Ted Rall for January 09, 2023

No. It’s just going to seem like that until decent people take control of a major opposition party.

You got 2 years left to decide if you want democracy or fascism.

If the Republicans can become willing to support, advocate for, and be on the side of the USA, then we can talk about the possibility of an alternative to the Democratic party.

Until then. . .

Two-party state. The dumb party and the dumber party.

Is it just me or do other have a hard time understanding most of Rall’s comics?

Frank, you have to understand that part of salary is in rubles.

Since the Democrats advocate for Democracy and the Republicans advocate for fascism, yes when the Democrats win, Democracy does win.

Unlike the CCP, Democratic primary candidates aren’t picked by a party committee that ensures no one who is even the slightest bit out of step with leadership can’t be on the ballot for so much as dogcatcher. Outsiders run & sometimes, they win. Opinions within the elected ranks of the party vary so much that the phrase “Democrats in disarray” is a common trope.

Of course, Ted ignores that the House was flipped to GOP control. The current crisis is a large chunk of the GOP thinks they should be able to throw out voting results when they lose. Until accepting election results becomes the status quo, Ted & the others who pretend there is no crisis should be ignored.

It isn’t that Democracy wins only when Dems win. It’s that the Dems are still in favor of and support Democracy even when the other side wins. But now we have a party (the republicans) filled with anti-democracy pro-fascist extremists who want nothing more than to eliminate Democracy in favor of the one party rule this panel implies is a bad thing. Or is it only bad if that one party is the party of Biden? Dems aren’t perfect by a long shot but compared to the wanna be dictators on the right that want to take away Americans right to freedom they are the far better choice. Democracy wins when the people who are at least trying to keep it alive win, and the repubs are trying very hard to kill it.

1933 All non-Nazi parties are banned in Germany

The United States became a one-party government on January 20, 2009 when Mitch McConnell and the GOP abdicated their role as a functioning political party to focus exclusively on attacking and undermining the Democrat Party. The Republicans enjoined every hateful, ignorant, violent, racist nut job to further their cause without any regard to actually governing.

Broadly, I agree with this message. I’ve never been a fan of absolute thinking (the one “absolute” I believe?) and do believe Lord Acton’s quote about “absolute power corrupting absolutely”. However, at this particular time, I consider the threat from the far right wing of the GOP to be the more serious threat to democracy. When you have a small group of Congressional nihilists gaining authority by making a deal with an individual who just seems to want a title and a gavel, that, potentially is the more immediate threat.

Both threats exist and need our attention, but one seems to be more immediate.

Oh look Ted Rall defending the Insurrectionist caucus as a legitimate political party again.

And vice-versa

“Jim Jordan’s intent to subpoena the FBI for its criminal evidence against Trump is idiotic,” Tribe tweeted. “He’s obviously legally illiterate. He seems never to have heard about the separation of powers, for starters. He’s just grandstanding.”

Jennifer Rubin in the WashPost today pretty well sums it up (and she used to be a Republican):

“One doesn’t even need to know the two parties’ policy positions to know there is a world of difference in their vision and character. Poetry and grace on one side, thuggishness and fury on the other. Americans cannot say they lack a stark choice.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/09/jeffries-alphabet-speech-republicans/

‘PRIMARY THEM ALL!!!’ Trump Calls for All 18 Republican Senators Who Voted for Omnibus Spending Bill to Be Run Out of Office

I have a complex reaction to Rall’s cartoons. Like Rall, I don’t fit comfortably in the current two-party system of the US. I think that the Democratic party has sold out to corporate interests and doesn’t represent the interests of most working people. The Democratic party will accept just as much reform as is needed to keep the system going, and not one bit more. The Republican party, however, is not much better than a crime syndicate. I think that progressives (that lumps together a lot of differing positions, but it will do for this post) should not spend all their time on electoral politics. Elections are just moments in a long political process. Important moments, sometimes, but hardly the whole story. Between elections we have to explain what we stand for in a way that people can understand. Here’s one place where I differ from Rall—I would take a different rhetorical stance—his tone can sometimes be somewhat offputting. And here, perhaps, is another: the other day he was listing a bunch of things he thought should be nationalized, and he included “food”. I’m not sure exactly what he meant, but I would say that food production, farming, that is, should not be nationalized. The big agri-businesses should be dismantled, but in order to promote smaller farms, rather than state run farms.

It’s not just you.

Byproduct of the GQP retreat from democracy. Talk to them about it.

But when Republicans declare “wins” for these same issues, that’s all good?

All good Democrats yearn to live in a one-party state, even if it kills them.

I don’t always agree with Ted, but I respect his demand that liberals and the Democrat party MUST do more than talk. Democrats must demand the same high standard of behavior and competence from themselves as they demand from Republicans.

Democracy’s been winning so much lately, I’m getting tired of winning.

When one of the parties have devolved into a majority of extremist right wing ultra-nationalists then yes, please keep the other party in majority, for the sake of our nation.

America first is neither!

Sorry, but there is a party dedicated to destroying democracy and establishing one-party rule, and it isn’t the Democrats. And its not Democrats’ job to prop up the GOP. It needs to fall, to fail. History shows us that a new party will take its place.

If only establishment Democrats really believed in democracy.