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Comment on I reject both parties’ ideas of Americanism. And I’m not the only one

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I agree in general. I disagree with this one bit:

It seems self-evident that the Republican Party — more a celebrity fan club than a political organization at this point — would, if left to its own devices, destroy the foundation of the republic.

This does a tremendous dis-service to the Republicans (including Mike Pence!) who refused to go along with Trump's lies and machinations. There were far too few of them, but they were there, and it really mattered that they were there.

Though I guess if you take the party as a whole, the statement may be accurate, or at least may have been so a year ago.

But I thought this was an interesting insight:

In their zeal to beat back Trumpism, the loudest Democratic groups have transformed into its Bizarro World imitators.

There is some symmetry there that I hadn't noticed.

The moderate Republican is functionally extinct. They've been stripped of party positions like Cheney, died like McCain, or retired to "spend more time with family". Romney might be the only one left?

Who do you think would really win the Republican nomination? Charlie Baker or DeSantis?

McCain was not moderate. He was a full-scale warmonger.

McCain sings bomb bomb Iran. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U7s5pT3Rris

Neither Cheney or McCain, both stalwart if, in McCain’s case, quirky on some issues, conservatives. (Both rejected the Trump cult, but that's not inconsistent with being a dedicated conservative.)

Moderate Republicans (and Conservative Dems)[0] have been largely dead since the long post-WWII realignment settled out in the mid-1990s.

[0] Yes, this is asymmetrical; that's how systematic overrepresentation to one side of the spectrum combined with the incentive to nearly-balanced parties under the electoral system we have shakes out.

Don't forget Romney who is a rich liberal masquerading as an R. He is part of the swamp that resisted Trump.

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