Republican Implosion-"If we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf."

I already posted this in another thread, but it's worth a discussion by itself. The statement sums up my thoughts on the GOP very well.

 

It's true. There's no leadership in the party. The Dems are a bunch of lying a-holes who haven't done sh-t since taking control last January(hence their approval rating being even lower than Bush's), but they're organized and opportunistic. They're winning a lot of seats in GOP districts by running.........here's a shocker, conservative candidates! How about that?

And instead of responding in kind, the GOP is moving farther to the left and pissing off its base even more.

 

How exactly does things get done when Bush vetos anything he doesn't like? Does Democrats have a large enough majority to override anything?

 

I don't think so this time. Hopefully some sanity will prevail. It's also very possible the GOP has no coherent message at all for this election because they won't agree on what it should be.

 

Yes, the only reason Dems are winning is because they are running as conservatives. Conservatism as defined by the recent GOP leadership cannot fail. It is the one true political calling for America and blessed by God. The only time Conservatism ever loses is when Dems are sneaky.

What could be wrong with Conservatism today? Torture, domestic spying, cronyism, incompetence, neglecting Americans, a war based on lies, party over country, the political over the public good, global warming deniers, stupid diplomacy, etc.? No. Those are all Dem lies from their clever devil mouths.

 

You hit the nail on the head here. The GOP has to go through some in-fighting and figure out if they primarily want to be a fiscally conservative or socially conservative party (and then they need to figure out where the preemptive foreign policy fits into it all too). The two groups really have very little in common and it's been a marriage of convenience. In recent years, the social conservatives have been the ones getting elected, and the fiscal responsibility has been forgotten. But the core of the party has traditionally been the fiscal side.

I think the picking of McCain is the first step of the mainstream trying to take the party back from the social-right. But this is a long-process that will probably accelerate if/when they get their asses kicked in November. The party should be back on track by 2010, I would think - either as a fiscal party or a social party. My guess is that it will reform itself to focus on the fiscal side because that's where there are more votes.

 

Well some of that stuff I'm ok with. Manmade global warming is a crock of sh-t. That's one of many reasons McCain is struggling to gain the support of the conservative base.

But the big problem with the GOP is that they abandoned their fiscal conservatism. That's what lost them the support of their voters. There are other issues as well(illegal immigration hurt them badly in '06), but letting the spending get out of control made them into Democrat-lite.

 

Not only that, but if the enviro-kooks saw India and China's coal-fired utility plant construction schedule, they'd realize any actions taken here against 'climate change' would be cancelled out about 100x over by those two countries' efforts. It's just total ignorance from the left on this issue, which is the predictable outcome of holding a political-scientific debate in the movie theaters...

 

Thanks for the description of Hillary Clinton.

 

No, that would be:

hillary over party, hillary over the public good

 

Your argument is astoundingly convincing. The plethora of data you have collected that supports your position dwarfs the widely held contrarian viewpoint. Your editorial is a scathing rebuttal of quantitative data, scientific rigor, and sustainable growth in favor of unfounded qualitative assessment with little or no merit outside of acceptance of a dystopian quality of life, and a general antipathy towards environmental viewpoints that disagree with the profoundly capitalistic interpretation of ecology as, at best, mere property - and at worst, the enemy.



I agree with your assessment of fiscal idiocy as the death knell of the GOP.

 

IIRC, the very idea of global warming was initially lampooned and ridiculed by right-wingers. Now it's morphed into "manmade" global warming. I have a right-wing friend who makes the same distinction now. I think the predisposition stems from animosity to anything that originates as a "liberal" idea.

 

Which is why they are a dying breed. Ignorance and unjustified animosity tend to result in a lack of support over time.

 

More...

 

Not to brag or anything (or course), but I said right after the 2004 election that Bush would be completely "radioactive" for Republicans during the 2008 election and they would have to run away from him to survive. I also mocked his statement after beating Kerry that he had gained "political capital" and "intended to use it".

What an imbecile we have in the Oval Office.

 

The article though does point out one thing that Democrats should worry very much about.

While congressional Repubs might get beat up it is still very possible that McCain will win. If the Dems can't get a veto proof or even filibuster proof majority not much will change. In the case of Congressional paralysis the presidency will play a much stronger role in the shaping of the national agenda.

 

I really recommend reading Davis' entire letter. It's long, so I'm not going to post it all, but it's available here: http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2008/05/15/rep-davis-paints-bleak-picture-for-gop/ I think he's wrong on several points, but it's all thought-provoking.