# 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:** 930
**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:** [January 21, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18582 "2015-01-21T23:09:37Z")
The guys that _didn’t_ get elected are the ones who ran away from Obama in their messaging. It would be more like “thanks for being counted in our caucus for two years but not actually voting for any of our policies.” ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18583 "2015-01-21T23:49:22Z")
They ran away from his policies because that was their only viable option. I see that the internet is calling his statement a “sick burn” but I’d say that a lot of jobless Democrats would also take it that way. He put them in an untenable position and they paid the price, not him. He’s like a major who orders his men up a hill where they all die but him and then he pats himself on the back for his grand victory. If he costs Clinton the 2016 election I expect Democrats will finally figure out that his political talents were solely beneficial to his own self-promotion rather than moving the country in a more progressive direction. Bush was elected President twice(once?) too, but you’ll see few conservatives arguing that he was beneficial to the Republican party. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18584 "2015-01-21T23:59:18Z")
Since this is the stupid Republican idea thread, I’ll just say that the “sick burn” was justified in response to Republicans applauding that he had no more campaigns ahead of him. What we saw was two classless sides showing again that they are still classless. ---
**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:** [January 22, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18585 "2015-01-22T00:01:18Z")
> [@Club\_33](#): > > Her speech was a trainwreck of muddled thought, given by what appeared to be a malfunctioning Disney audio-animatronic. Ernst is the new Bachmann ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18586 "2015-01-22T00:03:47Z")
Bachmann, McDonnell, Jindal, Rubio, Ernst…the role of “GOP SOTU Rebutter” must be one of those positions where you really don’t want to leave the room to pee during the organizational meeting to pick someone… ---
**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:** [January 22, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18587 "2015-01-22T00:11:39Z")
GOP official SOTU rebutter is to politicos as Campbell’s Soup commercial endorser is to NFL QBs. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18588 "2015-01-22T00:17:42Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The effects of his performance in office have been felt by hundreds of currently jobless Democrats. > [@adaher](#): > > They ran away from his policies because that was their only viable option. So you’re saying that they were voted out for not supporting Obama **enough?** ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18589 "2015-01-22T00:18:22Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The effects of his performance in office have been felt by hundreds of currently jobless Democrats. It is quite amazing, i’ll admit, that so many Democrats lost their jobs at a time when actual, national unemployment rates were at their lowest in years, the economy was (according to multiple indicators) on a significant upswing, more Americans had health coverage than ever before in history, medical inflation was at its lowest level in decades, and gas prices were at their lowest since 2009. I can completely understand why people might have looked around and said, “Hey, who the fuck is responsible for all this prosperity? We need to kick their asses out!” It just goes to show what happens when you have the lowest election turnout (as a percentage of the population) since 1942: it’s mainly retired Fox News watchers who get to the polls. This swing between presidential elections, when a wider proportion of younger, more liberal voters turn out, and mid-terms, where it’s the true believers and the oldies, will be a problem for America for a while, if some political analysts are to be believed. It also goes further to demonstrate what has become something of a problematic issue for Democrats: almost everyone recognizes that Democratic policies are economically more beneficial for the vast majority of the population so, paradoxically, the Dems can do best when the economy is in the shitter, because plenty of people trust them to at least make an effort to help average and poorer Americans. But when the economy is doing just fine, it pays off for the GOP to focus on the wedge social and cultural issues like brown people and the border, gay marriage, “inner city” blight (you know the code, right?), and other dog-whistle politics, and also to pretend that Democratic foreign policy is somehow less manly and tough than Republican chickenhawkism. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18590 "2015-01-22T00:51:10Z")
That’s old news though. What happened in 2010 and 2014 was a repudiation of Obama. 2014 has actually been known as a race that was pretty much about nothing. There were no wedge issues, just a referendum on the President and pretty much nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18591 "2015-01-22T00:57:41Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That’s old news though. What happened in 2010 and 2014 was a repudiation of Obama. 2014 has actually been known as a race that was pretty much about nothing. There were no wedge issues, just a referendum on the President and pretty much nothing else. Is there no level of sophistry that you won’t stoop to? Every single political issue is interpreted by you in a way that conveniently supports your own political outlook. Your dishonesty is staggering. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18592 "2015-01-22T01:02:08Z")
You really think the Republicans exploited social issues to win in 2014? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18593 "2015-01-22T01:10:02Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They ran away from his policies because that was their only viable option. I see that the internet is calling his statement a “sick burn” but I’d say that a lot of jobless Democrats would also take it that way. He put them in an untenable position and they paid the price, not him. He’s like a major who orders his men up a hill where they all die but him and then he pats himself on the back for his grand victory. And such a major **gets** to do that, too, if he took the hill. Ulysses Grant won a lot of battles by pouring out his men’s blood like water. It is hard to see how the Union could have won the war any other way. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18594 "2015-01-22T01:14:57Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > If he costs Clinton the 2016 election I expect Democrats will finally figure out that his political talents were solely beneficial to his own self-promotion rather than moving the country in a more progressive direction. [Really?](http://www.salon.com/2015/01/21/bye_bye_reagan_conservatism_why_obamas_speech_was_more_significant_than_it_seems/) > [@](#): > > But as much as the president’s address was characterized by a growing economy finally giving him a chance to say what he’d like to do with the fruits of his labor, the synoptic nature of the speech was also a consequence of Obama’s well-known preference for thinking about the “long game.” For the first time in more than six years, he had an opportunity to boast of changing the “trajectory” of the country like few presidents before him and none since Ronald Reagan. Crucially, he could do so while pointing to benefits that were tangible in the here and now, rather than being likely to occur in the indeterminate future, as has often been the case. He seized the opportunity, and made his case for what it would mean to be a citizen in the United States that Barack Obama helped make. > > It sounds, I know, remarkably ambitious — even hubristic. Still, it’s a goal Obama’s never been particularly hesitant to share, despite the fact that his moderate demeanor and often self-consciously centrist policies don’t fit our expectations for how a guy trying to “fundamentally transform” a superpower acts. But when Obama talks about the long game, worrying less about whether a policy is a half loaf or a quarter loaf and looking instead at whether it pushes the political mainstream in his preferred direction is part of what he means. As an example, here’s how he put it in a press conference in 2010, defending his decision to agree to a temporary extension of George W. Bush’s high-income tax cuts: “Not everybody agrees with [liberals] … And so my job is to make sure that we have a North Star out there.” > > “My question is,” he continued, “does it make sense for me to tack a little bit this way, or tack a little bit that way, because I’m keeping my eye on the long term, and the long fight?” > > \ > > In the end, pushing the “supertanker” that is the U.S. government in a leftward direction, making sure its trajectory now bends away from a reflexive, Reaganite distrust and antipathy for the welfare state, has always been President Obama’s No. 1 goal. It’s what informed most of his most consequential decisions, from accepting a profoundly flawed and unsatisfying healthcare reform, to watered-down Wall Street reform, to self-defeating short-term austerity, and so on. On Tuesday night, for one of the very first times, he was able to tell the American people that following a new North Star had taken them to friendlier waters. Through that lens, however Hillary Clinton decides to run her likely presidential campaign is but a minor part of the equation. No, that is not a legacy that will be bad for the Democratic Party or the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18595 "2015-01-22T01:17:29Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > It is quite amazing, i’ll admit, that so many Democrats lost their jobs at a time when actual, national unemployment rates were at their lowest in years, the economy was (according to multiple indicators) on a significant upswing, more Americans had health coverage than ever before in history, medical inflation was at its lowest level in decades, and gas prices were at their lowest since 2009. I can completely understand why people might have looked around and said, “Hey, who the fuck is responsible for all this prosperity? We need to kick their asses out!” > > It just goes to show what happens when you have the lowest election turnout (as a percentage of the population) since 1942: it’s mainly retired Fox News watchers who get to the polls. This swing between presidential elections, when a wider proportion of younger, more liberal voters turn out, and mid-terms, where it’s the true believers and the oldies, will be a problem for America for a while, if some political analysts are to be believed. > > It also goes further to demonstrate what has become something of a problematic issue for Democrats: almost everyone recognizes that Democratic policies are economically more beneficial for the vast majority of the population so, paradoxically, the Dems can do best when the economy is in the shitter, because plenty of people trust them to at least make an effort to help average and poorer Americans. > > But when the economy is doing just fine, it pays off for the GOP to focus on the wedge social and cultural issues like brown people and the border, gay marriage, “inner city” blight (you know the code, right?), and other dog-whistle politics, and also to pretend that Democratic foreign policy is somehow less manly and tough than Republican chickenhawkism. Well said. You realize, of course, that this troll tries to derail every fucking thread into the adaher masturbation hour, right? He’s managed to drive this one off the rails for several pages now. Perhaps ignoring the fucker when he does this would be appropriate, so we can get back to pointing out the insanity of the inmates of the mental institution that is the present Republican party. ---
**Author:** ![Club\_33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Club\_33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Club_33)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18596 "2015-01-22T01:52:15Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Sick burn my ass. The Democrats are at their lowest ebb since the 1920s. His talent as a campaigner is not in doubt. The effects of his performance in office have been felt by hundreds of currently jobless Democrats. The unemployment rate for Democratic professional politicians has become a national crisis which I’m sure he’ll try to fix in his current budget. Probably benefit payments of some sort to Democratic ex-officeholders. “Thanks for your support, sorry about your job!” There is so much wrong with this post and taking the time to dispute all of your drivel would be about as productive as arguing with a lawn chair. I’ll just ask - have you seen the President’s approval rating lately? In the sixth year of the Bush presidency it was about 31 percent. By comparison, Obama is around 50% right now, and that was before the speech, which typically gives a small boost. I expect it will continue to climb, which makes your “lowest ebb” comment laughable. I’m sure the 2014 election gave you reason to celebrate, but it wasn’t a surprise. Voter apathy is common during the midterms. But if you think for a second that we aren’t going to turn out in droves to ensure that the keys to the White House don’t get handed back to the Koch Brothers, you may be in for a surprise. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18597 "2015-01-22T01:58:14Z")
Democratic predictions that their voters will turn out in droves tend to come true only when Barack Obama is at the top of the ticket. I especially recall such predictions in 2004. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18598 "2015-01-22T02:05:34Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Well said. You realize, of course, that this troll tries to derail every fucking thread into the adaher masturbation hour, right? He’s managed to drive this one off the rails for several pages now. Perhaps ignoring the fucker when he does this would be appropriate, so we can get back to pointing out the insanity of the inmates of the mental institution that is the present Republican party. Yeah, basically every time i engage him i feel like i’ve taken troll-bait again. I should know better by now. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18599 "2015-01-22T02:06:14Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Democratic predictions that their voters will turn out in droves tend to come true only when Barack Obama is at the top of the ticket. I especially recall such predictions in 2004. Do you recall them in 2006? ---
**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:** [January 22, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18600 "2015-01-22T02:23:05Z")
[Joni Ernst’s family sucks on the federal teat.](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/sen-joni-ernsts-family-actually-received-more-than-460000-in-federal-subsidies/) That can buy a lot of bread wrappers. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/18601 "2015-01-22T02:27:58Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Do you recall them in 2006? The Democrats won, but that’s because independents turned towards them. They still failed to turn out. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102300766.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/AR2006102300766.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=929) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=931)