this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
422 points (97.7% liked)

politics

19104 readers
2987 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Aidinthel@reddthat.com 152 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe if they had expelled him over the child sex trafficking thing he wouldn't have been able to do this.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Hell of it is, they basically had nothing on him. He's my Congressman, so I was drooling at the prospect of seeing him in a concrete and steel box.

His buddy that got convicted, and was expected to flip, didn't. Nada.

The girl (now a woman) involved now has an OnlyFans site. She refused to testify and the prosecution didn't really want her because of what defense would do to her credibility on the stand. Ain't fair, but it's reality.

Sorry folks, he skated. Kills me to say it, but he deserved to when we couldn't bring solid evidence. And unlike Trump, Gaetz was smart enough to STFU while the heat was on. Rest of the country probably missed it, but I didn't. The man was real fucking quiet there for a minute. Now that he's free and clear, the mouth is back in action.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 63 points 1 year ago

The trafficked child grew up to do sex work and this somehow makes the Congressman who bought her look better.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 18 points 1 year ago

Yes and no. There wasn’t enough to file a legal case against him, but Republicans certainly had enough via texts and Venmo to remove him from their ranks.

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago

Expulsion from the House doesn't require a criminal conviction.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 84 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Sorry Kev, but no, the problem is not the crazy right, it's endemic. You spend the last several decades assembling the most craven, ignornant, zealous voter base and now you're acting all surprised that the loonies are running the asylum. Even your most moderate members know they can't be seen working with Democrats or they face retribution from Trump and The Base.

I've been saying this for a long time, the only thing that will ever get the GOP back on a small-d democratic path again is a long, long walk in the wilderness. They need a decades-long time out to think about all the harm they've done to this country under the guise of 'patriotism' and 'christianity'.

Yep, the problem is that the "mainstream" GOP is so off the rails that they don't even recognize extremists for what they are and they are so deeply unpopular that they have to cheat and actually court people from every fringe to have a chance of winning.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Nobody@lemmy.world 84 points 1 year ago (5 children)

“You know how you make America great again?” Graham asked in 2015. “Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.” Then, on the same day Trump essentially clinched the GOP nomination, the senator predicted, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.”

Source

And he was right. Trump has completely destroyed the Republican Party. The house that Reagan and his 11th commandment built is now a structure fire.

[–] whofearsthenight@lemm.ee 43 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I just want to take this time to say fuck Reagan.

[–] spider@lemmy.nz 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I second that fuck. Can we get a burn in hell?

If the Christian god exists, Reagan is almost certainly in hell.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Trump has completely destroyed the Republican Party.

Not only has he destroyed the Republican Party, he has inflicted significant damage to the very fabric of the United States. He has sown ~~discourse~~ discord, conflict, and division that could take decades to undo. How sad.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] bemenaker@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Fox News destroyed the republican party. Trump is a result, not the cause.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] creamed_eels@toast.ooo 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The very same Lindsay Graham perpetually fighting to be first in line to lick Trump’s boot like the simpering, unctuous worm he is?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 5 points 1 year ago

To be fair, he had a lot of help.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 67 points 1 year ago (1 children)

who could have predicted that radicalising the party to the far right and fully immersing it's members in a bubble of right wing twitter, blogs, and media would lead to this

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 56 points 1 year ago (2 children)

McCarthy is selling himself short here. He deserves at least a little credit for this clusterfuck as well. All of these cowards deserve credit. After January 6 they all had the chance to stand up and do the right thing and wrest control of the GOP from Trump and the crazies, but no, they were all too scared.

While I hate her politics, I have nothing but respect for Liz Cheney.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 year ago

I hate that we have to give props to Cheney for not doing a fascism. Talk about low fucking bars. And assuming the country doesn't fall apart and we somehow survive the infestation of christo fascist scum, we're still gonna have begin the arduous process of clawing the Overton window back from the position where pieces of shit like her look somewhat normal.

[–] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Louder, for the centrists in the back.

This was incredibly predictable. The second the GOP didn't smash the "break glass to deprogram fascists" button after the insurrection, this was always their likely path. These people are in open rebellion against democracy and we should really start treating them more like traitors.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] halferect@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would say it was all republicans for the last 50 years that's got us to this very bad place.

[–] downpunxx@kbin.social 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yep. Institutionalized racism, misogyny, homophobia, and white Christian separatism as party platform. No matter how "conservative" Republicans claimed to be, The Southern Strategy was the core value and singular driving force for the past 60 years. MAGA isn't a symptom, it's result

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why else was/is GOP leadership shitting themselves over immigration? The "other" is always an easy target to get the morons onboard, but even more so, they didn't want to see demographic change. Their whole platform relied on it.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Only going back to the 70s? Shit, I'd place it at the feet of the OG McCarthy from the 50s

Reagan is when things really started to go to shit, though.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dear "traditional" Conservatives:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—      Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—      Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—      Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. (<---YOU ARE HERE)

[–] downpunxx@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

protip: "traditional" Conservatism hasn't existed since 1964

[–] Nougat@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Traditional conservatism" has always been explicitly racist.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

"Traditional" conservatism was always the veneer to hide behind.

[–] iforgotmyinstance@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The entire party is literally rotten, the attempts to exclude oneself from it are laughable.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] ale@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh, so not because of Democrats? I thought it was because of Democrats.

[–] Beetschnapps@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

No it’s because of the very core of the GOP… which by their logic means it’s the Democrats’ fault…

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] n0m4n@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

The house is being led by Gaetz. Republicans made government a bad place.

[–] PeterPoopshit@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If they can't get their shit together, will the 2 party system finally collapse?

[–] PizzaMan@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

No, just the government. If no new spending bill passes it will be pretty not great.

The two party system is the natural result of FPTP voting. We desperately need to switch to STAR or approval.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] QHC@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, the two party 'system' is a natural byproduct of how our current election process works. If we saw the rise of a third party, it would eventually supplant one of the existing major parties, just like we've seen in the past.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Mamertine@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No,

If there is a legit schism in the Republican party a new party will be created. Either the new party or the current Republican party will die.

It's unlikely that 3 parties can exist with the campaign financing and ballot access laws that were designed to hamstring all minor parties.

Neither of the post schism parties would ever compete with the Democrats on elected numbers. A schism would be a huge gift to the Democrats.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] downpunxx@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago

One of the head leopards is shocked the leopards would in fact eat his face too

[–] creamed_eels@toast.ooo 10 points 1 year ago

Lmao eat each other

[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago
[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Dripping wet man who stinks of gasoline, with matches spilling from his pockets, demands we find out who started the fire that's ruining everything!

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

This, from one of the "young guns". LOL, remember that?

load more comments
view more: next ›