Yes, I am aware you are not a Republican. I am also registered as an independent, which I switched to back in 2015. I lost interest in the parties, I definitely am a liberal, primarily support the Democrats, but I live in Massachusetts and as a realist, understand my vote at the national level, counts far less (basically not at all) than your vote counts in a state like Texas or Dan's vote in Ohio. You guys live in states where your vote really is a huge deal and people need to get you out to vote every time. In Massachusetts, my vote is pretty much always in the majority with the exception of voting in primaries. So, other than voting in primaries or on state ballot questions, I don't impact anything, particularly nationwide. You guys do though and really on a national scale the direction of our country is impacted by a minority of people in a small number of states. 

This is in part why elections have become so life or death every time. Which I have to admit annoys the hell out of me but the problem is, a minority of people that are completely out of touch with where most people in this country want to go. 

An interesting fact that I think I heard Michael Moore bring up, was when Trump won Michigan in 2016 he won most of the districts he carried by no more than 2 votes. Meaning, he barely won the state. Two votes, that's it. So, if only a tiny number more got out to vote, Trump probably would have lost Michigan. Sure, Hillary got over 3 million more votes than Trump nationwide, but we don't elect people by the popular vote nationwide, we go district by district, state by state.

The Republicans control more states and more state governments, giving them a way to control the direction of our elections through a smaller number of people. So, a minority dictates to the majority where this country heads. 

This is why I bring up guys like Fuentes and Lindell. I see them as representing a portion of the MAGA crowd and so they are in the minority. I would expect that people you know in Houston may not know or follow them or even if some did, I wonder if they would want to admit that publicly. I think the views of Fuentes and Lindell are mostly understood by the vast majority of our population to be vile and dangerous. 

OK, but the problem is that about 200 elected Republicans support the ideas of Fuentes and Lindell. This is not good and translates to the ideas they express having power and backing. This was the Bannon plan, to elect people with these insane and vile ideas to state and local governments, get them in positions where they have party power and then they could drive the party. Greene, Gosar, Boebert, Gaetz, Jordan...it is no mistake that they are constantly being put on the air by Right Wing media. The idea is raise their profile, get these vile ideas into the public view, make people feel comfortable expressing them, and drive the party with them. 

At this, they have had a good deal of success. Sure, Trump has been willing to be the face of this stuff, you have to have people willing to be the face of this and Trump was all in. 

It's interesting that you are mostly concerned about Trump because I am not concerned about him. He was a real problem as president and he held sway over the party until this last midterm election, but he is now out of chances. The three major elections he went through since beating Hillary have all been major loses for him and so now the Republicans have basically no reason to back him anymore. 

They can drop him and still back another person that wants to follow the Fuentes agenda, hold one last election, create a dictator, end having elections, create the American Taliban rule. 

Sound farfetched? Well, let's look at the state of fascism in our country and see who is driving it.

First, banning books. Who is driving this? Democrats? No. Scroll this list, pay attention to which states are really having a field day (hint the state you live in is one of them):

PEN America's Index of School Book Bans (July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022) - Google Sheets

Freedom of speech, the First Amendment, means little to the Republican party it seems. They will whine about social media, but when it comes to getting rid of free speech, the Republicans want to ban any and all speech they dislike. Book bans are a hallmark of fascism. 

Rewriting our history. This is another ongoing fight, see the current battle in Virginia since Govenor Youngkin took over. Using the false war cry of "critical race theory" states are fighting to remove from history curriculums any mention of pretty much anything to do with race:

Virginia is the seventh state to ban outright the teaching of “critical race theory,” a graduate-level framework for understanding how policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism, something that is not taught in K-12 settings. 

Youngkin invoked King before dishonoring his legacy - The Washington Post

This is not being driven by Democrats. This is entirely from the Republican side and again is about the control of what ideas and information people can access. It also is just plainly all about a destruction of our educational system and to create hostility against educators. 

This is outrageous but backed by the party leaders. Here's Mike Pompeo, another clown that wants to be president just the other day:

 "I get asked ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten. Who’s the most likely to take this republic down? It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing.” 

Now, what is filth is what Mike says there. The guy just let the world know he is pure scum. He's no outsider, this guy is at the top of the party. What a disgrace. This man was Secretary of State and head of the CIA, obviously not qualified for either position if he is calling Ms. Weingarten the most dangerous person in the world right now, while Putin wages war on Ukraine.

Now, I realize that Republican politics now centers racing to the bottom. If you want to be considered a top candidate now you have to say and do the most disgusting thing possible to get attention because this is what the other people you are running against are doing. 

Honestly though, his making out teachers as the most dangerous people in the world, saying they teach "filth" is literally painting bullseyes on their backs. This is fascist and dangerous to innocent people.

My point here is that I know you lived in Venezuela but Ross, come on, nothing being done or said by Democrats is anywhere in the ballpark of what Republicans are doing. It's not even close. Can you provide an example if you think there is a Democrat doing this?

Yeah, you might have Democrats listing people's pronouns and that kind of thing, but I mean can you think of examples that compare to these things? Pronouns might be an annoyance but they sure as hell are not fascism nor anything near telling people teachers are the most dangerous people in the world that are teaching your children filth. That stuff will get people killed. It will cause violence. 

Fuentes is a vile guy promoting dictatorships and a Catholic Taliban that had a nice sit down dinner with the former president while he is running for president. Greene, Boebert, Gaetz, Gosar, Jordan...I do not see any elected Democrats that compare to these people in any way. 

These are fascists pushing a fascist agenda. Instituting fascist policy. I mean your governor in Texas has been using book banning as a platform for his popularity. Combine that with the abortion bans and really, where do you see a fascist agenda?

My concerns are not with Trump, I think he is mostly done, I am much more concerned with the Republican party and their direction as a whole. They are way out of line and are actively doing some very dangerous stuff in order to apparently, excite their base.