Catherine Rampell: The GOP Has Somehow Backed Democrats Into Defending The Status Quo

"Republicans want change. And yet Republicans have somehow back Democrats into defending the status quo - or sound like it, anyway. That's because President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their underlings have managed to frame recent events as a binary choice: Either you like the ongoing mass destruction and trampling of the Constitution by the "Department of Government Efficiency," or you support keeping government as is. It's a false choice, obviously. But Democrats and other Trump critics have done a poor job articulating that failure in logic and the existence of a third option: actually fixing things...

Source:The Washington Post with a look at Co-President's of the United States: Elon Musk and Donald J. Trump. At least 1 of them was actually elected to something.

You can read the rest of Catherine Rampell's article, if you have a paid subscription to The Washington Post. 

What I'm about to say is going to sound like on on some meth high and not even aware of that and it's 6AM or something and I haven't tried to go to bed and I don't know what to do with myself and decide to go to my desk, get on my computer and put down a lot of random thoughts that come to mind. And I sound completely crazy. But I appreciate if you hear me (or read me) out anyway. 

I'm literally arguing that the Republican Party is no longer the conservative party in America. I'm sure that sounds strange for anyone who grew up knowing about Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, Everett Dirksen, Bob Dole, Ronald Reagan, etc. Or we're adults when these Conservative Republicans were in office. But that's not the crazy sounding part. 

What really sounds like it could be coming from a man on a bridge screaming from the top of his lungs, while trying to decide if he should jump or not, is that the Democratic Party today, is more conservative than the Republican Party. And I'm talking about at the leadership and to even a certain extent the grassroots level as the far as the people that both parties recruit and to a certain extent even represent. 

I mean think about it: a Conservative is someone who is: "averse to change or innovation and holding traditional values. Favoring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially traditional ideas." 

Doe the at least classical definition of conservative, sound like the modern "Republican Party" today? I think the answer to that is obviously not. What we have today on the Right, is essentially the entire right-wing of American politics (not just Conservatives) inside of 1, gigantic political party that's called the Republican Party. But since when is it conservative to: 

"Blow up the establishment"?

Or pardon violent criminals and thugs? 

Drop charges against the Mayor of New York City, even though there's solid evidence that Eric Adams is guilty of bribery? In exchange for doing what the Feds want to do when it comes to immigration. What's conservative about a pro-quid-quo? 

What's conservative about bashing our allies, while defending dictators? Ot blaming 1 of our allies for them being illegally invaded by much larger country and power? 

To go back to 1 of the conservative values that I laid out as it's relating to the belief in private enterprise: what's conservative about tariffs? Especially launching trade wars with our allies like Canada, Mexico, and Europe, while praising dictators in Russia and China. 

What’s conservative about throwing out constitutional amendments through executive order, when you know that it takes constitutional amendments, that have to be be passed out of Congress with 2/3 majorities and 2/3 of the states as well, just to even amend the Constitution?

What's conservative about threatening legal investigations and jail time for people who criticize your political allies? Real Conservatives believe in free speech. 

So while "Republicans" today are promoting the values of Donald Trump's oligarchic, authoritarian, political reality TV show, known as MAGA, Democrats (to paraphrase Catherine Rampell) are defending the status quo. Remember, Democrats are supposed to be the party of progress and moving forward, while promoting the real liberal values of free speech, personal autonomy, equal opportunity, checks and balances, the rule of law, equal justice, etc. At least that's what mainstream Democrats believe in. But with the MAGA political reality TV show in Washington, Democrats are defending: 

The governmental establishment

The rule of law

The Constitution: doesn’t take a constitutional lawyer or professor to know that you can’t amend the U.S. Constitution through executive order.

Democrats are completely opposed to dropping the charges of Mary Adams, even though the Mayor is a Democrat. But they know how crooked he is and defended the rule of law.

They are defending our allies like Canada and Mexico from a Trumpian invasion of them. Add Greenland to that as well. And have our completely behind Europe's and Ukraine's defense of their own territory from Russia, while the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President, and the President are blaming Ukraine for the Russian invasion of their own country. 

See what I mean? The Democrats are replacing the "Republicans" as the conservatives in Washington. The Democrats are acting as the Progressives, Liberals, and Conservatives, because the "Republicans" are so far to right, they can now make freakin Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders look pretty conservative when it comes to the rule of law, the defense of Europe, Ukraine, as well as Mexico and Canada. 

But this is what happens when you essentially sell your sole (to use a cliche), as well as your conscience, and your brain, to the Orange Devil and join his political cult. With the only cost being that you give him whatever money you can and you never even dare to question him in public.  

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