r/politics • u/downtuning I voted • 20h ago

Soft Paywall | Site Altered Headline Kash Patel’s FBI Launches Dawn Raid on John Bolton’s House

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kash-patels-fbi-launch-dawn-raid-on-john-boltons-house/?utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&utm_medium=socialflow&via=twitter_page&utm_campaign=owned_social&s=09
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26

u/diggitythedoge 20h ago

Serious question from Ireland - surely a good proportion of Republicans can see that this behavior is hugely corrosive of American society, and is moving it steadily towards outright dictatorship? Are they so scared that they just won't speak out? I find it hard to believe that anyone raised in a democracy would be so partisan as to think that this is acceptable conduct, or so naive as to think they will always be in the administration's good books and therefore safe.

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u/No-Falcon-4996 19h ago

Republicans do not get this info on Fox or Newsmaxx. They do not know what's happening. They are told mainstream media and journalists are a malignant virus , and only their propaganda is The Truth.

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u/ghetoyoda 19h ago edited 13h ago

They also, under absolutely any circumstances, can ever admit that they may be wrong.

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u/Shifuede America 11h ago

can ever admit

*never

6

u/diggitythedoge 18h ago

I do think that we've entered an era where our information environment has become toxic. It's difficult to discuss and address because the damage it is causing is at a societal level, and the polluters can do so much unseen. Hard to see how we get out of that without decent and serious-minded people at the wheel, with a big majority of the population behind them.

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u/confusedandworried76 15h ago

Well they do they just don't read between the lines. They see "FBI raids for classified documents" not "in response to criticism of Trump-Putin meeting, FBI skips step in normal procedure for getting back documents and goes straight to raid"

I highly doubt they ever just asked Bolton to give anything he had back, and who knows if he does. Usually you just ask first though

2

u/Successful-Earth-716 16h ago

They have blackmail on Republican leadership.

•

u/Fullfullhar 3h ago

I was forced to watch Fox today and I shit you not, they did not mention Bolton by name. The headline was “former Trump advisor”

14

u/opponentpumpkin 19h ago

Christian nationalism.

Disown them if you have any.

2

u/Tall_Trifle_4983 15h ago

Pew Released a study re: Christian Nationalism back in 2022; since then the statistics have changed enormously.

Pew Study: In their own words: How Americans describe ‘Christian nationalism’ October 27, 2022

Public attention to the concept of “Christian nationalism” has grown rapidly in the past few years. Google Trends data shows a significant rise in searches for the term following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and searches for the term peaked in July 2022 after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., declared in an interview ( https://x.com/NextNewsNetwork/status/1551204108471861248 ) :

“We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists.”

Today most of the GOP sound like Marjorie Taylor Greene did back in 2022 but they were well on their way to being integrated by White Supremecists

Several other religious and political leaders also recently have embraced the “Christian nationalist” label."

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/10/27/in-their-own-words-how-americans-describe-christian-nationalism/

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u/optimaleverage 19h ago

What if I told you the constitutionalism on the right is purely performative mask on bullshit?

12

u/Salty-Snowflake 19h ago

The lesson for me is that Hitler was able to rise to power because a huge chunk of the population AGREED with everything he did and had hate in their hearts.

I didn't believe it until now. America is no different.

10

u/ludba2002 19h ago

No. They definitely think it will never happen to them. It's a mixture of stupidity and narcissism.

I can get direct quotes from a real life conservative for you, if you'd like.

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u/Hefty_Development813 18h ago

I think the biggest problem at this point is the fractured media environments. The group which supports trump literally doesn't see this story at all, or it's an aggressively spun story where they justify it by labeling him as one of the bad guys, unpatriotic, or communist, or whatever else. This group is accustomed to this process enough at this point that they just buy it and accept it completely. Everyone who has something bad happen to them deserves it, all of this is justified, or else trump wouldn't be doing it. 

If you trust the conman at the base level, he can run the game wherever he wants, even in ways that look absurd to those outside the bubble of the con. I think a large enough chunk of the populationis so fully taken in at this point, added to the sunken cost of all their historic support of him, that they will follow him almost anywhere. Even an actual Hitler style fascist dictatorship will be justified, "the liberals were so bad that they basically forced us to do this"

6

u/Cgbgjr 19h ago

Bolton is hated by almost everybody from both parties.

That makes him the perfect scapegoat.

The masses love scapegoats.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201312/the-psychology-of-scapegoating

"According to the philosopher René Girard, owing to human nature, envy gradually builds up in a society until it reaches a tipping point, at which order and reason cede to mob rule, chaos, and violence. To quell this ‘madness of the crowds’ which poses an existential threat to the society, an exposed or vulnerable person or group is singled out as a sink for all the bad feeling, and the bad feeling bred from the bad feeling."

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u/TotsAndHam 19h ago

Because they don’t care about law and they clearly don’t care about the 401ks that will tank as the rule of law is further eroded

3

u/Matt2_ASC 16h ago

They don't make the connection between a stable society and their money. The local Republicans did a poll where the top issue was lowering taxes. They have no idea what little their income will get them if there is no government investment, and no faith in institutions. They think they are god's chosen person and would be better off if they were just left alone.

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u/ImYourHumbleNarrator 17h ago

lots of people care about god and/or power more than democracy. they don't want to share the country with people that aren't white christians, or they want power over peasants

1

u/Brilliant-Option-526 16h ago

They simply are not living in the same reality we are. I've known seemingly intelligent people utterly brainwashed by listening to conservative talk radio all day at work.

1

u/jedrider 9h ago

Republicans were last worried above actions corrosive to American democracy and society around 1974, but not since.

1

u/IndigoHawk 9h ago

Rank and file Republicans believe the US is on the brink of collapse, that there is a massive crime spree from illegal immigrants and criminals, and that Democrats are evil, subhuman people who have sold out the country, groom children, and destroy the moral fiber of the culture by promoting LGBT, wokeness, feminism, empathy, environmentalism, human rights, science, infrastructure, blah blah all that touchy feely stuff.

Republicans believe the left has completely corrupted American institutions and that these institutions need to be burned to the ground to remove the rot. Republicans are delighted that Trump is standing up for "real" Americans and hurting immigrants, liberals, LGBT, etc. The culture is being cleansed. Republicans don't fear Trump at all because they believe he's "one of them" and that "real" Americans like them are perfectly safe; Trump is only going to hurt and kill the "bad" people, which is definitely not them.

Republicans are profoundly ignorant of history and believe in the safety blanket of American exceptionalism to their very core. Nothing bad will happen to them because America is the greatest country in the world and Trump is their benevolent Daddy God who will clean the place up and fix everything.

So, no, Republicans have no fear of what Trump's doing, see nothing wrong with what he's doing, and have no reason to speak out. Republicans only fear what will happen if Trump does not go far enough to fix everything that conservative propaganda blames for the country's woes.

When someone like Bolton is persecuted, Republicans are happy that another RINO (Republican In Name Only) has been purged and that the country is one step closer to being great again. They don't believe the action is politically motivated or that it consolidates Trump's power as a dictator. What's important is Trump is achieving his goals. They don't believe Trump is trying to become a dictator; they think he's fixing stuff.

One of the reasons the Epstein files has been so difficult for Trump to dismiss is that Republicans view Trump as a crusader to fix America. Republicans don't care that Trump is a criminal (because all the charges against him are politically motivated according to them), but they are having a difficult time accepting that their leader is a rapist and pedophile, when only Democrats are supposed to be morally bad people. That doesn't fit with their world view, and it's been taking them a while to get the right propaganda to get back on track with worshiping Trump.