Congratulations, Trumpsters

[Lastamender]

You people have simply left the planet.

b
This decision was made on inauguration day, 2017. Trump drew the line in the sand with his lies about the inauguration crowd. He wanted to play with his new power. The cultists jumped over that line and never looked back.

This stuff is difficult for me to get my head around, because I just don't understand this level of attachment.

Something this powerful has to be animated by an intensity of anger and rage and paranoia that I just don't know.

Irony? Or just rank hypocrisy and projection?

Well, I don't know.

I'm sure you have the answer, and that it's The Truth.

Of course you don't know.

 

[Mac1958]

You people have simply left the planet.

b
This decision was made on inauguration day, 2017. Trump drew the line in the sand with his lies about the inauguration crowd. He wanted to play with his new power. The cultists jumped over that line and never looked back.

This stuff is difficult for me to get my head around, because I just don't understand this level of attachment.

Something this powerful has to be animated by an intensity of anger and rage and paranoia that I just don't know.

I hear ya. I don't understand it, either. What common theme would cause two very different people -- say, a pastor from Missouri and an atheist Proud Boy from the Bronx -- to go prostate for the same person? I mean, I can get reductionist and look at the pastor's penchant for wishing to be ruled by an authoritarian figure (he has already accepted his celestial slave owner, so the transition to the cult of a man is surely an easy one). Then look at the Proud Boy and see how Trump appealed to the very worst, base impulses in people, which are the defining traits of the Proud Boys. But that just doesn't seem to quite cut it. I mean, look at how many government-fearing, paranoid right wingers have fallen at the feet of a wannabe authoritarian?

I have to wonder if we will ever figure this out.

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I do believe that this is the manifestation of profound, pent-up rage, and I strongly suspect I know the culprits. But it's difficult to understand something to which you just don't relate.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I think we can look at the past for lessons. The Founding Fathers anticipated this, in their musings about the electoral college. How ironic that the EC ended up doing precisely the opposite of one of its intents. It's hard not to believe that these are just human traits that are always boiling just below the surface. Civilization is a thin veil. We see soccer crowds of what are normal people the other 6 days of the week rush the field and literally dismember the referee (in Brazil, a couple years ago). We see the same people in Hungary who celebrated the fall of the USSR and authoritarian rule now celebrate their new transition to authoritarianism just a couple decades later. We saw rich people so angry that they could not own humans that they sent young, poor people to die in fields and seceded from the Union.

It would be a mistake to think the tendencies toward such evils as slavery and genocide have somehow disappeared from our human genome in 160 years or 80 years. All of those tendencies are still there. All of the tendencies that produced feudalism for millennia are still there, just below the surface. All of the tendencies that caused people to worship Stalin as a god are still within all of us.

Sleep tight!

 

[XponentialChaos]

Of course we will support a RINO over a Democrat any day of the week, but we don't support RINO's over conservatives.

Did you call them RINOs when you voted for them? I bet you supported Romney and McCain, didn’t you?

 

[Mac1958]

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I think we can look at the past for lessons. The Founding Fathers anticipated this, in their musings about the electoral college. How ironic that the EC ended up doing precisely the opposite of one of its intents. It's hard not to believe that these are just human traits that are always boiling just below the surface. Civilization is a thin veil. We see soccer crowds of what are normal people the other 6 days of the week rush the field and literally dismember the referee (in Brazil, a couple years ago). We see the same people in Hungary who celebrated the fall of the USSR and authoritarian rule now celebrate their new transition to authoritarianism just a couple decades later. We saw rich people so angry that they could not own humans that they sent young, poor people to die in fields and seceded from the Union.

It would be a mistake to think the tendencies toward such evils as slavery and genocide have somehow disappeared from our human genome in 160 years or 80 years. All of those tendencies are still there. All of the tendencies that produced feudalism for millennia are still there, just below the surface. All of the tendencies that caused people to worship Stalin as a god are still within all of us.

Sleep tight!

Yeah, we need only go back 80 and 90 years to see this kind of thing in another place.

I never, ever expected to see this here, never. Maybe that's what makes this so difficult.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I think we can look at the past for lessons. The Founding Fathers anticipated this, in their musings about the electoral college. How ironic that the EC ended up doing precisely the opposite of one of its intents. It's hard not to believe that these are just human traits that are always boiling just below the surface. Civilization is a thin veil. We see soccer crowds of what are normal people the other 6 days of the week rush the field and literally dismember the referee (in Brazil, a couple years ago). We see the same people in Hungary who celebrated the fall of the USSR and authoritarian rule now celebrate their new transition to authoritarianism just a couple decades later. We saw rich people so angry that they could not own humans that they sent young, poor people to die in fields and seceded from the Union.

It would be a mistake to think the tendencies toward such evils as slavery and genocide have somehow disappeared from our human genome in 160 years or 80 years. All of those tendencies are still there. All of the tendencies that produced feudalism for millennia are still there, just below the surface. All of the tendencies that caused people to worship Stalin as a god are still within all of us.

Sleep tight!

Yeah, we need only go back 80 and 90 years to see this kind of thing in another place.

I never, ever expected to see this here, never. Maybe that's what makes this so difficult.

Yes, exactly. I never did, either. Now we see how naïve we were. We always took for granted democracy, peaceful transition of power, and the idea that this insane cultism would be watered down to ineffectuality by a large, educated population whenever it arose. We viewed our institutions as invincible pillars that, along woth separation of powers, would create a buffer against a person like Trump creating a cult of 50 million strong.

And then we watched one man burn down our democracy and institutions to within an inch of their lives. The AG was his personal defense attorney in a civil lawsuit. The Senate excused extortion of a foreign leader for personal gain and incitement of violent insurrection. He installed unqualified lackeys as leaders in the Pentagon and came perilously close to ordering the military to void the election. Our federal courts have been stacked with unqualified partisans as judges. We became the embarrassment of the world in a pandemic.

I could go on, but you get the picture. We had better learn a lesson and learn it well.

 

[Mac1958]

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I think we can look at the past for lessons. The Founding Fathers anticipated this, in their musings about the electoral college. How ironic that the EC ended up doing precisely the opposite of one of its intents. It's hard not to believe that these are just human traits that are always boiling just below the surface. Civilization is a thin veil. We see soccer crowds of what are normal people the other 6 days of the week rush the field and literally dismember the referee (in Brazil, a couple years ago). We see the same people in Hungary who celebrated the fall of the USSR and authoritarian rule now celebrate their new transition to authoritarianism just a couple decades later. We saw rich people so angry that they could not own humans that they sent young, poor people to die in fields and seceded from the Union.

It would be a mistake to think the tendencies toward such evils as slavery and genocide have somehow disappeared from our human genome in 160 years or 80 years. All of those tendencies are still there. All of the tendencies that produced feudalism for millennia are still there, just below the surface. All of the tendencies that caused people to worship Stalin as a god are still within all of us.

Sleep tight!

Yeah, we need only go back 80 and 90 years to see this kind of thing in another place.

I never, ever expected to see this here, never. Maybe that's what makes this so difficult.

Yes, exactly. I never did, either. Now we see how naïve we were. We always took for granted democracy, peaceful transition of power, and the idea that this insane cultism would be watered down to ineffectuality by a large, educated population whenever it arose. We viewed our institutions as invincible pillars that, along woth separation of powers, would create a buffer against a person like Trump creating a cult of 50 million strong.

And then we watched one man burn down our democracy and institutions to within an inch of their lives. The AG was his personal defense attorney in a civil lawsuit. The Senate excused extortion of a foreign leader for personal gain and incitement of violent insurrection. He installed unqualified lackeys as leaders in the Pentagon and came perilously close to ordering the military to void the election. Our federal courts have been stacked with unqualified partisans as judges. We became the embarrassment of the world in a pandemic.

I could go on, but you get the picture. We had better learn a lesson and learn it well.

Life gives us cautionary tales. It's up to us to learn from them.

I don't know if we have here. We did in November, but I don't know if we can stay focused.

Our daughters (23 & 26) couldn't wait to vote in 2020. I hope they stay that way.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I think we can look at the past for lessons. The Founding Fathers anticipated this, in their musings about the electoral college. How ironic that the EC ended up doing precisely the opposite of one of its intents. It's hard not to believe that these are just human traits that are always boiling just below the surface. Civilization is a thin veil. We see soccer crowds of what are normal people the other 6 days of the week rush the field and literally dismember the referee (in Brazil, a couple years ago). We see the same people in Hungary who celebrated the fall of the USSR and authoritarian rule now celebrate their new transition to authoritarianism just a couple decades later. We saw rich people so angry that they could not own humans that they sent young, poor people to die in fields and seceded from the Union.

It would be a mistake to think the tendencies toward such evils as slavery and genocide have somehow disappeared from our human genome in 160 years or 80 years. All of those tendencies are still there. All of the tendencies that produced feudalism for millennia are still there, just below the surface. All of the tendencies that caused people to worship Stalin as a god are still within all of us.

Sleep tight!

Yeah, we need only go back 80 and 90 years to see this kind of thing in another place.

I never, ever expected to see this here, never. Maybe that's what makes this so difficult.

Yes, exactly. I never did, either. Now we see how naïve we were. We always took for granted democracy, peaceful transition of power, and the idea that this insane cultism would be watered down to ineffectuality by a large, educated population whenever it arose. We viewed our institutions as invincible pillars that, along woth separation of powers, would create a buffer against a person like Trump creating a cult of 50 million strong.

And then we watched one man burn down our democracy and institutions to within an inch of their lives. The AG was his personal defense attorney in a civil lawsuit. The Senate excused extortion of a foreign leader for personal gain and incitement of violent insurrection. He installed unqualified lackeys as leaders in the Pentagon and came perilously close to ordering the military to void the election. Our federal courts have been stacked with unqualified partisans as judges. We became the embarrassment of the world in a pandemic.

I could go on, but you get the picture. We had better learn a lesson and learn it well.

Life gives us cautionary tales. It's up to us to learn from them.

I don't know if we have here. We did in November, but I don't know if we can stay focused.

Our daughters (23 & 26) couldn't wait to vote in 2020. I hope they stay that way.

My kids (13 & 18) are shocked at how many of their peers have, in just a couple of years, turned into raging, gaping assholes. They both say it is like being around a bunch of little Trumps. They have already both decided they will either find communities not teeming with these assholes or leave the country entirely. As you know, we live in Indiana. At the same time, they both still have a few close friends that are "Trumpers". I try to talk to them about that, and about how they CAN get along with people like that. Sadly, they both admit that the only way it works is if their Trumper friends "act normal" when they need to do so. We both know they wont be "acting normal" when they find themselves in a crowd of cultists.

13 year old Trump cultists. It's hard for me to wrap my head around.

 

[odanny]

Decade after decade of the GOP ignoring your poor, ignorant, working class base has allowed a carnival barker and professional con man to completely take over this party. This is not good for America, we need two parties, both of them sane. We only have one that meets this criteria.

 

[bripat9643]

What have estblishment RINOs ever achieved aside from selling out our country the to Democrats?

Where ya been, bri? The mentally ill orange slob managed to give the White House, House, amd Senate to the Democrats in just 4 years. Sorry i had to be the one to deliver the bad news.

That's not an answer to my question, moron.

 

[odanny]

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I think we can look at the past for lessons. The Founding Fathers anticipated this, in their musings about the electoral college. How ironic that the EC ended up doing precisely the opposite of one of its intents. It's hard not to believe that these are just human traits that are always boiling just below the surface. Civilization is a thin veil. We see soccer crowds of what are normal people the other 6 days of the week rush the field and literally dismember the referee (in Brazil, a couple years ago). We see the same people in Hungary who celebrated the fall of the USSR and authoritarian rule now celebrate their new transition to authoritarianism just a couple decades later. We saw rich people so angry that they could not own humans that they sent young, poor people to die in fields and seceded from the Union.

It would be a mistake to think the tendencies toward such evils as slavery and genocide have somehow disappeared from our human genome in 160 years or 80 years. All of those tendencies are still there. All of the tendencies that produced feudalism for millennia are still there, just below the surface. All of the tendencies that caused people to worship Stalin as a god are still within all of us.

Sleep tight!

Yeah, we need only go back 80 and 90 years to see this kind of thing in another place.

I never, ever expected to see this here, never. Maybe that's what makes this so difficult.

Yes, exactly. I never did, either. Now we see how naïve we were. We always took for granted democracy, peaceful transition of power, and the idea that this insane cultism would be watered down to ineffectuality by a large, educated population whenever it arose. We viewed our institutions as invincible pillars that, along woth separation of powers, would create a buffer against a person like Trump creating a cult of 50 million strong.

And then we watched one man burn down our democracy and institutions to within an inch of their lives. The AG was his personal defense attorney in a civil lawsuit. The Senate excused extortion of a foreign leader for personal gain and incitement of violent insurrection. He installed unqualified lackeys as leaders in the Pentagon and came perilously close to ordering the military to void the election. Our federal courts have been stacked with unqualified partisans as judges. We became the embarrassment of the world in a pandemic.

I could go on, but you get the picture. We had better learn a lesson and learn it well.

Life gives us cautionary tales. It's up to us to learn from them.

I don't know if we have here. We did in November, but I don't know if we can stay focused.

Our daughters (23 & 26) couldn't wait to vote in 2020. I hope they stay that way.

My kids (13 & 18) are shocked at how many of their peers have, in just a couple of years, turned into raging, gaping assholes. They both say it is like being around a bunch of little Trumps. They have already both decided they will either find communities not teeming with these assholes or leave the country entirely. As you know, we live in Indiana. At the same time, they both still have a few close friends that are "Trumpers". I try to talk to them about that, and about how they CAN get along with people like that. Sadly, they both admit that the only way it works is if their Trumper friends "act normal" when they need to do so. We both know they wont be "acting normal" when they find themselves in a crowd of cultists.

13 year old Trump cultists. It's hard for me to wrap my head around.

. Wow, that’s too bad, but the indoctrination centers for these kids is in the churches, there is no way any of them will lose their tax exempt status from preaching Trumpism, ain’t happening. We are in the midst of the Great Awakening, the Trump Revival era of American politics. The actual awakening is among those of us who know both history and psychology and have seen this movie before, and they never have a happy ending, it’s always about rebuilding what dangerous cults like these ultimately destroy. Myself, I’ve already got an escape plan, and can be activated before the race for the White House in 2024 begins in earnest. I’ll enjoy watching from afar.

 

[bripat9643]

It's frustrating, living in historic times. I wish I had a fast-forward button I could press to see how this is analyzed in 20 years.

I think we can look at the past for lessons. The Founding Fathers anticipated this, in their musings about the electoral college. How ironic that the EC ended up doing precisely the opposite of one of its intents. It's hard not to believe that these are just human traits that are always boiling just below the surface. Civilization is a thin veil. We see soccer crowds of what are normal people the other 6 days of the week rush the field and literally dismember the referee (in Brazil, a couple years ago). We see the same people in Hungary who celebrated the fall of the USSR and authoritarian rule now celebrate their new transition to authoritarianism just a couple decades later. We saw rich people so angry that they could not own humans that they sent young, poor people to die in fields and seceded from the Union.

It would be a mistake to think the tendencies toward such evils as slavery and genocide have somehow disappeared from our human genome in 160 years or 80 years. All of those tendencies are still there. All of the tendencies that produced feudalism for millennia are still there, just below the surface. All of the tendencies that caused people to worship Stalin as a god are still within all of us.

Sleep tight!

Yeah, we need only go back 80 and 90 years to see this kind of thing in another place.

I never, ever expected to see this here, never. Maybe that's what makes this so difficult.

Yes, exactly. I never did, either. Now we see how naïve we were. We always took for granted democracy, peaceful transition of power, and the idea that this insane cultism would be watered down to ineffectuality by a large, educated population whenever it arose. We viewed our institutions as invincible pillars that, along woth separation of powers, would create a buffer against a person like Trump creating a cult of 50 million strong.

And then we watched one man burn down our democracy and institutions to within an inch of their lives. The AG was his personal defense attorney in a civil lawsuit. The Senate excused extortion of a foreign leader for personal gain and incitement of violent insurrection. He installed unqualified lackeys as leaders in the Pentagon and came perilously close to ordering the military to void the election. Our federal courts have been stacked with unqualified partisans as judges. We became the embarrassment of the world in a pandemic.

I could go on, but you get the picture. We had better learn a lesson and learn it well.

Life gives us cautionary tales. It's up to us to learn from them.

I don't know if we have here. We did in November, but I don't know if we can stay focused.

Our daughters (23 & 26) couldn't wait to vote in 2020. I hope they stay that way.

My kids (13 & 18) are shocked at how many of their peers have, in just a couple of years, turned into raging, gaping assholes. They both say it is like being around a bunch of little Trumps. They have already both decided they will either find communities not teeming with these assholes or leave the country entirely. As you know, we live in Indiana. At the same time, they both still have a few close friends that are "Trumpers". I try to talk to them about that, and about how they CAN get along with people like that. Sadly, they both admit that the only way it works is if their Trumper friends "act normal" when they need to do so. We both know they wont be "acting normal" when they find themselves in a crowd of cultists.

13 year old Trump cultists. It's hard for me to wrap my head around.

Tell them not to let the door hit them in the ass on they way out.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Of course we will support a RINO over a Democrat any day of the week, but we don't support RINO's over conservatives.

Did you call them RINOs when you voted for them? I bet you supported Romney and McCain, didn’t you?

What did I just say? Of course I voted for them. WTF wanted a community organizer running this country.

 

[XponentialChaos]

Of course we will support a RINO over a Democrat any day of the week, but we don't support RINO's over conservatives.

Did you call them RINOs when you voted for them? I bet you supported Romney and McCain, didn’t you?

What did I just say? Of course I voted for them. WTF wanted a community organizer running this country.

Did you call them RINOs when you voted for them?

You know, the question I asked you the first time. Don’t worry, I can repeat myself for you and you can try answering this time.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Did you call them RINOs when you voted for them?

You know, the question I asked you the first time. Don’t worry, I can repeat myself for you and you can try answering this time.

Yes, I knew exactly what they were, but again, I would rather have a RINO in office than a Socialist, so of course I supported them.

 

[XponentialChaos]

Did you call them RINOs when you voted for them?

You know, the question I asked you the first time. Don’t worry, I can repeat myself for you and you can try answering this time.

Yes, I knew exactly what they were, but again, I would rather have a RINO in office than a Socialist, so of course I supported them.

Sorry, I don’t believe you considered them RINOs back then.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Sorry, I don’t believe you considered them RINOs back then.

Believe what you want. Conservatives were not happy with either one of them. We had no real choice but to support them. If they won, at least the party has some control over what they do. We have no control when a Democrat wins.

 

[XponentialChaos]

Sorry, I don’t believe you considered them RINOs back then.

Believe what you want. Conservatives were not happy with either one of them. We had no real choice but to support them. If they won, at least the party has some control over what they do. We have no control when a Democrat wins.

Yea, it’s not like they were selected by conservatives or anything.

Who did you vote for in the primary elections?

 

[Mac1958]

Did you call them RINOs when you voted for them?

You know, the question I asked you the first time. Don’t worry, I can repeat myself for you and you can try answering this time.

Yes, I knew exactly what they were, but again, I would rather have a RINO in office than a Socialist, so of course I supported them.

Sorry, I don’t believe you considered them RINOs back then.

This is exactly why Democrats can't start doing the happy dance.

I think we're still in a time in which Republicans are simply going to vote for the (R), just as many Democrats are simply going to vote for the (D). They're willing to forgive pretty much all of Trump's, uh, foibles, because they have to vote against the Democrats. When push comes to shove.

Trump knows that. He also knows that the Dems have weaknesses that he can exploit, primarily on the cultural side. PC. Identity Politics. Cancel Culture.

Dismissing Trump, and Trumpism, is badly premature. Sadly. This ain't over.

 

[Bush92]

In all seriousness, I have to hand it to you: You have completely kicked ass and taken over your party.

It's not my job to understand this, but I sure as hell can see the results. The GOP "civil war" is over, if it ever really existed to begin with.

The final straw for me came from Mitch McConnell -- who has been trying to straddle the fence and failing pretty badly -- yesterday. Just a couple of weeks after condemning Trump on the Senate floor for his responsibility in the Capitol terrorist attacks of January 6, Mitch has now completely capitulated and said he would "absolutely" back Trump in 2024.

One guy owns a political party now. Incredible. And congratulations, I guess.

McConnell says he would 'absolutely' support Trump as 2024 nominee

McConnell this month called Trump's role in the deadly Jan. 6 riot a "disgraceful dereliction of duty."

www.nbcnews.com

Direction it needed to go. Spinless turd RINO's refused to fight Pelosi and her dream of a socialist America. Time to get tough and stop turning coward under liberal fire.