More Republican Party Fracturing

[David G]

Lifelong Republican Donor Quits GOP: 'Absolutely' Now The Party Of QAnon

Lifelong Republican donor and activist Jacob Monty revealed this week he has quit the GOP and joined the Democratic Party, citing the deadly U.S. Capitol riot incited by former President Donald Trump as “a bridge too far for me.”

“I’m out,” the immigration lawyer from Houston told Erin Burnett on Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront.” (Watch the video above).

Burnett asked Monty ― who voted for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election ― if the GOP was now more the party of the unhinged QAnon conspiracy theory than of conservatives like himself.

“Absolutely,” he replied. “Trump owns the party and Trump has always loved the conspiracy theories and this is Trump’s party now.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jacob...b6bde2f5bfa8e2

[TomF]

After the recent video emerged showing Marjorie Taylor Greene describing how a satellite mounted laser controlled by the Rothschild started last year's California fires (!!), Twitter - and in particular Jewish Twitter folk have created some of the glories of our age.

I'm partial to videos of the Death Star of David myself ...

[LeeG]

Looks like a trend.

[GregH]

Looks like a trend.

Hopefully!

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

I thought you were kidding Tom, but here it is.

[skuthorp]

I keep saying 'good luck' but I reckon it's gone well beyond that

[David G]

After the recent video emerged showing Marjorie Taylor Greene describing how a satellite mounted laser controlled by the Rothschild started last year's California fires (!!), Twitter - and in particular Jewish Twitter folk have created some of the glories of our age.

I'm partial to videos of the Death Star of David myself ...

I have a DEATH STAR???

I'd better give it back... I don't deserve it, and don't trust myself with it. Oz... you want it? <G>

[Dave Gray]

You didn't get the memo?

Seriously, the other day I went to the Oregon Republican website to see why I may be convinced to turn Republican. Lot of historical stuff that is hardly relevant, nothing current. Oh, if I want information I can tweet or follow them on Facebook. Since I won't have anything to do with facenook or Zuckerberg, they have nothing to offer.

[Keith Wilson]

One data point - Dave Millage, the chairman of the Scott County, IA Republican party (Davenport) was forced to resign after he called for Mr Trump's impeachment because of inciting the mob to attack the capitol. He's a serious conservative, hard-core anti-abortion guy, longtime Republican organizer - but inciting insurrection and trying to subvert democracy was too much for him. They kicked him out. (Story here.)

[skuthorp]

Think it's time to rename them the Insurrectionist Party?

[Keith Wilson]

Party of Sedition, or POS for short?

[Hallam]

So the party of the revolution? The trajectory will continue until it eats itself.... or it’s put down....or it successfully overturns the rule of law and the democratic process ruling by the gun, fear and force? Insanity is sane when compatible with a group and there seems to be an element of insanity to Q anon now welded to the Republican Party. There is a very destructive climate brewing. Of Those of this thought climate in the churches, Catholic and Protestant, knowledge of and a following of the character and attributes of Jesus, as outlined in the New Testament has been superseded by a tribal mindset and agenda that is the antithesis of love if “God is love”.

[John Smith]

What we don't know, and can't predict, is what will come out at the impeachment trial and how it might impact this sort of thing.

I'd guess some will learn from the trial. Some will not. I'd also GUESS that a lot of Republican voters who watch the trial will see evidence they've been lied to. Might have an impact on some of them.

[CWSmith]

I said it elsewhere, but I recently got a call from the RNC asking me if I was disturbed by Twitter and other social media banning accounts on the basis of content and free speech. They are looking for their next wedge issue, but if you use a wedge to divide something often enough you eventually break it. (As if that needs to be said now. They really have broken our society.)

[David G]

Molly on fracturing --

When politicians start talking about large groups of their fellow Americans as 'enemies,' it's time for a quiet stir of alertness. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country.

Molly Ivins

[Dave Gray]

A vote to impeach was a political kick as he was going out the door. Inciting a mob and insurrection of course had nothing to do with it.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/polit...ure/index.html

[RFNK]

What we don't know, and can't predict, is what will come out at the impeachment trial and how it might impact this sort of thing.

I'd guess some will learn from the trial. Some will not. I'd also GUESS that a lot of Republican voters who watch the trial will see evidence they've been lied to. Might have an impact on some of them.

As you know, John, the 'faithful' won't see any evidence as it won't be reported in the media that they access. The senators will see it, if they even bother to listen, but, with their constituents not privy to any of the evidence, will the senators then be prepared to go against the belief of their constituents? Probably not. They're hardly a brave bunch.

I expect the evidence will be damning. I worry that the senators will ignore it, again.

[Weetamoe]

Will Liz Cheney be next?
There's a movement to remove her from her leadership appointments and the party.
She voted to Impeach, the dirty dog.

[SMARTINSEN]

She voted to impeach the dirty dog.

[Osborne Russell]

They saw no reason to leave before. They saw the same things as us, probably more. They were warned.

What they say now, without atonement, only compounds the wrong.

[Osborne Russell]

What we don't know, and can't predict, is what will come out at the impeachment trial and how it might impact this sort of thing.

I'd guess some will learn from the trial. Some will not. I'd also GUESS that a lot of Republican voters who watch the trial will see evidence they've been lied to. Might have an impact on some of them.

When you put it that way, I just can't decide.

[JayInOz]

I thought you were kidding Tom, but here it is.

Those concrete death stars are the worst!

[SMARTINSEN]

The Republican party is not fracturing, they are for the very large part in lockstep with president loser. Bat**** crazy Marjorie Taylor Greene is heir new defacto leader. The fact that a nakedly partisan Roberts has abdicated his responsibility will only serve to unify them even more as the impeachment trial devolves into gruesome political theatre. How long can the GOP can persist in maintaining the big lie?

Someone had to do it.

[gypsie]

From out here it doesn't look like they are fracturing, not yet anyway.
Looks like they have some crazy nutbags, but they are trying to find a space for them. Afterall those nutbags have a bunch of voters behind them, the GOP won't want to lose those votes, and coalitions are structured out of the US system (though not impossible) - so to split is political wilderness for generations.

[Alan H]

After the recent video emerged showing Marjorie Taylor Greene describing how a satellite mounted laser controlled by the Rothschild started last year's California fires (!!), Twitter - and in particular Jewish Twitter folk have created some of the glories of our age.

I'm partial to videos of the Death Star of David myself ...

What? You're joking, right?

EDIT: OMG. you're not joking.

[hawkeye54]

Steve, thanks for posting that Brooks video - I really needed the laugh !!





Rick

[David G]

The fracturing continues. Lets hope it helps blunt the impact of cult madness ---

Exclusive: Dozens of former Bush officials leave Republican Party, calling it 'Trump cult

(Reuters) - Dozens of Republicans in former President George W. Bush’s administration are leaving the party, dismayed by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown Donald Trump after his false claims of election fraud sparked a deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol last month.

These officials, some who served in the highest echelons of the Bush administration, said they had hoped that a Trump defeat would lead party leaders to move on from the former president and denounce his baseless claims that the November presidential election was stolen.

But with most Republican lawmakers sticking to Trump, these officials say they no longer recognize the party they served. Some have ended their membership, others are letting it lapse while a few are newly registered as independents, according to a dozen former Bush officials who spoke with Reuters.

“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I’d call it the cult of Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration.

Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House’s communications office for six years, said roughly 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with it, from conversations he has been having. “The number is growing every day,” Purcell said.

Their defection from the Republican Party after a lifetime of service for many is another clear sign of how a growing intraparty conflict over Trump and his legacy is fracturing it.

The party is currently caught between disaffected moderate Republicans and independents disgusted by the hold Trump still has over elected officials, and Trump’s fervently loyal base. Without the enthusiastic support of both groups, the party will struggle to win national elections, according to polling, Republican officials and strategists.

The Republican National Committee referred Reuters to a recent interview its chair Ronna McDaniel gave to the Fox Business channel. “We’re having a little bit of a spat right now. But we are going to come together. We have to,” McDaniel said, predicting the party will unite against the agenda of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

A representative of former President Bush did not respond to a request for comment. During the Trump presidency Bush made clear he had “retired from politics.”

‘IT’S APPALLING’

More than half of the Republicans in Congress - eight senators and 139 House representatives - voted to block certification of the election just hours after the Capitol siege.

Most Republican Senators have also indicated they would not support the impeachment of Trump, making it almost certain that the former president won’t be convicted in his Senate trial. Trump was impeached on Jan. 13 by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on charges of “incitement of insurrection,” the only president to be impeached twice.

The unwillingness by party leaders to disavow Trump was the final straw for some former Republican officials.

“If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back,” Rosario Marin, a former Treasurer of the U.S. under Bush, told Reuters. “Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders.”

Two former Bush officials who spoke to Reuters said they believe it is important to stay in the party to rid it of Trump’s influence.

One of those, Suzy DeFrancis, a veteran of the Republican Party who served in administrations including those of former presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, said she voted for Biden in November but that breaking the party apart now will only benefit Democrats.

“I totally understand why people are frustrated and want to leave the party. I’ve had that feeling for 4 years,” DeFrancis said.

But she said it’s critical the party unite around Republican principles such as limited government, personal responsibility, free enterprise and a strong national defense.

Purcell said many felt they have no choice, however. He referred to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman Republican congresswoman from Georgia who promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely claims that top Democrats belong to a secret governing cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Another newly elected Representative, Lauren Boebert from Colorado, has also made supportive statements about QAnon.

“We have QAnon members of Congress. It’s appalling,” Purcell said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN2A1275

[David G]

A bit more - in S. Dakota ---

Trump loyalists in South Dakota turn on home state senator

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Longtime South Dakota Republican voter Jim Thompson is ready to leave the GOP, hoping that an exodus of Donald Trump supporters like him will punish the state’s preeminent politician, Sen. John Thune, for defying Trump.

Thompson, a retired rodeo announcer and broadcaster, watched Trump’s calls for supporters to come to Washington to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory and he saw the ensuing assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 . But as Congress tries to hold Trump accountable for his actions, Thompson sees an agenda to banish the former president from politics and return the party to establishment figures such as Thune, the second-ranking GOP leader in the Senate.

“We were tired of the way things were going, we were tired of political answers and spin,” Thompson said.

Thune was among the Republicans who condemned the insurrection at the Capitol, calling it “horrific” and pledging to “hold those responsible to account.” But like most of his GOP colleagues, the senator this past week signaled he was not speaking about Trump.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden...232f3fd2179f33

[David G]

There’s no intraparty warfare. The party is pretty clear it’s all Trump all the time.

Nope. There is internal resistance. I make no predictions on their effectiveness, or the final outcome... but here's another example ---

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger launches new PAC to challenge Republicans who support Trump

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote in favor of impeaching Donald Trump, has launched a political action committee to challenge the former president’s continuing influence on the Republican Party. Kinzinger talked about the new Country First PAC in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press as well as a campaign-style video posted online. “This is not a Trump-first party. This is a country-first party,” Kinzinger said. “This is a time to choose.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...rst-trump.html

[TomF]

Good for Kinzinger. Absolutely a time to choose, but probably a time to no longer be called Republican.

[RFNK]

Can we please have more threads about the GOP fracturing?

[David G]

Can we please have more threads about the GOP fracturing?

Well... I suppose.

I thought we had enough. But - if you insist, I suspect someone one will come along and answer your plea. There's gotta be another slant that could be illuminating!!

[David G]

Yes, we need more wishcasting

See... I told you a hero would emerge. Hugh could start a thread explaining how the fracturing is an illusion, and (we're all doomed?) or something.

[David G]

Meantime...

Ex-GOP congresswoman says party is on the way to being ‘fringe’ within ‘three or four years’

Susan Molinari, a former Republican representative for New York, says that she no longer recognises the party she belongs to and predicts that the GOP as we know it may not be around in a few years.

In an appearance on The Sunday Show on MSNBC, Ms Molinari, who served three terms in Congress in the 1990s, blamed leadership for the path the party is currently on, citing the apparent failure to rein in freshman representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.


She told host Jonathan Capehart of her disappointment and concern, saying: “I think actually the Republican Party can become the fringe party, the party that we won't recognise in the next three or four years unless some aggressive leadership steps forward. I think it's that serious.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1795538.html

[Gerarddm]

Why does Molinari still identify as Republican? Jeesh. It's a CULT, Susan.

The Trumpist GOP will (hopefully) go the way of the 1850s Know-Nothings.

In fact, just eradicate all Republicans. You could calve off the conservative Blue Dog Democrats and people like Manchin and have a perfectly respectable conservative alternative to center-left Democrats.