# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1144
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22862 "2015-07-10T14:32:23Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I like how the article patiently explains what the three branches really are without directly pointing out that the governor is an idiot for forgetting her own branch of government. Clearly, in Oklahoma the executive is more of a twig. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22863 "2015-07-10T14:40:54Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > … This is well-established political theory. Remember whatshisname (Ralph Nader) in 2000? He got some piddling number of votes, but those were siphoned away from the Democrats (mostly), enough to throw the election into doubt in Florida. IIRC, Gore lost way more votes to Nader than he did to the butterfly ballot clusterfuck (which delivered Democratic votes to Robertson). If Nader hadn’t been in the race, Gore would have won Florida (butterfly ballot notwithstanding, IIRC). And the Laffer Curve is well-established economic theory, but that does not make it any more valid that eugenics as a means to improve humanity. The lesser-known but possibly at least as valid theory is that almost all of Nader’s votes came from people who would not have voted for either Bush or Gore and very well may have stayed home if Nader had not been on the ballot. Nader is over-stated as a spoiler, and I would not count on Donald Tramp having any useful value for the Democrats. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > While that’s a valid point, the benefit won’t of necessity accrue to whomever the Democratic Party runs in the general. Like it or not, the word “socialist” is still radioactive enough to influence sufficient non-party-affiliated voters away from the Democratic ticket to negate any spoiler effect an independent Trump candidacy might have. And Sanders is not going to repudiate his affiliation with the word. > > Not successfully, anyway. “For’n-born mooslem socialist pot smoker” got that one guy booted out of the WH but good. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22864 "2015-07-10T14:59:25Z")
Regarding Sanders as Socialist. I have a right-wing acquaintance who likes Sanders. When I asked him why he would support someone who is to the left of Hillary he vehemently denied that Sanders is left-wing. So Sanders may escape the old stereotypes. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22865 "2015-07-10T15:14:28Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Regarding Sanders as Socialist. I have a right-wing acquaintance who likes Sanders. When I asked him why he would support someone who is to the left of Hillary he vehemently denied that Sanders is left-wing. So Sanders may escape the old stereotypes. Is your friend a strong 2nd amendment guy? The only thing I can see about Sanders that is RW is his gun-control position. Otherwise, he may be an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22866 "2015-07-10T15:16:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > While that’s a valid point, the benefit won’t of necessity accrue to whomever the Democratic Party runs in the general. Like it or not, the word “socialist” is still radioactive enough to influence sufficient non-party-affiliated voters away from the Democratic ticket to negate any spoiler effect an independent Trump candidacy might have. And Sanders is not going to repudiate his affiliation with the word. > > Not successfully, anyway. Words can lose their impact as their meanings change over time. A few years ago “socialism” was redefined as meaning “a top marginal income tax rate of 39%”. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22867 "2015-07-10T15:24:41Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > Is your friend a strong 2nd amendment guy? The only thing I can see about Sanders that is RW is his gun-control position. Otherwise, he may be an idiot. I didn’t know about Sanders’ position on gun control. I am hardly a big gun-rights guy, but I’m a big fan of [the way he lays out his perspective](http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/10/bernie-sanders-spars-with-arlington-gun-control-activist.html). It helps that gun control is about 50th on my list of political priorities. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22868 "2015-07-10T16:27:07Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Mary Fallin, Republican Governor of Oklahoma, [earlier this week](http://kfor.com/2015/07/09/oklahoma-gov-mary-fallin-three-branches-of-government-and-the-ten-commandments/): > > > [@](#): > > > > “You know, there are three branches of our government. You have the Supreme Court, the legislative branch and the people, the people and their ability to vote." Well, the President is but a clerk, I am told. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22869 "2015-07-10T16:40:07Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > Is your friend a strong 2nd amendment guy? The only thing I can see about Sanders that is RW is his gun-control position. Otherwise, he may be an idiot. [Sanders has an F rating from the NRA](http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/29/399818581/5-things-you-should-know-about-bernie-sanders), , at least according to all the resources I’ve checked, but yes, this acquaintance is big on guns, and sometimes carries. When told about the rating, his response is that that’s incorrect and Sanders has a D-, as if that would make a huge difference even if it were correct. I also have FB friends who hate anything Obama and rail against the ACA but like Sanders, so this one guy doesn’t seem to be unique. But I suppose this is something to be discussed in the Sanders thread rather than here. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22870 "2015-07-10T16:54:17Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I also have FB friends who hate anything Obama and rail against the ACA but like Sanders, so this one guy doesn’t seem to be unique. Maybe there’s something about Sanders they find more acceptable than a black man or a woman. What could it be? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22871 "2015-07-10T17:04:37Z")
Pat Buchanan (if he even counts as Republican any more) [predicts a new era of RW civil disobedience](http://www.salon.com/2015/07/10/pat_buchanan_warns_of_another_civil_war_the_time_of_mass_right_wring_civil_disobedience_is_at_hand/). > [@](#): > > For all his high talk about morality — especially as it pertains to racial injustice — Buchanan was a little tone-deaf as to a certain issue of current import: the causes of the Civil War. “That war was fought,” he wrote, “over whether 11 Southern states had the same right to break free of Mr. Lincoln’s Union as the 13 colonies did to break free of George III’s England.” > > He concluded by saying that a similar separation is on the horizon. “If a family disagreed as broadly as we Americans do on issues so fundamental as right and wrong, good and evil, the family would fall apart,” he explained, “the couple would divorce, and the children would go their separate ways.” > > “Something like that is happening in the country. A secession of the heart has already taken place in America, and a secession, not of states, but of people from one another, caused by divisions on social, moral, cultural and political views and values, is taking place.” OK, but, how does that work? Secession without a regional base is no secession; subcultures cannot politically secede from the larger society – that never works out, just ask the Black Panthers and Malcom X and the hippies with their communes. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22872 "2015-07-10T17:09:06Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Maybe there’s something about Sanders they find more acceptable than a black man or a woman. What could it be? Well, it can’t be because he’s white – Jews are technically white, but, you know . . . ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22873 "2015-07-10T17:15:46Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Pat Buchanan (if he even counts as Republican any more) [predicts a new era of RW civil disobedience](http://www.salon.com/2015/07/10/pat_buchanan_warns_of_another_civil_war_the_time_of_mass_right_wring_civil_disobedience_is_at_hand/)… > > OK, but, how does that work? Secession without a regional base is no secession; subcultures cannot politically secede from the larger society – that never works out, just ask the Black Panthers and Malcom X and the hippies with their communes. Yeah, if you look at the most simplistic map showing results of the last Presidential election, you see a Red Country versus a Blue Country. Because that’s the way the Electoral College works. [Map by county & population density.](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswithhammers/2012/11/coloring-the-electoral-map-by-district-population-density-and-partisan-split/) You’ll see the Blue Urban Areas, even in “Red” states. Secession won’t be tried again. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22874 "2015-07-10T17:35:13Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Yeah, if you look at the most simplistic map showing results of the last Presidential election, you see a Red Country versus a Blue Country. Because that’s the way the Electoral College works. > > [Map by county & population density.](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswithhammers/2012/11/coloring-the-electoral-map-by-district-population-density-and-partisan-split/) You’ll see the Blue Urban Areas, even in “Red” states. Secession won’t be tried again. Whenever political conflict comes down to the City vs. the Countryside, the City almost always wins, and almost always deserves to win. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22875 "2015-07-10T19:22:05Z")
Jeb thinks that climate change will be fixed by a person in a garage somewhere. > **[Jeb Bush Thinks Climate Change Will Be Fixed by "a Person in a Garage Somewhere"](https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/jeb-bush-thinks-climate-change-will-be-fixed-by-a-person-in-a-garage-somewhere-7739675)** > > Unlike some Republicans, Jeb Bush at least recognizes climate change as a reality. He won't say what he thinks is causing it. He won't say how large of a problem he thinks it is, but in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader he did... > [@](#): > > Unlike many Republicans, Jeb Bush at least recognizes climate change is a reality. He won’t say what he thinks is causing it. He won’t say how large of a problem he believes it to be, but in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader, he did offer his vision of how the climate change problem will be solved. > > “Ultimately, there’s going to be a person in a garage somewhere that’s going to come up with a disruptive technology that’s going to solve these problems, and I think markets need to be respected in this regard," he said. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22876 "2015-07-10T19:52:30Z")
My tightie rightie friends on FB have been completely silent about Bernie Sanders. I’m not sure what to make of that. One friend posted to my wall demanding to know where the outrage with the trade agreement was and I linked her to Bernie and never heard a peep in response. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22877 "2015-07-10T20:36:56Z")
[TRUMP: I WILL GET MORE LATINOS THAN ANYBODY ELSE](https://twitter.com/BKcolin/status/619531366405947392/photo/1) Can we have him committed to a mental institution for being provably delusional? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22878 "2015-07-10T20:38:40Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > [TRUMP: I WILL GET MORE LATINOS THAN ANYBODY ELSE](https://twitter.com/BKcolin/status/619531366405947392/photo/1) > > Can we have him committed to a mental institution for being provably delusional? I think is planning to drive around to all the Home Depots with a satchel full of $100 bills. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22879 "2015-07-10T21:34:33Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Jeb thinks that climate change will be fixed by a person in a garage somewhere. > [Jeb Bush Thinks Climate Change Will Be Fixed by "a Person in a Garage Somewhere" | Riptide 2.0 | Miami | Miami New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Miami, Florida](http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/jeb-bush-thinks-climate-change-will-be-fixed-by-a-person-in-a-garage-somewhere-7739675) Perhaps Doc Brown’s “Mr. Fusion” is the disruptive technology Jeb is looking for. A classic case of private initiative (with additional assistance of certain Libyan “entrepreneurs” \\) without the intervention of Fedzilla and the evil it spawns. Except for those pesky neutrons and gamma rays spewing forth and killing everyone for hundreds of yards (and thus, “an acceptable risk to the public”), this device is a shining example of America’s technological prowess and free enterprise system. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22880 "2015-07-10T22:45:19Z")
> [@](#): > > …Jeb thinks that climate change will be fixed by a person in a garage somewhere. Could happen, just because the vision shimmers doesn’t mean its a mirage. Where might we be today, green energy wise, if we had gotten this serious forty years ago? Like some intelligent and forward thinking people were so strenuously advising? Would be the best irony ever, if we stumble onto cheap, green, renewable energy and then find out that global warming wasn’t actually true… but now a subsistence farmer in Bangladesh has the energy of ten water buffalo for a penny a day. What do we do, give it back? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/22881 "2015-07-10T23:31:58Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Would be the best irony ever, if we stumble onto cheap, green, renewable energy and then find out that global warming wasn’t actually true… but now a subsistence farmer in Bangladesh has the energy of ten water buffalo for a penny a day. Your lips to Big Juju’s ears. I hope to hell we win that race. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1143) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1145)