new book 'American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy'

I said in another thread, I think Trump was rather unique in being able to navigate this strategy which merged the Southern Strategy, which was well known for decades as something that had potential to be harnessed for votes (Roger Stone being a huge proponent) with Qanon type garbage.

Add to that both how the Internet and Social Media became enablers and that we also had an entire side of Media (the Right leaning sources) who were willing to become complete divorced from the Truth and Fact and that most viewers of Right media seek out no other more neutral media and we had the perfect storm.

So while I do not disagree the Seeds of all this existed in the base, I think anyone but Trump, would have failed to deliver upon it, in the way he did. It takes a level of shameless narcist, who in the face of push back only doubles and triples down, never apologizes and is always willing to run right at any accuser, no matter the legal jeopardy, without flinching.

Had Trump been the type to acquiesce or apologize at any major stage and accept his actions went to far, not only would his party have consumed him, but law enforcement would pounce.


It is a very interesting dynamic imo, to see how even when wrong, if you refuse to acknowledge it, you may be more likely to survive than if you accept and acknowledge the wrong and ask for forgiveness. We see this also on the far left where often the worse thing a person can do is apologize for some perceived offense as then the leftist mobs seek blood and full cancellation, even when the person is not really considered to have done anything truly wrong. It is simply the exposing of throat or weakness that makes them attack.

I am not sure anyone else withstands what Trump did to complete this transformation of the GOP into what it is today. I think any other leader, backs down at some point, acknowledges things went too far, and then the party tries to regroup by disavowing the worst of those actions.

I didn't watch the video but once you discover one true conspiracy, one's mind become open to the possibility that more exist. That's how it works.

lol, in case you wondered: "Why did I never make any money with poker?", read your post again.

The only conspiracy theory missing is that the Democrats lose on purpose. Add that in and this would serve as a great containment thread for our truthers.

Woke/cancel culture terror are the gateway conspiracies into the wider republican derp conspiracies.

This thread should be moved to the cancel culture thread because its just a tangent of that discussion.

Anyone? Pretty bold statement.

I assume he meant understands and not withstands, otherwise it's not bold but pretty much nonsensical.

But it would definitely be silly to argue that Cuepee alone understands how Trump transformed the GOP.

There obviously are plenty of CT enthusiasts who vote Republican. But I don't think conspiratorial thinking is inherently aligned with party politics.

Take Luckbox for example. He has enormous loyalty to the idea that damn near everything is a conspiracy, but no allegiance whatsoever to either political party. In any given time and place, that loyalty to conspiratorial thinking might cause him to vote Republican, Democratic, third party, or not at all.

But the one thing a candidate could not do if he or she wanted Luckbox's vote is criticize conspiratorial thinking in any sort of broad brush way.

I think that he means only Trump had both the will and the capability of transforming the GOP into what it is today without destroying himself in the process.

His hubris equals his ignorance...

Ah that makes sense. Perhaps he's right

I thought it belonged in the thread I created about "Republicanism and is there anything 'right' remaining' or whatever I called it.

And no, 'woke' does not belong in your grouping but I know why you are say it does as you are so intent in denying wokeism or any thing on the left being real or any issue. You are hilariously predictable.

Again I have never denied woke.

All this shows is your best case/ continuous misunderstanding of my position, or most likely case/ continues mis representation of my position.

ya , I struggle to see anyone else withstanding what Trump did and not conceding and apologizing or accepting some guilt. And I think that capitulation, no matter how taame would have seen them undone.

'withstand' is what i meant and i stand by it.


I think most other politicians, even the contemptuous ones, when caught on the Ukraine call or the Georgia Call, or in the Jan 6th Insurrection stuff, and in that moment when it looks like even Fox and the GOP allies are caving and condemning you, do not remain as steadfast as Trump. He was being advised to take a more moderate apologetic tone, and I think he is undone if he does. I think he only survives, and his base sticks with him as he is unapologetic and gives everyone, including the Ag the middle finger and they love that.

Had he shown real weakness in any of those exchanges, going way back to 'grab her by the pussy' moment, I don't think he withstands what he did.

Was there 'one true conspiracy' that you "discovered" that you think sent you down the path of an "open mind" to many more?

And would you say an open mind could also be a 'gullible mind' or do you think there is no connection in that way?

Yes.

But moreso, I think had Trump tried and faltered. Had he acknowledged it was wrong, terrible, bad to embrace elements of white supremacy, etc, and he disavowed it or had he been viewed to have capitulated to those criticizing him and went silent, I think the GOP, as a party would then have been forced to scramble to disavow that position, by moving even further away from it to show people they truly were done with that line.

Much like me mentioning in the Russia thread, that Putin may go down in history as being the biggest uniter of Nato, and biggest pusher of Eastern and Northern europe strengthening with the West.


When you take a big swing at Trump type racism and authoratism and fail there tends to be a strong societal shift away from it after, as more sort support wants to show they no longer want anything to do with it and only the most hardcore extreme is left in place.

JFK was the first one and that was when I was a kid. I had a history/civics teacher in high school who would sometimes play the History Channel's 'The Men who killed Kennedy' series-- and as a series it is largely complete bs and disinformation (naturally)-- but I do credit that with sparking my interest.

As far as whether there is a connection between being open-minded and gullible-- then I'm sure there is.

Luckbox’s actual policy views are almost completely in lockstep with Republican orthodoxy.

I honestly don't know what Luckbox's views are on traditional political issues like taxation levels, abortion, environment, etc.

I would be curious to know whether he thinks any of the nuttier allegations re the 2020 election are true.

He’s quite adept at obfuscating his politics, but the mask drops every now and then. Like the other day when he used “Trump-hating” as a pejorative.

Yeah that's just something that Trolly likes to say because he sees the world in black and white and because I argue that minimum wage laws were originally based in racism.

I don't know about the election claims honestly. It's not something that I ever dug into but my assumption of course is that Trump/Biden are part of the same ruling class (not competing factions but the same) and that if Biden won the election that it's because Trump did was he was supposed to accomplish during his 4 years and that now it's back to being a Democrat's turn again.

Which isn't really to say that I don't think there aren't operatives in both parties who would be motivated to "steal" an election--I do-- but having the election theft claims as a way of continuing to sow division certainly makes a lot of sense.

Lol.

I am surprised he never asked you if the lefty folks here believe the 2016 election was stolen from Hilary ?

Are you asking whether anyone believes that Hillary lost because the votes weren't counted properly? I certainly don't believe that. I don't think anyone here believes that.