The corporate media is already launching an all-out assault on Ron DeSantis in preparation of 2024. They are already terrified of him:
Oh, right: authoritarianism.
Not having to show a vaccine card at a restaurant is “authoritarianism,” I guess.
Not allowing corporations to fire unvaxxed employees is “authoritarianism,” I guess.
Well, if that’s authoritarianism, then sign me up.
I’m going to be completely honest with you: I am at the point now where I wish Republicans were as “authoritarian” as the libs say they are. I really am.
Because obviously you cannot get anything good done as long as the Democrats have a say in the matter.
If it takes a “right-wing authoritarian” to bulldoze the Democrats impose a Sanity Agenda on this country by force, then so be it. I’m about at that point right now.
I would prefer a right-wing dictator over what we have now.
There, I said it.
I don’t think the Democrats should be allowed to govern.
I would rather have a right-wing dictator installed for life than a system that allows Democrats to hold any political power whatsoever including the office of dog catcher.
I think they should be treated as enemies of the state–dangerous and destructive subversives.
What, like Democrats don’t think all these things about us? Give me a break. Democrats have been trying to criminalize political disagreement for almost a decade now.
They just have no principles so they’re not afraid to say it.
What do you think the point of “cancel culture” is? It’s about silencing and eliminating their political enemies.
Where I differ from the Democrats is that I still believe people should have rights and be treated equally. Democrats don’t believe Republicans should have rights. They believe dissidents should be disenfranchised and/or imprisoned.
I don’t want to disenfranchise or imprison anyone other than Democratic politicians and bureaucrats. I think basically all of them should face military tribunals, starting with Fauci.
But I don’t really care about Democratic voters one way or another; most of them are either brainwashed by the media or simply voting for the party because they have a financial incentive to do so.
The Democratic Party coalition is fundamentally different from the Republican coalition.
At least the Republican voters, I can’t speak for GOP politicians. But Republican voters are essentially just people who view the world the same way: they want to be left alone, they value liberty, they don’t trust the government, they don’t trust the media, and they can’t stand overbearing liberal busybodies.
The Democrats are completely different. The Democrats are a patchwork quilt of different “single issue” interest groups united by the fact that the Democratic Party ensures each of them some form of preferential government treatment, generally financially-based.
For instance, affirmative action for minorities, “Women’s Issues” for feminist cat ladies, etc. Most industries you can think of are Democratic–the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, the AARP, the Teachers Unions, the American Hospital Association and so much more–because the Democrats give them lucrative preferential treatment. It’s bribery on a mass scale, and in reverse: support the Democrats with your vote, and they’ll reward you with preferential treatment and carve-outs, and make sure the status quo remains intact.
The public school system is a disaster in this country. Why do you think it’s so impossible to reform it? Because the Democrats are standing in the way: they have the support of the teachers unions, the teachers unions like things the way they are, and so Democrats make sure the status quo–which is lucrative for the teachers unions but terrible for American students–remains in place. The teachers unions make sure their nearly 5 million members vote straight-ticket Democrat in each and every election.
This is why I repeatedly say the Democrats are not a political party, they’re the mafia. It’s not even about politics at all. It’s one gigantic grift. Democratic politicians get power (and money), Democratic interest groups get preferential treatment (and money).
Now, this is not to say that Republicans aren’t in thrall to any special interest groups. Not even close to the case. Republican politicians are in thrall to a variety of special interest groups.
Let’s look at some of the biggest industry lobbying groups from the 2020 election cycle via Open Secrets. Now, a lot of industries split their political donations roughly 50-50, as they want to curry favor with both political parties. This is normal. For example:
- The real estate industry was 54% Republican, 46% Democrat
- The insurance industry was 53-47 in favor of Republicans
- The retail industry was 54-46 in favor of Democrats
But then there are also a lot of lopsided industries in terms of their political donations. Let’s look at some examples:
- Lawyers and law firms were, according to Open Secrets, the 2nd biggest political spenders in 2020. They gave $253 million to Democrats, $53 million to Republicans. (If you were curious, the #1 political spending group isn’t actually even a group: it’s simply retirees. Individuals who are retired.)
- The “securities and investments” industry (Wall Street, private equity, hedge funds) was the 5th biggest political spender in 2020. They gave $195 million to Dems, $123 million to Republicans. Not as big a disparity as with lawyers, but still pretty sizable–61% to Democrats.
- Education (as in universities) was massively Democratic in 2020, as usual. $283 million to Democrats, $32 million to Republicans.
- Electronics manufacturers (Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, etc.) were hugely Democratic: $94 million to $34 million for Republicans, although Oracle, by far the single largest political spender in the industry, gave most of its $5.4 million to Republicans.
- Big Pharma: It’s usually pretty evenly split, and in the past (15-20 years ago or so) it was more Republican, but it went $45 million to Democrats, $28 million to Republicans, or about 62% to 38%.
- The entertainment industry: Hollywood. Traditionally heavily Democratic as well. $95 million to Dems in 2020, $12 million to Republicans.
- Civil servants/public officials: Government employees from all over the country. Federal and state. $107 million to Democrats, $34 million to Republicans. No surprise here. However, it gets interesting when you look at the breakdown by federal government agency. You can see just how Democratic the federal bureaucracy is, and keep in mind this was 2020 when Trump was in office:
- State Department: 81% Democrat, 18% Republican.
- The EPA: 98% Democrat, 2% Republican.
- Department of Health and Human Services: 86% Democrat, 14% Republican.
- Veterans Affairs: 65% Democrat, 35% Republican. Kind of surprising, but then again not all employees of the VA are veterans. Most of them are, obviously, doctors and medical professionals.
- Department of Energy: 88% Dem, 12% Republican.
- Department of Agriculture: 72% Dem, 26% Republican. This is a bit of a surprise because as we’ll see soon, Big Ag is a Republican-leaning industry. Maybe Big Ag should spend more on lobbying because the Department of Agriculture is swamped with Democrats.
- Justice Department: 69% Democrat, 31% Republican.
- Treasury Department: 51% Republican, 46% Democrat. Kind of a surprise just in the fact that a federal agency is Republican-leaning, but when you think of it, it’s not really a surprise: numbers, budgets and spreadsheets-type people, more likely to be fiscal conservatives, etc.
- “Human rights” groups: Overwhelmingly Democrat, as expected. 89% Democrat, 9% Republican. These are predominantly “civil rights” and “equality” type groups.
- Hospitals & Nursing Homes: 64% Democrat.
- Non-profits: Another heavily Democratic sector. 77% Dem.
- Public sector unions: 88% Democrat.
Now, this is not to say the Republicans don’t have their own special interest groups greasing them up. Here is a list of the largest Republican donors from 2020:
“Retired” is the #1 group, and they gave 69% to Republicans. But again, this is not really a “group,” it’s just retirees.
What’s interesting is that many of the biggest Republican donors are actually even bigger Democratic donors. For example, the “securities and investments” industry is the 4th largest Republican donor at $39 million. But they are listed as having given 55% of their donations to Republicans (this is actually slightly inaccurate: I went into the numbers and it’s more like 62%). And “Lawyers/law firms”: they’re the 8th biggest Republican donor at $24 million, but 74% of their total donations went to Democrats.
The only industries on the list here that are genuinely heavily Republican are oil and gas (82%), commercial banks (59%), automotive (67%), crop production (64%) and general contractors (71%). Pretty much exactly what you’d think for Republicans.
Again, I’m not saying the Republicans don’t have their own special interest groups pumping money into the party. They absolutely do and I have no doubt they’re in partly or even mostly thrall to those groups.
The difference here is that the Democratic Party is largely comprised of special interest groups, and all the members of these large special interest groups (for example, teachers unions, lawyers in the ABA, etc.) are encouraged to vote Democrat.
The average Republican voter votes Republican because either he simply agrees with the Republicans or just hates the Democrats.
The average Democrat voter votes Democrat because the Democrats give him or her preferential treatment in some way or another.
And this is why nothing ever changes in this country–it only gets worse. The Democrats, far from being the party of “progressive change,” are the party of the status quo in almost every way imaginable.
Now do you see why basically every Democrat is the exact same? It’s not about “politics” with the Democrats, at least as the term is commonly understood.
It is only grift.
Even if a Democratic politician wanted to change something in this country for the better, I don’t even think it would be possible because the party is such a machine.
The only thing that matters with Democrats is getting elected and staying elected, so that the status quo will be maintained and the party’s special interest groups keep getting preferential treatment.
If somehow a Democrat were to get in office and decide they want to change something they don’t like, chances are, that thing that they don’t like that they’ve identified and want to change, is the way that it is for a very good reason: because some Democratic special interest group wants it that way and benefits from it being that way.
Again, Democrats are not actually a political party in the sense that the term is commonly understood. The Democratic Party is one gigantic, well-oiled grift machine.
Everything the Democrats say about policies and “ideas” and the promises they make about things they’re going to change–it’s all bullshit. The only thing that matters is staying in power and keeping the grift going no matter what. Democratic politicians are little more than representatives for the various special interest groups that control the party. They are not put in office to make the country a better place or implement “bold new ideas.” They are put in office to ensure that the special interest groups that comprise the party continue receiving preferential treatment from the government.
The whole point of this “voting rights” bill they were talking about this past week was to make it easier for them to rig elections and remain in power, so that they can continue The Grift without any interruptions.
I’m not sure how long it’s been this way. At least the past 20 years, though. Possibly even all the way back to the New Deal in the 1930s.
But that is how the game works for the Democratic Party. The only job a Democratic politician has once in office is to keep The Grift going, and, whenever possible, to expand The Grift so it’s even more lucrative and preferential for the various special interest groups.
It’s one big racket. This is why I say the Democratic Party is for all intents and purposes, a mafia. I can’t think of any better way to describe it.
Again, I’m not saying the Republicans don’t have their own special interest groups that determine the party’s agenda. We haven’t even talked about the Chamber of Commerce, which is probably the most powerful lobbying group on the GOP side.
The difference is that the Democratic Party’s Special interest groups largely are the party’s voter base. The teachers unions, academia, the ABA, the AMA, the AHA–in the aggregate, these organizations represent many millions of people, most of whom reliably vote straight-ticket Democratic in every election.
The Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, has 470 employees total. It represents powerful business interests. It is not an integral part of the Republican voting base. In fact most average Republicans despise the Chamber of Commerce because it’s so hardcore pro-immigration.
The only organized special interest group that I can think of with millions of members who all vote lockstep Republican year in and year out is the NRA, which has about 5.5 million members nationwide.
The way to understand the Democratic Party is to just think of like 30 NRA-type special interest organizations each with millions of members who all vote in unison and are basically fixated on one single issue and demand that the Democratic Party offer constant and unwavering support on that one issue no matter what.
Now is it starting to make sense? A Democratic politician trying to do something that is detrimental to one of the party’s many special interest groups is basically like a Republican politician who tries to reform the nation’s gun laws.
It’s impossible. It can’t happen. You will be crushed. You are going up against a machine. Any Republican who even mentions the idea of introducing a new gun law will be destroyed. The NRA and its millions of members will hound you until you either back down and apologize or they get you out of office.
Any Republican that doesn’t play ball on the 2A issue is basically throwing his political career in the garbage. It’s something that is simply non-negotiable in the Republican Party: you don’t fuck with the gun issue at all, ever. Your job as a Republican politician is to make sure that any and every Democratic gun control proposal fails, and that’s it. Period, end of story.
That’s how the Republican Party is on the gun issue.
And that’s how the Democratic Party is on like 30 different issues.
See now? See how it works?
Democratic politicians don’t have a say on anything, really. They’re just cogs in the machine. It’s much bigger than the Democratic politicians themselves. They are simply working on behalf of the party’s many special interest groups. Democratic politicians can’t change shit–unless it benefits the special interest groups. Again: Democrats are put in power solely to keep The Grift going, and whenever possible, to expand and improve The Grift so that it is even more lucrative.
Imagine if a Democrat says, “You know what, our school system in this country is broken. We need to expand school choice in this country.”
That Democrat would incur the wrath of the teachers unions like no other. It would be political suicide.
A Democrat says something like, “Hey, maybe we should change these laws that make it easy as hell to sue people. Maybe we should crack down on these ambulance-chasing lawyers and slip-and-fall scam artists.” Can’t happen. Trial lawyers are a major Democratic interest group and would not stand for it. They’ve got a good thing going and they’ll be damned if some fucking politician is going to screw it all up.
Voter ID? 75% of Americans want it. But any Democrat who even entertains the idea of voter ID requirements would be nuked into oblivion by all the “Civil Rights” groups. Forget about it.
Imagine some fiscally conservative Democrat (if any even exist anymore) goes, “Hey, we’re $30 trillion in debt. Maybe it’s time to start slashing the federal government. I mean, come on, there’s got to be a lot of fat we can trim here.”
Listen here, asshole: we federal government employees don’t donate tens of millions of dollars to the Democratic Party every election cycle to have your clown ass come up here and talk about getting rid of our jobs. Shut the fuck up and sit down, bitch.
A Democrat thinks to himself, “Honestly, it’s pretty fucked up that some jurisdictions allow partial-birth abortions. We should probably not allow that–at least not with federal money.”
The very next day outside his office:
“SEXIST!” “HANDMAID’S TALE!” “MY UTERUS!!” “PATRIARCHY!!!”
Federal funding for abortion clinics also pays for the votes of the Screamers and the Pussyhats. You mess around with any of that, and you’re gonna have a problem on your hands.
Every bad thing that you can think of that, objectively, needs to be changed or fixed or reformed–it is that way for a very specific and deliberate reason. You will find out just what that reason is the moment you, as a politician, decide you want to change it.
See what I mean? Democratic politicians can’t do a thing.
The Democratic Party is a machine. It’s much bigger than any one politician. Politicians can be replaced easily. If you are not playing ball, if you are rocking the boat, then you are going to be replaced with someone who will play ball and who won’t rock the boat.
You keep your head down and do as you’re told, and maybe, one day, if you prove valuable enough to the party’s various special interest groups, they’ll cut you in on The Big Grift and you’ll become as rich as Nancy Pelosi.
But if you ever go against The Family–I mean the Party–then you will be hounded to no end.
The Screamers followed Kyrsten Sinema into the bathroom and harassed her last year over some immigration matter.
The bottom line is that the Democratic Party is a racketeering machine–it’s fundamentally incapable of ushering in any sort of change that would be good for the nation at large. It is only capable of prolonging and expanding The Big Grift.
They will plunder this country until the wheels fall off and it implodes. There is nothing that can stop The Big Grift.
There’s an episode in Sopranos, season 2, called “Bust Out” where a guy named Davey Scatino, who owns a sporting goods store, gets into debt to Tony Soprano for $45,000 over a game of cards. Davey cannot repay Tony, so Tony and his mobsters decide to “bust out” Davey’s sporting goods store. They begin ordering tons of items on Davey’s store’s credit and eventually bankrupt the company, then declare Davey’s debt with them settled.
Democrats are the mob, America is the sporting goods store. They will keep plundering this country until there’s nothing left. They cannot stop. None of their interest groups will ever accept a situation where The Big Grift ends, or is even diminished. It’s a non-starter.
It either continues until the country collapses, or until someone else puts a stop to it.
The Grift Machine is extremely powerful. It includes most major sectors of the economy, the vast majority of government bureaucrats and employees, academia, the entertainment industry, the media, Wall Street, Silicon Valley–it’s massive.
It might be impossible to overcome, honestly. Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, but the swamp drained him.
I think the only thing that might be able to overcome it would be a Republican President with full control of Congress, and the filibuster nuked so Democrats couldn’t stop anything. But even that might not be enough, because how many Republicans in Congress are in on the Big Grift? Probably a lot of them.
Which is why the idea of a right-wing “authoritarian” doesn’t sound so bad to me at this point.