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MAGA Republican Pledges “End of Democracy” to Rabid Cheers at CPAC | Republicans at CPAC 2024 are openly vowing to take down democracy. (newrepublic.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/politics@lemmy.world
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Archived copies of the article: ghostarchive.org archive.today web.archive.org

About the only way we're going to actually have a democracy is if they consistently lose elections. That's going to mean volunteering, donating, and actually turning out to vote

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[–] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

He’s not being sarcastic. He’s artificially injecting sarcasm into his voice so he can say what he really believes.

Say what? Did you watch your own video? Because I followed your link, watched it for ~3min, and he is clearly 100% being sarcastic. Not just in tone of voice, it's clear from the content. No doubt about it. When laying out his "plan to destroy democracy" it's a laundry list of points from the stop-the-steal bullshit. Among that:

  • Ban paper ballots
  • Replace with mail-in voting and dropboxes
  • Remove election day
  • No voter-ID requirements
  • Arrest opposition leader 4 times (this is a Trump reference)
  • Imprison protesters who don't like democracy being abolished (January 6th reference)
  • Flood the nation with millions of "invaders" to vote in their favour

All things the Republicans accused the Democrats of doing during the 2020 election. Then he ends with saying:

This is their "democracy" [doing air-quotes]. This is the regime we will overturn. They say democracy but they mean authoritarianism, and we know it.

I mean the guy went off the deep end and is obviously insane, but there is simply no doubt that he was being sarcastic here and that the measures he cites are not his actual plan. A Republican letting millions of people into the country voluntarily should have given it away to even the densest of viewers.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It is absolutey insane how hard it is to find one reasonable comment on Lemmy these days. 'Naturally gifted' density or willful ignorance, either way, there's an impressive amount of people that believe he was speaking from the heart because it confirms their own beliefs.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I understand the start of his speech where he says "this is my plan" is his idea of a joke. He's not saying he's going to do those things, he's saying the Democrats have already done those things. But he really believes that the Democrats have done those things or that the beneficial things the Democrats have done are evil. Sorry I didn't think I needed to be this explicit.

    He does want to destroy our democracy though. He wants a christofascist dictatorship. He talks about making a "new American Republic" out of the ashes and retribution. He wants to pardon the Jan 6 rioters. He wants to lock up political opponents in the Democratic Party. They want to replace everyone in the white house with partisan yes men, a plan called Project 2025.

    Sorry, I didn't do a good job explaining this the first time around.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    And I understand that you understand the joke. I understand that Posobiec and the far right are nuts and believe the Democrats have already done what he's joking about. You didn't need to be that explicit, and you don't have to type "Sorry, I didn't think I needed to be that explicit" in every reply to make yourself feel superior either. You're not apologizing, you're still on a high horse. I don't even necessarily disagree with you but I took issue with your responses.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    I made a mistake. I wasn't clear or explicit enough and a bunch of people misunderstood because of it. If you don't believe my apology is sincere, I don't care. But I'm not going to let you or anyone mischaracterize what I say without a response.

    edit: Ok, I might care a little if you don't accept my apology. But as far as I'm concerned you have the right to reject my apology and say it is insincere. For some reason I don't really understand, I really care if other people in general think less of me. I think I have an ego problem.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    Sorry, I should have been more explicit. My bad. All the things he lists are the alternate reality he lives in. He really believes the Democrats have done those things and thinks the beneficial things the Democrats have done are evil. Like he thinks Democrats have poisoned the blood of our country by letting in immigrants, even though we're a nation of immigrants, and even though Republicans killed the border bill. He thinks mail in voting is bad, because he wants to suppress voter turn out. That list was him thinking he's being clever, to paraphrase, "The Democrats have already destroyed our democracy." He even accuses the Democratic party of being an authoritarian regime, when we know that is what Republicans want on day 1.

    When he says he wants to restore our constitutional republic he means he wants to destroy our democracy. Constitutional republic is conservatives code for "we are not a democracy, we have minority rule". He then accuses us, anyone left of him, all of hating white, straight, "successful people", when it's the same group of white straight screw ups that hate all of us. He says we hate our founders, our history, and self made people when, all conservatives do is lie about the founders and history. Most of the founders were Deists, but conservatives insist we are a christian nation. Conservatives say they don't want activist judges, but then use British law in their opinions to overturn Roe v Wade. The say billionaires are self made success stories, but Elon Musk and billionaires they hate like Bill Gates just inherited a bunch of money.

    Do I need to do a full translation of his speech or have I a clarified enough? He wants to destroy democracy. I thought his "joke" was self explanatory too. The commenter I was replying to seem to suggest Republicans don't want to form a christofascist dictatorship because they're saying it with a sarcastic tone of voice. Which is nonsense and so 2016, "He's just trolling". Does anyone else remember that? Self proclaimed internet trolls got interviewed and proudly explained how they had got Trump elected and were in on the joke. I'm never going to let that kind of rhetoric slide again. edit: typo

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Fair enough, but none of that means he wasn't being sarcastic. Merriam-Webster defines that as "a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain", which this clearly was. That is of course not a get-out-of-jail-card for being a dumbass, but he doesn't intend to abolish (his twisted idea of) democracy.

    I mean suppose for a second, just for arguments sake, that the Democratic party did indeed steal the 2020 election and you would have to re-evaluate things like January 6th being an insurrection, because violent resistance against somebody undermining a country's constitution is legitimate. Which is a stance you might have to take yourself sooner rather than later, especially if Trump wins again.

    On a side-note, as a German growing up on copious amounts of Nazi history in school and some TV channels running 24/7 documentaries about them it seems rather clear to me where these MAGA people are headed. Already was in 2016. It's fascism. But it is important to remember that such movements aren't as monolithic as they might seem from the outside. There are many people in them who are just high on their own supply of bullshit, and you don't do yourself any favours by misinterpreting them and fielding arguments which are then easily refuted, doubly so if you are fighting against their confirmation bias.

    To be fair though, the article in the OP seems to make that very same mistake.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    The comment I replied to was:

    Ok he did say it verbatim but it sounds like he’s being sarcastic.

    What this implies is, because the speaker said it a certain way, he doesn't really mean he wants to destroy democracy. I'm saying, no, he clearly does, in the second half of his CPAC speech he describes destroying democracy.

    His joke in the first half of the CPAC speech was he said "this is my plan", listed stuff the Democrats have done, and then the punchline was Democrats have already destroyed democracy. It doesn't matter how he said it. Many MAGA support believe the Democrats have done those things or that the beneficial things the Democrats have done are evil. He does intended to abolish Democracy as do many MAGA supporters.

    If you have an argument that can refute this and demonstrate that the fascists in the Republican party are not trying to build a christofascist dictatorship please share it.

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