7 ms·
I don't know how to fix this ratchet of "Republicans shatter things for fun and self-profit; Democrats try to tape things back together but it's harder to fix t
by i80and 2y ago
I don't know how to fix this ratchet of "Republicans shatter things for fun and self-profit; Democrats try to tape things back together but it's harder to fix things than break them; so voters punish them by electing Republicans" that's been going on my entire life
- ethbr1 2y agoIt's not that simple. Democrats are responsible for plenty of stupid ideas, and Republicans have pushed through some good ideas. Being overly reductionist makes one easier to reject as partisan. What is new is the MAGA/2025 hijacking of the Republican party to enact its goals. To the extent that the current Republican leadership is essentially a different party than it was 6 years ago.
- djeastm 2y agoHow is it a hijack? He got and is still getting overwhelming support from the GOP rank and file. It mightve been a hijack at one point, but MAGA owns the whole airline now.
- aswanson 2y ago10 year dominance of a political party by one man is not a hijacking. It's a revealed preference.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoI think they believe the hijacking happened 12 years ago.
- natebc 2y agoIt started in 2008 and kicked into super high gear in 2010.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoYeah, this might be correct. It's possible Trumpism is a natural extension of tea-party-ism.
- ethbr1 2y agoEspecially ironic, given one of the tenets of tea partyism was paying down the national debt.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- i80and 2y agoThe national debt is too abstract and wonk-ish to be an actual tenet of a populist movement. I remember people talked about it a lot, but only in trite ways and I really think it was just a fig leaf.
- ethbr1 2y agoThe national debt is concrete, but no president likes having their ability to spend constrained. It should be handled in the way all >4 year payback US problems are: by empowering a commission to do the neccessary unpopular things and give members longer-than-4-year terms.
- pclmulqdq 2y agoI actually believe that the hardline tea partiers did believe this until they actually saw where the money was going. Then, lots of people in the tea party started saying "get the government's hands off my social security" (the irony would be funny if it didn't hurt so much).
- DevX101 2y agoMany Republicans don't realize this. The party you've voted for all your life is not the same party running America today. Today's Republican party has been co-opted by an Anarcho-capitalist wing. And step 1, which they're well on track to do is to dismantle the Federal government. Step 2, which will be coming within the next year or two is to sell off previous government services to private entities.
- TheOtherHobbes 2y agoWhen the Soviet Union collapsed the US sent over "economic consultants" to steer what happened next towards "free markets." What happened next is that various chancers marched into state institutions, usually with private security details made of low-grade armed thugs promoted from street crime, and said "This is ours now." The US aristocracy saw this and apparently thought "Perfect - let's make that happen here too." The fact there's been no significant state or media push back against Musk's takeovers is all anyone needs to know. The aim is a kleptocratic imperium drowning in gold, drugs, delusion, and corruption - which is exactly what Russia turned into.
- Muromec 2y agoThe best part is where the plant is still state property on paper, but operates at loss because it exports everything to a shell company in Austria who resells it at profit paid to the actual benefociary controller. And if report on this, the president orders you to be behaded
- ethagnawl 2y agoIt's an evolution, not a hijack. Even Mitt Romney accepts it as the new normal: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/15/politics/video/mitt-romney-maga-republican-party-donald-trump-sotu-digvid https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/15/politics/video/mitt-romney-ma...
- clumsysmurf 2y agoDavid Brooks, at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, had a session called "How the Elite rigged Society (and why it’s falling apart)" I included a link just below to at the exact timestamp he talks about this: How Brooks sees Trumpism: not conservative, they don't have a conservative or positive vision for society, they just want to destroy the institutions "dominated" by left. In his words, this means, they are astoundingly incompetent. "Elite Narcissicm" leads to the destruction of every thought system it encounters. https://youtu.be/QSa52TR9tCA?si=Uckncgw-WbAfA5tZ&t=277 https://youtu.be/QSa52TR9tCA?si=Uckncgw-WbAfA5tZ&t=277
- i80and 2y agoI attended GOP caucuses circa 2010-2014. I would like to believe there was once a healthy sensible conservative party, but I'm sorry to say that to my eyes nothing has been hijacked: MAGA is what the Republican party has been for my entire adult life. It's just loud about it in public now instead of behind the doors of political machinery.
- aswanson 2y agoFacts. All Trump did was take the top talking points of AM radio & fox (birtherism/racism, illegal immigration, and no factory jobs) and parroted them to power.
- ethbr1 2y agoThat's a fundamental shift in historical Republicanism though. For most of its history, the Republican party was fairly anti-populist (defined by whatever populism was at the time). The Republican southern strategy from 1980+ was predicated on attracting southern white votes by attacking civil rights (explicitly or implicitly), but ultimately focusing on business priorities (with some headline-catching red meat). However, in the decades since, the explosion of hardline conservative talk radio then dragged the party to answer to its more egregious populist demands. Hence Trump.
- aswanson 2y agoThat bait-and-switch reveals the core, though. The R base wanted what Trump is doing all along but was tricked by the establishment business class. The reason they are so loyal to Trump is because he ripped away the fasaud and acts out their longstanding wishes.
- brookst 2y agoI would argue that their opposition to civil rights was populist. It was amoral and intended only to get votes from racists, as an “ends justify the means” way to pursue deregulation and corporatism.
- avidphantasm 2y ago
- markhahn 2y agoNon-MAGA republicans gave up; they are now extinct.
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoThere were two paths, the examples I would give are Cheney and Graham. Both thought Trump was terrible, one stuck to her convictions and is now out of government, the other rolled over and is now licking Trump's boots.
- hedora 2y agoName a single good idea the Republican Party has proposed and implemented at the federal level since 2000. The most recent thing I can think of was getting Clinton to balance the budget, and he was a democrat.
- neaden 2y agoPEPFAR started in 2003 under Bush and has saved millions of lives. Of course Trump is dismantling it now but I think it's inarguably the best thing Bush did as president.
- freen 2y agoThe GOP fought against AIDS interventions since its discovery. Had they not, PEPFAR or something similar would have existed a decade or more earlier. Lotsa people died because of that. By 2003, it was no longer tenable to refuse to fight AIDS, plus, notable GOP family members got AIDS. Just like Nancy Reagan’s 180 on gay people once her daughter came out.
- SauciestGNU 2y agoI totally agree with you, but as someone who has seen the impact on the ground in parts of Africa, and how HIV/AIDS is no longer the death sentence it once was, PEPFAR is an amazing program that came too late, but let's not discount the actual good that it has done.
- freen 2y agoOf course not! Better late than never.
- freen 2y agoWhat good ideas? The entire platform of the GOP is that the government is the problem. The ACA would have been much better had the GOP not tried to stop it any way possible. Suing to remove critical aspects of it, voting at every turn against it, arguing that there would be death panels for grandparents. Even once it was law, no attempt to improve, or replace. A good faith effort would include an alternative health care plan. Where is it? Two options: either incapable of producing a plan or are at best indifferent to the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of people, if not more. The GOP has only tirelessly worked to ensure that the ACA would be less effective than it could have been. Note: not repeal it. It’s entirely too popular and effective for that.
- soulofmischief 2y agoTakes like this only focus on domestic politics and ignore the harrowing neoliberal foreign politics both parties uphold in order to perpetuate class inequality and create consumer demand. Both parties are invested in selling this country out, even if some Democrats really do care about social services.
- i80and 2y agoI actually agree, but I'm not sure this is a relevant observation. It's not fawning over Democrats to say that they are, as a group, pro-institution.
- npteljes 2y agoThe two-party system in itself doesn't work well. So I'm not holding my breath.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoTwo santas theory. I worry that the solution is a race to the bottom. As long as this shit helps only one party it won't get fixed.