# 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:** 1639
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32762 "2017-03-03T16:19:48Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > According to Congressman Mike Bost (R-IL), the town hall meetings where constituents have been taking him to task on Obamacare repeal are like “the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you’d put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them.” > > [In a rare example of a Republican showing something resembling shame,](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mike-bost-says-comment-about-cleansings-by-orientals-was-poor-choice-of-words) he has since said it was “a poor choice of words”. Hypocritical whining and cultural insensitivity aside, on a GQ level can anyone tell me what oriental cleansing practice he was trying to refer to? ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32763 "2017-03-03T16:30:20Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Hypocritical whining and cultural insensitivity aside, on a GQ level can anyone tell me what oriental cleansing practice he was trying to refer to? I think he was referencing the [struggle sessions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session) of the Cultural Revolution. Maybe he thinks it’s a traditional Asian/Chinese practice. Tai Chi in the morning, public cleansing in the afternoon and a nice jasmine tea before bed. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32764 "2017-03-03T16:39:18Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > I think he was referencing the [struggle sessions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session) of the Cultural Revolution. Maybe he thinks it’s a traditional Asian/Chinese practice. Tai Chi in the morning, public cleansing in the afternoon and a nice jasmine tea before bed. I thought that was a Communist Party thing and not an Asian or Chinese thing. [Wiki on the subject.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-criticism#Communism) I know it’s fictional, but _A French Village_, a TV show set in WWII Occupied France, had the little Communist Party cell spend inordinate amounts of time in their meetings doing, or at least threatening to make someone do, self-assessments. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32765 "2017-03-03T16:40:18Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > And you don’t need to do this. The real stupid and evil is so prevalent that you don’t need to stretch the truth, it speaks for itself. This. There are many things to be outraged about that are presently going on. AG lying under oath? Pretty outrageous. Dingbat sits on her feet on a couch? Meh. First Lady visits some kids in a hospital? Doubtful that it is representative of her husbands fight to kill anyone without employer-provided health insurance :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > And I don’t really care about how Kellyanne sits but Trevor Noah cracked me up with his observation that if there had been a black grandmother in the room she wouldn’t have been able to sit on anything for week. That is pretty funny! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32766 "2017-03-03T17:56:34Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > When did Melania Trump become responsible for President Trump’s policies and positions? When she took on the ex-officio role of First Lady of the United States of America and started performing FLOTUS voluntary duties. Or perhaps you think that her involvement with the hospital garden was unrelated to her FLOTUS role – if so, please cite her involvement in that cause prior to her husband the POTUS taking office, and also explain how she differs from chairs Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, or from patrons Betty Ford, Jackie Kennedy, Edith Roosevelt, Grace Coolidge and Lucy Hays. She was there performing a traditional FLOTUS role, and by doing so showed herself to be one hell of a hypocrite. I quite agree that she is a mindless moppet, imported but of no import, yes, but she is still one hell of a hypocrite by preaching nature for healing when the POTUS to her FLOTUS is hell bent on trashing access to health care and on trashing the environment. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32767 "2017-03-03T18:17:24Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Or perhaps you think that her involvement with the hospital garden was unrelated to her FLOTUS role – if so, please cite her involvement in that cause prior to her husband the POTUS taking office, and also explain how she differs from chairs Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, or from patrons Betty Ford, Jackie Kennedy, Edith Roosevelt, Grace Coolidge and Lucy Hays. > > She was there performing a traditional FLOTUS role… OK, I’ll “explain how she differs” from the other First Ladies: She does not. Can you explain how this or any other “traditional FLOTUS role” is an explicit extension of the Executive branch policies of the FLOTUS’ spouse? Because it looks to me like the women you listed are a very diverse set of individuals who were married to another very diverse set of politicians who became Chief Executives. And yet they all did and said very similar things in their traditional roles, even though official policies differed widely among their spouses. If there’s hypocrisy in the pursuit of these traditional roles, it’s inherent in the tradition, and not in the individual. And if you accept that statement of the broader context, please explain how bromides uttered by any particular FLOTUS are more greatly laden with hypocrisy or more notable than any other. Perhaps you meant that Mrs. Trump’s remarks were politically unapposite or ironically perpendicular to her husband’s polcies, but you haven’t made any sort of case for personal hypocrisy. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32768 "2017-03-03T18:38:57Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > …imported but of no import… Misdemeanor, no charges filed. Go, and sin somewhat less. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32769 "2017-03-03T18:44:57Z")
[Iowa lawmaker under fire for referring to Sizzler certificate as a “business degree”](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-mark-chelgren-business-degree-20170302-story.html). If that wasn’t enough, this **Shit For Brains** recently gained attention for sponsoring a bill that would freeze faculty hiring at the state’s public universities until the number of professors registered as Republicans was within 10 percent of those registered as Democrats. :smack: Christ! :smack: ---
**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:** [March 3, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32770 "2017-03-03T18:46:03Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > When did Melania Trump become responsible for President Trump’s policies and positions? President Obama could’ve been a fat, cheese dip eating, Pabst swilling cretin who wanted to cut funding for school lunches and subsidize pizza vouchers instead and that still wouldn’t have made Michelle’s “Let’s Move!” program hypocritical. > > Has the _actual_ Trump Administration staff slacked off on hypocrisy and idiocy lately or something? We gotta go after FLOTUS for supportive words she was _invited_ to give? I guess Marie Antoinette wasn’t involved in policy issues when she told the peasants to eat cake, either, was she? Yes, I know that anecdote never really happened. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32771 "2017-03-03T19:03:48Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > [Iowa lawmaker under fire for referring to Sizzler certificate as a “business degree”](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-mark-chelgren-business-degree-20170302-story.html). > > If that wasn’t enough, this **Shit For Brains** recently gained attention for sponsoring a bill that would freeze faculty hiring at the state’s public universities until the number of professors registered as Republicans was within 10 percent of those registered as Democrats. > > :smack: Christ! :smack: See post 37240, on the preceding page. ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32772 "2017-03-03T19:05:16Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Yes, I know that anecdote never really happened. Which in that sense makes it _exactly_ like the incident where Melania Trump said “Let them rely on natural remedies!” ETA: If you or **Muffin** or anyone else can show where Mrs. Trump has ever advocated or campaigned for specific Trump policies or positions regarding public health care, I’ll yield the point on hypocrisy (but not about what was actually said). ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32773 "2017-03-03T19:40:43Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32774 "2017-03-03T19:41:17Z")
Wait a sec, are we talking about regulating the first lady? That’s what \*started \*this whole stupid thread! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32775 "2017-03-03T20:05:12Z")
Wow. It’s an ourobouros moment, to be sure. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32776 "2017-03-03T20:15:23Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > See post 37240, on the preceding page. Wow, are you already on Daylight Savings Postcount? ---
**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:** [March 3, 2017, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32777 "2017-03-03T20:16:43Z")
Meet Nathan Larson, [Republican candidate for Virginia State Delegate](http://larsonfordelegate.com/wiki/Main_Page) (weirdly, his campaign website is a Wiki) Mister Larson’s campaign calls for: Denying girls public education. Denying women the right to vote (since they vote for “leftists”) Allowing families to “marry off” girls at whatever age they want. Allowing men to have more than one wife. Allowing fathers to marry their daughters. Allowing sex between teenaged boys and older men. Abolition of all forms of welfare, including for dsabilities. Abolition of Child Protective Services. Legalizing drugs. Legalizing child porn. Legalizing public nudity. Mr. Larson is a convicted felon, who in 2009 sent a letter to the Secret Service pledging to murder President Obama. He had his voting rights returned under the Virginia restoration of felons’ voting rights. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32778 "2017-03-03T20:29:24Z")
I suspect he _may_ be a RINO. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2017, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32779 "2017-03-03T20:33:52Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Meet Nathan Larson, [Republican candidate for Virginia State Delegate](http://larsonfordelegate.com/wiki/Main_Page) … How special. He says he is a “red pill libertarian” and goes on to explain that a red piller “… _someone who recognizes and is aware of … the [dark truths](http://en.kingswiki.com/wiki/dark_truth) surrounding human sexuality_ …” Funny link, that. The second entry (dark truth in a non-game context) is quite the headache-inducing word salad, spoiler-boxed here for your amusement/safety, [spoiler]Christopher Contrary: "\*The dark truth is that, like intolerance, human touchiness arises naturally from our cognitive limitations. Most people, it is clear, do not consider things disinterestedly, and it may be that they cannot. After all, few of us ever learn to think with much analytical rigor. Meanwhile, bias serves self-interest—the most powerful force in human affairs, as everyday life overwhelmingly displays. So, most people are not objective. Reason serves their particular passion, which they are ever keen to advance. As Francis Bacon wrote in The New Organon: “_The human understanding is not composed of dry light, but is subject to influence from the will and the emotions, a fact that creates fanciful knowledge; man prefers to believe what he wants to be true_.” And so it happens that when they contemplate a certain thorny subject, people usually try to confirm an a priori view; regardless of the context or what might be added to their knowledge, they perceive things in a distorting light. They don’t examine the matter analytically and objectively, then make a judgment. They examine it in terms of their ideology. A post-hoc rationalization of their evaluative endeavors, the “truth” is determined by their particular desires. And often they do this unconsciously, thinking they are objective where they are merely biased. They intend to set other people straight, but are in fact quite ignorant.\*"[/spoiler] I have struggled to parse that. Maybe a couple shots of whisky would help? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32780 "2017-03-03T20:35:52Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > See post 37240, on the preceding page. > [@eschereal](#): > > Wow, are you already on Daylight Savings Postcount? :smack: Apologies. 32740. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/32781 "2017-03-03T21:04:26Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > OK, I’ll “explain how she differs” from the other First Ladies: She does not. > > . . . . > > If there’s hypocrisy in the pursuit of these traditional roles, it’s inherent in the tradition, and not in the individual. When Trump was stumping, his present wife was unequivocal: “[I support my husband hundred percent.](https://youtu.be/XbvGxDmD3dY)” Since then she has said and done nothing to indicate that she does not support her husband’s long known and frequently addressed extreme positions on health care and the environment, and she has chosen to take on the traditional FLOTUS role vis a vis the Children’s Hospital’s garden without speaking out in support of health care and in support of the environment, ergo she is one hell of a hypocrite. Now it could be that she supports access to health care and a supports a healthy environment, but is either too stupid to be able to express her feelings, but I don’t think she is that dumb. I take her at her word when she says that she supports her husband one-hundred percent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1638) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1640)