The GTP Unofficial 2020 US Elections Thread

[UKMikey]

All that's missing is a "no, you're out of order" response to nobody telling her she's out of order. Christ. Where do they find these people? She's not a whistleblower, she's a Trumpkin shill.

That vocal fry made me want to punch her in the throat, though.

I hope everyone remembers her from last month's Lou Dobbs interview when she was complaining about the lack of free food at ballot counting sessions.



(Wait a minute... your av is Dream Academy?! I thought it was the Thompson Twins...)

 

[NotThePrez]

They are not religious nutjobs though. They just know playing that card will get them what they want.

You're not at all wrong, but that also means that if they're not religious nut jobs, then these individuals are advocating for actions that enable religious nutjobs (or just nutjobs in general).

Personally speaking (and admittedly biased/slightly paranoid because I'd likely be a prime target for such individuals) I feel like that's just as bad. These people have already demonstrated that they're ok with destroying the principals they swore to uphold if it means hurting people that they don't like, and their supporters generally aren't much better.

 

[UKMikey]

You do realize that evangelicals don't actually believe Trump is the new Messiah? It's a lot more complicated & nonsensical that that. A plague, fires, rioting, a war against Iran on behalf of Israel & other cataclysmic events ... these are all anticipated steps on the way to the End Times & the coming Rapture. If you can spare the time you could read this explanation in Rolling Stone:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...ns-fundamentalists-end-times-rapture-1083131/

I'm unfortunately unable to penetrate the firewall but will attempt to try using archive.org.

I always thought he was the beast of the apocalypse who suffered a grievous injury (Covid?) and was miraculously healed.

[EDIT]Wow... this is terrifying. If the End Times become a self-fulfilling prophecy it'll be hard for the survivors to argue that Islam and not Christianity is the most destructive religion. *O Fortuna intensifies*

Whether Trump gets another term or not, America can expect the myth of the rapture to continue to influence U.S policy through his court appointments. We can expect a re-litigation of concepts that were settled long ago, from Roe v. Wade to prayer in schools.

We can expect other conservative candidates to continue to overtly cater to this group, but possibly with a political competence even more effective at achieving the ends the rapturous believe are necessary to American salvation.

We can expect political losses, no matter how significant, to be challenged, because democracy is not as important as the supposed will of God.

 

[Biggles]

(Wait a minute... your av is Dream Academy?! I thought it was the Thompson Twins...)

The impossibly, perfectly, pretty & posh Dream Academy? Sweet!





As you can see, I modelled my avatar on Kate St. John.

 

[Keef]

BTW: the Santa hats seem particularly inappropriate this year. Yeah ... that one

I first noticed them yesterday. I was really trying to bolster my point with an emoji but was shot down by a ridiculous Santa hat. But I guess we could all use some comic relief this time around.

(and admittedly biased/slightly paranoid because I'd likely be a prime target for such individuals)

Several of my friends from various backgrounds shared your paranoia for their own racial and religious reasons. I assume that's the point you're making. These were the same friends who already knew Trump would be a disaster in 2016 and had sensed growing racial and religious tensions. My Jewish friends were particularly sensitive to it which really blew my mind. I knew that antisemitism existed but before these past few years I never considered how common or serious it was. I assumed everything I heard was jokes. I was very wrong, and I think that slow realization is what led to a drastic change in my politics and whatnot. Even if those people were "joking", they wouldn't actually take issue if it really happened.

 

[Blitz24]

I first noticed them yesterday. I was really trying to bolster my point with an emoji but was shot down by a ridiculous Santa hat. But I guess we could all use some comic relief this time around.


Several of my friends from various backgrounds shared your paranoia for their own racial and religious reasons. I assume that's the point you're making. These were the same friends who already knew Trump would be a disaster in 2016 and had sensed growing racial and religious tensions. My Jewish friends were particularly sensitive to it which really blew my mind. I knew that antisemitism existed but before these past few years I never considered how common or serious it was. I assumed everything I heard was jokes. I was very wrong, and I think that slow realization is what led to a drastic change in my politics and whatnot. Even if those people were "joking", they wouldn't actually take issue if it really happened.

Antisemitism has spiked significantly since Trump took office, ignoring the irony that his daughter, daughter in law and grandchildren are Jewish. His hordes think of Jews as "others" and no different than POC.

 

[Jezza819]

Antisemitism has spiked significantly since Trump took office, ignoring the irony that his daughter, daughter in law and grandchildren are Jewish. His hordes think of Jews as "others" and no different than POC.

What I've never understood is how they can be so pro Israel but dislike Jews. Um, you do understand who lives in Israel right?

 

[Blitz24]

What I've never understood is how they can be so pro Israel but dislike Jews. Um, you do understand who lives in Israel right?

Two Options:
From what I understand, the ones committing the attacks are not the ones who are so supportive of Israel.
OR
They want the Jews to leave the country to Israel so there are no more Jews and then they can vote to stop supporting them.

 

[McLaren]

They are not religious nutjobs though. They just know playing that card will get them what they want.

Thinking on it, you're probably right.

Still, these folks & the actual religious ones are some of the most backwards-thinking folks. So dedicated to living their life by God's will, yet they're against a man who actually attends church & can recite the Bible whilst standing behind a man who does neither. I'm guessing there's a passage somewhere in the book about believing in false idols against actual devout followers.

 

[TexRex]

What I've never understood is how they can be so pro Israel but dislike Jews. Um, you do understand who lives in Israel right?

Same way they can treat criticism of the government of Israel as anti-Semitism when it comes from people they see as the opposition.

 

[Biggles]

What I've never understood is how they can be so pro Israel but dislike Jews. Um, you do understand who lives in Israel right?

Two Options:
From what I understand, the ones committing the attacks are not the ones who are so supportive of Israel.
OR
They want the Jews to leave the country to Israel so there are no more Jews and then they can vote to stop supporting them.

You need to follow the line of thinking of evangelical Christians to understand it. The Rolling Stone article I linked to goes some way to explain it. Mind you, that's a different thing from straightforward old school anti-semitism.

 

[NotThePrez]

I first noticed them yesterday. I was really trying to bolster my point with an emoji but was shot down by a ridiculous Santa hat. But I guess we could all use some comic relief this time around.

Friendly request for @Jordan to add a Santa Hat to the 🤬 emoji.

Several of my friends from various backgrounds shared your paranoia for their own racial and religious reasons. I assume that's the point you're making. These were the same friends who already knew Trump would be a disaster in 2016 and had sensed growing racial and religious tensions.

I initially thought Trump was gonna be a disaster in 2016, but my friends (and admittedly Dave Chappelle) convinced me to at least give him a chance, just to see what happens. Then the Muslim travel ban happened (I am agnostic, for the record), and I had to remind myself to give him a chance a second time. After a while I basically thought of Trump as nothing more than a dummy who had a bigger bark than bite, would be voted out of office anyways, and that I was good to vote 3rd-Party for this years elections.

And then the impeachment happened...

....And then 2020 happened.

My Jewish friends were particularly sensitive to it which really blew my mind. I knew that antisemitism existed but before these past few years I never considered how common or serious it was. I assumed everything I heard was jokes. I was very wrong, and I think that slow realization is what led to a drastic change in my politics and whatnot. Even if those people were "joking", they wouldn't actually take issue if it really happened.

This probably is not at all the same thing as to what your friends are experiencing (and trust me, I 100% feel for them), but it did inspire a thought/mini rant.

As I mentioned before, I am a (pretty big) fan of Dave Chappelle, and consume a lot of comedy in general. I generally have a pretty dark sense of humor, and make healthy use of observational comedy. That means a lot of race jokes (most of which are projected at me as an African-American and my people), and my very close circle of friends all pretty much operate the same way, where we all make fun of ourselves and each other, but understand that each of us has a line to not cross, as (most) normal human beings would.

What's been very eye-opening over the past few years are the number of people who either hear my jokes, opinions or just pay attention to how I talk, and basically think "hey the black guy said this-or-that, so I have carte blanche to talk about my 'feeling.'" Like, don't get me wrong, you can talk about whatever, but that doesn't mean that I won't judge you for what comes out of your mouth. In particular, I feel like I've been made aware that there are a terrifyingly large amount of people who have never talked to a black person (at length or otherwise) at any point in their life. It's especially noticeable when it comes to those who believe Trumps claims of "helping" Black America, while simultaneously refusing to understand why black people are protesting the police. Sometimes it's honestly hilarious, but almost always it's...incredible, and typically not in a good way.

What I've never understood is how they can be so pro Israel but dislike Jews. Um, you do understand who lives in Israel right?

The cynical part of my brain, influenced in part by random discussions I've seen/heard on the topic over time, basically has it where the "supporters" of Israel see it as "the brown people we don't like are killing the 🤬 out of the brown people we really don't like, so whatever."

 

[TexRex]

(I am agnostic, for the record)

"I think I have a cream for that."

 

[NotThePrez]

"I think I have a cream for that."

I don't know how, but I will find a way to use that on someone.

 

[TexRex]

I don't know how, but I will find a way to use that on someone.

It's from Hot Fuzz.

I also appreciate that author Douglas Adams referred to himself as a radical atheist, not because he held radical views but because it prevented people from asking if he was actually agnostic.

 

[NotThePrez]

It's from Hot Fuzz.

I also appreciate that author Douglas Adams referred to himself as a radical atheist, not because he held radical views but because it prevented people from asking if he was actually agnostic.

 

[Danoff]

It's from Hot Fuzz.

I also appreciate that author Douglas Adams referred to himself as a radical atheist, not because he held radical views but because it prevented people from asking if he was actually agnostic.

Maybe I should start referring to myself as a Radical Atheist Fundamentalist.

 

[UKMikey]

Lawl... Trump's mole at the Justice Department has been banned from the building. Time to add the department to the list of never-Trumpies-up-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes-and-not-in-a-good-way.

A list which is no doubt rapidly increasing in length as the White House personnel office seek to dismiss any and everyone not still loyal to the soon-to-be-ex-C-in-C.

https://apnews.com/article/heidi-stirrup-banned-justice-department-7624560e990ec55383a2a3e421c3a52e

 

[TexRex]

Purge, baby, purge. This is totally normal right normal.

 

[Jezza819]

I've been watching a documentary series on Showtime called "The Reagans". I don't know how many episodes there are in total but this past Sunday was episode 3. It's at the point of Nancy's highly suckcessful "Just say no to drugs" campaign and just after the assassination attempt.

The similarities between the rise of Reagan and the unquestioned allegiance of conservatives to him then and the rise of Trump are very interesting to see. Reagan passed himself off as a champion of the working class when nothing could be further from the truth, same as Trump now. Reagan gave huge tax cuts to the super rich, same as Trump. Reagan made sure that he endured himself to white people that put him in office, same as Trump. You can just sit there and say "yep", "yep"each time something is brought up.

My dad was a huge fan of Reagan and if he were alive today I don't think he would amused to watch the documentary.

 

[Hun200kmh]

As far as many europeans I know are concerned, totally indiferent to whatever were his administration's domestic policies, Reagan will always be the guy that brought the Soviet Union to its knees, and that means much of what followed: the reunification of Germany, the end of the Iron Curtain, the fall of the vassal communist regimes from the East of Europe.

Of course, if you ask an european socialist/labour/social democrat (the naming changes from country to country) if Reagan is someone they admire, you'll get a lukewarm answer. But that's to be expected.

 

[Keef]

Reagan is the president who ushered in the vast corporatism that plagues the US right now, and Reaganomics basically destroyed the working class right then and there, in favor of stock market gains. If you line up the charts of the implementation of Reagan's tax code with the downfall of wages and the middle class, there's a clear correlation. It's hard to blame it on the Republican party because all politicians benefitted from it and it's been the status quo ever since. That combined with his embracing the Southern Strategy and other blatant racism makes him one of the most destructive presidents in US history in my opinion. And the wild thing was that at the time people loved him. A lot of people. He'd converted nearly the entire south red in 1980 and he got 59% of the vote in 1984. Even California and New York voted red in both elections.

As for the USSR, Reagan did nothing to bring them down. The USSR brought down the USSR all on its own, all we had to do was wait it out.

 

[eran0004]

As far as many europeans I know are concerned, totally indiferent to whatever were his administration's domestic policies, Reagan will always be the guy that brought the Soviet Union to its knees, and that means much of what followed: the reunification of Germany, the end of the Iron Curtain, the fall of the vassal communist regimes from the East of Europe.

Of course, if you ask an european socialist/labour/social democrat (the naming changes from country to country) if Reagan is someone they admire, you'll get a lukewarm answer. But that's to be expected.

The USSR was brought to its knees by Brezhnev and ended by Gorbachev and Jeltsin.

Reagan turned up the heat by threatening with war, that’s pretty much his only contribution.

 

[DK]

Sure seems like the GOP is showing signs of implosion...

I'm sure it seemed that way exactly 5 and 11 years ago, and look how that turned out.

 

[Dotini]

Reagan is the president who ushered in the vast corporatism that plagues the US right now, and Reaganomics basically destroyed the working class right then and there, in favor of stock market gains. If you line up the charts of the implementation of Reagan's tax code with the downfall of wages and the middle class, there's a clear correlation. It's hard to blame it on the Republican party because all politicians benefitted from it and it's been the status quo ever since.

You make a good argument here, raising a major question and as you often do, providing a sensible answer. But in your context let's not forget the door was opened and the stage was set with Nixon's seven day visit to China and resumption of harmonious relations with China, fully normalized in 1979. But even so, I think the question is big enough to admit of other sorts of answers. Just now, what I can add with 100% certainty is that by the 90's Boeing was moving heaven and Earth to outsource labor and production to China. Corporate enmity to labor unions played a role in this, also with certainty.

 

[Scaff]

Reagan is the president who ushered in the vast corporatism that plagues the US right now, and Reaganomics basically destroyed the working class right then and there, in favor of stock market gains. If you line up the charts of the implementation of Reagan's tax code with the downfall of wages and the middle class, there's a clear correlation. It's hard to blame it on the Republican party because all politicians benefitted from it and it's been the status quo ever since. That combined with his embracing the Southern Strategy and other blatant racism makes him one of the most destructive presidents in US history in my opinion. And the wild thing was that at the time people loved him. A lot of people. He'd converted nearly the entire south red in 1980 and he got 59% of the vote in 1984. Even California and New York voted red in both elections.

As for the USSR, Reagan did nothing to bring them down. The USSR brought down the USSR all on its own, all we had to do was wait it out.

100% agree, and it also lead to the same effect in the UK with Thatcher (whom I view in exactly the same light as Reagan).

 

[Keef]

You make a good argument here, raising a major question and as you often do, providing a sensible answer. But in your context let's not forget the door was opened and the stage was set with Nixon's seven day visit to China and resumption of harmonious relations with China, fully normalized in 1979. But even so, I think the question is big enough to admit of other sorts of answers. Just now, what I can add with 100% certainty is that by the 90's Boeing was moving heaven and Earth to outsource labor and production to China. Corporate enmity to labor unions played a role in this, also with certainty.

I feel like Nixon did play a huge role in developing a lot of modern Republicanism but the time wasn't right yet for full implementation. He also invented the whole Southern Strategy concept and the whole "law and order" deception. But Reagan and his campaign took those ideas and ran with them to tremendous effect. And of course took all the credit.

100% agree, and it also lead to the same effect in the UK with Thatcher (whom I view in exactly the same light as Reagan).

Like Dotini mentioned, did Thatcher invent those concepts or was she the implementer? I'm not familiar with her reign at all.

 

[Danoff]

Reagan is the president who ushered in the vast corporatism that plagues the US right now

You lost me early.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/04/politics/trump-loyalty-purge/index.html

More staffers are leaving the White House. Seems like the curtains are beginning to close.

 

[Keef]

7,062,155. The gap is now more than all the voters from Pennsylvania.

Edit: Welp, this is bad news. Not many changes when it comes to future redistricting, except that Republicans actually gained control over the process in New Hampshire, meaning they'll be able to gerrymander at will. Republican gains in Congress are a huge problem in my opinion. Dems will likely only have a +11 majority in the House. If they win the Georgia runoffs and balance the senate, with the VP having veto power, it'll be a different story, but until then it's not looking great.