In the wake of the Republican party’s defeat in a very winnable election, there is much soul searching going on. Some Republicans think everything is fine and dandy and that people just want to mooch. Others realize that the Republican party needs to update its message for the 21st Century. Karl Rove is the face of the old guard. His outdated tactics failed miserable in 2012. His SuperPac spent 300 million and only produced 1 victory. Yet he is still held in his esteem within Republican circles.
A new generation of Republican leaders is emerging. They realize America has changed and that the Republican Party must adapt to this changed environment. The Republicans have lost the popular vote for President in 5 out of the 6 last presidential elections. Clearly the Party is doing something wrong and an updated message is needed.
In the weeks following the presidential election, a number of prominent conservatives, stunned by the scale of Mitt Romney’s loss, took to the cable-news circuit, offering heterodoxies and heresies designed to save a wounded party.
In other words, the long-overdue moment of Republican reflection has begun. But these are frequently the strategic reflections of veteran party activists, and their solutions have tended to be shortsighted.
If the party desires a return to the White House—and they have only won the popular vote once since 1988—they would be well advised to look to a new generation of conservative writers and intellectuals.
That new generation has for the most part moved beyond battles over whether the top marginal tax rate should be 28 percent or 35 percent; rather, they want to reboot the way Republicans talk to—and think about—the 47 percent.
Multiple Congressmen—Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Rep. Peter King, and Sen. Lindsey Graham—retreated from Grover Norquist’s infamous anti-tax pledge. Republican strategist Mike Murphy advised his fellow conservatives to develop a “view of America that’s not right out of Rush Limbaugh’s dream journal.” Weekly Standard editor William Kristol has told Fox News Sunday viewers that tax hikes on millionaires isn’t a hill Republicans should die on—for three weeks in a row. Even conservative firebrand Sean Hannity claimed to have “evolved” on immigration, seeing it as an issue that has “got to be resolved.”
[....]
Conservative factionalism isn’t going anywhere—the paleos will still do battle with the neocons, who will launch attacks on the libertarians, who in turn will declare war on the social conservatives—but many on the right expect priorities to shift dramatically in the wake of 2012. Republicans had better hope that the Hayekian idea of spontaneous order will work in the post-Romney shakeout, allowing the most sensible views to dominate, and preventing a single clique— those who Carney derisively calls the K Street crowd—from determining the party’s ideological future.
Will the Republican Party adapt its message for the 2010′s? I am personally not hopeful since the Establishment and elements of the base are resistant to change tactics. No strategy to take on the media is being discussed and the Establishment is pushing Jeb Bush. Rick Santorum, who was very disastrous for the party in 2012 is now thinking of running again. Clearly, the lessons of 2012 are being ignored and it might take another electoral defeat in 2016 for the Republican Party to get its act together. 2020 is the earliest I see another Republican getting elected, but by then it could very well be too late for the country as the Democrats will have us bankrupted this nation.
The Republican party should become the anti-system party. It should position itself as a rebellious cause fighting to overthrow the oppressive regime of the Democrats. The GOP should ba party for Liberation and Freedom. That would be a winning message and a great political strategy. But until the likes of Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum are neutered, I do not foresee this happening.
The GOP needs to hire a Madison Ave. PR firm.
Karl Rove needs to be driven out. He is the face for defeat.
Rove is a puke as is the motley crew he slavishly serves.
He can take Colin Powell with him.
@ Rodan:
Personally, I’d love to see a late night show a la Letterman/Leno by a conservative host such as Dennis Miller. I know they gave him a late night show before and it didn’t do well, but I’d love to see what would happen if we tried to do media like the MSM and libturds do it.
David Letterman was beside himself in the runup to the election trying to get Mitt Romney for his show. Mitt continually said “no.” Also, he somehow thought that no matter what he did, his star power was such that Sarah Palin would relent and come on his show. Again, another no.
Conservatives -- REAL conservatives, that is -- need to step up to the plate as well. Only appear on the conservative show. Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Sarah Palin, Allen West, Greg Gutfeld, the new generation of conservatives -- all appearing. And refusing to appear on Letterman so all he has is libturd after libturd (oh, and Bill O’Reilly who’s only looking out for Bill O’Reilly).
Speranza wrote:
The Republicans should go back to their Lincoln roots. we should be the Party of Liberation and freedom. We should not die on a political hill for the rich, many of whom vote for Democrats.
@ Carolina Girl:
I am reading Greg Gutfeld’s book, the Joy of Hate. he doesn’t just go after the left. he also goes after the Conservatives who have this bitter angry outlook. It’s an awesome book. We need more people like him.
Speranza wrote:
I can’t stand that asshole.
whatever happens, I hope Paul Ryan comes out okay…I like the kid and I’d like to see my dream come true of a conservative from the House winning the POTUS….probably never happen now in our age of AmIdol worship…not enough bling and glamour for the masses of asses
@ heysoos:
VP candidates on losing tickets never end up well. Plus the GOP old guard doesn’t like him.
I don’t understand the popularity of Palin…goes clean over my head…I think she’s a dunce, hardly fit for any high office
Rodan wrote:
the whole idea is to eliminate the old guard imo
@ Rodan:
Did you read his Bible of Unspeakable Truths?
@ heysoos:
Oh oh, you will have incoming now!
Rodan wrote:
Like over 90% of blacks Colin Powell has decided to stand with Obama on the basis melanin content over character & substance even though his policies have been the most destructive to blacks than any other group in this country.
You would think a man like Powell would be above such things, but sadly no.
heysoos wrote:
Starting with Karl Rove, he should be target #1. The whole idea of Jeb Bush for 2016 is crazy. Plus that Socialist scumbag Santorum as well. They need to go!
Carolina Girl wrote:
No, But I will now.
@ Rodan:
I don’t know. Mondale ran against Reagan, and look how splendidly that worked out…
Seriously, though, Ryan could be in the hunt next time. Whether he could win or not depends on a lot of thing that are as yet unknown. Second terms rarely work out well, and it is rare that a two term President can just hand it off to the next guy in his Party afterward. Reagan was able to do it, but Clinton couldn’t. We don’t know what 2016 will look like yet, but if I were a betting man I’d bet the second term for Obama will be an utter disaster.
@ John Difool:
Powell is a racist.
Rodan wrote:
good, maybe someone can explain her to me….she’s accomplished zero of any significance, same beef I had with BO
@ heysoos:
She was the best candidate that ran on any ticket in 2008. Period.
Rodan wrote:
Yep
@ Iron Fist:
I have no doubt it will be. But if if the GOP runs Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum or Mike Huckabee we are screwed. I will NOT vote for any of those four.
heysoos wrote:
She is more of a symbol then anything else. She was governor of Alaska for two years and that was it. She is past her prime and past her time.
Rodan wrote:
Huckabee is full of shit -- he prefers being a “king maker” then actually running. Besides, they can hang Todd Akin around his neck.
Rodan wrote:
Stop donating to the establishment RNC & anyone who thinks this shit is a good idea. I’m convinced more and more these have now become false-flag organizations leftists are pumping money into to get our losing candidates picked for us.
Iron Fist wrote:
True but that is setting the bar very low.
I would like to remind the dumb-ass RINO contingent of the party that in 2008 and 2012 we ran the candidate THEY wanted us to run. Now of course, because the candidate THEY wanted to run has lost, they are looking for a scapegoat to blame it on -- all the while ignoring the fact that this was THEIR candidate. They wanted McCain. They wanted Romney. They got both. Of course, these twits will always say that it was Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan that cost them the election, which is complete and utter horse puckey -- if anything those choice gave some conservative validation to the ticket and kept the relection from being butt kickings.
Time to step back and let the young conservatives, the ones who understand new and social media -- have a go at winning over the voters. Promise success -- not handouts. And be advised -- Blacks are not overly fond of the idea of amnesty for illegals. Remind them that they are being abandoned by the Demoncraps for a more “lucrative” minority base.
@ Rodan:
Chris Christie I wouldn’t vote for, and Mike Huckabee won’t run, but I am very careful of saying that I simply won’t vote for the Republican candidate. It is laughably unlikely that the Democrat candidate would be preferrable unless I decided that the best solution was secession and I wanted to get the USA down for the count as quickly as possible. I’m sorry, but voting Libertarian isn’t possible. It accomplishes nothing, and it never will. If the Libertarians wanted to be taken seriously, they’d have been trying to elect Congressmen not Presidents.
I’m convinced that Paul Ryan would have little national appeal as head of the ticket. He is too intellectual and wonkish for this “American Idol” America. The guy will put every one to sleep talking about “Dodd-Frank” and reforming the tax code.
@ heysoos:
Fine. Explain why she’s a dunce.
Chris Christie is too abrasive and frankly is a phony with his tough guy “Newark, Jersey City” demeanor when in reality he grew up in the tony suburban towns of Livingston and Mendham, N.J.
@ Carolina Girl:
All along they had their eye on Jeb Porky Bush and in 15 years from now it will be on George P. Bush. It we had a chance to win in 2012 it was with Romney. Something is wrong with the country.
Carolina Girl wrote:
Both Palin and Ryan kept those losses from being utter routs, McCain especially. Nobody but the Republican “Elites” liked McCain. I remember just before the 2008 election Sean Hannity on his radio show talking about how he’d hate a McCain Administration but an Obama Administration would be ever so much worse, and he was right. You can’t, repeat can not win a Presidential Election without turning out your base very strongly. Romney lost in part because parts of the base wouldn’t vote for a RINO. If Perry hadn’t self-destructed he might could have done better, but he did self-destruct, so probably not. We had a weak field this time around. Things should be stronger in 2016, but the situation will be far more dire. Our debt is already greater than our Gross National Product. It’ll be another third or more larger by 2016. It is highly unlikely that a Republican President with a Republican House and Senate can do more than play King Canute to the tide when it comes to forestalling our collapse. They might be able to buy is more time if the instituted extreme austerity measures, but I don’t see that happening. Certainly the people who voted for Obama in November of this year won’t turn around and vote for Austerity in four years. But they may get sick of 10%+ unemployment by then.
Speranza wrote:
He better lose some fucken weight between now & then, guy can’t talk two minutes without getting out of breath so I doubt he’ll make it through an hour & a half debate without getting taken out by the paramedics 30 minutes in.
John Difool wrote:
He looks and sounds like he escaped from the cast of the cable TV show “The Sopranos”.
Speranza wrote:
very low…like opining up the zoo…same this year…in 2 cycles the GOP managed one retread that might win and he got beat…if the GOP can’t do better they deserve to lose….need new people, young blood, better packaging, smarter planning
@ Speranza:
And that is part of the problem. Anyone that offers a serious solution to our most serious problem will, perforce, be wonkish. And so be boring to people who’d rather be entertained than employed.
@ Speranza:
Bush may very well make it past the primaries.
But the biggest problem is not going to be Jeb Bush. By 2016, I imagine John Boehner and the rest of the assholes that run the GOP will have pissed off the conservative/TEA Party contingent so much that they are not going to put up with betrayal by these guys any longer. Obama got 7,000,00 fewer votes than he got in 2008; when it came to Romney, conservatives stayed home. Many also stayed home in 2008 and would not, could not pull the lever for McCain.
Which means third party. I don’t know if they’ll call themselves the Conservative Party, the Constitutional Party, etc., but they are not going to go with what the RINO-GOP serve up -- they put Boehner in power and he shits on them and their candidates every chance he gets. Oh, they’ll be begging for their votes in 2014 -- and that’s where you’ll get the preview to 2016 -- do they give the Republicans what they want or do they basically say EFF YOU.
If we could have had a combo or Perry’s record as Governor of Texas with Romney’s gravitas and business experience we probably would have won. Alas we did not.
Speranza wrote:
If someone ticks him off enough at a debate & causes his blood pressure to skyrocket, I can literally see this guy falling over dead at the podium from a massive stroke or coronary.
Last night Mary Katherine Ham and Juan Williams got into it on the merits of California v. Texas. Of course MKH said she would rather live in Texas any day and Juan Williams kept downplaying the Texas success story. O’Reilly said if you prefer to be on the government dole you would prefer California but if you had any ambition or sense of entrepreneurship you would live in Texas.
Carolina Girl wrote:
you know I can’t…I’m not hip enough to all the details…from what I saw during interviews she seemed about as informed as any soccer mom with about the same intellect….hardly a deep thinker and certainly not fit for VP…I have a real problem with people assuming they are fit for office by their narrow standard
John Difool wrote:
Spontaneously combust like one of Spinal Tap’s drummers!
heysoos wrote:
She had her moments (good and bad) on Fox as a commenter but the one thing that turned me off was once when she was being interviewed by Hannity and within a space of 7 minutes she said “lame stream media” five times and I thought “that is so middle schoolish”.
@ Carolina Girl:
And that way lies permanent minority status for the Republican Party (at least for however much longer we have). I am not at all sure that that is a threat that the Powers that Be in the Republican Party would care about. I am not at all certain that they wouldn’t rather be the Minority Party in Washington as it is today than the Majority Party in a DC the way the TEA Party will re-make it. They like getting invited to all the right parties more than they want to save the country, if, indeed, they care about the country at all.
Christie is a one time governor…not ready, not even close…he’s a celebrity at this point, and the GOP has to move away from that trap
@ heysoos:
In other words you bought what the media constructed for you. That was what they hoped for. Palin was a threat to their little order, and so had to be destroyed. Would she have been a good VP? Better than Plugs Biden, that is for certain.
Carolina Girl wrote:
Actually Romney got more votes then McCain did. As for those who sat it out -- F*** them!
right, stuff like that…and just like I predicted back then, she drifted off into reality TV, strung her admirers out with that stupid bus tour, wrote a book made some money….she’s a twit, a celebrity, and poison to any responsible ticket
Chris Christie most likely has fallen under the spell that he fostered a lot of goodwill with the left & the media over his supposed non-partisan embracing of Obama days before the election.
If he runs & manages to get the nomination the media will gut him & send him to the slaughterhouse the first chance they get.
Romney got less of the Mormon vote than Bush did
Iron Fist wrote:
I don’t follow the media and don’t do constructions…you have me confused with somebody else
@ Iron Fist:
But the conservatives are done. If all the Republicans are going to do is say “vote for us” and then when they get elected say “well, we’re caving, there’s nothing we can do and you conservatives can pound sand, you’re nothing but trouble” then yes, they will be a minority party.
heysoos wrote:
She will never run for public office again. If you really want to see Palin worship go over to “Hot Air”.
@ Iron Fist:
I agree -- she’s a personality -- she’s not RUNNING for anything -- but by all means let’s keep insulting her.
A lot of the keys for 2014 and 2016 will be somehow wrestling the Senate away from the Donks and continuing to hold the Congress.
John Difool wrote:
Heh just like they did with John”Maverick” McCain four years ago.
waldensianspirit wrote:
I doubt the Mormon vote is monolithic.
@ Iron Fist@ Iron Fist:
Up here, it took well over a decade for the Conservative Party to first ditch the “Progressive” Conservative Party, then go to a regional power under the Reform banner to finally win the federal election with Stephen Harper. I don’t know if the U.S. has that kind of time, and what kind of catastrophe it will take get someone to pull the chute on the Repubican Party as it is today. If you want a frame of reference, in 1993 the Progressive Conservative Party went from majority status to just 2 seats in the Commons.
Here is the problem. This mornings Chicago Tribune published a
poll. It found that 60% of yoots want bigger government!
That’s the under 30 crowd & they want more stuff.
They know that the Dems are the party of getting other peoples
stuff.
@ Carolina Girl:
Well said, and I am probably one of those who will say “EFF YOU” since I think that is what the Republican Establishment has been saying to me for many election cycles now.
bluliner10 wrote:
That would’ve been a lot easier had we run better candidates in (you know the list -- DE, NV, MO. etc.). We really sot ourselves in the foot.
RIX wrote:
Not surprised at all. We also need to redefine ourselves not as “the party of small government” but as “the party of efficient government”.
@ Iron Fist:
Hey maybe the Democrats will nominate Charles Johnson and he will save America!
@ Speranza:
Texas wins hands down.
@ RIX:
Wait until the yoots that voted for Obama find out 4 -- 8 years from now they are still stuck in dead end jobs or are unemployed/underemployed, cannot pay off their massive student loans, and are still living at home.
@ Daffy Duck:
Short memory span by those clowns -- or do they remember what happened to them in 2006 when the libertarians said “screw this -- I’m not voting for you this go-round?”
@ Speranza:
.
That’s exactly right. Plant the seed that the Republican Party is home to smart people.
bluliner10 wrote:
It is not even close. I would also rather live in Tennessee, South Carolina, or Wyoming over the Golden State.
Speranza wrote:
But they will still have their LGF accounts!
@ RIX:
That is due to the Republicans adbandoning younger voters the last 20 years. The Democrats have actively sought out younger voters. When a group only hears one side, that is the the ideals they adopt.
That is why the GOP needs to run on Liberation from Democratic oppression. Plus, the message of small government is not appealing. Running on more efficient government is a better selling point.
RIX wrote:
Too many people associate the government with a social safety net. We need to tweak our message.
@ Speranza:
I agree, reality will hit. Will the GOP take advantage of this? I don’t know.
Speranza wrote:
They didn’t before for Bush either
@ Speranza:
Not being scolds would help.
and cool/hip people too! People who like to enjoy the best things in life and do not worship poverty.
Rodan wrote:
Tell me about it!
bluliner10 wrote:
Message Discipline will be the key. You are a military man and have to admit, the GOP lacks discipline in messaging.
Speranza wrote:
Exactly, why are so many folks under the impression that a shared religion means shared political ideology? It’s as if for some reason folks were under the impression Mormons were really a cult who all vote for Romney like sheep, but forgot a lot of Mormons vote for Harry Reid too.
You’re average New York Jewish person wouldn’t vote for Eric Cantor for president even though he’s Jewish.
Rodan wrote:
We can but hope. Also the hipsters tend to draw the wrong conclusions. Will they still blame Booosh in 2016?
@ Speranza:
Hedonism is a way to sell Republican ideals.
Speranza wrote:
Budweiser!
the official American made beer of the GOP
@ Speranza:
Hell, I am pretty happy we have a Republican Majority and the 3rd Republican Governor in North Carolina. Even though most of the governors here have been pretty blue dog, Gov Purdue has been a disaster and it will be good to see her gone. Unfortunately, she is from a town 30 miles north of me.
@ Speranza:
If Jeb is the nominee, that will not help.
@ Speranza:
How about strong conservatives run in democratic primaries (undercover)? Take over their party. They have a solid and low-informed voting block, that will vote for the (D) no matter what, and not really care about the message/issue.
@ Rodan:
That’s right, make it “smart” to be Republican.
It is an issue to get past the brainwashing of the
educational system.
Republican was a hip brand under Reagan, but not since.
Republicans can’t out hip the Dems, but they can look a
lot smarter.
John Difool wrote:
1. How many Catholics voted for Obama in PA, Il, NJ, MI, WI, and Ohio?
2. This Jewish guy voted for Romney but for many NY Jews liberalism is their religion. Many pull the lever for Democrats without even knowing who the hell they are voting for, yet when you talk to them they sound conservative.
@ Speranza:
So would I ….. and I DO live in the Golden State.
RIX wrote:
They’ve been doing that in Europe for a few decades now & in some places unemployment is actually 20% or over, gas around $10 a gallon but yet they collectively still keep voting for more of the same.
The Democrats are counting on that here too.
@ Rodan:
Messaging or the message. It is one thing to not have the northeastern liberal republicans on deck, but completely another to have the flyoverstate GOP not coming together to have one coherent and bedrock message.
@ Speranza:
.
It’s deadly to mess with the social safety net.
Make the message jobs & your children’s future.
Rodan wrote:
The vote of the “low information voter” is worth just as much as yours and mine. We need all the votes we can get.
RIX wrote:
and optimism. No more of these “culture war” themes.
bluliner10 wrote:
The GOP lacks Discipline, that is one of their weaknesses.
@ Speranza:
Every vote counts.
@ John Difool:
Sure, it’s conditioning & it works.
Obama gets away with class warfare talking about
fairness & everybody gets a shot.
It’s just blather about wealth redistribution.
John Difool wrote:
A couple of years ago we saw 20 year old French yoots who have never worked a freaking day in their lives rioting because President Sarkozy proposed raising the retirement age in France from 60 to 62 years old and they rioted over something 40 -- 42 years down the road.
@ Speranza:
Yup just like Reagan, optimism & a smile.
Rodan wrote:
Exactly and that includes strippers, rappers, porn stars, etc. We should not turn down any vote.
Speranza wrote:
It’s a stupid premise & I wish all the talking heads & wonks would just drop this whole lock-step by religion stuff, it’s ridiculous.
I’m Catholic & it’s safe to say more Catholics in this country don’t vote the way I do & they won’t vote for Santorum just because he’s Catholic.
Later gators
Rodan wrote:
sometimes twice…the GOP needs to offer some honest bipartisan election reforms…like a fucking machine that works
@ Storagemanager:
That would have been disasterous for the planet.
RIX wrote:
That’s why I don’t want a Rick Santorum being the face of the Republican Party.
“We are Republicans -- we work hard, we play hard, and we do like sex!”.
@ John Difool:
I am Catholic and will never vote for that Sanctimonous Socialist Santorum.
heysoos wrote:
Quite concur! We need to put a stop to that shit.
@ Speranza:
Santorum should be driven from the Party. Let him go start the Theocratic Socialist Party. I despise him and would love to see someone knock that smirk off his face!
Rodan wrote:
The *****r *****r got beaten by 16 -18% in 2006. Bleep him, he is a nobody.
Storagemanager wrote:
Guess you could say…..it would have been…..a Blew Moon.
*slips on sunglasses*
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH !!!!
@ heysoos:
We need a national standard of voting. None of this machine crap, we need real paper ballots.
Rodan wrote:
Unfortunately the primary system brings him out. If losing so decisively in 2006 could not humble him then nothing will.
Rodan wrote:
He’s Mike Huckabee with a pope hat on.
@ Iron Fist:
Karl Rove loves his little fiefdom.
John Difool wrote:
Huckabee I cannot stand for his being a front man for John McCain in 2008 and advising Akin to continue his quest for the Senate.
@ John Difool:
Huckabee is another Theocratic Socialist. I can respect someone who is Sscially conservative but an Economic Conservative. I can’t stand these Socialist fraudsters that use Social issues to disguise their real agenda.
Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have more in common with Hugo Chavez than they do with Ronald Reagan.
Rodan wrote:
“The Architect” as Hannity always refers to him as, is so overrated as a political strategist that anyone foolish enough to give him money might as well just stand on a street corner and hand it out to the bums.
Rodan wrote:
I was speaking in metaphore…whatever frikkin works, every time…
purple thumbs for all I care…this is a needless problem and an embarrassment
@ Speranza:
Huck is another populist passionate conservative, the same as Santorum is.
They would no more cut entitlement spending than Obama would, hell they’d probably increase them even more because that’s what a good Christian would do for their neighbors.
John Difool wrote:
hahaha!…true enough
@ heysoos:
Agreed!
John Difool wrote:
They are purely social conservatives but are statists too. They would be “compassionate conservatives” squared.
John Difool wrote:
They would do it in the name of “the family.”
@ Speranza:
They are just religious Leftists. But too many well meaning people vote for them because they fall for the red meat rhetoric.
Rodan wrote:
Yeah as if they can ban abortion by executive diktat.
@ Speranza:
I laugh when I hear Jeb has no chance. He will use Red Meat rhetoric and people in iowa will eat it up! It worked for his father and brother!
Heres the thing about Santorum, like George Allen, he couldn’t even keep his Senate seat from his own state because they are clueless RINO idiots who just don’t get it. If you want folks to take you seriously go get that seat back or win the governorship of your state.
Until then, GTFO.
Seriously, he lost his seat way back in ’06 & has been running for president ever since. Maybe it’s time to get a real job.
@ John Difool:
Rodan wrote:
He’s counting on winning the Hispanic vote because he’s married to a Mexican woman & speaks Spanish.
This is what some of the wonks & heads are saying on the right & I’m just shaking my head.
@ John Difool:
He may do better than Romney, but many Libertarian and Economic Conservatives will NOT vote for him. I absolutely refuse to vote for Jeb. I will vote Libertarian or if the Dems nominate Andrew Cuomo, I will vote Dem. Better a Economically Conservative Democrac than a Socialist Republican.
John Difool wrote:
They are delusional. The Bush name is toxic.
Rodan wrote:
He cannot run from his last name.
@ Speranza:
The ones voting for the first time in 2014 have known nothing but American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and Jon Stewart for all of their cognitive lives. Frankly, many, if not MOST of them are ignorant of current affairs to vote with any kind of reason.
The fact that women voted for Obama because they thought Romney was going to take their right to an abortion away (which is disgusting to me on so many levels) tells me that these twits had no idea what Roe v. Wade really said.
Speranza wrote:
I was just getting to say that in response to Rodan, the Bush name is almost as toxic on the right as it is on the left now.
The establishment GOP is totally tone-deaf & as usual really doesn’t get it.
John Difool wrote:
They are loathsome.
Carolina Girl wrote:
And that is why they are referred to as “low information voters” but we also have them on the Right as well. There really are people who think that the POTUS can outlaw abortion. Duh he can’t and wouldn’t (and that includes a Republican) even if he could
Speranza wrote:
We are just a few weeks past the last election & 2016 is already pretty much screwed thanks to the same cast of characters.
Rodan wrote:
I agree.
bluliner10 wrote:
Bev Purdue not running (actually I was hoping she would run and get creamed) was one of the few good news stories this month.
@ Carolina Girl:
We can thank Santorum for this. He gave the Democrats ammo.
Daffy Duck wrote:
Good luck with that!
John Difool wrote:
Nah better we get the poison out in the open now.
@ Speranza:
How many states would a Jeb Bush-Rick Santorum ticket lose? I say they lose 40-45 states.
Go over to Zero Hedge right now if you want to read some really scary stuff.
Either the student loan bubble just popped or it will in a few short weeks. This really going to be a death knell for the stock market & economy.
A friend of mine who’s wife is in school right now just had her student loans cut off with no explanation given. I wonder how many other folks this has just happened to?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-27/scariest-chart-quarter-student-debt-bubble-officially-pops-90-day-delinquency-rate-g
Rodan wrote:
Yep, & Akin too.
@ Speranza:
The Democrat Machine is even worse for Conservative Democrats than it is for Conservative Republicans. If a Conservative wins the Primary, they won’t contest the seat. That happened here in Tennessee this year for Senate, and the Dems just didn’t bother with it.
@ Speranza:
Yes, seeing Purdue (we’re just like Mississippi y’all) defeated would have been awesome. As it was, watching her LtGov get smoked was pretty awesome too. Little heard was the LtGov race which was also taken by a Republican. Not quite a supermajority, but it is time to take some more work from Virginia.
Rodan wrote:
yup…turns me off bigtime…it’s not his belief, it’s about shoving it in my face
Rodan wrote:
What an utterly ridiculous story.
Detonating a nuke on the surface of the moon would have done very little to it, other than raising a dust cloud and making a small crater.
Rodan wrote:
He gives Catholics a bad name.
@ MacDuff:
Joe Biden and John Kerry give Catholics a bad name. Rick Santorum just isn’t helping.
lobo91 wrote:
I know, it’s not like the moon hasn’t been impacted by large meteors & asteroids that were way more powerful than nukes or anything….
I think we should eviscerate another goat and read it’s entrails.
Not even 30 days after the election and I am so sick of this shit already I could puke. All I hear discussed is tactics. The only time I hear a discussion of principles is when somebody suggests we drop them like a hot potato.
@ John Difool:
You’d think the craters would be a giveaway…
@ Mike C.:
You’ve noticed that too, huh?
bluliner10 wrote:
I’m not the arbiter of anyone’s Catholicism, but I, personally, don’t consider them Catholics. But that’s just me.
heysoos wrote:
Oh noes! But I drink Coors Light. And Yes, I know -- that joke just writes itself.
Libturds to me always drink a beer that allows them to stuff a slice of something citrus down the neck.
@ Carolina Girl:
They always drink something pretentious & pricey that tastes like shit. It’s as if the price & a fancy ironic name or label makes a good beer these days.
If I’m gonna drink something that tastes like shit it’s gonna be cheap.
Carolina Girl wrote:
I hate the slice of lime in my bottle, it inhibits the free flow of beer.
Ted Cruz.
@ lobo91:
So It’s just sensationalist hogwash then? That’s what it sounded like.
taxfreekiller wrote:
Future member of the Supreme Court!
Rodan wrote:
You say that like you’re surprised…
bluliner10 wrote:
Joe Biden gives humans a bad name. He clearly has had a mental breakdown. He shiould be in a mental ward.
@ lobo91:
I’m surprise anyone even published that story.
Naked protesters occupy Boehner’s office to protest “cuts” in AIDS funding. Never mind that there haven’t been, and probably aren’t going to be, any such cuts. Facts are irrelevant (and probably homophobic):
@ John Difool:
Yes indeed -- and Coors Lite, the official beer of NASCAR (and doesn’t even sponsor a car) is cheap and crappy -- two beers in one!!
Rodan wrote:
Why? Do you think anyone at that CBS station ever took a science course?
Rodan wrote:
I don’t think we could have put an object on the moon in the 50s if our lives depended on it. We just didn’t have the technology.
@ lobo91:
Sure, on Global Warming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ lobo91:
Instead of spending 10 bucks, Boehner wanted to spend 9. That is their definition of a cut!
@ lobo91:
They should be in front of the WH since Obama has cut AIDS funding by hundreds of millions of dollars in his first term but as usual libtards are idiots.
@ John Difool:
Romney gets to shoulder some blame for this as well.
Let’s all remember that debate where George Stephanopolous, no doubt on marching orders from the Obama White House, asked that ridiculous birth control question, and Romney, et al., instead of saying “Birth control? Are you kidding? This is not an issue in this campaign, Mr. Stephanopolous -- and I’m offended you’re trying to make it one.”
Which brings me to point no. 2. Will you clowns running the GOP acknowledge that the goddamned mainstream media is NOT on your side, is NOT goint to present your candidates fairly and therefore should NEVER be allowed anywhere near a Republican-only debate. Fox and only Fox should broadcast them. If they mainstream media asks why, tell them “considering your bias in the 2012 Presidential debates, we’ve decided that the little you host debates, the better.
MacDuff wrote:
And even if we could have, how would they have detonated it since just about all nuke bombs & missiles then (to my knowledge) worked off of a barometric trigger?
John Difool wrote:
They will not go after their god-king!
Student loan debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy except in extreme cases (total diabled car wreck ect), and in many cases the parents have co-signed.
50% of law school grads from last year do not have jobs and many of them owe like $50,000 to $100,000 ie Harvard on student loans.
Many voted for Obama, but looks like he can not print money fast enough and our boat is sinking via the borrowering hole in the bottom.
@ Carolina Girl:
For 2016, They should not agree to let people like Stephanopolous and Candy Crowley moderate.
MacDuff wrote:
The Soviets first landed an object on the moon in 1959 (Luna 2). We first did it in 1962 (Ranger 4).
Both were in the 600-800 pound range, which is heavy enough to have been replaced by a small nuke.
@ heysoos:
I have a problem with Santorum for that reason. I don’t like morality being preached to me by anyone. I can make up my own mind for right and wrong. He also came across as a “scold” to me and frankly, I’m 59 years old and I don’t need anyone telling me how to think.
And What I really don’t need is a 51 year-old man who’s never worked a day in his life that spends my tax dollars by the billions to buy shit for his free stuff followers telling me my wealth needs to be spread around -- mostly on clothes to cover his wife’s fat ass.
lobo91 wrote:
Well, I guess I stand corrected.
MacDuff wrote:
If all you care about is hitting the moon with an object, it’s not that complicated. You just need a big-ass rocket and a slide rule to figure out when to launch it, since it takes a couple of days to get there.
@ lobo91:
My problem with all the protests regarding AIDS funding is that unless you are a hemophiliac or a blood recipient you’ve known for 30 years how AIDS is spread and would have been in a position to avoid it. If you’ve been sharing needles, “riding bareback” and otherwise engaging in behavior that gave you this disease, then frankly I don’t have a lot of sympathy for you. And sorry, but I remember the gays in S.F. not wanting to close the bathhouses when Don Francis recommended it, saying that to do so infringed on their “freedom.”
I don’t see women barricading themselves inside of offices demanding further research for breast or ovarian cancer, or heart disease; I don’t see men occupying offices for more money for prostate cancer. I’m sick of this little twits thinking that somehow AIDS is so damn special in this day and age and the failure to find a cure is everybody else’s fault.
taxfreekiller wrote:
Look at that chart in John Difool’s #146. As soon as Obatomy won the election the delinquent rate on student loans spiked as if many of them were saying “Gee, Obama’s gonna be Prezzy again. I don’t have to pay back my loan”. They could be right. Obama could just issue an executive fatwah declaring all student loans are forgiven, null and and void.
Who gonna keep the Govt’ments printing presses cooled down?
Carolina Girl wrote:
You sure don’t.
@ Carolina Girl:
I agree 100%.
The only reason anyone cares is because it primarily affects gays.
From Weasel Zippers -- some whimsical factoids to get you in the holiday mood -- I’m sorry -- the CHRISTMAS SPIRIT.
The Fed will sell Student Loan Bonds to any dumb smuck who will buy them and “We The People” are the cattle aka colrattleing parts, aka the stuff put up at the Ones of Chinas Pawn Shop.@ huckfunn:
bluliner10 wrote:
We have to liberate Virginia.
@ huckfunn:
Not unless he plans to write a check to cover them, he can’t.
Most student loans are issued by banks and guaranteed by the government, much like VA mortgages.
Forgiving them means the government has to pay them off.
@ Carolina Girl:
The thing is, noone to my knowledge was talking about cutting off funding for AIDS research, they were talking about cutting entitlements not grants.
No doubt this is another stunt from a Soros funded leftist group disguised as grass roots.
Rodan wrote:
They should insist on either Bret Baier, Brit Hume or Chris Wallace.
@ John Difool:
Obama and Reid aren’t talking about cutting anything except defense spending.
Carolina Girl wrote:
Whatever happened to that great “rapid breakout of AIDS into the heterosexual community” they were so hopefully predicting back in 1985?
Carolina Girl wrote:
LOL. If I were on facebook, I would sooo ‘friend’ you.
By the way, lest my Jewish friends think I am a Santa-centric little twit, I say “Happy Hannukah” in the same breath until the holiday is over (I think December 16th this year, right?).
@ Carolina Girl:
What about Happy Ram-a-dam-a-ding-dong?
@ Speranza:
It’s in the same secret warehouse as Romney’s 330 electoral votes…
Carolina Girl wrote:
The funny thing is that Hannukah was always a minor holiday until the 1940′s and 50′s when it was pushed so that little Jewish kids such as moi would not feel left out.
Speranza wrote:
Ramadan was in August this year.
lobo91 wrote:
Dick Morris has them in a “lock box”.
Actually I was thinking more along the lines of those “shovel ready” jobs.
@ Carolina Girl:
The ‘specialness’ of AIDS research dovetails with Buzz’s theory of pushing the gay agenda aka human rights in order to replace actual civil rights.
Speranza wrote:
It’s a big warehouse.
Speranza wrote:
In all honesty, those three are very impressive journalists and they get little respect because they work for Fox.
lobo91 wrote:
Yes I know, I have a Turkish co-worker who observes it.
Speranza wrote:
You don’t get the full effect until you’ve experienced it in a Muslim country.
huckfunn wrote:
Yes, funny that. Like I said in that post, a friend of mines wife has had her loans cut off with no explanation.
My guess is, this is happening all over the country right now & the money will be cut off until the Fed guarantees a bail-out which they most certainly will do since most of these loan companies are headed & staffed by powerful & influential Democrats.
Not to mention they aren’t going to let funding get off to universities to see them shuttered or mass layoffs implemented since that for the most part are the grist mills for the corruption of our youth & where the liberal sausage gets made.
MacDuff wrote:
They are the three best journalists on Fox and one of the few reasons I still watch it (I cannot stand Rove, Morris, and Alan Colmes).
lobo91 wrote:
I’ll take your word on it.
@ Speranza:
Never happened. Because even in San Francisco, we straights were not all about “don’t interfere with my freedom”, we were all about “please Lord, let me keep myself safe.”
By the way, before anyone thinks I am a heartless bitch, I lost a great many friends, that contracted this disease before anyone knew what was happening. But let me explain, once we knew, my friends did everything they could to prevent the spread of the disease and I for one became annoyed and angry at people who would treat AIDS victims like they had leprosy. It’s those that came later, those that knew what they needed to do to help eradicate this disease and did nothing to prevent it’s spread because it wasn’t convenient for them that I have no patience with.
And there is no reason AIDS funding should go to the front of the line, and I’m tired of the special snowflake status they bestow upon themselves.
@ Speranza:
Your co-worker probably doesn’t even blow anything up, or kill any animals in his driveway or anything.
@ Speranza:
Oh, yes, I forgot. I’m all inclusive. I say “Screw you, you goat-fucking 7th-century throwback.”
lobo91 wrote:
That’s the assumption based upon law, etc… How many GM bond holders got paid for their bonds when Obama grabbed GM? I’m not much of a finance/banking/econ guy but I know that this is a lawless regime and they are truly out to overturn the apple cart in every way possible. Everything we have accepted all of our lives as inviolable law is being swept away on a daily basis.
Rodan wrote:
Not to mention a bastard! Not a magnificent bastard mind you…just a bastard!
yenta-fada wrote:
Indeed. “Freedom from AIDS” is similar to “freedom from pregnancy” as human rights in that they both completely ignore any manner of personal responsibility. It’s like saying that the “freedom to drink Drano” should be free of the obvious consequences.
lobo91 wrote:
Funny thing is he is secular, eats pork, drinks alcohol but observes Ramadan.
@ huckfunn:
Since those loans are held by the same banks that paid for Obama’s re-election, I’m pretty sure they’ll get paid.
And we’re talking about a trillion dollars here, not $40-50 billion.
MacDuff wrote:
Or a War on Poverty -- a meaningless term.
@ Speranza:
So he only eats pork and drinks alcohol after sundown?
@ Speranza:
I want a war on stupidity.
With real bullets.
Carolina Girl wrote:
AIDS was the first “politically correct” disease that the MSM deliberately spread a ton of misinformation about as to who was in danger. In all the AIDS movies I saw, the victim was usually a straight middle class suburban white guy who got it from sleeping with a hooker or a casual bar pick up.
lobo91 wrote:
Then there is going then to be a lot of bloodshed in faculty lounges.
lobo91 wrote:
Only when he hangs out with me.
John Difool wrote:
Yup.
Speranza wrote:
Yup.
Iron Fist wrote:
Yup.
Rodan wrote:
Not when elections are being stolen on this scale.
heysoos wrote:
I had the same impression.
I’ve done 7 Ramadhans in 3 different Islamic countries. Not exactly a big thrill…
lobo91 wrote:
You undoubtedly understand the banking thing more than I do. However, I think he’s going to do whatever he wants to do; and who’s to stop him? As to those people or institutions who financed and/or voted for him, many of them will find their hopes for payback were based upon false promises. I just don’t know and I have no confidence that there is any recourse against Obama for anything he does.
Mike C. wrote:
3 was enough for me.
The latest from our little-dicked asshole friend Mike Malloy
His midnight audience of insomniac meth-heads must have loved this.
Carolina Girl wrote:
“Tea bagging” is something he is familiar with -- intimately.
Carolina Girl wrote:
They stopped closure of bathhouses and backroom sex bars in NYC too; the idea was that if people went there they could be “educated about safe sex” and have easy access to condoms which, as we know, are a difficult-to-find controlled item which are only available otherwise by prescription.
There had been talk, early in the days of the epidemic, of quarantining people diagnosed with AIDS. Quarantine was practiced 100 years ago with people suffering from TB, then called “the white plague”; it is, perhaps, comparable because TB was quite widespread at that time (interestingly, that is why there used to be signs against spitting in the subway; the spittle was feared as a spreader of TB).
It is, however, unlikely that quarantine would have worked against AIDS, because with the incubation time of at least 6 months before it was detectable with the then-available technology (and there are things like sarcoidosis which give false positives on AIDS tests), it would not only have required a very widespread quarantine, but the long lead in detectability would have ensured that the disease continued to spread.
In any event, the possibility of quarantine never had a chance; people started screaming about concentration camps and “gay genocide” if anyone had the temerity to mention it.
Pat Toomey is saying he will stand by his pledge to his voters not to raise taxes.
Oh look. A spine! Someone take a photo and show it to Boehner. Make a copy for Eric Cantor.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
The thing that irritates me the most about the whole AIDS issue is the amount of vitriol that’s heaped on Reagan over it, as if he somehow had something to do with its spread.
@ Carolina Girl:
Cancer should be a priority.
lobo91 wrote:
Meanwhile one of Reagan’s closet friends Rock Hudson died of it. I never understood the whole hating reagan over aids crap.
@ Carolina Girl:
Thanks!
Finally something I can feel good about as a Pennsylvanian since election day. (Other than beating Mark Critz)
I live in the little blue county in the sea of red in the SW corner.
Rodan wrote:
Rodan wrote:
Meanwhile one of Reagan’s closest friends Rock Hudson died of it. I never understood the whole hating reagan over aids crap.
lobo91 wrote:
It actually had nothing to do with Reagan; it was a lefty ploy to personalize and polarize the “gay community” along Alinsky lines. There was nothing that could have been done that was not done for AIDS victims at the time ACT UP started; its purpose was to get a new, non-Sixties, generation used to demonstrating and behaving badly in public, and focused on the idea that Republicans Are The Enemy.
That was all it was for, and it succeeded admirably. Plenty of people with otherwise good sense got themselves good and brainwashed, and well-meaning heterosexuals got used to viewing gays as Victims Of The Evil Conservatives. The “great heterosexual breakout of AIDS” actually happened, but it was not of the disease; it was of AIDS being used to get the gay movement to breakout into the larger society. All those well-meaning non-gay types who started wearing red ribbons made “AIDS research”, i.e., Save the Gays, cool; and it is because of ACT UP making gays “cool” that we now have widespread acceptance of the “marriage equality” campaign.
Rodan wrote:
Yeah that whole “It’s Reagan’s fault that people are dying of AIDS” was rather perverse. Even Randy Shilts who blamed the gay bathhouse culture with its anonymous sex with scores of “partners”, also blamed Reagan.
@ lobo91:
They said that Reagan didn’t care about AIDS and refused to acknowledge it until his friend Rock Hudson was diagnosed.
Wrong. Reagan was unwilling to write a blank check for research and benefits. He did not veto any spending bills by the Democrats, led by Philip Burton, for this, even though as a percentage of the population affected overall, it was small.
Commenting on a national epidemic is not Reagan’s job. I believe that’s what we have a Surgeon General for. Also a CDC. And local Departments of Health. All of whom the Gay community turned a deaf ear to. I doubt that they gave a crap what Reagan thought -- he was just someone they could vent their rage on.
Carolina Girl wrote:
I don’t care about raising taxes on the rich, most of whom voted for Obama. They cannot have it both ways -- vote for Obama but count on Republicans to protect them from high taxes (see the Upper East Side of Manhattan).
@ Speranza:
I remember getting into a heated argument with Randy at the Elephant Walk on Castro Street. I said “you must tell me what you think the President could have done, Randy, that Don Francis couldn’t.”
Carolina Girl wrote:
Surgeon General C. Everett Koop (another Reagan mistake alongside GHW Bush and Sandra Day O’Connor) bought into the whole heterosexual AIDS myth. Probably because he was an ultra social conservative and was against pre-marital sex.
Carolina Girl wrote:
Ideology trumps all -- and Randy was probably the most honest of the “gay” writers on what caused AIDS (he denounced the whole notion that straights were just as much at risk for AIDS as were gays), yet politics intrudes upon everything. Most people affected by HIV contracted it during the Carter years and Dimmy Jimmy was not to blame and neither was Reagan.
The modern, Maoist-and-New-Left-led gay-rights movement came along at the tail end of the Vietnam War protests. It would have remained a marginal freak show were it not for two things: The Rocky Horror Picture Show and disco music. Rocky Horror was a runaway hit that brought “gay consciousness” to an entire generation of youngsters, and made transvestism and bisexuality, if not “cool,” less uncool and fear-inspiring than they had been. Disco was the breakout of the gay male bar-queen lifestyle, with its drugs and promiscuity, into the society at large.
When the eruption of AIDS put an end to the nonstop fuck party of disco, the fact that many straights had been living a “disco lifestyle” made the nagging fear that AIDS would break out into the population at large a credible thing. So the society was disposed to tolerate the antics of ACT UP, which—more than the actual Stonewall Riot—was the gay movement’s “Civil Rights Movement,” the Heavy Petting Bridge, if you will, rather than the Edmund Pettus Bridge, for indeed the ACT UP demos were what made “gay rights” mainstream.
In this context, the gay movement’s fight to keep the bathhouses open—a decision which probably cost tens of thousands of lives—was perfectly logical. It guaranteed an ongoing stream of infection, illness and death—an ongoing stream of victims around which to agitate.
Stephen Crowder decides that “drugs are bad” (mmmkay)and goes on the street to ridicule folks who favor legalization.
I guess there’s nothing more pressing to focus his time and energy on currently.
I don’t favor legalization, but only because the government can’t wait to get it’s mitts on a new “thing” to tax and regulate.
Anyhow, what good does this do? It seems to me that this is the kind of thing that kills us on election day.
Oh hell, everybody remember when Joe the Morning Schmoe at MSLSD told us the reason we didn’t win was because Hunstman wasn’t the nominee? Well, check this out — and we all KNEW he was a lib in rhino clothing anyway (H/T Zip)
@ Speranza:
Yup. Randy once told me that “if we’re not careful, we’ll all be marching to our own doom.
I have an autographed copy of “And the Band Played On.” San Francisco is an interesting small town atmosphere. Especially in the Castro. I knew Harvey Milk, Clive Jones, Randy Shilts and even met Don Francis when he came to town.
@ Carolina Girl:
Unfortunately for him, nobody expected any such “instant” intelligence.
They knew who was responsible within 24 hours, and Susan Rice went on TV 5 days later and put out bad information.
It’s not a complicated issue.
Carolina Girl wrote:
I used to like him but now I know he is a lightweight.
@ Carolina Girl:
Sounds like Huntsman’s looking for a new job. I know where there’s an opening for an ambassador…
Carolina Girl wrote:
I read that book.
Carolina Girl wrote:
No, Mr. Huntsman, it was not “the fog of war”; it was the fog machine of war upon the American people.
Carolina Girl wrote:
The fog is mostly between Huntsman’s ears. It was 9/11, for Pete’s sake! They damn well should have been at Defcon 1.
@ lobo91:
Maybe if we sent Ron Paul, he’d come back and make sense.
lobo91 wrote:
Libya!
New Thread.
@ huckfunn:
Indeed -- “Fog of War?” This was LIBYA, not Afghanistan.
Please don’t tell me Huntsman’s another one already trying to get themselves on the national stage in an attempt to keep their name recognition alive for 2016.
Carolina Girl wrote:
He’s probably getting ready for 2016 as well.
Rodan wrote:
Everybody should know by now that the Presidential campagne for 2016 started on November 7, 2012.
The next four years are going to seem like an eternity…
Speranza wrote:
So become just like the democrat party so you can win! Right???? Yeah I don’t see this working at all. But hey go ahead with the big tent and become just like Republicans. You don’t defeat evil by becoming evil.
@ Lily:
Become just like democrats… PIMF