# Why are Republicans often seen as the "bad guys"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 17, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008 "2016-05-17T16:16:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/41 "2016-05-17T20:59:47Z")
Europeans generally have a negative opinion of George W. Bush, thanks to the war and global economic struggles. That has probably bled over to their opinion of Republicans in general. It wasn’t always like that. Ronald Reagan was pretty well liked in Europe. Politics has become contentious and there are a lot of liberals in Hollywood and on college campuses. Not really sure how to respond without more specifics from the OP. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/42 "2016-05-17T21:05:39Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What nonsense. More like: > > Clean air and water=Governmental interference goes overboard. > Healthcare for everyone=Government can’t do anything right or well. Witness long lines and long waits at airports due to NSA. > Equality for everyone=Noting wrong with equality. Biggest objection is implementation and SJWs seeing racism where it isn’t. > Decent wages even for the least skilled=Should be paid according to value of their skills to the marketplace. The business of business is business, not social engineering. > Social safety nets=Create dependence, abuse and waste. > Safe workplace conditions=Governmental interference goes overboard. > Unadulterated foods and drugs=Governmental interference goes overboard. > Women=Nothing wrong with equality. Biggest objection is implementation and SJWs seeing sexism where it isn’t. Many women are conservatives themselves. 1. Love Canal, Flint, Michigan, L.A. Basin 70s-80s 2. Universal healthcare was objected to before the ACA was passed. Even by Romnney who implemented the plan that the ACA was modeled from. 3)There are attempts and laws being passed now to deny equal rights 3. No power to have a say. The determination is entirely by someone who has an interest in keeping the number as low as possible. Not everyone can reach the top because there’s no room. Ever see a company with 10,000 CEOs, 1,000 middle managers and only one guy in the factory? How valuable will those jobs become when you have to do them? 4. If you’re going to keep wages low, how do people eat, get housing, etc? How can they save for retirement or covering an accident (especially without healthcare?). 5. Corporate indifference and greed caused the safety issue in the first place. 7)You really want to go back to sausage made from floor sweepings? OTC medicine that contains opiates? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/43 "2016-05-17T21:19:28Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What nonsense. More like: > > Decent wages even for the least skilled=Should be paid according to value of their skills to the marketplace. The business of business is business, not social engineering. > Social safety nets=Create dependence, abuse and waste. Which is it? Do you want people to be paid ‘according to the value of their skills’, even when those skills are in demand but TPTB decide they’re not worth paying for? OR do you want to do away with social safety nets? Or should the poor just be euthanised? If you work full-time and still have to be on public assistance to survive, then your employer is the one receiving welfare. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/44 "2016-05-17T21:35:08Z")
The Republicans really have seemed to hold party over country in the area of Obamacare. While I understand that there could be legitimate opposition to the law, now that it is clear that the law is a done deal and that it isn’t going to be repealed any time soon the honorable thing to do would be to try to what you can to reduce the damage of its implementation. Instead the Republicans seem hell bent on making sure that it causes as much harm as possible with the hope that it would make Obama look bad. This includes such tactics as opposing Obama’s delay of the employee mandate, (one would think if you thought the law was bad legislation you would want it delayed as long as possible). Refusing to accept money to expand Medicaid. Fighting a supreme court case based on an obvious typo with the goal of eliminating necessary subsidies to low income citizens, etc. If this isn’t evil I don’t know what is. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/45 "2016-05-17T21:59:12Z")
It’s long been part of liberal ideology to demonize their opponents. This is a tactic that goes back at least as far as Lenin (no, wait, the French Revolution) and serves to get people agitated and motivated to take whatever action liberal ideology of the time wants. For example in the early days of feminism, men were portrayed as out having a ball at work all day, earning money hand over fist and enjoying themselves while the women were little better than slaves, having to work all day around the house and then wait on their husbands hand and foot when they came home at night. Every bit of this is nonsense but it served its purpose, which was to make men the bad guy intentionally being mean to women and getting women radicalized to do what the left wants. Basically this is why conservatives are seen as the bad guys. It’s a deliberate tactic and it works because people are always willing to see themselves as victims being taken advantage of. And unfortunately there seems to be no end to the number of things the left wants to demonize the right over and these days they’re even beginning to demonize each other. It would be funny if it weren’t so tiresome. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/46 "2016-05-17T22:02:18Z")
Because Republicans represent conservatives and conservatives have been wrong on every single issue in the entire history of mankind. Usually not only wrong but evil. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/47 "2016-05-17T22:14:13Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > It’s long been part of liberal ideology to demonize their opponents. This is a tactic that goes back at least as far as Lenin (no, wait, the French Revolution) and serves to get people agitated and motivated to take whatever action liberal ideology of the time wants. For example in the early days of feminism, men were portrayed as out having a ball at work all day, earning money hand over fist and enjoying themselves while the women were little better than slaves, having to work all day around the house and then wait on their husbands hand and foot when they came home at night. > > Every bit of this is nonsense but it served its purpose, which was to make men the bad guy intentionally being mean to women and getting women radicalized to do what the left wants. > > Basically this is why conservatives are seen as the bad guys. It’s a deliberate tactic and it works because people are always willing to see themselves as victims being taken advantage of. And unfortunately there seems to be no end to the number of things the left wants to demonize the right over and these days they’re even beginning to demonize each other. It would be funny if it weren’t so tiresome. I think you missed all the preceding posts in this thread. Specific reasons have been listed explaining why modern Republicans are seen as the bad guys. It has nothing to do with seeing ourselves as victims. I certainly do not see myself as a victim, but I do see Republicans as misguided, or worse. Your recollections about the early days of feminism is a bit off too, in my opinion. But, there certainly would be value in questioning societal gender expectations about home and work responsibilities. As with any movement, some will go over the top with their rhetoric, but that’s a normal reaction as the pendulum swings back and forth. I doubt anyone thinks women (or African-Amerians, or gays) should be confined by the same social constraints as they were 50 or 60 years ago. So, I guess things work out fairly well over time. ---
**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:** [May 17, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/48 "2016-05-17T22:21:02Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > There is a similar notion in the UK. A nickname for the Tory Party (the Conservative Party) is ‘The Nasty Party’. > > My view is that it stems from the idea that conservative politics is pro-big business and the wealthy elite, is anti-welfare, and morally judgemental on personal matters. Except for the last bit, this was traditionally more the Libertarian viewpoint than the mainstream Republican viewpoint. In the last 10-20 years, however, extremely wealthy Libertarians (the .01%) have put together a phenomenal ground game to disrupt the Liberal notion that the rich should actually pay taxes, that Medicare and other social safety nets are necessary, and that taking care of the environment is a good thing. These used to be things that both the right and the left could agree on at least to some extent, and in fact both the EPA and OSHA were signed into law by President Nixon. While the Libertarian free-market movement (think Ayn Rand) was a fringe wacko group decades ago, it is now pretty much running the country by proxy. God help us all when or if they ever control all three branches of government. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/49 "2016-05-17T22:22:59Z")
> [@R3d\_Anonymous](#): > > There seems to be this notion, like prosecutors in criminal cases as I mentioned in an earlier thread, where the Republicans are considered the bad guys in debates and political affairs. Some people from Europe say that where they live, Democrats are considered the good guys while Republicans are viewed as the evil force. > > I’ve also heard numerous stories of huge liberal bias taking place in college campuses. Some students with conservative leanings have spoken up about being asked to leave a class by a professor because they identified as a conservative, or things like five to ten people in a political science class dropping on the floor laughing because the professor mentioned “Mitt Romney”. Responsibility and self reliance are much harder ways to live than petitioning for a handout? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/50 "2016-05-17T22:29:25Z")
Liberalism is a force for progress. Conservatism is an opposing force. A tension between the two is a good thing, in that it tends to prevent too much change too quickly. But an imbalance in either direction is almost always a negative. Currently what we have (and have had for quite a while) is a weighting towards conservatism which is directly attributable to Republicans doing every last possible thing they can to cause that imbalance, quite often through dirty tricks, including creating logjams, gerrymandering and other strategies to limit liberal voting power, pandering to fear, promoting division, and flat-out misrepresentation. Not that some of these things are unique to Republicans, but overall they’re more guilty of it than the liberal side, i.e. Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/51 "2016-05-17T22:38:54Z")
> [@quiltguy](#): > > Ask the good people of Flint, MI what they think of their overwhelmingly Republican overlords in Lansing? Conveniently forgotten that it was the truly inept Democratic Flint “leadership” that led to said overlords. Even currently Flint’s leadership is remarkable. [http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/us/flint-mayor-water-crisis-lawsuit/index.html?sr=twCNN051016flint-mayor-water-crisis-lawsuit1217AMStoryLink&linkId=24306380](http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/us/flint-mayor-water-crisis-lawsuit/index.html?sr=twCNN051016flint-mayor-water-crisis-lawsuit1217AMStoryLink&linkId=24306380) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/52 "2016-05-17T23:21:46Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Except that it is true. > > For example, Fox ‘News’ interviews two scientists… And the Huffington Post and the Guardian would do exactly the same thing in reverse. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/53 "2016-05-18T01:17:28Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > And the Huffington Post and the Guardian would do exactly the same thing in reverse. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/54 "2016-05-18T02:17:03Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > They’re the bad guys because you, and people you talk politics with, are social progressives. > > The Republicans have been the socially conservative party for the last 50 years. If you think that the changes our society is going through are generally in a positive direction, then the Republicans are going to be on the wrong side of history on most of those changes. > > Racial equality, gender equality, women’s rights, gay rights, transgender rights, income inequality, etc. On all of those issues, the Republicans are coming down on the side of the old social order. And as the people who most strongly champion that old social order die off, they abandon whatever old wedge issue used to be effective and find a new one. > > It’s why ten years ago, mainstream Republican candidates took strong stances against gay marriage, but now that the fight is effectively over, they don’t really want to talk about it. They’ve found a new wedge issue in transgender bathroom use. > > If you’re slightly more progressive than the average person, then you’re going to be opposed to every wedge issue, so Republicans are always on the side of oppressing some minority group. > > Note that if you were a social conservative, perhaps a religious fundamentalist, you would probably not see the Republicans as the bad guys. You’d see them as noble moral crusaders taking a stand against an increasingly degenerate and sinful culture. Sure, they might abandon some hopeless causes every once in a while, but they do their best to slow the onslaught of societal failure. Pretty much. I’m a social conservative and religious fundamentalist and I see the Democrats as the bad guys. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/55 "2016-05-18T03:33:49Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > Pretty much. I’m a social conservative and religious fundamentalist and I see the Democrats as the bad guys. When your views become policy, I see it as basically un-American. Everyone is of course free to be as socially conservative as they like- in fact, in many cases I recommend it. But to impose it on the entire nation as _policy_, why, that amounts to a freedom-destroying government intrusion. Religious fundamentalism is even worse (as policy, mind). Separation of church and state is in the 1st Amendment for a reason- the founders thought it was rather important. Feel free to be as religiously fundamentalist as you like, but try to force it into public policy and I am going to get nasty with you. I hope with all my heart that the distinctions I’ve laid out in this post will be understood as intended, though I suspect that is unlikely. > [@octopus](#): > > Responsibility and self reliance are much harder ways to live than petitioning for a handout? This is part of the Right’s problem- they are relentlessly arguing with strawmen. I believe it is a tactic for protecting the conservative mind from appraising the full range and complexity of points surrounding any complex issue like social safety nets. All they have to say is, “So, what you’re saying, you filthy liberal, is that we can all abandon responsibility and self-reliance in favor of handouts? How’s that gonna work?” Through these means the paucity of the conservative position is never revealed, because they never actually engage the debate in the first place. Then there is the hypocrisy of conservative positions. They don’t want the government to give aid to groups that need it, but do want it to step in and impose a particular religion and worldview on the country. Doesn’t the latter amount to aid for those who _don’t_ need it? “The general welfare” does not equal “proselytization through force of law”. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/56 "2016-05-18T03:46:56Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Responsibility and self reliance are much harder ways to live than petitioning for a handout? Republican leaning states are [more dependent on federal aid](https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/#red-vs-blue) than Democratic leaning states. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/57 "2016-05-18T03:49:42Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > When your views become policy, I see it as basically un-American. Everyone is of course free to be as socially conservative as they like- in fact, in many cases I recommend it. But to impose it on the entire nation as _policy_, why, that amounts to a freedom-destroying government intrusion. > > Religious fundamentalism is even worse (as policy, mind). Separation of church and state is in the 1st Amendment for a reason- the founders thought it was rather important. Feel free to be as religiously fundamentalist as you like, but try to force it into public policy and I am going to get nasty with you. > > I hope with all my heart that the distinctions I’ve laid out in this post will be understood as intended, though I suspect that is unlikely. > > This is part of the Right’s problem- they are relentlessly arguing with strawmen. I believe it is a tactic for protecting the conservative mind from appraising the full range and complexity of points surrounding any complex issue like social safety nets. All they have to say is, “So, what you’re saying, you filthy liberal, is that we can all abandon responsibility and self-reliance in favor of handouts? How’s that gonna work?” Through these means the paucity of the conservative position is never revealed, because they never actually engage the debate in the first place. > > Then there is the hypocrisy of conservative positions. They don’t want the government to give aid to groups that need it, but do want it to step in and impose a particular religion and worldview on the country. Doesn’t the latter amount to aid for those who _don’t_ need it? “The general welfare” does not equal “proselytization through force of law”. Strawmen? Perhaps. But given the quality of discussion which is mostly snark and derision from the left in this very thread I don’t see the obligation to not respond in kind. With regards to religion? I’m not religious. But I am conservative in the sense that I don’t like empowering the government beyond what it needs to function for its core duties. In that sense I’m probably a classical liberal. Not one of these statists that would turn the US into Venezuela so we could all be equally miserable but at least equal. And yes, conservatives quite often do engage in the debate and are met with accusations of racism, sexism, hating the poor and other slanders. Why? Because the left likes to exploit the desire to feel virtuous in order to get votes from the naive with respect to human nature with regards to acquiring power. By demonizing the right as hateful in contrast the left can claim to “care!” Here’s an example of how my particular strand of conservative thinking works. I hear about a policy of civil asset forfeiture in order to fight crime. What do you think I think? A). Hooray get those vile drug traffickers B). This is a very dangerous and corruption producing violation of civil liberties. Is that simplistic? Perhaps. But anyone who has studied power and human nature should automatically choose B. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/58 "2016-05-18T03:51:26Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Republican leaning states are [more dependent on federal aid](https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/#red-vs-blue) than Democratic leaning states. So? I know that is a favorite meme of the left but you do realize that red states and blue states are not homogeneous. Discounting Social Security and Medicare which people earn through work do you think those folks dependent on aid vote primarily democratic or republican? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/59 "2016-05-18T03:59:10Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > So? I know that is a favorite meme of the left but you do realize that red states and blue states are not homogeneous. Discounting Social Security and Medicare which people earn through work do you think those folks dependent on aid vote primarily democratic or republican? Who cares? Those states have more money coming in from the federal govt. that go out in taxes. The leanings are determined by which way the state voted in 2012. So you’re saying that in Republican dominated states, the majority of those who receive aid are Democratic? Got a cite? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008/60 "2016-05-18T04:02:32Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Not one of these statists that would turn the US into Venezuela so we could all be equally miserable but at least equal. That’s a good example of what I mean. Can you name anybody in US government or media promoting the idea that we should turn the country into Venezuela? If you want to argue against that, I guess you will look good in front of the uninformed, but it doesn’t address any genuine points of the discussion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-republicans-often-seen-as-the-bad-guys/755008.md?page=4)