The New American Politics thread

[DuffMan]

Some of these GOP candidates I don't even know much about.

Dale Christensen
A religious man with highly traditional views on faith, Christensen values religious speech as primary among the guarantees of the First Amendment. While he respects the stated intentions of the Constitution to prohibit religious tests and discrimination in government leaders, and believes in the wall of separation between Church and State, he also feels that reliance on divine inspiration and guidance is crucial for wise administration, invoking Abraham Lincoln and that former president's admissions to trusting in God when he was overmatched by circumstances. He opposes abortion in all but the most exceptional of circumstances. He credits religion with inspiring the American abolition of slavery and the progress of the Civil Rights movement, holding these as examples of the necessity of religious morality in public discourse and policy.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

Harper is a extremist? Wow, what does that make Cruz, Hucklebee, Carson, Trump, Bachmann, Santorum, Palin, actually most of the GOP candidates past and present?
Harper is hardly an extremist, next to them.

I think the point is that, whether Harper is an extremist or not (I would say he's definitely not), meeting and presumably taking advice from the types of people you mentioned above, does not help his stance as a Canadian politician. The vast majority of Canadians view those people, and most of the US right-wing, as nutbars.

Just because Harper is the leader of the "right" party in Canada, doesn't mean he has to align himself with the "right" party in the US. They are very different, and meeting with them makes it seem like maybe they're not.

[DuffMan]

Valma Kittington

Running as a Republican, Kittington is a strongly right-wing candidate. She is pro-life on abortion, is opposed to gun control (even sternly suggesting “we should look more into controlling criminals”), and does not support legalization of marijuana or other drugs “contrary to overall well-being”. She calls for the construction of five military bases along the Mexican border with a fence and watchtowers to prevent illegal immigration, to include a single portal for use by migrant farm workers. On the death penalty, Kittington supports mandatory execution of those found guilty of raping, kidnapping, or murdering children, while in the case of a first offense against an adult victim, she proposes that the victim's family be given the choice of whether to allow the perpetrator to live.

[DuffMan]

Jack Fellure

Fellure boasts a solid devotion to Christian religious faith, which informs virtually every aspect of his policy positions. During one of his many presidential runs, in 1992, when asked to submit his political platform to the Federal Election Commission, Fellure provided a copy of the 1611 King James Bible. He promises that, if elected President, copies of that specific version of the Bible will remain open in the Oval Office, turned to passages he considers of particular importance for the President to remember.

Inspired by his faith, Fellure's opinions and intentions place him deep on the right of the political spectrum. He opposes abortion and especially the use of public money to fund the procedure, supports the death penalty as a mandate by God, and is for gun rights. He also calls for making homosexuality illegal in the belief that this will be of help in combating the spread of AIDS, and – as might be gleaned from his previous affiliation with the Prohibition Party – for the banning of alcohol.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

Some of these GOP candidates I don't even know much about.

Dale Christensen
A religious man with highly traditional views on faith, Christensen values religious speech as primary among the guarantees of the First Amendment. While he respects the stated intentions of the Constitution to prohibit religious tests and discrimination in government leaders, and believes in the wall of separation between Church and State, he also feels that reliance on divine inspiration and guidance is crucial for wise administration, invoking Abraham Lincoln and that former president's admissions to trusting in God when he was overmatched by circumstances. He opposes abortion in all but the most exceptional of circumstances. He credits religion with inspiring the American abolition of slavery and the progress of the Civil Rights movement, holding these as examples of the necessity of religious morality in public discourse and policy.

I do think that this is very true. The problem, however, is that the people who were for slavery, and against civil rights movements, also used their faith as reasons for their opinions (and still do today for things like LGBT rights), which renders it pretty moot as an authority on morality. How people interpret and apply these things, not what is actually written or how others interpret it, is what is important when we're talking about policy guiding an entire nation.

[DuffMan]

Brooks Culleson

Cullsion advocates for the formation of a unique American Credo to unite, through democracy, the varied ethnic and religious groups that comprise the United States. Notably, however, while he specifically mentions people of spiritual faiths such as Buddhism, Hindu, and even Islam as being worthy of inclusion in this credo, he suggests only two documents besides the Constitution of the United States to serve as its cornerstones: The Ten Commandments, and the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ

[ernie]

Jim Webb has ended his campaign for the Democrat nomination. He may run as an independent.....because somehow that will get him more time to talk?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by ernie

Jim Webb has ended his campaign for the Democrat nomination. He may run as an independent.....because somehow that will get him more time to talk?

No. It will get the eventual Democrat nominee to listen to some of his views because they will be desperate not to split any votes off. The guy's not Nader, but they're not going to take the chance.

[ernie]

Originally Posted by nik-

No. It will get the eventual Democrat nominee to listen to some of his views because they will be desperate not to split any votes off. The guy's not Nader, but they're not going to take the chance.

He won't vote split because he won't have the funding to run an independent campaign that is any different than the ones that get run every year that you don't hear about. For perspective in 2012 there were over two dozen candidates on at least one state ballot for president. Over a dozen with some party affiliation that had presidential and vice-presidential nominees. And honestly, other than gun control all the democratic candidates agree on the broad strokes. I don't think there is enough difference to run an independent campaign on.

[nik-]

He'll get face time from this, which is all he's after, he won't run.

[ernie]

I'm hoping he gives his creepy "enemy soldier isn't around anymore" smile in his press conference.

Though I do wonder if anyone shows up to the press conference.

[wittynickname]

Originally Posted by 2Stonedbirds

Ahh yes Rubio. I like him as well, seems very smart and is a strong speaker, as opposed to say, Carson.

Sanders represents change, however I believe it's too much change. In fact, one could almost say that he is a... extremist?

Agreed on the reasoning behind Trump and Sanders. I know if I was an American and looking at my choices of another Bush, or another Clinton, I'd be pretty dismayed. People DO want change. I guess they didn't get it with Obama?

Oh, we got change. We got an entire wing of the legislature that completely refuses to do anything meaningful, who has basically stated that their goal is to stop Obama and make his presidency look bad, who are now wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to investigate Benghazi to ruin Clinton's campaign. Who are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to try to stop the Affordable Care Act. Who are threatening to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding.

We got change, we got a Republican party that is being run by the extremists, so that someone like Jim Webb, who traditionally would've probably been a moderate Republican, can only run as a Democrat, because even though he's not leftist at all, he's still way left of the Tea Party wing of the GOP.

There isn't even a correlation between the "extremists" of the Democratic party (whose beliefs greater compare to that of Sweden, Norway, etc.) and the "extremists" of the Republican party (whose beliefs mirror that of countries like Iraq, etc, just with a different god's name being used).

[nik-]

and the cherry on top of all that ridiculousness is that their constituents ####ing LOVE them for it.

[Thor]

Its the Tea party affect, before Obama there was still some chance to work with the Republican party but once Obama took over the crazies started to push the agenda and infiltrate the ranks of the party.

The centrists need to take back their party, but with a black Muslim president its hard to do that.

[ernie]

What it's done is create the largest group of independent voters the US has ever seen. And as the GOP gets pulled more and more to the right, the more votes the democrats can win by maintaining a center-ish platform. It's unfortunate that the democrats only have Clinton and Sanders to offer up. While I think Sanders has run a great campaign he is too left of center to win. What they really needed was another out of nowhere Obama to run.

[Coach]

Watched a couple of Sanders' speeches and interviews last night.

If America doesn't want him, I'll take him.

[wittynickname]

It's anecdotal, but encouraging nonetheless. At least so far in this (excessively, exhaustingly long) election season, I've seen only one bumper sticker for Ben Carson, nothing for Trump, and yet overwhelmingly I've seen mostly Bernie Sanders stickers.

Obviously it means little or nothing, but I'm grasping for hope here.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Not that I ever thought he was going to run, but Joe Biden has ended the speculation by announcing he will not be running.

[nik-]

So does the anticipated Biden holdout bump to Hillary's support actually appear?

[Coach]

What's the deadline on announcing candidacy? I'd like to see Elizabeth Warren enter the race, if nothing else to get her name out their for a VP spot, or future elections.