Politics Ex-Republican describes Trump as "Demon" that needs exorcising

[Rastapopoulos]

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/20...rimary-for-the-first-time-in-40-years-column/

"There was a time when if you voted Republican, you had a pretty good idea of what you were voting for, even if you did not know the candidate. You were voting for fiscal discipline, cultural conservatism, an engaged, forward-leaning foreign policy, free trade, personal accountability, a commitment to the rule of law and the idea of America as a Shining City on the Hill to which the world looks for leadership and where the dreams, energy and genes of immigrants beckoned by that shining light are welcome. It was an optimistic vision of the future based on continuity with the past, however out of step with reality it may have been at times for many. It was Ronald Reagan’s Morning In America.

But that was then, and this is now. It was Trump’s genius to sense how pervasive is the moral rot within the GOP, something to which the establishment, including me, was for the most part oblivious. There has always been a seamy underbelly in the party, a sump where the paranoiacs, conspiracy theorists, radicals and racists pooled, whether it was the John Birchers in the 1950s who believed President Dwight Eisenhower was a communist or the right wing populists today who believe the late Sen. John McCain was a traitor. Historically, this 25 percent to 35 percent minority was flattered and exploited during campaigns, paid lip service after election day and not taken very seriously most the time....

Reactionary, isolationist, protectionist, nativist, small-minded, mean-spirited and redolent with racism, the Trump GOP is better suited to the 1930s than to tomorrow, right down to the America First slogan borrowed from that era. And while Trump is as much an effect as the cause of what I believe to be an existential crisis for American representative democracy, he is the accelerant that daily feeds the fires of division and dissolution."

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

nice.

 

[Hoopguru]

agree most of this! However, Im not sure the continued expression of hate by the media for three years will up beat him in November, in fact I think it can produce the opposite effect.
Trump should lose by a landslide if all the hate has been effective. We will see.

 

[Road Ratt]

It was Trump’s genius to sense how pervasive is the moral rot within the GOP,

There is plenty of moral rot to go around. The democrats are no less morally rotten than the republicans. If both parties followers would spend their energy policing their own party, rather than constantly throwing stones at the opposing party, we might actually drain that swamp in congress. Until then...

(Just my two cents on this quote. I have no need to bash Trump, he makes himself look bad enough all on his own.)

 

[Rastapopoulos]

There is plenty of moral rot to go around. The democrats are no less morally rotten than the republicans.

This is what is known as "false equivalency". Both parties are seriously flawed, but right now the Republican party is WAY worse. It's not necessarily because it's more wicked: it just did what all parties do, which is adapt to cling to power. And it turned out that clinging to power required shedding all decency, undermining the rule of law and grabbing the coattails of a racist demagogue. But hey, you go where your base takes you!

 

[Road Ratt]

This is what is known as "false equivalency". Both parties are seriously flawed, but right now the Republican party is WAY worse. It's not necessarily because it's more wicked: it just did what all parties do, which is adapt to cling to power. And it turned out that clinging to power required shedding all decency, undermining the rule of law and grabbing the coattails of a racist demagogue. But hey, you go where your base takes you!

It's not false equivalency, it is literally the case. Democrats have been working for wall street and against Americans interests same as the republicans have. I blame both parties equally. The republicans may be no more than the radical right under Trump currently but I see the democrats as being no better, because they have shown that they are not. Sadly at this time, neither party gives two squats about America.

 

[crandc]

One party says I should have equal rights, the other does not. One party accepts science of vaccines and global warming, one party does not. One party accepts facts that Russia interfered in US elections, the other does not.

There is a lot to criticize but not equivalent.

 

[ABM]

One party accepts facts that Russia interfered in US elections, the other does not..

Aww..they're just Russia being Russia..

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/us/politics/bernie-sanders-russia.html

 

[Road Ratt]

There is a lot to criticize but not equivalent.

After Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton corrupted the democrats. They now work for corporations/billionaires, same as the republicans do. Under Bill Clinton they were privatizing America's jails, then lengthening sentences to fill those now private jails. I could post more ways that Bill worked for their interests over Americans. Obama didn't free black people in America. The first black president didn't even give enough of a crap about his own people to help them out. Black people in America have it as bad or worse off than before Obama became president. There are plenty of ways to show how Bill and Barack worked against the interests of Americans to help out their friends, donors, etc. . The democrats are as corrupt as the republicans are. It seems that democrats just can't see it. Same as Trumpians can't or won't see it themselves.

Personally I believe that both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were moderate republicans. If I remember correctly, I read somewhere that Barack made one of G.W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent. (If I remember incorrectly, no biggy I could post all day on how these two democrat presidents were not working for Americans)

We have had two democrat presidents since Ronald Reagan took America off of the New Deal and yet America is still trickling down. The democrat party is no longer "the party of the people".

 

[Hoopguru]

After Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton corrupted the democrats. They now work for corporations/billionaires, same as the republicans do. Under Bill Clinton they were privatizing America's jails, then lengthening sentences to fill those now private jails. I could post more ways that Bill worked for their interests over Americans. Obama didn't free black people in America. The first black president didn't even give enough of a crap about his own people to help them out. Black people in America have it as bad or worse off than before Obama became president. There are plenty of ways to show how Bill and Barack worked against the interests of Americans to help out their friends, donors, etc. . The democrats are as corrupt as the republicans are. It seems that democrats just can't see it. Same as Trumpians can't or won't see it themselves.

Personally I believe that both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were moderate republicans. If I remember correctly, I read somewhere that Barack made one of G.W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich permanent. (If I remember incorrectly, no biggy I could post all day on how these two democrat presidents were not working for Americans)

We have had two democrat presidents since Ronald Reagan took America off of the New Deal and yet America is still trickling down. The democrat party is no longer "the party of the people".

It's the party of Bernie Sanders now, it's not my grandfather / fathers or my old party any more.

 

[Road Ratt]

It's the party of Bernie Sanders now, it's not my grandfather / fathers or my old party any more.

I think I understand what you are trying to say. It is not the same old party, but I already went over why it isn't the same old party. It has been corrupted.

Also, it is not Bernie's party. Establishment democrats hate him.

 

[Minstrel]

Even if you're only looking along a pro- or anti-Wall Street axis, the two parties are different (though less different) then in other regards. Democrats have been the party that pushes for regulations on Wall Street, consumer protection (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was Elizabeth Warren's brainchild, but Obama was the one who actually made it happen) and things like increasing the minimum wage, social programs for the working class and those in poverty, or taxing corporations for externalities like pollution. Saying that the two parties are identical because they're both pro-capitalism parties and both accept money from Wall Street is simplifying far too much.

And when you move away from the financial to the social, like LGBT rights, protections for minorities or women's rights, the two parties are radically different.

The only aspect that I'd say the two parties are extremely similar is foreign policy and war. Still not truly identical, but very similar.

 

[crandc]

Not saying Road Ratt is wrong but my point still holds.