Relentless positivity replaced by ‘vermin’ and ‘scum’ in the modern GOP
Pour one out for sunny, Reaganesque Republicanism.
The latest blow came this week, when Tim Scott, the second of two candidates with a future-focused, relentlessly positive message and a smiling disposition, dropped out of the GOP presidential primary. He was preceded to the exits by his fellow happy warrior Mike Pence. Both capitulated to an electorate more interested in candidates eager to violate Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment — thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican — shredding each other to make a point.
The last of their kind amid a field of slash-and-burn culture warriors and angry brawlers — candidates willing to call their political enemies “scum” and “vermin” — Pence and Scott had bet that there was a silent majority of Republican primary voters who wanted a return to an optimistic, whistle-while-you-work-the-base standard bearer.
Reagan, and Pence, treated people like scum and vermin. LGBTQ, immigrants, drug addicts, poor people, atheists... Their happy positivity only applied to wealthy Christians and the military industrial complex.
But they hate with a smile on their face!!
Their mouths said they hated me, but their eyes... Well, their eyes said they hated me, too, but I really appreciated how much effort they put into working together in an attempt to discredit my right to live.
Sounds like my new boss
Reagan was a Patsy, it's very clear at this point he wasn't running himself let alone the government.
Regardless, he was the face and name of the administration. Some say he was a useful idiot, others say he was a two-faced mastermind. It doesn't matter, because the things done in his name under his watch set America on a path of self-implosion. He doesn't get a pass for being too stupid to stop it.
Reagan administration v Reagan, Reagan shit his pants and fought a wall, his administration did the actual presiding.
Ok, sure. Who cares? Does it make any functional difference? I never knew the man. I don't know anyone who knew the man. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you didn't know him either.
The man and the administration are one, as far as any citizen is concerned. Reagan was a shitty president. He was a shitty person. His wife was a shitty person. The policies his administration pursued were bad for America, and his leadership encouraged the worst of humanity.
Nobody is just one thing, though, and nobody does it all by themselves. Reagan might have been a stupid puppet, or he might have been the diabolical master. Either way, fuck him and fuck his administration. It makes absolutely no difference either way.
I do know the Reagan family by chance but I held that belief out to that as well.
No, they aren't. This is how they escaped conviction for the whole Oliver North thing. Add yes we're in agreement it was a shitty administration.
Correct.
I heard Nancy was quite the cocksucker... In a good way.
Yeah... no shit... it's written right there, why act surprised?
The guy who was so inanimate that a fly took up residence on his face during a debate?! Gtfo politico, stop trying to humanize these assholes
I want whatever they're smoking
Yep, those sunny people that laughed about the aids crisis. Man, such positivity...
Whistle-while-you-lettheCIApoisonblackcommunities
Iran contra, so hilarious. Everyone was practically giggling.
"relentlessly positive"? I'm sorry, did I miss something, when have they ever had that? Is this piece written by a foreigner who's only ever seen out-of-context random sound bites of Republicans trying to sound positive... right before bringing the negativity?
Republicans have been relentlessly positive? Trump has been calling Democrats "evil" and the press "the enemy of the people" for years now. Sure, we should note that Trump is using Nazi rhetoric verbatim, but we should note he's been doing it all along, not act as if it's new.
Republicans havent had a positive message since the days of Lincoln freeing the slaves. And only because the parties eventually swapped.
Conservatives in the US have an unbroken lineage of utter disdain for humanity throughout American history.
Is Politico one of those weird troll websites?
In hindsight it was kind of a self-destructive approach to politics. Win with positivity -> implement policies that steadily make life shitty for the average voter -> positivity no longer appeals to the average (republican) voter.