Karl Rove says Republican Party is being taken over by 'Nazis'

[u/NicolasCageFan492]

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/politics-and-elections/karl-rove-says-republican-party-is-being-taken-over-by-nazis/

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[u/champdo]

"We're all trying to find the guy who did this."

[u/NurglesGiftToWomen → u/champdo]

I think it was an early episode of American Dad but they depicted Rove as an evil wizard. It was great.

[u/raised_by_toonami → u/NurglesGiftToWomen]

I believe the devil gets a phone call and immediately is all “yes Mr Rove, right away sir.”

[u/doofenhurtz → u/raised_by_toonami]

In American Dad it was God answering a call from Dick Cheney with "Yes sir?"

[u/j4_jjjj → u/doofenhurtz]

This rings a bell, but i couldnt gind the video

I did find rove as an evil wizard tho

https://youtu.be/ktIBE5JB-Dg

[u/HolycommentMattman → u/j4_jjjj]

This is the one you're looking for.

[u/AnybodyMassive1610 → u/NurglesGiftToWomen]

A quote generally attributed to Rove from 2004!!!

“That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

He is just pretending he isn’t culpable

[u/HealthyMaximum → u/AnybodyMassive1610]

"... We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Even bearing in mind that the journalist promised no one in that conversation would be identified, the choice to say that shit aloud is the sign of an egotistical, hateful, bullying weirdo.

(Who was almost certainly Rove, as you point out).

[u/wrinklebear → u/NurglesGiftToWomen]

'Where...where does your food go?'

[u/buttchugreferee → u/champdo]

should someone spank his bare butt, balls, and back?

[u/Vegetable-Debate-263 → u/buttchugreferee]

We don't want to turn him on

[u/SoothingWafer → u/buttchugreferee]

Somebody's got to do it

[u/one_average_joe → u/SoothingWafer]

Nobody's getting spanked!

[u/buttchugreferee → u/one_average_joe]

WRONG!

[u/Any_Juggernaut5326 → u/buttchugreferee]

I don’t see a big burly white beard, so no.

[u/RockyDennisDeYoung → u/Any_Juggernaut5326]

I don't like him. I don't want him to have a beard.

[u/gogurteaterpro → u/buttchugreferee]

I'm just going to take as many suits as I can grab

[u/sjbennett85 → u/buttchugreferee]

Perfect.

We've been sitting here talking all day, and you all never bothered to learn my name.

We're so... buried in our phones.

Instead of giving someone a real smile... we send an emoji. I mean, we don't even... look at porn on our computer anymore.

We look at it on our phone?
Pornhub, Xtube... I know these names better than I know my own grandmother's. YouPorn, XXN, RedTube... panty jobs, homegrown Simpsons stuff.

[u/roastbeeftacohat → u/champdo]

a lot of things that are very serious policy goals, were "stupid shit you said to manipulate the little people" back in 2000. really the whole trump thing was taking all the commands to make the crowd jump, and put them above the actual policy goals.

[u/bombmk → u/roastbeeftacohat]

Rove and Co build a big pig sty and took much enjoyment out herding all the pigs, telling them it was ok to be pigs - only to take advantage of them.
Then Trump showed up, saw his kind, and waded right into the middle of the pen, spoke their language and off we went. And now Rove and Co would like to pretend it was not of their doing.

And now I have to apologize to pigs. Best analogy I could come up with, but they don't really deserve that.

[u/ChuggingtonSquarts → u/bombmk]

Good analogy. The only reason these "GOP Establishment" figures dont like Trump is becuase he's an outsider who swooped in and stole the legions of idiots they had been cultivating for decades

[u/JackedUpReadyToGo → u/roastbeeftacohat]

The danger of telling a lie for so long that you forget it's a lie.

Ex: the Laffer Curve. The rich want tax cuts and the Republicans want to give it to them, but they also want to be the party of "fiscal responsibility". So they lie to the public and tell them "Uh, lower taxes actually creates MORE revenue somehow. We made this chart, see?" But they keep telling that lie and the next generation of Republican politicians grows up hearing and believing the lie. They join the party and the old guard either forget to take them to the smoke-filled backroom and let them in on the truth, or by the time they do it's too late and the new person's beliefs are set. Now they pursue a policy agenda built on the belief that this lie is actually true.

[u/roastbeeftacohat → u/JackedUpReadyToGo]

I take your meaning, but they don't even bother with the laffer curve anymore. there is no longer any larger argument about fiscal prudence and increased revenue. it's just mercs law at work; they cut taxes because they done have or want free will, just tax cuts as a response to all stimuli.

[u/Chaosdecision → u/champdo]

But you’re dressed like a hot dog…

[u/ender4171 → u/Chaosdecision]

So is that guy!

[u/one_average_joe → u/ender4171]

Hahaha...oh no.

[u/xunreelx → u/champdo]

Karl Rove started the ball rolling to what the GOP has become.

[u/esoteric_enigma → u/xunreelx]

Nah, this goes back way before him. The modem Republican party was built on racism. After the civil rights act passed in 1964, all of the racist Southern Dixiecrats switched over to the Republican party.

They won their elections by appealing to the racists who were disappointed with desegregation. Bigots have been their target audience ever since then and you can see the playbook hasn't changed with their focus on brown immigrants and transgendered people.

[u/OldTimeyWizard → u/esoteric_enigma]

We don’t need to hand-waive all the evil that Karl Rove has personally done to our political systems in order to acknowledge the Southern Strategy

[u/KTRyan30 → u/champdo]

As he walk away with a suitcase full of money...

[u/Vegetable-Debate-263 → u/champdo]

We've looked nowhere and can't find him

[u/lebowskiachiever12]

It’s really really confusing seeing this. I’m an older millennial. Back in the W era, all of us anywhere near the left, watched as this guy and his crew used the Iraq war to drive a wedge into society. If you weren’t for it, you were unamerican and filth. They finished what the southern strategy started - brought in racist backwoods idiots, religious zealots, etc. thinking they were easy votes and they could control them later.

You can’t start using the “us vs them = good vs evil” messaging and be surprised when the new “us” start taking control. All the rest of us saw this shit coming in 2003-2004. It was so obvious. How did they not understand this would be the outcome?

[u/ChromaticDragon → u/lebowskiachiever12]

Yup.

Trump and MAGA aren't "taking over" the GOP.

MAGA is the natural end result of the practices and policies of the GOP. This includes the "us vs them" and "we are good; they are evil" as well as "never compromise" and many other aspects of standard Republican and conservative fare.

Karl Rove is very much responsible for this.

[u/kdeff → u/ChromaticDragon]

Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, and many more could have put a stop to this shit right away. They played with fire and are now getting burned.

[u/gerblnutz → u/kdeff]

Grover Norquist's name needs to be lumped along side these people as the godfather of unitary executive theory. And the architect of starve the beast massive debt spending while cutting corporate and 1 percent taxes.

"I don't want to get rid of government, I just want to make it small enough to drown in the tub on a Sunday afternoon."

[u/RandomMandarin → u/gerblnutz]

"I don't want to get rid of government, I just want to make it small enough to drown in the tub on a Sunday afternoon."

And when it finally happened they called it DOGE.

[u/Educational-Bank-353 → u/gerblnutz]

Norquist doesn't get nearly the amount of scorn that's his due. He was the one who made Republican candidates sign his "no tax increase" pledge which pretty much turned the GOP into a single-minded haven for the ultra-wealthy. Tax cuts, endlessly, or "starve the beast [government]" is Norquist's legacy. He's arguably the one who, more than anyone else, turned the Republican party into what it is today.

[u/Richard_Sauce → u/gerblnutz]

Yeah, there are tons of lesser known names that deserve equal credit. The unmaking of America was an eighty year project sustained by a coterie of oligarchs in waiting, politicians and political operatives, conservative intellectuals and activists, entertainers and useful idiots, and foreign powers. I'm a historian by training, and have read a lot of the literature regarding the rise of the right. It's quite an iceberg. A terrifying, sickening, "we're so fucked," iceberg.

[u/gerblnutz → u/Richard_Sauce]

Barry Goldwater was at least correct about one thing. I feel like he and Eisenhower were the canaries in the coal mine for trying to say what was metastasizing in conservative politics.

[u/pmiller61 → u/gerblnutz]

YES! I always add his name to the list.

[u/blackwolfdown → u/kdeff]

Well... we're getting burned.

[u/Jin-Gitaxias-Mom → u/blackwolfdown]

McConnell doesn’t even know who or where he is these days

[u/Tio-Lento → u/kdeff]

How are the three of those clowns “now getting burned”? They’re all rich to the tune of tens of millions of dollars each, never suffered any consequences for any of their actions, and now they’re all elderly and won’t live long enough to see or experience what negative effects they had on American society. Does it seem like they’re suffering to you?

[u/-im-your-huckleberry → u/kdeff]

Add to your list, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Harry Dent Sr., and Kevin Phillips. This could have been stopped in the 60s.

[u/Educational-Bank-353 → u/-im-your-huckleberry]

Barry Goldwater, to his credit, never trusted the Christian nationalists. In that respect he was really the opposite philosophically of Paul Weyrich, another malefactor you can add to the list.

[u/Affectionate_One_700 → u/kdeff]

I'm not sure that Karl Rove is "getting burned."

I'm not going to read or watch any of his recent stuff, but if he's in the news, it's because he wants attention.

[u/wholetyouinhere → u/ChromaticDragon]

It would be relatively trivial to make a good, strong case that the Reagan administration did more damage to American society -- and the world at large -- than Trump 1 or 2 has (so far).

I think Aaron Sorkin is at least partly responsible for the pervasive notion among Reddit liberals that there is a meaningful contingent of noble, intellectual Republicans that can be worked with and compromised with in spirited and constructive debate. This is changing, slowly, but it's unfortunate that it required the US government to reach full-on fascism to get here. Because now it's too late. There's no solution.

[u/TerraceState → u/ChromaticDragon]

Anyone capable of understanding that this was the natural conclusion wouldn't be a Republican.

Same thing with all the people around trump fundamentally not understanding that if they win, most of them are going to get purged eventually, just like what happens in every fascist regime.

[u/LostMyBackupCodes → u/lebowskiachiever12]

Elder millennial and can confirm.

If you watch Jesus Camp, you’ll see bible camps indoctrinating little kids and saying they need to be more like Muslim kids because they fight for what they believe in and these kids should have the same conviction for Christ. Then they start speaking in tongues next to a cardboard cutout of George W Bush.

Those kids now vote MAGA and are brainwashing their own kids.

Full documentary for anyone that hasn’t seen it: https://youtu.be/bf4ZvtM1Mjs?si=jxir4CspNSesAHTW

ETA: About 10-11 minutes in she literally talks about how she wants to indoctrinate kids to lay down their lives for the gospel with hand grenades, like they do in Palestine and Pakistan “because excuse me, we have the truth”. No surprise when they show up to CPAC conferences and put up signs saying “we are domestic terrorists”, because that’s what they’ve been molded into.

[u/noradosmith → u/LostMyBackupCodes]

Jesus Camp is the scariest movie I've ever seen.

And to think it was in a relatively calm time. Can't think how much things like that have escalated in the last ten or so years.

[u/Carbonatite → u/noradosmith]

The fact that those people are the same ones who accuse gay folks of being "groomers" will never cease to astonish me.

[u/JEFFinSoCal → u/Carbonatite]

Every accusation….

[u/Odd_Ant5 → u/Carbonatite]

They can't fathom that they aren't in a tribe at war with another tribe.

They are in a tribe, but they don't understand the people they consider their enemies aren't.

It's the same reason they freaked out about support for Obama thinking he had a cult in the way Trump later very much did. It's the reason they'll weirdly throw out phrases like "your guy Biden".

They know they're indoctrinating their kids. They assume anybody who thinks differently is doing very much the same. The problem to them isn't the indoctrination, it's just that it's the other tribe as they see it. They also "know" that we're supposed to pay lip service to the idea of not indoctrinating kids as part of the freedom mythos, and will use charges of indoctrination on the other side if it gives them any additional power to do so, with zero compunction for the hypocrisy of doing so.

They'll confidently claim the centrality of faith and conservative values, then hold a seething hatred for anyone who has the exact same views about faith and conservative values, for the reason of having the exact same views about faith and conservative values, if under a Muslim framework. The point isn't the values it's the tribalism.

[u/Gender-Chaotic → u/noradosmith]

I watched Jesus Camp as a teen living in that environment and was surprised how "tame" it was compared to what I was experiencing. Meanwhile online, I saw people dismiss any concerns over organizations such as the Westboro Baptist Church, calling them fringe voices.

The religious alt right has never been fringe, if you happened to be born in the wrong place you were under their thumb for years before Trump. Now everyone else is experiencing it.

[u/Flat-Holiday1298 → u/LostMyBackupCodes]

Yes !!  One of the bad traits of Republicans is their devotion to that cult called Christianity. That's a belief that has caused more pain and suffering than  any disease or criminal acts . I'm grateful that my parents didn't force me into that mind control cult.

[u/gringledoom → u/lebowskiachiever12]

They were under the delusion that they could "activate the rubes" enough to win without activating them too much. I put a lot of the blame on McCain for picking Palin for VP; there was a frisson of "why, we morons could really be in charge!" that hadn't existed before

[u/SursumCordaNJ → u/gringledoom]

put a lot of the blame on McCain for picking Palin for VP

A not so well known fact is that McCain ended up with Palin because of Lindsey Graham.

McCain was going to team up with Joe Lieberman as his VP pick but Graham ran to the GOP power players and ratted McCain out and leaked it to the press which, as you can imagine, didn't go over well with the GOP base so McCain was thrown into a whirlwind where he had to find another VP pick on short notice and that is how he, and we, ended up with Caribou Barbie.

[u/deaglebingo → u/SursumCordaNJ]

would lieberman have been any better? a little maybe. but not enough. it was epstein class shit fucking things up then just like it is now. they're not stupid and i would guess they have plenty of rats in places with access. i bet if someone digs far enough they find more than just money connections between e-class and tea party but i could have it twisted.

[u/FeedMeACat → u/deaglebingo]

In the context of this conversation yes he would have been. The point being made is that Palin activated morons because she was a moron. It has nothing to do with the generally irresponsible leadership of the epstein class. You're probably not wrong, but the point your making is a different one.

[u/RandomMandarin → u/deaglebingo]

I didn't know much about Lieberman when he was Al Gore's running mate in 2000 (really, I doubt anybody knew that much about him unless they were deep-dish politics nerds, or from Connecticut).

When I did become learn more about him, none of it was good. Bill Maher wore out his welcome with me long ago, but he did have a good line about Lieberman. Maher said "If you like George W. Bush but you just don't think he's Jewish enough, Lieberman is your guy." I get the impression that when Bush's connections in Florida and the Supreme Court stole the 2000 election for him, Lieberman was the main voice in the Gore camp insisting that he should not fight it.

Lieberman and Palin are like two moldy dinner rolls. You don't stand there in the kitchen trying to decide which one is a little better. They go in the trash.

[u/PuppiesAndPixels → u/gringledoom]

I made a post on socials recently calling trump supporters rubes, and two trump supporters both commented "what is a rube" and "WTF is a rube?"

The jokes write themselves really.

[u/CrotalusHorridus → u/gringledoom]

frisson

Thank you for this new vocabulary word

[u/TheKanten → u/gringledoom]

Then you had the Tea Party, which was basically just the MAGA beta test.

"Well, the Tea Party sounds like the Boston Tea Party and that was a good thing for America, right? Now we can make it great again?"

[u/Odd_Ant5 → u/gringledoom]

I keep telling people to go back and watch her convention speech.

It got so much mainstream praise for how "effective" she was, but that praise was excessively overindexed on the crowd response.

Pay close attention though--that crowd is not listening to what she is saying. They are rabid and primed to explode in mob ecstacy at whatever she says, just waiting for her to pause so they might do so. What she says is immaterial. They had their vessel.

I found it terrifying at the time and I felt like I was taking crazy pills that nobody in the media, or anybody I discussed it with day-to-day, was seeing what I was.

[u/gerblnutz → u/[deleted]]

Nixon and Reagan pardons and letting the nation heal is why we are here.

[u/anchovyCreampie → u/gerblnutz]

It is akin to getting your arm ripped off and instead of emergency medical attention you just cover it with some old dirty rags and call it a day.

[u/ankylosaurus_tail → u/gerblnutz]

Same thing with the civil war. We don't punish people who try to destroy our country, if they are white and conservative anyway.

[u/Paganator → u/[deleted]]

Nixon was a crook. Reagan suffered from dementia. W Bush was a moron. After decades of trial and error, at last Republicans have found, with Trump, the all-in-one model.

[u/ProtectionVirtual225 → u/lebowskiachiever12]

Karl's old nickname was KKKarl. No one was as racist and authoritarian as the crew of the Bush II Administration.

[u/radicalelation → u/lebowskiachiever12]

The wealth supremacists don't entirely align with Nazis, but have always been willing to use them to get ahead.

From Prescott Bush (grandpappy Bush) and his dealings with Nazis and involvement in the Business Plot, to Nixon getting campaign help from a Hungarian Nazi Laszlo Pasztor (HW Bush was his CIA director, nearly his VP), the founders of Heritage Foundation had ventures with the same Hungarian Nazi, and then Heritage ran Reagan's administration, who handed out Heritage's policy book A Mandate for Leadership, known most by today's version, Project 2025, to his cabinet (VP'd by HW Bush)...

They don't want the stink of Nazis, but want their money and highly reactionary base.

[u/flybypost → u/radicalelation]

You don't need to be so abstract about it. Hitler was put into power (the Nazis never got a majority of votes, just a plurality, they never had to be in power) because conservatives thought they'd be able to control him.

[u/VanceKelley → u/lebowskiachiever12]

I remember in 2004 when Bush (who avoided serving in Vietnam using his dad's connections to stay stateside) launched an attack on Kerry's military service in Vietnam. That introduced a new word into the US lexicon: "swiftboating".

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

Republicans have been lying racist assholes for at least 6 decades.

[u/soapinthepeehole → u/VanceKelley]

That was Karl Rove’s brainchild - relentlessly attack your opponents greatest strengths, and it worked.

[u/jeranim8 → u/lebowskiachiever12]

They understand. They're just trying to get onto the lifeboats early enough that they won't drown and they are happy to boot anyone else off, even if its from their own team...

[u/X-Himy → u/lebowskiachiever12]

Rove is just angry that he didn't get his piece of the pie.

[u/rhyming_mime]

Karl Rove is partially responsible for the current state of the GOP. He is such an ass hole that I can't tell if he bragging or not.

[u/CrackingToastGromet → u/rhyming_mime]

Karl Rove is a dastardly mind - I’ve seen first hand just how diabolical he can be when a family friend was set up and double-crossed by him. Power is the ultimate goal for the GOP, it’s been their only goal to be achieved by hook or by crook, no act is too low to achieve it, so Rove can GTFO. Rove was one of the architects of this terrible party.

[u/rysker6]

The GOP is dead.

Its MAGA.

Anyone out there after Trump literally will be an employee handpicked by the Trump org.

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/rysker6]

After Trump will be a ridiculous clusterfuck because he doesn't give a shit about anything beyond himself and has no succession plan. 

[u/Ok-disaster2022 → u/Senior-Albatross]

It's already a ridiculous clusterfuck with the Pedo as is. 

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/Ok-disaster2022]

He's already barely cogent. So we're beginning to see what it will look like. But it will only be worse when his body finally gives out. 

[u/TheQuidditchHaderach → u/Senior-Albatross]

It looks like it already gave out. It's pure "Weekend At Bernie's"!

[u/horst-graben → u/Senior-Albatross]

100% correct. Trump doesn't care about Republicanism, he doesn't care about MAGA. He cares about himself. The problem the Left has is they still can't see that the real threat are the people surrounding Trump, enabling his every whim. They won't be MAGA but they will be the face of the Republican party moving forward. That's scary. And a lot of Trump voters will excuse them for supporting poor Trump policies. 2028 will be a closer race than many on the Left believe.

[u/ResplendentOwl → u/horst-graben]

My only hope in our (for now) near collapse is that the MAGA movement is a bunch of disparite fringe groups who bend to Trump because he's a selfish, malliable idiot with no agenda for himself other than 'give me money and tell me I'm awesome'

Put a competent idiot like Vance or Pence in there leading the charge and the religious right will suddenly be controlling the other groups.

Suddenly the billionaires, the pedophiles, the racists, the Qannons, the anti vac, the poor, the Nazis will all feel left out.

[u/Kyrthis → u/horst-graben]

If Democrats (or a faction within them) could do their own Fireside chats, we’d be in a lot better place two years down the line.

[u/ironballs16 → u/Senior-Albatross]

The problem is that the GOP have revealed their willingness to coalesce behind anyone with an R next to their name.

[u/rattledamper → u/Senior-Albatross]

And now he and his family can’t relinquish power because their fortunes are too tied into keeping it.

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/rattledamper]

No one in his family beyond himself has the charisma to hold on to that power. But they'll undoubtedly try, thus contributing to the clusterfuck. 

[u/NoCoolNameMatt → u/Senior-Albatross]

It just blows my mind when people say Trump has charisma. If he made 50k a year and you met him at a party, you'd be disgusted. I do not understand the appeal at all.

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/NoCoolNameMatt]

He's got stupid asshole charisma. It doesn't appeal to you or me, but it absolutely works on the core constituency of troglodytes that are Conservatives. 

[u/kandoras → u/NoCoolNameMatt]

He got seventy seven million people to elect him as president.

It's bad charisma that appeals to bad people, but you don't win that size popularity contest without getting people to like and agree with you.

[u/vandreulv → u/rysker6]

The GOP was always MAGA. From Nixon to Reagan to today, the same people have been involved the entire time.

[u/Lehk → u/vandreulv]

Before MAGA it was Tea Party

Same shit different toilet.

[u/alabasterskim → u/rysker6]

"It's been MAGA the whole time?"

"Sure has."

[u/Engrish_Major → u/rysker6]

Different brand name for white supremacy in America. Come to terms with the fact that we have enablers all around us and then you’ll be able to find the strength to confront them.

[u/Euclidisthebomb]

I always thought Karl Rove was a Nazi so I am perplexed.

[u/gringledoom → u/Euclidisthebomb]

There was an element of the GOP that was "wind up the rubes just enough that they vote for us and we can push our otherwise-disfavored policy objectives", and an element of the GOP that was "bronze-age-mentality rubes". Rove is among the former (which isn't to say he's a good guy); they're willing to leverage dangerous social impulses to win, even if they don't personally "care" either way.

tl;dr: sow the wind, reap the whirlwind

[u/NeverLookBothWays → u/gringledoom]

True, it used to be Barry Goldwater style conservatism which became widely unpopular by the late 1960’s. And from there we had Nixon who had to cave to progressive ideas, leading to strategist Jude Wanniski going “screw it, let’s just manipulate our voters each cycle instead” starting with Reagan. And eventually the nazified remnants of the confederacy played along and eventually took over.

[u/UNC_Samurai → u/NeverLookBothWays]

Goldwater radicalized the party, conveniently ignoring that the evangelists he invited in would see a path to power through Reagan.

[u/LordSiravant → u/UNC_Samurai]

I mean, fuck Goldwater, but wasn't he known for commenting just how dangerous the evangelical takeover of the Republican Party was?

[u/UNC_Samurai → u/LordSiravant]

He knew damn well he opened the door for them.

[u/Churchbushonk → u/Euclidisthebomb]

He was Nazi-like. But not a Nazi. Nazi in actions, but not goals.

Trump MAGA embody eugenics, racist, cool with genocide, paint Hispanics as the ENEMY. Type of Nazi.

[u/Bears_On_Stilts → u/Euclidisthebomb]

This isn't a new theory either: all the way back in the early 2000s, Green Day was singing "Holiday" about how the rightward shift of US culture was not unlike the Holocaust.

[u/DGanj → u/Euclidisthebomb]

"You're not a Nazi, Karl, you're just an asshole."

[u/reche23]

Nazi says the GOP is being taken over by more extreme Nazis

[u/RealSlyck → u/reche23]

It’s that whole brown shirt vs black shirt thing…

[u/Wukong00 → u/RealSlyck]

So regular Nazi and the SS?

[u/Swesteel → u/Wukong00]

SA and SS, Hitler had the SA leadership murdered during the night of the long knives to consolidate his power over the party.

[u/kandoras → u/Wukong00]

There's multiple different groups here: the SA, the mainstream Nazi party, the SS, and the army.

The SA (the Sturmabteilung, the brownshirts), who were the Nazi party's original paramilitary group. The guys the party would sent out into the streets to beat up communists and Jews.

But after the Nazis gained power, a roving band of thugs in the streets became a bit of a liability. They wanted to appeal to regular Germans who wanted a return to law and order, not regular riots.

Hitler started creating the SS partly as a bodyguard in case the SA decided to oust him, and partly because they could do the same things but with a more professional appearance. More middle and upper class compared to the average SA member's working class background.

Plus, the head of the SA at the time, Ernst Rohm, was having a falling out with Hitler. The SA had three million members and Rohm thought that the army (which only numbered 100,000 at the time) should be disbanded and replaced with the SA. Rohm also thought that the 'revolution' that had brought the Nazis into power wasn't completed and they needed to become even more radical and include some quasi-socialst reforms and wealth redistribution.

That was a problem for Hitler, because he was trying to get the more conservative elements of Germany (like the army) to agree to start working with his plans. Rohm had pissed off pretty much everyone except his own SA members and the knives came out.

The SS fabricated some evidence that Rohm was planning to overthrow Hitler (partly fabricated, he had said to people that he thought Hitler might need to be removed from power) and reminded Hitler that Rohm was gay.

That was enough to convince Hitler to go after Rohm first, in the Night of Long Knives. He ordered all the SA leadership to meet at a spa resort, and then they were all arrested and/or killed. The organization was downsized and put under more direct party control.

The German people were told that the SA had tried to overthrow Hitler, who had bravely fought them off and restored order by taking out the criminal element that had been beating up people in the street (and please forget that they did all that on the party's orders, and that they'll continue to do the same things for several more years until the war starts at which point whoever was left would be drafted into the army; the party's final, most essential command and all that).

The SS started off as Hitler's bodyguard, but eventually grew into a parallel state. Hitler really liked having different parts of the government having the same responsibilities; that meant they would all fight each other for power and prestige instead of thinking about taking him out. The SS would eventually have its own intelligence sections (in addition to the Gestapo and the military intelligence) and it's own entire army divisions.

The regular army started off as the army of the Weimar Republican. The ones who had survived the downsizing after World War 1. Old school guys who only really cared about restoring military power. They eventually signed up with Hitler because he promised to rebuild the army. They had some small parts to play in the Holocaust, and they did know it was happening, but they were mostly concerned with fighting the war. (There's the Clean Wehrmacht myth that was created after the war that said they had absolutely no part in the Holocaust, but it was pretty much entirely created by German officers who were writing up a history of the war and how to fight communists for the US Army; they obviously had a great interest in proclaiming that they had nothing to do with the genocide).

And then there was the mainstream Nazi party, who for the purposes of this discussion had always been loyal to Hitler directly and not part of the SA or the army.

The blackshirts that the other guy mentioned weren't even German. That was the name for Mussolini's Italian group of thugs that the SA was patterned after.

[u/ApartInfluence4429 → u/reche23]

The Guards Of Pedophiles have never been stronger!

[u/Environmental-Arm365]

Karl prefers keeping their Nazi beliefs private to be discussed only at country clubs and the RNC.

[u/sack-o-matic → u/Environmental-Arm365]

He prefers the klansmen keep their hoods on

[u/Un1CornTowel]

Just complaining because he isn't getting the credit for it...

“We didn’t labor in the wilderness to build a conservative party that was inclusive and welcoming … to see it taken over by a bunch of bigots,” Rove said.

You didn't build an inclusive party at all, you monster.

[u/jgandfeed → u/Un1CornTowel]

>“Inclusive”

Meanwhile a big part of GWB’s campaign promises was a constitutional amendment against marriage equality

[u/Constant-Skill-7133 → u/jgandfeed]

W won the Republican primary in South Carolina and turned the momentum of the race around by taking control of the evangelical machine. He did so in part by courting white supremacists as a block by, speaking at Bob Jones University.  BJU had  called his father "the devil" for denouncing the school's policies of banning interracial dating.  He also did some "ratfuckery" by sending out push polls and mailers implying John McCain's adopted daughter (South Indian) was a love child he had outside his marriage.

[u/DrunkAndHornyGuy → u/Un1CornTowel]

He means inclusive to bigots. The business wing really just didn't believe the Dixiecrats could ever take over the party like they did.

[u/tiny_galaxies → u/Un1CornTowel]

I used to think Rove was a smart strategist, even if I despised all that he was doing. I now see he’s an idiot who got lucky with opportunity.

Tolerance of intolerance leads to systemic bigotry. It’s the most basic civics lesson, Karl.

[u/buttchugreferee]

cue Shake n Bake....

"And I helped!"

[u/Mr_MacGrubber]

if Karl Rove thinks his party is fucked up, that's pretty bad.

[u/Herr-Trigger86 → u/Mr_MacGrubber]

He’s not talking about Trump or anyone in power when he says “being taken over by Nazis”… he’s talking about podcasters… Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, etc. Only negative thing he said about the people in power or looking for power is Ken Paxton being a terrible candidate.

Just for context… since no one ever reads anything anymore and just relies on headlines and other people’s equally uninformed comments on those articles that they didn’t read.

[u/Many_Psychology_3336]

I am happy to accept that Karl Rove is not a Nazi.

I am also very happy to make the claim that Karl Rove and his ilk giddily paved the way for Nazis as a means of gaining power for themselves in the short term.

[u/121gigawhatevs → u/Many_Psychology_3336]

Hah. Paved the way … and laid out the red carpet, served cocktails, massaged their feet

[u/NamelessResearcher]

"When you lose Karl Rove, you need to do some serious lack-of-a-soul searching." - Seth Meyers

[u/Independent-Reader]

Why does it take Republicans so long to come around to that which is common sense to everyone else?

[u/Donkletown → u/Independent-Reader]

They aren’t coming around, they are trying to set up the pivot away from Trump we will see them attempt in the next 2 years. 

3 years from now, there won’t be hardly any self-declared “Trump Republicans” and Republicans will attack the media for ever suggesting Trump was popular with the GOP. 

[u/HotGarbage → u/Donkletown]

"Someday, everyone will have been against this"

[u/Davethe3rd]

The Republican Party is not being taken over by Nazis...

They were already Nazis.

[u/uptym]

Karl Rove is shocked people are driving down the road he paved.

[u/pfroo40]

They made a deal with the devil when they legitimized the Tea Party movement by making Palin the VP candidate for John McCain. Also tarnished his legacy by allowing it. Everything since has been opportunistic populist grifters taking advantage of an easily-manipulated, under-educated, ignorant, and uncurious voter base. 

[u/Comfortable-Ad-3988]

"All I did was invite them in and hold the door open for them, I don't know how they got here."

[u/Flippin_diabolical]

The Rs have been fascists for decades. For a while the memory of WWII hung over them enough to know they should be ashamed of being fascists. Hell, even now they get mad when you say they are fascist even though they love fascist policies. Rove is of the generation that knew his racism should be cloaked, but he is the generation that made the current situation possible. He’s as Nazi as the rest of those dirtbags, he just is aware that it’s not a good look.

[u/GoldenC0mpany]

Umm they’ve been full of Nazis for a long time now.

[u/stuckonasandbar → u/GoldenC0mpany]

Yes, but they were his type of nazi.

[u/mczerniewski]

Karl, you did participate in this.

[u/Altruistic-Guess-975]

What irony. Coming from a man who was the precursor to the Nazis and a founding member of the Federal Society and a long standing member of the Heritage foundation & the council for national policy ALL ultra right wing organizations

[u/To-Far-Away-Times]

Was this a quote from the early 2000’s or now?

[u/APraxisPanda]

You mean the party whose only policy agenda involves reinforcing social hierarchy via fearmongering while punching down at marginalized groups has a hate problem?

[u/theclansman22]

This is like the skit where the guy in the hot dog suit is trying to figure out who crashed the hot dog mobile into the store.

[u/potat0f4rmer]

Karl Rove is a vile and evil little toad who ushered all of this in.

[u/Wolfman01a]

Karl Rove is a vial war criminal and even he thinks they're vile. That says something.

[u/Choice-Koala-3653]

Neo-Nazis would be the correct term, though MAGA identify as 'white Christian nationalist'.

[u/Swamp_Dwarf-021 → u/Choice-Koala-3653]

At a certain point, they are all about the same.

Hateful bigots who want a very particular world view to happen.

[u/ElysiumSprouts → u/Choice-Koala-3653]

This is America and these guys are Neo-confederates

[u/thankyoufor_that]

Imagine that. The ham finds a conscience

[u/Dr_PocketSand]

Well… Karl is basically a diet-Nazi so fuck him.

[u/Upstairs_Owl_1669]

Did he mention any plans to actually do something about it? I bet not.

[u/stunneddisbelief]

"BEING taken over by Nazis"??? BEING??

Please, this started well before this point.

[u/oddb0dy]

No fucking shit karl no fucking shit

[u/rtopps43]

Has been taken over, but yeah

[u/VegasGamer75]

Translation: We coddled Nazis and Nazi ideology to garner votes and now we're Nazis. What do?!

[u/cantstopseeing13]

yea, always has been Karl. You wrote this dumbfuck playbook the trump admin pulls from because they are challenged when it comes to even coming up with somewhat creative bullshit.

Fuck you, Karl.

[u/WilHunting2]

Ask Karl Rove who he voted for.

[u/valentino_42]

These people were totally fine watching the party turn into this every step of the way.

I have been watching The Bulwark on YouTube lately and it just drives me up a wall hearing these never-Trump conservatives, in particular Bill Kristol, bemoan the current state Republican party. As much as people want to decry the "slippery slope" argument as a logical fallacy, it was apparent after 9/11 during Bush's term that this was the trajectory of the Republican party, whether these people wanted to admit it or not. Republicans have ridden that slippery slope all the way to the bottom.

[u/GeezusLizard]

Not to be confused with former chief strategist and principal lunch meat Ham Rove

[u/lgnsqr]

The chairman of the Leopards eating Faces party wonders who founded the party he helped to found.

[u/cataclyzzmic]

"Being"? You started this decades ago, Karl. Traitors and cowards. Can't even stand up for the shit they've done and continue to do.

[u/Aiwendil-981]

It isn't being taken over by Nazis, it already was.

[u/RIP-RiF]

Karl Rove, coincidentally, lives in the year 2006.

[u/NeatlyCritical]

Yes you, you were one the principle fascists. And not taking over, taken over every single republican in the country is a fascist

[u/sdcrammo]

If you own a bar and Nazis start coming into to drink one time, and you do not kick them out. The next time more nazis show up to drink at your bar. Guess what, now you own a nazi bar.

[u/aommi27]

Maybe the dude who held the door open and waved them in should shut the hell up?

Just a thought.

[u/pchs26]

You think Karl? Gee I wonder who helped get us here. That being said you know the only reason he is saying something is he wasn't brought into the $$ fold. However I still hope what he is saying has legs and is impactful in a way that helps us.

[u/KrookedDoesStuff]

Being taken over? They’ve been running the party for a decade

[u/m00nk3y]

It is his fault. Karl Rove came up with the whole REDMAP scheme. He didn't consider what elections would look like for his party when the primaries became more competitive than trying to win the general election. He is the reason that the Republican Party moved further and further to the right.

[u/Lone-Frequency]

Is being?

Has been, for decades.

[u/canikissyourfeet]

Insane that Karl Rove is a voice against authoritarianism

[u/SubwayHero4Ever]

He helped it. He can piss off.

[u/awesomedan24]

"Sir, I'm afraid the Nazi-Welcoming-Machine 5000 you built has had... unintended consequences... 😔"

[u/invisable_bert]

Wait for it... "I was following orders" Looking forward to Nuremberg part 2

[u/Odd_Repeat_6092]

Feb 2024: Nazis mingle openly at CPAC, spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and finding allies: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nazis-mingle-openly-cpac-spreading-antisemitic-conspiracy-theories-fin-rcna140335

[u/armyofant]

Being? It’s a done deal at this point.

[u/steepleton]

Hey karl- you helped that happen

[u/Hyperion1144]

Is he complaining or showing off? I can't tell.

[u/UncleGarysmagic]

Says man who helped Bush beat McCain by the, “McCain has a black daughter” hate smear campaign.

[u/gigglefarting]

And has been for at least a decade. You just noticing?

[u/Raebelle1981]

I hate MAGA, but this guy sucks too and I don’t care about anything he has to say. Probably partly responsible for this. Also why did I think he was dead?

[u/Canucklehead_Esq]

Why is he using the current tense?

[u/Calkky]

Wow, I did Nazi that coming when Rove was the one pulling the strings in the early '00s.

[u/Basketspank]

"Yeah no shit."

Everyone else but Fox News and someone's FB Uncle/Aunt

[u/47isthenew42]

I disagree. It's already been taken over by Nazis. 

[u/KalashnaCough]

Don't forget that Karl Rove was one of the architects of all this and should face war crime trials for being part of the Bush administration as they launched a war of choice into Iraq.

[u/Crestfall_Azure]

A Republican FINALLY said it out loud.  However, Rove is probably only saying that because he is no longer in power.

[u/SlimDiscipline-69]

Dawg, the Republican party hasn't existed since 2020. It's been body snatched by the Maga cult.

[u/dhusk]

Welcome to twenty years ago, Karl. And you were one of them.

[u/frenchylamour]

I don't know why Karl's upset. After all, he bragged "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.^"

^{Why's my man so upset? Things worked out just like he said! Ever since Trump was elected, it's been alternate facts, retconned history, and imaginary Civil War battles, like at Bowling Green. It's exactly the world Karl and the Gang were working so hard to create from 2000-2008, and they got exactly what they wanted.}

“After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.” --Mr. Spock

[u/Suspicious_Cow_6075]

Ok Karl, why did the nazis feel comfortable coming to your party in the first place? Wanna start with that?

[u/Middle-Mix-7711]

And Karl Rove helped pave the way.

[u/Sudden_Party_7918]

Cracks me up that they still think they have a Party. I mean George Bush is hosting fundraisers for so called “ republican candidates”. Every Republican is MAGA. They all cower to Trump and fully support the creation of this nightmare. They have ALWAYS been this way.

[u/MoreOrLess_iGuess]

Rove is quite literally petting the leopard we can all see on his lap, oblivious to its intentions

[u/MercantileReptile]

Karl Rove is one of those people I'm amazed are not spat on whenever they appear in public. The sort of presence that is a testament to society's restraint.

[u/Weary_Panda80]

blah blah blah. you're just as complicit as the rest. you helped put bedbugs in our beds. Now you're terrified to lie in them because you don't want to get bit.