GOP is down the tubes, and past the point of negotiation

I was busy having a tremendous Dorf Haus Christmas experience and hanging with friends, so not much time to discuss today's (still ongoing) hearing about the Lame Duck bills. Instead I'll temporarily defer to the great Charlie Pierce, who notes that today's GOP has gone so far down the tubes, that total defeat is the only option left when it comes to dealing with these Confederates.

If the American democratic republic is to survive, the Republican Party as it is presently constituted has to go. It has to be ripped from the political landscape, root and branch, and burned to ashes, which then have to be scattered in the sea off Antarctica, of which there is a lot more these days because the Republican Party as it is presently constituted doesn't give a damn if the planet burns.

But that's for another post. Not until the Republican Party as it is presently constituted has been wiped from the memory of man can a sensible, reason-based, science-friendly center-right party rise in its place. The Republican Party as it is presently constituted exists solely to launder corporate money, and its primary national imperatives are bigotry, plutocracy, and ratfcking. It doesn't believe in constitutional norms any more than it believes in climate science. The prion disease has progressed beyond all recall. The Republican Party as it is presently constituted needs to be put out of its misery before we are put out of ours.

And after running through the many absurdities of the Lame Duck bills, Pierce ends it well.

I suppose Evers is lucky that they don't try to defund his office supplies.

This is very much a national story, and it is a national story because it illustrates perfectly how fully the prion disease has destroyed the higher functions of the Republican brain. The Republican Party as it is presently constituted is the greatest threat to the American republic since Appomattox. It needs to die, fast and hard, and the ground salted so that it does not rise again.

And that's why removing Scott Walker and the statewide elected Republicans is merely a small first step, and that we have to keep blasting. Because these guys (and a few gals) will not play fair, and will not work with us to improve the state and country that we care for. In fact, that is a threat to their agenda.

These thugs in the GOP know what they're doing is wrong, both in Madison and in Washington DC. But they don't care, because they don't believe in public service. Today's Republicans believe that politics and governing exist for one reason - to acquire as much power and money for themselves and their allies as possible, and they rig elections and laws to continue those acquisitions.

Despair is what they and their Koched-up puppetmasters want, so we give up and walk away from caring about politics. Instead, we should hit back harder, and never let up. Maybe enough of this garbage gets knocked down in the coming days, and not all of these absurdities get passed.

But the experience of the 2010s has told me that there are nearly no good Republican politicians. My theme instead is "Votes, not quotes", until proven otherwise. And that especially goes for "reasonable moderates" like Luther Olsen, Robert Cowles, and Howard ("I'm an Independentin My Ads" Marklein). You can stop the madness, and if you choose not to, then you're worse than lowlifes like Vos and Fitz.