Merica does it right!

[Coito ergo sum]

I've been wondering why the Republicans self-harm, by banging on about god and abortion and stuff.
After all, they simply cannot lose in their banker states, they are just preaching to the converted.
You would think that they would keep quiet, and try harder to con the voters in the swing states.

Moderate Republicans don't do that. Just the Far Right/Fundamentalists. Therein lies the problem. You have a bifurcation of the party that will, I think, eventually split it into two different parties.

Moderate Republicans are called Democrats anymore -- for that matter, in any other democracy on the planet, Obama would be considered a slightly conservative moderate.

This bit is a myth. In any other democracy on the planet, Obama would join with as far left as he could go. If he could accomplish everything he wants to accomplish, he would not be a conservative. The reality is that the US is conservative compared to other democracies, but if Obama had his druthers, he'd, for example, have socialized single-payer healthcare.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Ty it doesn't matter whether you did the deed or not YOUR peers would hang you. And I'd happy help.

[trdsf]

trdsf -

I agree with most of what you're saying, but I don't think the schism within the GOP will wait until after 2016 or 2020 - I'm betting that it'll get going in earnest very shortly and we'll see a genuinely moderate candidate emerge from the GOP primaries in 2016 without having had to pander too much. I know, it seems ridiculous now, but I think it's a real possibility. Ultimately, there are more conservatives who prize electability than ideological purity, and the results of 2012 will give them a lot of potent ammunition to fire at the teavangelical types.

I also think the GOP will make gains in 2014 in both the House and Senate, simply owing to the nature of who shows up during a mid-term year vice who shows up during a Presidential election year.

Not if someone reminds Obama that his team has masterminded the two best GOTV operations in American history -- and if the GOP continues to play brinksmanship rather than statesmanship. The House is within reach if we can get the same level of commitment to turning out voters in '14 as we did this year.

Also, just turn Big Dog loose to whip up the base. There still isn't a more comfortable and natural campaigner than Bill Clinton, and he'd do it both to get a Democratic House, and to pave the way for Hillary in '16.

[trdsf]

I've been wondering why the Republicans self-harm, by banging on about god and abortion and stuff.
After all, they simply cannot lose in their banker states, they are just preaching to the converted.
You would think that they would keep quiet, and try harder to con the voters in the swing states.

Moderate Republicans don't do that. Just the Far Right/Fundamentalists. Therein lies the problem. You have a bifurcation of the party that will, I think, eventually split it into two different parties.

Moderate Republicans are called Democrats anymore -- for that matter, in any other democracy on the planet, Obama would be considered a slightly conservative moderate.

This bit is a myth. In any other democracy on the planet, Obama would join with as far left as he could go. If he could accomplish everything he wants to accomplish, he would not be a conservative. The reality is that the US is conservative compared to other democracies, but if Obama had his druthers, he'd, for example, have socialized single-payer healthcare.

That's just making shit up. "Oh, never mind reality, this is where I think his head is." You just simply do not know that, and cannot speak with any authority on it.

[Ian]

I think he's right about Obama preferring to have single-payer healthcare, but the larger point is that conservatives are always griping about what Democrats WOULD do if only given the chance. The reverse isn't quite so true: being a conservative means conservting a certain status quo, but calling yourself a progressive implies a sort of constant movement, always drifting (progressing) to the left. And conservatives fear what that could mean.

I've never seen Democrats whine about how Bush would've created a theocracy or a police state if only given the chance. But Republicans fearful of the US converting to a socialist economy or a repression of Christianity? They're legion.

[Pensioner]

You hung a few negroes in premature celebration?

The KKK only lynched about 3500 niggers in it's history. And I'm sure the Negroes were glad to see them hanging because the condemned were brutal murders and rapists that primarily terrorized other Blacks. Over a period of eighty years, 3500 is a tiny number. Blacks murder many more Whites than that every single year, and 3500 is under ten years worth of Black on Black murder in the city of Chicago alone.

5

The rules on this forum is play nice which in my mind is okay as long as I can play nice with racist shit like yourself with a baseball bat. You are scum.

[Gerald McGrew]

Moderate Republicans are called Democrats anymore -- for that matter, in any other democracy on the planet, Obama would be considered a slightly conservative moderate. Thirty years ago, the stances of today's Obama would've been hard to distinguish from a traditional New England Republican -- a pre-Reagan Bush Sr, without the massive inheritance.

Exactly. The policies Obama has enacted and embraced make him a Rockefeller Republican, not a Marxist or even a liberal.

So, in rough outline, here's what I think is going to happen. In 2014, the GOP will be reduced to a razor-thin majority in the House, and may even lose their majority entirely. There will be no significant movement in the Senate -- maybe one or two seats will be GOP pickups, but the Democratic majority won't be seriously threatened.

I wouldn't count on it. Remember all the premature declarations that the GOP was dead after 2008? That they had been reduced to a "regional party" of the South? They came roaring back in 2010, didn't they? Of course it was because so many on the left didn't vote and the conservative base was fired up about Obama, but it happened nevertheless.

The only way this trend continues is if the Democratic base votes in off-year elections.

In 2016, the GOP runs a real firebreather, possibly even a genuine tea partier, with both candidates on their ticket coming from the religious/tea party wing--and the Democratic candidate's margin of victory will either be comfortable (303EV to 232EV), or a genuine landslide (Dems pick up states that haven't been blue in decades).

That could indeed happen. Right now, Fox News is promoting the narrative that the reason they lost is because the non-white portion of America just wanted free stuff. That's not going to increase their standing among minorities, is it?

In the former case, the agony will be drawn out one more cycle and they'll try again in 2020. In the latter, there will be a feeding frenzy not seen outside of piranha-infested waters and the party will fracture into one party that's fiscally conservative and socially moderate, and one that's the wingnuts and knuckledraggers who will send fewer and fewer party members to congress every year until they become a regional party only.

At least that's how I see it playing out.

It's definitely going to be interesting to watch.

[amused]

I'm okay with single payer socialized healthcare. At times like I am now, between jobs, it would be nice if they could tap my social security account to make the payments on the healthcare account.

[Ian]

Tweet of the day: "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." -Donald Trump


A person that stupid does not deserve to be so rich.

[Rum]

You hung a few negroes in premature celebration?

The KKK only lynched about 3500 niggers in it's history. And I'm sure the Negroes were glad to see them hanging because the condemned were brutal murders and rapists that primarily terrorized other Blacks. Over a period of eighty years, 3500 is a tiny number. Blacks murder many more Whites than that every single year, and 3500 is under ten years worth of Black on Black murder in the city of Chicago alone.

5

The rules on this forum is play nice which in my mind is okay as long as I can play nice with racist shit like yourself with a baseball bat. You are scum.

Well despite the fact you are going to get told off probably I support this view 200%.

[Jason]

Well, according to stats from 2008, China produced over 4x the amount of CO2 the United States did and they are the largest producer of CO2 followed by the US. This does not cover other important greenhouse gases such as methane. I think the US Trumps China on that one.

[Bella Fortuna]

Well, according to stats from 2008, China produced over 4x the amount of CO2 the United States did and they are the largest producer of CO2 followed by the US. This does not cover other important greenhouse gases such as methane. I think the US Trumps China on that one.

Trump does produce a lot of hot air, it's true.

[Tyrannical]

You hung a few negroes in premature celebration?

The KKK only lynched about 3500 niggers in it's history. And I'm sure the Negroes were glad to see them hanging because the condemned were brutal murders and rapists that primarily terrorized other Blacks. Over a period of eighty years, 3500 is a tiny number. Blacks murder many more Whites than that every single year, and 3500 is under ten years worth of Black on Black murder in the city of Chicago alone.

5

The rules on this forum is play nice which in my mind is okay as long as I can play nice with racist shit like yourself with a baseball bat. You are scum.

Oh pensioner
I do not support illegal activity such as lynchings, and I'd treat White criminals just as, if not more severe than criminals of other races. Certain non-Whites demanded self-determination during the anti-colonial 60's and I just want Whites to have the same.

[Warren Dew]

Tweet of the day: "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." -Donald Trump

A person that stupid does not deserve to be so rich.

At least he provides entertainment for the masses.

[Warren Dew]

I've never seen Democrats whine about how Bush would've created a theocracy or a police state if only given the chance.

You live a sheltered life. I had leftist friends who ranted about that all the time.