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Politics selectors, pages, etc.
A Firehose of Insanity and The Republican Cycle of Radicalization
By islander
April 16, 2023 6:05 am
Category: Politics

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What we’re all witnessing is the beginning of the end of what has evolved into the Republican party of today.

“There was an explosion of news this week with a theme: The increasing radicalization of the Republican Party.

First, we have the abortion pill mifepristone debacle in which a federal judge in Texas attempted to outlaw mifepristone for the entire nation. Here’s the timeline (I find that a bullet point timeline is the best tool for understanding a complex legal situation) ** see below

The Republican Cycle of Radicalization

While the title of Let Them Eat Tweets by Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker, and Berkeley political scientist Paul Pierson feels a bit dated, the book succinctly explains what we might call the Republican cycle of radicalization whereby the party leaders are locked into accepting increasingly extreme and unhinged positions.

The authors begin with what Harvard Prof. Daniel Ziblatt calls the “Conservative dilemma,” which goes like this:

Conservatives represent the interests of a few wealthy people.
Their economic policies are unpopular.

So when more people are allowed to vote, conservatives have a problem.

Plutocracy is incompatible with democracy for two reasons: (1) most people will not knowingly vote to keep a plutocrat in power when that plutocrat is essentially robbing them, so plutocrats have trouble winning elections the normal way, by putting forward their policies and plans. (2) As more money becomes concentrated in the hands of a few people, power, too, becomes increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people.

Plutocracy is not new in the United States. Slavery, after all, was a plutocracy, as was the era of robber barons. (Heather Cox Richardson in her book To Make Men Free refers to these as our first two oligarchies. We are now heading toward a third.) The Civil War got us out of the first oligarchy. Roosevelt’s New Deal got us out of the second.)”

**
"Last year, a coalition of anti-abortion rights groups called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued the FDA alleging that mifepristone should not have been approved. Note: Mifepristone was approved 20 years ago, has been proven safe, and is also used in miscarriage management.

On Friday, April 7, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas agreed with the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. He ruled that the Food and Drug Administration improperly approved the abortion pill mifepristone and issued a nationwide injunction pausing the FDA approval, set to take effect in 7 days.

Hours after Kacsmaryk’s ruling, the DOJ appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

A coalition of Democratic attorneys general in 17 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit to block the FDA from pulling the drug from the market.

In response to that lawsuit, a federal judge in Washington state, Thomas O. Rice, blocked the FDA from “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone.”

We thus had dueling federal district court rulings, creating an untenable situation for the FDA, which meant that SCOTUS would have to weigh in quickly.

On Wednesday, April 12, the Fifth Circuit, in a late-night ruling, held that mifepristone can remain on the market, but with limited access. The order was riddled with problems, which I won’t go into here.

On Friday, the DOJ and abortion pill distributor Danco Laboratories asked the Supreme Court to block the order limiting access to mifepristone.

Late Friday, the Supreme Court issued a temporary stay maintaining the status quo while it hears the case.

Bottom line: As a practical matter, a federal judge doesn’t have the authority to intervene in the workings of the FDA and substitute his judgment for the judgment of the FDA. As Steve Vladeck pointed out, the case has other procedural problems such as standing (do the plaintiffs have the right to bring this lawsuit) and statute of limitations."


Cited and related links:

  1. terikanefield.com

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Comments on "A Firehose of Insanity and The Republican Cycle of Radicalization":

  1. by HatetheSwamp on April 16, 2023 7:31 am

    The GOP is the home of openness and inclusion and tolerance and diversity and acceptance.

    No doubt there's some truth in Teri drooling rant but the truth is that GOPs believe in freedom and,...

    ...they live freedom in community with each other.

    The party of Donald Trump is the party of Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

    I know that you Dems operate among each other as lockstep fascists...and, that's so sad.

    But, there's a step in evolution that GOPs have made that's still beyond you.

    Oh, if you could only be open minded!!!!!


  2. by Ponderer on April 16, 2023 7:38 am

    Suffice to say, you are a demented, delusional, willfully ignorant, boundlessly gullible idiot, Bill.



  3. by islander on April 16, 2023 7:46 am

    I think we all know what Hate is, Ponderer !! LoL !! 🍻

    But moving right along:

    "To win elections with unpopular economic positions, plutocrats can either:

    Move to the center by agreeing to implement economic policies that benefit more people, or

    Consolidate minority power so they don’t have to compromise on economic issues.

    Beginning with Nixon, guess which the Republicans chose.

    To win elections with unpopular policies, the Republicans formed an alliance with Fox, the NRA, and white Evangelical groups. The alliances worked like this: Fox, the NRA, and Christian nationalist groups turned out voters. In exchange, the Republican candidates and elected officials gave them the social policies they wanted: Get rid of abortion, deregulate guns, etc.

    You see, plutocrats don’t care about things like guns and abortions, but they needed the votes, so they made a deal with organizations that could turn out voters.

    At first, outsourcing voter mobilization was a boon to Republican candidates, but to please their audiences, talk show hosts like Tucker Carlson swung farther to the right. Meanwhile, because Republican elected officials needed Fox to turn out voters, Fox began exerting more influence on Republican candidates, creating a radicalization cycle. As these organizations moved farther to the right to accommodate their readership, Republican officials had to similarly move to the right to win their votes. Even so-called moderates like Mitt Romney were forced to make deals with Fox and other right-wing groups.

    The difference between so-called Republican “moderates” and crazies like Marjorie Taylor Greene is that the moderates made a deal with right-wing extremists and Greene is a right-wing extremist.

    Before Trump, Republican candidates would position themselves far to the right to win primaries, and then adopt a more moderate stance in the general election. By 2016, the base had enough of that. They were tired of voting for candidates who they felt gave their issues lip service in the primaries and then, in the general election, promised to govern from the center-right. So they went for Trump. No more Mitt Romneys. No more candidates making deals with the far right. They wanted someone who was far right.

    What looked like a 2015-2016 Republican civil war (moderates v. far right wing) was simply the Republican Party officials, including people like Lindsay Graham, panicking because Trump refused to hide his racism and extremism behind euphemisms and dog whistles. But when Trump won the nomination, the Republican leadership fell in line.

    Another way to say the same thing: To win elections, Nixon and Reagan invited white Supremacists and Christian nationalists into the party. Now the white Supremacists and Christian nationalists have taken control.

    Yet another way to say the same thing: To stay in power, plutocrats have employed strongman psychology: They promise to protect their supporters from their “enemies” (woke Democrats who want access to abortion and gun regulations, and who refuse to lie about American history)."


  4. by HatetheSwamp on April 16, 2023 8:02 am

    It's too bad you were born a century too late, there, isle. Your post is nigh unto revolution quality propaganda.

    Had you applied your thinking to Jews, not GOPs, you could have been a mover and shaker in 1930s Germany.

    You're impaired. It's not only Trump. It's far bigger than that.


  5. by islander on April 16, 2023 8:19 am
    Continuing on...

    "The Republican Party has moved even farther to the right since 2019. If the Republican Party continues on its course (and there is no reason to think it won’t) we can expect the Republican Party to keep shrinking. As it shrinks, it will become more desperate and dangerous.

    Obviously one of two things will happen:

    The Democrats will win elections and make it harder for right-wing extremists to hold power or
    the Democrats will lose the upcoming elections and the right-wing extremists will win.

    There are no magic bullets. The only way to contain the threat of right-wing extremism is for Democrats to win the upcoming elections, which can put into motion another cycle that would favor the expansion of liberal democracy."

    Now for the good news.

    "The Cycle Created By Changing Demographics

    In this lecture, Harvard professor Steven Levitsky (who talks about “white Christians” as the base of the Republican Party) offers these statistics:

    In 1994, white Christians were 74% of the electorate.
    By 2014, they were down to 57%.
    By 2024, they’re projected to be less than 50%.

    In other words, the Republican Party represents a shrinking demographic group. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has morphed into a party of urban intellectuals, minority communities, and young people—and this demographic is growing.

    If the Democrats do nothing more than continue to hold the White House and Senate, they can contain the threat of right-wing extremism by gradually replacing the federal judiciary, controlling national enforcement, other federal agencies, etc.

    But a trifecta, particularly with large margins, will allow for rapid change. Franklin Roosevelt, after all, got us out of an oligarchy through regulations. (He also experienced severe pushback from a reactionary Supreme Court, but that’s another story.)

    A trifecta in 2024 with wide enough majorities to pass election reform legislation, for example, would allow Democrats to pass legislation making it easier for everyone to vote in federal elections. (The Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate federal elections.) Making it easier for more people to vote makes it harder for plutocrats and extremists to win elections, thereby helping the Democrats expand their majorities, which in turn will allow for the kinds of changes that will move us closer to a true multi-racial representative democracy.


  6. by Ponderer on April 16, 2023 8:39 am

    Isle is absolutely nailing the situation, Bill. But since he's using actual statistics, facts, and reality to make his points with, he may as well be speaking Swahili for all the good it will do you. You are utterly immune to such things.


  7. by HatetheSwamp on April 16, 2023 8:46 am

    Y'know isle. The thing about you is that you define yourself by what you hate and oppose.

    You're a Christophobe. We got that.

    And, you hate GOPs.

    The thing is the GOP you hate ain't the real world GOP. I'm telling you...from actual real world knowledge.

    The GOP is, for instance, the home of a LGB movement that is exploding in size. This GAG group I've been mentioning is expanding in size exponentially. Guy Benson, that gay Guy Curt never heard of, is one of the leading influencers among GOPs and conservatives in general. Un- woke LGBs are flocking to the GOP.

    And, bruh, the GOP truly is these days, the home of openness, inclusion and tolerance, diversity and acceptance...

    ...not only because GOPs believe in freedom and practice it among themselves, which they do...

    ...but because you progressives have forced everyone who's not a True Believer from the party. There's a purity standard that fits you and yours.

    When you and I were kids, libertarians' home between the two parties was with us. With Dems. Today?, watch effin Fox News! These days it's about 60/40 conservative/libertarian...and the two Fox factions get along famously. Jovially.

    As OD points out from time to time, when Muslims show up at School Board meetings, it's not to demonstrate for the rights of teachers to promote gender fluidity. It's to agree with Catholics and Baptists on policy issues.

    Please, disparage the GOP you believe in. Please continue to fill your head with Heather's and Teri's narrow-minded hate.

    But, there's a truth that exists beyond your private imaginings.


  8. by oldedude on April 16, 2023 9:19 am
    First. The dims are moving much further to the left also. Muffy doesn't go in to that because it's incriminating.

    Second. How many voters voted for GOP members? are they all rich elites? Here, the vast majority of the base comes from the middle to lower middle class. Working class people. What "used" to be the "blue collar Democrats." Small business owners, since the dims can't keep their hands off of taxing and regulating.

    The fight here is pedojoe said "You’ve heard me say it many times about our children, but it’s true: They’re all our children," the president said in his remarks. "And the reason you’re the Teachers of the Year is because you recognize that. They’re not somebody else’s children; they’re like yours when they’re in the classroom."

    If that's true, who gets called if the kid gets into a fight? Or shoots a teacher? They automatically go to the parents. In one case, the Mother of 6-year-old boy who shot teacher is arrested in Virginia. She is held legally culpable in the shooting. If what pedojoe said is true, THE TEACHER is responsible (which no one believes). You can't have it both ways. Either they are. Or they're not. Pick ONE.

    In other words, the Republican Party represents a shrinking demographic group. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has morphed into a party of urban intellectuals, minority communities, and young people—and this demographic is growing.

    I think you're using groups that are extremely and purposefully misrepresented. Again, small business owners, Latinos, Asians, Blacks, are predominately conservative because the dims do nothing but actively try to kill their jobs. Religiously, there are many small unaffiliated churches that many belong to. Also, with the advent of churches broadcasting, they are also not counted.
    msn.com


  9. by islander on April 16, 2023 9:31 am

    Ponderer ~

    For anyone who feels discouraged and fears that this new Republican party is the future of America (it's not) Teri reminds us:

    <"If you think things have never been this bad and we’re facing something entirely new, think about what life was like in 1860 for a Black woman. She didn’t even own her own body, literally. We’ve come a long way, and people are working hard to push us backwards. We have to dig in our heels and push forward."

    And we will dig our heels in and press forward !!! 👍


  10. by HatetheSwamp on April 16, 2023 3:06 pm

    "If you think things have never been this bad and we’re facing something entirely new, think about what life was like in 1860 for a Black woman...

    ...until she was freed by a Republican President and his party.

    Baha baha baha baha, ahhhhhhhhhhh.


  11. by oldedude on April 16, 2023 8:43 pm
    Concur Lead. Welcome to (somewhat) open history (sorry for using not the correct pro-fukking pronouns). Also, Curt believes in the "Revised History" of the US, where only the south was expected to choose to eat rats or the dogs that ate them. And where he dismisses those who defended the US Constitution as laied out by Jeffersonian Republic (because po has said many times that there needs to be a "revolution every now and then" for a Republic to exist (Jefferson).


  12. by islander on April 17, 2023 6:35 am

    I have to chuckle when Hate, displaying his own distorted thinking, tells me that I hate the GOP. LoL !!

    I have no respect for what the GOP has become and I’ll work hard to oppose what they are attempting to turn our country into, but I don’t waste any emotional energy hating them. That would as foolish and useless as hating Al Capone or Donald Trump and to me the thought of what it must be like to actually be one of them would be, itself, like a living hell.


  13. by oldedude on April 17, 2023 7:22 am
    I guess what's pretty funny is that you do spend an inordinate amount of time hating everyone that doesn't think like you. I find that amusing. If you didn't care, you wouldn't have posted this thread. Or spend your time "I’ll work hard to oppose what they are attempting to turn our country into."

    My question is, what do you want to change in the country? What are the things the constitution is so heinous that you want to change? Conservatives aren't wanting to change much. They prefer slower change and are reacting to the violent changes in our society.


  14. by HatetheSwamp on April 17, 2023 7:24 am

    isle,

    What I can't discern is if you're just dumping a gratuitous lie on our SS gang or if your intellect in so fried by emotion that it's wasted.

    pb don't shy away from deserved hate. Heck, HatetheSwamp. I know what hate is.

    You're a hater.


  15. by HatetheSwamp on April 17, 2023 7:31 am

    I guess what's pretty funny is that you do spend an inordinate amount of time hating everyone that doesn't think like you. I find that amusing. If you didn't care, you wouldn't have posted this thread. Or spend your time "I’ll work hard to oppose what they are attempting to turn our country into." (OD on isle)

    Bang on. Part of me wants to laugh, too.

    Is isle lyin...to himself...or has hate so damaged his mind that his brain's gone?

    You know?, you are known by the company you keep. isle's worship of Heather and Teri says more about isle than I wish we knew.


  16. by islander on April 17, 2023 7:42 am

    And the haters go at it again LoL !!!

    Listen to their highly intelligent and rational arguments devoid of any emotionalism as they try tell us what other people think and feel !!

    

And yes, I have to say I can’t argue with them about one point...When they say they do know hate...I don't doubt it, they are after all very familiar with it! 

👍


  17. by HatetheSwamp on April 17, 2023 7:43 am

    Defensive. Wow.


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