The senator said he has “a hard time understanding” why Trump’s legal issues don’t “seem to be moving the needle” with more voters.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called out the majority of Iowa Republican caucus voters who baselessly believe that President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election legitimately.
“I think a lot of people in this country are out of touch with reality and will accept anything Donald Trump tells them,” Romney, who announced in September that he is not seeking reelection, told CNN journalist Manu Raju on Wednesday.
About 65% of Iowa caucusgoers said they believe former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, according to entrance poll data.
I cannot understand how conservatives in the us that do not buy in to the maga talking points can still vote for their party.
They have seen the checks and balances in action so all they need to do is stay home one election cycle to give a clear signal… this is not the direction they want. This will force the Republican party to face the maga extremists and go back to their normal ways. Which still is not good but at least not beholden to a narcissist wannabe dictator.
The problem is that this didn’t start with Trump. He is just the perfect type of candidate to harness the lightning.
That mentality started with Lee Atwater and has slowly mutated into what it is today. All of the signs were there. It’s why John McCain had such a hard time and why he had to have a “firebrand” as a running mate
The group at the center of a lot of the mutation is Fox News. Without their dedication to creating an alternate universe of reality, I don’t think things would be as bad.
There’s a pretty good documentary on Lee Atwater called Boogey Man and it’s on Prime right now.
Always thought it was super weird that John McCain was too left for some people
The modern Conservative movement found President Eisenhower too far to the Left.
Incidentally, McCain was the last Republican presidential candidate I seriously evaluated as a possible choice, though I did end up voting for Obama.
He had some shitty beliefs and policies but dude was a POW. I could respect him for that.
It predates Atwater. We should acknowledge the fact that Republicans planned a coup around the same time as Hitler’s beer hall putch. FDR then cut a deal with the fascist Republicans to temporarily pass his new deal policies. In exchange for not prosecuting and locking them up.
We should also acknowledge the fact that the man most likely to have been tapped as their fascist dictator had. His son and grandson go on to be president of the United States. Some of the most damaging ones
That isn’t to downplay Atwater and his contemporaries. They managed the merger of the two most evil groups in modern American history. After the Democratic party purged itself. The fact is the Republican party has been anti-democratic and authoritarian since nearly the start of the 20th century.
We should acknowledge the fact that Republicans planned a coup around the same time as Hitler’s beer hall putch.
Do you have a link on that, that someone can read up on?
There is a deep schism in America. One that conservatives have slowly been losing. Progress is made and the conservative ideal of life (which has served them very well and they are quite comfortable with) has been chipped away at for decades. Obama becoming President brought it all to a head. The country was taken over by folks who don’t look like them and don’t think like them. They are just as afraid of losing their country to the left as the left is afraid of Trump’s fascism.
Trump, regardless of any flaws he could have, has basically made the cold war that they’d been slowly losing hot, and they think that’s their ticket to turning things around and winning. And he’ll turn on a dime to attack anyone, so they just need to be on his side and wait for the left to be effectively destroyed and that will preserve their way of life. And so they are fanatically loyal to him and to a large degree will bear any pain as long as it hurts the right people more.
So they won’t turn away from Trump no matter what and he’s made it easy for them by providing the lie that he’s under attack by a vast conspiracy so they can believe all his legal woes are purely political if that makes them feel more comfortable. They believe in him because he is their champion. He is their Goliath. Their Achilles. Their god-appointed savior.
They don’t want the status quo, because progress was slowly happening under it. They want a hot war and Trump will deliver. And they’re too willfully blind to see the cost that must eventually be paid.
People like that do not think long term. Otherwise, they woukd realize change is inevitable and unstoppable. This change might not be what they want or what any of us want (robot apocoloypse comes to mind) but its coming.
Note: investing does not count as long term thinking here. I’m talking about a social and political future.
all they need to do is stay home one election cycle to give a clear signal
Perhaps they too have constant messaging from their party to hold their noses and vote for him this time or joe “will destroy their way of life”
I’m sure they have that. But this is why I added the qualifications. The huge chasm between the 2 parties just saddens me. Especially cause US politics influences so much of the rest of the world.
And regardless of what you think of US politics, I think seeing the twice I peached, 10+ times criminally charged, sexual abusing, insurrectionist, grifter in chief keep his credibility, does a lot of damage on a global scale.
There is a saying: Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line.
I’m convinced that the majority of the Republican party are held hostage by a disproportionately influential alt-right voting bloc. The alt-right is pretty much about 5-10% of the party but because they are loud and violent, they get 90% of the coverage.
Republican candidates, however, know that Republicans will vote Republican no matter what so they cater their message to the alt right, knowing that come the general election, even the most liberal Republican will still vote Republican.
The sad, sad thing is…Democrats are now there too. Liberals and democracy loving Americans have to vote Democrat. But the Democrats have a different problem. Because their voting bloc is more diverse, it’s harder to have a coalition. Many Democrats have to cater to moderates, and not progressives, in order to get the majority to vote. Not only that, but many moderates value “bipartisanship” whereas Republicans don’t and the Republicans know that. It’s why we get shit deals on bills and Republicans consistently going back on their word.
The alt-right is pretty much about 5-10% of the party but because they are loud and violent, they get 90% of the coverage.
I think that’s 5 to 10% number is a bit low.
I think there’s a larger swath of the population that buy into certain belief systems so much that they make themselves delusional to anything else, unable to see the truth of things.
Or even if there’s a moment when they see the truth, they are unable to deal with the fact that they’ve been conned/ignorant, and retreat back to what is safe and feels good for them.
It’s ironic actually that that section of the population came up with the term “the wolf in sheep’s clothing” but can’t see the wolf when it’s standing in front of them, wearing a sheep outfit.
One of the truths that America fails to accept over generations now is that a large swath of the population who really wouldn’t mind being controlled, and see things the way they want to see them, versus how they really are.
We really shouldn’t underestimate the numbers of the population of these kind of people, no matter what the ramifications of that means and how hard it is to deal with.
No, Mittens, some Republicans are out of touch with reality. Trump’s supporters definitely are.
I agree. Anyone that was a republican before Jan 6 and hasn’t changed their party affiliation is firmly in the “I’m ok with an orange faced dictator” boat.
The filter applies starting with Watergate, when Ford pardoned Nixon to be precise. Prior to that was the last time you can say the Republican party had any good in it.
I’d argue a lot of them are perfectly aware of how shitty they are, they just enjoy being shitty people.
I disagree. For example, a billionaire knows that Democrats want to raise his taxes and decrease his wealth. So it’s pragmatic for him to vote for Republicans, despite having so much money it ceases being a unit of exchange and becomes just a scoreboard.
This would make sense if Democrats actually raised taxes significantly on the wealthy.
Whereas an empathetic billionaire (they don’t actually exist) would recognize that they have enough money to pay for the entire lives of all of their descendants and actually interact with the Worker Class.
Never forget that Mitt was happy to have Trump’s support in 2012. Mitt even made a few mild ‘birther’ jokes from time to time.
Even now he can’t come out and call Trump a traitor and a convicted sex criminal because that might hurt the Party.
Some?
Some
