400 Comments

It’s time for the term “radical regressives” to come into common usage.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 12, 2022

I still think the term "neo-Confederates" is far more accurate, particularly since there's already been talk in some "red states" of secession, although a more practical approach is in continuing to pervert The Constitution - they recognize the economic power of the "blue states," being mostly the net beneficiaries of those tax dollars. The assault on the 14th Amendment has begun. How long before the 13th is next? I think that >to call them anything else< completely misses the true nature of those wankers, whose "battle cry" is "Forget? Hell!"

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I always accepted the notion that the GOP absorbed the Jim Crow Southern Democrats with their post Jim Crow "We feel your pain" strategy, therefore expanding its turf. But now I think DZK is closer to the truth., the Jim Crow Southern Democrats took over the Republican Party, and injected their traditional White Southern angst directly into its aorta. "neo-Confederates" fits like a glove.

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I must have missed something. When did they ever feel anyone’s pain?

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The satisfaction of >inflicting< it?

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They are so self absorbed they feel only their own pain of people with darker skin being in many cases smarter and in some cases more powerful than their own white selves. It’s not pain it’s their fragile little egos.

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The pain in question is that felt by many white Southerners, due to the black gains in the civil rights movements. Shedding tears for those unfortunate white dears.

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Nicely characterized.

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I'm not good with this, not at all. The current bunch are advocates of some of the most abusive lines of exercising states' rights. They should stand on their own, rather than using a crutch from history. I should say that we can call them Tories, Hobbésian Monarchists and such, and compare them to the source from which the Confederacy and Tory thought originated. But the "neo-Confederate" is misleading. It's hard to come up with an appropriate epithet for these rascals, given the vilification of the term "anti-Fascist;" Fascist or Falangist suits the Trumpists well.

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I agree. In my mind, neo-Confederate doesn't cover the whole of what these crazies are. Radical Regressives is more inclusive.

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Its not states rights. Except where that helps justify their goals. So states rights in order to reverse Roe v Wade, but no states rights on gun control. When watching the magic show, don't look at the rabbit!

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Jul 12, 2022·edited Jul 12, 2022

>Exactly!< Except for voter rights, and marriage equality, etc. I think they carve out an exception for gun control for >exactly< the same reason they killed Roe. There's nothing in The Constitution that specifies >or< prohibits, for example, knowing who keeps what kind of weapons. After all, "In order to maintain a >well regulated< militia," any militia command would need to know who has what kind of firepower, and at the time, the states provided and maintained the militias. To this day, the practice is maintained by what we all know otherwise as the "State National Guard," although they're now tacked out by taxpayer dollars, rather than private ownership, these days.

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Somebody has to do it.

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Yeah I can only see the falsehood of These Fascist (like Trump) referring to anyone who sees them for what they are as Fascists! Apparently the Trumpanzies are actually too stupid to understand or realize what the definition of a Fascists is!

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

States' Rights are the Ur Confederate issue, and >that's< according to >them< - although it >was< about keepin' their slaves - those rich enough to own 'em! I call 'em neo-Confederates, these days, who are attempting to revert civil rights to something they're more comfortable with, that involves abusing other people, citing their arbitrary religious beliefs, and not being criminals - while waving Confederate flags. Y'can't call 'em criminals if there's no law against their abuse - in their twisted ideology! How 'bout the right to secede that's nowhere in The Constitution. Then there's the >money< - or "proppity" as they all used to like to say about people!

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I don’t think you need the “neo.”

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I'll admit to splitting hairs with it. Like I say below, it's baked into the culture, and will probably be always with us - our "original sin."

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Here's an interesting conundrum for you. How does that make me a leftist? Think about what the right and left >really< are before you come to any conclusion.

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I wish this site had better navigation, D. It’s too hard to go back and find your original comment. However I do know that the ideas of right and left go back to the French Revolution. I don’t suppose that helps though.

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Error in the diagnosis cannot be remedied by vigor in the treatment.

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True.

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How is anything else suggested here better?

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heart...

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Nothing “neo” about them. This is a continuation of over 200 years of racism.

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I have no objection to that view. It's baked into the culture.

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Don't you think they are cons using conservative brand to just get what they and their funders want. My take these self centered rich founders could care less about their neo-Confederates. Yes indeed red states base are white nationalists (and racists). But CNN and the like are not going to use neo-confederates. The Stop Calling Them Conservative is method to counter the con jobs being used by the neo-confederates and most important the entire current Republican Party and their corporation funded news outlets.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

Ever heard of the old management principle that says: "Ride the horse the direction it's going?" Whether a con or management strategy is moot. The endgame involves who carries what flag into battle. The bible-thumpers get their version of "sharia" law, the gun-anarchy wankers get to concealed carry without a permit and form vigilance committees, and - of course - the management behind the scenes get a docile labor force of wage-slaves upon whom they'll cash-in on obscene wealth - and dynasty, an incipient royalty to "take back" their place in the world as "defenders of the faith!" They even have some "old time religion" to affirm "it's not man's law, it's their [heathen] god's law!" (A line [almost] verbatim with which J D Vance ends one of the political commercials he's been running on mainstream, broadcast TV, of late.) These "royal families" may or may not observe said alt-sharia law themselves. Why would they? Look to ol' Tweety for the answer to that!

UPON further reflection, you can how see clearly ol' Tweety employed it. He knew what the crowd he intended to "serve" wanted and he gave it to them. His rallies, jingo, and hit Q-spiracies are all things he knew his "target audience" liked, and were on about. Further, he was comfortable leading them to their "neon meat dreams of the octafish." (Don't bother trying to make sense of that. It's Captain Beefheart!) He just tailored his events to provide that entertainment, whipping his followers into a frenzy of "hope" - a word some folks here still don't >get< why I mistrust, and don't understand how cults weaponize it on their followers - then pointed them the direction they had in mind from the outset. He knew >exactly< what he was a'doin'. He knew these people well, if not personally.

How did that come to pass? Let's start with the obvious. He was a casino mogul. He had all the resources at hand to understand his clientele, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, and get them to throw their money down a rathole in the hope of "hitting big," and continues to collect from them without even offering them a dubious game of chance to throw it down a rathole with. To their minds, they're playing the biggest game there is - and that, indeed, may be no illusion. (They just don't realize it's a "heads, they don't win; tails they lose" proposition.) Losing their money - or their souls - is far less important than staying 'in the action" - taking part in something historic, "the likes of which has never been seen before," to use ol' Tweety's trope. Make no mistake, 1/6 was where his followers conjured in their own hearts & minds & deluded fantasies to go, and he took them there, like a twisted Moses into the "Desert of Nihil." He just never really intended to >ever< lead them out of that desert, once they arrived, exclaiming: "I >have< arrived!"

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That's what it is! States Rights, Libertarian, and Silent Majority are ways of saying "return to the failed Articles of Confederation" even though Confederates lost our Civil War. Lincoln established that dividing our union would result in a less perfect union and is not constitutional. We should have finished the Civil War conclusively.

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I have thought that for a long time. That we never finished the Civil War. We let the south keep all the stuff all the flags and allowed them to erect statues of their heroes. It just continued.

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Jul 12, 2022·edited Jul 12, 2022

Like I've said elsewhere, the >then< Republicans should've taken the hint at that time about the 10th Amendment and fixed it, while the Confederate states proclaimed themselves a foreign, hostile power. I don't oppose states' rights, per se. I just think more care should have been taken with regard to defining those rights. I'm not prepared - as many do - to consider the founders flawless demigods. The smartest among us err.

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I see what you mean. The 10nth amendment as written does not delegate anything not specifically written in the Constitution to Federal Government and that puts all civil (substantive) rights on the table for states to control. The irony is that if Clarence Thomas gets his way about revisiting all substantive rights, his own people will likely loose much of their civil rights in the south. which doesn't make sense unless he has a delusion of being white and doesn't know he and his wife are a interracial couple.

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Neo Confederates- another good one.

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They are Confederate in the sense that they want to restore White Supremacy and have a minimal Federal Government, but not really in any other sense.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

Oh, there's the States' Rights issue - the 10th Amendment - they have always claimed was the cause of secession, while more northerly folks claim it was about slavery. They are >every bit< Confederate. Their claim is a right to secession under the 10th Amendment, along with the right to keep and bear arms to throw down any government they deem tyrannical, that appears nowhere in the Constitution by the slightest implication. Just like the Confederates, they even have some "old time religion" to affirm "it's not man's law, it's their heathen god's law!" Yep! If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it's a damn duck!

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The State's Rights stuff is not exactly a core belief. That stuff all got tossed when Trump was iin power and they wanted to build 'the wall'.

Say what you want about the actual Confederates, but the believed their own BS.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

SCOTUS struck down RvW and affirmed states' rights in every way dear to Confederates. They intend to pull more of that "Dred Scott" bullshit in the future, as well. Just because the rank and file aren't stating in plainly - indeed, they say >nothing< of their true agenda - doesn't mean what they're fighting for isn't consistent with that core belief. Actions speak >far louder< than words, particularly when you pack SCOTUS with like-minded actors and flood the media with antigovernmental propaganda. What's confusing you is what's >supposed< to confuse you. Indeed, the Confederates actually believed their own BS, just like ol' Tweety's supporters and everyone buying into "the big lie" believes their own BS. If you're just talking about just their leadership, there's no reason to think their leadership doesn't believe their own bullshit reasons for promoting the bullshit their followers believe. Besides, the term I suggested is "neo-Confederates" - meaning "new" Confederates. The Confederates didn't live in these modern times. This is a new batch embracing the same kind of ideology - for power and profit, particularly profit, instead of explicit chattel slavery.

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I wish I had thought of the term "confederate" when listing more appropriate terms. Add "neo" to the front, & yes, it works very well!

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

Honestly. What does it take? What flag did you see with >your own eyes< being dragged into The Rotunda by the 1/6 wankers ‽ They've >already< identified >themselves!< What's the point of an academic-sounding, learned-sounding pretense in terminology, when perfectly appropriate common terminology is available, that perfectly describes how >they< identify themselves under the Confederate banner they fly. Here's an old bit of common wisdom for y'all: "When someone >shows< you who they are, >believe them!<"

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Most of the attraction is visceral. Bonding among like minded cultists.

There is also a religious aspect. Demagogues like Trump take advantage of a racist collective unconscious that incorporates some radicals who are mainly antisocial with others who are true believers.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

That's >exactly< the point of any banner - cohesiveness. Consider the cohesiveness of the congressional Republicans, particularly in the Senate. Compare that with the Democrats, many of whom vote with the Republicans, in a misguided attempt at bipartisan unity - where >none< is possible, in this political reality. In this case, the banner under which that cohesiveness maintained is that of a >foreign, hostile power< - that of the Confederate States of America. They also dragged the US flag in the dirt, with spikes mounted on the flagpoles, while using those flagpoles as pikes.

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Perhaps we need a rallying cry for the midterms.

There was Remember the Alamo! & Remember the Maine!

<Remember the Rotunda> would rally the QOP...

So, would <Remember Trump's Riot!> help?

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How about “Remember democracy”? I’m being ironic.

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Yes, once upon a time we had some semblance of a democracy. Remember?

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Yeah, I kinda do.

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Almost, sort of, except for the Electoral College, filibuster and Citizens United, for starters. Now a stacked Corporate owned Supreme Court! along with a few other things. But we will try to form a More Perfect Union. Perfection is near unattainable, but improvement would be good. But we have to keep it to improve it.

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Yep! That could backfire - big time, in the face of the "big lie."

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ROT! Regressive Oppressive Tyrants!

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I agree, although it probably wouldn't impress most folks here. It's for those who respond to catchy slogans that echo their sentiments. How 'bout "A Republican under every bed?"

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Ugh. The idea of that makes me want to hurl.

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Some do.

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Perfect description of today’s Republicans. I will use radical regressives from now on.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

Just to remind you of what "Johnny Reb" looks like, Day 7 of the 1/6 hearings set for tomorrow morning, 7/12/22, at 10:00 AM EDT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spJR5Y5_f4c Bull Run is just out Rt 50, about 60 or 70 miles away.

BTW: For the benefit of any neo-Confederate apologists out here, who like to scream and accuse the 1/6 hearings being a politically partisan proceeding, Jamie Raskin himself agrees with you. He cites that >ALL THE WITNESSES ARE REPUBLICANS.<

UPDATE: I just heard the local broadcast news (CBS) announce that contrary to what the link I posted says, the hearing is happening at 1:00 PM tomorrow. (The 10:00 AM hour is probably PDT, I'm thinkin'.)

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How about "neo-fascists", it fits!

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How about “theocratic fascists”?

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Furthermore, theocracy is not the only form of government they embrace. Autocracy, aristocracy, plutocracy, corporatocracy, kleptocracy, mafiocracy, idiocracy & kakistocracy are some others.

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It's all tyranny!

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What they certainly don't support is democracy.

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Or fascist theocrats. However, I make a distinction among fascists according to origin: christofascists, republofascists, russofascists...

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

They are, but I think the term imprecise. They fly the Confederate flag. Remember that when you see a pick-up on the streets flying it. Those who support them are as complicit as the Union spectators who got shot at by the Confederates at Bull Run. They weren't in the Union army. The spectators supported the Union army and were complicit in the eyes of the Confederates shooting at them.

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And the NY Times dutifully ran the articles about the Confederates bayoneting the Union wounded in hospitals in the aftermath of Bull Run in 1861. Be very careful with history, that you are not endorsing propaganda.

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Never heard about that! I've never brought it up.

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They’re reactionaries.

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Excellant point, Mr. Klorese! They DESPERATELY want to take America back to the early 1900s when only white men had rights . . . sorry. Only white RICH men had rights. It's just too bad that those radical regressives forgot one tiny detail: while they were hoarding money and molestling little boys, we AMERICANS were getting educated and furious!

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I’d go way further back than that. Feudalism anyone? Next they’ll be throwing people into tubs of water to see if they float.

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Paula B. ; let's not give 'em ideas!

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Well sure, that's true too! Why do you think so many are scared to get the vaccine? It's not leeches!

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I have several Republican friends from college and law school who’ve been going apoplectic over the choices of the leadership of the GOP. They do not believe the replacements on SCOTUS over the years have in any matched the intellectual ability of predecessors.

The media truly has done Americans a disservice and failed miserably to be honest with us.

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The antidote for many of those people are benefits. They don't want to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.

The rabble are slitting their own throats by undermining Social Security, Medicare, etc.

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The stated Republican desire to end Social Security and Medicare could be the issue that ensures that Democrats increase their numbers in both the Senate and the House. Unfortunately, that will require a President or candidate for Congress to "stand up and shout", to use that old but useful term. The results of the NY Times/CBS poll, out today, shows Biden with shockingly low approval as he's apparently seen as a do-nothing President at a time when grocery, gas and housing costs are going out the roof.

When the inescapable recession hits, prospects for Biden and Congressional Democrats will look especially bleak - unless Dems from the President on down put on their big-boy pants and start attacking what the Republicans are doing and want to do once they have control of the government.

The alternative is for Democrats to continue to hide from the public, play the wimp card and in the process lose our Democratic Republic, and that's awful to contemplate.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

The clever part of all that, is Biden is being tarred as a "do nothing" by the opposition, who are doing nothing but railing about boys in the girls' room - the ones doing the railing's perspective - while encouraging "natural birth control" by their draconian measures. (Although I'm not LGBT, I certainly understand that much about their lifestyle! And for those prepared to be offended, >everyone< has a lifestyle - LGBT or otherwise!) The world got sick with covid - including the legendary supply chain. (An incarnation of JIT delivery, developed in the '80s & '90s, when the Japanese were punishing the competition with it.) It's still recovering from same, and will take years to recover. No politician can do anything to speed it up, and are much more likely to prolong the recovery - by claiming the pandemic has well and truly passed.

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I'm not LGBT either but object to your use of "fairies" and "lifestyle choice". People who are gay are human and have basic human rights. And their being gay is really not a lifestyle choice, rather it's appears to be hard-wired into their genetic make-up. They are who they are just as you and I are who we are.

Biden took on an incredible mess created by covid and by Trump, especially with his inability to do much of anything about the disease other than to suggest quack "remedies" and drinking bleach. Biden has labored mightily to correct Trump's disastrous policies. What I fault him for is his being so quiet about everything he's managed to achieve.

He's not a leader at this point in his life. It's beyond time for other Democrats to stand up and attack the neo-Confederates or whatever you want to call them with everything they've got, and the GQP has given Democrats a whole lot of ammunition, enough to win big in November. But I doubt they'll use any of it.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

OK. Offense not intended to the LGBT community. Indeed, I'd think the Q part of it would be massively offensive. But then again, I have no dog in that fight.

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There must be a dem or an independent capable of standing up and shouting about the millions and billions inflation is producing fine corporations.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

I mentioned elsewhere, the Tweety-freex in the streets have no idea what they're bringing down on themselves. I remember when the Republicans portrayed "welfare mothers" as inner-city black women, when the end result was that the ones who got really whacked were the Appalachian, white, single mothers.

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Couldn't heart you.

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Indeed, I just had to refresh mine just to see my previous response to your "heartless" (LOL!) message, and will likely need to do the same to even see this one!

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Not to worry, DS. I got it. I've found the page gets slow to refresh, and the "heart" is the first casualty. Just refresh your browser, and I think you'll see it show up.

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They are surely 'silly geese'! ,that rabble!

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What's good for the goose is good for the 'gander'

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They are clueless about this, sadly.

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That is so true. The media thinks the have to be “fair “ and give both sides of an argument equal time without a shred of analysis on either side. The media has failed us.

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I agree, we shouldn't tar >all< Republicans with Q-publican bullshit. Like Jamie Raskin says, >all< the 1/6 hearings' witnesses are Republicans. I think we owe them that much. When I say wank-publican or Q-publican, I'm differentiating from honest Republicans - regardless of how I might otherwise disagree with their tenets.

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I distinguish them by calling them either (traditional) Republicans or Republofascists.

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founding

Truth be told: if your friends continued to vote Republican then it is your friends who have done a disservice to themselves (and, indeed, insofar as they'll turn around and do it again a disservice to all of us - as they have not only effected harm but wasted everyone's time in the process).

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Jul 12, 2022·edited Jul 12, 2022

I disagree. The issue isn’t voting for a Republican candidate but which Republican candidate one votes for or does not for. I do have friends so repulsed by Trump and his ilk they voted for Hilary and in 2016 and now are registered independents.

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founding

The original topic is 'How to handle radical Republicans'; where's the scope for disagreement? (Look at the time spent talking about *their* mistakes & *their* problems!)

(Put another way: would *any* measure of media honesty *ever* result in the unprecedented issues Professor Reich mentioned being addressed of their own? The people who constitute the party choose its leadership and thus its strategy & accompanying rhetoric; did they not pledge fealty to Donald Trump - and even declare their intentions to vote for him again, i.e. regardless of their feelings?)

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“ The people who constitute the party choose its leadership and thus its strategy “

Again, I disagree. I am a Democrat. I constitute said party but I wrote in Paul Tsongas in 1992 over Clinton. That is my choice and my comment is simply to point out that not all republicans are MAGA and Q nuts or agree with their party’s choices. Yes, they hold conservative views but to link them to the fore mentioned nuts simply because they maintain their party affiliation is disingenuous.

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founding

Votes are public record: if you're not a Trumper, the record reflects that; if you are, you won't change. (Again, you disagree?)

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I disagree with the idea that folks cannot or are not capable of change. I do agree there are those that will not for whatever reason but I’m an optimist. Yes, we live in dark and dangerous times but remember we view history with 20/20 goggles.

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founding

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_United_States_presidential_election#Overview

My sister & I were not of voting age (she preferred Gore, then sent $50 to the Brown campaign); my dad liked Tsongas early on but he wasn't a choice by the time California had its primary (which is a facet of party politics that Californians are familiar with - even when Camejo is on the ballot!)...

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founding

Pete made two comments: (1) his friends do not care for the choices of Republican leadership (they are "going apoplectic" - rather *are* apoplectic) & (2) "the media" (undefined - presumably including this Substack column) have failed to be honest and thus done a disservice to us wooly sheepen, the many flocks of us that be (as we somehow merit pure, white, unadulterated, unabashed truth - via media, on demand).

RE (1): Think of it another way: if your favorite restaurant no longer serves food you like then either your tastes changed or the restaurant did; the statement is simply that - instead of telling everyone how *thoroughly* shocked you are that everyone's *favorite* restaurant isn't what *we all* thought it was... it is... only true that you have *yourself* to blame if you *choose* to visit. ('Eat your own cooking' and you needn't worry about bellyache!)

RE (2): If the logic of (1) does not obtain then (2) cannot follow from (1); if (2) is a statement of its own, there is no substantiation (or even context) for (2) - and definitely nothing like a refutation of the original posting (which, incidentally, does not mention the media once).

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I lay the failure at the door of other institutions than the media. The mainstream media is doing their best to keep up with the firehose of information and bullshit flying around.

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Elizabeth, I disagree -- profoundly.

The big story is price fixing and price gouging. Who, what, where, when, why, and how?

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DS & EB: The media just wants to increase ad rates for its boner-pill and other BigPharma TV ads... There are too many suppressed big stories to keep track of... It's still like when Trump took advantage of silently doing evil while the media was busy running around like decapitated chickens on other "big" stories...

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I believe if you check the 6 Sigma process will find the the proper order of investgation for root cause investigation is What, when, where, how and I beleive more properly to avoid Finger poining and lynching, WHY. Doing otherwise risks making the process personal thereby blocking objectivity.

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founding

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws

A reference would be helpful (as Wikipedia confirms the "who, what, where, when, & why" order to be consistent with Aristotle's definition); regardless, we should be careful about what we call "the media" (e.g. NPR/PBS v/s cable news channels)...

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So . .You put your trustin Wikipedia for fact checking. Hmmm. Says alot about your "news" sources. My guess is that you are not 6 Sigma Certified in Quality assurance processes. Just sayin.

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founding

Though we are not locked in combat to the death on a Klingon moon, a hearty "K'plah!" for your spirit Ms. Rebekha! (However, please note that "sayin' won't make it so" - and that, to be fair, what was written was "A reference would be helpful", i.e. "Please say more for our edification - as others may not have an M.S. in industrial engineering & be similarly curious.")

PS: Check out 'The Cathedral & The Bazaar' by Eric S. Raymond if you're interested in some abstract thinking about just how untrustworthy/trustworthy Wikipedia is (as open-source software developers have long known that the "security through obscurity" is strictly a myth, albeit one perpetuated by many a 'black belt').

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Corporations run the media & the media speak on behalf of corporations.

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Bullshit!

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founding

... but airborne-

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Dear Robert Reich, and you are dear, please stay healthy and strong. We need you. I agree, Stop calling them conservatives, call them what they really are fascists. Spanish, Italian, and German fascists believed in the might of the wealthy corporations and their wealthy supporters. They all employed white thugs to enforce their "right to rule" They fed their sheep some people to hate, but not the actual perpetrators of their discontent (corporate wealth and their greedy minions), that would be too complicated for their sheep to understand. Nooo, they fed them their version of the enemy, Jews, Slavs, persons of color, homosexuals, persons of lower intellect, backed up by their thugs attacking, arresting these people and throwing them into slave labor camps, concentration camps, or murdering them outright. (Today we throw them in private prisons) If we can't see the parallels between the 20's, 30's and 40's, and now, we're either blind or disinterested. There are a few Conservatives in America, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, maybe Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney. I have no problem with conservatism when it is real, I envy their fiscal restraint, but I have been a progressive since I was 21 in Canada, and this leopard isn't changing her spots after 68 years. We absolutely have to call a slug, a slug., and not a would be snail. The trumpsters are fascists, they have always been fascists, and always will be. I don't know how to impress this on the so-called "mainstream media" whose main interest seems to be selling more air time or more papers. I do contribute monthly to Inequality Media, but since I don't twitter, snapshot, etc. I just hope it is having the desired effect. I write to my local Newspaper, but never get published, since I don't fit in with their concept of 'concerned citizen'. I email my Congressman and both Senators (and do get responses) but not actions. I wish I were 30 again with the stamina and body to go to the streets and protest, but "if wishes were horses...."

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Thank you Robert Reich for helping us (and I hope Voters) understand how the manipulation of our government especially economy is not Conservatism but Fascism. Fay Reid, your comment is important: “The trumpsters are fascists, they have always been fascists, and always will be. I don't know how to impress this on the so-called "mainstream media" The Fascist/Repub playbook is moving rapidly to destroy our Democracy.. TFG was supported, perhaps a puppet, and with and without him, a democratic economic system that affects everyone is collapsing except for the corporate world. Look back at History and see how governments fall into the hands of Fascists who dismantle the economic safety nets, with lies and deception through Corporate welfare and power. Reagan worked to dismantle the New Deal and it’s been a battle since then to maintain and continue or expand these laws and regulations for all but the wealthy. The question: is it possible with current politics to reverse this destruction?

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Irenie ; Good question! Widespread education is needed! Inequality Media has enlisted tech savvy young people to get the word out about what is going on with the Radical Regressives of tRumpworld. I give whenever I can to their Civics Action. they are working on sites like Snapchat and Tik Tok ; places I rarely go, like Twitter...(all I can think of is 'twit'. I'm old!)

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Check out https://www.votecommongood.com/

Religious Protestant Democrats who neutralize evangelist demagogues.

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Yes, that's exactly what happened.

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Fay Reid ; .."beggars would ride". I also give to Inequality Media Civics. Not monthly, but I end up giving more than if I gave a fixed amount on a monthly basis. It just turns out that way somehow. I like your observations, as usual.

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Reading a book like capitalism and freedom he seems reasonable. Live, you get a much better sense of how smug and evil he is.

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Blood on his hands in Chile.

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I can’t get past this:

An underground railroad is being devised for women, in 2022.

Ponder that.

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We need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. But, as usual, we need to secure voting rights first, apparently. These two items are related, when more than half the country representing all the races/ethnicities in our nation do not have equal rights, and voting itself is not secure. Federal elections should be secured at the very least, since there is so much legal 'mischief' going on.

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Election security seems to have gone so far down hill that maybe we need U.N. election monitoring.

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There’s a turnabout for you.

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I hope it is very successful, & helps reverse these awful decisions.

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Agree. I have noticed news commentators using the term radical Republicans more frequently, so that is good. Maybe we can reinforce that behavior via e-mails to networks.

Because Trump has no ability to understand anyone’s motives other than his own ( new term : simplistic sociopath) he and his flying monkeys

project their own motives and desires onto others.

Their nearly constant use of projection needs to be pointed out when describing their radical, destructive, unpatriotic agenda.

I also think it should be discussed in print and on air that Clarence Thomas clearly had an addiction to pornography, an addiction that those of his hearing committee stupidly ignored despite Anita Hill’s brave testimony. When he was Hill’s boss, Thomas was very interested in watching women having sex with animals and in making Anita Hill uncomfortable while he controlled the conversation. Now Thomas is finally getting to control American women and watch their misery.

He is destroying the rights of privacy so he, as a representative of the government, can peer into the bedrooms of Americans. He is projecting his

own desires onto the role of government.

I know this topic is gross, but it was ignored in 1991 and now has returned to cause women to suffering, pain and humiliation ….and Thomas gets to watch. ( yuck)

We have a large number of people in power who are clearly not psychologically healthy. Trump, Bannon, Stone, MTG, Boebert, Gohmer… the list is long with many possible diagnoses. They gravitate toward the radical right wing Republicans because wackos are welcomed in the party where destroying society is the goal.

These people should not have responsibility for the lives of others.

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Great observations!

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The oligarchs/corps buy them seats in our government and the dirty money gives them power!

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Words matter. Texas Republicans have suggested "forced relocation" should replace "slavery" in their children's textbooks. The Wannsee Conference gave us "the final solution" while papering over the bothersome fact this solution involved killing people. For centuries now words have been communicated in books which the New Right wants to eliminate because they are an interference to their quest for cultural hegemony.

It is time for us all to stand up for bothersome words, provocative words, words which make us stop and think. Words are the building blocks of civilization and are just as important as the manifold flora and fauna we thoughtlessly extinguish from our planet without any understanding of what we are sacrificing.

I will take the difficult words every day over the gibberish which passes for thoughtful policy from the likes of our former president and his minions.

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I agree. They're goddam neo-Confederates.

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Radical Republicans embrace fascism and should be called out by every political leader as traitors to democracy.

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Why haven't Hawl;ey and Cruz been called to question? Ron Johnson and Grassley? Were they in a plot to replace Pence on the afternoon of 1/6 to further the coup?

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I agree -- The Senate seems to NEVER hold anyone responsible or accountable for criminal activity - pretty disgusting!

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all excellent questions!

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Dee Long ; I look forward to more revelations by the Jan 6 Committee. It has opened eyes and even changed some minds.

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"Can we get real? There is nothing conservative about these so-called “conservatives.” They don’t want to preserve or protect our governing institutions — the core idea of conservatism extending from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater. They are radicals, intent on wrecking these institutions to impose their ideology on everyone else."

If you are right on this, this is important. This is also what distinguished conservatives from fascists in the 1930s in Germany.

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While tfg (idiota I call him) is a danger to all things, mcconnell is singularly the worst piece of garbage humanoid ever allowed into the halls of congress. Why he is not being tried for treason boggles my mind. Pure scum of this earth! The "conservatives" seek to conserve nothing, other than their wealth and power, planet and people be damned. Same people that nailed Christ to a cross. Same people that want planetary pollution and destruction to be unregulated, same people who want women to relinquish their rights as fully human beings, not just incubators.

I'm so disgusted by "right wingers" that my words just can't say, so SCUM OF THE EARTH will have to do.

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And the truly awful thing is that they are twisting their beloved Christianity from love thy neighbor to “the end justifies the means”. I thought Jesus called out the haters and the hypocrites and loved the people others reviled. 2000 years of twisted Christians is enough, stop making poor Jesus spin in his grave!!!!

Ps, I am an atheist.

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Yes, 'mcconnell is singularly the worst piece of garbage humanoid ever allowed into the halls of congress. Why he is not being tried for treason boggles my mind. Pure scum of this earth!

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

Professor, Because your calls for action in your penultimate paragraph largely require simple majorities in the House and Senate, if not yesterday, then tomorrow, we must be laser-focused on holding the House and picking up at least 2 Senate seats. Which brings me to messaging and my belief that Democrats have an extraordinary narrative if only they would deliver it.

Setting aside what Biden and the Party already have accomplished, in my view, the public repeatedly must hear what they would have delivered but for 2 Senate votes (Manchin and Sinema, not to mention every House and Senate Republican). Imagine the impact, for example, were everyday people nationwide asked, “Who do you want here—somebody who doesn’t want to cut the price of insulin or those who do?” “Somebody who doesn’t want to expand the child tax credit or those who do?” “Doesn’t want to provide affordable, quality childcare and universal Pre-K or those who do?” “Doesn’t want to make investments in housing, in elder care, and in climate or those who do?” These provisions and more have passed in the Democratically controlled House. We’re just waiting on 2 more Senate votes.

As a final point, I would note that I don’t simply want the President to support Senate filibuster reform to codify Roe. I want him aggressively to press for a Senate rule change to protect this half-century Court order that later was reaffirmed.

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Field Team 6 has a database of unregistered voters who trend Democratic.

Help register more democrats. Contact Mervis Reissig

merv4peace@gmail.com

https://www.fieldteam6.org/

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Daniel, I’m aware, but grateful you keep posting to encourage more subscribers to engage.

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Yes, the current Republicans are certainly not conservative. And, as you've noted before, the current use of "moderate" and "centrist" makes no sense.

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If they can't tell that Trump is a demagogue, they can't tell their ass from first base.

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So true.

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I think they know that. They just don’t care.

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They have rationalized so much for so long they don't know or care what they do with their undeserved unearned power!

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It goes deeper than conservative. Let’s take back the phrase Right Wing because we truly are correct. Vote for a 2/3 democratic senate majority so we can impeach some judges and recover our rightful use of right.

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And amend the Constitution.

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The political spectrum is more accurately depicted by not a line, but a circle, actually a figure 8. As they got to either extreme, they get more authoritarian. Both Fascists & Communists are generally authoritarian, even totalitarian. So really, they should be linked somewhere opposite from moderate democratic.

But there is also another loop or ring going the opposite way from authoritarianism. The opposite of total control is no control at all. There is a libertarian form of both the left & right that contrasts with authoritarianism. There are also elements of both left & right-wing extremism that are chaotic, & when it goes to the extreme you have anarchy, which as at the farthest point from totalitarianism.

Moderate democrats are right at the center of this 8, but democrats of both the left & right are near the middle, not far from the dividing line between the 2 circles of the 8.

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Many years ago, back when our public school taught civics, we learned that citizens have a responsibility, and an opportunity to participate in our democracy. They can let their elected know their view on an issue, or upcoming vote. Citizens can get involved at various levels of government or run for office. Fast forward….I asked my grandchildren if they had civics classes in school. Well not much, if any.

It has evolved, quickly in fact, that Our citizenry are not knowledgeable about governmental or electoral processes. For that matter, as we’ve seen, neither do our elected officials! Which doesn’t matter since Citizens United. Now big business and special interests "hire" candidates to run and do their bidding.

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Hear Here!!! I'm Just another Boomer who DID study civics and history.

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Jul 11, 2022·edited Jul 11, 2022

We need just as you suggested a Democracy movement to protect our government and freedom. I hope you will initiate and lead us. Now that gets me excited

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Totally agree. And terms like "trickle down" should be called what they really are, guzzle up!

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Please stop, my sides are hurting !!!! Sub 'Tinkled On'' Politics.

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Radical Regressives! It's good to have a handle on terminology that is casually tossed around in the media. Conservative no longer (for some time now) describes what the other side of the aisle is doing.

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To be provocative: Both sides of the isle are getting marbles from the same bag (Citizens United.) To purchase power you need to exert control of all sides of the equation, " It's Just Good Business" Pun Intended.

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I choose the candidates who do not accept PAC money or corporate donations or obscenely wealthy individuals. If there were 'good' sources that consider the common good I would be more likely to participate in supporting a recipient of 'clean ' money. Information must be mined.

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I Like your viewpoint.

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ken taylor ; but what if it's all B.S.? And the candidate is a construct?

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"There are lies, damn lies and statistics."

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Rebekha Simms ; Yes, it's an old game and has everyone bought up. Now even the Courts!

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