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Is it possible to be a Republican and not be a bad person?

Is it possible to be a Republican and not be a bad person?

  • Yes

    Votes: 594 30.2%

  • No

    Votes: 897 45.6%

  • It’s complicated

    Votes: 478 24.3%
  • Total voters
    1,969
ToddBonzalez

ToddBonzalez

The Pyramids? That's nothing compared to RDR2
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
15,530
Pretty much everything the GOP stands for is heinous. That being said is possible to be part of the Republican Party and not be a bad person? Do you consider every Republican you know to be morally bad on principle? It's something I've wrestled with a bit thinking about family and friends from my childhood that are Republicans. How do you make peace with it?
 
andymcc

andymcc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,323
Columbus, OH
986.jpg


No.
 
WrenchNinja

WrenchNinja

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,747
Canada
If your family and friends are still Republican after all this bullshit, on top of the decades of other bullshit, then yeah they're bad.
 
23qwerty

23qwerty

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,500
A politician? Probably not. A citizen? Depends. Many of them are just ignorant people who have been fed lies from birth.
 
Tlozbj

Tlozbj

Banned
Jun 26, 2020
608
Puerto Rico
No.

The only exceptions I would make is for really young people that are getting into politics, but grew in a extremely Republican area. If after seeing more of the world and how things are in reality they still identify with the GOP, then they get thrown into the same bunch as the others.
 
Captain_Vyse

Captain_Vyse

Member
Jun 24, 2020
6,825
Not anymore. Eisenhower type Republicans, sure. However, modern Republicans are pure evil. They do not care how many people die during a pandemic, and don't care about people suffering in general.
 
lunarworks

lunarworks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,200
Toronto
Good Republicans are in the same category as good cops. They may be decent people, but they clam up when it comes to their absolutely toxic associates.
 
Chaos Legion

Chaos Legion

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 30, 2017
16,932
If you've sat through this bullshit and have not spoken out, simply because you've received tax cuts and conservative judges? You are a bad person.

I think you can be conservative and not a bad person.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 17, 2018
44,226
You don't have to like them or be their friend, but I think it's unhealthy to view half of the country as evil - and the other half as good by default. I think this is a really simplistic way to view the problems going on in this country right now.

People are a result of all sorts of contradictions and backgrounds. They internalize beliefs from their families and lifestyles. They take the news they're forcefed their whole lives as gospel and often live in environments where they will be socially reprimanded for breaking away from the consensus. (And this isn't just Republicans either!) Again, you don't have to get a beer with them or hug and kiss them. But if you want to fix "the problem," you have to view it as a problem from the top to the bottom. The politicians and powerful are the ones to blame for the current state of the country far more than the voters. Clean house on this evil white nationalist political party. Unfortunately I think we're on an unstoppable trajectory careening towards something really, really bad.
 
Conkersbadfurday

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,309
Minnesota
I live in the Midwest so it's not like I can escape the company of republicans. A lot of their voting practices really seem to boil down to picking football teams. "Oh. Packers good, Vikings bad" and then they wipe their hands of it. I wouldn't call that being a bad person but willfully stupid. It's frustrating, but not evil.

A few hate the shit out of what the party has become in one way, shape, or form. I know one who didn't vote in 2020. Ask him why he didn't chuck a vote to Biden and it goes back to the football thing.

Maybe I should have voted "it's complicated" because it is, but I also don't think most of these people are bad people. They're just really tribal and intellectually lazy when it comes to politics. It's amazing how smart people can turn into drooling idiots when politically-charged topics come up. Guy at work that's programming AI for us from scratch. Brilliant at what he does. Bring up the election? "OH IT WILL SUPER GO TO COURTS THIS IS REAL FISHY"

Bam. -50 IQ points.
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,684
I don't see how you can look at the modern Republican party and think that they're the party of fiscal responsibility. If nothing else, by being a member of that party you are tacitly endorsing the efforts of that party, including the bigotry and attacks on the poor, so no.

They can be friendly and you can get along with them, but it's no different than getting along with someone who hates immigrants or gay people imo.
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,209
A few years ago I would have said yes, but definitely not now.

I do think it's possible for conservatives to be good, if not flawed people (but what person isn't flawed?), but someone who still calls themself a republican after the past 4-10 years? Absolutely not.
 
KillLaCam

KillLaCam

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,388
Seoul
Conservative sure. I can even be friends with some of them.

American republican no, not at all. Especially after 2020 with the pandemic. (maybe in the midwest or whatever where ppl don't know better and theyre surrounded by those ppl. But idk anything about people there).

Edit: Single issue voters are bad ppl too
 
Last edited:

madstarr12

Member
Jan 25, 2018
2,569
I have one friend who was raised in a Republican household. They're all well off, but they voted for Hillary in 16 and Biden in 20, because they hate what the party has become. They're "unaffiliated" voters now.

Unsure how they voted down ballot tho.....so.....it's complicated?
 
Aftervirtue

Aftervirtue

Banned
Nov 13, 2017
1,616
Anything good in the 21st century (civil rights, human rights, justice, equality ..... anything you can imagine, has been opposed in one form or another by right wing politicians the world over throughout history.

They justified feudalism, slavery, colonialism, imperialism, fascism, anti-semitism, every evil, good people shriek from, they supported and still do.The same way they disparage anyone for conceiving of a better world today, they did the same yesterday. Right now they would rather join forces with Trump, than with the rest of us civilized individuals, what more needs to be said?
 
stew

stew

Member
Dec 2, 2017
4,188
Volimar said:
I don't see how you can look at the modern Republican party and think that they're the party of fiscal responsibility. If nothing else, by being a member of that party you are tacitly endorsing the efforts of that party, including the bigotry and attacks on the poor, so no.
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I was going for "it's complicated" but you're right. We are not talking about an ideology but the GOP.
 
KtSlime

KtSlime

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,910
Tokyo
Is it possible to have bad harmful ideas and be a good person? Not sure, guess it depends on your use of the word good. I think you could probably be "nice", as in pleasant to deal with. Good, not so sure about.
 
Couleurs

Couleurs

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,355
Denver, CO
I would've said yes until the last four years, but anyone who still supports Republicans at this point is a complete piece of shit.

Republicans stopped trying to mask their hatred of anyone who isn't a rich straight white American, and learned that voters would keep supporting them anyway. Anyone who votes for them can longer pretend to not recognize dog whistles, now that everything is said out loud, and they either approve of that shit or are willing to ignore it as long as Republicans fight for taxes/guns/abortion/whatever reason people used to claim. So fuck them either way.
 
Znazzy

Znazzy

Member
Aug 27, 2018
1,243
jml said:
What you're saying with this post is that you think there are good neonazis out there because saying "all neonazis are bad" would be a horrible blanket generalization.
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And there are documentaries such as "Healing from Hate" that detail ez-neonazis and how they are actively working to convert current neonazis. If everyone thought like you, everyone would be irredeemable. Obviously current neonazis are horrible, but people can grow and change their views.
 
Moppeh

Moppeh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,539
If we judge everyone's morality by the actions of the party they vote for, then Democrats aren't good people either.
 
LookAtMeGo

LookAtMeGo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,136
a parallel universe
Based on my personal anecdotes its hard to give any of them a pass at this point. Any friend that I had that is still a hardcore republican is also a Trumper and has since really come out and shown their true colours that they are indeed horrible people. They are just more vocal and proud about it now. At least they masked it before and were tolerable.
 
Ain't Nobody

Ain't Nobody

Member
Oct 30, 2017
671
If being complicit in racism, police brutality, discrimination of every conceivable variety, voter disenfranchisement and intimidation, propagating lies through the media (social and conventional), and cult behavior aren't dealbreakers for you, I'm sure you're a very fine person.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,297
I mean of course lol.

However, I'm not a fan of this "good person" metric honestly. It's so vague and wishy washy.
 
4 Get!

4 Get!

Alt Account
Banned
Apr 8, 2019
1,326
jml said:
What you're saying with this post is that you think there are good neonazis out there because saying "all neonazis are bad" would be a horrible blanket generalization.
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As someone who has a family member(Cousin) that's a cop and is republican, yet is an extremely giving, and kind person on and off work, this is a better analogy:

lunarworks said:
Good Republicans are in the same category as good cops. They may be decent people, but they clam up when it comes to their absolutely toxic associates.
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Because I'm not going to call my cousin a Neonazi especially when he does zero of what neonazi's do. There's nuances to this jml
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,264
Good Republicans are independent or part of the Democratic party, so yes. Anyone who's still in the GOP, not so much.
 
samoyed

samoyed

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
15,191
Is it possible to do bad things and not be a bad person? Yes, probably. The field of ethics has not really resolved this question yet, despite trying to for about 2500+ years.
 
Wojo

Wojo

Member
Oct 28, 2017
459
Buffalo
4 Get! said:
As someone who has a family member(Cousin) that's a cop and is republican, yet is an extremely giving, and kind person on and off work, this is a better analogy:



Because I'm not going to call my cousin a Neonazi especially when he does zero of what neonazi's do. There's nuances to this jml
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Your cousin is a terrible person. Have the balls to accept it.
 
DemyxC

DemyxC

Member
Dec 3, 2020
701
Effectively, not really.

I'm sure there are quite a few republicans who legitimately think they're doing the right thing, but they're either fools or completely indoctrinated.
 
Addleburg

Addleburg

The Fallen
Nov 16, 2017
5,073
I guess it depends on why they're republican. Is someone who is a Republican because of a single issue, but is decent in other aspects of their life still a bad person because they support a single issue? Are they a worse person than a democrat who is democrat despite the fact that they may support multiple bad issues? What if someone is Republican, but doesn't vote - are they better because they don't directly support the party?

And OP, I'm guessing your question is from the perspective of "Can someone be decent in a larger societal sense?" Clearly, someone can be Republican and still be decent and kind to people within their orbit, but yeah - they're far more likely to support people and causes that are harmful in a larger sense.

At the end of the day, if we're speaking about hypotheticals, I suppose it's possible for someone to be a decent person despite being Republican. But I will say that it's far less likely IMO.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,297
samoyed said:
Is it possible to do bad things and be a good person? Yes, probably. The field of ethics has not really resolved this question yet.
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Yeah. The current GOP leadership is awful, no doubt about it. But even as a liberal that votes for Dems--my own party has stuff that I hate morally--the continued Drug War, militarism and hawkish foreign policy, the carceral state, corporatism. All these things are moral failures and you can easily say I'm complicit for voting for them.
 
Aaron

Aaron

I’m seeing double here!
Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,077
Minneapolis
Nah.

Doesn't necessarily have to be actively malicious but "the road to hell" and all that.

Now, I would say that someone who's voted Republican in the past isn't necessarily marked for life or anything like that. But someone who identifies as one and votes straight ticket every 2-4 years? Trash.

I'd also say voting for... really any of the recent presidential nominees (and especially Trump - McCain, Romney, Bush etc. could at least fake civility) is pretty morally reprehensible and at best shows a severe lack of judgment. If you're a Trump->Biden voter who'd still side with Trump against Clinton then I'd also suggest you haven't really learned anything, either.

FWIW I am not suggesting that people can't be civil with Republican relatives/friends, or that said Republican relatives/friends can't have good attributes, and I also don't think voting Democratic is a quick "get out of being an asshole free" card or anything like that. It's just a supremely low bar that ~45% of the country defies even trying to clear.
 
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