The Republicans Are Now The Stupid Party

[Possessed Freak]

Originally posted by: Mani

The most poignant part of the article though is that the republicans are losing ground on each successive generation, and under 30 by a huge margin. Whether it's a step function or not, a shift is happening.

Young people can afford to be democrats, wait until they are a bit older and want to keep their income.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: Possessed Freak

Originally posted by: Mani

The most poignant part of the article though is that the republicans are losing ground on each successive generation, and under 30 by a huge margin. Whether it's a step function or not, a shift is happening.

Young people can afford to be democrats, wait until they are a bit older and want to keep their income.

That is such a cliche. The richest people in this country are supporting Obama. It's not all about I, me & myself all the time for a lot of people.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor

Originally posted by: Possessed Freak

Originally posted by: Mani

The most poignant part of the article though is that the republicans are losing ground on each successive generation, and under 30 by a huge margin. Whether it's a step function or not, a shift is happening.

Young people can afford to be democrats, wait until they are a bit older and want to keep their income.

That is such a cliche. The richest people in this country are supporting Obama. It's not all about I, me & myself all the time for a lot of people.

Like George Soros? Th same George Soros who made a shitload of money off sub-prime mortgages?

 

[retrospooty]

Originally posted by: Duwelon
What are we supposed to do, just accept his tripe as facts because he's been a speechwriter and worked as a journalist? Mr Jeffrey Hart projects his opinions in an article, details at 11...

Another jpeyton piece of crap OP, meant to demoralize Republicans.

That is probably true, it was meant to demoralize... but there is truth to it.

If you are a republican you have to admit, that being the all white rural, elderly party in a mixed suburban, young culture gives you cause for concern. For the most part, in another 10 years the oldest of the old voting block people will be baby boomers. The previous generation that is a faithful republican voting block will be virtually gone. The world is getting more liberal, and less religious. The more voters that were raised in a culture of science over religion, and tolerance toward differences the less the current republican party will get votes. the WILL need to change or fade away.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor

Originally posted by: Possessed Freak

Originally posted by: Mani

The most poignant part of the article though is that the republicans are losing ground on each successive generation, and under 30 by a huge margin. Whether it's a step function or not, a shift is happening.

Young people can afford to be democrats, wait until they are a bit older and want to keep their income.

That is such a cliche. The richest people in this country are supporting Obama. It's not all about I, me & myself all the time for a lot of people.

Those people are on the opposite side of the spectrum. They are in a position to see how much of the public coffers they can rape with their influence in DC. Democrats are no different than Republicans in this regard. The super wealthy will influence the govt for their own good. And both parties are happy to help.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: retrospooty

Originally posted by: Duwelon
What are we supposed to do, just accept his tripe as facts because he's been a speechwriter and worked as a journalist? Mr Jeffrey Hart projects his opinions in an article, details at 11...

Another jpeyton piece of crap OP, meant to demoralize Republicans.

That is probably true, it was meant to demoralize... but there is truth to it.

If you are a republican you have to admit, that being the all white rural, elderly party in a mixed suburban, young culture gives you cause for concern. For the most part, in another 10 years the oldest of the old voting block people will be baby boomers. The previous generation that is a faithful republican voting block will be virtually gone. The world is getting more liberal, and less religious. The more voters that were raised in a culture of science over religion, and tolerance toward differences the less the current republican party will get votes. the WILL need to change or fade away.

I am much more worried about hispanics than the young. The young are idealistic and clueless. A few years in the workforce watching 30% of their paycheck go to pay for bridges to nowhere and bailing out of big industry will taint their views of who is in power. Right now the party that was in power were republicans. Give the democrats 10 years to fuck around and those 20 somethings turn into 30 somethings with kids and are pissed and take it out on the party in power(democrats).

Hispanics are and will be a force to reckon with over the next 50 years. Republicans have an in with them. That demographic is social conservative. But they have to actually get into their districts and campaign. Bush\Cheney in 04 did a wonderful job of targetting and getting the Hispanic vote. McCain utterly failed and I dont know why. He had the issue Obama was unwilling to talk about. Immigration reform. Total failure by Republicans on this.

 

[bozack]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

agreed

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: retrospooty

Originally posted by: Duwelon
What are we supposed to do, just accept his tripe as facts because he's been a speechwriter and worked as a journalist? Mr Jeffrey Hart projects his opinions in an article, details at 11...

Another jpeyton piece of crap OP, meant to demoralize Republicans.

That is probably true, it was meant to demoralize... but there is truth to it.

If you are a republican you have to admit, that being the all white rural, elderly party in a mixed suburban, young culture gives you cause for concern. For the most part, in another 10 years the oldest of the old voting block people will be baby boomers. The previous generation that is a faithful republican voting block will be virtually gone. The world is getting more liberal, and less religious. The more voters that were raised in a culture of science over religion, and tolerance toward differences the less the current republican party will get votes. the WILL need to change or fade away.

I am much more worried about hispanics than the young. The young are idealistic and clueless. A few years in the workforce watching 30% of their paycheck go to pay for bridges to nowhere and bailing out of big industry will taint their views of who is in power. Right now the party that was in power were republicans. Give the democrats 10 years to fuck around and those 20 somethings turn into 30 somethings with kids and are pissed and take it out on the party in power(democrats).

Hispanics are and will be a force to reckon with over the next 50 years. Republicans have an in with them. That demographic is social conservative. But they have to actually get into their districts and campaign. Bush\Cheney in 04 did a wonderful job of targetting and getting the Hispanic vote. McCain utterly failed and I dont know why. He had the issue Obama was unwilling to talk about. Immigration reform. Total failure by Republicans on this.

There is a reason immigration wasn't a topic. No matter if you took the blue or red pill you would have been poisoned. Propose an immigration plan the majority of Hispanics would approve of, and the Right would clobber you. Take the opposite view, and you get beat.

Even if McCain had a workable plan, it's such a hot topic the other side would have found a way to twist it into a negative. Same with Obama. That's why it was swept under the carpet.

 

[SilthDraeth]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

QFT

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: SilthDraeth

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

QFT

You guys had your chance.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

We'll have to make that party ourselves.

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
You guys are thinking too deep

I hear that's a chief GOP weakness.

And they say there's no GOP war on intellectualism . . .

 

[Thump553]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

Agreed. The USA needs a conservative party, let the GOP remain a fringe party of moral authoritarians for all I care. It's a shame what happened to the party of Lincoln and Teddie Roosevelt, but the USA has a history of major parties fading away.

Contrary to statements above, the GOP's showing this election was terrible, no way to sugarcoat it. And McCain was the best possible candidate it could have run.

Personally I think Obama (like Clinton before him) is going to be a pretty centralist, fiscally prudent President, along the lines of the blue dog Democrats. Obviously he is going to have to through tons of money to jumpstart economic recovery, but I'm expecting him to get lasting value for the money spent.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor

Originally posted by: Possessed Freak

Originally posted by: Mani

The most poignant part of the article though is that the republicans are losing ground on each successive generation, and under 30 by a huge margin. Whether it's a step function or not, a shift is happening.

Young people can afford to be democrats, wait until they are a bit older and want to keep their income.

That is such a cliche. The richest people in this country are supporting Obama. It's not all about I, me & myself all the time for a lot of people.

Your second sentence is dead right, unfortunately it is hard to convince the young ones of that. I try my best though and lead by example in voting Republican this time around (just so we are crystal clear, I voted Democrat in 2000 and Libertarian in 2004).

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Jaskalas

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

We'll have to make that party ourselves.

You don't need a new party, all we needed was one man with courage.

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

I'm curious - what's Obama's agenda for your kids?

 

[Atreus21]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
A spot-on analysis from a former Reagan/Nixon speech writer. This is what the center-right thinks of GWB's Republican party, and explains why the GOP will have such a hard time courting votes in future elections unless they reform. The future voters of America are abandoning the GOP at an alarming rate. They are college educated and raised in an environment which respects science over God, a woman's right to choose, and a homosexual's right to equality; they broke overwhelmingly for Obama in the election. McCain only beat Obama in one age group this year: 65+.

Text

The Republicans Are Now the Stupid Party
by Jeffrey Hart

Obama?s defeat of McCain and Palin has left the Republicans as more a sect than a party, corralled in a few Southern states. This is not good for the conservative movement, nor for democracy in America. So what went wrong for the GOP?

On November 4, two thirds of voters under 30 voted for Obama. That?s the future. A large majority of voters with college educations voted for Obama. That represents the best informed segment of the electorate. So, how did everything go wrong for the Republicans?

A good place to begin would be Barry Goldwater, and his ironic role in history. In 1964 he voted against Lyndon Johnson?s Civil Rights Act, believing on principle that it violated states? rights. The only states Goldwater carried that year were six in the South. Johnson understood that the Civil Rights Act would cost the Democrats the support of the South for a long time.

But the South is the section in which fundamentalist religion is most heavily concentrated. And Goldwater, a western individualist leaning libertarian, loathed fundamentalism. He later said that ?Real Christians should line up to kick Jerry Falwell in the ass.? Goldwater also supported Roe vs. Wade.

Goldwater opened the door to the Southern Strategy for the Republican Party, but Nixon and Reagan largely gave only token support to Southern prejudices. Reagan?s first Supreme Court nominee was Sandra Day O?Connor, whose record indicated that she would not oppose Roe.

George W. Bush was another matter. Karl Rove understood that we are in the midst of what historians call the ?third evangelical awakening.? Bush exploited this opportunity, as in his third televised debate in 2000, when asked what thinker had most influenced him. Bush replied, ?Jesus Christ. Because he made me a better man.? No one opposes Bush being a better man; but the evangelicals understood the signal. In 2000 Bush carried 70 percent of the white evangelical vote.

And he rewarded this faction: stem cells, ?strict constructionist? judges (oppose Roe), religious reasons for invading Iraq (outlined in a speech in Irvine, California), faith-base initiatives (?abstinence only?), and even blocking funds for family planning in Africa!

Needless to say, much of this moves against overwhelming forces in history. Diana Trilling said that the long gestating women?s revolution has been the most profound revolution in history. Women?s equality, for example, has moved slowly ahead since agitation began in the middle of the nineteenth century. Women didn?t get the vote until 1920 (19th Amendment). Former male slaves got the (constitutional) right to vote in 1869 (15th Amendment.)

The availability of abortion is connected with women?s equality. Planned Parenthood vs. Casey: ?The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the country.? Half the undergraduates on most campuses today are women. Men don?t have their plans de-railed by an unwanted pregnancy.

Does any reasonable person not believe that gays and lesbians deserve respect and equality? Not today?s Republican Party. Expert translators from Arabic have been dismissed for being gay. And applicants for the post of certified public accountants in the Iraq Green Zone have been asked about their view of Roe v. Wade.

Both Obama and McCain supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. An embryo is a cluster of cells the size of the period at the end of this sentence. It takes a strange mentality to equate that with a seriously ill human being. (Bush, August 2001: ?It?s wrong to destroy life in order to save life.?)

But science never sleeps, and embryonic stem cell work has been going on around the world in advanced nations, as well as in state or privately funded laboratories here. Harvard is planning a new billion-dollar science campus, with a major cell-research laboratory. Promising advances of various kinds are being explored world-wide.

So here we are in 2008. With its indispensable Southern and, more widely, evangelical base, the Republican Party has become the stupid party.

In the election, the McCain-Palin ticket received the highest percentage of votes in South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia. The Southern Strategy succeeded. It succeeded in facilitating a Democratic landslide. This can not be good for the nation. We need two viable parties.

Sarah Palin is now the heroine of the Republican base. Scary. During the campaign it became obvious that she is completely ignorant on the principal issues. It never became widely known that she is a religious nut: she believes in the imminent End of Days and the ?Rapture,? in which the saved will be suddenly wooshed up to heaven?a notion that has no basis in scripture or anything else. She believes she was elected governor because of a laying-on-of-hands by an African clergyman who had run a witch out of town for causing automobile accidents.

This stuff makes William Jennings Bryan look like Martin Heidegger. I think the recent electoral disaster will energize reasonable Republicans to form a caucus with the party. Eisenhower was a prudential, common sense Republican, who loathed extremism and arrogant ignorance. He knew the New Deal could not be repealed. He once said that Senator William Knowland ?tested the limits of human stupidity.? Despite Watergate, Nixon was a successful center-right president, and first-rate on foreign policy. Reagan too was a successful center-right president. It is no accident that in the election, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and David Eisenhower supported Obama.

In its embrace of the religious right under George W. Bush, the Republican Party became the stupid party. And committing suicide along with it has been the conservative movement. The party united around god, guns and gays is finished.

Jeffrey Hart is professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College. He wrote for the National Review for more than three decades, where he was senior editor. He wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan, when governor of California, and for Richard Nixon.

Basically a liberal saying what liberals always say: Republicans are stupid, conservatives are stupid. How is this at all surprising? Women's equality is linked to abortion? How does he figure that? Does he mean that women should be able to partake in the same irresponsibility as the most reckless men, but be allowed to avoid consequences?

Sarah Palin the heroine of the republican party: Generalization. I don't think she's the future of Republicans. I think Bobby Jindal and men like him are.

Gays and lesbians and every other person in American deserves respect and equality. I don't contest that.

What cracks me up about liberals in general is that, for all their talk of equality and diversity, they sure don't like it when someone has religious convictions.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: Thump553

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

Agreed. The USA needs a conservative party, let the GOP remain a fringe party of moral authoritarians for all I care. It's a shame what happened to the party of Lincoln and Teddie Roosevelt, but the USA has a history of major parties fading away.

Contrary to statements above, the GOP's showing this election was terrible, no way to sugarcoat it. And McCain was the best possible candidate it could have run.

Personally I think Obama (like Clinton before him) is going to be a pretty centralist, fiscally prudent President, along the lines of the blue dog Democrats. Obviously he is going to have to through tons of money to jumpstart economic recovery, but I'm expecting him to get lasting value for the money spent.

Why not give the moral right and social conservatives their own party, lets call it Intelligent Design and the remaining can retain the GOP label. But neither will win any elections going forward.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

That's the fundamental problem.

The GOP cannot win national elections without the social conservative wing of their party. They made a deal with the devil the moment they started reaching out to these voters, who in the past typically did not vote. It won them two Presidential elections and complete control of Congress for many years, but now it has completely wrecked the party's chance of remaining viable for the future.

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: Possessed Freak

Originally posted by: GroundedSailor

Originally posted by: Possessed Freak

Originally posted by: Mani

The most poignant part of the article though is that the republicans are losing ground on each successive generation, and under 30 by a huge margin. Whether it's a step function or not, a shift is happening.

Young people can afford to be democrats, wait until they are a bit older and want to keep their income.

That is such a cliche. The richest people in this country are supporting Obama. It's not all about I, me & myself all the time for a lot of people.

Your second sentence is dead right, unfortunately it is hard to convince the young ones of that. I try my best though and lead by example in voting Republican this time around (just so we are crystal clear, I voted Democrat in 2000 and Libertarian in 2004).

Yes but in my case I have gone from R to D as I grow older. I attribute some of that to the mellowing of my personality with age.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Atreus21

What cracks me up about liberals in general is that, for all their talk of equality and diversity, they sure don't like it when someone tries to legislate or push their religious convictions on others.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: Atreus21

Originally posted by: jpeyton
A spot-on analysis from a former Reagan/Nixon speech writer.
SNIP

Basically a liberal saying what liberals always say: Republicans are stupid, conservatives are stupid. How is this at all surprising? ....

What cracks me up about liberals in general is that, for all their talk of equality and diversity, they sure don't like it when someone has religious convictions.

Did you miss the part about Hart being a (classic conservative) Republican? He's since supported the Dems after W ran the country off the cliff.

He's a conservative agreeing with what liberals always say, as has been the trend among the intelligencia of the conservative sphere this past cycle.

In 1962 he joined William F. Buckley's conservative journal National Review as a book reviewer, requiring a trip from Hanover, New Hampshire to New York every other week. Later, he would contribute as a writer and editor for the better part of the ensuing three decades even as he fulfilled his teaching responsibilities as a professor at Dartmouth. He is still a Senior Editor with the magazine.

Hart took a leave of absence from Dartmouth in 1968 to work for the abortive presidential campaign of Governor of California Ronald Reagan. This role led to brief service as a White House speechwriter for Richard Nixon.

 

[BMW540I6speed]

Karl Rove, that self-taught master of history, tried to engineer a realignment that would create a permanent Republican majority. A lot of pundits piled on, talking about how Americans were fundamentally conservative and the liberals were generally unelectable. (And many are still holding to that line today. Palin in 2012!) Rove, with the help of Cheney and a weak president, may have indeed created a realignment, except they're on the back end of the previous governmental paradigm.

Don't misunderestimate, either, the power of hubris. Democrats need to be careful not to make the same mistake that Republicans made ten years ago and claim they've got a headlock on the majority. What we have witnessed is the healthy swing of the pendulum, at best.

Barack Obama would do well to subsume the moderate wing of the Republican Party and to give fiscal conservatives a voice. After all, they did not have a voice in the Bush administration. Grover Norquist was able to make his no new taxes pledge stick, but Bush forgot the no new spending that must accompany the policy. He also forgot to make the government smaller, more efficient, and less intrusive. He did prove one thing that Reagan would be proud of: government is the problem, at least Bush's government was the problem. How can you rule a country that is so culturally diverse when you don't listen to anyone, including yourself?

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: jpeyton

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
You guys are thinking too deep

I hear that's a chief GOP weakness.

*golf clap*


You should probably hit the comedy circuit now that the Obama campaign won't be needing workers until 2012.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: Jaskalas

Originally posted by: Hayabusa Rider
Evangelicals want Creationism taught. Obama has his agenda for my kids. Give me a friggin party which has the platform of leaving people alone and I'll consider them.

We'll have to make that party ourselves.

You don't need a new party, all we needed was one man with courage.

Ok, I made a party

Heh