this picture of Trump’s pathetically incompetent impeachment lawyers fist-bumping each other as if their arguments had anything at all to do with his acquittal.
His cult members will do anything for him, so he will get nominated… and lose.
No one caved. Why call witnesses when the result is pre-ordained?
We got stuff to do- pass a health plan, immigration reform, tax reform, etc.
What, how people think about the GOP Senators who voted for acquittal is pre-ordained?
I don’t think so.
You’re thinking of this like it was a football game, where the outcome of what happens between the white lines is the entire result, and what the people in the stands or watching on TV think about it doesn’t really matter.
IOW, you’re thinking about this the wrong way.
And they won’t start doing any of that for another week. Everyone’s on recess until then. You’d have a point if that wasn’t the case. But it is, and you don’t have a point.
the senators were there, they were witness, they ran for their lives; and yet they could vote the guy guilty who sent the insurrectionist to attack them. it doesn’t matter who was called as a witness or how many, they were there and didn’t say guilty.
Imagine being in a jury impaneled to convict someone who plotted a bank robbery, letting him go, then being in the very bank when he tries to rob it, then being AGAIN in a jury where you’re judging his guilt in robbing the bank… and you still let him go.
The GOP, everybody!
The article hit close to home for me as well. My mother is retired, doesn’t have any activities outside the house, and spends an inordinate amount of time online. She refers to Biden as a “kiddie diddler,” believes he stole the election, refers to Kamala Harris as a “whore,” believes the COVID vaccine will harm a lot of people, and thinks COVID isn’t any more dangerous than the flu and all our precautions are a deliberate overreaction on the part of the government to make us communist/socialist.
My mother wasn’t always like this. I still visit her every week but we don’t generally talk about politics and I avoid any heavy topics because I don’t really trust her input. It’s not that we always agreed on the issues in the past but we could at least agree on reality. I miss the mother I grew up with and wish I could have her back.
Trump’s defense team doesn’t have to worry about getting stiffed like everybody else- they probably paid him. The publicity those guys got is every ambulance chaser’s masturbatory dream.
Damn. That is so sad to read… I’m sorry.