# 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:** 3
**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, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/41 "2013-07-09T01:41:27Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > 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. That was never the case, actually, if you mean they stopped the **Democrats** from going too far. The Dems have never in their history approached that line. But the GOP used to have adults in it who kept **Pubs** from going to far. But the Pubs have never been a useful balance to the Dems. The only way our two-party system would work that way beneficially, each correcting the other’s overreach, would be if the two parties were the Democrats and the Socialists. ---
**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, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/42 "2013-07-09T01:46:28Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > 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. Their mistake, you see, is to think they can have those 20 kids and **keep** them. I think you’ll find second-generation Quiverfull families will be extremely rare. ---
**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, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/43 "2013-07-09T02:10:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > But the Pubs have never been a useful balance to the Dems. At least, not at any time later than the TR Administration. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/44 "2013-07-09T05:19:46Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > It seems the Republicans are dealing with being shut out of the WH by (1) at the federal level, playing the party-of-no role and (2) meanwhile, in any states they control, barreling forward-and-rightward at full-retard speed with guns blazing to enact probably [ALEC-crafted](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council) new abortion restrictions, cutbacks in public services and benefits, anti-labor-union legislation, voter-ID laws, anti-gay marriage resolutions, meaningless 10th-Amendment or “nullification” resolutions, etc., etc. [Some](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695705) [relevant](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695780) [recent](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=694846) [Pit](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=694843) [threads](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=690870). North Carolina’s legislature in particular appears to have gone completely off the rails and provoked a backlash of [“Moral Monday” protests.](http://swampland.time.com/2013/07/01/moral-mondays-religious-progressives-protest-north-carolina-policies/) And what Scott Walker has done in and to Wisconsin these past three years . . . > > In policy terms it may be that they are just doing what they believe in. But in electoral terms, this all makes sense only as a grand national Hail-Mary play: Betting that their RW base’s positive reaction to all of this will outweigh any anti-Pub backlash at the polls in November 2014. And there **will** be backlash. > > Will they win that bet or lose it, I wonder? Ignoring your quip, they’ll win. This isn’t like presidential elections. The House has a decided GOP bias because of how Congressional districts play out. Democrats tend to be concentrated heavily in major cities, whereas Republicans are more spread out. I can’t find the explicit right now, but over the past few years there has been a shift among congressional districts. There are now more “decidedly” GOP congressional districts than there are more “decidedly” Democratic districts, and even in “contested” districts, the GOP tends to have a slight advantage. ---
**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, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/45 "2013-07-09T05:24:06Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > I can’t find the explicit right now . . . Please try, it’s important. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/46 "2013-07-09T09:16:07Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Please try, it’s important. [Link](http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/cook-report/the-republican-advantage-20130411) ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/47 "2013-07-09T10:03:28Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > 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. Your analysis is just as absurd as that of **adaher**. By this logic, the Amish should be taking over the country (or at least Pennsylvania and Ohio) considering their birth-rates. The Quiverfull is a joke practically speaking just like the Christian Reconstructionist movement and their impact on future American politics is roughly equivalent to that of the Maoists or the Hoxhaists (alright that’s a bit too far, maybe they’ll be about as relevant as the Green Party). Considering the numbers of Evangelicals who are supporting the Democrats (such as yours truly) or are leaving the faith outright along with the growth of the Hispanic and Asian populations, the GOP based on its current platform is doomed to demographic irrelevance. 2010 was the last hurrah and will be seen by future generations as equivalent to the sack of Rome 17 centuries before. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/48 "2013-07-09T10:18:15Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > To victory? They are doing what their masters _want._ Popularity really has jack-all to do with wisdom.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. The Democrats are essentially playing the same identity politics game (and indeed is probably responsible for such a move with the rise of the civil rights and feminist movements) albeit with blacks, public employee unions, homosexuals, and abortion rights activists rather than the Christian Right. > [@](#): > > 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. This all is a rather interesting plot for a dystopian novel but irrelevant to future politics-how many people would be affected by moderate desertification anyways? Most agricultural production is now in the hand of agribusinesses and the number of actual farmers even in the farm states are quite small. > [@](#): > > 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. That is the exact opposite of what should be done-too much of the Democrats’ platform is simply “we’ll maintain the status quo of the New Deal-Great Society-Civil Rights-Sexual Revolution with gay marriage thrown in which the Republicans will wholly reverse” rather than a bold platform that overturns stereotypes and expectations by say advocating a programme of construction of dozens of new nuclear power plants. > [@](#): > > 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. Admittedly the Democrats haven’t helped by associating themselves by and large with groups advocating abortion, but the fact is enough Evangelicals (combined with other demographics) vote Democratic to easily beat the Christian Right. > [@](#): > > 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. Considering there will be no civil war anytime soon, this is quite silly. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/49 "2013-07-09T10:20:21Z")
Well, at least the left is true to form. If the people stand in the way of the government, the government can simply dissolve the people and elect a new people. That seems to be the strategy here. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/50 "2013-07-09T11:27:35Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Well, at least the left is true to form. If the people stand in the way of the government, the government can simply dissolve the people and elect a new people. That seems to be the strategy here. I’m not sure if you realize, but this is pretty close to the “secret conspiracy against white people” stuff. Cloud cuckoo land. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/51 "2013-07-09T11:36:53Z")
Then can the triumphalism about how we’re going to have a new people soon. First, it’s not going to happen, second, it’s un-American. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/52 "2013-07-09T12:41:07Z")
Where did you/your ancestors come from, **adaher**? And when did they/you become Americans, by your definition? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/53 "2013-07-09T12:51:49Z")
You’re missing the point. America is a diverse country with many political viewpoints and always has been. Democrats are looking forward to a day when America becomes less diverse politically. They seem tired of all this messy democracy stuff and would rather just have a people who will rubberstamp whatever they feel like doing. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/54 "2013-07-09T13:13:29Z")
Oh no we are looking forward to a day were we can have adult opposition instead of childish anti intelectualist sexist racist homophobic opposition we have now. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/55 "2013-07-09T13:14:03Z")
Says the guy whose party’s winning strategy actually includes actual undermining of democratic principles. The liberal hope/expectation is that demographic trends will result in more fellow citizens’ agreeing with us. The right’s strategy is to prevent them from voting, to dilute their voting strength, or otherwise frustrate their democratic voices. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/56 "2013-07-09T13:17:51Z")
Wow…that’s some pretty advanced projection. I’d be impressed if it weren’t projection of some of the most anti-democracy policies in the modern era. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/57 "2013-07-09T13:20:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > You’re missing the point. America is a diverse country with many political viewpoints and always has been. Democrats are looking forward to a day when America becomes less diverse politically. They seem tired of all this messy democracy stuff and would rather just have a people who will rubberstamp whatever they feel like doing. You are incorrect, at least about the Democrats I know. Most Democrats (and certainly most liberals) want an actual liberal party, and a sane conservative party. What we have right now is a milquetoast center to center-right party, and a (mostly) right-wing-nuttery party. I envision a conservative party that feels ashamed of and boots the nutjobs like Bachmann, Steve King, et al, and a liberal party that demands actual progressive policies like universal health care. So far, you’ve been almost entirely wrong about what real-world Democrats actually want and support. If you need help, I’d be happy to provide you with a real-world Democratic perspective. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/58 "2013-07-09T14:33:11Z")
Then why celebrate a possible future where most voters are assumed to be Democrats based on nothing more than their race? That’s an illiberal future. Thankfully, Democrats are completely wrong about what demographic changes will mean. ---
**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, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/59 "2013-07-09T14:36:00Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Democrats are looking forward to a day when America becomes less diverse politically. Looking forward to a day when [“Staunch Conservatives”](http://www.people-press.org/2011/05/04/typology-group-profiles/) are largely a thing of the past, certainly, as any good and decent American should, as their thinking has absolutely no . . . what’s it called . . . value. But that does not mean America by that time will be less diverse politically than it is now. It might be much more so. It has long been said that American political opinion spans the whole spectrum from A to B. There are a great many political tendencies important in other countries and almost unrepresented here; the slow death of the far right will clear space for them. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884/60 "2013-07-09T15:06:04Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Then why celebrate a possible future where most voters are assumed to be Democrats based on nothing more than their race? That’s an illiberal future. No, actually. You misunderstand our point. We don’t think they’ll be voting Democratic solely because of their race (or gender, or orientation). We think they’ll largely be voting Democratic because of how much the Republican base (and the Teabagger politicians they vote for) is enthusiastically willing to let those people know how much that same Republican base hates them for their race, gender or orientation. Of course, you miss this point because you seem to be incapable of imagining that the Republican Party can possibly do any wrong therefore of COURSE it’s not hatred or racism or homophobia or misogyny! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-all-this-republican-overreach-going-to-play-out-in-november-2014/662884.md?page=4)