It’s a great headline — Split threatens to rupture Republican ranks. Moderates like Colin “WMD” Powell and Tom “Orange Alert” Ridge are firing back at the clowns. Powell and Ridge believe the GOP is in danger of losing its status as a major party — in short, going the way of the Whigs.
I can’t say I have much sympathy for either gentlemen, considering they both played vital roles in propping up the late abomination called the “Bush Administration.” However, I don’t think either one of them is crazy. Just compromised.
And their concern begs the question — what is there to save, exactly? The GOP’s entire platform amounts calling anyone they don’t like a poopy-head.
They’ll come back. The longer Obama’s in office the more of his policies they’ll have to rant about and run against. Until we know what specifc policies they’ll run against we have no idea where republicans go next. In otherwords, the policies they run against will determine the future makeup of the gop. Whichever faction of the gop best equipped to counter Obama’s policies will take the lead role.
I’m not so sure. The Republicans are facing a serious demographic problem. The American electorate is changing quickly from overwhelmingly white to not so much.
It’s a real problem for them because they have been alienating minority groups for forty years now. You know, all those minorities are just looking for a handout and that kind of stuff.
47% of children under five are from a minority group now. That doesn’t bode well for a party with a Southern base that has made fighting discrimination against white people its main racial policy.
Whichever faction of the gop best equipped to counter Obama’s policies will take the lead role.
KBR? KKK? One of those, anyway. Aside from anti-democratic mayhem, there’s no Republican faction actually “equipped” for anything at the moment.
End the Republican party. Don’t let them recover. Let them go the way of the Know Nothing Party. Besides, they aren’t Whigs and never were, being monarchist they should be called Tories if anything.
There’s a link at Daniel Larison’s blog Eunomia that deatils GOP responses to issues in 1997 and 2007. I’m finding it useful in trying to understand where the GOP might be going.
Being leaderless, they are all over on the right-wing side of the map.
And as much as they say they worship Reagan, if a younger Reagan came along right now, he/she would never have a chance to lead – too “liberal.”
They made an unholy alliance with the Religious Right since 1980, and so, they are stuck. And I say let them stay stuck. ‘Hoist by their own petard.’
I’m with Pug, the Repubs have a serious demographic issue. Under 30 votes overwhelmingly democratic. Plus, this is an age group that doesn’t vote as often as other groups, and will do so more as they age. They are also overwhelmingly in favor of gay marriage. The problem the Repubs have is if they switch their views on gay marriage to make it more likely they could get elected, they split their party, if they don’t they can’t get votes from the younger crowd. Sounds like the Whigs on slavery to me.
Mahakal — I didn’t say Republicans are Whigs. I’m suggesting perhaps the party is breaking up the way the Whig Party (of America, not Britain) broke up in the 1850s.
It seems to me, repugs will need to either wait until the dems convince the public they are as bad as the repugs were at running the country, or stop saying no and come up with some ideas of their own that sound reasonable.
If you are going to say no abortions, come up with a plan to help those who would seek one.
If you are going to say no to healthcare, come up with a plan to cover those who will lose everything if they become sick.
If you are going to say no to closing Gitmo, come up with a plan (other than letting those people sit there until they die of natural or un-natural causes).
If you are going to say no to ending the war in Iraq, (why didn’t you say no to starting it?) come up with a plan on.. well.. whatever you are thinking..
Name any issue and all we hear is NO! We don’t like that! After that comes a bunch of mud slinging and redirection of the issues. I haven’t heard a single reasonable plan. It could be that I just don’t think of their basics as a plan and they do. Honestly, I don’t think it would be a bad idea if the repugs apologized to the country for the crummy job they did when they were in control. I believe it will be a while before anyone wants to take that chance again.
I also think they need to find more moderate reps. It seems to me anytime a repugs is on the tv, they are yelling, half truthing or being snide and I end up feeling like I am wasting my time listening.
Anytime President Obama speaks, I hear reason and thought and generally feel like a sane person is in charge and I feel better. He doesn’t say he has all of the answers, he says he is hearing everyone and taking all points of view into consideration.
must be a holiday rambling…
I hope everyone has a lovely Memorial Day.
Here’s the interesting thing, Barbara. If we want a genuine opposition party in this country there are worse names they could pick than the Whig Party. It has a lot of history, not all of it good but what party has an unvarnished past? Jon Stewart calls himself a Whig. I used to, before the Bush administration used WHIG to identify their Iraq operation. For me it always meant that I wasn’t a Tory for God’s sake.
If it says libby libby libby on the label label label, your gonna like it like it like it on your table table table!…..LOL…..sorry with the focus being shifted from the actual point of the story into a label making party I got a bit distracted myself and I had to let it out…ok one last thing..weren’t the whigs the ones who started this whole hair extension thing?If so the party was not a total loss…
Look…. the right was dancing like a child who needed to use the restroom with glee just a few years ago saying the same thing about the Dems.The American voter is a fickle bunch and it has more to do with them than any parties or their message. Look at gw bush… he ran on being a dumb ass who lacked substance and I heard so many people say “yeah but he has good people behind him” and fat, dumb and happy they voted for him…supreme court verdict or not , a shit load of people still voted for him,,TWICE!!!If jeb were to run in the future, people would forget all about that bad taste left in their mouths and be stupid again!
Don’t think for a minute if the right could expose some freaky detail about Obama’s sex life we wouldn’t be going thru the ken star days all over again…ahhhh those were good times for the gop yes?I bet they still have the star report in their bedside tables.The gop could create so much fake outrage no one would even notice their mistresses and they are back! They are throwing everything that even looks like a turd in hopes something will stick but we all know the only thing that gets the public attention these days is a sex scandal.
It wouldn’t even have to be a Monica.Just Obama wearing a superman costume with his own wife would warrant a full investigation..and heaven forbid he deny it.
The Gop has not been about ideas or improving the lives of Americans in my lifetime. They have been the party of dirty tricks and snake oil.Sadly the American voter can be fooled.The GOP lost this election cycle because of bush fatigue(oh my!) People were pissed at bush for making them look like fools and who could blame them? Mad enough for the GOP to die? Not likely. A nice idea though. This is like the horror movies where the lady in high heels thinks the bad guy is dead so she turns her back and is chatting on her cell phone when she takes an axe to the back.These are not nice folks with different views..these are people who think water boarding is not torture.(Who would Jesus water board?) (off topic but did you hear “Mancow ” crying after he was water boarded and declare that it is in fact torture? Duh! Mancow…) don’t make the mistake of mis- underestimating them.
Well, justme, I think you miss the larger change in public consciousness that the Internet has engendered, the ability for people of diverse backgrounds to communicate and gain understanding of one another’s perspectives allows for a very broad public consensus.
If only they could go back to the days where they controlled the messages that the public had access to, if the mainstream media were the only way people could still get their news and opinion, then maybe the Know Nothings would have a chance for a come back.
Which does point out the importance of defending the Internet.
BTW… IF YOU WANT TO SEE VIDEO OF MANCOW BEING WATERBOARDED BEFORE HE CHANGED HIS MIND ABOUT IT BEING TORTURE, GO TO THE WOW FM WEBSITE AND THEN THE BRADSHAW LINK….BRADSHAW HAS IT UP TO VIEW.