# How is all this Republican overreach going to play out in November 2014? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 7, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884 "2013-07-07T18:55:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/21 "2013-07-08T02:02:30Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Until Fox News says the Republicans have gone too far it won’t matter. Do you expect people who voted for Romney in the last election to pick up a newspaper, look at anything other than right-wing web sites, or watch anything other than Fox News? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Really? This useless drivel again? Doesn’t that broadbrush ever get too heavy? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/22 "2013-07-08T02:19:06Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The poll often cited is about as loaded as polls get. Well, you _are_ the resident expert on polls. :rolleyes: ---
**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:** [July 8, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/23 "2013-07-08T02:23:51Z")
It’s not about flipping voters from R to D. It’s about energizing voters. > [@](#): > > Quoth **DigitalC** : > > They’ll do fine, their voters are simply more reliable in mid terms than ours. Plus there is always gay rights, gun control and irs-gate to get them motivated. This doesn’t necessarily have to be so. If the liberal demographics get more outraged at Republicans, they’ll become more reliable in mid-terms. And you might even get some Republican voters who aren’t annoyed enough to switch parties, but who are annoyed enough to stay home. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/24 "2013-07-08T02:25:40Z")
**Adaher** : Nate Silver took a look at this recently: NOW you’re listening to Silver? That cracks me up! ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/25 "2013-07-08T02:51:29Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: > > Really? This useless drivel again? Doesn’t that broadbrush ever get too heavy? > > :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: It’s a heavy burden to be sure, but I am part of the reality-based community. In the world of Fox News Obama is a socialist, Muslim born in Kenya who has raised taxes and under whom the economy is declining. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/26 "2013-07-08T02:51:42Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > **Adaher** : Nate Silver took a look at this recently: > > NOW you’re listening to Silver? That cracks me up! Well, Silver is now saying things that **adaher** likes hearing. It’s all a part of that delusional thing I mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/27 "2013-07-08T04:06:02Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Plus there is always gay rights, gun control and irs-gate to get them motivated. But not them alone. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/28 "2013-07-08T15:46:48Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > It’s a heavy burden to be sure, but I am part of the reality-based community. In the world of Fox News Obama is a socialist, Muslim born in Kenya who has raised taxes and under whom the economy is declining. Yeah, yeah…everyone that votes differently than you do is stupid, immoral, meany-pants. Don’t you ever get tired of singing that song? Maybe try to have an honest dialogue without poisoning the well with that sort of hyperbole? Accept the notion that people that disagree with your politics are not necessarily evil or ill informed? ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/29 "2013-07-08T16:09:04Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Yeah, yeah…everyone that votes differently than you do is stupid, immoral, meany-pants. Not everyone. But the reason your favored candidates win at all, is that they have crafted a secondary set of facts that misinformed people believe is true. There are dumb people on both sides of the aisle, but 21st century Republicans specifically cater to them. You aren’t stupid. But I’ll bet you know people who believe absolute horseshit that vote the exact same way you do, right? > [@](#): > > Don’t you ever get tired of singing that song? Maybe try to have an honest dialogue without poisoning the well with that sort of hyperbole? Accept the notion that people that disagree with your politics are not necessarily evil or ill informed? Not-necessarily, but because of Palin, Hannity, Savage, Limbaugh, Beck, Levin, and a hundred other bellowing morons, many, if not most 21st century Republicans believe in some odiously stupid things. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/30 "2013-07-08T16:10:44Z")
And the one’s that are, in fact, one or the other? Either ill-informed themselves or cynical and debased enough to exploit it in others? People who are willing to tell women that an abortion will increase their chances to get breast cancer, for instance? Or willing to insist that doctors lie to women and tell them that? Perhaps a standard disclaimer, something like “Not all Republicans are Satan-spawn, but enough of them are, and the rest aren’t doing anything about it”? Would you have us engage civilly and politely with people who flat don’t deserve it, just to protect your delicate sensibilities? Louie Gohmert does not deserve my polite regard. Nor does Scott Walker, or Rick Santorum, or Rick Perry, or Darryl Issa, or… Who, exactly, do you have in mind, who will you offer us as worthy of our respectful attention? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/31 "2013-07-08T16:20:57Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Yeah, yeah…everyone that votes differently than you do is stupid, immoral, meany-pants. Don’t you ever get tired of singing that song? Maybe try to have an honest dialogue without poisoning the well with that sort of hyperbole? Accept the notion that people that disagree with your politics are not necessarily evil or ill informed? Well, if you can be read as speaking in any sense for the GOP/RW, then **this** is certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle black, and very nearly a case of the pot calling the china black. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/32 "2013-07-08T16:37:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Well, if you can be read as speaking in any sense for the GOP/RW, then **this** is certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle black, and very nearly a case of the pot calling the china black. I don’t do the broadbrush thing often…I will attack idiotic ideas, like most of the ones you propose, but I generally refrain from saying that all liberals are stupid, evil, immoral, etc. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/33 "2013-07-08T17:05:21Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I don’t do the broadbrush thing often…I will attack idiotic ideas, like most of the ones you propose, but I generally refrain from saying that all liberals are stupid, evil, immoral, etc. That is why I qualified with “if you can be read as speaking in any sense for the GOP/RW.” On average their broadbrush vitriol is immeasurably worse, these past 30 years, than the LW’s. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/34 "2013-07-08T20:30:57Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Plus again the OP is making the mistake of labeling popular initiatives as “overreach”. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > This abortion measure in Texas, the one Davis filibustered and which they called another special session to pass, is really not very popular in Texas, all news reports agree. > [@adaher](#): > > The poll often cited is about as loaded as polls get. Are abortion restrictions already tough enough? Shouldn’t they be more focused on the economy? 1. Cite/link to the poll from which you are getting that language, please. 2. So do you have a poll (and not from Rassmussen, please, that’s as loaded as polls get) saying the bill is popular? ---
**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:** [July 8, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/35 "2013-07-08T21:38:53Z")
To victory? They are doing what their masters _want._ Popularity really has jack-all to do with wisdom. > [@adaher](#): > > Republicans control most of the states plus the House. It’s hardly an “illusion” of adequacy. On the contrary, the predictions of imminent Democratic dominance are illusion built on hope as a plan. The country already experienced Democratic dominance and rejected it in record time: twice. Democrats will have to wait a long time for a third opportunity. Well, I might put it this way. The faction that runs the GOP is really, really good at winning elections in the same way the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the big Shi’i parties in Iraq are good at winning elections, and for the same reasons: They exploit identity politics and an ostensibly conservative pose within a plurality culture that carries a bias toward its own identity of ethnicity, religion, and the like. None of those parties gain any skill at governing from that, and in fact they have less reason to try to be better at governance, because of their natural electoral advantages. The so-called conservative movement has been so successful for so long that they have turned their own incompetence into something like a supposed virtue. It’s almost all identity politics now; no actual hard math or statecraft necessary. Will this blow up in their faces? Sort of. We can see the damage happening now in slow motion: With the desertification of the Great Plains; and the incapacity of not only the GOP, but the USA political system _in toto,_ to even acknowledge let alone respond to any environmental crisis of any kind, when several mortal ones are hitting at once; the time is foreseeable when the GOP will fail and be denounced because much of the USA will be dead and in ruins. But the denunciation will follow the ruination, not precede it, and the total loss of political power that awaits will only follow the denunciation. Other “errors” of the GOP, like the collapse of the middle class and contraction of social mobility, are not errors at all. A lack of social mobility does not cost the GOP seats, and in time should only serve to strengthen their base; peons turn to religion, and the so-called conservative movement own the churches lock, stock, and barrel. The probable timeline of the GOP’s downfall: desertification of the Great Plains -\> refugee crisis -\> mass religious revival (good for GOP) OR mass denunciation (bad for GOP) -\> removal from office if and only if a) denunciation option taken (admittedly more likely) and b) refugees have vote (already laws have been changed to prevent that). …-\>… End of USA when all of it is on fire or submerged -\> end of human life on Earth -\> End of GOP. How do we change this? At its most simple, a basic change in strategy. Be _against_ the damage done by the so-called conservative movement, not\* for\* the Democratic Party. You don’t drive out the Stalinists by trying to shore up the Mensheviks, or remove the House of Windsor by trying to make Franz, Duke of Bavaria the new King of Britain. The Democrats have lost and are in the popular mind the damned, literally. The future belongs to whomever can take the institutions of the Christian Republic and turn them away from ruin. I guess I’m either going to have to swallow my pride and rejoin the Grand Old Party or dedicate myself explicitly to its destruction and fight a civil war. Joy. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/36 "2013-07-08T21:42:24Z")
And spare me the demographics line. The Religious Right are winning and will win on the demographics. That’s what Quiverfull is about. Have twenty kids, then send them out to…_displace_ Hispanics and reclaim the country for Jebus, pink skin, and the English language. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/37 "2013-07-08T21:43:28Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I don’t do the broadbrush thing often…I will attack idiotic ideas, like most of the ones you propose, but I generally refrain from saying that all liberals are stupid, evil, immoral, etc. Presuming to speak for “us” - we appreciate your kindly forbearance. Generosity and restraint such as yours are virtues I can wholly admire and applaud without the slightest intention of adopting. Pip-pip! Good show, that. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/38 "2013-07-08T22:13:26Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Yeah, yeah…everyone that votes differently than you do is stupid, immoral, meany-pants. Don’t you ever get tired of singing that song? Maybe try to have an honest dialogue without poisoning the well with that sort of hyperbole? Accept the notion that people that disagree with your politics are not necessarily evil or ill informed? There used to be a Republican party that served as a balance to the Democrats. In many cases they were the “adults” that stopped things from going too far. The party was full of people from the ivy league and other top schools that understood the constitution, law, and the economy, and knowledge was seen as a good thing. That party is gone and has been replaced by a bunch of braying jackasses who disdain intellectuals and equate anecdotes with facts. Not everyone who is a Republican fits that description, but apparently more than half of them do as you can see by who they nominate and choose to serve as spokesmen. Can you imagine what William Buckley would think of Sara Palin? ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/39 "2013-07-08T23:02:11Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Republicans control most of the states plus the House. It’s hardly an “illusion” of adequacy. On the contrary, the predictions of imminent Democratic dominance are illusion built on hope as a plan. The country already experienced Democratic dominance and rejected it in record time: twice. Democrats will have to wait a long time for a third opportunity. Two posts up you said Republicans don’t have much power. Now you have correctly stated they control most of the states plus the house. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/40 "2013-07-09T01:39:19Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > How do we change this? At its most simple, a basic change in strategy. Be _against_ the damage done by the so-called conservative movement, not\* for\* the Democratic Party. You don’t drive out the Stalinists by trying to shore up the Mensheviks, or remove the House of Windsor by trying to make Franz, Duke of Bavaria the new King of Britain. But, you have to be for **something.** You seem to be suggesting that only some revolutionary alternative to the Republicrats would be acceptable, but, look around you, no such thing is in the field. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884.md?page=3)