Mefferd: If the GOP continues to go in a direction where they will not get on the side of traditional marriage and be willing to fight for it, what do Christians do?
McClusky: I think you will—there are always threats of a third party—I think if something like that were to happen you would see a third party. It would be made up of more than just disgruntled conservative Republicans. On the marriage issue there’s African Americans who normally vote Democratic, there’s Hispanics, and the same on the life issue, and there are a lot of good Democrats like say in the state legislature of New York who fought against same-sex marriage and Maryland who tried to, I think what you see is a lot of people drifting from both parties into a third party or some sort of independent party that is more pro-life and pro-marriage.
Over the next few election cycles, this is only going to become more and more of a problem for Republicans. The religious right is a huge part of their base that they can’t afford to lose, but everyone other than the religious right is moving in the opposite direction when it comes to social issues. They’re going to have to make a choice, do they continue the anti-gay policies and keep that base or do they try to moderate and appeal to everyone else? Something is going to have to give.
The same thing is true on immigration. With Latinos making up a larger and larger portion of the electorate, there’s just no way the GOP will be able to continue advocating harsh anti-immigration policies and still hope to win elections.
Republicans and conservatives are forced to vote out of their party if they care about issues like climate change, evolution, or science in general, as the latest convert explains:
Quote :
A couple of you are wondering what made me switch parties in the other thread. It was a lot of things, but part of it was finally just coming to terms with everything I believed in was bullshit. There are only so many times you can try to justify something, then watch the Bush administration cut you off at the knees, or see them get caught blatantly lying, or doing things like having their FEMA officials stage “press conferences” in which the reporters were… FEMA officials. Or all the talk about about deficit reduction while exploding the national debt. Or all the lies and lies and lies about Iraq. Torture and Schiavo were the beginning fissures for me. Every single one of you, if I were to say finish this phrase: “The sanctity of…” would be able to blurt out “marriage.” And yet, in an issue that is the business of no one but husband and wife, there was the GOP rushing to pass a national law INJECTING themselves into someone’s allegedly sanctified marriage. The fact that they were trashing the courts and ignoring medical science was just the icing on the cake.
. . .
I think the meanness of the GOP was a big part of it. The outing people on the internet, the religious fanatics, the attempts to get people fired, the absolute unwillingness to ever admit error, the smearing of the Schiavo’s husband, the gay-bashing, etc. Even if I bought into wingnut bullshit, I never thought of myself as a hater. And let’s be clear- I can be a colossal dick, but I’m not by nature a hater. I think you can understand the difference. I’m a live and let live kind of guy, I prefer growing things and nurturing things to destroying them, but I have no problem chucking hand grenades or shooting first if I think it is an imperative. I’ll help anyone who asks for it, but I’ll also not flinch before punching someone in the neck if I think they are threatening someone or something I love.
And while Republicans may very well have been crazy for decades, the outright ugliness, I think, has escalated beyond measure. The hideous treatment of Graeme Frost was the final straw, I guess. It was just the last, final, “WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?” moment. You see the same thing from the same folks as they viciously attack Trayvon Martin for his horrible sin of being gunned down in cold blood.
Republicans for Environmental Protection is dropping the “Republican” — after 17 years of trying to demonstrate that a group can comfortably exist in today’s GOP while championing causes like global warming and opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The group’s new name is ConservAmerica, a name that’s supposed to represent “the inherent connection between conservation and conservatism” while appealing to an audience that has grown less party-affiliated.
“We’re seeing more and more independents out there,” said David Jenkins, the group’s vice president for governmental and political affairs. “Messaging through a Republican frame doesn’t reach those people as well as reaching them through a conservative frame.”
Heretic
Posts : 3520
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 5/25/2012, 10:16 am
I worked for Reagan and wrote for National Review. But the new hysterical right cares nothing for truth or dignity
Gosh! When did I end up in bed with Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber? Could it be because I did specialize in blowing things up while serving my country for four years as an airborne combat engineer? I also watched human beings blown up. I had friends and Navy SEALs I was in battle with blown up. My own intestines exploded on the first of my four combat embeds, three in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Took seven operations to fix the plumbing. I later suffered other permanent injuries.
Yet now I find myself linked not only with the Unabomber, but also Charles Manson and Fidel Castro. Or so says the Chicago-based think tank the Heartland Institute, for which I’ve done work. Heartland erected billboards depicting the above three declaring: “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?” Climate scientists now, evidently, share something in common with dictators and mass murderers. Reportedly bin Laden was scheduled to make such an appearance, too.
. . .
Extremism in the defense of nothing
Nothing the new right does is evidently outrageous enough to receive more than a peep of indignation from the new right. Heartland pulled its billboards because of funder withdrawals, not because any conservatives spoke up and said it had crossed a line.
Last month U.S. Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican recently considered by some as vice-president material, insisted that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party, again with little condemnation from the new right.
Mitt Romney took a question at a town hall meeting this month from a woman who insisted President Obama be “tried for treason,” without challenging, demurring from or even commenting on her assertion.
And then there’s the late Andrew Breitbart (assassinated on the orders of Obama, natch). A video from February shows him shrieking at peaceful protesters: “You’re freaks and animals! Stop raping people! Stop raping people! You freaks! You filthy freaks! You filthy, filthy, filthy raping, murdering freaks!” He went on for a minute-and-a-half like that. Speak not ill of the dead? Sen. Ted Kennedy’s body was barely cold when Breitbart labeled him “a big ass motherf@#$er,” a “duplicitous bastard” a “prick” and “a special pile of human excrement.”
The new right loved it! Upon his own death shortly after, Breitbart was immediately sanctified and sent to lead the Seraphim. He was repeatedly eulogized as “the most important conservative of our time never to hold office,” skipping right past William F. What’s-his-name Jr.
There was nothing “conservative” about Breitbart. Ever-consummate gentlemen like Buckley and Ronald Reagan would have been mortified by such behavior as Breitbart’s – or West’s or Heartland’s. “There you go again,” the Gipper would have said in his soft but powerful voice.
Civility and respect for order – nay, demand for order – have always been tenets of conservatism. The most prominent work of history’s most prominent conservative, Edmund Burke, was a reaction to the anger and hatred that swept France during the revolution. It would eventually rip the country apart and plunge all of Europe into decades of war. Such is the rotted fruit of mass-produced hate and rage. Burke, not incidentally, was a true Tea Party supporter, risking everything as a member of Parliament to support the rebellion in the United States.
All of today’s right-wing darlings got there by mastering what Burke feared most: screaming “J’accuse! J’accuse!” Turning people against each other. Taking seeds of fear, anger and hatred and planting them to grow a new crop.
Conservatism has also historically emphasized empiricism. Joe Friday of “Dragnet” must have been a conservative: “All we want are the facts, Ma’am.” When President Reagan famously said, “Facts are stupid things,” he meant to quote President John Adams’ observation that “Facts are stubborn things.” But how much fact was there in Heartland’s billboards, whose shock purpose has been likened to tactics of the hard-left animal activist group PETA, with whom I’ve repeatedly locked horns. Or in West’s assertion? Or Breitbart’s tirades? Rush Limbaugh compared Breitbart, who never wrote a single investigative report, to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the dynamic duo who brought down the thoroughly corrupt presidency of Richard Nixon. He actually said Breitbart’s work was superior. Oh, dear!
I know these words coming from somebody identified with the right are heresy – as defined by this new right. An invite to a marshmallow roast with you as guest of honor. Or worse. It’s to be labeled with the ultimate epithet: RINO. Republican in name only. GOP Sen. Scott Brown bears that mark of Cain. Coming from super-liberal Massachusetts, he only has a 74 percent American Conservative Union rating. There you go, then!
So there’s an auto-da-fé out there right now with my name on it. Torquemada is holding the torch; the wieners and s’mores are flying off the shelves. Truth be known, though, I haven’t considered myself a Republican since 1982. Why? That was the year of the massive Reagan tax hike. I figured that’s what liberal Democrats are for. Tore up my donor card and never gave again. By being a conservative at that time, I was a RINO. By being one now, I’m also a RINO. A very curious animal, that.
So much good stuff in here:
Quote :
President Obama is regularly referred to as a Marxist/Socialist, Nazi, tyrant, Muslim terrorist supporter and – let me look this up, but I’ll bet probably the antichrist, too. Yup, there it is! Over 5 million Google references. There should be a contest to see if there’s anything for which Obama hasn’t been accused. Athlete’s foot? The “killer bees”? Maybe. In any case, the very people who coined and promoted such terms as “Bush Derangement Syndrome, Cheney Derangement Syndrome and Palin Derangement Syndrome” have been promoting hysterical attitudes toward Obama since before he was even sworn in.
No, I’m not cherry-picking. When I say “regularly referred to,” interpret literally. Polls show that about half of voting Republican buy into the birther nonsense (one of the more prominent hysterias within the hysteria). Only about a fourth seem truly sure that Obama was actually born here. In her nationally syndicated column Michelle Malkin wrote regarding Limbaugh’s slut remarks, that “I’m sorry the civility police now have an opening to demonize the entire right based on one radio comment.” In a stroke she’s expressed her disdain for civility and declared the new right’s sins can be dispatched as an itsy-bitsy little single faux pas, “one radio comment.”
And the birther nonsense is definitely making a recent comeback, btw.
And on to the "well, the left does it too!!" whine:
Quote :
Sure, there are enough hate-and-anger mongers on the left to go around. Among the worst was Keith Olbermann, who once called Malkin a “mashed up bag of meat with lipstick on it.” Very edifying, Keith! But as the Christian Science Monitor reported, his ratings recently collapsed from an average of 354,000 viewers a night when he debuted on Current TV, to 58,000 viewers by the first quarter of 2012. He was recently fired. Again. Air America was intended to counter right-wing talk radio, especially Rush Limbaugh. I was on Al Franken’s show while he made fun of a soldier from my first battle who is now permanently paralyzed. Touché, Al! But Air America also failed.
It's always reassuring to find that my perceptions of conservatives/Republicans are matched by conservatives themselves. Thankfully, rather than fixing such a breach, they continue to drive out the moderates and reward the extremists, forever widening the gap. This in turn renders every potential Republican nominee inferior to their imaginary Reagon-god, driving them out of the race, until they're left with... Romney.
"Romney 2012! 'Cause we couldn't find anyone else to satisfy the teabaggers."
edge540
Posts : 1165
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 5/29/2012, 4:13 pm
'Bloviating ignoramus' Donald Trump blasts back at 'dumb' George Will Posted: 12:16 AM, May 28, 2012 WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump got stuck into a war of words with conservative columnist George Will on Sunday, blasting the "dumb" commentator who had earlier branded him a "bloviating ignoramus."
Will launched the opening salvo at Trump, for questioning President Barack Obama's birthplace days before the real estate mogul is scheduled to help Mitt Romney woo campaign donors.
"I do not understand the cost-benefit here," Will said on ABC's "This Week" when asked about Romney's upcoming fundraising appearance with Trump.
"The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me," Will added. "Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low, and you can still intrude into American politics. But again, I don't understand the benefit. What is Romney seeking?"
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 5/29/2012, 5:46 pm
CNN's Wolf Blitzer made an absolute fool out of the side show barker earlier today. According to Trump the conspiracy started in Hawaii back in 1961 when Barack's birth announcement was printed in the daily papers. After this interview describing him as a "bloviating ignoramus" might just be too kind of a desciption...
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 5/30/2012, 9:27 am
Quote :
Quote :
“That was a big steaming plate of shit spaghetti Trump just deposited on CNN for his supposed friend Romney,”
former Bush speechwriter David Frum tweeted after Trump sparred at length with CNN host Wolf Blitzer over the president’s origins. Longtime McCain adviser Mark McKinnon said Trump undermined Romney’s brand and made him look like “an out-of-touch rich guy without any real core, which means he’ll associate with anyone if he thinks it will further his ambition.”
An unaligned Republican strategist, Liz Mair, fretted to TPM that without an intervention from Romney, Trump’s election tour was probably just getting started.
“My bigger concern is not positive reinforcement for the birthers, but rather positive reinforcement for a guy who loves the spotlight and probably will come out and crap all over Romney just to get attention for himself in a couple months,” she said.
If you want to see just how fractured the Republican party is around the country as it tries to please the Tea Partiers, the more traditional business types and the Ron Paul acolytes, look no further than the Louisiana state GOP convention. That event took a turn for the bizarre as Ron Paul supporters revolted against the decisions of the chair, split the convention and were roughed up by the police who were called to remove them.
Quote :
Several supporters of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) sustained injuries while being arrested during the Louisiana Republican Party’s state convention over the weekend, in a conflict that engulfed the meeting after Paul’s supporters overwhelmed other delegates and voted in new leadership, only to be ignored.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) won the Louisiana primary and received 10 delegates, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) took second, earning five delegates along with it. Paul finished fourth in the primary, behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), but his supporters dominated the state’s caucusing process in April, meaning he stood to gain as many as 30 delegates at the state convention.
And with an audience widely stacked in his favor on Saturday, it seemed likely that Paul would again emerge from a state convention the unexpected victor… That is, until the LAGOP chairman turned the process on its head.
The conflict hinged upon an alleged violation of the state party’s rules by Chairman Roger Francis Villere, Jr., who’s headed up the LAGOP since 2004. Paul supporters claim he called upon a former Rules Committee chairman, who had been defeated the night prior, in order to implement rules that would marginalize Paul’s delegates. That’s when Alex Helwig, a Paul supporter who’d claimed he had won the race to chair the rules committee, stood up and objected to the chairman’s actions, only to be ignored.
As Helwig’s protest continued, cameras caught Villere saying: “This is not debatable. He is the chairman of the rules committee. I would ask you to sit down. We told you to sit down… I’m going to ask you to be seated, or I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I’m going to have you escorted out if you don’t leave.”
. . .
Paul delegates moved to request more information on the chairman’s decision, but he continued as if they weren’t present. So, they decided then and there to elect a new chairman, picking state central committeeman Henry Herford Jr., a Paul supporter, to lead the party.
When Villere refused to acknowledge the vote, Paul’s delegates picked up their chairs and turned away from him, forming a new convention on the spot and passing a microphone to their new chairman.
Moments later, Herford, too, was seized by police. Camera-wielding Paul supporters surrounded the fracas as Herford pleaded with officers to be gentle due to his prosthetic hip. “I have a handicap! I’m handicapped!” he said as they pulled him to the ground.
Herford said later, after he was treated for dislocating his prosthetic hip, “It felt like somebody had kicked me, brought me down. They said I was resisting arrest, but they never said I was under arrest. I didn’t leave when they told me to leave, but I never was told to leave… I have a room here in this hotel and I’m on the state central committee. I don’t know how I could be in an improper place.”
So now there are two entirely different sets of delegates, one selected by the Ron Paul alternative convention and one selected by the regular convention, and there’s going to be a big fight over which ones will actually represent the party in Tampa. A similar problem is going on in Nevada, where the RNC has threatened to block the entire state delegation from the national convention after Paul supporters took it over.
This is a serious problem for the RNC. They know that, from a purely political standpoint, they have to keep Ron Paul and his supporters in the fold through November. They don’t want a repeat of 2008, when Paul refused to endorse John McCain and held his own alternative convention in the same city as the party’s convention. But Paul and his supporters have been intent on using parliamentary rules at the state conventions to get more delegates than the candidate actually earned at the polls, putting the GOP in a very difficult position.
And yes, this is very fun to watch, thank you for asking.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 6/16/2012, 11:09 am
123 Republicans and counting want to be 'unbound' at national convention Published: 14 hours ago
Over 120 delegates to the Republican National Convention have joined a lawsuit against the GOP arguing they have been illegally coerced into choosing Mitt Romney for the party’s presidential nominee and demanding they be “unbound” to vote for another candidate instead.
The federal lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in California by mostly supporters of Ron Paul, demands the delegates be freed to “vote their conscience” for presidential nominee at the party’s August national convention in Tampa, Fla., rather than being “bound” to vote for a certain candidate, as many state party bylaws require, based on the primary elections and other delegate selection procedures.
Courthouse News Service reports at least another 40 additional national convention delegates have asked to join the lawsuit.
Supporters of the effort say there is “evidence that the voting rights of Ron Paul Republican delegates and voters … have been violated by nearly every state GOP party and the RNC during the 2012 primary election phase.”
The delegates claim the party violated federal law by forcing them to sign loyalty affidavits, under threat of perjury, to vote for Mitt Romney, though he is not yet the official nominee.
“They don’t want to be bound to any candidate, or even be forced to vote for the nominee,” Richard Gilbert, of Gilbert & Marlowe, attorney for the delegates, told Courthouse News. “To have a real convention, the delegates must have free will so that when they meet, they can persuade each other and then decide who to vote for.”
The courts have typically allowed political parties leeway in the nomination of their candidates, but this case asks the court to consider the choice of presidential nominee a “federal election,” subject to laws that would free delegates from party procedures to vote their conscience.
Beyond merely asserting delegates’ “right” to vote their conscience, however, the lawsuit asserts the GOP has engaged in a racketeering-like scheme to push Romney as the candidate.
“The Republican National Committee and its chairman have been aiding the Governor Romney campaign for at least six months,” the lawsuit asserts. “The RNC and its chairman, defendant Reince Priebus, have … combined with a particular candidate with all of the aid the RNC can possibly, but improperly give … to obstruct, intimidate and harass delegates from voting their conscience.”
Specifically, the lawsuit charges Republican officials and operatives have used threats of violence, certified unlawful slates of delegates, demanded affidavits of loyalty to Romney under penalty of perjury and have even altered ballot results to make sure the national convention is stacked with delegates who will vote for Romney.
“Some campaigns act like organized crime syndicates – and I mean organized crime, no doubt about it,” Gilbert told Courthouse News. “In Arizona, the voting machines were rigged so that Ron Paul votes were counted as Mitt Romney votes. It was so intentional that a Romney delegate refused to certify the vote count, and for that he got thrown off the convention.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court to order the RNC to inform delegates they can vote for the nominee of their choice, to reinstate delegates who lost their seats at the convention because they refused to sign loyalty affidavits and to recount ballots by hand or hold another convention in areas “where the sanctity of the ballots are untrustworthy.”
Yet striking down party rules that bind candidates to vote in accordance with the primary process could suddenly open up the nomination to another campaign season, as presidential hopefuls could attempt to sway the elected delegates to their side, a potentiality Gilbert recognizes.
“If the judge rules in our favor, I won’t be surprised if three or four new candidates, say Sarah Palin, jump in and say they want to be considered,” Gilbert told Courthouse News. “It will be the most interesting national convention in my lifetime if the judge rules for us on this.”
Heretic
Posts : 3520
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 7/30/2012, 10:15 pm
U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna took his own party to task today, saying the Republican Party is too willing to accommodate its most extreme members.
“I have to say that I’m frustrated by how much we — I mean the Republican Party — are willing to give deferential treatment to our extremes in this moment in history,” he told The Post-Standard editorial board.
Hanna, R-Barneveld, pointed specifically to Michele Bachmann of Minnesota — particularly her suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin be investigated to see if she has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood that would compromise her loyalty.
Hanna, a businessman who defeated Democratic incumbent Michael Arcuri two years ago, said his first term in Congress left him “sad in a lot of ways” because of the growing divisiveness on both sides of the aisle.
“We render ourselves incapable of governing when all we do is take severe sides...” he said. “If all people do is go down there and join a team, and the team is invested in winning and you have something that looks very similar to the shirts and the skins, there’s not a lot of value there.”
While he blamed the dysfunction on both sides, he said he feels more bitterness coming from the Republican caucus than from the Democrats. “I would say that the friends I have in the Democratic Party I find ... much more congenial — a little less anger,” he said.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 8/29/2012, 11:01 pm
My initial response to hearing about this was it had to be some schtick from a Stewart/Colbert bit or the Onion....
Quote :
“The demographics race we’re losing badly,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham R-(S.C.). “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
Leading conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham are both arguing that the Republican party will or should be shut down if Mitt Romney loses in November -- an idea that, however hard to believe, gives you an indication of the right wing's dissatisfaction with the Republican party.
They should kill it. With fire. Drive out the creationists, global warming deniers, Norquist disciples...
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 9/15/2012, 1:16 pm
Let's not forget the misogynists,bigots,and racists.
Quote :
Where Ingraham made an argument, Limbaugh made a prediction: The Republicans would fall, but not before blaming the conservative base for their woes and opening a window for a third, more conservative party to take their place.
Yeah,that's the ticket....move even further to the right
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 9/20/2012, 2:10 pm
A new poll out of Wisconsin this week shows Republican Senate candidate Tommy Thompson suddenly falling behind in his race against Democrat Tammy Baldwin.
Thompson is blaming the slip, in part, on the rocky campaign of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
"The presidential thing is bound to have an impact on every election," Thompson told Madison television station WKOW on Wednesday. "You know, whether you're a Democrat or Republican. If you're a standard-bearer for the presidency is not doing well, it's going to reflect on the down ballot."
The new poll - out Wednesday from Marquette University Law School - showed Thompson trailing Democrat Tammy Baldwin by nine points among likely voters in the Senate race, viewed as one of the most competitive in the country.
That's a major swing from one month ago, when the same poll showed Thompson leading Baldwin by nine points.
WASHINGTON - Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has resigned as a national co-chairman of Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to lobby for Wall Street. He has also ruled out a run for governor or Senate in Minnesota in 2014.
The Financial Services Roundtable announced Thursday that Pawlenty will become its new president and chief executive officer on November 1. Pawlenty adviser Brian McClung told The Associated Press that Pawlenty ruled out the races as he prepared to take the job heading the Wall Street lobbying group.
Perfect,isn't it? Figuring that the cabinet position he was gonna get is now just a fantasy,he immediately quits Mittens to go lobby for Wall St. The perfect GOP fairy tale and a happy ending for another greedy wingnut.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 9/21/2012, 5:30 pm
Herman Cain says that if he were the Republican nominee, he would have a “substantial lead” over President Barack Obama right now.
Quote :
Hey, it's not too late, fella. Get on out there. The way things are going you might just be able to convince the Republicans to hold a do-over convention.
Quote :
“The reason is quite simple,” Cain told reporters on Thursday, according to the Gainesville Sun. “I have some depth to my ideas.”
Even Herman Cain is insulting Mitt Romney this week. That's gotta hurt.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 9/24/2012, 3:39 pm
Maybe now Bill Kristol knows how Barack Obama feels.
Like Obama, the long-time conservative commentator has become a (temporary) punching bag for the more radical elements of the far-right press. Kristol's sin? Acknowledging that Romney's "47 percent" comments made behind closed doors to wealthy donors were "stupid and arrogant."
Over the weekend, Breitbart.com condemned Kristol as a "pinhead" and suggested a wounded ego was the reason The Weekly Standard editor took issue with Romney's donor comments.
Last week, Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin lashed out at Kristol and denounced him as a "windbag" in "meltdown mode." For Malkin, insulting nearly half the electorate and deriding them as lazy and irresponsible was the perfect campaign pitch for Romney to make. Because according to Malkin, this campaign is all about "about America's makers versus America's takers." (Fox News also loved the "47 percent" attack line.)
That's clearly how the fanatical far-right media see the looming November election. Yet Kristol's critique of Romney's comments was self-evident: "It's worth recalling that a good chunk of the 47 percent who don't pay income taxes are Romney supporters."
The fact that Malkin and others castigate Kristol only shows how fanatically they take the oath of loyalty during the campaign season. (And how name-calling is their first response to a debate.)
There's also an alternate universe narrative being pushed in the fevered swamps of the right-wing blogosphere at places like Breitbart.com. It preaches to readers that Romney's campaign is in great shape and that polls suggesting otherwise should be dismissed as bogus because the sampling is all wrong. (Biased!)
The suggestion that Romney's campaign is struggling is all a liberal media creation, goes the Breitbart line. The problem is when conservatives like Kristol puncture the bubble that Malkin and Breitbart bloggers hold so dear. In response, Kristol must be denounced as a fool.
And the family feud rages on.
HaHaHa.....and the way it looks it's only going to get worse. The more it looks like Pres Obama is going to win re-election the more fun we're going to have sitting back and watching these lunatics crucify each other.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/5/2012, 4:39 pm
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. told Jonathan Martin of Politico that “if we lose this election there is only one explanation — demographics.”
“If I hear anybody say it was because Romney wasn’t conservative enough I’m going to go nuts,” Graham said. “We’re not losing 95 percent of African-Americans and two-thirds of Hispanics and voters under 30 because we’re not being hard-ass enough.”
GOP civil war officially gets underway on Wednesday Nov 7th
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/8/2012, 9:58 pm
Mefferd: If the GOP continues to go in a direction where they will not get on the side of traditional marriage and be willing to fight for it, what do Christians do?
McClusky: I think you will—there are always threats of a third party—I think if something like that were to happen you would see a third party. It would be made up of more than just disgruntled conservative Republicans. On the marriage issue there’s African Americans who normally vote Democratic, there’s Hispanics, and the same on the life issue, and there are a lot of good Democrats like say in the state legislature of New York who fought against same-sex marriage and Maryland who tried to, I think what you see is a lot of people drifting from both parties into a third party or some sort of independent party that is more pro-life and pro-marriage. The same thing is true on immigration. With Latinos making up a larger and larger portion of the electorate, there’s just no way the GOP will be able to continue advocating harsh anti-immigration policies and still hope to win elections.
WASHINGTON — Fresh off an election in which Hispanic voters largely sided with Democrats, Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday that he was “confident” Congress and the White House could come up with a comprehensive immigration solution.
Immigration reform is “an important issue that I think ought to be dealt with,” Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said in an interview with Diane Sawyer on “ABC World News.”
“This issue has been around far too long,” he said, “and while I believe it’s important for us to secure our borders and to enforce our laws, I think a comprehensive approach is long overdue, and I’m confident that the president, myself, others, can find the common ground to take care of this issue once and for all.”
Amazing what a 44% Obama Latino advantage can do to change the tone on the right,isn't it?
Meanwhile I'm listening to Mark Levin on hate radio and he's having an absolute fit over it. Looks like the GOP Civil war has officially started. Watching Fox News and listening to hate radio meat puppets go ballistic has now become an extremely entertaining pastime for me.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/10/2012, 7:55 pm
It’s been less than 24 hours since the polls closed and already the first shots in an emerging civil war within the conservative movement are being fired. Right-leaning pundits have been taking turns beating up on Mitt Romney and blaming him for the loss last night. Donald Trump just tweeted, “Congrats to @KarlRove on blowing $400 million this cycle. Every race @CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What a waste of money.” And GOP leaders are already taking to the barricades on either side of the divide, which basically comes down to this question: Were Romney and the GOP too conservative or not conservative enough?
Steve Schmidt, a top Republican strategist who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign, invoked the term on MSNBC this morning.
Quote :
“When I talk about a civil war in the Republican Party, what I mean is, it’s time for Republican elected leaders to stand up and to repudiate this nonsense [of the extreme right wing], and to repudiate it directly,” he said.
But on the other side of the fight, Herman Cain, the former presidential candidate who still has a robust following via his popular talk radio program and speaking tours, today suggested the most clear step to open civil war: secession. Appearing on Bryan Fischer’s radio program this afternoon, Cain called for a large faction of Republican Party leaders to desert the party and form a third, more conservative party.
Quote :
“I never thought that I would say this, and this is the first time publicly that I’ve said it: We need a third party to save this country. Not Ron Paul and the Ron Paulites. No. We need a legitimate third party to challenge the current system that we have, because I don’t believe that the Republican Party … has the ability to rebrand itself,” Cain said.
Fischer, a social conservative leader, noted that he predicted this summer that if Mitt Romney loses, evangelical conservatives would start a third party.
Quote :
“If Barack Obama wins this election the Republican Party as we know it is finished, it is dead, it is toast,”
Fischer said in September at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
Rush Limabugh, two months ago, echoed the sentiment.
Quote :
”If Obama wins, let me tell you what it’s the end of: the Republican Party. There’s gonna be a third party that’s gonna be oriented toward conservatism,” he said.
Quote :
“It is more viable today than it has ever been,”
Cain told Fischer today of a third party.
After the GOP’s crushing 2008 loss, there was lots of talk about a new third party. When the Tea Party emerged, this talk almost became a reality. Instead, the conservative activists opted for a hostile takeover of the GOP. It’s still very unlikely that Cain or anyone else could start a viable third party, but his comments underscore the cleavage within the conservative movement in the wake of the defeat last night.
Nice touch for Herman to throw in the claim that Ron Paul and his followers aren't "legitimate".
The 2012 GOP congressional primaries are gonna be a hoot!
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/13/2012, 10:06 pm
Not gonna happen Politico has a piece today on some conservatives’ calls for the GOP to break out of its self-reinforcing echo chamber:The GOP's Media Cocoon
Quote :
A long-simmering generational battle in the conservative movement is boiling over after last week’s shellacking, with younger operatives and ideologues going public with calls that Republicans break free from a political-media cocoon that has become intellectually suffocating and self-defeating.
GOP officials have chalked up their electoral thumping to everything from the country’s changing demographics to an ill-timed hurricane and failed voter turn-out system, but a cadre of Republicans under 50 believes the party’s problem is even more fundamental.
The party is suffering from Pauline Kaelism.
Kael was The New Yorker movie critic who famously said in the wake of Richard M. Nixon’s 49-state landslide in 1972 that she knew only one person who voted for Nixon.
Now, many young Republicans worry, they are the ones in the hermetically sealed bubble — except it’s not confined to geography but rather a self-selected media universe in which only their own views are reinforced and an alternate reality is reflected.
Hence the initial denial and subsequent shock on the right that the country would not only reelect President Barack Obama — but do so with 332 electoral votes.
“What Republicans did so successfully, starting with critiquing the media and then creating our own outlets, became a bubble onto itself,” said Ross Douthat, the 32-year-old New York Times columnist.
Nice sounding words, right? But I don’t believe for a second that the Republican Party is going to be able to reverse this downward spiral; the appeals to racism and xenophobia are far too ingrained in the very identity of the GOP. I predict that the trends will go in the exact opposite direction — even more extremist — and the party will continue purging moderates and pandering to the far right and the religious right, only more so.
I believe the only changes we’ll see will be changes for the worse. It would be wonderful if I’m proven wrong, but I won’t be.
I suggest reading the article at Politico in it's entirety.
This truly is the perfect storm for Democrats to increase their popularity over the right wingers. These rabble rousers like Hate Radio hosts or Fox news and it's lunatic contributors like Dick Morris are not going to stop their behavior any time soon. Why? Because selling snake oil to wingnuts is a highly profitable industry that brings in Billions. Their media personalities are always hawking something,whether it's the latest hate filled diatribe by Ann Coulter,or that idiot Dick Morris's latest fantasy Here Come the Black Helicopters!: UN Global Governance and the Loss of Freedom
In the end,greed always wins out on the right. Secretly they're licking their chops over the 10's of millions to be made bashing Obama and dreaming up new conspiracy theories during the next 4 years,versus the drought that would have certainly occurred if Romney had won. Just don't expect them to admit it.
Luckily for them,they'll still be able to stir up enough hatred so that their brain dead followers will forget all about the lies they were told right up to election night.
After all,a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
Last edited by Artie60438 on 11/13/2012, 10:56 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Added comment)
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/20/2012, 12:40 am
Artie60438 wrote:
After all,a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
I'm presuming that you are including Barack and Michelle Obama in the crowd that "believes in supernatural deities" and "aren't exactly the hardest people to fool." If you are not including them in that crowd, then why not?
Heretic
Posts : 3520
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/20/2012, 9:48 am
happy jack wrote:
If you are not including them in that crowd, then why not?
The rejection of science was also a requirement:
Quote :
...a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
Thus separating the Obamas, as well as Christian scientists like Ken Miller, from the ridiculous creationists uselessly infecting the GOP.
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/20/2012, 3:43 pm
Heretic wrote:
happy jack wrote:
If you are not including them in that crowd, then why not?
The rejection of science was also a requirement:
Quote :
...a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
Thus separating the Obamas, as well as Christian scientists like Ken Miller, from the ridiculous creationists uselessly infecting the GOP.
Heretic wrote:
The rejection of science was also a requirement:
True, but it was not the only requiremnet Artie set forth to illustrate proof of gullibility. His assertion that a person is gullible due to his belief in a supernatural deity is still very much on the table, and I'd like to hear his response to that aspect of my question.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/20/2012, 4:25 pm
happy jack wrote:
[b]True, but it was not the only requiremnet Artie set forth to illustrate proof of gullibility. His assertion that a person is gullible due to his belief in a supernatural deity is still very much on the table, and I'd like to hear his response to that aspect of my question.[/quote]
Artie60438 wrote:
After all,a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
I stand by my statement. People who believe in supernatural deities are more inclined to believe that the earth is only 6000 yrs old,that humans & dinosaurs co-existed together,An Ark was built and helped every single living specie survive a flood,talking snakes,etc,then those who rely on scientific principles.
What it boils down to is that it's a hell of a lot easier to fool someone who doesn't ask for some sort of proof than it is to fool someone who insists on seeing actual evidence. Just look at how many people believe the crap about "end times" or "rapture" and how many different religions (con-games) have their own versions of it.
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/20/2012, 7:15 pm
Artie60438 wrote:
happy jack wrote:
[b]True, but it was not the only requiremnet Artie set forth to illustrate proof of gullibility. His assertion that a person is gullible due to his belief in a supernatural deity is still very much on the table, and I'd like to hear his response to that aspect of my question.
Artie60438 wrote:
After all,a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
I stand by my statement. People who believe in supernatural deities are more inclined to believe that the earth is only 6000 yrs old,that humans & dinosaurs co-existed together,An Ark was built and helped every single living specie survive a flood,talking snakes,etc,then those who rely on scientific principles.[/quote]
Right. Like Barack and Michelle Obama, then?
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/20/2012, 10:12 pm
happy jack wrote:
Artie60438 wrote:
happy jack wrote:
[b]True, but it was not the only requiremnet Artie set forth to illustrate proof of gullibility. His assertion that a person is gullible due to his belief in a supernatural deity is still very much on the table, and I'd like to hear his response to that aspect of my question.
Artie60438 wrote:
After all,a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
I stand by my statement. People who believe in supernatural deities are more inclined to believe that the earth is only 6000 yrs old,that humans & dinosaurs co-existed together,An Ark was built and helped every single living specie survive a flood,talking snakes,etc,then those who rely on scientific principles.
Our Village Idiot wrote:
Right. Like Barack and Michelle Obama, then?
No,dumbass troll. They believe in science and thus know that those fables cannot possibly be true.
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: The Continued Fracturing of the GOP 11/20/2012, 11:14 pm
Artie60438 wrote:
happy jack wrote:
Artie60438 wrote:
happy jack wrote:
[b]True, but it was not the only requiremnet Artie set forth to illustrate proof of gullibility. His assertion that a person is gullible due to his belief in a supernatural deity is still very much on the table, and I'd like to hear his response to that aspect of my question.
Artie60438 wrote:
After all,a crowd that doesn't believe in science,but instead believes in supernatural deities aren't exactly the hardest people to fool.
I stand by my statement. People who believe in supernatural deities are more inclined to believe that the earth is only 6000 yrs old,that humans & dinosaurs co-existed together,An Ark was built and helped every single living specie survive a flood,talking snakes,etc,then those who rely on scientific principles.
Our Village Idiot wrote:
Right. Like Barack and Michelle Obama, then?
No,dumbass troll. They believe in science and thus know that those fables cannot possibly be true.
I recall you saying that the crowd that "believes in supernatural deities" .... "aren't exactly the hardest people to fool." Barack and Michelle Obama believe in some supernatural deity, do they not? They are churchgoers, are they not?
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After this interview describing him as a "bloviating ignoramus" might just be too kind of a desciption...
