The GOP can't leave MAGA — "Americans must electorally mercy-kill the Republican Party"

Trump thinks he doesn’t need to hide it, and he’s too much of a narcissist to let anyone home anything about him.

I love how he literally named things in his field of view for this. That speech certainly included words

And then when we stop following the laws and the election is cancelled, we'll see if the second amendment actually matters.

It's a lesson Caesar's Legion in Fallout New Vegas taught us. A cult built around a charismatic leader often collapses into infighting when the leader dies. They follow the man, not his ideals. It may not happen right away, but it will given enough time. The followers will start to disagree on small things, some will be scooped up by some other charismatic grifter. In the end the movement fractures.

What? Which ones?

I'm actually drawing blanks. Perhaps it's survivorship bias but to me it seems like most cults of personality stick around if there's no force actively shutting them down, generally with violence.

Nazi germany, for example, didn't end because hitler died. It ended because the allies and the soviet union occupied germany for decades squelching any Nazi sentiment. Ditto for Japan with the Hirohito (who himself was in a long line of royals that still continues just with muted power). You can look at mormonism where the founder was killed by a mob, that's still very much alive. Or Scientology where the leader had a heart attack. Heck, even the moonies are still around.

Without a heavy societal push, cults of personality very often linger.

Not to mention that the resistance is immensely fractured. I'm still not sure that we've seen an event heinous enough to galvanize the opposition past ideological boundaries. For many, stopping Trump is not yet enough to delay their potential political gains. Populism rides on the strongest human emotions, the easiest and vaguest enemies, and the simplest (wrong) answers. It's going to take a united effort, the sort that was brought about by the geopolitical situation in the FDR era, or I worry that we fail.

The implication is that if Trump wins, he won't be leaving in 4 years. He won't be leaving until death. Because that's what dictators do.

Exactly. Conservatives do not change. They just change how loud they are about their bigotry.

Is it not?

God, I wish.

I think it's important to clarify here that "the Republican Party" (see also: "the GOP") refers to the party leaders and political figures. It doesn't (usually) refer to the voters, although you might hear "Republican consituency" or "Republican voters", or even "Republicans". But "the Republican Party" is generally agreed to mean the leaders, or the organization that presents them as leaders. I think you agree with that point because you seem to be making the same clarification in your last sentence. My comment, and the article headline, are referring to this group.

I think I agree with you that the sheep don't need to be slaughtered, although they are going to need some very tough medicine.

The people who led them to this point? No mercy.

exactly.

Whether we like to believe it or not, no one is the villan of their own story. I won't deny that the Republican party courts the worst of the worst types of scumbags around us, but their propaganda machine gets so many people in so many different ways.

They managed to get my otherwise amazing gay cousin to vote for Trump by his displeasure with the Israel/Palestine conflict (this was well before the current genocide) The media he was consuming framed everything in terms of Democrat support so he was lead to believe the Republicans have the "compassionate" resolution. He votes against his own well being because of propaganda... :(

The Republican Party simply represents the voters, they’d get no votes without that.

So no, they don’t deserve mercy. The average conservative voter is the very reason we have this problem to begin with.

Politicians need someone to represent. They found it in America’s racists and nationalists.

Bollocks. Anyone who still supports Trump after 6 January 2021 knows exactly what they are signing up for.

Cool, so Hillary and the DNC were such incredible political masterminds that they single-handedly brainwashed GOP supporters into nominating Trump. And all the voters then picked him because, I assume, the DNC also tricked them into tacking toward fascism through, I guess, sheer force of political will.

Truly amazing.

Or course, it makes sense. Certainly when I think of the DNC and the Dems more broadly, I think of an incredibly effective organization with an all-powerful and unstoppable mind control apparatus demonstrating unparalleled powers to manipulate an unwitting electorate in order to achieve their nefarious goals.

And the GOP and their voters? Obviously simply sheep, following the lead of their Democratic puppet masters.

I'd call it a left-wing conspiracy theory, but if there's anything I know about the Dems, it's that they're such incredible strategic politicians that this can't be anything but the stone cold truth. Right?

Certainly that explains why, after the 2016 election, all those poor GOP voters woke up, confused and hung over, and realized what they'd done while under the spell of those nefarious Democrats, and why in subsequent years they rejected Trump wholeheartedly and certainly never goose stepped right along behind him.

In case you forget 2014-2016, Biden was immensely popular. He was seen as empathetic and with a sense of humor prior to Obama leaving office (remember all of the Biden/Obama bromance memes?) He was the most primed for the job in the public's eyes.

Yeah, that's the way I read, especially given all the republican infighting.

It needs an electoral system that makes third parties viable.

You know it's bad when "BuT hE hAsN't bEeN cOnViCtEd YeT!" is somehow a defense for supporting this guy.

Like, c'mon that nonsense wouldn't fly pertaining to your daughter's new boyfriend, why the heck would you let it excuse somebody running a crumbling world superpower?!

Trump is here because dems wanted an easier candidate to run against. https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/

Yeah, it would be the first king in the Trump dynasty. Blech.

The republican party is not a person though. Theres no need to be merciful to a ideaology, especially one that aspires to become fascism.

I bet that will work about as well as trickle down economics.

I hope so, sounds very risky to get rid of Republican party first and then wait in a one party system until something changes. I am afraid that once you have someone with complete power, they will use it to stay in power forever.

In countries with one party systems they also have winner-takes-all voting system. I think that without two parties at least, one party will take over complete power and use it to stay in power forever.

Yes, but it's more than that. The electoral college only affects the presidency. We also need ranked choice voting. The first-past-the-post system assures the dominance of two parties, which can play the voters off each other to do whatever the donor/capitalist class wants. Mandatory voting and fully publicly financed elections would also be huge wins.

Ranked choice has to precede a pluralistic system. We've had similar upheavals before, a long time ago (one presaged the civil war), but as long as we have first-past-the-post, it will always settle into two-party lock-in. But, and this is the good news, after the civil war, we had the second founding - a massive overhaul of the Constitution, for the better. If, in the aftermath of the death of the Republican party, we get another chance at that, (hopefully without all the killing), maybe we can enact ranked choice, eliminate the electoral college, ban gerrymandering, establish mandatory voting, add an enforced "none of the above" option to ballots, expand the Supreme Court, uncap the House of Reps limit, eliminate the senatorial land-vote in favor of proportional representation, get fully publicly funded elections, and and and am I asking too much? I just want a real democracy.

Extremely optimistic.

The two party system currently is holding hostage debates/funding/media. Even social media is in on it. Which is why a third party has always struggled. Not because they didn't have good ideas, but because they were shut out of the room.

Even if the Republican party disappears I guarentee liberals will tell you voting for a party like the greens or cpusa would be a wasted vote. It's the only strategy they have other than not being republicans.

https://www.keithfarrell.net/blog/2017/08/end-rightly-translation-error/

Actually, I felt hit over the head watching PBS Newshour after Katie Britt's objectively bizarre SOTU response. Here's a link to the recorded live stream timestamped immediately after Britt's address (~2:11:00)(you're welcome) https://www.youtube.com/live/nFMuU4uCFh0?si=70umbfLmLbqojLRj&t=7851

They responded like grown ass adults and (for the most part) on the content and relevance of her address. I don't know how they were able to hold it together with such professionalism. I think part of it is that they have a spectrum of political leanings there who still have respect for one another. They're there to report on the event and offer broad context to the story without getting in the weeds and bickering for ratings.

I agree with you that they are both genocide enablers but calling the pandemic a genocide doesn't quite work. It didn't wipe an entire group of people off of the planet or out of an area. But yes, anyone who supports Israel right now is a genocide enabler, literally, and unfortunately both qualify, and so does almost all of congress.

If the system only gives you genocide enablers as an option it's time to stop believing in that system.

Why should this challenge my worldview? I literally called him a psychopath. I just despice both of them.

Quite possible.

As long as it all cycles back to the defense contractors the real people in power in washington would let him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD6kvDHbIYY

Because they align with every thing you just said he's going to do?

They won't respond, they have thrown their hand grenade and they're off to the next comment section.

The mainstream media "fake news" has created a caricature out of Trump. They have taken what he has said out of context, taken soundbites, and not accurately reported what he's said and done. Therefore, it is no surprise to me that you, and many, feel the way you do. I'd be on your side if I believed the caricature version.

Look, I've talked to enough people to realize that we have more in common than not. And what's dividing us are the filters. I listen to Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and Joe Rogan. Others (speaking in generalities, not specifically you) may read and listen to MSNBC, Salon, The Atlantic, The Rolling Stones, etc. Fair to say these two categories are not even reporting the same basic information, let alone opinion on the matter.

May I suggest listening and going to these sources that don't agree with you (or you even find very offensive), and see what they have to say. That's why I'm here. I want to connect with people, and see what people I don't necessarily agree with are saying. I don't care what you believe or where you came from.

I realize I didn't exactly answer the question you asked, but if you really are interested in what I think (and I'm no one special) reply and I'd be happy to talk to you.