In the US the Republican Party is going over a cliff. They have tied their fate to Donald Trump, a brainless wonder with no moral centre. That can only end badly. But Trump is more effect than cause.
Republicans no longer follow democratic norms:
- In the press, they rely on propaganda, not facts.
- On the campaign trail, they rely on a cult of personality, not ideology.
- At they ballot box, they rely on voter suppression, not majority votes.
- In Congress they rely on obstruction, not compromise.
Even before Trump: Mitch McConnell was already obstructing Congress, Fox News was already spewing propaganda, and Republicans on the Supreme Court had already gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This is not normal: A functioning party in a democracy will compromise to get laws and budgets passed, not bring the country to the brink of default on its public debt. A functioning party that starts losing elections will broaden its message to appeal to more people – not try to strip those people of their votes.
Science and stuff: There used to be a set of facts, stuff like science and news reporting, that both parties more or less agreed on. Their differences were philosophical. But now the Republicans have become largely cut off from reality by Fox News propaganda, Trump’s tweets, and their own echo chamber of fear mongering. So much so that the US government now seems to think that the greatest threat to the nation is a few thousand Honduran refugees – something the US used to take in stride without calling out the army.
Republican Bubble: Cable news and the Internet allow people to know more about the world than ever before. But they also allow people to withdraw into filter bubbles where they hear only what they want to hear – reality à la carte.
Southern Strategy ad absurdum: The Republicans used to stand for stuff like family values, balanced budgets, and national security. All that is gone. The religious right no longer even demands moral leadership. What remains is the naked capitalism of the Republican donor base and the naked racism of their voter base.
Demographic death: As if all that was not bad enough, the Republican Party has tied itself so closely to White racism that it faces demographic death: by the 2040s Whites will be a minority. Doubling down on racism, as Trump has done, can only work for so long.
Three main ways this could go:
- Republicans go extinct, like the Whig Party in the 1850s. A new right-wing party rises from the ashes.
- Republicans go democratic and broaden their message to appeal to more than half the people, presumably after some shocking defeat wakes them up.
- Republicans go fascist and destroy what is left of democracy. This is the direction they are headed in now with voter suppression, Citizens United, Orwellian propaganda, and their cult of personality.
A large number Whites seem to believe not so much in democracy as White rule.
– Abagond, 2018.
See also:
- The midterms
- Republicans – written in 2006!
- The Southern strategy
- The Republican bubble
- Fox News
- Sinclair News
- Donald Trump
- Mitch McConnell
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Citizens United
- fascism
- Whig Party
- Know-Nothing Party
544
Scientists estimate that “modern” humans first appeared on earth ~200,000 years ago. Furthermore they say that up to 8000 years ago Europeans were not white people. If we took the period of human existence on earth, as claimed by scientists, and shrunk it to 1 hour, white people would have entered the house less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds ago.
During that 2.5 minutes they have managed to kill, rob, or tie up everyone else in the house and have started to befoul it to such an extent that it is rapidly becoming unsuitable for habitation by the survivors, pets, and the newcomers. That is some Dylan Roof stuff right there.
So while the GOP is crazy, and Bolsonaro is crazy, I can’t be shocked because white people are crazy. The good news is that they are temporary and they know it, hence the instinctive panic and rabble-rousing. They will not be around for 1 minute more.
All roads lead to oblivion because, as they love to tell us, miscegenation will eliminate the racial features they narcissistically adore. However, scrupulous separation will accomplish the same thing due to free-falling fecundity and sperm counts: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/29/infertility-crisis-sperm-counts-halved .
Despite growing up in a world bathed in the inflated ego of a megalomaniacal race I have come to appreciate its true speck-like insignificance. Neither the past nor the future belong to them. So instead of being perpetually bothered by their collective choice to be vile in their allotted time, I now find myself laughing within my soul. We are all Tamron Hall.
Now excuse me while I resume gift-wrapping directions to the cliff for mailing. Anyone thinks I should include a pied-piper plushy?
I’ll custom-design a few rotund ones with ratty blonde hair and small orange hands.
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I remember LoM used to hate posts like those. But when you look at the big picture, ie. rise 10,000 feet in the past and survey the land, then press fast-forward, you’ll see white people spreading out rapidly and carrying terror and genocide. So I find the generalizations to be justified because you can’t see individual actions from 10,000 feet just large-scale transformations. In the end, even having a white friend or spouse does not change the large-scale reality.
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The Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground. The Democrats are not much better either. Something different needs to be put in it’s place. And still problematic the Independent (Green) Party is not strong enough it doesn’t have enough traction. Our government in America is trash.
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Always going on about family values, and morals and decency and Christianity and they are the antithesis of these things. Especially in this time in the political cult of 45.
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A question that needs asking to these so called “Never Trumpers” Why do they continue to be Republicans when they are seeing How reprehensible the Republican Party is?
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@ Mary Burrell
It’s simple Mary. Tribalism. It’s a powerful drug.
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The Republican party aren’t suddenly “going” fascist as if this were some sort of deviation from the natural order of American politics. Fascism, or something much like it, has been the endgame of the entire conservative movement since the 1970s. Everything from Reagan on has been building up to this, the moment where they attempt to dismantle the liberal democratic restraints that keep capital from devouring society. The moment Donald Trump was elected I realized liberalism had failed and that only radicals and revolutionaries can stop empire, white supremacy, capitalism, and the destruction of the biosphere.
Abagond, have you ever considered revisiting communism? You don’t seem to like Marx very much, but the radical left these days seems to be swinging away from Marxism and towards anti-state anarcho-communism anyway. Have you read The Conquest of Bread by Pyotr Kropotkin? He pretty much predicted the Soviet Union 30 years before it actually happened–that Marxists, in seizing the state in the name of the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, would be corrupted by the state and, instead of letting it “wither away”, identify with it and become capitalists themselves, like the ending of Animal Farm, and The Conquest of Bread presents a dated but still pretty relevant vision for a bottom-up alternative. It’s also written in much plainer language than Marx used, and with a more relatable and less “scientific” style.
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@abagond
“A large number Whites seem to believe not so much in democracy as White rule”
Remember that, for almost a century after 1776, white people – even the framers of the constitution – had slaves despite the apparent contradiction of the plainly read words of the constitution. It would actually be less shocking if the contradiction had been ignored in a fog of cognitive dissonance but, in a stark revelation of total dehumanization, there was no contradiction at all. While the constitution claimed that all “men” had inalienable rights it was also implicitly understood that black slaves were not “men” at all.
In fact, that was the argument used by the Supreme Court in denying Dred Scott’s claim to freedom under the constitution. The court made an “originalist” argument that the rights guaranteed by the constitution could not apply to African slaves because the framers had slaves and only crazy people could operate in such a contradictory manner. To quote Justice Taney:
I bring this up in response to your statement about democratic values because there is a clear connection. There is no contradiction for a lot of them in desiring “whites only”, “democratic” rule. The effort they put into voter suppression implies as much.
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i think, officially, you can call it pandering to joe 6 pack. i mean what other play is there besides whipping up divisiveness, i don’t see factories springing out of the ground
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or any type of govt programs to enable that, oh wait, was cutting out middle class tax cuts supposed to do that or the clownish twitter feed, not sure.
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@ abagond
“Republicans go fascist and destroy what is left of democracy. This is the direction they are headed in now with voter suppression, Citizens United, Orwellian propaganda, and their cult of personality.”
I know that you sometimes like to make predictions about the future, and that you also know a lot about the past, such as the fall of Rome and the dissolution of the USSR. I would love to see a post in which you give your ideas about the probable future of the US government. How much longer will this country be democratic? When will states begin to form new nations?
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@tankermottind
The reason why the Soviet Union didn’t desolve its state is because America and NATO were still active threats to the revolution, and they needed state power to protect it. Any revolutionary struggle that takes place outside of the First World/Global North will need a state apparatus to coordinate its resources and organize its defenses against Imperial Capital
Demonizing the Soviet Union serves none of us, especially since their aid was instrumental towards the decolonization of Africa, the defense of Cuba, and the struggle against Apartheid, which are far more important than arguing about whether or not USSR was “Actual Socialism”
“Fascism” is a redundant term invented by the Far Right of the 1800s and 1900s; colonialism is better. What we call fascism is actually a historical moment of “primative accumulation”. In other words, “fascism” is what happens when (usually white) colonizers rape murder and plunder the rest of us for anything we possess and split the plunder amongst themselves. This is what colonizers have been doing since 1492.
The left have obscured a clear understanding of colonialism by accepting the Far Right’s language at face value. Which is unfortunate, because only through an understanding of colonialism can we understand that racism wasn’t invented to “divide the working class”; racism was invented to create a multi-national coalition of Europeans of all classes in a centuries long effort to enslave and erradicate the rest of us through Colonization.
So, Fanon provides a much better blueprint for revolution in America. America is a late stage settler colony built on Stolen Land. To end rascism (which is the ideological component of colonialism) we have to decolonize this continent and end white settler control of the land and resources. Which means that looking to win over white working-class settlers is ~not~ going to work.
For the most part, they will remain loyal to this criminal enterprise to the bitter end. The best that can be said of working class settlers is that their relationship with capitalist class settlers is like that of a crew of pirates and their captain; they may disagree on whom to plunder and how to split the plunder, but not on the plundering itself.
So while they are free to help us decolonize if they what, and they are welcome to stay if they at least remain neutral imho, we should not help them seize the means of production or create an Anarchist society on this continent: a society of egalitarian pirates is still a society of pirates.
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@Tolaflions,
I mosy agree with tankermottind.
Colonialism was persued by both capitalists and communists. It wasn’t about what was the best economic system or what idiology brought about a “free and equal” society. It was about what resources the Soviets and their allies as well as the West could extract at the least amount of cost from countires they either forced or BS their way into.
White supremacy underlies both those systems. It is not their political rhetoric that matters but rather what they did and are doing today.
China today is making plans for the next 100 years. In laying the ground work for their empire that will replace the West they make it a point to not make it about idiological communism. That stratagy is a different path then what the West still does and what the Soviets use to do.
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So there has been another mass shooting by one Scott Paul Beierle. Apparently he was concerned about white “mongrelization” and thought white women were “w***es” for being involved inter-racially. Eventually he shot up white woman at a Tallahassee yoga studio.
There exists a group of very ANGRY white people and that group plays a role in the politics of our time. Existential fear is a huge factor. If the dearly departed Frances Cress Welsing were alive she’d definitely be reiterating her color theory which claims that white fear of annihilation is behind their racial hierarchy and the systems they’ve created.
According to a 2017 UN report, “Fertility in all European countries is now below the level required for replacement of the population in the long run and, in most cases, has been below the replacement level for several decades”. Furthermore, according to the same document: “The ten most populous countries with below replacement fertility are China, the United States of America, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Japan, Viet Nam, Germany, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Thailand, and the United Kingdom (in order of population size)”.
The who’s who of the current civilization are all on a trajectory of population decline due to both sociological and biological reasons. You don’t think governments know about these projections? You don’t think they know that, “While the populations of 40 low-fertility countries are projected to be smaller by mid-century, some 25 high-fertility countries, nearly all in Africa, are expected to see their populations more than double by 2050” ( https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/replacement-fertility-declines-worldwide ) What about the fact that “whites are dying faster than they are being born now in 26 [US] states, up from 17 just two years earlier, and demographers say that shift [towards majority-minority] might come even sooner [than 2045]”. Could this be why France’s Macron recently scolded African women for having too many babies when the vast, resource-rich continent (China, India and the USA can all fit into it) currently has fewer people than India or China?
I actually typed up a longer post on this, but thought it would distract too much from the topic (even though it’s related to the political activities of a certain faction). Suffice to say that we should be attention to how projected demographic changes influence politics. According to Kuebler-Ross anger comes after denial in the stages of grief.
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Forgot to include a link to the article for the second quotation:
Fewer Births than Deaths Among Whites in a Majority of US States.
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And in the end, they only have themselves to blame. Though they’re probably so far removed from reality or accountability, they’ll blame whatever and whoever else.
I always thought that Republicans used to be more respectable and logical than this, but now it’s become a coalition of straight, rich, white, Christian male grievance and victimization living in a bizarro world where soulless trolls are their commanders and soldiers.
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@taleoflions, i’m grateful to have read this bit of yours today; i don’t agree with your take on comintern and certainly everyone is a tooth on the cog of the wheels at least that leads up to MAD (mutually assured destruction) coming from several angles, let me get back to you
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If the Democrats win get ready to learn Spanish and lose your jobs if your under middle class.
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Democrats= Gays, Feminist, Abortionist, and men marrying each other. Illegals , women with no morals and marriage is a joke to them. You may as well kill yourself than join the Democrats. Democrats are turning America into a cesspool.
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@ Big Boy
Sorry, the Republicans beat them to it.
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@ Big Boy
“…women with no morals and marriage is a joke to them.”
What about men with no morals and marriage is a joke to them? There seems to be plenty of them around in every political party, in every culture and every country.
What should we do with these men?
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I love Mexican food!
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What’s wrong with men marrying each other? Men are hot! What’s wrong with you?
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[…] has helped to reveal how that’s no longer the case, especially from the right. Fellow blogger Abagond wrote how Republicans are setting themselves up for a major collapse, no longer having a moral […]
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@ Herneith
wicked chuckle
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This guys a Buffon and should be treated as such. He’s trotted out every white supremacist, anti-female meme, a turd whichever way you spin it. I doubt he has an original idea in his head. Jokes fodder.
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Abagond, let’s talk about the fact that neither of these “parties” is doing a gd thing for Black people. Our unemployment and poverty levels are through the roof, infant mortality is high, the police are shooting us at every turn – man, woman, child for no other reason than the color of our skin. We still don’t have our reparations. WTF is any party doing? Some people say we should withhold our votes, start businesses, create our own institutions as a way to build power, and then we can go to our politicians and demand better. But lots of ethnic groups have done this. They still experience racist treatment. Having their own communities never helped the Jews, and they at least phenotypically, are white people. Personally, my feeling is that to greater or lesser degrees both parties serve the interests of the powerful. To the extent that voters come together to exert their power as a “special interest” constituency they can influence politicians to act in their interests. For instance, labor used to be a powerful interest. We know what happened to that. I have no idea what the answer is. For me, withholding the vote from the Democratic Party is a recipe for who we have now, and that’s just untenable given his white supremacist leanings. Slightly off topic, but had to put it out there.
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@Big Boy I can appreciate that these people are an affront to your values, but you don’t have to invite them over to your house or be their best friends or marry them. I feel like the country is big enough for us all and that we can at least respect one another. I’m highly offended by intolerant people. I could care less who someone chooses to sleep with (as long as it’s not my husband, a minor child or an animal). Some things as a society just shouldn’t be our business, like whether or not a woman decides to end her pregnancy. I find it funny that Republicans don’t want government interfering in their business, but interfering in the bedroom is OK? However, trying to force Christianity down the throats of non-Christians, refusing to vaccinate your kids, shredding the voter’s right act, busting up unions, allowing the sale of automatic weapons and snatching children away from their parents at the border, that’s cool?? These are all things the GOP has done/espoused. These are the reasons, in a nutshell, that I don’t vote Republican. They seem to be for keeping people – white people especially – ignorant, fearful and paranoid while getting them to vote repeatedly for policies that hurt their most impoverished and that hurt people of color even more. All that pain in service of powerful billionaires and corporations. But hey, you don’t have to deal with those gays, feminists and illegals.
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@ poetess
yes, yes and yass!
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@taleoflions
I loved your insight and think the same way,wouldlove to have an opportunity to share ideas with you.
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This is still a good post, unfortunately.
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Moscow Mitch doesn’t like being called Moscow Mitch. He deserves that moniker. Since he won’t protect our election process from being hacked. What kind of patriotism is that?
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