r/politics • u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois • 23d ago

No Paywall Karl Rove says Republican Party is being taken over by 'Nazis'

https://www.sacurrent.com/news/politics-and-elections/karl-rove-says-republican-party-is-being-taken-over-by-nazis/
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u/rysker6 23d ago

The GOP is dead.

Its MAGA.

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

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u/Senior-Albatross New Mexico 23d ago

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

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u/Ok-disaster2022 23d ago

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

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u/Senior-Albatross New Mexico 23d ago

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. 

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u/TheQuidditchHaderach 23d ago

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

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u/fred_derps 23d ago

I mean he’s already shitting his pants on live television. What else can his body do?

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u/mindspork Virginia 23d ago

The senior senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky might have nothing to say about that.

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u/Drobex Europe 22d ago

I don't think he has a lot to say about anything as of late

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u/TheQuidditchHaderach 23d ago

Collapse, perhaps? 😉🙏🤞

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u/TheZarkingPhoton Washington 23d ago

Are you WATCHING the weekend at Bernies shit they're doing with Mitch? Trump will be pontificating from the grave annointing successors, and delivering commandments. God only knows what rabbid self-destruction the Q channelling will deliver.

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u/Senior-Albatross New Mexico 23d ago

He's already lost a lot of his mojo. His base is there for a memory of his middle school bully energy from a decade back. And he's starting to bore them at the same thing their costs are way up. So yeah they'll try. But there will be a fight over who gets to use the puppet from many competing directions. Or more accurately there already is. And it will continue to lose effectiveness. 

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u/horst-graben 23d ago

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.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/Lehk 23d ago

Outsource to CECOT

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/Major_Association800 23d ago

Conservatives: clutching pearls "So hateful! Why are all Leftists such hateful pieces of subhuman shit!?"

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u/ResplendentOwl 23d ago

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.

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u/CaseyRob1984 23d ago

I think the religious right will always have the pedophile vote. Religion is the only system that promises to let them walk free; put pedophilia on the same level as any other sin, and the promise is that no one may judge you thanks to the forgiveness you received privately.

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u/ResplendentOwl 23d ago

Preach. But there's a different set of weirdos running those camps. The true believer grifters with their megachurch bullshit and the rich weirdos who scam workers out of millions wilhile doing coke and raping young women. Their Interests only align soo much

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u/totallyalizardperson 23d ago

I dunno… the religious right seems to be made up of the groups you said will feel left out.

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u/ResplendentOwl 23d ago

You can already see the 'dont trust the gov' weirdos like Margery Green breaking from the MAGA umbrella, as the fscists are looking to consolidate power with the government.

It's being held together by lots of money and a very malliable dictator that's dumb as a rock.

Anyone with an agenda or personality will cause friction.

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u/Kyrthis 23d ago

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.

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u/super_sayanything 23d ago

It's sad that the only people doing this are the comedy shows.

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u/Mundane_Read_2960 23d ago

That’s what Mamdani’s shorts are accomplishing. I think he’s found the right idea — people generally do not want policy explained to them. With legislation they just want to know (a) whom it’s benefiting and (b) how much they’ll be paying.

This is why it’ll take a long time for universal healthcare to pass… people can be shown the benefits time and again and they’ll just say “this will just encourage people to be unhealthy or take risks”. Like as though unhealthiness and other costs aren’t through the roof already?? But if a more talented politician running for national office can get through to these dumb fucks then it’ll happen.

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u/Everything_Counts_72 23d ago

yes, trumps supporters are the bigger problem than trump. we can get rid of trump. how do we get rid of 70 million people?

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u/ironballs16 23d ago

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

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u/Im_really_bored_rn 23d ago

Except they really haven't. The problem they are having is that many of their voters just don't show up when Trump isn't on the ballot. It's why Trump literally told MAGA to pretend he was, because he's the cult leader (cults tend to destroy themselves after they lose their leader)

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u/rattledamper 23d ago

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

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u/Senior-Albatross New Mexico 23d ago

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. 

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u/NoCoolNameMatt 23d ago

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.

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u/Senior-Albatross New Mexico 23d ago

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. 

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u/kandoras 23d ago

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.

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u/Carbonatite Colorado 23d ago

Weak man's idea of a strongman

Poor man's idea of a rich man

Stupid man's idea of a genius

He appeals to the lowest common denominator.

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u/Hootinger 23d ago

Everyone who has been around him personally have said he is very charming. He obviously can tap into some charismatic vein as he commands massive crowds and has people wearing his clothing and willing to die for him.

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u/steepleton 23d ago

I imagine he’s one of those fellas who thinks coffee tastes weird when it doesn’t have piss in it

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u/rattledamper 23d ago

Agreed 100% - and if it weren’t so dangerous for the rest of us I’d be positively gleeful about watching the crabs fight it out in the bucket. At least when we’re briefly warming ourselves on the exhaust ports of AI data centers while hiding from the murder Waymos we will get a chuckle remembering the time Don Jr. pooped his pants at the Iowa State Fair just to prove he had the same juice as his late dad.

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u/tidal_flux 23d ago

Agreed, and I’m sure everyone in this administration hates and doesn’t trust everyone in this administration. They’re gonna start knifing one another immediately.

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u/throw_away1049 23d ago

If they were to make a succession plan, there's no one with Trump's bizarrely effective folksy charisma. All the wannabes like Desantis showed it doesn't work without that X factor. And Trump Jr, Rubio, Vance...none of them have it.

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u/eeyore134 23d ago

They'll either try to run with "whatever works" Vance or one of Trump's spawn. VP will probably be "happiest widow in the world" EriKa KirK either way.

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u/Char10 23d ago

You assume he’s the mastermind behind all of this, the guy with a 5th grade vocabulary? MAGA won’t just go away after Trump, it will rebrand.

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u/Senior-Albatross New Mexico 23d ago

He's not a mastermind. But he's been good at building a cult of personality. That personality cult is the glue that held things together. It won't just keep together after he's gone. 

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u/Char10 23d ago

I hope you’re right, I’m exhausted

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u/Pusi_Cunu 23d ago

he doesn't give a shit about anything beyond himself and has no succession plan.

You mean like every other cunservative?

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u/SHADOWJACK2112 23d ago

They'll all go back to calling themselves "Libertarians" and suddenly become super concerned about the National Debt(provided there's a Democrat president)

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u/Hatch_1210 23d ago

The crazy thing is, there’s whispers that he is actively sabotaging the Republican Party post Trump, because he wants to be seen as a savior, and a successful Republican partie after he leaves would not elevate him in the way his own twisted mind views himself

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u/steepleton 23d ago

You know it’ll be a trump AI , a virtual deity, a godhead undying and eternal.

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u/ThatGuyYouMightNo 23d ago

Trump's handlers (oligarchs and/or Putin and/or Netanyahu) most likely already have their next pick planned out

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u/So-Called_Lunatic Kentucky 23d ago

There will be a huge vacuum, and then years of infighting, I can't wait.

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u/Pinyaka 23d ago

I'm sure Putin has a contingency plan.

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u/z0rb0r New York 22d ago

There is no honor among scoundrels. It will be a blood bath of succession.

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u/HyperbolicLetdown 20d ago

"Tē kratistōi" (To the strongest)

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u/CheezyGoodness55 23d ago edited 23d ago

He doesn’t need to have a succession plan. He’s not the one pulling the strings, and you can count on the fact that the ones who are absolutely do have a plan. (edit: the truth is excruciatingly painful, I get it)

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u/vandreulv 23d ago

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

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u/Lehk 23d ago

Before MAGA it was Tea Party

Same shit different toilet.

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u/movezig123 22d ago

I think the Tea Party was a genuine once in a lifetime twisted phenomena from the Fox News era. Trump appropriated them and forged an unholy trinity with the establishment GOP and the alt-right

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u/lordlaneus 23d ago

It bugs me when people act like political parties have core principles or ideals. They don't. They're just loose associations of interests that warp and shift over time. If you trace the Republican party all the way back to when it was abolitionist, you can find Lincoln talking about the same phenomenon.

I remember once being much amused at seeing two partially intoxicated men engage in a fight with their great-coats on, which fight, after a long, and rather harmless contest, ended in each having fought himself out of his own coat, and into that of the other. If the two leading parties of this day are really identical with the two in the days of Jefferson and Adams, they have perfomed the same feat as the two drunken men.

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u/vandreulv 23d ago

The Republicans at the time of Lincoln were effectively Democrats. The switch happened. To ignore the Southern Strategy is to ignore that there was a very deliberate attempt to hijack the original party by white supremacists.

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u/lordlaneus 23d ago

The switch happened, but it wasn't a sudden shift from one status quo to another, it was a gradual demographic change that Nixon was able to capitalize on by inviting white supremacists into the Republican party.

What does "effectively Democrats" even mean?

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u/vandreulv 23d ago

What does "effectively Democrats" even mean?

At this point? "Not regressive."

Lincoln was a Progressive for his time.

It took ONE presidential election for the party switch to happen. The 1964 election.

Under the Southern Strategy, Republicans would continue an earlier effort to make inroads in the South, Operation Dixie, by ending attempts to appeal to African American voters in the Northern states, and instead appeal to white conservative voters in the South.

And that was it.

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u/lordlaneus 23d ago

Regressive and progressive are also just floating signifiers. For all of Trump's lip service to conservatism, he's one of the most radical presidents we've had in generations. Progressing towards a fascist dystopia, is still technically progress, even though no one would call is progressive. labels like conservative, progressive, liberal, democrat, and republican, have all become completely detached from there literal meaning, and instead just refer to factions in politics as they currently exist. They're basically brand names.

Applying these kinds of contemporary labels to describe historical situations just isn't helpful.

Sorry I was writing my last comment in a hurry. I kind of lost the point, and did not convey what I meant to very well at all. The southern strategy wasn't some anomalous event that happened in an otherwise static political environment, it was a two party political system operating normally. Politicians are constantly scheming how they can get an advantage by alienating one voting block in order to secure another.

Reducing that all down to the idea that the two parties just completely flipped all of the sudden in 1964, oversimplifies things to the point of falsehood.

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u/esituism 23d ago

is this a copypasta

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u/lordlaneus 23d ago

No, I'm just a left leaning radical centrist, and I think that stopping Trump's coup won't be enough to prevent the country from collapsing into techno feudalism unless we can also implements systems like rank choice voting and overturn rulings like citizens united.

Stopping Trump is an obvious and urgent national priority. But in the long term, we aren't going to fix anything if the DNC's leadership sticks to it's current strategy of token efforts and lip service.

I don't want to have to deal with another Trump in the 2030's damnit!

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u/super_sayanything 23d ago

Nah it wasn't.

It was corporate Northern Business and Small Business owners along with Southern Racists. Over time, Fox News brought it to pure racism. The "Mitt Romney/George Bush/John McCain" compassionate conservatism was booted out when at one time they were seen as the adults in the building.

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u/vandreulv 23d ago

Fox News was created by Roger Ailes in response to Nixon's impeachment.

Ailes was a media consultant for Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, and for Rudy Giuliani's 1989 New York City mayoral election.

Everyone that went through, weaved within that orbit, is tied to Past, current and future administrations. It's not a coincidence.

Heritage Foundation has had their fingers within every single Republican campaign. Including Romney's and McCain's.

In 2006, the mandate proposed in the Heritage Foundation study was incorporated into Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's health care plan, known as "Romneycare," for Massachusetts.[46] The foundation subsequently opposed the Affordable Care Act.[9]

They have had their fingers in everything.

Same people from Nixon to Trump. All of them.

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u/super_sayanything 23d ago

Look, don't tell me any of those guys were anywhere's close to MAGA when it came to policy. They weren't. That's false.

Yes, FoxNews took us here I agree.

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u/vandreulv 23d ago

Let me know when you decide to take the blinders off.

It's all the same shit policy, just now in the open. The false promises under the guise of "free market" was always an excuse to deregulate and rob everyone. Whether it was Reagan championing this or the current administration lacking the ability to be as smooth with the wording, it's all a means to the same ends: Corruption and enriching the 1%.

Nothing has fundamentally changed. It's just out there in the open now.

After all, you called McCain a "Compassionate Conservative."

He sang this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7s5pT3Rris

He would have been absolutely THRILLED with what Trump has done.

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u/super_sayanything 23d ago

We probably ultimately agree certainly more than disagree, I vehemently hate all those guys, but there was a difference in governing verses Trump's looting and destroying of everything and destroying our legitimacy globally. I agree there was a trajectory towards this, but none of those guys are the same to Trump.

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u/vandreulv 23d ago

Romney was behind Bain Capital. The company that would buy out other companies, shift the debt and Pension burden to the company they would gut and bankrupt it before shutting it down.

Same thing that is happening with the financial markets. Buy, purge, dump, consolidate.

"Compassionate conservative" was just the mask that the current crop no longer bothers to wear.

McCain himself was part of the savings and loan scandal called the Keating Five.

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

More financial corruption.

I'm not trying to say anything other than if you look a little deeper, it's really more of the same. Whether they tried to cover their tracks and be subtle about it then versus how so blatant the current admin is about it now... it's all the same shit they engaged in.

Obama wouldn't have had to go around and do an "Apology Tour" after Dubyah if the previous admin cared about our reputation within the world. Republicans simply do not give a shit.

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u/alabasterskim 23d ago

"It's been MAGA the whole time?"

"Sure has."

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u/Engrish_Major 23d ago

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.

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u/Interesting-Prize-79 23d ago

Can we stop with the MAGA aren’t conservative? MAGA is the conservative brand only they take it further

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u/Pusi_Cunu 23d ago

No. It's not.

It is and always has been MAGA! Just like the Tea Party.

Difference now? No more fucking pretense!

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u/Galevav 23d ago

Heritage Foundation, but pretty much, yeah

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u/OtherUserCharges 23d ago

I still think Trump may save democracy in this country. If maga loses big this election some republicans may grow a spine and actively fight against him. Trump will then try to create the far right party fracturing the Republicans. Once that happens maybe democrats can win big again in 2028 against the ight as they will be competing for the same votes, but then we know that they will turn on each other and since there is already 2 other parties maybe they split into left and far left. God can you imagine a world where the 2 party system is dead? If that happens I’d say just give Trump the pardon for saving this country. It’s a pipe dream, but I’m still hoping.

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u/super_sayanything 23d ago

LMAO, Republicans have no will to fight MAGA. They'll lose half their base. Power is the only thing that matters to them.

Only hope is that a certain someone expires and MAGA fights in factions. But, Republicans rally around and Democrats split. That's how it always works.

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u/Old_Cryptid 23d ago

Nah. Dipshit is the useful idiot. When he's gone most of his picks will get the boot. They should get charged, tried, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. More likely they'll slither away with no consequences and show up on a podcast, fox news, or write some crap books about their struggles.

The Heritage Foundation on the other hand... They've been writing GOP policy since Reagan and the aministration is filled with HF personnel. They've spread like a fungus throughout the entire government. They hold a lot of key positions now and won't be leaving any time soon.

Go ahead and cheer when the Big Beautiful Obituary happens and people get complacent again. We're not going to "go back to normal" because there's no normal to go back to.

The Heritage Foundation will still be there and still pushing their agenda. Now that the clown show has done their job we're going to get a competent authoritarian put in place in the next GOP administration.

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u/CheezyGoodness55 23d ago

This is it. Anyone who believes this is over when and if DT is ejected, or that they don’t have a plan for succession, is indulging in a little wishful thinking.

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u/ReallyHoping 23d ago

It's not dead. Saying that it's dead is saying that it has changed. The only thing that has changed is how it portrays itself. Its actions haven't changed at all. It has always lied to get what it wants and its chief goal is to control people and government. Trump is just a shittier front end.

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u/DoubleExposure 23d ago

The GOP is dead.

Naw, it just devolved, exact same brain dead morons as the Tea party. The only real difference is the Orange Pedo gave them permission to be their worse selfs. They have always been authoritarian, Nazi scumbags.

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u/lordmycal 23d ago

I'm pretty sure the GOP stands for Group of Pedophiles at this point.

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u/JargonPhat Florida 23d ago

They party had the opportunity to distance itself from Trump several times over. They chose him overwhelmingly in the 2016 primaries and general election; they chose him when he bungled the pandemic response; they chose him after he incited an insurrection; they chose him after he (and his VP) said empirically disprovable things time and time again during the 2024 election cycle. And you know the one thing that has remained the same during all of those events? The lip service, like this. The hand wringing after-action report.

They don’t care. They’ve only ever been interested in power for power’s sake. They have abdicated the responsibilities inherent to power time and time again.

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u/kandoras 23d ago

The GOP is now MAGA, but that doesn't mean it's dead. It just means that the GOP is now run MAGA people.

Trump didn't sneak into the GOP and take it over in the middle of the night. He was invited in, won their primary, was elected by them, and is protected by GOP congressmen and judges.

Steve Jobs resigned and then died, and Steve Apple took over the company. But that just means the guy at the top changed, not the policies or goals of the organization.

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u/cucuy-bugalu 23d ago

Trump has probably "promised" a dozen different people that they're his designated successor. Post-trump will be... interesting. :(

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u/MisterDudeFella 23d ago

MAGA is just late stage GOP, they all headed toward the same destination.

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u/wholetyouinhere 23d ago

The only open question at this point is whether the Republicans are going to continue in the pro-Israel direction, like the end times nutcases want them to, or break with Israel, like the Tucker Carlson / Candace Owens / MTG / Nick Fuentes contingent want them to.

Once Trump is out, I suspect we're going to see a mafia turf war. Because they can't go back at this point. They can only ever stay the course, or go more Nazi from this point forward. I don't think it's hyperbolic to call America a failed state.

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u/SupriseAutopsy13 23d ago

Rove planted these seeds, and is now reaping a huge crop of shit.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/karl-rove-on-tea-party-a_n_684935/amp

Supporting the early tea party, then realizing they were more baggage than help 3 years after this interview. Bonus points for ending with "muslim mosque at 9/11"

https://newrepublic.com/article/70046/karl-rove-lifelong-gay-baiter

A lovely history of accusing his opponents of being gay to get them to leave conservative politics.

This happens every 4-8 years. Republicans tap into their voters most base, disgusting instincts and wants, win an election, give billionaires a tax break, then fail to govern in any other sense of the word. Then strategists like Rove and the Heritage Foundation have a huddle on how to direct the party to appeal outside their stupid, racist base, THEN inevitably run a primary where a Trump wins.

This is a man who predicted Bush's legacy will be "successfully driving back the global forces of terrorism." Consider that when you take his advice on current politics

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u/Hootinger 23d ago

Lindsey Graham, on one of his last (if not THE last) appearances on Face the Nation, said that Trump is the Republican Party and the Republican Party is Trump. It is over for it and it needs to be denazified.

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u/anoldoldman 23d ago

This phrasing implies there isn't a consistent through line between the civil rights act and today.

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u/foflo 23d ago

The GOP has always been MAGA. From Nixon with CREEP and Kissenger, to Reagan and the AIDS crisis. From Bush SR. and Iraq, to Bush JR., Cheney, and Iraq. To the run up to 2016 and the candidates in the republican primary, and eventual winner. From the Brookes Brother Riots, to corporate personhood, to COVID denial, to Unitary Executive Theory, to more war. All of it. MAGA is the GOP with with hood off.

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u/Organic_Battle_597 23d ago

A bit more nuanced than that. But MAGA as a thing will be dead right along with Trump, as he has ensured there will be nobody to take up the mantle when he's gone. He can't handle the competition. But the underlying principles will remain, that is not going anywhere, it will get a new name depending on who comes out on top after all the infighting.

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u/djuggler 23d ago

Call it what it is. The fascist party of America

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u/octatone 23d ago

Oh, get the fuck out. This has been part of the GOP for ever and is just now out in the open.