The ambitious Republican plot to take it all down

[marmar]

The ambitious Republican plot to take it all down
Republicans have come to believe that the entire federal government is filled with woke liberals

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED MAY 22, 2023 9:01AM (EDT)


(Salon) Picture it, if you will, it's January 21, 2025 and Donald Trump has just been inaugurated for his second term after the Biden interregnum. Yes, it would be a horrific time, not unlike those first horrible weeks in 2017 when over half the country struggled to grasp how it was possible that an ignorant, bombastic, game show host had eked out a win through an electoral college fluke. But those feelings of despair are where the similarities will end. The next Trump administration will be ready to hit the ground running with their leader's Retribution Agenda and it won't be because Trump is any more effective at presidential leadership. It will be because right-wing institutions will have spent their four years in the wilderness preparing for their chance to enact a radical overhaul of the federal government unlike anything we've ever seen in this country.

Even some members of the GOP establishment are getting nervous:

There was always talk of this among the original Trumpers, even though the president himself didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Recall former adviser Steve Bannon bellowing about the "deconstruction of the administrative state" and former Attorney General Bill Barr's assertions of unchecked executive power for example. As it happened, Trump was so far in over his head and ran such a chaotic, scandal-filled administration that they were unable to institute many systematic changes to test their theories but they came away with the knowledge that given another chance with a corrupt demagogue they could make changes to the system that could help them stay in power indefinitely.

There has been a cascade of stories discussing the poor roll out of Trump's campaign and how he's still stuck in the repetitive groove of his grievances over the 2016 campaign and his loss in 2020. His appearance on CNN's generous kick-off campaign rally for him a couple of weeks ago reinforced that idea, as he repeated all his punch lines and the audience cheered and clapped ecstatically. It certainly left the impression that if Trump were to win the election next year we would be in for a repeat of his first term: turmoil, scandal and ineptitude in which the most terrifying consequence is that a crisis hits or someone makes a catastrophic error. Last time, you'll recall, we got hit with the first deadly global pandemic in a hundred years and Trump publicly told America to take unproven snake oil cures and instructed scientists to look into having people ingest disinfectants since they kill the virus on surfaces.

....(snip)....

Last summer, Axios' Jonathan Swan wrote a long report on what they've been planning:

The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say...The heart of the plan is derived from an executive order known as "Schedule F," developed and refined in secret over most of the second half of Trump's term and launched 13 days before the 2020 election.

Schedule F is an executive order which would reassign potentially tens of thousands of federal employees they determine to have policy influence so they would lose their civil service protections. Republicans have come to believe that the entire federal government is filled with woke liberals intent on depriving them of their natural right to rule without restraint. .........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/05/22/the-ambitious-plot-to-take-it-all-down/

[gab13by13]

1. A Trump 2nd term will be a life time term, not 4 years.

[pandr32]

13. Well, that could still be 4 years.

Just saying, but then we would have successors.

[Walleye]

2. They have been on a 45 year propaganda campaign to make Americans hate their own government

In a democracy the people participate in the government, so they are hating themselves. Ever since Reagan and before they have wanted to “drown it in a bathtub”. When they get the power they are feckless. They don’t really want to do the things they say they want to do they just want to do, they just like talking about it. Like the abortion issue. The dog catches the car, finds he can’t chew
through the steel belted radials

[FalloutShelter]

5. Absolutely right.

The GOP must be utterly buried and the ground salted.

[Walleye]

6. After the last couple years I'd say that's the only answer.

The so-called good Republicans who think they can save the party are delusional. The only way to save the party is to decisively beat it in election after election. And we need Democrats to stick together on everything now. Dissent is fine but now is not the time for it

[Initech]

10. I've been wondering for a while now if Rush Limbaugh was on the Russian's payroll.

Crap when Vladimir Putin said that he could destroy the US without firing a shot, I wonder how long this has been going on exactly.

[Walleye]

11. Nikita Khrushchev first said it.

Too bad so many Americans don’t know history now. They don’t seem to understand that Russia has been at this shit for 75 years. It’s why NATO exists. They don’t understand that Putin hates the United States, he was brought up that way. Anything he can do to damage us makes me happy, as well as a lot of other Russians hate us

[dameatball]

20. Yes, most people have forgotten "We will bury you!"

[not fooled]

3. I used to know a bunch of Federal employees

many of whom enthusiastically voted puke and were overjoyed when red don defeated evil Hillary.

I would ask them whether they were familiar with puke plans to basically get rid of their jobs by eviscerating the Federal government. They had no clue and thought I was hallucinating.

[Duppers]

23. Constantly asking myself...

How can people stay so ignorant?
Only answer is that they're just semi- literate and watch nothing but Fox Lies.

[CousinIT]

4. "DESTROY (not deconstruction) the administrative state' is what Bannon AND TRUMP have said. n/t

[Walleye]

7. And by administrative state they mean the United States government

That we have fought so many wars and died for the right to choose democratically

[CousinIT]

9. Exactly. That seemed to go over everyone's head: media, Democrats...voters...

..I don't get how people somehow miss what that meant. I've never heard media talk much about it. Or Democrats. Or voters. Someone is saying "We're going to destroy your government and your Democracy" and ... NOTHING?

[paleotn]

16. Apparently the media can't grasp that their safe, little press bubble would be destroyed as well.

Along with their 6 and 7 figure salaries unless they pay continuous homage to the orange Mussolini. Parrot Anderson Cooper or be fired and possibly jailed. Seems such distinct possibilities never enter the media's hive mind. Like Germans who weren't Jewish, Roma or homosexual figured the Nazis wouldn't affect them, until they did.

[Martin Eden]

18. Rethugs do not want civil servants who serve the public and their oath

To uphold the Constitution.

They want minions who will do as they're told, loyal only to Dear Leader.

In other words, fascim.

[Martin Eden]

19. Rethugs do not want civil servants who serve the public and their oath

To uphold the Constitution.

They want minions who will do as they're told, loyal only to Dear Leader.

In other words, fascim.

[gab13by13]

8. Reagan was a big part of bashing government.

[UCmeNdc]

12. Republicans want to destroy the United States

[Auggie]

15. They want to destroy democracy and rule by plutocracy

[paleotn]

17. Modeled on Putin's Russian Federation.

A thin veneer of democracy and representation that's simply an illusion to keep the masses in line. In reality, it's rule by thugs making themselves obscenely wealthy on the backs of the stupid.

[Auggie]

21. Exactly

[ZonkerHarris]

14. "woke liberals in government" equals people who follow the law in their jobs.

[Orrex]

22. The only important thing is that absolutely no one question Garland's timeframe