"I didn't leave MAGA. MAGA left me."

[gulliver]

It's great that people are starting to look at the state of our politics and get cold feet. What are we doing here? It doesn't have to be so much about political violence as mere chaos. We thought the pandemic broke a lot of things and made things stop working? Imagine the chaos if the monkeys who are fiddling around with the controls of our democracy screw it up. People really need to look at everything they depend on to keep their lives running as smoothly as possible and ask, "If democracy collapsed, would that still be there?" Don't it always seem to go...

I love the way Biden framed the issue, isolating the "MAGA Republicans." There was a lot of carping about it. On the right, the MAGA Republican priesthood shuddered and called for the entire Republican voter population to circle its wagons around MAGA. On the left, the usual few noisemakers obliged and cried, "All Republicans are MAGA Republicans." It was a spectacle.

"My Gosh," lied the MAGA priesthood. "Biden just said half the country is a threat to democracy!"

Well, no. Biden drove a wedge by creating two categories for Republicans to sort themselves into: 1) The democracy wrecking "MAGA Republican extremists" and, 2) "Mainstream Republicans who want to keep democracy." It's exactly what the democracy doctor ordered.

If I think of myself as a Republican who wants to keep democracy, who doesn't like the idea of chaos, who just wants to go to barbecues and play golf, who likes paychecks and retirement checks coming in on schedule, who thinks the clowns talking about civil war and breaching the Capitol in buffalo headdress have had their fifteen minutes, then I'm "mainstream." Even if I wore a red MAGA cap to a few little league baseball games and people thought I was a jerk, I'm mainstream now. I made my point, but I'm done. I'm putting away my cap. I didn't leave MAGA; MAGA left me.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thank you! This is well said. K&R n/t

[Xoan]

2. Last count...

There were like 10 'mainstream ' Republicans in Congress.

[SoCalDavidS]

4. Most, If Not All, Will Be Gone In A Few Months. nt

[Hortensis]

11. Yes, it's being packed with amoral RW extremists who sell their services

to the big donors and their rhetoric to the GOP's debased primary voters.

A huge problem just maybe these nationwide elections will start fixing.

[The Magistrate]

3. An Excellent Read, Sir

[Towlie]

5. I consider ALL Republicans to be beneath contempt just because they choose to be Republicans, but...

 
?

... as a practical necessity, President Biden has to keep an escape route open for Republicans who insist upon stubbornly clinging to the GOP.

[TigressDem]

6. You need a new Slogan. Make America Great AND Keep It Something Sacred MAGA KISS

SO not EVERYTHING MAGA is horrible, but racism, violence, rigging elections, encouraging overthrow of the government when you don't like an election result, using a government position to eradicate those who disagree with you.... these things are ANTI AMERICAN and DON'T Make America Great AT ALL.

But mainstream Republicans are faith based and honorable people in my experience. (Family I admire and love.)

They can be led astray only by very complex lies over time.

AND like Liz Cheney and yourself, there is a clear line drawn when they see they have been deceived and betrayed.

My hope is that more people like yourself will find a way back to the mainstream Republican ideals and bring more and more people with you in a way that revives the actual party to something that can be proud of itself again someday.

[albacore]

7. Depending on the poll...

Repubs approve of trump, his policies, and his presidency around 80%.

That lonely 20% has one tiny drop of sympathy from me.

For the rest: Fuck 'em!

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Not Sure About That

Losing Support: Nearly half of G.O.P. voters prefer someone other than Donald J. Trump for president in 2024, a Times/Siena College poll showed.

I know that's not directly linked to overall approval, but it calls into question that 80% value.

[albacore]

10. Semantics.... but...there is a big difference between approval and wanting to see a person nominated

Approval of trump is my main problem.
The vast majority of the Repubs consistently approve of him and his policies.
That's why they are dead to me.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. That's Too Convenient

So, I'm done with this conversation.

[peppertree]

17. Sad but true

The best proof of that is that in the 2020 primaries, four non-MAGAT Republicans ran - two of them, very conservative.

But Needy Amin still got 94% of the GOP primary vote.

Yes, he was a sitting president - but 94% is about as unanimous as you can get.

I doubt 94% of Repugs can agree today's Sunday!

[Wounded Bear]

22. Trouble is, those "other than trump" repubs tend to like people worse than he is...

with the same evil purposes but better political/social skills, like DeSatan and Abbott.

Careful what we wish for.

The good news is, AFAIK the repub party has been shrinking for years in overall numbers. The good guys still outnumber them at the polls.

[vlyons]

8. I predict MAGA will be a dispised term and movement sooner than later

MAGA is sooo unAmerican. Real Christians will deplore it as being contrary to Jesus' teachings about Do Unto Others, Blessed Are the Peacemakers, Turn the Other Cheek, and the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Speaking MAGA lies and threats will become as embarrassing and declassei' as saying the N-word. People will deny that they ever went there.

Maybe a few of us real Americans can help show a few MAGA relatives and neighbors what it is to be a real American. By being nice to them, maybe doing a good deed for them once in a while. Letting their MAGA bullshit whiz past us, go out the door, and down the street without angrily responding back. Lead by example.

"Some say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."
--- John Lennon

[Hortensis]

12. Listen to smart people -- divide the right into its minority of MAGA extremists

and its majority of people who are discovering they need to protect their democracy and with it their jobs and Social Security.

Most progressive groups approve of Biden's call for the people to unite to defeat the MAGAs.

Any who choose to continue the rhetoric of 2016 to now instead, claiming it'll lead to their revolution, should be examined very carefully. Progressivism requires functioning liberal government. Kleptocracy, fascism, and the scorched earth of civil war and revolution would all erase what we inherited and put an end to what we would have done.

[SouthernDem4ever]

13. The most powerful statement in this OP that I can use when talking to repugs

"People really need to look at everything they depend on to keep their lives running as smoothly as possible and ask, "If democracy collapsed, would that still be there?"

Let's think about that for a minute,

First, property rights would collapse. Maga rioters will definitely keep the spoils for themselves, just as they learned from that big fat lying buffoon named trump.

Second, our infrastructure that is responsible for clean drinking water, safe food, Social Security and Medicare VA benefits, safe roads and bridges, SEC which "tries" to oversee the stock market, the CDC, the military, the national guard, parks and recreation, wildlife reclamation, just to name a few, and not to mention the myriad of government services and laws that allow most of us to sleep at night without worrying if we will live to see the next day.

Ask your Magat asshole acquaintances, families and friends if they are ready to give all that up. If they are, they can vote for the jerkwad republican running in their districts. And if they say none of that won't happen, let them know that they are stupidly fooling themselves.

End rant.

[CaptainTruth]

19. If they don't want any of that they can move to a country that doesn't have it.

I've been telling folks that if they don't like democracy & the rule of law they should pack up their stuff & get out of America. Leave. Move to a country that doesn't have democracy or the rule of law. I'll help them pack.

[SouthernDem4ever]

24. I will help you

and as far as the fat-butt militia types shooting rifles in the woods, if they really want to fight for something head on over to Ukraine and fight a true enemy, namely Putin.

[czarjak]

14. MAGA MORONS can't handle the truth. Period.

[CaptainTruth]

16. The Radical Right, as I call them...

...because they're not all Republicans.

In that regard I think Biden's "MAGA Republicans" is a bit of an oversimplification but I can see exactly why he would use a phrase like that for messaging purposes, for several reasons, all of them good reasons. It's perfect for the message he was trying to convey & the goals he wanted to accomplish with his message.

To reinforce his message I can say "the Radical Right, including MAGA Republicans."

[SheltieLover]

18. Joe brought them up short!

[Roy Rolling]

20. Genius Marketing and Branding

Joe has created another category—Republicans and MAGA Republicans.

There is no turning back for the GOP, THEY GAVE BIRTH TO MAGA!

Now, they must live with it for the entire lifetime of the Republican Party, not unlike a fetus in the womb with an incurable deformity.

The GOP should’ve aborted MAGA but now they’ve birthed a Charles Manson or Hitler.

And “normal” Republicans will abandon MAGA as quickly as TFG threw everyone under the bus before them. They aren’t suddenly moral, they just don’t want to be thrown under the bus too.

[calimary]

21. Gotta keep in mind: Trump THRIVES on chaos.

He THRIVES when everybody around him is fighting with each other and their being thus distracted means the way is clear to pull off any monkey business you want. If they’re all busy fighting, they’ve forgotten about watching or keeping track of what he’s up to, or trying to be up to.

[oldsoftie]

23. The Alaska election shows the fraying of the GOP vote.

Sure, most voted GOP in the first vote, but when the second choice was factored in 29% who voted for Begitch picked the Dem. They wanted a republican but NOT Palin/trump