Politics The Elephant in the room...The GOP today

Dude,

You shoulda' seen Rove floundering. It was pure comedy gold.

But before that, we had Palin putting out her own brand of... wait... I don't even know what she said because she didn't say anything as per the usual. Maybe she's still pissed she didn't get to make a concession speech.

Then the uber-crazies started coming out. Trump and Victoria Jackson. The fact those two don't have some deformed alien love child is proof that we should keep birth control around.

You wanna really see the GOP flip their lids? Wait till they all find out Rubio snubbed McConnell on running for NSRC.

 

with free benefits.

 

To our Republican/conservative brothers and sisters.....dont let the haters and fear mongers keep you up at night, Obama really is a moderate.

Obama the moderate Republican: What the 2012 election should teach the GOP. - Slate Magazine

 

So, I don't know where this really goes but this seems as good a place as any.

I'm not doing a damn thing today work wise (I never do day after election :shrug: ) so I've been trollin' around these teabagger blogs/twitters and shit. There seems to be 4 prevailing things going on outside of people claiming to not be racist because they want the highly insane Allen West to win...

1. Disbelief. Some have started a small but not too popular backlash against Limbaugh and Coulter. Oddly enough, they point to Beck and some comedian nobody has ever heard of as their replacement 'voice'

2.They all keep posting this map of counties and claiming that people decide the vote, not the landmass. Again, it's strange because not ONE has mentioned a single thing about '00. Perhaps they're too stupid to realize that in a lot of places, there are BIG WIDE OPEN SPACES.

3. Conspiracy! This election was apparently purchased since, you know, the Romney campaign outspent Obama. Wait. That doesn't add up either. Benghazi blah blah, stock market reaction (ignoring the shit in Greece is apparently good for their argument), making fun of the earthquake in Guatemala (it's a sign from God apparently) media bias and of course voter suppression. Huh. Usually it's the Dems who bemoan the suppression practices but oh no it's the dirty libs this time.

4. FIGHT!!! This is the one that blew me away. The vast majority of the fuckwads want to fight for the Akins and the Mourdocks. really? The overall sentiment is still that they are refusing to align with or support the GOP any longer until the GOP become more conservative. So yeah, they think they have the numbers to form this mass party realignment *again* despite the majority of GOP members in places other than Texas running from them as fast as they can. The more fringe segment of this group is calling for violence...which is a little worrisome but I don't see it mounting to much.


Some people just don't know when they're defeated. The good news is they are alienating themselves, along with the talk of boycotting Limbaugh and Fox News. The bad news - they are completely bat shit insane. You can't predict crazy.

 

Fuck unions.

 

i think this is already the first round of the power struggle that's likely to ensue from this loss within the conservative movement. turf is being defended with these attempts to deflect blame--and continuity of identity-political mobilization as well. which comes to the same thing, i think. faux news and the infotainment system to its right all have a vested interest in the continued prominence of the far right in republican politics. that's what pays the bills. there's a pretty clear consensus that the one-dimensional extremism of conservative politics is to some extent responsible for the outcome...but there's already a debate happening in the punditocracy at least about what the best way to address this might be. personally, i think the republican party has made a potentially fatal choice getting into bed with the whack-job right simply in order to assure deal with the strategic problems it confronted after the bush administration.

like i said earlier, the other folk who's asses are on the line here are the ultra-right consultancy set, assholes like karl rove, whose approach really should take it in the face for this loss. but you never know how things will play out in conservativeland--it's a reality-optional space.

i can't imagine the oligarchs who fronted the big dough in order to try to advance their (basically feudal) agenda are terribly happy. that makes me laugh and laugh.

 

oddly enough, I haven't seen much backlash against Rove

Boehner however is a much different story. People want compromise and Boehner finally realizes he's got to do it and they start bitching about it and claiming to hold him accountable.

We shouldn't complain too much though, groups like these make it far too easy. The funny thing - they're all now quoting Limbaugh whom 20 minutes ago they called for a massive boycott against.
--- merged: Nov 7, 2012 at 4:03 PM ---

hmm.. I could use some pussy. why not.

 

Republican defeat has conservative factions fighting for party control | World news | guardian.co.uk

 

"Angry white man" is no longer a viable (winning) demographic in a nation that has asserted its diversity. Republicans really need to come to terms with this fact. The extreme right wing (Tea Party) is a fringe demographic that needs to be regarded as such and relegated to third party status along with the Libertarian and Green parties.

 

The Republican Party needs to split up. There are those in the Tea Party that want to push the Republican Party further to the right, as if Romney's pivot to mouthing moderate positions in the debate was the reason they lost and not the reason why they did as well as they did. Let the Tea Party go and form its own party; let them drift further right. Let the moderate Republicans remain Republicans and occupy the centre.

It may, for a time, split the conservative vote, but I would argue that a Republican party in the centre, shed of its lunatic fringe, would appeal to more centrist Democrats. What you would be left with would be three parties: left, centre and right.

 

I liked Mitt Romney's concession speech. I thought he showed great dignity and it would be nice to think that the two sides of government can work together for the betterment of America as both he and Obama proposed.

Whether that will be possible remains to be seen, but I hope so.

I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Romney. He may well be the moderate he portrayed in the latter stages of the campaign but he was completely undermined by the things he had to agree to in order to get the nomination, and by his party.

I think that it's now important for the Republican party to get its act together. It's important to have an effective opposition in place and it has work to do to get there. Rubio looks to be a smart guy and a future as the party of the upwardly mobile may be the right direction (if they drop the supply-side, "trickle-down" voodoo). There appears to be push by some people to drive the party even further to the right and, if they do that, I fear they will be completely unelectable. This election was, in my opinion, un-winnable on the terms of the far right.

Many people knew it was un-winnable and the money followed that knowledge. The people saying so were dismissed and labeled and ridiculed, but they were right. Nate Silver called every State (if he gets Florida right, and it looks a if he has).

The right wing media has to be questioned for misleading their viewers. The Becks, Hannitys, O'Reillys and their ilk need to take a long, hard look at themselves and their followers have to ask whether they have been honest. Fox News is not a source for good.

Another area to look at has to be the amount of money wasted on this election. Who can honestly say that any of it was well spent? Maybe it is time to look again at the Fairness Act and at the Citizens United decisions.

Maybe it is also time for an overhaul of the elective process. Has the electoral vote system had its day? Also, shouldn't the mechanics of voting be taken out of the hands of politicians?

The American economy has been enjoying steady growth (not as much as people would like, but good in world terms). Hopefully, that will continue. However, with the fiscal cliff approaching, Obama and Congress have work to do. I hope that we will see more concessions and cooperation going forward.

I do have some concerns over Obama, especially when it comes to some of what he is doing militarily (drone attacks) and in terms of removing freedoms domestically. I hope that attention is also brought to bear on that and that people will hold his feet to the fire when he goes too far.

The Republicans need to regather now and find a way of being relevant in a changing demographic. The old ways won't work, going forward. They need to distance themselves from being "anti-Obama" and build a compelling argument that is "pro-America".

It was an interesting election. I wouldn't crow too much over the result. There is lots to do and the difficulties of getting stuff done remains.

 

The Battle To Takeover The GOP Begins Today | ConservativeHQ.com

 

i don't think the republicans can do that, charlatan, because their "southern strategy" does not allow for anything like a demarcation of the lunatic fringe from the moderates...the result is that i expect something like that would be understood as suicide organizationally. but keeping the tea party inside the party is also likely to be suicide. what i would imagine a more viable alternative is to modulate away from identity politics---but that would run against what holds together their base. i think they made a serious mistake getting into bed with the far right as a way to maintain a sense of viability after the bush period.

 

I say if they're stupid enough to go for it let them. I wouldn't be adverse to 4 more years with a Democratic President following Obama's 8.

 

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

— George Washington’s opinion on a two party political system.