Sen. LisaĀ Murkowski, aghastĀ at Donald Trumpās candidacy and the direction of her party, wonāt rule out bolting from the GOP.
The veteran Alaska Republican, one ofĀ seven Republicans who voted to convict TrumpĀ in his second impeachment trial amid the aftermath of January 6, 2021, is done with the former president and said she āabsolutelyā wouldĀ not vote for him.
āI wish thatĀ as Republicans, we had ā¦ a nominee that I could get behind,ā Murkowski told CNN. āI certainly canāt get behind Donald Trump.ā
The partyās shift toward Trump has causedĀ MurkowskiĀ to consider her future within the GOP. In the interview, she would not say if she would remain a Republican.
Asked if she would become an independent,Ā MurkowskiĀ said: āOh, I think Iām very independent minded.ā And she added:Ā āI just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.ā
Murkowski who voted for almost every bullshit corrupt nominee and tax break the trump administration coughed up? That Murkowski?
Yes she had the occasional āreservationā. Like Collins she just did the evil 72% of the time anyway.
72% sounds exceptional to me. Most of the legislation that the House and Senate deal with is uncontroversial and unless you read the daily Congressional Record would never hear about because it concerns only a handful of people or itās something we all agree on. Shit like nominations for the deputy undersecretary to the diplomat plenopotentiary to Mauritania or whatever. Iām sure a lot more of it is being unnecessarily politicized in order to sabotage the country but still. Even Bernie and Ted Cruz I would expect to be more than 72%. Got me curious.
āIf we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed ā¦ and we will deserve itā
-Senator Lindsey Graham
Theyāve all deserved it for a long time and for a lot of things. Iām pretty sure nobody in an elected position in DC today was there in 1964 when Goldwaterās clique inside the GOP turned it anti-civil rights and pro-Southern Strategy, but every elected Republican in DC today knew that had happened and signed up anyway
The Republican party is the disease that needs curing*, everything theyāve done are just worsening symptoms of that disease
*For the record, I think violence would be an ineffective and self-defeating course of treatment
This mf spittin.
I wasnāt even old enough to vote but was stumping for a candidate many years ago, a Democrat, and an older voter rebuffed me while walking into the polling place, fine, but then he said āyou know thatās the party of socialists and communists right?ā And Iām like āyeah the other party is that of the KKK.ā
Not all Republicans are Klan but all Klan are Republicans. And I keep waiting for the day the GOP will kick these fools to the curb but every year they go further to the right. Fine, maybe youāre too young to remember Goldwater. Remember Willie Horton? Remember Sarah Palin?
They keep on showing everyone there is no floor. Thatās why David Frum warns that before Republicans reject conservatism, they will reject democracy.
And here we are.
āā¦ And I will help.ā
Important thing to note here is that he just meant they would be ādestroyedā in the election - as long as Trump means they stay in power, he has no problem with him.
She just now noticed all the Nazis at her favorite bar?
Do it, coward.
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What is this quote from? It sounds like my kinda humor
Casablanca. Its a classic.
Sheād do it too. And she would still be re-elected.
Republicans never have any idea what they vote on, as long as it has an Ā® next to it.
One time Murkowski was not on the ballot and needed to be written in, and spelled correctly. She still won.
And that was against a jamoke from Tea Party, who were basically proto-chuds
So guys, thereās this sinking ship, see, and sheās on it and afraid sheāll drown - so when faced with irrelevance she finally finds an excuse to get onto another ship.
The important thing to remember is that sheās still the same piece of shit sheās always beenā¦ so donāt let her on our ship. Just let her fall into irrelevance.
hey yāall, no jokeā¦ Iām totally gonna maybe probably be pretty dang upset this time you guysā¦ Seriously, donāt be surprised if I might possible potentially consider not fully supporting the worst shit again - okay, so I did support it again, but you got to admit, I got pretty close to not doping that for a second maybe (I didnāt, but you can totally imagine what it would be like if I did right?)
We need to stop being afraid of electing third or independent party candidates because the other side might win.
We will keep losing in the end no matter what if we donāt fight for a new political system. Most people agree this isnāt working.
Can we stop urging people to vote for a D/R and focus on independent?
Iāve voted third party most of my life. I will not while Trump and his flunkies run. And I will not urge anyone else to vote third party as I often had prior to 2016.
There has to be an American democracy in order for any voting to matter. Once fascism and autocracy is defeated vote for whomever you fucking want, but not today.
I feel what youāre saying.
This is weird, but I miss Bush and the Az senator who reminded me of a wax museum statue. He was a war vet, but also ancient. At least their faults in my mind were lesser then the blatant issues now. I never thought the US was seriously at risk, just another shitty couple years. I used to think that about all of them.
Now Iām worriedā¦
Youāre thinking of John McCain. I disagreed with most of his principles, but respect the fact that he generally stuck to them. Our perspectives and politics were very different, but he seemed to have good character
I wasnāt worried about him over throwing the constitution, thatās for sure. Maybe having health issuesā¦
Edit, not sure why someone feels the need to down vote your answer, it wasnāt an inflammatory comment š¤·
I mightāve voted for him in 2000, but by 2008 he was a different man and worse for it. Still stuck up for Obama when a heckler called him a Muslim. I respect McCain, but also he sold his fucking soul for his run in 2008. I respected him so much more when he stood up to his party when he thought they were wrong.
His defense of Obama was still couched in bigotry. To paraphrase (I think), he said, āMr. Obama is not a Muslim, he is a decent person.ā Yes, he meant well, but he still flubbed it.
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Where did you get strong opinions?
Your football comment make me think you dont know most of the world loves ā½
You probably mean š?
Are ā½š people dumb?
An important first step to supporting 3rd parties would be a full switch to ranked choice.
So long as the spoiler effect is at play, you literally only have two choicesā¦ voting 3rd or not voting at all are both still choosing one of the big two, youāre just sacrificing what voice you have and letting other voters choose for you.
Here and now, suck it up and choose the lesser evil. We can work on restructuring our political system later - it needs it, but weāve got bigger fish to fry.
Iām not sure how we fry this fish without fixing our voting system. Thereās no real incentive for anyone to do better in the current system.
Iām not sure how we fry this fish
-this- fish is christofascism, and when christofascists are running, you fry it by voting for whoever has the best chance of beating them. Is it an optimal solution? Fuck no, but itās the only thing we can do.
Fixing the system is a much longer term goal that may never actually happen if we stay stuck in this death spiral with christofascism, but failing to push against the christofascism isnāt going to help the 3rd parties, itāll just accelerate the christofascism.
And as shitty as it is, maintaining the status quo is orders of magnitude more preferable than christofascism.
Just electing someone who isnāt a christofacist isnāt a solution. You need the choice to stop being between X and christfacism every election. X is going to lose an election at some point. People are going to stop believing that this is the most important election and of our lives, and we need to overlook anything wrong with X.
Agreed, but itās the closest thing to a solution we have. Wasting your vote on a 3rd just invites the christofascists to take power - and if we let that happen, there is ZERO chance for a 3rd to take power.
Right now we have two realistic outcomes: red victory or blue victory. You can nudge the odds toward one of those two. Thatās it. Your action or inaction only influences those two outcomes. Choose wisely.
I didnāt say waste your vote on 3rd parties. I said to get out of this christofacist death spiral, we probably need to fix our voting system. Obviously, that isnāt going to happen in one election cycle. But we need to be pushing that reform. Because the next election cycle isnāt going to magically be any better than this one without it.
Gotcha, then yeah I misunderstood. The earlier poster I was responding to was advocating for wasting votes on 3rds, so I assumed you were posting under that same context.
Yes our system is shit, and yes it will still probably be shit next cycle too.
I donāt disagree, but in my lifetime, weāve been in much better shape in the past and still been unwilling to break away from the status quo.
Now that the situation is much more dire, itās even more frustrating that we lacked the will or desires that could potentially have lessened the chances of this outcome.
I try convincing the less diehard devotees to switch and theyāre still hung up on the aspects of the other party they disagree with.
You know when youāre sick and pretty much bed-ridden, and you think āif only I wasnāt sick, I would be working out today and doing such-and-such,ā but then as soon as you feel okay again you donāt actually do it or think about it until you physically canāt again?
I feel like itās like that. That doesnāt mean you should work out while youāre sick. It just means that we need to remember when weāre well.
(To be clear, what Iām saying is I get it and youāre right, but regardless we canāt reasonably do it right now. But once we put fascism down, or if it wanes enough to make a reasonable go of it, we absolutely should remember and fix the voting system).
Pretty good analogy. Youāre not wrong, Iām still mad about it. Weāll be our undoing. Feels like Romeā¦
The Republicans explicitly want me dead. What is my incentive to not vote against them as hard as I can?
Why do you say that?
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/southern-states-pushing-forward-with
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/retaliation-texas-ag-paxton-demands
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/republicans-issue-new-government
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/west-virginia-bill-would-mandate
https://newrepublic.com/article/178576/republicans-reveal-end-game-fight-trans-kids
And, in advance of your reply, please donāt bother telling me the yellow liquid that smells like piss running down my leg is rain. Conversion therapy kills. Getting proper treatment saved my life, and they explicitly want to take that away from me. Address this rather than trying to explain it away, or just donāt waste both of our time. Iām sure you have more productive things to do than deny what I can plainly see.
WTF. I donāt know where to start.
I donāt understand whatās happening in the plains states. Itās like a tornado sucked out all their humanity. I hadnt seen that yet.
You lost me with pissā¦ š¤·
I actually have a lot of empathy for people who are shit on. I donāt hate you or think you should have to feel that way.
The piss comment is a reference to an American idiom. I guess they missed that one in your training.
A reference to the phrase, ādonāt piss on my leg and tell me itās raining,ā ie, I can see what is happening in front of me. And theyād implement this shit on a federal level if they could; there were 40 such provisions they tried to get into the recent budget bills. The Twitter caucus has decided that I am an abomination, that my existence as myself makes me a pedophile, and that pedophiles deserve to be killed. The rest of the party is generally apathetic towards this, and will let them run the show on such matters if they are in an unassailable position. I thought John McCain was someone who I could have voted for in 2008, but he was the last Republican who was even remotely there; even the Republicans who managed the absolute minimum bar of recognizing a coup attempt when it tried to hang them, went along with the program the vast, vast majority of the time, right up until the doors were being hammered on by an angry mob.
That is frustrating, but also peanuts compared to whatās on the table today. We are facing a very real risk of losing our democracy to christofascism, and if we let that happen, the 3rd parties and everyone else who isnāt a christofascist is fucked.
Vote according to the reality of our situation; donāt let an unachievable ideal enable the greater evil.
This is just my opinion, but I do not believe those people most of us associate with chrisofascism are Christian at all.
Again, just my opinion, none of these politicians or people screaming about their faith no anything about Christianity. Or are not at all followers of it.
As is the case with almost every āchristianā. Itās never been about the religion - thatās just a tool to sell hateful policies.
I usually call it plain old bigotry, but I think some just legitimately donāt know it.
I have met people who had good hearts, but stupid beliefs. I think some are sheltered and do t have perspective.
Then thereās cake lady. AKA, bigot. Exactly what you said.
Thatās sort of like saying I need to stop being afraid of setting the world record in the 50m dash. Itās not fear that prevents me from doing it, itās the way my body is constructed thatās the problem. Youāre treating something systemic as though itās a collective personal failing of each voter.
The good thing is that, unlike with my body and the 50m dash, it is possible to modify our election system to make it possible (and even inevitable) that we have successful third party candidates. This is no easy feat, and I imagine the way to do it is probably by making changes at the state and local level and expanding it from there. But there is no quick way to do it. In any case, simply trying to vote third party in spite of our existing system (especially at the national level) is going to go the same way it has always gone. Even if you make a blip or even a big splash, youāre swimming upstream the whole time, pushing against the system correcting itself back to stability. We saw it with Perot in the 90s when his Reform Party died out really fast.
Given enough time, our first past the post system will always lead to two large coalition parties shaking out of the variety of movements/ideologies weāve got going on at any point. It just makes too much strategic sense for groups B and C who donāt want group A getting power but donāt agree on anything else to team up to try to get the plurality in a single round of voting that counts as a win under our system.
What I think we need is a) some political upheaval resulting from one of the two parties collapsing, b) a focused and determined effort during that time of upheaval to change our vote counting systems to something less dumb (e.g. insrant run off ranked choice voting is probably the simplest but still effective model).
No.
Iām not up to date on all the impeach things around Trump. They have been at it for months/years? Has he been convicted for anything (up til now?)
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Whatās the difference between sealioning and trolling. Honest question. Or is it just new lingo?
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I had to google itā¦ āYou disingenuously frame your conversation as a sincere request to be enlightenedā. I litterally said that I was uninformed/not paying too much attention. I have payed attention in 2016- about 2020. So was wondering if they actualy got him for something now, or not. Sorry for askingā¦ Jeez. Trump sure triggers alot of peopleā¦
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Also liable for crime that would be called rape in many states.
Some of those ācharged in a few statesā cases are actually federal indictments. Federal indictments have to be charged in a specific federal court system district (6th Amendment).
The classified documents case in Florida? Federal. The January 6th/election obstruction case? Thatās so federal it was brought in the DC circuit.
Wow, people sure donāt like the simple questions. Lol
Are they āthrowing shit at the wall, and seing what sticksā? Sure looks that wayā¦
Nonchalantly replying to their own comments is the behavior of the goodest of faith commenters /s
Haha, well said!
Hahaha LOL
You, uh, forgot to change accounts there, buddy.
Why? Iām trying to add context/add a comment. Who should I properly reply this comment to then? Iām genuinly wonderingā¦
I mean no one has been working on impeaching trump since 2021. So Iām not sure what youāre even referring to here.
Russia, āwalls are closing inā since 2016?
Trump and his various organizations have been engaging in brazen criminal activity since at least 2016, is that what you mean?
Heās a slippery bastard so he has gotten away with it until now, yes.
Yes, I keep getting told this, years ago. So i stopped paying attention to Trump-stuff, thatās why iām askingā¦
OK I was just confused by you bringing up impeachment which hasnāt been a thing since he was last in office 3 years ago.
If you are genuinely curious, several criminal indictments have been put forth against him by several states and federal prosecutors but there are no verdicts as of yet. My assessment is that he is guilty but because of his wealth and power there is a high chance of acquittal or a hung jury or something along those lines. Itās also very possible that he will be elected president before the cases conclude which may present a constitutional crisis.
Courts have also found that he probably sexually assaulted Jean Carroll and that his business activities were fraudulent but these were civil and not criminal cases.
Also, a number of his underlings have been convicted of various crimes while doing his bidding, but as of yet he has not been convicted of anything. So thereās a lot of underhanded stuff going on but no direct convictions of Trump yet. Kind of like the shady mob boss who everyone knows is behind it all but itās hard to prove. You can look up his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohenās under-oath testimony about how he uses the same tactics as other organized crime leaders to leave just enough doubt to avoid criminal charges.
Thank you for your thoughtful and good answer. This is exactly what I was joping for. A straightforward unbiased answer.
If I may, I think of Trump like a bumbling fool, snake-oil salesman, con-artist and kind of a dumb-ass. So how can he have done so many things and not have any mess-ups, so big, they create rock solid evidence against him? You only need one serious crime with good evidence for conviction, right? They are talking about 80-90 inditemints (or counts?) Why not just focus on the thing they have evidence for? So they donāt dilute the case, make it straight forward, with evidence and make it stick?
I will repeat my unpopular opinion, but it seems like they are thowing shit against the wall and seeing what sticksā¦
