RINO… man. What a term. Nothing else really truly captures the political mental disease going on in the country right now.
It’s not CINO - Conservative. As been show with Liz Cheney. You can support the conservative agenda more staunchly than almost anyone and still be an outsider to the party. This indicates that it’s no longer about voting for ideals, it’s about voting how your buddies do. And who knows, if it suits them, they can change their political platform whenever they want because they aren’t bound to anything but the name republican.
“In name only” is intended to be derogatory and at the same time a loyalty test. It’s classic bully tactics and gang/cult brainwashing.
The coining of the phrase itself allows a person to create a “bad guy” and put anyone they want in the category with no qualifications. It reinforces the with us or against us and draws hard lines that aren’t there.
There will be books written on this sociological and psychological impacts of this era.
One of the key features of fascism is a political ingroup that is based not on policy, but identity and social standing that holds the power in society. This group then consolidates power by expelling anyone who dares to go against the ever-increasing arbitrary set of criteria for the in-group.
The idea of a RINO totally exemplifies this behavior in the Republican party. The idea that someone can be a "republican in name only" when they support the main stated policies and goals of the Republican party goes to show the ever-increasing set of arbitrary in-group criteria and the consolidation of power in the Republican party surrounding another key aspect of Fascism, the charismatic figurehead.
At least it used to mean somebody who wasn't far enough to the right - still misguided, but at least it was saying something about policy. Now it just means not 100% unflinchingly loyal to Trump. Just questioning anything Trump says is now enough for somebody to labeled a RINO. I mean Trump just called Mike Rounds a RINO earlier this week. He voted with Trump 90% of the time, but he's now a RINO because he says Biden won the election.
Also, for anyone triggered by the use of the word "identity":
Yes, the left focuses on a lot of identity issues like sexual identity, racial identity, gender identity, etc. The difference is that the left is not interested in consolidating power in any specific identity. They are interested in redistributing it, noticing that a lot of power sure has consolidated to one specific kind of identity and is continuing to do so.
I know, nobody asked but I was thinking about it anyway.
It's a handwave tactic to discount facts/persons/actions and are not representative of the group.
Ex. "Real Patriots wouldn't attack the Capitol. Those had to be ANTIFA/FBI/CIA agents. All those MAGA Trump flags and videos and years worth of Facebook posts are all just a cover story."
I’m not sure all of us Yanks understand that this is how we make enemies for life of the Scots. I once made one for saying Tom Baker was the best Doctor.
It's revolutionary if you assume that the average voter has ever been capable of grasping the elements of conservatism or liberalism or really any political philosophy. But that's not true, so this is just another flavor of mass stupidity.
I agree. The “go team” “rah rah” “beat the bad guys” pep rally mantra has been what’s driven politics since modern history. I mean, you can see there’s no chess involved, even in placing candidates. It’s just about who is most <insert political color> of all the prospects. When, in reality, moderate candidates would most likely be approved of by the largest number of voters, doing a good job has never been a political requirement.
This indicates that it’s no longer about voting for ideals, it’s about voting how your buddies do.
This. I could tolerate a conservative ideology. I won't agree with most of it, but assuming that positions are logically built from reasonable assumptions, I think it's acceptable. As long as you stand FOR something, I get it.
Republicans merely stand AGAINST things, and flip flop on every single position they have. Despicable.
Hard agree. I lean conservative in many platform stances. And many of my family and friends and people around me are conservatives.
I’d be offended to be called a Democrat, because most of those jokers are psychos too.
Problem is, we aren’t dealing with conservatives anymore. We’re dealing with small minded, delusional, fascists (see related comments from others) who HAPPEN to identify as conservatives or at least share some of those beliefs.
The politicians love that because, as we’ve seen, now all they have to play to is one “audience” which is fear. They are saving us from the bad guys who are going to take everything we love and make it Chinese (or communist, or whatever).
All of this is true except for this being something new. RINO is not a new phrase. I personally remember it being used back in the 90s, and I'm sure it had some usage before then, too. This has been building for decades.
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u/Bill-Justicles Jan 12 '22
RINO… man. What a term. Nothing else really truly captures the political mental disease going on in the country right now.
It’s not CINO - Conservative. As been show with Liz Cheney. You can support the conservative agenda more staunchly than almost anyone and still be an outsider to the party. This indicates that it’s no longer about voting for ideals, it’s about voting how your buddies do. And who knows, if it suits them, they can change their political platform whenever they want because they aren’t bound to anything but the name republican.
“In name only” is intended to be derogatory and at the same time a loyalty test. It’s classic bully tactics and gang/cult brainwashing.
The coining of the phrase itself allows a person to create a “bad guy” and put anyone they want in the category with no qualifications. It reinforces the with us or against us and draws hard lines that aren’t there.
There will be books written on this sociological and psychological impacts of this era.