# Predictions for the future of the GOP? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 8, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354 "2012-11-08T14:18:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/41 "2012-11-09T13:23:55Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > Telling them that “big government” is the problem is an utter waste of time; you can’t polish a turd. That’s true. I think the problem is the demographic shift. We should start subsidising abortions for minorities and deporting legal immigrants. > [@Debaser](#): > > Letting the wealthy keep their money is hardly the same as giving free stuff to the masses. That’s true. We ought to limit government’s involvement in wealth creation: dismantle public education so that capital can dispose of labour more effectively and allow industrialists to hire mercenaries to enforce contracts. Otherwise government is just giving handouts. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/42 "2012-11-09T13:54:21Z")
**Krauthammer’s** column is out. He’s suggesting amnesty. > [@](#): > > For the party in general, however, the problem is hardly structural. It requires but a single policy change: Border fence plus amnesty. Yes, amnesty. Use the word. Shock and awe — full legal normalization (just short of citizenship) in return for full border enforcement. > > I’ve always been of the “enforcement first” school, with the subsequent promise of legalization. I still think it’s the better policy. But many Hispanics fear that there will be nothing beyond enforcement. So, promise amnesty right up front. Secure the border with guaranteed legalization to follow on the day the four border-state governors affirm that illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle. [Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-way-forward/2012/11/08/6592e302-29d8-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html) **Buchanan** thinks it’s hopeless. > [@](#): > > At the presidential level, the Republican Party is at death’s door. [Human Events](http://www.humanevents.com/2012/11/09/pat-buchanan-is-the-gop-headed-for-the-boneyard/) **Ann Coulter** is actually surprisingly reasonable this week in her column which is just out. She makes the case against the abortion wackos. > [@](#): > > No one can be blamed for the hurricane that took the news off the election, abruptly halting Romney’s momentum, but Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock can be blamed on two very specific people: Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock. > > The last two weeks of the campaign were consumed with discussions of women’s “reproductive rights,” not because of anything Romney did, but because these two idiots decided to come out against abortion in the case of rape and incest. [Ann Coulter.com](http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2012-11-07.html#read_more) ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/43 "2012-11-09T13:58:10Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > That’s true. We ought to limit government’s involvement in wealth creation: dismantle public education so that capital can dispose of labour more effectively and allow industrialists to hire mercenaries to enforce contracts. Otherwise government is just giving handouts. I’m not going to bother to respond to this insane nonsense, except to point out that it is insane and it is nonsense. Do you think comments like this add value to the thread? To the board? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/44 "2012-11-09T14:21:43Z")
My hopes of any real thought or change from the GOP are already being squashed. Blaming the loss on Sandy (i.e. “It wasn’t our fault”), minorities vote Democratic because they’re lazy and want free stuff, Romney wasn’t conservative enough, “Everything is on the table for the fiscal debate” means “We’ll never, ever agree to raise taxes but we’re happy to discuss slashing Medicare”, etc. Remember when Obama trounced McCain and the GOP was “soul searching” and gave us Michael Steele who was going to focus on Republican outreach to African-Americans? Yeah, that lasted a whole day. ---
**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:** [November 9, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/45 "2012-11-09T14:26:31Z")
I think that the DC insider establishment GOP will try harder to tamp down the extreme pro-life anti-abortion rhetoric, and brand it as a states right issue, i.e. intent to nominate Justices to overturn Roe v Wade and leave it up to individual states. They have some loose cannons in the party, so it won’t be easy. I believe that the 2012 GOP primaries were exceptionally harmful to the party with the anti-contraception rhetoric (and not just as it relates to Obamacare and the proposed Blunt Amendment), stances of no exceptions on outlawing abortions, and proposals of personhood amendments. As we already are observing this week, there will continue to be a push for moderation on immigration reform. Perhaps, the GOP House will be slightly more cooperative instead of purely hostile to any legislation beyond Obamacare repeal, ending environmental regulations, abortion restriction bills, and naming post offices. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/46 "2012-11-09T15:13:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Secure the border with guaranteed legalization to follow on the day the four border-state governors affirm that illegal immigration has slowed to a trickle. So in other words; Never. I think they’ll find that people aren’t quite that stupid. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/47 "2012-11-09T15:19:22Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > I’m not going to bother to respond to this insane nonsense, except to point out that it is insane and it is nonsense. > > Do you think comments like this add value to the thread? To the board? While it is annoying, not at all funny, and functions as trolling (s)he is following through on [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15653959&postcount=59) from the “Put your money where your mouth is!” thread. > [@gamerunknown](#): > > … if Jill Stein loses and Obama wins then I’ll post the complete opposite of what I believe … I’m wondering how long until it crosses some mod line. I hope soon. But not my job. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/48 "2012-11-09T15:20:54Z")
> [@Enlightening\_Meditation](#): > > I think that the DC insider establishment GOP will try harder to tamp down the extreme pro-life anti-abortion rhetoric, and brand it as a states right issue, i.e. intent to nominate Justices to overturn Roe v Wade and leave it up to individual states. They have some loose cannons in the party, so it won’t be easy. I’m not at all confident that there is an effective DC Insider Establishment any more. We already know the Crazies are vowing to renew their crusade to purge the party of RINO’s. These fanatics are not into the politics of compromise, or indeed - rationality. And they have massively infected the party. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/49 "2012-11-09T15:29:16Z")
In all fairness… a) Mitt Romney wasn’t a right-wing extremist. He learned how to play one on television, yeah. Gotta win those primaries. b) A charismatic and principled Republican politician with Mitt Romney’s (original, gov-of-Massachusetts era) politics could win in this country. Therefore c) The future of the GOP may be a function of who comes along to lead them in a direction that yields electoral victories. Their problem this year was that Mitt Romney wasn’t at all inspiring and, lacking charisma and vision, did not so much drag the party in his own direction as let the party drag him. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/50 "2012-11-09T15:34:48Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Letting the wealthy keep their money is hardly the same as giving free stuff to the masses. [Doghouse Riley](http://doghouseriley.blogspot.com/2012/11/goodbye-to-all-that-for-about-two-months.html): > [@](#): > > The Cowboys suck, but they’re worth billions. The Cowboys are worth billions, but it’s the taxpayers who built the largest domed stadium on earth so they’d have a place to play. It was projected to cost $650 million, and actually cost $1.3 billion, give or take a few fabrications. > > Now, then, let’s talk _entitlements…_ You’re right: giving free stuff to the rich is VERY different from giving free stuff to the masses. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/51 "2012-11-09T15:39:21Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > In all fairness… > > a) Mitt Romney wasn’t a right-wing extremist. He learned how to play one on television, yeah. Gotta win those primaries. As the ‘47%’ tape showed, he did a damned good job of playing one when he _didn’t think_ he was on TV, when it was just him and his fellow multimillionaires. I think that was the real Romney. The attitude among the super-rich seems to increasingly be one of “we’re the people who make this country run, and you should stop taxing us, stop regulating what we do, and bow down to us on those rare occasions when you commoners are in the same room with us.” Why should Romney be any different? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/52 "2012-11-09T15:42:36Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > While it is annoying, not at all funny, and functions as trolling (s)he is following through on [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15653959&postcount=59) from the “Put your money where your mouth is!” thread. > I’m wondering how long until it crosses some mod line. I hope soon. But not my job. Oh thank heavens. I thought it was just me - I kept reading **gamerunknown** ’s posts and thinking “I don’t remember this poster being _quite_ so insane before…” But yeah, if it reaches “quarry” proportions I think an intervention of some sort will be required. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/53 "2012-11-09T15:43:11Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > **Krauthammer’s** column is out. He’s suggesting amnesty. [Kevin Drum](http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/gops-immigration-problem-goes-way-beyond-immigration): > [@](#): > > Lightening up on immigration won’t be enough. Like it or not, conservatives are going to need a much more thorough housecleaning if they want to survive in an increasingly diverse future. No more gratuitous ethnic mockery. No more pretense that reverse racism is the real racism. No more suggestions that minorities just want a handout. No more screeching about the incipient threat of Sharia law. No more saturation coverage of the pathetic New Black Panthers. No more complaining that blacks get to use the N word but whites don’t. No more summers of hate on Fox News. No more tolerance for Dinesh D’Souza and his “roots of Obama’s rage” schtick; or for Glenn Beck saying Obama has a “deep-seated hatred of white people”; or for Rush Limbaugh claiming that “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.” No more jeering at the mere concept of “diversity.” And no more too-clever-by-half attempts to say all this stuff without really saying it, and then pretending to be shocked when you’re called on it. Pretending might make you feel virtuous, but it doesn’t fool anyone and it won’t win you any new supporters. I can’t improve on that. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/54 "2012-11-09T15:54:08Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > You’re right: giving free stuff to the rich is VERY different from giving free stuff to the masses. I agree. Although I enjoy football and will be going to a game at Gillette later this year, I don’t expect the government to pay to subsidize this. If I have to pay for for my tickets that’s fine with me. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/55 "2012-11-09T15:55:55Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > b) A charismatic and principled Republican politician with Mitt Romney’s (original, gov-of-Massachusetts era) politics could win in this country. We call those Democrats now. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/56 "2012-11-09T15:55:56Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > In all fairness… > > a) Mitt Romney wasn’t a right-wing extremist. He learned how to play one on television, yeah. Gotta win those primaries. > > b) A charismatic and principled Republican politician with Mitt Romney’s (original, gov-of-Massachusetts era) politics could win in this country. > > Therefore > > c) The future of the GOP may be a function of who comes along to lead them in a direction that yields electoral victories. Their problem this year was that Mitt Romney wasn’t at all inspiring and, lacking charisma and vision, did not so much drag the party in his own direction as let the party drag him. As presently constituted no such ‘principled’ and sane candidate can get through the primaries. They have to pander to Crazy Principles and even if their fingers were crossed when they said it they have to keep pandering to mobilise ‘The Base’. The Base is the problem. They have to be discarded and a new ‘Base’ constructed. Besides - as others have said - Romney might not have been a Crazy but he was just another Looter Capitalist whose vision was what was good for him and his friends was what counted. The rest of the moochers could go swivel. It is hard to build a new, non-crazy base on Crazy Economics even if the social crazies have been silenced. The republicans need to re-enter the real world where AGW is real, where voodoo economics is voodoo economics, where taxation is not a dirty word and where political opponents are not The Devil. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/57 "2012-11-09T16:01:52Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > Control the border? What does that mean? Presumably it means the Repubs will be reaching out to the Hispanic vote by promising to build a giant wall along the border. I have no problem with the giant wall as long as it’s on the eastern, northern and western borders of Texas with giant walls connecting to, and surrounding Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/58 "2012-11-09T16:23:58Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > As the ‘47%’ tape showed, he did a damned good job of playing one when he _didn’t think_ he was on TV, when it was just him and his fellow multimillionaires. That’s not quite right-wing extremism though, that’s old school classism. Sadly I know a few fairly liberal-voting folks that share similar views, it’s just that they take a more paternalistic attitude to those they culturally disdain. Though I’m sure Romney is well to the right of _me_, I suspect he’s not living in right-wing-cloud-cuckoo-land with the likes of Michele Bachmann. ---
**Author:** ![klarg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7cd45c/32.png) [@klarg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klarg)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/59 "2012-11-09T17:01:07Z")
Sandy caused the GOP to lose? Huh!? The storm somehow swept all Republican voters out of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey? No, it was millions of communist infiltrators (only Allen West can see them, he doesn’t even need special glasses) The GOP will experience a splendid rebirth, replete with loyalty oaths, secret handshakes, decoder rings, etc. Only the most hardline loonies will receive the party blessing. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354/60 "2012-11-09T17:11:59Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > I agree. Although I enjoy football and will be going to a game at Gillette later this year, I don’t expect the government to pay to subsidize this. If I have to pay for for my tickets that’s fine with me. That’s OK, we’re helping pay for your spectator experience in other ways. It’s not just the stadium. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-for-the-future-of-the-gop/640354.md?page=4)