👇🏼Via @emptywheel:
The Republican Party has become a criminal protection racket, and only Asa Hutchinson (and a wishy washy Chris Christie who helped it GET where it is) wants to take it back.
Folks: We actually don't KNOW whether the GOP is a dying party or a rising single party of an authoritarian state.
Unless and until the traditional press presents those as the stakes, it is very much unclear which it'll end up being. #media #fascism #Republicans
@GottaLaff @emptywheel I think it can't really die – or, at least, it seems structurally there are always 2 major parties that will seek balance. (One or both parties may shift dramatically, as we've seen, but I think not die.)
Both parties certainly have their authoritarian elements, so keeping the rise of authoritarianism in check is important.
@ech “Both parties have authoritarian elements”? You’re both sidesing this?? Show me where we have the authoritarian equivalent of Trump, DeSantis, Greene, any of them.
@GottaLaff @ech I’m so tired of the both sidesisms in this current political climate. Democrats have been holding each other accountable and ousting each other when they break the law for all of recent memory. However the Republicans party has been playing the victim on everything and only point to the rare occurrences they do something (typically when it impacts their own party members, not their constituents).
It’s a lazy disingenuous argument only holding water because it’s being given any semblance of factuality since it keeps being perpetuated as the “middle ground”.
@73rdNemesio @GottaLaff @ech Yes, this is common in typical libertarian speak. They can only promote their view by demonizing all other sides because they really have no actionable plans that could work themselves. Our state was overrun with this crap and it opened the door for right wing extremism to step in.
@pdiff1 @73rdNemesio @GottaLaff Yeah, I've noticed this too about hardcore libertarians. I mean, there's a balance, right? You don't want the state to be too authoritarian, but certain things probably aren't going to go so well if you go too far in the other direction.
@73rdNemesio @ech @pdiff1 @GottaLaff Yeah, "hardcore libertarians" seems to me, anyway, to be the latest smokescreen used by advocates of conservatism... who notoriously think that rules are for little people, not movers and shakers.
@73rdNemesio @pdiff1 @GottaLaff “Rules for thee, not for me” – Sure, some people deserve that criticism (any pol or rich person who favors making it ~impossible to get a CCW and yet rolls around with armed bodyguards, etc, etc).
But there are some who are consistent at least – no "rules" enforced by a violent state actor. Both left and right, of course. Like you I don't see how that would work too well.
@ech @pdiff1 @GottaLaff my view of the “hardcore libertarians” today is that they’re not libertarian unless it comes to _their_ personal actions. They epitomize “Rules for thee, not for me”.
There isn’t a push for smaller government except in specific areas. It’s not a push for civil liberties if you’re calling out any cities for decriminalizing anything when it doesn’t impact yourself, discomfort isn’t something that is supposed to be controlled by the government.
The most disrespectful way I can state it plainly is: Closeted Republicans w/ Daddy Issues (read as mentor issues). IE: the ability to claim you’re something else because you want to feel like you know something/are in the know of something they don’t/aren’t.
Our reporters/networks continue to normalize “Far Right” views/tendencies while questioning or arguing against “centrist” and anything left of that. It’s playing with fire and continually burning yourself and others but taking pain killers to continue the game without learning the lesson and adjusting to stop the burning/pain.
It’s just tiring and damaging to both the country and our individualism.