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There Is No Republican Middle
Esquire ^ | 03-19-2015 | Charles Pierce

Posted on 03/23/2015 6:44:43 AM PDT by Kaled

Already, we have the greatest video of the 2016 presidential election cycle. Rick Santorum -- And have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick Rick Santorum is? -- was down in the home office of American Sedition for one of those mock "summits" designed to lift the wallets of terrified caucasian separatists. A lady got up in the audience, opened her mouth to speak, and huge bats flew out.

Why is the Congress rolling over and letting this Communist dictator destroy my country? Y'all know what he is and I know what he is. I want him out of the White House; he's not a citizen; he could have been removed a long time ago... Ted [Cruz?] told me I've got to wait for the next election. I don't think the country will be around for the next election. Obama tried to blow up a nuke in Charleston a few months ago! And the three admirals, and generals. He has totally destroyed our military. He's fired all the generals and all the admirals that said they wouldn't fire on the American people.
(And, yes, there is a tale told on the InfoWars right that the president's plot to destroy Charleston with a "false flag" nuclear detonation was foiled a while back.)

And what does Rick Santorum, a leader of his party, have to say to this crazy person? Does he suggest she seek help? Does he summon the police, an ambulance, a fire hose spraying liquid Thorazine? No, he says this:

"I'm not a sitting member of the Senate, so I'm not taking blame for any of that stuff."
A real profile in courage, this guy.

This is the party that modern conservatism has built, brick by brick, one indulged lunatic at a time, over the past 60 years. I leave the details to Rick Perlstein, but there is no question that this was a conscious choice made over time by one of the only two political parties that we have allowed ourselves. It began with the decision to side with the remnants of American apartheid. It continued with the decision to ally itself with the most virulently retrograde elements of American Protestantism. It was energized by the tragic historical truth that this stuff is an effective means of gaining political power. The thinking became more and more magical. The rhetoric became more and more unhinged. The willingness of the Republican party to tolerate an almost limitless amount of sheer public lunacy has led us to this moment, where the only answer Santorum dares give to a woman who believes the president intended to nuke an American city was to say that he wasn't in Washington at the time.

There is no Republican middle any more. Pundits go searching for it and never return. Their bleached bones are found two years later in a ditch surrounding an Iowa cornfield, or their entrails are discovered hanging from a pine tree in northern New Hampshire as a warning to anyone else who dares undertake the quest. Just over the past few days, we have seen two alleged Republican "moderates" take positions that, a decade ago, would have marked them as fringe nuisances.

There is Senator Mark Kirk from Illinois, who finds himself entangled in the brilliant Republican gambit of using a bill designed to halt human trafficking as a Trojan horse for some truly oppressive anti-choice legislation. Called on this obvious chicanery, on which he himself has called bullshit, this is what allegedly moderate Republican Senator Mark Kirk said:

"[Senate Democrats] are making the same mistake that Democrats made in the 1850s when they defended slavery," he said. "We should all be neo-abolitionists here, to make sure that there is no right in America to enslave others using the Internet."
The distance between Kirk's historical analogy and what that lady in South Carolina believes the president is conspiring to do is not vast at all.

Then, there's Jeb (!) Bush, the choice of what is alleged to be the Republican "establishment," winner of the "money primary," calling for the outright abolition of the federally mandated minimum wage.

"We need to leave it to the private sector. I think state minimum wages are fine. The federal government shouldn't be doing this. This is one of those poll-driven deals. It polls well, I'm sure – I haven't looked at the polling, but I'm sure on the surface without any conversation, without any digging into it people say, 'Yea, everybody's wages should be up.' And in the case of Wal-Mart they have raised wages because of supply and demand and that's good. But the federal government doing this will make it harder and harder for the first rung of the ladder to be reached, particularly for young people, particularly for people that have less education."
Spoken like a man identified on his birth certificate with an account number instead of a name. As it happens, I'm reading The Sleepwalkers, Christopher Clark's terrific book about the run-up to World War I. We marvel today at the utter blind stupidity with which the European powers stumbled into a cataclysm. Centuries from now, historians, probably working on houseboats floating above what used to be Delaware, are going to look back at this period in our history and wonder how we tolerated a political party gone so completely mad, much less how we continued to empower it, election after election. They are going to marvel at how all the institutions designed to check the spread of the madness refused to look at it and call it what it is. These people are going to think American democracy was some sort of weird contagion that overcame the country, like ergot infecting the nation's wheatfields. They're going to believe we all just went crazy and ate ourselves.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: 2016election; conspiracytheory; crackpot; gop; hugebatsflewout; lunacy; nutcase; republicanparty; republicans; ricksantorum; santorum; townhall
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To: Kaled

Libertarians are anti-conservative, we cannot unite on the leftist agenda that they fight for.

Here is the leftists agenda hidden behind the Libertarian Party curtain.

Libertarian Party Platform:

Throw open the borders completely; only a rare individual (terrorist, disease carrier etc.) can be kept from freedom of movement through “political boundaries”.

Homosexuals; total freedom in the military, gay marriage, adoption, child custody and everything else.

Abortion; zero restrictions or impediments full 9 months.

Pornography; no restraint, no restrictions,.

Drugs; Meth, Heroin, Crack, and anything new that science can come up with, zero restrictions, full marketing.

Advertising those drugs, prostitution, and pornography; zero restrictions.

Military Strength; minimal capabilities.


21 posted on 03/23/2015 8:05:46 AM PDT by ansel12 (Palin--Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.)
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To: Lazamataz

I hardly find it necessary to add my own mockery after quoting a crazy lady who think the President of the United States tried to nuke Charleston.


22 posted on 03/23/2015 8:05:46 AM PDT by Kaled (Ronald Reagan: If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism)
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To: Kaled

I note your leftist rant about “Because I am a Conservative” was pulled. You are not long for being zotted yourself.


23 posted on 03/23/2015 8:07:13 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The FCC takeover of the internet will quickly become a means to censorship of dissent.)
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To: Lazamataz

What leftist rant?


24 posted on 03/23/2015 8:08:41 AM PDT by Kaled (Ronald Reagan: If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism)
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To: Kaled

The article you posted, “Because I am a Conservative”, that lied about important conservative positions outright.

You expressed approval of the article, and it was pulled by the moderator outright, because it was pure bulls***.

I guaran-damn-tee you, you will not last very long here.


25 posted on 03/23/2015 8:10:42 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The FCC takeover of the internet will quickly become a means to censorship of dissent.)
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To: Lazamataz
This one? What, specifically, are the alleged lies? I'm not sure how you could find them, unless you can read the author's mind and determine that he does not believe what he professes to believe.
26 posted on 03/23/2015 8:15:35 AM PDT by Kaled (Ronald Reagan: If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism)
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To: Kaled

I no longer bother to converse with leftists. I simply assist in getting them banned.


27 posted on 03/23/2015 8:21:11 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The FCC takeover of the internet will quickly become a means to censorship of dissent.)
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To: Lazamataz

Haven’t seen any leftists around here (though some of the “conservatives” are dismayingly soft on Big Government).


28 posted on 03/23/2015 8:27:04 AM PDT by Kaled (Ronald Reagan: If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism)
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To: Kaled
Dude, cut the act. YOU are a leftist. You posted a big pile of steaming dog crap, and then expressed approval of it.

On one point of that article, ALONE, you are a leftist Bloomberg-gun control advocate. The guy calls for 'reasonable gun control' which is code for the Bloomberg agenda. No conservative goes for this crap.

You are a leftist and I shall make it my work to see you gone.

29 posted on 03/23/2015 8:31:07 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The FCC takeover of the internet will quickly become a means to censorship of dissent.)
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To: Kaled

Finally, you got zotted, what a little insect you were.


30 posted on 03/23/2015 12:24:46 PM PDT by ansel12 (Palin--Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.)
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