# Why \_are\_ today's GOP so daft?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 9, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340 "2012-03-09T22:22:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/61 "2012-03-11T02:06:07Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#):
>
> “So-and-so has never, ever done anything that wasn’t vile and stupid” is a ridiculous assertion, one that can be dismissed on its face. Is that point outside your capacity to understand?
Again, show me where I agreed with this assertion.
It’s true that the OP did not have a thesis. But you weren’t responding to the OP. You were responding to a quote in the OP, to which Tooth responded, to which I responded. That we’re in this thread at all is apparently happenstance.
> [@](#):
>
> Anyone that thinks this requires refutation is an idiot.
This is a message board. Nothing much is _required_.
> [@](#):
>
> “If the posts here are so nonsensical, it should be easy enough to refute them” is a moronic rejoinder in this instance, an indication that one is part of the throng so immersed in a fog of partisanship that basic logic seems to be beyond him.
It’s a statement of fact. You’re implying that I agree with the assertion. What I expected was either silence, since no one wanted to take the time to find a counterexample, or a post with links to perfectly reasonable statements, additional Pitting vitriol optional. simple dismissal does nothing for me. Genuine counterexamples are interesting.
> [@](#):
>
> That throng would NOT be everyone on the left (or right), just those who demonize their opposition to a cartoonish degree, firm in their belief that they are correct, and absolutely correct, in that assessment.
I don’t know who you’re talking about here. It sure isn’t me.
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/62 "2012-03-11T02:09:25Z")
> [@Terr](#):
>
> No, idiot. Those people use the meme. Without attribution. I bet most don’t even know or care whether it was said by someone “famous” before them. Kael doesn’t have a copyright on it, wasn’t the first who said it and wasn’t the last one.
No, she’s just the only person anyone’s ever heard of to say it. And idiots pick up on the story, and mangle it, and misatttribute it, and get it ass-backwards, and then argue about it online. You’re talking out of your ass, not for the first time, and someone other than me will have to spend his time explaining to you why you’re as determinedly stupid as you are. I’ll just assert for the last time that you definitely are too stupid for me to argue with, and that’s saying quite a lot about the depths of your stupidity. I’ve argued with REALLY thick people before, but you’re too much for me.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/63 "2012-03-11T02:13:47Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#):
>
> No, she’s just the only person anyone’s ever heard of to say it.
And of course it has to be a “famous” person or it hasn’t been said.
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### Author:  [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/64 "2012-03-11T02:14:52Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> This is a good example of negative advertising. Why should I even take the time to visit a website whose followers spam kooky, nonsensical bumper stickers all over the place?
I don’t know anything about that, but the link has a video of Rand Paul talking about NDAA and SOPA and making perfect sense on both counts. Not a huge fan of his but it’s a case where he was one of few people talking sense on both issues. He’s certainly not wrong because the video is embedded on a site run by people with kooky bumper stickers.
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### Author:  [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/65 "2012-03-11T02:24:17Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> [QUOTE=Terr]
> Of course. Because she’s the only one who could have possibly said it.
Google it. First page, Pauline Kael. Google is your friend. Well, mine. Maybe not so much yours, being about facts, and stuff.
[/QUOTE]
Am I the only person for whom it appears that **elucidator** replied to this post before **Terr** made it?
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### Author:  [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/66 "2012-03-11T02:24:52Z")
Seriously, are there people here who don’t think the right has pandered to the uneducated? Death panels, Obama’s birth certificate, “honest rape,” etc. “Global warming scam.” Obama wants to kill disabled children and bring back slavery. Book banning and state rape.
I know, I know, “not us, you! you’re only saying that because you disagree with us! you’re partisan!” That’s just more of the deflection and blame-cycling away from the reflection that would end the stupidity.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/67 "2012-03-11T02:34:28Z")
> [@tnetennba](#):
>
> Seriously, are there people here who don’t think the right has pandered to the uneducated?
> **[Republican Party (United States)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States))**
>
> The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a right-wing political party in the United States. One of the two major parties, it emerged as the main rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since then.
> The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists opposing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories. It rapidly gained support in the North, drawing i...
Self-identified Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to have 4-year college degrees. The trends for the years 1955 through 2004 are shown by gender in the graphs below, reproduced from a book published by Joseph Fried.[
Regarding graduate-level degrees (masters or doctorate), there is a rough parity between Democrats and Republicans. According to the Gallup Organization: “\*\*oth Democrats and Republicans have equal numbers of Americans at the upper end of the educational spectrum — that is, with post graduate degrees…”
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### Author:  [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/68 "2012-03-11T02:38:43Z")
That doesn’t answer my question, and I think I know why the misdirection.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/69 "2012-03-11T02:45:14Z")
> [@tnetennba](#):
>
> That doesn’t answer my question, and I think I know why the misdirection.
The answer is of course Republicans pander to the uneducated. They are a huge proportion of the voters and historically have been very effectively pandered to by Democrats and vote for Democrats more than for Republicans.
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### Author:  [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/70 "2012-03-11T02:57:48Z")
> [@cbass1017](#):
>
> Wow! Sounds to me like most of the people writing these posts really have some serious issues with people who they don’t agree with. Not that I agree with any of the people you all are bashing here, but I do consider myself to be conservative which according to most of you would lable me as a republican. And also a F@#\* this and stupid that and dim-witted self-serving piece of monkey sh#_. Even though you know nothing about me or what I am about. Bill Maher calls himself a democrat so should I sit here and rant and rave about how all democrats are a bunch of sexist a **holes? come on now! I"m just a man who loves my family, works hard, and tries to help other people when I can. But since most would call me a republican I guess really I am just some worthless F’d up, retarted slack a** ed cu_ dumpster. Boy I really learned a lot about myself today… thanks everyone!
Well, I see two options. One, ask yourself why you are a Republican, especially if your relevant criteria are loving your family, working hard and trying to help other people when you can.
Or two, be a whiny bitch when general criticisms are directed at a group you consider yourself to be affiliated with for some unspecified reason.
Your choice.
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### Author:  [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/71 "2012-03-11T02:58:13Z")
> [@Terr](#):
>
> The answer is of course Republicans pander to the uneducated. They are a huge proportion of the voters and historically have been very effectively pandered to by Democrats and vote for Democrats more than for Republicans.
Yawn.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/72 "2012-03-11T03:03:25Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> who started the EPA? Who opened China? Who got us off the gold standard for good?
>
> Hint: it was a Republican.
>
> Nixon’s corruption came out of paranoia and a desire to hold onto power. Many of his policies would be called socialist in today’s political climate. Nixon was a pragmatist, not an ideologue. Reagan was also, but was clever enough not to show it and the base was too stupid to realize it.
Who started the interstate system? I don’t get your point. Ron Paul wants us back on the gold standard. The EPA and international dialogue are both considered near treasonous to the contemporary GOP.
I guess I don’t consider Goldwater, Eisenhower or Nixon to be the GOP (despite them being so). Goldwater hated the contemporary GOP and was going to co-write a book with John Dean condemning them before he died. Eisenhower said of people who subscribe to contemporary GOP philosophy ‘their number is negligible and they are stupid’. Coulter denounced Nixon as a liberal.
Maybe I misspoke in my earlier post. The GOP presidents had some good ideas in the past. But those ideas came from people who hated and feared the troglodytes who have taken over the party now.
FWIW, even Bush had some good ideas. The second chance act and the malaria/hiv/tb initiative in Africa were both good accomplishments. Maybe I am just exposing myself to the most dogmatic GOPers both in person and via the media.
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### Author:  [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/73 "2012-03-11T03:10:47Z")
The entire rebuttal to this thread can be summed as “no u.”
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/74 "2012-03-11T03:15:30Z")
Well, sure, but brevity is the soil of wit, like that guy said.
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/75 "2012-03-11T03:21:31Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Well, sure, but brevity is the soil of wit, like that guy said.
Uncle Herman, peeing?
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/76 "2012-03-11T03:31:49Z")
> [@tnetennba](#):
>
> The entire rebuttal to this thread can be summed as “no u.”
Who said anything remotely like that? I must have missed it.
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### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/77 "2012-03-11T03:37:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I’ll never understand the concept that the GOP is or used to be ‘the party of good ideas’. That is as divorced from reality as you can get.
Keep in mind that the Democrat vanguard consisted of Theodore G. Bilbo and Robert Byrd. The Free Soil Party may have been better, but Lincoln was also of the opinion that wage labour wasn’t the ideal to which those seeking to abolish slavery should strive.
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### Author:  [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/78 "2012-03-11T04:22:49Z")
There are big differences between the taxed-too-much educated anti-union pro-business country club cocktail party Republicans, the war hawk big military neo-con Republicans, the small government leave-me-alone libertarian paleoconservative log cabin Republicans, and the social conservative homophobic hayseed pro-life vaginae-should-be-sewn-shut-until-marriage gynecology-should-be-regulated education-makes-people-stupid-and-liberal Palin-loving economy-is-bad-because-people-have-sex-before-marriage-and-lack-Christian-morals Republicans. The TEA Party seems to be a mix of the taxed-enough-already crowd that started the tea-bagger movement and the social conservatives who commandeered the movement.
There are some overlaps among these general factions, but the social conservatives are the most vocal and fervent. They threaten to defeat (with success in some cases) GOP politicians during recent past primary elections and future primary elections. The cocktail party GOPers hold their noses and tolerate the right wingers for the sake of votes. The Rovian neo-cons will attack the Dems as anti-American and tell lies to the far right as long as it helps voter turnout and helps win elections.
Prominent right wing evangelical types (Falwell, etc) embraced Reagan during his 1980 candidacy and presidency, and the GOP has pandered to that crowd to varying extents ever since. Gingrich really pushed for party purity and an attitude of no compromising with the enemies, Democrats. Limbaugh, Fox News, Drudge, and others have been very influential the past 15 to 20 years. There was a lot of right wing backlash against JFK and Clinton after their respective elections, but the election of Obama more vigorously stirred up the zany elements of the right wing. I’ve lost count of the number of right wingers I’ve heard say that Obama is the anti-christ
Nixon and Eisenhower would be left wing pinko-commie pro-union treehuggers from the perspective of some of today’s GOP politicians and voters.
Funny, you don’t hear the GOP talk about Bush a whole lot these days.
The DC Democrats have some lousy policies and positions IMO but at least they don’t try to embrace insanity and extremism.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/79 "2012-03-11T04:40:37Z")
Couple interesting recent articles on the future of the Republican Party:
[Will the Tea Get Cold?](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/08/will-tea-get-cold/), by Sam Tanenhous
[Life of the Party](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/03/12/120312fa_fact_lizza), by Ryan Lizza
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### Author:  [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2012, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-_are_-todays-gop-so-daft/615340/80 "2012-03-11T06:10:39Z")
Maybe the Democrats can field [this guy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HER2pGdAak) for the next Presidential election to compete.
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