In 2008 I hear talk about how the Republican party is damaged and they need to “go into the wilderness” and reassess their views. As someone who loved the Republicans of the 90’s but disliked the party under Bush, this made me happy.
However, over the past three years, in my opinion, the Republicans became worse. Instead of making any changes they seemed to have dug their heals in even more and are a lot more hardline. I put most of the blame for this on the emergence of the Tea Party. I see them as the ultra-conservative faction of the Republican party who rose up and took control.
So, I’m wondering, what will it take to break their hold and have the Republican party REALLY reassess themselves? If they have big losses in the house and senate will that do the trick? Will they need to have multiple losses? Or are they going to stay this way for a long time to come?
The republicans aren’t going to reassess anything. What they are doing is working, and they are pulling democrats further and further to the right.
They could lose everything like they did in 2006 and 2008, and it wouldn’t change a thing.
The only thing that could possibly pull the Republican party back to sane levels is if there were an actually liberal faction of the democrats who were popular enough to pull everyone back to the left again.
Of course, we live in the United States of America, so a popular liberal party is not going to happen anytime soon.
The GOP never went into the wilderness. What that means in political terms is that your party has become uncompetitive to the point that you no longer have a reasonable chance to win control of the legislature. Even in exceptional years when everything goes your way and you do gain a majority you know you will lose it at the next election.
When you are in that situation you have incentive to do some soulsearching to find ways to change your basic platform to broaden your appeal. The GOP was in the wilderness nationally after the Great Depression and in response they moderated their plutocratic instincts to win elections. As the Depression receded so did their populist impulses. In the Great Recession the situation was different. Luckily for the GOP this time the storm broke just as a Democrat was being elected so they weren’t forced to take all the blame for it. In 2008 Republican leaders decided there was no need to change their basic Fuck Everyone But The Rich approach. Their regaining control of the House 2 years later validated that judgement.
It’s not simply a matter of big losses or repeated losses. Generally yes you needed one or the other before enough party stalwarts could accept that they would have to bend to regain popular appeal. But it won’t necessarily take either given the sophisticated electoral science we have today. If the trend is clear enough the GOP will change their ways. So really the question is, “When will enough Americans give up on the current GOP?” How bad will things have to get before enough people wise up?
The Republican Party is beyond redemption. They have proven time and time again that they put party above country. The only hope the US has for its long term survival is to disband the party and let a rational opposition party to the Democrats emerge. Should the Republicans gain control of the entire government, democracy as we know it will cease to exist. Expect voting regulations designed to disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters. Expect a Supreme Court full of Michele Bachmanns. Say goodbye to reproductive freedom. Ta-ta to environmental regulations, child labor laws, the minimum wage, and unions. Expect the 1% to control 80% of the nation’s wealth and the rest of us serfs fighting for survival. Goodbye social security. Forget about health care, if you can’t afford treatment you’ll be left for the undignified death that the aristocracy thinks you deserve.
Uh … because their ideas are insane and are dragging the country down?
The sad thing is, some Republicans probably see the electoral success and therefore embrace the ideas without contemplating whether they make sense of not.
They will have to move further to the right, until they can no longer convince poor and middle class white males in the south to vote against their own self interests and redistribute wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest 1%. Once they lose that constituency, they will be finished. The GOP may remain as an extreme fringe party, but mainstream conservatives will move to the Democrats, or form a new party, free of the whackjobs that led the GOP down the path of destruction.
You have been doing this kind of threadshitting a lot lately, and this is the last time I want to see it. You will be get a formal warning the next time it happens.
The Republicans need to spend time in the real wilderness to assess their views! Naked, and eating only what they can kill with their bare hands! That’ll toughen 'em up to deal with latte-drinking liberals!
Why would they reassess? Their strategy is working. Obstructionism is blamed on Obama, so his reelection chances look fairly dim. People don’t ‘like’ the GOP, but they hate incumbents. The GOP has done a good job of promoting this issue of demoralizing support for the democratic party. The GOP isn’t building its voter base, but it is shrinking the democratic base by voter suppression and demoralizing the democrats (I know I’m not alone in thinking 'what is the point in electing a democratic majority if the GOP can outmaneuver them. The dems won’t even use some of the tools available to them to get around it).
Also, with all the voter suppression efforts on their part they can maintain a majority or at least a fighting chance despite alienating more and more people. Something like 5 million people may not be able to vote in 2012 (mostly democratic voters one would assume) due to all the voter suppression laws they have passed.
I admire the GOP. They know the electorate (we) are stupid and don’t pay attention so they just do whatever works for them.
Because it can’t happen again. What you just saw was the GOP peaking, in reaction to the Obama victory, and spurred by the Tea Party revolt. Reaction has a short half-life, and you should not expect to hear much from the TP this election year – OWS will drown them out.
Sorry if I interrupted the ever-so-intelligent debate filled with:
“pull the Republican party back to sane levels”
“their basic Fuck Everyone But The Rich approach.”
"The Republican Party is beyond redemption. "
"Should the Republicans gain control of the entire government, democracy as we know it will cease to exist. "
“their ideas are insane and are dragging the country down”
"free of the whackjobs that led the GOP "
Sorry if I was the only one in this thread til then that actually posted a fact rather than just bad mouth Republicans. There are 100+ other “Republicans are the sux” threads they can post in, but no,we need a new one every hour.
So warning noted… Hope I don’t slip on the jizz on the floor on the fucking way out.
But if they can demoralize democratic voters while engaging in voter suppression, that is still going to give them huge advantages. Millions of democratic voters will sit out elections and millions more will want to vote but not be allowed to. The GOP base doesn’t need to grow and they don’t need to win independents if their current strategy works of demoralizing their opponents and engaging in voter suppression.
The 2010 election wasn’t so much a resurgence of GOP voters (I think it was a 50-40 million vote with the GOP having a 10 million majority) but democratic voters just lost interest. If 5 million democrats are too demoralized to vote in 2012 and another 5 million are suppressed, then the GOP can easily win.