Even the most reasonable among the Republican candidates is a total weirdo:
Even if it’s just a pose, it’s a pretty obnoxious one. Pretending not to use email has gone out of vogue back in 2001.
Weirdos
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
Even the most reasonable among the Republican candidates is a total weirdo:
Even if it’s just a pose, it’s a pretty obnoxious one. Pretending not to use email has gone out of vogue back in 2001.
Clarissa's Blog 
I am wondering what the present-day Republicans have in common with their predecessors. As far as I can see, the only thing that makes them resemble the ‘old’ ones is the name of the party.
Nixon, one of the greatest Republicans, stopped the war in Vietnam, while Bush Jr. unleashed a war in Iraq.
There are more examples, and all of them support my understanding, true or not, that the modern Republican party has nothing to do with what it was supposed to be.
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“the modern Republican party has nothing to do with what it was supposed to be.”
Short (simplified) version. Before the 1960’s the Republicans were fiscally conservative and socially kind of neutral to liberal (or slightly conservative)
The Democrats were an ungainly hodgepodge of northern liberals, southern (white) conservatives and southern blacks.
Democrat support for the Civil Rights Movement (the defining domestic issue of the 20th century) fractured the democrats and alienated the southern conservatives.
A decision was made by the Republicans to recruit them (known as the Southern Strategy) in partly to grow the party and partly to hopefully damage the Democrats.
Things didn’t quite work out that way. Without the Southern Conservatives the Democrats gained in overall cohesion and many self-destructive tendencies were brought under control.
Then Roe v. Wade was used to keep the new Republicans in line (and angry and easy to rally) but the New Republicans effectively took over and exiled the former more socially liberal republicans and since the late 1970s the party has been in thrall to the Evangelical bible crazies.
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That’s a pretty good summary! Thanks.
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Yes, the moment you involve the crazies, you subscribe to all the consequences. And what a mistake that was!
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Ah, it’s nice to find a commentator on a progressive website who acknowledges that Nixon was one of the U.S.’s better Presidents in the post-WWII era.
You’re also right that the Republican Party has changed radically, and for the worse, in the last few decades — but then, so have the Democrats, and in America those two parties are our only choices.
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The Democrats have moved away from the horrible JFK, and that’s a massive improvement already.
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Well, I personally couldn’t stand Kennedy, but most “progressives” seem to be very enamored of his memory, while they detest his successor LBJ.
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I’m the opposite. I’m fine with LBJ but I detest Kennedy. What a fatuous, feckless fop of a fellow.
Please appreciate the alliteration.
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I’m always enamored of eloquent elocution. 🙂
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Better yet, “eternally enamored. . .” 🙂
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“Better yet, ‘eternally enamored.’ ”
Hey, it was just a first draft…
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Kasich has been perfectly awful as my state’s governor. One of my big fears has been that he will come from behind and get the nomination. He can come off as reasonable, I think he could be electable. Fortunately, he does not seem to be gaining much momentum (knock on wood).
And really, on the email thing. My 96 year old uncle emails!
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Oh, I’m not a Kasich fan or anything. But his competition is Trump and Cruz, and it’s kind of easy to look mentally stable by contrast.
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Of course he’s going to pretend he doesn’t know. Fear of newness and change defines Republicans and they’d very much like to pretend nothing good happened since Bush Elder’s presidency. If he acknowledges this story he has to comfort the spoilt whiny babies who think the ranchers are oppressed. For obvious reasons he doesn’t want to condone armed insurrection against the federal government.
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It’s true that he might be faking it. Which would be quite deranged on its own but against the backdrop of other candidates his dysfunction looks modest.
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FYI on one of the poor beleaguered ranchers
A militant leader on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge told OPB his involvement in the occupation has resulted in the loss of his four foster children.
Robert “LaVoy” Finicum and his wife Jeanette were foster care parents for troubled boys. Finicum estimates that over the past decade, more than 50 boys came through their ranch near Chino Valley, Arizona. The boys often landed there from mental hospitals, drug rehabs and group homes for emotionally distressed youth.
“My ranch has been a great tool for these boys,” Finicum said. “It has done a lot of good.”
Jeanette Finicum cared for the four children while her husband traveled between the refuge in southeastern Oregon and Utah, as part of a press tour in support of the militants’ occupation…
Finicum said he is licensed and has a care contract with Catholic Charities Community Services in Arizona. While his license has not been revoked, Finicum said he would no longer receive referrals to care for foster children…
That represents an enormous loss of income for the Finicums. According to a 2010 tax filing, Catholic Charities paid the family $115,343 to foster children in 2009. That year, foster parents were compensated between $22.31 and $37.49 per child, per day, meaning if the Finicums were paid at the maximum rate, they cared for, on average, eight children per day in 2009.
“That was my main source of income,” Finicum said. “My ranch, well, the cows just cover the costs of the ranch. If this means rice and beans for the next few years, so be it. We’re going to stay the course.
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Serves him right for violating the law with armed insurrection. All of those insurrectionists should have already been put in prison — or in a more permanently restful state — weeks ago.
Foster child care in this county is often a big money-making racket, anyway.
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One of these “deranged” Republicans is going to be your next President. Better start getting used to the idea. 🙂
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Oh God, Hillary has gone Republican? ? That sly broad!
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A lot of Bernie supporters consider her a center-right, Wall-Street-loving, warmongering, Republican elephant disguised as a jackass.
The country will survive nicely even if she’s elected.
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