Wherefore & whither the GOP? (Sept 2010)

[foolsguinea]

As I said, other thread:

@foolsguinea

@Algher

I don’t think the GOP HAS any leadership right now. This is why Obama has to keep on introducing new “opponents” to harass in speeches (Boehner? Really?). Obama versus who? President making John Boehner a foil

And this is a reason to put this pack of wild dogs in Congress in greater numbers how?

Also, I’m from SW Missouri, which is very hardcore GOP. I laugh at the idea that the GOP don’t have leadership. Maybe you think people like Roy Blunt, John Boehner, & Mitch McConnell aren’t good leaders, but the Republicans follow them because the party follows whatever passes for a leader. Certainly more than the Democrats follow Obama.

Don’t believe me? Where were all the Republicans smarter than George Bush who stood up to him & stopped the war in Iraq? Where was his 2004 primary challenge from the sensible right? (That’s the point I wrote the GOP off.) The GOP will follow the leader down to hell.

The Dems aren’t much better–Obama does suffer some disrespect to his youth, but Democrats rolled over for Bush’s war authorization too. Raising the proportion of GOP congressmen will steer the country in the direction Boehner, your “non-leader,” wants. Looks like he’s leading to me.

Further, it will encourage the GOP’s behavior. Why should these guys be rewarded for the last two years?

@foolsguinea

Another way of looking at it is that the GOP is led by the dead hand of half-remembered principles & assumptions. That’s not “real leadership” either I suppose.

@foolsguinea

@BrainGlutton

It is significant that Nixon was the last Republican POTUS elected before movement conservatism took control of the GOP. Apparently, movement conservatism does not equate to fiscal conservatism.

“Fiscal conservatism” has [del]two[/del] three meanings. The careful, responsible, long-term planning meaning, & the “cut taxes on the rich” meaning–and the “bankrupt the government to destroy the welfare state” subset thereof.

…

Consider the Democratic Party’s position. Every time they propose a regulation (like, “Companies selling insurance have to provide it when the customer needs it”) or raise a tax (even back to historic norms), they’re denounced as communists & unAmerican–as aliens in effect. And about a third of the country believes it! After a while, a centrist patriotic party like the Dems gets worn down.

I’m foolsguinea, & I’m a former GOP voter. I had to learn to stop legitimizing that party.Hardly. This is the fallacy of a two-party system. The GOP screwed up, big. Four years in the wilderness is not long enough. And you can’t blame the moderate Dem establishment for not solving all the nation’s problems in two years as if that’s equivalent to the GOP creating so many problems in 12 years.

@Algher

] The electorate is pissed, scared, nervous and cranky and will grab onto whoever promises them SOMETHING to make it all better (sounds like my kids when they were toddlers).

Well, yes, there’s a reason we don’t give toddlers the vote.