# 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:** 1515
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30282 "2016-07-22T23:03:34Z")
I remember way back when reality TV shows like Survivor were a new hit sensation, someone was trying to organize a reality competition show to pick a candidate for president. Nothing ever came of it I guess. Or did it? ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30283 "2016-07-23T14:09:29Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Yesterday, last season’s The Bachelor, Ben Higgins, announced that he was running for the Colorado state House of Representatives as a Republican, and the campaign would be shown on the upcoming Freeform network reality show about his impending wedding. [Today, he withdrew his candidacy due to “unforeseen circumstances”.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bachelor-ben-higgins-short-lived-political-career-a-timeline_us_579264b4e4b01180b52ee0fb?ir=Entertainment&) It appears the circumstances are that ABC said no dice, no mixing politics and our TV shows. I’m pretty sure he’s too late to get his name on the ballot. The deadline for a write-in candidate was day before yesterday, and any other sort of candidate would have to have started a lot earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30284 "2016-07-23T14:28:35Z")
> [@eulalia](#): > > I’m pretty sure he’s too late to get his name on the ballot. The deadline for a write-in candidate was day before yesterday, and any other sort of candidate would have to have started a lot earlier. According to the Colorado Statesman article linked to in the HuffPo link, the current candidate would withdraw, and Higgins would be appointed by a vacancy committee. ---
**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 23, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30285 "2016-07-23T23:57:51Z")
> [@eulalia](#): > > I’m pretty sure he’s too late to get his name on the ballot. The deadline for a write-in candidate was day before yesterday, and any other sort of candidate would have to have started a lot earlier. Now you have me confused. How can there be a deadline for a write-in candidate? A write-in candidate is one whose name is written in by the voter on the blank line at the bottom. The deadline for that is November 8th. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30286 "2016-07-24T00:19:17Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Now you have me confused. How can there be a deadline for a write-in candidate? A write-in candidate is one whose name is written in by the voter on the blank line at the bottom. The deadline for that is November 8th. In some states, there is a requirement that any person must file an ‘Affidavit of Candidacy’ before votes for them are counted. (Voters can still write in any name they want, but only those for registered candidates will be counted.) This is a measure intended to save costs to the taxpayers of the state – it means they don’t have to put in the time & effort & expense of counting all the votes for “Mickey Mouse” & “Donald Duck”, etc. Also makes the results available a lot faster than if they had to wait to tally all those irrelevant votes. Even in some states without such a law, it’s often done that way in practice. If the total number of write-in votes is less than the difference between the winner and the second place candidate, the officials counting votes may not take the time to look at every write-in and tally the count for each individual name. The official total just gives a number for “Other Write Ins”. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30287 "2016-07-24T00:24:56Z")
Ah, Republicans are such delicate flowers. Gamer buddy of mine. Was never really on my radar as a bigot until about a year and a half ago when he got laid off and had employment issues. He started making small but angry comments on facebook things. Petty racism, Clinton Hysteria. Also didn’t impress me by being near suicidal this spring because he was having an affair with a married woman (yeahno) and she decided to stay with her husband. Well, earlier today a mutual friend posted a thing about how long the Republicans have been investigating Hillary and come up empty every time. Butthurt boy compares her to OJ and buying justice. I post back a simple comment that she’s been being investigated for 24 years and now with zero results, so we’re kinda into “fucking knock it off” territory. _And the whining begins_. I’m attacking him. I’m a Democrat so of course I’m defending her. Then complains about liberals always trying to make people be like them. Defriends both me and the mutual friend. :eek::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30288 "2016-07-24T02:32:17Z")
Heh, turns out he was feeling sensitive and put-upon because he’d posted some racist jokes on his page a bit earlier in the day, someone made a comment about it and he deleted the posts. Poor little martyr. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30289 "2016-07-24T08:04:04Z")
I posted this in another thread, but it may better belong here. [An article linked to indirectly in a recent post](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/02/26/hating-hillary) does a good job of synopsizing Hatred of all things Hillary: > [@](#): > > In the course of a single conversation, I have been assured that Hillary is cunning and manipulative but also crass, clueless, and stunningly impolitic; that she is a hopelessly woolly-headed do-gooder and, at heart, a hardball litigator; that she is a base opportunist and a zealot convinced that God is on her side. What emerges is a cultural inventory of villainy rather than a plausible depiction of an actual person. George Orwell once wrote, with some wisdom, “Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent.” At times, it seems that Hillary Clinton has been labelled a saint in order that she may be found guilty. Get it? The haters aren’t sure whether she’s clever or clueless, too soft-hearted or too hard-hearted; they just know they have to hate. Similarly with Obama. Let’s hate him for keeping promises and hate him for breaking them; hate him by pretending he supports Islamist terrorism but also hate him for killing terrorists with drones. At this point, if it turns out Hillary really was the Zodiac Killer after all, I wouldn’t click the news-link. The irrational haters have been shrieking “Wolf!” for too long. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30290 "2016-07-25T02:36:01Z")
Reince Priebus: [Trump never said that the story about Cruz’s father being involved in the JFK assassination was true.](http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/rnc-chair-trump-never-said-story-connecting-ted-cruz-dad-to-jfk-assassination-was-factual-information/) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30291 "2016-07-25T07:43:27Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > No, but you will be vilified before the entire nation for missing a single illegal immigrant. Nah, bro, I’ll have a uniform. They’ll give me the benefit of the doubt 35 times in a row. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30292 "2016-07-25T12:48:40Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Reince Priebus: [Trump never said that the story about Cruz’s father being involved in the JFK assassination was true.](http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/rnc-chair-trump-never-said-story-connecting-ted-cruz-dad-to-jfk-assassination-was-factual-information/) This is way better than the previous “just asking questions” strategery. Now we can say anything at all, no matter how vile and untruthy, and just walk it back with: “Well I didn’t say it was true, I just threw it out there. If people believe it, that’s on them.”:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30293 "2016-07-25T14:23:33Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > This is way better than the previous “just asking questions” strategery. Now we can say anything at all, no matter how vile and untruthy, and just walk it back with: “Well I didn’t say it was true, I just threw it out there. If people believe it, that’s on them.”:mad: There’s precedent. John Kyl, 2011, who claimed on the floor of the US Senate that “well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortions”. When called on it later, he claimed his remark was “not intended to be a factual statement”. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30294 "2016-07-25T16:52:48Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > There’s precedent. John Kyl, 2011, who claimed on the floor of the US Senate that “well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortions”. When called on it later, he claimed his remark was “not intended to be a factual statement”. [John Oliver, beginning about 5:55, shows that declining crime rates don’t stop Newt Gingrich from saying crime is up. _Feelings outweigh facts._](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNdkrtfZP8I) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30295 "2016-07-25T23:34:35Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Ah, Republicans are such delicate flowers. > > … > > _And the whining begins_. I’m attacking him. I’m a Democrat so of course I’m defending her. Then complains about liberals always trying to make people be like them. Defriends both me and the mutual friend. > > :eek::rolleyes: I’m sick of newbies dropping by the political process for the first time this year. From the Bernie Bros to Trump and his supporters, they have no idea how anything works and how they can make it work for them. “But I’m young,” a hipster in his twenties may claim. Young? In 1964 I sat through BOTH conventions, gavel to gavel, and I was TEN! (It was either that or trying to catch up with Modern Math for my new school. I still prefer politics.) I wasn’t yet in sixth grade and I already knew more about How Shit Works than them, from the fight over the Dems’ Mississippi delegation to the battle between Goldwater Republicans and Rockefeller Republicans and an endless speech by the future host of Death Valley Days that he repeated until he could no longer speak. I paid my dues. You can pay yours. ---
**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 26, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30296 "2016-07-26T00:06:43Z")
Virginia state Sen. Dick Black said that the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton are using immigration [to commit “ethnic cleansing”](http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gop-lawmaker-hillary-clinton-s-immigration-policy-ethnic-cleansing) : > [@](#): > > “The Democrats have a laser focus,” Black said. “Everybody they put on that [Supreme] Court is a wicked SOB and they never change. They could care less what the law says. They’re there as politicians and they’re there to do the bidding of their party. And so anybody who thinks that we can count on having fair elections in four years and redoing things, that’s a pipe dream, it’s not going to happen because Hillary Clinton is going to keep the borders open, we’re undergoing this immense immigration, which really amounts to ethnic cleansing. That’s what they’re trying to do. > > “They’re trying to shatter the cohesion of the American people, not only in terms of ethnicity but also in terms of religion,” he continued. “They’re bringing in people from the Middle East, zero, zero Christians. They will not allow Christians to come in. All of them have to be Muslim. What they’re trying to do is just shatter any cohesion so that nobody can organize against them.” ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30297 "2016-07-26T00:50:15Z")
> [@](#): > > "They will not allow Christians to come in. All of them have to be Muslim. What they’re trying to do is just shatter any cohesion so that nobody can organize against them.” Yes, if my calculations are correct, we only need to import about 230 million more Muslims before the Christians are outnumbered. I love it when a plan comes together. ETA: Mwahahaha. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30298 "2016-07-26T01:55:30Z")
We could annex Canada. There’s about 50-60 million there already, right? ---
**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 26, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30299 "2016-07-26T02:16:32Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > We could annex Canada. There’s about 50-60 million there already, right? We tried that once or twice before, and it didn’t work out so well. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30300 "2016-07-26T02:24:56Z")
Hey, we already have Minnesota. The American Canada. Geez, American Conservative Christianity is slowly but surely becoming nothing more than an apocalyptic death cult. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/30301 "2016-07-26T02:31:30Z")
[Trump is Watching.](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/757760973419712512) > [@](#): > > Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 15m > > If Cory Booker is the future of the Democratic Party, they have no future! I know more about Cory than he knows about himself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1514) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1516)