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Today's Republican Party
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Anonymous
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"I'm not an expert in the 2004 data, but my understanding is that there is a fair amount of uncertainty around that 44% number, and it may have been lower than that. Whatever the truth of that figure, it is a stretch to call losing 56-44 in that demographic "competitive" in any meaningful sense. That's not competing, that is getting your butt handed to you. And you conveniently leave out that Hispanics went 67-31 for Obama over McCain -- a Republican from the Southwest who is notoriously soft on immigration. There is no plausible scenario under which the current demographic trends are anything but a major disadvantage for Republicans. "
I agree with this but we are overlooking one important dynamic. The Republicans are focusing on a very narrow segment of the population which is not smart in the long run but this narrow segment has substantially higher turn out for local, state, and national elections. The democrats struggle that so much of their base is within the working middle class where taking time off from work to vote is a financial hit or more of a logistical issue. This group needs a big incentive to come out to the polls. The religious right and senior citizens organize in droves to get on organized buses and come out for anything. The senior citizen vote is going to define the real polarization to come in the future. Seniors hold very different views than individuals who are still in the workforce or young voters. Every demographic of voters votes for where they perceive they will get the most benefit so seniors are not evil in anyway. |
Anonymous
This is absolutely true. But it's also true that "senior citizen vote" today is comprised of a completely different set of people than the "senior citizen vote" will be a decade from now. If you're in your seventies, you were in your mid-twenties during the days of the civil rights struggles. The folks who fought in favor of segregation are still alive, vote overwhelmingly GOP, and will be dead in a decade. |
Anonymous
Yes, it is complete sarcasm. I am also reminded of the passage in Catch-22 where Captain Black starts the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade, and it got so crazy that you had to do a pledge in order to get people to pass the ketchup in the mess tent. |
Anonymous
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Slightly off topic, but Ann Coulter just had a speaking invitation withdrawn because she is not conservative enough. Let me repeat that - Ann Freakin' Coulter is not conservative enough. As a reminder, her recent works include Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, Slander: Liberal Lies about the American Right, and Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. And she doesn't pass the test.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2010/08/18/ann-coulter-bounced-from-right-wing-conference-over-appearance-at-homocon.aspx |
Anonymous
| I swear, with all the purity tests, all the splintering of groups, it's just like what happened to the far left in the 1950s. How many under 40 even know what the John Birch Society is? |
Anonymous
I would hazard a guess that the majority of the Tea Party isn't racist. God help me, but my mother is part of this movement, and she is probably the least racist person I know. She tells stories about visiting the South during the summer of 1957 and how different things were there compared to Cleveland. She had known that everything was segregated but the shock of actually seeing it was something that has lasted a lifetime with her. An injustice she felt was important enough for us to know about and for us to never treat people in that manner. For those times, she had a fairly diverse group of friends. One of whom just recently had an entire thread devoted to her because she was held for questioning in Israel. She also never batted an eye when I got engaged to, married, and had children with a man of a different race. My mother has joined this movement because she fears that America is moving in the wrong direction. She fears that if things go too far to the left then there will be no balance and that the government shouldn't be overly involved in peoples lives. She questions all the money that is needed to fund bail outs, the new healthcare plans, and all the large tax breaks. I really didn't need the government to give me $1,500 because I needed a new roof and chose a white one. I took it anyway though and that's one of the issues she has and why she has backed this movement. While I agree there are a lot of crazy Tea Baggers my mother isn't one of them. She is a backer of the Tea Party Movement and I can understand why. Of course that doesn't mean I am going to ever watch Glenn Beck or go to his Restoring Honor thing next weekend. I will however give my mom a smart trip card and drop her at the metro so she can go. She has the freedom of speech and that's one of things she feels she is protecting with this movement. Writing is not my forte and I truly hope I articulated this well enough. God knows there are times when I don't and people don't quite understand where I am coming from and jump all over me as if I intended to come across as gruff or impossible. Neither of those are the case here. |
Anonymous
I think you expressed yourself, as well as your mother's position, very well. It's easy to look at what the government is doing and feel it defies common sense. However, common sense is what we learn from common experience, and running a government, especially in uncommon times, is not a common task. So even though I find the tea party positions understandable, I think they are wrong. I assume that you agree, more or less, since you are dropping your mother, not accompanying her. |
Anonymous
lol Most of us can probably agree that the Republican Party has been hijacked over the past few years. The original definition was less government, now it's about the government controlling aspects of people's lives (i.e. gay marriage, religion, the points you posted above). The Republican Party is mainly made up of extreme conservatives trying to push their opinion on everybody else. That is not the original platform of the Republican Party. The ones who vote Republican are either nut jobs or people focusing on one issue (for example, gay marriage). They'll vote for a Republican candidate just because they oppose gay marriage, and they will ignore the rest of the candidates platform (*oh, by the way this Republican candidate wants to unite with North Korea and kill all those who oppose him but he's against gay marriage so he's cool*) And now we have the Tea Party *rolls eyes* Maybe the Tea Party will attract all of the nut jobs then the Republican Party can return back to normal, relatively speaking at least. Critical thinking in the United States is dead. People vote along party lines without looking at the real issues, even electoral candidates don't seem to know what they are talking about. When trying to decide on a candidate everything is he said/she said and it's impossible to get any real information. When I was in college I had to read a book about the decline of the education system and the effect that it would have on a democracy (teaching to the tests, lack of teaching critical thinking skills, etc). It's interesting, on average democracies only last about 200 years (look at the Romans). With the way things are going maybe our expiration date is coming lol. |
Anonymous
| I don't think that the Tea Party is racist. But I think it has made itself so welcoming to people who are racist, that it has a racism problem. It started as a small government movement, but it has harnessed public anger as its growth mechanism, and guess what? A lot of people are angry about having a black president. And the party does not weed it out. |
Anonymous
I don't know one person who votes alone party lines. Not one. |
Anonymous
I have family member just like your mom. I too took stimulus energy efficiency money when my HVAC needed replacing - hey, a tax credit is a tax credit, right? - even though I would have made the replacement no matter what. I don't see how my fixing a broken hvac system was stimulus, and neither do my family who are riding buses from out of state to join Glen Beck this coming weekend (we are running the hotel 
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Anonymous
A lot of people upgraded their HVAC when they would have otherwise sat on it a year or two longer, because of the stimulus. Is that not obvious to you? |
Anonymous
I am glad to see I am not the only one running the hotel. My mom isn't taking a bus but she is driving 10 hours to get here and she's bringing a friend. |
Anonymous
Everyone's experiences are different, but I know many. Many fall along the Conservative/Christian set. For example, although I fall more on the moderate to liberal side with many issues I come from a very conservative family and grew up around conservatives, many of them Christians. There was always the feeling that Christians are always Republicans and there was a lot of pressure to be a Republican and to vote for the Republican. Some later regretted that when Bush was in office although I still know some who voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 just because they weren't democrats and they didn't like Obama. I'm not a Christian, and not a Republican and I get a lot of heat from my extended family sometimes. Just stating my experience, there are many who do even if you don't know any. |
Anonymous
Nope, not obvious because I myself would never spend 8 - 10K to replace something that was still working like my hvac system. I would seriously wait until it broke. Windows and doors I understand, maybe even insulation. |