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Joanne98 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 02:20 PM
Original message
Republicans being relegated to "regional" status

There is a big tug of war going on in the Republican camp. The Democrats are known to always fight, that is what we do, but we welcome the argument that is why we are diverse under our big tent, but the Republicans are different. This is a party that has been pretty much lock step with leadership, but not now. The breaking of many independent thinking Republican governors from struggling states have made many come out in the open and buck the party line. It is all about that stimulus money.

The Republican Party took a heavy hit the past two election cycles from the Midwest, Northeast and West. The erosion was due much to the ideology that just is not working or the public is not listening right now. Many people are tired of the labeling of liberal or conservative. They want Washington to work and work for them. The rebuffing of President Obama trying to reach across the line has a perception to the public. Whether many Americans agree with Obama or not, they are viewing the Republican Party pretty harsh now and unwilling to work or even give President Obama a chance to fix some of the massive problems left on his desk by George W. Bush.

I don't like all the aspects of the stimulus bill, I don't like the idea of bailing out banks since these managers were the ones who made the atrocious decisions in putting them in the predicament they are in, I don't like spending 10B plus in Iraq and building that nation up when we have deteriorated infrastructure all over this country (Katrina, bridge in Minneapolis), I don't like the idea of some aspects of the housing plan when many pay their mortgages and are responsible and may not get any help from the plan, I don't like any of it. I want to cut spending and if we spend do it smartly, but I know that tax cuts alone is not going to save this country. It won't.

It is easy to just sit back and let the market correct itself, the ideology of many conservatives, but when you have bank after bank fail, Wall Street run amuck, home prices all over this country continue to plummet, 600K job losses a week, the idea of doing nothing does not sit well with the average American who has lost almost all their money in their 401Ks and don't know how they will send their child to college and their home price not worth the spit on the ground.

The Republicans can duke it out, but again it is looked on as a regional, southern party. Their continuing to not come to the middle will continue to be their detriment. The question is this though, are those constituents in these southern states going to sit by and take the heat and hit from the decisions that their governors will make by not taking some of the stimulus money? Especially to extend unemployment for constituents in their states? That is a wait and see issue.

http://thisweekwithbarackobama.blogspot.com/2009/02/republicans-being-relegated-to-regional.html
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ixion Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 02:27 PM
Response to Original message
1. that's just it: Republicans don't know the first thing about arguing and mistake
shouting matches for a debate, which they are not.

Argument is not about insults, or shooting the messenger, or bogus diversionary tactics. Argument is about the exchange of facts in an effort to reach consensus.

The GOP wouldn't understand this if it bit them on the a**.
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KansDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 02:35 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Molly Ivins said it best, "Republicans don't want to govern; they want to rule"
Edited on Mon Feb-23-09 02:44 PM by KansDem
Democracies argue and debate. From this comes compromise and governing.

Despots (ie, Repubs) don't like to argue and debate. They like to say what's what and that's that.

edited for spelling...
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SCantiGOP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 03:01 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. from today's NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/us/politics/23govs.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=%22south%20carolina%22&st=nyt
The Republican governors’ divide reflects their party’s erosion to a mostly regional party that is based in the conservative South, after heavy election losses in the Northeast, Midwest and West. And with the party leaderless after losing control of both the White House and Congress in the past two election cycles, the split is colored by early maneuvering for conservatives’ support among potential aspirants for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination.
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caraher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 04:18 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. Would they "get" the old Monty Python "Argument Clinic" sketch?
Palin: An argument isn't just contradiction.
Cleese: It can be.
Palin: No it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
Cleese: No it isn't.

etc. Except I think Republicans would add shouting to contradiction.
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Wapsie B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 02:27 PM
Response to Original message
2. If I remember correctly they made gains in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Edited on Mon Feb-23-09 02:28 PM by Wapsie B
Oklahoma had every one of their counties in the red if I'm not mistaken. That's not going to win them elections nationally. Then again, let the gop embrace their core rwing crazies. Fine by me. Turn up the heat Rush. Throw 'em some more red meat.
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izquierdista Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 02:38 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Maybe we can put the Repubs on reservations
and let them run gambling joints. But I doubt they would get much repeat business.
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8 track mind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 05:14 PM
Response to Reply #2
9. not surprising.....
Edited on Mon Feb-23-09 05:16 PM by 8 track mind
We have some family owned property up there and i'm afraid to drive up there with all my liberal stickers on the back of my van. Some of those crazy rednecks up there love to start shit and the last thing i need is to get into a fight with one of these fucks. It didn't used to be this way. Oklahoma was a great place with good people. It just seems like everything went to shit when Reagan came in. The "government is bad" ideology stepped in and it never left.
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Cary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 02:32 PM
Response to Original message
3. I am anxious too.
Obama hasn't done anything, yet, that he didn't tell us he was going to do. I think that's part of what Obama is trying to deliver. It's his baby for a couple of years. "Conservatives" are making a cynical bet that he's going to fail so they can approach the mid terms or 2012 with a big fat "I told you so".

Can that strategy work? I would hope not. But then I don't have a crystal ball.

So IMHO it's just Barack Obama, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead (and cross your fingers).
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The Wizard Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-23-09 03:56 PM
Response to Original message
7. Southern Republicans
A Confederacy of Dunces.
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
— Jonathan Swift
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