Republicans are quite simply un-American

[Schlank]

Being American means more than being a large clump of people who were born on American soil. Being American means believing in the values that our Founder Father’s codified in the United States Constitution back in 1787. After we fought and won our independence from the British Monarchy, me made certain that America would be nothing like a monarchy, a theocracy or a dictatorship.

Americans believe in Freedom of Speech, we believe in Freedom of the Press, we believe in Freedom of Assembly. We believe in Freedom of Religion. We believe in Separation between Church and State. We believe in trials before a fair and impartial judge. We also believe in Separation of Powers between the three branches of government, to make it hard for one person to accumulate too much power and thus become a dictator.

More and more, we are seeing that Republicans reject American values.

Donald Trump tells us that the United States Constitution is a “really bad thing” and expresses frustration that the Separation of Powers keeps him from acting like a dictator.

Shortly after the election of 2016, Trump attacked leaders from America’s Free Press and berated and bullied media big shots during an off-the-record Trump Tower meeting.

In America, the media has the freedom to investigate America’s political leaders and political candidates. They have the freedom to report on their findings. The United States Constitution specifically states that the freedom of the press shall not be abridged.

Donald Trump seems to think that he’s living in a dictatorship and that he can tell the television networks, newspapers and cable outlets what stories off-limits and what photos they are prohibited from publishing. He attacks news anchors and network chiefs for covering the “wrong” stories.

Trump has gone so far as to declare war on America’s Free Press and incite violence towards investigative reporters. And he has also taken an outraged and hostile attitude towards the First Amendment.

With an openly hostile attitude towards the Constitution of the United States, Trump has threatened to eliminate the First Amendment protections the Supreme Court has built into our nation’s libel laws – and has suggested that he will soon start revoking the FCC licenses of media outlets that he doesn’t like.

It would be bad enough if Trump was the only Republican who felt this way, however, nearly HALF of the Republicans in the United States want to give Donald Trump the power to shut down media outlets that he doesn’t like.

An Ipsos poll has found that nearly half (48 per cent) of self-identified Republicans agree "the news media is the enemy of the American people". Meanwhile, some believe Mr. Trump should be allowed to act against certain publications, with 43 per cent of Republicans saying, "the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior".

Not long after this poll was completed, Trump came out and praised another Republican named Greg Gianforte. Gianforte assaulted a reporter during his campaign last May, throwing the reporter to the ground and then repeatedly punching him in the face and breaking his glasses. Gianforte tried to lie to the police about the incident, however, witnesses testified that Gianforte did indeed assault the reporter without provocation.

Trump think that assaulting reporters is GREAT and says, “any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy" and made a gesture mimicking a body slam.

Trump also called Gianforte, "One of the most respected people in Congress," and a "tough cookie."
So, the leader of the Republican Party goes to Montana and applauded the assault on an American journalist who works for the Guardian. To celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it. However, Republicans seem to be totally cool with Trump’s behavior.

In addition to being openly hostile towards America’s Free Press and the First Amendment Protections that are supposed to protect them government harassment, Republicans are also very hostile towards Constitutional protections that give all Americans Freedom of Religion and guarantees an immutable Separation of Church and State.

Public Policy Polling released a survey measuring Republican attitudes and opinions. A disturbingly large percentage of them (57 percent) said that Christianity should, in fact, be established as the United States’ national religion. Younger Republicans (in the 18 – 45 age group) were even more in favor of chucking the Constitutional Separation of Church and State (63 percent). And those Republicans who backed Mike Huckabee in the Republican primary were almost universal in the idea of making Christianity the official religion of the United States (94 percent).

Let me be clear, not only is it a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States to establish a state-sponsored religion, it is also an idea that always turns out horrible results. Anyone who doubts this need only google what it was like when Catholicism became the official religion of Slovakia in the 20th century, or what it’s like right now with Islam as the official religion of Saudi Arabia.

Theocracies are always dictatorships. One religious group gets all the power, and people who have the "wrong" religious beliefs are executed, oppressed or deported.

Theocratic rule goes against everything America stands for. However, theocratic rule is EXACTLY what millions of Republicans want.

And, even though the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from enacting legislation that would restrict citizens' rights to peaceably assemble, Republican legislators in five states are attempting to do just that.

Republicans have introduced legislation in North Dakota, Minnesota, Washington, Michigan, and Iowa, that would take away the Freedom to Peacefully Assemble from missions of our fellow Americans.

In North Dakota, Republicans introduced a bill that would allow motorists to run over and kill any protester obstructing a highway.

In Minnesota, Republican legislators want to pave the way for prosecutors to send highway protesters to jail for a full year.

Republicans in Washington state have proposed a plan to reclassify civil disobedience protests as a felony.

Republicans in Michigan have written up a bill that would make it easier for businesses to sue protesters.

In Iowa, a Republican lawmaker has pledged to introduce legislation to crack down on highway protests.

And let us not forget the blatant way that Donald Trump habitually violates the Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution. The Emoluments Clauses was put in place by the framers of the Constitution to protect against corruption, however, Trump has treated the Emoluments Clause (and every other part of the U.S. Constitution) as mere suggestions that he can ignore any time he feels like it.

Trump has been using the Presidency to get money funneled into his privately-owned businesses. His hotels and other businesses have seen money pour in from the Saudis, the Chinese and other foreign nations, thus motivating Trump to show favoritism to nations like China and Saudi Arabia. This is the whole reason the Emoluments Clause exists in the first place, to keep the president loyal to the American People, and NOT to whichever foreign nation pays him the largest bribes!

Americans need to know that their president is acting in their interest and not in the interest of his private businesses. President Trump has refused again and again to separate himself from his business empire to avoid pervasive conflicts of interest and constitutional violations.

And as a result of Trump’s refusal to obey the Constitution and separate his business empire from the Office of the Presidency, we now have the president of the United States engaging in a murder cover-up, to protect the flow of Saudi cash flowing into his private businesses.

And yet Republican are totally okay with all of this.

Republicans seem to be rejecting EVERYTHING that is good about America! Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Religion and Separation of Church and State all seem to be alien ideas to these people!

They seem to want to live in a Christian theocracy, where the government tells you what religious doctrines you’ll follow and what church you’ll attend and criticizing the government will get you thrown into jail.

Back in the eighteenth century America fought a war to GET AWAY from a government like that! Now, Republicans are pushing America back in that direction!

Republicans are un-American. It’s just that simple.

Speaking of that.....

Trump is trying to undermine our democracy. It’s un-American.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...f3ed02-f919-11ea-89e3-4b9efa36dc64_story.html

 

[FescueFan]

I love seeing a bunch of communist talk about American values and patriotism, as the work to destroy the American values and patriotism they hate openly and so very much.

 

[The_adorable_slut]

Reporters are getting shot by the police

So, in the past few days reporters have been shot, arrested, teargassed, brutalized, threatened and intimidated for the “crime” of covering the George Floyd protests in Louisville, Minneapolis and other American cities.

When I was younger, cops didn’t terrorize reporters like this. There were rules and there was respect. Journalists and police officers might not have the same exact goals, but we never saw cops gunning down reporters on the street. What changed?

Could it have something to do with the president of the United States declaring war on America’s Free Press?

Could it have something to do with the president of the United States declaring that the American Mainstream Media is the enemy of the American people?

Could it have something to do with the president of the United States praising a violent Republican Congressman after the congressman threw a reporter to the ground, and then repeatedly punched him in the face and broke his glasses?

Could it have something to do with the fact that Trump praised Mohammed bin Salman and referred to bin Salman as his friend after bin Salman ordered a squad of thugs to torture and murder a Washington Post reporter?

Three years of such open hostility and contempt for the American Free Press could have everything to do with why cops in the year 2020 are doing the unthinkable and shooting at reporters for the “crime” of merely doing their jobs.

Trump is out there inciting violence and validating irrational hatreds and fears.

Trump makes no effort to hide his affection for stoking fear and apocalyptic thinking. We have to stop assuming that Trump’s supporters are anything except on the bus with him. We have to stop thinking that they are acting out of a desire for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

[The_adorable_slut]

By "America" he means "me."

Our youth will be taught to love me with all their heart and souls, like Kim Jong Un.

International Study Finds US Republican Party Heading Towards Becoming One of World's Most Authoritarian Factions

The U.S. Republican Party has been moving in an increasingly regressive and autocratic direction for over a decade and now more closely resembles far-right ruling parties in Turkey, Hungary, and India than typical center-right parties in Western European democracies, a Swedish study published Monday has found.


In the largest study of its kind, researchers at the Varities of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at the University of Gothenburg found that since 2004 the Republican Party has "retreated from upholding democratic norms" and is shifting in an increasingly authoritarian direction, especially since the ascension of President Donald Trump.

"Disrespect of political opponents, the encouragement of violence, and also the violation of minority rights... they have all clearly increased with the Republican Party in recent years," said one of the lead authors.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...can-party-heading-towards-becoming-one-worlds

 

[Leather_Lesbian]

Showing once again that Trump has nothing but contempt for American values like freedom of the press, Trump is now saying that it should be ILLEGAL for America’s media outlets to cover the COVID-19 pandemic!

 

[allison22]

Freedom of Speech? Freedom of the Press? Oh, Hell No! Republicans HATE American values like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press!

[size=”5”]Trump Threatens to Close Down Social Media for Challenging His Lies[/size]



Of course, Trump would prefer to disseminate his lies pure and unfiltered. His ambitions to bully social media have been indiscrete even by Trumpian standards. Last August, he complained of anti-conservative bias at Google and warned he was “watching Google very closely”.



Last week, Trump described the political orientation of social-media firms as “totally illegal,” as if private companies have an obligation to hire some percentage of his supporters.



Today he threatened to regulate or close them down if not given satisfaction.


It is fashionable to dismiss Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric as just harmless clowning. But his failure to fulfill his goal of total control of media is far from certain. There is a concrete program of regulation underway. Several agencies — the Justice Department, FCC, FTC, and Commerce Departments — have reportedly been working on executive orders to crack down on alleged social-media bias against conservatives. Whatever emerges is unlikely to fully satisfy Trump’s threatening rhetoric.


But Trump is also less than halfway through his potential two terms, and he has just begun to master a bureaucracy that frustrated him through most of his first couple years in office. More importantly, Trump’s demands of the media are never going to stop short of absolute fealty. Look at his recent complaints against Fox News, which have angered him by interrupting the hours on end of Trumpian propaganda with pockets of straight news reporting that only lean somewhat to the right. There is no endpoint of neutrality that could satisfy him. Once he has made social media taste the whip, he will continue cracking it.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/202...-twitter-google-facebook-close-them-down.html

 

[Dribble]

It is known as Fascism. We have seen it before. I never would have thought it would happen here...but it has.

 

[phrodeau]

I love seeing a bunch of communist talk about American values and patriotism, as the work to destroy the American values and patriotism they hate openly and so very much.

As I suspected, you really are a communist.

 

[Dribble]

Taiwan just celebrated 200 days without a locally transmitted case of Covid. The population density there rivals any large city here. So how did they do it?

 

[FescueFan]

Taiwan just celebrated 200 days without a locally transmitted case of Covid. The population density there rivals any large city here. So how did they do it?

 

[FescueFan]

As I suspected, you really are a communist.

How do you figure phro??

 

[ThePlumTiger66]

How do you figure phro??

They never back up their statements with facts.

So, by phro's logic, if I called him a dickhead, then he'd be a dickhead, no questions asked, no proof needed.



(Oh, wait, that's the standard defense of their politics as well: Because I said so.)

 

[FescueFan]

They never back up their statements with facts.

So, by phro's logic, if I called him a dickhead, then he'd be a dickhead, no questions asked, no proof needed.



(Oh, wait, that's the standard defense of their politics as well: Because I said so.)

They never even TRY!!! LOL

 

[Bud_Spencer]

There's some Grade A Fancy, government-inspected, industrial-strength crazy leftist shit in this thread. There is absolutely nothing the Left cannot talk themselves into believing.

 

[nowisthetime]

Have you ever interacted with a Trumper? No humility, very obnoxious, just plain nuisance. They are bottom dwellers attracted to an equally disgusting piece of human trash. I wish they would all go back to their closets.

I think most Americans are about as sick of these cretins as they are of the useless orange blob. People are tired of them.

 

[TuckeyBluegrass]

Have you ever interacted with a Trumper? No humility, very obnoxious, just plain nuisance. They are bottom dwellers attracted to an equally disgusting piece of human trash. I wish they would all go back to their closets.

I think most Americans are about as sick of these cretins as they are of the useless orange blob. People are tired of them.

You talking about BLM right???

 

[Dribble]

2 more of the same put down by using the ignore function. The only good Fascist is the ignored one. Too fucking stupid to interact with personally. We will take back our country from their hatred.

 

[TuckeyBluegrass]

2 more of the same put down by using the ignore function. The only good Fascist is the ignored one. Too fucking stupid to interact with personally. We will take back our country from their hatred.

Can't point to any actual fascist.

Actually hates the USA and wants to 'take it back' by totally destroying it in favor of pursuing the communist utopia.

You're one funny guy Dribbz.

 

[nowisthetime]

There are more Democrats than Repugs in this country.

The thing is, those gutter rats always vote, they make it a priority to vote. What do they do all day but ingest right-wing media inspiring fear and hatred inside them? That's their motivator. Most of these dumbasses aren't ballin' like that and keep voting against their own interests, but here we are with them.

Only now Democrats are getting hip, bothering to get their asses off their couches and social media to vote.

 

[TuckeyBluegrass]

There are more Democrats than Repugs in this country.

The thing is, those gutter rats always vote, they make it a priority to vote. What do they do all day but ingest right-wing media inspiring fear and hatred inside them? That's their motivator. Most of these dumbasses aren't ballin' like that and keep voting against their own interests, but here we are with them.

Only now Democrats are getting hip, bothering to get their asses off their couches and social media to vote.

Yup and nope.

Thing is, states are a thing.

And currently (R)'s despite being a population minority are a state majority. Keeping democracy in check, as it should.

And thank gawd too, I'd hate to see either party in such a polarized form operating without restraint.

 

[oggbashan]

Yup and nope.

Thing is, states are a thing.

And currently (R)'s despite being a population minority are a state majority. Keeping democracy in check, as it should.

And thank gawd too, I'd hate to see either party in such a polarized form operating without restraint.

Which means if you live in a red or blue state, whatever you vote is meaningless. Your vote only matters in a swing state.

It is the same in the UK with our first-past-the-post system. If you are in a Conservative majority constituency, or a Labour one, whatever you vote, with a few rare exceptions, won't change anything.

 

[naughtymind]

There are more Democrats than Repugs in this country.

The thing is, those gutter rats always vote, they make it a priority to vote. What do they do all day but ingest right-wing media inspiring fear and hatred inside them? That's their motivator. Most of these dumbasses aren't ballin' like that and keep voting against their own interests, but here we are with them.

Only now Democrats are getting hip, bothering to get their asses off their couches and social media to vote.

You forgot two huge factors in Republicans favor: voter suppression and gerrymandering. Now with courts stuffed full of radical conservative ideologues they have substantially bolstered their defenses against the will of the American people.

 

[naughtymind]

And thank gawd too, I'd hate to see either party in such a polarized form operating without restraint.

Here, here! Hopefully we won’t see anything like the last four years ever again! Tuesday can’t come fast enough.

 

[vastiesmith100]

right!!! and dem-o-craps

are crazy commies.

 

[oggbashan]

are crazy commies.

Right and democraps?

Stop drinking the Koolaid.