Yesterday, I strolled through Cornucopia Days in Kent, Washington, which was mostly huge numbers of booths selling interesting food, and was filled with an impressively diverse collection of attendees. I had to take a photo of this one sad and lonely booth on the fringe, though.
WE ARE REPUBLICANS
Individual Freedom • Parental Rights • Human Dignity • Public Safety • Fiscal Responsibility • Government Accountability
I think they mean Individual Freedom
(If you’re a wealthy white man), Parental Rights
(the right to force women to be a parent, and the right to abuse your children), Human Dignity
(under the thumb of an imaginary Christian god), Public Safety
(more guns, more cops), Fiscal Responsibility
(says the party that runs up tremendous deficits whenever in power by granting tax exemptions to the rich), Government Accountability
(conservatives recently declared their president/king free of all accountability). Every word they wrote is a lie, but that’s what they believe their party is about, as it does the reverse.
No, I didn’t talk to them. I had better things to do.
Do you remember when they used to claim to be “the party of law and order”?
Judge Cannon dismisses classified documents case against Trump in Florida
The GOP used to claim to be the party of Fiscal Responsibility and Family Values.
They don’t even bother to lie about those any more.
Whenever they gain power, they cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations which increases the annual deficit and national debt.
GOP family values is an oxymoron.
They don’t exist.
This is the party that separates children from their parents and puts them in cages.
Headed by some guy who has 5 children from 3 different women.
Their big projects include eliminating Medicaid and food stamps for poor families.
They keep using those words, I do not think they mean what they say they mean..
W apologies to Ingo Montoya from The Princess Bride (Not someone who you want to piss off..)
Maybe, talk to them, instead of inferring. I know those days. I got throwing knives as a kid. Trees are unforgiving to practice on.
And is now in shock when one of their mostly holey relics is turned on their very own messiah.
Do they really believe that’s what their party is about or do they just want others to beleive that’s what they beleive and beleive them?
The epistemology here of beliefs, true beliefs versus justified true beliefs or ..something?
IOW/. Do they unbelievably believe they are beliveable not unbelieveable these days?
I believe “parental rights” is also code for “we get to have gay teachers fired if we want, ban books we don’t like, and teach kids the civil war wasn’t about slavery”.
Raven @ #2
And don’t forget
Eliminating access to birth control
Creation of internment camps
Eliminating public education and public libraries
Overthrowing elections when they don’t go their way
Eliminating not only medicade, but medicare and social security
Selling off our national parks so wealthy individuals can build homes in them
Maybe it’s behind the guy, but I can’t help but notice, there is no mention of Trump.
Calling Republicans “sad” and “lonely” and “on the fringe” is an apt description especially in Kent. The absence of Trump may sound surprising but it makes sense. King County (where Kent is in) is the most liberal county in the entire state and one of the most liberal in the nation. Trump is deeply despised here so Republican activists operating in the area try to pretend Trump doesn’t exist or carry themselves as “centrists”, despite their leadership peddling the usual far-right conspiracy theories and rhetoric so normal for the GOP behind the scenes. It’s gotten so bad for Republicans in the state that the leading GOP gubernatorial candidate has distanced himself from the state party almost entirely and his campaign is ignoring the state party, the existence of Trump and is saying current abortion laws in the state “are settled” (but doesn’t elaborate about preventing attempts to restrict or ban it in the state or national level).
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Trump wouldn’t have to cajole or beg or threaten Vance to subvert democracy. He’d eagerly say yes.
I don’t even see Trump’s name anywhere.
The picture is kind of interesting. There’s a Black woman wearing an American flag dress, what seems to be an Asian couple in the middle, a Black couple on the right, and a middle-aged middle-class White couple on the left, plus one south Asian, and some other random people. Although the Asian couple is a bit obscured, the couples seem to be hetero, Also, there’s no racially mixed couple. Guess they couldn’t get Clarence and Geena. Anyway, this is their idea of Americans.
I doubt the rank-and-file Republicans think much about the party’s platform or stances and how it might affect them other than the usual stuff: cut taxes…for the rich of course even if they have to raise taxes on working folks, cut expenses…who needs functioning roads and infrastructure, kill social welfare, fight immigration…but don’t do anything about the root cause, and so forth.
I was at the bank on Saturday and while waiting a man ahead of me told the woman between us about Trump…he was clearly upset. Then, the woman started talking about how great it is to live in a country with Medicare and Social Security. I said something like, “Yeah, so far.” Then she started going on about lowering taxes, inflation (which is doing well enough that the Fed is talking about cutting rates), and NATO.
I admit I would be tempted to engage in a short conversation, bringing up exactly these talking points, and see what their response is.
Would I get cogent answers (not an easy job that, seeing the situation) or hand-waving and yet more Trump-licking? Mmm…
“I didn’t talk to them. I had better things to do.” Fine, but a 20 year old conservative with a gun has ensured that come January these people will be ruling you PZ.
Why talk with them?
We know with absolute certainty what they will say and that they are demonstrably wrong about everything: Economics, history, philosophy, science, ethics… you name it. Furthermore, there is nothing you can say that will change their minds.
Why bother even considering it?
@ ^ Akira MacKenzie & #16. nomdeplume : To quote Yoda :
So certain are you?
A long time away the election is. Change before much can. Surprised you might be.
Know everything yet, we do not. Happened yet, the future has not.
There’s a whole lot I’d like to ask them about that banner, but I’ll just start with the rights of two same sex individuals to get married and we’ll see how it goes from there. I don’t think it would get far enough to inquire about the rights of parents to seek gender affirming care for their kids or the rights of non-Christian parents to not have their children indoctrinated with Christianity at school, and we definitely wouldn’t make it seeing what they think about the rights of terminally ill humans to die with dignity.
We definitely wouldn’t make it far enough to ask about public safety through gun or environmental regulations, and forget about every Republican president skyrocketing the US deficit or the accountability of a former president mishandling top secret documents or fomenting an attempted coup.
@18 Steve, fair enough, but it will take something exraordinary from Biden to overcome this, and I don’t think he has much extraordinary about him.
this election like the last one will not be won by the anti trump plus the pro-Biden, the pro-democracy and the pro-election voters. It is not up to Biden to win alone it will be turnout the rules the day. The magats will likely contribute as well as the shit ass to plenty of negative press
sorry this got lost (in my brain)
this election like the last one will not be won by personality or popularity but by the anti trump plus the pro-Biden, the pro-democracy and the pro-election voters. It is not up to Biden to win alone it will be turnout the rules the day. The magats will also likely contribute as well as the shit ass himself to plenty of negative press
Thing is, there are “conservatives” that both a) actually believe in all those things, b) utterly fail to comprehend why their party hasn’t, likely in their own life time, actually stood for any of them, and c) really do want a functional democracy. That the ones “in charge”, and all of the ones that utterly fail to understand what their party has become, express confusion as to why one of their own recently shot at their party’s chosen candidate is both horrifically disturbing, and an utter condemnation of their complacency (or, in the case of their so called leaders, corruption and moral bankruptcy). I can see one core cause for the shooting, and several reasons – The cause – belief in the idea of taking the law into your own hands, via the ideal of violence by the public, to defend the constitution (an insanely common idea in their party, and always misguided because its the #1 go to rhetoric for them). As to the reasons – 1. Defense of actual Christian values (holding to helping people, instead of only themselves), 2. Actual real belief in the rule of law, and the utter failure to follow it by Trump, 3. Actual belief in responsibility, personal or otherwise, and the utter failure of their leadership, especially Trump, to show any, or some combination of these.
It is, ironically, the only logical end point for someone that actually believes in anything at all, recognizes that the country is in danger, and buys into the “great hero with a gun” myth that is perpetrated by the very same corrupt officials. There is no “surprise” or “confusion” here, beyond, “We gaslit them, armed them, and enraged them. Why oh why did our weapon turn on us, instead of attacking the targets we pointed them at?” – answer: because the GOP leaderships core belief in human stupidity is dead wrong, and when people wake up, all they have done is armed their worst possible enemies – someone that believes in their version of justice, but has concluded that the party leadership is the enemy, not the people they “intended” them to think is the enemy.
Just another example of, “Without a scapegoat to blame things one, they would eat each other.”
Soon the first post-shooting polls will arrive.
@nomdeplume #16:
I’ve heard this sort of sentiment a few times now… what’s the logic of it? I’m not seeing it at all.
Yeah, I don’t get it either.
It didn’t work for Gerald Ford.
If the shooting enhances Trump’s chances of winning the election, I’m not going to waste any time feeling sorry for him much less voting for him.
I’ll be way too busy feeling sorry for myself, my friends, my family, the USA, and the world.
@25 @26
1. Trump now has a triumphant image – blood, raised arm, flag, determined face.
2. Everybody is to blame except the Right – libs, media, Biden, even a female FBI agent who is being blasted as DEI hire.
3. Conversely no further discussion of Trump’s fascist dictator aspirations or project 2025 is permitted becuase this is divisive and ‘resulted’ in the shooting. Even FFS Biden’s harmless political comment of “putting a target'” on Trump has now been forced to be withdrawn. For the Democrats it can’t be politics as usual, for MAGA it supercharges the existing politics.
I don’t see how getting grazed by a bullet is going to translate into somehow gaining voter support unless you planned to vote for him already.
He has never won the popular vote, and the 51% of the voting population whose reproductive rights are being stripped away aren’t going to become dazzled into voting for the rapist by macho bullshit like bloody ears or a raised fist.
(Crossposted)
Voter Polls Prove Unexpected Results After Trump Assassination Attempt
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=qoDQ33eRb-k
@nomdeplume #27:
I’ve heard Republicans attempt that, but I was pleased to see that, in fact, Biden hasn’t backed down at all. In his Oval Office address, he condemned political violence — while pointedly reminding us of Jan. 6th and Paul Pelosi. In his interview with Lester Holt, he reiterated the threat to democracy, and made it clear who was inciting people to violence, FFS.
@30 Okay, good!
Literally had to listen to idiots at work talk about the whole thing, and.. other than, as Aron Ra put it about some of his own family, “They don’t want to know the truth, won’t believe it, and refuse to even look at evidence for it.”, they also flat out stated that they get all their “new” from “social media”. So… the likelihood that any of them have a damn clue what is going on, at all, with anything, including Project 2025 is about zero. We are dealing with a new reality, in which nearly half the freaking country is as ignorant as the common citizen from 1780, get all their news from rumor and muckrakers, and its all been artificially manufactured by both rich assholes who control social media, and bots run by enemy states, who feed even more gaslighting and lies to them via “social media”, than they would be getting if it was only Apartheid Musk and Reagan Neoliberals feeding them bullshit.
They don’t believe the truth, they won’t hear the truth, and good luck actually getting most of them to actually look at f-ing evidence for it.
Short of doing what the government did, behind the back of Reagan, during the Aids crisis, and literally mailing a freaking copy of Project 2025 and an explanation of what is in it, to every freaking household in the country, then hoping some of them read the damn thing, instead of just throwing it out, its unclear how to fix this madness.