How bad was the election for Republicans?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Nov 8 2006, 05:36 PM) [snapback]345919[/snapback]</div>

You're a luv, Pinto. Thanks. :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Black2006 @ Nov 8 2006, 08:06 PM) [snapback]345934[/snapback]</div>

I'm not a Hillary Clinton fan, but give her a break, she was only 17 then. I can't hold something that someone did at 17 against them for their whole life.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Nov 8 2006, 07:34 PM) [snapback]346032[/snapback]</div>

Realize that there are very common misconceptions around the terminology used to label various participants in our political process. Democrats are not necessarily "liberal" just as we've clearly seen that Republicans are not necessarily "conservatives." After all, just what is it that this current batch of Republican's are "conserving" anyway? Certainly not states rights, personal freedoms, privacy, the environment, or fiscal health.

The opposite of Conservative is NOT liberal...it is Progressive
The opposite of Liberal is not Conservative...it is Authoritarian

The current batch of Republicans most closely identifies with the Authoritarian (i.e. opposite of Liberal) philosophy, which includes a very strong central government role in various aspects of citizens lives including behavior. The little Iraq adventure, the close ties to Evangelicals, the moral "wedge" issues, the growth of government in specific areas like defense, and the embrace of corporations are all trademarks of the Authoritarians.

Most people think Republicans are really conservatives, akin to Goldwater. And that clearly ain't necessarily true.

It would also be possible to be both a conservative person and somewhat liberal. A desire for no government intervention in marriage, for example, is a liberal (anti-authoritarian) position yet strongly identified with true conservatives.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Nov 8 2006, 08:00 PM) [snapback]345902[/snapback]</div>

It was All in the Family not Archy Bunker. We are all in the same family. I hope the praise people here have for the Democrats is correct since things should only get better from here. Right?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(koa @ Nov 8 2006, 10:45 PM) [snapback]346124[/snapback]</div>

Wrong.
The operative word in your sentence being “only.â€

The celebrations and honeymoon will soon be over. This is within the Democrat party of which I speak.

This is the party which turned its collective back on one of its senior statesmen, Joe Lieberman, because he was too centrist for the powers that be. The ultra-liberals within the Democrat party are now feeling their oats and will not sit still for any centrist crap.

Factions within the Democrat party will be calling for everything from impeachment and immediate withdrawal from Iraq to further tax cuts and increasing troop strength in Iraq.

Next thing you know Cindy Sheehan will be arrested on the West Steps of the Capitol for throwing bundles of anti-war petitions at the “warmonger Democrats,†and Nancy Pelosi's true colors will soon emerge when her ultra-freakin'-liberal-San Francisco constituents badger her to do that for which they elected her.

Yep, I give the honeymoon within the Democrat party six months max . . . then gridlock will set in as those members who are up for reelection in 2008 start placing blame and start finger pointing within their own party to try to distance themselves from the madness.

Then, for the 2008 elections, since the Democrats will be the incumbent congressional majority party, the nation will elect another Republican as President, or, if the Democrats screw-up bad enough, return congress back to the Republicans.

As was proven in this election cycle, Americans no longer want one party fully in charge of all branches of government. The prime example, Rhode Island's Incumbent Republican Senator, Lincoln Chafee. Even with a 63 percent job approval rating amongst his constituents, and even though he's anti-war and didn't even vote to re-elect President Bush . . . he lost his reelection bid strictly because he was a Republican . . . and voters wanted a change.*

* http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/08/ele....why/index.html

Isn't politics fun.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Nov 9 2006, 02:34 AM) [snapback]346141[/snapback]</div>

Karl Rove is a Freekin Genius. . . . MuHAHAhAhAhAHAHaHaHaaaa! :lol: [attachmentid=5639]

[attachmentid=5638]

Wildkow

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Nov 8 2006, 10:34 PM) [snapback]346032[/snapback]</div>

Agreed, but then, why did all the real conservatives in the House & Senate let the neocons get so far away from the true conservative values? If they had provided the oversight they should have, they surely would not have gotten the thumpin' they did. Instead, they rolled over and gave Bush everything he asked for. The entire party is to blame for this, not just the neocons.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Black2006 @ Nov 8 2006, 06:27 PM) [snapback]345884[/snapback]</div>

Oh man do I love this! Now that it’s clear that the Republicans are, were and will always be on the wrong track, we’ll just say that there Democrats in disguise. Can we spell DELUSIONAL?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Nov 8 2006, 05:46 PM) [snapback]345858[/snapback]</div>

Again, congrats to the Dems. From a Repub perspective this was a good thing, and they are lucky it happened in an off year election cycle.

As a conservative, the Repubs strayed away, far away from what brought them to power. They now have two years to get back on track.

Big winner - Guiliani. The country obviously wants a centrist - social liberal, fiscal conservative. He also stands strong on the war against terror - has stayed out of the iraq debate - has proven himself under fire - great track record governing NYC - was like by most here during his tenure.

Other big winner - McCain - same reasons as above.

And a big kudos to... Pelosi's new plastic surgeon - better than the other(s) but still pulled a little too tight above the mallar arch. You should not be able to see the rear mollars during a smile At least we now know where she was these past 2-3 weeks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Nov 9 2006, 04:46 AM) [snapback]346157[/snapback]</div>

The extreme right-wing worked hard and tirelessly to wrest the Republican Party from the old-line conservatives. When Goldwater lost to LBJ they got together, licked their wounds, and began the slow, hard work of grass-roots organizing. They brought in the fundamentalist Christians by catering to their intolerant views on people's private bedroom behavior, they wooed the wealthy with promises of big tax cuts, they got preachers to spread the word from the pulpit, and it began to pay off with the nomination and then election of Ronald Reagan.

This was not so much a case of "true conservatives" "allowing" the neo-cons to take over: This was a case of the neo-cons doing their footwork over a period of decades.

Note that the above says nothing about whether this was a good thing or a bad thing; I merely note how they achieved what they did.

They lost this mid-term election because they overstepped, or perhaps because they selected a moron to be their standard-bearer.

I am amused by all the folks who seem so sure of their predictions, on both sides. Politics is as unpredictable as the daily swings of the stock market. You can be sure that the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer, but you cannot predict which band of crooks will win any future election. Both parties are crooked, and no matter which wins, the same rich will get richer, and the same poor will get poorer.

 

It is not the latter, because they *love* Reagan, who was demonstrably senile.

In many ways the shrub was Reagan #2. The brain of a pea but folksy, ready and willing to abuse executive power, and fiscaly irresponsible. The only real difference is that Reagan limited his short term international stupidity to Central America, while the shrub chose Iraq. Poisoning the US with illegal drugs using the CIA as vendors might seem like it would have backfired on him, but he proclaimed "I doin' it for America!", and that was good enough.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Black2006 @ Nov 8 2006, 06:27 PM) [snapback]345884[/snapback]</div>

Ohhhhhhhhh so the guys in washington who run the country in to debt are really democrats no matter what huh? Only democrats do bad things and only real republicans do good things. OHHHHHHHHH. Come back from the 50s, the real world is so much more interesting when you can see it in color. You so-called republicans who live in the past only see things in black and white.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Nov 8 2006, 05:34 PM) [snapback]345918[/snapback]</div>

You won't nail yourself to the republican party? 'sa matter, the cross already too full of corpses?

I am MarinJohn and I approve of your last paragraph IF you wait till January when Pelosi is Speaker. Impeach junior and his fishin' buddy then Pelosi gets to be president. Can she then appoint Hillary as vice president? then we have them for 3 years, they successfully get elected the next TWO terms making that a total of 11 years of female rule. They will do so well that come elections in 2014 Hillary gets elected for 2 terms meaning Bill and Hillary are in the white house 19 years!!! Neocons vanquished to Afghanastan where they successfully finally 'get' Bin Laden. They're vindicated and run successfully in the 2022 elections!!! (This time with oversight because the dems retain control of the congress.) Yes, I'm MainJohn and I approve this scenario.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ Nov 9 2006, 10:51 AM) [snapback]346237[/snapback]</div>

As Richard Nixon once said long ago(and I'm paraphrasing): "my wife doesn't need expensive furs; she looks just fine in a sensible Republican cloth coat...and, as I always tell her, Pat, you look great in anything..."

Ahhh, how times have changed.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SiliconAddict @ Nov 8 2006, 09:11 PM) [snapback]345971[/snapback]</div>

Yep, what's finally happening is that the fiscal conservatives and those who appreciated the Republican take on foreign policy, for example -- the 'true' Republicans of old, as I see it -- are spltting from the neocons, who hijacked the party under the pretense of bringing morality back to the public arena (and seem to have failed).

Really, the morality ploy was just that: a device to fragment and conquer us...one special interest at a time.

Pendulums only swing so far in one direction before returning to the center...and then going too far in the other direction...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Nov 9 2006, 07:40 AM) [snapback]346225[/snapback]</div>

Actually, what he said was that he didn't know anything about it, never heard of it, and didn't authorize it.

Oliver North, who ran the program, confessed everything under a Congressional grant of immunity, but with his immunity in his pocket, didn't have to finger his boss.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Nov 9 2006, 10:54 AM) [snapback]346242[/snapback]</div>

Unfortunately they could probably only impeach one at a time and would keep appointing a Repubican replacement - over and over again.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ Nov 9 2006, 07:51 AM) [snapback]346237[/snapback]</div>

Well, actually they were Democrats, until not that long ago. The irony is, they don't like free markets, but they generally like unions and job protection, and they like government spending (on them.) In other words, they don't like most of what the Republican party has largely stood for in the last century.

Most of them are a single issue voters: ABORTION. O.K., and family, which to them means no gay marriage. If the Republican party goes back to its core principles of "small" government and less interference in private lives, many of these single issue voters will creep back into the Democratic fold. For what it's worth, Nancy Pelosi went out of her way to talk about her faith and God today, so maybe the Democrats are getting ready to strike a deal with God (or the Devil, depending on one's viewpoint to ensure the future support of the faithful.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Nov 9 2006, 11:54 AM) [snapback]346242[/snapback]</div>

What a nightmare. Not about Hillary, I mean Bill. Can you imagine him trolling the halls of the White House, only this time he has NOTHING to do? Poor interns.