So who are the conservatives on this board? Who are the liberals? What's the split look like?

Nonsense. It's just a talking point to get certain voters in a tizzy.

I know that this whole "everyone has gone to the right*" thing is a major talking point on the internet, but I don't see it. The federal register grows every year, and conservatives/Republicans haven't eliminated a single department in a long time.

I guarantee you that in 2016 no serious candidate will want to just flat-out repeal Obamacare (at least not once they get past the Republican primaries), but rather replace it or restructure it. That's how this whole charade works.

*I'm using "right" here to mean smaller gov't, less spending, etc. Even though the so-called right has no real desire to do any such thing.

 

Ah, the sad trope that things that the Republican party has made its hallmark since reagan aren't really Republican.

 

The very fact that you're talking about whether or not Republcans want to totally or partially repeal a health care plan thta was 1) first proposed by the Heritage foundatoin 2) then proposed by GOP nominee for president in 1996 and 3) implemented as governor by the GOP nominee for president in 2012 - contradicts your very premise.

If Republicans hadn't shifted to the right, they wouldn't repudiate and demonize their own plan.

 

So what you're saying is there have for a long time been some Republicans who endorsed these ideas? Agreed. And there still are. Just as there have always been Republicans who opposed these ideas (or so they said). If anything, I think the number of Republicans/conservatives who oppose such measures has gone down, simply due to the ratchet-effect. Thus, no rightward shift.

 

Now I am confused... didn't you just post:

 

What time period or era of conservatives are you referring to please? Are you referring to the 19th and early 20th century when politicians heavily influenced by corporations used the U.S. military to open up markets and resources in Asia and Latin America for control by those same corporations (government helping big business -- United Fruit anybody?). Or perhaps you are referring the Conservatives who ran the Red Scares of the first half of the 20th century -- in which the government suspended civil liberties and due process in order to break up free Unions at the behest of the corporations, who were getting a little antsy. Or perhaps when the conservatives in Congress made hemp and mar1juana illegal at the behest of DuPont, who wanted to make sure hemp produced paper did not get in the way of their profits on wood pulp produced paper. Or maybe it was the conservatives in the middle of the 20th century who used State Laws to try and disenfranchise millions of African Americans so that their votes would not threaten the status quo.

So, which era of conservatives did you have in mind again?

 

Uh even if it was not entirely popular - it was introduced on the floor of the Senate by the Republican majority leader, championed and implemented by a Republican governor.

Their modern day analogues regard it distinctly differently. Because the GOP is more extreme now.

 

A number of Republicans both rank and file and party leaders supported the Heritage/ Dole/Romney plans.

A number that is now demonstrably smaller.

Right shift.

 

You can try and rationalize it all you want, but the fact is that the most serious/substantial healthcare proposal put forth by Republicans in the last 20 or so years, is now lambasted as a socialist nightmare. There is no question the party has moved significantly right.

 

It's hard to believe anyone would really argue that the Republican Party hasn't undergone a hard right shift. These new Republicans make Ronald Reagan look like a Socialist. Reagan raised taxes, started the EIC, and gave amnesty to millions of illegals. Reagan also cut and run in Beirut when terrorists murdered a couple hundred Marines. He would be destroyed by these Republicans for even attempting to do any of that today.