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I'm not posting this in the P&OC forum because I don't want name-calling, snark, or comparison with Biden and the Democrats, but some serious answers. If the GOP recaptures Congress AND the presidency in 2024, what would they actually do? I'm curious because the GOP has no recent plarty platform, just what DJT said he wanted in 2022:
During DJT's presidency there were only really three big accomplishments from what I can see: a big tax cut, mainly for the wealthy, establishment of the Space Force, and the appointment of three conservatives to SCOTUS. But no wall along the Rio Grande, no immigration deal for the Dreamers, no repeal of Obamacare, no leadership on the pandemic, no rapprochement with China or North Korea, no lower drug prices
So with or without DJT at the top of the ticket in 2024, what would we see under total GOP control? I'd guess more conservative federal judges for sure, another retrenchment on climate change initiatives, a lot shouting (without any real action) on culture war issues like guns, abortions, and education, and further tightening of immigration, both legal and otherwise. But I can't see any strong economic initiatives coming from the GOP whatsoever.
Its already happening.
Place an anarchist into the highest seat of power.
Bolster the judicial courts with conservatives [moderator cut]
Have Congress constantly defend the corruptive antics.
If it helps any there really is no GOP party to speak of, its faded into oblivion. Keep in mind the Term" RINO" is a how the Newly formed and sadly disruptive party is Moving forward in Conning the voters. Bashing any republican that doesn't get in step with this newly formed group of authoritarians.
I miss the republicans that had ethics and morals when arguing their stances.
What we will see and already seeing is the abrasive decay of all branches...Building a wall won't do anything for our country other then isolate . that is phase one of Controlling its citizens.
The Rude awakening is here. Sadly our motherland is unable to be stabilized to endure much more of this divisiveness. Divided we are falling.
Last edited by Rachel NewYork; 10-21-2022 at 03:39 AM..
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Last edited by Rachel NewYork; 10-21-2022 at 04:06 AM..
I'm not posting this in the P&OC forum because I don't want name-calling, snark, or comparison with Biden and the Democrats, but some serious answers. If the GOP recaptures Congress AND the presidency in 2024, what would they actually do?
It sounds to me like you already know what the Republicans are going to do:
Finish the Mexican Border Wall to stop illegal aliens from entering the United States from Mexico.
Crack down heavily on crime in America's cities and return those cities to law-abiding citizens.
Put the criminals back in prison where they belong.
Strengthen the police.
Strengthen the United States military.
Reduce inflation.
Increase domestic oil production.
Get the economy and stock market back on track.
Stop killing babies in the 3rd trimester of a woman's pregnancy.
It sounds to me like you already know what the Republicans are going to do:
Finish the Mexican Border Wall to stop illegal aliens from entering the United States from Mexico.
Crack down heavily on crime in America's cities and return those cities to law-abiding citizens.
Put the criminals back in prison where they belong.
Strengthen the police.
Strengthen the United States military.
Reduce inflation.
Increase domestic oil production.
Get the economy and stock market back on track.
Stop killing babies in the 3rd trimester of a woman's pregnancy.
You get the picture.
You forgot:
Cut taxes - it's the one thing that you can count on Republicans actually doing.
Cut regulations - the other one thing that you can count on Republicans actually doing.
Investigate their political opposition. Remember the Benghazi Investigations? Or Hillary Clinton's Emails investigations? Or the more recent Durham Investigations? Like those, but on steroids.
Reimplement America First isolationism. They'll do this both in their immigration policy and their foreign policy.
Reverse Obergell v. Hodges. Elimination of anything LGBQ+. In fact, reverse any state decisions that they don't agree with. But then, that's SCOTUS - the GOP doesn't need the other two branches for this.
The truth about the GOP lies in their historical mantra, "no new taxes," as promised by George HW Bush. Few seem to recall the days when the GOP collectively cut taxes across America. Cities, counties, and states,
they sought to reduce taxes as a way to garner the votes of those who felt that taxes were the most vile and evil of all political sins. Cutting services, civil service recruitment, reducing the Police forces, fire fighting capability, government services in general, and worst of all our national infrastructure, all while calling for more and deeper cuts, and more tangled legislation with regard to future obligations.
A frenzied budget butchering brought on by little more than a GOP led propaganda campaign which spawned the likes of Grover Norquist and his "Taxpayer Protection pledge," another short sighted piece of the evidence of GOP led failures which have had a lasting effect of American life. What so many fail to acknowledge is the pure nuttiness of those who feel they can accomplish great things in government by---Cutting the government's revenue source to the bone. But times have changed and people are wondering just how these hollowed out governments are supposed to do all the things promised by politicians who almost always end up walking their promises backward, to the extent that they have raised the debt to insane levels because...That's how reality VS fantasy actually works.
On another note: Most of the actions taken by our two parties over the past hundred years have allowed this kind of subterfuge as an election day norm. Any spreadsheet of promises kept as opposed to promises made by politicians would suffice as the real picture of deceit and corruption as a staple of US politics.
Here's few bits of how that reality usually overshadows the politicians best efforts to BS the American people.
1-During Reagan's presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion. This led to the U.S. moving from the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.
2-Congress has raised the debt ceiling 14 times from 2001 to 2016. The debt ceiling was raised a total of 7 times (total increase of $5365bil) during Pres. Bush's eight-year term and it was raised 11 times (as of 03/2015 a total increase of $6498bil) during Pres. Obama's eight years in office.
So, one of the great BS'ers who said he would get government off your back loaded the citizens down even further with a huge federal debt burden. And, they still idolize him. Obama had to raise the debt to pay for his dreams as well, and the younger Bush spent heavily in his attempts to subsidize his supporters in the defense industry.
What to expect in the future? Most likely, more of the same, many promises made, and few promises kept. The political circus marches through our towns and cities, banging the drums and garnering all manner of partisan insanity, "elect me" I'll save you from that other guy," "no, elect ME, I will keep my promises" and worse, "elect me, and we'll tear down this government and"... Well, there was no plan, no metrics, no strategies, lots of rhetoric, loads of phony theater, guns, girth, and a terrible lacking in civility, that's how the last GOP chief circus performer left in a chaotic ending to his reign of egomaniacal absurdity.
Who's next, Marjorie Taylor Green? the esteemed Ms Boebert? Gym Jordan? "Little Mario?" or "lyin Ted?" the OZ? who can lead the GOP to that level of greatness we witnessed as the world's most comical comb over? The truth is, it really doesn't matter, just because the nation isn't really ruled by politicians at all, no, we live in a plutocracy, and that allows politics to remain as theater. Presidents as actors, Congress as "extras," and us--as the audience..
If the "GOP" were to get sustained control of the government, which I believe that if THIS incarnation of it were to get real power in the near future, they'd pick at the voting frameworks to stack the deck in their favor indefinitely...after all, we now know that one of their more consistent positions is, "if we win it was fair, if we lose, it was fraud"...
Here is what I'd expect of the future in America:
Short term: Laws prohibiting abortion nationwide. Though Dems would try to stop things with filibusters, I suspect that the GOP would find a way to get around that (as McConnell did with regard to SCOTUS nominees.) Early on, and we might see this anyways, gay marriage gets tossed back to the states. They'll be trying to pass laws prohibiting any allowance for transitioning for trans youth, not just medical but otherwise, though will likely first make it a "states rights" thing. There is an argument that inflation is here because the poors have too much money, so "beat the peasants with a stick" legislation will hit, involving higher taxes on lower income people, in the form first of stripping away credits like the EITC and the Child Tax Credit. At the same time, lowering taxes on big business and the wealthy. Medicare and Social Security will become troughs for big business to feed at, no longer public entitlements. They'll try to soothe you by saying that these things aren't going away, they're just being "privatized" because "small government!" But you will not get from them what you would have otherwise been entitled to. They will raise the age for benefits to 70, because seniors who can work, should. That will happen within 1-2 terms. Also, no fault divorce will be on the chopping block as will access to contraception, though they'll first toss it to the states or just make it so that insurance companies and medical providers can refuse to provide contraception because "religious freedom." Help for the disabled and the poor will be slashed hard. But government spending will not go down, it will go up, as will the debt. Foreign policy will become anti-NATO and pro-authoritarian dictatorships. The modern GOP is aligned with Hungary, Russia, and other very nationalist and authoritarian oligarchy type states. We may also reengage in foreign conflicts that are specifically for the purpose of pushing the financial interests of certain wealthy and powerful people, regardless of the rationale that may be needed to get them started. Climate change stuff, forget it. No one cares, out the window. Domestically, there will be more and more violence, but it will be "thoughts and prayers" because it isn't worth losing gun rights over. The "War on Drugs" will also come roaring back, with brutal crackdowns on both actual crime, and "crime" throughout the country.
Immigration, hard to say on that one! If there is a business interest in letting immigrants in, they'll be let in. For the southern border, maybe that wall will get completed, maybe not, but I'd expect more brutal tactics against those trying to cross. Eventually perhaps they'll be allowed to enter into "programs" that make them essentially some kind of slave labor, their kids taken and "fostered" or "adopted" (sold, in fact) to nice white families. The government will continue to try to ignore the needs of the remaining Indigenous communities, but will strip all of them of their sovereignty in time, making them subject to state laws, taxes, all sorts of enforcement and exploitation just like everybody.
In the middle distance, more than two terms out, if the GOP cements control for longer and we are no longer able to vote to change who is in charge...
Dismantling of the public education system will continue, and child labor laws will be dismantled. The ultimate goal of the "kids don't actually need to go to school/college, they're being indoctrinated, etc" movement is to get kids back into the workforce as lower paid labor. Cheap labor (preferably free, which they will get from cracking down on "crime" and putting "criminals" in prison in greater and greater numbers, where they legally are enslaved--read the 13th Amendment) is one of the biggest objectives. So higher retirement age, lower minimum age to work, more free labor out of prisons, and a robust military because poor people need the bennies... And then also, to get the populace to accept their role as livestock to the authoritarian's shepherd, we need to get rid of no fault divorce, ramp up religion, get rid of all forms of birth control, brutalize the gays, and make it so that the DEMANDED life path for all Americans is to get married and make babies and raise them to work. And to believe that for a normal person, greed is a sin and hard work and suffering are virtuous. But the rich and powerful surely all deserve it because they "worked hard to get there." Do not question or scrutinize any of this. (Be productive and worship a smiling God!)
More and more, unless you are fortunate enough to be rich, you will not be able to:
- Send your kids to school past a very rudimentary point.
- Choose not to have kids.
- Choose not to be a Christian.
- Go to college, unless you serve in the military.
- Start your own small business or do anything creative for a living.
- Retire until you are truly so old and decrepit that no work of any kind can be wrung out of you.
- Own property (unless leveraged by massive debt...so you must continue to work as much and as hard as possible so as not to lose it all.)
Non conformity of any kind will be punished. Lynchings will come back in force, affecting gays, Jews, people of color, and eventually anyone who appears to be different, eventually. But that will be regional, and will really get going in rural areas.
Longer term... The majority of Americans aren't going to just take it all lying down. There will be conflict. The end aim, if America cannot be made into an authoritarian/oligarchical regime in a similar model to Hungary or Russia, and allied with such, is to fracture us into smaller and far less powerful nation states at perpetual conflict with each other. Which will then enable the objectives of certain other world powers to proceed uninhibited by the might of a NATO that is backed by the might of the US Military. Not saying they'll come stomping over our lands to forcefully conquer and assimilate us here, at least not any time in my lifetime I would suspect, but just to have us out of the way and out of their affairs, too busy with our own problems and hamstrung by division will do.
Because the modern day GOP is no longer a party I can simply "agree to disagree" with where a rational person can be just kind of nostalgic about tradition or "fiscally conservative" and find honest representation. The few who are left of that have been sounding the alarm. The party now, from its base to its figurehead, is in love with bully tactics and authoritarian beliefs, and I very much believe that many of its leaders are tainted by foreign agendas. (Not at all just Russia, either.) I have voted Republican in the past and expected to be a life long Independent.
But this...this is different.
And the worst part of it, is that just soundly spanking the Republicans in races all over the country and in the next Presidential election, does not even solve this. Because even if I could view this as a particular evil to be defeated, we then have a whole new problem...a Democratic party with no real opposition, unless a new party can rise to prominence. Which also means the death of democracy, such as it is, and is also another kind of downfall. Not to mention that unchecked, the left will become at least as nuts as the right if not more so. The only way we go forward towards anything good is to find balance and we are teetering out of control right now, even though the vast majority of the people are not extreme and don't want any of this.
IMO, jertheber and sonic pretty much said it all for me. But there is more, so here goes.
Total control of 3 branches of government by the GOP will mean these things:
- No abortions, ever, for any reason.
- No birth control.
- No same sex marriage.
- No medical or regular marijuana.
- Taxpayer funded religious schools.
- End of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, etc. (Social Darwinism, You're On Your Own - the YOYO World).
- No taxes on corporations or the mythical job creators.
- No EPA, pollution runs rampant for the fossil fuel and chemical industries.
- They'll find ways to keep women and people of color from voting.
- Unions will be outlawed.
- Public schools must teach religion or be de-funded.
Trust me, I've seen this coming for years, it can happen if we don't vote in overwhelming numbers to stop it.
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Oh yeah, that's a big one. I forgot about the de-regulation of business. Not only will polluters pollute, unchecked, and more environmental destruction ensue...but workplace safety protections, food and drug inspections and consumer safety regs, say good bye to all of that. Also, expect even more encouragement for secret donations of any size (bribes) to politicians and campaigns, and even less regulation for Wall Street than we already have. I also expect they'd find a way to outlaw rent controls and tenant protections at the national level if they were given enough time to try.
But I believe that the thing about schools, while they might START with public schools being required to teach...not "religion" but specifically Christianity of some kind...that isn't the end game. The end game is making it so that the children of the wealthy can get educated enough to continue being wealthy, but the children of the poor start doing labor as soon as they physically can do so.
Hell, maybe they will set back up the mental institutions for free experiment subjects for new drugs and procedures, and/or free labor from those capable of it. Maybe the debtor's prisons will come back. Gonna need somewhere to warehouse those indigent poors, and make productive use of 'em.
Cut taxes - it's the one thing that you can count on Republicans actually doing.
Cut regulations - the other one thing that you can count on Republicans actually doing.
Investigate their political opposition. Remember the Benghazi Investigations? Or Hillary Clinton's Emails investigations? Or the more recent Durham Investigations? Like those, but on steroids.
Reimplement America First isolationism. They'll do this both in their immigration policy and their foreign policy.
Reverse Obergell v. Hodges. Elimination of anything LGBQ+. In fact, reverse any state decisions that they don't agree with. But then, that's SCOTUS - the GOP doesn't need the other two branches for this.
as someone who generally votes republican... I voted Libertarian the past two presidential election cycles because both major party candidates were unappealing.. I still voted for Lindsay Graham last cycle because he was the lesser of two evils. I like Tim Scott. Nikki Haley grew on me. I thought she'd be a disaster, but.. She surprised me. Obviously.. I'm a SC voter. I did vote for Fritz Hollings in the past. Voted for Strom Thurmond, too.
You know what topic I'd love to see? What happens if moderates who are willing to negotiate and compromise took over all three branches? Wanna Make America Great Again? That's how you do it.
Follow that up with a "How do we make that happen?" topic.
Supreme Court should ALWAYS be packed with non-partisans who are Constitutional scholars.
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