..and they did. They just sold their soul to the Devil for power in the 1960s. So today's GOP bears NO resemblance to the Abolitionists of the 1850s and the Radical Reconstructionists of the 1860s and 70s. All those people are now Democrats.....and now the Klan (excuse me....the[i] "alt-Right"[/i]) now feels right at home in the Republican Party.

[quote]..and they did. They just sold their soul to the Devil for power in the 1960s. So today's GOP bears NO resemblance to the Abolitionists of the 1850s and the Radical Reconstructionists of the 1860s and 70s. All those people are now Democrats.....and now the Klan (excuse me....the[i] "alt-Right"[/i]) now feels right at home in the Republican Party.[/quote] Lol. How did they sell their soul? If you know really any Republicans, you would know that they condemn the -blam!- and [url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law]-godwinslaw!-[/url]. Just like I know that only a small percentage of Democrats are with BLM and Antifa, a much smaller percent are with the white supremisists.

Exactly what you just did. This constant need to see everyone who is different or thinks differently as an internal enemy that nerfs to be defeated and is the source of your problems. Thanks for the demonstration. As one author wisely noted: [i]If Liberalism didn’t exist, Authoritarian conservatives would have had to invent it (to fulfill their need for tribal identity and an enemy to define themselves)[/i] The sad part is watching people like yourself get manipulated via this year after year..... But it keeps working.

I literally just said that a very small percentage of people on both sides are crazies. Which is true. Do I really strike you as someone with mal intent and has a hatred for anything and anyone different?

Who said I was talking about the crazies? I’m talking about the [i]base[/i] as it stands right now on the Right.

I was talking about the crazies. And you said that the republicans sold their soul "the exact way I just did". And take it from a member of the base, we don't dislike people ecause they are different. I know many Republicans. None of them think that people are bad just because they are different.

People with prejudices never think they have prejudices. Which is why they can be manipulated through them. Where there is no self-awareness....there is no choice. Hence the phrase, "Pushing someone's buttons". My invoking the "crazies" was a rhetorical point. The situation on the Right has deteriorated to the point where you can't tell who the crazies are any more. Because what used to be crazy has now gone mainstream. The very element that William F. Buckley was wise enough to exclude from the early Conservative Movement has now moved in....and has taken over. Paranoid conspiracy theories and this non-stop, inconsolable sense of greivance and victimization that would have gotten you marginalized a generation ago....is now front-and-center. Not only front-and-center....its being spouted from the Oval Office, and is cowing more responsible elements on the Right from speaking out against it. The GOP has become less of a political party....and more of a Cult of Personality. Falling in behind a very sick man, who literally wears his psychopathology on his sleeve. Yet he is defended almost unconsiditonally because people have linked their own sense of greivance to his pathological sense of greivance.

[quote]People with prejudices never think they have prejudices. Which is why they can be manipulated through them. Where there is no self-awareness....there is no choice. Hence the phrase, "Pushing someone's buttons". My invoking the "crazies" was a rhetorical point. The situation on the Right has deteriorated to the point where you can't tell who the crazies are any more. Because what used to be crazy has now gone mainstream. The very element that William F. Buckley was wise enough to exclude from the early Conservative Movement has now moved in....and has taken over. Paranoid conspiracy theories and this non-stop, inconsolable sense of greivance and victimization that would have gotten you marginalized a generation ago....is now front-and-center. Not only front-and-center....its being spouted from the Oval Office, and is cowing more responsible elements on the Right from speaking out against it. The GOP has become less of a political party....and more of a Cult of Personality. Falling in behind a very sick man, who literally wears his psychopathology on his sleeve. Yet he is defended almost unconsiditonally because people have linked their own sense of greivance to his pathological sense of greivance.[/quote] I'll ask you again. Do I strike you as someone who hates people based on the fact that they are different? I'll just say, the Republican party has gotten more libertarian. The Democrat party has gotten more progressive. The GOP has been moving a little liberal while the Democrat party has been moving radically to the left. That is why the Republicans seem so radical. Just during Bill Clinton, he parroted "safe, legal, and rare". Now it is "shout your abortion". The Republicans have stayed the same in a lot of this. On homosexuality, the Republican party used to be so very much against it. Now we have Trump, someone who supports LGBT rights. And the Republican party has gotten more libertarian with this. The Democrats have gotten more leftist with these. It is not the Republican party that has changed that has caused this culture shift. It is the Democrats. Now, I'm not saying at all that all democrats have gone crazy. I know way to many to say that. And I respect to many to insult them with a broad brush. The ones that are the radical crazies are the ones that say that you are a transphobe and sexist if you are a man that doesn't want to sleep with a transwoman.

[quote]I'll ask you again. Do I strike you as someone who hates people based on the fact that they are different?[/quote] Who said I was talking about you personally? ...and you keep acting as if I'm simply offering an opinion. I'm NOT. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229911425_Right-Wing_Authoritarianism_and_Social_Dominance_Orientation_Differentially_Moderate_Intergroup_Effects_on_Prejudice The GOP has NOT become more Libertarian. If it were you wouldn't be seeing the wave of laws trying to ban abortion that are spreading in Repbublican controlled states. Because Libertarians are VEHEMENTLY opposed to that kind of intrusive use of government power to limit individual freedom. What the GOP has become is more AUTHORITARIAN. Authoritarians are tribalists. The only distrust government when THEY aren't in control of it. So when they aren't in control of it...they seek to break it, or to undermine it. But when they are in control of it they are MORE than happy to use its power---and any other power they have access to---as a hammer to beat those that they do not like over the head with. As a group manifestation of the trait of "Authoritarian Agression". Eccho is a perfect example of what is referred to as "Authoritarian Submission". The tendency of people with high tendency towards authortarianism in their personality to be deferential and non-discerning towards trusted/traditional sources of authority. If you've read "Animal Farm", Boxer----the draft horse---is the perfect embodiment of this character trait: [i]"Napoleon is always right!!" [/i] Despite the fact that Napoleon spent the entire book lying through his teeth, and gaslighting the other animals. And what you are showing is the other authoritarian trait which is called "Conventionalism". With a twist. The twist that you are trying to convince yourself that a party that is in fact---still rather reactionary on issues of difference and social progress---has somehow become "Libertarian" or "progressive". You HAVENT. You guys are where the Left was on this issue 30 years ago. We have had to drag you kicking and screaming into the modern age. ...and even in your post one can hear the resentment that is oozing around the edges Oh, and by the way, you last paragraph is a Strawman Argument. No particular political viewpoint has a monopoly on "crazy'. The issue is that---on the Left in ths country----the Inmates don't run the asylum. On the Right....they've run the staff out of the place....and have taken over.

You are generalizing the Right and Trumps base into people with prejudice and hatred for people and things different. I am a part of that base you are accusing. Also, [quote]...and even in your post one can hear the resentment that is oozing around the edges[/quote] Murder isn't freedom. I can't kill anyone just because I'm supposedly "free" to do it. Do you think I trust big government in anybody's hands? Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Sure I generally like what Trump has done, but I dislike expanding of executive power. I don't care if Obama or Trump does it. If you want a perfect example for your 2 paragraphs talking about the Republicans being authoritarian, look no further than the Democrat party in just the last 10 years. Heck, Clinton and Obama campaigned on tribalism. "I'm a woman, so you should vote for me or you are sexist" "I'm a black man, you should agree with me or you are racist" "people who disagree are racist" etc. The left tries to monopolize tribalism on minorities to overthrow the patriarchy because white men have had power for to long. That is tribalism. Identity politics is the embodiment of tribalism. Don't forget that Animal Farm is an allegory to the Russian revolution and the Soviet Union. The Republican party isn't the group trying to go there politically. We have become more libertarian. We also have become more progressive. Have you dragged us? Maybe. But we are here and being called to extreme ones when it was the status quo 30 years ago. I gotta say, this "modern age" looks pretty terrible if the left is leading it. That paragraph isn't a straw man if I say it is only a very small portion of Democrats. The inmates do run the asylum on the left. Just look at them long enough. Basically for almost your entire post I can just say "look on the mirror"

Spare me the tu quoque fallacy. The data backs me up on this.

It backs me up as well.

Not in this reality system.

Barack "I've got a pen and a phone" Obama. Hillary Clinton calling Trump supporters deplorables. Hillary Clinton saying that anyone not accepting election results is a threat to democracy. But she as well as the Democrat party still insist that Stacy Abrams is the governed of Georgia. Dems still say that Andrew is the Gov of Florida, and still can't accept that Trump won fair is square. And that he is not a Russian agent. Dems, in order to try to not go along with the systems we have in place for advise and consent, mainstreamed Christine Ford, a woman who merely accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. That went on for weeks, and all of the holes in her story as well as celebrating evidence was none. Yet still, Democrats pushed her story and other stories even after they were proven false. All because you could not stand Republicans in power. For 2 years you tried to find dirt on Trump saying that he was a Russian agent. All of that amounted to nothing. Always trying to undermine the election one way or another. Maxine Waters encouraged people to protest and shout at republicans wherever you may find them. And harass them. At gas stations and resturaunts. How is that good political discourse? There are plenty of examples of how the Left is what you say the Right is. But I'll stop there for now.

Your response couldn’t have been more perfect if I had scripted it for you. Thanks for making my point.

And yet, you say I'm the one in the party of authoritarians and trying to undermine democracy.

Yep. And your response was textbook authoritarian follower. Letter perfect. 1. Those who are different are the enemy. 2. People aren’t individuals, but exemples of their group. 3. Black-and-White, all-or-Nothing thinking. So good is all good. Bad is all bad. Like I said. Couldn’t have scripted it better. Attack the left while not spending a millisecond in self-reflection. Or considering how your party has changed over the last 40 years. Are Democrats perfect? Nope. Are they corrupt? Some of them are. But at the end of the day Democrats can still be shamed into doing right by the nation. The GOP lost the capacity for shame or empathy a generation ago.

[quote]Yep. And your response was textbook authoritarian follower. Letter perfect. 1. Those who are different are the enemy. 2. People aren’t individuals, but exemples of their group. 3. Black-and-White, all-or-Nothing thinking. So good is all good. Bad is all bad. Like I said. Couldn’t have scripted it better. Attack the left while not spending a millisecond in self-reflection. Or considering how your party has changed over the last 40 years. Are Democrats perfect? Nope. Are they corrupt? Some of them are. But at the end of the day Democrats can still be shamed into doing right by the nation. The GOP lost the capacity for shame or empathy a generation ago.[/quote] I did not claim that the Democrats are my enemy. All I did was quote a few of them, and told you what they did. And I am the one making this a "us vs them"? That's all the Democrats. I could care less who you are. What I did is took your standard for authoritarian and showed where the Democrats fit in. The standard you used to call republicans authoritarian. I only used your words against you and used the same premise to show how the Democrats are the authoritarian party in this system. And if you self reflect, you will see that what you accused me of, is really what you are doing. Thank you.

The conversation was never about the Democrats, so going there was irrelevant and does nothing to change what the GOP has become. What you were attempting to leverage is called tribal or who-whom morality. IOW if you can sully the Democrats that some how validated the GOP. It doesn’t. But that is a classic pattern of authoritarian follower thinking and moral reasoning.

[quote]The conversation was never about the Democrats, so going there was irrelevant and does nothing to change what the GOP has become. What you were attempting to leverage is called tribal or who-whom morality. IOW if you can sully the Democrats that some how validated the GOP. It doesn’t. But that is a classic pattern of authoritarian follower thinking and moral reasoning.[/quote] Because you are a Democrat accusing Republicans of doing something that the Democrats do almost exclusively.

No they don’t. And your accusation that they do is further proof of my point. Yes, I am a Democrat, but I can see the flaws in my own party. Not only are they not perfect, they are simply the least bad of two terrible options for those of us who want to see this country actually live up to its principles and see us become a just nation and society. Not only is the GOP not a viable option in that regard, they are a force actively opposing this. They are the party for the protection of power and privilege and nothing more.

[quote]No they don’t. And your accusation that they do is further proof of my point. Yes, I am a Democrat, but I can see the flaws in my own party. Not only are they not perfect, they are simply the least bad of two terrible options for those of us who want to see this country actually live up to its principles and see us become a just nation and society. Not only is the GOP not a viable option in that regard, they are a force actively opposing this. They are the party for the protection of power and privilege and nothing more.[/quote] I just gave you several examples ACCORDING TO YOUR PREMISE of how they are authoritarian. And your only rebuttal was that I am authoritarian for pointing out how the Dems are. Don't tell me that they aren't. Often when you accuse others of a behavior, you only point to yourself.

That’s my point ( you aren’t [i]listening[/i]) THEY ARENT. While you can make a credible argument that the Clintons are high Social Dominance Orientation individuals, they are not authoritarians nor have their policies been. President Obama not only isn’t an authoritarian, he’s probably the [i]least [/i] authoritarian person to occupy the Oval Office since Jimmie Carter. But this isn’t about the Democrats and you and I both know this. You’re trying the “If Democrats do it then it’s okay for Republicans”. [i]Which is TRIBAL MORAL REASONING.[/i] The problem for you is that Democrats ARENT authoritarians. They are [i]egalitarians.[/i] So your effort was doomed from the start, and actually makes my larger point.

[quote]That’s my point ( you aren’t [i]listening[/i]) THEY ARENT. While you can make a credible argument that the Clintons are high Social Dominance Orientation individuals, they are not authoritarians nor have their policies been. President Obama not only isn’t an authoritarian, he’s probably the [i]least [/i] authoritarian person to occupy the Oval Office since Jimmie Carter. But this isn’t about the Democrats and you and I both know this. You’re trying the “If Democrats do it then it’s okay for Republicans”. [i]Which is TRIBAL MORAL REASONING.[/i] The problem for you is that Democrats ARENT authoritarians. They are [i]egalitarians.[/i] So your effort was doomed from the start, and actually makes my larger point.[/quote] According to your premise, both Obama and Clinton are authoritarians. They both appealed to tribalism morality. I'm telling you that Republicans aren't authoritarian. I'm not making excuses for something that doesn't exist. Republicans are the egalitarians. Not the Democrats. Democrats only see worth in the color of your skin, gender, or sexuality. Not in your humanity. Republicans only care about your character and actions.