r/politics • u/IWantPizza555 • Jul 08 '26

No Paywall Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear requests update on Sen. Mitch McConnell's health

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/kentucky-governor-andy-beshear-requests-update-senator-mitch-mcconnell-health/417-b9252baa-29ab-489e-94f1-147aa41e78ed
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137

u/flatwoundsounds New York Jul 08 '26

Disagree. They're using Trump as a lightning rod. Let him take all the heat, let it die with him, and by the time JD takes over, they've already gutted any systems that would have checked them.

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u/wolf_at_the_door1 Jul 08 '26

MAGA is a Trump party. As soon as he’s gone many followers will be disillusioned. Vance is an uncharismatic huckster married to an Indian woman whom they hate.

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u/pchs26 Jul 08 '26

MAGA is just the GOP's fascist takeover. GOP & MAGA are one and the same imo at this point.

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u/lazyFer Jul 08 '26

Both things are true. The problem is for the fascists, they used Maga and Maga hands become true believers. The gop knew it was all lies and bullshit, Maga doesn't

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u/Academic_Carrot_4533 Jul 08 '26

Why would that functionally matter for the gop in the wake of magas fallout if the gop still maintains power? Genuinely asking, not meaning to be combative.

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u/runswiftrun Jul 08 '26

There are several GOP policies that are unpopular with MAGA, so they get put in the back burner. Doesn't always work the other way, anything MAGA/Rumpy wants, GOP has to concede or risk get primaried.

Huge example: Iran war. If it was up to the few actual GOP adults in the room, we would have been done weeks ago. The whole "freedom 250" scam took money from a well planned bipartisan event and was burned up to stroke his ego.

Without the orange clown, Johnson and company are gonna have a hard time passing anything that isn't 100% MAGA talking points. Half their seats are gonna be in jeopardy without an endorsement to unite all the rural voters.

Even as vile and repulsive as JD is, he's nowhere near as gross, racist, or dim as donnie; so RFK, Miller are more likely to go the route of Noem and Gabbard without mango Mussolini backing them up.

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u/FirstRobinofSpring3 Jul 08 '26

Complete agree, same reading of the room.

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u/pchs26 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

In what world do you think that Vance is better? He is bought, owned and placed in the VP role by Peter Thiel who is also part of a highly dangerous and power fringe global movement & is likely behind alot of the real policy decisions being made. ETA: I get downvoted for pointing out that Vance and Peter Thiel are just as dangerous & evil.

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u/Zestyclose-Ear-1293 Jul 08 '26

Ding ding ding ding.

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u/lousy_at_handles Jul 08 '26

Agreed - also, it's not in any way difficult to spout BS you know will resonate with his base, because they're so incredibly predictable. That's the reason there's so many grifters pandering to them, because it's frankly an extremely low bar to get going in that circle if you're willing to do the right kind of virtue signaling.

I don't think MAGA will diminish at all post-Trump unless there's an extremely messy succession fight that fractures the party (which is possible) but to me it seems like really the entire GOP functions as a single, monolithic entity. I'm sure a lot of guys would like to be the Guy In Charge but realistically any of them will do, because it's not like it matters since they all want to do exactly the same things.

I think it'll be a brief bump, and they'll find some new figurehead (probably Rubio) and be back full steam in a couple of months.

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u/flatwoundsounds New York Jul 08 '26

I agree that the party will be weaker without Trump, but I believe that's why they're working so hard now to eliminate whatever scraps remained of free and fair elections.

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u/turdlepikle Jul 08 '26

I don't know why people don't see this when they say the cult dies with Trump. As you say, the point is to break the system. They intend to use Trump's cult as long as they can, to break the system. If the can break it, it doesn't matter how charismatic the next person is if they're able to guarantee their victory. They're openly trying to rig it for Republicans already.

They know they've fucked things up so much, because they keep warning Republicans that if they don't win, they'll be prosecuted, and they also keep promising that if they win, they'll never lose again.

The goal is to break the system and never lose control.

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u/lazyFer Jul 08 '26

They are banking on non-republicans remaining civil, I think this is a mistake.

Everything in seeing is a collective holding pattern waiting for the election and the stress and energy is rising. The population is a spring under increasing tension

Want to know what happens when a spring under tension snaps? Things get fucking ugly all at once

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u/IrascibleOcelot Jul 08 '26

I’ve said it before, but if the Republicans succeed in stealing the midterms, we’re on a straight-line path to civil war. It might happen immediately, or it might take a decade, but it’s where we’d be headed. These Republican assholes want to be an absolute monarchy and we’re a country taught from infancy that our heritage is “fuck you; I won’t do what you tell me.”

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u/GetInTheKitchen1 Jul 08 '26

The real plan now is to initiate shaping actions so that maga/republicans/pedos/rapists/corruption are on the shit end of the stick and regular americans are on the winning side.

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u/GetInTheKitchen1 Jul 08 '26

Yes but that plan is just straight dumb. They wanna do to elections and the government with what they already did with other industries: break the old system then replace it with a monopoly.

It just won't fucking work. The monopolies were effectively state sanctioned and the US gov kept peace. Once they break the government, there will be no peace. It will be war, one that billionaires are simply too braindead to win.

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u/The_Rational_ Jul 08 '26

It's because you all sound like Bots. It's because most Americans know we've been through this every 80 fucking years. They don't have the Manpower defort general elections there are literally failing to thwart the in-betweens and midterms. This about people getting Filthy Rich and pedophiles getting away with rape and murder. But they definitely won't be getting away with stealing an election they are fucked and they know it. Republicans are done.

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u/turdlepikle Jul 08 '26

"Republicans are done."

People said Trump couldn't possibly win. Then he did.
People said Trump couldn't possibly win again. Then he did.

Americans haven't been through this every 80 fucking years. There hasn't been a Trump who duped 70 million people to vote for him 3 times, with a party and Supreme Court bending over backwards to please him, so they reap the benefits of a very stupid set of voters and non-votes who are letting them do whatever they want.

Yes, they have been blocked over the last few years in many cases, but they're still breaking as much as they can and ignoring every rule they can get away with.

Half of the country are a bunch of morons, and they're ok with all of this. Republicans aren't done, until you actually see a successful election defeating them, with an actual transfer of power.

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u/Ver3232 Jul 09 '26

Am actual peaceful transfer of power and prosecution/conviction for the legions of crimes

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u/FirstRobinofSpring3 Jul 08 '26

Most Americans know nothing of the kind!!! I think you underestimate the mental decline of the American population. Not fighting with you, I just have a different take. I hope you’re right!

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u/hajimenogio92 Jul 08 '26

I think you're spot on. The Project 2025 idiots have been planning for too long, the death of the orange turd won't stop their plans

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u/MaddyKet Massachusetts Jul 09 '26

This is my fear

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u/1iIiii11IIiI1i1i11iI Jul 08 '26

This is the first time I've heard anyone describe Vance as "charismatic." Dude couldn't so much as order doughnuts without sounding like an alien who learned to speak human language 45 minutes ago and learned what doughnuts were 5 minutes ago.

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u/aramis34143 Jul 08 '26

... which is why cementing single-party rule while he's still, technically, holding the office is so important for their long-term prospects.

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u/SpencerPrattsCrystal Jul 08 '26

He has negative charisma. Same with Don Jr. Both are so grotesquely unappealing.

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u/FirstRobinofSpring3 Jul 08 '26

My take as well.

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u/Show_Me_Your_Cubes Jul 08 '26

I agree with the lightning rod part. He takes all the heat and creates distracting drama so that we aren't paying attention to what actually is happening behind the scenes.

I disagree that JD will take over, tho

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u/flatwoundsounds New York Jul 08 '26

JD if Trump dies in office, but absolutely not JD if it's left to an election.

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u/campelm Jul 08 '26

They'll try but it'll go about as well as it did for Pence

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u/altreddituser2 Jul 08 '26

I hope some people remember that the only reason he's a lightning rod is because that's what the Republicans want him to be- if the Republicans in Congress are unhappy with what he's doing, they could remove him today.

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u/rotates-potatoes Jul 08 '26

If that’s the plan it’s a bad one. Trump has made it clear the entire party is his personal cult. Blaming Trump for everything will massively turn off his worshippers while doing nothing to reduce anger and contempt from sane people.

Their best bet to stay in power after he dies is to do the Chairman Mao thing where they all put up portraits of him and pretend to be carrying on his legacy.

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u/mythrilcrafter Jul 08 '26

My theory is different at the second half.

They want to have Don be the current lightning rod, but I have a feeling that they're not going to stick their neck out for JD once Donald is out of the picture.

More likely, my bet is that the reason why Marco Rubio has always been so non-adversarial to the public (at least in comparison to Don and JD) and why he works so hard to get actual work done, is that the GOP is going to field Marco in 2028 as the "Marco was only for Trump because that was part of the job, but look at how much work he actually got done compared JD!"

They're going to try to sell Marco as "Donald was a wild card, but Marco is a Bush/Regan Republican who will bring back the stability to the party".

And from what I can tell, it might actually work since most Republicans I know irl doesn't actually like JD, they know that he's just a cheerleader for Don who has no real achievements to his name.

The hardest core MAGA will hate Marco taking the lead over JD; but they're going to vote straight R any way, so the GOP has nothing to loose by picking Marco.

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u/TheThalmorEmbassy Jul 08 '26

Trump is gonna be like Jimmy Saville. Everyone involved will be like "Damn, that guy sure was bad, it sure was terrible how that guy did all that awful stuff all by himself, oh well, he's dead now, let's move on"

1

u/flatwoundsounds New York Jul 08 '26

There's an episode of Behind the Bastards called something like "the non Nazi bastards who helped Hitler rise to power" and I think we're going to see just how widespread the enabling of Trump has been throughout not just the Republican party, but the entire government and media ecosystem.

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u/tomdarch Jul 08 '26

Trump gave the Republican base exactly the overtly racist screaming asshole they had desperately wanted for years. There was no “choice” among the then l adders of that old version of the Republican Party. It is now nothing but the party of Trump.

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u/Spimflagon Jul 08 '26

This is what makes me think, despite all the guessing, Trump's not circling the drain as much as we'd like - because they're still treating Vance like shit.

As soon as it becomes apparent they're going to have to use him as an actual head of state they'll start blazing the motherfucker up like he's the new messiah and never liked Trump anyway.

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u/I-Make-Maps91 Jul 08 '26

Why wouldn't they treat him like shit, there's pretty open jockeying between Rubio and Vance to take charge, and when Vance seemed to be winning Trump humiliated him.

Pretty standard fascist/authoritarian shit to be honest, everyone trying to backstab everyone else as Trump plays them against each other to keep his spot on top.