From a recent Gallup poll:
Republicans, wake up and smell the coffee: YOU’RE ON THE WRONG TRACK, and Sarah Palin (and creatures of her ilk) are NOT helping you.
What’s the debate? Yes, we’ve got a poor economic situation, a financial system still struggling with a hair-raising crisis of epic proportions, two unsatisfactory wars, widespread international unpopularity, and a lot of domestic resentment on issues from immigration to health care to the Wall Street bailout.
Naturally, the party in power is going to be extremely unpopular, even if many Americans in theory agree with its positions.
Cite? How do we know that the Republican Party would become more popular overall if it cut loose from its religious-right base?
I indeed think the GOP would become more popular in the long run if the party cut itself loose from religious mediocrities like Sarah Palin.
The Gallup Poll seems like evidence to me that the GOP is slipping further.
If Sarah Palin were helping, I’d argue that the GOP’s approval rating wouldn’t be slipping post-election.
I suspect the recent slump in there numbers is simply a function of loosing the election. Previous to Nov. the people that were going to vote for McCain had a reason to say they supported the GOP, even if they were dissatisfied with the last four years. Now not so much.
And agree with Kimstu that Palin has little or nothing to do with the GOP’s current unpopularity.
I see the hardcore repubs as about 25 percent. They woo the gun nuts,religious fanatics and anti abortion vote to give them a chance. Many in those groups are voting against many of their own interests because they over load a single issue.
Palin is a symptom of the GOP’s problems, not the cause. Moderates who previously leaned right are getting fed up with the party’s craven religious pandering and blatant hypocrisy. (Mike Duncan, the head of the RNC for this past election cycle, said that Obama had run the most successful moderate Republican campaign in decades. Really, Mike? Weren’t you guys just saying a few weeks ago that he was a socialist Muslim Marxist terrorist?)
I recall how EVERYONE was saying after Watergate how the Republicans were doomed and how bad it was to be a Republican. Liberals were actually liberal and the “in” crowd.
Then came Jimmy Carter and Iran. Carter was a very genuine guy who really cared about people, but he didn’t know how to get anything done, being an “outside” in Washington.
So in 1980 not even 10 years after Watergate, the Dems were swept out and the election was really a re-aligning election.
Obama will have to prove he is the “change.” For a man elected for “not voting for the Iraq war,” and having spent most of his career running for President, he has a lot to prove, or the Democrats will be swept out in midterms.
It’s really the economy that changes the party in power. Obama is saying out of Iraq by 2011. No he needs to be out by midterm election and he needs the economic recovery to be in full swing to keep control of congress.
The Dems continued to hold onto a majority in Congress until 1994.
By the way, in my OP, I didn’t say Sarah Palin was at fault. I said that people like her (and her herself) are not helping the GOP’s continuing slide into political irrelevance.
Isn’t that what GD is for? If we knew, we could just do this in GQ.
From the OP’s link:
IOW, the GOP isn’t in a hurry to wake up, and smelling the coffee is right out.
But I’m kinda scared to think about what “more conservative” might mean. I’d thought “question reality” was more of a liberal bumper sticker. (I’d thought about getting one of those, myself. :)) But - and this is addressed to the GOP 59% - we intended that to be taken humorously, not as practical advice. 
Heh!
No kidding.
Well fine, get more conservative, GOP. We’ll check back in a couple years and see how that worked out for ya.
How exactly do you think it would become more popular if it cut off the 34% of the population that currently supports it? What you are saying essentially is that the GOP brand of it’s own volition as a singular entity should decide that all the people who run it are not within its best interests.
How exactly does that work?
I don’t doubt the quote, but I’d still like to see a cite; googling didn’t get me much better than this or (urk) this. I’d just like to see it in context. Regardless, it’s pretty hilarious.
“Cut off 34% of the poplulation”? Who said anything like that? Your assumptions and silly paraphrase about what I said are erroneous, entirely. I said cut loose “religious mediocities such as Sarah Palin.” Don’t let such fools lead your party, in other words.
But I guess it’s typically conservative thinking–“you’re either for me or you’re against me.” And that’s why the GOP is in its current state. Either you give the religious right exactly what they want–and ignore the concerns of anyone else–or else you’re “cutting them off.” Brilliant.
So, GOP: go ahead, kowtow to the religious right more than ever. See where that gets you.
Agreed. Even in spite of the current economic conditions, in spite of Bush being at the depths of unpopularity, even in spite of Obama probably being at the peak of his popularity (inevitably, some portion of the people who voted for him will find he isn’t meeting their expectations and be angry/disappointed)…in spite of all that, McCain still managed to net 46% of the popular vote. The Republican party is certainly not dead.
A lot of people who were upset about Bush’s decisions distanced themselves from the party, but I expect many will come back now that Obama is the one who will get the blame for anything that goes wrong. It also helps that that Obama has a lot of throwbacks to the Clinton era on his team, given how polarizing the Clintons are. You can bet that Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are going to have a lot of fun for the next few years.
On second thought, I guess maybe you’re saying 34% of the population are what I called “religious mediocrities.” That seems high to me, but maybe.
If you’re right, and everyone who currently self-identifies as a Republican is also a Palinesque religious mediocrity (which I said you should cut loose), then, yeah. The GOP is in big trouble.
But yes, I’m arguing that some of the people running the GOP are not in the best interests of the GOP. Did Dubya do the Republican Party any favors in the long term?
Or are there no leaders of the GOP who aren’t religious mediocrities?
In my opinion, the rank and file of non-mediocre religious wackos in the GOP should get their shit together and realize that some of their leaders are leading them to hell.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, 34% of the electorate in our system may as well be 3% or 4%. What you need is the 66% that opposes the 34%.
By the way, may I just add that I hate the assumption that Christian or religious = “conservative” (in the Palinesque sense.)
I know loads of liberal Christians. I know some some liberal Muslims. Jewish people I know who are liberals are a dime a dozen.
The Republicans do not moral authority. It’s high time they figured that out (and I speak as a former Republican.)
Here is Newt Gingrich’s sister telling him to get a clue. The world is changing and the repubs are not.