The centrist/middle party exists and it's leader is Barack Obama. There's really no single policy area where you can say he's an extremist.
Don't you find this to be a sad commentary? There is some way to roust up and mobilize a bunch of people who normally don't give a **** but you can get them to come out and vote for the president's goodies. On the other hand, all those young liberals are going to age and many are going to have an awakening to the complexities and realities of managing a life and personal resources.
Young people will age of course, but I do not see today's under 30 group lean as much to Republicans party as today's over 60 group when they age, unless the Republican party changes.
I think the sad commentary is that you think the only reason those people come out and vote is for the President's "goodies". This kind of dismissal of people who don't agree with your politics is exactly the reason why the GOP is in this mess. Your same old, white voters that come out to midterms often don't come out for school board elections. Do they just not give a **** except to come out to vote for congressional pork barrel spending?
To have two parties you have to have opposing ideas. The GOP didn't have any opposing ideas so their candidate never outlined any specific platforms. What were they going to cut? They never said. Oppose Obamacare? except for most of it.
This is a flat out false narrative. They did say things they would cut and Romney did give specifics about potential tax reforms idea, including capping deductions. You may think they won't work, they may be stupid. The cuts might not really have mattered much. The math may false. Etc, etc, etc. But you can't say they weren't talked about.
as stupid as GWB was he tried to tell the GOP to cater to hispanics as much as 12 years ago. the one thing he got right, the rest of the party got wrong. i haven't read this whole thread but to cater to an ever expanding electorate means for them to alienate their old white gun toting bible loving base. its a catch 22. they could have catered to older catholic hispanics before they went nuclear on immigration. that boat has passed and sank
you guys don't get it. the problem is they always needed the extreme right for numbers. their real true mandate has always been reduction of taxes on rich. there aren't enough rich people for them to maintain competitiveness. they have always used abortion/gay marriage/guns to round up more voters. this strategy almost collasped during gwb's term because he totally ignored the bible thumpers except when he needed to win re election. then he started talking about marriage constitutional amendments.
If the GOP does alienate them, where do they go? Certainly not Democrat, they'd have to join the likes of the Constitution party. Which would make things very, very interesting.
glynch gets it. exactly their strategy is failing because they haven't made abortion illegal because it was just a ruse to rile up the rubes
The Republican Party was already deeply under the influence of the Fundamentalist Right, but the party regulars still had control. Then they made a fundamental mistake. Thinking they could control it, they co-opted the "Tea Party" movement and folded it into the GOP. In the process, the "Tea Party" gained power within the GOP all out of proportion to their numbers. The seats they gained in the House in 2010 essentially took control out of Boner's hands. He was forced to suck up to the group to keep his Speakership. Now, some of the "Tea Party" extremists lost their seats this time around, but not all of them, and some gained seats in Congress. An example? Cuban-American Ted Cruz, right here in Texas. A far-right "Tea Party" lunatic just given 6 years in the Senate by some ignorant fellow Texans. We're going to have to live with this chump for 6 freakin' years, people. Thanks a lot. Right now, the GOP is so screwed up, I'm not sure what they can do. Control is exercised by groups of well funded extremists. Moderates are targeted in the primaries for extinction, leading to an ever increasing extreme Republican Party. In 2 years, I'm hoping we see gains in the House and Senate for Democrats, partly with the help of disgusted Republicans, who now see themselves as independent voters. We might even see the gerrymandered Republican House fall to the Democratic Party. It'll be tough, but it isn't impossible. Texas? We're screwed for another election cycle. Eventually, the worm will turn here in Texas.
i honestly believe they can still have a base of conservative hispanics and conservative whites. they have to let the immigration scare tatics go.
But, how many conservative whites place value on strict immigration laws? I wouldn't be surprised if they lose a decent amount of their base from that.
Yes he is fairly moderate in many policies because he compromises, but he is at heart very liberal. And climate change is still a domain of the left. I for instance think that trying to reduce CO2 is a fools gold when it's far too late for that. We need to start thinking about more radical solutions. Green energy investments is good but it's not the solution. You need fusion power and you need to think about coming up with a way to reflect more sunlight back to space. Maybe we need to cover the arctic ocean with a massive white bed sheet.
I think the problem with/explanation for the current GOP extremism is that they've deeply regionalized their base into a few spots - the SEC/deep south, parts of the great plains, and the utah/idaho "mormon belt" in the west The problem with having such a regional base is that, in conjunction with fox news, internet, talk radio, etc, it functions as a right wing ideological echo chamber in which everybody in this arena is only exposed to one viewpoint/spin and this spin is magnified and amplified among like minded people (a lot of psychology research tends to back this up..fwiw). Example, a lot of the headlines today are about the divide and Romney gettin most of the white male vote. That's true, in the aggregate, but if you break down the numbers, the white males in blue (and to a lesser extent, battleground states) are nearly even for Romney/Obama, or even pro-Obama. But when you go to the SEC (ALabama/Mississipi) etc - the numbers for Romney for white males are ridiculous (like 3:1 or higher). Probably a similiar gap among white women. These ultra-red enclaves being power bases seem to be bad news for the national GOP as they tend to be the main spawning ground for tea party silliness thats exported into other regions and that kills them on the national level
Why change? It wasn't like they didn't come close. The plan is clear. Wait. If things don't get better, attack the democrats. If things get better, offer more dreams.
