Max Boot-- A Conservative Republican-- Explains Why He's Voting The Straight Party Line... For Democrats Up And Down The Ballot

 

Celebrated artist Nancy Ohanian portrays the worst president in history

From what I can recall from a high school course in European history, the terms "right" and "left" were first applied to politics in the early stages of the French Revolution when the representatives of the parties that represented the noble families and Church hierarchy (less than 5% of the population but a majority of the representatives) were seated on the right of the National Assembly (formerly the Estates-General), while the Third Estate, the representatives of about 95% of the population, sat on the left. Those on the left represented the legitimate interests of the working class. Those on the right... eventually got what was coming to them. Reactionary political parties never needed to be "saved," which has what conservative Republican Max Boot was advocating in his Washington Post column yesterday; they always needed and need to be destroyed. "We have to destroy the party in order to save it," he wrote. He admits his party had always had "long-standing problems-- conspiracy-mongering, racism, hostility toward science," but it apparently didn't really matter much to him until Trump was able to "exploit [and] exacerbate all of those maladies, just as he made the coronavirus outbreak much worse than it needed to be." He wrote that he "watched with incredulity the GOP’s descent into collective madness." The madness, though, just exposed what was almost motivation for Republicanism and its the heart of the nature of American conservatism.

Many Republicans I know began by holding their noses and voting for Trump because of judges and taxes and their hatred of Hillary Clinton. Now the whole Republican Party seems to inhabit the Fox News Cinematic Universe, an alternative reality where President Barack Obama spied on Trump and Joe Biden is a socialist who will let “anarchists” and “arsonists” run riot.





The party has even become infected by the lunatic QAnon cult, whose followers believe Trump’s opponents are blood-drinking, Satan-worshipping pedophiles. In one recent poll, half of Trump supporters said top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking. Georgia’s Senate primary offers a disturbing snapshot of the state of the party: Rep. Douglas A. Collins promotes his endorsement from two convicted felons (former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos) while Sen. Kelly Loeffler touts her support from Marjorie Taylor Greene, a soon-to-be House member who questioned whether the Pentagon was really attacked on 9/11.

The same trickle-down craziness is evident in Republican mishandling of the coronavirus. Trump has given up trying to control the pandemic, mocks masks and promotes conspiracy theories such as his claim that death counts are inflated because “doctors get more money and hospitals get more money” if they say people died of covid-19. This specious allegation is faithfully echoed by Republicans such as Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. Red states are paying a devastating price for pandemic denialism: North Dakota has the lowest rate of mask-wearing in the country and the highest covid-19 death rate per capita in the world. [As of yesterday North Dakota had 52,367 cases per million residents, the worst rate of COVID in the entire world outside of Andorra, a tiny principality in the Pyrenees ruled by France and Spain and subsisiting entirely on tourism and smuggling.]

Trump has given permission for Republican bigots to come out into the open-- to replace dog whistles with wolf whistles. Sen. David Perdue (R.-GA) mocked Sen. Kamala Harris’s Indian first name. Madison Cawthorn, a House nominee in North Carolina, proudly visited Hitler’s lair and created a website attacking a journalist for having worked “for non-white males, like Cory Booker, who aims to ruin white males running for office.” Laura Loomer, a Republican candidate for a House seat from Florida, calls herself “a proud Islamophobe” and cheered the deaths of 2,000 refugees crossing the Mediterranean (“Good. 👏 Here’s to 2,000 more”).

The longer Trump stays in office, the more damage he does-- and the more loyal Republicans become. “Axios on HBO” found that, among 178 congressional Republicans who have been in office since Trump began his run for president, 42 percent criticized him after the Access Hollywood tape was released in 2016. Only 12 percent criticized him for the attack on peaceful demonstrators and Bible photo-op this year.

Republicans flatter Trump the way Trump flatters Kim Jong Un. Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of homeland security, just tweeted that Trump is the “greatest SCOTUS [Supreme Court] President since the founding era (at least), and possibly of all time,” and that his “Nobel Peace Prize for Mideast peace” is a “sure thing.” Internet memes depict the portly president as a superhero.

Trump has no second-term agenda, and the party has no platform other than supporting him. Even the editor of National Review-- supposedly the intellectual leader of conservatism-- suggests that the primary reason to vote for Trump is to extend a middle finger to his critics. This is sheer nihilism-- and it will get worse if Trump wins reelection. By next year, fewer than 1 in 6 House Republicans will have been in office during George W. Bush’s presidency. Trumpism is their reality now.

The V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden just released a study showing that in four years the GOP has been transformed into an autocratic party that has much in common with the Fidesz Party in Hungary, the Law and Justice party in Poland and the Justice and Development Party in Turkey.

America needs a sane center-right party. It doesn’t need an extremist party that undermines democracy, caters to White grievances, and rejects science and reason. The only way Republicans will come to their senses is if they see that the path they are on leads to electoral oblivion. That’s why, even though I’m not a Democrat, I’m voting straight-ticket Democratic on Nov. 3-- and for as long as necessary to make Republicans come to their senses. The GOP needs to be detoxified and de-Trumpified.

Not Just Trump... The Republican Party-- "One Part Thugocracy, One Part Kleptocracy And All Hypocrisy Unencumbered By Principle"

 

Branded by Nancy Ohanian

Clearly, Republicans-- by nature-- are unfit to govern. And yet half the voters still cast ballots for them. Last night, writing for the Miami Herald, Leonard Pitts made the point that Republican political elites don't have any regard for rules, other than as a way to advance their own positions. And by "rules," he wrote that he meant "norms, practices, guidelines-- some written as law, some just respected as customs-- to which we all adhere, even when that gives advantage to those with whom we disagree. It’s a covenant pluralistic self-government demands. And it’s one America is in the process of shredding-- as seen anew in the Republican Party’s response to the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

Understand: That response tells us nothing about the GOP we did not already know. That it is one part thugocracy, one part kleptocracy and all hypocrisy unencumbered by principle has long been clear to any honest observer. But the events of the past few days offer vivid evidence of just how deep the rot extends.

Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, you will recall, gnashed their teeth and rent their garments in 2016 when President Obama put forth a nominee to replace conservative icon Antonin Scalia on the top court. Too close to the election, they said. Let the people decide, they said. It was then eight months until Election Day.

Four years later, the liberal icon Ginsburg dies just 46 days short of the election, and the same people who thought eight months was too close, the same McConnell who denied Obama’s choice the courtesy of a hearing, now rush to install a Donald Trump nominee. Again, the hypocrisy does not surprise. But the brazenness of it, the absence of even a fig leaf of principle, the plain contempt it embodies, is breathtaking nevertheless.

Once again, the political party whose views on hot-button social issues like guns and reproductive rights are shared by a minority of the electorate seeks to win power over the majority in the only way it can. By lying. By cheating. By breaking the rules. In this case, the unwritten rule of simple fairness.

This time, though, their shamelessness has ignited visceral fury. Ginsburg’s death has led to a record-breaking spike in donations to liberal groups and candidates. And serious people are talking seriously about packing the court-- increasing the number of justices to 11 to enable a presumed President Biden to craft the liberal majority that Republicans have connived to forestall.

Granted, equally serious people have warned that this is an arduous and unlikely course, but to focus on the difficulty is to miss the point. Which is that angry Democrats now seem ready to abandon the rules-- starting with the one that says packing the court is an abuse of power that ultimately undermines its legitimacy. Franklin Roosevelt’s failed attempt to do so is the exception that, well . . . proves the rule.

Still, one can hardly blame the Democrats. Having watched the GOP snub the emoluments clause, ignore the extortion of a foreign government, brush aside the Hatch Act and, now, conspire to steal the court, who can be shocked that they refuse to be bound by rules the other side ignores?

If two teams cannot agree on the rules, they cannot play the game. Similarly, if Republicans and Democrats cannot agree to be bound by the same principles and norms, they cannot effectively govern a country. Or even be a country. That’s the threat this behavior poses.

It is yet another reason it’s imperative the Republicans be not just defeated, but emphatically crushed in November. It can’t be close. It has to be a political massacre, leaving absolutely no doubt America rejects what these people stand for. Until and unless that happens, it is an open question whether we can still be a country.

And, indeed, whether we should.

Greatest Mass Murderer by Chip Proser

Pitts, though, is talking about the politicians, the elected officials, the operatives and strategists, perhaps the donor class... but what about Mr. and Mrs. Republican who dutifully cast their ballots for Republicans? What's wrong with people in West Virginia, Wyoming, Oklahoma, the Dakotas, and white people in Arkansas, Kentucky and Alabama? Over 60% of them looked at The Donald in 2016 and decided they thought he would make a good president. If the polls are to be believed, big majorities in those states-- though not in normal America-- still think so and have every intention of braving the pandemic that is exploding in their anti-mask states to trudge to the polls (in their anti-vote-by-mail states) to send him back for four more years. How is it possible? I don't know the answer. They couldn't have all been dropped on their heads by their mothers during infancy or otherwise traumatized as children. But what's wrong with them? They're not all racists. They're not all filled with hatred and bigotry. They're no all religionist freaks. Not every single one of them in a greedy, selfish, grasping capitalist dog. I don't think that every single one of them has a subpar IQ either. 

You know, it really is a damn shame that Bill Clinton made a deal with Newt Gingrich that allowed foreign neo-Nazi Rupert Murdoch to own a broadcast media empire in the U.S. Looking back, I wonder if Clinton thinks it was worth it today. I'm quite certain Gingrich does. [Disclaimer: most of the Democratic politicians and elites-- like Clinton-- are just as bad. They don't deserve the support of the voters they get.]

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

What Republicans have said in the past about confirming a Supreme Court justice in a presidential election year will not haunt them. For that you need a conscience. You need a sense of responsibility. You need a sense of guilt. You also need enough loyalty to put the country first, before devotion to a lunatic and your bank accounts. What Republicans have said in the past about the subject means nothing to them. Why would it? When has any Republican in recent times exhibited any evidence that he or she has an ounce of character, honor or even a soul? I've gathered this list of quotes not because I would be foolish enough to think any of these slaves of Trump and Putin would have the integrity to honor their words. That's hard enough for anyone of the political persuasion, but a Republican? Hell will freeze over down to absolute zero before that. I just thought it would be good to gather these quotes all in one place for easy reference and possible use. The politicians who uttered these words are either true believers or they will claim they have no choice but to be cowards and do the filthy utilitarian work of their totalitarian emperor. Sad. Caesar's Senators had more honor and the gladiators of the time fought with honor and dignity to the last; and Trump is no Caesar no matter what he thinks in his severely damaged mind. Instead he is well on his way to being a modern day Caligula with no one in Washington or in the korporate media having the political courage to stop him.

These days we are all being reminded of what the maximum assclowns of the United States Senate said when, in February 2016, President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland, a centrist at best, who had been approved of by numerous republicans on previous occasions. Moscow Mitch says his proudest moment in his life is when he got in Obama's face and told him he will never get to fill the vacancy back then. This time we're in September, only six weeks away, not nine months, from election day as in 2016 and people have already started to vote. Herr Trump will also nominate a conservative judge approved of by Republicans and, most likely, by the Heritage Society. The only difference that really matterered to Republicans was Obama's heritage.

Much is at stake, including workers rights, a woman's right to choose, health care, civil rights and voting rights issues, and environmental legislation.

The quotes below are all from 2016 when Justice Antonin Scalia's death created the vacancy that President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to fill. The quotes add up to even more political hot air of the reeking stench variety than ususal and, they must have stampeded each other to get to the microphone. It's what politicians of all stripes do but not all of them wish to be so destructive in the service of a madman and his master.

Let's start with $enator Lindsey Graham, the Chairman Of The $enate Judiciary Committee, man who has worked overtime in recent years to brand himself the queen of talking out of both sides of his ass. Don't forget his conflicting statements about his golf partner and master Herr Donald Trump being a "race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot."

1. $enator Lindsey Graham, 2016- "I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination."

2. $enator Ted Cruz- "It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year, There is a long tradition that you don't do this in an election year."

3. $enator Cory Gardner- "I think we're too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision." (Hey, Cory, if February was too close to the election...)

4. $enator Marco Rubio- "I don't think we should be moving on a nominee in the last year of this president's term. I would say that if it was a Republican president."

5. $enator Rob Portman- "I believe the best thing for the country is to trust the American people to weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations. That wouldn't be unusual. It's common practice for the $enate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during the last year of a presidential term, and it's been nearly 80 years since any president was permitted to fill a vacancy that arose in a presidential election year." (Yo, Rob! It's 84 years now!)

6. $enator John Cornyn- "At this critical juncture in our nation's history, Texans and the American people deserve to have a say in the selection of the next lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court." (Notice that $en. Cornball makes a distinction between Texans and Americans. Also, just to split hairs, it would be more honest of everyone in Washington to admit that the only say we have is limited to which list we get to approve from. Don't expect that to change.)

7. $enator Deb Fischer- "It is crucial for Nebraskans and all Americans to have a voice in the selection of the next person to serve a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, and there is precedent to do so. Therefore, I believe this position should not be filled until the election of a new president."

8. $enator Richard Shelby- "This critical decision should be made after the upcoming presidential election so that the American people have a voice."

9. $enator Roger Wicker- "The American people should have the opportunity to make their voices heard before filling a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court."

10. $enator John Thune- "Since the next presidential election is already underway, the next president should make this lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court." (It's even more underway this time, Johnboy.)

11. $enator Mike Rounds- "I believe that Justice Scalia's replacement should be nominated by the next president of the United States." (Mikey, you'll be happy to know that that can actually be arranged through a process of impeachment, four years later, but it's doable. Whadaya say?)

12. $enator David Perdue- "The very balance of our nation's highest court is in serious jeopardy. As a member of the $enate Judiciary Committee, I will do everything in my power to encourage the president and $enate leadership not to start this process until we hear from the American people."

13. $enator Thom Tillis- "The campaign is already underway. It is essential to the institution of the $enate and to the very health of our republic to not launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very same time the American people are casting their ballots to elect our next president." (The hypocritical bullshit is particularly high with you Thom. Kudos!

14. $enator Richard Burr- "In this election year, the American people will have an opportunity to have their say in the future direction of our country. For this reason, I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Antonin Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president."

15. $enator Roy Blunt- "The $enate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until we have a new president."

16. $enator Cory Gardner- "I think we're too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision."

17. $enator Joni Ernst- "We will see what the people say this fall, and our next president, regardless of party, will be making that nomination." (Here's a fine example of the rampant hypocrisy and insincerity of this list of goons. If they truly meant that the American people should have the decision... well several million more of them voted for Hillary Clinton and not Herr Trump.)

18. $enator Ron Johnson- "I strongly agree that the American people should be allowed to decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. $enate."

19. $enator John Barrasso- "The American people will soon decide our next president. That person should get to choose the next Supreme Court nominee."

20. Senator Pat Roberts- "It is not in the Constitution that the $enate must vote."

21. $enator Dan Sullivan- "The decision to withhold advancement of Mr. Garland's nomination isn't about the individual, it's about the principle. Alsaskans, like all Americans, are in the midst of an important national election. The next Supreme Court justice could fundamentally change the direction of the court for years to come." (Yeesh! This assclown can't even begin to hide his contempt for the American people. And, he can't even bring himself to refer to Judge Garland by his title.)

22. $enator Pat Toomey- "With the U.S. Supreme Court's balance at stake, and with a presidential election fewer than eight months away, it is wise to give the American people a more direct voice in the selection and confirmation of the next justice." (I see. 8 months is a no-go. Less than 2 months is a full speed ahead. That's pretty good Pat. You're headed to the top regions of the $enate Asshole list. Congrats! You've worked hard. You deserve it!)

23. $enator Steve Daines- "The American people have already begun voting on who the next president will be, and their voice should continue to be reflected in a process that will have lasting implications on our nation." (That's right $enator, the American people, this time 4 years later, have already begun voting, so...)

24. $enator John Boozman- "Our country is very split and we are in the midst of a highly contested presidential election. My colleagues and I are committed to giving the American people a voice in the direction the court will take for generations to come."

25. $enator Lamar Alexander- "This debate is not about Judge Garland. It's about whether to give the American people a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice."

Here's a couple of real winners, from Oklahoma. It took 2 of them to come up with an 18 word sentence. Congratulations guys.

26. $enator Jim Inhofe and $enator James Lankford- "A presidential election year is not the right time to start a nomination process for the Supreme Court."

And, more recently this past May:

27. $enator Chuck Grasshole- "You can't have one rule for Democratic presidents and another rule for Republican presidents." (Yeah Chucky, sure, whatever you say but you and your colleagues think your president is above the law even to the point of treason so...)

And, just this past weekend:

28. $enator Lisa Murkowski- "I would not vote to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. We are 50 some days away from an election."

And, no list of completely insincere, duplicitous senatorial a-holes commenting on the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice right before an election could be complete without hearing from Lindsey Graham's number one competitor in Congress's daily talking out of both sides of the ass competition. Ladies and Gentlemen, the rape endorsing pride of Maine:

29. $enator Susan Collins- "I think that's too close, I really do."

And special bonus quote of significance from this past weekend on FOX "News":

30. $enator Tom Cotton- "Democrats are threatening to riot in the streets." (Tom, baby, hundreds of people spontaneously appearing in front of the Supreme Court building as the news of RBG's death broke on Friday night, is not a riot, but, it was a message that you and your repug brethren are too thick to understand.)

Imagine if they had walk-thru lie detectors at the entrances of the Capitol Building. None of these slimy little fetid worms would ever get in. Majority Leader Moscow Mitch has already gleefully contradicted his words from 2016 (See the meme above.) He didn't even wait until RBG's body was cold. Moscow Mitch is that far gone into goonland. He just had to get on his knees and please the freaky orange object of his affections. Expect the others to also do the wrong thing in the service of the wrong president. Donald Trump has been the most obvious symptom of the Republican disease. The people above and those who vote for them are the disease itself. Those who tolerate this disease are guilty in a separate but equally deadly way.

An additional point to consider: As shown above, both Collins and Murkowski are on record the last few days as saying that they are of the opinion that there should be no voting on a new court nominee until after the election. The media hacks have parroted their words. Big fucking deal. As usual, too many people are buying the bullshit and rolling around in it. They look at $enators Collins and Murkowski and naively think that's two republican no votes of the four that would be needed to stop whatever nazi nutbag Herr Trump nominates and cheers along with his crass "Fill That Seat" slogan. That's assuming a lot. Who would be the other two? $enatorCollins' male counterpart $enator Mittens Romney? He's already said he's on board the Trump train to Hell. And what of fake Democrats such as $enators Joe Manchin and Doug Jones? The two special elections, Georgia and Arizona? The winners of each could theoretically be sitting in the $enate immediately after the election but will either Democratic candidate even be elected. Mark Kelly in Arizona, possibly. Rev. Raphael Warnock in Georgia? Georgia? That's a big maybe. So where's the four no votes? Spin the wheel.

Even if Biden manages to win, there are nearly 3 months called November, December and January where the $enators who are currently in place or something very close to that could and would vote the exact same way as they can before the election. As a practical matter, there seems to be no difference. Only after the inauguration are there likely possible meaningful differences that could alter the end result and few people in Washington, Rep. Ilhan Omar being one very rare exception, or the media are pointing that out. After the inauguration is what people should be calling for and outright demanding. Once again, the korporate media has eagerly bought into political obfuscation. It's ridiculous. It's Washington. It's what the idiot voting public falls for every time. Suckers! And definitely, losers!