National view: Republicans need to learn from election
November 17, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
I know it’s early, but I have a sinking feeling the Republican Party is taking all the wrong lessons from last week’s election. Short term, that’s a boon for Democrats. Long term, it’s a problem for the country.
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Here is one problem that the Republican Party has, duplicity:
http://billmoyers.com/2012/11/15/newly-frugal-guy/#.UKhZHFMyp00.facebook
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I agree with this sentence, “A smart, creative, reality-based conservative movement is ultimately good for the liberal cause — and good for the country.” However, I don’t see much hope that the GOP will become a “reality-based” party anytime soon. As long as what David Frum calls “the conservative entertainment complex” has an audience that takes it seriously, the mind-dumbed kooks and cranks who make up that audience are going to be an embarrassing part of the Republican Party. The serious and sane leaders in the party need to denounce and distance themselves from the blowhards like Rush Limaugh, and his clones.
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Not so fast Mr Ramone. It would be better if the R’s took one or two more election cycles to learn the obvious. By that time much needed corrections could take place as science and civility will become welcome back into our political leadership’s agendas. Let Rush and Fox run the game plan till at least 2020, and then they can do the proverbial ‘dope slap’ and maybe become a real reflection of what can be a valuable voice of conservation.
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Ranger~ think have nothing to fear as think your scenario is the real safe bet. Clearly their hubris, hate and ignorance is acting like a protective force field repelling their ability to connect with reality.
They’ve demonized and insulted all our minorities, blacks, asians, hispanics, and muslims. They’ve insulted the poor and elderly claiming they’re just lazy and living off of them and they’ve insulted anyone with any intelligence. Instead of building platforms on solutions they built them on fear mongering, hate and lies. Now after a 4 year campaign really of trying to bully and insult everyone, well, we’re all just too stupid to see they’re better then the rest of us.
Since it’s Repubs that have always grown our debt, destroyed our economy and promoted fear for more wars, including the war on our rights and our own citizens with the drug war…then I hope they fade away and maybe another party that can do what they obviously can’t, be honest and rational, will step into the void. They won’t fade away gracefully, that’s as blatantly obvious as they can’t get a hint if hit over head with it, they’ll be wailing and gnashing of teeth, more hubris and ignorance and hopefully the Libertarian party or somebody, see’s this as their real opening.
‘People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Of course…claiming there’s voter fraud, that dead people are voting, that Obama is a Muslim, that Obama wasn’t born here, that Obama is a Socialist trying to overtake the country, that tax breaks to corporations and wealthy creates jobs despite never have, that 47% of the populace that don’t pay taxes are lazy and just living off the government when half of those people are seniors that worked their whole lifes and paid taxes, that in fact want to cut their social security, the other half of what’s remaining is the working poor that are struggling since the Repubs wiped out the economy but awewome and telling how the GOP so readily dismisses and insults half the country with falsehoods and then believe they’re of course true, proclaims want to cut medicare, and education budgets while increasing the defense budget, claiming gays don’t deserve equal rights, insulting blacks who’ve have almost always voted 90% democratic for over 60 years that they only would vote for Obama because he’s black and they want to keep getting welfare, while the majority of bankruptcies for over 10 years has been because of medical expenses and 50 million people can’t get or afford medical coverage claiming are going to take a stand against healthcare, that after the biggest circus of picking a candidate anyone has ever witnessed the GOP ends up with a out of touch lying sociopath who couldn’t even carry the state where he was governor because they didn’t want him and a pathological liar who couldn’t even carry his own town of Janesville for gawdsakes….that they continually and repeatedly push the same economic policies of cutting revenue and increase defense spending while deregulating banking that time and time again has collapsed our economy and increased our debt…while using fear, lies and a rhetoric that may have whipped up the frenzy of their clueless base but only went to insult and anger everyone else and where so utterly clueless about it that pushed a tough talk on immigration stance then pleaded with hispanics…but please vote for us. This is what you’re calling the party that shows common sense?
The GOP clearly doesn’t have a lick of common sense, they’ve insulted almost the whole population of America and they sitting around still insulting them…it’s amazing they got the votes that did but I attribute that to our falling education system, so clueless and so out of touch that they just think the people are too stupid to NOT have voted for them. I’m not sure one could have a more detached grasp of reality then that. For 4 years the GOP strategy has been at all costs, to unseat Obama and it resulted in propaganda campaigns of lies and smears and slander, they used a hateful rhetoric to try to Bully the country to submission to their agenda, they stood against our best interests in time of crises and dire need only to serve their own interests firsts, then mocking and insulting and being derogatory to anyone that didn’t cosign their garbage and falsehoods, like you ALWAYS do Smarty….and yet are shocked that didn’t win people?…Now there’s a real slice of GOP common sense right there…and now it’s well, they just weren’t smart enough and they don’t have a lot of common sense….yeah, you fools keep thinking that…I think it’s the end for the GOP , they are so utterly lost and out of touch they have not a clue and it’s actually painfull to watch…and I think America is ready for a new party and could use one, one that in fact has some common sense, sensible solutions and civil tone and dialogues…the GOP has become just a has been party of bully wannabe’s and haters with no grasp of reality trying to defend the wealthy and corporations which naturally only serve their best interests and is also against ours…so I say good riddance, couldn’t come soon enough and I was long time Repub…but this IS NOT Eisenhowers party…it’s just a bunch of sheeple and bullies and haters…
“Voters can look to principles for sense of how we would govern”..Mitt Romney on meet the press 9-8-12
And they clearly did…
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You leftist whack-a-doodles are hilarious. The GOP only has to change one thing. Stop nominating RINO’s for public office. Don’t you remember 2010. That was when Conservative Republicans were swept into office. Advice from the intolerant left is not needed or wanted. Thanks anyway.
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i can see the author of this article is NOT
impressed with republicans;ditto for some posters. while admitting to being “progressive” as opposed to being “regressive” can we assume, he laments the possible loss of meaningful competetion(as long as they don’t win of course) he fears what democrats might become. MAYBE it would be better if the nation follow the lead of minnesota and elect the executive and both houses of the legislature democratic. there are some big problems to solve out there. let me pause here because i just remembered they were in that position the first two years of this administration. as for the problems we would not want medicare trust fund running out of money in 2016 nor the social security trust fund running out in 2033. that would necessitate an immediate 25% reduction in benefits making it quite difficult for ordinary folks. many would like to have a sharper set of knives making those decisions rather than those who are clueless,non-reality thinking fools. as for myself what i REALLY support is a political atmosphere that is fiscally conservative and here i have seen great failings with the bush administration in the financing of a war without additional revenue and with the obama administration running up ultimately unbearable debt levels with unsustainable spending levels. the 47% comments i believe have been misconstrued also. they refer to the discretionary portion of the budget. payroll taxes withheld on the 47% as well as everyone else, are applied to the entitlement portion of the budget to provide for a retirement stream of income(social security checks) and retirement health care(medicare)
they DO NOT contribute to the things we all share as citizens(for example national defense,federal transportion, ect..) bssically this is provided for them by the remaining citizens. So…..if there are greater needs in the discretionary spending area and these expenditures do not affect the 47% it is not particularly an act of courage to vote for them it seems. as for republican voters i as a conservative believe that many of these folks really ARE thinking and more importantly ARE responding to what is transpiring. they would not be accomplished citizens if they were not doing so.
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`What most people aren’t understanding (and this isn’t just conservatives) is that so many of the allegedly left-wing causes are actually championed and supported by right-wing beneficiaries. Entitlements, for example, was the rally call for conservatives over the last 4 years. Yet very few people ever looked beyond the surface of entitlement spending. By in large, it’s regarded as well-intentioned but misguided spending championed by big-government progressives. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Republican administrations from Reagan onward have opted to expand programs like the EITC, food stamps, and housing assistance to low-income Americans. Now, don’t be fooled into thinking that this was their way of pandering to the middle (or being a “RINO”). These programs are EXCEPTIONALLY favorable to big-business. Instead of raising the minimum wage and requiring businesses to pay for the majority (if not all) of their workers’ living expenses, big-businesses would much rather have the taxpayer pay for their workers’ housing, food, and so forth. It saves on their labor costs, boosts corporate profits, and it makes politicians seem charitable. So everybody wins – except of course for the people who now have to beg Uncle Sam for money instead of properly earning it themselves as should be the case.
So don’t get suckered into buying into the right-wing narrative. They say progressives want big-government, but that’s a complete fabrication. Big businesses want big government. Progressives want businesses to pay a living wage so people don’t need to rely on public assistance – exactly the opposite of what the right-wing media and the tea party want to believe. And this goes far beyond entitlements: attacks on freedom, intolerance, regulation, even election fraud. These are all things that Republican officials have done, but then go on to claim that the left is doing it instead, so they come out looking like the champions against all of these things. The fact is, there are layers upon layers of deception involved, so that by the time a story reaches our newspaper, most people have no clue who’s responsible and who’s to blame – and most people accept the narrative pushed by the right. But the further down the rabbit hole you look, the more you can see that everything Washington does solely benefits big-business and global privatization, and almost nothing actually benefits the people.
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