Can you believe Republicans in the Senate blocked the Freedom to Vote Act today? Of course you can. It happened. It’s all over the news. If you turn your television to CNN or MSNBC, you can’t miss it. But it’s still hard to believe we have actually arrived at the place where Republicans in the upper house of the Congress have voted against a bill seeking to make it easier for citizens of the United States to exercise their most precious right, the right to vote.
Kill the filibuster and go so far left that Che, Fred Williamson, and Joe Hill rise from their graves to applaud. Take no prisoners. Pass every damned thing that it will take to make this country whole.
In 1952 the Republicans won the House Senate and Presidency. In 1953 they wanted to gut Social Security and the minimum wage as well as public assistance. President Eisenhower refused to gut the New Deal;. Despite McCarthy fearmongering, in 1954 the country gave the house to the Democrats and they held it for 40 years (1994) In 1956 after a vicious campaign against Adlai Stevenson, the country reelected Eisenhower but took the senate away and the Democrats had it until 1980. In 1960 the country rejected Nixon rants about communists and voted for Kennedy. You may recall that in 1884 Republicans warned about 'Rum Romanism, and Rebellion', and the Democrats won as they did again in 1892. Resort to extremism and the great mass of voters will give you the boot. Rig the election in 2022 and millions of ordinary Republicans will vote Democrat in 2024.People fear extremism, look at how much of Europe is turning against hard right parties. Extremist can win, for a while, but eventually people get fed up. Mitch McConnell has no self control. He gloated today and thinks the future is his. Maybe for a few years, but be certain the wheel keeps turning, he has already angered millions of people. He will push it too far and like Joseph McCarthy will get the boot. Chief Justice John Roberts is not a fool, he will go just so far, count on it.
Of course I believe it. I'm not even surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. What happened between 2006 and 2021? Barack Obama got elected *twice*. The GOP realized that without restricting the franchise it might happen again: another black person might be elected president, and worse, it might be a take-no-prisoners black *woman* or other woman of color. Dark money poured into the GOP (Jane Mayer's book is good on this), and in 2010 the Tea Party came to power and has pretty much dictated the GOP trajectory ever since. George Wallace and Strom Thurmond would be thrilled.
The fact that these Republicans are so adamant against certain people (and we know who they are, like every one who isn't white) voting, perhaps we should make sure these Republicans never have the right to vote in the Senate again.
Vote against each and every one of them. It's shameful that in this day and age, there are still people who think that slavery should have been kept as a way of keeping others from attaining any form of citizenship.
Also-have they noticed that they're voting against their own best interests? Or do they really care?
Susan Collins has become a mockery of her state. She will be defeated next time. I can guarantee it.
But I can't help but also notice that there are a majority of Republicans who are 75+ years old, which makes them out of touch with the American people.
They should be removed as the ancient relics of bigotry and racism they are.
Despite the fact that I swore off reading any more books about The Fat Fuck, I found myself reading Michael Wolff's "Too Famous." I didn't think it was possible to be more shocked than I had been prior to reading it, but I am. In all of Wolff's conversations with the people around TFF (Bannon, Priebus, Kelly, even Kushner, who's an especially scary piece of work), every single one of them loathed him, knew he was incompetent and "cognitively impaired" (dumb as shit, anyone?) and in no way took him seriously. Yet, they behaved as we know they've behaved (we don't need no stinkin' laundry lists) and are continuing to behave. Overwhelming cynicism. So yeah, "evil" is the best word. My own capacity to still be shocked by all this continues to surprise me....
How low can we go? More than mind boggling, it is migraine producing. But our history is that of white privilege so can we expect to ever really have a democratic republic. I think not.
I don't think we are at the bottom yet. I have made this observation before, but will do so again: I am willing to bet that if a sociologist did a survey/investigation of the religious affiliation of GOP politicians, ranging from local alderman and school board members all the way up through mayors and state legislators to US Senators, they would find that the vast majority are evangelical Christians contemptuous of democracy and bent on replacing it with a white-run, fundamentalist Christian theocracy. Killing the voting rights of minorities, who mostly vote for Dems, is near the top of their list. They no longer even try to hide that goal.
Kill the filibuster and go so far left that Che, Fred Williamson, and Joe Hill rise from their graves to applaud. Take no prisoners. Pass every damned thing that it will take to make this country whole.
In 1952 the Republicans won the House Senate and Presidency. In 1953 they wanted to gut Social Security and the minimum wage as well as public assistance. President Eisenhower refused to gut the New Deal;. Despite McCarthy fearmongering, in 1954 the country gave the house to the Democrats and they held it for 40 years (1994) In 1956 after a vicious campaign against Adlai Stevenson, the country reelected Eisenhower but took the senate away and the Democrats had it until 1980. In 1960 the country rejected Nixon rants about communists and voted for Kennedy. You may recall that in 1884 Republicans warned about 'Rum Romanism, and Rebellion', and the Democrats won as they did again in 1892. Resort to extremism and the great mass of voters will give you the boot. Rig the election in 2022 and millions of ordinary Republicans will vote Democrat in 2024.People fear extremism, look at how much of Europe is turning against hard right parties. Extremist can win, for a while, but eventually people get fed up. Mitch McConnell has no self control. He gloated today and thinks the future is his. Maybe for a few years, but be certain the wheel keeps turning, he has already angered millions of people. He will push it too far and like Joseph McCarthy will get the boot. Chief Justice John Roberts is not a fool, he will go just so far, count on it.
Of course I believe it. I'm not even surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. What happened between 2006 and 2021? Barack Obama got elected *twice*. The GOP realized that without restricting the franchise it might happen again: another black person might be elected president, and worse, it might be a take-no-prisoners black *woman* or other woman of color. Dark money poured into the GOP (Jane Mayer's book is good on this), and in 2010 the Tea Party came to power and has pretty much dictated the GOP trajectory ever since. George Wallace and Strom Thurmond would be thrilled.
I don't understand why the Democrats are de facto handing over the reins of government ultimately to the Republicans.
The fact that these Republicans are so adamant against certain people (and we know who they are, like every one who isn't white) voting, perhaps we should make sure these Republicans never have the right to vote in the Senate again.
Vote against each and every one of them. It's shameful that in this day and age, there are still people who think that slavery should have been kept as a way of keeping others from attaining any form of citizenship.
Also-have they noticed that they're voting against their own best interests? Or do they really care?
Susan Collins has become a mockery of her state. She will be defeated next time. I can guarantee it.
But I can't help but also notice that there are a majority of Republicans who are 75+ years old, which makes them out of touch with the American people.
They should be removed as the ancient relics of bigotry and racism they are.
Despite the fact that I swore off reading any more books about The Fat Fuck, I found myself reading Michael Wolff's "Too Famous." I didn't think it was possible to be more shocked than I had been prior to reading it, but I am. In all of Wolff's conversations with the people around TFF (Bannon, Priebus, Kelly, even Kushner, who's an especially scary piece of work), every single one of them loathed him, knew he was incompetent and "cognitively impaired" (dumb as shit, anyone?) and in no way took him seriously. Yet, they behaved as we know they've behaved (we don't need no stinkin' laundry lists) and are continuing to behave. Overwhelming cynicism. So yeah, "evil" is the best word. My own capacity to still be shocked by all this continues to surprise me....
We are marching toward fascism and where is the outrage???? Repugs might as well wear their KKK gear to their Capitol offices.
Have the Republicans hit bottom? Not by a long shot. This was just a drive by, and a pit stop. Sad.
How low can we go? More than mind boggling, it is migraine producing. But our history is that of white privilege so can we expect to ever really have a democratic republic. I think not.
I don't think we are at the bottom yet. I have made this observation before, but will do so again: I am willing to bet that if a sociologist did a survey/investigation of the religious affiliation of GOP politicians, ranging from local alderman and school board members all the way up through mayors and state legislators to US Senators, they would find that the vast majority are evangelical Christians contemptuous of democracy and bent on replacing it with a white-run, fundamentalist Christian theocracy. Killing the voting rights of minorities, who mostly vote for Dems, is near the top of their list. They no longer even try to hide that goal.
This was a sad day for America. Scary and sad.
The Republican COWARDS bow to Trump...are we jealous of that character defect?
Thanks, Lucian.
Has anyone read the bill that failed? Probably not. It's about election integrity. For those who of you that support "packing ballot boxes," you lost.