The Moral Obligation of Knowing What the Heck Is Going On

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Introduction to a Disjointed Rant, or
Prolegomena to Any Future Diatribes

So the Supreme Court of the State of Colorado determined that Donald Trump was ineligible to be on the ballot in Colorado, and so I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you. I thought it was time for me to share my heart.

This all just happened yesterday, and Twitter is all in a doodah, and I don’t have much time, which means that my thoughts here might seem a little like a stream of consciousness project, meaning like Gertrude Stein after a couple of beers. I am afraid have to ask all of you to simply deal with it. We are in hot pursuit of the white stag of truth, and the white stag of truth waits for no man. If you want to take the white stag of truth down you have to say whatever comes into your head. So to speak.

Did I say this was going to be disjointed?

Let’s begin with the absolute need for no shilly-shallying, which means that we shall resort to a pointed metaphor. This court decision was a misbegotten cross between a jackal and a hyena, and the cub was ugly even by the standards of those two species. Nothing like a cheetah or a gazelle, because those are graceful, like way below that, and then this critter was not even up to that low mark. One does not expect much from the Colorado Supreme Court, and this was still disappointing. The lineage was one thing against it, for starters, and it was buck-toothed and cross-eyed on top of everything else.

When we consider the legality of what they did, I am astonished that they didn’t remove Trump from the ballot in Nebraska also. After all, Nebraska touches Colorado. You say that they have no authority to remove him from the ballot in Nebraska? Ah, say I. Then how did they remove him from the ballot in Colorado then? Just do it. Look up the arguments later. The Times will back you.

So this decision was handed down in Colorado. I need to remind everyone that pot was legalized there about ten years ago. Let’s keep this thing in context.

Do you want evidence that the bad guys cheated big time in 2020? Do you require some evidence that they are going to cheat big time in 2024? The answer to that question, ladies and gentlemen, lies before you stretched out on that stainless steel table, the kind they use in morgues. We know that they have cheated, and that they will continue to cheat, and we know this because they ARE cheating. They are cheating in broad daylight, with reporters covering it all, and taking notes, and with the cameras running. I am writing this blog post in response to the national story of how the Colorado Supreme Court gathered up their black robes in order to run a relay race for the gold in the Cheating Championship. This is naked election interference. This is an assault on all the voters of Colorado, not just the ones who were going to vote for Trump. The effrontery takes the breath away.

Suppose someone offers as counter evidence the fact that Hillary lost in 2016, and says that this is evidence that they didn’t cheat in that one, and so they aren’t cheaters, right, and so what about that? Hmmm? The reply to this argument is that not only are they corrupt, they are also conceited. They thought they had that one in the bag, and so there was no need to waste any of their resources—for they are also covetous—to put away an election that they believed in their conceits that they had already put away.

You do realize that the Federal Election Commission is going to need to investigate the Colorado Supreme Court over what appears to be an “in kind” contribution to the Trump campaign. In fact, some enterprising prosecutor in some suitably woke place, Rhode Island, say, needs to file another felony charge against Donald Trump for bribing the Colorado Supremes into doing this thing for him.

In the meantime, Vivek Ramaswamy has said that he is not going to compete in Colorado if Trump is not on the ballot there, and he called on the other Republican contenders to boycott Colorado for the same reason. You know that it is crazytoons time when the Hindu acts like a Christian and the Christians act like, you know, Christians.

This one is going straight up to the Supreme Court, and I can imagine that a lot of strange and colorful oaths are filling up those chambers right now. The Colorado judges handed the baby to the federal Supremes, and it appears they did it on purpose. They might be lunatics, but they’re not crazy. You see, the Colorado justices made this decision, and then vacated it until January 4, 2024, which is just a few weeks from now. This means that if the SCOTUS picks up this case by that date, then Trump will be on the ballot in Colorado. If they don’t take the case, then he won’t be—and SCOTUS becomes the bad guy, and the Colorado johnnies fade into the background. Like I said, strange and colorful oaths.

You see, this action by the Colorado justices is an example of manifest corruption. This is about as lame, and stupid, and imbecilic, and half-baked, and preposterous as you can get, and remember, these are the times when there is lots of competition in all those categories. This is straight out of Venezuela, bananas and all.

So as it stands now, the SCOTUS has a flat out binary choice. They either take the case or they don’t. If they don’t, then the federal Supremes will be as discredited as the Colorado guys, which is Pretty Discredited—regime hacks in robes. By this point the Colorado guys are like an old ratty T-shirt that got down into the sump pump well last year, and is wrapped around the filter. And so if they take the case, they either have to side with Colorado, or side with Trump. There is no evading this one. Either they blow up the credibility of their institution, not to mention the credibility of all future U.S. elections, or . . . they side with Donald Trump. And if they side with Trump, they still have to attend wine and cheese events in the DC area, the ones hosted by the cool kids. The cool kids are the ones who think that the Colorado court was stunning and brave.

But in the meantime, Lady Justice is looking out at America, and by this point her eyes look like a couple of Kumamoto oysters that have been dead for a week.

I try to imagine myself residing in my old digs, meaning my 2016 head space, back when I didn’t believe any of Donald Trump’s political promises, not even one. I opposed him root and branch, all through the primaries. I refused to vote for him in the general because I flat didn’t believe him. I wrote somebody else in, and no, I won’t tell you who. He has not exactly covered himself with glory since that time.

But then, as that 2016 evening wore on, and it began to look as though . . . no, no, forget Trump . . . it began to look as though Hillary was going to lose, I began to experience my first . . . no, it was not a religious experience. But it was like a warm glow, beginning at my ankles and working its way up. It began to appear that I was not going to have to spend the first ten minutes of my devotional time in the mornings getting my heart right, preparing myself to face another day of President Hillary. A modicum of gratitude to the this strange Trump-man began to creep into my hard heart. And then, do you know what he did? All those promises that I didn’t believe? He started keeping them.

But I got derailed. Suppose that warm glow never did get north of my ankles. Suppose I had failed to recognize that he appointed a bunch of good guys to the federal courts. Suppose we didn’t have him to thank for the destruction of Roe. Suppose all of that, and the cynical citizen from 2016 that was me was rudely confronted with the commies’ use of the courts today in order to prosecute and hound a political opponent. Suppose I was still in the place where I could not see any redeeming qualities about Trump himself. What would I do in this circumstance? What would I do with this pig’s breakfast? I would absolutely vote for Trump in 2024 because it would be the only plausible way to strike a blow against this regime rot.

And this leads to the final point. SCOTUS has a moment of truth coming straight at them, and all within the next couple of weeks. But so do all those never-Trump evangelicals. If they are not the loudest voices in opposition to this, standing against this naked assault on our freedoms, then they will have done nothing but add their names to history’s long roster of quislings and rotters—a roster already too long.

If they try to protest this judgment, using their standard line against Trump that “character matters,” my response to them would not be gentle. It would run something along the lines of “yeah, character matters, but not your character apparently.” Character matters, but not the character of the regime you are trying to pretend still has some legitimacy.

You won’t support Trump because he appears grimy in your eyes, and so you wind up supporting a regime that looks grimy to the whole world. And so it became a byword in Israel . . . behold how the fastidious have themselves become grimy.

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Elizabeth
Elizabeth
11 months ago

Yes. Indeed.

Matthew Abate
Matthew Abate
11 months ago

The latest on this fiasco in Colorado is that the GOP has decided to close down the primary and go down the caucus route. Here’s some intel on that point: https://youtu.be/dQnKwkyxmx4?si=6lS69RKDVwKM1F16

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago
Reply to  Matthew Abate

Good. It never made any sense that any state did anything but a caucus. Its like NFL teams deciding to choose their draft picks based on viewers phoning in.

Primaries are not public elections. It never made any sense to treat them like public elections.

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

The argument in favor of primaries is that you get more participation. I understand you may or may not consider that a good thing.

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

I’m less concerned with quantity of participation and more concerned with quality of participation. Primaries encourage a low quality of participation in that it is easily possible to never lift a finger to learn any material facts happening in an election yet still confidently cast your vote. That said, my ethical stance on the issue would not be assuaged by alleged benefits in one way or the other. The primaries are not determining who holds a political office. They’re determining who receives personal support from one of the political parties. Those political parties are both funded and staffed with volunteers… Read more »

Chris
Chris
11 months ago

Doug, it’s interesting you didn’t engage with the language of the document. How do you interpret this?Fourteenth Amendment  Equal Protection and Other RightsSection 3 Disqualification from Holding OfficeNo person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the… Read more »

Chris
Chris
11 months ago
Reply to  Douglas Wilson

I’m far from a legal expert (obviously) but ‘shall have engaged’ doesn’t seem predicated on a conviction.

And I’m far from a historian (obviously) but were there trials and convictions of confederate politicians after the Civil War?

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
11 months ago
Reply to  Douglas Wilson

Well, this is a bit like OJ Simpson being found liable in a civil trial after a criminal jury acquitted him. Same idea. In the Colorado case, the trial court held an extensive evidentiary hearing with witnesses and exhibits, and then found, as a fact, that Trump did engage in insurrection. The Colorado Supreme Court is bound by the fact findings of the trial court. So the issue before them is not whether Trump engaged in insurrection — the trial court already answered that question — but rather what the remedy should be. This is an issue the US Supreme… Read more »

Dan
Dan
11 months ago

You likely believe Biden got 82 million votes and there was not widespread voting fraud in 2020. What happened in CO was also simply fraud right in your face. They’re rubbing it in your face just like the 2020 election.

Rob
Rob
10 months ago
Reply to  Dan

I believe Biden probably did get close to 82 million, but much less is required to win an election, whether fraudulently (or not). I think Georgia was only 20K that made the difference and was similar to the other battle ground states. Our voting system is broken and I’m afraid will not ever be secure again due to lawlessness. Regardless of whether fraudulent (or not) our inability to ever “trust” the results is the real damage to democracy.

Last edited 10 months ago by Rob
J. J. Griffing
J. J. Griffing
10 months ago
Reply to  Rob

Georgia got a lottery-ticket’s worth of Biden-only ballots at about 0300 on the day after (that is, in the middle of the night following) the vote. In one single vote-counting precinct. There was nothing in the GA proceedings that was even slightly honest or above-board: Tammany Hall would have been emerald with envy for how brazenly Fulton County got away with it (now even getting a judgement against Giuliani for having called the cheaters “cheaters” whom we all saw cheating on publicly-released security video.

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

It is not a civil trial, but the underlying problem is…… he didn’t engage in insurrection. By no rational definition did he engage in anything even vaguely resembling an insurrection. I’m not Trump bootlicker, I have written more thoroughly criticizing his performance in detail than those who outright hate him. Nevertheless, if you say he lead an insurrection, you’re simply factually wrong. Now did the court declare that he did? Well yes, and here’s where we get into the heart of Doug’s piece. Now that you’re making nation altering decisions in broad daylight that flatly ignore the truth, we’re going… Read more »

Last edited 10 months ago by Justin Parris
Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

People who disagree with court decisions frequently make the claim that the court flatly ignored the facts, the law, or both. I personally think this lawsuit is a political stunt and an incredibly stupid idea and I would have been happy if the court had found a way to dismiss the case without reaching the question of whether he engaged in insurrection. But I actually read the decisions –both of them, the trial court and the Colorado Supreme Court — and I’m not convinced they were wrong. I do think that whether it was technically an insurrection or not, everything… Read more »

Jim in Austin
Jim in Austin
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

Trump himself did not engage in an insurrection. Some of his supporters attempted to, however. The question is whether he did or did not *incite* an insurrection through his words. I think a case could be made for that, but I also believe that people are solely responsible for their own actions. That people chose to take statements of questionable accuracy at face value and engage in illegal activities because of those statements is on them, IMO. I recall a time when the news was relayed dispassionately and with an effort to relay the truth. Now? It’s impossible to trust… Read more »

J. J. Griffing
J. J. Griffing
10 months ago
Reply to  Jim in Austin

Seeing that the said “insurrection” on 06 January ’21 was against Trump and his supporters, as a false-flag entrapment scam, it’s richer than Croesus that he’s the one guilty of it until proven incontrovertibly innocent (like that’s allowed) in courts of law.

Andrew Lohr
Andrew Lohr
11 months ago
Reply to  Chris

The 14th had in mind a four-year war in which hundreds of thousands of men got shot. Jan 6th was a one-day riot in which one woman got shot, and Trump exhorted “peacefully.”. These are in “fact” the same thing?

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
11 months ago
Reply to  Andrew Lohr

The insurrection wasn’t the one day riot although that was part of it. The insurrection was submitting phony slates of electors. First Trump lost the popular vote. Then he lost the electoral vote. Then he tried to get the Georgia Secretary of State to find him another 10,000 votes or whatever the number was that he needed in Georgia. Then he tried to get the Michigan and Arizona legislatures to simply cancel their results and appoint Republican electors even though Biden carried those states. Then he tried to get Mike Pence to cancel the results. And then he tried to… Read more »

Cherrera
Cherrera
11 months ago

Keep in mind, Kathleen tried to justify the real insurrection: 6+ months of burning, looting, murder, assaults, shutting down interstates & attacking cars, to the tune of over $2 billion in damage, over 30 deaths and hundreds of injured police officers. All for Fentanyl St. Floyd, career criminal and porn star. Remember, too, these rioters had the blessings of seditionists like Pelosi, AOC and VP Harris, who even helped bail them out. Those riots, which happened to start at practically the same time in dozens of places (many of which never experienced riots before or since) were almost certainly more… Read more »

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
11 months ago
Reply to  Cherrera

Oh really. When did I justify the Floyd riots? I don’t remember if I said it here since this is not the only blog I sometimes comment on, but at the time I said those responsible should go to prison. My position then was that rioting and looting are unacceptable and those responsible should be criminally prosecuted. So Cherrera is simply lying.

And I would say the fact that Dominion won a defamation lawsuit against Fox News is pretty good evidence that the claims against them were nonsense.

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

And I would say the fact that Dominion won a defamation lawsuit against Fox News is pretty good evidence that the claims against them were nonsense.”

They didn’t win anything. They settled.

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

Right, it paid out millions of dollars after discovery showed internal Fox emails in which Fox acknowledged that the claims it had made against Dominion weren’t true, and their own reporters and newscasters didn’t believe them. As a practical matter, Dominion won that lawsuit.

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

As a practical matter, it is misleading at best, as a charitable interpretation, to misrepresent a court as having come to a finding of fact that did not come to a finding of fact. Much like its misleading at best, as a charitable interpretation, to say that most of Trump’s election claims were disproven. They weren’t. Most were dismissed for lack of standing. This was the key mistake in how his claims were handled from a civil unrest perspective. If you can’t test the election results when there are claims of fraud, you definitionally can never know for certain whether… Read more »

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

Justin, except that in most cases it wasn’t about trusting one’s enemies. The Arizona and Georgia election officials were all Republicans. Trump’s own attorney general, who told him he’d lost the election, was a Republican. As with the Colorado litigation being brought by Republicans, it was mostly Trump’s fellow Republicans who were counting the votes, determining that Biden had won, and certifying that result. Often in the face of huge hostility and personal attacks from their own party. I could understand your skepticism if it were a bunch of Democrats who were counting the votes in Georgia, Wisconsin, and Arizona,… Read more »

Chris
Chris
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

And this church is enlisting the help of the same law firm that represented Dominion in that settlement, while still pushing the narrative that it was stolen. Cognitive, meet dissonance.

Dave
Dave
10 months ago

Kathleen, documents are now coming to light that detail various US agencies paying social media to alter their programs to throttle or delete those posters pointing out constitutional violations and breaches of US law to keep Trump from being spoken about truthfully during his tenure and through the 2020 election cycle. We see the trail of executive department officials deliberately not following their legal directives.

Should those high ranking FBI, CIA, DOJ, HLS, and NIH officials be taken to court?

Who is supposed to take them to court?

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Dave

Assuming those documents turn out to be legitimate and aren’t yet another Trump conspiracy theory, then yes, certainly, they should be taken to court. As for who, that would depend on the specifics. Presumably anyone who suffered injury would have standing. But here is my question to you: Trump has years of documented experience as a con man who lies pretty much every time he opens his mouth. He lied to get business loans, he lied to stiff his creditors, he lied to the people he sold products to. If he hadn’t been born to wealth, he’d probably be running… Read more »

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

Assuming those documents turn out to be legitimate and aren’t yet another Trump conspiracy theory”

How they would be a Trump conspiracy theory when Trump has nothing to do with them is an interesting question…….

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

I don’t know that he has nothing to do with them. Since Dave didn’t even provide a citation I don’t even know what documents he’s talking about.

Cherrera
Cherrera
10 months ago

No, once again you’re the liar: https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/letters-5-12-20-2-2-2-2-12-62.html#comment-245512 “Without justifying it, it then becomes far easier to understand why our cities erupted in rage last summer following the murder of George Floyd. So I hope Doug’s bad experience with law enforcement will temper his hostility toward BLM. Maybe they have a point after all.” Without justifying but then justifying it. You can’t have it both ways. This kind of sin clearly condemned Biblically (Prov. 1:10-19, Ps. 50:18). It’s not justified because so-called “oppressed” people seize the opportunity to loot, burn, destroy, beat up elderly business owners, shoot fireworks and throw bricks… Read more »

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Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

First Trump lost the popular vote. “

not relevant

” Then he lost the electoral vote.”

That’s the point under contention.

“Then he tried……”

He tried to lawfully contest election results. Something incredibly common to the point that it happens in almost every election now. Presenting alternate slates of electors is not nearly as uncommon as you might imagine, strange though it is considering it never seems to work. No one else ever gets accused of “insurrection” for doing precisely the same thing.

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

Justin, he lost. Any claims to the contrary are him flat out lying about it to his gullible followers.

I was raised by John Birchers; I know ridiculous conspiracy theories when I hear one. This is nothing more than a ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

I didn’t claim that he didn’t lose. That’s not why I pointed out its the point under contention. In short, when evaluating someone else’s behavior, you don’t get to treat them as though they secretly believe the same set of facts that you believe. Abortion is an obvious example. Whether or not you support it or oppose it nearly entirely revolves around understanding of fact. Do you or do you not believe that it kills a person? People with identical sets of values come to opposing conclusions based on this difference of fact. How it applies here is he is… Read more »

Cherrera
Cherrera
11 months ago
Reply to  Chris

It wasn’t a “failed” attempt. They weren’t armed and didn’t put up a fight inside. We’ve seen similar things before, like protesters crossing police lines while protesting the Kavanaugh confirmation. There was a coordinated media/political effort to call it an insurrection from Day 1…so they could push the silly 14A narrative.

Here’s what a real insurrection and mob attack looks like in Sarajevo…I mean Baghdad….I mean Minneapolis.

Minneapolis.jpg
Chris
Chris
10 months ago
Reply to  Cherrera

Cherrera, was there a constitutional process of the peaceful transition of power taking place in Minneapolis that day? And my eyes aren’t too good, but I don’t see any gallows being stood up, sitting presidents, or even congressmen at this event.

Very different event, with very different people responsible.

Dan
Dan
11 months ago

Your 2016 self was right about Trump. Did he lock her up? Did he drain the swamp? Did he get rid of the deficit in 4 years? Did he really do anything conservative? But you’re correct about what Colorado did, and I fully support SCOTUS overturning this. Desantis will still have my vote.

TedR
TedR
10 months ago
Reply to  Dan

Doug has addressed the idea of locking up political enemies. It isn’t clear cut and takes far more wisdom then the “just lock her up” crowd is capable of mustering.

with regard to conservative things Trump did… really? The list is quite long. SCOTUS appointees being at the top of the list as well as appointing good judges in the lower courts. Blasting a big hole in the administrative state cannot be forgotten. But gee, I could go on but it’s like all there for everyone to see.

Dan
Dan
10 months ago
Reply to  TedR

Are we talking about the same transgender affirming justices Trump appointed? The ones who kept casinos open and churches closed. The ones who did not side with Alito and Thomas (and Gorsuch) and ruled against US Navy Seals for refusing a vaccine because it violated their sincerely held religious beliefs? I’m sorry, I have a different definition of the term conservative. You’re going to have to expound upon this big hole Trump blasted in the administrative state. Are you referring to when he really spoke down to Fauci once or twice? You have to go back to Kennedy to find… Read more »

Dave
Dave
10 months ago
Reply to  Dan

Dan, the US Supreme Court justices have for the better part of a century been blown about by the winds of change with only a few able to stand firm on the constitution as they are supposed to do.

Ross
Ross
10 months ago
Reply to  Dan

Desantis is so far and away superior to Trump in EVERY way that to think otherwise makes me think one is truly a cult member.

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
11 months ago

By the way, I have just learned that the Colorado lawsuit was filed by six Republicans. This was not an effort by Democrats to keep him off the ballot; this is an effort by Republicans to keep him off the ballot. Most likely because he’s the candidate Biden is most likely to beat.

PugnaciousPill
11 months ago

I assume you are aware of the Lincoln Project? These are “Republicans in Name” but certainly are outside the bounds of the party, as it currently stands. Their motive was not about ensuring a Republican victory in 2024, it’s the same as it’s always been; namely, #NeverTrump.

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  PugnaciousPill

As a Democrat I’m not going to get into what is and is not a “true” Republican. That’s not my call. But I can think of several reasons why many Republicans (including “true” Republicans, whatever that is) would be never Trumpists. I will acknowledge that some of the talk I’ve heard about who is a true Republican sounds a lot like the no true Scotsman fallacy to me. For one thing, as I already said, I think he’s basically unelectable. 2016 was a very strange year and I don’t think it can be duplicated, or that a lot of the… Read more »

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

The “no true Republican” issue has a history to it which makes it sensitive. For the decades leading up to Trump, really since the end of Reagan, there’s been two groups of Republicans, “values” or “grass roots” Republicans, and who they would call RINOs but for the sake of being objective I’ll just call beneficiaries. The Bush family, the Romneys, the McCains, Mitch McConnells. Well decades went by and the grassroots show up, and they donate money, and time, and hopes, and the beneficiaries through some really great dinners. Really they were some lovely events, where you could meet very… Read more »

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

I would argue there are actually four kinds of Republicans: The social conservatives who care about abortion and gay marriage; the Main Street Republicans who want the government to facilitate them making money; the libertarian Republicans who want minimalist government; and the deplorables who are, well, deplorable. (Much as I wish Hillary Clinton hadn’t used that line, it is an accurate description of one faction of the GOP.) Part of the GOP’s problem is that those four agendas are in conflict, which is why it’s easier for Democrats to get things done than it is for Republicans to get things… Read more »

Ross
Ross
10 months ago

First time on this blog. So you were raised by Birchers but now identify as Democrat? Whoa. Were your parents cold and joyless? Curious how one raised in such a house goes so far as to be a 2023 Dem. Are you living a ‘alternate lifestyle’? If so, then it makes sense….

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Ross

Well, that’s a long story. The short answer is that over a long period of time I gradually came to realize I just didn’t agree with the beliefs and values I’d been raised with. I’m far from the only child who’s ever done that.

Justin Parris
Justin Parris
10 months ago

Your first, third, and fourth groups intermingle to such an extent that I don’t think you can really make those distinctions. If you go to a Republican party event and ask people who wants to have a “minimalist government”, virtually every single person will tell you “yes”. They just differ in which part of the “minimal” should remain. “ I do not see how any of them can claim exclusive rights to the GOP name” Oh none of them can, its a meaningless phrase. Though at the time “RINO” came into prominence, there were much more clearly two factions we could… Read more »

William Smith
William Smith
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

At the risk of seeming persnickety and pedantic, Mr. Parris – and perhaps taking your point a bit further – I’d like to overhaul the “RINO” designation altogether. Frequently, those using it appear to believe the Republican Party to be the true bastion of conservatism, with folks like the Bushes, Romneys, Cheneys, et al, being the aberrations. No, these are museum quality specimens of the GOP apparatus from its inception, a party devoted to corporate welfare, central banking, foreign entanglements, etc.! The aberrations are many of us Deplorables and grass-roots folks, along with (albeit often imperfectly) Reagan, the Pauls, Buchanan,… Read more »

John Middleton
John Middleton
10 months ago

Except, don’t you mean “Wall Street” Republicans? The maximum profit motivated ones I mean. Minor quibble.

Ross
Ross
10 months ago
Reply to  Justin Parris

Even though Trump played along with most of those (exempting the Bushes) ‘beneficiaries’ you mentioned. Yet the Trump crowd including apparently Doug W see’s none of it. Friend of Bruce Jenner, LGBTQ events at Mar a Lago. backing Bud Light (stop the boycott!) eh….no matter…..Trump is the one! Clown world indeed

Kathleen Zielinski
Kathleen Zielinski
10 months ago
Reply to  Ross

Ross, you might be surprised at just how many Bruce Jenner/LGBTQ folk vote Republican. Makes no sense to me either.

The Commenter Formerly Known As fp
The Commenter Formerly Known As fp
10 months ago

Kathleen Liezinski: “I have just learned that the Colorado lawsuit was filed by six Republicans.” As usual, what you think you know just ain’t so. Here are the six who brought the lawsuit: Norma Anderson: Left the GOP, Feb 17, 2021. Michelle Priola: Unaffiliated. Wife of state senator Kevin Priola, who switched his party affiliation to Democrat from Republican in 2022. Claudine Schneider (née Cmarada): Republican [in name only]. Registered in 2022. Endorsed Democrats Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020. Krista Kafer: Republican. Also what people euphemistically refer to as a “journalist”. Mixed… Read more »

Last edited 10 months ago by The Commenter Formerly Known As fp
John
John
10 months ago

Amazing how Trump engaged in legal challenges to the results, offered 10,000 troops to secure the capitol, and encouraged his supporters “march to the Capitol to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” and following a riot, he is accused of an insurrection by people who: 1) denied his offer of protection to the Capitol, 2) cheered on an entire summer of violent riots, 3) refused to prosecute violent rioters, 4) donated money to bail violent rioters out of prison. January 6 was awful, and I condemn it; however, anyone who cheered the summer of 2020 and suddenly wants heads… Read more »