Quote:The GOP is no longer a legitimate political party.

^So much this. Political parties have platforms which they hope will become policies which they hope to turn into laws. The GOP have none of these, they are simply obstructionists.

I doubt very much, though, that an actual purge will be needed. As long as the republicans continue to camp out on the far right and refuse to become centre-right, they will keep sliding into insignificance.

And if they DO become centre-right, they’ll effectively be Democrats. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in ten years or so, the GOP will have all the political clout of the proverbial bucket of warm piss. USian politics will remain a two-party system, but those parties will be Democrats and Progressive Liberals.

Boru

(April 14, 2021 at 7:01 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

Quote:The GOP is no longer a legitimate political party.

^So much this. Political parties have platforms which they hope will become policies which they hope to turn into laws. The GOP have none of these, they are simply obstructionists.

I doubt very much, though, that an actual purge will be needed. As long as the republicans continue to camp out on the far right and refuse to become centre-right, they will keep sliding into insignificance.

And if they DO become centre-right, they’ll effectively be Democrats. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in ten years or so, the GOP will have all the political clout of the proverbial bucket of warm piss. USian politics will remain a two-party system, but those parties will be Democrats and Progressive Liberals.

Boru

That would be great, but ~1/4 of the population would still be shitty actors.

(April 14, 2021 at 7:01 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

Quote:The GOP is no longer a legitimate political party.

^So much this. Political parties have platforms which they hope will become policies which they hope to turn into laws. The GOP have none of these, they are simply obstructionists.

I doubt very much, though, that an actual purge will be needed. As long as the republicans continue to camp out on the far right and refuse to become centre-right, they will keep sliding into insignificance.

And if they DO become centre-right, they’ll effectively be Democrats. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in ten years or so, the GOP will have all the political clout of the proverbial bucket of warm piss. USian politics will remain a two-party system, but those parties will be Democrats and Progressive Liberals.

Boru

Of course, that said, the whole “sliding into insignificance” thing will hinge on them not being able to disenfranchise voters or gerrymandering their districts so they remain in power.

If that doesn’t happen, well, here’s another prediction for what might happen in 10 years:

(April 14, 2021 at 11:06 am)Rev. Rye Wrote:

(April 14, 2021 at 7:01 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: ^So much this. Political parties have platforms which they hope will become policies which they hope to turn into laws. The GOP have none of these, they are simply obstructionists.

I doubt very much, though, that an actual purge will be needed. As long as the republicans continue to camp out on the far right and refuse to become centre-right, they will keep sliding into insignificance.

And if they DO become centre-right, they’ll effectively be Democrats. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in ten years or so, the GOP will have all the political clout of the proverbial bucket of warm piss. USian politics will remain a two-party system, but those parties will be Democrats and Progressive Liberals.

Boru

Of course, that said, the whole “sliding into insignificance” thing will hinge on them not being able to disenfranchise voters or gerrymandering their districts so they remain in power.

If that doesn’t happen, well, here’s another prediction for what might happen in 10 years:

Gerrymandering won’t save them. Americans on the right are beginning to realize that the GOP - despite their claims to the contrary - are not the party of working people. I grant that  it’ll take a concerted effort by Democrats to hammer this home, but the erosion has already begun. 

And the current disenfranchisement efforts are going to hurt Republicans more than it’ll help them. Corporations pay a high price to own members of Congress, and they’ve already made their displeasure known.

Boru

"Your guys" won an election.

Whoop de doo....

It doesn't mean the end of the world for the opposition.


....

Trust me on this -- they will kick "your" party's ass once again - and then it will be your turn to whine and cry about stolen elections - and their turn to predict your party's demise.


....

@Eleven Most of us are anorexic, suggesting that we purge is just mean.

Quote:"Your guys" won an election.

Yup in a landslide 

Quote:Whoop de doo....

Nope it's significant 

Quote:It doesn't mean the end of the world for the opposition.

Well from the way their acting I would have to disagree.

Quote:Trust me on this -- they will kick "your" party's ass once again

The trend says otherwise.

Quote:and then it will be your turn to whine and cry about stolen elections 

Never happen only Republicans would think of a conspiracy that dumb.

Quote:and their turn to predict your party's demise.

Nope

Sorry to burst your bubble but history isn't a cycle.

(April 14, 2021 at 5:36 pm)onlinebiker Wrote: "Your guys" won an election.

Whoop de doo....

It doesn't mean the end of the world for the opposition.


....

Trust me on this -- they will kick "your" party's ass once again - and then it will be your turn to whine and cry about stolen elections - and their turn to predict your party's demise.


....

Welcome back.

Boru

(April 14, 2021 at 6:05 pm)SUNGULA Wrote:

Quote:and then it will be your turn to whine and cry about stolen elections 

Never happen only Republicans would think of a conspiracy that dumb.

I think he might be thinking about the fact that the left complained about the fact that the electoral college is a fucked-up system that's, in recent memory, managed to put two extremely unpopular presidents into the White House who didn't even win the popular vote (this happened in 2000 and 2016, in case Biker's going to ask and points about voter suppression happening that are not only verifiable, but that at least since 1965, seems to be almost exclusively be backed by Republican politicians or that just seem to come about organically in states that have voted Republican in every election since before I was born; and comparing them with the conspiracy theories that Republicans cooked up after they lost in 2020, and concluding that both sides' concerns are equally invalid. 

But somehow, Biker seems to either ignore or legitimately not understand that there's a way to differentiate whether certain claims are valid: by checking them against external reality. Things like:

• The last two times a Republican has won the popular vote were in 2004 and 1988. The second one happened before I was born.
  
• The Republican party has decided to focus their attention on pandering to straight white men and alienating (at best) everybody else.
  
• Because the proportion (though not sheer numbers) of white people in America's population is falling, there probably won't be another election where they win the popular vote unless A) they change their stragegy, or B) they actively shape who gets to vote and who doesn't.
  
• As of last month, 43 states have introduced 250 bills to reduce access to polls, and most, if not all, have been introduced by Republicans.
  
• Pointing to the Jim Crow days when it was the Democrats who reduced access to the polls in the South means absolutely nothing when, currently, it's the Republican Party who's invariably doing it.
  

And, meanwhile, of all the claims that Republicans who were convinced that Biden stole the 2020 elections from Trump have advanced, the only one that holds up to any scrutiny is that, well, more people voted for Biden than Trump.