The thing is–I’m one of those small-government “conservatives” that Sam is talking about! During the 80s and 90s I’d easily call myself conservative and happily voted Republican. Heck, I voted for Bush in 2000. Of course in America in the 80s and 90s classical liberals like myself were lumped in with conservatives.
Of course the political taxonomy of modern America doesn’t make any logical sense, but it doesn’t have to, so if real liberals were called conservatives, and what were called liberals weren’t liberals but something else, well, that’s descriptive linguististics for you.
But the Republican Party and the Conservative movement still haven’t come to grips with the crimes of the Bush administration, and the damage they did to the country. They’re too busy painting Hitler moustaches on Obama.
Bush ran the country over a cliff, and the Republican Party and the Conservative movement cheered as he did it. And they’re cheering now for Sarah Palin to lead them! That’s how morally, intellectually, spiritually, psychologically, and ethically bankrupt they are.
Here’s another right-wing poll, giving Hoffman an even bigger lead: New Poll
I agree with pretty much everything you said, though. Small sample size, largish margin of error, suspect impartiality. I wish there were some left-wing or mainstream polls we could use to find some balance. Unfortunately, there aren’t.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you about what a win will do to the GOP, or even to the right in general. Splitting the party in two could be electoral disaster. And even if no 3rd party erupts out of this, if this forces the Republicans too far to the right, they’ll alienate independents again and push the power back to the Democrats.
I guess we’ll just have to see how it all shakes out.
Sorry, but. When GOP Congresscritters suddenly start saying stupid things that the Teabaggers and other right-wing crazies are saying, I have to believe that the GOP Congresscritters think the stupid things they’re saying are what their base wants them to say. And I have to regard them as the best judges of what they need to say to stay in the good graces of enough voters to get renominated and reelected.
There’s nothing echo-chamberish about that. So fuck that shit.
Dude, I’ve been debating you for a decade now. And Bricker, and Shodan and Starving Artist and Scylla, and december and Weirddave up until their respective bannings, and so forth.
“You should try it.” How do you miss something this obvious?? If something’s been right in front of your face for a decade, how do you not see it??
OK, let’s see the Congressional Republicans demonstrate their independence from the crazies.
Too late.
Don’t put the onus on me, buckaroo. It’s the elected representatives of the party YOU identify with who have voiced their words. When they stop doing that, come back and let me know. But until then, don’t try to tell me that the crazies mean nothing.
I’m not talking about honest opposition. I’m talking about people making shit up, and being against Obama because of that.
You posted the Gallup results in post #55 in this thread. I responded in post #59.
Oh, and here’s some polling for Sam from the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll:
43% approve of Obama’s handling of health care reform, which isn’t great, but only 23% approve of Congressional Republicans’ handling of the issue. (Q. 6a, 6b.) Barack Obama’s approval/disapproval rating is 56/33; the Democratic Party’s is 42/36, and the GOP’s is 25/46. (Q.7.) The Dems lead in the Congressional ballot question by 46-38, up from 43-40 last month. (Q. 8.) People are evenly split on whether the government needs to do more to help people, or is already doing too much. (Q.10.) While that’s obviously not a popular endorsement of “let’s do more,” it’s also not evidence of a major counterreaction against the Obama Administration’s initiatives.
And specifically relevant to the premise of this thread, support for a new independent party (without specifying its nature) is about where it’s been for the past 3.5 years.
At any rate, (a) the change in the numbers over the past 17 years isn’t that big, with most of the change being moderates’ shedding a few points in each direction, and besides, the “do you identify as a conservative, moderate, or liberal?” question is really kinda meaningless, absent some specifics as to what they mean to people.
So making a big deal about that poll has the appearance of an act of desperation.
You are, of course, completely wrong about Bachmann “barely” winning her last election - her margin of victory was eight percent. much larger than, say, Barack Obama or Al Franken.
I would say that your opinion as to who is a rising star in Minnesota Republican circles is rather worse than useless.
You are, of course, completely wrong about Bachmann’s margin of victory.
According to the Office of the Secretary of State of Minnesota, she won by 3% of the vote. Barack Obama won the state by 10.2%, and the nation by 7.3%.
Her margin of victory was larger than Franken’s, though.
I must add that she was running in a district with a Cook PVI of R+7, in a state with a Cook PVI of D+3.
IOW, she’d get crushed in a statewide race. So if you feel she’s a rising star in Minnesota politics, I’d say your opinion on this is rather worse than useless.
Indeed. For example, someone who favors same-sex civil unions but draws the line at letting it be called “marriage” could consider himself “conservative” today, but could not possibly have squared that position with a “conservative” affiliation as generally understood back then.
Here’s a chart of the Harris poll’s results across the decades on the conservative-moderate-liberal distribution. Like with Gallup, only over a longer period, it’s clear that not much has been happening for quite some time.
Has this been an issue? Because I looked it up, and as far as I can tell, he’s lived in Lake Placid since the Seventies at least, and while it’s not technically in the 23rd, it’s in a little piece of the 20th that juts into the 23rd, surrounded on three sides, with Lake Placid at the northwest corner. I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make if he lived a couple miles away on the other side of the line. Interactive map
