The Village of the "Banned"

[Enhance]

One of the possible explanations for the perception of a 'further right lean' of the Republican party is simply based on who Republicans are voting for and then the cultural pressure to sustain certain narratives once that person is elected into office. The 2016 and 2020 elections taught me that voters (in those cases Republicans, but it's not exclusive to Republicans) will say one thing and then do the other. I think most Republicans aren't necessarily fond of the direction their party is going, but they're still choosing to vote for many of these whackadoodles because they share similar beliefs and they believe that candidate has the best chance to win in an election. Better to have 'my guy/gal' in there then 'their guy/gal,' even if 'my guy/gal' is a lunatic.

I also buy into another relevant explanation which is the vocal minority visually appear to control the Republican party, very similar to the Democratic Party. The loudest voices on both ends set the tone and narrative for the party as whole. It's why Republicans hear Pelosi and feel like vomiting, and why Liberals hear MTG and feel disemboweled. When, in reality, most people on both sides really aren't that invested in their party's extremism, but their voices just aren't as loud in the matter.

The reason I tend to have bigger concerns with Republicans is because I believe their apparent beliefs and values system has slipped more extreme and under false guises. Eliminating same-sex marriage protections, preventing abortions, inserting the Christian God into law and politics, strict opposition to gun control... all under the guise of "states rights" and individual freedoms. It's bulls#!t. And I think most Americans see that it's total bulls#!t, and this has influenced an ever increasingly Liberal America.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

If by weird you mean there is much less interaction because 15 sensible people aren’t trying to explain to one person how effed up they are, then yeah it’s kinda weird.

No, by weird I simply mean a Politics and Religion Forum that breaks 15 to 1 on any subject. Then decides it can be fixed by getting rid of the 1.

It's the echo chamber thing. It definitely makes you feel better about yourself and your fellow humans, but it sets you up for a shock when you enter the real world. 

There are many places to avoid differing political opinions. An anonymous online Politics and Religion Forum would not be one of them. 

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

One of the possible explanations for the perception of a 'further right lean' of the Republican party is simply based on who Republicans are voting for and then the cultural pressure to sustain certain narratives once that person is elected into office. The 2016 and 2020 elections taught me that voters (in those cases Republicans, but it's not exclusive to Republicans) will say one thing and then do the other. I think most Republicans aren't necessarily fond of the direction their party is going, but they're still choosing to vote for many of these whackadoodles because they share similar beliefs and they believe that candidate has the best chance to win in an election. Better to have 'my guy/gal' in there then 'their guy/gal,' even if 'my guy/gal' is a lunatic.

I also buy into another relevant explanation which is the vocal minority visually appear to control the Republican party, very similar to the Democratic Party. The loudest voices on both ends set the tone and narrative for the party as whole. It's why Republicans hear Pelosi and feel like vomiting, and why Liberals hear MTG and feel disemboweled. When, in reality, most people on both sides really aren't that invested in their party's extremism, but their voices just aren't as loud in the matter.

The reason I tend to have bigger concerns with Republicans is because I believe their apparent beliefs and values system has slipped more extreme and under false guises. Eliminating same-sex marriage protections, preventing abortions, inserting the Christian God into law and politics, strict opposition to gun control... all under the guise of "states rights" and individual freedoms. It's bulls#!t. And I think most Americans see that it's total bulls#!t, and this has influenced an ever increasingly Liberal America.

Good post, but Nancy Pelosi is in no way an "end" of the political spectrum. She's a corporate centrist who is quick to compromise in the name of partisan gamesmanship, for better or worse. The progressive left would love to be rid of her. 

You are right, of course, that Pelosi's opponents might cast her as the counter-balance to MTG. But in truth, the leftwing equivalent to MTG is a guy shouting at cars on a Berkeley street corner, not someone casting votes in Congress. And that's really the issue. 

 

[DevoHusker]

In that context I was saying our country is divided roughly in half, and the exact parsing of the stats doesn't make much difference.  70% of all Republicans believe Joe Biden wasn't legitimately elected, and 0% of posters on HuskerBoard P&R have shared that opinion. 

Also don't sell your Republicans short. They make up more of the country than you think, and if they make up only 31% of the voting U.S. they wouldn't stand a chance in any legitimate House, Senate, or Presidential election.  Of course that's not the case. 

https://news.gallup.com/poll/388781/political-party-preferences-shifted-greatly-during-2021.aspx

Republicans had plenty of choices in the 2016 primaries and went strong for Donald Trump. Ted Cruz was his closest challenger. John Kasich never moved the needle. Four years later, having leaned even farther right, Trump got 62 million votes, 10 million more than he did in 2016. He remains the GOP's most favored candidate for 2024, followed by Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump Jr.  As that article cited, some of the Trump endorsed candidates didn't win their primaries, but by any political definition of the last 100 years, almost all the winners leaned far right, many taking it to bizarre and threatening levels. 

You may be right about only 15% of Americans identifying as far right, but 98% of Republicans have let them define the party and drive incredibly retrograde policies. The 2% who haven't are in trouble.

And this is what makes me most curious. Many conservative Republicans like yourself draw the line at Trump's antics and revenge politics, but the Party itself keeps lurching in that direction. 

It's not merely that self-identified rightwinger Ronald Reagan now represents the political center in America, it's that Liz Cheney --- Liz Fucking Cheney — is about to lose her political career for drawing a line that all these supposedly sensible Republicans pretend to agree with. 

As usual, well written. I cannot refute some of your points. Perhaps the insulation of my personal bubble doesn't give me a good overall measure for the world outside of it.

I will say that I find it amusing that anyone left of center has latched on to Ms Cheney as a poster child for what the right if center should or could be...but fail to grasp, or mention, that she votes over 90% of the time with/for the very same policy positions they decry as "far right lunacy".

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I will say that I find it amusing that anyone left of center has latched on to Ms Cheney as a poster child for what the right if center should or could be...but fail to grasp, or mention, that she votes over 90% of the time with/for the very same policy positions they decry as "far right lunacy".

No, we haven't missed that irony or failed to grasp it. Hence referring to her somewhat incredulously as Liz f#&%ing Cheney. 

Obviously the same applies to Republicans who would abandon the reliable vote, leadership position, and conservative credentials of Liz for trying to reclaim the party from a dangerous idiot.  

I have caught some liberals waxing nostalgic about the equally conservative but somewhat saner George W. Bush years. If that doesn't convince folks about the far right shift in this country, I don't know what will. 

 

[DevoHusker]

No, we haven't missed that irony or failed to grasp it. Hence referring to her somewhat incredulously as Liz f#&%ing Cheney. 

Obviously the same applies to Republicans who would abandon the reliable vote, leadership position, and conservative credentials of Liz for trying to reclaim the party from a dangerous idiot.  

I have caught some liberals waxing nostalgic about the equally conservative but somewhat saner George W. Bush years. If that doesn't convince folks about the far right shift in this country, I don't know what will. 

I have had to remind a couple of folks the sentiment in bold.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

Still, I gotta give credit where it's due. Liz Cheney is better prepared and more comfortable on camera than any of the Dems.

 

[JJ Husker]

I wonder where that puts me? I feel like vomiting and disemboweled when I hear Pelosi and MTG and virtually every other politician who has nationwide name recognition.

I think the Cheney thing is pretty simple. She’s had the balls to stand up and do the right thing as regards Trump and J6. That counts for a lot in my book and it is something damn few Republican leaders have even paid lip service to.

I wax nostalgic for the days of GWB and Ronnie and even Clinton. I’d vote for GWB again in a heartbeat. Today’s politicians suck a$$.

 

[JJ Husker]

No, by weird I simply mean a Politics and Religion Forum that breaks 15 to 1 on any subject. Then decides it can be fixed by getting rid of the 1.

It's the echo chamber thing. It definitely makes you feel better about yourself and your fellow humans, but it sets you up for a shock when you enter the real world. 

There are many places to avoid differing political opinions. An anonymous online Politics and Religion Forum would not be one of them. 

I don’t disagree with the premise but I have a very hard time deriving much value from entertaining somebody’s brain disease. I’m not saying archy per se but it gets extremely frustrating when people of a particular political lean quite simply cannot be reasoned with. If that’s what represents 33% or 50% of our country, I don’t have any great desire to see it on a daily basis.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I don’t disagree with the premise but I have a very hard time deriving much value from entertaining somebody’s brain disease. I’m not saying archy per se but it gets extremely frustrating when people of a particular political lean quite simply cannot be reasoned with. If that’s what represents 33% or 50% of our country, I don’t have any great desire to see it on a daily basis.

Sure. I get that. But there's a difference between what I'd rather not see and what I shouldn't have to see. 

If you voluntarily come to a Politics and Religion Forum, you should expect and tolerate people of a particular political lean. Ignore or engage them. Learn the language they use. FIgure this s#!t out, because it doesn't go away when you ban them. 

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I’d vote for GWB again in a heartbeat.

Bush was a horrible President who made America worse in all sorts of ways. Many Republicans disavowed him as soon as he left office. Obama, surprisingly, didn't vary policy that much from Bush, but spoke a lot better. Obama didn't really earn the Republican hate or Democratic love, but life felt a little better for 8 years.

The Reagan Revolution launched a 40 year economic course that proved how flawed and counter-productive the Reagan Revolution was. Let's stop pretending he was a great man. That's just the guy he played on TV. 

Lot of people forget this stuff. 

We don't have to lower the bar just because of Trump and Biden. 

 

[JJ Husker]

Bush was a horrible President who made America worse in all sorts of ways. Many Republicans disavowed him as soon as he left office. Obama, surprisingly, didn't vary policy that much from Bush, but spoke a lot better. Obama didn't really earn the Republican hate or Democratic love, but life felt a little better for 8 years.

The Reagan Revolution launched a 40 year economic course that proved how flawed and counter-productive the Reagan Revolution was. Let's stop pretending he was a great man. That's just the guy he played on TV. 

Lot of people forget this stuff. 

We don't have to lower the bar just because of Trump and Biden. 

I haven’t forgot s#!t.  My point was, as flawed as GWB was he is light years better than Trump and the current crop of republicans. That wouldn’t be lowering the bar at all, it would elevate it tenfold as would Reagan as would anyone prior to Trump. The only thing Biden has going for him is I don’t believe he is evil or rotten to the core, he’s just too frikken old and feeble.
 

And BTW I still don’t think GWB was all that horrible. He was dealt a s#!t hand with 911 and tried to deal with it as best he could. IMO his biggest flaw was laser focusing on terrorism and taking his eye off the economy. I really don’t care about the misplaced effort on Iraq. Hussein was a POS whether or not he had WMDs and whether or not Iraq had anything to do with 911. The world was a better place the day Sadam died. I’m not going to whinge over the how or why and yes, I would take Bush everyday and twice on Sunday over any current Republican.

 

[knapplc]

I respect JJ and would like to spend the next 15 years discussing P&R shit with him like we've done the past 15 years, but if anyone thinks that because we agree on a couple of nutters being nutters in P&R that we're in ANY way the same group-think echo chamber, they're fucking nuts.

Same with BRB, same with TG, same with a lot of folks in there.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I respect JJ and would like to spend the next 15 years discussing P&R shit with him like we've done the past 15 years, but if anyone thinks that because we agree on a couple of nutters being nutters in P&R that we're in ANY way the same group-think echo chamber, they're fucking nuts.

Same with BRB, same with TG, same with a lot of folks in there.

Good thing nobody here suggested anything like that. 

Back on track: was Archy banned or not? 

 

[RedDenver]

Good thing nobody here suggested anything like that. 

Back on track: was Archy banned or not? 

His avatar on his posts don't show him as banned, so he's either voluntarily or involuntarily on a vacation.