"The Republican party no longer exists. MAGA is the party now."

[Landslide Lyndon]

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

Obviously it was the Democrats fault that Romney was going around saying that he is "severely conservative" or that he didn't care about 40% of the voters.

Grow a pair and accept some effing responsibility.

[OSR stands with Israel]

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

"Mitt Romney is bad, but not as bad as Bush" doesn't make for a very effective GOTV effort, does it?

Why should we apologize for actively campaigning against your candidate?

That’s the whole point . If you keep saying it , this becomes viewed as a campaign tactic as it becomes the boy who cried wolf.

Republicans did it to democrats too : Bill Clinton was the worst ever for 8 years , then Gore/Kerry were the worst , then Obama was a socialist unlike Bill , then Hillary was even worse than Obama and  now Biden is worse than Hillary and Obama .

And you democrats did it in early 2023 when you guys called RDS worse than Trump when it looked like he may be the nominee

[DaleCooper]

I don't have time for false sympathy over the "end" of the traditional Republican Party.  Ten years ago, Democrats would have cheered on the institutional destruction of the Romney/Cruz/Ryan conservative GOP.  I won't take y'all pretending to pine for it now for nakedly partisan reasons.

The idea of a "traditional" or "sane" Republican is a fake unicorn invented by D hacks so they can constantly move the goalposts and paint every GOP nominee as somehow worse than the last.  In only 10-20 years, y'all will be begging to have Trump back LOL   

It's not moving the goal posts if the circumstances actually change. You guys keep nominating worse and worse candidates every cycle!

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

Maybe people on Atlas did, but I don't think it was a widespread belief at all among Democratic voters in 2008 or 2012 that McCain and Romney were worse than W.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Candidate Romney 2012 was in certain important ways worse than Bush from a left-of-center standpoint; this doesn't reflect Mitt Romney more broadly because the big-picture, top-level Mitt Romney is shockingly malleable ideologically for someone who appears to have a fair amount of integrity in his personal dealings. Ron DeSantis was and is straightforwardly and obviously even worse than Trump; this isn't reflected in conventional wisdom among the types of voters who get called "resist libs" and similar because a lot of those people's hatred of Trump is aesthetic. McCain 2008 is the only real exception to the rule that since 2000 the Republican Party has been running, or flirting with running, Presidential candidates and Presidential campaigns that are more and more repugnant every time, and that's seven cycles now.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Candidate Romney 2012 was in certain important ways worse than Bush from a left-of-center standpoint; this doesn't reflect Mitt Romney more broadly because the big-picture, top-level Mitt Romney is shockingly malleable ideologically for someone who appears to have a fair amount of integrity in his personal dealings. Ron DeSantis was and is straightforwardly and obviously even worse than Trump; this isn't reflected in conventional wisdom among the types of voters who get called "resist libs" and similar because a lot of those people's hatred of Trump is aesthetic. McCain 2008 is the only real exception to the rule that since 2000 the Republican Party has been running, or flirting with running, Presidential candidates and Presidential campaigns that are more and more repugnant every time, and that's seven cycles now.

That is if you view being a social conservative as more disqualifying then someone who has shown open contempt of the rule of law or someone who wants to destroy alliances like NATO and move America into an isolationist age.

Its obvious many on Atlas view going back to just late 2015 and 2016 on LGBT issues as worse then that which is why many hated DeSantis more than Trump(and that is yes the most you can say he would take the nation back too).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Candidate Romney 2012 was in certain important ways worse than Bush from a left-of-center standpoint; this doesn't reflect Mitt Romney more broadly because the big-picture, top-level Mitt Romney is shockingly malleable ideologically for someone who appears to have a fair amount of integrity in his personal dealings. Ron DeSantis was and is straightforwardly and obviously even worse than Trump; this isn't reflected in conventional wisdom among the types of voters who get called "resist libs" and similar because a lot of those people's hatred of Trump is aesthetic. McCain 2008 is the only real exception to the rule that since 2000 the Republican Party has been running, or flirting with running, Presidential candidates and Presidential campaigns that are more and more repugnant every time, and that's seven cycles now.

That is if you view being a social conservative as more disqualifying then someone who has shown open contempt of the rule of law or someone who wants to destroy alliances like NATO and move America into an isolationist age.

Its obvious many on Atlas view going back to just late 2015 and 2016 on LGBT issues as worse then that which is why many hated DeSantis more than Trump(and that is yes the most you can say he would take the nation back too).

The man ran a campaign that used literal and unhyperbolic neo-Nazi imagery. Until he did that I agreed with you on this.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Candidate Romney 2012 was in certain important ways worse than Bush from a left-of-center standpoint; this doesn't reflect Mitt Romney more broadly because the big-picture, top-level Mitt Romney is shockingly malleable ideologically for someone who appears to have a fair amount of integrity in his personal dealings. Ron DeSantis was and is straightforwardly and obviously even worse than Trump; this isn't reflected in conventional wisdom among the types of voters who get called "resist libs" and similar because a lot of those people's hatred of Trump is aesthetic. McCain 2008 is the only real exception to the rule that since 2000 the Republican Party has been running, or flirting with running, Presidential candidates and Presidential campaigns that are more and more repugnant every time, and that's seven cycles now.

That is if you view being a social conservative as more disqualifying then someone who has shown open contempt of the rule of law or someone who wants to destroy alliances like NATO and move America into an isolationist age.

Its obvious many on Atlas view going back to just late 2015 and 2016 on LGBT issues as worse then that which is why many hated DeSantis more than Trump(and that is yes the most you can say he would take the nation back too).

The man ran a campaign that used literal and unhyperbolic neo-Nazi imagery. Until he did that I agreed with you on this.

and he fired the guy who was responsible for it which is very different than what Trump would have done.

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/25/desantis-campaign-video-nazi-symbol-sonnenrad

[MasterJedi]

With the MAGAts in full control now it means that down ballot Republicans are screwed. Almost all the money is going to be directed to Trump and nothing will be left for the actual party. Just as intended, good job turning from men into dogs!

[GeorgiaModerate]

I don't have time for false sympathy over the "end" of the traditional Republican Party.  Ten years ago, Democrats would have cheered on the institutional destruction of the Romney/Cruz/Ryan conservative GOP.  I won't take y'all pretending to pine for it now for nakedly partisan reasons.

The idea of a "traditional" or "sane" Republican is a fake unicorn invented by D hacks so they can constantly move the goalposts and paint every GOP nominee as somehow worse than the last.  In only 10-20 years, y'all will be begging to have Trump back LOL   

It's not moving the goal posts if the circumstances actually change. You guys keep nominating worse and worse candidates every cycle!

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

Maybe people on Atlas did, but I don't think it was a widespread belief at all among Democratic voters in 2008 or 2012 that McCain and Romney were worse than W.

I was still an independent at the time, but I for one didn't feel they were worse.  In 2008 I was waffling between Obama and McCain until the latter chose Palin as his running mate, which was a dealbreaker for me.  I voted for Obama again in 2012, but thought Romney was a decent guy and the country would be fine if he won.   I always thought W was significantly worse than either of them.

[Open Source Intelligence]

I agree more or less. GOP is not a conservative political party as a conservative would've been defined say 20 to 30 years ago. It's one reason I'm no longer a member. That's also why though I think in-roads are being made into some ethnic communities however. Donald Trump's Republican Party hates big business. Mitt Romney's Republican Party loved them. That does fall in line with how most Americans feel if you polled people from both parties. On this front, the Democrats have won as far as attitude toward government. Trump's Republican Party have become the Democrats of "we want a big strong powerful central government to implement our beliefs, give money to our friends/voters, and punish our enemies". Limited restrained government as far as a belief system is a thing of the past and will get brought up occasionally by the party that's in opposition.

Losers in this realignment are:

-Corporate America/Chamber of Commerce (first Obama, now Trump and Biden, we're heavily on the road to a corporatist state where the government holds the stick to beat business with if they don't perform as the government pleases where they exchange size and strength for do as we please, J.P. Morgan is the shining example of this),
-small-l libertarians (pretty self-explanatory),
-and religious conservatives in the long run (nationalism will overwhelm the religious conservatism among the party's electorate, it's already happened really. Religious conservatives are trying to cling to relevance on a national scale similar to the Chamber of Commerce of bite your tongue and go along. I think the next open Republican primary for President will make it more clear their loss of national relevance inside the party.)

I think it will be a net win for ethnic communities in that their vote will get less taken for granted as it becomes more contested, and I expect nationalists will become pro-choice in the long run to remove it as an electoral issue. Most Republican strategist types are already there, they just know there's a section of their primary electorate that are passionately against.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I suspect you will see more and more non-MAGAs retiring before the election, and those will be replaced with more extreme versions. The Republican Party has been on life support for a while, but I think the part, as it was, is dead. That's not to say it will not see more success given the polarization and gerrymandering of our districts, but the old GOP is gone. I don't see it coming back even when Trump is gone.

[Ferguson97]

That’s the whole point . If you keep saying it , this becomes viewed as a campaign tactic as it becomes the boy who cried wolf.

It’s not a boy who cried wolf scenario if the Democrats’ warnings come to fruition. Reagan was worse than Nixon. Bush was worse than Reagan. Trump was worse than Bush.

Republicans did it to democrats too : Bill Clinton was the worst ever for 8 years , then Gore/Kerry were the worst , then Obama was a socialist unlike Bill , then Hillary was even worse than Obama and  now Biden is worse than Hillary and Obama .

And you democrats did it in early 2023 when you guys called RDS worse than Trump when it looked like he may be the nominee

Welcome to politics! We’re going to try and defeat you, and you’re going to try and defeat us.

I don’t understand what about this is upsetting to you.

Do you sincerely think “Biden is bad, but he’s not as bad as Obama and Hillary” is going to motivate your voters to go to the polls?

Do you sincerely think that “Ron DeSantis is bad but not as bad as Trump” would motivate Democrats to go to the polls if DeSantis were the nominee?

[Open Source Intelligence]

I suspect you will see more and more non-MAGAs retiring before the election, and those will be replaced with more extreme versions. The Republican Party has been on life support for a while, but I think the part, as it was, is dead. That's not to say it will not see more success given the polarization and gerrymandering of our districts, but the old GOP is gone. I don't see it coming back even when Trump is gone.

Yeah. Nikki Haley is Nelson Rockefeller. I mean she might as well be the No Labels nominee. There are forces in the GOP that are going to want to ensure she has no future there if she comes back in 4 years, and it's not like if she went over and supported Biden and the Democrats that they would allow someone like her to have any real influence on what they think and do. I think as far as electoral politics are concerned, she's probably done being a credible candidate for a high office that has a chance of winning for at least a decade.

As a person that's left the Republican Party and am trying to make a thing of the Libertarians where I live, the one thing I'll say that I think Republicans are finally waking up to is organization does matter. Trump in 2016 was nothing as far as organization, and won anyway in part due to the GOP was heavily splintered. This was aided by the party's routine fratricides internally arguably from 2010 forward and was still going on into 2022. It seems these fratricides are becoming less and less this cycle, either due to everyone realizes they need to get along, or more likely Trump has taken over real control of the party and everyone except the Michigan GOP and Nikki Haley's supporters acknowledges it.

[Badger]

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

"Mitt Romney is bad, but not as bad as Bush" doesn't make for a very effective GOTV effort, does it?

Why should we apologize for actively campaigning against your candidate?

That’s the whole point . If you keep saying it , this becomes viewed as a campaign tactic as it becomes the boy who cried wolf.

Republicans did it to democrats too : Bill Clinton was the worst ever for 8 years , then Gore/Kerry were the worst , then Obama was a socialist unlike Bill , then Hillary was even worse than Obama and  now Biden is worse than Hillary and Obama .

And you democrats did it in early 2023 when you guys called RDS worse than Trump when it looked like he may be the nominee

I realize that critical thinking as opposed to just blend comparisons aren't your strong suit, but it is an ugly fact that the last two Republican presidents were literally among the worst in our country's history. Again, just because you're saying Romney was better than that doesn't mean he was not thoroughly deserving being kept out of the white house.

Dude, just accept it. The party of Mitt Romney is dead. The fact that he had the conscience to justifiably vote for Trump's first impeachment, let alone the second, and became an absolute pariah unrealectable to the Modern Age GOP should demonstrated. Please go right ahead, though, and embrace whatever myths you need to convince yourself that you don't belong to the party of Donald Trump by Donald Trump in for Donald trump.

[Badger]

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

Obviously it was the Democrats fault that Romney was going around saying that he is "severely conservative" or that he didn't care about 40% of the voters.

Grow a pair and accept some effing responsibility.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

R party believes in funding the basic needs of the govt no extra social programs including Relations or minimum wage including, granted Biden is not the most popular Prez but he is above Trump in ranking of Prez

No matter whom is reelected they can't run again, especially Trump and in 4 short yrs he can be prosecuted again especially in NY and GA

[jojoju1998]

The Republican Party has always been right wing. It's always been.... more conservative compared to most other center right parties in the world. The opposition to Universal Healthcare for example.

But Trump's takeover ISN'T new. There has always been a right wing populist streak in the Republican Party going back to the 1920s.


The Reagan era was somewhat of an exception and Eisenhower as well. There's a reason why Robert Taft was considered to be fundamental to the Conservative ethos, and not Nelson Rockefeller.

People think this is shocking. I don't think it is.

[jojoju1998]

The whole root of the Republican Party dating back to 1932 has been to repeal the liberal/new deal/great society project as we know it. Social Security, Medicare, abortion, gay rights, all of this is at risk. All of it.


" Moderates " such as Rockefeller and Eisenhower were exceptions.

This is the reality of the Republican Party.

[jojoju1998]

I suspect you will see more and more non-MAGAs retiring before the election, and those will be replaced with more extreme versions. The Republican Party has been on life support for a while, but I think the part, as it was, is dead. That's not to say it will not see more success given the polarization and gerrymandering of our districts, but the old GOP is gone. I don't see it coming back even when Trump is gone.

The Old Old Gop has always been right wing, and populist. You ever heard of Robert Taft ? John Bricker ?




Rockefeller, Eisenhower, and in many ways, Reagan were exceptions.

[AlterEgo]

red avatar crocodile tears

All you can do is criticize a completely valid reaction to a known grifter hijacking one of America’s major parties.

No commentary on the act itself. That’s telling.

I don't have time for false sympathy over the "end" of the traditional Republican Party.  Ten years ago, Democrats would have cheered on the institutional destruction of the Romney/Cruz/Ryan conservative GOP.  I won't take y'all pretending to pine for it now for nakedly partisan reasons.

The idea of a "traditional" or "sane" Republican is a fake unicorn invented by D hacks so they can constantly move the goalposts and paint every GOP nominee as somehow worse than the last.  In only 10-20 years, y'all will be begging to have Trump back LOL   

Except that completely overlooks the fact that a non-trivial number of those Democrats are former life-long members of the Republican Party, myself included. Yes, I do pine for a day when politicians understood there was a certain modicum of decorum that was to be followed in public discourse. That it's possible to disagree but at least be mostly respectful to your opponents. That there can be some actual productive dialog and compromise to move our nation forward. Congress does virtually nothing these days, and our government was not set up to rule only via Executive Order and judicial fiat.

[Inmate Trump]

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

"Mitt Romney is bad, but not as bad as Bush" doesn't make for a very effective GOTV effort, does it?

Why should we apologize for actively campaigning against your candidate?

That’s the whole point . If you keep saying it , this becomes viewed as a campaign tactic as it becomes the boy who cried wolf.

Republicans did it to democrats too : Bill Clinton was the worst ever for 8 years , then Gore/Kerry were the worst , then Obama was a socialist unlike Bill , then Hillary was even worse than Obama and  now Biden is worse than Hillary and Obama .

And you democrats did it in early 2023 when you guys called RDS worse than Trump when it looked like he may be the nominee

How is it the boy who cried wolf when you guys are actually turning to authoritarianism? It’s a reality, and it’s frightening. That’s not just politics, it’s a dire warning for the sole and future of the country.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

You guys acted like Romney was worse than W lol

"Mitt Romney is bad, but not as bad as Bush" doesn't make for a very effective GOTV effort, does it?

Why should we apologize for actively campaigning against your candidate?

That’s the whole point . If you keep saying it , this becomes viewed as a campaign tactic as it becomes the boy who cried wolf.

Republicans did it to democrats too : Bill Clinton was the worst ever for 8 years , then Gore/Kerry were the worst , then Obama was a socialist unlike Bill , then Hillary was even worse than Obama and  now Biden is worse than Hillary and Obama .

And you democrats did it in early 2023 when you guys called RDS worse than Trump when it looked like he may be the nominee

How is it the boy who cried wolf when you guys are actually turning to authoritarianism? It’s a reality, and it’s frightening.

That's easy to answer. We're not. We're the ones fighting to save democracy and the republic, not you. You're engaging in classic doublespeak.

[T'Chenka]

How is it the boy who cried wolf when you guys are actually turning to authoritarianism? It’s a reality, and it’s frightening.

That's easy to answer. We're not. We're the ones fighting to save democracy and the republic, not you. You're engaging in classic doublespeak.

You're either way more unintelligent than I thought you were, way more disconnected from reality than I thought you were, or more willing to brazenly lie to everybody's faces about you and your party's political objectives than I thought you were.

One of those three things is true. Sad.

[GeorgiaModerate]

How is it the boy who cried wolf when you guys are actually turning to authoritarianism? It’s a reality, and it’s frightening.

That's easy to answer. We're not. We're the ones fighting to save democracy and the republic, not you. You're engaging in classic doublespeak.

You're either way more unintelligent than I thought you were, way more disconnected from reality than I thought you were, or more willing to brazenly lie to everybody's faces about you and your party's political objectives than I thought you were.

One of those three things is true. Sad.

Or he’s trolling. He does that.

[PSOL]

Tbh Trump would poll far higher if he basically did a rerun of 2016 instead of following the nonsense of the fascist triumvirate of Posebiec, Fuentes, and HinkLouche.