Discussion for article #242185
Thanks McCain!
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Country over Party, right GOP?
Obviously not. It’s clearly Money over Party over Country. In other words, Grifters over Country.
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So… they built that?
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he’s thriving in the same cynical value system that puts opportunistic soundbites above seriousness
Grifters gotta grift.
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Palin? It really goes back to clown Reagan.
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There you go again.
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This is really funny. I can’t wait to see Sarah’s angry Tweet-response, which will be coming as soon as she can get ahold of her ghost-Twit.
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I think the problem goes further back than 2008. Palin was just the manifestation of a lot of terrible things going on within the conservative movement that had been hanging just under the surface for years. When Palin hit the scene, it’s not like Fox News, AM talk radio, THE ALL cAPS BRIGADE!!!, the post-reality media, chain emails from grandpa, and bumper sticker talking points (Freedom isn’t Free!) all of a sudden popped into existence. The GOP has been hoarding ignorance since Reagan, at least. Palin was just let loose by an accidentally unlocked cage.
Nice Work John McCain. She’s is your legacy.
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It’s hard to argue with this.
But besides ushering in and enabling a new generation of ignorant fact-free politicians, Palin also made acceptable an aggressive viciousness, a eagerness for relentless attacks and score-settling, and a hostility to opposing viewpoints.
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I see where he’s coming from, but I tend to disagree. Jabberwocky Barbie was a symptom of a long-term progressively degenerative disease, not its cause. Perhaps she was more like the first derp-filled blister explosion that notified the nation that the GOP/Teatrolls had the political equivalent of The Herp, but yeah, this was building and building and building over years/decades and was bound to happen eventually.
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I think it goes further back to the the traction drudge and fox started getting in the 90s, perhaps even further back with pillboy Limbaugh…although he was always mostly a sideshow act.
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Yes, it has been building up for a long time. Since Goldwater, there has been a tension between the establishment Republicans, social and religious conservatives, and the nutball conspiracy theorists and neo-confederates.
Reagan, for all his arch-conservatism, always tried to present a sunny,optimistic disposition – even while he worked to implement supply-side economics and weaken the social safety net.
Gingrich legitimized the reliance on constant, snarling partisan attacks on Democrats and the refusal to raise taxes. His break with George H. Bush over breaking his “no new taxes” might have sunk his re-election bid.
And traumatized by 9-11, and then the Crash of 2008, the public reacted to the election of its first African American president by going all Birth of a Nation apeshit.
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It goes back at least to Newt Gingrich and his “talking points campaign” version of vicious political speech and openly declaring Democrats and “libruls” as enemies.
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You replied as I was writing mine. Great minds…
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No, sorry. You can’t blame this on Palin. She is a dim bulb who gave even dimmer bulbs exactly what they wanted.
The dumbing down started a long time ago - she was just the one who decided to skip all the leg work and dive straight for the paycheck.
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she’s the GOP death panel.
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Ghost twit writer is right. And every media outlet (including TPM) should be on to the new PayMe game that has “Bristol” posting spew on “blog” ghostwritten by Nancy French, and both getting paid by $arahPAC.
What ever happened to the days when “news journalists” would verify a writer’s byline before posting/printing that supposed person’s “writings”?! In the case of the PayMe clan, all it does is aide and abet their grift.
As a lifelong Alaskan and 30 year media veteran, I can state for a fact that neither Brisdull PayMe (as she is known in Alaska) nor her reviled mother can speak or write any sentences that make sense – let alone show proper grammar and political acumen.
$arah PayMe - no job
Todd PayMe - no job, MIA
Track PayMe - no job, MIA
Bristol PayMe - no job, no idea who is the father of her 2nd (3rd? 4th?) child
Willow PayMe- no job, MIA
What an inspiring family!
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''And they gladly rode the tea party tiger to sweeping victories in 2010 and 2014."
…reminds me of that old saying, "to make tiger stew, you must first catch the tiger.
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It goes back a lot further than Palin or Reagan.
Personally I think it goes back to Taft, but Rick Perlstein makes a strong case that it goes back, at least, to Nixon - and not just back to Nixon adopting the Southern Strategy. A lot of people seem to forget that Nixon first won his House and Senate seats by painting each of his Democratic opponents as a Communist and was also a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1940’s.
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