No Future for the GOP?

Leo

Well-known member
ha, good one, there was potential for the video to go viral if he'd taken the bait. the fatal flaw of your stealth sting operation is the average american attendee at that conference is too provincial to even know who dawkins is!

enjoy the nice weather, hopefully you're in close proximity to some good mexican food.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
He didn't go for it as crazily as I'd hoped, but he did suggest that he'd rather like to take out Obama with a drone strike, which is quite good I think.

I'm a little worried about the legal consequences of recording someone surreptitiously, so I've changed the access to private - anyone else want to hear it, they can email me on ollie dot harris at gmail and I'll add them to my friends circle.
 

Leo

Well-known member
The GOP just had its best week in the past nine years or so.

no shit, good thing for obama all this didn't come out before the election. and at least it's out well before the next one.

it's totally legit for the IRS to take a close look at non-profit organization that get tax-exempt status because they claim to be devoted to "social good" when they are really just political organizations. but they should be examined equally on the right and left (both sides are guilty, although the right probably more so). targeting any one type of group is really bad, even worse if it's for political purposes.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Just curious, do people abroad seem concerned about how our obstructionist and generally incompetent US Congress might very well tank the world economy next week? (And on behalf of the American people, I want to apologize in advance for that.)

Nothing new here but let me vent for a second...

It would be one thing if it was a rational argument involving differing views on how to get something accomplished, but we've got a vocal minority of hardline conservatives who believe government in general is bad, and who don't have any interest in actually legislating. In addition to opposing Democrats, they are also fighting against traditional/mainstream Republican conservatives who they feel aren't conservative enough. Some of this minority are birthers, some are science deniers, some are creationists, some don't believe economists who insist there will be world financial chaos if we default on our debts, etc. It's hard to argue with people who deny facts.

It's all very discouraging, and any fix will likely be only temporary until the next debt ceiling limit or budget deadline. Most people I know here regardless of party affiliation are totally disgusted by the whole situation.
 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
I would have thought providing people with endless examples of what the Government actually does and pays for would run counter productive to their goals. But as you say..
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Just curious, do people abroad seem concerned about how our obstructionist and generally incompetent US Congress might very well tank the world economy next week? (And on behalf of the American people, I want to apologize in advance for that.)"
Hard to say. It's in the news a lot but people aren't talking about it much. I'm pretty concerned as well as slightly amused I suppose. The shut down seems totally ridiculous because it does seem that

"a vocal minority of hardline conservatives who believe government in general is bad, and who don't have any interest in actually legislating"
Can throw sand in the gears of the whole thing just to stop the money being available for a law that's already passed.

Is this damaging the GOP? Surely anyone can see that, regardless of your politics, sabotaging the whole of congress, the country, the planet etc to get what you want is not the way to go about things.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Is this damaging the GOP? Surely anyone can see that, regardless of your politics, sabotaging the whole of congress, the country, the planet etc to get what you want is not the way to go about things.

i think there are three issues to consider:

1) some of these representatives WANT to sabotage the government, they feel that's what they were elected to do. they are like first-year university students who have just read their first ayn rand novel and are all psyched up to fight the world.

2) due to redistricting, some of those representatives are now in districts that have been redrawn to include a high percentage of tea party voters like themselves, so this type of action actually makes them more popular with their voters at home instead of less so. some of these are lily-white conservative districts where obama lost to romney by 20+ points.

3) a big divide has happened between "the GOP" and the hardcore tea party conservatives. the hard right couldn't care less if their actions are damaging to the GOP because they consider themselves apart from the party. they oppose "establishment republicans" as much as democrats.

while it's admirable to stand up for what you believe in, some of our politicians live in a far right conservative bubble, hence the "shock" when romney lost because they were all convinced that the polls had a "liberal bias".
 

craner

Beast of Burden
And early on in a similar thread, I predicted the isolation and downfall of the Tea Party and a GOP Restoration this year, which shows how much I know.

The majority of UK news channels seem to be a bit bored of this story at the moment. "Shutdown" hasn't lived up to the pre-hype yet. Although, I daresay Russia Today has some foxy anti-capitalist reporter revelling in it as I write this.
 

Leo

Well-known member
shutdown is a "local" story, but defaulting in the nation's debt has global economic impact. if wall street panics, world markets are quick to follow.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But does a lack of immediate ramifications of the shut-down make the default more likely? A kind of "boy who cried wolf" type thing?
 

trza

Well-known member
I don't want to make too much out of whats going on, but the Speaker and others wanted the Shutdown to happen to avoid a Default. Lots of things in politics are just repeating the same thing with only slightly differences. The activists can't remember the last shutdown, and thought it would actually strengthen their hand. Cruz even paid for a poll that supposedly supported his idea to "defund" Obamacare. The older people and moderates knew that it wouldn't, only the wackiest right wing websites are claiming things are going well now.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Cantor anyone?

young gun shoots a blank. huge upset, although he sort of had it coming (spent most of his time on the national scene and not addressing the needs of his district, didn't even bother to be there on election day, district was so gerrymandered that even HE wasn't conservative enough, etc.) now everyone will be too scared to try anything on immigration reform, which further alienates the growing hispanic voter base from the GOP (and subsequently probably makes it more difficult for jeb bush to run in 2016).

i always thought cantor was a bit of a smarmy opportunist, but so are most politicians to varying degrees.
 
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