# Obama's 2nd term: what will be GOP's top goal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 22, 2012, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613 "2012-02-22T06:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/61 "2012-03-04T12:35:26Z")
Impeachment bid. 2 to 1 odds. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/62 "2012-03-05T03:20:23Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I’m about four times as old as **Qin** , and I remember, slightly, the election of 1960. There was indeed great antipathy against Nixon even then. My father told me he was a crook. “Know Nixon: No Nixon” was a popular bumper sticker. As far as I recall, the antipathy was directed more against his character than his policies. Recall that Nixon achieved his initial fame by being, in effect, a disciple of Joseph McCarthy. :smack: Oh, yeah. Tricky Dick. I never had the sense that it was a “liberal” thing to detest the guy, though; just a Democrat thing. For that matter, the entire “liberal/conservative” dichotomy as **Qin** perceives it today didn’t really map onto the Democratic and Republican parties nearly so directly in the 60s and 70s. > [@septimus](#): > > Given what we now know of Nixon’s methods, I think fairness requires that we view those who “hated” Nixon in 1960 as wise judges of character, not merely “liberal hounders.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/63 "2012-03-05T05:10:09Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > For that matter, the entire “liberal/conservative” dichotomy as **Qin** perceives it today didn’t really map onto the Democratic and Republican parties nearly so directly in the 60s and 70s. > > 😃 Not to hijack (actually, it might be rather germane), but I’m genuinely curious…what _did_ being a D or R mean then, instead? Just happenstance – like growing up in a household of, say, Dallas Cowboys fans, and so becoming one yourself, though it really doesn’t _mean_ anything? FDR sounded pretty much like a modern liberal Dem to me. And, say, McKinley, sounded pretty much like a modern conservative Rep. I think you have to go all the way back to the Civil War to find Dems and Reps not representing what we think of as Libs and Cons. Or am I wrong about this? ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/64 "2012-03-05T07:13:25Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What will be the GOP’s top goal? > > Or will their goal be more long-term? To tarnish the legacy of Obama to the greatest extent possible and marginalize anything and everything he has/will accomplish? That is basically what I see happening; no real shift in willingness to work with Obama. Despite the fact that they’ve failed at their mission to make him a one-termer. It’ll be a long slough. There will be another debt ceiling battle very early in 2013. Republicans will likely make that an ugly battle to the brink once again, and the Dems will once again not cave on entitlement reform. Both sides will again largely ignore the Bowles-Simpson committee proposals. Short stop gap sending bills would not surprise me. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 & 2003 will again be due to expire at the end of 2012, if I recall correctly. The Democrats once again will try to get the middle class tax cuts extended, ending some of the tax loop holes, and raise taxes on individuals in the top bracket. Obama proposed recently to lower corporate tax to 28% and 25% for manufacturers. A lot of bickering will ensue, but its uncertain how the legislative results will play out. The Iran-Israel situation is somewhat of a wild card as far as how that plays out, but Republicans will accuse the president of leading from behind and being weak on Iran no matter what Obama does. The House would jump at the chance to impeach if there’s any reason to. I wouldn’t expect much legislative accomplishment other than the absolutely necessary votes with the debt ceiling, expiring tax cuts, and other necessary budget related items. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/65 "2012-03-05T07:39:02Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The American Right is not a violent faction with the exception of certain deranged individuals (ie Tim McVeigh)-indeed is is interesting to note that while the violence by the American Right has been by isolated individuals violence by the New Left in the 60s and by European leftists now have been far more organized and in the form of mobs (ie the various college riots or the Greek riots). The 60s were 50-ish years ago, and the Greeks are the Greeks - I’m talking about modern America. And the violence of the right isn’t “isolated individuals”; it’s pushed from the top, and they have massive media, political and religious systems designed to encourage it. They just make a few (deliberately) obviously false speeches about how violence is bad when someone gets killed, then go right back to pushing for more violence and making more threats. > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > And your amusing expectation that most of the Right has any desire to assassinate the President to the extent that they could have penetrate the extensive security detail merely shows your ideas of the Right-wing is no different from Tea Partiers who think Obama is Stalin and out to put them in gulags. Nonsense; Obama has gotten a record number of death threats, and violence and the threat of violence pervades the Right. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/66 "2012-03-05T09:15:53Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I think you have to go all the way back to the Civil War to find Dems and Reps not representing what we think of as Libs and Cons. Or am I wrong about this? I think Eisenhower was quite moderate, particularly with relation to today’s Republican party. I can’t imagine any of the current crop of Republicans signing Civil Rights legislation or starting large public works projects. ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/67 "2012-03-05T13:59:56Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > I think Eisenhower was quite moderate, particularly with relation to today’s Republican party. I can’t imagine any of the current crop of **Republicans signing Civil Rights legislation** or starting large public works projects. A small group of Republicans voted to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) including Snowe, Collins, Murkowski, & Brown in the Senate and about 10 members of the House including Ron Paul. I wouldn’t hope for much GOP support for large federally funded infrastructure projects unless the Democrats make serious spending cuts elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/68 "2012-03-05T14:14:24Z")
> [@Enlightening\_Meditation](#): > > I wouldn’t expect much legislative accomplishment other than the absolutely necessary votes with the debt ceiling, expiring tax cuts, and other necessary budget related items. I’m not so sure. I think there’s a moderate chance that comprehensive immigration reform could be the “health care equivalent” of Obama’s second term. (Unless it is derailed by Middle East turmoil – again!). Obama has been quite vociferously enforcing the Border Patrol laws that are on the books (ICE enforcement, not so much), partly, I think, to give him some bona fides with conservatives as negotiations begin. (Not that Repubs ever actually give him credit fir doing things they like.) Immigration is likely to heat up again as an issue as the US economy improves and so attracts more undocumenteds. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/69 "2012-03-05T14:19:41Z")
Sorry…I didn’t really speak to the OP. Well, obviously, by my scenario, the Repub strategy would be to oppose absolutely everything Obama and the Dems propose for harmonizing immigration law and policy with reality, even if they wholeheartedly agree that it’s a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/70 "2012-03-05T14:21:45Z")
I’m predicting four years of queer bashing and whining… ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/71 "2012-03-05T14:31:45Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > I think Eisenhower was quite moderate, particularly with relation to today’s Republican party. I can’t imagine any of the current crop of Republicans signing Civil Rights legislation or starting large public works projects. Or sending the 101st Airborne to enforce school integration in Little Rock. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/72 "2012-03-05T16:30:33Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > :smack: > > Oh, yeah. Tricky Dick. I never had the sense that it was a “liberal” thing to detest the guy, though; just a Democrat thing. For that matter, the entire “liberal/conservative” dichotomy as **Qin** perceives it today didn’t really map onto the Democratic and Republican parties nearly so directly in the 60s and 70s. > > 😃 I remember parties being more parochial than ideological. > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Snowe’s successor, Collins, Brown, Kirk, Murkowski, and Rubio (despite being a Tea Party candidate, he is quite moderate). How do you define quite moderate? Based on the stuff he’s done and way he has voted since becoming a senator, he seems like a wingnut. The Blunt amendment to allow employers (any employers, not just religious institutions) to eliminate contraception from health care plans offered to employees is actually titled the Blunt Rubio amendment. > [@](#): > > So like how the left was out to get Richard Nixon from day one? Yes it was all quite uncalled for. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > The American Right is not a violent faction with the exception of certain deranged individuals (ie Tim McVeigh)-indeed is is interesting to note that while the violence by the American Right has been by isolated individuals violence by the New Left in the 60s and by European leftists now have been far more organized and in the form of mobs (ie the various college riots or the Greek riots). And your amusing expectation that most of the Right has any desire to assassinate the President to the extent that they could have penetrate the extensive security detail merely shows your ideas of the Right-wing is no different from Tea Partiers who think Obama is Stalin and out to put them in gulags. I generally think Der Trihs goes a mile too far but violence is a lot easier to find among conservatives. McVeigh, anti-abortionists Who do we have on the left? The unabomber? Obama is getting 4 times as many death threats per year than George W Bush. > [@Algorithm](#): > > I think Eisenhower was quite moderate, particularly with relation to today’s Republican party. I can’t imagine any of the current crop of Republicans signing Civil Rights legislation or starting large public works projects. Well Eisenhower ran as a Republican partly because Democrats were the party for racists back then. Eisenhower was in favor of civil rights, large infrastructure projects, interventionism, education, social welfare, and large international organizations. These days he would be running to primary Obama from the left. > [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > I’m predicting four years of queer bashing and whining… Don’t forget tax cuts. Grover Norquist isn’t going to lick his own ass you know. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/73 "2012-03-05T16:55:57Z")
I’d pay good money for the video of that. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/74 "2012-03-05T17:09:46Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I think you have to go all the way back to the Civil War to find Dems and Reps not representing what we think of as Libs and Cons. Or am I wrong about this? > [@Algorithm](#): > > I think Eisenhower was quite moderate, particularly with relation to today’s Republican party. I can’t imagine any of the current crop of Republicans signing Civil Rights legislation or starting large public works projects. Or, for that matter, signing the legislation that resulted in the creation of the EPA (_cf._ RMN) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/75 "2012-03-05T17:14:21Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Grover Norquist isn’t going to lick his own ass you know. > [@elucidator](#): > > I’d pay good money for the video of that. No need. If such a video ever comes into MY possession, I’ll give it to you for free, contingent upon your promise that you never play it while I’m in the same [del]room[/del] [del]building[/del] state. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/76 "2012-03-05T18:08:47Z")
Leaving aside Gover’s potential as a risque contortionist act, I think the GOP’s goals other than block-Obama are going to be problematic, because this primary shows how many unreconciled factions there are in the party. ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/77 "2012-03-06T02:46:47Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > [QUOTE=Enlightening Meditation] > I wouldn’t expect much legislative accomplishment other than the absolutely necessary votes with the debt ceiling, expiring tax cuts, and other necessary budget related items. I’m not so sure. I think there’s a moderate chance that comprehensive immigration reform could be the “health care equivalent” of Obama’s second term. (Unless it is derailed by Middle East turmoil – again!). Obama has been quite vociferously enforcing the Border Patrol laws that are on the books (ICE enforcement, not so much), partly, I think, to give him some bona fides with conservatives as negotiations begin. (Not that Repubs ever actually give him credit fir doing things they like.) Immigration is likely to heat up again as an issue as the US economy improves and so attracts more undocumenteds. [/QUOTE] There is a chance for major immigration reform, but I’m not expecting it to happen soon. The status quo is more popular than what politicians let on verbally. The Obama admin has stepped up deportations and enforcement. I would expect more border security but not much else next term. You’re right, there is a chance of comprehensive reform. ---
**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:** [March 6, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/78 "2012-03-06T04:25:08Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > I think Eisenhower was quite moderate, particularly with relation to today’s Republican party. I can’t imagine any of the current crop of Republicans signing Civil Rights legislation or starting large public works projects. Well, for that matter _NIXON_ was rather moderate by the standards of today’s party. I find **Qin** offering him up as some poor mistreated conservative uproarious considering he imposed price controls (!!!SOCIALISM!!!), engaged in detente with the Soviets and actually believed in diplomacy fer cryin’ out loud! He did go to China after all. I suspect if he were in the WH now he would have already found a way to travel to Tehran and meet with the ayatollahs. ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613/79 "2012-03-06T07:32:51Z")
Compared to today’s GOP, Nixon was a Green Party fringe leftist (founded the EPA) and Eisenhower was a pro-union pinko-commie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-2nd-term-what-will-be-gops-top-goal/613613.md?page=3)