Opinions members of the GOP have in common

In My Humble Opinion
1

There was an op-ed column in today’s Chicago Tribune talking about how fractured the Republican Party is and I had one of those, “Well, duh, self!” moments. No wonder the GOP had a bazillion tries at repealing the ACA. No wonder McConnell said in 2010 that their main goal was defeating Obama in 2012. No wonder they’re refusing to even consider Merrick Garland:

The one thing I could think of the members of the GOP have in common is that they detest the Democrats and (in particular) Barack Obama. If you’re a Republican politician and you want broad support among your party, just say something against the Dems or the Pres.

But there’s GOT to be other opinions they have in common. What else is there?

2

When you’re talking about milions of people, it’s hard to really find opinions that the vast majority would hold in common. They’d have to be LCD, and there are few of those. If pressed, I’d say things like smaller government, less government regulation and spending, lower taxes, that sort of thing.

3

IMHO - they generally think America of the 1950s is the zenith of American culture and power, and they keep trying to shove everyone back to the good-'ol days (that never were).

Saintly Ronald Reagan never made a single mistake, blessings be upon him, and politicians should strive for perfection in his image.

Any idea that does not originate from the conservative media-sphere is suspect. The source of the information is very important in deciding if it is trustworthy.

4

Except for the military, the police, the prison system, the border patrol, and other police/military type things. And reducing taxes is effectively government spending, in that it affects the deficit the same way: If the government reduces taxes on oil companies, it’s equivalent to the government spending money on gifts to oil companies.

Right on the first, wrong on the second.

Lower effective tax rates on the rich, higher or the same effective tax rates on the poor and middle class, resulting in less revenue and a higher deficit.

5

This is shaping up as an IMHO thread rather than an Elections thread.

Before I move it, I would encourage anyone wishing to contribute to it to consider framing your comments as neutral observations rather than as partisan swipes. I realize that a few posters really believe their snide comments, but this will be more informative (fighting ignorance) if is produces some actual substance.

[ /Moderating ]

6

Opposition to means-tested welfare programs that largely benefit the poor (Aid to Dependent Families, food stamps, Medicaid, and the like) is about the only thing the Republican base in general and its elites have in common.

7

I think this is pretty much it.

You might throw in some racial dog-whistling and fog-horning. Also tax cuts sound nice, though the elite tends to tilt them towards the upper reaches of the income distribution, in terms of foregone revenue.

The OP shouldn’t give tribalism short shrift though. Arguments about the true conservative position are basically versions of that.

Arguably the most important aspects involve an appeal to authoritarianism. As an example, note that the great majority of self-identified libertarian leaners favor high military spending in practice, despite the fact that the US spends more than the remainder of the world’s top 10 spenders combined. Be it the uninformed, the low information, the misinformed or the political junky, emotional tendencies are ignored at the political analyst’s peril.

8

Honestly not trying to be snarky here, but this is my perception of what Republicans believe:

1- The government is the enemy. Government must always be made smaller, all regulations are bad. There is always enough waste and fraud to cut that will more than justify any tax cut.

2- Taxes must always be cut. This will lead to a booming economy and increased government revenues which will justify another round of tax-cutting.

3- Each and every American in military or police uniform is utterly infallible and every shot fired is totally justified.

4- People are poor because of their moral inferiority. Giving them help only contributes to their decadent and immoral behavior.

5- Israel is infallible and is the second most important nation on earth.

6- The US has a special relationship with God and it’s very important to keep “under God” in the pledge and to continue to force children to recite it.

7- When scientific research indicates that actions must be taken that could prove burdensome to the economy, the science must be ridiculed and disbelieved.

8- Obama is a Kenyan Marxist Muslim who follows a radical Christian pastor. Since his every action is by definition unpatriotic, only unflinching opposition to his every move can save the nation.

9- The budget must be balanced, except when a Republican is in the White House.

10- The four Americans killed in Benghazi were the four greatest people in the history of the planet and there will always be a need for more investigations, until the end of Hillary’s second term, that is.

11- The presidency of George W Bush began 9-12-2001 and if not for him, we would have been conquered by Muslims.

12- Abortion is very bad. Actually, they don’t really all believe it. They all say so in order to pick up some easy votes.

13- The Affordable Care Act must be repealed and replaced with an alternative never to be named.

14- Ronald Reagan was the most awesome person ever and we should always follow our imperfect memory of him.

9

Probably the closest to a common belief (none are universal) would be “Hillary bad”.

10

Here is the Republican Platform from 2012. Notice the absence of such nonsense as Kenyan Marxist Muslims, etc.

https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2012GOPPlatform.pdf

11

The platform has very little to do with what Republicans believe. It’s a silly tradition to put out this document at every convention that nobody ever reads (except for opposition research) and is meant to sound noble and inoffensive.

12

A party platform is written by the most prominent hotheads and ideologues at the convention, the committee assignment being a good way to get them out of the way while the grownups do grownup things. That makes them full of stridency. Nobody actually *reads *the damn things except as a way to score cheap points in a game nobody else is playing.

13

So a thread that is ostensibly asking for commonly held party member beliefs, and the 1 out of 11 responses are from someone who is conservative and that is dismissed. Could save time and just call them all poopy-heads. derp.

14

No, the one conservative just happened to reference a document with very little credibility.

15

I think they believe if only they could reimpose Christianity as the de facto religion of state, prayer in school, etc. That those values would translate into homosexuals going back into closets, reversal of abortion laws and gay marriage, teenage pregnancy would drop to 1959’s levels, divorce rates would drop. And many other of societies ills would magically disappear!

16

Lots of opinions.
Few facts.
Off to IMHO.

17

…so what would be wrong with that?

Why must we destroy traditional American values?

18

Yes, why do you hate our freedoms?

19

Can you please explain how this is different from the Dems ? You do not think defeating Bush in the 2004 election wasn’t a top priority of Pelosi and Reid ?

20

But your post, full of partisan swipes about what you imagine Republicans actually believe, is somehow more credible?