The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party

[brooklynite]

by Dana Milbank

A scathing history of twenty-five years of Republican attempts to hold on to political power by any means necessary, by a hugely popular Washington Post political columnist

In 1994, more than 300 Republicans under the command of obstructionist and rabble-rouser Congressman Newt Gingrich stood outside the U.S. Capitol to sign the Contract with America and put bipartisanship on notice. Twenty-five years later, on January 6, 2021, a bloodthirsty mob incited by President Trump invaded the Capitol.

Dana Milbank sees a clear line from the Contract with America to the coup attempt. In the quarter century in between, Americans have witnessed the crackup of the party of Lincoln and Reagan, to its current iteration as a haven for white supremacists, political violence, conspiracy theories and authoritarianism.

Following the questionable careers of party heavyweights Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Mitch McConnell, and Rudy Giuliani, and those of many lesser known lowlights, Millbank recounts the shocking lengths the Republican Party has gone to to maintain its grip on the American people.

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. "Contract On America" would have been more truthful.

Newt and Livingstone in the Senate wanted to kill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky....but both had mistresses while they were going after Bill. They lost and Bill Clinton left office with 64% of public opinion on his side.

[teach1st]

2. All good stories deserve a link. Here's a no-paywall link:

https://wapo.st/3zHHDqq

[Music Man]

3. Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

So many of our problems can be traced to Reagan, but many people forget about what Gingrich has meant to our modern politics.

In the early '90s, he HAMMERED Democrats. Buzzphrases endlessly repeated. He is why "liberal" is such a dirty word now, and why in certain (mostly rural) parts of the country, it's poison to have a D by your name, no matter your stances, experience, or character.

Not to mention the incessant hunting of the Clintons, which bogged down and tarnished an otherwise triumphant presidency.

Fuck Newt Gingrich.

[Hestia]

12. Hellz to the Yeah - the GPQ owes Newt the Fuck Gingrich for paving the way in showing egregious

media behavior - nothing is too low. The first wave of the minions with microphones ate it all up, just like now. I also know that it was beginning of this current crop of voters don't vote.

Remember the massive success of Rock the Vote? Again, like now, pre-GQP'ers were going to make us/US pay for that thinking, so they came after everyone and I mean everyone for that "burp" on the radar and why they went balls to the wall over * getting anointed after the 2000 election.

The same nasty, filthy roads lead back to the same nasty, filthy people and we have the media to thank for all of it. The same nasty, filthy people are still on media talk shows/new shows and are getting paid for it.

It's why I started watching BBC World News instead of US "News" programming - you have to sit there a minimum of 20 minutes with no commercial break. NGO's can get their point across and you can watch politicians squirm at having to actually answer questions.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. That's not an ashy taste ...

As an exercise, try thinking “Party of Lincoln” (or Reagan) as you recite aloud this partial list of post-1994 GOP leaders, grandees, enablers and influencers: Gingrich, Kenneth Starr, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Ralph Reed, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Lee Atwater, Andrew Breitbart, Ann Coulter, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Karl Rove, Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch, Jack Abramoff, Michael Flynn, Jim Jordan, Steve Bannon, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Rudy Giuliani, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, Mo Brooks, Ron Johnson, Lauren Boebert, Elise Stefanik and the 147 members of Congress who on Jan. 6, 2021, voted not to certify Biden’s election, hours after the Capitol was attacked by an insurrectionary mob. Got an ashy taste in your mouth?

[SunSeeker]

5. The GOP broke when Nixon sabotaged the Vietnam peace talks in order to get into office.

The only difference is now they're much more brazen, having gotten away with their repeated fuckery and criminality for the last 65 years.

[LT Barclay]

7. I wish this was more widely known. There are TOO many Vietnam vets that are rapid right-wingers.

The end of that story from what I have read is that he promised Vietnam war reparations and they promised to release about 1750 POW's. No money, no release. Yet all of those flying that POW/MIA flag are still voting for Republicans.

[SunSeeker]

13. Yup. My father-in-law was a Vietnam Vet and big Trumper, before passing away recently.

You could not tell him anything negative about the GOP, it was all "fake news."

[ms liberty]

6. Newt Gingrich, GOPAC, and his list of words

https://fair.org/home/language-a-key-mechanism-of-control/
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/09/us/political-memo-for-gop-arsenal-133-words-to-fire.html
I despise this man.

[Martin Eden]

8. "The party of Lincoln and Reagan"

I hate to see them mentioned together like that.

I despised Reagan when he first ran for president, and time has not redeemed his horrible legacy.

[brooklynite]

9. Reagan was extremely conservative and culturally intolerant...

What he was NOT was someone who believed Democrats were inherently evil and shouldn't be engaged with.

As another book, try TIP & THE GIPPER by Chris Matthews.

[Martin Eden]

10. Reagan set the stage for what today's Republican Party has become

His Southern Steategy ans appeal to white evangelicals went a long way towards forming the current "conservative" base, then Gingich came along and twisted it into something even worse -- then Trump put the most deplorable parts of it on steroids.

I'm well aware that working together across the aisle was still alive and well during the Reagan/Tip O'Neil era, but that doesn't change the "Morning in America" facade Reagen erected for his agenda of corporate greed, racism, and gender bigotry.

[cab67]

11. True story - I met Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich is a bit of a dinosaur groupie. He met for lunch with the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology executive committee s during the society’s annual reunion several years ago. I served on that committee at the time.

At one point, they brought him a salad for lunch. He then spent considerable time picking up each crouton and eating them one by one.

Wow, I thought. Opposable thumbs? Who knew?

(This really happened!)