Or, immigration:
Well, maybe I’m wrong, I don’t listen to Limbaugh or generic Trump supporters. Maybe it’s because I actually do speak to more liberals than conservatives both here and in my social life.
I do know that for my own part I have never heard a Republican candidate take an issue stance that I knew he didn’t actually believe. I hear that all the time with Democrats though, especially those running in red states. When Allison Lundergan Grimes was running against McConnell she was very pro-coal. Yet a conservative blogger visited her campaign HQ and found all kinds of climate change advocacy flyers. When he asked a campaign worker how she could reconcile her climate change advocacy for Grimes’ support of coal, the worker said, “Oh, thats just something she has to say to get elected in Kentucky, she’ll do the right thing when it counts.” Which we saw during the health care debate. While no Democratic candidates made specific promises on a proposed health care plan, Democratic leadership actually had to decide who would be allowed to vote against the bill in the House, and of course in the Senate every Democrat had to fall in line, regardless of what their voters wanted. i just have not seen that type of behavior among Republicans.
In the 2000 Presidential debates, George W. Bush quite unequivocally stated we should not “nation build”. Then in office, engaged in exactly the sort of nation building he denounced. One can’t use the excuse of 9/11 either, because going after terrorists doesn’t necessarily imply nation building (ie, one can go after terrorists without doing so)
You think Romney believed in doubling guantanamo, or that the ACA was terrible? You think McCain believed Sarah Palin was a good person to be a backup president?
I think you’re deluding yourself.
Not exactly what I"m looking for, but it is true that Republican politicians talk big on immigration enforcement but actually pass amnesty bills when they think they can get away with it. The reason it’s not the same thing is because Republican politicians, even Donald Trump, talk about amnesty while not wanting to call it amnesty, which falls into the category I mentioned in my OP about “fudging”.
Fudging has a long political tradition. Direct lying on binary issues used to be a lot less common and the rebuttals here have still not convinced me that this is normal, or that Republicans engage in it.
You keep finding excuses why Republican examples don’t count.
I absolutely believe these things. McCain thought Palin was a reformer like himself. she was, but she wasn’t competent and might even have been mentally unstable. Just terrible vetting.
As for Romney, how could I forget him, although you gave me a bad example. I do believe he would have doubled Gitmo, I think any Republican would have. I also believe he opposed ACA, because Republicans have always supported state level experimentation while not supporting doing the same at the federal level.
But you forgot Romney’s true lie: abortion. I don’t believe for a second that he was ever pro-choice. I guess the reason I forgot about it was because as a Presidential candidate he was pro-life, which I believe was always his real position because he was a Mormon and even many Mormon Democrats are pro-life(Harry Reid).
Excuses that would apply to several of the examples in the OP as well.
Confirmation bias is a bitch.
- George W. Bush, October 11th, 2000.
Spent trillions using U.S. troops in nation-building frenzy.
Then your estimate of McCain’s intelligence is much lower than mine, and perhaps your reverence for his supposed honor and honesty is affecting your view. I see him as just another politician (in terms of honor and honesty), which is strongly reinforced by his behavior over the past several years (do you really believe he thinks Trump should be President? 'cause that’s what he says), even if he was an honorable Navy officer as a younger man.
Angus promised to quit putting sugar in his porridge!
Come on, guys. Is it really so hard to accept that Democrats are lying hypocrites and that even if you don’t like Republicans at least they’re honest?
Creationism lives!
When the “other things” they give priority to will inevitably increase the size of government, then yeah, it’s a direct lie.
I’ll give you another one. During one of the presidential debates in 1988 George H. W. Bush was asked to name a new weapons program that he would be willing to cut as a means of restraining the budget. He listed a few that he was against. Three of them had already been cancelled.
This is hardly new.
Want a classic Republican example? Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy. Leaving everything else aside, Richard Nixon was not a segregationist. But he knowingly and fully embraced the idea of “dividing the democrats” along cultural, ethnic and racial lines knowing that only the President himself could do it.
Don’t take my word for it. Read the memo.
None of the GOP candidates were willing to stand up and emphatically declare that they believe in evolution. This is roughly akin to not believing that 2+2=4, so I’m willing to give some of them the benefit of the doubt that they are simply liars rather than idiots.
A few probably believe this nonsense (Santorum, Huckabee), but I’m guessing most of them know that evolution happened but they are lying about it.
Also, considering how the gay marriage issue has shifted dramatically in the last 15 years, I’m willing to bet that Obama did actually change his mind on the issue. Many of us, myself included, have and the polling suggests that this evolution on this issue was very common.
I think any Republican who denies global warming is a hoax is one of two things: 1) Incredibly misinformed and/or stupid or 2) knows it is not a hoax but is beholden to the fossil fuel industry.
Actually it started in the GHWB years, when the said “Read my lips: No New Taxes!”
Or maybe it started with Reagan when he raised taxes 7 times during his presidency.
Or maybe it was Nixon and the Southern Strategy.
I’d hate to be from the party that all these liars and crooks came from. I’d be positively embarrassed to show my face! But then again, I’d be such a conniving sycophant that I probably wouldn’t see the hypocrisy of using only people from one party, so I dunno, I guess I can still make shitposts on a message board
You believe that Trump wants to punish women who have abortions? That the Bible is his favorite book? That he believes in a god? That he’s not actually friends with the Clintons? That he thinks the U.S. Military isn’t strong enough?
I have a hard time thinking he believes any of the crap he goes on and on about. But, at minimum, I’d bet my house that he’s not a religious man.
If that’s your standard – the issue must be binary – then all the examples in your OP are bullshit. I don’t think you’ve considered that.
For example, Dems generally criticize trade deals as having insufficient protections for labor and environmental concerns. When a Dem becomes President, they make a subjective decision that THIS deal does enough for labor and environmental concerns to pass muster. Sure, other Dems in Congress may disagree, but now this is a debate about how much labor and environmental protections are necessary, not a binary trade bad/trade good debate. Therefore, your first piece of evidence is BS.
Next, you say that Obama opposed gay marriage, and then later changed his mind. He supported civil unions for quite some time, and then like most of the country, dropped that position in favor of full marriage equality. Since this was not a binary pro- or con- “Adam and Steve” issue, it isn’t binary. Therefore, your second piece of evidence is BS.
Would you like me to continue on how, using your own standards to disqualify examples of Republican perfidy, all your examples of pointing fingers at Democrats are BS?