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Message
Faster, Steve Bannon. Kill! Kill!
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:31 am
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:31 am
Although none here will like the Kagan's ultimate conclusion or allusions to Hitler in this notably sarcastic op-ed, there are some great truths that I think many will enjoy. Plus, the title is incredible.
LINK
quote:
Rarely has a political party more deserved the destruction the Republican Party may be about to suffer at the hands of President Trump’s former strategist, ideological guru and onetime puppeteer Steve Bannon. It was obvious during the earliest days of the campaign that Trump never intended to be either the leader or the protector of the Republican Party. He had contempt for the party. For one thing, it was a proven loser. For another, it crumpled like stick figures under his steamroller. Who could respect people who fell so easily, and so willingly?
quote:
Party leaders were especially contemptible in Trump’s eyes. They couldn’t even see what he was doing to them, or if they did, they were too cowardly to stop him. He had contempt for them when they tried to distance themselves from his racist, sexist and all around antisocial behavior. But he had even more contempt for them when they nevertheless came crawling back to him, again and again, pledging their fealty. He knew they came back not because they approved of him but because they feared him and the political following he commanded. He had stolen the hearts of their constituents, and therefore he owned them. He would use them as needed, and dispose of them when he could, knowing they could do nothing about it. “I saw them at Munich,” Hitler said of his British and French counterparts, whom he dubbed “little worms.”
quote:
Now the conquest is in full swing. Trump and Bannon put on a little Kabuki play for us this year. After a few months, it became clear that Bannon had become a lightning rod in the White House, the target of endless sniping from disgruntled Republicans and fellow staffers, unable to get anything done in the sludge of the Washington bureaucracy. He was hamstrung. And so they decided he could do more for Trump on the outside. Trump would play the constrained madman, surrounded and controlled by the “adults,” occasionally letting his true feelings be known to his throngs. Meanwhile Bannon would play the gonzo political maestro on the outside, running Trumpists in primaries to knock off establishment types, even hardcore conservative ones. Trump could even pretend to support the establishment’s choice, but his voters would know better. The result would be a rout. Some establishment Republicans would lose, either in the primary or the general; others would be afraid to run for reelection; others would try to suck up to Bannon in the hopes of persuading him not to unleash the hounds;all would try to mimic Trump. And it didn’t matter which path they took: These would all be victories for Trump.
quote:
This is what is happening now. It is the Trumpian Anschluss, the peaceful takeover of a party too craven to fight back. Republican leaders cry, “You’re helping the Democrats win!” But that doesn’t matter to Bannon and Trump. For one thing, it may not even be true, for who can be sure that a thoroughly Trumpist Republican Party won’t be able to defeat a Democratic Party apparently bent on nominating unelectable candidates on the left? But either way, Bannon and Trump undoubtedly believe it is more important to turn the party into Trump’s personal vehicle, to drive out the resisters, the finger-waggers, the losers, the proud scions of the responsible establishment who could not stop Trump and apparently cannot legislate their way out of a paper bag.
quote:
Should we have rooted for Republican leaders to fight back? Sure. And we did. The party would be worth saving if it contained even a dozen women and men of courage. But of course if it did contain such people, it wouldn’t need saving. Today the definition of a brave Republican is someone who is not running for reelection. So rooting for them is no longer an answer. The best thing for the country may be to let the party go. Let it become the party of Trump and Bannon, and as fast as possible. Let the 35 percent of the country who believe Trump is a suitable president, or who hate Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama so much that they would elect Mussolini to the White House, have their party.
quote:
The rest of Republican voters should leave the party until it earns back the right to their support. They should change their registration and start voting for Democratic moderates and centrists, as some Republicans did in Virginia recently, to give them a leg up in their fight against the party’s left wing. A third party of “good Republicans” is a fantasy. This is a two-party country. To defeat one, you have to support the other, either directly or indirectly.Right now the country’s best hope is for a moderate Democratic Party that speaks for that sizable majority of Americans who recognize the peril of seven more years of Trump in the White House. Bannon is doing his part to make that happen. It’s time for Republican voters who care about this country to do theirs.
LINK
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:33 am to GFaceKillah
You sure are melty today. You've shite all over damn near every thread on the board.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:35 am to bamarep
quote:
You sure are melty today. You've shite all over damn near every thread on the board.
You should read the op-ed. There are certainly some statements that you would enjoy in it.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:38 am to GFaceKillah
quote:
Kagan
I will never respect the words of a GOP Never Trumper who actually voted for Hillary Clinton.
They will never get that stench off of themselves.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:40 am to Sentrius
quote:
I will never respect the words of a GOP Never Trumper who actually voted for Hillary Clinton.
No one is asking you to respect him. I'm sure you would agree with his assessment of the current state of the GOP.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:42 am to GFaceKillah
A lot of delusion in that OpEd. But I'm sure Robert Kagan will receive all kinds of atta-boys at tomorrow night's self congratulatory cocktail parties.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:44 am to GFaceKillah
The GOP only has themselves to blame for being such a shitty party where it was possible for someone like Donald Trump could come in and completely conquer it like Alexander the Great conquered much of the known world.
If they actually upheld their promises to their voters and passed the agenda, they wouldn't be sweating bullets and shitting bricks living in fear of Bannon right now.
If they actually upheld their promises to their voters and passed the agenda, they wouldn't be sweating bullets and shitting bricks living in fear of Bannon right now.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:45 am to GFaceKillah
Kagan is right in a lot of ways.
I think the most interesting question regarding the "how Trump won" question has never been asked.
How did the Republicans and the Democrats simultaneously find themselves so lost that Trump beat them both?
Neither party was prepared.
Why not?
What have they both forgotten?
It's not the Dems fault totally for going all in on identity politics. It's not conservatives fault for all being racist misogynists.
How did we get to a place in our history where Trump was able to do what very few thought he could.
Both sides really need to step back and reexamine what DC is supposed to be doing and how they are supposed to do it.
ETA: Normally I don't read your shite. Glad I did.
I think the most interesting question regarding the "how Trump won" question has never been asked.
How did the Republicans and the Democrats simultaneously find themselves so lost that Trump beat them both?
Neither party was prepared.
Why not?
What have they both forgotten?
It's not the Dems fault totally for going all in on identity politics. It's not conservatives fault for all being racist misogynists.
How did we get to a place in our history where Trump was able to do what very few thought he could.
Both sides really need to step back and reexamine what DC is supposed to be doing and how they are supposed to do it.
ETA: Normally I don't read your shite. Glad I did.
This post was edited on 10/12/17 at 10:49 am
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:47 am to GFaceKillah
quote:
The best thing for the country may be to let the party go. Let it become the party of Trump and Bannon, and as fast as possible. Let the 35 percent of the country who believe Trump is a suitable president, or who hate Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama so much that they would elect Mussolini to the White House, have their party.
Kagan is such an Establishmentarian little bitch it's painful. He can't understand that people like him are the reason Trump was elected.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:47 am to Sentrius
quote:
The GOP only has themselves to blame for being such a shitty party where it was possible for someone like Donald Trump could come in and completely conquer it like Alexander the Great conquered much of the known world.
If they actually upheld their promises to their voters and passed the agenda, they wouldn't be sweating bullets and shitting bricks living in fear of Bannon right now.
Agreed. And that is the point he is making.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:48 am to GumboPot
quote:
A lot of delusion in that OpEd. But I'm sure Robert Kagan will receive all kinds of atta-boys at tomorrow night's self congratulatory cocktail parties.
Delusion? I see many of his points about the weakness of the GOP repeated here every day.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:50 am to GFaceKillah
quote:
Let the 35 percent of the country who believe Trump is a suitable president, or who hate Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama so much that they would elect Mussolini to the White House, have their party.
quote:
They should change their registration and start voting for Democratic moderates and centrists
quote:
Right now the country’s best hope is for a moderate Democratic Party that speaks for that sizable majority of Americans who recognize the peril of seven more years of Trump in the White House. Bannon is doing his part to make that happen. It’s time for Republican voters who care about this country to do theirs.
These people are so far out of touch with reality. It's amazing.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:50 am to GFaceKillah
Hmmm, his bio at the link you provided:
"Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Post. Kagan served in the State Department from 1984 to 1988 as a member of the Policy Planning Staff, as principal speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and as deputy for policy in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs. He is the author of “The Return of History and the End of Dreams” (2008), “Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century” (2006), “Of Paradise and Power” (2003), and “A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990” (1996), and he is co-editor with William Kristol of “Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign Policy” (2000)."
Could have sworn he was the guy who wrote that book in the 90's, "War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning." Guess not though.
But anyway. Lessee:
1) "Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution" Yeah, that's where everyone goes to get Republican strategy advice.
2) "he is co-editor with William Kristol of “Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign Policy” (2000)"
Billy Kristol. *Cough.
Look, tell me something. Kind of a "Guide For The Perplexed" kind of thing. How do you know when someone is actually smart and has insight into something? Because I've read a few pieces by this guy over the years, and he has always seemed like a two-bit hack.
So how do I know if the guy has chops? Or just has the right policy positions, worldview, and the right friends, so he gets op-ed gigs and book projects (for books that almost no one will ever read, alone take any guidance from).
"Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Post. Kagan served in the State Department from 1984 to 1988 as a member of the Policy Planning Staff, as principal speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and as deputy for policy in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs. He is the author of “The Return of History and the End of Dreams” (2008), “Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century” (2006), “Of Paradise and Power” (2003), and “A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990” (1996), and he is co-editor with William Kristol of “Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign Policy” (2000)."
Could have sworn he was the guy who wrote that book in the 90's, "War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning." Guess not though.
But anyway. Lessee:
1) "Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution" Yeah, that's where everyone goes to get Republican strategy advice.
2) "he is co-editor with William Kristol of “Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign Policy” (2000)"
Billy Kristol. *Cough.
Look, tell me something. Kind of a "Guide For The Perplexed" kind of thing. How do you know when someone is actually smart and has insight into something? Because I've read a few pieces by this guy over the years, and he has always seemed like a two-bit hack.
So how do I know if the guy has chops? Or just has the right policy positions, worldview, and the right friends, so he gets op-ed gigs and book projects (for books that almost no one will ever read, alone take any guidance from).
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:53 am to GFaceKillah
quote:
And that is the point he is making.
Nope.
He's another blowhard who's still stuck in the establishment bubble and if he's capable of voting for Hillary while calling himself a conservative or even a republican, there's no hope for him.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:53 am to Sunbeam
The whole thing is very simple. If the Establishment had done what they said they would do, there would never have been a Trump.
They have no one to blame but themselves.
They have no one to blame but themselves.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:54 am to roadGator
quote:
How did the Republicans and the Democrats simultaneously find themselves so lost that Trump beat them both?
Because he wasn't playing their game. They couldn't evolve quickly enough.
quote:
Both sides really need to step back and reexamine what DC is supposed to be doing and how they are supposed to do it.
Yep, the government has been completely ineffective for too long now. This helped Trump win by being very clear about what his plan was if elected. It was also a differentiated plan, whereas there are a lot of policy similarities between the two establishment parties these days.
quote:
ETA: Normally I don't read your shite. Glad I did.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:55 am to GFaceKillah
quote:
Agreed. And that is the point he is making.
Yet he wants Republicans to vote for Democrats? The Republican anti-establishment uprising emerged because Republicans were governing like moderate Democrats and they wanted someone who would ACTUALLY stand up against them rather than campaign on conservative ideals and go back to governance as usual where they were Democrat Lite. The voters wanted MORE anti-left candidates not more moderate Republicans.
His "points" are way off base unless you happen to share his ideological perspective that Trump is Mussolini.
Posted on 10/12/17 at 10:58 am to ChewyDante
His point is that the GOP fricked up with Trump and now he owns them. He's an establishment cuck so of course he is pissed about it and calls Trump mussolini and Hitler.
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