Will The Republicans ever figure out why they lost?

Politics & Elections
1101

None of those cites do as you purport. You (and not necessarily you, specifically) try to find quotes from Republicans, and then make them retroactively apply to the campaign trail, which doesn’t work.

You see, I can find actual cites-- real quotes-- of Democrats on the campaign trail stoking up racial tensions to ensure certain racial demographics vote for them. What do you call Biden claiming that Republicans want to reintroduce slavery, or Debbie Wasserman Schultz claiming that Republicans want to bring back Jim Crow laws or Andre Carson claiming the Tea Party wants to see Blacks hanging from a tree in front of groups that otherwise support them? The truth? Harmless rhetoric? Jokes? Seriously. I want to know, seeing how absolutely no one here has even bothered acknowledging said quotes, yet alone respond to them.

But yet you claim that Republicans try to divide based on race. Please. Let’s use the 2012 election cycle as reference. What Republican came out and said, essentially, “Hey, White people! Vote for us 'cuz those darn Democrats are out to get you!”? Preibus? Boehner? McConnel? McCain? Romney? Ryan? Who? Or, as is the case here, are you projecting to have to not respond to the fact that there are ACTUAL, real, documented quotes of Democrats doing the very thing you seemingly believe they don’t do and Republicans are guilty of? I mean… really. It’d be comical if it weren’t so damn sad.

(Of course I have no faith in anyone even bothering to respond to the above quotes this time around, but here hoping.)

None so blind, indeed.

I’ve got to tell you; this isn’t much of a comeback.

What? You’re going to tell me it’s wrong?

Please do.

Oh, darn. You got me.

Is he going to cite it now (if he ever shows back up)?

1102

People don’t like responding to you because you ignore or handwave away any and all evidence that doesn’t support your skewed view of the world. But I guess it’s my turn to try and fight your ignorance:

5 racist comments from Republicans during the 2012 election cycle

9 most racist moments of the 2012 election (this one includes the nut-throwing incident and “this is how we feed animals” comment from the RNC)

slide show at this link

Colin Powell explaining that the GOP is “full of racists”

I got all these on the first page of a google search for “republican racist comments 2012 election”.

Seriously, you and adaher appear to be among just a handful of humans on the fucking planet who don’t think the GOP is full of racists and that they manage to get their message across loud and clear. Why do you think your opinion differs from, say, Colin Powell’s opinion?

1103

It’s also quite amusing how you think that calling people out for their racism is equivalent to people making racist comments.

The two things are not the same nor are they even similar.

1104

So when they win, it’s because they were racist and got the bubbas to turn out, but when they lose, it’s because they were racist. I’ve been hearing both theories for awhile now and they are crushed under the weight of their own unprovability.

GWB managed to lose Hispanics by only 20 points. I’d be very interested in hearing an explanation of how the Republicans got more racist since GWB.

1105

Why do you think your opinion differs from Colin Powell’s? What do you see/hear that he may not have seen/heard? What do you think causes his perception of the GOP re:racism to be so different from your own?

ETA: Why do you think your own perception of the GOP re:racism differs so much from, oh, nearly every other human being on the planet?

1106

My opinion differs because he’s wrong. I see no evidence that there are relatively more Republican racists than Democratic racists. What I do see is that if you’re a Democrat, you get a Get Out of Jail Free card for saying what you really think, and of course it doesn’t reflect on the party as a whole.

Now if you want to say that Republican positions are inherently pro-white and anti-minority, fine. That seems to be what the voters think as well, at least if voting behavior is any indication.

1107

Wrong. I’m here (semi) day in and day out, responding to the absurd things people type out, but people continue to type them out and willfully ignore those things they don’t like.

Oh, this will be fun.

I don’t even think you clicked on your link, nor do you understand what “racism” is.

1.) “Muslim” is not a race. This is like saying “You’re racist against Christians” :smack:.

2.) “I don’t want to make Black people’s live better by giving them someone else’s money” is not racist, considering (1) the fact that Republicans do not support “wealth redistribution” and (2) Santorum did not say he would support giving any person of any race another person’s money to better themselves. I mean, fucking seriously here.

3.) That ad mentions absolutely nothing about race in that video, and it’s absurd to claim it’s a racist attack against Huntsman since, you know, he’s not Chinese and no one claimed he was.

4.) Gingrich mentioned nothing about race (even the damn link says so). What he said-- and, really, I can’t even believe this has to be explained here-- is that poor children should be put to work early to develop good habits, whether that be at a clerical office, as an assistant librarian or even a janitor. There’s absolutely nothing fucking racist about that.

5.) Again, Romney mentioned nothing about race. The only mention of race was the article itself, which added in an "Because I’m white”, which is a stretch, as Herman Cain was just as Black as Obama and no one asked to see his birth certificate, either (same could be said for Allen West or Mia Love, too). Unless you’re going to argue that the GOP is selectively racist, good luck arguing racism.

I’d ask if you were done grasping at straws, but I see more links (unfortunately).

I’m only going to deal with things said by politicians (because no one has ever said that there weren’t racist individuals in each party), which you believe are racist.

1.) Pointing out that there are more people on food stamps now than any other time in the nation’s history is not racist. It’s a damn fact. You know why Obama is called “the food stamp president”? Because he’s presided over the largest increase in food stamps recipients in U.S. history, with the largest percentage of Americans receiving food stamps on record since the statistic was first tracked. He doesn’t like the moniker? Tough. Perhaps he should do a better job.

2.) I forgot; when did Romney mention race in his “47% comment”? That’s right. He didn’t. The only mention of race comes from the people who took issue to his comment, which is more a reflection of their state of mind.

Reread that article, buddy.

I love how your links either go back to a decidedly liberal site (which we conservatives can’t get away with) or grasps at straws. Please, do try again.

When did Colin Powell say that the “Republican party is full of racists”? Honestly now. Don’t link to articles if you’re not going to read them.

Please, show me where the GOP has said they want to reinstitute slavery or bring back Jim Crow laws, or the Tea Party has said they support lynching Blacks, as I must have missed it. Obviously.

1108

I have no idea why you typed all that. You could have had the same effect and net result if you had just typed something like /handwave or #disbelieve.

The fact is that you didn’t ask for examples of racism, you asked (and this is a direct quote, not a paraphrase) “What Republican came out and said, essentially, “Hey, White people! Vote for us 'cuz those darn Democrats are out to get you!”?”

I provided, via compilations of such incidents, more than a dozen highly noted examples that were all big media headlines when they occurred.

Your response amounted to “nuh uh”.

I also will acknowledge that I erred in attributing remarks to Colin Powell that were actually made by his former chief of staff, retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson.

So, why do you think your opinion differs from Col. Wilkerson’s?

1109

You’ve been posting here, after something like a 9 year absence after signing up for the SDMB, since just before the 2012 election. Nearly (I’m being charitable here) every single thing you thought about the campaigns and the election results was wrong; why do you think you’re correct this time?

I mean, you have an 8 or 9 month streak of being demonstratively wrong, over and over and over again, about (nearly) everything. What makes your perceptions correct this time around?

:dubious:

1110

Aw, c’mon. Doesn’t the law of averages say our friend has to be right eventually about something? I mean, if you put a chimp in front of a dart board and gave him an infinite number of darts he’d eventually hit the bullseye, right?

1111

I had thought that GWB was considered to be colour blind in general, and positively hispanophile in particular? Maybe I’m deluded, but if others were under the same misconception then that might explain his greater popularity among minorities than your typical republican?

1112

Not if he’s just stuffing the darts up his nose.

1113

Ah, so he wasn’t Hitler incarnate. Seems to be a thing with Republicans, liberals hate them with passion when they are in office, then rehabilitate them as an example of reasonableness when they retire.

1114

No, you’ve misunderstood. We’re still certain he was one of the worst Presidents ever, if not the worst.

1115

Then the GOP should nominate Jeb. they’d lose Hispanics by only 20, win whites by 20, and therefore win the election. Plus black turnout and youth turnout will fall because the Democratic nominee will be an old white person.

1116

OMG, do you even know what “the Southern Strategy” was/is?
Do you remember the Willie Horton ad? Acknowledge Atwater’s deathbed “conversion”? What was he apologizing for?

1117

The Southern Strategy was not racist, and Atwater, being a political axeman, had an already distorted view of politics.

That’s the problem, it’s Democrats who explicitly mention race, and they apparently have to explain to people that things are racist.

1118

The Southern Strategy was explicitly and admittedly meant to exploit racism for political gain. It’s not the only time politicians exploited racial tensions- Democrats were doing it for nearly a century before the Southern Strategy- but it’s one of the most important parts of Republican political success from the 70s to the 00s. That’s why Reagan talked about “welfare queens”, and that’s why the first Bush ran the Willie Horton ad. That’s why Jesse Helms ran an ad portraying a frustrated white person who lost his job to a minority.

1119

The easiest way to exploit racism is to be racist. Democrats did that. Republicans didn’t, so Democrats had to say it was a “coded racial appeal”.

Conservatives always opposed welfare queens, affirmative action(except narrowly tailored), and being soft on crime. And public opinion in general, not just white public opinion, has always been behind the right on these issues.

1120

Another big problem the Republican Party has with young people- many young people instinctively distrust any organization with few people of color. They just don’t want to be part of a nigh-lily-white party, whatever the politics.

What adaher and OMG seem to be implying (to me, anyway) is that most black people, being loyal Democrats, are either mooches or dupes. The black people I know (including the black people in my family) put a lot of thought into politics and have real reasons (to them, at least) to distrust conservative economic principles.