Who is the face of the Republican party?

Great Debates
1

In the Pit there are a few threads about people who cashed in on their fifteen minutes and made it to YouTube and the news (e.g., Nut With Gun at Town Hall, Death Panelist threatens the lives of Michelle, Malia and Sasha, The numbnut who had the freakout at the Arlen Specter townhall meeting), and of course there are several threads about Palin, Limbaugh, Fox news, etc. In many of them, there is the suggestion that this or that person is the “face” of the Republican Party. This triggers a handful of yu-huh! and nu-uh! posts.

Now, of course no one represents everyone in the party, and of course the chairman of the RNC probably has it in his job description. However, if you’re capable of working with generalizations or looking beyond titles, who would you say is the face of today’s Republican party? Closely associated, who is its leader?

I would say Limbaugh serves as both face and ideological and slogan leader. Face, because he’s got rich white guy down pat; someone most representative of the Republican Party. Of course there are black, Latino, gay, and female Republicans, but I daresay (though please don’t ask for a cite) that the majority of the party is made up of rich white males. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just that as a self-identifier, he’s got the right demographic look.

Of the Right Wing Marketing Group, he is at its apex. There were people like Bob Grant before him, and Hannity/O’reilly et al have had more success in television after him, but I think he’s still at the top of the food chain. The Becks and Levins of the world are nipping at his heels, but haven’t approached toppling him (which would be bad for business). Murdoch might give him a run media empire-wise, but Murdoch isn’t really in front of the camera and has too much business sense to disturb such a financially profitable tool.

He’s not omnipotent, of course, and there are plenty of forces working in parallel. Whereas others can throw something out there for the Freepers to chew on (e.g., death eaters, berthers), none seems to have the power to promulgate and support ideas as he does. Palin, for example, is out there (and arguably the embodiment of a Limbaugh candidate), as are the various astroturfing groups pushing Republicans to teabag each other and promoting anti-First Amendment practices. This is one source of the YouTube-of-the-Day contestants, but they are well supported by Rush—this is especially true in the content of their expression: a font of oversimplifications, generalizations, straw men and a host of other logical and rhetorical nightmares pitched for easy repetition and low comprehension. Grant may have delved in generalizations and whatnot, but Rush elevated the practice to mountainous heights.

So I say he’s the face of the Republican party in appearance, rhetoric, and leadership.

But that’s just me. I’m sure a case can be made for one of the town hall shouters. I’m sure some of our more rational Republicans or conservatives have other ideas, and hope they’ll share. I’m sure some people will get all knotted because there is no “face” of the party—but I hope they’ll humour me, work with generalizations and the concept, and name a few. Oh, there’s also the question of who should be the face.

2

I’m not sure the majority of the party is rich white males - rich white males is a pretty small demographic.

(An Accounting professor of mine once said 'the market you want is stupid rich people - unfortunately, its a really small and very competitive market, but if you gain a toehold in the stupid rich people market, its a great place to be." Not that Republicans are stupid - just a point that the demographic segment is small - but has a lot of attraction - in the case of marketing - buying power, in the case of politics, just plain old power.)

I think the majority of the party is the middle class (and often lower middle class) social conservatives. The people who held the reigns of power until fairly recently - the puppet masters - were rich white men. But that’s changed. The puppets have caught on and have cut their strings.

3

Voldemort.

4

The face of the Republican Party is Sarah Palin.

Once we heard how Palin could skin a bear, hunt and fish and raise kids and run a state government, she was the darling of the Republicans. She’s a can do girl, self made, who isn’t afraid of challenges and doesn’t need the government to help her out.

Doesn’t matter that she can easily be made fun of. Its what she stands for. Family, small government, low taxes, support the troops and anti socialism. Its that ideology that resonates with Republicans, namely those who are precariously holding on to their American dream by hard consistant work and resent social programs that don’t help them at all.

The rich white guys you are talking about may have an audience, and they may have some power, but the majority of Republicans don’t really identify with them.

Just my opinion.

5

Well snicker, officially chuckle, the face of the snortle republican party is giggle Michael Steele BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA

GAAASP

HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Heh heh

Sighhhh

Hah

6

Bolding mine.

You … uh … heard she quit her job right? You can say “we like to believe she is…” or “we have convinced ourselves…” but you can’t go on attributing those qualities to her as if they are real. Her own behavior has proven those claims to be false.

Sad thing is, I agree with you that she is the face of the Rs. Oh wait, not sad… hilarious!

7

I think they’re both (Palin and Rush) smart enough not to get into a pissing contest, but when egos get involved it’s not completely unthinkable. Say a rival (rival to EIB) network offered Palin enough ducketts to take the 12-3 timeslot on the radio, triggering a schism in the ultra-conservative world.

Flash forward beyond the initial novelty (just as Hilary farting in the Senate was news her first year, so too would the very fact of Palin speaking on the radio), and who would have the greater draw to influence policy? Neither of them has principles – right now they’re united by NO more than anything else. That is, the form of their dissent is fairly arbitrary, whether it’s palling round with terrorists, death eaters, socialism, or whatever they can come up with. If the two of them went toe-to-toe looking to secure influence and drum up audiences, who would come out on top?

And is it really down to either Palin or Rush? (Oh, and Steele)

8

Well Newt Gingrich desperately wants to be the face of the party, but I just don’t think that is happening for him.

Cheney is not going away quietly, either. Supposedly he has a tell-all biography in the works about how Bush went soft on him.

A lot of rural conservatives around here still worship Sarah Palin. Boggles the mind. Please, PLEASE let the face of the party in 2012 be Sarah Palin.

Please oh please oh please oh please oh please…

9

Palin is the face. Rush is a radio personality who exerts a lot of power but his face is not shown much. When you think repub front runner Sarah is your girl. She quit Alaska to become even more prominent nationally. Alaska was not keeping her in front of the American people enough. It was too small a stage. She is ambitious.
She is merely unqualified. But the repubs have no choice but to cobble together a way to defend her gaffes. To them ,they have succeeded. It must be scary to have to go into the future campaigns with a lightweight like her. I suppose they will have to try again to teach her. She resisted their best efforts in 2008. It has to be a scary prospect for them.

10

Four hours is pretty much the limit. Medical considerations, you understand…

11

The hilarious thing is I’ve not seen any evidence that she can do any of those things well.

12

She can crank out kids .

13

It’s a family trait.

14

How precious. Empty meaningless catch phrases, with nary a thought to trouble her little head.

15

It’s funny. Some of you may (or may not) remember, I was pretty happy last election. Bush was leaving, and it was between Obama and McCain. No matter who won, I saw it as a big improvement. But unfortunately for him, McCain got Palin as a running mate. Was his party deliberately trying to sabotage his chances? Merely unqualified? How about deliberately ignorant and incompetent?

16

I LOVE THOSE GUYS! They paused in their building frenzy for a year, but it’s picking back up and (fingers crossed) maybe I can go back to filtering some of their money through my wallet.

17

I read somewhere, that we were on the road to recovery. You may get your wish. Good luck :slight_smile:

18

The face of the Republican party is righteous indignation, embodied by a slew of conservative extremist talkers and politicians calling the shots, and a woefully, and somewhat inexplicably proudly ignorant lower middle class electorate.

Put another way, there is no single person who represents the party. Palin, Rush, Hannity, Bachman, Cheney, Gingrich, et al, are simply slices that make up today’s Republican elite. The usually faceless rank and file xenophobes, homophobes, sexists, racists, antiintellectualists, antievolutionists, and religionists; the Joe the Plumbers if you will, represent the mortar between the slices, which, when combined, create a mosaic that, taken as a whole, is the true face of today’s Republican party.

“The party of rich, white guys” is actually a msnomer, because, of those who self-identify as Republican, most are not rich, and of those who consider themselves conservative, many are downright poor. I guess “The party of rich, white guy wannabes” would be a more accurate description, or, perhaps “The party of rich, white guy sycophantic fantasists”, as most don’t have a chance in Hell of becoming financially well to do, but defend the practices of the well-heeled, even to their own personal detriment.

19

It’s not that they’re “proudly ignorant” so much as they are fervently anti-elitist. They “don’t want ivy-league types running our health care.” (Actual quote I saw from someone on Facebook the other day.) :rolleyes:

As for the ignorance of many rank and file Republicans, they are simply unaware of it. Talk radio and Fox News tell them that they are privy to the inside scoop. They know all the evil things that are in the health care bill, and you would too, if you just read it. HAVE YOU READ IT? HAVE YOU?!!

Of course, they haven’t read it themselves (again, talking about rank-and-file Republicans here), and most of them would be boggled if they DID try to read it. But talk radio and Fox News are telling them what’s in there so they don’t have to read it, and the STUPID LIBERALS HAVEN’T EVEN READ THE BILL!

So despite their ignorance, they are made to feel that they are smarter than us poor benighted liberals, and what’s more, it’s their duty as patriotic citizens to go out to town hall meetings and prevent this evil from being foisted on an unknowing public.

It’s the ancient lure of secret “knowledge.” They know what’s REALLY going on, and you had better WAKE UP before you wind up a slave in a totalitarian society.

20

I wish the Republican party would go back to being the party of rich white males instead of the party of rednecks, hillbillies and religeous fanatics.

Don’t ask me. I’m just a girl.