A lot of norms have been broken. The problem is not that they will “never” believe in stuff that is real or act on it again. The problem is that on the way to next seaosn or next cycle, the incentives for righties are only to jam the system, screw dems, and benefit from chaos.
Ron Johnson for instance is dead set on chaos → Fear among a base - > suckers vote for Ron Johnson. He will not support democracy anymore. It’s a losing game for him.
I agree with all this; we have enough evidence to support it (particularly with respect to Johnson, and for many other Republicans).
One possibly-mitigating factor here is that major corporations do NOT necessarily believe that a disease-riddled hell-scape is great for their business. And those major corporations will be leery of promoting the ‘chaos is great for us’ GOP strategy with donations.
Even some of the very wealthy will balk at supporting the ‘ever-more-virulent pandemics’ plan—at least those of them with IQs sufficient to tell them that walled compounds may not protect them from COVID-Theta-variant, may decide not to support GOP obstructionism to public health measures.
I hope you’re right. I did hear that all those companies that stopped donating to pols who voted against democracy started up again on the sly.
I wonder about rich folks and what kind of world they expect to find livable or enjoyable, or most importantly sociable, after we don’t have free elections.
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No, ignoring authority was not the problem. The problem was people who blindly followed an authority figure and ignoring all the evidence around them that their leader was sending them to their deaths.
Sure, conservatives want their followers to be scared. Keeping them scared makes it easy to control them.
But most conservatives don’t want their followers to be dead. Dead followers are useless; they can’t vote for you, they can’t march in your rallies, and they can’t send you money. Sure, a few martyrs are fine; the movement can use a Horst Wessel or two. But most conservatives conservatives are smart enough to realize they’re better off keeping their followers alive.
Here’s my plan
First, the CDC has to come up with a vaccine campaign that features a really racist mascot - a monkey holding a Confederate flag, or something. Maybe call the vaccine the Rebel Yell. The CDC will claim it’s their effort to reach Southerners. Then the Democrats and the liberal media can all get massively offended and demand that the mascot and the vaccine campaign be cancelled.
This will hopefully cause all the conservative covidiots to get vaccinated in order to show support for the racist vaccine mascot.
I think it could work.
Well they are pushing the envelope and I might even say they passed into death wishing. The lies are a death wish on people. We have yet to see what the plan is. Ron Johnson will not be alive for the shit he’s stirring. He has a lot less concern about the lives of others than his RW mission to own and eat as much of the world as he can and virtue signal about it to his cronies. They hate their base.
More votes are better. But the Rs have non democratic goals. If that’s the case then they don’t care who dies.
If they have lost the demographics then they may try to upset the whole table and not act like “good governing partners”
The right wing movement is bigger than any individual. Some conservative politicians may age out and when they do, they’ll stop caring about maintaining the pretense. But there will be some other conservative politicians who are twenty years younger and still at the peak of their careers and some new guys who are just getting started on their career in conservative politics; they’re not going to let the bitter old guys upset the system.
I’ll grant you that the leaders of the right wing movement probably hate their followers. But they hate them because they know they need them. Even if they abolish elections, they’re still going to need troops. There will always be a need for warm bodies.
The whole US political system is all about the older guys making sure no younger guys upset the system. The trump movement is that on steroids. Those bitter old guys are the ones deciding stuff on the right. And there is a huge backlash to go against it. Structurally the older guys will be able to destroy the board rather than give up power. A lot of the old bitter guys are in their 30s and 40s too.
But take a look at Ron Johnson and tell me how he steps off. Who tells him to do it? He has been radicalized and committed himself to the point where he can’t admit anything is wrong in the first place. He will gaslight and hope he dies before the bill comes due. Just like his party.
Look at the absurdity on display now.
They have faith there will always be more cannon fodder. They are trying to get power that is total, so that they don’t to worry about future elections. Total power means no democracy. “No democracy” can be defended by illegal technological means better than by a voter base.
I agree; I don’t think the right is worried about this, since a major part of their program is ‘no reproductive choice for females’. Keep pumping out those babies; propagandize the children to taste; send them into battle.
No probs.
I could swear the Rs are getting ready for a post electoral world, Their plans are shorter term than any you could call “electoral.” More nihilistic. When they do reference population it’s to scare stupid white people about POC.
They know they lost the reproductive contest. If that’s true they will need to envision a government like South Africa going forward. They want to rule over “inferiors.”
The responses I get about our death toll and needing a vaccine are always, “If you believe the numbers…” and “It’s my decision. They can’t force me.” 
Yep. That party is pretty much nothing but a domestic terrorist group now, and they’re barely millimeters away from ruling the way the Taliban does.
I’m sure many on the American right are getting off on the ‘bold action’ and various repressive/murderous incidents being reported as examples of the Taliban’s current success.
Expect a book of glowing praise of their methods by the likes of Ben Shapiro or another of his ilk. (And it will sell!)
The bonus, of course, will be the chance to trash Biden and other Democrats, as part of the general picture involved with promoting Afghanistan’s Taliban.