Goodbye to all that -- once again, and for the last time

[marmar]

Goodbye to all that — once again, and for the last time
Farewell reflections from an American who has now lost his country: I quit the GOP 13 years ago. That wasn't enough

By Mike Lofgren
Contributing Writer
Published November 17, 2024 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) It was in 2011, amid the eruption of the Tea Party juvenile delinquents in the House of Representatives and the then-novel asininity of birtherism, that I called it quits after 28 years on Capitol Hill — 28 years working for Republicans, no less.

As for the party I had grown up with in the Midwest — the party of Ike and Gerry Ford, respectable cloth-coated women, Jell-O salad, mainstream Presbyterians in brick churches (and please, no time-wasting and embarrassing hallelujahs or speaking in tongues during services; we all want to make the first tee by noon), late-model Buicks and neat lawns — three decades on, when I left the Hill, that party was as extinct as the passenger pigeon, and I felt I was without a political home.

It had evolved — or rather degenerated — into a billionaire-funded mob of primitives reminiscent of Jonathan Swift’s Yahoos. (Yes, that's the origin of that term.) Within a month of retirement, I wrote my first essay, "Goodbye to All That," which, for a fumbling first effort, garnered an amazing couple of million views and started a minor paradigm shift.

....(snip)....

Of course, that time, little more than a decade ago, seems almost innocent now, with the Tea Party’s imbecilities merely college hijinks during homecoming week. These days the GOP practically wallows in its own evil, at once surprised that they dare openly commit their atrocities in what was once a civilized country, and pleased that everyone supinely lets them get away with it.

....(snip)....

Sometime in the last 40 years, between Ronald Reagan's proclamation that greed is good, the rise of hate radio and garbage social media, the vicarious victimhood of 9/11 and the kill-fest of Iraq, the dominoes falling from Wall Street all the way to some empty and forlorn McMansion slum in 2008 and finally Trump shrieking in our ears nonstop, at least half the American people lost whatever shred of rationality they possessed. These people now think Joe Rogan or Alex Jones are philosophers on par with Henry David Thoreau or William James, except that they've never heard of the latter two. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/11/17/goodbye-to-all-that--once-again-and-for-the-last-time/

[Walleye]

1. Republicans constantly telling us the government doesn't work, then working as hard as they can to make that come true

[BOSSHOG]

10. Interesting passage I read years ago.

Republicans - Government doesn’t work. Put us in charge and we’ll prove it.

[Beck23]

11. They mean it doesn't work for them

Working for them means returning to a caste system like colonialism, where they are on top.

[mopinko]

2. boggles my mind that ppl still think the tea party was organic,

and dont know it was the product of the koch bros.
expose the puppet masters, ffs.

[Lonestarblue]

4. Same for Moms for Liberty, well funded by some national religious group, probably Leonard Leo or Heritage.

[Passages]

3. lol This is so true:

These people now think Joe Rogan or Alex Jones are philosophers on par with Henry David Thoreau or William James, except that they've never heard of the latter two. .

[jfz9580m]

5. Interesting guy Lofgren

Thanks for the post Marmar. (Bookmarking..not that I can ever find anything in my journal when I want to refer back to it ;-/ but still..)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lofgren

Really good article. This is the type of perspective that is really helpful.

Yup yup:

My second, "The Deep State," hypothesized a shadow government (but operating in plain sight) steered largely by corporate interests. It was one more tragicomic irony that Republicans, the main beneficiaries of corporate power, hijacked the term to describe everyone and everything they didn’t like.

Yeah no shit

[Farmer-Rick]

7. It's capitalism crushing democracy

The two are incompatible.

Democracy is egalitarian. While capitalism is elitism.

The filthy-rich have bought out our federal government and have now taken off their masks to show their rotting Nazi souls.

[jfz9580m]

8. And the constant underplaying of ecological issues

Till they hit crisis point is another …

That’s the perfect storm approaching..unending ecological crises that are never acknowledged as such followed by policies that make them worse and followed by blame shifting..
I have long felt that no one talks anywhere near enough or pays anywhere near enough attention to that root issue. While the right gets the importance of destroying all environmental regulations.

[KPN]

18. Ummmm ... crisis point doesn't stop them or

even slow them down. We are well beyond that.

No, it’s pedal to the metal, drill baby drill; with an end times “hallelujah — rapture is coming” assist to the I’ve got my mine — got my bunker, got my yacht, got my 64,000 acre ranch — better than the rest of us billionaire caste algorithm-“ing” a climactically thinned herd equals their best bet, too bad for those who are out instead of in. Too bad so many, but goals and computations say no other way.

Reality is hard to grasp: it’s all of us or them.

[Beck23]

12. Capitalism can coexist with democracy only

If capitalism is well regulated.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. Thanks for the post

It helped me understand why Republicans are so gullible.

He spent 28 years helping destroy our democracy and buying every spin, talking point and propaganda put out by the filthy-rich.

[wolfie001]

9. Those jell-O salads with the floating fruit

That was a 1970s tradition at every family function.

[ToxMarz]

17. Yes, but as their midwestern Republican Parties have morphed

so have their favorite recipes. Now every family gathering is rife with Snickers Bars or Oreo Cookies mixed with Cool Whip as the "salad". Not a fruit or vegetable in sight.

[Martin Eden]

13. Definitely worth reading the entire article

Unfortunately the people who most need to read this won't, or couldn't comprehend it anyway.

And, of course, it's too late.

[lastlib]

14. He speaks well for a repuglikan....

Almost raises the question: can a repuglikan truly reform?

Almost.

[jaxexpat]

16. It's difficult for me to ever get past, "You were a Republican? What shit were you thinking?"

[Old Okie]

15. Republic

Have added this from the article snip" "The Party Is Over," emphasizing that for all the Republicans' malfeasance, it was enabled by Democrats, who never quite seemed to grasp what they were up against". Democrats refusal to immediately go after the Insurrectionists and their leader led to their own demise.

[dlk]

19. Excellent article and thoroughly heartbreaking

Lofgren clears away the smoke and mirrors.

[Skittles]

20. the GOP has made a America a fucking joke

we no longer stand for ANYTHING good