Apparently three participants of whatâs wrong with Kansas are leaving the problem to become part of the solution.
Basically the Republican party is not fit for purpose in a western democracy. Its values are feudalârich corrupt barons, grateful peasants, bread & circuses, superstitiousness, racist tribalism, men bossing womenâand its economic and policy-making competence at levels we associate with tinpot regimes. Sooner or later it crashes the countryâor the state, in the case of Kansasâand only the chronic amnesia of the culture saves it from terminal collapse. So weâre going to see more of thisâmore people leaving the GOP because itâs not a viable place to work.
The key thing for Democrats, and Iâm sorry to bore on about this, is to ensure not only that we drag the wreckage out of the canyon and fix up the car yet again, but that we have a chronic message in place that will stop people from putting these idiots behind the wheel for a significant period of years. If your driver keeps getting drunk and crashing the car, you donât hire him back. You stick with the driver who keeps the car on the road and keeps you moving forward. This is a branding exercise. You brand not just to win power but to retain it. The stakes are existential. You start branding now (already years too late) and you keep branding once you gain power. You donât pivot to post-partisan or bipartisan rhetoric, not with these guys. âThe Republican party is broken.â âThe Republic party is unfit for power.â All day, every day, in response to every new outrageous action.
Come on in, the water is fine!
It is always a wise move to flee from toxicity!
This is the possibility that no one even thinks about, but was always a very real one. Dozens of US Senators have switched parties over the years.
If things get bad enough for Trump and the GOP stubbornly sticking with him, a few of these in the US Senate could change things dramatically.
Would still fall short of the two-thirds majority needed for some things, but Democrats having a simple majority in the Senate would be enough to change the whole story.
This seems like a very big deal to me. The cogent reasons these women give for switching, which can be summed as the Republican Party no longer representing their values or goals, is one that must resonant with their constituents. Which means their voters are also fed up with the Republican Party.
Just watch the stock market
If it goes south, so will any remaining support for Mango Mussolini.
The markets love stability and the only way to stability is to remove Trump
Rich fucks in congress get real uppity when you take money out of their pockets
You canât short sell if the economy tanks
So where does that put the numbers of each caucus now? Two senators switching must make a substantial difference.
I would love for McConnell toâŚwell, he wouldnât actually cry because he canât, but be reduced to a mumbling dweeb claiming heâs a big, strong man while Elaine emasculates him. Again
State level, not US .
Would have been great if itâd been the latter.
Roberts (R-Kansastan) is up in 2020, and will be something like 85 years old, in office for 40 years. Very interesting to see if they can come up with a good candidate to take him on. He will likely be challanged by the right in the primary (perhaps Kobach challanges him) and either the republicans will put up a real natzi (see Kobach, Chris) or Roberts will say all kinds of wacky things.
Provided â ĐŻâmp is still running, not in jail, and assuming that Roberts made no efforts to check him, he will be vulnerable.
Letâs see more of this nationwide. Any remaining moderate Republicans need to leave the Trump Party.
I canât think of the last time I saw someone flip in this direction.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
C/O [ Bob ]
the political swing leftward of suburban voters
While rejecting the GOPâs current extreme right position is, relatively speaking, a move to the left it is not an indication that these Kansas lawmakers are ideologically aligned with the Democrats. They are simply an acknowledgement that the GOP of Eisenhower and the Rockefeller Republicans has died an ignoble death and they have no other choice in our two party system. Still, if enough Republicans follow their lead and abandon the GOP it will have to either moderate its policies or disappear into irrelevance. For that, I applaud these women.
@demosthenes59 Itâs a start in the right correct direction.
Sensible and compelling post.
Makes me loathe Chuck Todd all the more (if thatâs even possible)
NB People have used the term âritualismâ to mean actions which have their origin in something meaningful in the past but which have no present-day use.
*Graduation Day costumesâŚ
*Taking off ones hat when greeting
*Both-Siderism
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This!
I wonder if there are any action steps constituents could take to encourage party switching. To put the question more specifically, were these 3 women receiving any pressure from constituents to make the switch? I wonder what response they are receiving now that they have done so?