The Republicans
While one could name some Republicans (both dead and alive) more responsible than others, it is the party as a whole that is responsible for Donald J Trump, the gutting of democracy, … the tearing down of America. This all goes back to its southern strategy — when it sold its soul — and, includes all the consequences of Powell’s Memo; those two things most directly responsible for a congressional majority who can’t even if they were of a mind to (of which they aren’t) govern. It was sons and daughters of the confederacy in collaboration with the interests of wealth — neither of which ever cared for democracy. America’s original “My way or The Highways” in concert.
Major media would have us believe that partisanship is to blame — that the democrats are somehow equally at fault. That’s market forces talking in a P. T. Barnum world. This mess is solely owned by the Republican Party.
Following both impeachments, the responsibility was theirs and they demurred — left it to the Democrats to clean up. Now they stand by as an already deeply flawed, now demented, old man wreaks havoc both here and abroad; do so when their only hope of redemption is to remove him from office. Rather than do the right thing, once again, they will leave it to the Democrats to clean up their mess. This time, cleanup means first undoing some of the great harm done and saving and the nation from collapse, then rebuilding it. Given the harm done, a herculean and then some task! It began with their collective ‘my way or tear the house down’ and ended with their cheering on a demented, deranged old bull in a china shop doing just that until even they began to get scared. Now, when act to save the nation they must, still and yet, as always, they wait. As always, they are quick to destroy and inerts when it comes to doing the right thing.
Spot on.
I voted for GOPers in the past. I approved of Nelson Rockefller and others.
Never again will I vote for a GOPer.
Ken:
On target for laying the blame on which party owns it. There is more to this than political parties letting an idiot destroy the nation.I have said this repeatedly.
An approximate 3 million people did not vote in 2024 as compared to 2020. I have my thoughts on this issue. It is not to be said out loud at this moment. Think about it though. Three million more turned out for Joe Biden than for Kamala Harris.
Flip it around now. Hillary Clinton in 2016 received more of the popular vote than Trump by almost three million votes. Hillary lost the electoral vote. Turnout was less than 60% in 2016. The same holds true for 2024.
Biden crushed Trump by 7 million votes and won over sixty percent of the vote. It is pretty obvious what people are thinking. It is obvious what trump is doing. It is not so obvious as to why people prefer Trump over Clinton and Harris.
I voted Democrat. People do not like what Democrats tell them even if it is the true and real. They will believe a liar, a fraud, a bigot, and a misogynist. Why is that as each time they py the the price.
Voting numbers come from Dave Leips Atlas …
Much restoration of the nation has to be done in a post-Republican Party time. The Republicans are the blame as DJT is merely a tool they’ve been using to make all their anti-Democratic dreams come true. As for Trump, impeach him and exile him to an apartment in Moscow. No more Mr. Nice guy Democrats.
@Terry,
“As for Trump, impeach him and exile him to an apartment in Moscow.”
LOL! Trump was impeached twice in his first term and is still living in Florida. Wanna know why? Because impeachment doesn’t mean shit. Impeachment is merely an indictment. For Trump to be removed from office, there needs to be a trial in the Senate *and* a 2/3 vote to convict. Na gon happen.
If Democrats get control of the House, they can impeach Trump hundreds of times. Won’t make any difference. If they gain control of the Senate, it still won’t make any difference unless they get 2/3 of the Senate. Which will happen co-terminus with porcine aviation.
The founding fathers assumed that Congress would restrain a totalitarian president. They were wrong.
Terry:
There is much that has been reversed in the last year. Putting things back in place will take years and probably not occur under the next president and congress.
It is popular among Democrats to believe that turnout for Hillary and Harris was so pathetic because they were women, but I believe that their turnout was so pathetic because they were not Liz Warren.
Also, Nixon’s Southern Strategy was the latest perversion of democracy embraced by the Republican Party but it does not explain all those Republican Party perversions that occurred between the end of Reconstruction and FDR.
RC:
I will answer you and others when I am home. Traveling today.
Hardly pathetic. Just so we have all the facts here, we need to maintain perspective and remind the public how close the 2024 race really was. To win the 270, Harris only lost by 231,646 votes — WI by 29,417 votes; MI by 80,618; and PA by 121,611. There is very little reporting on this fact, and a lot of misleading reporting about “Trump’s big win” and how damaged and out of touch the Democratic Party is. With only about a hundred days to campaign and spread her message to the masses, and attempt to establish her own identity in the shadow of Biden she simply needed a little more work in WI, MI, & PA & less in other battlegrounds & she would have won.
Right you are J.P., George Clooney needs to stay to in his own lane.
Ken, you are so right that Republicans en masse are the responsible party for the complete chaos of the American government. This great experiment of government, with its brilliantly designed checks and balances, was prepared to handle the misguided course of Donald Trump, but it was not prepared for the total collapse of one party in the two arms of Congress to completely abrogate their oath of office and Constitutional duties. But, it’s not like we weren’t warned.
In his 1796, Farewell Address, George Washington warned us of, “the baneful effects of the spirit of party,” rooted in “the strongest passions of the human mind.” The foresight of his vision of the future of the country was extraordinary. The warnings and his understanding of the potential pitfalls of the new, developing country. It is a good time for all of us to reread this prophetic document. Washington’s Farewell Address 1796
Speaking of those that would threaten the Union, Washington said, “They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community…”
He warned, “they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People, and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government.”
“This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. . . The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.
“The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. . .
the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”
Unfortunately, as an unwise public we have failed in our efforts to “discourage and restrain it.”
Eric:
You do not GET TO DECiDE WHO is on topic.