Republicans Jumping Ship

[louis-t]

Well, now I've heard everything. Katie bar the door, and the moon's made of green cheese. Please, let me explain. My office is full of diehard Republicans. A few of them are rushbots. You know, the ones who say "He's hilarious" when asked why they listen to that tripe.
This morning, one of the diehards entered my office and sat down. He was irritated about gas prices. Keep in mind, this is one of the cheapest men alive. He has a six figure income and is constantly text paging everyone asking to borrow tools. He does not know of my addiction to DU, and we rarely discuss politics. This man was once proud to announce that he had voted for Bush. He was for the war and trickle down economics and tax breaks for the rich, etc. Yet, this morning, he told me that he has renounced our glorious leader. Why?
He is being hit in the pocketbook. Our national debt is finally forcing mortgage rates up, which will hurt our business. It costs him a small fortune to fill his and his wife's gas tanks. He realizes that not one of his clients has any money. He sees on a daily basis how much the current regime's policies are affecting HIM. If this trend continues, the Republican Party doesn't stand a chance.

[deadparrot]

1. It's the economy, stupid.

That is all. :)

[FreedomAngel82]

26. And remember

what Cheney said about high gas prices and the president. ;) So he's saying Bush has failed. LOL.

[Mich Otter]

38. Call it "Tinkle-On Economics" or simply...

piss-on-the-poor.

[checks-n-balances]

55. And crap on them, too

(to put it nicely)

[mike_c]

2. the party of greed and avarice always loses the rank and file first...

...when it's time to start throwing folks off the lifeboats....

[stepnw1f]

3. All They Care about is their f*n Money

They could care less about their country and the people that live and die for it. Talk about shallow.

[tulsakatz]

16. that's true

At the risk of making broad generalizations, I agree that money is all they care about!

I remember after 9/11, I was talking to a RWer about an upcoming election and he made the comment that if a Democrat was elected, taxes would go up (as if that would deter others from voting for him). I told him I thought that, to be so concerned about his own pocketbook in this era of terrorism, was a really selfish thing to say!! There are other things which are more important than money......such as keeping our borders well protected and keeping our citizens safe in their own country!

Anyone who would say something like that at a time like this, is the result of very shallow, selfish thinking!!

[stepnw1f]

19. Sad Thing Isn't It

That's why when arguing with folks who only care about their own money and own well being, you just can't get through to them. Instead, the argument just regresses no matter how many facts or pieces of evidence you give them to prove your point. Underneath it all, they vote for greed. But they won't admit it. They'll just keep denying what you say to piss you off.

[tulsakatz]

43. it is!

it is a sad thing to constantly be focused on money when there are other things that are more important!

I like money just as much as the next guy but I figure money is not going to do much good if I'm not around to enjoy it!

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. Of all the things bushco has done, this is what they get pissed

at him about? What does that say about them? How very self serving of them.

[Burried News]

4. Your colleagues love for the Republic appears nowhere in his position

from which I conclude - he hates America.
See Rush - I've learned alot from you bad buddy.
You know I almost don't mind paying through the nose for gas if it will make guys like this piss and moan. Suck it up tightwad.

[aquart]

8. Ask him how he'd feel about a windfall profits tax

On our oil thieves (I mean corporations).

[aquart]

5. Took Bush a while to destroy Democratic prosperity.

But he did it! I knew he would. I had faith.

Amazing how Republicans managed not to notice it was happening until it was actually in their own pockets. All the others ruined on the way were completely under their radar.

[Quakerfriend]

10. How true!

[checks-n-balances]

56. Actually, it didn't really take him very long to do that

The only thing that took awhile was for so many people to start realizing it.

[Quakerfriend]

6. Yup, I've seen this, too.

As soon as gas started going over $2.50 my Repug relatives started getting po'd.

(They would be considered filthy rich, by most standards)

I think that rising gas prices, more than the instatement of a draft, will turn them.

Figures that it takes something that effects THEIR wallet to move them, eh!!

[FreedomAngel82]

27. What I would say to them is

that's what you voted for. I'm supposed to see my dad's side of the family around Labor day (either that or the Saturday before) and if any of them bitch and whine then I'll say: you voted for it. I had a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on my car and a pen on my purse and the first thing one of my aunt's said to me was she was ashamed. :eyes: My grandma asked why I was voting against the government and I felt like asking her if she voted for Clinton in 1996. Heh heh.

[RagAss]

7. I love it....God help me I do love it so......

[elehhhhna]

9. Ask him how he likes forking the tax break $$$ over to Exxon.

[Roland99]

15. I believe that was the plan all along.

Pressure Greenspan and O'Neill for concessions to get the tax cuts through and then sit down in closed-door meetings with KennyBoy to find out how to raise oil/gas prices on a subtle but climbing level to start boosting oil company profits at the expense of Americans.

[elehhhhna]

45. DING DING DING! I think you're correct.

[NewJeffCT]

53. I like to plant that seed, too

something like, "you know last year, Exxon's net profit was $25.3 Billion... that's Billion with a capital "B". That was an all-time record for any corporation ever in history, almost $8 billion more than the runner-up. Yet, now Congress just gave them a huge tax break. Does Exxon take this record profit and invest it in developing new & better technology? No, they spend billions buying back outstanding shares of Exxon to drive up the share price!"

I had one Republican saying that he thinks the energy industry is too important to leave in corporate and Saudi hands & that it should be nationalized. Of course, he then went on to say that we should build more nuclear power plants because, after all, he said, if the French have them, they must be safe.

[Beam Me Up]

11. Yeah, but what about the NAZI party?

Once the nuke goes off in this country, the reinstitute they draft, and they can nuke Iran and anyone else they so please with impunity, I'm sure gas prices will go down. Sigh Heil!
:sarcasm:

[sepia_steel]

12. Hahahahaha

makes me chuckle. a LOT

I'd be happy to keep paying these prices for a while longer if it means rethugs lose their 'faithful'.

[kestrel91316]

57. DITTO

:headbang: :yourock:

[DIKB]

13. If only the thing

that made them wake up was the loss of human life, and not the loss of excess money in their pockets. These sad excuses for human beings can NEVER be relied upon. As soon as someone helps them out and gets money in their pockets (like Clinton) they think they can afford to be Repuke, and we ALL get screwed as a result.

[DemonFighterLives]

14. Anyone who voted for dubby deserve what they get

It is the rest of us who really hold the bag and will pay the debts back when the dubcons are gone. I did't vote for him so I want an exemption from paying for his inept policies.
:argh:

[hamsterjill]

59. They wanted Bush - they got him!!

I agree. I have a friend who is constantly whining about things (i.e., gas prices, someone losing their job, etc.) and I always take the opportunity to remind her that "I didn't vote for him". She gets really irritated but she absolutely NEVER sees the logic. You could talk to this woman until you were blue in the face and she would still vote for Bush if her were running in an election tomorrow.

I think people with this mentality - too stubborn to even admit they COULD be wrong - are the ones who should be paying back after Bush & Co leave the country in a depression.

As far as I'm concerned, I deserve a reprieve because I was smart enough to figure it out long ago and I haven't ever voted for a Bush!!!!

[DemonFighterLives]

61. Welcome to DU!

I wonder how we can go about getting our rebates?
:argh:

[BlackVelvetElvis]

17. I'm hearing rumblings too.

Everything is coming to a head, isn't it?
I think the house of cards is falling.

[Burried News]

22. Perfect Storm

[FlemingsGhost]

18. No matter that BushCo. are war criminals ...

... but get pinched at the pump, and suddenly Einstein decides to fire a synapse, or two?

Trust me. These folks aren't experiencing a permanent "conversion," based on rational deductions. If our economy ever recovers from their most recent electoral messiah, these people will be back supporting fascists in no time.

And then we get to eat shit, all over again.

[goforit]

20. Finally, the achilles heel. Not the fact that 100s of thousands have died,

but it is the rising cost of gas in their beloved Hummervile SUVs
that is driving him MAD.

Such shallow,narrow minded thinking.

They make me throw up!!

[Vogon_Glory]

21. Pain Is Proving A Better Teacher For Thoughtless Right-Wingers Than

I don't like saying it, but fiscal pain as well as moral and emotional pain is proving better at wising up thoughtless right-wingers than a lot of our progressive efforts to spread the word. As long as they weren't being affected by the Banana Republicans' antics, few knee-jerk rightists were willing to question the solid drumbeat of right-wing propaganda coming from the right-wing propaganda mills and through the corporate-owned commercial media.

Now that it's finally dawning on the thoughtless right that reality isn't matching the pleasant illusions they'd bought into, they're beginning to wake up. Hopefully many of these folks will prove reachable. Once they realize they'd been lied to by the folks they'd trusted, they might be willing to consider other points of view.

However, on a personal note, I'm going to find it quite a challenge to put my mouth in neutral and avoid saying "I told you so!," "I told you so, but you wouldn't listen!," "How in Hell could you have been so blind to what those people were up to?," and "Weren't you paying the slightest bit of attention as to what those people had been doing for the last five years?."

[leeroysphitz]

33. I Nominate...

"We told you so!" As the new Democratic Party Slogon. In fact I think I'm going to Make A t-shirt with the new slogon and a Donkey underneath or something.

[suziedemocrat]

36. How do Texans afford those super-huge pick-ups?

I just got back from a stint in Austin. I was amazed at the size of the average pick-up truck. They must make special huge pick-ups just for Texas. And the driving habits were also very wasteful. Fast acceleration, tail-gaiting, quick stops. I went away thinking that Texans must not care at all how much gas they use.

[Burried News]

42. Don't forget idling in the parking lot for 20 minutes to keep their

children comfy while momma's in the store. Heaven forbid they have to go in the store with mom.

[Vogon_Glory]

48. Super-sized Pickups

IMO, I think that some super-sized pickups are owned by genuine ranchers, others are owned by people who own boats or large travel trailers, others are owned by people in construction, but the majority are owned by wanna-be cowboys.

I plead guilty to owning a gas-guzzling SUV, but I really did buy it to pull trailers.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

23. Would've been nice if dude came to this thinking before the right to vote

was sold to Diebold. Hope it's not too late for people like this to VOTE these dudes out.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

24. Did you ask how he's gonna vote in 06 and 08? Nuf said.

[FreedomAngel82]

25. Of course

It's the only way you're going to get these people to wake up. It only matters when it effects them personally. :eyes: Forget everybody else. Me, me, me. One of my favorite quote's is from James Roosevelt. He said this at the anti-private SS rally held in DC by the democrats. He said "Is it going to be I and me all the time or is it going to be we?"

[bribri16]

28. Has Rush received an award yet from the oil companies for

getting his dittoheads to buy SUVs and to thumb their noses (when they can get them out of his butt) at the enviornmentalists?

[Eloriel]

29. A Few More Collected "Convert" stories

We have to reach across the aisle...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2006940&mesg_id=2006940

At least one Repub moderate getting scared.
(sees parallels to Nazi Germany)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2002674

I heard a gaggle of Republican women dissing Bush this morning...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4110293&mesg_id=4110293

Independents Are Having Buyer's Remorse
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1627590&mesg_id=1627590
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_29/c3943060_mz013.htm

Heard some astonishing info today from a friend.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1920600

"As of today, after 25 years, I am no longer a Republican."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1890603
also: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1907487
Link: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/06/26/ed.col.chaney.0626.html

I'm seeing a lot of changed minds about Iraq and Chimpy McCokespoon.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3939527

Pa. GOP honcho blasts right wing, switches parties
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1825375
Link: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-06022005-497208.html

Republican says his party has been taken over by "a bunch of kooks"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1811231

Are we witnessing the collapse of the Republican Party?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3732175

The Good Republicans (Plaid Adder)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3729680#3733287

Post in this thread:
Voinovich is in tears on Senate floor!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1809081&mesg_id=1809207

A Voter Switches Party Affiliation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1803102&mesg_id=1803102

Something in the air? Lots of converted Repubs....
(links to the following three threads)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3654563

New to DU by reformedrepub (14 posts at the time)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1780575

OMG - my parents LEAVE the Republican Party!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3652906

Hi, my name is Stacy, and I'm a recovering Republican...................
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3651186&mesg_id=3651186&page=

[salin]

30. Eloriel,

Thanks for collecting and compiling these. I read them over the weekend - and felt a bit of hope. Please keep doing this.

[suziedemocrat]

39. I met a RWer with anti-Clinton signs outside the Clinton Library.

He looked fairly old and had a thick Southern accent. He called Kerry "The Baby Killer" - just so you know what we are dealing with. Then he said something about "The Evil One - of course I had no idea how Evil he was when I voted for him."

Really made me laugh. If Bush is losing the type of person who refers to Kerry as a "Baby Killer" - he's in real trouble. The guy wanted to give me a video about how Bush was in on 9/11. Pretty amazing actually.

I don't see Democrats picking up these people - but I see the Republicans losing them to some fanatical Independent party. Problem is - the next "Evil One" might just be a re-packaged Republican turned Independent to appeal to these types. Still - if you split the Republican vote - that's a huge boost to Democrats. If we actually count votes anymore. I have a hard time being optimistic anymore.

[sunnystarr]

31. As more and more desert the ship ... I wonder if they'll take a

look at election fraud then ..

[LibertyLou]

32. Maintaining the Big Lie

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.

It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

---Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

[tsuki]

35. I have watched as the credit card rich finally begin to realize that

a revolving charge card does not revolve away. They can make 6 figures, but they are spending seven. Bush's base is realizing that they are not the republicans Bush wants. They are not his base, just his suckers.

[tblue37]

37. And thanks to the bankruptcy bill,

they won't be able to climb out from under that mountain of debt so easily, either.

[DemoVet]

40. Nice of him to figure it out, now that we're all well and truly f**ked

Hey, this is the same Bush as the one in November last year. And, like a true republican, your coworker finally figured it out when it bit him on the ass; never mind the fact that it's been biting plenty of other people in the ass for years now. Still, we'll take what we can get, won't we? Even clueless twits like this. I respect you for your ability to listen to his whining without a colossal "I told you so!". Dunno if I could have controlled myself there.

I think that if the Dems ever get power again that we need to establish re-education camps to teach basic civics to dipsticks like this: government exists for the greater good, not republican donors, and what happens to other people does matter to you. Simple stuff like that.

[IowaGuy]

41. I kow politics is all about winning....but, My Gawd!!! How long will we...

have to hold our noses if these self-absorbed narcisstic assholes come over to our side???

[Fridays Child]

44. Only when it hits them where their hearts are--which is to say...

...buried deep within a big, cold bank vault--will they wake up. I hope it's not too late, though. I don't want to get to know a Great Depression up close and personal.

[Greyhound]

46. And so it begins...

The repugs running in the mid-terms will run on the "I'm not as bad as *", platform. It will probably work. :shrug:

[Crankie Avalon]

47. He sounds like a real patriot...

...the relatively minor inconvenience (for a person with a six figure income) of rising gas prices is what turned him around. Not anything else this regime has done (or failed to do).

What courage! A real freedom fighter!!!

This country would be so much better off if people like that would just voluntarily not vote. They don't really care about America, anyway. And, Bush never would have become president in the first place.

[Swamp Rat]

49. Dumbass! Everyone knows the Moon's made of Swiss cheese!

:eyes:

[Hubert Flottz]

50. It's like spraying Raid on a cockroach!

Fun to watch it do flip-flops and shimmy and shake! The ass pocket is where the GOPer heart resides!...Brain too!

[LeftHander]

51. Selfish America....

Not until the self-centered pukes feel it in their fat bloated pockets do they start to think...

reprehensible.

irresponsible.

I would lash out at that fuck and tell him thanks for being a self-centered asshole...people are dying because of lies. Lies that were sucked up by people like him who were too busy lining thier pockets, buying McMansion and and SUV to care about the truth.


Damn it pisses me off. I want a fucking apology. Not just an admission that "Oh gas is so expensive ...it costs $70 dollars to fill my hummer now...wwwwaaaaaa, Bush failed to give me more money...waaaaaaaa"

I have ZERO empathy for people like that.

[liberalpress]

52. Watch gas prices go down..

... after Summer and stay down through the '06 election cycle. Just part of the .. um.. regular economic cycle! Yeah.. that's the ticket!

[NewJeffCT]

54. I hear Republicans jumping ship stories all the time...

I mean, every day from when I joined DU in Oct of 2003 through election day, DU was awash in "converted" repub stories.

However, I know some of these converted repubs ended up voting for Bush. The RW propaganda machine had so effectively demonized Kerry, that they held their noses & voted for Bush as the lesser of 2 evils.

[ailsagirl]

58. Ah... after four-and-a-half-years, the penny (so to speak) drops

I'm glad he's seeing the light but, I have to say, it astounds
me that it's taken some people this long to realize what's
happening!!

But I'm glad it is happening.

:patriot:

[Booster]

60. To Hell with him and all the rest just like him. This is what they

wanted, this is what they get. In the beginning of this nightmare, I asked all of my Repug friends why they didn't think all of the really bad decisions by this administration wouldn't affect them, and I honestly believe they thought since they were Republicans, it just wouldn't. Go figure. They didn't seem to care when they thought it would only affect me. To Hell with 'em.

[Hekate]

62. I met a Utah Repub Mom who said she'd drive her boys to Canada!

For real. I had time to kill at the airport and asked a jewelry vendor where I could find a Starbucks. When I returned we struck up a conversation about my bad experience with TSA, and one thing led to another.

The upshot is that she told me she was a Republican, but she's figured out that this war is all about making Bush and his rich friends even richer than they already are, and that she would drive her 17 and 19 year old sons to Canada before she let them be dragooned into the army. :wow:

Abe Lincoln was right after all: you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Or as we DUgooders would say: not everyone has drunk the Kool-aid.

Hekate