Sunday, October 21, 2018

It's Always 2004



The mighty birthday fundraiser continues...


Behold, a Birthday Fundraiser!


 ...with this quick retrospective.

This is the "Bad" Post-Trump Republican Party (from Vox, today)
The Trump administration reportedly wants the government to revoke civil rights protections from transgender people

They want to define gender at birth — and force DNA tests to prove otherwise.

And this is the "Good" Pre-Trump Republican Party (from The New York Times, 14 years ago):
'Moral Values' Carried Bush, Rove Says

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, said Tuesday that opposition to gay marriage was one of the most powerful forces in American politics today and that politicians ignored it at their peril.

"This is an issue on which there is a broad consensus," Mr. Rove said, discussing a presidential election that took place as voters in 11 states backed constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriages.

"In all 11 states, it won by considerable margins," Mr. Rove said, adding, "People do not like the idea or the concept of marriage as being a union between a man and a woman being uprooted and overturned by a few activist judges or a couple of activist local officials."
...

Mr. Rove appeared to stifle a grin when asked whether he was "indebted" to Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, who opened his City Hall to gay marriages until he was blocked by a court, and to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, for ruling that gay couples have a right to marriage.

"If you look at things that intrude into American politics through a nontraditional method -- through a judicial vein -- they tend to have a huge impact," he said...
In the Republican Party, it's always 2004.

And 2001.


And 1994.




And 1990.


And 1988.


And the entire Obama Administration



And on and on and on.

This is who they are.

This is who they have always been.

And anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or is an imbecile, and either way is probably trying to sell you a book.

As a bonus, Matthew Gertz as pulled onto Twitter this Media Matters collection of Hot Takes By Prominent Pundits who were all tingly about how pro-LGBT Trump was gonna be.

My favorite?

 Oh please don't make me choose.

But if you stuffed by tip jar full of doubloons and said I absolutely had to (from the July 22, 2016 edition of Morning Joe)...
JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): You don't want to overstate anything, but I think culturally, I think that was a significant landmark for this country, culturally, and the party that has been seen as the most reactionary to the rights of many, many Americans and many different groups, responded that way to Peter's declaration.

MARK HALPERIN: In the history of the Republican Party and gay rights, last night was one of the biggest days ever...


4 comments:

steeve said...

Mark Halperin being a dumbass is better than anyone else being a dumbass.

trgahan said...

and what about assuring white elderly bigots THEIR government welfare (social security and Medicare) was perfectly safe and never get touched as long as he's in charge.

or

He'd make the rest of everyone else's healthcare "better and cheaper!"

or

all those (mostly white and male) union jobs that his infrastructure plans were supposed to create to re-build the appropriate parts of the rust belt?

Along with the LGBTQ lie, these were the lies that let the media pretend this silver spooned, rock stupid, bigoted, sexual predator, reality TV star was some magical conservative populist outsider that would "shake things up!" in DC and, along with all the gerrymandered voter suppression, Russian and domestic fascist billionaire ratfuckery, and 26 year long anti-Hillary Clinton campaign, delivered a razor thin victory... SO....the resulting administration could just become the Bush Administration's third term.

I don't care how much money President Stupid has raised for his 2020 campaign. He is going to need the media to do what it did in 2016 ten times over....and they will likely gladly do so.

mcfrank said...

I took a deep breath and visited the Media Matters article.

What struck me was the level of hypocrisy in Peter Thiel's speech that started the whole schmooze fest.

"I am proud to be gay."

Really Peter? The man who was so incensed by his public outing by Gawker that he privately financed campaign to drive Gawker out of business?

Wikipedia adds this bit of sauce to his bio:

"He highlighted his support for the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, and said that
athletes and business executives have the right to stay in the closet
as long as they want to."

Someone who thinks that Gawker ruined his life (sorry, he was only protecting "other" people ) doesn't seem pretty proud.

Robt said...

Pretty simple stuff to identify. Fascism always. I mean always targets the minority most vulnerable at first. Demonize them is easy. Not enough concern from enough to defend these "targets" of hate and spite and fear.

What a DNA test at birth does not explain is the mental composition of the in regards to macho or feminine natural compulsory triggers.

As it applied then, it applies to their losing bastard wanna be legacy inheritors.
let us find a DNA test to identify this" As to catch it early and correct.

Just doesn't get old:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.