Right now, it’s next to impossible to tell the difference. Even in cases where the ICE activity is “legitimate”, it looks like a kidnapping. Some of these people are unable to be located for long periods of time.

My guess is that it had something to do with the age of the writers? Nixon really broke the mold, I guess.

A lot of things happened in the 60s and 70s that broke a lot of cherished myths of post-war America. Seeing JFK and RFK getting assassinated. MLK getting assassinated. Pentagon Papers. An incredibly painful economy. Oil embargoes. Then Nixon and Watergate…then the Church Committee. I’m assuming if they were to do a word association, they’d probably associate Nixon with all or most of this stuff. It definitely made an impression on the boomer mindset.

But Ronnie Raygun was far worse than Nixon. I think at that point, the boomers (and their parents) were just sick of all the bad news and conservative corruption and mostly tuned it out. The media mostly turned away entirely from the Iran/Contra affair.

And of course Bush Senior and W were not exactly great.

And now there’s Taco…

Calling it a “crackdown” makes it seem some kind of crime was taking place.

I guess this is the conservatives “backing the blue”?

I’m surprised that it has not happened sooner.

These guys are just gonna wait Taco out, then.

Well, if they weren’t going to wake up after Iran/Contra…or the allegations that Ronnie Raygun worked to purposefully fuck up the release of the Iran hostages [1] so that he could do it during his Inauguration…but no.

They elected Bush Senior into office even though he was VP in the most criminal administration in history. I guess people could tell themselves that he somehow knew nothing about all the crimes, but…

[1] https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a43368900/reagan-iran-hostages/

How will Vance be any better? That thirsty little shit might continue the exact same set of projects.

Gillibrand and she doesn’t even mention ICE

Ah, the one that shivved Franken.

Yeah, he’s always been mocked and derided since at least the 80s. The local press knew who and what he was for sure. Magazines like Spy mocked him all the time.

I’m sure with his fragile snowflake ego that he has never felt fully accepted by the typical elites, especially old money. Maybe creepy pedo weirdo elites like Epstein and the freak(s) he ran his beauty pageants with at least tolerated having him around.

The guy has always come off as thirsty AF for approval by things like Hollywood and so on, too…

The fact that a third of the country are exactly the same really exposes how deep the USA’s problems with mental health go.

This last part is the scary part. Normal humans see Grandpa Klan Robe here raging out and calling for “retribution” and think - someone should take the keys away.

Dumbass conservative apes with broken brains look at that and cheer him on and want to vote for him even harder. 1984 was all too prescient, but that’s because he was looking at quite recent events - “We’ve always been at war with [Greenland|Venezuela|Canada|Mexico]!”

I could see someone with mushbrain blurting something like that out in the moment. But imagine being such a dumbass as to set that down, in writing?

And prior to that, we had Ronnie Raygun. W was embarrassing on a lot of levels, but Ronnie Raygun had the most criminal administration in history (at least so far) and the things they did set us on the path we are still on…

Do dumbasses like Miller and Taco even hear themselves when they make these arguments about boats landing on a country?

Every one you’re referring to just wanted the Democrats to stand for something.

Yeah, nearly everyone that voted Democratic wanted that, too. But some others decided to sit out/vote for someone else.

That sure helped.

Yeah, but the way The Bigly Manly Macho Bidnessman Who Is So Successful At Bidness says it so loudly and forcefully when he says he’s going to “tariff” this country or that country means it is they who are getting punished, right? It is not really a tax on ME, is it?

I mean, Taco is a stable genius who made so much money at steaks and casinos…

Um, who else was going to bear the cost?

Yeah, not those traditions! We just meant a white country for white people!

Tyrannical regimes certainly do try.

We aren’t at the Khmer Rouge stage where the government sets their students against their professors, but - never say never. The conservatives have a long, simmering hatred of intellectuals. Sure, they are a fringe minority, but it doesn’t take the majority to seize power and completely ruin the place.