What would it take for Republicans to take Trump/Russia scandal seriously?

[kentuck]

From what I have seen, very few Republicans see any problem with the Russian connection. They see it as a fabrication of Democrats and the liberal media. They laugh about it. The leaks of secret information is a much bigger problem to them.

They turn it off. It is all fake news to them and nowhere close to the criminality of Hillary and Obama. They see nothing wrong with the Trump White House.

What would it take for them to take a second look at the scandal?

[louis-t]

1. Flynn getting immunity and spilling his guts.

[Cary]

2. What would it take for you to find that 35% of the population are reprobates?

I'm not trying to be snarky. I ask you in good faith.

I admit that I am shocked and appalled to see them so far down the rabbit hole, but I don't have to tell you that these people have been crazy and stupid for a very long time. Do I? The fact that truth means nothing to them is nothing new.

So why invest any time pondering their redemption? Our own redemption is simple: vote Democratic. Get out and vote. Get other Democrats out to vote. Keep your eyes on the prize.

Anything else just weakens us, and you see where that leads.

[byronius]

15. Salient. Our Ignorants were used against us, programmed and plunged like a knife into our backs.

That knife's not going to 'wake up'. It's too late for them. The leap to epiphany for them is akin to Evel Knievel jumping the Pacific on a Big Wheel.

[winetourdriver01]

17. Ignorants

This is what "weaponized" elections look like. Putin is big big trouble.

[Cary]

36. We allowed it

We didn't come out and vote to the point where they couldn't steal it.

We have the numbers. We just don't use them well enough.

[PdxSean]

16. That's my motto!

The only reasonable expectation of republicans is that they will NEVER fail to go lower than our wildest expectations. I suspect that republicans will gladly suffer the democrats' never ending shock and outrage if what republicans get in return is a free shot at looting the national treasury, deregulation, discrimination against "others," unfair tax policies, unchecked party corruption, right-wing courts, . . .

[pandr32]

21. Our thoughts sculpt our brain

Last edited Mon Apr 3, 2017, 02:05 PM - Edit history (1)

This group of 35% have brains that have been sculpted along the way--responsive only to certain information and dismissive of anything else. Memes with mean pictures of "others", soundbites, red meat headlines, talking points repeated endlessly by virtually all of the Republicans in official capacity and then circulated through social media. This is what their brains are wired to and respond positively to. It is reinforced by messages of patriotism--rewarding them as "good" or "real" Americans, and sadly through American "Christian-lite" institutions and rock-star-like evangelicals.

The fact that one of our major two-party system embraces these things gives perceived legitimacy to all of the above.

It would take some form of behavior modification or perhaps a crisis that affects them directly to get them to listen to facts, to use any type of critical thinking skills. Their brains need rewiring. It seems that as Trump's approval ratings slowly drop that it may be due to the fact that crisis is indeed affecting them--one subjugated member of the conservative base at a time.

[PdxSean]

24. Well said.

Gonna cut and paste and save and share.

[pandr32]

43. Go for it!

[Cary]

35. We don't need them.

We have everything we need. We just have to put aside our nonsense and use everything we have.

[pandr32]

44. Not sure which nonsense you are referring to

...but I agree we will have to get things done without "them".

[Rockhead]

3. (D)

Nuff said

[nini]

4. Bad poll numbers

Then they'd decide to act.

[OnDoutside]

20. Thread winner in my opinion. As long as their individual numbers stay up, they'll carry on.

[Takket]

32. This

Once it looks like they are about to lose their job, they will care

[Johonny]

5. Trump vetoing their GOP legislation agenda

why should they act when, just like Putin, they got Trump over a barrel. If he started turning down their agenda then he's in big trouble. It means congress has a lot of power if they get their act together. IT also means they can laugh off his budget suggestions.

[Amishman]

33. This, the GOP and Trump's base won't care as long as they are getting what they want

And so far they are for the most part

[DBoon]

6. Losing elections will get their attention

They don't care about ethics or upholding the law

They only care about power

Losing power is their only contact with reality

[LisaM]

7. Having a sense of humanity.

However, from what I've seen with this flurry of anti-woman legislation in the last few days, I think it's like asking for the moon to get these people to care about their fellow human beings and/or their country.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. One of their own to be targeted by the Russians

Looks like Rubio was

[L. Coyote]

9. That started when the WH was subpoenaed and WH counsel ordered document preservation.

Which triggered Trump's cyber-lynching of Obama to try to politicize the investigation to get the evidence thrown out.

Once the WH had been put on notice, everyone got really serious. What they want is to put on a happy face and pretend nothing is wrong, but they are no longer able to hide their terror.

Don't confuse them trying to spin this into "the black guy's fault" as not taking it seriously. That is part of their exit strategy from a very serious situation and evidences how seriously they are taking it. Nunes has revealed the degree to which they are shitting bricks and committing obstruction crimes to hide their total terror about how badly they were conned by the Russians and the Rosneft agents working for Trump.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. If Tiny Hands was on tape smoking a joint with President Pale Boobs after a long

night of hot steamy dude on dude action on top of a pile of white fetus parts...... Maybe.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. Find some "connection" with Clinton and/or Obama

That's pretty much about it as far as I can tell.

[Generic Brad]

12. Being outed as a co-conspirator?

[Control-Z]

38. Yes. Or something like that.

I was thinking that if by pushing fake news, denying facts or ignoring facts, they might be implicating themselves, if only in the cover up, that might motivate them to take things seriously.

[doc03]

13. Maybe the Russian army marching down Pennsylvania Ave. nt

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. Passage of their tax cuts for the rich, and Trump's signature on the bill n/t

[KingCharlemagne]

18. Since they don't fundamentally agree with the principle of 'one person, one vote,' and

since this is what Putin was attacking, nothing will convince them to change their minds. Republicans don't care if their fellow citizens are disenfranchised, so attempts to subvert the franchise don't bother them one bit. They suckle at the teat of raw power and the Caesarian strongman.

[meow2u3]

19. Trump threatening to dissolve Congress?

[luvMIdog]

22. receiving their utility bills in Russian

[RedSpartan]

23. If Hillary was behind it.

[superpatriotman]

25. Communism

Or even socialism-lite

[Leith]

26. It Would Take a Dump of What the Russians Have on Them

Or perhaps Putin could blackmail one or two key rethugs (pleeeeeze start with McTurtle!), put the information out anyway, and destroy them.

[Phoenix61]

27. In public?

Never gonna happen. Privately, I think they are very concerned how this will impact them personally and are scrambling to try to stay in that sweet spot where they don't look like traitors or complete fools. So far, I haven't seen any of them pull it off.

[WePurrsevere]

28. Jesus coming down on a cloud with a host angels surrounding him saying to...

Nah... not even then for the die-hard sTrumpets.

As for the Republican politicians, I think they know it's real but most of them (especially in the House of Reps) are seeing how it plays out a bit more and how their local poll numbers are affected before they outwardly are seen to be serious about it... or if they can keep blowing it off for longer in the hopes of getting more of their extreme wet dream agenda passed. It's all a partisan numbers and $$$ game to them. Doing the right and honorable thing went the way of Lincoln with them long ago.

[Squinch]

29. The day they realize that the rest of the world sees Trump as childish and impotent, and that he has

made the "macho" nations laugh at us, they will turn on him.

Trump's coalition is all about feelings of inadequacy.

[FreepFryer]

30. A Democrat being unmasked as a Russian mole. (n/t)

[0rganism]

31. whatever it is has to affect them immediately, personally and unambiguously

immediately because they (and perhaps a majority of Americans) suffer from very short attention spans.
personally because they don't much care about anyone outside their immediate family.
unambiguously because once it happens they're very likely to look around real hard for a Democrat to blame.

so something obviously awful that affects them and those they care about in such a way that no amount of AM hate radio can mask its awfulness...

such a circumstance is very difficult for me to imagine.

[kentuck]

40. Have Republicans always been like that...?

...or is it a recent development?

[0rganism]

41. i wouldn't go with "always", but that is how they appear to me now

i tend to look to Hunter S. Thompson for inspiration on such matters, and what comes to mind is his observation of '60s counterculture from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

"There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda....You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave....

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

so in that spirit, maybe selfish haters with authoritarian mindsets have always been the socially "normal" ones, and liberals are merely surfers on aberrant wishful waves that wash over humanity from time to time. or maybe i read too much into such things.

[kentuck]

45. I can dig that wave...

We need to get some volunteers for the wave.

[ananda]

34. I think a capitol sit-in would do it.

I mean the kind that doesn't give up.

[FiveGoodMen]

37. At least one brain between all of them

Seriously, what it would take is...

1) the return of the Fairness Doctrine so that they can't be bombarded by just one narrative 24/7

2) time for the resulting sanity to sink in

3) it would be awfully good if we'd tax the churches that won't stay out of politics

(it would be great if people would stop listening to their preachers, who wouldn't know Jesus if he blessed them)

[jmg257]

39. Hard evidence of collusion should do it.

So far its been lacking.

[ecstatic]

42. Trump pegged them early on-he said he could murder an innocent person in broad daylight

on a busy New York street, and his fans would stick with him.

I think they'd stick with him even if his critics started dropping like flies. Mysteriously...