Ian WelkeJan 4, 2023
Robert Reich

Once upon a time, GOP stood for limited government. In time, it became the party of “cultural conservatism.”

Now, it’s a cauldron of bitterness, xenophobia, racism, homophobia & anti-intellectualism.

Let's be clear: The Republican Party has lost any legitimate reason for being.

Jan 4, 2023 at 8:28pmWeb
Show threadDave Lane  🇳🇿Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich bingo.
Show thread𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶  Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich could not have put it better myself.
Show threadChris Godwin Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich all those things mean big government now
Show threadBruce MirkenJan 4, 2023
@rbreich Unless you're a Nazi, that is.
Show threadTed Pavlic (he/him)Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich GOP-astrophe
Show threadDurff, PhDJan 4, 2023
@rbreich Don't forget their believes in aliens, zombies, and reptilian conspiracy theories.
Show threadT.WllmsJan 4, 2023

@rbreich

and keep proving it time and time again... They cannot even nominate a speaker without the bilge of diseased speech. They cannot nominate a speaker without slandering democrats....

Show threadMichaelJan 4, 2023
@rbreich to me, it's about trying to arrest the 'death of God' - only now beginning to truly kick in. No one wants to actually die.
Show threadStargeezer SmithJan 4, 2023
@rbreich
I'm old enough have witnessed that transition, and I agree with your analysis.
Show threadBobJan 4, 2023
@rbreich 👍
Show threadjoeJan 4, 2023

@rbreich

I don't think that "time" ever existed

Show threadDone Suffering FoolsJan 4, 2023
@rbreich
This is both ruthlessly accurate and richly deserved. The GOP has made themselves ugly & obsolete.
Show threadDavePTJan 4, 2023
@rbreich The current situation perfectly illustrates they are indeed the party of minority rule.
Show threadJeffJan 4, 2023
@rbreich without billionaires we would have a country
Show threadBovistaJan 4, 2023
@rbreich GOP no longer has autonomous institutional agency in that it operates purely on stimulus-response dynamic in which various media outlets provide inputs and the organisation, like a Pavlovian trained creature, simply produces learned behaviour. This is but a part of growing trend of the "political trade" no longer representing collective discursive, judicious and deliberative process but a type of manufacturing process where the constituent parts, including the voters, all function in mechanical manner under a rigid scheme to yield outcomes tailored for the interests of the ruling class
Show threadThe Skeptic's Book of ListsJan 4, 2023
@rbreich the litmus test of who is a true republican has gone from Trutherism to believing there's a satanic dungeon under a pizza parlor in DC. It's bonkers.
Show threadDean Lewis🧋Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich if I were an established minor party in the USA, perhaps with affiliated parties overseas, such as Labor or The Greens, what would need to happen for the current system to give minor parties a voice and ability to at least win something
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Jan 4, 2023
@dean
Have a look at the rise of community backed independents in Australia. Google "teal wave" to find info.
Show threadBarbaraPittman ☕️💬Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich …and Lincoln turns over in his grave. Again.
Show threadMinnesnowtaJan 4, 2023
@rbreich It's the anti-American party. They literally want to tear down every American institution... IRS; FBI; CIA; Public Education, etc.
Show threadSkynetReload2Jan 4, 2023

@rbreich

The Boeberts, MTGs, and Santos of the world are not a bug .. they are a feature of the current GOP

A party that prides itself on stupidity

Show threadJohn YatesJan 4, 2023
@rbreich #GOP in disarray! Day 2 of the inmates running the asylum!
Show threadPhiendJan 4, 2023
@rbreich
Yup.
Show threadMKSinSAJan 4, 2023
@rbreich
You left off #PartyOfHatred. #GOP 's sheer joy in hating *everything* now shining through as they've turned to cannibalizing their own, then some.
Show threadjoeJan 4, 2023
@rbreich Thank you for helping me, (Fix the World,) w/ your
questions, or comments, or posts, or views or
likes, and vice versa. If you can contribute
financially, message me. Let's keep it going and
increase the volume and intensity. Joe (World
Repair Technician) (2)
Show threadPaul BiedermannJan 4, 2023
@rbreich You forgot one: incompetence.
Show threadSFborn1940Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich Amen to that. It is a broken party that has lost its way due in no small part to its marriage to Trump.
Trump has proven that a shallow, lying, unqualified person can run for president, win, and proceed to divide and harm the country. This is Trump's and this is the GOP's legacy.
Show threadSavah RellcastJan 4, 2023
@rbreich I was thinking about something today considering what happened with the Pennsylvania speaker Mark Rozzi and how he declared to be an independent after being put in as a Democrat. We don't celebrate Democrats day we don't celebrate Republican day we celebrate Independence Day. We seriously need to move away from the two-party system. We need Independence.
Show threadBarry GanderJan 4, 2023
@rbreich Absolutely right: https://barry-gander.medium.com/kevin-mccarthy-and-the-rupture-of-the-republican-identity-dcad1c83fbe0
Kevin McCarthy And The Rupture of The Republican Identity

In the past 150-years there has been no period where political control has been as tenuous as in the last four decades. And it is just about to get worse, because the Republicans are losing their…

Medium
Show threadManosJan 4, 2023

@barry @rbreich

I understand that the course of political polarisation is the result of historic long term departure from voters self interests and the need to find other mean to a tract voters to support both dems or the GOP.

Lately Dems seem to have been influenced, infiltrated from progressive forces which makes them more relevant to voters.

The last decade of GOP agenda simply highlights the tip of the iceberg of political voter manipulation.

#GOP

Show threadMGoCoderJan 4, 2023
@rbreich It’s a party of hate and white grievance.
Show threadTylerJWhitJan 4, 2023

@rbreich Literally just posted this quy on Facebook and then you show up on my feed! Just watched your documentary.

Do you know of any grassroots organizations/groups that are pushing against corporatism that you'd recommend?

Show threadMichael BethkeJan 4, 2023
@rbreich And so they cling to their illegitimate reasons for being, to the detriment of the citizenry.
Show threadgavinisdie Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich it's honestly sad the party of Abraham Lincoln has become the thing it is today
Show threadKarlJan 4, 2023
@rbreich sad and clearly articulated. @lolgop
Show threadMax Ganz II 🇺🇦Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich In a two-party system each party represents about half the electorate. GOP has gone far-right, and no longer represents half the electorate, but because gerrymandering is intrinsic in the US political process, this lurch rightwards is not being reflected when it comes to electoral performance - indeed, this lurch rightwards was only possible because of gerrymandering. USA has got to fix this, but how do you fix it, when the politicians who would fix it benefit from not fixing it?
Show threadDieter JanssenJan 4, 2023
@rbreich now it's what? It's always been that. The only difference is no one bothers to be discrete.
Show threadJ$Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich but… if a large part of the populus is bitter, racist, homophobic, anti-intellectual &c &c, shouldn’t they be represented?
Show threadfrandroid 🏴‍☠️ jin jiyan azadîJan 4, 2023
@rbreich So what does that say of those who keep voting for them...
Show threadCamiel HirschbergJan 4, 2023
@rbreich I laughed so hard about the whole porn ID law in Louisianan, like, the party of small government...
Show threadManosJan 4, 2023
@rbreich all well said but the truth beneath the GOP's surface. GOP is the fe facto go to political party for delivering the needs of the special interests of large corporations and individuals. Thus it needs to connect with voters with other mean other than the voters self interests. Thus it invests heavily on such issues as very well described in your post.
#GOP
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich You left out greed.
Show threadGuitarGirlJan 4, 2023
@rbreich The GOP has been a force for racist, hateful, evil warmongering money-grubbing garbage for 60+ years. I’m thrilled they’re finally destroying themselves. #TheGOPIsDead
Show threadThe Bitch King of Angmar Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich Thing is, nothing is new here. The right has stood so long - well more than 50 years - for self above all. Everyone acts like the worst thing Nixon did was a little B&E, forgetting that he literally betrayed the United States in an effort to get elected and prolonged Vietnam for more than half a decade. The rest of the party didn't even force him out, they told him they wouldn't protect him if he stayed.
Show threadGlennJan 4, 2023
@rbreich if you sit with it long enough, you realize they're all different faces of exactly the same beast.
Show threadCalamity Joan 😷Jan 4, 2023

@rbreich

Robert, the people who are taking it over don't care about that.

Show threadGreggorMortisJan 4, 2023
@rbreich
Ever since the New Deal scared the crap out of the aristocracy, the GOP has stood for tax cuts for the rich (maybe slightly less so early on, but that's all the GOP stands for now)... It's all about keeping enough people duped to vote against their own interests...
Show threadGordon1956Jan 4, 2023
@rbreich Just as the Reform Party merger with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada resulted in "the further to the right" Conservative Party (dropping Progressive from their party name), so did the Tea Party merger with the GOP. The only difference is they still call themselves the Republican Party but there are far right nut jobs who have a lot of influence in policy.
Show threadTodd GattsJan 5, 2023
@rbreich
But the people in the Republican Party still have a right to be.
We have to befriend the people somehow.
Show threadBlue in a Red WorldJan 5, 2023
@rbreich Au Contraire...tax cuts for the rich are their reason for existing...that and racism.
Show threadAvram Grumer 🎲Jan 5, 2023

@rbreich When was it, exactly, that the Republican Party stood for limited government?

Certainly not in the Reagan years, when they pushed for a bigger military and more foreign intervention, and sought to ban abortion.

Certainly not under Bush Jr, who increased federal spending by over 50%, created the Dep’t of Homeland Security, and started a massive war in Iraq. (And also sought to ban abortion.)

Show threaddragonfrogJan 5, 2023

@avram @rbreich "limited government" always meant certain specific parts of government needed limiting - the parts that helped people who were poor, not white, gay, or desiring a good public education.

Oh hang on a second, that means...

Show threadAvram Grumer 🎲Jan 5, 2023
@dragonfrog @rbreich Yeah, the conservative ideal has always been that there are natural hierarchies — white over Black, man over woman, Christian over non-Christian, boss over worker, rich over poor, landlord over tenant, etc — and that government can (and should) enforce those hierarchies, but not interfere with them.
Show threadAlexander KarnJan 5, 2023
@rbreich It still attracts votes from individuals devoted to 1 and 2. Do they not see what they’re facilitating/co-signing, or do they not care, thinking this party will still deliver what they want? I’ve looked around my very purple community in upstate NY and asked myself this question every day since 2016.
Show threadhstJan 5, 2023
@rbreich
Cling to power at any cost to this nation.
Show threadSean O'ShannessyJan 5, 2023
@rbreich
Parties that run for office on the basis of refusing to govern are inherently anti democratic scams only representing the interests of criminals and tyrrants
Show threadmindstorm8191Jan 5, 2023
@rbreich It's like our two parties have become "we need laws & regulations so everyone wins" verses "we can do whatever we want, we only care about the rich"
Show threadLleniJan 5, 2023
@rbreich we need at least one other functional party to maintain a democracy b
Show threadTidusJan 5, 2023
@rbreich , I looked at the 2020 US president elections. Geographically, the Reds have a lot of land covered... but sparse population.. The Blues are sticking together on population centers.. I think the worldview of these populations differs greatly. Both sides have the extremes and are ridiculed by the opposing side a lot. Social media isn't helping by polarizing those views. But on daily work, I got to stand by these folks, from both sides all the time. I use whatever I can to get the goal.
Show threadOld Fucking PunkJan 5, 2023
@rbreich Nixon and Reagan ran on the Southern Strategy, so when was the GOP more about limited government than racism and anti-intellectualism?