Peter Thiel: The GQP Agenda Is ‘Pure Nihilistic Negation’ (He Is Right)

Dana Milbank writes at the Washington Post, Take it from the ad buys: The GOP ‘nihilistic negation’ agenda is nigh:

The midterm elections are just 57 days away — time for Republicans to bring out the big words.

Tech billionaire and GOP megadonor Peter Thiel posed a question to the nattering nabobs of the Republican Party at a conservative conference on Sunday. “Should we maybe have more of a positive agenda?” he asked, complaining, “We’re leaning way too far into pure nihilistic negation.”

My first reaction upon hearing Thiel’s admonition is that it’s going to go right over Kevin McCarthy’s head. Accused of “nihilistic negation,” the House GOP leader is liable to respond: “But I haven’t said anything bad about Egypt!”

Still, Thiel’s criticism is spot on, and he gets points for consistency. While most of the party has been engaged in an everything-sucks, destroy-the-system campaign that is as dishonest as it is relentless, candidates bankrolled by Thiel have indeed been coming up with new ideas. They’ve floated enacting a federal “personhood” law (which would ban abortion even in cases of rape), privatizing Social Security and even replacing American democracy with something like a monarchy. (Like Blake Masters).

Come to think of it, maybe that’s why most Republicans favor pure nihilistic negation.

Likewise, the head of the National Republican Senate Committee, Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), offered his version of a positive agenda earlier this year, but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) quickly smacked him down for proposing a tax hike on half of Americans and a phaseout of Social Security and Medicare. The two have been in a simmering dispute ever since.

After much hemming and hawing, McCarthy is reportedly planning to come out with an agenda next week. He’s expected to offer a “Commitment to America,” which is a knockoff of the GOP’s 1994 “Contract With America.” Yet early signs are that it will accentuate the negative, too. (One commitment: “put an end to ‘Build Back Better.’ ”)

For a clear indication of Republicans’ plans for the final eight weeks of the campaign, don’t watch McCarthy’s mouth. Watch where his money is going.

The McCarthy-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC for House Republicans, has pledged to spend $162 million on the airwaves in ads this year in the handful of contested House races.

Over the past month, the fund has posted 35 ads on its YouTube channel that focus on the November elections. Of these, only one is positive. The rest? Pure nihilistic negation.

“Carl Marlinga made his living representing sexual predators. Now he wants to represent you,” announces one ad, in Michigan, targeting a Democrat who worked as a judge, prosecutor and criminal-defense lawyer.

“His first big job? Working for a senator who was indicted for bribery,” proclaims another ad, in California, attacking Democrat Adam Gray, who wasn’t implicated in any crime as a young legislative director for a state senator.

Another, attacking Democrat Hillary Scholten in Michigan, claims she “dismissed the destruction and praised the rioters” after violence at a racial-justice protest. The ad concludes: “She’s with them, not us.” The ad cites a Facebook post of Scholten’s from May 31, 2020, that said precisely the opposite: “I’m pleading with those who take to the streets to make that effort peaceful and to not resort to violence and destruction.”

Many of the ads are no more than Trump-style name-calling. “Weak.” “Crooked.” “Self-serving.” “The worst kind of politician.”

“Vote Against Jahana Hayes: Completely Delusional” is the name of an ad in which several (apparently White) voters are shown a clip of (Black) Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.). They comment: “Insulting. … Completely delusional. … It’s laughable.”

One refers to Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) as “clueless Katie” — three times in 30 seconds.

“Tony Vargas Isn’t Just Liberal, He’s Crazy Liberal” is the title of one attacking a Democratic challenger in Nebraska. It calls him “crazy liberal” twice.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic challenger Chris DeLuzio is identified as a “Radical Socialist Professor.”

Some at least focus on issues before Congress, in a manner of speaking. Several attack Democratic lawmakers for supporting covid-relief legislation last year, though it is identified only as “a bill that gave millions to golf courses, ski slopes and luxury resorts” and sending “checks to inmates like the Boston Marathon bomber.” The Congressional Leadership Fund repeats the debunked claim that the IRS is “targeting people making under $75,000” with audits. The usual labels recur: “socialist green new deal,” “no borders” and “defund the police.”

In all, I learned a great deal in those 35 ads about the reckless, disastrous, out-of-touch, extremist Democratic agenda. But not once in those 17½ minutes of nihilistic negation did I hear anything that might approximate an alternative.

Republicans have no agenda other than to seize power and to complete their slow-motion insurrection to destroy American democracy and replace it with GQP totalitarian authoritarianism.

Remember that Traitor Kevin McCarthy led 139 House Republicans to vote against certifying the 2020 electoral college results, even after the violent Trump mob of MAGA/QAnon insurrectionists sacked the Capitol and hunted Vice President Pence and members of Congress for execution. Even McCarthy and his staff had to flee from the Trump mob. January 6 committee shows video of staff fleeing Kevin McCarthy’s office during Capitol attack:

The House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol showed never-before-seen footage of staff evacuating Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s office as a violent mob stormed the building.

Video of staffers in McCarthy’s office rushing for the exits. pic.twitter.com/RqVd1zShsX

— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) June 10, 2022

The soulless Traitor Kevin McCarthy is a classic nihilist:

Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.

[It] has been over a century now since Nietzsche explored nihilism and its implications for civilization. As he predicted, nihilism’s impact on the culture and values of the 20th century has been pervasive, its apocalyptic tenor spawning a mood of gloom and a good deal of anxiety, anger, and terror.

Walter Sobchak showed us the way to deal with nihilists in The Big Lebowski. (NSFW)