Originally posted by: dullard
Originally posted by: BMW540I6speed
In order to embrace new ideas, you have to be willing to let go of some of the old ideas. If recent history is any guide, any Republican who does that immediately has his buttons and chevrons ripped off, right before the door hits him in ass. The Republican party is vying for the smallest tent in the circus right now.
They haven't stuck to their talking points for a long time in large part for the simple reason that it's impossible due to them being mutually contradictory. Small government and enforcing "family values", for example, contradict each other...
Great post, it reinforces thoughts that I've been trying to post here for years. Keep up the good work.
The fascinating thing to me (and also their ultimate demise) is to contrast the way the Republican party runs itself to the way they want to run the US. The two could not be any different. The Republican party is run like a dictatorship; although right now it is run like a deposed dictatorship waiting for another dictator. But their ideals are for a small government with personal freedom. Those two things are incompatable but inevitiable.
The reason why they resorted to this tactic is highlighted in your posts above. The republican party overreached in an attempt to encompass everyone. Heck, it temporarilly worked with a peak in Reagan's landslide victory. But, when you include everyone, you include mutual contradictions and a loosely bound coalition. They had to rule with an iron fist to keep the coalition together. Make any movement away from the party line and you are finished. New GOP candidates were forced into signing documents toting the party agenda line-for-line if they EVER hoped to get any GOP support.
I've asked this before multiple times, and I've never gotten a response. Why should an anti-aborition person necesarilly want lower taxes? Why should someone who wants lower taxes be pro-gun? Why should someone who is pro-gun be anti-gay rights? Why should an anti-gay rights person want a stronger military? Why should someone who wants a smaller government want to protect children from profanity on TV? Are there ANY real ties in the Republican party?
They overreached and couldn't hold thier promisses to everyone. Heck, they haven't held their promisses for almost anyone. Presidents from Nixon onwards (yes, even Reagan) weren't fiscally conservative, even though they all promissed to be so. The biggest expansion of gay rights occured while Republicans held the congress, presidency, and supreme court. Nothing has been done to stop abortion. The biggest gun sale boom came under Obama (and probably the biggest gun rights boom as well I predict). About the only promise they kept was to lower taxes, but they forgot the flip side of lowered spending to appease fiscal conservatives.
America is waking up. The GOP needs to create a new base and stick to it. Otherwise it'll be Democrat rule for quite some time.