Few doubt the Republicans shot themselves in the foot multiple times these past eight years. While the country may be generally a little right of center, the Republicans can’t get themselves right enough to the exclusion of those who disagree and might vote for someone who isn’t a Dem, but can’t stand their stands. While we’re hardly saying the Dems are shining beacons of purity and light, they do have the WH and Congress, and a much higher number of Americans claiming membership.
Where do you stand on the political spectrum? With which party do you associate yourself? What do you think the Republicans can do to keep from dying out? Should the party die out as others in the past have and be replaced with a center right party? Are the Democrats too far left? Not far left enough?
With both parties run by lawyers, does it matter which is in office? What do lawyers know about creating wealth?
This nation is doomed.
Somewhat similar to the KKK in the 50’s and 60’s. As it became unpopular to be a White Supremacist , the KKK shrank and people simply referred to themselves as “Conservative Republican”.
Now, the GOP is so badly tarnished with loony tunes taking over that there is no place in the Republican chart to identify with. People are leaving to the next door party.
This is great and I’m looking forward to that issue of TIME.
The party is shrinking. It’s down to 21-30% of the country and the solution is to “cleanse itself of Democrats ana RINOs” and then somehow to “recover those who left”. I think that shows something of what the problem is. As an Independent who voted about 40/60 Rep/Dem in the 20th century and 100% Dem in the 21st, I think you’re not quite seeing where the problem lies. We didn’t shift to the Democrats because you are too much like them.
Just saying.
What Time Mag wont say and what most people know, but are afraid to say…is that the WHOLE demographic in the US is changing. Minority populations are increasing…especially in the cities. They control the big cities, and they vote now more than ever. Its increasingly difficult for a party that is controlled by ultra conservative to survive in this new America. When I tell someone in NYC that im a republican, i instantly see their face change..they assume im a right-wing evangelical bible beater, when im anything but. Who knows what the future will be, but if the party continues to make these mistakes, its not long for th world
This site is getting boring.
Statism is dead, get with the program!
The idiots have had their chance.
Ask yourselfs, what have they done for you lately?
#12, Ayatollah1
You are so full of bovine fecal matter. Please, keep it up. Your crazy ranting is scaring more and more people away from the Republicans.
I am saving your rants to publish before the mid-terms. That should increase the Democrat majority even more.
In any case, please shoot yourself in the nuts. No one want your kind reproducing.
The current leadership in the Republican Party can’t be blamed for the defections. That’s because there isn’t any leadership.
The worst people are trying to take over the Republicans, Boss Limpdick, Sarah Palin, James Dobson, and the other right wing nut extremists. The majority of the country will not tolerate this kind of politics. Eight years of Bush were enough for most people.
Leaders like Jindal couldn’t get any traction and fell on his face. Huckabee is too religious. Romney is too slick. Thompson, is well, too Hollywood.
Would be leaders like Eric Cantor and John Boehner don’t know what they are doing. The Senate Minority Leader is someone, only he is too invisible to identify. Micheal Steele is repeatedly stabbed in the back by fellow Republicans.
Yup, the rats are abandoning the ship.
Alfred…do you click on polls like you’re posting to this thread?
@Alfred, Re: #8
And what you’re missing is that I’m not driving my opinions by what the Media is saying about party membership. What I’m telling you is that the Republicans are losing membership AND votes, and the Democrats are losing members but gaining votes, and I’m one of those votes. And I know a lot of those votes.
And sayig that the answer to losing both members and votes is not, at least from my perspective, that your party has too many Democrats (or RINOs) or that you are lacking in solidarity. The problem is that the Republican party has become the province of Big Money and Big Government. The party of War and Torture. The Ant-abortion and anti-gay party. The party that is against Habeas Corpus, against Posse Comitatus, against the Rule of Law.
The problem is that you are excluding anyone with a nuanced position. The slightest taint of choice, of tolerance of regulation, of whatever you are anti- is taken as a sign of evil.
Personally, I want the Republican party to hit bottom soon, to wake up and realize that an ever stronger Federal Executive branch is antithetical both to personal liberty and states rights. I want to see it get over its litmus tests and realize how far from fiscal conservatism it has drifted, how far into authoritarianism it has gone. I want it to hit bottom so hard that it turns around and becomes healthy, because I really really want to turn on the Democrats. At the moment the reason I am siding with them is because faults though they may have, the Republicans are far far worse.
Just my two bits worth.
What’s needed is a moderate third party that is not so corporatist or globalist (bad philosophies shared by both parties). Globalism is making it possible for the corporations to take over and turn all Nation States into Market States.
But Market States are unsustainable.
#17, The problem is that the Republican party has become the province of Big Money and Big Government. The party of War and Torture. The party that is against Habeas Corpus, against Posse Comitatus, against the Rule of Law.
I forget . . . which party were you talking about again? 🙂
I am siding with them is because faults though they may have, the Republicans are far far worse.
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.
#11 Yup
#10:
“They control the big cities, and they vote now more than ever.”
Thank god we still have the electoral college.
Plausible:
Coasts eliminate the electoral college, because they don’t like the idea that a podunk state gets the same representation as NY. Heartland secedes and immediately starts gouging the coasts for: oil, coal, power from wind farms, food (because there’s no arable land on the coasts), and transport over land from coast to coast.
At this point, 7/21 or 33% of the comments belong to that loonbat Alfred1, which really skews the data. Hey, SHUT UP! Go clean the basement or something, don’t you have anything better to do than comment here?
#22 — I thought this blog was turning into Alfred Uncensored. All Alfred talks about is democrats and liberals.
#19 — I agree. Change will not occur until voting habits change. Third parties will not become influential until people make them influential.
The current Republican party will not fix itself until a third party challenges it. May be the Pirate Party (http://pirate-party.us/) could be the challenger.
#25 Wow, it’s talk like a pirate day already!
Republicans still don’t understand what there problem is.
They think the problem is RINOs or members not being conservative enough.
I personally am sick of the word conservative.
What does this mean in the context it is being used in?
My definition of conservative how the Republicans have practiced it is:
1. free market to the extent of neglect of government’s duty to keep an eye on things
2. Appeal to the uneducated masses to the extent you drink your own kool-aid. Science? Stupid! Social services? The lazy bastards.
There is nothing more dangerous than a party with an identity crisis because you cannot know what to expect and charlatans try to take control is such situations.
Our 2 party system sucks, but I’d far rather see a thinking and evolving democratic party in control of things.
#7 Alfred_the_loon said: Actually, out of 100 people named Dallas, 84.6% of them.. blah blah”
According to a real certifiable statistic, the name ‘Alfred’ was somewhat popular up until 1930. This correlates well with you at about 80, with a backwards, out of touch philosophy – aside from being a loony.
Since early 1930’s, the name declined to a point to now being an embarrassment.
http://babynamespedia.com/meaning/Alfred
There is no “reasonable” party. Most Americans are moderates and there is no party that represents their views. I consider myself fiscally conservative and socially liberal. There is no party that represents those viewpoints. The Democrats lose me when they rack up 2 trillion dollar deficits and the Republicans lose me when they think that condoms are the source of all the world’s woes.
#27
Sarah Palin is a perfect example what is wrong with the Republicans. There used to be a time when the Republicans were not so loony religious. The day we know the Republicans have changed is the day they put up a candidate that is not Christian. If the Republicans are the party of the uber-rich, where are the uber-rich smart people to run for office (or are they too smart for that)?
#31 The right can’t even manage a funny or clever insult. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when Palin is the best candidate due to her “lifestyle”. They can’t even manage their own party right now, they are not going to manage a government. Third parties don’t work in the US since Americans prefer to replay the civil war with every election with each side taking turns at being the South.
Looking at it from the outside, the Republicans remind me Comic Book Guy these days. Now there’s a winning image.
The party of the GREEDY OBESE PIGS (GOP) is in it’s DEATH THROWS !!! First Specter, and then “Joe the Plumber” are quiting, and now Prick Cheney is ready to DRUM COLIN POWELL OUT OF THE PARTY TOO !!! I guess the “Big Tent” is no more !!! So except for Alan Keyes, they don’t really want the African-American vote !!! (No MILLIONAIRES OR BILLIONAIRES THERE !!!) The GOP – the party of RICH WHITE FASCISTS !!! Good riddance to them !!! May the WANDER IN THE DESERT FOR 400 YEARS !!!
I want a party that’s conservative in fiscal matters and supports a free market economy that is regulated by the government for the purpose of strengthening that free market. I also want a party that support stable social institutions, but not at the expense of excluding people. For example, I don’t know whether being gay is a natural phenomenon or a deviation from abuse or brain chemistry anomalies, but I do know that supporting gay marriage/unions would help to stabilize society. Religion is generally good, but it shouldn’t be an excuse to be stupid and ignore reality. Also, I’d like to live in a planet that’s isn’t polluted and constantly at war.
If I vote democrat, I’m voting for wasteful spending and general disregard for important social institutions. If I vote republican, I’m voting for intolerance, wars, and pollution. Either way, I’m not happy. My strategy has been to vote for the major party not in power to limit the corruption and hope for some kind of balance.
I registered as a republican, but I’m a social liberal and fiscal conservative. Its hard for me to define myself as simply left or right.
Answer:
Goodby dickhead!
Question:
What do Republicans say when one of their own dares speak the truth…in contrast to their AM Radio overlord?
Olo. The paranoid on the right think everyone is out to get them (liberals, rinos, urban, press, etc). The reality is that they eat their own young.
Neither party is going to help. They are all plutocrats owned by the corporations.
They have no care for the people that make less than 100k a year. Don’t keep being blind.
Revolution. It is the only hope for the republic. We need to remove all of them and start with a new constitution.
The republic changed, the government has not and cannot through voting in the same old broken system.
Real change is revolution.
Cursor_
qb…and I’m loving it, too. A few years ago when the Dems were in disarray they were all, “shit, we’re all messed up right now.”
But Rush, with his own self-interests ($$$) at heart, tells his flock they’re in a position of strength. And they’re buying it! LOL
#34 Let the door hit Colin Powel in backside as he is forced out the door!
Goodby dickhead!
Yup. There is another reason to vote Republican. Drum one of the most respected men in Washington out of the party will certainly show the kind of party they have.
Olo. It’s just amazing how dense they’ve become. I’m truly hoping they pick Palin for 2012. No end of amusement.
Fusion. You know when they’re flipping the bird to the most respected Reagan Republican alive today then they’ve lost it.