Does the Republican Party scold and lecture their base?

[FredStembottom]

Ever?!?!

Even when that base goes stark raving insane?

No! They embrace them no matter what. They stick together.

The Democratic Party scolds, dismisses, alienates, insults and disenfranchises their base on a regular basis.

Even when that base simply wants the suffering to end and DARES to suggest that turning away from Republicanism might be the way to do it.

Here's a guy who gets it: heading away from Republican economic holocaust...... just might be popular with Democrats!
http://www.freep.com/article/20100805/NEWS15/308050006/1318/Virg-Bernero-Dems-underdog-winner-still-has-a-lot-to-prove

[Beetwasher]

1. No, They Pander To Their Loonies

We tell our loonies that, well, they're loonies and then dismiss them as we should. Harsh truth. You can wail and gnash your teeth, but Obama's base is his, you know, BASE. They STICK with him and acknowledge what he's accomplished and criticize him realistically and fairly. They don't turn on him like rabid dogs because he hasn't answered their every purist whim. Obama's base will stick with him. I don't know what you people are who say he's just like Bush, but you sure ain't his base and never were.

[wyldwolf]

9. LOL. As they say on Family Feud, "Good answer!"

[FredStembottom]

10. Small correction: I'm not a just-like-Busher. Check it out.

n/t

[Beetwasher]

11. Well, Then Gibb's Wasn't Talking About You, Was He?

n/t

[FredStembottom]

21. Well, BW, I find the just-like-Bush thing to be an exaggeration.

Few people say and write that. And if they do, they show themselves to have no subtlety of thought. Flat-earthers.

Besides, Obama HAS maintained some of Bush's very worst, most un-constitutional policies (so far). I reserve the right to point that out.

[Beetwasher]

24. No One Is Taking That "Right" Away From You

Point out whatever you want. The point stands that Obama's base is still fully supportive of him, despite the whining and gnashing of teeth on DU by a bunch of dead enders who do nothing but gripe and never acknowledge his long list of impressive, progressive accomplishments.

[FredStembottom]

28. "Obama's base"

This phrase marks the division between us.

I don't believe in being the base to a single person.

I represent the Policy base, if you want.

[Beetwasher]

30. I'm Not The One Claiming He's "Insulting His Base"

So, by slamming people who claim Obama=Bush he's insuliting and alienating his "policy base", whatever that is? Oooookay. :shrug:

[FredStembottom]

33. Well if the admin's comments began and ended with the Obama=Bush thing

we wouldn't be on this thread. But the totality of comments, the malignant neglect of Democrats holding traditional Democratic policy views, the disdain of those policy views, the continuation of lots and lots of hideous Republican/Radical Right policies......

The fact that they take time to diss Democrats is perverse and suspicious.

[Beetwasher]

34. No One Is Dissing Democrats

People who think Obama=Bush aren't and never were Democrats.

[FredStembottom]

36. Again, if we limit to the very narrow, the "O=B", yes, that's not good.

But if the Professional Left wants the policies that work rather than merely less destructive Radical Right-ism, then they are not only right to criticize, they are desperately needed.

[Beetwasher]

37. If You Don't Limit It To That, Then They're Insulting No One

Because that's exactly who is being insulted. Reasonable critics are not being insulted, just the loony dolts who say Obama=Bush or similar idiotic, hyperbolic nonsense.

[FredStembottom]

50. Obama continues frankly unconstituttional policies of Bush

Some of the scariest stuff.
It's quite upsetting.
I forgive somone the error of summing up that upset with an over-reaching statement.

Obama can prevent more of this type of over statement by ending all of the policies of the Radical Right.

[Beetwasher]

54. Obama Is Not The Same As Bush And Anyone Who Thinks That Is Loony And Deserves To Be Called So

Obama cannot "prevent this kind of overstatement" by doing anything. Loonies will continue to be loonie regardless of what Obama does.

Your post is a case in point. Obama is not a dictator and cannot just implement policy on his whim or yours for that matter. He is not continuing any unconstitutional policies just because YOU or some whackadoodle says he is. And he cannot just unilaterally reverse everythign Bush did with a wave of a magic wand, despite your expectation that he do so.

[FredStembottom]

59. I merely want him to want to.

No magic wand need be involved.

[FredStembottom]

12. My Point: Sticking with your passionate activists makes a Party strong.

This is so true that the Republicans have gone right over the cliff in pursuing it.

See? Scolding and dividing? How good does that work?

[Beetwasher]

14. Obama's Passionate Activists Are Still With Him And Still Support Him

All these people bailing on him online are not his "passionate activists" and never were.

[FredStembottom]

19. Good point, BW!

It's true, I never was excited about Obama because of his policy statements in the primaries.

But merely being excited about a specific person is Rock and Roll. Politics should be about policies - especially when the Other Party has wreaked an economic holocaust on America.

I think Dems would roar into power and stay there if we got excited about the policies that would save millions of homes and jobs and families.

Then..... let there be excitement about a President. But only then.

[bluethruandthru]

40. That's exactly right.

I'm excited..and always have been..about the principles of the Democratic Party. That's why I became a member more than 30 years ago. I'm not a "purist" or a "griper" or any other the other names that those who think like me have been called. I still support the President for many reasons..and I do acknowledge that he's done many good things. I wouldn't trade him for McCain or Palin...ever!

But...I'm dumbfounded at the level of vitriol that I - and others like me - get when expressing disappointment with some of Obamas actions. Anyone who loooooves every single thing he does isn't thinking...they're just adoring.

What keeps our party better than the Republicans is the fact that we CAN discuss issues and think rationally and make decisions for ourselves. By contrast, the Republicans just blindly follow their leaders and believe everything they're told..no questions asked.
Why do so many here want us to be like them?

[Beetwasher]

44. I'm Pretty Excited About His Policies While Acknowledging They Are Not Perfect

I'm excited about Lilly Leadbetter, Financial Reform and the Affordable Care Act. I'm excited about arms reduction. I'm excited about stem cell research. I could go on. Lot's to be excited about.

Maybe you're not excited, but Obama's liberal base IS excited, that's why they STILL overwhelmingly support him.

[kjackson227]

17. I think the word is "Loyalty". And, people need to remember...

that the country is basically moderate. President Obama is a moderate/centrist that leans to the left which I knew when I voted for him.

[brentspeak]

20. Who are these "loonies"?

Specify them by name.

[Beetwasher]

22. People Who Think Obama=Bush Would Fit The Bill, For Starters

Are you asking me to call out DU'ers by name and label them as loonies? Tsk tsk. That's a no no.

[brentspeak]

25. No, please specify, by name, these non-DU "loonies"

Otherwise, we have no idea the context of your post. Thanks in advance.

[Beetwasher]

29. Joe Shminkel, Gurn Blandstein, Hugh Rection, Yo Yo Mamma, Al Kaholic

I have a list right here, it contains the names of 17 communists in the dept. of defense. Shall I continue? :eyes:

[Ignis]

56. Some of us are the Democratic base, not Obama's personal base.

But YMMV.

[Beetwasher]

58. Point Still Stands

The Dem base doesn't bail on the Dems. That's pretty much the definition of "base". If you're bailing, you ain't the base and never were.

[FredStembottom]

61. This I agree with, BW

We must, must, must elect Dems this fall.
Please everyone, don't bail out. Vote for all the stinkers in the general.
It's how we will live on to push real Democrats through to 2012.

Let the truly insane and dangerous Radical Right back into power in 2010 and we reap total national disaster..

[deacon_sephiroth]

67. So the base will always stay...

I keep seeing this arguement from you. The base is the base because it stays... no matter what? When does the base no longer have to stay? When is it apparent that the base never left, you left the base? So if you're not down with what's going on you're not base you never were? Then why are we treated like base, relied upon like base, pandered to like base and then given the finger?

[tridim]

2. Maybe you should take your own advice and support our party?

[T Wolf]

4. No. The advice would be for the party to support the base. nt

[tridim]

7. The Democratic party supports all Democrats.

Do you think Gibbs is the Democratic Party?

[FredStembottom]

8. I do. I'm the guy who urges "fight in the primaries/vote a straight Dem ticket in the general.

And that's just what we've done with Virg Bernero.
Ideas and true reform can trump any amount of campaign money.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Democrats declare: We Want Your Job to Come Back from Overseas."

"Let's save billions of gallons of fuel by shutting down the cargo-container ships that exist merely to take away American jobs""

How could messages like that possibly fail?

Let's adopt them!

[LaurenG]

3. hell no and they love to whip their birthers/teabaggers into a frenzy

Gibbs is a fucktard and suffers from beltway disease. Obama needs to move him out of that position.

[Jennicut]

5. The Repub party has moved so far to the right the mainstreamers are the loons.

And "the base" approves of Obama near 85%. Or what are liberals now? Should all of us liberals rename ourselves?

[BlueIdaho]

6. Or...

Does the republican base scold and lecture it's party?

[FredStembottom]

15. That's a basic function of party structure!

Party members scold and lecture the leadership non-stop. That's what makes it a Party. That's how a Party decides things. Bottom up.

This hectoring from the top is unnatural, perverse and anti-democratic.

[BlueIdaho]

23. You are probably right

Which leads me to think liberals and progressives may need a new tactic inside the party since what they are doing - by their own estimation - clearly isn't working.

[FredStembottom]

31. I think that work goes on inside.

I suspect that this current flurry of Progressive sniping may well represent internal success that threatens.

I can hope!

[ProSense]

27. Some

history

[FredStembottom]

32. I didn't quite understand that.....

No insult. It's just that there are several different points that could be taken from that FDR history.

And, yes, Huey Long was a problem. Pure un-leavened populism is a problem. It's Tea-baggy.

[ProSense]

13. Boehner accused the teabaggers of being murderers

Why do people have such high opinions of the RW, and think they're an example for Democrats?

[FredStembottom]

16. I don't have a high opinion of mice.....

.... but you've got to admire their tenacity and success!

[ProSense]

35. ".... but you've got to admire their tenacity and success!"

No, I really don't, not in the slightest. They went from predicting a permanent Republicans majority to getting crushed in every election since 2005.

[FredStembottom]

39. After 30 years of dominance

All while never having a majority within the populace.

And their downfall? Self-inflicted. We were just there to catch the corpse.

[ProSense]

52. What?

Republicans dominated the 90s? Does Clinton know?

[FredStembottom]

62. No conservatives did.

We will forever be in an historic kerfuffle because a Democratic administration adopted and pushed through some of the fondest dreams of the radical right.

I'm still waiting for an explanation of that.

[KurtNYC]

18. A GOP candidate / incumbent has 9 lives

while we bury our wounded alive.

[FredStembottom]

26. Excellent Kurt!

That's another aspect of it.

One stupid rumor about a Dem candidate (or sitting bureaucrat) and the Dem power structure all but takes them out with a S.W.A.T. team.

Republicans caught plooking 11-year-old girls get full support.

?!?!?

[NYC Liberal]

38. So the message here is, Be More Like Republicans.

Got it.

"They embrace them no matter what. They stick together."

You think that's a GOOD thing?

[FredStembottom]

41. Yes. The message is: be more like Republicans in this one aspect.

Stick with your base.
They help like nothing else can.

[NYC Liberal]

43. Kowtowing to their base got the Republicans so far!

-Lost the election in 1996 and lost seats Congress.
-Lost seats in the 1998 midterms.
-Bush lost in 2000.
-Bush barely won in 2004.
-The GOP lost the House and Senate in 2006.
-McCain lost the election in 2008, and the GOP lost even more seats in Congress.

Yes, let's do what the Republicans did! :sarcasm:

You need more than "the base" to win elections, and you certainly need more than the base to govern.

[FredStembottom]

49. It sure did.

It gave them dominance of D.C. for those 30 years (remember, Clinton moved us right-ward also).
All while poll after poll showed that Americans massively favor liberal/progressive policies whenever the demonized words liberal and progressive are removed from the questions.

Why Democrats didn't read these polls and simply embrace the policies..... instead of implementing Radical Right economic destruction...... We may never know.

[NYC Liberal]

51. It got them nowhere.

People here think Democrats should be more like Republicans now, while bemoaning that...Democrats are more like Republicans. :crazy:

The more the Republicans have stuck to their base, the more elections they have lost. That's a fact.

[FredStembottom]

66. This is a useful distinction.

My arguments stem from the rise to power of the Radical Right and it's expression through both Republicans and Democrats. So while Republicans have won and lost at various times and Democrats at others, the Radical Right agenda has advanced with almost no impediment.
I would like to see that march ended.... by somebody.

Traditional Democratic Party values would be just the tool to rescue this nation and end the reign of the radicals. But they sit un-used by our Party's elite. We now have a couple generations of young people who don't even know what those values were. Our party "leaders" refuse to speak of them - much less put them into action.

I am still waiting for an explanation of all this.

[Phx_Dem]

42. Does the GOP base publicly diss their party/President CONSTANTLY?

Do they bitch about every fucking thing they can think of? No, only the Dems tear apart their own party.

[FredStembottom]

48. The Republicans don't have to....

Their party/Presidents un-erringly (and viciously) uphold Republican/Radical-Right values.

We are "retards" for having Democratic values.

That's a problem. I will continue for as long as needed to point out that our D.C. Dems are not Democrats but Righties.

[Safetykitten]

45. Amazingly, no.

[alcibiades_mystery]

46. LOL...what makes you think he was talking about the "base"

A bit presumptuous and self-aggrandizing, no?

[FredStembottom]

47. What makes you think he wasn't?

n/t

[stevenleser]

64. Since you are the OP, it's incumbent on YOU to explain your reasoning.

Or not and show your OP is a fail.

[craigmatic]

53. Are you kidding? The base scolds and lecture the repub party.

[inna]

55. Love the image in your sig line. K&R

[bunkerbuster1]

57. Republicans have, traditionally, welcomed the literally radical

Democrats have always been more cautious.

We should expect more of the same. It sucks to be on the receiving end of something clueless like Gibbs' remarks, but viewed in historical context, it's just status quo, really.

[ibegurpard]

60. It should be quite apparent to you by now that they do no consider you their base

did you see the recent comparison of money for the DNC and the RNC?
wonder where all that money's coming from ? that's their base.

[stevenleser]

63. No, and the Democratic Party doesn't either. One person might have, sort of.

But thanks for playing.

[BklnDem75]

65. Maybe you forgot this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am9e_NOC6hU&feature=related

Looks like a repub scolding and lecturing his crazy base to me.