best I can do is $400

I believe the phrase “Why then is extremist, explicitly Nazi rhetoric so pervasive within the Republican ranks?” is a far more complex phrase than you leave it to be. For one, we lack any objective way to gauge the overall opinions. All methods of gauging this (to my current knowledge) at all, have inherent issues.

The methods I know of are: Personal Experience, Media Coverage, Questionnaire studies, and the opinions of the leaders. Personal experience has to many unrelated variables at play. Were do you live? Who do you talk to? What are the people you talk with willing to talk to you about?

Media coverage can be extremely biased as it is often times more profitable to focus on the number of eyes that you get, versus the accuracy of your information. Media coverage is also not focused on representing society. It makes more sense to report on a single important incident, than it is to report 100 quiet days were nothing happened.

Questionnaires would normally be a good method and it normally would be. However, there are a lot of variables at play. How was the data gathered, is it peer reviewed, what measures were taken to prevent the inherent biases (either from the researchers, or by the nature of the current method studying), what is the sample size? This would be the best way to categorize the party as a whole, should the correct measures be taken. I have a had a lot of trouble finding solid studies that strayed away from this, as the current landscape of political questionnaires and studies are full of studies containing these flaws. Note: If you have found a good study that takes the necessary precautions, I would be grateful if you shared it. I should also note, that I’m not exactly a professional fact checker and I do not know all the best ways to find these studies.

The opinions of the leaders of a given party can also be a great way to gauge. However this necessitates that all members of the party agree with their current leader. Not all republicans want to vote for trump, or may not be paying enough attention to be knowledgeable about him (As much as we argue and it does in fact matter who you vote for. America seems to have grown a sub culture of people who are mostly dis-interested in politics. My belief is that it is most likely either people who do not care about politics, or people that trust their overall government and fellow man enough to make the decisions for him in such matters).

Another thing is that there are many “sub-parties”, if you will, under republicans. I have seen traditionalist republicans argue with libertarian republicans. I have seen republicans who refuse to budge an inch on guns, debate republicans who believe gun control is necessary. I have seen republicans who hate the war on drugs, debate republicans who think alcohol should be banned. I believe the reason that we see a more unified message among-st the republican party is due to the general state of politics in america.

I believe the biggest reason for this unification in message; is because the transition of politicians to more of a focus on careers, rather than directly fighting for what you believe in. A great example is how most republican candidates have tried to get endorsements from trump, because they new he was popular and it would help there image. Lobbying is a huge industry at the moment, encouraging both republicans and democrats to vote differently.

I believe the second biggest reason is need for traction to get started. To win an election you need votes, to get votes you need money, to get money you need a source to get money from. If you’re rich, great! You’ll be among the few who get a chance to risk throwing money away for the hope of maybe making this country better. If you’re not a wealthy person (who as a population, appear to be less concerned with politics and more concerned with business.), than you can try to start small and try to talk to everyone to get them to spread your name. This can be a very slow process and also carries with it the risk of failure, as you may be a liability to future employers and you might be seen as evil by some. The final option is to pander. Try to get other political candidates to endorse you, and build connections. The downside is that you have to not only worry about what is best for the country/state/city, you now have to worry about how it will look to everyone else if you openly fight against the very people who built your political career.

Why do people who disagree with their party just vote for another party like the green party. The most common message that I hear is this: Voting for someone does nothing if they will never be elected. Most other parties are almost completely ignored. Thus my best option is to vote for the politicians closest to my beliefs, from the bigger republican party.

The current state of republican politics also makes it difficult to describe them through a study. Because of the sub-factions that exist, who may disagree heavily republican voting as a whole. Such people who would only vote for someone they believe is making the party a better party. This means that even if there is an over 50% population of republicans who are Nazis: there may still be “sub-parties” who act almost in-dependently from the republican party, excluding only the title of republican.

This is why I, and many republicans that I know, will agree with you that there is a dangerous group of Nazis within the republican party. There will be a dis-agreement as to how bad the situation is, but this the threat of Nazis is a commonly known fact. I think the use of this fact as a counterpoint to all republicans beliefs, has made many republicans afraid to say or admit how bad the situation is (out of fear that you will completely ignore any points they have to make. especially if they are one of these sub-parites). I also know republicans who refuse to vote for Donald Trump because of his handling of the Charlottesville incident, among other things.

I merely believe it to be more constructive to encourage republicans to look for the evils in there own party, just as democrats should within their own as well. While also trying to break down the adversarial nature of modern politics, as many people on both sides have a bad habit of shutting down when confronted, and encouraging collaborative political discussion.

P.S.

1. there are some errors in gammar and spelling I have to hop off now and I plan to fix them tomorrow.

2. Some of the language I used did not meet the standard that I am asking for from the final paragraph. As much as I hate to admit it, most of my other comments here were made while I was triggered. One of the few things that I hate this much about modern politics, has to be the over generalization and dismal of political beliefs made with arguments that do not actually question the policies or specific politicians. This is not an excuse for the way I went about commenting, and I want to condemn the way I spoke earlier. I only leave those comments up because I believe others have a right to see how the conversation got to this point, and how I have handled myself in the past.

I apologize about the mis-understanding.

We both agree on the fact that there are Nazis within the republican party, and I believe we both agree on the dangers associated with that. The mere goal of my argument was such: “Not all republicans are Nazis, therefore we should be careful with how we address them. We should avoid dismissing them on the mere basis that some may be bad actors and instead engage in a different line of reasoning.”

The portion you quoted, “Calling such people Nazis is counter productive and only inflames the current issues at hand.”, had some very important context. “Such people” in this case, was referring only to the portion of republicans who were not bad actors and were voting in good faith.

I’m making a second comment because I believe I have a better way of putting this. We both accept that there is a certain % of republicans that are Nazis. I am merely making the argument that there is a % of republicans who are not. We should not condemn the % of not Nazis just because a certain % of the republican party is made up of Nazis. If you disagree on this basis or I am mis-understanding you, please respond as I would like to know more.

It’s the root of why they did that. This one single flaw, is what caused them to commit those acts. There is a difference between proximal and root causes. Say my boat is sinking. The proximal issue is that the boat is sinking (the problem I want to fix), the root cause is that there is a hole in my boat (what is causing my problem). The proximal issue with Nazis is that they murder millions and committed horrible acts. The root cause why they did these things, was because they generalized these groups to the point that genocide seemed reasonable to themselves. Instead of looking at the contexts or considering that there are other morals at play.

Before you read. I made an edit to this post. Because I think editing your posts to cover up your mistakes is a wimp way to handle things: I revised the section like this: [“old text” -> “new text”]. START: They do not talk like a Nazi: they rarely include rhetoric such as how they hate other races (unless they are already a Nazi). They do not act like a Nazi: Most republicans (regardless of what twitter says) do not go around burning people, or calling others beneath them. They do not sympathize with Nazis: The root of all Nazist beliefs is that races are incapable of cooperation. Most republicans believe in a [“strong constitution, and family values.” -> “strong constitution, family values and freedom. They however do not include the belief that races must be against each other”] The reason why many Nazis vote republican is because republicans are as close as Nazis are going to get. However they are two very different ideologies with very different thought processes. Call a spade a spade, a Nazi a Nazi, and a Republican a republican. If you hate their ideas, than let your voice be heard. I will be the first to wine about republican policies. However, whatever you do. Do not stoop so far as to fall back to labeling and name calling like middle-schoolers. Who don’t know enough to engage in actual thought. And to assume that all republicans are nazis, is a bad faith argument and will leave you ignored.

Edit: Removed a swear word before “middle-schoolers” as I said it out of frustration and after cooling down, I believe it detracts from the current conversation.

I think what is important is the accusations that you are making. Everyone (Nazis, Republicans, Democrats, Communists, etc) are people. They may be sick, decrepit, evil people, but they are people non the less and they still react like people. If you call a republican who hates Nazi’s a Nazi, they will ignore you thinking you to be an idiot incapable of even understanding the roots of their values. Why not just leave it at “A lot of republican policies have a grave harm to the american people. They impoverish the impoverished, enrich the rich, lead to countless avoidable deaths, and even though not intended to target LGBTQ+ people, they gravely effect these communities and their members. I think it is unwise to vote republican given their current methods of governance”. This will accurately describe the negatives of this party, you could go on to better explain the pitfalls of many of their policies, and you would do so in a way that a republican voter won’t go home and say “I ran into this crazy woke person who called me a Nazi for no reason. I don’t hate people because of who they love or who they are. I may vote “anti-LGBT” because I don’t think are children should be abused with books displaying sexual acts between men.” (Note in case you think I support that sentence, I hated writing it. I’m just quoting republicans that I’ve heard from, because I think it displays how they think). This would prevent the senseless “DEMOCRATS WOKE AND BAD” mentality that most republicans have, because a lot of democrats like to just label them, instead of engage in their thought processes and encourage them to grow as people. Their is a great quote that I try to live my life by “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”.

Some of them are. And screw them. however I know many republicans who would froth at the teeth about such people. Calling such people Nazis is counter productive and only inflames the current issues at hand. I think it is better to say: “There are some republicans who are calling to exterminate LGBTQ+ people, and hold values such as Nazism or white Supremacism. These people are incredibly dangerous, are a blight on our nation, and should be fought against as vigorously as we can. Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists, Socialists, we can and should agree on one fact: FUCK THEM, and FUCK anyone willing to threaten someone else on the mere basis that they are different”. Because it is that line of reasoning why I hear my republican parents saying “The woke media is coming after us and unjustly call us nazis.” and why nothing is done to fix the actual problem, just finger pointing and “bold” political speeches. Edited to remove typo.

Before you read. I made this comment while triggered and rushing. I do not believe that this comment holds the tone that I wanted to coney and I believe that it is poorly written. I leave it up, as I believe it would be a bit of a cop out to delete my comment, I also believe that some of the discourse below is productive and representative of my beliefs. I made a better version of my thoughts here: https://pawb.social/comment/926750.

ah yes. The old tradition of calling you political opponents nazis or communists, or liberals. Wasn’t this the worst part of nazism (ideologically speaking)? Instead of looking at the context, they defaulted to calling all jews spies. Or instead of looking at the struggles that come with integrating different societies and the benefits that come along with that, they just assumed that different races are fundementally incapable of cooperating? Or they saw everyone that didn’t agree with them as fundimentally evil, instead of understanding that there is at least a hint of truth in most phylosphies/political beliefs that they can learn from even if the belief is one that could be considered evil. A great example is abortion: on one hand, you’re litterally erasing the heart beat of another living being before their first breaths. On the other hand, I remember hearing of a 14 year old girl in my area who got pregnant, and you know that baby is done for… especially with the mismnaged mess that is american welfare. I absolutely disagree with many republican beliefs and idioligies, I hate the culture war BS that they petal. I hate watching them wine about cancel culture, and then they cancel a beer company because they gave a single free beer can to a trans woman. I get it, but messages like this only make them think you’re crazy because the idiologies of modern republicans do differ from nazism, maybe for some republicans more than others. But this isn’t helping; because if there is one thing nazism and white supremism feeds off the most… Its the “evil others”.

tldr; there are some differences between nazis and modern republicans (many of these characteristics are better in republicans), and trying to paint them otherwise is just asking for trouble. Acuse others only of what they are guilty.

I made on edit for clarity. I made a second edit because the quote “evil “others”” could technically be construed that I think that the others are in fact evil. I used that language to note how Nazis and white supremism will often assume that others are evil for the mere fact that they are the “others” and I wanted to better get my idea across that this is bad. I made a third edit: I add the (ideologically speaking) line after Wasn’t this the worst part of nazism?. I did this because others were thinking that I thought that was the most awful thing about nazism. The most awful part about nazism was the murdering and mistreatment of innocents. I meant to bring it up as this is the biggest flaw in their ideology. Most Nazis will just devolve into incoherent screaming when you bring up their error of generalizing groups of people.