The Republican Long Game

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
62

[quote]666Rich wrote:
The right alienates a large majority of the populace by clinging to social issues, which are outside the scope of government or highly unlikely to be changed.

I dont think you will see a Republican president, even with a full majority overturning Roe V Wade. Yet all the questions about it get asked.

Gay marriage? Hardly even an issue of government.

These positions might be good for the religious voting block. They are dwindling though. They are also effectively countered by the urban religious/community organization voting blocks.

I would say that alot of younger professional, and educated people would be more inclined to listen to the republican party if they dropped their social diatribes, as earning a paycheck makes one reticent to pay more in taxes.

Investing in someone who actually knows marketing and branding would help. [/quote]

Lots of this

As a person who has only gotten politically involved within the last 4 years due to the flippant and disgusting acts I have seen from the Republican party, I will offer my two cents on why I would not ever consider voting for them in their current format, and what changes they could make that might change my opinion:

-View on Global Warming: Yes I know the Republicans are the party of business, and economic regulations inherently hurt business interests. But the fact that we can’t even get the majority to acknowledge that global warming is even a THING (much less move the discussion to the other important factors: is it man-made, can we do something about it, and are the costs worth the benefits) is disgusting to me. I can not get behind a party that so willfully neglects basic science. I take the view of 90%+ of scientists who say that global warming is a thing. This was not an issue for the old Republican party of the 90’s, so why is it an issue now? Regression.

-Trickle down economics. Please stop with the myth. The numbers do not show that cutting taxes for the very wealthy leads to more wealth to the middle class. The gap between the uber-rich and middle class has grown at a vulgar rate over the past 40 years, and the middle class standard of living has remained largely unchanged. This is not the “trickle” i would hope for as a middle class America.

-Gay Rights and other social issues forced into the Republican mainstream by their bible humping constituents. I take a very libertarian view on these issues. I do not even think the government should be involved in the business of marriage between ANYONE in the first place, much less implementing restrictions on who can get married. I am undecided about abortion, though ultimately I believe in a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body–how to address this within the confines of the government and law I am not too sure about. I am happy with the status quo I suppose.

-Business is self regulating. Just stop it. This is absolutely not true, and even if it was, it would move at a snail’s pace. If I have learned anything in my life is that people always want to take a bigger slice of the pie and will push the limits to the absolute max to attain it. This was evident in the financial crisis of 2008. You cannot roll back government regulation and expect business to take care of itself. This only works if all businesses are small and do not have the ability to take down the economy with their collapse. I have no problem with big business overall (walmart sells me shit I need for real cheap–that is great!)

-Smaller government, except for the military. We spend more money than something like the next 20 countries behind us in defense spending. I work in the defense industry and even I find this egregious. We don’t need more ships, we don’t need more boots. We need to evaluate our defense posture and make sure it is adequate to respond to the actual threats of today, and not those of yester-year. You do not save money by moving jobs from the federal government (DOD) to private contractors–all my contractors have rates over double my salary! How on earth does that save money? There is no way private industry is so damn efficient they can overcome a 2.5x cost increase to do the same job.

I will stop here now as my eyes are watering and I’m sure I am rambling. I could probably come up with more things, but its late and I’m tired.

I welcome discussion and counter points to my positions. Not opposed to learning where I may be wrong, or just hearing opposing viewpoints.

63

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]666Rich wrote:
The right alienates a large majority of the populace by clinging to social issues, which are outside the scope of government or highly unlikely to be changed.

I dont think you will see a Republican president, even with a full majority overturning Roe V Wade. Yet all the questions about it get asked.

Gay marriage? Hardly even an issue of government.

These positions might be good for the religious voting block. They are dwindling though. They are also effectively countered by the urban religious/community organization voting blocks.

I would say that alot of younger professional, and educated people would be more inclined to listen to the republican party if they dropped their social diatribes, as earning a paycheck makes one reticent to pay more in taxes.

Investing in someone who actually knows marketing and branding would help. [/quote]

Lots of this

As a person who has only gotten politically involved within the last 4 years due to the flippant and disgusting acts I have seen from the Republican party, I will offer my two cents on why I would not ever consider voting for them in their current format, and what changes they could make that might change my opinion:

-View on Global Warming: Yes I know the Republicans are the party of business, and economic regulations inherently hurt business interests. But the fact that we can’t even get the majority to acknowledge that global warming is even a THING (much less move the discussion to the other important factors: is it man-made, can we do something about it, and are the costs worth the benefits) is disgusting to me. I can not get behind a party that so willfully neglects basic science. I take the view of 90%+ of scientists who say that global warming is a thing. This was not an issue for the old Republican party of the 90’s, so why is it an issue now? Regression.

-Trickle down economics. Please stop with the myth. The numbers do not show that cutting taxes for the very wealthy leads to more wealth to the middle class. The gap between the uber-rich and middle class has grown at a vulgar rate over the past 40 years, and the middle class standard of living has remained largely unchanged. This is not the “trickle” i would hope for as a middle class America.

-Gay Rights and other social issues forced into the Republican mainstream by their bible humping constituents. I take a very libertarian view on these issues. I do not even think the government should be involved in the business of marriage between ANYONE in the first place, much less implementing restrictions on who can get married. I am undecided about abortion, though ultimately I believe in a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body–how to address this within the confines of the government and law I am not too sure about. I am happy with the status quo I suppose.

-Business is self regulating. Just stop it. This is absolutely not true, and even if it was, it would move at a snail’s pace. If I have learned anything in my life is that people always want to take a bigger slice of the pie and will push the limits to the absolute max to attain it. This was evident in the financial crisis of 2008. You cannot roll back government regulation and expect business to take care of itself. This only works if all businesses are small and do not have the ability to take down the economy with their collapse. I have no problem with big business overall (walmart sells me shit I need for real cheap–that is great!)

-Smaller government, except for the military. We spend more money than something like the next 20 countries behind us in defense spending. I work in the defense industry and even I find this egregious. We don’t need more ships, we don’t need more boots. We need to evaluate our defense posture and make sure it is adequate to respond to the actual threats of today, and not those of yester-year. You do not save money by moving jobs from the federal government (DOD) to private contractors–all my contractors have rates over double my salary! How on earth does that save money? There is no way private industry is so damn efficient they can overcome a 2.5x cost increase to do the same job.

I will stop here now as my eyes are watering and I’m sure I am rambling. I could probably come up with more things, but its late and I’m tired.

I welcome discussion and counter points to my positions. Not opposed to learning where I may be wrong, or just hearing opposing viewpoints.
[/quote]

Fuck I can’t believe I forgot the idiocy that is the birther movement. This sort of veiled racism, or whatever the fuck it is, absolutely disgusts me. It started with the secret-Muslim thing of the 2008 preliminary campaign and devolved into a national witch hunt to find his birth certificate led by Donald Fucking Trump. Jesus christ. I hope this will go away now.

64

[quote]Sloth wrote:
Screw the birth control issue. You want your birth control? You buy it. I’d watch the Republican party burn to the ground before I’d vote for a party that supports the HHS mandate. [/quote]

Some people feel the same way about the tax-exempt status of religious institutions.

65

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]Sloth wrote:
Screw the birth control issue. You want your birth control? You buy it. I’d watch the Republican party burn to the ground before I’d vote for a party that supports the HHS mandate. [/quote]

Some people feel the same way about the tax-exempt status of religious institutions.[/quote]

Then they can come bring turkeys down here to feed the hungry for thanksgiving. Hey, if it get’s revoked it get’s revoked. At least more clergy will be freed to endorse candidates directly. Now the HHS mandate, that’s a piece of tyranny right there. Not that we’ll comply.

66

[quote]countingbeans wrote:
Here is a rough outline of what has been in my head lately, and this is just a rough draft.

  1. The center, what is a moderate today, has shifted so far left, we may be lost forever down the spiral. But, that being said, someone like Ron Paul or Gary Johnson has no shot what-so-ever in today’s world. Conservatives have to understand this, and start slowly pulling the center back to where it belongs.

[/quote]

I may be putting words into your mouth here, but isn’t this basically just saying double down on the tea party platform?

If that is truly what you are saying, I couldn’t disagree more. Your base is already fired up–moving further to the right may get them more engaged, I guess, but I definitely don’t see doubling down on this right wing extremism as the way to lure moderate indepeendents and democrats into the party. As I noted before, it is this extremism that has pushed me FURTHER to the left in recent years, so much to the point I finally decided to become politcally active.

I just don’t see this as a good strategy.

67

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]666Rich wrote:
The right alienates a large majority of the populace by clinging to social issues, which are outside the scope of government or highly unlikely to be changed.

I dont think you will see a Republican president, even with a full majority overturning Roe V Wade. Yet all the questions about it get asked.

Gay marriage? Hardly even an issue of government.

These positions might be good for the religious voting block. They are dwindling though. They are also effectively countered by the urban religious/community organization voting blocks.

I would say that alot of younger professional, and educated people would be more inclined to listen to the republican party if they dropped their social diatribes, as earning a paycheck makes one reticent to pay more in taxes.

Investing in someone who actually knows marketing and branding would help. [/quote]

Lots of this

As a person who has only gotten politically involved within the last 4 years due to the flippant and disgusting acts I have seen from the Republican party, I will offer my two cents on why I would not ever consider voting for them in their current format, and what changes they could make that might change my opinion:

-View on Global Warming: Yes I know the Republicans are the party of business, and economic regulations inherently hurt business interests. But the fact that we can’t even get the majority to acknowledge that global warming is even a THING (much less move the discussion to the other important factors: is it man-made, can we do something about it, and are the costs worth the benefits) is disgusting to me. I can not get behind a party that so willfully neglects basic science. I take the view of 90%+ of scientists who say that global warming is a thing. This was not an issue for the old Republican party of the 90’s, so why is it an issue now? Regression.

-Trickle down economics. Please stop with the myth. The numbers do not show that cutting taxes for the very wealthy leads to more wealth to the middle class. The gap between the uber-rich and middle class has grown at a vulgar rate over the past 40 years, and the middle class standard of living has remained largely unchanged. This is not the “trickle” i would hope for as a middle class America.

-Gay Rights and other social issues forced into the Republican mainstream by their bible humping constituents. I take a very libertarian view on these issues. I do not even think the government should be involved in the business of marriage between ANYONE in the first place, much less implementing restrictions on who can get married. I am undecided about abortion, though ultimately I believe in a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body–how to address this within the confines of the government and law I am not too sure about. I am happy with the status quo I suppose.

-Business is self regulating. Just stop it. This is absolutely not true, and even if it was, it would move at a snail’s pace. If I have learned anything in my life is that people always want to take a bigger slice of the pie and will push the limits to the absolute max to attain it. This was evident in the financial crisis of 2008. You cannot roll back government regulation and expect business to take care of itself. This only works if all businesses are small and do not have the ability to take down the economy with their collapse. I have no problem with big business overall (walmart sells me shit I need for real cheap–that is great!)

-Smaller government, except for the military. We spend more money than something like the next 20 countries behind us in defense spending. I work in the defense industry and even I find this egregious. We don’t need more ships, we don’t need more boots. We need to evaluate our defense posture and make sure it is adequate to respond to the actual threats of today, and not those of yester-year. You do not save money by moving jobs from the federal government (DOD) to private contractors–all my contractors have rates over double my salary! How on earth does that save money? There is no way private industry is so damn efficient they can overcome a 2.5x cost increase to do the same job.

I will stop here now as my eyes are watering and I’m sure I am rambling. I could probably come up with more things, but its late and I’m tired.

I welcome discussion and counter points to my positions. Not opposed to learning where I may be wrong, or just hearing opposing viewpoints.
[/quote]

Fuck I can’t believe I forgot the idiocy that is the birther movement. This sort of veiled racism, or whatever the fuck it is, absolutely disgusts me. It started with the secret-Muslim thing of the 2008 preliminary campaign and devolved into a national witch hunt to find his birth certificate led by Donald Fucking Trump. Jesus christ. I hope this will go away now. [/quote]
Agree with most of this. The global warming issue isn’t that important to me but I understand where you’re coming from and agree.

The main issue I have with the Republican party and Conservatives is how blatantly they manipulate the public. They use fear and play on people’s emotions to manipulate people. They criticize liberals for things they themselves then do. You get this with liberals too, but it’s just much more common and noticeable with them. I just hate that people can’t see past all the BS with politicians. Moderate conservatives seem to be pretty reasonable but I know a lot continue to vote Republican even if they don’t agree with the candidate on many issues.

The fact of the matter is Romney was never a strong candidate. It was just like the 2004 with John Kerry. Conservatives were never fired up about him in the Republican primary and he changed his positions again after that. There is just no way of knowing what he would actually do as President. Romney/Ryan’s 20% tax cut while keeping revenue the same was also BS. When you saw that interview with Ryan where he’s asked specifically and repeatedly what’s the lowest tax rate that would yield the highest revenue, and he chuckles and says he doesn’t have the math in front of him, you realized how full of shit his “plans” were. It’s two digit number to remember and you should know it by heart if you’re in charge of the House budget committee and creating a 20% tax cut plan that doesn’t subtract revenue.

The vote suppression thing was pretty despicable. It’s been said before but they’re definitely behind on the social issues front. A lot of those issues the government shouldn’t have a hand in anyways. There is also the issue of Republicans stonewalling the president from getting stuff done he was elected by the majority to do. It being more important to Republican leaders he’s a one term president probably because he’s half black. Hey if some of them believe rape is ok or that women can’t get pregnant from non-consensual rape, is it really a stretch to believe they might be racists too? I think people also forgot about the debt ceiling issue that Republicans used and didn’t budge on that actually got the US’s credit rating downgraded.

Back to the manipulation, fear mongering thing. You have people who believe Obama is trying to single handedly destroy America and with 4 more years he’ll have done it. It’s sick and you have to be an idiot to believe that kind of shit.

68

[quote]pat wrote:

[quote]pittbulll wrote:

[quote]countingbeans wrote:

[quote]pittbulll wrote:
I don’t know but I would say the long game of the RNC would be to try and convince everyone they are some how Moderate Conservative [/quote]

All that does is allow the center to get pulled further left.

The long game needs to include the opposite of what you are implying. We need (both parties) to bring the center back to the actual center. Right now “center” is a solid democrat a couple decades ago.

“Moderate conservatives” have brought us such wonders as the Patriot Act. They need to go away with the progressives. [/quote]

You have to look at reality . the left is were center used to be and the right is out in the boonies[/quote]

What the hell part of Arizona do you live in? That state is as red as it can get. Is there like a gay, liberal red light district in Phoenix?[/quote

Scottsdale , I am sure that there is everything you could want here ?

69

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
I guess, but I definitely don’t see doubling down on this right wing extremism as the way to lure moderate indepeendents and democrats into the party.
[/quote]

Only to a democrat in America would fiscal responsibility, constitutional rule of law and civil liberty be “right wing extremism”.

Wow

70

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
that has pushed me FURTHER to the left in recent years, so much to the point I finally decided to become politcally active.

I just don’t see this as a good strategy.
[/quote]

Based on the depth of your arguments, love for stale talking points and inability to apparently do math; you weren’t pushed, you fit perfectly with the statists.

But anyway, this thread isn’t about you.

71

[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
And, whatever the case, none of this is Romney’s fault. Before he can run against Obama, he has to come out of the GOP primary, so he has to pass the litmus test currently in place. [/quote]

Definitely. Romney ran a great campaign and there wasn’t much that he could have done better. The bottom line is that this election is showing that there is some fundamental aspect of the Republican views that does not click with American voters, to the point that they will choose to keep a guy like Obama in office rather then elect a man like Romney. I do find comfort in the fact that instead of casting blame and getting nasty, we are discussing what went wrong and why, so maybe the problem can be fixed.[/quote]

The biggest issues are being “moderate” on economic fronts, and hardline conservative on social fronts. A simple swap of the two, coupled with media having a shred of integrity, would do wonders.

I’m not asking anyone to change how they feel, or how they would govern. Just simply move to a “I believe XYZ to be true, but it is ultimately up to the people. I can’t force my opinions on the subject upon my constituents, if they happen to disagree.”

But again, this is all moot. The republicans couldn’t beat one of the biggest failures of a president in history with the most liberal republican they could find…

The republicans have lost the media, the narrative, and based on last night, hope apparently. How there wasn’t record republican turnout baffles me.

72

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]666Rich wrote:
The right alienates a large majority of the populace by clinging to social issues, which are outside the scope of government or highly unlikely to be changed.

I dont think you will see a Republican president, even with a full majority overturning Roe V Wade. Yet all the questions about it get asked.

Gay marriage? Hardly even an issue of government.

These positions might be good for the religious voting block. They are dwindling though. They are also effectively countered by the urban religious/community organization voting blocks.

I would say that alot of younger professional, and educated people would be more inclined to listen to the republican party if they dropped their social diatribes, as earning a paycheck makes one reticent to pay more in taxes.

Investing in someone who actually knows marketing and branding would help. [/quote]

Lots of this

As a person who has only gotten politically involved within the last 4 years due to the flippant and disgusting acts I have seen from the Republican party, I will offer my two cents on why I would not ever consider voting for them in their current format, and what changes they could make that might change my opinion:

-View on Global Warming: Yes I know the Republicans are the party of business, and economic regulations inherently hurt business interests. But the fact that we can’t even get the majority to acknowledge that global warming is even a THING (much less move the discussion to the other important factors: is it man-made, can we do something about it, and are the costs worth the benefits) is disgusting to me. I can not get behind a party that so willfully neglects basic science. I take the view of 90%+ of scientists who say that global warming is a thing. This was not an issue for the old Republican party of the 90’s, so why is it an issue now? Regression.

-Trickle down economics. Please stop with the myth. The numbers do not show that cutting taxes for the very wealthy leads to more wealth to the middle class. The gap between the uber-rich and middle class has grown at a vulgar rate over the past 40 years, and the middle class standard of living has remained largely unchanged. This is not the “trickle” i would hope for as a middle class America.

-Gay Rights and other social issues forced into the Republican mainstream by their bible humping constituents. I take a very libertarian view on these issues. I do not even think the government should be involved in the business of marriage between ANYONE in the first place, much less implementing restrictions on who can get married. I am undecided about abortion, though ultimately I believe in a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body–how to address this within the confines of the government and law I am not too sure about. I am happy with the status quo I suppose.

-Business is self regulating. Just stop it. This is absolutely not true, and even if it was, it would move at a snail’s pace. If I have learned anything in my life is that people always want to take a bigger slice of the pie and will push the limits to the absolute max to attain it. This was evident in the financial crisis of 2008. You cannot roll back government regulation and expect business to take care of itself. This only works if all businesses are small and do not have the ability to take down the economy with their collapse. I have no problem with big business overall (walmart sells me shit I need for real cheap–that is great!)

-Smaller government, except for the military. We spend more money than something like the next 20 countries behind us in defense spending. I work in the defense industry and even I find this egregious. We don’t need more ships, we don’t need more boots. We need to evaluate our defense posture and make sure it is adequate to respond to the actual threats of today, and not those of yester-year. You do not save money by moving jobs from the federal government (DOD) to private contractors–all my contractors have rates over double my salary! How on earth does that save money? There is no way private industry is so damn efficient they can overcome a 2.5x cost increase to do the same job.

I will stop here now as my eyes are watering and I’m sure I am rambling. I could probably come up with more things, but its late and I’m tired.

I welcome discussion and counter points to my positions. Not opposed to learning where I may be wrong, or just hearing opposing viewpoints.
[/quote]

Fuck I can’t believe I forgot the idiocy that is the birther movement. This sort of veiled racism, or whatever the fuck it is, absolutely disgusts me. It started with the secret-Muslim thing of the 2008 preliminary campaign and devolved into a national witch hunt to find his birth certificate led by Donald Fucking Trump. Jesus christ. I hope this will go away now. [/quote]

The racism issues are ubiquitous, you can always point a finger at the problem but when you put your on it, a conservative will come up with some reasoning that satisfies other conservatives there’s nothing wrong, but rarely does it suffice as a reason to convince those who are violated. Huma Abedin, voter I.D., Arizona laws are all examples. You either feel very violated and can put a finger on the racism, or you buy into the explanations and believe everything is just fine. Funny thing how most minorities feel the above are examples of racism. There is also this attempt by the Republican party to define things as if they are some sort of authority, be it what an ‘American’ is, or what it is to be a patriot…

You Conservatives… See how easy it is to dismiss my complaints? That is how I know you don’t give two shits about my experiences or perceptions of this country or the way I feel people should be treated. I think the Republican party did some permanent damage to their ability to garner the latino vote. Old Cubans in Fl are dying off and aren’t making friends with the latino youth. The wake from Ronald Reagan’s years has been ridden to death, the party is viewed as that old racist uncle who that nobody wants to invite to family get togethers.

Need to garner the latino vote, and stop with the covert racism.

73

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]666Rich wrote:
The right alienates a large majority of the populace by clinging to social issues, which are outside the scope of government or highly unlikely to be changed.

I dont think you will see a Republican president, even with a full majority overturning Roe V Wade. Yet all the questions about it get asked.

Gay marriage? Hardly even an issue of government.

These positions might be good for the religious voting block. They are dwindling though. They are also effectively countered by the urban religious/community organization voting blocks.

I would say that alot of younger professional, and educated people would be more inclined to listen to the republican party if they dropped their social diatribes, as earning a paycheck makes one reticent to pay more in taxes.

Investing in someone who actually knows marketing and branding would help. [/quote]

Lots of this

As a person who has only gotten politically involved within the last 4 years due to the flippant and disgusting acts I have seen from the Republican party, I will offer my two cents on why I would not ever consider voting for them in their current format, and what changes they could make that might change my opinion:

-View on Global Warming: Yes I know the Republicans are the party of business, and economic regulations inherently hurt business interests. But the fact that we can’t even get the majority to acknowledge that global warming is even a THING (much less move the discussion to the other important factors: is it man-made, can we do something about it, and are the costs worth the benefits) is disgusting to me. I can not get behind a party that so willfully neglects basic science. I take the view of 90%+ of scientists who say that global warming is a thing. This was not an issue for the old Republican party of the 90’s, so why is it an issue now? Regression.

-Trickle down economics. Please stop with the myth. The numbers do not show that cutting taxes for the very wealthy leads to more wealth to the middle class. The gap between the uber-rich and middle class has grown at a vulgar rate over the past 40 years, and the middle class standard of living has remained largely unchanged. This is not the “trickle” i would hope for as a middle class America.

-Gay Rights and other social issues forced into the Republican mainstream by their bible humping constituents. I take a very libertarian view on these issues. I do not even think the government should be involved in the business of marriage between ANYONE in the first place, much less implementing restrictions on who can get married. I am undecided about abortion, though ultimately I believe in a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body–how to address this within the confines of the government and law I am not too sure about. I am happy with the status quo I suppose.

-Business is self regulating. Just stop it. This is absolutely not true, and even if it was, it would move at a snail’s pace. If I have learned anything in my life is that people always want to take a bigger slice of the pie and will push the limits to the absolute max to attain it. This was evident in the financial crisis of 2008. You cannot roll back government regulation and expect business to take care of itself. This only works if all businesses are small and do not have the ability to take down the economy with their collapse. I have no problem with big business overall (walmart sells me shit I need for real cheap–that is great!)

-Smaller government, except for the military. We spend more money than something like the next 20 countries behind us in defense spending. I work in the defense industry and even I find this egregious. We don’t need more ships, we don’t need more boots. We need to evaluate our defense posture and make sure it is adequate to respond to the actual threats of today, and not those of yester-year. You do not save money by moving jobs from the federal government (DOD) to private contractors–all my contractors have rates over double my salary! How on earth does that save money? There is no way private industry is so damn efficient they can overcome a 2.5x cost increase to do the same job.

I will stop here now as my eyes are watering and I’m sure I am rambling. I could probably come up with more things, but its late and I’m tired.

I welcome discussion and counter points to my positions. Not opposed to learning where I may be wrong, or just hearing opposing viewpoints.
[/quote]

Good post.

74

[quote]pushharder wrote:
As Mark Twain said, history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. The next successful conservatives will differ from these men, but will follow the basic model of explaining plainly and confidently why a society that wants to survive must not punish those who play by the rules or are successful.

They need to show how a private market allocates resources better than even smart Ivy Leaguers working for a government bureaucracy.

They need to say that the American century only ends when we decide weâ??re no longer exceptional in mankindâ??s history, and choose the European model of decadent decline over a destiny of freedom and self-reliance.

[/quote]

There are some people doing that.

Recent statements about “GOP is racist” is proof the media and branding are major issues that need to be addressed. Because now it will morph into “GOP are racist rape supporters”.

75

I don’t think that Republicans need to stop talking about medicare and SS reform at all. Most people think it is necessary. But what voters in the blue states don’t want is for it to disappear completely and they don’t want the poor to be left in the dust. Comments like Rommney made about the 47% are exactly the type of rhetoric that just destroy his chances to win. You simply can’t shit on half of America and expect to take the country. He needed to be someone who unites not divides.

A lot of America is a swing state if this map is to be trusted:

That means that you need to spend time campaigning in those areas. They should also campaign in areas that are traditionally blue. Get a message out there to those voters instead of just giving up on them.

And many of you need to open your minds about voters and about the American public in general. I’ve seen comments here that people make about how American’s are lazy and just want handouts. If you don’t like most Americans then buy a bunker and go hide. That attitude is exactly what’s wrong with the Republican party.

james

76

[quote]atypical1 wrote:
That attitude is exactly what’s wrong with the Republican party.

james[/quote]

This thread as many examples of attitudes that are wrong with the Democratic party as well.

I know you see that, but I just wanted to point that out.

77

Yes but this is not a thread about the Dems long game. I would love to see the reps win over California but it’s a tough road.

James

78

Yes but this is not a thread about the Dems long game. I would love to see the reps win over California but it’s a tough road.

James

79

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:

[quote]666Rich wrote:
The right alienates a large majority of the populace by clinging to social issues, which are outside the scope of government or highly unlikely to be changed.

I dont think you will see a Republican president, even with a full majority overturning Roe V Wade. Yet all the questions about it get asked.

Gay marriage? Hardly even an issue of government.

These positions might be good for the religious voting block. They are dwindling though. They are also effectively countered by the urban religious/community organization voting blocks.

I would say that alot of younger professional, and educated people would be more inclined to listen to the republican party if they dropped their social diatribes, as earning a paycheck makes one reticent to pay more in taxes.

Investing in someone who actually knows marketing and branding would help. [/quote]

Lots of this

As a person who has only gotten politically involved within the last 4 years due to the flippant and disgusting acts I have seen from the Republican party, I will offer my two cents on why I would not ever consider voting for them in their current format, and what changes they could make that might change my opinion:

-View on Global Warming: Yes I know the Republicans are the party of business, and economic regulations inherently hurt business interests. But the fact that we can’t even get the majority to acknowledge that global warming is even a THING (much less move the discussion to the other important factors: is it man-made, can we do something about it, and are the costs worth the benefits) is disgusting to me. I can not get behind a party that so willfully neglects basic science. I take the view of 90%+ of scientists who say that global warming is a thing. This was not an issue for the old Republican party of the 90’s, so why is it an issue now? Regression.

-Trickle down economics. Please stop with the myth. The numbers do not show that cutting taxes for the very wealthy leads to more wealth to the middle class. The gap between the uber-rich and middle class has grown at a vulgar rate over the past 40 years, and the middle class standard of living has remained largely unchanged. This is not the “trickle” i would hope for as a middle class America.

-Gay Rights and other social issues forced into the Republican mainstream by their bible humping constituents. I take a very libertarian view on these issues. I do not even think the government should be involved in the business of marriage between ANYONE in the first place, much less implementing restrictions on who can get married. I am undecided about abortion, though ultimately I believe in a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body–how to address this within the confines of the government and law I am not too sure about. I am happy with the status quo I suppose.

-Business is self regulating. Just stop it. This is absolutely not true, and even if it was, it would move at a snail’s pace. If I have learned anything in my life is that people always want to take a bigger slice of the pie and will push the limits to the absolute max to attain it. This was evident in the financial crisis of 2008. You cannot roll back government regulation and expect business to take care of itself. This only works if all businesses are small and do not have the ability to take down the economy with their collapse. I have no problem with big business overall (walmart sells me shit I need for real cheap–that is great!)

-Smaller government, except for the military. We spend more money than something like the next 20 countries behind us in defense spending. I work in the defense industry and even I find this egregious. We don’t need more ships, we don’t need more boots. We need to evaluate our defense posture and make sure it is adequate to respond to the actual threats of today, and not those of yester-year. You do not save money by moving jobs from the federal government (DOD) to private contractors–all my contractors have rates over double my salary! How on earth does that save money? There is no way private industry is so damn efficient they can overcome a 2.5x cost increase to do the same job.

I will stop here now as my eyes are watering and I’m sure I am rambling. I could probably come up with more things, but its late and I’m tired.

I welcome discussion and counter points to my positions. Not opposed to learning where I may be wrong, or just hearing opposing viewpoints.
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Good post.[/quote]

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Yes, an important thing to remember is that the Democrats just be worried about the long game as well. While basking in victory - and deservedly so - they must remember that the American people have chosen Democrats to govern their way out of the mess we are in and we are headed to.

Look around - do the current leaders of the Democrats have any plan to do so? Nope. Bowles-Simpson or something like it will come roaring back - but there is no indication Obama or Pelosi are interested in big reform to entitlements, which is not a luxury, but a requirement.

That is not a good place to be, and in the next four years we may see deep cracks in the Democratic Party’s coalition if they don’t figure out how to handle the tasks they’ve been given.