# 2008 GOP, most unpopular party **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 22, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955 "2008-11-22T03:52:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955/21 "2008-11-22T21:20:28Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > [A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich | HuffPost Latest News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/candace-gingrich/a-letter-to-my-brother-ne_b_145739.html) > Here is Newt Gingrich’s sister telling him to get a clue. The world is changing and the repubs are not. Isn’t resistance to change what conservatism is all about? Well, that and fear mongering, xenophobia, paying lip service to the religious right and cutting taxes for the rich. Unless those are only the methods that conservatives use to resist change. Or maybe that’s only conservatism since the Reagan revolution, or Newt’s Contract on America. I wasn’t really politically aware in the 60’s and 70’s, aside from tricky Dick Nixon’s mudslinging, push-polling, enemies list, break-in at the DNC headquarters and subsequent coverup; but that’s no more the ‘core values’ of conservatism than Carter’s ineffectual handling of the Iran Hostage Crisis represents the ‘core values’ of the Democratic party. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955/22 "2008-11-22T21:52:49Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > (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?) As a real socialist Muslim Marxist terrorist ;), unlike that poseur Barry Obama, I find this all very disturbing. Obama ran on a combination of actual positions (on his website) for the curious, wrapped in reasonable facsimile of a GOP-style vapid campaign on image, feel-good noise, etc. Jerry Brown wrapped in Scharzenegger. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955/23 "2008-11-22T22:05:20Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I don’t doubt the quote, but I’d still like to see a cite; googling didn’t get me much better than [this](http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2772780.html) or (urk) [this](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2127287/posts). I’d just like to see it in context. Regardless, it’s pretty hilarious. [Straight from the horse’s mouth](http://chairmanduncan.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/national-press-club/). Incidentally, I got that from a link in the first post of the Freep thread… Just because it’s the Free Republic, doesn’t mean we have to completely ignore everything they say, just most of it. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955/24 "2008-11-22T22:17:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > [Straight from the horse’s mouth](http://chairmanduncan.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/national-press-club/). Wow, that is damn funny. AND incredibly bizarre. But not surprising. You lost, so now say the person you lost to really won because he used your ideas. I guess this is further proof that you nominated the wrong guy. Or, maybe he was the right guy, but you forced him to present the wrong ideas to the American people. Nice work. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955/25 "2008-11-22T22:22:12Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > 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. Yes – but at this point in our history, [it runs a lot deeper than that.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=426042) The Republican Party, since the rise of Reagan, has been definitely identified with ideological conservatism (which it never really was, before); and the popular appeal of **conservatism** is on the decline – **irreversibly,** because the decline results not from any swing of a pendulum or momentary fashion, but from deep-seated demographic and cultural and generational changes. Understand, we’re talking about changes on a generational time scale; there’s still a lot of social-conservative sentiment among the voters, as reflected by the passage of the anti-gay-marriage initiatives this year; and the ideological conservative movement is too well established, with its well-funded think-tanks and wholly owned media outlets and grass-roots organizations and astroturf organizations, to simply fade away. But henceforth, conservatism will find its appeal slipping, slowly but steadily, with each election cycle, in a one-step-forward-two-steps-back fashion. The Pubs won’t be coming back, as a party, until they re-invent themselves and purge their right wing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955/26 "2008-11-22T22:27:55Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > Isn’t resistance to change what conservatism is all about? Not exactly. [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10313993&highlight=wooldridge#post10313993) is what (contemporary American) conservatism is about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2008-gop-most-unpopular-party/473955.md?page=1)