My wish is that this election will bury Republicans so deep...

[kentuck]

...that they will never raise their ugly, racist heads again during our lifetimes.

They can never get redemption for the suffering they have caused this country.

Republicans are dead to me.

[mucifer]

1. I don't get the 40% approval rating. Jimmy Carter had a 34% approval at this time in his campaign

for re election.

What I am saying is sooo many people suck.

[Mr. Evil]

37. 40 years of hate radio and 25 years of Focksnooze will do that to people.

Anger and fear. Who to hate, who to blame, who to be afraid of and who to point the finger at each and every day. I believe that most of these radio hosts just want a cushy job, a la Rush, so they can make a very comfortable living sitting in a chair 4 hours a day vomiting anger and fear because they know a gullible segment of our society will buy into it. Some of them actually believe their own shit splatter and like-minded station owners give them that forum. Our MSM, if they functioned properly for the public interest, would ridicule and humiliate these blabbering nutbags but, they have to toe the corporate line so their opinions are restrained at best.

Republicans are rotten to the core and their tactics (especially those of President Nazivomit) are straight out of Joseph Goebbels propaganda playbook.

[Tumbulu]

61. Agree- plus these are selfish beasts, don't forget that

and they think that everyone is just like them.

Trying to take everything from everyone else.

[Miigwech]

2. May this be their last.

[Mr. Ected]

3. Republicans exist in a separate ecosystem than we do

They obtain their information from different sources and are told that our sources are biased and inaccurate.

They assume we have politicized events and happenings when we shine a light on them. They never ask their sources why the preview and the review of the news are so often 180 degrees apart.

They sit alone in their car or truck listening for hours at a time to anecdotal, outlandish and many times fabricated information that drip, drip, drips them into a fury.

It a word, they've been brainwashed. For decades. By design.

They're dead to me too. I may listen to what a conservative says, and I may even concede minor points when the facts bear it out. But Republicans? They're a shill for fascists and have been since the day Rush Limbaugh hit the on button on his microphone.

[jayschool2013]

20. This

Bravo. Perfectly stated.

[kimbutgar]

21. They're so brainwashed they no longer can think for themselves

Their brains cells are destroyed. They are goners.

[Evolve Dammit]

26. This is the absolute truth. One of my contractor friends can tell when other tradesmen are listening

to "hate radio" just by observing their anger and agitation. Rush has been fomenting hatred for over 30 years, and is the model for so many others. HUGE reason we are where we are. Angry and irreconcilably divided. Can't even unite in a deadly pandemic. That tells me actual war would be no different.

[RobertDevereaux]

4. Bury them six times sixty-six feet deep!

[albacore]

5. Dead Party Walking....

If the Dems get D.C. admitted as a state, Puerto Rico admitted as a state, fair redistricting, remove voting restrictions, and somehow manage to dig us out of this multi-disaster..... the Repubs are done for keeps.

[Jedi Guy]

35. Every time the GOP has lost a presidential election or taken a drubbing in Congressional elections..

people love to crow that they're done for good, or that the Republican Party is dead, or that conservatism is dead, etc. And it's never true. They may lose an election, but conservatives are still out there in the wild and they still vote. Conservatism is still a thing. The ideology won't just vanish because they lost a few elections.

Trump's aftermath will very likely send them into the wilderness for a few election cycles, but it's naive to believe that in his wake it'll be the reign of liberal progressive thought forever. If the GOP or some other conservative party cleans house, ejects the Trumpians, and reforms itself into the loyal opposition, I'm okay with that. I don't think unfettered one-party rule is necessarily a good thing.

[albacore]

42. That's why I mentioned the long-term stuff....

..like the addition of two blue states.
The Repubs are a minority Party hanging on by their fingernails. And voter suppression and gerrymandering, too, of course.
Take those advantages away, and they are done.

"Ejects the trumpians"... is an interesting concept, since 90% of Republicans approve of trump. Will the Republicans eject themselves?

I see a more likely second Party forming from the old-line conservative Repubs and the right-wing Dems. I don't see the Repubs reconstituting themselves.

We shall see.

Between our two plagues...Covid 19 and trump...I have NO idea what this country will look like.

[Jedi Guy]

44. I did a quick Google search and, while it's from ten years ago...

"Gallup/USA Today polling in June 2010 revealed that 42% of those surveyed identify as conservative, 35% as moderate and 20% as liberal."

If 42% of the country self-identifies as conservative, the Republicans are by no means "done." That number may have dropped in the last ten years, but even so, that's still potentially a solid third of the country leaning to the right. The Republican Party may not look the same as it does now in the aftermath of Trump, but conservatism will still be a force in American politics regardless.

[albacore]

45. Old...

And I mean that two ways.

That data is old.... 2010 was centuries ago - in today's world.

And old meaning demographics, too. The most conservative Repubs are the older ones, and they are dying off. The Repubs have nothing to attract younger voters, so... Millennials go Dem 59-32%
And we have to remember that the racial demographics simply aren't there for the Repubs. POC don't vote Repub. Black Americans vote 84-8 for Dems, and Hispanic 63-28. And that's where the demographics kill the Repubs.

Newer data from Pew
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/

[Jedi Guy]

50. From a 2019 Gallup poll...

"As Americans continued to lean more Democratic than Republican in their party preferences in 2019, the ideological balance of the country remained center-right, with 37% of Americans, on average, identifying as conservative during the year, 35% as moderate and 24% as liberal."

The GOP as we've known it may well splinter or change as a result of Trump poisoning their brand. But if you're expecting that conservatism will just vanish in the next 25 years, I fear you're going to be disappointed.

[BComplex]

46. Jedi Guy, I think it's because people with money know that republicans can be so easily bought

and they keep funding their elections. I guess I should say, the 1% keeps BUYING the elections. And since the republicans stacked the courts and we got Citizens United, the 1% effectively bought the elections for the foreseeable future.

Democrats can be bought, as well, and as we saw in the 90's, many republicans changed party to effectively infiltrate the democratic party, and the DLC insured that only right-leaning democrats could rise to the top, or even get a platform.

It's the money that keeps the republican party coming back.

[Jedi Guy]

51. Money in politics is a problem across the ideological spectrum.

Citizens United just made it infinitely worse. IMO, what we ought to do is say to every candidate, "Okay, you get $x million to fund your campaign. That's your lot, so don't spend it all in one place." No super PACs, none of that bullshit. Everyone gets the same amount and can spend it however they like, but that's their limit.

People who support them can still volunteer, of course, but this nonsense with the rich and powerful essentially buying politicians like collectibles needs to go away.

[BComplex]

54. I agree 100%

[fescuerescue]

62. If I had a dollar everytime someone declared a political party dead.

I could fund my own Covid19 vaccine.

Even all Republicans vanished from the face of the Earth, the Democratic party itself would split and form a new one.

There will always be opposition, even if we have to create it.

[JHB]

6. To get that we need to paint Republicans as the Bad Guys. Publicly and Repeatedly.

Thump the drum about it.

It's what they've done to us. It's how they brought us Trump and all of his failures.

But Trump isn't the first Republican to squeak through an Electoral College victory from a popular vote loss, only to grab with both hands and push a highly-partisan agenda. He's not the first to show open contempt for his Democratic predecessor, ignore warnings of dangers and plans for dealing with them, dismantle the systems put in place to deal with those dangers, only to be caught flatfooted by those very dangers. Twice.

Trump isn't the first Republican to baldly lie to our allies, to rely on relationships built up over decades to say "just trust us on this", only to show there was no special information to trust, only a pet project those Republicans wanted to put in motion.

Trump isn't the first Republican -- by a long shot -- to wildly balloon the deficit via reckless, giveaway tax cuts. There's usually (but not always) a thin benefit for most people, but the lion's share of benefit always goes to those who are already in the economic stratosphere.

Trump isn't the first Republican to push for cuts to Social Security and Medicare in the name of "saving" them. Not-so-coincidentally, Republicans categorically reject any proposal to accomplish that by raising their revenue.

Nobody voted for anyone to kill off the Post Office, but Trump is not the first Republican to try. Its current money shortfall is entirely due to a Republican House and Republican Senate passing a law signed by a Republican president imposing something Republicans have always claimed they hated: an unfunded mandate, a profit-killing, job-killing regulation on this one institution. None of the Republicans who did that, none of the Republicans who have blocked attempts to reform that law, have been named Trump.

Republicans love to wave the flag and make ostentatious displays of piety, but for decades they have consistently made America worse.

Don't Make America Worse Again.

Vote for Democratic Party candidates.

[Laelth]

13. +1 Well said. n/t

-Laelth

[lostnfound]

16. Yep. Meme is; Dems are "tax and spend liberals". But Republicans are "....?"???

There has been no comparable successful messaging from the left.

You don’t hear our politicians or a parade of think tank people saying “republicans are con men” or “republicans are thieves”

At this point you could fairly say that “Republicans are traitorous thieves”.
But we don’t do messaging like that.

[justgamma]

28. I call them credit card cons.

They spend and always raise the debt.

[lostnfound]

64. That's true. Nt

[sanatanadharma]

29. Dems "tax and spend" they say, so say Republicans are "fleece it and forget it"

Dems "tax and spend" so they say. While Cons do "fleece it and forget it" every day.

[lostnfound]

63. I like that. Or maybe Fleece and Fraud. Nt

[calimary]

38. Well, it's high time we STARTED doing messaging like that.

"Republicans DON'T want to help you."

"Republicans don't care about you (unless you're rich, older, preferably male, and of course, white)."

[citizen blues]

41. "Borrow and Buy"

Borrow from our tomorrow, to buy your today.

[calimary]

19. That's because they ARE the Bad Guys.

I've been calling them that for years. 'Cuz that's what they were - and STILL are.

They've been building toward this "conquest" for at least 40 years. Abolishing the Fairness Doctrine, Equal Time provisions, the ownership restrictions (enabling huge monopolies to form, unrestrained). Pox Noise - which has now metastasized into the ridiculous "One America News Network" (OAN), AND the Sinclair stations, AND the Salem stations - both entities with their own dreams of market domination from the right and far right and even farther right.

And, on edit, don't forget the rise of Limbaugh and hate radio across the country, once the way had been clear to build those new media monopolies that could control 1,500 or more stations from coast to coast, especially booming into small markets and rural areas, to spread and reinforce and echo-chamber their Gospel from Hell.

republi-CONS. They DON'T want to help you.

For those with ANY remaining doubt, how else would one explain the raging obsession to destroy the Affordable Care Act? "Let's get rid of that and THEN come up with Something Better!" And you know what that's about, right? Destroy it - WITH NO PLAN WHATSOEVER FOR A REPLACEMENT PROGRAM - and then get deep into bickering about a "replacement" that nobody on their side really wants or believes in, to begin with, so it's guaranteed they won't come up with anything that even remotely satisfies what the objectives of the Affordable Care Act were. BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU. THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP ANYBODY WHO'S NOT ONE OF THEM. And they'll just tell their minions they're "working on it" and simply go back to trying to cut more taxes for those poor put-upon multi-millionaires and billionaires. And NOTHING will be "worked on" that's aimed at helping anyone other than multi-millionaires and billionaires. The poor, needy, sick, and disabled can simply go pound sand.

Republicans. THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU. THEY DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOU.

THEY DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU. AND THEY DON'T SEE WHY THEY SHOULD HAVE TO.

RESIST. And VOTE THEM OUT! Every. Last. Fucking. One. Of 'Em.

VOTE, DAMMIT!

And Yes, I'm SHOUTING!

[jayschool2013]

25. Exactly

Their philosophy in a nutshell:
1. It's a cruel, evil world.
2. You gotta die of something, right?
3. Some of us are inherently better than others, so we deserve stuff.
4. If bad shit happens to any of you, that's your problem.
5. Here's a coupon for thoughts and prayers.
6. WE DON'T WANT TO HELP YOU.

You are so right.

[calimary]

27. Let it be said, Read, and SPREAD.

I'm gonna look for a way to put that slogan into one of our "asks" in our next Call to Action email. My Indivisible group comes up with a new set of 'em, every Saturday afternoon.

[BComplex]

47. Because the six companies that own 92% of the media in this country are right wingers?

Even facebook and twitter. It's the OWNERS OF CAPITAL that rule in a capitalistic society. It's the PEOPLE who rule in a democratic society. But once the OWNERS OF CAPITAL own the voting machines, the media, the churches and the universities, we don't really have democracy anymore; we have capitalism with less and less regulation.

Well-regulated, and even HEAVILY regulated capitalism is a good economic system. But in America, it is less and less regulated, and more and more subsidized with taxpayers money. THAT is why I'm so much in favor of Elizabeth Warren:

Elizabeth Warren, more than any other leading politician, understands how to make capitalism work for EVERYONE..both the OWNERS OF CAPITAL and the people. And she knows how to explain it. If she had the bully pulpit, she could turn things in this country around.

I'm not just a supporter, I'm a believer. We need her to save our frikkin' country.

[questionseverything]

60. i am hoping liz is the vp choice

we need to send the "owners" a message

[not_the_one]

59. "we need to paint Republicans as the Bad Guys"

Just look at the time, energy and money they have spent making the word LIBERAL a four letter word.

We need to take control of the narrative... People are either "progressive" (the coward's word for "liberal" ), or conservative.

Progressive means to progress, to change. I believe it is like evolution, adaptive change for the better of the whole....

Conservative means to NOT change, stay the same. It is just fine as it is.

Since change is inevitable, we need to point out the GOOD changes, and show how EVERYONE'S lives are affected for the better with those changes. Then show how staying the same is NOT always good. There are plenty of examples.

"Conservative", for the most part, means resistant to SOCIAL change. (Financial conservatism is a completely different ball park.)

Let's face it, they DON'T like strong women, either in charge or wanting to control their OWN bodies, they don't like TWO dicks in the same bed (yet many straight men think two WOMEN in a bed are HOT), they don't like the idea that America is becoming mocha/latte in color, rather than staying predominantly pasty white, and they DON'T LIKE anyone to mess with the religion that gives them the permission to judge others relating to all these SOCIAL differences mentioned.

The people ARE leading in those social change arenas. The politicians ALWAYS have to play catch up.

But the political system in place right now in many states, due to legislation that ALLOWS cheating, results in minority tyranny. That is not how democracy works.

We have to fix it, and we START by defining and controlling the narrative.

Conservative needs to carry as much baggage as they have, unfairly, saddled the word LIBERAL with.

We are already close. Conservative, now, automatically encompasses KKK, NAZI, racism, sexism, homophobia (and all its related "isms" ), and then add all the isms of everything "other".

So many families now have all those "others" IN them. It is hard to hate your own family (although a few DO find ways to do just that).

The turd is great at pointing out the big divide we have amongst us. WE have to point out that those differences don't divide us, they make us more human. And we are ALL in this together. We will either sink together, or swim together.

[GusBob]

7. The election is already being framed as a repudiation of Trumpism

Gopers are hoping for a carve out. Hopefully there will still be a Republican Party and a separate Dixie party

[Jedi Guy]

36. That's my personal bet, that the GOP fractures after they take a beating in November.

There'll be a Trumpian version of the Republican Party, and the remaining sane ones will break off to form their own conservative political party. With any luck, the Trumpian version will implode in spectacular fashion in short order.

[theaocp]

8. You better get ready for some bipartisanship.

Democrats don’t go for the jugular, though they need to.

[dixiechiken1]

9. Ditto. Double ditto, actually.

Never forgive. Never forget.

[Lonestarblue]

10. It is not enough to get rid of the Republican Party.

We must also deal with Fox News and hate radio. Those propaganda engines will keep going strong so long as they have viewers and listeners whose numbers are large enough to gain advertising dollars. Getting big businesses to stop advertising to support the propaganda that is destroying the country would be a major undertaking, but it would have great rewards.

[BComplex]

67. That is a major key to turning our country around. If you have these major platforms for

people trying to destroy our country, how are we ever going to be able to reunite?

[patphil]

11. The key is winning the Senate along with the White House.

Then the Democrats can start to get rid of the whole voter suppression thing.
Eliminate that, and the Republicans will surely be finished.
They can't win with free and open elections.

[Alliepoo]

12. Amen and amen!!!

[CaptainTruth]

14. When they go low... we bury them.

[usaf-vet]

15. I would hope they get buried so deep that it will take archeologist to find the remains in 1000 yrs.

[wnylib]

40. Well they did get buried

for 16 years after the Great Depression, 12 years of FDR and 4 years of Truman. Besides a devastating pandemic now, we are also on track for another depression. A real depression, not a recession.

Republicans are refusing to do anything to help people facing economic disaster when their $600 unemployment bonus ends, or to take necessary steps to save the economy. Millions face loss if hoysing when they can't make mortgage or rent payments. Massive homelessness, like the 1930's Hoovervilles, loom in the near future. For everyone's sake, I hope it does not come to that. But if it does, I don't see how the Republican party can survive.

Expect some political morphing, maybe some new parties rising and falling, shifting agendas, etc. While the American political scene sorts itself out in the pist Trump era. Watch for the same players on the right to clean up their image with "new" agendas, promises, appeals to women and minorities, and perhaps a new party name. Same books, though, with new dust jackets.

[Hortensis]

17. I'd be satisfied with a crash strong enough to force

big changes by those capable of shame at what the right has come to. That must include ending their disastrous alliance with indecent and traitorous zealots and either ejecting those who won't adjust from their tribe or forming a new one (a new party perhaps) without them. But, one thing's sure, there will be a rest of their lives also.

Btw, here's a link to an essay by Bill Kristol in The Bulwark. He speculates about 6 possible directions the once-his-party might finish self destructing, but that's strikingly all. He doesn't guess which.

Is the Republican Party a Lost Cause? And if so, should it be?

... On the other hand, after November 3, the GOP may stop—more or less suddenly, and more or less convincingly—being Donald Trump’s party. It might even stop being the party of Trumpism.

On the third hand, it will still have been Donald Trump’s party. And that moral and political stain can’t, and shouldn’t, simply be wished away.

... But on the fifth hand, wishing for a sound conservative party won’t make it so. And even fighting for one may not make it so, either. It may be that American conservatism has been so damaged that a “new center”—whether as a party or some sort of cross-partisan coalition—is a better way to go than trying to save the GOP.

On the sixth hand (I know, we’re in octopus territory here): Maybe we should root for the GOP to be salvaged, while acknowledging it won’t be saved by people like us. After all, if the GOP is to be rebuilt, it will likely have to be done by people who have been complicit in Trumpism. ... the Republican apostates will never be forgiven. Not because we were wrong about Trump, but because we were right. But it may suggest that the attempt is less likely to happen. And perhaps less likely to succeed. ...

https://thebulwark.com/can-the-republican-party-be-saved/

[Golden Raisin]

18. And then salt the earth.

[gopiscrap]

22. they have been dead to me since 1968

every repuke I have ever met is nothing but vile scum and needs to crawl under a rock and die!

[warmfeet]

23. Very well stated. K & R

[NBachers]

24. Sadly, I think repuke-style defectoids & regressoids have been with us since the dawn of our time,

hindering and sabotaging our struggle to evolve; undermining our attempts to live in harmony with ourselves and Creation.

[H2O Man]

30. Recommended.

I'll be satisfied if we serve them a crushing defeat in November. Exposing them as a minority that the public does not respect or support will be fine. However, if we do bury them, and break their party into tiny splinters, I will be even happier.

[certainot]

31. one way to make that happen is to destroy rw radio

the other is to wait for it to happen on it's own, which may never happen, although limbaugh dying will hasten that end. americans can then get back to real democracy without having to lift a finger to fix the main problem undermining democracy for 30 years

[la-trucker]

57. And Fox +1

[Dustlawyer]

32. I don't want to hear, " Look forward, not back" again.

We need to investigate it all and expose all of what they have done. It has to be clear to future politicians that this path the Republicans took is a dead end that ends in prison!

[Duppers]

39. Amen to that. 👍👍

No more "let's move on." Crimes have been committed by dozens of them.

Are we a country of laws or not?

[crickets]

58. +1

[Laha]

33. Luck to you, and to all of us

This is a dark and ugly path the world is following. I hate the saying 'it will get worse before it gets better.'

I hate it because it's probably true.

But the shining light is that it will get better.

Hope and luck to all of you.

[DFW]

34. It is a wish you will not be granted

You have the combined forces of Fox "News," National Hate Radio, Republican state legislatures and school boards, so-called religious (make that "money-grubbing" ) organizations and hostile foreign nations who have paid operatives and virtually unlimited funds to spend on keeping our voting public ignorant (if Republican), or ineligible to vote (if Democrat).

When you are up against all that, and we win elections IN SPITE of it all, you can see how even a towering majority that opposes Republican rule has such a difficult time winning elections. A clear voter preference for the Democrat running is by no means an indication of victory. Not any longer, anyway, and it hasn't been so for decades.

That doesn't mean we automatically always lose, it just means we are NOT competing on an even playing field.

[dawg]

43. We had real suffering under George W. Bush, too.

Katrina. Two pointless wars. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The country turned to Barack Obama. Within two years, employment was coming back. The stock market was coming back. America was respected internationally again.

But the country kneecapped him in the 2010 elections anyway.

[DFW]

48. The Roberts Court did that all on their own with Citizens United

My feeling is that Cheney, McTurtle and Rove already knew that with the Iraq disaster and the coming economic bust, they knew by 2005 that no Republican would win the White House in 2008. That's why the 2008 primary was so bitterly fought: the Democratic nominee was the next president, no question.

Therefore, they were looking past 2008 for some damage control (from our view, just damage). When selecting Roberts and Alito, I am positive that the question of Citizen United (not yet so named, of course) was put to both nominees. Both were selected, I am convinced, on their basis of their answering questions on how they would rule if such a case were to come before them. The mid terms of 2010 were already decided by Republicans in 2005. We should be so lucky as to have a chance at such long-term planning. But to plan evil is always easier--all you need is evil intentions, money and patience. Repairing damage is always harder than causing it. It takes no time at all to destroy a tall building. It takes years to build one.

[dawg]

49. I take your point about Citizens United, but the voters still bear their share of the blame.

If we continue to allow ourselves to be swayed by billionaire propaganda, we will never truly be a free people.

[DFW]

55. We will ALWAYS be the targets of someone's propaganda

Just take a quick stroll down memory lane during the primary season here on DU, and consider a few of the prominent names posting in favor of certain candidates--names of posters who have vanished into the breeze. They weren't here to comment and give opinions, they were paid propaganda workers who were here to influence us to the extent they could.

So in that sense, we are never truly free one way or the other. You just have to have the presence of mind to discard the propagandists and form your own opinions independently. The radical right encourages intellectual laziness--"let us do your thinking for you." Too many are willing to do just that--parrot Fox Noise and National Hate Radio, the truth be damned, who needs it? It is up to us to do the opposite, but also to realize that it is not ONLY the radical right looking to wash our brains.

[pressbox69]

52. Let's hope

they will soon be dead to the world. Vote true Blue. NEVER DEAD RED!

[Peacetrain]

53. From your lips to God's ears Kentuck

[Blue Owl]

56. If they're shackled to tRump

That should be enough dead weight to keep them under... p-e-e-e-r-m-a-nently....

[Sancho]

65. I don't care if we win by 1 vote, as long as we win...

...this is not an "election" by voting. It is a contest of cheating, manipulating, and lying. That's the only way that "40%" can beat "60%".

Going back to at least 2000, the GOP has been willing to cheat in anyway possible, and align with any any evil entity to "win the election".

Otherwise, none of the Presidential races would have resulted in a Bush or MF45. For that matter, the Senate and House would not be in the hands of the minority of voters in this country.

I don't see any hope of burying the repubs, because they are willing to do anything to manipulate the results.

[Renew Deal]

66. What we need is a large Democratic victory followed by a national modernization effort

It will show that Democrats can govern. Modernization of institutions, laws, and infrastructure. Get people working on a large scale. The US is falling behind in all areas and needs to surge forward.