Without voter suppression, the Republican Party couldn't exist

[Cyrano]

It wasn't always thus. But today's Republican Party has evolved into a horror that thrives on endless hypocrisy and boundless evil. Perhaps twenty to thirty percent of Americans are taken in by them. And these are people who can't grasp the reality that they're voting for people whose ideology is to fuck them, while transferring all wealth to the haves.

In any educated society, Republicans would be recognized as the sociopaths they are and would be ostracized. This is why they keep taking money from education.

The reality is that they are all Donald Trump. Most of them are just less obvious about it.

[The Magistrate]

1. Quite True, Sir

"When conservatives find their views cannot prevail at the polls, they will not alter their views. They will reject Democracy."

[dalton99a]

2. Republicans can only win by cheating and lying.

FACT

[Walleye]

3. They know it, too. They don't even try to hide it anymore

[dalton99a]

4. Yep. Their attitude: "What are you gonna do about it?"

[Walleye]

5. I hate bullies. And so does Joe Biden.

[RKP5637]

6. Today's GOP is clearly the party of scuzz, corruption and sociopaths, just to name a few.

It's disgusting. Way back you could work with republicans and achieve some solutions. Today, the GOP is really a bunch of demented assholes for the most part.

[Cyrano]

7. And they are a fatal danger to all of us

Imagine what America will become if Trump manages to steal the presidency, and the Republicans win or steal the senate. It's not a country in which any sane, normal person would want to dwell for a moment.

[RKP5637]

13. It will be clearly a shit hole, a dystopia. n/t

[Caliman73]

8. Conservatism is a bad ideology.

I have seen threads supporting the Lincoln Project (which I see as a temporary ally in getting rid of Trump) and saying that those people should be the "loyal opposition&quot once Trumpism is gone.

My concern is as you stated, "today's Republican party" is completely given in to conservatism. The Democratic Party used to have conservatism in its ranks, much more so than today. We still have some but very little. The Southern Democrats or "Dixiecrats" were the conservative part of the Democratic Party who wanted to preserve a hierarchical structure in Southern states.

Conservatism is about preserving a power structure (Whites in charge) that is rooted within the lineage of Royalism, but with capitalists being the new aristocracy and monarchy. When you believe that there is some kind of "natural hierarchy" and that people need to submit to the hierarchy, sooner or later, you end up with a demagogue who wants to be a king/dictator.

[Grins]

10. Good points..

... and reflected in books about conservatism by Prof. Cory Robin.

[Cyrano]

12. Conservatism sucks. And Trump isn't a conservative.

This is a creature that lives for his own gratification. An organized society is meaningless to this kind of brute. In the wild, he would be a beast that would eat its own kind, and would eventually be destroyed by the very nature of his own existence.

"Modern Day" Conservatism on the other hand, is a selfish, unprincipled ideology founded by William F. Buckley. He was a man with an incredible vocabulary, no morality, and totally blind to the fact that his ideas would inevitably lead to totalitarianism. Most were distracted by his expansive use of the English language and failed to see the idiocy of his beliefs.

[Caliman73]

16. Trump's ideas align with conservatism despite him being a mix.

When people say that Trump is not a conservative, or a "true conservative" I say this. Why was it so easy for Trump to win the nomination of the Republican Party? Why did he not run as a Democrat? He was registered as a Democrat for many years and ran in those circles up until President Obama was elected. Trump's sociopathy not withstanding, his values align much more with conservatism than with progressive values.

Also, while Buckley was a defender of conservatism, the ideas go back WAY further than him in the 1960's. Edmund Burke in the 1740's is widely regarded as the father of conservative thought, although ideas preceded him in Richard Hooker mid 1500's. Conservatives were Royalists and believed that "selected people" should be in charge of lesser people. That is the foundation of conservatism from Burke to de Maistre, to Andrew Johnson, to Buckley to today's extremists.

[Cyrano]

17. We really need to get together over

some good brandy and have a discussion into the early hours of the morning, Caliman73. But then I guess I'm being an "elitist" in thinking that this is not the right environment for this type of conversation.

And my apologies to DUers who think I'm dissing them. I'm not. There are many incredibly smart people here. But c'mon, really, do you think that a historical/philosophical exchange would last long in any online thread?

[Grins]

9. Don't forget racism!

They would be dead without that, too.

[Gothmog]

11. The GOP is the party of voter suppression and have been engaged in this conduct for a long time

The GOP is the party of voter suppression. Former CH Rehnquist got his start in GOP politics as a meber of a GOP goon squad in Arizona that challenged non white voters for daring to vote. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Rehnquist-on-Voting-Fairness-Chief-Justice-2690688.php

In 1962, Rehnquist was the leader of Operation Eagle Eye, a crew of Republican lawyers who roamed precincts in south Phoenix challenging the qualifications of minority voters. Rehnquist's role in the actual interrogation of blacks and Latinos waiting to vote is murky. At Senate hearings on his nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 and to the chief's spot in 1986, Rehnquist denied "challenging the qualifications of any voters."

But several witnesses -- including San Francisco lawyer James Brosnahan -- told a different story.

Brosnahan testified at the 1986 hearings that in 1962, when he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Phoenix, he received complaints that GOP operatives were stalling voters at a heavily Democratic precinct by accusing minorities of being unable to read. Some states had long used literacy tests to prevent minorities from voting, but federal law banned the practice in 1964.

The asshole who formed ALEC and founded the Heritage Foundation was clear on this

The GOP has to cheat to win elections

[DFW]

15. There was a joke going aound DC 1964 when they were trying to ban the literacy tests

At a polling place somewhere in the south on election day, two voters were in line to vote. A white guy came up, and was told he needed to pass a literacy test. They gave him a newspaper headline and asked if he could read it. He said sure, and was asked to tell them what it said. "Rain expected tomorrow," he said, and was allowed to vote.

Next came a black guy, and he was shown a Chinese newspaper, and asked if he could read the headline. He said, "sure." Astounded, the poll workers asked, "you can read THAT?" He replied, "I sure can." They asked him, "what does it say?" He answered, "It says, here is one black dude that won't be allowed to vote this year."

[DFW]

14. Oh, it could exist alright

It's just the entire party membership would be able to hold their national conventions in a canoe.