The Future of the GOP

[B]

[elliseamos]

Smart of them to pin all their party’s hopes on a cognitively declining 75-year old.

Have you even seen his birth certificate?

[Strat]

Im not that smart, i admit it, but i truly cannot understand why these clowns are hitching the trump wagon when he lost them the house, senate, and presidency in 4 years.

[Strat]

Will this go anywhere?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN2CS2R3

[BurtReynolds]

A real return to form!

No thanks.

[elliseamos]

@ everything.

[Higgs]

Im not that smart, i admit it, but i truly cannot understand why these clowns are hitching the trump wagon when he lost them the house, senate, and presidency in 4 years.

This flummoxes me, I must say.

But politics in general the world over seems like a depressing shit-show whichever way I turn to be fair.

I actually find it all very very sad and uninspiring. Where are the great leaders?

[BurtReynolds]

I actually find it all very very sad and uninspiring. Where are the great leaders?

Modern democracies don't elect great leaders. They elect middle managers.

[Higgs]

I actually find it all very very sad and uninspiring. Where are the great leaders?

Modern democracies don't elect great leaders. They elect middle managers.

Literally. Our PM is Scotty from Marketing ffs.

[BurtReynolds]

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Biff Pocoroba]

The Georgia Republican Party held their convention over the weekend. They booed governor Kemp (he’s as ass hat as they come) and issued a proclamation of censure against Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger for “dereliction of duty”, both because of election results. They also issued a statement supporting Marjorie Taylor Green.
This is going to get more nutso before it gets better. I know we went D in the election but we’re still a red state. It’s going to be interesting to see if even more right wing wackadoos can primary the governor or become the party’s nominee against Warnock for US Senate seat. I do think the Rs are not done showing their fool selves yet. These types of shenanigans in the GOP are as big a part of the Trump legacy as anything and from a political science aspect it will be a fascinating watch.
This usually the time the Ds trip over their own feet.

[Green Habit]

Good thread. I'm tempted to necro-quote a bunch of stuff here, but I'm not sure how appreciated it would be, and whether I'm going to find time to do so. We shall see.

[B]

I'm pretty fucking sick of Joe Manchin. He won't vote for anything if there isn't some bipartisan support. OH WOE IS ME! If only there were a Senator who could, I don't know, PROPOSE A FUCKING AMENDMENT, to a bill to make it more appealing to Republicans. Oh my, oh my, who could fucking do that?

Manchin won't, because he fucking knows that Republicans won't support ANYTHING. He's so desperate to appear powerful that he's going to help the Republicans block all legislation until they can retake the Senate, and then no one's going to give a flying fuck what Joe Manchin thinks.

[McParadigm]

1. As long as Democrats routinely gain a slim, not-filibuster-proof advantage in the Senate, Joe Manchin has an outsized amount of sway within the party. He gets to be courted, he gets to shut down ideas without having to vote against them, and he gets to have a much larger say in legislation and in directing funds than he otherwise would. If he’s smart, he recognizes that ending the filibuster or passing too robust a voting rights package might deal a deathblow to that balance. He’s not especially ideological, and thus he has no real world motivation for ending that balance. It serves no one more than it serves him.

2. Sinema has recognized Joe’s game and clearly wants a piece of that pie. I suspect there are other moderates playing the same hand behind the scenes....folks who want the party to worry about their vote, but whose districts might be just a smidge bluer and therefore less forgiving if they took their positions public.

3. As frustrating as it is to see Democratic figures play the voting rights game so casually, at the end of the day the real problem is this: one party has decided (incorrectly, I think) that robust voting rights legislation is a threat to its ability to attain power without adapting its platform, and in weighing the two options (adapt the platform to appeal to a broader audience; limit voting rights), it chose the latter.

[McParadigm]

[Bi_3]

Fucking pathetic.

21 Republicans vote against awarding medals to police who defended Capitol

I'm betting everyone here can come up with at least three of the names without even looking.

[Biff Pocoroba]

Faith & Freedom conference this weekend.

[McParadigm]

Faith & Freedom conference this weekend.

Complete with Mike Pence being heckled and called a traitor for not supporting an attempt to steal an election.

On a related note:

Lonnie Hollis has been a member of the Troup County election board in West Georgia since 2013. A Democrat and one of two Black women on the board, she has advocated Sunday voting, helped voters on Election Days and pushed for a new precinct location at a Black church in a nearby town.

But this year, Ms. Hollis will be removed from the board, the result of a local election law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican. Previously, election board members were selected by both political parties, county commissioners and the three biggest municipalities in Troup County. Now, the G.O.P.-controlled county commission has the sole authority to restructure the board and appoint all the new members.

Ms. Hollis is not alone. Across Georgia, members of at least 10 county election boards have been removed, had their position eliminated or are likely to be kicked off through local ordinances or new laws passed by the state legislature.

Ms. Hollis and local officials like her have been some of the earliest casualties as Republican-led legislatures mount an expansive takeover of election administration in a raft of new voting bills this year.

G.O.P. lawmakers have also stripped secretaries of state of their power, asserted more control over state election boards, made it easier to overturn election results, and pursued several partisan audits and inspections of 2020 results.

Republican state lawmakers have introduced at least 216 bills in 41 states to give legislatures more power over elections officials, according to the States United Democracy Center, a new bipartisan organization that aims to protect democratic norms. Of those, 24 have been enacted into law across 14 states.

Republicans in Arizona have introduced a bill that would largely strip Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state, of her authority over election lawsuits, and then expire when she leaves office. And they have introduced another bill that would give the Legislature more power over setting the guidelines for election administration, a major task currently carried out by the secretary of state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/19/us/p ... tates.html

[McParadigm]

The bill approved on Thursday gives Mr. Brnovich’s office exclusive control of such lawsuits, but only through Jan. 2, 2023 — when the winners of the next elections for both offices would be about to take power. The aim is to ensure that the authority given to Mr. Brnovich would not transfer to any Democrat who won the next race for attorney general.