It’s a well known axiom that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Steve Schmidt has a very interesting forecast for where the Republican party is headed in just a few days.
The party could not survive its factionalism. There could be no more accommodation, compromise and partnership between pro-slavery and anti-slavery Whigs. A new political party was born, the Republican Party. That party will divide into irreconcilable factions on January 6th. 2/
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 3, 2021
will follow. Does anybody doubt the outcome of the @IvankaTrump vs. @marcorubio primary in Florida? Anyone willing to make a bet on @robportman? It turns out JFK was right. The problem of trying to ride the tiger is the likelihood of winding up inside the tiger. The poisonous 4/
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 3, 2021
The abolitionist with the Slave master. It won’t happen over night but the destination is clear. The Conservative party in America is dead. It may continue to bear the name “Republican” but it will be no such thing. Fascism has indeed come to America and as was once predicted 6
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 3, 2021
Entirely. There are only two sides in American politics now. There is the American side and the Autocratic side. May God help us all if we falter, flag or fail in defense of American democracy. 8
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 3, 2021
Ulysses S. Grant said, “there are but two parties now, traitors and patriots.” It does seem like we have cycled back to exactly the same posture. What’s new is old and what’s old is new.
hope it does go down. But I have fear thar there will be violence involved.
There, up there
The crazies in the party are pushing the envelope too far. Gohmert and Cruz. Hawley believes he’ll be the “smart Trump.” Maybe he will. Or maybe he won’t and Schmidt’s idea will be what happens. The analogy is apt. The pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions could not hold. Nowadays it’s the pro-fascist and anti-fascist factions.
Although this is true, pro- v anti factions and the tensions created, there’s one huge factor we are still not including: the USA is a capitalist nation on steroids and at some point, likely not too far off, capitalism will weigh in. When this dangerous conflict within the Republican party grows too outsized for big business, welp, guess which side they choose? Upheaval, high-wire dangerous drama, and conflicts morphing from word-driven to action-driven? All of these are as my Irish grandfather used to say, ” A bridge too far.” Ironic if this is among the ways the party is brought to its knees isn’t it?
Hell, Carroll, I’ve been saying that one for the last three weeks. The money boys were always the only thing truly propping the GOP up throughout the 2010s. It almost–and I stress almost–made up for the complete gutting of their post-W leadership which made Trump’s takeover so easy. But siphoning off three quarters of a billion dollars into Trump’s pocket? Wrecking any business not named Amazon with a pandemic that could have been controlled? Going out of their way to oppress the next generation of customers these businesses need to survive, never mind grow? There’s no profit margin in any of the above.
Hey Bareshark, I wish I’d read what you’ve been writing the last three weeks–we would have been on the same page much sooner.
And re monied interests? They’re all in when it works for them, but they’ll eat their own when it doesn’t, and this is coming. Fast. Capitalism is every bit and more as inhumane and soulless as Marx contended it was.
Re the pandemic and the economic contradictions? I hear you–this one makes very little sense, at least on the surface. But was the economic wreckage something they didn’t think would be as awful as it has turned out to be–they have been pretty darned blind to it, yes? And after all, the big rallying cry, which started at the top? The stock market. The stock market. It’s doing great. But the stock market, which is all they care about, is not for the vast majority of Americans a meaningful “thang.”
Willful ignorance and evil hand in hand? As the Visa commercial tags it: priceless.
The money boys made the same mistake with Trump that everyone who does business with him always do: trust him to do exactly what he’s supposed to. THAT’S why they got caught flat-footed on COVID…they mistook him for another Reagan or W. And that’s BEFORE he started actively stealing from them…
The ‘smart’ Trump can’t be. His hallmark is stupidity mixed with crass ineptitude.
Not much can stop it from going that way, no. That said, I expect said violence to remain sporadic, uncoordinated and completely ineffectual. Less Oklahoma City and more Nashville, if you take my meaning.
I can’t wait for the fireworks. Let them shoot each other until there is no answer, especially b/c Pence will be “tried and executed” for not sucking up to the last of the loons. And as we all know, this is just a dog and pony show for the screwballs to line tRump’s coffers. let them have at each other. The worst case scenario is that Pelosi becomes president. their worst nightmare will have come true.
This tying current times to history by Schmidt is nothing less than brilliant and illuminating. In all the noise and craziness of late it almost seems that the RVAT faction, the Lincoln Project folks, the Bulwark writers including Tim Miller and so many others aren’t being considered all that much. However, they are still there, and their voices still matter. Added to them? Romney, Murkowski, Sasse, Collins, and probably Thune from the Senate; plus Republican governors from a few states, including MD and my governor, Larry Hogan.
Lincoln may have said it: ” A house divided against itself cannot stand,” but it comes directly first from the Gospel of Mark 3:25. And it remains true.
It won’t be pretty, it may be scary, even dangerous, but fall and fail this party will.
There’s only one thing missing from the history lesson: how this is the logical outgrowth of twenty years of Republican unforced errors.
That is actually a history lesson for another time–but for now, thinking we’re more than 20 years in on this Bareshark. This started in earnest with Reagan–too many components to get into here, but one for now: the turning out of folks with emotional and mental disturbances and illnesses from hospitals and other care facilities to dump many of them on the streets and thus to aid in our homeless population. And the worst of this? Many of these were returned Vietnam vets with PTSD, among them my cousin for a start. I cite this because it is an earlier version of denial, heartlessness, and of blaming victims, which is now going on again with Covid-19 and BLM issues too.
This beat went on with the advent of the Tea Party, with many of them having been around during the Clinton years starting in 1992 and then ramping up about 20 years or so ago.
Yes, the roots go back to Reagan. But from 9/11 on, the collapse has been an ongoing process of active rot in progress. All of it was so avoidable but too many GOP myths had to be nursed and nurtured. And thus we went from the “permanent Republican majority” fever dreams of Karl Rove to the pumped and dumped shell of a political party we’re watching now.
Unfortunately everything Steve said is true. The ones leading will twist and gaslight and all trumpsters will fall in place. Their ignorance cannot be defeated. We’re in more trouble than can be imagined .
No, they are. When the enemy is this obvious, it makes life so much easier.
There’s little I can add to the thread other than a) he’s right about them falling apart, b) I do hope he realizes that this development predates Trump by at least a decade and a half and c) I look for the money guys to be the ones who will truly smash up the GOP in retaliation for Trump stealing donation money from them.
I do appreciate Schmidt’s theorizing and his optimism, but, let’s not forget that for all the “Lincoln Project” material presented this past year, it didn’t seem to make any more real impact with Republican *voters* this last election than all the “Never-Trumpers” did in 2016. (Anyone have numbers for the one or two GOP candidates who DID manage to get on a state primary ballot in 2020? Or how many GOP primary results gave Donald Trump less than 95% of the vote?)
The big problem is that the GOP found itself in pretty much the same situation 10 years ago vis-a-vis the Tea Party. The “mainstream” GOPers were SO terrified at the prospect that Democrats would be able to capitalize on a “split” GOP and win dozens of House seats and likely a half-dozen or more Senate seats but even more frightening was the prospect that the “Tea Party” would exhibit so much strength that the new pecking order would be (1) Democrats, (2) Tea Party and, bringing up the rear at (3) “traditional” Republicans. And that combination of terrors led the “mainstream” GOP to kowtow to the Tea Party’s demands
A cult member is like a full glass of water. Nothing can be added. Especially the feedback that they are standing for the wrong god. The wrong messiah. The wrong belief system.
A lot of Republicans split their vote, to dump Trump without giving Biden Congress. The RVAT group suggested it. The LP was focused on dumping Trump. They say they are now going after the Cruzes and Cottons of the world. Keep watch.
They were such a good party back with I was young and my father was a member. I wonder just what happened to it that changed it so badly.
Why are you sending my comment to moderation again? What did I say that is so very wrong? This is totally unfair. It has gotten so bad now that it makes me cry whenever I see that phrase tacked onto my comments.
“She” doesn’t send your comments to moderation. The algorithm does. Then she has to manually permit them. The algorithm seems to ping on numbers and negative terms. It would be nice to have a list of the algorithmic triggers.
Miranda, we’ve ALL had comments moderated, but don’t worry, real comments get ‘unmoderated’ and shown fairly quickly. It appears that it’s either that or mindless spam and trolling. I prefer it this way.
I didn’t say anything wrong. I was complimenting the GOP for what they were long ago.
Would this be the same Steve Schmidt who predicted that Sarah Palin would be a good candidate for VP?
Yes, and so what? He says Palin was a big mistake. Also people are not static. Or do you not allow people to regret, repent and change? He recently registered as a Democrat. https://thehill.com/homenews/news/530393-longtime-gop-strategist-steve-schmidt-announces-hes-registering-democrat
I was a NYS resident and registered Republican when Trump ran four years ago. I saw him as the deathknell of the party. He drove me out and now he will kill the party. And to think they used to talk about the big tent in the R party. Now, like a big circus tent, it has caught fire and is collapsing onto those who didn’t flee. Farewell and good riddance!
He thinks he’s not the autocratic side???? The exfat fuck, baby who’d rather burn it down.
He’s a big part of why trump was elected.