Honest to God, I have no idea what your point is. I understand you think I’m wrong but I can’t tell if you think I’m too far to the left or too far to the right.
So I’ll be happy to respond but I need to know what it is I’m responding to. A little context?
But the quote you posted said “fanatical centrists”. Is that you? Are you adamant and dogmatic about straddling the yellow line?
Does the whole thread have to go to the Pit? The rest of it has been (and is) fairly GD/Elections/debate-worthy, up to board standards. Maybe could have just given that particular post a warning but let the rest of the thread carry on in Elections?
…Against a political party? 
Because the topic is pretty much hate speech. Imagine if the title had been, ‘What makes a "good Jew’?"
“Republican” is not an ethnicity. Well, supposedly not, anyway.
Imagine if you were capable of evading antisemitism or racism simply by no longer supporting a morally and intellectually bankrupt political party. The comparison made here is miles more offensive and shitty than any invective thrown at republicans here.
You can be a good person, or a good Republican; not both. If there’s any good people in the Republican party left they are bad Republicans because being a bad person is the point.
There is a special standard that is applied to the Republicans; serious criticism of them is treated as persecution, and has been for decades. Somebody can outright rant and rave agaisnt another political party and that’s fine; but condemning the Republican party is treated as something worse than defending Jim Crow or slavery. Calling for the extermination of the Democrats won’t get you the flack that simply saying “the Republicans are wrong and should lose” will.
They are the special people, the privileged ones we are all supposed to submit to.
Thank you. Isn’t that just two slightly different brands of Democrats rather than principled opposition to the present unified Democratic Party, though?
In many ways, “principled opposition” in this case means something quite disturbing. What’s the “principled opposition” to trans rights?
I was puzzled as well. My thought process was, what is it about Reagan that he is now thought of as a “good Republican”? This is a guy who kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, MS to give a dog whistle to white supremacists that he was one of them. A guy who often spoke of welfare queens driving Cadillacs. Who invaded fucking Grenada of all places. Who passed irresponsible tax cuts that exploded the national debt. Who sold arms to the fucking ayatollah of all people. A guy who got elected by undermining Carter’s hostage negotiations with Iran, taking a page out of Tricky Dick’s playbook who did the same with LBJ and peace talks with North Vietnam. Why is this guy a good Republican? Beats the crap out of me, in my opinion the only thing that makes him better is that he can no longer damage the country.
Yeah it’s pretty clearly because he’s dead. Still, hate speech against a political party? What?!
Goebbels would be proud of you.
Seriously? This is what you are reduced to?
Good Republican? I don’t mind if someone has a different way of looking at government because sometimes you can learn from other viewpoints, but a “Good Republican” should be able to draw a line in the sand when it comes to ethics and/or morals. If winning means ignoring what your party does, you aren’t a good Republican. If your first and/or only reaction when someone of your Party does something wrong is to try to find examples of others doing the same thing(or close to the same thing, or in the general vicinity of the same thing, or on the same planet of the same thing) then you aren’t a good Republican. If what you say in public doesn’t match what you say to your colleagues, you aren’t a good Republican. If what you say in public doesn’t match how you actually vote, then you aren’t a good Republican. If you only vote against your Party when it is assured that there are already enough votes to carry(or kill) a measure-the “safe” protest vote-then you aren’t a good Republican.
And if someone ever starts a “What makes a Good Democrat” thread, I’ll post the same thing, only with the word “Democrat” substituted for the word “Republican”.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten the films the Nazis produced to answer this very question.
Right, today’s Republicans are EXACTLY THE SAME as persecuted Jews during WWII.
There is something wrong with you. Seek help.
I don’t think so. Kruger said “the hallmark of fanatical centrism is the determination to see America’s left and right as equally extreme”.
As a practical matter, that’s certainly not the case with me. I’m on record as opposing the idea that the Democrats and the Republicans are equally bad. I think that the Republicans are clearly far worse and equating the two parties is giving the Republicans credit they don’t deserve.
But at a more theoretical level, I’m not sure this would hold up. The reason I think the Republicans are worse is because they’ve been taken over by their extreme fringe. The conservatives dominate the Republican Party. Moderates still run the Democratic Party and their extreme fringe is marginalized.
So I’m not sure whether the right wing fringe is inherently worse than the left wing fringe or they just seem worse because the right wing fringe has power and can act out in ways the left wing fringe can’t. If the situation was equalized and the left wing had the same power as the right wing has, I think it’s likely they would be just as bad.
How about we imagine the topic was “What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?” instead. Would that make this a safe enough space for you?
No, Goebbels would be sacred of us. It was the Democrats who kicked his ass in WWII.
It’s Republicans who say things like there are “some very fine people” among the Nazis.