Evil Empire.

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

"If we lose freedom here..."

I keep pounding on this for a fucking reason. These people are telling us, live on TV in real time what they want. They want a closed system, closed cities where only certain people can go, everything being politicized, fortified borders, harassment of dissidents and minorities, Gulags, internal passports, various bullshit "Nationalities" listed on people's ID cards or "papers" and used to cheat certain groups of their rights, and to give those rights to others or to entities that should not have such, and above all, to The Party. 

Ronald Reagan called that the "Evil Empire."

Effectively, what these fucking people want is the Soviet Union, but in America, and wrapped in a Christian Cross and a Stars and Stripes that don't mean anything anymore because it's all about the Cult of Personality around whatever tin-pot dictator happens to be in charge at the moment.

Or more accurately, what they want is the Soviet Union, but with White Conservatives and the wealthy as the members of the Communist Party who get everything while The People...that is, everybody else...are supposed to be happy with cabbages, substandard wages, and not getting shot.

You know, I've met people who got away from countries like that, that type of shit isn't any fun to live with, but you can't tell these fucking people anything.

And seriously, all Alexandria Ocasio Cortez did was apparently take a vacation and visit her Mom, who happens to live in Florida.

Oh, and that's another thing...nothing that happened before These Fucking People came on the scene, and nothing anybody else does, even matters except insofar as how it can be seen as a threat or used as a stick to beat somebody else with. I don't know when AOC's Mom moved to Florida, hell it could've been 10 years ago, and it almost certainly wasn't a political decision.

What bothers me most about modern Republicanism is, you can't just live, everything has to be political. Everything has to be some kind of existential crisis.

I already suffer from depression and shit periodically. I wouldn't survive trapped in that kind of worldview, I barely managed last year as it was.

That doesn't matter to Republicans, to these fucking people everything is a political decision and everything must be viewed through the lens of Trump or whatever "Leader" replaces his ass. Either AOC going to Florida is some kind of a conspiracy against "Conservatives" or it's an example of their beneficence that she wasn't burned at the stake simply for showing up.

Bullshit, this is America, people can go where they want. People can live where they want. This isn't hard. I mean seriously what the hell is wrong with you motherfuckers?

And Republicans lately have been pitching Florida as some kind of "Free State." I mean, what the fuck? 

These people are absolutely in love with the idea of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian dictator-lite who Trump just endorsed in an election that's likely just a formality.

Listen,  Republicans, I don't give a shit what you'd consider a "Free state" and your whole definition of "Freedom" is bullshit.

Besides, I've been to Florida.

Florida has whole regions that are utterly dependent on Federal dollars and if the next BRAC round were to claim Eglin Air Force Base, Pensacola Naval Air Station and Whiting Field, consolidating Air Force testing in California and Naval air training in Texas, a hell of a lot of the Florida Panhandle would look a lot more like a third world shithole than it already does. Ditto for the Space Coast on up to Jacksonville, and so on.

And Florida *Hardly* has some kind of stellar reputation as a conservative place. Hell, except for the Panhandle, Florida isn't even thought of as some kind of right-wing hot zone. Republicans run Florida because of wealthy retirees flocking there and voting Republican, that's all. 

With a lot of help from the fact that until relatively recently the Florida state Democratic Party was run mostly by idiots.

Florida is mostly known for Disney, fading space exploration nostalgia, loose morals and stupid shit (Hello, Florida Man?) old people, tourism and warm weather. And who pays those old people's Social Security checks?

You fuckers need the rest of the country like a fat kid needs cake. "Free state" my fucking ass. 

Republicans basically all see themselves as John Wayne, who wasn't really a tough guy. He just played one on TV. Hell, his name wasn't even really John Wayne and he wasn't the guy he pretended to be, not one damn bit. 

Hell, John Wayne voted for FDR and quit the John Birch Society. I don't think even he'd make it in this political climate, not despite but probably because of the fact that he was one of the main faces of conservative Republicanism for three decades.

Again, and don't forget this, these people have no interest in anything that has gone before. Why else would they act as if America never had a President before Trump?

But they still want to get credit for it as if they do.

It's all bullshit, and increasingly it's not even plausible bullshit. Republicanism now is chock-full of shit that would have horrified even most Republicans 20 years ago, and I say that as somebody who was a Republican 20 years ago. Like endorsing dictators in bullshit elections.

I also keep trying to tell people that without truth, there is no freedom.

If there is no commonly-agreed baseline of facts and reality, who comes up with the best line of bullshit or talks the loudest is who makes the decisions...do you want to live like that, really?

Trouble is, for a quarter of the country, maybe a bit more, the answer to that is "Yes" because they believe the world is that way already and they just want their turn at being in charge and aligned with power. Maybe terrible people who believe everybody else is secretly just as terrible as they are ought not to be trusted to help run a society?

We really need to stop putting up with these people's bullshit.

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! ~Ronald Reagan