In late August, Jonathan Chait authored an important essay in New York Magazine,arguing that the Republican Party must be saved from the Conservative Movement. As he admits, to modern ears, this sounds nuts: we all have been brainwashed into seeing “conservative” and “Republican” as different terms meaning pretty much the same thing.
That, however, is an ahistorical belief, and Chait reminds us that the GOP under, say, Eisenhower was a very different animal.
Chait characterizes the current divide among anti-Trump Republicans as an argument between those who just want Trump gone and those who have concluded that the whole party needs to be gone. He provides a memorable analogy for the latter group:
I have immense admiration for my colleagues at New York. Suppose, however, that we appointed an editor who lacked familiarity with terms like circulation and advertising, whose notes to writers were scrawled indecipherably in crayon, and who seemed more interested in filching office supplies than any other aspect of the job. And suppose the staff either actively defended this editor or deflected criticism by pointing to David Remnick’s various foibles.
Well, I would naturally conclude I had misjudged the place badly. And if this editor eventually left, I would be looking for work at a publication whose staff had not been trying to extend his term.
Chait’s point–with which it is hard to argue–is that it isn’t just Trump. but a party that wouldn’t “merely cooperate with but actually idolize” a grotesquely bigoted authoritarian. But rather than burning the party down, he advocates severing it from what passes for “conservatism” these days. As he quite accurately points out, the conservative movement was once a minority faction within the GOP that demanded an “apocalyptic confrontation that would roll back big government at home and communism abroad.”
Chait’s essay is long, but it’s worth reading in its entirety for its history of the radical/conservative takeover of the GOP. The results of that takeover can be seen in today’s party of Trumpists:
It would be an overstatement to paint Trump as representing nothing but the triumph of the conservative movement. In his personal defects, Trump is indeed sui generis. But the broad outlines of his agenda and his style do closely follow the trajectory of the American right: racism, authoritarianism, and disdain for expertise. The movement attracts disordered personalities like McCarthy, Sarah Palin, and Trump and paranoid cults like the John Birch Society and QAnon.
Above all, Trump follows the American right’s Manichaean approach to political conflict. Every new extension of government, however limited or necessary, is a secret plot to extend government control over every aspect of American life. Conservatives met both Clinton and Obama’s agenda with absolute hysteria, whipping themselves into a terror that rendered them unable to negotiate.
And in a particularly insightful observation, he notes that an inability to distinguish reasonable, well-designed government programs that address real market failures from Soviet-style oppression is a congenital defect in conservative thought. As he says, Trump is not even pretending to have a positive second-term program. His only goal is to stop the next Democratic administration because the next liberal program is always the one that will usher in the final triumph of socialism.
So–what should a successful reconstituted, post-Trump party look like? Chait points to the sort of “pragmatic center-right thinking being developed at the Niskanen Center and by some of the wonks at the American Enterprise Institute and a handful of other places” and he would jettison the conservative dogma that forbids any consideration of new taxes, spending, or regulation.
It will take more than one defeat for the party to abandon what its cadres have been trained to see as the only possible path. But the Republican Party will never stop being a danger to American democracy until it can see the problem clearly. The task is not to save conservatism from Trump. It is to save the Republican Party from conservatism.
Really, read the whole article.
I think that the article cited gives Trump too much credit for having a consistent philosophy. He is not battling to prevent the takeover of the country by Socialism. He is battling to avoid appearing to be a loser, and to avoid as long as possible the prospects of court cases showing that he is a fraud.
The argument that the current terms “Trumpism” and “Republican” are interchangeable or that either are “conservative” has been dead and stinking since noon on January 20, 2017. The dying throes of the Republican party have taken the past thirty years or so to finally take its final gasp by installing “The Donald” as their savior. Probably believing he actually had those billions he claimed were his Trump family fortune; too late the GOP discovered they would have to put Citizens United into action and rely on Corporate America to subsidize the entire lot of them.
“…an inability to distinguish reasonable, well-designed government programs that address real market failures from Soviet-style oppression is a congenital defect in conservative thought.”
A conservative thought has not flitted through the mind of any member of the Republican party who has the guts, or the balls, to bring that thought to the public’s attention in many a year. The original Tea Party was a valid action taken against foreign taxation without representation; the recent “Tea Party” was established to provide representation of the wealthy 1-2% of American citizens to further enrich them personally. The term “Tea Party” is obsolete and has been replaced by the misnomer “conservatism” to cover the White Nationalism ruling this nation today.
“How We Got Here”; we forgot to Follow The Money and we unleashed racism on our streets in cities and towns across the country to distract from the money trail supporting Trump and McConnell as they bankrupt the United States of America. Trump and McConnell are now using the Covid-19 Pandemic as a cover up and distraction from their continuing “behind the curtain” sucking this country dry. Thinking Americans of both parties are living in fear of the possibility/probability of a second four years of Trump and McConnell, whatever you want to call their dictatorship of this country.
Thank you, John Sorg, for your lesson in biology yesterday involving the miracle of the union of haploid gamete cells to produce the diploid zygotes that will divide and form new adults of the same species, the essence of sexual reproduction tastefully without mention of the variety of enabling structures and processes required to carry out the divine specie-specific plan that sometimes goes awry as in the unfortunate case of Donald Trump.
Nothing new here, folks…move along:
Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.
When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan “Down With Socialism” on the banner of his “great crusade,” that is really not what he means at all. What he really means is “Down with Progress–down with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal,” and “down with Harry Truman’s fair Deal.” That’s all he means. – Harry Truman, 1952
Greetings JoAnn. Thank you for your last post yesterday. 🙂 🙂 🙂
As of today J.S. will no longer hear from me but it was fun.
Elect a clown……expect a circus. Trumpworld is the nightmare that happens when a political party allows right-wing reactionaries and religious extremists to dictate policy. The very word “Republican” is tainted now and conjures up images of red-capped, vitriolic, screaming racists thumping Bibles rather than the traditional version of conservative people. Trump has catered to the lunatic fringe and weak Republican politicians go along with this distortion and bastardization of their political party. One wonders if any of the very few “decent” Republicans are bothered by this fact even a little bit. Watching Holcomb on TV is a prime example as he seemingly portrays to be a caring leader, yet all the while strongly endorsing the most destructive and dividing presidential regime this nation has ever suffered under. How a person can claim to have “values & morals” and yet remain a part of this disgusting trend is beyond reason. These feeble politicians do not deserve our precious votes no matter how “savvy” they appear in their TV commercials.
Spot on Pascale. Also, I think of William Buckley and Barry Goldwater, maybe Ronald Reagan when I think of the Conservative Movement. On 1/20/17 it morphed into the fascist movement. There is still plenty of space in the Republican tent for true conservatism. And originalism should be exposed as the fraud it really is by legal scholars and lawmakers. It’s Just hyper-right-wing judicial activism.
Greetings Mary. Very well stated!!!
Thank you Sheila!
You really don’t see as much of Jonathan Chait now as we did earlier in this whole Alice in Wonderland episodic nightmare.
I always thought it was interesting how the Republican Party and the Democratic Party completely flipped positions, the Republican Party went from being an advocate for African-Americans and other minorities, to a wolf in sheep’s clothing that every so often tried to dyslexicly incarnate its previous self to pull the wool over those who need cover as they cling to this giant authoritarian middle finger.
The best thing that ever happened to the Democrats, the Dixiecrats purged themselves right into the Republican Party, this had a profound impact on the direction of the Democratic Party, and an even more profound impact on the direction of the Republican Party. The Dixiecrat’s pulled the Republicans even further to fascist and nationalist policies, while liberating the Democratic Party to evolve into a more inclusive and big tent party.
My personal opinion is, I don’t think much of politics. Because not only has politics ruined every aspect and function of this government, it has allowed certain aspects of the Constitution to be used as a bludgeon against itself. When you abandon control over the guard rail systems of government, because you feel the natural inclination of man is to do the right thing, well that’s just a huge fairyland mistake.
The separation between church and state is a huge issue, but the church i.e. religion in general has no place in a secular governing process. Just by the discussions yesterday, it’s probably the most divisive thing one can allow in the governing process. There are too many beliefs, too many ethnicities, too much baggage, to insert specific church dogmas into a secular government that is supposed to treat every single ethnic group and Creed the same.
Every single citizen is subject to tax, that tax is supposed to be used for the greater good of everyone, the superior authorities, use those taxes, or supposedly use those taxes to provide necessary goods and services for its citizenry. No matter where those citizens originated, here or anywhere else. When a person is a taxpayer, they are an integral part of that government, whether they have the same beliefs as their neighbor or not. That’s why it was a huge mistake to keep allowing religion to creep into government, it has no place there.
Every single person, every single entity, needs to pay their fair share without loopholes! If you use the power of the government to your advantage around the globe, then pay your fair share! Or leave!
If you take the words of the Constitution literally, then everyone is free to practice their beliefs as long as they do not infringe upon their neighbors and their beliefs, the government is supposed to be the one constant that binds it all together, through taxes and court systems and provisions.
How it all got from there to here is a sign of corrupt intent used by religious groups to infiltrate deeper into the government using deep untaxed pockets to manipulate and initiate politicians and proposed policies. That needs to change! There definitely needs to be a penalty imposed on this well thought out and slyly purveyed attack on secular civil society!
This is brought about the present fascist nationalistic flirtation that has been brought on by some of these religious actors and empowered a Muscovian candidate sleeper son of destruction! So not only do they need to be purged out of government completely, they deserve the fate Mussolini received, hung up and eviscerated in the public square, or the trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu, these things were driven by hatred of those who had misled their constituency, they woke up and saw how their rights and lives were forever changed by manipulation and corruption and lies! That goes for Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul and the rest of the Ayn Rand sycophants, they need to learn from history because if it repeats here, there’s going to be a bloodbath!
It’s hard to dissect the current “philosophy” of the Republican party without accepting the primary fact that they don’t give a single hoot about governing for the benefit of the people in our country. It’s one trope after another. The meteor strike that set them toward this path to political extinction was not Donald Trump. It was Lewis Powell and Milton Friedman, two of the sorriest excuses for intellect this country ever produced.
This statement, “apocalyptic confrontation that would roll back big government at home and communism abroad.” is mostly correct, except that it isn’t entirely truthful. Removing “big” government and fighting the next bogeyman on the list is purely for the benefit of the corporatists who fund the Republican party and its hired help. Since 1971, the Republican party ceased to function as a governing body and became the hand maidens to corporate banking America.
You can read about the way this happened – among other parallel topics – in my book “Racing to the Brink: The End Game for Race and Capitalism” (Amazon.com).
How many of you have encountered someone who says he or she won’t vote in this election? I haven’t encountered anyone yet in my neck of the woods, but most of my neighborhood is covered in Trumpian glory. Don’t let anyone say they won’t vote without a rejoinder commenting on the necessity for everyone to take responsibility for whatever our end result might be.
Rather ironic is it not? Rousseau and Machiavelli argued for the virtues of republicanism to serve governance of the people in defiance of the absurdities of the king.
Pascal,
“He [TRUMP] is not battling to prevent the takeover of the country by Socialism. He is battling to avoid appearing to be a loser, and to avoid as long as possible the prospects of court cases showing that he is a fraud.”
You’re absolutely right. We’re trying to make a “mountain out of a molehill.” The problem is much more psychological than political. Thus any answer to this “monster” won’t be in the political realm but in the psychological positioning of Trump and his base.
It may be worth remembering that the apocalyptic panic thrown at Clinton and Obama was almost 100% successful. What, exactly, is the reason the GOP would move away from a winning strategy?
I do hope people aren’t relying on decency or some such thing. Why would they change strategies when the current one is working/has worked swimmingly for them?
Concerning Republicanism, there is a similarity between European and American Republicanism in name only.
I would suggest you read the paper,
“European and US Perspectives on Civic Republicanism”
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/232665849.pdf
This is by David C Williams,
‘Indiana University Maurer school of law’
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&source=mailto&to=dacwilli@indiana.edu
OMG,
OMG LOL LOL LOL !
Yes,
I did present some personal viewpoints yesterday, but as I’ve learned, men do not multitask well at all! It takes time to be coherent and completely understood concerning a belief or an ideal, one should never shoot from the hip concerning something as important as that.
That being said, is this supposed to be a big tent party? Or an exclusionary one?
Because, there are a lot more out there like me then you might think. Christianity on the whole was extremely liberal when it 1st was instituted by Christ and his apostles. Judaism was not, nor were most of the kingdoms in existence during that time. Christianity was inclusive, it accepted any and all comers, unlike today, where Scripture and such is manipulated and used as a bludgeon to drive wedges between government and its citizens.
Unfortunately this behavior has infuriated those who do not believe in such, and tended to lump everyone in the same group. That’s a real shame! Religious beliefs are religious beliefs, they have nothing to do with the functionality of government, or should not!
Get it Irvin!
john,
“Religious beliefs are religious beliefs, they have nothing to do with the functionality of government, or should not!”
Now, I agree with that.
You said it all, Mary Brown!
John,
seems the overall view you donate,is being chastised. i enjoy your view, though not a believer, i am however greatful for the fact,religion has kept a moral society,(most of it)thru its words and wisdom. keep the views coming,ill read them…
The GOP has evolved into the party of Trump, but as several posts have highlighted, it didn’t happen overnight. You’d have to bring in Jane Mayer to discuss the use of dark money by the oligarchs like the Koch brothers who single-handedly financed the Tea Party (taxed enough already) movement and ALEC. They took over the modern Republican Party as a populist movement.
And they did it with propaganda — lots of propaganda. Network upon networks of propaganda, including Fox News and universities across the USA lending their credentials to the movement.
Meanwhile, the DNC has also been exposed to its Fascist roots and its battle with progressive populists. They had to cheat in 2016 to win against its populists.
Don’t forget, when Donald Trump announced during his SOTU address that the USA would never become a socialist country, 98% of the politicos stood up and applauded. This is despite the grotesque inequality of both wealth and income and the destruction of the American Dream. All the so-called rules and regs approved in D.C. have “back doors” or “loopholes” so the politicos can say one thing to voters while appeasing their donors.
And, there is NO SUCH THING AS LEFT WING PROPAGANDA ON TELEVISION. None. Not allowed.
Why not?
Meanwhile, during this pandemic in 2020, we’ve watched trillions going to the oligarchs and corporatists, while the American people were given $1,200 to survive for over six months.
It’s so blatant a high school student should see what’s happening, and many do. Ask a foreigner what they think.
One last note, venture over to one of the local T.V. stations’ Facebook pages or websites where they allow comments and read all the ignorant posts defending Trump’s taxes. If you inherited billions and had an I.Q. of 500, you could manipulate these people to taking a bullet for you so that you could keep your billions. It’s pathetic!
If Chait is arguing that Trumpism is a continuation of the conservative movement, I could not disagree more.
Trump and Trumpism has nothing to do with conservativism. Some of the most liberal/moderate members of my Republican Party are enthusiastic Trumpers. Some of the most fervent opponents of Trump among Republicans are staunch conservatives, including conservative intellectuals..
The assumption that Trump and his supporters are far right conservatives while those Republicans who oppose him are “moderate” is an assumption, often peddled by the media, which has no basis in reality.
When you look at the polling, you might see 5% of Republicans oppose Trump (sometimes higher). But when you ask the question by ideology, about 20% of conservatives oppose Trump. While some of those conservatives might be Democrats, if Trumpism was really about conservative ideas you’d see a lot more support by self-identified conservatives.
Pascal is 100% correct: “I think that the article cited gives Trump too much credit for having a consistent philosophy.” Amen. Trumpism is a personality cult. It most certainly is not a coherent philosophy and certainly not one to advance conservative ideas.
There’s no better example of where another dose of Donald Trump would lead the country than the Republican Party today. They are a dysfunctional gang of thugs only interested in more power at anyone else’s expense. They are unrepentant authoritarians with no rules nor purpose nor mission other than gathering power to the end of gathering more power.
Should we mourn for their loss? We know that the seeds of their self destruction were planted long ago not by public forces but covert seeds of what they have become. They went this way with their eyes wide open knowing that it could end with them with all of the marbles or badly. Our job is to reinforce the latter.
There is I think a risk to our success of over analyzing the situation. There’s nothing subtle about power. There’s nothing subtle about Trump or Pence or Barr or McConnell. They are enslaved by their appetite for power and the wealth it can bring them. Perhaps that is because they were weaned too early or raised by wolves but does it really matter? That wolf is at our door right now and sucking the life out of the country whose success we all depend on.
We have to become like them temporarily. We struggle with the thought because we are not that way but these aren’t the times to worry about coloring outside of our lines. We have to excuse ourselves for the moment and do what has to be done.
Awww Jack,
I do appreciate that! And I also appreciate you imparting your experience, ideals, and opines, just as I do, I find them refreshing in expressing unfettered truth, empathy and compassion! And I always read them.
Glad you like that Marv!
Todd,
Ditto to almost everything! You really think there is hypocrisy involved, LOL!
There definitely better be a change, because it seems like there’s going to be a whipsaw concerning Trump, and the whipsaw coming after will probably be a nonrecoverable one, that is if they don’t get the house in order!
Well, I’ve been spending most of the morning reading about DeutschBank who is the main creditor for Trump’s hundreds of millions he owns. DB also has ties to Russian oligarchs laundering money which the Panama Papers eluded to but stopped short of implicating anybody in the USA.
That is about to change.
Another name of interest is Justin Kennedy and his father who obliged Trump with an early resignation from SCOTUS allowing Trump to appoint a 2nd jurist to the bench.
I’m not sure the USA media will be able to suppress what is getting ready to hit the fan and it would explain why Trump is desperate to do anything and everything to stay in power to avoid prosecution.
How will the GOP be able to rebrand after embracing a Russian asset?
Merely tossing him under the bus won’t work. Even Fox News will have stink all over their bodies.
Before the DNC gets all excited, they will need to sacrifice Hunter Biden. Could both USA presidential candidates be dirty?? LOL
I’d argue that conservatism needs to be saved from today’s Republican party.
It all depends on your definition of conservatism, I suppose. If you define conservatism as simple bigotry, then you probably don’t see any reason to save it from anything. But I take a different view.
To the extent that conservatism has ever been a coherent political philosophy, it has represented a fundamentally prudent and cautious attachment to the traditions of the past, and a wariness of “radical” innovation and risk. Much of its long historical association with racism, religiosity, and xenophobia is derived from such attitudes, as are many of its concerns about balanced budgets and preserving the current economic system (with all its injustices as well as its benefits.) But within that philosophy can also be found the ideals that led the authors of the Constitution to assert principles such as equality and the rule of law over governments as well as citizens — however imperfectly those ideals were applied. It is a valid argument, within such a conservative philosophy, to assert that the civil rights movement, the separation of church and state, etc., are simply ways to make the implementation of the Founders’ more idealistic intentions “more perfect”.
Trumpism has cast that all to the winds, embracing radically unprincipled opportunism in the pursuit of unaccountable and absolute power that casually discards all American traditions and political principles. What Trump says today may be the complete opposite of what he said yesterday, and what he says tomorrow may be yet a third thing that contradicts both previous positions. Whatever works to promote Trump’s ego and greed in the moment. And the Republican Party doesn’t even pretend to care. It’s so cravenly submissive to his unprincipled, bull-in-a-china-shop crashings and thrashings that it has literally abandoned any pretence of a platform of principles, helplessly mewing that it supports whatever Trump wants on any given day. The Republican conservative used to be for balanced budgets and “free markets”, at least in theory; the Trumpist Party gleefully blows vast amounts of deficit spending on handouts to farmers and corporations, and gleefully endorses a medical system that is grossly arbitrary and immune to any free-market competition, because these are convenient ways to buy political favor with the public purse. Trump’s pseudo-religiosity isn’t the result of any personal convictions or Pascalian wager or attachment to traditional virtue, just one more tool he uses whenever it’s convenient. He’ll happily verbally abuse and threaten Muslims to whip up the bigoted crowds at his rallies, while simultaneously abasing himself and the nation for the sake of a bribe or a “favor” from a fanatical Muslim despot who openly sponsors international teams of terrorist assassins. Does anyone really believe that a thrice-married roue who openly brags of sexual assault is a paragon of moral virtue? Law and order? Only the laws that happen to be of political benefit to Trump at the moment and can be selectively enforced against his personal enemies, while his supporters get pardons, commutations, or wink-and-a-nod acquiescence. (Trump’s racism is another story – it’s perhaps the only part of his public agenda, other than graft and self-aggrandizement, that he’s actually sincere about.)
We need a conservative political party that respects the past and tests new ideas skeptically before the nation commits to them. But this ain’t it. Under Trump, the Republican party has supinely embraced Trump’s inane cult of personality and become a full-bore Fascist political entity, one whose only answer to “why?” on any policy or decision is “Because we can”. It overtly seeks to end American traditions in politics and law in pursuit of total dictatorial power.
I hope that this foul and perverted creation goes down to total, abject defeat in the near future, as its incoherent policies, hypocritical religiosity and all-too-sincere racism finally put it completely and fatally out of touch with the nation’s irreversibly growing diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints. But I fully recognize that if that happens, the seekers of power and enrichment will simply try to reattach themselves to the new holders of political power, and seek self-promotion through whatever party holds sway. There’s no such thing as Total Final Victory against forces that are part of human nature. A Biden victory in November – or even a later Democratic victory that completely sweeps a discredited Republican party into the dustbin of history — won’t mean an end, just a new chapter in the endless struggle between those who want decent, principled, useful government, and those who want to aggrandize themselves through demagoguery, graft, and dictatorship.
If the Republican Party ever ceases to exist under its present name, we’ll still need a conservative party, perhaps under another name. Perhaps the Democrats will split between their “moderate” and “progressive” wings, or perhaps the folks at the Lincoln Project will pick up the pieces and start over, just as the proto-Republicans of the 1850s picked up the pieces of the defunct Whigs. We need the ongoing competition to keep both (all) competing political philosophies and factions (relatively) honest. But this lobotomized Republican Party is not functionally conservative in any intellectually serious way, and it does not serve that necessary role. It must be either reformed or replaced.
These comments are my attempt to grasp the essence of what remains of the Republican thought process.
Everywhere I look I see changes, often rapid – in attitudes, priorities, tastes, pursuits, values, technology, philosophies, philanthropy, work, laws, leisure, religions, music, art, architecture, literature, politics, war, business, sports – you name it. My limited ability to comprehend, let alone to analyze all this leads me to the conclusion that the most irrelevant word in the English language is “conservatism.” What are we to conserve if it is no longer to be found, and why conserve it if we no longer value it? Of course there are eternal values like “love your community and your country and your planet and treat them in ways that recognize their fragility and transience. ” “Love what is lovable in your fellow man/woman and give him/her the dignity and the opportunity to show they are worthy of love.”
Trump struggles for the title, but has yet, in my mind, to replace the dumbest man in American history, Antonin Scalia, who gave himself credit for an ability to read the minds of people deceased hundreds of years ago. At the same level of intellect he concluded that whatever they thought about and however they thought about it long, long ago is the only proper mindset for today’s Americans. Did I mention that some changes had taken place?
Chait mentions another sacred pillar of the Republican intellectual process, which is largely concerned with how to avoid dealing with nuance. He referred to the Manichaean approach to evaluating the world. I grew up in a Manichaean (very Republican) household where everything and everybody was said to be either wonderful or awful beyond comprehension. No complexity. All black and white. And definitely no redemption. My mother was something of a trail blazer, since now the entire Republican Party sees the world as she did in the 1950s. That turns out to be a very time saving world view, since evaluating two diametrically opposed views can be done almost instantaneously by almost anybody.
Beginning with Reagan Republicans turned their anti-thinking goals into a nationwide program called “The Dumbing Down of America.” Truth be told, people like Gingrich and Bush and Palin helped this effort succeed beyond the wildest dreams of its founders (see Sheila’s statistics on what most Americans know about government and civics). That was the tool that brought us to where we elected a president who has given no evidence that he knows anything about any subject of interest.
But the ultimate goal of Republicanism is to avoid thinking altogether, since there’s no telling when a thought process could lead to one’s conscience kicking in and possibly even a smidgin of compunction prying open one’s thought patterns. The Republican Party has reached a form of Nirvana where they think less and less about more and more as they veer to the fork in the road leading to complete mindlessness. The end of the road is in sight. I recommend you try not to think about it.
Felix,
? Yes, yes and yes❗
Terry,
“The Republican Party has reached a form of Nirvana where they think less and less about more and more as they veer to the fork in the road leading to complete mindlessness. The end of the road is in sight. I recommend you try not to think about it.”
Complete mindlessness served on a “platter of hatred.” Trump is just the Chef. The recipe and the ingredients were there for the taking and will still be there, if or when he ever leaves.
Todd, good points!
I really don’t think that there is much to Bidens son being on the board of that particular company in the Ukraine, but, I guess one never knows! I definitely wouldn’t rely on Rudy Giuliani and his oligarch friends nor Bill Barr who is Donald Trump’s boot polisher! Bill Barr has his own agenda, and if he could slow roast Trump to get to where he needs to be, he do it! ?? Anything coming from Bill Barr’s investigations, or the justice department in general, should be taken with a grain of salt, after all, what flawless character could they trot out to make their claim of wrongdoing? What Ukrainian or Russian witnesses would be believable? What documentation would be trustworthy? None that I could see.
The anti-Semitism throughout the U.S. is now at a “boiling point” once it starts to spill over there is no stopping it. Turning the switch off will make no difference.
History has proven this “beyond a shadow of a doubt.”