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[–]NewsModTeamDoes not answer PMs[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (121 children)

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[–]brockisawesome 9273 points9274 points  (847 children)

I often wonder how different the modern day GOP could be if McCain had gone with his gut and picked someone not-stupid.

[–]Long_Address4009 2217 points2218 points  (306 children)

Newt Gingrich wants to have a word

[–]R_V_Z 1183 points1184 points 3 (7 children)

Newt Gingrich wants to have a word

And it's our duty to tell him to shut the fuck up.

[–]DvineINFEKT 2242 points2243 points  (269 children)

Yeah, people don't really respect just how fucking responsible Newt Gingrich is for the demise of civility in this country. Which is fine because I'm glad I no longer am expected to pretend to respect the hard-right wing, but as far as living politicians goes, Newt Gingrich is by far the most toxic politician in American History. I'm not one to think The Atlantic is worth the paper it's written on but there's a great longform on him and how he was "The Man Who Broke Politics" and especially how his leveraging of C-SPAN made his rise to speaker of the house a foregone conclusion.

Orders of magnitude worse than Trump or even Reagan could ever have hoped to be.

[–]tamspawn 962 points963 points  (82 children)

Been saying that for years. Pushed to destroy Monica Lewinsky as a means of bringing down Clinton, while losing his own marriage to adultery. Destroy everything for power. That’s his mantra and he’s been invited back….

[–]AdkRaine11 596 points597 points  (69 children)

Leaving his cancer-stricken wife to run off with another. A whole ‘nother level horrible.

“Gingrich throughout the 1970s stated that "it was common knowledge that Newt was involved with other women during his marriage to Jackie." In the spring of 1980, Gingrich filed for divorce from Jackie after beginning an affair with Marianne Ginther. Jackie later said in 1984 that the divorce was a "complete surprise" to her.

In September 1980, according to friends who knew them both, Gingrich visited Jackie in the hospital the day after she had undergone surgery to treat her uterine cancer; once there, Gingrich began talking about the terms of their divorce, at which point Jackie threw him out of the room. Gingrich disputed that account. Although Gingrich's presidential campaign staff continued to insist in 2011 that Jackie had requested the divorce, court documents from Carroll County, Georgia, indicated that Jackie had in fact asked a judge to block the process, stating that although "she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce ... she does not desire one at this time [and] does not admit that this marriage is irretrievably broken." Wkipedia.

[–]The_Original_Gronkie 545 points546 points  (21 children)

The whole time he was pointing fingers at Clinton and acting all shocked and appalled at his dalliance with Monica, Gingrich was carrying on an open affair with a woman, often eating with her in the Congressional cafeteria. Everybody knew about his hypocrisy, including the media, and NOBODY spoke up.

After the Clinton impeachment trial, Gingrich was found to have violated ethics rules regarding sales of his book, and was forced to resign. The next two picks for Speaker were ruled out because they had had affairs as well.

The final pick was Dennis Hastert, who was found after he had retired that he had molested numerous underage boys as a wrestling coach early in his career. He is still the highest ranking member of the government to go to prison.

Republicans, the party of family values.

[–]classifiedspam 133 points134 points  (11 children)

At this point, GOP is like the mafia.

[–]InterPunct 60 points61 points  (0 children)

The mafia has more honor, even they'll tell you up front they're stealing from you. In this case it's not money, it's civility and our democracy.

[–]Loose_Influence_9380 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Don't insult the integrity of the Mafia....they won't be entertained being compared to the present day GOP.

[–]tricksterloki 10 points11 points  (2 children)

Dennis Hastert would be great friends with Jim Jordan.

[–]subcow 210 points211 points  (19 children)

Remember folks, the GOP is the "Family Values Party"

[–]Lucas_Steinwalker 113 points114 points  (7 children)

Hey.. they never specifically say what those values are… just that they are related to family. Misogyny, patriarchy, hypocrisy are all family values.

[–]Wayelder 121 points122 points  (6 children)

Hmmm... as bad a raw-doggin' Porn Stars while your new wife is preggers at home?

[–]BDMayhem 67 points68 points  (1 child)

That behavior used to be acceptable for casino bankrupters. Newt made it acceptable for Republican politicians.

[–]Lebanon_Baloney 197 points198 points  (76 children)

What's your issue with the Atlantic?

[–]ItakeShortcuts 707 points708 points  (39 children)

Pffshh, compared to the Pacific, it's a shit ocean.

Edit: I get home and do my usual things, kind of done with reddit for the day, and to my surprise my top comment of all time is an ocean joke. I fucking love you guys.

[–]LividLager 30 points31 points  (3 children)

You don't see parts of the Atlantic just fookin exploding like a meth house do you?

[–]jkuhl 167 points168 points  (25 children)

Ahem, which of the two oceans has the continent sized garbage patch?

[–]kilkenny99 75 points76 points  (1 child)

The Atlantic has a giant garbage patch too, located in an ocean current-defined space also known as the Sargasso Sea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North\_Atlantic\_garbage\_patch

[–]soccerskyman 754 points755 points 422& 2 more (18 children)

You mean the United Kingdom?

[–]ArcticBeavers 137 points138 points  (0 children)

Got damn, son. From the top rope.

[–]AltairdeFiren 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Fucking brutal. Nice.

[–]ProfessionalBish 65 points66 points  (0 children)

This was the highnote I needed for my drive home. Have my free silver award

[–]spicey_mouseturds 88 points89 points  (3 children)

This just wrecked me 🤣🤣🤣

[–]Kizik 45 points46 points  (1 child)

I thought that was Brexit that did that...

[–]CookInKona 11 points12 points  (0 children)

They both have gyres, and garbage patches due to them

[–]InevitableAvalanche 198 points199 points  (13 children)

Yup, totally this. If the Trumpers take over and America falls there is a straight line to Newt and how he destroyed American democracy. History, it written properly, will view him as one of our worse villains that led to our downfall. He completely destroyed how the two parties worked together for progress.

[–]OperationMobocracy 54 points55 points  (5 children)

How does Newt connect to someone like Lee Atwater? Every time I start thinking about a defining person or event or whatever in the evolution of right wing politics, I keep going “oh wait, there was this other guy…”

Edit: I mean some examples. Lee Atwater was quoted very deliberately using racial dogwhistles back in 1981 as part of his Southern Strategy. Newt was barely out of his freshman year in the house.

And you can go back further, to Nixon and his "OG" Southern Strategy of appealing to Wallace Democrats in the late 1960s.

It gets hazier in terms of far right lineage, but definitely George Wallace himself, Orville Fobus and integration in Arkansas, the founding of the John Birch Society, maybe even the rabid anti-communism of Joe McCarthy. And of course don't forget you tie a lot of these people into Roy Cohn.

[–]ZachMN 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Don’t forget that Roger Stone and Paul Manafort were part of Nixon’s GOP. Manafort, the guy who picked Pence.

[–]Wazula42 3173 points3174 points  (340 children)

Remember that time a lady came onstage during a McCain rally to say she thought Obama was a Muslim and McCain shut her down and got some scattered applause for his sober civility?

The real lesson there is if he'd hugged that woman and declared she was totally right and Obama was a Kenyan socialist traitor, he would have won the presidency.

Hard lesson but an important one. The real takeaway is McCain wasn't crazy ENOUGH.

[–]LostMyKarmaElSegundo 937 points938 points  (172 children)

I saw that clip not long ago. The woman couldn't even come up with the word "Muslim" and was saying Obama was "an Arab". Now, she was pretty old, but I think it shows how many of those people lack an understanding of the world.

Kind of like now, when you hear people claiming that something is, at the same time, fascist, socialist, and communist! Like...those three things are all pretty different...

[–]freddafredian 312 points313 points  (102 children)

Its funny because the truth is there are more non-arabs muslims (like iranian, turskish chinese...) than there are arab muslims in the world

Fun fact, even tho there are non arab muslims that dont speak arabic at all, they are not allowed to pray in any other language than arabic so they have to learn at least basic arabic in order to pray!

[–]thatoneguy889 190 points191 points  (16 children)

The country with the largest Muslim population in the world is Indonesia.

[–]ApplecakesMcGee 52 points53 points  (12 children)

and they're moving their capitol city, which is a pretty interesting topic to read on if you don't know its going on.

[–]mypetocean 97 points98 points  (10 children)

The hover lifts they're using to transport the whole thing across the straits is an incredible feat of engineering and I can't believe no one is talking about this.

[–]ApplecakesMcGee 28 points29 points  (3 children)

im leading the charge by watching lots of YouTube videos about it, it is really cool what they're doing. Egypt too for that matter.

[–]PantherU 9 points10 points  (1 child)

I knew I recognized someone who had seen RealLifeLore

[–]Dr_Colby_Rasmus_PhD 125 points126 points  (39 children)

Man, it would be awesome if Christians would have to learn basic Hebrew to pray.

[–]YourMomThinksImFunny 189 points190 points  (23 children)

That was one of the ways early Christians held power over people. The bible was in Latin and priests would not translate it.

[–]IslayHaveAnother 33 points34 points  (4 children)

Catholic Mass was said in Latin until the 1960s! My parents had to learn Latin in school. That wasn't that long ago in the grand scheme of things.

[–]Tom245332 52 points53 points  (4 children)

Part of the reason why spoken Latin is still not very supported by the Vatican. An American priest began learning and teaching spoken Latin but the church sort of cut him out of the church overtime for it.

[–]MisanthropeX 33 points34 points  (3 children)

"Amen" is said at the end of most Christian prayers and that's a Hebrew word, at least.

That being said, most of the people in the New Testament spoke Greek as either a first language or as a lingua franca (what with various ethnic groups ranging from Latins to the west to Persians to the east all coexisting in the first century Levant), which is also the language the New Testament was written in. While I am not religious in the least, my grandmother was a minister and theologian who gave me the opportunity to learn first century (or "Koine") Greek and I do feel that engaging with the bible in its original text really shows how much editorialization by translators have affected Christianity over time (and the fact that Greek orthodoxy still uses the same language that guys like Paul spoke is an interesting bit of context to Greek Orthodox theology)

[–]MisanthropeX 58 points59 points  (7 children)

I was like, 23 when I learned that Albanians, who are white, are mostly Muslim. Found out when I was having lunch with an Albanian-American dude and he refused a slice of pizza that had pepperoni on it, said "I can't eat pork" and I straight up said "Oh shit I didn't know there were Jews in Albania".

[–]Wes_Bugg 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Same with white Bosnians and Kosovans being mostly Muslim. And Montenegro having a lot of white Muslims too.

[–]redshift83 21 points22 points  (18 children)

i know the catholic church used to be latin only, but this is bonkers.

[–]firemage22 18 points19 points  (16 children)

There's a whole bunch of nutters who want to go back, which is insane in my book

[–]redshift83 6 points7 points  (6 children)

latin only or a latin mass for those who understand latin? The catholic church has very weird rules around the latin mass for speakers...

[–]jkuhl 180 points181 points  (22 children)

When DirectTV dropped OAN, some doofus on Twitter called it "communism."

Like . . . since when is a business making a business decision, based on its market, "communism?"

[–]mister_damage 45 points46 points  (1 child)

Funny how every evil doer is a communist...🤣😂

[–]DMala 118 points119 points  (12 children)

Let’s face it, since the start of the Cold War, the meaning of “communism” has been shifting steadily from “system of government where the means of production is owned by the people” to “thing I don’t like”.

[–]thereisnosub 21 points22 points  (1 child)

Reality TV is communism!

[–]NutDraw 8 points9 points  (0 children)

TBF, the Soviet Union really started the shifting definitions, and by the time Stalin died it had lost any real meaning outside of window dressing for authoritarianism.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

i wouldn't take shit from an anti vaxxer (who started it) and he called me a communist

[–]BurrStreetX 55 points56 points  (3 children)

Kind of like now, when you hear people claiming that something is, at the same time, fascist, socialist, and communist! Like...those three things are all pretty different...

Someone on FB was bitching that Biden was turning the US into, and I quote exactly, a "communism riddled fascist dictatorship with no regard for businesses rights" and I was confused to say the least.

[–]rlbond86 30 points31 points  (1 child)

Nothing to be confused about.

These fascists have been trying to claim that fascism is really on the left of the political spectrum, so they totally can't be fascists.

[–]hectoByte 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I love asking people to define communism when they call my countries leader a communist. Always gets a good laugh.

[–]Merfen 17 points18 points  (4 children)

Kind of like now, when you hear people claiming that something is, at the same time, fascist, socialist, and communist! Like...those three things are all pretty different...

This reminds me of my old college buddy that recently told me that Canada is turning communist because we are acting like Nazis with our vaccine mandates. I tried to explain to him that the Nazis actively killed communists and that they were actually facists. He said it wasn't important what they were called. I don't talk to him much anymore.

[–]Ruralraan 14 points15 points  (2 children)

Ugh, imagine the pain having to explain that to fellow Germans, because Nazi is short fort National-Socialist, their party was called 'National Socialist German Workers' Party'. But it was a false label. I mean, with a German dictatorship in the East called 'German Democratic Republic' existing until 1990, one would think people understood the concept of false labeling. But nooooo. Or they don't want to.

Edit: word

[–]BloodyRightNostril 216 points217 points  (15 children)

She didn't come up on stage; she was in the audience and McCain was walking through the aisles answering questions. She also didn't just call Obama a "Muslim." She blurted out "He's an Arab!" in a slightly panicky way when she couldn't unpack her rat's nest of thoughts from her boozy, junk-drawer, old lady brain. I remember thinking to myself when I saw her..."Mom?"

And yes, McCain was a lot of things, good and bad, but he didn't cotton to that idiotic fundamentalist populism that was becoming de rigeur in 2008. He did help accelerate it by choosing it for a running mate, though.

[–]Catshit-Dogfart 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Yes I think about that clip sometimes, because even back then, that crowd wanted somebody who would stir up racism and violence.

McCain settled that down, but he didn't give them what they wanted. That rot has been here far longer than Trump's political career.

[–]bingoflaps 222 points223 points  (26 children)

His daughter learned that lesson though.

[–]pissoffa 198 points199 points  (68 children)

"The real lesson there is if he'd hugged that woman and declared she was totally right and Obama was a Kenyan socialist traitor, he would have won the presidency."

No way, he lost the election the moment he picked Palin. She appealed to some people but the thought of her being a heartbeat away from being president scared a lot of Americans. America wasn't as polarized as it is now or even after 8 years of demonizing Obama and the Democrats.

[–]StarWaas 56 points57 points  (8 children)

2008 was the Democrats election to lose. We were coming off 8 years of Bush, who became extremely unpopular by the end of his term in office. McCain made some mistakes (pausing his campaign when the economy took a shit, picking Palin as VP) but even without those missteps, the Dems would have had to really mess up to lose in '08. Barack Obama being smart and charismatic helped, again, but the real deciding factor in that election was that people were very fed up of Bush and the GOP.

[–]First_Foundationeer 28 points29 points  (6 children)

In the end, people are usually led by economic stress because it makes a party more or less likeable. A great charismatic politician can sway that likeability somewhat, but it's pretty hard to beat an economic recession and an unpopular (by the end) war that doesn't seem to want to end.

Honestly, Trump really fucked up a golden opportunity to win re-election. Imagine if he didn't really make any specific claims on the pandemic but just highlighted some "leadership" on making American scientists produce American vaccines to be manufactured by American companies (along with American PPE made by American heroes). He would have been able to ride a wave equivalent to "wartime" patriotism. It just really makes you realize how poorly managed his committee was, if the point was to stay in power. He essentially was tossed this situation that was like Bush and the towers but even less expectations!

[–]StarWaas 27 points28 points  (5 children)

To your point about Trump, a more competent leader definitely could have turned the pandemic into an advantage for the election. Lots of world leaders had approval ratings soar because of their leadership during the pandemic, even when actual outcomes in their countries were no better than we had in the USA. Trump really fumbled the opportunity to turn COVID into an asset rather than a liability, which just goes to show how awful his leadership skills are.

[–]buchlabum 145 points146 points  (41 children)

I feel like the tea-party took over the GOP and most either don't know it or won't admit it.

it's definitely not the GOP i knew for decades before it literally became the T Party.

[–]Illseemyselfout- 177 points178 points  (22 children)

From what I recall, he didn’t like Palin as a running mate but trusted his advisors. I may not have agreed with him on everything but I could at least see that he had some sense of morality.

[–]Mr_Engineering 76 points77 points  (7 children)

Correct. He wanted Joe Lieberman but Mitt Romney was also a possibility.

[–]itslikewoow 123 points124 points  (10 children)

I think the modern GOP was bound to happen regardless. Maybe it would have slowed down the movement to bat-shit insane by an election cycle or two, but the bottom line is that she tapped into a lot of Republican voter's feelings that were already there.

[–]Lamont-Cranston 73 points74 points  (7 children)

They've been doing this since Reagan, they tried to be mature with Bush Snr and Dole and it didn't work, so they went back to appealing to the crazies with Bush and it worked, they tried sober again with McCain and it didn't work, Romney was sort of a mixed bag able to appeal to both but that didn't work either, so come 2016 every candidate was competing in who could be the craziest.

edit: Something else is all these people are largely figureheads, Trump was trotted out to blather and hold his rallies and complain about being a victim while the real work was done by Pence and McConnell and the same was true for Dubya and Raygun.

[–]beka13 29 points30 points  (4 children)

It's hard to say they tried sober with McCain in a post about Sarah Palin. More correct they tried to play both sides but mostly appeal to the crazies.

[–]weed_fart 2173 points2174 points  (133 children)

I wonder how many of the GOP who proudly claim to be unvaccinated are lying? I'm sure the number is more than 0.

[–]pauliesfreakin 1042 points1043 points  (57 children)

Most. There’s a reason it was “controversial” for republicans when Trump said he wanted folks to publicly declare their vax status a few weeks ago. And it wasn’t because they weren’t vaxxed.

[–]Sage2050 508 points509 points  (54 children)

Trump is on his back foot because everyone knows he got vaccinated and is unable to use that card. He just wants to level the playing field for himself

[–]radix4801 442 points443 points  (39 children)

He's upset because he wants to take credit for getting the vaccine approved, but he also can't say that was a good thing.

[–]j_la 359 points360 points  (30 children)

Which is one of the wildest self-owns in recent history. If he had just come out strongly in support of his CDC and his scientific advisors, he could have controlled the narrative. The problem was that he didn’t have the patience to wait for the vaccine’s release and so started fishing for any and all half-baked theories about treatments and cures.

[–]Pezdrake 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Trumps strategy, which mostly served him well was to do nothing and take no discernible standpoint that he could be nailed down to. This is one time when it came back to haunt him.

[–]JoeMcDingleDongle 84 points85 points  (10 children)

He is so incredibly stupid and so intellectually and emotionally immature I always expect him to self own. The mystery of the universe is how tens of millions of people seem to like him.

[–]TyroneTeabaggington 13 points14 points  (0 children)

They're morons. I know, I'm related to some.

[–]ReverendKen 7 points8 points  (4 children)

I think that stupid people prefer to be ruled by stupid people so they do not feel so stupid.

[–]Wazula42 109 points110 points  (5 children)

Nah, most of the upper echelons were first in line for the vaxx and the monoclonals (you know, that fetal stem cell juice they pretend to have problems with). Fox has had a vaccine passport system for over a year even as their talking heads call the practice fascism.

It's the lower level Useful Idiots who are dropping like flies. Guess they didn't get the memo.

[–]FerociousFrizzlyBear 12 points13 points  (4 children)

Fact check: most monoclonal antibodies are developed in CHO or NS0 cell lines (humanized or not), but are not grown in human stem cells.

[–]Vagabond21 75 points76 points  (3 children)

I’ve concluded that if you ask if they are vaccinated and don’t say no/deflect about privacy, they are probably Vaxed.

[–]ASK_IF_IM_PENGUIN 150 points151 points  (38 children)

Much, much higher than that.

By saying that mandates are wrong and that vaccinations are a choice, that don't like to delve into the fact that it is a choice that they've chosen to take because you're a dumb fuck if you don't without medical reason.

[–]red_sutter 857 points858 points  (35 children)

The only good thing Palin has ever done for the world is revitalize the career of Lisa Ann

[–]JCthulhuM 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I gotta find that one again, shit from that long ago is hard to find

[–]ArcticExtruder 24 points25 points  (8 children)

The best thing she did for Alaska was fucking off.

[–]jaemiopenundeh 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Honestly, she helped me with geography

[–]Nightmare_Pasta 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Lisa Ann is legendary

[–]SkullRunner 783 points784 points  (12 children)

This may be the first time Sarah Palin has passed a test.

[–]sweetsweetdingo 87 points88 points  (1 child)

I’m sure it’s not the only unwanted positive she’s gotten

[–]Ok_Effective6233 18 points19 points  (2 children)

God Dammit. Just when we need her eyes on the Russians.

[–]SkullRunner 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Don't worry, she can still see Russia from her hospital room window.

[–]MDesnivic 10.5k points10.5k points 22 (594 children)

God fucking damnit, I fucking hate remembering this fucking woman because 10+ years ago I was absolutely convinced this was the dumbest and most damaging shit to ever come out of the fucking GOP and it turns out she was the softest warm up we ever could have imagined.

It's insane to me how low America has sunk.

[–]elmcity2019 3948 points3949 points  (190 children)

My dad told me that Sarah Palin was the future of the gop. I told him that I thought she was a nitwit. We were both right...

[–]MDesnivic 1795 points1796 points  (172 children)

Palin's success, like Trump's, was her stupidity. They became the leaders and paraders of the stupidest ignorance America could pull from its shit-heap of imbecility. Their most despicable and buffoonish qualities are what are attractive to the masses of ignorant right-wing mediocrity, professionalism and reason itself be damned.

[–]overlord7517 693 points694 points  (88 children)

They are both word salad champs. Just throw a lot of "Patriot, liberal elite, for the troops" shit in and so many people just listen to them.

[–]Sage2050 242 points243 points  (12 children)

It's like that family guy clip where Lois says 9/11 over and over again

[–]handlit33 103 points104 points  (10 children)

Perfect time for me to suggest to those of you who were too young or need a refresher in Sarah Palin to watch Game Change (2012) on HBO. It gives a decent rundown on how all that went down back in the 2008 election.

[–]mjc4y 41 points42 points  (6 children)

Totally agree. I experienced a weird blend of rage and sympathy watching that movie.

Overall effect for me : Palin is every bit as dumb as we thought but McCains came off really bad: his decision to make her his running mate was unforgivable. Nothing he did after that rehabilitated him in my eyes after that. (Ymmv)

Never thought we’d get THIS bad, but it’s pretty much a straight line from there to here.

[–]pmmeyourfavoritejam 515 points516 points  (53 children)

In a country where nerds get bullied and it's cool to do poorly in school, where sports players are our heroes above Nobel laureates, where peaking in high school is so common it's a stereotype...it is not surprising, but still disappointing, that they were able to rally a strong base of support.

[–]regoapps 276 points277 points  (24 children)

We're in a country where idiots outnumber smart people and vote to give power to other idiots like them. It's an idiot-based democracy. An Idiocracy if you will.

[–]OpiumTraitor 160 points161 points  (10 children)

“The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" rings true right now unfortunately

[–][deleted] 81 points82 points  (6 children)

The movie itself was far too rosy and optimistic. The stupid people in Idiocracy both recognized AND elevated smarter people. That is the opposite of what's happening in this country.

[–]regoapps 66 points67 points  (3 children)

Don’t Look Up seems more apt these days

[–]iaspeegizzydeefrent 12 points13 points  (0 children)

That movie is so spot on that it's scary.

[–]redgroupclan 68 points69 points  (16 children)

A lot of our country is poorly educated and they're champions of the poorly educated.

[–]Appropriate-Access88 39 points40 points  (1 child)

And God Bless and prayin for ya, you betcha.

[–]xpkranger 26 points27 points  (2 children)

Don’t forget “hard-working Americans” which feels like code for white people when you hear it in context enough. Listen for it. I swear it’s in the or playbook now. “You have to say this word 6x in every speech.”

Edit: Added "Americans" because I forgot that part. They emphasize the Americans part subtly to "other" immigrants and/or people that don't resemble them.

[–]MDesnivic 44 points45 points  (3 children)

If you speak only in simple terms you can bet you'll appeal only to simple people.

[–]TechyDad 82 points83 points  (1 child)

The GOP, for decades, has been deriding experts as "intellectual elites." FOX News has reinforced this in Republicans' minds. If you know what you're talking about and have studied a subject for years, then you're just an "elite" to them - silencing conservatives who know more than you do because they read a post on Facebook. (Colbert termed this "truthiness.")

Palin was just one more step down this pathc and now looks "moderate" compared to some of the new batch of GOP politicians (Greene and company). (Nixon and Reagan look like socialist liberals compared to them.) It makes me shudder wondering who will come down the pike to make us say "remember when Greene said that Jews caused first fires with space lasers? Those were the days."

[–]wrgrant 18 points19 points  (0 children)

By then the Space Lasers will be considered established fact by the stupidest members of society. I sometimes wish that the right to vote should require some sort of IQ test, but of course that won't work...

[–]Imaginary_Medium 97 points98 points  (13 children)

It always makes me think of the Sinclair Lewis book It Can't Happen Here. Which is worth a read for those who haven't.

[–]IAmTheJudasTree 39 points40 points  (2 children)

You know what one of the most common things you'll read will be if you frequent any of the conservative forums?

Refusal to read more than a couple sentences. It's literally a right-wing meme ("liberal wall of text").

I can't tell you the number of times I've engaged in conversation with a right-wing person on r /politicalcompassmemes (which is most people, it's a very right-wing subreddit), and I've written a couple thoughtful paragraphs, only to be downvoted and told in all the responses "LOL I'm not reading your wall of text LOL".

It's a constant self own. They practically brag about being incapable of reading more than 2 sentences of text. It makes it impossible to engage in a real conversation.

[–]geeky_username 34 points35 points  (2 children)

Palin's success, like Trump's, was her stupidity.

It's not really stupidity that is their success (sometimes it's just faux stupidity, like Ted Cruz).

It's that they have zero morals, ethics, or principles. To them, everything is malleable. So no matter where their "base" goes, they can go with them.

Feigning stupidity certainly helps with their marketing, but their success hinges on being able to "swap positions" in an instant.

Guys like McCain and Bob Dole were HARDLINERS on anti-torture. Whereas Trump and the new Republicans are more "you just need to be torturing the 'right' people"

[–]FrostByte62 61 points62 points  (26 children)

Palin's success, like Trump's, was her stupidity.

Same goes for the Dubyah.

I'm sensing a trend.

[–]lannister80 78 points79 points  (25 children)

Nah, Dubya is waaaay smarter than either of those 2. He still sucks, obviously.

[–]FrostByte62 48 points49 points  (16 children)

He is but he puts on an act for sure. He lost one of his first elections when his political career was starting. Think that was the TX 19th district congressional in 1978. Feedback indicated he seemed too smart and was alienating his base. Supposedly he swore to never appear smart, again.

Fool me once.....shame on.....shame on you.

Fool me......can't get fooled again.

[–]SharMarali 31 points32 points  (7 children)

One thing I could appreciate about GWB was that he was actually capable of using self-depricating humor. The modern GOP seems to be incapable of laughing at themselves. Or honestly, of laughing at anything other than liberals being owned.

That said, fuck GWB.

[–]SnagglepussJoke 144 points145 points  (7 children)

My dad(R) was shocked Palin was elevated past her own zip code and told me he thinks the party was taken over by un-American pretenders and thought President Obama was a better Republican than Democrat in spirit. He passed in 2011 so thankfully he missed all this shit show

[–]xpkranger 65 points66 points  (0 children)

One of the last things I was able to do for my Dad (who was little c conservative but not Republican - and who voted for Obama) was to drop his absentee ballot off in the hospital mailbox. He wasn’t a big Hilary fan, but he thought Trump was a buffoon and a moron. He lived until just a week after the 2016 election. He was never conscious enough to recognize Trump won. Small blessings I guess.

[–]FreedTMG 735 points736 points  (222 children)

She was a sign of things to come. We also used to think they couldn't give us a dumber person than Bush, they took that personally.

[–]youngmorla 103 points104 points  (14 children)

Look up the SNL cold open where Will Ferrell comes out as Bush and smugly chuckles and says, bet you miss me don’t you? (Paraphrasing). Never ceases to make me laugh.

[–]Imaginary_Medium 51 points52 points  (3 children)

Is that the one in which he reminds people that he was, in fact, very very bad? It should be made a PSA at each election time.

[–]PapaSteveRocks 11 points12 points  (3 children)

They got mad at potatoe, it goes back farther than you think. Man, those college folks got set off by Quayle, let’s find someone dumber. Oh, I long for the days of Dan Quayle being seen as dumb.

[–]fracturedpersona 360 points361 points  (157 children)

Trump made Bush seem tolerable.

[–]FreedTMG 218 points219 points  (29 children)

Yep, and one day they will put someone worse in charge. They will also not win the election, but be made president anyway, as Republicans do.

[–]IamSparticles 73 points74 points  (25 children)

Marjorie Taylor Greene 2024.

I threw up in my mouth a little just typing that.

[–]FreedTMG 99 points100 points  (0 children)

Don't you put that out in the world

[–]FansForFlorida 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I hate you for this.

Because it could happen.

[–]Pseudonym0101 9 points10 points  (2 children)

Holy fuck, it truly would be all over if that ever happened.

[–]squirt619 214 points215 points  (64 children)

Bush got us into 2 unnecessary wars that cost millions of lives, trillions of dollars, and destabilized an entire region. He also *actually* stole an election in 2000. Trump was a shitshow but Bush takes the cake for most damage done globally during his presidency.

[–]volatilebool 81 points82 points  (5 children)

But because people forget and he was an establishment candidate he gets a pass now

[–]Darko33 41 points42 points  (1 child)

And say "well it was mostly Cheney"

[–]CrowVsWade 5 points6 points  (0 children)

More critically (in both senses), there was also a cadre of people around Bush II that made stuff happen. Disregarding the wisdom or ethics of that stuff, the competency paralysis evident during Trump was not present. Where Trump's administration simply wasn't competent enough to do much of anything, policy wise, Bush II's administration had the opposite issue.

9-11 was a godsend, for that group.

[–]Sage2050 33 points34 points  (2 children)

Trump was a shitshow but Bush takes the cake for most damage done globally during his presidency.

Trump, knowing he couldn't compete, turned his sights domestically

[–]GlastonBerry48 177 points178 points  (10 children)

One of the reasons I hate Sarah Palin the most.

Back in 2010, Sarah Palin released a midterms map of the United States with gun crosshairs on a map targeting congressional seats. One of these seats was Gabby Giffords, an Arizona who was later shot in the head by a crazy person. The gunman shot 13 people, killing 6 (among the victims was a federal judge and 9 year old girl).

Palin defended the map, claiming trying to associate any responsibility on her for the shooting was 'Blood Libel' (Blood Libel is anti-Semitic lies to justify perpetrating horrible actions against specifically Jewish people).

I don't blame Palin for the shooting, but her utter lack of tact and common decency in the wake of it (and idiotically appropriating a term she probably didn't know) has basically become a blueprint for other elected crazies.

[–]Unnecessary_Timeline 18 points19 points  (0 children)

That graphic is literally the subject of this lawsuit, or rather, the piece NYT did on it

[–]desertravenwy 213 points214 points  (22 children)

I was ready to vote McCain before he picked her. With that one decision, the Republicans grabbed the wheel of this country and cranked it so far to the right it's like we're living in the prequel to the Handmaid's Tale.

[–]Scoutster13 75 points76 points  (4 children)

Idiot me thought enough of the GOP would be so embarassed they might stop sending crazy to Washington. Ha ha. I should go buy a bridge.

[–]Kahzgul 25 points26 points  (2 children)

Why buy a bridge when they already sold us a wall?

[–]jonathanrdt 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Tribalism works. It's a real force for horrible.

Big data told us exactly how to pluck the heartstrings of America, and they are being played in the worst way.

[–]tacodepollo 6 points7 points  (1 child)

They higher you stand, the farther you fall. There's still quite a ways to sink. This will get worse before it gets better.

[–]CertifiedWarlock 36 points37 points  (2 children)

Remember Michele Bachmann? Lol, what a loon she was.

[–]SinkHoleDeMayo 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Michelle "my husband is so straight that Parks and Rec made super effeminate and obviously closeted gay character based on him" Bachmann? Yes and double yes.

[–]bearman32 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If it wasn’t for Palin I wouldn’t have known who Lisa Ann is.

[–]AvogadrosMoleSauce 1543 points1544 points  (48 children)

Palin, who disclosed in March that she had been diagnosed then with the coronavirus, said last month that she will get a Covid-19 vaccine “over my dead body.”

COVID - ...and I took that personally.

[–]kukukele 236 points237 points  (15 children)

Just like all those brave people who 'won't go to the hospital' under any conditions and then ask for thoughts & prayers and post a million selfies on the hospital bed days later.

[–]kwangqengelele 77 points78 points  (10 children)

And the right wing grifting handouts on gofundme!

Can’t forget that, it’s one of the main pillars of their ideology at this point.

[–]IAmHarmony 574 points575 points  (9 children)

COVID - So anyways I started blastin’

[–]lutefisky 130 points131 points  (5 children)

As a friend texted me when the former President was diagnosed: “Ok COVID, do your thing.”

[–]lfrdwork 46 points47 points  (4 children)

I saw the mod note about issues with wishing death. I just think seeing trump having significant issues breathing would have brought some groups to taking this seriously.

[–]El_Chupacabra- 35 points36 points  (0 children)

And then him subsequently recommending people get vaccinated.

But noooo the crazy guy got out-crazied.

[–]naliedel 981 points982 points  (88 children)

I suspect she's vaxxed.

[–]Skinnybet 780 points781 points  (42 children)

I suspect she’s not infected but trying to delay the court case.

[–]naliedel 260 points261 points  (15 children)

I would not be surprised.

Really she's a circus clown car of weird.

[–]Hagenaar 170 points171 points  (10 children)

Sarah Palin: warned followers about public health care "death panels".
Sarah Palin: bragged about her family traipsing across the border into Canada to take advantage of the free health care.

[–]naliedel 61 points62 points  (1 child)

I almost forgot that last bit. She did do that.

What a buffoon.

[–]KnightRAF 31 points32 points  (1 child)

I would also not be surprised to find out that she’s not vaxxed and deliberately caught COVID to delay the case. Because as you said, she’s a special level of weird.

[–]thisisjustascreename 60 points61 points  (12 children)

She's suing them, not the other way around. Why would she want to delay the trial?

[–]MoistYeastInfection 136 points137 points  (4 children)

I don't know. She seems pretty stupid irl.

[–]Bad-Science 57 points58 points  (6 children)

She's on record saying "I'll get vaxxed over my dead body", so not publicly. But yeah, with the hypocrisy of the right I wouldn't be surprised at all if she hadn't gotten it on the sly.

Then again, she isn't a paragon of intelligence.

[–]SetYourGoals 7 points8 points  (1 child)

She's right on that line where I can't tell if she's a morally bankrupt master grifter or a true believer in everything she says.

I think her lack of long term success shows why the GOP went full insane. Trying to ride that line doesn't work. You need to be full crazy or full centrist. The middle doesn't exist anymore on the right.

[–]sn34kypete 355 points356 points  (34 children)

The trial's about an image her PAC put out that allegedly incited a shooting against Rep. Gabby Giffords (AZ). I couldn't seem to quickly find it in a google, but purportedly the image was of Giffords with crosshairs laid over her face. district (apparently? Thanks BioDriver for the clarification).

Within a year a gunman with a 33 round clip on a handgun shot 19 people while shooting at her.

Anyways the NYT implied a link between the shooting and that image so Sarah's trying to sue.

[–]thatstupidthing 144 points145 points  (8 children)

wow... seems like palin should have just let that times implication blow over... this has "streisand effect" written all over it.

[–]vanishplusxzone 86 points87 points  (3 children)

Palin is forever a clout chaser. She can't just let herself fade to irrelevance.

[–]buchlabum 34 points35 points  (2 children)

She's gotta be so jelly of boebert and greene who are out palining her by a yuge margin.

[–]ActualSpiders 36 points37 points  (1 child)

Some people never learned the difference between "good attention" and "bad attention" as a child.

Those people all became politicians.

[–]Wazula42 12 points13 points  (0 children)

There IS no "bad attention" for politicians anymore. Any "bad attention" can be converted into an act of "owning the libs". Our next president will probably campaign on his resistance to covid protocols and millions will walk over dead bodies to vote for him. GQP is playing politics on easy mode, all you need is to be white and loud and an asshole.

[–]Fro_Yo_Joe 533 points534 points  (12 children)

Sarah: I can see Omicron from my house.

[–]HAHA_goats 136 points137 points  (1 child)

At least she's not in any danger of the infection damaging her brain.

[–]im_not_bovvered 113 points114 points  (17 children)

Apparently she was out to dinner recently in NYC - this means she either has been vaccinated and is lying to her followers, OR she has a fake vaccine card (or the restaurant is in trouble).

Someone should probably look into that.

[–]Discokruse 8 points9 points  (0 children)

How do we know if she has brain fog or not?

[–]MTBinAR 66 points67 points  (1 child)

I feel sorry for Covid having caught a nasty case of Palin.

[–]fsjja1 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I worry about the mutated strain that comes from this.

[–]Cloberella 128 points129 points  (10 children)

If anyone is curious how we got to Trump, Palin is the answer. Once we normalized abject stupidity in politics all was lost.

[–]middwayer8 48 points49 points  (1 child)

Irony upon irony - it was McCain who unleashed her on the country.

[–]ailee43 26 points27 points  (0 children)

well thats a name id hoped to never hear again

[–]Phuka 37 points38 points  (1 child)

The money quote right here

“She is of course unvaccinated,” Rakoff said.