Conservatives always act like they can keep reactionaries on a leash, but it always blows up their face. At some point they should get the hint.

I really don't like willy-nilly Nazi comparisons, but for historic reference: The DNVP (German Nationalist People's Party) officials that agreed to Hitler becoming chancellor infamously said "within three months we'll have him up against the wall so tightly he'll squeak". They were wrong.

They did, for decades. Then trump came along and kicked over their carefully manage wasp nest of hate. You can't herd angry wasps.

No, they absolutely realized the seeds they were planting. Anyone with even a quarter of a brain can see the problems in the making if you appease these freaks.

However, having a brain does not mean they aren’t disgustingly negligent. They realized that it is a problem, but only a problem tomorrow. Today, it riles up and increases the size of your base, so hell yeah I’m sowing this shit!

Reaping? What’s that? I already booked my resignation from public servitude in a nice, comfy board position at Big Oil/Pharma/Pillow or Murdoch Media, so that shit ain’t my problem.

So, in short, it’s just an extension of the “fuck you, got mine” mentality that is at this stage the only thing the Republican party concretely stands for. As in, the only thing that they don’t even bother hiding through crypto-fascist rhetoric and propaganda.

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. ― Barry Goldwater

Colloquially referred to as Rebumpkins and Rebiblicans. The Replutocrat branch of the party are dumbfounded that their minions were brainwashed into an even more deranged and dangerous ideology.

Like duh, once you’ve been indoctrinated into a cult it’s even easier to flow the slippery slope to an even crazier one.

And let's not forget that they did it entirely to keep power and money flowing in the directions they want.

1930s Germany called

"Let's create multiple generations of extremists and hope they never gain real power in the party!"

Fucking idiots. In 10 years, there will be no 'old guard' left. It's fucking scary. Instead of evil people peddling lies to keep power, we'll have 100% of the party believing in insane conspiracy theories, creating a self perpetuating chaos machine.

They were able to with wink, wink, nudge, nudge dogwhistles since Nixon/Atwater but now tRump opened Pandora's Box with his full throated hatred.

They need the votes but dont want the input

I genuinely believe the American political class is so divorced from reality that they don’t actually believe that the words they use have any substantial influence over citizens. They’ve become so integrated into political theatrics that the idea of words having meaning and influence has simply stopped existing for them.

To be fair, that's many (though not all, of course) of who is currently voting for them, and they have to gerrymander the shit out of their districts just to get that portion of the vote.

Not only that, they spent 30 years cutting their education and feeding them nonsensical and hysterical propaganda. Now they wonder why their base are a bunch of shit-chucking apes?

No, it never even occurred to them they may get "violent".

Tiger King 2: Pumped up leopard bogaloo?

hope the party tears itself apart.

That would be good, but what if enough decide to stay, and they win elections? Or come close enough that threats and intimidation can swing one? Our democracy may NEED the GOP to split. If polling places become like abortion clinics we have a real problem.

appear to have come to the GOP not for the ideology or the philosophy, but for the signs, the flags and, the fight,"

"There aren't enough people joining for our well thought out platform!" - the party that voted not to even bother making a party platform last year.

It's hard to get more LAMF than that.

We're going to prove that government doesn't work by breaking it until it doesn't work

I have no sympathy for them. But I'm really worried about who that party is becoming. From "government doesn't work and we'll prove it," it is now "we'll make government work but only for people that look and think like me."

Nah, they just found out that they themselves aren't safe from the intentional sowing of chaos, lies, disingenuous conspiracy theory, and general distrust of establishments/experts.

Nah, a bunch of long time republicans said that if trump won(because they pandered to these conspiracy folks) they would lose control of the party. Graham, Cruz, Mcconnell all said similar things.

This was 5 or 6 years ago. Nobody in the GOP should be surprised by this.

Fuck Around

> Find out

You are here

Nixon yelling "law and order", Reagan and the Southern Strategy, Gingrich and his contrasting words...this shit has been brewing for decades

But then you have to take into account their true racist beliefs. It could never happen to americans because americans are far superior to those desert savages. /s

I'd believe 100% they never saw it coming because they think white, religious people are god's chosen people. Their pastor told them so.

They thought that they would always hold the leash—and honestly, before the internet, they were probably right. When all your voters get their information from FOX and FOX says what you want them to say, you can steer them at will. The problem was that the internet came, these people broke out of the GOP-approved bubble—and promptly ran hard to the right and decided that FOX was basically communist. There's a reason why the rise of the radicals within the mainstream GOP (the Tea Party being the earliest manifestation) coincided with the time boomers started flocking hard to social media.

McCain's 2008 run helped to stoke this bullshit in the first place. He may have tried to dampen the worst impulses of his party, but he caved on most of it because he thought it'd win him the election.

Conservatives have monopolized political violence for generations

And Reagan, and Bush, and every Republican of the past. It's no longer about ideology, it's now a party of slogans.

“4 out of 10 republicans are either illiterate, or sincerely believe that terrorism is only terrorism if the person has brown skin color”

What a sad state of affairs

Stay positive and know that that is only roughly 20% of voting Americans and probably 7% of all Americans. It is scary though. 250 years of America is close to ending because of people who claim love America more than everybody else.

Stephen King (the horror author) said in 2016 something along the lines of "The people who have spent years sowing the dragons' teeth of partisan politics are now horrified to find they have grown an actual dragon."

Oh they're stunned for sure. They thought they'd be riding the tiger, but they just have it by the tail instead.

Yeah, holy shit. From your link...

Roughly four in 10 (39 percent) Republicans support Americans taking violent actions if elected leaders fail to act. Sixty percent of Republicans oppose this idea.

Yes, 39% of Republican voters support domestic terrorism. That combined with the result that 79% of Republicans still view Trump favorably, I'm starting to think my old .22 target pistol might not be sufficient. Might be time to go buy a bigger gun.

We just have to survive it.

We also lost the word “Patriot” to white nationalists. Neo-nazis just launched a National recruitment campaign as the Patriot Front.

These are the true conservatives.

I’d argue the correct course of action would be to get the crazies out of the party you care to love... but that requires bravery, and Republican politicians are not known for bravery.