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Anyone that thinks the Orange Buffoon has a plan other than get as much cash from the marks as possible is willfully ignoring the obvious.
It’s the people behind him we have to worry about. Like the Fedlist society.
This.
Trump served his purpose. He showed that the answer to the question of “I’ll do what I want, what are you going to do about it?” is often “Nothing”. He exposed the fact that the Constitution offers little to no real way of enforcing the rules stated in it. He exposed every weakness that our entire system of government has, and he has coralled enough extremists on the right to force others to go along with his plans or face either political or physical retribution. He spent the past 8 years drawing a roadmap in orange crayon that even he could follow.
The MAGA movement has grown bigger than he is. Eventually, other GOP leaders and even the voting base will realize that the movement can and will go on with or without Trump. They will realize they don’t specifically need him, and they’ll be looking for his successor. And that’s when you have to worry. DeSantis has the personality of aged cheese, and Ramaswamy looks to be all sizzle but no steak. But eventually, somebody is going to emerge. Somebody is going to have all of Trump’s ideas, all of his charisma, and none of the baggage.
And that person will be infinitely more dangerous than Trump could ever dream of being. Trump may not have a grand plan because he has the mental capacity of a cashew. But the next person will. And that’s when we’re in trouble. If someone had enough ability and intelligence to enact even 10% of the MAGA movement’s ideas, Trump’s presidency will look like utopia by comparison. You know how DeSantis keeps saying he wants to make America like Florida? That. That’s what we’d get from whoever Trump’s successor ends up being.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Our future as a nation depends on how far “moderate” right-leaning voters will let their coalition drift before it’s so repulsive even to them that they’d rather abandon their immediate political future and hand unfettered control over to the left for a generation (or more). Lots of us assumed the “Never Trump” contingent would be able to make headway in spearheading a faction in that direction and corralling the GOP back toward the center, but it’s clear now that they’re so irrationally terrified of the left that they’re more likely to either a) hold their noses and follow the right-wing coalition into oblivion, or b) form untethered political alliances in hopes of re-defining a viable counter to the left. We now know that the ostensibly disillusioned right will never join us, and so we’re going to have to watch this experiment unfold however it will. Unfortunately, the more ferociously we fight back, the more it’s apparent we’re playing into their darkest fantasies the way the Reichstag Fire played into Hitler’s. Whoever it is that’s waiting in the wings and devising their next grand overture, they’re surely chomping at the bit for the opportunity to start detaining leftists as enemies of the state as soon as they have some semblance of a flimsy legal excuse to do so. And the fundamentally corrupted Supreme Court is unlikely to do anything to stop them until it’s too late and the wheels are already in motion.
All they need is support of the police state. The Constitution, unfortunately, cannot bear arms.
We now know that the ostensibly disillusioned right will never join us, and so we’re going to have to watch this experiment unfold however it will.
The only thing I have to add to this is this: the “ostensibly disillusioned right” is significantly larger than a lot of people thought it was. And the sheer number of them means that no, they aren’t just a fringe group. They are large enough to make the rest of the party fall in line whether they want to or not, because they know that moderates cannot mathematically win without them. They’re not even the majority in their own party, but they’re still large enough to be able to say “If we don’t get our way, nobody else is getting their way either. Including you.”
Based on Trump’s approval ratings and the obsequious hands that flew up at various speeds when Brett Baier asked if the GOP nominees would support Trump even if he’s convicted in a court of law, I’ve yet to see convincing evidence that the balance leans heavier toward those who are utterly repulsed by the state of their party than it does toward those who are only mildly inconvenienced but still calmly comfortable knowing they won’t be first in line for the firing squad. I would certainly love to be proven wrong, but I’m just not sure we’re there yet, and I don’t really know what it would take to get us there. Just seems like they’re a lot better at saying they disapprove than showing they do.
They’re not large enough to have any mandates at the federal level, currently. That math changes dramatically if they win, and pull off their proposals.
The 2024 election will either elevate them to true power or break the back of this movement, as we saw with the Tea Party. If they don’t secure some actual, not-easily-undone wins in the near future, the party will devour itself from within.
Maybe the most defining characteristics of this bloc is that they need to win or they hold the losers as responsible - this has been true for every appointment, every lower-tier repz their view of the opposition, and basically everyone on Earth except Trump himself.
2016 was the start of what ended up being a defining war for the heart of America and 2024 will be modern America’s Waterloo, one way or the other.
They have enough control in enough states to effectively “take their ball and go home” if they don’t like the way things turn out next year. It doesn’t take an overall majority, just a few local pluralities.
Indeed, Trump is just the rodeo clown to distract the public from the cowboys trying to hogtie them.
Douglas Adams called it in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
The President in particular is very much a figurehead — he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had — he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.
Douglas Adams was the much needed satirical wrecking ball of “organized society”. I miss him so much.
Yeah, thinking he has a “vision” of anything besides cash, hamberders and prostitutes is giving him way too much credit. The plan to ruin society existed well before he entered politics and has nothing at all to do with him except he typifies Republican attitudes and makes a great frontman for them.
Now, now, let’s not forget he’s also interested in raping kids
I wish we could stop calling them “conservatives,” because they’re anything but.
Far-right fascist extremists just doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. “Magats” does, though.
There were also some good ideas in how to deal with those types back in the 1930s and 40s. Maybe we should look into that.
They most certainly are conservatives
Just because we might know more moderate ones in our lives and thus be reluctant to lump them in with the extremists by using the same term doesn’t mean they’re not still conservative
Conservatism is garbage and these shits are a great example as to why
The point is the conservative political ideology is against significant change in society. The current GOP wants radical and regressive changes. Aside from fascist, they should probably be more accurately called reactionary or regressive
They’re only regressive to us. They’re still trying to conserve the Confederacy and white supremacy.
From that point of view, letting dark skinned people and women vote is radical and the 1950s are recent enough they have every intention of conserving its values.
To put it another way, conservative in the U.S. is a synonym for MAGA because blacks not being able to vote is the good old days.
And there’s no such thing as a moderate conservative, unless you believe supporting white supremacy can be a moderate position in 2023.
The conservative political ideology has always been reactionarily preserving the status quo of power and control. The current GOP’s regressive behavior is a natural outflowing of that. They want a return to a time that never existed, that they only perceived as privileged children. Where people like themselves were perceived to have control and power. And they will gladly destroy every last vestige of that actual era. To empower anyone that promises to deliver the fantasy.
The point is the conservative political ideology is against significant change in society.
No it isn’t; that’s just what they tell people in order to pretend there’s any redeeming quality to it.
In actuality, the conservative political ideology is in support of hierarchical autocratic power, and they are perfectly happy to make significant changes moving society in that direction.
I’m talking about the semantics of the name, not the group. They’re “conservatives” as a group label, but they aren’t conservative by definition. The very label is an oxymoron.
But maybe that fits since the members are regular morons.
Conservatism as a concept isn’t inherently garbage. These people aren’t just conservatives though. They are fascists.
Conservatism as a concept isn’t inherently garbage.
Nothing good in history has ever come from conservatism. Nothing at all.
Left unchecked, conservatism always devolves into an oppressive government.
These truisms have been proven time and time again throughout history. Conservatism is definitely trash. It is harmful and has no place in a modern society.
The EPA was a Conservative idea. The Space Race was begun by absolute maniac hardliner conservatives. Ending political Patronage was originally a conservative idea (Pendleton was pro-confederacy and fought against the 13th amendment!)
It’s more accurate to say conservatives ran out of ideas around 1970 and anything good they’ve done since then has largely been on accident.
Let’s dance.
The EPA was a bad-faith conservative answer to the progressive push for regulation. Conservatives were getting angry at all the new regulations popping up limiting the pollution of their biggest donors. By establishing the EPA, Nixon was able to direct all new “progress” through it, thereby stopping the deluge of other regulations. It was created as a trick by a president who was notorious for his tricks.
It was a famously bad-faith endeavor to usurp progress, signed by a disgraced president who became famous for his deception and manipulation. Strange how conservatives keep choosing con men as their most accurate representatives.
Very consistently, under conservative leaders (including Nixon), the EPA’s rules become extremely flexible, forgiving and minimal compared to when Democrats are in power. What a coincidence!
The space race was not the brain-child of a conservative at all. It was green-lit by conservatives who saw an opportunity for fame, glory and money, but it was not a conservative idea nor a conservative project at all.
I didn’t know enough about political patronage, so I had to look that up. Basically, it’s giving political appointments to friends and family after winning a major election (like president). Holy shit. You used that as an example of conservatives doing something good?! Hahaha. Wow! Trump is the walking personification of political patronage.
Every word uttered by a conservative is deception or manipulation. Every word.
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Conservatives formed the Confederacy to protect their racist beliefs, this is on par with how they always have been.
I feel like you’re making it too easy for conservatives if you just distance the people associating with them.
What exactly is it that you think conservatives have been trying to conserve all this time? They are definitely conservative. You might not be. But the term is absolutely accurate to apply to them.
I wish we could stop calling them “conservatives,” because they’re anything but.
Nah, you’ve fallen for their lies.
The truth is that this is what conservatism always was. Conservatism is an unbroken thread from monarchists to Confederates to Nazis to Trump.
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As someone who went through highschool when Slipknot was blowing up, hell I’m listening to them right this second, I deplore the term Magat.
For those unaware, the Slipknot fans are referred to as maggots, hence songs like “Pulse of the Maggots” having a less grotesque meaning.
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He speaks to the base, which has been fed racist dog whistles since long before Trump.
And if you can’t see how MAGA is a dog whistle for white supremacy you may want to examine your conservative values.
I think it’s wrong to imply the conservative base is mislead somehow, or that they were tricked into being conservatives
They were fed dog whistles, yes, but that’s because what they ordered was outright racism and what the metaphorical restaurant served them was dog whistles.
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Like when [whataboutism].
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Am I in a thread about Democrats?
No, it’s about how your party and how they want to bring about Trump’s racist US. Since you don’t like being called on remaining in a openly racist traitor party, you made a feeble attempt to distract by talking about Democrats. That’s whataboutism.
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“Vision” may be too strong a word for Trump.
Because it’s not really his vision. He’s just the anointed one.
That’s always the vibe I’ve gotten. He seems only barely aware of his role in events, which is part of why he can convince so many of his supporters that he’s done not wrong. He genuinely believes it.
He’s more of a figurehead than anything, propped up by numerous disparate groups, none of whom are in total control and thus can’t actually defy whatever Trump says, even when it ends up being harmful to the overall cause. I think American fascism is something like a stand alone complex, basically.
Of course, I’m no expert. Maybe he’s a super mastermind playing 5d chess with America ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That’s the answer. He mostly believes what he says.
“Remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it!”
Is this any surprise? I applaud the effort to state it plainy, but if you’ve been paying attention to the development of the MAGA movement since 2015 it seems pretty obvious that authoritarian facism on behalf of the white supremacists has always been the goal.
BuT wHaT eVeN iS a WhItE sUpReMiCiSt?
– fascist who is beloved by white supremacists
MAGA is a white supremacy dog whistle. The exact type of whistle the GOP has been training its base on since at least the 1950s.
Burn it all down to save one convicted rapist, confirmed con man and traitor.
Nah, he’s just the excuse. This is what they’ve wanted to do all along – fundamentally, conservatives crave autocracy. Hell, they haven’t been happy ever since we booted out George III!
Agreed!
American version of the Taliban.
Ameriban? Talican? Trumpican? Trumpiban? So many possibilities. Magacan’t is what I personally hope for.
I believe the correct name is “Y’all-Qaeda” :)
Okay, but can we still call the fat fucks with AR’s doing milsim cosplays “Meal Team Six”? I really like that name.
January 6 is an ongoing effort.
Stop saying authoritarian government is “trumps vision.” That makes it sound like when he’s gone, it won’t be their vision.
Authoritarian government and total control over the people has always been the GOP’s goal. They say “freedom,” but they mean freedom for the 1% to get rich.
I think Trump sped it up, but the same people hiding in their snake holes were working on getting here for years. When Trump goes, they all need to go with him, or they’ll just anoint someone else.
Yeah, this isn’t some single guy that started it all or perpetuating it on his own.
Trump is just the leader because he says the terrible parts out loud while the rest of the party has been sneak it in through less obvious propaganda for decades. He only got that position because the whole party is in agreement and a significant portion of the public was already on board.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers.
Instead, Trump-era conservatives want to gut the “administrative state” from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.
Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired.
Experts argue Schedule F would create chaos in the civil service, which was overhauled during President Jimmy Carter’s administration in an attempt to ensure a professional workforce and end political bias dating from 19th century patronage.
The ideas contained in Heritage’s coffee table-ready book are both ambitious and parochial, a mix of longstanding conservative policies and stark, head-turning proposals that gained prominence in the Trump era.
There are proposals to have the Pentagon “abolish” its recent diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, what the project calls the “woke” agenda, and reinstate service members discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
The original article contains 1,276 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It’s endgame for the republican traitor filth. Now the voters and juries decide the Republic’s fate.
They know that Trump demands it.
“We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans
An apt rewording of Bannon’s famous quote.
I’m sure all the big businesses are on board for changing of entire federal department workforces every 4 years. They’ll really be able to count on consistent rules to plan their business. Riiiiight.
Trump or Trump’s puppet masters?
