This is wrong, this is not what the Republican Party is doing. They aren’t trying to accomplish specific things at all. Trump could decide tomorrow that actually tariffs are bad and we’re going to not do the wall after all and the party would change its position. It’s a personalist party. - ThreadSky

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social • 6 days ago

This is wrong, this is not what the Republican Party is doing. They aren’t trying to accomplish specific things at all. Trump could decide tomorrow that actually tariffs are bad and we’re going to not do the wall after all and the party would change its position. It’s a personalist party.

Reposted from Osita Nwanevu

Couldn't be clearer that Democrats aren't a party in the way that Republicans are a party. The GOP has an ideological project. They build power to accomplish specific things. The project of the Democratic Party is getting Democrats reelected. 80-90+% of Congress is, so it doesn't take much effort.

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silverknyaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

it's personalist and it's the party of channeled white grievance. the democratic party is, in fact, not the same because they're actually committed to a pluralist, big tent coalition

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

Even vague white grievance I would not call an ideology. And most Trump supporters I know in real life are Vietnamese, which is a factoid that definitely informs my pushback.

silverknyaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

i didn't say it was an ideology. grievance is reactive, not proactive, and therefore an 'ideological' motivation

johnericson.me•6 days ago

I don't think they have an intellectual ideology, but there is a misogynist and racist through-line through it all. I think if Trump announced Woke is Good, etc. tomorrow, GOP Congress would start growing s spine quickly.

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

Not so sure about this honestly.

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

I think people would become less riled up and some of the infrequent racist voters would stay home.

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

(So he won’t do this he depends on the social psychosis)

johnericson.me•6 days ago

Out another way, I think personalist politics also best fit their cult of masculinity.

andrewmb.bsky.social•6 days ago

It's ADHD totalitarianism.

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

Most totalitarian regimes are not ideological! They are just about power. Of course when they have been it’s been REALLY bad.

andrewmb.bsky.social•6 days ago

My point is that literally the only thing saving us is that the guy in charge is so unfocused that he could probably be distracted by a laser pointer. A horse in a hospital doesn't make focused, detailed plans like those motivated by ideology.

kasemenova.bsky.social•6 days ago

It strange bc it's an amalgam. Musk & co have an ideological project: techno authoritarianism. Heritage Foundation/business class has an ideological project. Trump himself does not but he smuggled the other two projects in under his red hat, so ...

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

Members of the court can certainly have ideological agendas, and I would say Musk does to a certain extent (dangerous). But he does not represent the “Republican ideology”

fffanatic06.bsky.social•6 days ago

an upstate new york republican wants to make Trump's birthday a national holiday. Elon's DOGE has upended a lot of Project 2025 goals by alienating the courts. Hegseth went to Europe and told them all that the US can't fight Russia a couple weeks after Johnson called support Ukraine bipartisan.

fffanatic06.bsky.social•6 days ago

there really is no unified vision to the GOP project.

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

It’s: libs are bad, Trump is good

daveapong.bsky.social•6 days ago

Completely besides the point but that Republican is literally just making Flag Day an official federal holiday and unnecessarily tainting it with Trump because of the aforementioned reason of the party just being a personality cult.

fffanatic06.bsky.social•6 days ago

I figured it was something like. And it just goes back to the point. It's all performance for Trump

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

Trump does have to maintain his power so he’s not going to cast aside key supporters he thinks he needs but these are court politics. It’s about power, not ideology.

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

This is very obvious if you take a step back: they don’t even have a policy platform! What they are doing is totally ideologically incoherent! If you think they are ideologically motivated it’s mostly you (ideological person) projecting the opposite of yourself onto them.

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•6 days ago

Like one of Trumps’ biggest voter blocks and what gave him the White House was infrequent, uninformed voters. These are not ideological people!

quincunctial.bsky.social•6 days ago

The hats, the flags, the teddy bears, the pickup back window murals, the tattoos, the mass-produced faux oil paintings, etc. are all tributes to one man. They don’t say “GOP” or include Lincoln or Reagan in the iconography. It is Peronism.

cleanandgritty.bsky.social•6 days ago

I think you're right but it's also problematic that the Democrats have neither a central personality directing it nor a shared set of policy interests lolol

thisisbenphelps.bsky.social•5 days ago

I would say the current coalition is pretty ideologically aligned around “save liberal democracy”

cleanandgritty.bsky.social•5 days ago

I mean I hope so. I guess we'll see if that's enough

cleanandgritty.bsky.social•5 days ago

Idk if I would even call that a policy interest although obviously having a somewhat functioning democracy is a prerequisite to doing any real policy work

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