From the article:Send some love to @Newsweek for its current cover:A conservative speaks about how the GOP abandoned its principles and went insane. pic.twitter.com/WOuvqIIVQU— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) September 22, 2017
During the 2016 election, conservatives turned on the principles that had once animated them. Somehow a movement based on real ideas—such as economic freedom and limited government—had devolved into a tribe that valued neither principle nor truth; luminaries such as Edmund Burke and William F. Buckley Jr. had been replaced by media clowns such as Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos. Icons such as Ronald Reagan—with his optimism and geniality—had been supplanted by the dark, erratic narcissism of Donald Trump. Gradualism, expertise and prudence—the values that once were taken for granted among conservatives—were replaced by polls and ratings spikes, as the right allowed liberal overreach in the Obama era to blind them to the crackpots and bigots in their midst.
Some have argued that the election was a binary choice, that Hillary Clinton had to be defeated by any means. I share many of their concerns about Clinton, but the price was ruinous. The right’s electoral victory has not wiped away its sins. It has magnified them, and the problems that were exposed during the 2016 campaign haven’t disappeared. Success does not necessarily imply virtue or sanity. Kings can be both mad and bad, and the courtiers are usually loath to point out the obvious—just look at Caligula or Kim Jong Un.
Today, with Trump in office, the problems of the right are the problems of all Americans. And the worst part of it is that we—conservatives—did this to ourselves.
Yeah you did.
Unfortunately now they have also done it to the entire country.
Republicans tucked America because they hated Clinton so much? They deserve their "dotard" President then. Unfortunately we all will pay for their insanity.
ReplyDeleteFucked not tucked :)
DeleteFrickin spell check does it.
DeleteHaving elected a black President 2 times is just as important to conservative/republican voters. Do not forget that!
DeleteYes indeed. All of us know a republican and/or their family. We have witnessed their roller coaster ride of fake, frauds, liars and cons take that party down to evil and darkness over several years. They conned and lied to their supporters, they brainwashed their donors, they have become mentally insane. They start wars for profit, allow attacks on usa citizens in/out of our country, they sleep and hire the enemy with usa taxpayer money and lie like twisted warts and waste in the sewer swamp of con artist and lousy actors. Its all about money in that soulless suit and party dress and its all about your money and their power to them. Its about a society of communism and dominance over a country and another human. It is enslavement. Its not about America nor Americans. It is about selling weapons, nukes, our natural resources and private for profit corporations making record returns in healthcare, prisons and schools. Good gosh if you are not outraged as an American taxpaying citizen you have become brainwashed and numb to reality. Yes we all know a Republican and/or their family. They are divided, confused and scattered. The scumbags on the right have allowed a global white nationalist hateful mob of ignorance to invade our nation, the world and our constitution and it will not stop until EVERY living USA Soul IS STANDING UP, SPEAKING UP and Demanding the REMOVAL of the known traitors and enemies from our buildings and country TODAY. Lock them up and stop this crime against America TODAY. The republican party is a party of liars and cons that feel entitled to YOUR tax dollars, YOUR income and YOUR life. JUST SAY NO.
ReplyDeleteParagraphs, PLEASE!! then I'll read it.
DeleteDitto 5:53. Ain't nobody gonna read it without at least one paragraph.
Delete5:53, I agree. Unfortunately, few today have a decent education in punctuation, spelling, grammar and editing. Even worse, in many cases, it's not their fault after the repubes have worked their "magic" on our public school system.
DeleteAnd it will only get worse with garbage like BD heading the Department of Education.
Put the meth pipe down.
Delete@Anonymous at 3:59 AM Thank you.
DeleteI read your comment. You are absolutely correct, good rant. It needed to be said. It would have been easier to read with a double space (paragraph) every 3-5 sentences).
dowl
They wanted to win and did not care about the consequences to mankind or the world. Their silence was approval of an unqualified con man with impulsive destructive qualities.
ReplyDeleteAh yess, good old Cyprus hill.
ReplyDeleteNever thought I'd see the day the President could be surmised by Cyprus hill
ReplyDeleteIf you are a Boomer? From that Generation? In your lifetime you have witnessed the entire republican scam for over 60yrs. "They" have slowly taken Our American Dreams and Middle Income families. They stole our jobs and pensions. They rigged our investments and unions. They rigged elections, They knowingly lied to Americans for personal profits and gains. We were a generation of Hope. We believed we could overcome injustice, wars, racism, and ignorance. We protested and died for it. And we continue.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, but who is the "we" of the last 3 sentences?
Delete6:26
Deletemight try reading the 1st three sentences again s l o w l y ..
@7:39. I did. Several times. There is NO assigned connection defining for the "we" used in the last part.
DeleteWHO IS WE?
That could be the Boomers. It could be genX. It could be the ME generation. It could be....
OT Trump's tweets about McCain disregard why he is a no vote. Trump the bully again uses humiliation that McCain betrayed his friend Graham. Every day toxic lies from POTUS.
ReplyDeleteWhat liberal overreach on the Obsma era?
ReplyDeleteI know? Laugh out loud. "Liberal overreach in the Obama era" PAHLEESE. Just had to throw in that little dog whistle in what otherwise is a sober observation.
DeleteThere is SO MUCH WRONG with this article! How quaint to suggest that Democrats "rammed Obama care down or throats by the soonest of margins" when it was debated by both sides kin public for months, especially thus week when we are at risk of losing it to a partisan bill seen by no one.
ReplyDeleteAnd what is this terribly frightening stimulus package that "threatened to run up the debt" but in fact did not do so AND stimulated the economy?
The Tea Party had nothing to do with racism? Show me a black Tea Partier!
Fuck that shit - this article is another hand wringing half-assed mea culpa and carries no water.
Ibwilliamsi, 100% in agreement!
DeleteReagan was the first to move the party hard right and also kick out intellectuals.
ReplyDeleteObama Would be considered a conservative back in the day ... sorry but this author does not go far enough in diagnosing his party's problems.
"...sorry but this author does not go far enough in diagnosing his party's problems."
DeleteSo what else is new?
Of course, a single issue of Newsweek has nowhere near enough pages to honestly and completely diagnose the troubles the repubes have generated - both for themselves and the country.
Sports season starts today. This sportsmom will be sitting out any singing of the American anthem in solidarity with those protesting the US treatment of others. (Not an athelte, so taking a knee" seems presumptuous.) Hope we'll see other parents doing the same.
ReplyDeleteActually I'd like to see this weird forced nationalism act dropped from all sporting events, except international games where it has a place.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/meet-the-four-horsemen-of-the-epa-pocalypse_us_59c15288e4b0c3e70e742833?section=us_green
ReplyDelete"Every week, another decision that endangers our families seems to come out of Scott Pruitt’s and Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The latest facepalm/outrage comes in the form of confirmation hearings that start this week for four completely unacceptable nominees to critical leadership positions at EPA.
This Wednesday, September 20, the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works will decide whether to confirm Bill Wehrum to lead the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, David Ross as chief of the EPA’s Office of Water, and Michael Dourson to head up the agency’s chemical safety programs. Later this month, they will hold a hearing on the nomination of Andrew Wheeler as EPA’s Deputy Administrator, the agency’s second-in-command.
We can thank EPA administrator Scott Pruitt for these four horsemen of the EPA-pocalypse — four people who will gladly choose polluters over public health and clean air and water standards every time."
Andrew Wheeler - coal lobbyist. "Wheeler has spent his career challenging vital life-saving environmental protections that keep our air and water clean..."
"He also used to be an aide for outspoken climate-denying and corporate-polluter-loving senator, James Inhofe.""
"Bill Wehrum, Pruitt’s pick to head up the office in charge of enforcing the Clean Air Act and keeping your air safe to breathe, is a lobbyist who represents a host of coal, oil, gas, and chemical companies, and was a former George W. Bush-era EPA official. If you recognize his name, it’s because he was also nominated to this position in 2006 — his nomination was withdrawn when he failed to earn support of the 60 Senators needed for confirmation."
Bet he doesn't need 60 this time and he gets 51 because that asshole DINO in West Virginia will vote to confirm him.
"David Ross, nominated for for the top spot at the Office of Water, has sued the EPA many times related to its clean water safeguards in his work representing fossil fuel states like Wyoming"
"Michael Dourson is on deck to head up the EPA division that oversees the chemical industry, called the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "
Extensive ties to the chemical industry and consistently fails to state conflicts of interest.
"...he was the sole spokesperson for an expert panel studying the 2014 Elk River chemical spill but failed to disclose, until cornered by a reporter, that he had previously “done paid work for both of the companies that produced the chemicals involved in the spill.”"
"Dourson has spent much of his professional career writing studies that undermine existing science and concerns about toxic chemicals, and call for weaker regulations on chemicals like pesticides."
"Dourson was paid by Dow Agrosciences to downplay concerns about a toxic pesticide and cast doubt on a Columbia University study linking exposure to it by pregnant women to irreversible neurodevelopmental problems in children — in other words, to hide the fact that the pesticide is dangerous to kids. As you may have heard, in a highly controversial move the EPA recently reversed restrictions on the use of this pesticide, called chlorpyrifos, shortly after meeting with officials from Dow."
This is what happens when we are distracted by the Trump/Un name calling pissing contest, Russia, et al.
The Trump machine lurches on, destroying our country.