# Marshall Plan for Republicans **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 15, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marshall-plan-for-republicans/472811 "2008-11-15T04:02:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marshall-plan-for-republicans/472811/21 "2008-11-18T05:37:11Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Would you accept help from people who screamed out this kind of gibbering insanity? This is the party that embraced both Bush and Rush Limbaugh. Incompetent insanity is their norm. I say let the party die. Another will spring up to replace it. Maybe a better one. ---
**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 18, 2008, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marshall-plan-for-republicans/472811/22 "2008-11-18T05:39:46Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > I think the Ds would do better to take this chance to try and legitimize the third(4th, 5th?) parties. Get together with the Libertarian leaders and hash out a strategy to turn them into the new opposition. Pour some gasoline on the fiscal/social conservative meltdown. > > When the enemy is down, you finish them. You don’t help them up (and don’t run upstairs either!). Classic boneheaded good-guy move. I largely agree. Tonight, not knowing this thread existed nor that such a silly idea was being floated, I was thinking about how the Dems could expand further. I considered that the key might be for the Dems to split in two. A new “Blue Dog”/“Progressive” split could pull even more voters away from the GOP. We would have three parties for a while, & the GOP, being a historically northern middle-class party that abandoned the north & the _petit bourgeois_, would have a tough row to hoe to prove it even belonged in politics anymore. ---
**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 18, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marshall-plan-for-republicans/472811/23 "2008-11-18T05:42:59Z")
> [@parthenokinesis](#): > > …there used to be some principles in the republican party which deserved to be in the debate. > > Smaller government, non-intervention, states rights. I still believe the republicans should lose those debates, but someone debating them sanely would help us come up with a more thoughtful policy, and a more balanced one. Smaller gov’t? Um, whatever, Medicare’s the big money suck & not going away. Already lost. States’ rights? We need to _have_ this debate, instead of falling for the trap again & again. Then we can keep it where it belongs, in moot courts. ---
**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 18, 2008, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marshall-plan-for-republicans/472811/24 "2008-11-18T05:47:53Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Both have a lot to gain. Republicans have for nearly thirty years claimed the crown of fiscal responsibility and now have a golden opportunity to prove they can walk the walk (and importantly, that Democrats can’t). Have you been paying attention the last eight years? The GOP had their golden opportunity & pawned it for casino money. They don’t belong in office, anywhere. Lucky we have secret ballots, or there would be calls to remove the franchise from GOP _voters._ The only question is whether the Democrats have any integrity either. I doubt it. We need a new party. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marshall-plan-for-republicans/472811.md?page=1)