I thought that I read that “centrist” democrats are effectively to the right of Nixon now…
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As has been said elsewhere. The Republican’s crazytrain is bad for everyone becaus all you have to do is ‘not be these guys’ rather than having good policy.
I want a strong conservitive party. I want a strong liberal party. I want all manner of parties between these two. I want the ability for choices to go from your first to second, to third choices
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Man, I just want leaders that make sense and care more about real people than money.
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The GOP is so radical, it can no longer win a general Election. When that radical base dies, the party will drift more to the center, which will force the Democrats to distinguish themselves from the GOP, by moving to the left.
Or if the GOP wins the presidency in 2016 there could be a radical conservative insurgency and who knows how bad things will get. Yay! Time will tell!
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Brace for the upcoming “New GOP” they’ll be pimping in 10 years when the old racists are dead.
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“This isn’t even my final form!” - republican congress
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I’m undercaffeinated so maybe that’s why I thought you wrote “If the Republicans shit to the right.” Made sense either way, I suppose…
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Mike Rogers may be a conservative talk show host, but according to Wikipedia he is a “CNN National Security Commentator”.
Note the initial capital letters: “CNN National Security Commentator”.
This guy is not joking around, and neither is CNN.
Have a care, ye ignorant: the Commentator will address you in his good time.
[Update: added link to Wikipedia article.]
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That is a true statement. The leftmost we’ve ever been was under FDR before WWII. Since then, we have been sliding right while much of the world has been embracing cooperative economics and centralized health care, except for the autocratic countries. The USA has dominated the world but at the cost of producing a nation of ignorant people who have no understanding of their relative beliefs in a larger context. It is an echo chamber, ripe for stuff like the Trump clown car or a bizarre focus on Hillary’s emails. The thoughtful people here don’t stand a chance against the juggernaut of fools. We would like to think that a freak show like Trump “is unelectable” or that divine intervention will spare us his monstrosity, but just you watch… He COULD very well take office. This isn’t some fairy tale. Scoundrels have the upper hand and it’s going to be that way for a while.
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You are underestimating the crazy. Never underestimate the crazy.
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Given that the RNC’s own after-action recommendation following Romney’s trouncing in 2012 noted that the GOP desperately needed to broaden the party’s base by reaching out to women and minorities (and by “reach out”, I mean, “don’t insult with petty, stereotypical insults”), and THEN given that contemporary GOP strategists are saying that the current cadidates should just double down on issues like abortion, gay marriage, and immigration, it’s clear the GOP will be fracturing into something if it hasn’t already happened yet.
But I’d say that probability is rather low. If anything, the second debate showed that he is either incapable or unwilling to speak in a nuanced way about policy–he can hardly give the rough details, and when asked about the finer points of anything he slips into “I’ll hire experts for that”. He’d probably be great as a VP attack-dog but I sincerely doubt he’d accept second billing.
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But people keep talking about how the GOP is two parties and is fracturing, etc, and then they keep not doing it and stay the GOP same as ever. People have said this consistently since many elections ago and it never happens.
I agree that the probability of Trump being elected is low… Now… But when he was riding high it didn’t seem so dismissably low, did it? And this election is still very young. Surprises lurk around every corner.
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Life is uncertain and the end is always near, so drink good whiskey.
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Skimp not or go to your grave with Old Crow on your breath.
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I want to challenge you on this only because it appears to me that Boehner is leaving specifically because of people in his own party…in fact, listening to him and others talk about his leaving is to understand how poorly Boehner was able to do his job, due to the fracturing we’re talking about. I didn’t hear anyone talking about how the Dems had successfully foiled his political moves, all I heard was that the Tea Party caucus (among others) wouldn’t follow his marching orders. And beyond that, the talk-radio line about Boehner’s ouster was that the Tea Party Conservatives had finally “collected a scalp”. That they could push Boehner out, and did, tells me that whatever fracturing we heard about in the past has finally come to pass and those fault lines are only now becoming abundantly clear, and should become much clearer in the next few months of political moves (who becomes speaker, majority chair, etc.).
OK, challenge accepted. Let’s define our terms, though… what does “fracture” mean here? I suspect we are going at it with different definitions. To me, fracture would mean the GOP actually splits into two official parties, rather than merely continuing to self-contain a dissident faction, aka the Tea Party. To me, fracturing means this defined BREAK and a new party forms. And so I am saying the Tea Party and others in the past have THREATENED secession, but it never comes to pass in the GOP and it just keeps staying one big tent.
But I suspect that may not be what you are talking about? You tell me.
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Agreed on the above and the need for terms. I think you’re right in that America is still a two-party system…so that wasn’t much of a challenge, I’m afraid.
Perhaps what I should have written was that the GOP’s fractures are as clear as they’ve ever been? That the “institutionalists” who wouldn’t destroy the gov’t just to stick to a “principle” are finally at parity, in terms of numbers, with the full-wacko tea partiers. I guess I’m struck that Boehner & Co admitted quite clearly that he was ousted by the TP caucus, that they’ve got enough juice to make that happen.
OK
#FINE
you win.
Again.
LOL.
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Yeah, I was expecting this after 1994 when it seemed like Ralph Reed held the reins of a sizable chunk of the party. It might have been my perception working at IBM in Austin, when (it seemed like) I was the only one who commuted north (from Austin) to work, while most everyone else (at least, those who were vocal about their religion & politics) lived in Williamson Co. which turned down Apple’s office complex in '93. I also recall a local official in Georgetown describing Austin as “that Sodom and Gomorrah to the south”.
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