Republicans: They Just Don’t Like You
The midterm elections are coming up in November and Republicans have all the momentum. The economy is bad and unemployment is still dangerously high. There’s a 40% chance of a double-dip recession.
Yes, even policy-wise, conservatives can make the case that Democrats have seriously screwed the pooch because, well, they have in a lot of respects. TARP may have created/saved 3 million jobs, but only few can see that result in real terms. The middle-class is still slowly dwindling away just like it did during Bush. Consumer confidence was rising, but the Deepwater Horizon exploded and put the kibosh on any economic momentum.
We have an extremely intelligent President that’s accomplished a ton considering one party is saying no to everything. The problem is that the stuff that he has gotten done has been unpopular. That’s why Democrats can’t boast about their victories when they go out to campaign. They instead have to blame the policies of our previous president and make the case that Democrats are on the right track.
It isn’t working, but liberals have one saving grace in this whole thing.
Republicans just don’t seem to care about widening their electorate to include anybody other than white Christians. Here’s a short list of who Republicans don’t like as a refresher course:
1.) Hispanics: Jan Brewer, Democrats thank you for trying to institute a law so racist and unconstitutional that it actually has some illegal immigrants deporting themselves voluntarily just to get out of Arizona.
- Also, some Republicans want to repeal the Fourteenth Amemdment (birthright citizenship). They’ve taken their stance against babies, little Hispanic babies. If that doesn’t make you want to vote Democrat if you’re hispanic, then I don’t know what would.
2.) Muslims: Ground Zero mosque anyone? Nope. Say sayonara to that block of voters now that Republicans have demonized all Muslims in their attempt block First Amendment (freedom of religion) rights to them because of what a bunch of Islamic terrorists did. What did ordinary Muslims have to do with what happened on 9/11?
- Yes, Republicans leaders have stated they have no problem with the First Amendment or ordinary Muslims. They don’t have a problem with the First Amendment, but in this case, they say it’s too close to Ground Zero. Like I asked before, what did ordinary Muslims have to do with what happened on 9/11? That’s 1.2 billion people you just offended.
3.) Black People: The Tea Party’s racist signs combined with Van Jones, Acorn, the New Black Panther Party and Shirley Sherrod has painted a bleak picture for conservatives.
- It doesn’t help that Fox News’ audience is only 2% black, either. I wonder why they don’t win over more black viewers by airing heavily edited video of Acorn and Sherrod and reporting it as actual news. They’d be better off not using the New Black Panthers (all 200 of them) as a way to scare white voters to the poles in November.
- RNC Chairman Michael Steele was exercising his natural right as a Republican (to say stupid shit) in front of an audience and got hammered for it by his own party. I thought you got lifetime free pass from Republicans in the saying stupid crap department, but not if you’re Michael Steele. He kept his job, but man did he feel the heat for awhile.
4.) Gays: Prop 8 gets overturned and what happens? Out come the crazies! “Homosexuality is not natural! They’re against families! They’re more likely to molest children! Marriage is between a man and a woman!” This is one where eventually the crazies are going to lose in a few years. Young people are overwhelmingly for gay marriage because they know gay people aren’t evil. They’re used homosexuality and don’t care whether they can get married.
- Monogamy isn’t natural. If any wife looks at their husband’s computer they’ll find porn somewhere whether it’s downloaded on a hard drive or is in their search history. Men fantasize about being with other women because it’s in our nature to want to be with many different partners. Homosexuals have every right to be just as miserable as straight people. Oh, and there’s that whole love thing people get married for.
- As a side note, Ann Coulter was dropped from being a speaker at WND conference because she plans to speak at GOproud conference. GoProud is a conservative organization for homosexuals. This is Ann freaking Coulter, the most conservative woman on the planet and she gets dropped because she’s getting paid to speak at a homosexual Republican conference? That says it all.
This isn’t to say that Republicans are racist. They’re not, but their base is incredibly ignorant and unwilling to embrace non-white Christian ideals. You win elections by expanding your base, not limiting it to one type of people.
Ultimately, this is what happens when mob rule takes over. Republican leaders should have figured out a way to reel back the extremist elements and tried to appeal to more people, but they decided to let the Tea Party make the rules. Lots of prominent Republicans like Ben Stein have said that this will help them in 2010, but hurt them in 2012. Maybe letting a populist anger movement take over an entire political party isn’t such a good idea in the short or long term.
Now Democrats have to take this and teach Republicans a lesson, which they’re too incompetent to do…
We’re still screwed.
jonolan said,
August 18, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Some truth for you:
1 – Hispanics – Hispanics are not monolithic (most don’t even identify as “Hispanic”) and a split on the issue of SB 1070. Plenty of them, most of whom can vote, are in favor of it. Whether that’s a majority or not is anyone’s guess right now. There’s also the question of how much the broken “la promesa de Obama” will hurt the Dems.
2 – Muslims – Yep, you’re right there. The GOP isn’t going to get the Muslim vote. Of course they haven’t gotten it in years so that’s of little consequence.
3 – Blacks – Van Jones, Acorn, the New Black Panther Party and Shirley Sherrod painted a bleak picture for some Blacks, but they were never going to vote GOP anyway. For the rest, a growing number, those people aren’t heroes. Congressionally, I think they’re in play – though most will likely go back to involvement.
4 – Gays – Screwed by both parties. It’ll come down to which they hate more, their open enemies or the supposed friends who seem to have betrayed them.
As for either parties base – if the White Judeo-Christian base of voters outnumbers the others, then they’re who you target if you want to win. So far that’s the case.
McCain would likely have won the Presidency if he’d come out strongly against abortion. As it stood, he and Obama split the Independents almost evenly (edge to McCain) but McCain didn’t bring out the Conservative base. Think about that.
crazymoron77 said,
August 18, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Good points.
Here’s where I have a slight disagreement.
A.) The majority of Hispanic voters in Arizona disagree with SB1070 and let’s face it, those people are the ones who will be affected, not Hispanics in Denver.
B.) If black people can’t buy into Republican spin then why would they vote for Republicans? Most likely, they’ll help Republicans by not voting in the midterms.
C.) If I was gay, I’d much rather be behind the party that’s “in the closet,” on gay marriage than outright against it.
McCain did bring out the conservative base, just look at the woman who tried to say Obama wasn’t a citizen at his speech. They were behind him, but they weren’t as angry until Obama got into office and started doing things. McCain also had Sarah Palin on his side. More people will vote in the midterms and the democrats will lose seats, but that happens in every election cycle anyway.
Getting the base fired up is working district by district. What Republicans should be concerned with is harnessing that anger and turning it into productive policy. It’s yet to be seen if a hard-right candidate can win a presidential election.
Thank you for commenting….seriously, a productive conversation is better than not having one.
jonolan said,
August 18, 2010 at 8:03 pm
You also make good counterpoints.
a) The GOP will lose the Hispanics in the Southwest and California, but I don’t think they ever got much of those votes in the 1st place, especially CA (Though Prop 8 and its overthrow might help them there – Catholics!) And again, the failure of Obama and a Dem-controlled Congress to draft “comprehensive immigration reform,” which Obama either cynically or foolishly promised them he’d do in the 1st year, is going to hurt them as well.
b) There’s a growing number of Blacks who favor the GOP’s policies. Pew Research indicates that 52% of the Blacks don’t think that racism is a major factor in there success or failure anymore. Instead they think the overall economy is the problem. That favors the GOP since they’re NOT the party in power right now.
c) Fair enough. I’d be more pissed at the “betrayal” though. We’ll have to see which way the majority of them believe, and if it’s actually a primary issue for them. It might not be; they’re not just “gay;” they’re gay somethings.
Voter exit polls and what election results that we have indicate that McCain didn’t draw out a lot of the conservative base – especially the Religious Right – to the polls, even after the bump he got from Palin.
crazymoron77 said,
August 18, 2010 at 8:31 pm
a.) Politicians make and break promises all the time. Why is Obama held to such a higher standard with Hispanics when no president in the last 15 years has been able to get comprehensive immigration reform? The best thing for Hispanics to do would be to vote for people who want reform, not a filibuster.
b.) No argument there.
c.)I’m not sure when the Democratic party took a firm stance on supporting gay marriage. Just because Republicans oppose something doesn’t mean Democrats are automatically for it. They’ve taken a lot of tough votes this year and the betrayal is more or less a product of that.
True, the religious right is wayyyy more involved now, but that’s the part of the Republican Party that’s going to prevent them from going to the center where they need to be to win in 2012.
jonolan said,
August 18, 2010 at 8:57 pm
I think that’s the crux of our disagreement, such as it is. You believe in the “center,” whereas I don’t. Where you see a center I see various “values voters” and “single issue” voters whose key values and/or issues don’t fit either the comfortable labels of Left or Right.
Frankly, looking at things right now, I’d say moving to this center would doom the Republicans much as it would likely doom the Democrats. What was the two fringes have, from what I can, become mainstreamed. Someone, probably the MSM in its entirety, has moved the goal posts on us.
crazymoron77 said,
August 18, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I think you may be right, but didn’t Mitch McConnell say that more Republicans would help drag the House and Senate to the center or center/right? He believes there is a political center, but he needs the far right to get there.
I don’t think the MSG media moved the goal posts. The internet and blogs have given people a constant stream of information that can appease them. Anything that doesn’t is labeled as bias. Maybe the goal posts were moved in our heads and we just expect to agree with everything we see/read.
jonolan said,
August 19, 2010 at 6:09 pm
I’m not sure that my beliefs and McConnell’s are incompatible. More GOP in Congress would drag toward the center in all pragmatic ways, but that doesn’t mean there’s a significant political center insofar as the voting populous is concerned.
AceCakes123 said,
August 21, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Why attack the republican party when there’s so much more dirt on the commander and chief. what has obama done!? Well, besides:
1. Increased size of government
2. Appointed losers like Tim Geithner (known tax cheat and more powerful than any Treasury Sec. prior)
3. Made a mockery of the US at the G20 (whoops, forgot to visit Normandy, but did manage to bow to a Saudi King)
4. Passed the largest stimulus package in history, but only gave elected officials less than 48 hours to read it.
5. Hired just about the worst people (all with questionable records)
6. Closed Guantanamo…lets free the terrorists and give them equal rights!
7. Released Top Secret papers describing our methods of interrogation. This is not good for our enemies to see. He did not release the results that the interrogations actually had.
8. Constantly blames the prior administration for everything. The real sign of a man who doesn’t know what he is doing.
9. Sent “The black caucus” to Cuba and meeting with Raul and Fidel Castro making us look incredibly DUMB.
10. Made small talk and even gave a book to Hugo Chavez.
That’s just 10. Wake up people. You were duped.
crazymoron77 said,
August 22, 2010 at 5:04 pm
1.) TARP was a Bush policy
2.) Where is your proof on the “worst people,” arguement?
3.) Guantanamo is still open
4.) Those papers were leaked, not released by the President.
5.) The prior administration was the worst administration in US history. They destroyed the economy and Republicans are criticizing Democrats for not getting the country back on track fast enough. It’s total hypocrisy.
6.) Your boy Bush has many friends in Saudi Arabia because of their oil. We want Hugo Chavez’s oil. It’s called diplomacy.
7.) Geithner was never indicted on tax fraud. You can call him a tax sheet, but show me where he was charged. He’s an asshole, yes, but he’s no worse than Karl Rove.
8.) How did he make a mockery of us at the G20?
Where were you educated? Honestly. To come out an say that our President wants to free terrorists suggests idiocy of the highest level. Stop watching Glenn Beck and learn your ABCs.
AceCakes123 said,
August 22, 2010 at 8:06 pm
It seems quite disturbing that he would put a ban on torture (if deemed necessary) for the security of the US. It’s inane to speak of values and morals to terrorists who seek to wreak havoc to the American people. Please bear in mind that these are the same people who decapitated american contractors…these are also the same people that from birth are taught to hate the US. Now yes it was foolish to presume obama wants to literally free terrorists, but it seems that the measures he’s taking are questionable.
crazymoron77 said,
August 22, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Torture is the easy way out and it sets a bad example. There are other ways of getting vital information.