• Soup@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Honestly the right is never “serious” and where they are right now is exactly the place they need to be. Nothing they want is backed by any evidence which says that it’s good for the people and rhe whole fucking ideology was born out of keeping people down when monarchies fell.

      Fuck the right, serious or not nothing they do will ever help anyone but themselves and they are where they are right now because they chase the stupid and hateful for votes. Those are the only people who will actually go in for their nonsense and after a while they’re the people who also end up running and winning. It is seriously funny, if not slightly horrifying.

    • Subverb@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Unfortunately, as an erudite pundit, most people that would be swayed by him to vote for Harris are smart enough to have decided to do so on their own.

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    23 days ago

    I’m going to keep pointing this out until it becomes a part of the narrative.

    The strategy of prominent Republicans flipping to vote for Harris is specifically designed to help Republicans win Congress.

    If Republican voters are demoralized by the prospect of Trump, a lot are going to just stay home and not vote at all. That would lead to a Democratic electoral sweep.

    Cheney, George Will and other Republican ghouls’ best option to avoid this is to give permission to their voting base to toss their Presidential vote to Harris, but also get them into the polls so they can be reliable Republican voters down the ticket and try to keep the House and take the Senate.

    FFS, quit giving the enemy oxygen.

      • ysjet@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        It doesn’t have to be 18D chess, but it can also be a result that republicans will take advantage of.

        • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com
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          22 days ago

          Everyone will take whatever advantage they can from any result. Apply previous sentence to any scenario.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Interesting angle. If it wasn’t so close (how tf is it this close) I might agree more. But gop voters staying home, this way they vote for Harris and GOP Congress is also an interesting point. But maga Congress right now is a disaster, shutdowns and defaults are insane. So I think they want maga gone.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    24 days ago

    Not quite, Will de-registered as a Republican years ago… (checks notes) 2016.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/george-will-leaves-gop-224801

    So he’s not anti-Conservative or anti-Republican, he’s just anti-Trump.

    For those too young to remember, there was an era of intellectually honest conservatism. It was led by people like George Will and the late, lamented William F. Buckley Jr.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley_Jr.

    Buckley would have shot Trump in the middle of 5th Avenue and gotten away with it.

    • WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Intellectually honest in expressing their support for apartheid, ignoring the Constitution in favor of segregation, and promoting military coups against democratically elected leaders of foreign countries?

      • voracitude@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Intellectually honest in that they were open to having their minds changed through debate. Buckley saw his earlier positions were wrong, and regretted that he took them. This stands in contrast to the Republican party of today which is almost entirely dogmatic in its beliefs.

        • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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          23 days ago

          This stands in contrast to the Republican party of today which is almost entirely dogmatic in its beliefs.

          Doubles down even when anything it believes is shown to be patently false/immoral/illegal.

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    I am so confused.

    George Will

    Who? Has he played a significant role in past elections and I’ve never noticed?

    and baseball fan

    Why? Why is this part of this story? It makes me want to care even less. Is that the point?

    • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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      24 days ago

      don’t how old you are, but will is old school republican. hails from what what was known as the “intellectual” appendage of the gop’s corpse. dude is wrong, but not dumb.

      if we set aside the accelerated rightward sprint of the democrats since the 1980’s, a public kamala endorsement from him really is kind of a pigs flying moment.

      this move might signal to the remains of his caste that its ok to secretly pull that dem lever or just sit it out. effect will likely be minimal, but not inconsequential in a super tight race.

      what is more intersting is that parts of the lobotomized right are still making gurgling noises.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      24 days ago

      He’s a power behind the throne kind of guy, but he’s well known in wonkish circles.

      He once didn’t know what to write for his regular column, so he ranted about how blue jeans are a blue collar symbol taken over by elite coastal liberals.

    • Subverb@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Yes, he has played a significant role in past elections all the way back to Reagan, and you haven’t noticed.

      He’s an intellectual pundit that was on Fox News until 2017. He writes political commentary for the Washington Post; his column currently appears in 415 newspapers.

      He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

      He continues to appear on MSNBC to this day.

      He’s also considered to be a baseball expert who has written extensively on the subject including his own book. Their “baseball fan” comment was intended to be cute, I think.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      haven’t a clue myself.

      I was like… “george who? King George? Curious George? George Costanza?”

      • VubDapple@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        George Will is a conservative commentator whose name is familiar to us olds. He used to write in Newsweek when it was a prominent magazine back in the day and was on TV. I imagine he is a never-trumper so what is surprising here is not that he would refuse to vote but that he will vote for Harris. That can only mean that the old guard conservatives recognize trump as an existential threat to the country which he is.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          most of the super-rich folks prefer stability over chaos.

          Like a lot of people talk about how rich Musk and Bezos are. They’re likely not the richest people in the world- they’re the richest people in the world dumb enough to talk about how rich they are. The Rockefeller family, for example, has who-knows-how-much stashed away in blind llc’s etc, and all the Old Money types pay a fortune to maintain their privacy.

          People like the Koch brothers (well except that fourth one that’s not talked about,)… they endorsed trump last time around because he promised to deregulate everything- and they’ve been on a tear ever since they got dinged for benzene leaks in Corpus Christi.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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            24 days ago

            Musk is the richest person in the world, AFAIK. I believe he’s rapidly approaching trillionaire status.

              • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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                23 days ago

                I wouldn’t call TSLA shares not an asset.

                I would say those shares are significantly over valued. only reason they haven’t already collapsed is because of all the fanbois still sucking musk off.

              • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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                23 days ago

                When you’re talking about ‘richest people’, that’s total wealth, not just liquid money. The Rockefellers and Rothschilds may be wealthy as families, but no individual within them even comes close to having the amount of overall wealth that Musk and Bezos have.

                This is not a good thing, BTW.

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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              23 days ago

              That. You. Know. Of.

              Again. He’s not the richest man in the world. He’s the richest man in the world that is dumb enough to talk about it.

                • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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                  23 days ago

                  that they know of.

                  You can link any news agency you want. It will always come down to “that they know of.”

                  most rich people will use tools to hide their assets (maybe not from the government, but from the public). Financial information- including stocks, general banking, companies they own or whatever. other assets these are generally confidential. The only really common exception is real estate, but there’s ways of hiding ownership behind companies, trusts, or such. there are entire lawfirms dedicated specifically to doing just that.

                  People like the Rothschilds or Rockefeller families, and others… They don’t advertise. They don’t share that information, and they take extensive measures to ensure their privacy.

                  One of those measures is not talking to Forbes and telling them how much cash they have in assets.

                  So whenever reading that list. Always add that line: "the richest person dumb enough to brag about it" Because honestly, bragging about it like musk or bezos do… is really freaking stupid.

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    This really isn’t that surprising. The Republican party has become a cult of personality around Trump, putting it at odds with actual, ideological conservatives.

    I don’t know what Trump’s ideology is, or if he even has one. He seems to only believe in his own ambition, for wealth, power, and control.

    However, conservativism does lend itself to people like Trump rising to power, because it promotes a central authority and/or aristocracy that preserves tradition, culture, and the established social order. Conservatism doesn’t just tolerate social hierarchies, like class, it promotes them, and, in fact conservatism believes that such hierarchies are not only necessary, but natural and essential. It makes sense that malignant narcissists would take advantage of such a system to try and take their “rightful place” at the top of the hierarchies, because they believe that they are inherently superior to everyone else.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      This really isn’t that surprising. The Republican party has become a cult of personality around Trump, putting it at odds with actual, ideological conservatives.

      Luckily for them, they still have a party.

      • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Do you mean the Democrats? If so, yeah, the Democrats do seem willing to accept anti-Trump conservatives into their party.

        The Democrats really want to be a big tent party. They’ll take just about anyone within a certain ideological range, centered around the American political middle. This definitely includes many conservatives.

        I question the effectiveness of this strategy, though, as when you include too many opposing ideologies in a single party, it can be difficult for the party to choose a clear path to take. It’s often the case that when you try to appeal to as many different people as possible, you end up not appealing to very many people at all.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Do you mean the Democrats? If so, yeah, the Democrats do seem willing to accept anti-Trump conservatives into their party.

          Willing to accept? They’ve been desperate to please them for decades.

          The Democrats really want to be a big tent party. They’ll take just about anyone within a certain ideological range, centered around the American political middle. This definitely includes many conservatives.

          And excludes progressives.

          I question the effectiveness of this strategy, though, as when you include too many opposing ideologies in a single party, it can be difficult for the party to choose a clear path to take.

          It would be if the default weren’t “pander to the right and only the right.”

  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    24 days ago

    Will is conservative, but also believes in America, and in Democracy. He knows that Trump is terrible for both of those things. So even though he’s going to disagree with Harris on damn near every policy position that she has, he recognizes that she’s the far, far better option for the country.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      Yeah, he recognizes that the Republican party can survive a Harris presidency, but not a Trump presidency.

      That would be a compelling reason to vote for Trump if I wasn’t certain that the entire Republic will collapse if he gets another term.

  • forrcaho@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Was Will ever a Trump supporter? Somehow I thought he was smarter than that, but I haven’t read an essay of his in decades.

    • Subverb@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Because think of how Trump is now. Now add two, three, or four more years to his obvious decline.

      Even if he doesn’t end democracy, they’re afraid he could literally end the Republican party.

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Congratulations to centrists on the occasion of the achievement of their only ambition. You finally moved so far to the right that you’re actually getting Republicans’ approval.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      Congratulations on being the right combination of passible straight, white, cisgender, male, and Christian to not worry about the consequences of another Trump term.

      The rest of us don’t have the luxury of purity-testing Harris because the alternative is a fascist who wants us dead.

      Regardless, the fact that old school Republicans are endorsing a Democrat over the fascist should serve as evidence that Trump is bad even for a Republican, but folks like you seem more interested in painting Harris as the more conservative candidate for some reason. It’s almost like you prefer Trump…

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Do you have an actual argument,or do you just scream “trumper!” at anyone to the left of George Will and Dick Cheney?

        • TheHiddenCatboy@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          What this poster and others like it miss, dear reader, is the truth being shown them. It must be nice to not have any concerns that might be harmed by harming the opposition to the Leopards Eat Your Face party, despite so many other people being harmed by the Leopards Eat Your Face party. We can’t know which faction this particular poster belongs to, but we should keep in mind that there are three major factions that are pushing the ‘don’t vote for the guys who will save you from the Leopards Eat Your Face party’:

          • The faction that honestly doesn’t believe that harming the Democrats will get us Trump and somehow their choice for the Green party or whatever will actually win.
          • The faction that embraces letting Republicans run the show because somehow, in their stupid, convoluted brains, it’ll break the Duopoly of power between Team Blue and Team Pepe without resulting in a single-party dictatorship and eventually Greens will win.
          • The faction that actually supports Republicans and Authoritarianism and are looking to use the fact that we must fall in love to vote for a candidate to split our vote so Republicans win and they get the single-party Authoritarian dictatorship they want, and can get to the business of grinding Democrats, Socialists, Left-Libertarians, Greens, and other left-of-centre ideology followers under their authoritarian jackboot-heels.

          We can’t know what faction THIS poster belongs to, and even if we did and could convincingly prove so, Rule 3 would prevent us from calling out members of the third faction anyway, but keep in mind that there ARE people out there who want to make you throw your vote away so America can be conquered by Russian- and Chinese-style Authoritarianism.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            24 days ago

            Oh christ. The party has moved so far to the right, Dick Cheney and George Will are on board.

            Pointing that out is “Hurting the party”? Give me a fucking break. Not everyone who isn’t as delighted that the Democratic Party moves to the right is the Russian Chinese Bot you walked right up to the line of accusing me of being in order to not get your comment removed by the mods.

            • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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              23 days ago

              It’s more like the Republican party has moved so far to the extreme that other party members are endorsing the opposition party candidate because they recognize who the lesser of two evils is.

              Kamala is a shift to the left from Biden. You should be fucking happy.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                23 days ago

                Kamala is a shift to the left from Biden. You should be fucking happy.

                Oh? We’re already going with the “most progressive evar” label with Harris too?

                Her policies on fracking, immigration, and Gaza are identical to Biden’s.

            • TheHiddenCatboy@lemmy.world
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              24 days ago

              Here’s another thing this poster misses in its rant.

              Dick Cheney and George Will are not on board our party for our policy. Both have made it clear that there are major policy disagreements between them and the Democratic Party, but they have said that the other party is so dangerous, they felt it necessary to both vote for AND endorse our party. They’ve said so much in almost so many words!

              Dick Cheney

              In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.

              As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

              George Will

              The restoration of normal politics will require two things: The removal of Donald Trump — that Krakatau of volcanic, incoherent, fact-free bombast — from public life. And the rekindling of an irrepressible conflict.

              It is between progressivism, of which Kamala Harris is full to overflowing, and actual conservatism, about which Trump is contemptuous.

              Cheney is circumspect about it, but if you read eep enough, you can see he’s not voting for Harris, but against Trump. Meanwhile, George Will makes it clear – he’s NOT a friend of Kamala Harris or Progressivism. He’s just anti-Trump and wants Trump out of his political sphere.

              No. The party of cancelling Student Loan Debt is not right-wing by Trump measures, and that’s not why GOP Alums are moving to the Dems. The only reason they’re endorsing us is they, like me, believe that the GQP as it currently stands is an existential threat to the USA.

              I play the game by the rules the Mods have established. It is a fact that Russia is stoking divisions and interfering with our election in order to get the Authoritarian Trump party elected so they may get to the business of crushing democracies in their orbit without Western interference. And they have a variety of tools with which to do it. Nothing this poster says changes that fact. If the poster feels called out by me pointing out that there are Russian influence operations, as well as Chinese and Iranian operations, well, all I can tell the poster is sucks to be him. Maybe reconsider his tone and goal here, in this election where outside bad-faith actors are trying to get us to install an Authoritarian Dictator for their own Authoritarian Dictators’ goals?

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                23 days ago

                Cheney is circumspect about it, but if you read eep enough, you can see he’s not voting for Harris, but against Trump. Meanwhile, George Will makes it clear – he’s NOT a friend of Kamala Harris or Progressivism. He’s just anti-Trump and wants Trump out of his political sphere.

                Keep moving right. I’m sure they’ll come around. Not like any of you need encouragement.

                • TheHiddenCatboy@lemmy.world
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                  23 days ago

                  I suspect ‘right’ to this poster means anything left of the Buddha. Really big words for someone who can’t get even a quarter of the country to own any left-wing labels. ;)

    • aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.com
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      24 days ago

      You might get invited to the party if you didn’t hiss “you’re committing genocide” at ‘chad’ and ‘stacy’ every time you passed them.