# Will The Republicans ever figure out why they lost? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 26, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224 "2012-12-26T21:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/141 "2012-12-28T02:27:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And replaced with what? A decision strictly by the popular vote. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/142 "2012-12-28T02:27:10Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > A electoral landslide… Not a popular landslide much less of a percentage than what he had in 2008 win with 1.5%… a slim win. > > …just another example of how the electoral system needs to be done away with. A man winning the popular vote and the presidency with an electoral mandate is a reason why it needs to be eliminated? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/143 "2012-12-28T02:29:45Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > I was not talking about ther Indians…I was referring to the War Between the States. The Civil War wasn’t a “holocaust”. What happened to the Indians was. ---
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/144 "2012-12-28T02:30:30Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, he was more responsible for the **outcome** of the war than any other individual including General Grant. The **nature** of the war was that it was an American civil war; therefore a high count of American dead is inevitable, since we’re counting both sides. Another reason it was so high was that each side got into the war expecting victory within weeks, because each side deeply underestimated the other’s resolve to win; and then once started it had to be played out, under those conditions, to the end. It was a tragedy in every sense of the word, including the classical – but not a holocaust. Lincoln took the strong position, which some would call tyrannical, that states have no right to secede from the Union. He believed it was his obligation as President to enforce the laws that would keep the states in the Union even against their will as expressed by democratic conventions and state legislatures. His policy is ironic and even hypocritical because this position conflicts with Lincoln’s own doctrine of the right of revolution that he expressed in Congress on January 12, 1848 during the Mexican War when he said, Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable—a most sacred right— a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize and make their own so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with or near about them, who may oppose their movement. Such minority was precisely the case of the Tories of our own revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines or old laws, but to break up both and make new ones. In his inaugural address President Lincoln warned against a civil war while promising that he would not invade the South. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/145 "2012-12-28T02:31:58Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > A decision strictly by the popular vote. We agree on **something.** I’ll see that and [raise](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting) [you.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/146 "2012-12-28T02:32:02Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > In his inaugural address President Lincoln warned against a civil war while promising that he would not invade the South. The South picked a fight it couldn’t win. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/147 "2012-12-28T02:33:40Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > I was not talking about ther Indians…I was referring to the War Between the States. Hint: If you want to be taken seriously, or to deserve to be taken seriously, don’t call it that. (Nor “War of Northern Aggression,” either.) ---
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/148 "2012-12-28T02:33:51Z")
Quote from Abraham Lincoln “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.” ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/149 "2012-12-28T02:34:16Z")
**SmilinJack** , I don’t suppose I have to cite the part where Lincoln had to swear to protect and defend the union from threats foreign and domestic when he took office. And you would blame him for creating that oath? ---
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/150 "2012-12-28T02:34:54Z")
Lincoln wanted to send the Negroes back to Africa. ---
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/151 "2012-12-28T02:36:31Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Hint: If you want to be taken seriously, or to deserve to be taken seriously, don’t call it that. (Nor “War of Northern Aggression,” either.) When over 600 thousand Americans die in a war that could have been prevented…I shall, have and will continue to refer to it as the Great American Holocuast. Deal wid it chump. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/152 "2012-12-28T02:36:32Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > Lincoln wanted to send the Negroes back to Africa. What did the South seceding have to do with that? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/153 "2012-12-28T02:38:57Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > When over 600 thousand Americans die in a war that could have been prevented…I shall, have and will continue to refer to it as the Great American Holocuast. Deal wid it chump. Is this where you cite a massive wall of text to proclaim Holocaust means something this naive liberal doesn’t understand. Yeah, I’ve had enough fun with you. ---
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/154 "2012-12-28T02:42:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > What?! Nonsense, there are no such things as Hispanics. True but it was Not I using the term…I prefer to calll them mexican or puerto rican …depending on the particular country they are from…guatamala, honduras, el salvador etc. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/155 "2012-12-28T02:43:29Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > When over 600 thousand Americans die in a war that could have been prevented…I shall, have and will continue to refer to it as the Great American Holocuast. Deal wid it chump. I meant, if you want to be taken seriously or deserve to be taken seriously, don’t refer to it as the War Between the States. Only Cornfed-symps do that. “Great American Holocaust,” now, is a new one on me; I suppose you coined it? ---
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/156 "2012-12-28T02:44:40Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Is this where you cite a massive wall of text to proclaim Holocaust means something this naive liberal doesn’t understand. > > Yeah, I’ve had enough fun with you. Definition of holocaust (n) [bing.com](http://bing.com) · Bing Dictionary hol·o·caust [hóllə kàwst] 1.destruction of human life: wholesale or mass destruction, especially of human life ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/157 "2012-12-28T02:45:14Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I meant, if you want to be taken seriously or deserve to be taken seriously, don’t refer to it as the War Between the States. Only Cornfed-symps do that. “Great American Holocaust,” now, is a new one on me; I suppose you coined it? It was all because Lincoln hated white people. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/158 "2012-12-28T02:47:19Z")
Shit, he was a lawyer! For the railroad, no less! No wonder he was an atheist, with such gloomy prospects for Eternity. ---
**Author:** ![SmilinJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@SmilinJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmilinJack)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/159 "2012-12-28T02:48:00Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s rather hard to do anything when the Republicans are perfectly willing to wreck the country in order to _keep_ you from doing anything. Yes it was all georges fault anyhow. heh heh Obama needs a sign on his desk like Truman had…THE BUCK STOPS HERE How long are you liberals willing to let obama keep passing the buck? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224/160 "2012-12-28T02:48:37Z")
> [@SmilinJack](#): > > When over 600 thousand Americans die in a war that could have been prevented… No, it couldn’t have. The South was unable to stand not being in charge. > [@SmilinJack](#): > > I shall, have and will continue to refer to it as the Great American Holocuast. It was the fault of the South; and considering the evil it overthrew, it was worth it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-republicans-ever-figure-out-why-they-lost/645224.md?page=9)