kpete
kpete's JournalFormer Reagan Official Calls For: "Complete and Total Destruction of the Republican Party"
MONDAY, APR 25, 2016 02:59 AM PDT
Republican apostate Bruce sees Donald Trump as the calamitous reckoning the GOP desperately needs
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I wanted to talk about 2016 and Trump and the future of the GOP. You are a former Reagan official, you worked for George H.W. Bush, and you voted for Donald Trump in the Virginia primary. And I was hoping if you could just explain why.
Bartlett: I think the Republican Party is sick. Its dying, it just doesnt know it. And I think anything that speeds up its demise is to the good, because then it can reinvent itself and return as something healthy. Or you could use an addiction metaphor, where people have to hit bottom so that they can reach out and ask for help before they can cure themselves. I think that Trump is a symptom of a disease of rampant stupidity, pandering to morons and bigots and racists and all the sort of stuff that defines todays Republican coalition. And I just think its awful. Its terrible for the country in a great many ways that I dont need to tell you. And I think that we need to have a healthy two-party system. We need to have a sane, functioning conservative party and a sane, functioning liberal party. And I think that half of that equation, at least, is not working, and it affects the other half.
So I think its just bad for the country. So I think that giving Trump the nomination is the surest path to complete and total destruction of the Republican Party as we know it.And I look forward to him getting the nomination for that reason. I think he will have a historic loss. I think he may well bring in a Democratic Senate. But more importantly, my hope is, at least, that he will lead to a really serious assessment of the problems of the Republican Party, and lead to some opening of thought, opening of discussion, conversation among groups that have been sidelined for quite a long time. Mainly moderates and people of that sort who have been just pushed to the sidelines in favor of ever more rabid, nonsensical, right-wing authoritarianism.
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much more:
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/25/complete_and_total_destruction_of_the_republican_party_former_reagan_official_bruce_bartlett_on_why_he_backs_trump/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/26/1520102/-Former-Reagan-Official-Complete-and-Total-Destruction-of-the-Republican-Party
Carl Bernstein: The press talks about a "new Trump" the way they talked about a "new Nixon"
http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/04/24/here-are-media-figures-calling-out-trumps-sham-reinvention/210062
Charles P. Pierce: "Cruz and Kasich Are Playing Poker with Trump. They're Losing."
In which the two most desperate men around completely telegraph their big move.
The two-car funeral finally seems to be underway.
(It should be noted that, at long last, Kasich has achieved the ultimate statement of Republican presidential credibilitya derisive nickname from He, Trump. Kasich is now "One for 38" Kasich. Dare to dream, Governor.)
Of course, because these people can't really do anything right, the two campaigns made sure that God and all the world knew what they were up to before they actually did anything. This had the effect of handing He, Trump a gift that perfectly dovetails with the only real argument that he has presented for his candidacynamely, They're All Out To Get Me And You, Too. He jumped on it because, whatever his shortcomings as a prospective president, the man has the combative instincts of a wolverine.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a44296/ted-cruz-john-kasich-alliance/
"Listening to [President] Obama makes me want to be American for a day"
more:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/24/barack-obama-uk-visit-transformed-brexit-referendum-debate?CMP=twt_gu
‘Consequence,’ a Memoir by a Former Abu Ghraib Interrogator...
Of the Abu Ghraib torture photos broadcast by 60 Minutes in April 2004, Mr. Fair writes:
Some of the activities in the photographs are familiar to me. Others are not. But I am not shocked. Neither is anyone else who served at Abu Ghraib. Instead, we are shocked by the performance of the men who stand behind microphones and say things like bad apples and Animal House on night shift.
In 2007, Mr. Fair says, he confessed everything to a lawyer from the Department of Justice and two agents from the Armys Criminal Investigation Command, providing pictures, letters, names, firsthand accounts, locations and techniques. He was not prosecuted. We tortured people the right way, he writes, following the right procedures, and used the approved techniques.
Mr. Fair, however, became increasingly racked by guilt. He begins having nightmares. Nightmares in which someone I know begins to shrink, becoming so small they slip through my fingers and disappear onto the floor. Nightmares in which theres a large pool of blood on the floor that moves as if its alive, nipping at his feet.
His marriage starts to unravel. He drinks heavily despite a heart condition that threatens his health. When his best friend from Iraq, Ferdinand Ibabao, is killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad, Mr. Fair thinks that maybe he, too, deserves to die there. He returns to Iraq for another tour this time, in a job with the National Security Agency.
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He is still haunted by voices: the voice of the general from the comfortable interrogation booth, the cries from the hard site, the sobs from the Palestinian chair and the sound of the old mans head hitting the wall.
It is nearly impossible to silence them, he writes. As I know it should be.
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More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/books/review-eric-fairs-consequence-a-memoir-by-a-former-abu-ghraib-interrogator.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=2
Let's reinstate FDR's - Economic Bill Of Rights
Truth.
Why I’m ashamed to be Republican
Noticing the growing pile of rejected dresses, the saleswoman asked me what I was shopping for. I responded, I know what I want, I just cant seem to find it. Something conservative but cute, shorter than work length, longer than club length. Im not opposed to a romper, but dont really want a skirt. Help. She laughed and asked me if I was shopping for a specific event. The words formulated in my brain but I couldnt get them out. I didnt want to tell her.
I couldnt wait for the weekend reunion of my colleagues from the Bush-Cheney administration at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas, but I didnt want to say that. A company picnic, I said, Nothing too riveting, but Ill see co-workers I havent seen in a while. As I looked in the mirror (having found the perfect shirt dress), I thought: Why did I say that? This event was exciting; I was going to see a former president, vice president, first lady and countless friends. When did I become so embarrassed to be a Republican?
I grew up in a conservative, Catholic family. I remember voting for President George H.W. Bush in my schools straw ballot in the 1980s. Ive voted mostly with the party over the years. I joined the College Republicans and planned rallies for the troops, went to seminars on entrepreneurship and volunteered for Sen. Jim Talents reelection campaign in Missouri. I swear I bled little red elephants. Following graduation, I worked on President George W. Bushs 2004 campaign in Florida and fell further in love with politics, the party and the process. I worked on the Presidential Inaugural Committee and was honored to receive an appointment in Bushs administration. We even had a softball league. Some of my fondest memories are from those years; it was an incredible time to be alive. I was (and still am) truly proud to have been a part of it all.
As the years passed, though, I became more liberal on social issues, not understanding why my best friend from college couldnt marry his longtime boyfriend. I struggled with the line between the right to life and a womans right to make her own decisions about what to do with her body. I read and reread the Constitution, studied the Federalist Papers and came to better understand the ideals on which our nation was founded. I quickly learned what it was like to make $30,000 a year in the District (along with the necessity of having multiple roommates).
I shifted closer to the middle, but there was still so much about the Republican Party that I loved. It was the party that fought to give more funding, better equipment and training to my husband a Navy pilot. The party that pressed for veterans health reform. The party that gave us a president who delivered the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program to combat HIV in Africa. The party that encouraged and promoted the growth of small businesses.
But more than anything, it was the people. My colleagues in the Bush administration were compassionate, innovative and enthusiastic. We were men and women of various ages, demographics and backgrounds, woven together by our common belief in a president, a mission and, above all, the importance of character. The hours were long, but the years went fast. At the opening of Bushs presidential library in Dallas three years ago, I was again surrounded by those colleagues. When President Obama was introduced, every person in attendance rose in thunderous applause. I realized then what made that group of colleagues so special: our respect for the office of the president.
Three years later, at this months reunion, tears came to my eyes as I listened to Bush speak about what made our country great. We fought for inclusion, not isolationism. We were patriots, not protectionists, and we worked to advance freedom, not fear.
I was proud to be a Republican. The GOP I worked for, fundraised for and fundamentally believed in put forward candidates who reflected my values. But now? Im embarrassed to be a Republican because of who is leading in the polls. Weve become a party that preys on the discouraged, not one that fosters hope. Were incentivizing anger, not integrity. We tear down others to promote ourselves. If our current front-runner is the GOP candidate, I wont vote Republican in November. Im still stuck in that dressing room: I know what I want. I just cant seem to find it.
and a rebuttal:
* So sorry for you - you liked the Republican Party at the Masquerade Ball. Not so much the next morning when the masks are off and demons underneath the masks are visible. The W administration were chicken Hawks that invaded a country for no reason while you played softball.....
MORE:
http://thurstonblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/i-was-proud-to-be-republican-but-now-im.html
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