The article points out more how badly the Republican candidates get called out for any slight step toward the middle as opposed to the left. Inevitably then, the more and more extreme candidates win nominations that can never win the middle votes
I'm not convinced that is a media thing though. That is an inherent property of the GOP base. When they feel things threaten their liberty (i.e. it goes against THEIR religious beliefs) the base moves further right. Now that base reads and watches the conservative news and that news needs viewers/readers to survive so perhaps they fan the flames somewhat but I'm not sure they are the cause. I think the cause if the base itself which is ever aging and ever more extreme/defensive with their views. The candidate and media get involved and it becomes some sort of viscous circle.
End result, though, is no different no matter the view you take on it. In order for the GOP to survive they are going to have to create a new base. They have to put the Tea Party and Trump yahoos to the side and move the center and attract the center liberals and independents again. They are not going to get anywhere ignoring that race is a huge issue in the US, ignoring that women are in fact equal and have rights to their bodies, etc etc etc. The only way they can do is to make a fundamental shift away from what everyone likes to call the historical base.
They aren't ready to do that and they won't do that until they put up a candidate that gets absolutely destroyed in an election. Someone so idiotic and right wing that absolutely no one outside the hardcore base can stand to vote for them. In short, they need to stop getting involved in the minutia of peoples pet peeves and actually decide they want to run a country not peoples lives.
Last edited by ernie; 08-26-2015 at 07:40 AM.
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Another day another embarrassing/racist/tone deaf moment from The Donald. Idiot.
Quote:
After making fun of Jeb Bush on Twitter for clumsily offending Asians with his Asian "anchor baby" remarks, GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump used broken English and a bad accent to illustrate his past experience with Asian business partners.
"Negotiating with Japan, negotiating with China, when these people walk into the room, they don't say, 'Oh, hello, how's the weather, so beautiful outside, isn't it lovely? How are the Yankees doing? Oh they are doing wonderful. Great,'" said Trump, Tuesday night at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa. "They say, 'We want deal!'"
Hell they've alienated women, hispanic and black minorities so I guess the GOP feels it's time to move on to asians (one of the fastest growing voting blocks)! Anchor babies (Bush), broken english jokes etc etc etc. The rate these guys are saying stupid things might be unprecedented.
How many times have you heard the phrase, "I like Bernie Sanders, but he can't win," uttered by people who identify themselves as progressives? The facts, however, illustrate that "Bernie Sanders can win" and nobody in politics foreshadowed the Vermont Senator's latest surge in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
I honestly challenge someone to find a single bad idea Bernie Sanders has. People are focusing way to much on Trump. Who cares what he says?
But he seems to have a legit chance of winning. That's why the focus, no? I'm trying to come up with a Canadian comparison to trump as far as embarrassments go it someone was to run for prime minister. Who could it be? I can't come up with anyone crazy enough.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
He wants to give stuff away for free like its Christmas. So I guess it's no surprise that he is popular with children
Seriously dude, I am conservative in my fiscal opinions. But at the same time, the attitude in America about socialism or "giving stuff away" has to stop. Most conservative Americans I've talked to, or seen internet opinions about, they all would rather give away billions of dollars to feed, clothe, educate and employ Afghanis and Iraqis than Americans.
If you asked a typical republican - would you be ok with spending billions to send our troops abroad feed, clothe, educate and employ Afghanis and Iraqis in the name of national security, you'd hear a resounding YES.
Change the question to Would you be ok with spending billions to send our troops abroad feed, clothe, educate and employ POOR AMERICANS in the name of national security?
NO ####ING WAY!! That's MY money!!
Fear is the driver in this country. Ideology is the vehicle.
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Sarah Palin is interviewing Donald Trump tonight. Jon Stewart regrets retiring even more.
Quote:
WTH, LAMESTREAM MEDIA! STAY OUT OF MY BIBLE
WTH? Lamestream media asks GOP personal, spiritual "gotchas" that they'd NEVER ask Hillary, or they'd feed the question to her and/or liberal cohorts before they asked it on-air (we know how these things work, lapdog media... the public's on to you), so good on Trump for screwing with the reporter. By the way, even with my reading scripture everyday I wouldn't want to answer the guy's question either... it's none of his business; it IS personal; what the heck does it have to do with serving as commander-in-chief; and these reporters trying to trip up conservatives can go pound sand until they ask the same things of their favored liberal pals. I'll cover this in my interview with Donald Trump and other candidates tonight on the One America News Network show "On Point." The more the media does this, the more they empower America to reject them and their bias as voters run to the anti-status quo candidates daring to Go Rogue.
At least we know what Quincy is going to be jerking off too watching tonight.
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Seriously dude, I am conservative in my fiscal opinions. But at the same time, the attitude in America about socialism or "giving stuff away" has to stop. Most conservative Americans I've talked to, or seen internet opinions about, they all would rather give away billions of dollars to feed, clothe, educate and employ Afghanis and Iraqis than Americans.
If you asked a typical republican - would you be ok with spending billions to send our troops abroad feed, clothe, educate and employ Afghanis and Iraqis in the name of national security, you'd hear a resounding YES.
Change the question to Would you be ok with spending billions to send our troops abroad feed, clothe, educate and employ POOR AMERICANS in the name of national security?
NO ####ING WAY!! That's MY money!!
Fear is the driver in this country. Ideology is the vehicle.
Funny. We teach our children about how important sharing and how admirable it is to help those less fortunate that yourself.
I'm not convinced that is a media thing though. That is an inherent property of the GOP base. When they feel things threaten their liberty (i.e. it goes against THEIR religious beliefs) the base moves further right. Now that base reads and watches the conservative news and that news needs viewers/readers to survive so perhaps they fan the flames somewhat but I'm not sure they are the cause. I think the cause if the base itself which is ever aging and ever more extreme/defensive with their views. The candidate and media get involved and it becomes some sort of viscous circle.
End result, though, is no different no matter the view you take on it. In order for the GOP to survive they are going to have to create a new base. They have to put the Tea Party and Trump yahoos to the side and move the center and attract the center liberals and independents again. They are not going to get anywhere ignoring that race is a huge issue in the US, ignoring that women are in fact equal and have rights to their bodies, etc etc etc. The only way they can do is to make a fundamental shift away from what everyone likes to call the historical base.
They aren't ready to do that and they won't do that until they put up a candidate that gets absolutely destroyed in an election. Someone so idiotic and right wing that absolutely no one outside the hardcore base can stand to vote for them. In short, they need to stop getting involved in the minutia of peoples pet peeves and actually decide they want to run a country not peoples lives.
Disagree.
People are stupid and will believe most anything they are told if it is repeated enough. The bigger the lie, the more they believe.
GOP Politics is not about any particular ideology or policy, it's about controlling the conversation in an 'us vs. them' political system.
For example, gun control. Simply by muddying the waters on the debate around gun control, the GOP has effectively scored a victory because it has prevented a legitimate policy discussion. The status quo has been preserved, and the status quo is wildly preferable to whatever isn't the status quo.
The other hugely important factor to consider here is that both parties are bank rolled by special interest, and so, don't reflect stagnant ideological issues but rather the issues pressed by special interest. So while the talking points reference gay marriage or abortion or any of these other trivialities, the actual policy apparatus of the party is devoted to special interest issues like banking regulations, defense spending, pharmaceutical/medical regulation and energy.
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Seriously dude, I am conservative in my fiscal opinions. But at the same time, the attitude in America about socialism or "giving stuff away" has to stop. Most conservative Americans I've talked to, or seen internet opinions about, they all would rather give away billions of dollars to feed, clothe, educate and employ Afghanis and Iraqis than Americans.
If you asked a typical republican - would you be ok with spending billions to send our troops abroad feed, clothe, educate and employ Afghanis and Iraqis in the name of national security, you'd hear a resounding YES.
Change the question to Would you be ok with spending billions to send our troops abroad feed, clothe, educate and employ POOR AMERICANS in the name of national security?
NO ####ING WAY!! That's MY money!!
Fear is the driver in this country. Ideology is the vehicle.
You must talk to a different group of conservatives and republicans than I do.
The ones I talk to are opposed to sending money overseas when our own infastructure is crumbling and our schools are abysmal. The whole "national security" refrain is a diversion, and most educated people see right through it.
The problem with Sanders is that he wants to fund everything with a tax on what he claims is the 1%, but who are really the 10 or 20%. Well, that money will run out if you tax it all away and those people already pay the freight for the US. The people who are lapping up Sander's proposals (by and large) are those who want to keep the gravy train running--both longer and wider--and can't be bothered to concern themselves with whether the train is sustainable as it is now (and it isn't).
His college tuition and student loan ideas are particularly crazy; easy access to government guaranteed loans is a primary driver behind tuition increases, and lowering in the interest rates will just fuel the fire.
And as a matter of personal pride, as someone who worked hard and lived below my means for years to pay off six-figures in student loans and save up a healthy retirement and investment account, I tend to believe that if I can do it, then so could pretty much everyone else. So, to those who take out a lot of debt and major in a useless degree, I have very little sympathy and am incensed at the idea that I should bail those idiots out. Which is exactly what Sanders thinks I should do.
Last edited by HockeyIlliterate; 08-28-2015 at 06:14 PM.
You must talk to a different group of conservatives and republicans than I do.
The ones I talk to are opposed to sending money overseas when our own infastructure is crumbling and our schools are abysmal. The whole "national security" refrain is a diversion, and most educated people see right through it.
The problem with Sanders is that he wants to fund everything with a tax on what he claims is the 1%, but who are really the 10 or 20%. Well, that money will run out if you tax it all away and those people already pay the freight for the US. The people who are lapping up Sander's proposals (by and large) are those who want to keep the gravy train running--both longer and wider--and can't be bothered to concern themselves with whether the train is sustainable as it is now (and it isn't).
His college tuition and student loan ideas are particularly crazy; easy access to government guaranteed loans is a primary driver behind tuition increases, and lowering in the interest rates will just fuel the fire.
And as a matter of personal pride, as someone who worked hard and lived below my means for years to pay off six-figures in student loans and save up a healthy retirement and investment account, I tend to believe that if I can do it, then so could pretty much everyone else. So, to those who take out a lot of debt and major in a useless degree, I have very little sympathy and am incensed at the idea that I should bail those idiots out. Which is exactly what Sanders thinks I should do.
He has actually made a lot of interesting and valid proposals. The 1/2 percent tax on Wall Street trading is particularly interesting and would net a ton of money. Bush gutted the federal budget by giving away tax cuts and financing two wars that we couldn't pay for. Meanwhile college tuition exploded because there was no longer any money to pay for funding, because we're too busy putting money into tanks that we don't need, bombing innocent people in distant countries in a misguided and unwinnable "war on terror", and have spent billions of dollars in yet another misguided "war on drugs."
Corporations take the protection that comes with being headquartered in the US but they keep profits offshore so as to not pay taxes here, while taking full advantage of the protections here. Trump himself has taken advantage of being "bailed out" by bankruptcy laws. Walmart's profits are obscene, and yet they can't pay workers an honest wage, thus taxpayers are responsible for simple things like keeping fellow citizens from going hungry. We bail out massive banks with bad fiscal histories at zero interest but tax students at a much higher rate--without any chance of bankrupting out of that if something goes wrong.
It's great that you managed to pay off student loans, but the point is that you never should have had to take out that many loans to begin with. We should be investing in education, in clean energy, in fixing our crumbling infrastructure. Instead you have Congress wasting time, energy, and a crapload of taxpayer money to try again and again to defund Planned Parenthood, to stop the Affordable Care Act, to investigate Bengazi again.
Also what kind of awful logic is that? There were plenty of people in history who had to labor 16 hours a day just to make ends meet for their families, and because of technology we no longer have to do things like that--do you think those people begrudge us that? Come on, man. Have some empathy.
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You should still have to work hard in order to be successful.
Of course that isn't the point, nor is it what Sanders thinks shouldn't have to happen.
There is no class mobility anymore. Most poor people stay poor. War on Drugs, private prisons, terrible welfare policies that are ineffective and costly, etc, etc....there is a long history of government incompetence that have hit the middle and lower class the hardest, while leaving the 1% to do whatever they want.
I don't think you even need to 'tax' your way out of it. Just start ending the stupid policies that the US have put into place that keep people poor. End the war on drugs, shutdown private prisons, legalize marijuana, repeal archaic laws....there are many ways outside of 'taxes' to help the economy grow and also help the lower/middle classes.
Sanders is the only one that is able to stand on his own two feet and say, "I haven't been bought and paid for by the rich." Well, Trump could too since he is funding his own campaign, but he is still a moron either way.
Sarah Palin is interviewing Donald Trump tonight. Jon Stewart regrets retiring even more.
At least we know what Quincy is going to be jerking off too watching tonight.
Some background on this, trump has figured out if he blurts out the word "Bible" his conservative audience, claps and cheers like a seal getting fed herrings.
It's obvious he knows nothing about it but being a shyster he knows how to work a crowd.
He was asked his favorite verses and answered with the same confusion as Palin, when asked what magazines she reads.
Trump was asked to name "one or two of your most favorite Bible verses" during an interview on Bloomberg's television show "With All Due Respect" Wednesday. He wouldn't answer the question.
"I wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it's very personal, so I don't want to get into verses," Trump said, adding, "The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics."
Later in the interview, host John Heilemann asked Trump if he was "an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy."
"Probably equal," Trump said.
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Last edited by DuffMan; 08-28-2015 at 10:52 PM.
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