It's true some quite radical ideas are under discussion, and that's OK. But the wing of the party that is pushing these items is not in control. What we have in the Republican party, by contrast, is lunatics and criminals in control. Every Party should be able to accommodate a wide range of ideologies and thinking, but in the end it should be majority view that decides which ideas prevail. That will assure that often we end up with second best but avoid the worst outcomes. At least that's how it is supposed to work, isn't it?, and it seems so far that's how it is working with the Democrats in charge. So far, pretty good I would say!
The South Carolina GOP insanity continues... Coup continues at the state level. Chaos erupts at GOP meeting as Trump-loving attorney Lin Wood gets confronted for spreading election conspiracies https://www.rawstory.com/lin-wood-south-carolina/ Some Republicans are rejecting election conspiracy theories pushed by pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood, who's trying to unseat the South Carolina state GOP chairman. Dozens of guests packed into a ballroom -- mask-free and crammed together in spite of the pandemic -- on Sunday to hear Wood, who recently moved to the state and bought $16 million in property in Beaufort County, explain why they should choose him to replace state GOP chair Drew McKissick next month, reported The Post and Courier. "I did not come to divide you," Wood said. "I came to unite you and and grow your party." Applause erupted each time Wood told guests that Donald Trump was actually still president, although many remained silent, and Charleston County GOP chair Maurice Washington repeatedly reminded the crowd to respect opposing viewpoints when clashes broke out over the November election results. Those arguments continued after Wood's speech ended and the Charleston County GOP tried to continue their scheduled meeting, and the Trump-loving attorney personally argued with some guests about the baseless election fraud claims he was peddling -- and for which he may face potential defamation lawsuits from voting technology companies. One man called Wood "a liar and a manipulator," and another man pressed the attorney to defend his call to execute former vice president Mike Pence for failing to overturn Trump's election loss on Jan. 6 -- which sparked another clash from guests who were at the U.S. Capitol that day. "This was a rigged election, the Senate race was a rigged election -- wake up and see it," Wood told one woman, who doubted his claims. "Ma'am, if I had gone out and gotten you 500,000 more voters, they would have gotten 500,001. They cheated! You cheat, you cheat." Although many in the audience doubted Wood's claims -- and Trump has endorsed McKissock in his South Carolina GOP bid -- at least some attendees are eager to see him in a leadership role. "I know he didn't come here with the motivation to run for this position," said attendee Ann Beauchamp. "But I'd like to see him stir things up, I think it'll be lively." (Article has videos)
Here is the true reason behind politics......... especially Republican Politics. It's all about ''The Benjamins''. The Republican culture war isn't about politics — it's all about money: conservative columnist When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) picks a fight with a neighbor who has a transgender daughter, it doesn't necessarily have to do with Greene being a horrible person, although that isn't out of the question, according to conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot, it's all about the Benjamins. In a recent expose about the GOP fundraising website WinRed, it was revealed that Republican donations accounted for 3 percent of all fraud cases in the entire United States over the course of a month. It was a "checked box" scam that used language to dissuade people from unchecking a box that secretly put them on the hook for monthly and then weekly donations. It's hardly a surprise, said Boot. In 1992, Republicans had a direct-mail scandal demanding $5 membership to protect Social Security. Letter after letter arrived terrifying elderly retirees on fixed incomes. Boot quoted National Conservative Political Action Committee's Terry Dolan, who said: "The shriller you are, the better it is to raise money." "Conservative fundraising appeals, now on the Internet, depend on 'triggering' right-wing voters on incendiary issues such as abortion, gun rights, marriage equality, transgender rights, immigrant 'invasions,' and now 'cancel culture' and 'wokeism,' while warning of imminent doom unless you send in your donation today," Boot wrote. "That creates a financial imperative to wage culture wars to keep the cash registers ringing." Scaring people is the best way to get them to give money. Most describe the worst-case scenario, judges will or won't overturn whatever law they hold dear. Give money! While both sides use urgency and fear to inspire donations, conservatives have run out of issues that they can win on. So, they've made them up. Dr. Seuss's trust decided not to publish four books anymore. Somehow Fox News, with the help of far-right Republicans, turned it into Democrats canceling Dr. Seuss and they "need money to stop it." Disney decided to include a disclaimer on old "Muppet Show" videos on their streaming service, and suddenly Fox News and the GOP claimed Democrats killed the muppets, "save them by giving the GOP your cash." When Greene and other Republicans show up on Fox News to whine about being "censored" while talking to millions of people in their audience, they're fully aware of the irony. At least, most GOP officials are, Greene might not be. Still, they're doing it not to promote legislation or law to change, they're doing it for campaign dollars. Boot explained that these so-called "culture wars" are sexier than typical Republican issues that don't poll well anymore. "The ACU, and conservatives generally, had long been focused on a few things — keeping taxes low, keeping regulation in bounds, adequately funding national defense, and, more generally (this was how conservatism was defined in political terms), prudence and skepticism in the face of proposals for sweeping overhauls," former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-OK), who worked for the ACU in the 80s. "However, what I found in the fundraising letters I was being sent to sign were harangues centered on social issues. Waging the culture war was a more effective way of raising money." So, when Marjorie Taylor Greene sends out an email warning Americans of the "Jewish Space Laser" coming to set fires in your community, she's not proposing to actually pass a bill to regulate the fictitious laser, she just wants donations. Sending her donors emails begging for money because President Joe Biden is coming to take their guns, scored her over $3 million. She keeps doing it because it works. Boot closed by saying that if you want to know how the right became the chaotic, conspiracy machine that it is today, "follow the money." "The right-wing money machine has become the tail wagging the Republican elephant," he said.
See, this is the problem when you don't give a large portion of the population a public forum to air their grievances without belittling and attacking them for their views. They become more and more fringe and reckless. Its not some small group that you're ignoring, its millions of people. And the more you try to clamp down on them, the more you call them "crazy" and dismiss them as conspiracy theorists, the more they believe you are hiding something, and the more people start to think like them. And then you get this. Not shocked at all.
No amount of "belittling" could get me to believe in a Jewish space laser starting forest fires to help dems.
I agree. But that is a scenario completely made up with no event that even remotely resembles it in the news or elsewhere. The other is something that is based on a real life event in a hyper partisan era where no one can believe anything they read anymore. So they kinda don't.