I thought of Arnold as a RINO

[LittleClarkie]

Is that wrong? To me, he's as much a RINO as McCain.

On the other hand, I think you could also call him an RNC whore. But that's different from representing the platform as a whole. I think he's the more acceptable face, the one they used at the convention, that doesn't represent what they're all about underneath.

To me, that makes him a RINO. No?

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

1. RINO is not a derogatory term to me these days...

If Republican only stands for the Raputurist Right, then I wear the RINO tag proudly. Ya, I could fight to 'take my party back' but quite frankly, I want them to stew in their own regressive juices...I don't want to save them from themselves. They have treated the moderates and socially liberal members of the party with contempt while running up huge deficits. Let's see how many more elections they win with JUST the evangelical Koolaid drinkers...go ahead, be even more extreme, I double dog dare you.

[LittleClarkie]

3. I honor your good sense sir

I need a different term then. RINO might not describe adequately to folks I see in the Republican Party who do not represent the Right Wing agenda, and yet who went out of their way to campaign for Bush this year. That kiss on the forehead Bush gave McCain still gives me the willies.

I'm sort of hoping that Mod Republicans and Mod Democrats can form some sort of alliance against the wingnuts in both parties. Any chance of that from where you sit?

I loved the Republicans for Kerry I hung with before the election. "Country before Party" was their motto.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

6. Absolutely and already happening

Here in PA, many moderate Republicans who believe you cannot legislate morality nor can one ignore sound fiscal policies (instead of the current NASCAR funding and other pork spending mentality !!!) worked for/voted for Kerry. Many of us benefited from W's tax policies but felt that cutting taxes during a military expenditure was irresponsible. Also, we find the use of terror for political purposes appalling, demonizing groups of citizens in order to prey on the fears of the ignorant despicable and the use of religion in politics divisive in a way that history has shown can easily turn violent.

Country before Party is a great motto...that's my kind of Republican. I think we will work with the moderate, liberal and any other Dem groups to restore sanity to this country. Glad to be on your side here in PA. :toast:

[ThorsHammer]

7. I'm with you ModRepubinPA

The far right has gone too far with Iraq, deficits, etc. Just like many Democrats feel that their party has gone too centrist, many Republicans feel their party has gone too far right.

[Lenore]

16. Exactly right, the party has been hijacked

By a bunch of evil, power hungry, lying and murderous zealots who used tragedy (911) to weave their practices and policies into the very fiber of our nation, all in the name of security. Often in the name of God. It is enough to make any intellectually honest Conservative sickened with anger and grief.

On a lighter note it also has had the effect of bringing the TRUE 'compassionate conservative' into better understanding with our 'democratic' counterpart. Heck 3 years ago I would have *never* thought I would *ever* be posting on DU, yet now, due to the extreme and dangerous turn my party has taken, this board and it's posters are a voice of sanity in a ever increasingly crazy world! (then again, I use discernment on which threads I frequent LOL)

The GOP should be very concerned about this trend, of us TRUE CHRISTIAN Conservatives realizing that EVIL has hijacked our party. So much so that some of us swung all the way from Keyes in 2000 to Kerry in 2004! That is a pretty huge leap indeed which for many of us seemed the right thing, indeed the only thing to do!

[ThorsHammer]

17. Welcome to DU!, always nice to have open-minded R's here

[Lenore]

18. thank you for the welcome

ever read any Dave Black? He is another Conservative turned anti GOP... http://daveblackonline.com/2005.htm

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

23. Welcome.

I post my opinions respectfully, and, in return, have been treated with respect by the DU community. You stated in your post that you went from Keyes to Kerry...wow, that is extreme and hard to imagine. Anyway, welcome to DU. :hi:

[Lenore]

24. ya hard to imagine, eh?

I was a State Coordinator for Keyes 2000. I won't mention what state as to retain my privacy if you know what I mean. In any event I have since repented and have been working to rectify that past wrong ;-)

[GOPBasher]

9. Hello ModRepublican! I thought you were all extinct!

Good job on seeing the theocratic right as what they are. I hope more and more reasonable Republicans join you and take your party back from the nutcases. And BTW, I love your term, "the Rapurist Right."

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

13. Far from extinct in PA

I can't speak for the other states but we are alive and well in PA with the state going for the Dem POTUS candidate since 92. "Raputurist Right" is a term I made up to express how I see my party now...I'd love to see it catch on because it really defines who these people are. Now let's see some good Dem candidates for the 06 elections...there is hope.

[ET Awful]

2. I thought that until his "fix" for the California budget

was to cut funding for schools and healthcare, then I decided he was an actual republican.

[bobweaver]

4. He's a complete sellout to business interests, so he's more of a Bushite.

[incapsulated]

5. Yes and No

He's the social moderate (by rethug standards) fiscal conservative type o' repuke.

He'll never get the support of the fundies unless he has a born again moment, and I wouldn't put it past him, given his ambition.

[w4rma]

8. He's a Rockefeller Republican. (nt)

[AlinPA]

10. Wrong. Did you hear what he said about Democrats at their convention?

Made rotten remarks like "girlie-men", etc. Sorry, he's a goddam republican. Same goes for McCain with his sucking up to the maggot Bush** after Bush** trashed him and his wife in the primary in 2000.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

11. You're correct. He wants it both ways...McCain too

I'm not fooled. You either drink the Koolaid willingly at the hands of the Raputurist Right or you oppose them. There is no middle ground here. Arnold, McCain, Gulliani, Pataki actively worked to put the zealot wing of the party in power for the Washington trifecta...I now use the terms "ownership and accountability" for them and the rest of the ruling trifecta. They own it all: Iraq, the deficits, the war on terror, OBL manhunt, the economy, foreign relations, etc. etc.

[Wind Dancer]

21. You're in the same situation we are in, ModRepubinPA!

The Republicans have been hijacked by this radical RW agenda.

The Democrats (with the exception of a few) have turned into the moderate Republican Party.

Anything to the "left" of Clinton is considered radical left or liberal, sad to say.

[gumby]

12. Those who create their own reality have also

created their own language where "reality-based" definitions are no longer operative.

You're either with 'em or against 'em. Period. A person either stands with or sympathizes with the New Fascism or they stand against it.

Torture and internment in a world-wide gulag are now REPUBLICAN values. I don't see a mass exodus from the Party of Mass Death and Destruction, so for me, where one fits on a definitional scale is irrelevant.

[Kahuna]

14. McCain is no, RINO. He's a staunch conservative with..

staunchly conservative views. Whenever McCain sides with Dems, the issues are generally not viewed in partisan terms.

[jonnyblitz]

25. thank you!!

:thumbsup:

[Capn Sunshine]

15. It's an act,. He's not the "Terminator" either

The Gropenator has proven he's firmly in favor of whomever donates to him.

He settled the Enron suit for pennies on the dollar, keeping the state's indebtedness hundreds of millions dollars higher to generate more debt service income for the New York (NOT CALIFORNIA) investment banks who underwrote or "new" debt--which includes an amount of interest GREATER than the debt, all payable by our children and their children. Every month, more capital flows OUT of our State, to bankx like Saudi owned Citibank thanks to Arnold

He's embarked on an anti Sec of State campaign to sieze conrol of that office and put in Diebold machines.

He calls anyone-ANYONE- who is against him a "special interest" just as Gingrich instructed ten years ago.

He's embarked on a redistricting plan designed, like DeLay's plan, to insure a Republican majority for years to come.

RINO? I'd say he's really more of a classic neocon stooge.

[RunningFromCongress]

19. Arnold is certainly RINO, and Bloomberg is a Dem

[cally]

20. NO...He wants to bust the public unions in California

cut health care and welfare benefits, focus on corparate interests, not support the minimum wage, and re-district California to help the Republicans.

He's a RW whore. Norquist is now helping his efforts. I hate Dems not seeing the truth. He is not innocuous but so dangerous to my values.

[EVDebs]

27. but he's vulnerable... Warren Buffett is for higher corporate taxes

and Arnold is trying to put a Colorado style TABOR (taxpayers bill of rights from 1992) into CA. After 14 years CO is now electing Democrats !

In CA, the Dems in power HAVE abused their power: too many deals with Indian tribal gaming casinos that screw the public (but these deals were set up by Reagan era Cabazon tribe SupremeCt decision--so that the CIA could abuse the sovereignty and 'do interesting things' on that tribal land, remember Danny Casolaro ?), prison/police unions that have 90% retirement wage benefits that screw the public, even allowing disability retirement abuse; Prop 98 from a few years ago that guarantees 40% general fund going to education K-14...while other power dealers want a piece of that action from the powerful CA Teachers Union, despite the poor performance of CA kids and poor per-capita spending rates.

CA Dems would do well to CUT AS MUCH WASTE FROM THE BUDGET and then concentrate on corporate abuses: the outsourcing of many CA jobs to foreign countries and the high costs of CA's workers' comp system. If taxes are needed, just do like Reagan did and call 'em revenue enhancement fees tacked onto companies that send jobs overseas and leave the CA taxpayers with the bills.

[itzamirakul]

22. When I think of Arnold...

I think of nazi sperm......

[Comicstripper]

26. What to watch for in 2008:

The GOP nomination will boil down to these factions:
-Bush Republicans (Frist,Santorum(?))
-Traditional Republicans (McCain*)
-Anti-Bush Republicans (Hagel, Gingrich+)


*McCain, depending on whether or not he's "on the rag" at the time, could safely belong to any of these groups.

+No chance in hell.

[B0S0X87]

28. That seems about right, ComicStripper

But I would include a "scary motherfuckers who might actually have a chance at the nomination," group and include Dobson and Robertson.

I would also put Gingrich back in the "Traditional Republicans" category and add George Allen to the Bush Republicans.

[elperromagico]

29. I don't agree with that description for McCain,

but in many ways, it does apply to Schwarzenegger.

[arewenotdemo]

30. Funny, I always thought of him as a

Nazi.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

31. All things to all people.

A mirror to America wrapped in a enigna.

[erpowers]

32. Not a RINO

Arnold is not a RINO. He just uses the moderate label to make people like him and vote for him. After he was elected to office he cut social programs and allowed the price of tuition to raise in California. In addition, he raised the prices of the thing that middle class people like to do. He raised the prices on fishing, camping and other things that people do in their leisure time. Also, he is now going to cut funds for the school system. Arnold is not a RINO. He is largely like Bush and favors many of the things Bush favors. Finally, he as accepted more special interest money than Gray Davis. Once again he is not a RINO.