Republicans are resorting to 'guerrilla war' against democracy to cling to power: columnist

[B.See]

Interesting read, and incidentally, the ABSOLUTE TRUTH. They are at war with US. Best we recognize that fact, and respond accordingly.

Republicans are resorting to 'guerrilla war' against democracy to cling to power: columnist

Republicans are "waging an asymmetrical guerilla war against democracy, blowing things up," in a desperate attempt to stop Democrats' "conventional war at the ballot box," warned author and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch in an article published on Monday.

Bunch wrote,

"the conservative movement doesn’t really believe in the liberties laid out in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It believes in the divine right of its preordained hierarchies — white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. — and will stop at nothing to maintain them. The story of America has been the fight for democracy against slavery, Jim Crow, pervasive sexism, mass incarceration, and more. Today, the forces of repression are running out of room, so they would rather win by fascism than lose elections."

[Biophilic]

1. So are we actually still fighting the Revolutionary War of 1776 and not just the Civil War?

[B.See]

2. are you asking if we're still fighting a war against the King of England?

[Biophilic]

3. No I'm saying we're still fighting against the Tory Elitists who wanted to stay in control

of the colonies and didn't want self government. King George was just a figure head, just like "king" Rump.

[B.See]

4. oh...okay

I guess I missed the analogy. Though, imo, it's closer to civil war than the former. Because for one, Trump isn't king. Though he'd very much LIKE to be.

[Biophilic]

6. Just as an aside - King George was totally bonkers. Kept under lock and key by the rich

and elite nobility who wanted to keep control of the colonies for their own profits. As I think about it they are too much alike except the republicans can't seem to control trump.

[sanatanadharma]

5. If the conservatives were to win irreversable power, the 2nd amendment WOULD end

Conservatives in charge of US military forces will crush the common duds* currently so in thrall of the party of destruction.
A party of destruction in charge, will eliminate weapons of destruction that could be turned against that never-right government.

*Dull dudes with guns

[Shipwack]

10. Hard disagree...

If anything, weapon restrictions might be loosened, at least for the "right" kind of people. That's what happened in pre-WW2 Germany.

It'll give them peace of mind, and allow them to terrorize neighbors that aren't with the program.

Besides, the powers that be aren't going to sweat an armed populace; the ones in charge literally control flying robots of death.

[lindysalsagal]

7. If you disenfranchise women, blacks and latinos, you have minority rule. White, male, christian rule

and they believe they have the right to minority rule.

[B.See]

8. Exactly.

The Effort to Suppress the Vote Is Spreading to the Republican Mainstream

They’ve been at it for a long time, and they’re picking up steam.

It’s bad enough when a trio of voter suppression groups led by charlatans gets together at an annual secret conference that is sponsored, in part, by a group created by the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo to talk about all the ways they might make it harder for people to register or vote in future elections.

But it is much worse when the participants in that secret conference also include secretaries of state and other top election officials from 13 Republican-led states, plus Don Palmer, a member of the United States Election Assistance Commission, plus counsels to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the House Administration Committee’s Republican staff, and a sitting Texas state senator.

The entire conference—whose existence was revealed in a blockbuster report by the Guardian and Documented last week—shows that there is a thriving network of interlocking organizations working with elected and election officials to use unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud to try to mess with fair elections for partisan advantage.

[DAngelo136]

9. I Will Again Cite This Passage...

This comes from 19 years ago; it was true then as it is today.

"Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are also simple:

Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.

These ideas are not new. Indeed they were common sense until recently. Nowadays, though, most of the people who call themselves "conservatives" have little notion of what conservatism even is. They have been deceived by one of the great public relations campaigns of human history. Only by analyzing this deception will it become possible to revive democracy in the United States.
From-"What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong With It" by Phillip Agre
https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/agre/conservatism.html

And I'm also getting tired of the excuse of "They're still winning the economic argument"; they shouldn't be. It's actually EASY to dispense with their garbage. I will again cite a passage from an essay

"Have you got three minutes. Because that's all you need to learn how to defeat the Republican Right. Just read through this handy guide and you'll have everything you need to successfully debunk right-wing propaganda.

It's really that simple. First, you have to beat their ideology, which really isn't that difficult. At bottom, conservatives believe in a social hierarchy of "haves" and "have nots" that I call "corporate feudalism". They have taken this corrosive social vision and dressed it up with a "respectable" sounding ideology. That ideology is pure hogwash, and you can prove it."
And guess what? I found it HERE on DU: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=thread&address=100213387422

The Republicans are protofascists; plain and simple. We have been warned, they're not even trying to hide it anymore.
Here is a European YouTuber explaining how the tactics of the past can and will be used against us by them:

They're actually more desperate than they like to let on:

[Lonestarblue]

11. Roger Edsall has an interesting piece in the NYT today.

These paragraphs describe who is driving GOP to the far right.

“Skocpol [Harvard professor] outlined her thinking in an email:

The first-movers who figured out how to configure this new ‘laboratory of democratic constriction’ were legal eagles in the Federalist Society and beyond, because the key structural dynamic in the current G.O.P. gallop toward minority authoritarianism is the mutual interlock between post-2010 Republican control, often supermajority control, of dozens of state legislatures and the Scotus decision in 2019 to allow even the most extreme and bizarre forms of partisan gerrymandering.
These organized, richly resourced actors, she wrote,

have figured out how to rig the current U.S. system of federalism and divided branches, given generational and geographic realities on the ground, and the in many ways fluky 2016 presidential election gave them what they needed to put the interlock in place. They are stoking and using the fears and resentments of about half or so of the G.O.P. popular base to undo American democracy and enhance their own power and privileges. They are doing it because they can, and they believe in what they are doing. They are America’s G.O.P. Leninists.”

The Federalist Society has been able to infiltrate courts with right-wing thinking by establishing student chapters at law schools throughout the country to indoctrinate future lawyers and judges. Leonard Leo has been a major player in the Federalist Society and is responsible for getting six ultra conservative justices on the SC. Reading is bio on Wikipedia is eye opening. Here’s the NYT link with no paywall.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/opinion/republican-party-intrusive-government.html?unlocked_article_code=sTRnNjZ65j2TdFLayej2I8prFYlSRiSuk-nErNu2HpoQ6bnVOAt0FWFvOWKSa-o4xMtUzTNTuxPGHSZzWn1qOBOtK_gUZ-589eUzbCfjS9XAhvUY69EBdrdvplT-UwV-12fpVtYugVtBvFEcUyj6O1SW7pr2-DEUkLwArj8K3Ky163C8sK_u8EcLwCmmnbTDVNkI5Vyo_9yLZocqCUd7ucNhP5qP7owLooEcHN-NbVhTryQ5eaUCG7O7z6HKDONs2nbIZHx_EOv8F5n9JebSqZXjNHmaTaoUeG7uT5zHbTdU1W5NryPIh5_5gMnv_p_JQ_kZjXjIpIW2sB9pA9aZSsqPvwIpClmo6VsKe4cFuw&smid=url-share

[Magoo48]

12. The inevitable death of dominance by a few old white people will push them to any lengths.

This right sizing has been, and will continue to be, painful.

[orthoclad]

14. It's not about principles

Most people act out of emotion. The reich manipulates emotions like fear and rage.

There are plenty of reasons to have fear: losing your home in an economic upheaval, natural disasters, violence, etc. The right wing is talented at redirecting fear against the Other. It's an old and very successful tactic.

I don't really understand the dynamics of rage. It seems to be addictive. Maybe the older parts of the brain need those repetitive jolts of rage hormones. It was rage manipulation that resulted in J6.

Over the years, the ruling class has built a massive propaganda machine. This isn't just Fox; a few corporations control the bulk of what US citizens read, see, and hear. The right is conducting warfare with powerful old-brain emotions, while the left relies on emotions like empathy. Maybe we should try some stronger medicine.

[CousinIT]

13. "If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically. . .

. . .they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." - David Frum