Thread by @JYSexton

All right. Let's talk about how the GOP abandoned all of its ideology and actual orthodoxy and became a party with no actual goals beyond the consolidation of power.

Just a warning. This is a bumpy ride. Here's what I learned writing AMERICAN RULE.

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penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/a…

This story starts in 1984, where President Ronald Reagan has just won reelection in a historic landslide. Based on his campaign's strategy, he has become the living embodiment of America and the possessor of the national religion of exceptionalism.

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The 1984 election is a slaughter and makes it obvious that Reagan is not only unbeatable, but that the Republican Party is in a position to have overwhelming and uninterrupted power.

Looking at this map was a terrifying wake-up call for Democrats.

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The 84 Election seems to suggest that Republicans could control the White House for sixteen straight years, if not longer. Democrats understand there is a possibility the party could be destroyed if radical action isn't taken.

A plan begins to take shape.

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The executor of that plan is a strategist named Al From, who tells the Democratic Party that it is nearing extinction and that Republicans have won.

If Democrats don't embrace Reaganism, hypercapitalism, and move to the right, they might simply vanish from politics.

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To convince his Democratic peers that they need to embrace Reaganism, Al From relies on the theories of Dr. William Glasser, the pioneer of a thing called "Reality Therapy" that is meant to treat patients with delusions and reground them in "objective" reality.

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Reality Therapy relies on introducing "objective reality" to people who are delusional. In this case, Democrats are shown polling that suggests Americans have been won over by Reagan and can never be won back.

The message is clear: the GOP has won and denial is delusion

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In particular, From warns that Democrats will lose elections if they continue the way of Jesse Jackson, whose upstart campaigns harnessed minority voters into a movement.

From tells Democrats they must start appealing to white voters the GOP has won over.

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Jackson supporters and liberal Democrats are labeled "unreasonable" and "delusional." The party announces they're not going to appeal to liberals, minorities, labor, LGBTQ, or marginalized groups.

They're now in the business of attracting white "independents."

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From's strategy involves Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas. He asks Clinton to become the head of his new group The Democratic Leadership Council and promises if he does someday he'll get him elected president.

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With the DLC, Clinton's profile grows and he constructs a machine dedicated to electing him president. As per From's strategy, Clinton preaches a new Democratic philosophy of conservatism with an emphasis on deregulation, law enforcement, and hypercapitalism.

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When Clinton announces his presidential campaign, he uses Reagan's slogans, including "Make America Great Again," and promises he isn't a traditional Democrat or Republican, but promises a "new way."

His positions are moderate, if not center-right in nature.

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Observers of Clinton's successful victory in 1992 call it "Reaganism With A Human Face." It's the Republican ideology, more or less, with empathy and humanity thrown in.

Immediately, it's obvious that the Republican Party is in danger politically though they've won debate.

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As president, Clinton continues much of Reagan's agenda and carries out the story of America that Reagan began with his resurrection of exceptionalism in the 80's. There are exceptions, but Clinton and Reagan govern from similar perspectives.

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Clinton continues George H.W. Bush's pursuit of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal that is backed primarily by Republicans.

As president, Clinton is working in a bipartisan manner. Again, the GOP has WON THE DEBATE, but feels endangered politically.

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On the economic front, Clinton is simpatico with Alan Greenspan, an Ayn Rand disciple, who tells him he can't push social programs and must unleash the market.

Clinton does it, resulting in the 90's boom. Again, the GOP has won the debate but is endangered.

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Clinton pushes deregulation, harsh criminal reform, constructs mass incarceration, preaches fiscal and social conservatism, all of it to appeal to white voters the GOP had won over.

Again. The GOP had won. They defined the debate. It becomes an era of consensus.

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If the Republican Party wanted a country ruled by fiscal and social conservatism, the 1990's and Clinton would have been the Promised Land, a moment of new consensus and broad bipartisanship.

But it isn't about that. It's about power.

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The window of opportunity arrives when Bill Clinton has Hillary Clinton head healthcare reform. In her initial testimony, she's greeted warmly by Republicans ready to deal with this common-sense reform.

But then. Everything changes.

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In a strategy memo, healthcare reform is designated as a potential disaster for Republicans politically. They're told if Clinton "wins" here, they could be looking at lost elections for decades.

Despite the need for reform, they're told to oppose it as if it's an attack.

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The man of the moment, obviously, is Newt Gingrich, who explained earlier that politics is actually a war for power.

He seizes the opportunity and frames Clinton, a center/center-right president, as a dangerous, socialist tyrant determined to destroy the country.

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Deregulation of media has led to the rise of people like Rush Limbaugh who have no interest in fairness or accuracy. Rush makes his fortune carrying Gingrich's message that Clinton is dangerous, even while he recognizes Clinton is in the mold of Ronald Reagan.

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QUICK RESET: Clinton, a Democratic president who won and governs with the Republican model in mind, SHOULD be the dream of the GOP, a partner they can work with to form a conservative consensus.

Instead, for political power, they frame him as far, far, FAR left.

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This distorts the American political reality to its breaking point. Suddenly the Republican position of years before is a socialist, dangerously far-left position. The GOP begins twisting itself into all kind of positions that are simply to counteract the Democrats.

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If Republicans actually wanted to enact conservatism, their ideology, they would have embraced Clinton lovingly.

Instead, they start to construct an alternate reality apart from their ideology and agenda that is dedicated only to gaining unimpeded power.

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As I've written about before, the terrible tragedies in Ruby Ridge and Waco play into the construction of this alternate reality.

Government incompetence and malfeasance is turned into proof of a tyrannical government that's supposedly a New World Order front.

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The GOP and NRA join forces in positioning Clinton, a center-left president, as a New World Order traitor and a potential Nazi in the making.

This new alternate reality proves incredibly beneficial, financially and politically, to both groups.

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Continued Right Wing stoking of conspiracy theories and NWO narratives lead, in part, to the tragedy of the OKC bombing and other white terrorist actions in the following years.

There's a terrible consequence to this alternate reality that's being constructed.

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This alternate reality, however, is useful as Republicans now position themselves, with Gingrich's planning, as a political party that stands between America and total destruction.

In this fever dream, they have a new mission: securing a future in the face of apocalypse.

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The emergence of Fox News as a Right Wing propaganda arm finishes the construction of the alternate reality. Now, there is a 24 hour, round-the-clock home for the alternate reality to be covered, cultivated, and commodified.

In other words, the bubble is sealed off.

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Fox continues selling the story that Democrats are traitors bent on destroying the country instead of a center-left/center/center-right party, including Barack Obama, who cites Ronald Reagan as one of his favorite presidents and is quite conservative on many issues.

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The same goes for Hillary Clinton, who is considered a moderate Democrat, but is turned into a fire-breathing, social threat against America because many of the positions she holds USED to be the Republican orthodoxy.

The machine continues to build.

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Eventually, with enough time, the Tea Party Movement, funded and created by libertarian billionaires, emerges. This is a group of Americans who live in Fox's alternate reality and believe, hook line and sinker, the propaganda and can't tell the difference.

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Eventually the Tea Party, which is defined by its cult-like adherence to Right Wing propaganda with no basis in reality, overtakes the GOP, and the party is taken over by members who either don't understand it's a lie or are too happy to carry the lie for personal profit.

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What happens is Trumpism, which is neither conservative or liberal. It doesn't exist on a political scale and can be left wing in the morning and right wing in the evening.

The defining characteristic of the GOP and Trumpism is pursuit of power, not ideology.

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The Republican Party is now dedicated to securing for itself the benefits of society, whether that's social programs or spending or just cultural victories, instead of any actual ideology or political goal.

In the face of Clintonism, the GOP destroyed itself and its beliefs

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And, like all fascist movements, the Republican Party was in a position of power and saw its grip on power giving way. They made a deal to destroy reality and democratic institutions.

It's a deal fascists have always made and always will make.

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We misunderstand fascist movements. We define them as Left or Right. But they're not. They're malleable, and that malleability, based on group power, is what defines them.

The GOP isn't Right or Left. It's neither. It's both. It's malleable in order to pursue power.

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Don't make the mistake of looking at American politics from the old Left vs. Right lens. It's changed. We're in a new era where those old labels only hide that something larger and weirder and more dangerous is happening.

The old rules are gone. This is only about power.

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PS/ Obviously, the line I didn't connect in the thread but runs through it all is that the GOP saw the need to reclaim white "independents" and did it by pushing white supremacy paranoia and eluding to a conspiracy between liberals and minorities in collapsing white supremacy.