By ChaoticGood, August 4 at 1:44 am #

The Republican party is an odd mixture of free-market capitalists, coporatists, fascists, and religious fundamentalists.

In other words, it’s a circus?

Tropicgirl,

I would lay off the dope until after you have written your blog.

The GOP still clings to their 19th century ideology that will keep them in the backseat of power until they find something besides, God, guns, gays, abortion and of course, taxes to put before the people. 

For sosome foolisheason they can’t make themselves relevant to the 21st century. Old LBJ was right when said of them, “They’re like a car with only one gear - backwards”.  All they do is try to reverse what the people want from their government.  But then, the GOP has never really been for the people. Perhaps that realization finally hit the voters in 2006 and 2008. 

As I said, running the same old horse will not get them back into the good graces of the people. They’re in the backseat of power and likely to stay that way until they change their colors.  Change or become redundant

ProdigalRepublican - interesting post and if so inclined could you give a run-down on what comprises a minimalist government?

(Reagan’s infamously vague comment that government is not the solution, it is the problem doesn’t count as a “run-down.”)

My parents were Republicans.  Back in the 1950s it made sense that they were interested in good management, balanced budgets, and modesty in society.  So far so good. 

But they were also very racist.  They had a whole laundry list of ethnic slurs to describe people.  They ascribed to the notion that Martin Luther King was a communist whose words and actions were dictated by Moscow.  My father asserted that we needed to use military force to keep people in places like Latin and South America down, otherwise they would want what we want and that would mean less for us. 

I think the former paragraph describes handsomely polished veneer on rotten wood. 

The right wing evangelicals have gotten frustrated with being used as volunteers to work for candidates who, after the election, betray them for the money side of the equation.  Now they want their due.  They discover that the Constitution treats them equally and they are unsatisfied.  They want to be a state religion and to overpower all others with their dictates.

Thus, the ratcheting up of impatient and hysterical rhetoric about anything that could be a handle, whether true or not, for control over the Republican Party.

This has been brewing for a long time.  Given the adamant, unyielding nature of the far right wing, this could mean that the Republican Party gets a complete makeover as a revival tent.  The veneer from the fifties will be stripped off.

So where will the good government Republicans go?  Will they forever be attached to energetic crazy jumpers up and down and brainless shouters? 

We could actually use budget balancers and promoters of political modesty in a Republican Party that functions pragmatically.  The worry here, I think, is that the adults may just quit. 

As a progressive Democrat, I have seen the policies that I support relegated to municipal governments where there happen to have been majorities that supported policies such as energy conservation for several decades.  What we will most likely see over the 8 years of the Obama Administration is the progress from these local proving grounds moving into place as national initiatives long overdue.  They aren’t wild eyed ideas, but policies with proven track records and balance sheets.

I suspect that the Republican Party will rise again, but what we are seeing now is a leadership vacuum filled with chaotic energy.  This will begin to change with the election cycles as people win or lose elections and thereby test new messages.  It looks like the current crop of angry people will have to pass from the scene before real and sustainable pragmatism can begin to gain traction.  I would give that, from my experience, from 8 to 16 years.  This is the cycle in American politics.  One side is up, the other side is down.  One side has the energy, the other side is exhausted.  Now that I have seen more than one cycle, I take the long view.

PR:

I can understand why you don’t comprehend the Dims—I’m one and I don’t understand what’s in the minds of either the Blue Dogs or the extreme Leftists.

But given that you and your dad sound like old-fashioned Eisenhower Republicans—the kind one can disagree with but still have profound respect for, how can you NOT see that the GOP is leaving your values far behind?  True, a vast influx of folks like you into the Party could bring it back from the brink of insanity it’s on—but are there enough of you to do that? Is it worth it?

I guess I see the Eisenhower Republicans or even Goldwater Republicans as the kind of reality check a Democratic majority needs.  (Goldwater at the end of his life had crystallized much of his Conservatism to eliminate contradictions that he had in 1964—that embraced racism and an aggressive military policy).

Ron Paul talks a good talk, but I don’t think he walks the walk, and his connections to extremist white-supremacists make him suspect.

Still, it’s rare to get a good old-fashioned Republican here—most are the right-wing-nuts that now have embraced this birther BS.

Be ready, though, to get an avalanche of attacks from those that dogmatically think there’s only ONE valid opinion—their own nutty-LEFT-wing-nut one.

“Birther” Controversy is about deflecting accusations away from Cheney’s Illegal Presidency.
After Decades of trying to claim they are not Racists, Why have the Repugs embraced this politicla kamikaze mission now- to change the topic away from the High crimes committed during the Bush admin.
By the way how many elderly died in Bush’s Medicare part D Black Doughnut hole. How many had to choose between groceries and life sustaining meds?
The Repugs yelling the loudest are not just trying to cover W & Dick’s asses- but their own.There are a good number in Congress and poss SCOTUS who are accomplices to the Bushies High Crimes.
We all know they ‘Protest too much’- the point is to expose why!

I recently returned to the Republican party. I left in 1991 or 1992 because of my disgust for George HW Bush. I cannot say that was my only problem, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Since then I have been registered Libertarian and Green, and generally splitting my votes between the two. I have never been a registered Democrat.

I returned to the party because of Ron Paul. I do not agree with him on everything, but I feel he has the important issues correct, especially those that are ignored by the mainstream media like basic civil liberties.

I do think that taxes are too high. I also think that the poor are taxed too much, and generally benefit the rich more than the poor. I believe in a minimalist government. That does not mean that I am opposed to all forms of social welfare. It might not be ideologically correct, but sometimes you have to be practical.

One of those issues of which of which I disagree with Congressman Paul is health care. I am very much in favor of single payer health care and for many reasons. You might be surprised by the top reason I support single payer: It would cost less money.

The US spends more money at the federal government level alone then Canada spends on their system. The punditocracy cries out “Where will the money come from?” That is the wrong question. We are already spending the money. The real question should be “Why are we not getting our money’s worth?”

This question should be asked by both Democrats AND Republicans. Republicans reject it because they would rather see money flushed down the toilet than see a program that contradicts their ideology. (Something that I do not find conservative in the least.) I am not a Democrat so I don’t understand them as well. I could say they are opposed to single payer because they have their heads up their respective cavities, but what I really mean to say is this is yet another example of why I never saw the Democratic party a viable alternative when I left the Republican party.

(Another would be their support of the Iraq War. Don’t get me started.)

My father shares many of my values. He has been a Republican all his life, despite how disgusted he is with what has become of the GOP. I asked him what the heck happened to the party, and he thinks a significant factor was when racists in the Democratic party became Republicans in opposition to the civil rights movement.

When it comes down to it though, I don’t think either party was ever that great. Politicians tend to be scumbags, and the higher up the food chain you go, the more scum you find. It could be that the Republicans have twice the number of extremists as the Democrats.

I might wish that the big government neocons would go back to the the Democratic Party where they belong, but the fact is until the people of this country wake up to the fact that the majority of both major parties are scumbags nothing is going to change.

I live in Atlanta and in the mid 1970’s the population of Atlanta was 400,000, by the mid 80’s that increased to over 4,000,000. Nearly all of my Republican neighbors are from the northeast.

hello. the labelling game is on. extremist republicans may be my only hope to stop the ‘cap and trade’ bill coming up in the Senate that will increase everybody’s electric bill (as our democratic leader promised was going to happen) ...$100/month. that is the minumum projection of getting the carbon tax bill off the ground. our lower income economy can little shoulder this burden, on top of new health care and additional government growth and control. bipartisanship will only compromise something nobody wants. if we do not fight together to change the democratic system, we deserve what we get. i agree money needs to be withdrawn from the political processes. we should not need to promote our own lobby to get our employees to listen to us. more extremism is needed.

“If members of the Republican party in the south, were told to pack their bags and go back where they came from, you would find that we don’t have anymore right wing crazies than the rest of the country..”—catlady628

I’d like to see the proof of your assertion, because I doubt it. For one thing, there’s a lot of inbreeding down there, and the schools are (to be kind) substandard. The Christian churches tend to fanaticism, and the politicians are particularly vile.

catlady, nice try but to blame the northerners for the pathetic region a.k.a. The South, will not fly because it doesn’t make sense because it isn’t true. The northerners have brought a measure of reason to your Crazyland. Progress will come to places like Alabama once southerners become a minority in their own region. Better learn Spanish.

Maybe there’s a clue to ‘understanding’ political phenomena in the results of a recent study.  A group of people chosen at random wearing brain-wave monitors was given various stimuli in the areas of religion/religious and political/politics.  The results?  There was zero brain activity on the rational/reasoning side of the brain:  All activity was on the emotional/feeling/non-reasoning side.

Anyway, the results may explain why voters vote irrationally - often against their own self-interest - and why politicians can deliver verbal garbage and get away with it, fail to work for the interests of constituents and people in general - and not only get away with it but get elected or re-elected.

Joe the Philosopher, August 4 at 5:08 am #

*************************************************

And those are just their GOOD points.

Most of them are now overtly fascists.
Most of them want a single party state.
Many of them are religious fanatics.
Most of them are traitors.

It’s ironic that the same politicians holding up “Southern Values” are directly following in the footsteps of the Southerners who committed the greatest treason this country has ever seen—the Secession, created one of the two greatest evils the country has ever seen—Slavery, and followed their treason up with 100 years of undermining the Constitution they swore loyalty to via—Segregation.

They hate Democracy. They hate Freedom. They hate diversity. They hate all religions by Southern versions of Protestantism. They hate all skin colors that don’t look like pink termites. (which is why I always prefer to be tanned to being pale)

They are the worst liars since Goebbels.  And they are tainting all the wonderful things about the South.  I still remember Phil Ochs’s poignant song from 1965 about Jim Crow Mississippi:

“Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of!”

Look who their governor and senators are and it’s all coming true again.

(the other greatest evil was the genocide of Native Americans—but all parts of the nation shared in that)

The Republican party is an odd mixture of free-market capitalists, coporatists, fascists, and religious fundamentalists.  The commonality they share is that they are specially appointed by “God” to have wealth, power or just to “be the chosen ones”.  They glue this unlikely mob together by concocting “hobgoblins” and appealing to greed. There would be no Republican Party if it weren’t for these radicals who see terrorists under every rock and routinely see the face of God on their morning toast. Too hold such a motley group together requires constant attention and paranoia nurturing.  Hopefully, the whole stinking mess will sink in the ocean of history, never to rise again.  At least we can hope.

But really, can the people escape the republicans and democrats, neither of which has a bases of concern for the people, so where oh where is the 3rd parties?

This all deals with an addiction and a stupidity that will only look to the left or right and no where else.

If members of the Republican party in the south, were told to pack their bags and go back where they came from, you would find that we don’t have anymore right wing crazies than the rest of the country..

Republicans are for the most part extremely radical fanatics.
A lot of their arguements seem to lean toward racism as well. And we all know only too they are mighty humbled by capitalism and the payola.

Come on folks- not all Republicans are extremists any more than all Dems are socialists. Enough of the hyperventilation already.

felicity:
Yes, we still have a democracy, if you’ll accept that that means any citizen can vote. But the major problem is that the candidate list is so homogenous. The two party system is a failure and money is the cause. You call it a plutocracy, but if you’ll let me quibble, it’s more like a private club. It just looks like a plutocracy because money is so dominant.

Republicans pander to their extremists, cater to their delusions and publicize their hallucinations. How on earth can they escape? It reminds me of the comment made by Mrs. Goebbels, just prior to murdering her children. “I cannot imagine life without National Socialism.”

Short answer: no. Because they are their extremists.

rfidler - glad you cleared that up and I agree with your follow-up statement and it’s about time that we drop ‘democracy’ to describe our form of government and tell it like it is - a plutocracy - word derivation Pluto, Roman god of the underworld?

felicity:

“so are you saying that the ‘flaws’ in the Democratic Party automatically wipe out the ‘flaws’ in the Republican Party?”

Absolutely not. Both parties are extremely flawed, and not just because they have their extremists. Both parties seek power for power’s sake. The interests of their particular constituencies take a distant second place. They connect the two through pandering and outright lying.

rfidler - so are you saying that the ‘flaws’ in the Democratic Party automatically wipe out the ‘flaws’ in the Republican Party? If so, you’d have to also accept the reverse.

I look forward to Mr. Dionne’s balancing article on extremists within the Democratic Party.

Race-baiting?? That’s Al Sharpton’s full time job! Skip Gates anyone? Glenn Beck is not a Republican. And there are probably no more than ten “birthers” in the nation. Let it go.

How many Dems believe George Bush is a war criminal? Is that mainstream for Dems?

The Republicans a southern regional party? How about the Dems as a coastal regional party?

“Can Republicans Escape Their Extremists?”

Nope..

You have got to kidding - right?  They “escaped,” after their destruction during the “Gilded Age,” just after the turn of the previous century.  And for the next 60 years Americans did not let them have power again…

That is until the new generations grew up, and the older generations that had lived it died, or forgot…  And again allowed them power.  Beginning with the Reagan Administration, and culminating in this just passed Bush administration into the “New Gilded Age” of destruction for the soul purpose of massive wealth transfer - A euphemism for theft - to themselves, the-very-few.

The only differences between the two Gilded Ages?  Now they controlled the media of the nation - The massed minds of the electorate.  And their constructed military-industrial-congressional-complex, that “They Rule”.

Those two differences are together… A huge difference.

Oh, I almost forgot…  There is also the “allowing” factor to answer for.