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Old 11-17-2012, 11:18 AM   #5
Flash Walken
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist View Post
It's safe to say that fiscal conservatism will always have a strong voice. Too bad it has been hijacked by non-mainstream moral ideologies.

Maybe rename this thread "Racism in the Republican Party" as this not really an American Politics subject per se
Well, this is just the first post, others are more than welcome to chime in on the discussion of the current self-reflection going on in the republican party.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vulcan View Post
It isn't so much a "bash Republicans" as it is a dislike for their extreme views. I'm a lefty anyways so I'll probably never like them but the Republican party has been taken over by the Christian Right and the Tea Party so that the party is no longer recognizable by their normal constituents.

Even GW Bush or Reagan probably couldn't have won the last nomination because they were too liberal.

They seem to be on the road to change though and will no longer allow the tail to wag the dog.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...octology-exam/

In this article we have some comments from Jindal and Christie chastising Romney along with this quote.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/...ey_811325.html

Maybe we'll have some sense coming out of this party in the future. The States will be better off for it.

oh yeah, here's Jindal's response to Romney's poor loser rant.
Actually, I don't think the republican party is beholden to extreme social issues or religious fervour, but I think they pander to it as part of their political apparatus.

In the documentary about Atwater that I mention in the original post, he refers to the segment of voters who vote based on abortion repeal to be the 'third chromosome' group of voters. I think, amongst the upper echelon of Republican strategists, there is a similar attitude.

The point isn't that there are racists or religious nuts guiding the republican party, it's that there are intelligent and calculating personalities that feast on these segments of the population and count on them for a political base. It's that, for the last 30 years, the Republican party has pandered to divisive, wedge issues to turn campaigns into tabloid-style elections rather than getting caught in traps like, "Read my lips, no new taxes." If you endorse substantive policy initiatives, you risk losing credibility and popular support if circumstances dictate you abandon them, like when George H.W. Bush raised taxes for the good of the economy.

We seemingly reached the zenith of this approach in the latest election, where the Republican's ran a candidate devoid of specific policy initiatives and any kind of history of consistent conservative values. Instead, the entire campaign was run on misinformation, lies, and shrill attempts at creating scandalous tabloid talking points (Benghazi! OMGHZ!), and attempts and reviving the same tired divisive issues. These are the same tactics, literally, used against Dukakis. "Obama/Dukakis is going to take your guns!"

The slogan of 'Entitlements' (romney/ryan) is the new 'welfare queens' (reagan/bush) which was the new 'states rights' (goldwater, later reagan), which was the new 'busing in' (george wallace) which was the new "######, ######, ######" (n-word, n-word, n-word, personified by Strom Thurmond).

It isn't that the Republican's are in and of themselves racists, it's that they rely on racists and those of similar ilk for political power. As a political strategy, it worked for about twenty years, but, like most ill-begotten gains, the chickens are now coming home to roost and it will take a radical departure from current leadership for the Republicans to remain relevant for the next twenty.
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