Right here. I just haven’t been elected yet. I’ve been annoyed lately by this board’s constant bashing of the Republican party (in nonpolitical threads) so I’m taking this opportunity to point out that there do exist sane, competent Republicans. We’re just waiting for our parent’s generation to die off so we can actually campaign on some different ideas.
If they actually stressed those principles rather than allowing themselves to be hijacked by the religious right and supporting socially unjust causes they might attract more independents and moderates. I’d like to see genuine fiscal conservatism balance things out in a real dialog about the direction of this country.
Cool beans! These “new ideas”? Like, for instance, what, perzackly?
That looks pretty interesting. It’s what I’d like to see. Real ideas to address the real issues that concern the American citizen. Those types of ideas are what needs to balance the Democratic view rather than political gamesmanship and bullshit scare tactics. Tell Limbaugh, Hannity, and Coulter to STFU with the alarmist hateful BS and get real.
Might want to try campaigning on those ideas now. At worst, you’ll simply lay the foundation for further work, and at best, you’ll get elected.
(Bolding added)
So you are men of action? Excellent!
Don’t let the leaders find out, or they’ll force you out of the party. Unless you’re related to a leader, that is. McCain’s daughter was on Colbert last night, and came out in favor of sex and SSM, and against abstinence only education. She was pretty fuzzy on everything else. I too am interested in what these new policies are.
They’ll fail at politics also, eventually. The Republicans failed last year because their policies caused a crash that couldn’t be ignored, the way that some right wing Dopers told us a few years ago that we shouldn’t be grousing because the economy was great.
The Communists kept it up for 70 years, but even though they could send critics off to Siberia and cook the numbers, reality eventually did catch up.
Exactly. You can ignore reality all you like, but that won’t keep it from squashing you like a steamroller versus a hamster. Slow, but irresistable.
The GOP doesn’t want new ideas. They want a new way to package their old ideas so that people will buy them again.
So many of them talk about wanting to get back to the days of Reagan, but what do they mean by that? Cutting taxes, talking about cutting spending but not actually doing it, and running up big deficits? Making the rich richer? Sucking up to the religious right? When did they get away from all that, exactly? The difference is that they don’t have a kindly and telegenic old grandpa selling it for them anymore.
Sort of the same caricature of liberals who only want to raise taxes, run up big deficits, stick it to the rich while giving it all to the poor, sucking up to the loony left, etc etc…right?
It’s fairly humorous to see the parallels between this discussion and one’s I remember from the late 90’s early 2000’s about the death of liberal policies and how the Dems need to restructure their message because their old ideas just weren’t selling to main stream America anymore…
(I await with bated breath the emotional come-back along the lines of ‘But…THIS IS DIFFERENT!!’)
-XT
The truck is here with your re-supply of well-poison.
Excellent! I was wondering where that order went too…
-XT
Except we saw a real demonstration of the difference between conservative principles and policy execution during the Bush presidency. I think we need the balance of conservatism and liberalism but the problem is we keep electing assholes in both parties who are career politicians who don’t really give a shit about those principles when it comes down to their job security and power. IMO that’s because we’re not willing to commit the time and energy it takes to really change how things work. We’ll just elect anyone who says they will and then whine when they can’t because we didn’t continue our own efforts.
We are starting to see some divergence between supposed liberal policies and ideals and the Obama administration as well IMHO. Several of his stances (for example on terrorist captives, on trials for the previous administration, on health care seemingly rejecting the single payer system, etc) have caused a bit of a stir in some left wing quarters.
The biggest thing however is going to be Obama’s plan for the stimulus and the economic recovery. Yeah…the problem is certainly associated with Bush and the Republican’s. However, that is only going to stretch so far. Obama is in charge now, and he and the Dems continued success is going to hinge on how that works out in the next few years. If it goes well…then I think the answer to the OP is that the Republican’s will HAVE to change or at least repackage their message. At that point we might start to see these 'Pub young Turks making their presence felt. If the economy stays flat or goes tits up though…well, then I seriously doubt the 'Pubs will feel the need to do more than perhaps repackage themselves as actual economic conservatives (as opposed to the neo-con US expansionist agenda or the social conservatism they have been pushing for the last decade while paying lip service to economic conservatism).
So, as I said earlier, I think it’s too early to really expect the 'Pubs to be thinking about a radical change in their own political philosophy and policies. Many of them think that the current downturn in their popularity has more to do with how unpopular Bush et al were, and with the downturn in the economy than with the fundamentals of the party itself. Frankly I think they are delusional, but then I’m seeing a bit of delusion on the Dems side too, so I guess it’s business as usual.
-XT
It’s different because the accusations against the Republicans are true, while the ones against the Democrats were false. Simple as that.
Well, there you go. Well played!
-XT
I think the conservative wing has an inherent advantage in a democracy: it takes much less energy to remain the same than to change. Assume, on no good basis, that roughly half of the population is inherently conservative, in varying degrees, from mildly resistant to blazing reactionary. Assume the opposite polarity and demographics for us good guys.
It takes more energy to change things than to leave them be, we must first gather a majority of our own around the necessity of change, and then we must convert at least *some *of those who are averse to change that we are right, that this thing is needful, imperative.
I would guess, roughly, pull it out of yer ass figure, that it takes about twice as much energy to commit change, politics wise, than it takes to resist. And therein lies the prime advantage of democracy, its only twice. In an oppressive and/or authoritarian governance, it takes much, much more energy. sometimes demanding a complete shattering of a system, and then only to take the chance that the next form will be an improvement.
And notably, you fail to actually argue against my point. Instead, you stick to the standard right wing apologist rhetoric of pretending that there’s no difference between the two sides. Of course, since I’m clearly correct, it’s not like your position is defensible; the Republicans DID just do all the things they are accused of, while those right wing accusations against the Democrats you listed are simple lies. All you can do is poison the well, and your tired bit of posting smileys like they were actual arguments.
If a person does not take reality into account, it may be inevitable that said person will fail. That does not change the fact that politics is not overridden by reality.
I have to say I’m really surprised by the resistance to this concept which I figured was common sense.
I can’t help but think you are politicians, in which case, you can indeed argue and argue no matter how wrong you are. Your arguments won’t change how wrong you are, but the reality of how wrong you are will not stop you from arguing, or other politicians from agreeing with you.
Glad to see I’m not the only one. It was starting to feel like a bad sci-fi episode, where things are repeating but I’m the only one who can see it. 
elucidator:
I have no idea how the concept of poisoning the well relates to anything said here.