Today In Biden Land

[TitoFan]

You've all been lied to so often you don't know up from down.

Says the man who believes what Donald Trump tells him and also believes Trump is about to vanquish a gigantic global Satanic paedophile conspiracy that runs the world.

Some points here.

GOP voters will never nominate an establishment type Republican candidate again. Imagine the most perfect possible GOP candidate who would have walked the nomination in the 2000s. A combination of the best parts of Bush (who was an adored cult leader at the same level as Trump at one point), McCain and Romney. That candidate wouldn't even get twenty percent of the vote in the 2024 GOP primary.

GOP voters now want somebody who will go to war with and hurt their enemies, the "commies" and "socialists" and politically correct liberals and so on. They'll vote for a Trump or a politician who can most authentically impersonate Donald Trump.

So you're safe Lyle. There'll be a cult leader who comes along to replace Trump, maybe with the same name even, maybe Tucker or some other clown, but it'll be somebody you can click your heels in front of and salute like the rest of the cult followers.

But here's the thing all you absolute fucking morons don't get. Trump or whoever the next cult leader is are going to be efectively exactly the same as the Bush/McCain/Romney candidate I mentioned above, just with added Trumpy grievance politics. You've just had four years of a man who picked your pocket, who campaigned about a rigged economy and then spent four year rigging it even further in favour of the wealthy. Endless regulations to help business and increase business profits at the expense of workers and massive permanent corporate tax cuts for the wealthy and pennies that phase out after a few years for everybody else. The whole enterprise of upward redistribution of wealth obscured by four years of culture war bullshit that kept your tiny minds animated and distracted while the looting went on.

Donald Trump just pissed on you and told you it was raining. You spent the last four years ranting and raving about meaningless culture war bullshit that the government has no real power to deal with anyway while they got on with the stuff they do have power over and rigged the system even further their way. And you fuckers are so clueless about what's going on you can actually accuse other people of being lied to so much they don't know up from down. You've got it the wrong way round thickhead.

I'd like to disagree on some points.

I'm not entirely anti-GOP. Heaven knows there are plenty of liberal policies I do not agree with, and lean toward the conservative side. But that's neither here nor there. My main point is that not every GOP voter is going to "want somebody who will go to war with and hurt their enemies". There are many thousands (couldn't bring myself to say "millions") of GOP voters out there who are just as disappointed in Trump as the rest of us are. As I said before, many voters want someone who will be anti-big business and will stand up for the little guy... but they saw enough of Trump to bring them back to their senses. Remember... there was Trump BEFORE the pandemic, and there is now Trump AFTER the pandemic. Many Trump voters from 2016 were utterly dismayed by the callousness and lack of leadership displayed by Trump for all to see. That may have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. (Well... for mostly all except a few notable exceptions, like our very own Forum Flip-Flopper (FFF)).

Giving most Americans the benefit of the doubt, I'm gonna venture to say most Republicans do not want another "cult leader." They got enough of that medicine for four years. And how did that work out for them in the end? Regardless of how splintered and disjointed the Democratic Party may seem at times, with the extremists providing cannon fodder for the Republicans at every turn, the GOP has hit the ball out of the park. What used to be the "more united Party" is now in shambles. You've got the decent GOP members who only want their policies and platforms at least considered..... and you've got the ones who've decided to go down with the burning ship.

The more time passes, the more damage extremists do to this country. All they do is provide the ammunition for the opposing Party to latch on to and say, "See? Look at what the Dems/Reps want to do to your country."

This election, maybe for the first time in history, had little to do with Republicans vs. Democrats, and EVERYTHING to do with Trumpers vs. non-Trumpers. It was all about Trump. Hence, the historic voter turnout.

The majority of GOP voters want a Strong Daddy who will fuck up their enemies. They don't care about rule of law or democracy or anything else. If Trump had managed to use the military or an armed mob to stay in power, if he declared himself president for life, they'd be doing handstands. They've spent decades being radicalised by Fox News and they're only going to get worse. This is not all Republicans but it's a majority of the base.

Just watch. Just watch how things progress over the next four years and watch the 2024 GOP presidential nomination contest. Fox and talk radio and associated stuff feeds them two things. Fear and anger, normally both at the same time. So you now have tens of millions of fearful, angry, breathtakingly ignorant* people who want a strong daddy to make their enemies go away.


*Notice I didn't say stupid. A lot of them obviously are but a lot aren't. But they are ignorant. They know nothing about how their political system works or how the country is run or other countries are run of socialism or any of the other things they blather on about. They basically just have the last few days in their heads of whatever conservative media is amping up the outrage about. The level of political sophistication with these people is nonexistent. No thought, just emotions. Fear and anger press their buttons and they're the only two buttons you need with them.





Plus ca change and all that.

Ok so the whole argument hinges on your use of the word "majority", where you probably feel there are more of those who fit the description than I do.

But if there are more than I would hope, it's due in large part to Trump's exploits during the last four years. I would venture to say that more than just a few previously stoic GOP voters allowed themselves to be worked up into a lather by Trump. Four years of stoking the flames of division are nothing to sneeze at. When you've had a rah-rah President holding rally after rally, demonizing the other side to the point where chants against lawmakers are smugly encouraged... it's tough for everyone to resist going over to "the dark side." Still... Republicans are just as passionate about their beliefs as Democrats are of theirs. Anyone who they feel is going to stand up to the other side is just fine by them. Unfortunately, Trump wasn't exactly what the doctor ordered. During his dictatorship er... presidency... many GOP lawmakers turned in their backbones and submitted to his whip... thinking only of their own political futures. Nauseous I know... but then again what else to expect from a sniveling weasel like Lindsey Graham.

Here in our own forum. You have a Trumpeteer who gleefully applauded the movement of thousands of troops to the Southern border (in preparation for the Great Invasion that never materialized) and said... and I quote... "mow down the toothless peasants." That was before he did an inexplicable "flip-flop" for a few months, and is now back foaming at the mouth and acting in a way that would make Rudy Giuliani proud. If your description is about someone like that, then I agree wholeheartedly. But I still feel there are Republicans who became disillusioned with Trump somewhere along the way. It could've been any number of things. His gross COVID mismanagement and his election fraud lathering of his troops were just the tip of the iceberg.

You feel the runup to the 2024 campaign will be a certain way. I'm not so sure. Republicans as I said stand by their beliefs. But they've also seen someone they THOUGHT was going to champion their ideals, literally tear the Party to shreds. Nepotism, lying out the yin-yang, unfulfilled promises, vindictive politics that would make any swamp creature blush, etc, etc, etc. How can they, in good conscience, look for ANOTHER Donald Trump for 2024? Doesn't sound logical to me. If you're a diehard Republican, with conservative views... and you want a strong candidate to sway Republicans and moderate Democrats alike.... you don't look for another TV personality clown. You look for a strong candidate... and that is NOT a Donald Trump clone.

By the way, anger and fear are not sole properties of Republicans. Plenty of extremist Democrats own those as well. Trump has basically imploded an already partisan-divided America and turned into a hatred-filled cesspool, from which swamp creatures are only too happy to escape.