The GOP Regroups

Roy-in-Boise

The smartest guy they have is John Huntsman. In the past this has been the problem as the GOP has not respected intellect during the last two cycles as they have play to the base. Hopefully by 2016 they will see the error in their ways and this man’s abilities more clearly.

Ray in VT

I do agree with your point, Roy, but I don’t want them to get their act together. I would really like them to find a slate of candidates in the vein of Michelle Bachmann to run in 2016. I do think that it is a problem for a major American party, though, when you have a stage of 7-9 candidates and only one of them will stand up and say that he believes in something as non-controversial as evolution.
- Shag_Wevera
  
  It still blows my mind that Bachmann was ever taken seriously.
  - DrewInGeorgia
    
    I wish it blew mine. I found nothing shocking about Tru Kunservuhtives backing Bachman, or Palin, or Cain, or Perry, or Romney or…well, you get the point.
    
    Roy is right about Huntsman though, he is probably the only one that doesn’t belong in a straight jacket. I felt bad for him even though I hoped he wouldn’t win the nomination. Bet he felt like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs…with dogs that haven’t eaten in four years sitting in them.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Do you seriously believe Huntsman would have fared better than Bachman?
    - DrewInGeorgia
      
      No, Huntsman is nowhere close to being crazy enough to hold the Party of ADD’s attention for any length of time. If they had come to their senses though, Huntsman would have been a viable candidate.
      
      I knew he wasn’t getting the nod, I saw the slipping up the middle of Romney from the get go. I just felt bad for Huntsman, he was a sane candidate for a Party that has completely lost it’s mind.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      He’s a decent piano player but that’s about it.
    - Don_B1
      
      As you indicated in your response to Gregg, Huntsman had little to no chance of winning a Republican primary last year, but he was the most reasonable candidate, and also probably the most conservative economically.
      
      While he was not radical in pressing for further massive tax cuts for the rich, he displayed no understanding of the need for government spending to keep the recovery from the Lesser Depression from falling back into a second recession.
      
      And the news yesterday of the 0.1% drop in GDP in the fourth quarter, which can be attributed largely to the big drop in Defense Department spending in that quarter, as well as the uncertainty of how the “fiscal cliff fiasco” would be “resolved,” shows the sensitivity of the economy to government spending, real and expected.
    - Ray in VT
      
      There were a couple of good things about Bachmann’s campaign, though. The corn dog photos were great, and I loved the part where she praised that one John Wayne.
  - Jasoturner
    
    What about fair Sarah?
- Fredlinskip
  
  How ’bout a Sarah-Michelle ticket?
  - Ray in VT
    
    That would be a dream ticket as far as I’m concerned. If one of them was unavailable, then maybe they could find a good family values guy with no baggage to stand in, like Tennessee’s Scott Desjarlais who can speak to the Values Voters.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    You make my heart go pitter patter.
  - http://www.whimsicaldreams.biz/ metasilk
    
    Only if it’s Sarah Michelle Geller. As Buffy.
JGC

John Huntsman is a co-chair this year (Joe Manchin is the other) at nolabels.org , a group committed to finding common ground to making government work for the citizens. He is boldly staking his place in the middle, which sounds like a non-sequitur, but this is what the U.S. has come to.
- Gregg Smith
  
  Again you made me laugh. This time it was “boldly staking his place in the middle”.
- Don_B1
  
  Mr. Huntsman is well on the right, but not one of the crazy right, but these days that passes for center-right, and likely will take/support measures that cut the safety net with an ax rather than a scalpel. While he may not go for big tax cuts for those who falsely claim to be “job creators,” he will not support the (necessary) revenue increases that even Simpson-Bowles recommended.
  
  But it is unlikely Huntsman would be any better than Boehner at getting reasonable actions from the Tea/Republicans in the House of Representatives. Their “burn the house down” approach to “small government,” whatever that means, will truly bring the economy to the modern-day equivalent of the Great Depression.
  
  You won’t get any of the Republican supporters who could name ONE, just ONE, of the Tea/Republicans who would vote for Simpson-Bowles with revenue increases.

Shag_Wevera

If conservatives want to win nationally considering changing demographics and attitudes they either need to lie, or change their tune.

Lie: Chris Christie. Saw the writing on the wall early on and is pretending to be non-partisan occasionally.

Change Tune: Joe Scarborough. Motivated on the gun issue and not currently holding office, therefore not afraid to speak his true principals.

Don_B1

But as he demonstrated on his Monday show interview with Paul Krugman and his opinion piece in Politico the next day, Joe Scarborough doesn’t have a clue about macroeconomics of an economy in a liquidity trap (and neither does Richard Haass! — not to mention Mika).

Joe Scarborough’s opinion piece attributes positions to Professor Krugman that he did not claim. Anyone who thinks otherwise, I invite to watch the video from the Morning Joe session and then read what Mr. Scarborough wrote. The opinion piece is a listing of Mr. Scarborough’s constant talking points, without addressing in any way what Professor Krugman said.

See:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/my-talking-head-does-morning-joe/

for links to both the Morning Joe session and Mr. Scarborough’s Politico piece. The Politico piece is mainly an “appeal to authority” false argument, because the “authorities” are a selective few and definitely do NOT represent even most economic professionals’ opinion.

responseTwo

They’ve gone from William Buckley to Bill O’reilly.

RolloMartins

Buckley called out the John Birchers. Now they are embraced.
WorriedfortheCountry

Bill O’Reilly is Captain Obvious.

For the regard, Bill O’Reilly is an independent and not affiliated with the GOP.
- responseTwo
  
  Does Captain Obvious always tell the truth?
  http://mediamatters.org/research/2004/04/28/foxs-oreilly-fabricated-evidence-of-success-of/131085

Jasoturner

It seems like the republicans think governing means “making America be the way they want it to be” rather than trying to address day-to-day issues affecting many Americans. It’s the old “creating our own reality” mentality. This is not to say the democrats are not guilty of the same thing to a certain extent, but the republicans are so damn dogmatic that it is just a major turnoff.

The republicans also need to learn that focusing on social issues (this is the year of no abortion…) is transparently manipulative and self-serving to voters like me, and demonstrates a lack of intellectual seriousness. We have real issues that need to be addressed.

Unless the republicans can clean house and bring in some serious, intellectually honest leadership, the party is going to be in rough shape. The last election demonstrated how unmoored from reality they really are right now.

pete18

The republicans surely need to work on a lot of things but I wonder what you can point to on their side that is any more dogmatic than what now emanates from the Democratic party. One person’s dogma is another’s principled position. I don’t think the democrats’ recent marginal victory indicates anything but a rough 50-50 split on what the US thinks about the role of government and the likeability factor of the two recent candidates.
- Jasoturner
  
  No tax increases, ever, under any circumstances. Tax cuts pay for themselves. America has the best healthcare system in the world and the ACA will ruin it. Abortion should be banned this year. The number one job of the republicans was to make Obama a one term president. The science behind evolution and climate change is ambiguous and/or “just theories”. Unfettered capitalism is always good. Regulation is generally bad.
  
  They take plenty of positions without really examining the underlying facts or repercussions. And they are simplified to the point of silliness.
  
  I happen to live in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. I do not see a mirrored embrace of taxing and spending and free abortions and gay weddings and other liberal positions being endorsed all around me. In fact, we are a well educated, culturally rich state that allows both democrats and republican to pursue their interests, make their fortunes, and generally live their lives with a good deal of autonomy.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    No tax increases in this economy. That’s the position Obama endorsed for the first 2 years when he had control. Obamacare’s costs have tripled, it’s a disaster. No one proposed banning abortion….
    
    O never mind. It’s easy to criticize what you say people think.
    
    And “simplified”? How about the notion that raising taxes on the top will make any difference at all? The economy is tanking.
Fredlinskip

Shhh! You might wake them!!
Then again, I guess there’s little chance of that.

But as long as they’re the party of huge corporate backing, they will always be relevant. If nothing else, they seem able to fool lots of people lots of the time.

Gregg Smith

I love this, liberals advising the GOP what they are doing wrong. The squishy middle looses every time. Conservatism wins.

Shag_Wevera

Conservatism just lost and the middle determines the winner of national elections. Man you’re off today.
- Gregg Smith
  
  Conservatism was not on the ballot.
  - DrewInGeorgia
    
    Nor was it in play. The Party of “Slit the Gubbamint’s Throat” is not Conservative, they’re just cranky and don’t like sharing.
Ray in VT

By all means, let them continue to try to hack away at abortion rights, promote an amendment to the Constitution banning abortion, fighting against gay rights, etc. They’ll win some House seats, and some Senate seats as well, but those things aren’t flying too well with the general public these days.

If the GOP wants to be closely associated with the Tea Party, then let them do that as well. Rasmussen says that only 8% say that they identify as Tea Party, and 49% say that they have an unfavorable view of the movement, and if I know Rasmussen like I think that I know Rasmussen, then those are probably better than the numbers really are.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2013/just_8_now_say_they_are_tea_party_members
- Gregg Smith
  
  I could not disagree more but it’s futile debate. I’ll just point out the irrefutable fact that the Tea Party ushered in the biggest swing in decades. But never underestimate Republicans ability to underestimate Conservatism.
  - Ray in VT
    
    And how did that work this time around? There are fewer members of the Tea Party Caucus in this Congress than the last one, and the candidates of choice by the Tea Party cost them some seats. I don’t see some of what the Tea Party is attempting to do as conservative. I think that some of them are more regressives, attempting to undo some of the best reforms of the past 80 years.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I disagree.
- WorriedfortheCountry
  
  Tea party principals (limited government, balanced budget, lower taxes, adherence to the Constitution) are very popular despite the lukewarm response to the ‘Tea Party’.
  
  The Media and Democrats have successfully demonized the Tea Party brand as extremist after they saw the threat in 2010 — thus the survey results you cited. Many of the attacks on the Tea Party were based on propaganda (eg, false racism charges).
  
  One of the problems is there is no true ‘Tea Party’. It is more of a movement. Take Todd Akin. He was branded as a Tea Party nut when he made the crazy rape comments. The fact is his position on abortion and rape has nothing to do with Tea Party principals. Also, two of his primary opponents (he won the primary in tightly contested 3 way race) were also considered Tea Party candidates.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF
    
    “No True Scotsman” rears its head: “No true ‘Tea Party’ candidate would do that”.
- Roy-in-Boise
  
  If the GOP chooses to associate with the Tea Party then the GOP will be the Whigs of the 21st Century. Irrelevant and given enough time time extinct.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    They did in 2010 and didn’t in 2012. the difference was stark.
J__o__h__n

I hope the GOP listens to the current claims that they lost because they weren’t conservative enough. They would have four more senate seats if not for Tea Bagger primary victors who were too extreme to get elected. Even candidates claiming to be moderates get linked to the extremists resulting in losses like Scott Brown’s.

Gregg Smith

GDP shrank 0.1% last quarter. It was projected to grow by 2.7%. That’s quite a change. After the election I posted case after case after case of business shedding jobs. People around here howled. We are seeing the effects now. This is awful. Rick Santelli says “We are now Europe”. There will be the usual shrugging and excuse making but this can’t be spinned. We are halfway to a double dip recession.

“How does America regroup” should be the question.

Ray in VT

I recall your continued posts of job losses, as though they said anything about the economy at large. Jobs grew in November and December, and they are projected to have grown in January. I’m not concerned about this blip. A number of commentators have said that a part of this drop is due to decreased government spending, but how can that be? Decreased government spending is supposed to be the cure.
- Gregg Smith
  
  It’s hard to say jobs grew when the “growth” doesn’t even come close to keeping up with population. It’s not very accurate to think things are getting better when low paying part time jobs replace full time jobs with upward mobility. It’s convenient to coin a new term like “saved or created” to muddy the waters.
  
  Hopefully the next quarter will be better but either was this is not a blip, it’s a disaster and the last thing we need.
- Gregg Smith
  
  Seriously, what is there on the horizon that inspires confidence? Obamacare’s continued implementation? Green jobs? The boatload of new regulations? The tax hike? Sequestration? More “stimulus”? What?
  - David Baltusavich
    
    Gregg, growth comes from the bottom of the economy. It comes from consumption and production of goods. The shrinkage in GDP is correlated with the reduction in gov’t. spending, as Ray in VT indicated. We have just come off a period of several years where the gov’t was a major consumer of goods and services; as that scales back there will be an adjustment period while businesses adjust to the changing market conditions. You like to compare us to Europe, but fail to see the fact that Europe has largely followed the GOP playbook since 2008 and the results speak for themselves. The US is growing, if moderately. Europe is NOT.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      -0.1% is not growing. It was Santelli that compared America to Europe. And no, Europe has not followed the GOP playbook in any sense.
      
      Supply comes first. You can’t increase consumption by passing around other peoples money.
      
      “There will be the usual shrugging and excuse making but this can’t be spinned. “ -Myself
    - art525
      
      Sorry but I don’t take Santelli as the go to guy. I mean isn’t he the guy who inspired the tea party? I’ll take Krugman, a guy who has been recognized for his knowledge with a Nobel.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      What does Krackpot Krugman say about -0.1% GDP?
    - Don_B1
      
      @rayinvt:disqus @google-73d7a48b9f17e70f91cbe8419b3da656:disqus
      
      You are absolutely correct!The Defense Department spending in the last quarter dropped some 21% or more, probably due to exacerbations of the usual irregular spending for contracts by preparations for the “fiscal cliff” austerity bomb of the sequestration cuts that are coming. Back two years ago, a similar drop in defense spending of some 14% in a quarter occurred simultaneously with a slowing of the GDP growth of previous quarters.So Gregg is cherry picking the ONE number of -0.1% as if that is what had been happening for the last four years. He really seems to think that all the readers here are totally ignorant people. So maybe he is not as smart as he thinks he is.But the drop in GDP does show how sensitive the economy is at this point to government spending. But as Ray in VT pointed out, and sent Gregg into a paroxysm of confused thinking, cuts in spending now creating a drop in the economy shows that Keynesian predictions are true, which, of course, he cannot abide anyone thinking.
      
      Anyone who believes anything Gregg says on the economy needs to check his wallet.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Bizarre.
      
      “There will be the usual shrugging and excuse making but this can’t be spinned. “ -Myself

gemli

Republicans are unlikely to change their ideology overnight. They don’t appear to be ashamed of their philosophy, since they formalized it in the planks of the Republican platform. They proudly displayed their ideas, including the belief that the country consists of freeloaders, moochers and takers, support for the continued redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich, the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare, the disparagement of women and gay people, the distaste for minorities and immigrants, the fundamentalist religious views, and the denial of science. They were surprised that these ideas didn’t resonate with the very people they were disparaging, and apparently expected us to walk these planks to our doom.

They cobbled together a cohort of low-information voters, the resentful, the incipient racists, the gay-bashers and the gun lovers. Now they’re trying to create a kumbaya moment, and reaching out to the very people they seem to disdain.

What we’re seeing is not enlightenment, but an attempt at rebranding. It amounts to little more than finding a new shade of lipstick for the pig.

Gregg Smith

That’s sick.
- NrthOfTheBorder
  
  Gregg…meaning ???
  - Gregg Smith
    
    Meaning painting with the broad brush of racism and bigotry is the lowest form of debate.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      It isn’t sick when it has been true. The Southern Strategy was real. The getting out the base vote by demonizing gays was real.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Show me where Romney or any GOP candidate demonized gays.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      Romney’s gay foreign policy advisor had to resign. Romney opposed gay rights. There are too many examples to cite for candidates at lower levels.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Did Romney push him out because he was gay? I assume by gay rights you mean gay marriage as if.
    - J__o__h__n
      
      I was mostly refering to Karl Rove using the issue to help Bush. The issue doesn’t stir up the bigots like it used to.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Alrighty then.
    - jomuir
      
      well, there was that gay back in high school who Romney terrorized. But I guess such boorish behavior was–what– a young man’s folly, isn’t that what Romney called it when he was inconveniently reminded of it? I’m sure he grew up & his views on gays softened, right.
    - Don_B1
      
      For starters, Marco Rubio made anti-gay robo calls for Republican candidates in states where no gay issue was on the ballot; see:
      
      http://americablog.com/2012/11/marco-rubio-making-anti-gay-swing-state-robocalls-to-help-romney.html
William

But Obama shoots skeet and was against gay marriage and attended a racist church for 20 years.
Bluejay2fly

Brilliant, you hit the nail right on the head Gemli. I was raised Rockafeller republican and by the 90′s have drifted away from a party that is unrecognizable to me. Where are all the intellectuals? The William F Buckley JR’s ? Where is conservatism? Eisenhower is rolling over in his grave at the scale of our military and our obsession with perpetual war. I get called liberal by Neocons idiots who do not read. That is what the GOP has become, mindless idiots.
- pete18
  
  While I agree with you that there’s no one in today’s Republican leadership who has Buckley’s intellect or influence, I don’t think having a modern day Buckley would make any difference in the left’s response. Buckley was hated in his hay day when he was the force on the right. He
  was considered arrogant and an out of touch elitist. The inteligencia on
  the left always knocks down the main leaders on the right with the same
  cliche’s no mater who they are.
  
  Who’s the big intellectual in the Democratic party?
  Pelosi, Biden, Reed, Obama? Although Obama is smart and a good politician, he is no intellectual with new or enlightened ideas. They are all lightweight hacks. Come on.
  - Fredlinskip
    
    At least you got the cliche about Buckley “considered arrogant and an out of touch elitist” right.

David Baltusavich

I look at the GOP today and see a party of over-the-hill baby boomers, the most selfish generation in history, putting up the “going out of business” signs at the tail end of their lives. I hate to say it, since my parents were baby boomers, but I can’t wait for that generation to pass and clear the way for generations who understand better the value of working together and compromise.

David in Erie, PA

Gregg Smith

Did you think the “Occupiers” were selfish?
- David Baltusavich
  
  I think they were clueless, Gregg. I didn’t participate in that movement because I am comfortable with compromise, both extremes don’t interest me much. But in the case of the current GOP, it’s not just inflexibility, it’s intransigence, and it’s counter-factual. You can have different opinions and interpretations of evidence, but you can’t have your own set of facts.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    Just asking the question. I think they were selfish and represented the Food Stamp President well.
    
    Do you really think Obama is interested in compromise? I find that remarkable.
    - David Baltusavich
      
      Are you serious? “The Food Stamp President”? Is that some kind of a dog-whistle? This president was in a position to really implement a broad leftist agenda in his first term, and chose to waste most of his first two years negotiating with the GOP instead. You cannot construct a credible case that Obama is averse to compromise if you consider the weight of the evidence.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      This was the first clue. He passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote. He’s told Republicans to sit in the back. His budget proposals were unanimously defeated and he didn’t budge. He has sidestepped Congress on gun control with an executive order. Ditto deportations. And on and on. Maybe you could cite an instance where he has compromised. Surely there’s one somewhere.
      
      Food Stamp usage has gone through the roof under Obama. Partly because he is encouraging it with ads and partly because he is wrecking the economy. At one time the increase in food stamps grew 75 times as fast as job creation. “Food Stamp President” is accurate. I don’t know what you mean by dog whistle.
    - northeaster17
      
      Obama Care was and is a Republican plan. The fact that no Repubs voted for it highlites the fight to keep Obama a one termer, not the plan itself.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I was just responding to someone’s notion that Republicans over simplified the debate and your comment is right on cue. Obamacare is in no was a Republican idea. If you are boiling ist all down the very different mandate written by the unelected Heritage Foundation then it’s an Evel Knieval leap. But it is a fed talking point.
    - JGC
      
      “Food Stamp President” may be similar to telling the “Republicans to sit in the back”. But otherwise, I can’t hear any dog whistle, either.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I actually think I know where he was coming from. And if I’m correct it is he who is whistling to the dogs who want to say it’s racism to label Obama as such. The flaw, of course, is that to think that one must first believe blacks are inherently helpless and require them so that referring to Food Stamps equals referring to blacks. IMHO that’s a racist notion. IT’s not even supported by the data. MAny more whites are on food stamps.
    - JGC
      
      Maybe if the program name was changed from “Food Stamps” to “Whole Foods Stamps” that would better reflect underlying notions of who is benefitting from the aid.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      You remind me of 2008′s candidate Obama trying to act like the common manbyasking, “Have you seethepriceof arugala at Whole Foods lately?”
      I laughed agin.You’re killing me.
    - scottmartin49
      
      Gregg- if you really understood Government, Economics, and policy, you’d know that Food Stamps are one of the backdoor means by which we regulate agricultural output in an era of decreased subsidy brought about by global free trade.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Alrighty then.
    - scottmartin49
      
      Look into it- if you’d like to learn something ‘real’. There’s a reason it’s part of the Farm Bill. At my daughters’ school, the daily menu almost directly correlates with previous seasons’ output/current demand, with provision of most foodstuffs coming direct from USDA off regularly adjusted order sheets. Ask the manager!�
      That’s you increase- school lunches.
    - Don_B1
      
      Obamacare passed without a Republican vote because the Republicans DECIDED not to support a single bill that Obama supported! Many Republican ideas WERE incorporated into the Obamacare bill, however.
      
      The growth in SNAP is due to the lack of sufficient stimulus to create the jobs that would have kept people at work, instead of going on unemployment or taking minimum-wage jobs that could not support their families without government help.
      
      Both your arguments are an indictment of the Republican Party, not Obama and the Democrats.
      
      You really need to do more than just blow smoke.
    - art525
      
      I’m afraid Gregg lost any credibility by tossing out that right wing dogma with his meaningless snark about “the food stamp president”.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      It’s cool, I’ve never had any credibility around here anyway.
    - jomuir
      
      “and chose to waste most of his first two years negotiating with the GOP instead”
      So much wasted time. Repubs don’t hesitate to grab what they want, the voters be damned. If they choose not to participate & negotiate, then they should go to the back of the bus.
    - anamaria23
      
      Food Stamp President? Is he supposed to let the 80% of Wal Mart workers that use Food Stamps starve?�
      The average yearly pay for Wal Mart worker is $13,300. The CEO makes $18, 000, 000. Okay with Repubs.
      In some states, Wal Mart workers make up the majority of Medicaid users.
      No to unions. Okay with Repubs.
      Largest seller of guns in USA. Okay with Repubs
      Walton family worth $100 billion, but lobby for tax breaks. Okay with Repubs.
      But it is Obama’s fault the corporations ratio is CEO pay is 300+ x the average worker driving their employees onto govt assistance.
    - anamaria23
      
      Food Stamp President? Is he supposed to let the 80% of Wal Mart workers that use Food Stamps starve?�
      The average yearly pay for Wal Mart worker is $13,300. The CEO makes $18, 000, 000. Okay with Repubs.
      In some states, Wal Mart workers make up the majority of Medicaid users.
      No to unions. Okay with Repubs.
      Largest seller of guns in USA. Okay with Repubs
      Walton family worth $100 billion, but lobby for tax breaks. Okay with Repubs.
      But it is Obama’s fault the corporations ratio is CEO pay is 300+ x the average worker driving their employees onto govt assistance.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I just think it’s a sad state of affairs with devastating consequences.
Fredlinskip

Actually I think the boomers would more associated with the generation that was exploited by those that preceded them. Boomers were incredibly productive, but since the late 70′s the rewards for their labor went to a privileged few.
As far as party affiliation, GOP is more generally associated with being the party that facilitated this exploitation.
- David Baltusavich
  
  No question, the boomers inherited a legacy from their parents just as people of my generation have inherited from the boomers. The question is, what kind of society do we want to live in? The 1980s were prime-time for the boomers, and the values that were commonplace in that decade are values today’s 30-somethings just aren’t on board with, broadly speaking. The GOP harkens back to Reagan all the time as if the Reagan years are something we all want to repeat. For me this is more evidence that the GOP is a party steered by boomers who long for the glory days of the 1980s.
  - Fredlinskip
    
    Reagan wasn’t a boomer.
    I would think boomer “glory days” might be more associated with 90′s.
William

Does it bother you that the Democrats want to divide everyone into some group before trying to get them to work together? Now the GOP is trying the same ploy in order to win elections. The day of considering everyone an American are gone and now we should all be considered (fill in the blank)-American.
- David Baltusavich
  
  I don’t know, William. It seems like everyone moves in blocs now. Surveys show Americans mostly agree on the broad outlines of what needs to be done, if you construct the questions in such a way to avoid obvious party-line issues. I agree that this fragmentation is a problem, but I’m not sure you can pin it on the Democrats or the Republicans. Maybe it’s the simplification of the issues by the media that drives the labeling. I hope that changes over the coming years.
  - William
    
    It is disappointing to see the huge number of people or groups with the (fill in the blank)-American label.
  - Don_B1
    
    I think the ability to group together into like-minded groups is facilitated by the partisan forums available on the Internet and news sources such as the Fox News Channel. While there have always been magazines and other written organs or radio (particularly short-wave, etc.) programs with strong points of view, it is only recently that these have become particularly propagandist.
    
    It seems certain that right-wing radio was greatly enabled by the FCC’s removal of the fairness requirement. Many who may only initially wish some entertainment can get a steady diet of slanted “information” and come to believe much that is simply not true.
NrthOfTheBorder

Your sentiments stand in glaring contradiction to the stated wish on the last line.

David Baltusavich

Probably they aren’t actually idiots, just disinterested in reality. I see this in the older generation all the time. I read somewhere recently that as people age, they start to lose their ability to distinguish lies from truth, it starts around age 40 and gets worse from there.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/121203/old-people-get-scammed-because-brain-changes-new-study-suggests

JGC

Why is your comment making me feel paranoid…
NrthOfTheBorder

Christopher Columbus returned from his voyage saying the world was round. His assertion accepted by a few, was scoffed and ridiculed by most.

But that generation grew old and died, and their children believed the earth was round. And that my friend, is how people change their minds.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Paolo-Caruso/1778940602 Paolo Caruso

Not to worry, the media will create a new appeal for the Republican party to re-adjust the two party system to 50/50. Like when baseball goes out of fashion, Hollywood produces a string of baseball movies to replenish the stadium seats and ratings. They too, will produce new heroes and icons as they have done for the Democrats.

The two party charade is only viable with if the elections are nail biting finishes that keep the populace focused on the race and not the real issues.

NrthOfTheBorder

One has to appreciate how a yet another loss sharpens the mind and steers a losing philosophy on to the right track.

I hope for a strong, vibrant, sensible GOP – the country needs it. The sooner they learn to ignore their more regressive and radical constituents, the sooner the nation can attend to the truly urgent issues of the day.

http://www.facebook.com/JPspaceprty Henry Stanley

People don’t want a re-brand. They want a new party.

J__o__h__n

The GOP thinks that they have a problem selling their message via flawed candidates, but the real problem for them is that Americans have rejected their odious social and economic agenda.

http://twitter.com/mofycbsj Brian

The “lipstick on a pig”
analogy seems appropriate here.

The problem is that the GOP’s
POLICIES are geared toward a 1950s America where white, Christian males held
the power and everyone else mostly “knew their place.”

Latinos, gays, women and
others no longer accept that subservience and expect to be treated like equal
citizens. Many feel that the GOP’s POLICIES are hostile to them and no amount
of touchy, feel words is likely to change their mind. It’s the policies that
need to change.

http://twitter.com/mofycbsj Brian

BTW-Women, gays and Latinos
make up a significant majority of the population. The GOP can’t win nationally
just pandering to white males bitter about losing their special privilege. It’s
simple math.

Jasoturner

But they don’t do math…

Prairie_W

Really? I wish they wouldn’t “regroup.” I wish they’d go away. I can’t remember a more embarrassing showing for any party in my lifetime. Not to forget poisonous, unprincipled, and anti-American (one of the right’s most transparently childish insults but applicable in this case) and (oddly) anti-conservative.

Bring back genuine conservatives — “principled independence.” Many of us may not agree with conservative politics in general, but we can respect them, at least, for intellectual acuity and honesty.

Ellen Dibble

Education had better be part of the new equation. It seems that the Democrat alliance with teachers unions has hobbled its ability to maneuver, but the Republicans’ turn towards charter schools and privatization seems to me a kind of cop-out. Twenty years from now we’ll see a wider gulf between lucky and unlucky children. �
If the Republicans want to challenge the Democratic track-record spendthrift pattern of favoring handouts, they might offer, as a better alternative, broader, deeper, and better education than the Democrats currently easily can/have/do. I’d say a creative turn towards online courses wherever feasible would be part of it, and let the people-power thus freed up be used for preschools (yeah, right), which I believe all the research proclaims equalizes opportunity (for the children) better than anything else, by boosting IQ and social skills for the kids, and freeing up their parents to enable two wage-earners, which is more necessary now than in the age of “good” factory jobs. Let the parties scramble over who can come up with the best program. If academics think this would compromise their careers, maybe they can come up with better ways to deploy their skills, actually. If someone teaches well, at the college level, can’t that be maximized? If someone is a valued researcher, not so great at lecturing, that too can be redeployed.

plaintext

Good idea. Unfortunately for the GOP they still can’t portray any belief in some of the basic tenets of science such as evolution or man-made climate change. Education is not about cherry-picking subjects and re-writing textbooks to make the Bible look like a work of rationalism. It’s about giving children the tools to make their own decisions. Unfortunately, that may lead some of them to question the basis of GOP dogma.

plaintext

Start by taking a serious look at the nomination process. The candidates floating in the primaries were nothing like the candidates that we saw in the general election, including Romney. Romney took out the rightmost legs of his nominated opponents without a serious backlash against his participation in RomneyCare (which seems to me to be about as conservative a social program as you’re ever likely to see.) Then he had to swerve quickly to the center. RomneyCare being the baggage that made it difficult to distinguish himself from Obama to the center.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

I don’t think “regroup” is the right word. Most of what I’ve seen on this subject, the GOP is not blaming their platform or what they are saying – just how they are saying it. And that if they can just say it the right way (no pun intended), they’ll get huge support. I think this is as much of a pipe dream as their expected big win last November.

I think the big problem is the current conservative mindset. Anyone not on the same page is to be belittled and dismissed – which excludes any possibility that any detractors or criticism might be right.

Jasoturner

That’s the tension, though, right? There must be some conservative thinkers who comprehend the need for a new ideological underpinning and who could articulate a program that makes sense. Unfortunately for the republican party, the debate has been hijacked by people like Bill Kristol who are frankly very unsophisticated thinkers (using that word advisedly.)

My guess is some voice from the wilderness will write a book or something that mobilizes the rationalists in the republican party and helps kick the quacks like Kristol to the curb, sort of like W. F. Buckley did back in the day.

rvl1

They will not change their positions so soon. They will only do what Romney tried at the end of his campaign – try to do a bait-and-switch and give the appearance of moderation to broaden their appeal. But it will only amount to a lot of lies and hypocrisy funded by right wing PACs and pushed through Fox News and compliant MSM.

AmericanRingo

With 80% of the television networks, 80% of all print media, 100% of the unions & 100% of National Public Radio behind Obama he still only managed to squeak over the finish line with barely 50% of the vote. To say as Mr. Asbrook did that the Republicans ‘didn’t even come close In November’ Is beyond absurd.
The 800 pound gorilla In the room that no one wants to talk about Is that Obama Is the first President In modern history to be returned to office with FEWER votes than he recieved In his first election. Even George W. Bush, ‘the worst President ever’ got more people to vote for him the 2nd. time around.
The real story Is NOT the rebranding of The Republican Party but President Obama’s declining popularity.
For the record I am not a registered voter of any party or even a citizen of this country. I don’t vote, but I do observe!

WorriedfortheCountry

Don’t worry… the economy is growing like gangbusters.

Ooops!
- AmericanRingo
  
  Hey….that sounds racist!
  
  Subject: [on-point] Re: The GOP Regroups
- Don_B1
  
  A majority of the American people seem to have recognized that the county’s problems are not being addressed by the Republicans, as indicated by the Republican members of Congress being rated around 25% “popular.”
  
  A great way to get reelected!
http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF

Geebus Chripes, that “800 pound gorilla” is really a fixation for you.

And your media crit skills need tuning.
- AmericanRingo
  
  Subject: [on-point] Re: The GOP Regroups
NrthOfTheBorder

The weight of Obama’s win is signified by the political shifts now before us – and I’ll argue that it’s not by how much you win, but by how often.

Obama’s victory signifies he could do so without a significant portion of white/male voters – that’s huge. This means whole new constituencies of Americans are discovering that casting a vote actually counts for something.

As for your list of who’s behind Obama – maybe another way to see it would be the center of the American zeitgeist. It’d be a mistake to confuse what’s intelligent by calling it Liberal.
- AmericanRingo
  
  Dear possibly fellow Canadian-
  
  Thank you for the first truly thoughtfull response to my post.
  And I would NEVER confuse being Intelligent with being Liberal.
  That just wouldn’t be smart, would It.
  
  Thanks~
  
  A.R.
  
  Subject: [on-point] Re: The GOP Regroups
  - NrthOfTheBorder
    
    My apologies, I spoke too quickly.
    
    Among the GOP however, confusion of the two is common.
    
    PS: I am an American living in Canada.
Don_B1

President Obama’s “popularity” ranged between 45% and 49% over the summer, rising to 51% around election time and has now “reached” 60%, most likely as a result of his dealing with the “fiscal cliff” resolution and his positions on gun sanity and immigration reform.

Some declining popularity!

plaintext

I’d like to hear a serious analysis of the 2010 election results and whether or not the GOP is ready to challenge their own conception that the populace just didn’t really show up. There will be another similar election in 2014. Unless the GOP doesn’t make some quick shifts in trend, it seems unlikely we’ll see a repeat of 2010, quite the contrary in my humble belief.

http://twitter.com/Astraspider Astraspider

They’ve gerrymandered themselves into a corner.

andreawilder

And how about climate change?
Still denying?
Right over the cliff, guys.

Don_B1

Exactly!

While the next year and a half may see some respite from the drought of the last year, the continuing La Niña phase of the Pacific Oscillation does not auger well.
And the occurrence of more “Blocking Highs” that slow the movement of storm systems across the country as well as steer Altlantic storms onto the East Coast should wake people up, but, as Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

feministlatina

It seems to me that the GOP doesn’t need to work on communicating it’s message.. I think they did a good job of that and people didn’t like what they heard.. so how about changing the message and ideas not just how you communicate it. This is not about garnering one voting electorate of the other.. this is about what kind of country do we want… it’s not what the GOP is selling.

Kathy

When the call goes out to stop being “The Stupid Party” is it really a call to get rid of misogynists, racists, homophobes, and other idiots or is it just a call for people to hide their true beliefs? I don’t believe any Republicans misspoke in the 2012 election. I believe they expressed their actual beliefs and those beliefs are completely outside the mainstream of the country.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000570151428 Jo Bleaux

Bobby Jindal, famous for imploring others to stop being the Stupid Party, is a proponent of creationism in the schools.

http://www.facebook.com/anita.paul.5680 Anita Paul

They just think they have change their tone. They don’t get that people don’t like their policies.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000570151428 Jo Bleaux

Exactly. I actually heard some of the Republican governors saying (putting this briefly) that minorities would like their policies if they were related by someone with darker skin. Utter cluelessness, and the only reason Bobby Jindal, who is making a shambles of Louisiana, is getting national attention.

Markus6

Leaving aside all the really dumb GOP positions on defense, the climate, gun control, etc., is it inevitable that the principles of fiscal restraint and small government lose because people who are in some ways dependent on the government will outnumber those who aren’t.

And I’m not saying dependent in a negative way. This group includes social security recipients who’ve contributed all their lives to it, hard working teachers, scientists on NSF grants, others.

Is there historical precedent that confirms the Franklin quote I’m paraphrasing “once people learn they can vote themselves the money, it’s the end of the republic”.

http://www.whimsicaldreams.biz/ metasilk

Good questions. I’d hazard that the it is not inevitable that fiscal restraint lose as long as the changes to be made (reducing funding) is
* somewhat gradual,
* appears fair (the least needy leaving the pool first, e.g., means testing on Social Security, since SocSec is not currently perceived to be the same as one’s own retirement savings), and
* preserve what is seen as/compromised on as the correct role of government.

It does seem to me that as long as the population grows and the goals stay the same (regulate commerce, administer/protect the public good, for example), that government a government can “grow” in terms of more dollars (but maybe the same per capita allowing for inflation) / more employees (maybe the same per capita allowing for modernization/efficiencies.

(Ahem, sorry. “efficiencies” was hard to write with a straight face–despite having worked with government agencies, some of which were excellent.)

Scott B

Norm Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, summed it up on The Daily Show when he said that the problem with the Republican party is they consistently deny fact, science, history, and experience.

Rape, global warming, stymieing of disaster relief, immigration, taxes, just to name a few things that have kept them out of the oval office and lost them seats in Congress. If not for their Redmap plotting and gerrymandering they’d be in far worse shape.

Ellen Dibble

It’s a shame we don’t have what I call “real options” to vote for. There’s the anti-government party, the turn-back-the-clock party, and there’s the Democrats with their own “issues.” I blame Citizens United for some of that. Maybe I blame Citizens United for both sides seeming stifled. But it would help to have the Republicans also be the party of yes, we can.

Ellen Dibble

Can Republicans appeal to urban dwellers? To look at the map, the more rural, the more Republican, and statistics and projections tell us that more and more of us will be living in cities, which are diverse and adapting fast to changing circumstances.

WorriedfortheCountry

It is fanscinating to me that Democrats have controlled urban areas for years and yet have not solved the woes of urban dwellers.

You could make a compelling case that the Democrats need a permanent underclass to thrive. The Democrats are appear to be thriving right now.
- J__o__h__n
  
  Perhaps because our tax dollars are siphoned off into rural areas. Amtrak works in the Northeast corridor but subsidizing trains in rural areas isn’t cost effective. Same thing for the post office.
  - Ellen Dibble
    
    Maybe the USPS should merge with UPS, and somehow make it a requirement of the deal that UPS deliver to every single residence at least twice a week?
    I think high-speed train has a role in our future, from what I hear about the energy used per person in airline travel.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I had to send a package and insure it for $5000 the other day. UPS quoted me a price of $87. I went to the post office and they quoted me $66. Then she thought a bit and realized sending it overnight (even better) actually cost less ($44) and came with insurance. Then a bit more reflection caused her to try and fit the small package in a flat rate envelope and it did. It cost me $36.
      
      I don’t often give kudos to government but you just gave me the chance.
- Ellen Dibble
  
  Ooh, interesting. Agree Dems haven’t solved the problems. But the Republicans seem won’t even try. That’s why I’m sounding off here today.
http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF

Don’t forget how suburbanizing America is making many places less GOP-friendly.
- Ellen Dibble
  
  What are you talking about? Suburbanizing America was a GOP plan, the interstates of the 1950s? And it is also making us a globally-warming country, and a gas-guzzling country, and a less community-centric country, all of which seems to me to be Republican, Republican, Republican.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF
    
    Nah, I oversimplified: I’m talking not about the literal ideas of suburbs from the Robert Moses era get go, or the Interstate Highway System (whose plans were largely in place before WWII).
    
    I mean more about where people come from and how that changes the nature of counties and states culturally and politically, over about the last 20-25 years. Our media will be caught out like the GOP was in November if they don’t realize it’s no longer 1984 or 1988.
    
    This is happening in suburbs on the outskirts of western and mountain west cities, and growth of smaller cities to medium-sized ones with younger people who, numerically speaking, come from the non-rural areas of the country. Try talking to a 60-something New Hampshire native without getting an earful about how those “commuters from Massachusetts ruined everything”.
    
    (Fixing our transportation is another show. I’ve mentioned “Green Metropolis” in this space before. Good book.)
JGC

I think they are trying to appeal by gerrymandering districts to slice off bits of urban/suburban areas and transfer them to large rural areas.

Kathy

Why did the GOP fall out with Hispanics? It’s a party that has not just tolerated, but encouraged racism, particularly directed at “illegals” as a euphemism for Latinos. Look at the booing of a Latino delegate at the convention. Get a clue.

Art Thompson

The GOP started with courting the “religious right”. By 2008 it was in full racist mode, calling Obama everything but the N word. Their strategy has been that anyone against them is bad for the country. How do you dig out from all these years of courting hatred. Young people just don’t buy into the Fox News line – they only laugh at it on Jon Stewart.
And where will the bigots go?

rogger2

I’m support republican’s views on the economy and fiscal issues but they lost me b/c of their stance on social issues.

Matt Wade

GOP offers nothing to the middle and working class and certainly nothing to the poor. Party of the Rich, for the Rich.

Dixie Foster

How can you call yourselves conservatives when you want the government to interfere in my personal choices? You are not following your own principles. The party needs to get out of the social engineering business.

joe m

Since you people worship business, here’s an idea: file political bankruptcy , then disappear – forever. Thanks (from all of humanity)

Ellen Dibble

Right, the way forward is not being set forth. There is feeding of the rich, and gathering in of the rigid in various ideologies, and that is appealing to splinters, not the whole person. My desire to be a millionaire and not have to pay higher taxes, to have plenty of loopholes, and to be able to know for sure no one in my community is off philandering and then resorting to abortions? That’s my skewed view. The Republicans, in my opinion, would do better to replay Eisenhower and William F. Buckley, rather than letting Rush Limbaugh loose on the airwaves, it seems to me.

mctommy

The participants are shills for a party that doesn’t – and won’t – exist until it jettisons the whack jobs on the far right. They won’t tolerate moderation which is where the GOP needs to turn. Just wait for the convention in 2016 to see how much this party has actual changed.

Ray in VT

Getting rid of any element of birtherism in their party, as Colin Powell has suggested, would probably also help them.

Christa Dunn

The GOP needs to address the apparent disconnect between claiming to be the party of less Government while at the same time being about MAXIMUM government when it comes to immigration, gays, and women’s issues. Young people see this as a stark hippocrisy – “get your nose out of my business and out of my wallet, but I’ll stick my nose in your bedroom.” They also want to cut, cut, cut spending, but the bloated defense budget is untouchable to the GOP. They must resolve these disconnects that make them look like hippocrites.

andreawilder

Back at you, Tom–
Ideas? Who wants those?
How about some solutions, like alternative power sources,
and some way to stop the crash of the NE fisheries.

Ideas, just a way to keep jawing, avoid work.

PithHelmut

The Republicans have been wrong on every stance that I can think of except one – the importance of State sovereignty. They are constantly “looking in the rear view mirror”, are primitive in their thinking and dangerous to humanity.

Kathy

There’s a problem there. For a Republican state sovereignty exists only to take away the rights of other Americans.
Acnestes

They are. I think that collectively they represent an atavism – a throwback to an earlier stage of the development of the species before empathy and some of the other higher functions evolved.

Ellen Dibble

Someone said that the Republicans represent the last gasp of the Confederacy, with an emphasis on favoring the plantation owners and their right to lord it over anyone at their front door (gun rights). Interesting. But in fact I do see Republicans as mainly opposing Democrats, and it’s not entirely clear why. This is not like two football teams, where you pick a side and stay loyal through thick and thin. This is about direction for us all. Saying the government should be small is saying we don’t want ANY direction from the government. Say what?

steamhog

How can republicans fool latinos ? Neocon media effectively fools blue collar folks with trickle down slogans like “tax cuts provide jobs”, but this modus operandi won’t work on other people.

http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF

At the state level, how much does Barbour wish to talk of that lovely idea to award electoral votes by (gerrymandered) Congressional district?

Scott B

If they actually wanted to play fair, instead of this “Redmap” stuff, with the gerrymandering, and taking statehouse votes when Democratic members are out of town, and trying to change the laws about the electoral college, and stop supporting huge amounts of anonymous cash.

Instead, they keep showing nothing but a culture of being poor losers, spewing sour grapes and being vindictive (Susan Rice, Chuck Hagel), and wanting to become the permanent ruling party through rather nefarious means.

ericbgorman

Global warming. Please discuss.

Jasoturner

Clearly a hoax being carried out by those money-grubbing academic researchers. Why can’t we just listen to the hard working scientists at Exxon and BP?
- WorriedfortheCountry
  
  You finally got around to reading the leaked Climategate emails? LOL.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF
    
    Keep fluffing that “Climategate” like it’s 2010.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      It just came out last week. It’s keeps coming.
Gregg Smith

20 years of over estimation according to the IPCC.

Matt Wade

State level Gop’s “new” ideas include: gerrymandering, electoral college rigging, transvaginal ultrasounds, cutting state income taxes on the wealthy and pushing the burden onto the poor, arming school janitors, federal nullification, etc., etc., etc.

http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Patrick-Dwyer-Jr/100002088204784 James Patrick Dwyer Jr.

I think the republicians watch Fox and believe their own press clippings. I love it, keep it up.

JGC

Maybe a solution would be for Republicans to watch more “PBS Newshour” and less “Sean Hannity Show”.

Jeremy McMullen

Tom – I think that the only way to save the party of Lincoln
is to get rid of the fundamentalist religious faction. They are opposed to real
education, critical thinking, and woman’s rights and so on. They are trying to
force their beliefs on everyone else. The only way that our country can be a
strong democracy is if it stays a secular democracy based on the rule of law
and not a Christian Evangelical Theocracy based on an old mythology.

scottmartin49

…..and they’re not even ‘Christian’!

Ellen Dibble

Don’t blame the organization of Obama. I think there was enough PAC spending and data-gathering on the Republican side to consist of organization too. Sometimes I think it was hollow organization, playing pick-up sticks with the electorate, as if we were bodies to be herded to the polling centers, no more.
For instance, how exactly did it happen that Democrats in Congress represent a majority of the people, while Republicans in Congress represent the minority but actually run the show. That would be the organization of the Republicans in gerrymandering, right?

Michiganjf

Just look to the 2012 Republican Primary…

The problem for Republicans is that one pretty much has to be a moron to excel in Republican politics these days.

Republican politicians have to embrace the most idiotic of positions in order to get elected as a Republican:

Deny climate change and science in general,
subvert womens’ rights,
subvert minority rights,
embrace the 2nd amendment to the point of stupidity,
embrace “trickle down” economics,
deny compromise to the point of global economic destruction,
embrace one religious point of view only, to the exclusion of all others,
deny the need for nearly all services required by modern civilization, including public education,
embrace hawkishness to the point of stupidity,
embrace “corporate welfare” while denying the need for public welfare of any kind,
embrace fear, pushing it on everyone,
embrace policies that undermine popular elections because you can’t win an argument on its merits,
etc…, etc…

2012 was ABSOLUTELY the best Republicans have to offer America, AND THAT’S CERTAINLY NO JOKE!!

feministlatina

This is not about “training” candidates… It is about fundamental change in GOP ideas… That is the GOP and just “training” them to not say the backwards, misogynist, ignorant ideas is NOT good enough… THis is not a tech or communication issue… gosh they are still not learning their lesson.. good riddance

ericbgorman

Global warming. Please discuss.

Fredlinskip

GOP are largely in denial about it. ‘Nuf said.
TomK_in_Boston

Follow the money. How would it help Koch Industries to cut down on fossil fuel burning?

TomK_in_Boston

The GoP challenge is always how to put a happy face on class warfare. They don’t want to change the policy, they want it to fool voters better. Make no mistake – the agenda is redistribution of wealth to the top. If they have to concede on a “social issue” to keep the flow going to the plutocrats, they will. Just follow the money. Actually their paymasters like immigration, as it provides them with more cheap labor. They’ll “compromise” on that in a heartbeat. Follow the money.

sickofthechit

If you look at the economic data over the last 30 or 40 years it has been more akin to Class Genocide, not Class Warfare. Charles A. Bowsher

http://profile.yahoo.com/6V6GPROGVCXHXVA7GKYMBP57Y4 Kaytee

GOP traditions and ideals often tell us that they want to
keep money and policy making at the local level. So often, Republicans
and Democrats focus on national politics and not on local politics. That
makes sense for the Democratic Party, but not for the GOP. Why doesn’t the Republican Party run a coordinated
national campaign, starting now, that encourages people to get interested in
local politics – the policies that most affect one’s daily life?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

Just look at the election – during the primaries, it was the party of people like Bachmann and Perry and Brewer – then it magically became the party of moderates for the general election.

How can anyone look at that and come away with any sort of feeling of sincerity and that they are not just being told what they want to hear?

http://twitter.com/Astraspider Astraspider

LoL, using the phrase “… white, black, brown, green, blue, I don’t care what color you are” is a pretty good sign you’re a closet bigot and you don’t even know it. It’s as cliched (and self-deluding) as “some of my best friends are black!”.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000570151428 Jo Bleaux

Who is Bobby Jindal to call anyone else in the GOP stupid? He studied at Brown and Oxford yet promotes creationism in Louisiana schools. He will say anything to curry favor with the Tea Party to promote his own political ambitions. In the meantime, he’s doing everything possible to make Louisiana a feudal state: everything for the few; crumbs for the rest. He was elected by playing to the conservative social values of many in the state, but they’re finally waking up, now that it’s too late, as his economic policies have a negative effect on their lives.

Matthew Martin

I am a republican – but I am a republican that believes government exists to protect me from you, not me from me. This was the real REAGAN GOP party that has lost its way.

rogger2

Amen Emilio.
I feel exactly the same way

Matt Wade

Dear GOP,

Don’t go a-changin’.

Your pal,

Barack Obama and the 75% of the nation that is reasonable and moderate.

http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF

Oh, Henry Barbour, we know what kind of “flyers the GOP sends out three weeks before Election Day”. “Coming together behind the principles of your party” isn’t something you “need to explain better”. People already know. (And this is the tip of the iceberg.)

steamhog

How can republicans fool latinos ? Neocon media effectively fools blue collar folks with slogans like “tax cuts create jobs”, but this modus operandi won’t work with other people.

sickofthechit

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,

Republicans, Hypocrites? or
Schizophrenic Hypocrites?

Charles A. Bowsher

sickofthechit

Actually what I should have said was,

Republican Politicians; Hypocrites? or
Schizophrenic Hypocrites?

Charles A. Bowsher

Matt Wade

Blame the Media!

- why the GOP is doomed.

rogger2

Exactly!
Yes, the media is brutal but get over it!

http://profile.yahoo.com/YMV2HJ2TBKMCN2QRAVI3I2OOGM Jim Jim

Its funny that the republican strategy is “How do we tell people what we really think without saying what we really think”

Art Thompson

These people are dancing around with words like ‘outreach’ and ‘engage’. What values do we share? I’d like to be a fiscal conservative, but I don’t hate women, gays, blacks or poor people. And I’m an old white guy. Have any of you been to a college campus lately? Diversity isn’t some new thing there, it’s just the reality.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

That’s funny – “the problem is Republicans are unfairly being held accountable for what they say”.

MadMarkTheCodeWarrior

The party that loves to allocate blame on everyone but themselves is so far from being held accountable that your statement is more tradgic than laughable.

Lee Ivery

When I was forced to vote for Democrat Edwin Edwards to defeat Republican David Duke, I registered as a Republican. When I moved, I changed my voter registration to Independent. Having said that, I still mainly vote Republican.�
�
I feel that the Republican Party needs to get away from the social issues, such as abortion (I’m pro-choice), and concentrate on economic development and getting Americans on a path to prosperity, not government assistance.
�
They’re are many minorities that vote Republican, but the Republicans need to include us in the conversation.
�

plmmncso

How do you attract minorities and keep the bigots in your party. I live in a Republican stronghold and know how excited they were when GA and AZ passed their tough immigration laws. If you agree that these immigrants should stay in their jobs these working class stiffs realize they might do better in the democratic party. At least they might get a raise in the minimum wage. This is just more of what republicans do; say whatever they think people want to hear.

MadMarkTheCodeWarrior

They may try rebranding but their bigotry, mysogeny and unwavering loyalty to wealth and corporations at all costs will be hard to erase the memory of. They have perverted this democracy through voter suppression and gerrymandeirng and I, for one, will never forget and keep the memory of their acts of treachery, betrayal and treason alive.

As citizens we must be ever vigilent to keep both parties true to the ideals of the constitution, bill of rights and democracy.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1245478104 Thomas M. Stambaugh

This discussion misses the elephant in the room: Conservatism *DOESN’T WORK*. The GOP must break the GOP/Conservative equivalence. “Stupid” doesn’t stop with racism and sexism. By virtually EVERY measure, GOP policies have hurt rather than helped the economy. The GOP answer is to double-down on them, rather than recognize that “ideas” and “vision” that *don’t work* are rightly rejected. A party who claims to be “the party of opportunity” and whose policies resulted in historic levels of wealth concentration is a party that is *delusional*.

Kyerion Printup

It’s funny how the Repubs will find some way to blame the Dems for silly statements that their candidates make.

“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”

Repubs will never win with just changing their messaging strategies. They’ve continue to be the party of mean, xenophobia, anit-everything. Nothing but negativity.

Kyerion Printup

Blame the messenger?

scottmartin49

Message for the speakers- “NOT GONNA’ HAPPEN DIRTBAGS!!!”

…it’ll take a generation to forget new millenium Republican Naziism. Goldwaterism didn’t revive ’til Reagan, Nixon’s southern strategy didn’t come back ’til Bush. Take the next 16 years and go %$^%$%$ yourselves.

(I may get redacted for it but, whewww- that felt good.)

Scott B

The Republicans seem to think that just by reforming some immigration laws that Hispanics will flock to them, forgetting that their other policies such as: anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-worker rights and protections, cutting women’s health services and access to birth control , cutting social services for low-income people, are hugely unpopular among Hispanics.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

“They’re doing it wrong” is not a visionary direction.

AlanThinks

Tom, it boils down to this – conservatives fear and hate change; Republicans exploit that fear and attract those that hate. As long as the party panders to “stupid” thinking like climate change denial, creationism, militarism, unrestrained free-marketism, etc, it will continue to fail.

Wahoo_wa

As far as branding is concern maybe it’s a problem with the Elephant….perhaps they should change to a Honey Badger? ‘Cause honey badger don’t care. Honey Badger takes what it wants.

Gregg Smith

It’s better than being an Ass.
- Wahoo_wa
  
  Being a gay man myself, I have no problem with the ass.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    Eeek!
- Wahoo_wa
  
  You have to admit that made you laugh….lil bit?….maybe?…LOL
  - Gregg Smith
    
    Just a little.
- 1Brett1
  
  Being that you do a lot of poop shoveling down on the farm, I would think you’d find it just a little easier to shovel the poop from a donkey than from an elephant.

http://profile.yahoo.com/YMV2HJ2TBKMCN2QRAVI3I2OOGM Jim Jim

If you want a balanced budget and limited government then vote for Clinton again. I was there. Thats how we were living. Pre-war against the middle east. Pre-24 hour Rush limbaugh style Fox news. Lets get past the Bush nightmare.

Gregg Smith

How much credit do you give Newt for Clinton’s balanced budgets?
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YMV2HJ2TBKMCN2QRAVI3I2OOGM Jim Jim
  
  Very Little
  - Gregg Smith
    
    Then you are not serious.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/YMV2HJ2TBKMCN2QRAVI3I2OOGM Jim Jim
      
      Stop trying to bully everybody on the list. No reason for name calling.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I’m a harmless lovable fuzzball. In 1993 the CBO projected Clinton’s very own budgets as having $200 billion deficits as far as the eye can see. Then after the historic takeover by Newt and his “Contract With America” in ’94 everything changed. Clinton submitted 5 budgets before they hammered out a solution. He vetoed welfare reform numerous times as well until they finally got it done. That sent 6 million people from welfare to work and paying taxes. Clinton deserves credit but so does Newt. It’s not credible to ignore history. It’s not bullying to point out the facts. You are not serious.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

It would be best for the country if the Republican party goes extinct. It is filled with a majority of historically and scientifically illiterate Corporate Prostitutes who have not, do not and will not represent the citizens of this country. They are after power, and that is all. And they will have destroyed their party themselves. Good riddance.

Kyerion Printup

They don’t have any ideas. On top of that, they have a media outlet that lets them spout they’re vitriol ad nauseum .

http://www.facebook.com/nancy.c.yedlin Nancy C. Yedlin

it’s not the rhetoric –I think that many in the GOP really believe than non whites are not as smart, or hardworking, etc as they are. To change that one has to really spend time with people different than they are to see that it is NOT true

manganbr

Blaming the press and democrats . . . sounds like the same old same old from these folks. I’m hearing the same old negativity. I don’t quite think it’s sunk in with these guests that you can’t just paint Obama as a bad president, if you’re trying to win back people who voted for him TWICE, which is what you’ll need to do if you want to win another presidential election.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=664322729 Mark Rennella

Love this show. Didn’t Karl Rove aim at dividing and conquering the electorate enough to get 50.1%? Not much vision there (and lack of vision can’t be blamed on the press).

dt03044

It’s the fault of the press?? No, it’s because the GOP was taken over by Tea Party extremists. They made it clear they don’t like people of color. It is a party of angry white males. If the party is going to evolve, it will have to wait until that cohort dies off.

WorriedfortheCountry

You just made the guest’s point. You just associated the Tea party with racism. There is no factual evidence supporting that charge. However, the Democrats with media support attempted to label the Tea Party as racist after the 2010 election in an attempt to diminish their influence.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom
  
  Deny it all you want. Anyone with eyes and ears realizes unequivocally that tea partiers are racist, bigoted and overwhelmingly under-educated bitter whites concerned only with their own problems, every one else be damned.
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    Evidence please.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/IHEO4EVV3QWCTQPBZOYQ2CP5ZU EJK
      
      Well, while I have 2 or 3 points that will fit these points; however, I think personally think that the tea party are made up of scarred people lashing out. My first point would be Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania’s attempt to change voter rules. Some of these can be partially explained off as over-reaction but at the very least, the Ohio attempt to change early voting rules by county is certainly unamerican and at least partially racist. My second, point is pointing to those who received free phones as a bribe to vote. How is this any different than G.W. Bush and GOP pushing through Medicare Drugs to help ensure elderly white voter turn out in Florida. Finally, not racist but certainly proof of angry white voter what the early Tea Party backer knocking down and stepping on / kneeling on a woman that he disagreed with in Kentucky. (Rand Paul Supporter)
  - Gregg Smith
    
    That’s sick.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF
  
  The Tea Party’s “bicurous” stage ended shortly after Obama’s first inauguration. The moderates and Dems you claim to interest are basically, almost statisically gone. The Tea Party needs the fundamentalist wingnuts.
  
  And if the media did anything, it was to paper over the crazee of the right.
- MadMarkTheCodeWarrior
  
  Take off those rose colored glasses and step out of the Republican bubble. Just look at the convention. How many delegates were non-white? Do you think that’s just a coincidence?

Kathy

I totally disagree. The Republican Party certainly is pushing Big Ideas about the future of the US. The problem is those Big Ideas are what most of us would consider a catastrophe. No public education, no support for the poor or elderly, no worker safety or consumer protection, and endless subsidies to big business.

Potter

Hopeless.

http://www.facebook.com/JPspaceprty Henry Stanley

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! It’s not the marketing, it’s the product. Climate change denial, defense of marriage, intelligent design, and trickle down economics. These ideas are associated with the GOP and for good reason — they’re all espoused somewhere within that party.

Thou_Art_Godel_icious

Good one Tom. It’s not just because the don’t have a thesaurus, hahaha, Rush and Savage and these guys aren’t making up the need to denigrate other people they are responding to the movements in their audience and the audience does not like a huge swath of people that aren’t like them.

When Ms Korn talks about “coming together” I don’t know what exactly she is talking about. The point the conservative message these days is who can we cut out to keep us pure and strong. Diversity is seen as weakness in today’s GOP despite demographics

AlanThinks

Mr Babour epitomizes the Republican party problem when he says “he does not want to take a position” on climate change. Such stupid thinking will be washed away on the waves of change.

Matt Wade

30 years of GOP and conservative political economic agenda is what created the mess we are in. Its no surprise that the GOP is out of favor. Now they wont even acknowledge the problems they could actually help solve. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.

Art Thompson

More mealy mouthed answers. He won’t even acknowledge that the party won’t acknowledge climate change.

Acnestes

This Barbour character is absolutely clueless. “Two sides. . .” What crap.

http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard

Yes, there are two sides to climate change – the fact based side and the magical thinking side. The magical thinking side is insanity.

To think that they can ignore reality – IS THE ROOT OF THE REBUBLICAN’S PROBLEM!

Neil

RolloMartins

The GOP is not only the SCARY party, but the SCARED party. They are running away from climate change–the guest will not say anything about it!–and won’t kick the Rush Limbaugh hate mongers out. They are just cowards.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1076093827 Paul Van Slett

I keep hearing your Repub guest saying that the GOP needs to communicate better. It appears to me they are communicating just fine. What they need to do is listen better

oldseed

Blame the press?? This is still the party of stupid. Here is little Barbour unable to answer a question about science vs anti science for fear he will offend his stupids.

Mark Wilson

Do not let Haley Barbour squirm off the hook on climate change! Emperor has no clothes. Ask him how he would advise his GOP bretheren deal with climate. Please.

http://www.facebook.com/drpmeade Paul S Meade

Henry Barbour still seems to be mired in the climate change denial mode. “Both sides”??!! The GOP will only admit to any climate change when their up to their eyeballs as the sea level changes. But of course they would just say “this is just a natural phenomenon. There’s no evidence of human impact”.

Euphoriologist

Tom Ashbrook: “They didn’t use those words because they didn’t have a thesaurus, they used those words *because* of the impact they had.”

Best line of the hour, so far!

DrewInGeorgia

I keep hearing “Hope” being tossed out as what we really need. Why does anyone think that Hope needs to be provided by an external source such as political parties, media, etc.? Hope is internal, you either have it at a personal level or you don’t.

We don’t need someone’s version of Hope, we need solutions. The Hope shenanigans are just like all the Leadership hoo-ha, pointless.

Gregg Smith

I largely agree except when I equate hope with confidence. The market has none and it would go a long way. I asked earlier what is there on the horizon that gives anyone the idea that things will get better?

But indeed, “Hope and Change” is just a meaningless slogan.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

Then spit it out, Drew. What’s YOUR solutions?
- DrewInGeorgia
  
  Solutions are only as viable as the willingness to implement them. You wouldn’t like any of my ideas, they are generally branded as Communist, Socialist, Blasphemous, et cetera. People seem to want solutions that are going to please everyone, then wonder why the hell they can’t get anything accomplished. You can make some of the people happy all of the time, all of the people happy some of the time, but never will you please all of the people all of the time. We’ve been working diligently at pleasing (rewarding) a very small portion of the population for the past several decades, perhaps we should try to focus on benefiting The Majority and see how that works out.
Ellen Dibble

I’m not sure what hope being tossed around you mean, but it seems to me that vision and direction is needed, and the Congress is locked, and it seems to me the Chinese are not offering the world that sense of good government and competence and direction which the United States did offer up in the past. So do we want to set an example, and point the way, or not? It’s not just our hope; it’s everybody’s. The other bandwagon you could jump on has to do with the 40 virgins in heaven or whatever it is.
- DrewInGeorgia
  
  I’m talking about the New Conservative Hope Charade. I think the only thing the GOP is truly hopeful of is that they don’t find themselves on the receiving end of the butt whooping the party deserves for their past thirty-five years of poo-poo policy peddling.
  
  I am hopeful, my comment was only meant to point out that Hope resides internally within each of us. It is not provided by talking heads of any particular political persuasion. Certainly most think I’m cynical and I can understand why. I am not cynical, I am realistic. There is nothing I hope for more than Humanity to wake up to the realization that we can progress if we choose to. At this point it will have to be a Global realization though, half-assery has been made obsolete.
  
  We’re going to have to learn to get along before we learn to get it together. Saying that “if we only have Leadership and Hope we’ll Save The World!” is ridiculous. Historically Leadership is the Head Lemming, hope usually seems to follow it off the cliff. This is not a derision of The Sitting President, I honestly believe he has done the best he could all things considered. I believe he has been trying to keep us from going over the precipice but that’s a hard thing to accomplish when there’s a Big Yellow Bulldozer fueled by Capitalism trying to shove you off.
  
  Apologies for the slow reply, been tied up all day. I’m hoping to get to read all of the commentary from today either tomorrow evening or Saturday. As always, thanks for your thoughts Ellen.

http://twitter.com/jobytapia Joby Tapia

Oh, come on. Blaming everyone but themselves for demonizing “others” (gays, browns, liberals) in order to divide America and gain votes. That is their fault, not the press or poor messaging. The modern GOP is a political arm of a few very wealthy individuals that want to see the Great Society advances reversed/repealed and the social contract broken. Why? So that they can continue to run up the score with wealth they can never spend? Your guests are very pleasant, but they are not addressing the core problems with the GOP that they are no longer truly conservative (voting for Bush irresponsibility) and divisive.

http://www.facebook.com/bennett.graff Bennett Graff

Tom,

Your guests strike me as scared. A braver response would be to break with its more radical wing. The problem really is that the Republican party is more beholden to is wealthy contributors than the Democratic Party, and its wealthy contributors are quick to squelch platform changes to something as potentially costly–and costly is what it will be–as addressing climate change. Your previous caller had it right. So far your panelists have offered window dressing, blaming the messengers rather than the message.

Robin RAY

Why haven’t we seen the key phrase “Supreme Court” in this discussion? For many people, especially women, that was THE reason to vote Democratic.

Thou_Art_Godel_icious

If one more GOP minion talks about Reagan one more time I’m gonna burst a blood vessel. First of all President Reagan would have been primaried out ( Candidate Reagan maybe ) before ever getting on to the national stage in today’s GOP as too liberal, too willing to work with other side. The GOP has been holding on the ghost of Reagan too long.

Think about what life would have been like without Reagan. George HW circa 1979 is just the moderate conservative that they are looking for.

http://www.facebook.com/anita.paul.5680 Anita Paul

There have been 37 or more abortion bills. What jobs bills have they filed?????

Potter

Their “jobs bills” are not about jobs

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=525352093 John Wingspread Howell

Tom, It’s HALEY Barbour, not Henry. You’ve been calling him Henry all morning.

rogger2

It’s Henry on the show.

He’s Haley’s nephew.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom
  
  Rogger’s right. Ol’ Haley’s Miss’ippi drawl would crash the audio outright.

rvl1

when Tom asks repeatedly how Republicans might change their positions (rather than just the language) all I hear is hedging and dissembling. They still believe most Americans are secretly conservative Republicans just waiting for the right language to come out. They are in denial.

NrthOfTheBorder

Oh, I wish for the Republican party of my parent’s generation. Like they, of mid-western stock: generous, hard-working and sensible.

They weren’t naturally tolerant – a product of a lack of exposure as much as anything – but they were capable of listing, and consequently, of changing their mind. They were not fearful.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

I remember those. They were not as ignorant and uneducated as today’s Republican base, but it was close. They were stupid then, and even more stupid now.
- NrthOfTheBorder
  
  Not good to write off whole parts of the country. Call ‘em to task, but learn from Romney’s “47%”.
scottmartin49

If you’ll notice, the parties have essentially changed identities over the last fifty years. I grew up and live in places where the Republicans held virtually single party control since Lincoln. All that began to change because of;

Idiot Bircher’s——–> Reagan
Southern racists——-> New millenium Republi-nazis.

Put a fork in’em.
- NrthOfTheBorder
  
  Yes, what happened?
  - scottmartin49
    
    Personally, I think individual politicians (and their parties) became more fixated on winning elections than in principled speech and action, and then once in power became unable to reach compromises that would benefit the nation generally for those same reasons. Why do they follow this path?
    
    ‘Follow the money……’
    - NrthOfTheBorder
      
      Another view is that politicians aren’t intransigent or just wrong-headed by nature. They are not bad people – but the system makes it so.
      
      And…from the looks of it, the system is broken.
      
      Congress won’t reform themselves – unfortunately, that will happen only if We the People insist on it.
    - scottmartin49
      
      Oh f$%$!- what a BS reply. Who, and who’s appointees declare ‘Corporations are people’ and allow unlimited campaign expenditures. Which party destroyed McCain/Feingold and fought like hell to end Russ’s tenure.
      Get on the right side of history or shut the ^%^ up.
      
      (I used to be ‘nice’ too…)
    - NrthOfTheBorder
      
      Don’t happen to own an assault rife do you?
    - scottmartin49
      
      Of course not! Liberals use sharp words, which they carry in large volume vocabularies with high fire rates, in order to wreak social vengence. There’s a reason that it was the ‘first’ amendment.
      
      Are you for censoring mean words that make you cwyyy?
      
      Seriously though, man up- nice time is over- and if you really want to make equivalencies between actors in the current political climate, you’re being ignorent at best, maybe even delusional.

1summitpeaker1

IF I HEAR THEM BLAME THE MEDIA ONCE MORE, I’M GONNA THROW UP! ….There talking in circles!!!!!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1076093827 Paul Van Slett

I have a very close friend of mine who has been voting GOP for 20 years and even she is having a hard time justifying voting GOP because they have begun to divorce their policies from factual reality and have hitched their policies to dogmatic beliefs. This is especially true regarding social policies. They claim to be small government and yet want to regulate women’s bodies and everybody’s bedrooms.

Scott B

Listening to Mr Barbour being evasive about global warming is like listening to Boehnor being unable to say the word “compromise”. He’s a man in fear of losing his place at the table in the Republican party, a party that’s been co-opted by big business interests like the Koch Brothers and is the dog that is being wagged by the tail that is the Tea Party. Until Republicans can say things like “the wealthy can afford a new more percentage points in taxes”, “climate change is real”, and “gay marriage won’t bring the country down any more than integration did” and not be ousted as heretics for speaking sacrilege from their own party, they’re only going to keep losing ground.

IAbets

I’m hearing that the GOP believes its just HOW they say what they believe: “Train our candidates how to speak.”…etc. Is there any GOP acknowledgement that there are issues; such as immigration, reproductive rights, climate change, marriage equality, where the GOP doesn’t connect? What I’m hearing is that the GOP only needs to “sell”, “hide” or “couch” how they talk publicly about those subjects, vs. truly understanding and/or moderating their positions and platform planks?

WorriedfortheCountry

David Brooks is a conservative? That’s a good one Tom.

Fredlinskip

Sure ain’t a liberal.
http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF

Bobo scrubs the crazee off a lot of right-wing idiocy, and for that you should be grateful.

http://hammernews.com/ hammermann

Agreed 100%. Repubs should be ground down, plowed under, and salted. They hit their apogee in deaf, cruel, ritual stupidity with Romney- a clueless extreme plutocrat who really wanted in this most unequal country, to take from the poor and give to the rich. He spurned women, immigrants, students, blacks, science, AGW, evolution, gays, the whole MIDDLE CLASS… yet terrifyingly, still came within 3% of the Presidency. Reid had a chance to kill the Filibuster, but wimped out.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

Bingo. I like the idea of adding salt to the recipe.

jim_thompson

The GOP has a very long term and serious problem. I say this because I was a Republican voter all my life…until 2008. I literally woked “on the bus” with Ronald Reagan in the 1976 and 1980 campaigns. However, the GOp has been taken over by the whacky tea party right wing fringe and the let’s go to war-although I never served-neo-cons. Recently the GOP has been holding seminars and retreats on what to say and not say about women, immigrations, LGBT folks. What they don’t get is that it is more than how you say things, it really is your ideas and message. The country’s populace moves forward and they look backwards.
Jim T.
Fort Mill,SC

http://www.facebook.com/anita.paul.5680 Anita Paul

Louisiana is one of the poorest states in the country. Governor just cut Medicaid for some of the poorest citizens. Good Jindal.

lecgraphx

People keep calling in with policy stands the Republicans take saying we just aren’t buying it and your panelists are just denying their points (such as trickle-down and climate change). The GOP party just seem unable to LISTEN.

Potter

Great Governors! Rick Perry! Bobby Jindal getting rid of income tax upping sales tax. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

Great Governors!

sickofthechit

Mitch Daniels had great success turning his state around? How happy were Indiana’s residents when he raised income taxes by the same 2% the Federal Payroll Tax had just been reduced by three years ago in order to balance his budget?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

Washington is not broken, just bought. The richest of the rich are getting richer faster than ever. Washington is working just fine – for them.

All this discussion is just theater for the masses, while business continues as usual.

JGC

OK, what do you guys think of this plan: PBS Newshour should pick up Sarah Palin under a 2-year contract. This will undoubtedly draw Conservative eyeballs to PBS, away from Fox News. Palin-hypnotized Republicans will painlessly and inadvertently be able to increase their exposure to moderate views via the other guests on the Palin panel. Apply daily for two years, in time to exert a moderate influence on the mid-term 2014 elections.

Gregg Smith

PBS would be smart to consider it.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

Good one. But I doubt even Gwen Ifill could keep a straight face, and we couldn’t possibly keep tomatoes flying at Saruh from the production crew.

Matt Wade

They have no more ideas because they have all been enacted and we are living in the crapfest that resulted.

Kathy

Could the host please correct the guest and his comment about “Democrat party” and “Democrat governors?” The name of the party is the Democratic Party. “Democrat party” is a slur and an excellent example of the kind of behavior that people dislike in the Republican Party.

Barbara Miller

Until the Republican party acknowledges climate change and gets on board with a carbon cap and other efforts to decrease greenhouse gases, they will continue to be the “stupid party”. More and more people can see the effects, understand the science, and realize that because of the denial, we are too late to stop the effects. We must at least do what we can to minimize the effects on our younger and future generations.

Ray in VT

I’m not so sure that one might want to cite Governor Jindal as an example of educational and tax reform. They’ve okayed the use of public tax dollars to private schools that use textbooks from places like Bob Jones University Press that question evolution and give a rosy view of the KKK. On the tax side, they’re pushing towards a model that heavily bases state revenues on regressive sales taxes, and away from progressive income taxes.

WorriedfortheCountry

You are implying that Jindal supports the KKK.

Really?
- Ray in VT
  
  Not at all. I am stating that textbooks used by religious schools that are now getting Louisiana state tax dollars have been known to do this.
  
  http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars
  
  How did you get that from my comment?

owenmystic1

it’s social issues! keep your cold dead hands off my daughter’s body!

sickofthechit

Obama didn’t win by much? He won by a hell of alot more than Bush did when he declared he had a “MANDATE”!

Matt Wade

The media and Dems demonized Romney. Because Romney is a demon.

joe m

Your Party is incoherent and self-contradictory. Go away.

Michiganjf

That Perry is “good for Texas” is a JOKE!

Texas has good job growth DESPITE Perry, and Perry’s policies, as well as the policies of idiotic Texas Republican politicians, will DEVASTATE Texas in the long run!

I feel for my lifelong home state!

Perry has gutted education at all levels,
Perry has let infrastructure crumble… the only roads getting built are private toll roads, and he’s even sold many publicly funded roads to private enterprise (now toll),
Texas is more polluted than ever,
Perry is denying tens of billions in healthcare funding for Texans just to make an idiotic conservative point, devoid of merit,
etc…, etc…

Guest

THere are many comments about the changing demographics. The views of those demographics are changing too. The GOP really needs to review the statement “by the people, for the people”. It the ideas of of the country is changing it is time for the policies of the GOP to change too.
Lynn Fulton of Saratoga Springs, NY

CitizenCharlesFosterKane

Good to see you’re giving equal time to lunatics.

sickofthechit

Red States are net takers from the Federal Government till, honey!

rogger2

I agree, we are a center right nation.
I am center right and I want to vote Republican.�
But, the problem is, is that the GOP is no longer center right.

Mabornatrix

Bobby Jindal is NOT doing great things in education.
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/5043963-123/letter-jindal-education-legacy-one

CitizenCharlesFosterKane

I mean, arguing that 80% of what was said about Romney was untrue?

Jasoturner

Kim Alfano must be music to liberal ears. She apparently has zero interest in an objective exploration of what’s right and wrong with the republican party so that it can fix itself.

http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Patrick-Dwyer-Jr/100002088204784 James Patrick Dwyer Jr.

I had no idea at the time what a gift the Tea Party was to middle of the road people. I hope they last for a good long time.

Matt Wade

VA’s surplus is due to magical accounting.

Futureboy68

Perhaps someone ought to tell Henry Barbour that calling Democratic candidates “Democrat candidates” is grammatically incorrect, amongst more obviously divisive issues he’s dealing with.

gemli

One of the “big ideas” that Gov. Bobby Jindal is for is teaching creationism in science class. Your guests are trying to defend the indefensible. It’s embarrassing.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000570151428 Jo Bleaux

His main “big idea” is to systematically eliminate ALL social services, and put the entire tax burden on the poor. Absolutely Dickensian. Now that so many service are being eliminated, the people of Louisiana are finally waking up, but it’s too late.

1summitpeaker1

It’s the fault of the media…they need to get real!

andreawilder

Climate change.
The party of ignorance.

J__o__h__n

How is Bobby Jindal going to transform the GOP from the party of the stupid when he still panders to the creationists.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

Uh, he’ll see to it that those who are educated and bright are exorcised? He’s got a record, ya know…

JennaJennaeight

Are the guests in agreement with the message of who they call the “loudest talkers” in the Republican party? If not, why not come out and denounce them already? Instead of blaming the media, why not simply shed their deadweight - unless there’s something there worth keeping? Please explain.

Scott B

They all keep mentioning Reagan, and again “forget” that he raised taxes 4 times after he realized that trickle-down economics didn’t work; that he thought income is income and should be taxed at the same rate ; that Wall St millionaires and billionaires should be taxed at a higher rate than a middle-class worker; and wanted to get rid of nukes.

Thou_Art_Godel_icious

Stop fighting healthcare come up with a solution because you haven’t yet.

Kathy

They did come up with a solution. It was the plan that Obama implemented! That’s the Republican free market alternative to the far cheaper and more sane single payer system that every other civilized country has.
- Thou_Art_Godel_icious
  
  Yeah I type faster than I think further up I talk about the GOP fighting their older ideas

sickofthechit

Republicans did great things on education? What, like No Child Left Behind? More like “No Funds Set Aside”!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

Yep, the GOP has dumbed down the public enough to have a strong base of uneducated, scientifically and historically illiterate cretins waving flags and thumpin’ bibles. For over 30 years. And look where it’s gotten us.

bigbearsfan

The republican party has a problem resolution problem. Democrats and Republicans agree on what most of what the issues are they just don’t agree on how to solve them or what the prioritization of those issues is. A lot of Americans don’t agree with solutions that the Republicans have provided to our problems. Also the tone, the vitriol that republicans hurl at people who disagree with them is repugnant. We should all be able to disagree but still come to a compromise resolution. We can’t do that with today’s republican party and it’s the republican’s fault. They chose to interact in this way and they paid the price for it at the polls.

William

That tone or vitriol from the President does not bother you? “Hostage takers”…coming from the President? Nothing wrong with that?
- bigbearsfan
  
  I am no defender of the president. I don’t trust politicians. I was responding to the topic of the radio show. It was about the “soul searching” of the republican party after the lost election. My comment was directly related to the topic at hand. If it were a show on democrats, I would call them out too. It’s people blindly following ideologies and not requiring better of the politicians that’s really gotten us in trouble. We only gotten what we voted for.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1408098372 Mari McAvenia

“Washington is broken.” OK, I’ll accept that. So, who broke it? Could it be that the GOP’s stubborn refusal to do ANYTHING has contributed to the breakdown of the American government? Just saying “No” has led the nation to the point where the rest of the world sneers at us with contempt.

http://www.facebook.com/ellen.rocco.7 Ellen Rocco

Really? These Republicans are whining about “attacks on candidates” and “media sound bites” that don’t give the Republican platform full airing? Give me a break. Still pointing a finger at others instead of looking at what’s wrong with the party in the United States of 2013. Look to thyself, Republicans.

http://profile.yahoo.com/5RV6ZGOUTCRUG3LOVKRECJI5RM Nanette

all Jennifer Sevilla Korn is doing is blaming the democrats for Republican issues instead of taking resposibilities fo to why they loss…thats the BIGGEST problem of the GOP party…

Matt Wade

“I’m not an economist. I make TV ads” is probably the most important thing to take away from this discussion.

Fredlinskip

Absolutely
- jayhoward
  
  Really, then why the hell are you on the show?
  - Fredlinskip
    
    Umm.�
    Don’t reckon I was.

owenmystic1

i used to be a republican - a 53 yr old former CEO. But, the GOP social issues have pushed me away. when you agree to keep your cold dead hands off my daughter’s body then maybe I can trust you to run the federal government

WorriedfortheCountry

We probably agree on social issues (I’m more of a libertarian and fiscal conservative); however you’ve played into the Dems hands.

The GOP has not taken any rights away from your daughter and in my view they won’t be able to. However, the Dems ARE damaging the country by running up massive debt and blocking pro-growth tax reform.

So you trust the Dems to run the Federal government? After the last 4 years? When the refused to pass a budget?
- http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF
  
  The GOP has not taken any rights away from your daughter and in my view they won’t be able to.
  
  This statement is so full of crap it doesn’t even rise to the level of wrong.
  
  I’d recommend you’d read more, but you’re all in on this stuff, I guess. Hope your daughter isn’t raped and brought unconscious to a “Catholic hospital” at two in the morning.
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    Don’t let facts get in the way of your propaganda. I remember when the Dems tried to demonize Bush as someone who would send women’s rights back to the stone age. It never happened and Bush ran as a strong pro-life candidate.
    
    In fact, the only ‘social’ impact Bush had was to limit federal dollars to embryonic stem cell research into a limited number of ‘lines’. I was vehemently against Bush’s actions at the time — however it did work out in the end because embryonic stem cell research did thrive and also alternative stem cell research was spawned out of the limitation.
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF
      
      Don’t care what you say you did at the time. Remember, you don’t statistically exist. And I hope you’re rich enough for your proverbial raped daughter to take a “semester abroad” for an abortion while you’re whining about womens’ rights not being under assault.
    - WorriedfortheCountry
      
      “semester abroad”?
      
      No one has to do that to get an abortion in the USA.
      
      Why make stuff up?
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Hey, didn’t you tell me I didn’t exist statistically too?
- nj_v2
  
  Hahahahahaha!!
  
  The “Dems” running up debt??
  
  Go look at the chart and rejoin us on Planet Earth.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    I can see why you stopped at 2002. So can everyone else with half a brain.
    
    http://captainscomments.com/images/Deficit-Obama-2012-(large).png
- owenmystic1
  
  You mean the party that has supported vaginal ultrasounds before abortions or denying a woman’s control of her uterus in the case of rape?
  
  I trust the the Dems to behave like Dems. Both sides are wonderfully dysfunctional which has created a powerful solution to the economic depression – don’t raise taxes, don’t cut expenses and deficit finance the whole thing. Exactly what any serious economist would prescribe. We do need to move forward though and market forces ail make it happen.
  
  American has the greatest set of natural and human resources the world has ever seen. rumors of her death are greatly exaggerated. We just need the government to get out of the way AND stop trying to make laws with respect to the establishment of a minority’s religious values
rogger2

I agree 100%.

I’m a republican when it comes to fiscal and economic issues but the extreme views on social issues have pushed me away.

Elizabeth_in_RI

Wow – the caller criticizes trickle down and Ms Alfano counters that the GOP has put forth 30 “jobs” bills – all of which are focused on cutting corporate taxes, environmental and worker protections, etc., In other words – more trickle down. And for the GOP which has specialized in mud slinging to complain that the their message is being warped is INSANE. Wasn’t it the GOP that laughed at Obama when he said that it wasn’t his policies that were the problem – but that he didn’t get his message out correctly. Isn’t that what the GOP is now claiming about their own policies??

When the GOP stops being the party of NO and in a constant battle (even against their own ideas because Obama is now supporting them), maybe they and this country will finally be able to start moving forward.

Thou_Art_Godel_icious

Stimulus was done by Bush. Stop attacking older Republican ideas, stop fighting your older self.

http://profile.yahoo.com/JXSANCUDPIKQSPID5KT2U4XK5Y TF

“Remember, President Obama didn’t win a landslide.”
“Ninety percent of what the Democrats say about Romney wasn’t true.”

Ugh.

And did we get to almost the end of this hour without one of the guests using the adjective Democratic, rather than “Democrat”.

Plus, there’s something funny about a Republican consultant (Alfano?) complaining what Washington does with tax money, seeing how much of it goes from blue states to red states. She has to tell the mainly GOP govs of the thinly populated non-”elite” states that they’re “doing a great job” growing and being fiscally conservatism with my tax money.

Mike_Card

President Romney will surely hammer those points home in his campaign for a 2nd term.

RuthWK

Kim is blaming the electorate for hearing the GOP message. A new message is needed.

art525

This woman is being so disingenuous. She is offended and feels that it was somehow unfair that the Obama campign repeated Mitt Romney’s statements against him both on self deportationa dn the 47%. Amazing. She says the Obama campaign lied. No they used his own words against him. You want eveidence of lies how about Romney’s ad about Jeep manufacturing being outsourced to China. THAT was untrue.

http://www.facebook.com/leonard.bast.90 Leonard Bast

If these panelists are any indication of the thinking of the GOP on reforming itself, then Democrats have nothing to worry about.

distractedriver

Jeez, maybe 80% of what Obama said about Romney wasn’t true. But that was only because Obama criticized what Romney would say one day, and then Romney would do a 180 degree turn and refute his own previous position. “If there’s anything people should know about Mitt Romney at this point, it’s that nothing I’ve said in the past should be any indication of my positions in the future. Okay?” – Sudeikis’ Romney on SNL

Gregg Smith

Obama just closed the jobs panel. He also closed the office for closing Gitmo. He is now pro gay Marriage. Obamacare has the mandate he excoriated Hillary for proposing. He said it was not a tax and argued to the SCOTUS it was. He said no lobbyist. He said he’d cut the deficit in half. He said he’d reform entitlements. I could do this all day..

jim_thompson

The GOP has no credibiltiy when talking about the “bloated” federal government. After all when they ran the show in the House, Senate and White House they icreased spending and the bureaucracy. Now they are talking about changing the Electoral College…please folks. Until they get real and go back to the sensible rational party they will be more and more out of the relevant realm.

NrthOfTheBorder

Duplicity is a concept completely lost on the GOP.

Thou_Art_Godel_icious

Obama chose bipartisan,if slightly dated, policies to run on because he wanted Republicans on board. How was he supposed to know that older GOP policies were somehow verboten.

Matt Wade

Of the last 6 presidential elections, the Democrats have won the popular vote in 5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_by_popular_vote_margin

http://profile.yahoo.com/AZDSNALIDTYKQKRQBQKNUH4DQQ Greg

Sadly, the guests are only talking about PR changes, and refusing to answer almost every question directly. What about the public’s refusal to accept core Republican values? Well, we need to confuse the issue with other things they can get behind.

Mr. Barbour says that Washington is broken, yet he and Ms. Alfano sound like every other politician who won’t answer the question.

on_2nd_thought

As a Democrat I’m reassured that your guests are proposing absolutely nothing new, except perhaps, packaging.

ThirdWayForward

Afano keeps making completely unsupported assertions, such as the claim that 80-90% of what was said about Romney was untrue. Tom, when your guests keep making these claims, which circulate in the conservative hall of mirrors, you need to challenge your guests to give at least one or two concrete examples.

The Republicans don’t really have much in the way of ideas, aside from transferrring tax burdens from the wealthy onto the middle and lower classes. This is why they are losing ground — they are operating against the interests of the majority of Americans.

http://www.facebook.com/suzanne.sheldon.50 Suzanne Sheldon

The tea party people have derailed the republican party. Insecurity is a huge motivator, and these people are a large force. They’re negative, angry, selfish, and paranoid. They identify with the republican party, while wanting to change it to be more like they are. Your guests are saying the republican party needs to be inclusive. What does that mean? They’ve had no problem including the tea party types. Since they recovered from the election all I’ve heard is how they need to change their message to be more inclusive. In other words, they need to be less up front about being solely for the rich, and kicking the poor to the curb. They want to cater to the Latinos so they can win their vote. Do they think the people are ignorant and cannot see what the republican party stands for? Do they think when a republican is elected, it’s because they have the backing of the American people? However, when a democrat is elected, it’s because the republican party hasn’t made their ideas clear, were tripped up by the computer technology, the liberal media is against them, the democrats take one stupid little thing said by a republican and won’t let it go. The republican party members are the biggest bunch of whiners I’ve ever heard! Talk about sore losers. Maybe what they need to do is, get in touch with the people of America and be motivated by helping all people to enjoy a life in this great country, instead of protecting the rich (a small minority of our citizens) and trying to force their moral agenda down everyone’s throats, it’s their way or the highway. ENOUGH! Stop making excuses, accept that you may not be right, and THAT’S why you lost. Oh boo hoo, poor Mitt Romney.You want to talk about lies in campaigns? Your guest (Kim)is exactly why the GOP is on the wrong track. Her heads is in the sand. Go ahead and keep it there.

Acnestes

My God! Is Barbour the best and brightest they could find for their “rebranding” effort? “Emphasize the principles that unite us”. No wonder they’re on the verge of extinction!

jayhoward

He said this over and over again, but never once, not even one time, did he state what those principles are. What ARE these “uniting principles” exactly?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=731895589 Keri Adams

I’m hearing a party that refuses to look back at lessons to be learned, and consider whether their policy positions are still relevant to the people (GLBT issues, women’s rights, immigration, evolution, etc.). Blaming the media and Democrats is a recipe for losing elections – something the Republicans should get VERY good at. They are pandering to a minority of their party by going far-right and it’ll continue to slowly chip away at them until they, finally, and rightfully, are completely irrelevant.

http://singingstring.org/ asongbird

I am enjoying listening to the Republican party reps on this show sink their party deeper into the mire. I have never heard a more tone-deaf, self-contradictory, mindless-talking-point-repeating group of people in my life. “Innovative ideas”….don’t make me laugh. No, never mind. I am laughing,out loud and often.

http://hammernews.com/ hammermann

No it is Henry Barbour of Mississippi, obviously Haley’s son

Acnestes

Clearly a case of faded genes.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VCZ6YOEX4P7YG2MEYBW43IZC6U Tom

Correct. Unfortunately, their DNA is still viable.
http://twitter.com/tandg67 Thea Nicholas

nephew….

rogger2

If this ‘task force’ isn’t going to suggest any policies then what the heck is the point of this ‘task force’?

Scott B

Republicans, again, shoot themselves in the foot when they put Congressional members that believe in creationism and a “young earth” on science and health committees.

Ray in VT

Is that Bourn from Georgia?
- Scott B
  
  There’s several that sit on various committees for science, health, and technology besides
  Broun. Cynthia Lamar disbelieves in climate change and chairs the Science, Space, and Technology committee, and Rohrabacher sits on it, and Akin used to sit on it.
  
  Boehnor believes in creationism
  Bachman believes HPV causes autism
  
  Let not forget how many Rep candidates in the early debates raised their hands when asked if they believed in God created man, and if they believed in global warming.

OnpointListener

Until we have campaign finance reform, the Republicans will have a very difficult time digging themselves out of the ditch.

Republicans have allowed themselves to be controlled by two constituencies:

1. wealthy individuals and corporations who finance campaigns; and

2. far right evangelicals and ideologues whose votes are now desperately needed to keep in the game unless the policies of both groups change dramatically.

Potter

Their messages ARE getting out.. very unpopular though.

Lindy19

After listening to these people defend the Republican party,its policies and practices, Democrats shouldn’t be worried about their own futures. This has been an hours of dissembling, finger pointing, and denial of the reality Republicans created for themselves. Keeping focusing on the message and how nasty the President was to Mitt Romney and they will learn nothing.
�
As to the use of Virginia and Louisiana as models of Republican innovation? Virginia Republicans tried to mandate vaginal probes and are not dismantling the gasoline tax in favor of sales tax (encouraging more fossil fuel use and disincentivizing consumption). Louisiana, with its social indicators at the level of a undeveloped country, is dismantling its public health system and public schools — in the service of eliminating income tax. Good grief.

ThirdWayForward

The most constructive thing the Republicans could do at this point would be to disband. Drop the social agenda, focus on reform.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y6CO5C2HE4WM2OYGCDVWGPRXXM oldman

As long as Republicans think they only have a PR problem, they’re going to have a problem.

rogger2

It’s what you say NOT how you say it.

burroak

Recently in the United States, we have witnessed record draughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, and now the presense of SuperStorms(i.e Sandy). The Mississippi river at record low levels.
What is the Republican Party’s ideas on climate change? And why and how can they have elected Republican representatives as head of congressional science committees who seem woefully unqualified and also blatantly deny science and the vastly growing evidence of climate change?

NrthOfTheBorder

They’re in denial that’s why.

It is probably a natural state of a conservative mind that things tomorrow will be very much like things today. And why would it be otherwise?…. they’ve learned to do well in the status-quo.

Matt Wade

So the GOP wants to get their new ideas from a nepotistic Mississippian? Good luck, i guess.

MarkVII88

I’m going to go ahead and use a car analogy to convey my opinion on what the Republicans need to do to remain relevant going forward. Currently, the GOP is trying to convince the US populace that everyone should be driving a Ford Fusion or Chevy Malibu. These cars will get you where you need to go, they will be efficient to operate and affordable to own and maintain but they won’t be flashy or flagrant or frivolous. But the reality is that their policies provide Cadillacs to the rich, though they show up as a Chevy Malibu on paper. Their policies provide Yugos to everyone else but they have Ford or Chevy badges on them. The goal should be a level playing field where Cadillacs and Yugos can be had by choice but where basically everyone can afford the Ford or Chevy.

Michael Angelucci

Fiscal conservatism + less government on social issues = Libertarian party, a fundamentally different party from the GOP

Ray in VT

It’s a strange attempted marriage of libertarian fiscal conservatives and religious social conservatives.
- Michael Angelucci
  
  Logically flawed, if you’re going to be for small government, be consistent.
  - Ray in VT
    
    I think that I heard someone say that the GOP wants to shrink government down so small that it can fit in my wife’s uterus, or something to that effect.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      We could cut government in half and it would still be bloated and humongous… with all due respect to your wife’s uterus.
    - http://twitter.com/tandg67 Thea Nicholas
      
      well then, I am assuming that you don’t intend to take ss or apply for medicare; nor do you drive on public highways, use the police, fire or hospitals, much less the public schools…what part of UNITED states do you not understand? there are more people in our country today then when our country was founded, a mere 200+ yrs ago…we do have more government; more people; more government. Let’s go after where the real bloat is: defense contracts, military bases we don’t need, oh and TWO wars that are not funded.
      Stay out of our vaginas; and keep your hand gun where I can see it.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I get this all the time. Smaller government does not mean no government. I think some defense cuts are prudent but that should not be the focus. I’m not counting on SS and medicare will crash unless reformed.
      
      I don’t own a hand gun and have no interest in your vagina.

http://twitter.com/biochemcoachuni Jason Lang

Thank you for the hour of comedy! I haven’t giggled like that in a long time. Their message has failed on me.

jayhoward

The speakers said nothing. They refused to engage with any listener on a single topic. Either they are ashamed of their positions or they know they can’t win a rational argument. And the woman speaker out-and-out lied…she talked about all of these “jobs” programs…of the 34 jobs programs the House is pushing, 30 of them are simply designed to cripple the EPA, not create jobs. Apparently for the GOP, pollution equals prosperity.

bassmanman2

How do you rebrand a stink bomb?

Ellen Dibble

Jennifer Sevilla Korn was saying at the end that the campaigns and the Republican message have to get out way before six months before elections, like certain of their competitors, she said. I’m thinking hasn’t she noticed Fox News? Or Rush Limbaugh? Or Glenn Beck? I’m hesitant even to name them because I never listen, so for all I know they’ve converted to something more palatable. So far, the fact the Republican word gets out every single day, from my perspective, works against them, works against all of us. There are better ways for America to gather steam, and to dispute amongst ourselves.

http://profile.yahoo.com/5EBFE2F5M64QTEGG55KXF242WI .

The GOP left me when Lil George unremorsefuly invaded a country that did nothing to the US and still ignores the fact that the Pentagon was attacked on the GOP’s watch.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000315079302 Helen C. Weatherall

Wow- the GOP guests just don’t get it, especially Henry Barbour. Listeners are calling in and giving constructive feedback on how the party can win them over and it’s going right over his/their head(s). When the caller said she would like the party to back off on all the religious mumbo-jumbo and show some respect for science Barbour responded that what the party needs to do is “come together”. Good luck GOP- you need it.

http://profile.yahoo.com/JEDKZZMHTNWGI4BOMDSJFWWV64 Julie

As a committed Democrat, I could not be more delighted with this program – if this is the best the Republicans can come with in the way of ideas to reorient the party for the 21st century, they are headed for oblivion even faster than I had dared hope.

J__o__h__n

The problem wasn’t their message but they didn’t use social media enough? Wasn’t Salin Palin a Twitter enthusiast?

hennorama

“Wasn’t Salin Palin a Twitter enthusiast?” I dunno, but if you delete “ter enthusiast” I would concur.

madeda1

I live in South Carolina and I am only speaking for myself and my friends when we get together and talk about the things we hear and see as African Americans in this completely Republican state. Every since President Obama was elected we have honestly caught serious hell in this state and now that he has been re-elected we are really beginning to fear for our lives this time instead of our livelihoods. The first 4 years we walked on eggshells, swallowed our pride and took a lot of verbal abuse to stay employed because that was the only way many of us were able to keep our jobs. Now the Republicans have lost their mind and are expressing the scariest ideas in public places like malls and restaurants…. Walmarts…parking lots!!!!! They want a WAR-They have even named it-CW2. The do not want to change, progress or grow, they want to kill EVERYONE that does not agree with their philosophy… Especially the PRESIDENT!!!! It is so deep down scary to hear white people CLOSE around you talking about unloading whole magazine clips into him, dragging him behind trucks, hanging him, putting his head and other parts over the mantle and then looking at US, African-Americans, straight in our faces like ..we gonna start with ya’ll!!! I have never fired a gun in my life but I feel like i had better learn about them because I need one. Republicans want to cheat, steal, buy and destroy their way to power, not change their views. Janet Neapolatano(spelling???) should never have retracted her report, we have a home grown terrorist problem that the NRA is behind. If people who read this doubt my truthfulness oh well…because I am not lying and neither are my friends. We know what we are up against, and WE ARE AFRAID!

scottmartin49

God bless you, and I know you’re right. I hear similar things even here in the rural northeast. Other than political action and being vigilant to support and promote justice, I don’t know what to do myself. Let’s just hope that this flood tide of backwards idiocy has crested.
rvl1

I truly feel sorry for you and your family, friends, and community. These people have lost their minds and any shred of civility – not to mention Christianity, which many are proud to claim. Take courage and stay safe. Hopefully times are changing and these freaks will eventually fade to nothing – unfortunately for you, not soon enough.
WorriedfortheCountry

Doesn’t South Carolina have the only African American Senator in the Senate? And isn’t he a member of the GOP?
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1076093827 Paul Van Slett
  
  Yes. Tim Scott-(R), though elected as my Congressional Rep, was selected to replace DeMint as Senator by the Repub governor. And that fact has what relation to madeda1′s comment?
  And I can corroborate that anti-Obama sentiment is frequently expressed publicly down here, sometimes with racist overtones and occasionally laced with violent sentiments & imagery.
- http://twitter.com/tandg67 Thea Nicholas
  
  no longer the only Af-Am…Mo Cowan of MA was just appointed to Sen. Kerry’s vacant seat. Two Af-Am male senators, both appointed by their respective governors…one to make a point (Nicki Haley) and one to elevate the senate
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    Too bad Deval couldn’t find someone from MA to represent MA.
JGC

Your plea is bringing a passage from Condoleezza Rice’s autobiography to mind. Here is a condensed version from Patricia Sullivan’s review of “Extraordinary, Ordinary People”:

‘Rice’s world was rocked by the violence and terror that plagued Birmingham and the rest of the South as the civil rights movement approached its greatest victories. Denise McNair, the youngest victim in the Sixteenth Street Church bombing, had been a playmate. Her parents did not join the ranks of nonviolent protest; her father, she writes, “didn’t believe in being nonviolent in the face of violence.” Instead, he helped organize a neighborhood watch and would sit with a gun on their front porch during the night.

I am not saying to “gun up”, just that I can see the justification of your notion. I am more in agreement with what scottmartin49 replied below.
- scottmartin49
  
  “… her father, she writes, “didn’t believe in being nonviolent in the face of violence.” Instead, he helped organize a neighborhood watch and would sit with a gun on their front porch during the night”.
  
  Defensively, I’m with Conde’s Dad. I was referring to acts towards creating immediate change. Also, while I can’t personally condone it-never forget that it was Malcolm, Eldridge, and others who made MLK the ‘acceptable’ face of civil rights!
http://hammernews.com/ hammermann

Yeah, there’s a reason the Civil War started there- it is still the most unreconstructed cracker place, even with beautiful antebellum architecture. When you see the dumbass politicians they elect- Da Mint, the tango turkey Gov Sanford, Graham cracker; it’s hard to have much hope. Get the threateners’ names + or plates and report them to the Secret Service- nothing like a visit from them to get yahoos to tone it done.
hennorama

madeda1 – the circumstances you describe are unfortunate and horrendous. Stay safe and consider relcoating. Is there something in the water there or something? SC seems to elect some truly wacko politicians, as others have pointed out.

As to those who “want to kill EVERYONE that does not agree with their philosophy… Especially the PRESIDENT!!!! It is so deep down scary to hear white people CLOSE around you talking about unloading whole magazine clips into him, dragging him behind trucks, hanging him, putting his head and other parts over the mantle …” – threatenng the President is a serious matter and if you believe someone has some actual intent rather than simply being flippant or expressing casually disrespectful views, you should contact law enforcement immediately. The Secret Service takes this seriously, and will investigate.

One way to ensure that the threat will be taken seriously is to put it in writing and into the mail. That will get LOTS of attention.

Again, sorry for your circumstances. Best wishes.

WorriedfortheCountry

It might not have been intended but you created the association. This is the same technique used to brand the Tea Party as racist.

If any religious school is promoting the KKK then they should be called out — of course.

Matt Wade

Mississippi GOP wants to ban Manimals, Mermen, and Minotaurs. This is the future of the GOP brand.

WorriedfortheCountry

Yeah, but he wears a great crease in his slacks.

WorriedfortheCountry

First time I’ve been burned by Discus dissociating my reply. It happened after I was ‘logged out’ mysteriously and had to log back in.
- scottmartin49
  
  Call Rush- it must be a conspiracy to deny conservative speech.
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    LOL. I just passed on my experience because I thought it might help others. [I've seen many others complain over the past year].
    Closing the browser and starting over fixed the problem for me.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Carlo-Danese/100002305865604 Carlo Danese

If your guests from the republican party are the ‘cutting edge’ of change the GOP is going nowhere fast. They are whining about the ‘message’ and refuse to see the big picture. The republicans have been bullies since 9/11 and the dems sadly put up with it for too long, but no more. Bullies quickly become wimps when you stand up to them, screaming ‘not fair’ and ‘tyrant’ — After Obama’s election they began using code to gain support from very extreme supporters, including blatant racists — You can’t just wipe that away — And they have obstructed every initiative put before them — We need vision, and both the dems and the repubs are severely lacking in that quality.

ThirdWayForward

Yes, and “stupid” is a really hard thing to fix.

if only we could figure out a way to make them less obstructionist and more benign…….if they weren’t so ignorantly dogmatic and self-righteous in their delusions, it would be possible for us to move forward. Most of the Tea Party does not believe in evolution, let alone global warming — they believe things, like their fundamentalist religion, not because it gives them a better model of reality, but because it gives them comfort and validates their identity. The problem is mass psychological and very serious when you have 30% of the country operating in this model. We can’t address global warming because of all of these gullible people whose opinions can be easily manipulated by entrenched economic interests.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1034766086 Deana Massie Jonak

It seems the GOP needs to change their focus from ‘How do we change OUR LOOK to win the next election,’ to, ‘What are the REAL problems of, not only the Republican Party, but more importantly, of the AMERICAN PEOPLE!” I keep hearing Republicans talking about, “Taking Back America.” What does that even MEAN? For me, ‘Taking Back America’ means getting politicians out of Washington before they become enmeshed in the political machine. I believe we NEED term limits. Politicians need to be constantly aware that they are public servants ONLY. They should NEVER be entrenched so deeply that they wield the enormous power that they have now.

The Republican Party seems to be stuck in the past, refusing to adjust their thinking and policies with the changing times, changing economy, and changing world. Republicans need to acknowledge what IS with America and stop whining about how great it was in the 1980′s. I am disgusted that I am “talked down to” by the party and am expected to buy into the silly rhetoric that demonizes anyone who disagrees with them, ignores the economic cycles that EVERY American who attends middle and high school learns, and refuses to accept responsibility for their condescending, harsh and uncaring policies that treat the disadvantaged as leaches, that treat the environment as a “thing” they own, and that twist and dismiss science as “liberal rhetoric.”

I understand that many Americans do not pay attention to politics except for a few months every four years. Those of us who do, however are fed up with the lies and inconsistencies of politicians on BOTH sides. I do not feel like I connect with either party anymore. I will be changing my affiliation from Republican to Independent.

http://www.facebook.com/bennett.graff Bennett Graff

Wow. This show was pretty painful. I think the Republican Party is in a very big bind. In brief, it is beholden to constituencies that are inflexible–what I’d call “walkaway” voters. Unlike Democrats, which used to be a bit more single-issue minded, the Republican Party now comprises far too many single-issue voters: super pro-gun advocates, anti-abortion activists, anti-tax fetishists, anti-immigration nativists, and sundry others. At this point, Democrats–often criticized for being too compromising by its base–are gaining traction because the party has finally caught on to the fact that voters will respect a party that is willing to compromise, but up to the point of rationality grounded in fact-based policy thinking. This is where the Republican Party has lost its way: it has non-compromising wings, a number of which are not fact-based or data-driven in their thinking and willing to walk away or sabotage primary candidates if they don’t get their way. Republicans may disagree and even despise Democratic views on economics, society, and religion. But Democrats are at least proving “fact responsive.” Wings of the Republican party are not–a problem aggravated by Republican driven media, which has exhibited little respect for data or factual accuracy (it’s Plato’s Noble Lie put into practice by the Richard Viguerie theory of public communications).

I feel for ‘em. I really do. A great legacy of conservative thinking has really not kept up with modernity (and modern communications).

Fredlinskip

“Unite under Conservative principles”.�
I don’t really ‘get’ adherence to “Conservatism’.
Conservative principles lately have seemed to be all about denial of facts.
“Conservatism” over decades has been associated with holding back Women’s rights, Civil Rights, Workers Rights.�
Conservatism has been associated with monetary policy that favor the few at expense of the many- (no matter what they say- look at the actual record).�
Go back further & Conservatism has been associated with slavery.�
Further back yet and Conservatism represented the Tory Party- ousted in American Revolution.�
Conservatism, more often than not, seems associated with going backward, insisting on doing the same things, expecting different results.

I much more value concept of “progress”. Let’s move forward.

ThirdWayForward

Yes, Walker is a little fascist, tried to break the public service unions and now contemplating ways of rigging Wisconsin’s electoral votes to favor Republicans.

http://profile.yahoo.com/QMDZ3LH5U2B4GAT7J2HS4TCP6E Jim

Be smarter?? are you kidding me? you mean be more guile, sneaky, and unethical like the Bush Administration, such as the force invasion of Iraq? or the treasonous act to expose whistle blowers like Valerie Plame and Joe Wilsion.

I hope the Latino voters will not fall for their tricks, deception and divisive behavours.

As for Marco Rubio… ask him if he would run as a Republican if he did not get $$$ kickback.

William

Blame Clinton for the Iraq War with his Iraq Liberation Act and his wife voted to invade. Blame Colin Powell’s COS for the Plame affair. Obama went to war against Libya without Congressional approval so that must put a bur under your saddle too.

Coldbeulah

I had to read far down the comments stream to find one about Bobby Jindal, who is again being held up as one of the great hopes of the party. He ran in our state as the “health care candidate” and, once elected, proceeded to decimate the entire health care system. He’s closing hospitals, cutting funding, refusing to accept the federal money allocated by the new health care act — and that’s just one area of his folly. He’ll be able to tell national party bosses how much money he “saved” in Louisiana while the rest of us turn to midwives and self-grown herbs (D-I-Y Health Care) and dodge all of the mentally ill people who were the first inpatients to be turfed out into the streets. He may not want to be “the Party of Stupid,” but he has that first Obama term Howdy Doody presidential rebuttal speech burned into our retinas forever.

HeatherIA

This show was so much fun as a Democrat. The Republican party, at least from what I heard from the guests on the show today is not changing. I’ll tell you exactly when things started to turn in the wrong direction for the party, 9/11. It was then that the Republican Party entrenched themselves in turning back the clock in order to keep America safe. It is now a party of the white Christian, straight male doing what he must do to maintain power and the idealized version of the good old days. When Republicans embrace personal choice and personal responsibility in not just finances, but also religion, family, reproductive health, marriage, etc, they could have my vote again.�
The denial I heard during this show made me laugh out loud. The party isn’t even taking personal responsibility for losing the election. Irony.

http://profile.yahoo.com/GVNSLALVZK5KXG6UCEUYVX3EZU Craig

You could boil the GOP’s problem down to one key fact – there members are stuck in the past and have various degress of nostalgia about the way the United States was. Thus they are unable to address social change or scientific facts. One of the most important developments in American History was the Spindletop strike in 1901 that shifted petroleum production from a region centered on Western Pennsylvania to Texas and the Gulf coast & shifted petroleum useage from lubricants & kerocene for illumination to motor fuel. A future that assumes abundant and inexpensive motor fuel is unsustainable — witness GOP response to light rail projects in major metropolitan areas and the development electrified high-speed passenger rail between major cities. The GOP lacks a sense of pragmatism that you see in Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party in Germany

NrthOfTheBorder

One key fact? The US is still fighting the Civil War and the enduring effects of slavery.

It’s what’s in the heart and not in mind that must change first – all else flows, or doesn’t, from this key fact.

Coldbeulah

Kim Alfano as party apologist is a perfect example of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. “It’s the media’s fault.” “The Democrats keep pushing the same negative+
message for months – and they lie!” It’s always someone else’s fault. Along with Barbour’s stumbling non-answers to most questions, these people really SOUNDED stupid.

Still, we can’t afford to be complacent. The real movers behind the party — Koch Brothers et al. — are not stupid, and they’re going to be working harder than ever to make sure they win.

http://profile.yahoo.com/IHEO4EVV3QWCTQPBZOYQ2CP5ZU EJK

The dems stopped passing budgets when they lost the 60 member majority it took to override all of the filabusters that the GOP were using on everything. The way things work in Congress is that the Senate and House have to agree on a budget but that does not mean that the senate must simply agree to what the House passes. The Senate simply knew that they would never resolve the differences in committe between the Hosue and Senate. So I ask why are you not yelling at the House for not coming to any reasonable middle ground on a budget with the Senate. It works both way. Why do you think that the Senate is reversing the stupid Filabuster rules that says no one has to actually stand up and Filabuster but only to object and the Filabuster is engaged

WorriedfortheCountry

Do you really believe your post? It is based on propaganda.

The Senate is not dependent on the House to pass a budget. Also, you must consider Obama to be more extreme than the House since his budgets have failed to get a single vote — from Democrats or the GOP.

Also, budget bills only need simple majority to pass the Senate.

The fact is Harry Reid has blocked the Senate from creating budget law over the last 3 years. It is amazing that he hasn’t been held to account for this dereliction of duty.
- http://twitter.com/tandg67 Thea Nicholas
  
  what has this to do with the question at hand? How is the Republican party going to re-group? When you continue to blather on about other things, you continue in the mold of the Republican ideal of obfuscation. That gets this country no where, in case you might be worried for our country
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    Thea, read the post I was replying to and then try again.

madeda1

Yes, his name is Tim Scott and the African American community in general look at him as another Clarence Thomas. We in general also wonder what rock he has been living under and is the man deaf and blind. He will probably be on the front-line of CW2. SIGH…….

WorriedfortheCountry

I’ve seen Tim Scott interviewed several times on the tele and he appears very bright and reasonable.

Any threats to your person because of your political views or race should never be tolerated. Hopefully, those few doing this will be outed and rooted out ASAP.

Also, any physical threat to the President is taken very seriously so if you are aware then you should bring it to the authorities for proper action.

God Bless!!
WorriedfortheCountry

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘another Clarence Thomas’.

If you mean someone who believes in the Constitution then great!!! We need more of those ‘types’ in the Senate.
- Fredlinskip
  
  You mean the man who has never spoken or offered an opinion on any case for 5 years?
  The one who sits around, stares at the ceiling and allow his conservative ‘betters” on the bench to think for him? The one who negated the opinion of the electorate & issued in W as prez in 2000?
  Those are the “types” that brought our country to brink of disaster.
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    Your post is amazingly ignorant. Perhaps not surprising given the propaganda spewed by liberals against Thomas because he doesn’t conform to the stereotype demanded by liberal elites of all African Americans playing in the political system.
    
    “never spoken or offered an opinion on any case for 5 years?” You are referring to his famous silence during oral arguments. There are many other justices that were silent during oral arguments, including William J Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and Harry Blackmun. Of course, this doesn’t mean he doesn’t offer an opinion or write opinions or influence other justices.
    
    It is widely reported that Thomas is the most conservative justice on the court. This sticks in the craw of liberals mostly because Thomas is African American and therefore doesn’t conform to the stereotype that all African Americans must fall in line with liberal think and the Democrat party.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Exactly.
    - Fredlinskip
      
      So you’re saying,”Still waters run deep”.
      More likely there’s “not much moving” under there.
      Perhaps other justices are far beyond him in terms of scholarship and so in his “wisdom” does not speak.
      Or perhaps he’s incapable of an original thought.
      Perhaps he’s pretty much a lackey of the far right and the least qualified member of the court.
    - madeda1
      
      To worried for the country: MY problem with the Thomas and Scotts of this world is that they have no backbone. Dr. King wanted us all to be able to make our own decisions about things and that included being a Dem or a GOPer. I am proud that that has happened but I am ashamed of the fact that they don’t speak out when fellow african americans are treated SO disgustingly in their rhetoric. When they do not speak up they are saying that we do not even deserve the respect of being human beings, that we really are no better than chattel, that we truly are subhuman. I live in a state where I really could be killed by a Caucasian republican Tea party-er who would think my death and my friends deaths would save this country!!!! How am I suppose to respect these two!!! You tell me Worried for the country because the party they serve WITHOUT RESERVATION has me and mine worried for our very LIVES!!!
    - OnPointComments
      
      If the threats as you describe them are accurate, then I agree with the commenter who suggested that you should report the people who made the threats. However, I live in a neighborhood that is diverse, go to WalMart, restaurants, and malls, and I never hear those types of things. Based on the preponderance of news stories in the South Carolina newspapers and on the local TV news, if you’re going to worry about being killed, it’s not the Caucasian republican tea partiers that should be your primary concern.
    - madeda1
      
      Sir I am use to usual possibilities that can cause my demise including Black on Black crime, what I am NOT use to is feeling fearful for my life in public places by antagonistic WHITE people! I integrated the public schools in the early 70′s in South Carolina and didn’t hear then the things that I hear them say now, while looking defiantly in my face! I didn’t just get here; I been here in this state for over a half of a century. I KNOW of what I speak.
    - WorriedfortheCountry
      
      I see Thomas and Scott as courageous for breaking the stereotype. It would be easy for them to be loved and fawned over by the liberal media IF they went along with liberal dogma.
      
      “I live in a state where I really could be killed by
      a Caucasian republican Tea party-er who would think my death and my
      friends deaths would save this country!!!!”
      
      Really? How murders have been committed in South Carolina in the name of the Tea Party? How many threats have been made? Where is the media coverage?
      In this day and age, it would make the national evening broadcasts and front page of the NYTimes and dominate coverage.
      
      The threats you describe should never be tolerated. Give the NYTimes or CBS news a call with your evidence and I guarantee you’ll get plenty of coverage. As for Thomas and Scott tolerating bad behavior; please provide evidence that they are aware of the bad behavior before you level this charge.
    - http://twitter.com/tandg67 Thea Nicholas
      
      Clarence Thomas courageous? Are you kidding? Did you watch his Senate confirmation hearing? That man wouldn’t know courage if it were dressed in a Lion suit…
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I was sitting in a hotel room watching the hearing on a beautiful day while vacationing in the Bahamas. Yea, I’m that much of a junkie.
      
      When he told them it was a high-tech lynching I thought, that’s courage.
    - madeda1
      
      Sir, there is already coverage about this during the past and in the present on TV, in print and online. Go on the extreme right wing blogs, check out the Homeland Security report, and and check in the NY Times archives, hey I invite you to come hang out in my city if you want. I know of what I speak and as for Mr Thomas and Mr Scott, if you really think that they know nothing about the horrible rhetoric of their party towards our race than so be it because this is the last post on this matter that I am gong to do. My friends and I have the problems that I posted about and the other shoe can fall at any time. I guess you will just be surprised when and if it does and hopefully a little sad. Thank you for your discourse.
    - OnPointComments
      
      Liberals reserve their most vitriolic spew for anyone they view as part of their core constituency who doesn’t walk their party line.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Especially black Conservatives.
scottmartin49

Do you remember Justice Marshall’s comments-re: Clarence Thomas- about choosing the ‘right’ man (or woman)…

Fortunately, you can vote Senators out.
OnPointComments

Madeda, why don’t you enlighten us by providing some of the unreasonable positions of Senator Scott that make you think he will probably be on the front line of CW2?

Larry Keig

“The GOP Regroups”? A significant topic. But despite Tom A.’s attempts to get beneath the surface, the panelists provided no insights, relying instead on messaging cliches. There are surely commentators who could do better.

Larry Keig

“The GOP Regroups”? A signfiicant topic. But despite Tom A.’s valiant attempts to draw them out, the panelists did little more than recite familiar cliches having to do with messaging. The problems Republicans have, in my view, are attitudes and values they have held for years (or decades).

ralcorn

By definition a political party is an organization
established to influence public policy in alignment with a particular ideology.
How far, then, can it depart from its ideological positions before disavowing
its essential reason for being?

How much integrity does a political party have if it behaves
like a business with a product to sell, and if that product isn’t selling well
enough it makes changes to the product or even creates a different product? But, that is how our duopoly parties behave;
like business enterprises maintained for the livelihoods of its members/owners.
Their essential reason for being is something other than ideological.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Rebekah-Becky-Majors-Manley/100000808133635 Rebekah Becky Majors-Manley

LOVED HEARING THIS GREAT ON POINT SHOW, WHILE CLEANING MY COUNTRY KITCHEN.LAUGHNG MY HEAD OFF TOO. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT REPUBS.

http://www.facebook.com/kyle.rose Kyle Rose

“Our party… we’re the opportunity party.” Except for gays, Latinos, blacks, the non-religious, women, immigrants, etc.
Here’s the wakeup call: eject the social conservatives. Until you get rid of neanderthals intolerant of others’ private ways of life, you will automatically lose the urban and educated demographics. It really is that simple.

There is a huge potential coalition of libertarian-leaning people who prefer small government and personal freedom, but you’ll never get there by being horrifying to the people who demand personal freedom and by paying only lip service to small government.

Gregg Smith

And once Republicans do all that , they can count on your vote. Right?
- http://www.facebook.com/kyle.rose Kyle Rose
  
  I used to vote Republican pretty consistently, until about a decade ago. I now don’t vote mostly because I refuse to vote for the lesser of two evils. So, yeah, I probably would go back to voting GOP if they stopped being personally horrifying to me and stopped promoting policies that oppress me and my friends.
  - William
    
    Obama was against gay marriage for years so that leaves out your gay friends. Obama did nothing for illegal immigration situation so that leaves our you illegal,Hispanic, and immigrant friends. Obama said he would close Gitmo so that leaves out your Liberal friends. Who do you got left?
    - http://www.facebook.com/kyle.rose Kyle Rose
      
      This has nothing to do with individual candidates and everything to do with the perception of each party as a whole, and on that count the GOP fails to attract tolerant, educated people with their intolerant pandering to the religious right. Where did I ever mention Obama in my OP? Only you people are talking about Obama. Stop setting up your straw men, knocking them down, and then claiming victory: it looks stupid.
    - William
      
      If it is perceptions then the Democrats are against anyone that does not agree with them.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    I think more people sat out 2008 and 2012 because the candidates were not Conservative enough than voted Democrat because they were too Conservative.
    
    And I don’t agree with your premise that Republicans exclude gays, Latinos, blacks, the non-religious, women, immigrants, etc.
    
    So, I’ll take you at your word but I am skeptical and if you in fact voted for Obama I’m more than skeptical.
    - http://www.facebook.com/kyle.rose Kyle Rose
      
      For president, I voted for Gary Johnson in 2012 and for no one in 2008 or 2004.
      
      As an aside, When you accuse people of being disingenuous because you are suspicious that anyone could possibly think that way, you come off sounding like a jackass. Just sayin’.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Apologies I could have been clearer. But I said I took you at your word. I was referring to your claim that you would vote Republican again. I meant that. I did not mean to imply you were disingenuous but I guess I did regarding your prior votes.
      
      If you were a Johnson supporter then that makes a little more sense but in my view you did tacitly vote for Obama in 2008 and 2012. I’m sure you disagree. I can believe you think that way, 95% of the far lefties here think that way. I think it’s an absurd notion but that’s me.
      
      The thing is the lefties who make those accusations want bigger government to address them. Libertarians want government to butt out altogether. But they both start in the same place. I did in fact unfairly assume you were a lefty because you sounded just like one.
William

Obama has been getting slammed for his cabinet picks so that must bother you right?
Gregg Smith

There is a huge coalition there, I agree but IMO the Ron Paul/Gary Johnson type libertarians main beef has more to do with foreign policy than social issues. I can’t see Republicans ever supporting Libertarian foreign policy or Vice versa.

I think it is more likely that wing will vote Democrat than Republican, and many did.

The lessor of two evils argument never did make sense to me. It is what it is. It’s a matter of what is best not what is worse. So now we have Obama. Congrats.

http://profile.yahoo.com/M2LBQXGI3WV3EIQN2OHQN5V3RU Art

The last election was a popularity contest. Obama won! He secured over 90% of the black vote. He did the late night shows…cracked jokes….went to basket ball games…I was even told he was better looking than our candidate. This was not about the issues this was a popularity contest!!! open your eyes folks.

What did our candidate do? He focused on religion and how he would overturn row verse wade….he had no racial/gender diversity as vice president. In my opinion the most important issue that threatens the future of our country is economics Our future is not threatened if billy and Jimmy get married, or a woman is told she cant have an abortion. Our issues are much bigger. Keep religion out of politics. Americans business is business!!!!

WorriedfortheCountry

“He focused on religion and how he would overturn row verse wade”
Are you referring to Romney?
No, Romney was all about the economy. The liberal media constantly tried to sucker him on social issues — mostly because the Dems were attempting to use it as a wedge but Romney never made it his focus.

I agree that Romney isn’t a natural politician. His campaign team was awful at communicating and responding to the liberal media. However, he probably would have been an excellent President.
- http://twitter.com/tandg67 Thea Nicholas
  
  Romeny focused on the upper class in his economic views; refused to give any answers to basic economic questions; wanted to overturn roe v wade…which is an economic issue; and never ever took a stand when Rush went balistic over a Georgetown woman; never disabused himself of Todd Akin, never spoke out against some of the other candidates and their choice of words; wouldn’t say what he would do about the Lily Ledbetter bill-another economic issue. Oh there was so much Romoney wanted us to just trust us on…47% of us who don’t count for anything… Romoney was all about the economy, that’s for sure…but his economy just didn’t include me and most of the people I know…glad you make over $180,000/yr.
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    It turns out that reforms Romney was promoting would be beneficial for the middle class and lower class. Economic growth is the only way out of this mess. Obama and the Democrats (and many republicans) refuse to address the generational theft that is occurring today. They’ve added over $6T in new debt over the last 4 years and refuse to address the deficit spending that will ruin the country for our children and grand children.
    
    And you wrong on the facts. You are simply spewing negative propaganda echoed by the liberal media during the campaign season. He did respond to many of the issues you brought up. Bill Maher said worse things about conservative women than anything Rush said and yet he gave Obama $1M. Rush gave Romney nothing. Are you upset with Obama for not giving the Maher money back or calling him out?
    
    And, you should learn to spell the man’s name properly.

grifdog

How we can discuss “changing the message” and or positions of the Republican Party and not discuss total abdication of legislative authority and the ability to actively lead & govern the Country to a non-elected nobody like Grover Norquist is in the words of Mr. Perry the “caveman” from Texas “Treasonous”.

scottmartin49

Did Perry say that, really? The beauty of ‘stupid’ is and always will be ‘honest’. Op. Cit. Palin, Bachmann occasionally BTW.

hennorama

Robert Reich seems to have it exactly right. The Republican coalition of moralizing social conservatives, libertarians, deficit hawks, and starve-the-government fanatics are ideologically at odds, and can only unite as OPPONENTS to the perceived enemy du jour.

The enemies du jour have either been defeated, or have had their ideas win over the majority of the electorate. The latest enemy, Pres. Obama, has shown remarkable ability to defeat Republicans on most fronts, and has survived electorally despite being extremely vulnerable prior to the last election.

Republicans also do themselves no favors when they use underhanded tactics in an attempt to influence the outcome of elections, whether it is gerrymandered voting districts, changes to voter eligibility rules, hours and days for voting, or the allocation of Electoral College votes. They look very small and desperate, trying to maintain power and win via subterfuge and trickery rather than fair and square.

The public image of Republicans is further eroded when they deny reality, whether scientific, demographic or electoral. The voting public can only be fooled for so long, Republicans should not be taking one of Pres. George W. Bush’s quote to heart, but should instead focus on not trying to fool people.

“You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.”
― George W. Bush

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/you-can-fool-some-of-the-people-all-the-time-and/365431.html

Republicans cannot survive if they are perceived only as being the party of NO! They need to figure out what they are for, present their arguments, and stop simply railing against the long list of things they oppose.

WorriedfortheCountry

“Robert Reich seems to have it exactly right. ”
Then there is a first for everything.

“Republicans cannot survive if they are perceived only as being the party of NO!”
Simply amazing. Wasn’t it the GOP who offered that offered a budget that would put us on a slow path to a balanced budget during the past 2 years? The Democrats offered nothing.

It appears that the Dems are the party of no and not the GOP. However, I will concede that the GOP have lost the marketing war because they ARE perceived as the party of no by the low information voters.
- hennorama
  
  WorriedfortheCountry – TY for your response. Reich’s point in the linked article was that Reagan’s Republican coalition is marked by internecine rivalries, and has been held together only by uniting against a perceived common enemy/threat. The external pressures from electoral losses and demographic realities now threaten to turn these inherent conflicts from mere cracks into gaping fissures that may rend the party asunder.
  
  Budget proposals have been made by both Republicans and Democrats. The President’s budget proposals and proposals from Republicans are available for all to see. But the economy is not the only issue; it’s exceptionally important, but is far from the only problem we face. If Republicans want to rely on a single issue, that’s all well and good, but that is unlikely to be a recipe for electoral success. Mr. Romney is the most recent and most obvious case in point. Americans care about other issues, and not everyone feels that the economy is paramount.
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    TY hennorama. Good to hear from you.
    
    Like the ancient admonition “beware Greeks bearing gifts” — the GOP would be best served ignoring advice from liberal Democrat ideologues, especially ones with such a poor record on economic prognostication.
    
    I don’t believe the GOP is relying on a single issue. However, they do appear somewhat fractured and rudderless at this point.
    - scottmartin49
      
      You REALLY need to study economics. Really; so far off any genuine conceptual understanding as to be, ummm, uh (I’m being nice here) irrelevant.
    - hennorama
      
      WorriedfortheCountry – you make a valid point, but if the analysis is accurate, does the source matter? Truth is truth, right? I also don’t think Reich was offering any advice to Republicans, instead simply saying “John Boehner’s fear may be well-founded.”
      
      I’m interested in what you call Reich’s “poor record on economic prognostication.” Do you have some comparisons of his predictions vs. outcomes that you can provide? TY in advance.

http://profile.yahoo.com/QMDZ3LH5U2B4GAT7J2HS4TCP6E Jim

I prefer the hostile comments made by some Republicans who speak from their heart than Republicans who lied like GW Bush, Dick Chenney, and Karl Rove…

I prefer Honesty, hostility, or stupidity (whatever you want to call it) over lies.

you got that hardcore republicans?

Gregg Smith

GWB, Cheney and Rove never lied. It is impossible to lie without knowing you’re lying. For instance, it’s a lie if you know our Ambassador was not killed because of a stupid video and you spend 2 weeks saying he was. So, be careful how you choose your criteria or you may snare more of your allies than you imagine.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/QMDZ3LH5U2B4GAT7J2HS4TCP6E Jim
  
  not admitting to leaking the info of the CIA operative and accusing it to lone scooper libby… is a lie.
  
  accusing iraq to the american audience that this country is endangering us when he is really doing it to avenge for his daddy is a LIE. yellow cake? LIE
  
  Do you know how many innocent lives are lost in iraq including americans??? DO YOU??? Shame on you if you do not know.
  - OnPointComments
    
    Your world is an amazing, fantastic, conspiratorial place; I’m glad that I don’t live in it. Imagine the coordination and scheming that you think must have occurred to convince US intelligence agencies, allied intelligence agencies, and the UN that Sadaam possessed WMD. I wonder where you think the secret meetings between GWB and Tony Blair took place.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    Richard Armitage was the leaker and he was not charged because Plame was not covert. We spent a year and millions of dollars to investigate that mess. Fitzgerald supoenad everybody and their brother. And you dismiss all of that and go with “wink wink nod nod everybody knows”?
    
    Clinton made regime change in Iraq US policy with the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 because they were a danger. The invaded Kuwait. They were shooting at our jets patrolling the No-fly zone to protect the Kurds from being gassed again with the WMD that evidently didn’t exist. It was a post 9/11 world and the inspectors were kicked out four years prior. Iraq violated 16 UN resolutions and the 17th was passed unanimously in the UN security Council. He swindled the world with the sections and “Oil for food”. He had rape rooms and torture chambers. They gouged out eyes and ripped out tongues. And you’re going with “revenge for daddy”?
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oUT7J9K_KE
    
    Bush never said Iraq had yellow cake. Look up the 16 words. He said the British said he sought it. But actually they did have it. The British were right.
    
    http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-07/us/iraq.uranium_1_yellowcake-uranium-cameco?_s=PM:US
    - http://profile.yahoo.com/QMDZ3LH5U2B4GAT7J2HS4TCP6E Jim
      
      do you really think i believe these sources? i thought that you are smart. goes to show why many republicans look and act alike. like lemmings
      
      do recall why the dept of justice drop Armstrong’s case for doping? if his bribe stands at $500k… imagine what Bush and his administration can do?
    - Gregg Smith
      
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSRm80WzZk
- Mike_Card
  
  Wait–what? Does that definition of lying also apply to Susan Rice?
  - Gregg Smith
    
    Yes it does, she was merely stupid or uncurious.
    - jefe68
      
      That’s what I say about GW Bush.
WorriedfortheCountry

If you value honesty then you must really be upset with the Obama administration with their cover ups over Ben Ghazi and Fast and Furious, stimulus spending, EPA emails, meetings with lobbyists, and on and on. How can you stand it? One would think it would drive you to the GOP.
- http://www.facebook.com/suzanne.sheldon.50 Suzanne Sheldon
  
  Why would lies drive anyone to the GOP? There you go again, trying to spread the myth that the republicans have a monopoly on morals and integrity. The republicans are so blind to their own faults, always blaming their failures on the liberals (aka anyone who doesn’t buy into their hype). The old republican party believed, generally, that everyone had a right to their opinion. The senators and congressmen could meet socially with each other and their president. This new my-way-or-the-highway, religious right (who have NO monopoly on religion either), tea party fanatics act like spoiled sports on the playground. They haven’t learned that they CAN’T win every time. They can’t force their will on everyone (or the majority of voters). Listening to our representatives interviewed, the newer congressmen don’t even want to get together with members of the opposing party socially. They couldn’t even be seen attending an invitation to view “Lincoln” hosted by our president. Why, because they’ll be boycotted and shunned by those that own their souls (the tea party fanatics). Can you imagine behaving that way towards people in your community? As I said, the GOP does not have exclusive possession of morality, and they would carry themselves with a modicum of humility if they stopped acting as though they were sole owners. As far as the religious right goes, from my Bible studies, they don’t come close to living their lives as Christ did. Get off your high horses.

http://twitter.com/tandg67 Thea Nicholas

I left the R party when they invited the religious wing in…that was the beginning of the end of a party of integrity….

Gregg Smith

How do you feel about Rev. Wright and Black Liberation Theology?
- Mike_Card
  
  You know it was coming: Black Liberation Theology? That’s sick.
  - 1Brett1
    
    Yeah, as if Rev. Wright has influenced the Democratic Party in any remote kind of way as the Evangelicals/Fundamentalists have influenced the Republican Party (as far back as Falwell in the early 1980s)!
    - scottmartin49
      
      At least once a week my daughter and I- both theologically astute- declare, “God damn America”. While our prayers may be otherwise, our observations call for righteous judgement. Stop listening to Rush and read Jeremiah.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      “God Damn America” seems to be the recurring undercurrent around here.
- jefe68
  
  How do you feel about being such a damn fool?

Gene_from_Btown

All one has
to do to realize this ‘regrouping’ of the GOP is nothing more than rebranding,
messaging, and a PR stunt is to listen to how the guests responded to
criticisms of the GOP. First, in an attempt to deny the lack of any new ideas
or vision, there was one excuse after another. “It’s the media’s fault. It’s
that Republicans have been too bogged down in minutia. Spending too much time
on social media. The Dems (with the help of the media) have been successful at
demonizing Republicans, blah, blah, blah.”

Secondly,
and maybe more important than the long list of excuses, is that time and time
again, as well as on this show, there is the Republican rejection of reality. The
majority of Americans do support taxing the wealthy more heavily. Polls have
shown this time and time again, yet this simple fact was rejected by one of the
Republican guests. There are copious amounts of economic data that have shown
that trickle down does not work and that Americans are beginning to reject it. A
guest rejected this notion. The Republicans still maintain that raising the
minimum wage increases unemployment when there is not a shred of data to
support this. On issue after issue, reality is denied by the GOP. If taxes are
down, they say they are up. Lower taxes mean more jobs while higher mean less
even though one does not have to look too hard to find data that contradicts such
a canard. To many Republicans, creationism is as valid a science as natural
selection and should be taught as science in our schools. They maintain this
crazy fantasy that the U.S.
private healthcare system is the best in the world when study after study
continues to show that not only are there less expensive systems of healthcare
in other nations, but that their health outcomes are better as well. And
finally, when a caller mentioned climate change, instead of saying that perhaps
Republicans have gotten this one wrong, the Republican guest maintains that
there are two sides to that issue. No, there are not two sides to that issue.
There is science and then there are continued Republican denials of reality. I
don’t have a problem with Republican opinions. I have a problem with Republican
‘facts’. Republicans have to come back to reality before they can regroup.

TheDailyBuzzherd

Bobby Jindal: “STOP BEING THE STUPID PARTY.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

TomK_in_Boston

Bobby Jindal wants to eliminate the state income tax and compensate by increasing the sales tax, shifting more of the burden to the poor, ie, class warfare. He says it’s OK to teach “creationism” instead of evolution. He’s the problem, not the solution.
jefe68

That’s the same Bobby Jindal who wanted to stop medicaid funding for end of life hospice care.
He had to eat crow on that one, but he really wanted to through people who were dying into the street.
- Gregg Smith
  
  Astonishing projection. Apologize.

http://profile.yahoo.com/QMDZ3LH5U2B4GAT7J2HS4TCP6E Jim

i can’t believe what i heard in this session. Henry Barbour tries to side step the issue of global warming.

“oh, we need to find issue that will reunite us not divide us”…

are you kidding me? can you simply stick with the issues?

i just don’t know the exact principle for being a republican… but i ain’t buying into it…

Sy2502

Every democratic country needs an opposition party worthy of its name to keep the ruling party in check. It is actually very detrimental to the good functioning of our democracy if the opposition party, in this case the GOP, is in shambles.�
I think the GOP would do well to move to a more Libertarian stance, and for the love of gawd leave the religious fundamentalists out of it, they are like a cancer.

http://profile.yahoo.com/QMDZ3LH5U2B4GAT7J2HS4TCP6E Jim

this session is absolutely revealing… here i consider myself as conservative… pro-life… but other than that… there is nothing else that i see that i can associate myself with this party…

as i said… i prefer honesty over lies… and there are plenty of denials… one from a listener, possibly a die-heart republican advocate when i reference the lies.

i personally think Chuck Hagel is a true republican… then this party decided to smear him…

there is no hope for this party.

WorriedfortheCountry

Why is Hagel a true Republican? Because he endorsed Obama over McCain?
- http://profile.yahoo.com/QMDZ3LH5U2B4GAT7J2HS4TCP6E Jim
  
  again… politics over principles. that is your problem. the difference between you and me… i stand for my principles.
  - WorriedfortheCountry
    
    Like when Hagel wouldn’t admit he was wrong about the surge in the response to McCain’s questions? Yup, Hagel was sure standing on principle by evading the question.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      I think Hagel will have a harder time than Kerry did but will probably be confirmed anyway. McCain was dead on but in 2008 he suggested Hagel would make a good Sec. of Def. Go figure.
    - WorriedfortheCountry
      
      You know what they say about payback.
      
      I agree that Hagel will probably be confirmed.
    - Mike_Card
      
      McCain was grandstanding, the only thing he has know how to do for the past 15 years.
      
      He would do his constituents and the country a favor if he hauled his sorry, addled butt back to Arizona, so he can live off his multiple federal pensions and his trophy wife’s riches–what he does best.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      McCain was right. Ted Cruz was even better.
    - Mike_Card
      
      Think whatever you like. Cruz is a snot-nosed lightweight.
    - scottmartin49
      
      Mc Cain is soooo Pathetic. Reaching for a short term admission of his ‘brilliance’ to staunch the effects of his electoral corn-holing.
      
      History WILL prove out- the entire Iracq war was a pathetic Oedipal melodrama.
    - jefe68
      
      McCain, the John McCain who is more interested in grand standing than being a man of substance.

kentchris

While there are many smart and reasonable people in the GOP they have been drowned out by a not so smart and not very reasonable few.
Their problems are much greater then these 3 guests would have everyone believe.Their problem is that the 3 legs (strong defense, trickle down economics, and “family values” social conservatism) of Ronald Reagan’ stool have been cut out from under them, mainly by themselves.GW ruined this countries foriegn policy by his invasion of Afganistan and Iraq and the mismanagement of both (including torture).The GOPs belief in a trickel down deregulated economy collapsed and had to be bailed out (TARP) by GW. And finally their social conservatism requires everyone who doesn’t accept there judgement to keep quite or disappear. This includes the unemployed, gays, men and women who have “innappropriate” sex, immigrants, people of an incorrect religious faith, pot smokers, basicely everyone. As a result almost everyone is rejecting their judgement. As they should.Until the GOP is willing to accept responsibility for this situation that they have created and stop blaming everyone else they may very well stay an angry and sidelined party.

MarieClaireF

I wanted to call in today, but was driving, so this is the best way for me to express my opinion and hope the panel reads it. It was a great program, with a lot of good comments by callers. The sad thing is the panel wasn’t listening. Every time a caller tried to tell them things that are turning off women, younger voters, minorities, Hispanics, the members of the panel responded with a typical “no substance” response. I heard one panelist say the country is “center right”, but the party has become “far right”. Callers tried to say that, but no one was really listened. I kept hearing various ways to say the same thing – they have no intentions of changing the party – that the solution is to come up with a slick new way to market it.

I’ve been a “center right” Republican since I registered to vote in 1972. I have not felt welcome in the party since the religious/conservative right hijacked it. The adjectives that come to mind in recent years are: uncompromising, intolerant, hypocritical. What I heard today gives me no hope that the party has room for me again. The only compromise I heard was for those of us who no longer feel represented to do all the compromising and accept the platform as viewed by those on the vocal right.

I was hopeful when I started listening that something good would come of this panel to make the party more appealing to those of us in the center, but became increasingly discouraged as I listened.

MarieClaireF

I wanted to call in today, but was driving, so this is the best way for
me to express my opinion and hope the panel reads it. It was a great
program, with a lot of good comments by callers. The sad thing is the
panel wasn’t listening. Every time a caller tried to tell them things
that are turning off women, younger voters, minorities, Hispanics, the
members of the panel responded with a typical “no substance” response. I
heard one panelist say the country is “center right”, but the party has
become “far right”. Callers tried to say that, but no one really
listened. I kept hearing various ways of saying the same thing – they have
no intentions of changing the party – that the solution is to come up with a slick new way to market it.

I’ve
been a “center right” Republican since I registered to vote in 1972. I
have not felt welcome in the party since the religious/conservative
right hijacked it. The adjectives that come to mind in recent years are:
uncompromising, intolerant, hypocritical. What I heard today gives me
no hope that the party has room for me again. The only compromise I
heard was for those of us who no longer feel represented to do all the
compromising and accept the platform as viewed by those on the vocal
right.

I was hopeful when I started listening that something good
would come of this panel to make the party more appealing to those of
us in the center, but became increasingly discouraged as I listened.

AaronNM

The voters aren’t buying our brand “Crap” anymore? Hmmm. Let’s see…we could reassess our formula, bring it in line with their palates, maybe go organic, and really listen to their needs and adjust the recipe accordingly. Or we could just get new packaging and rebrand the product. Right, let’s go with that second option since it won’t challenge our narrow and delimiting principles like the first option would. And we need a name change. How does “Poo” strike all of you? Good? Excellent. Let’s run it by Ailes and we’ll get rolling.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1091744903 Tracy Estabrook Boal

The guests on this show (particularly Alfano, who humiliates herself every time she opens her mouth) make it abundantly clear that GOP is likely to go through at least one more presidential cycle of bug-shagging insanity before they figure out that it IS NOT THE MESSAGE THAT IS THE PROBLEM. All these callers were rooting for them to get out of the wilderness and engage with actual reality, but none of the guests were actually LISTENING to what they were saying.

andreawilder

The big problem is climate change. We all know this.
The Republicans talk about 2 sides…sure, 97% v. 3 %.
I don’t think they will ever acknowledge this, and
without this being accepted by the Republicans nobody except the far right will accept anything else from them.

PARAGONofVIRTUE

Great job of lobbing MilkToast harsh questions, Tom, avoiding the central fact that Republicans lost because THEY’RE RABID BATSHIT CRAZY.
Women can’t get pregnant from rape? God sends hurricanes to punish gays? The founding fathers worked tirelessly to get rid of slavery? Michelle Bachmann is actually on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence????
There is an explanation: 50% of the American population is below average in intelligence.

TomK_in_Boston

Hahaha.

There are the batshit crazies and there are the romney types who just want even more wealth and income for themselves. They have a tough sell but there seem to be a lot of suckers who swallow their nonsense:

Let me get even richer and it will be good for you.

You’ll be better off without a Union to bargain for you.

To save medicare for our children, let’s cut their benefits.

If we have the freedom to ship your job offshore, it will be good for you.

Can you really be that stupid?
scottmartin49

RABID BATSHIT CRAZY. Awesome.

noamsane

I just listened to the show. Why Tom didn’t just turn off the phones after 15 minutes and play music is beyond my understanding.

His guests were as clueless as the average GOP voter, and utterly unable to offer an intelligent or thoughtful answer to any question.

I couldn’t stop listening, not unlike rubber-knecking at a train wreck. Wow. Those were some real dopes. Sorry, but that’s a fact.

Mart108

I was listening to On point. The GOP does not get it. Instead of concentrating on fixing their internal structure they are spinning the blame game. What I hear from them is justification of their point of view. I don’t think they are serious engaging a rainbow coalition. Any changes the GOP envision is only a gimmick to gain power. A total disconnect from the people they want to govern.

anamaria23

It is all so confusing.
On President Obama’s inaugeration night  in 2009, the Repubs met for four hours. Their objective for the Obama Presidency was to “ challange every single bill, show unyeilding opposition to economic policies” ( Robert Draper)   Mike Pence said we “want policies to fail” Rush Limbaugh said he wanted the Presisent to fail.
The Repubs did pretty much as they said they would. Offered  NOTHING to help the economy as that would help Obama, brought Congress to a near standstill with filibusters (137 first two years) and obstructionism.
Now, they say Obama failed.

http://www.facebook.com/lee.lanza.7 Lee Lanza

I think if these panelists are representative of the Republican Party, then the denial of reality continues. All of the panelists resisted the idea of truly examining and questioning their political assumptions. They talked a lot about packaging their message but would not contemplate the possibility that the message is in fact the problem. I believe the party has nothing to offer ordinary people; they have chosen to make the very rich their constituency. From Nixon and George Wallace they learned to distract voters with controversial social issues like race, immigration, abortion, gun rights, and gay bashing, and this worked just well enough they didn’t feel a need to examine their real political ideas. Their ideas are neither new nor creative. Making the world safe for business by opposing all regulation, taking from the middle class to give to the rich – why would anyone except Mitt Romney vote for those things? And the array of pathetically incompetent or downright crazy candidates in the Republican primaries makes clear that Mitt was the “best” the Republicans could come up with. A party that thinks Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan are deep thinkers is in big trouble. And the irony of one of the panelists whining about the mean Democrats who learned how to use the internet to organize voters and the evil media who reported things that candidates said – quite amusing coming from members of the party that stated its goal was to block Obama’s reelection, and has various members who have called the President a Muslim, a Hitler, and a socialist (odd as that combination may sound).

http://profile.yahoo.com/BL473Z74XGZKP3LFUMOOTJXRFU yahoo-BL473Z74XGZKP3LFUMOOTJXRFU

Somehow I don’t think much change is in order for the GOP. The guests seemed more interested in blaming Democrats and avoiding tough questions, rather than being introspective and truly thoughtful.

Not a word was said about the black community. Has the GOP given up on this bloc? What about the gay community?

If anything, the GOP will try to put a PR spin on their same stale ideas (if they can be called ideas).

JGC

The GOP has done the math (maybe that had to be outsourced to experts who know how to do math), and black and gay communities are perhaps not enough “vote rich” to take any associated risk.

Just look at the credentials of guest Jennifer Sevilla Korn: “Director of Hispanic and Women’s Affairs” in the GWBush administration. A bizarre combination for sure (why not Director of LGBT and Women’s Affairs, or of Hispanic and Black Affairs?), an office concocted for no reason other than to answer the question, “Where do we mine for the votes?”

Gregg Smith

I suppose I should give kudos to OP for having Conservatives on but wow, I’m hard pressed to do so. The first clue was in the intro when Mr. Ashbrook said Republicans were finally ready to talk immigration. What? Who tried harder to reform immigration than Bush? Obama said immigration reform was a priority back in 2008 and didn’t do squat. He didn’t even try. False premises bug me and the starting point was Republicans are run by a bunch of religious anti-science zealots who want in your bedroom. From there the debate devolved into lecturing Republicans that they must accept how nasty they are and move left. It was surreal. If only all Republicans could be like David Brooks was Mr. Ashbrook’s theme. Brooks wasn’t crazy about Palin but McCain was his perfect candidate. The squishy middle looses, no wonder Democrats want Republicans to be like Brooks.

When the Democrats lost big in 2010 there were no shows on the regrouping of the Democrat party, I checked (11/2010 thru 2/2011). There was a show on the GOP agenda which was just a bash fest. Nobody suggested Democrats move right or compromise in any way.

Meanwhile the economy is on the verge of a double-dip recession and in fact it’s far worse than when Democrats said we WERE in a recession under Bush. Obama policies have failed miserably and there is little hope for improvement.

Ray in VT

When under Bush? I hope that you’re not suggesting that at present we are worse off economically than we were when everything was falling apart in 2008.
- Gregg Smith
  
  I think I could make that case because TARP largely fixed the crisis as bad as it was implemented and now there is lille hope for improvement. But no that’s not what I meant. It was said in 2005, 2006 and 2007 that we were in recession by all kinds of folks. Search “Bush Recession” in a custom time range. We were not in recession and in fact the economy was much stronger than it is now.
  - Ray in VT
    
    I think that any attempt to make such a case for comparing 2008 to now would be hopelessly futile, based upon the numbers.
    
    I googled “Bush Recession”, and my first results page all pointed to 2008, except for one pointed to a Mary Matalin quote.
    
    I’m sure that there were some people saying how bad things were in 2005-2006, but to describe the situation then as a recession would be innaccurate, and one could make a valid argument that we were in a stronger position then, based upon the numbers.
    
    There were some signs that should have worried more people then, given a couple of GDP dips in 2005 and 2006, but things had been rolling around, and I don’t think that a lot of people were looking hard at those numbers. I think that a lot more people were focused on Iraq. There were also some dips in the jobs numbers, but, again, things seemed to be rolling along, so I don’t think that people gave it much thought. I think that if more people had known what was going on in parts of the banking sector, then there might have been more concern, considering how badly that all blew up in our face, but not many people were paying attention to CDOs, CDSs and the degree to which many institutions were becoming too highly leveraged.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      “I’m sure that there were some people saying how bad things were in 2005-2006, but to describe the situation then as a recession would be inaccurate, …”
      
      That’s my point. It was labeled a recession and it wasn’t.
    - Ray in VT
      
      Do you have some specific examples of people who did? For all of the problems that the economy may have had at that point, it was not a recession, just periods of what was at times lackluster growth.
  - http://www.facebook.com/fbonjo Forrest Bonjo
    
    durring the last years of the bush presidency our economy was in free fall and we were losing thousands of jobs every month. worse we were spending at times upwards of 16 billion dollers on the failed Iraq War. The overwelming unpopularity of this war across the globe drove down investor confidence in the USA and has contributed to our debt in a big way. So no things weren’t better under President Bush no matter how much you want to believe they were.
- anamaria23
  
  It is all so confusing. On President Obama’s inaugeration night in 2009, the Repubs met for four hours.( Robert Draper book “Do NOt Ask What Good I Can Do”) 2012. Their objective was to “ challange every single bill, show unyeilding opposition to economic policies” Mike Pence said we “want Obama policies to fail” Rush Limbaugh said he wanted the President to fail which would mean the country fails.
  The Repubs did pretty much as they said they would. Offered NOTHING to help the economy, said the 2010 election was about jobs???, blocked the Jobs Bill, as that would help Obama, brought Congress to a near standstill with filibusters and obstructionism (137 first two years)
  Now, they say Obama failed?
  Karma is real.
  - Gregg Smith
    
    The Republican House passed over 25 jobs bills. The Democrat Senate said no and they never got a vote.
    
    Obama’s policies have failed but he got what he wanted. He’s not interested in no stinkin’ recovery. He is fundamentally transforming America… as promised. In that sense he did not fail as I hoped he would.
    - Ray in VT
      
      Many of those “jobs bills” were just special tax carve outs to certain groups or industries that one group of economists said would likely to do little to nothing in both the short or long term to actually spur job growth.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Why not vote? That’s the process, vote. How can there be compromise with no foundation? The fact is many would have passed.
    - Ray in VT
      
      I’m not opposed to having them come to the floor, and some probably would have passed. Maybe they can strike a deal to bring them to the floor in exchange for the GOP halting their silent filibuster of Democratic legislation and nominees. Maybe we can get rid of the secret hold too.
  - JGC
    
    From Ezra Klein in the New Yorker this week:
    
    There’s no perfect measure of how frequently filibusters occur. The closest thing we have to account is the number of cloture votes the majority mounts. From 1917 to 1970, the majority sought cloture 58 times. Since the start of President Obama’s first term, it has sought cloture 250 times. Even that is probably an undercount, as it misses all the moments when the majority just gave up on an issue before a vote was mounted.
    - Gregg Smith
      
      It’s impossible for Republicans to filibuster a bill that is not brought to a vote.
    - Ray in VT
      
      “In years past, real filibusters rarely happened since they required opposition senators to go to the effort of standing on their feet and speaking continuously for hours on end. Only the most intense and dedicated opposition would mount filibusters. But with the advent of the “silent” filibuster, which requires no effort (other than telling the Majority Leader that there are 41 members opposed to a bill), the number of “filibusters” has increased enormously. The practice of requiring a supermajority of 60 has now become routine.”
      
      http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/why-the-silent-filibuster-is-unconstitutional/68825/
    - Gregg Smith
      
      Maybe I’m wrong but I infer your point is Republicans are obstructionist and Obama’s hands are tied. If so, I disagree. It’s ask excuse for lack of leadership. All president have opposition, some work with congress and some dig in and refuse to budge.
    - Ray in VT
      
      Some opposition chooses to work with the other party, and some dig in their heels and refuse to budge. Given that the GOP controls the House, I think that they should vote and work to reconcile the bills from the separate chambers.
      
      I’m not a fan of the filibuster, but at least I think that they should have to stand up and talk if they really want to hold up business. My position regarding the filibuster was pretty popular with the GOP when the Democrats were in the minority and used it.

http://profile.yahoo.com/7M2ZQQJ3RVJUPVKUMNRZXBSTXQ Marie

I fail to see the GOP changing from their No approach. One would think the assault weapon use, and the ammunition amount would be a topic of compromise. Does not seem to be the case. Again the GOP is out of touch with what is sane. It seems like the NRA influence and helping gun manufacturer’s profits appeals to the GOP and not the life of our children.

http://www.facebook.com/tim.kakouris Tim Kakouris

It was fascinating to listen to the outright denial of your guests on tonight’s program. I was screaming at the radio as each of them dodged the questions about denial of climate change, intrusions into people’s private bedroom life, denying fact based science, etc. The conservative mantra continues: “Just blame the media for not getting our message out”. It’s not the media, my conservative friends. Your message stinks. Evolve or die. But, you will probably die because you don’t believe in evolution.

Gregg Smith

The show was so bad and most of these comments are so group thinky I’m beginning to wonder if there is something in the water. I will have a very exciting announcement and challenge for everybody tomorrow.

Fredlinskip

Are you proposing to Sarah?
JGC

How will I ever get to sleep tonight? It feels like Christmas Eve; I can’t wait until tomorrow!
- Gregg Smith
  
  I would suggest an extra beer.. or three.
  - JGC
    
    I’m working on it…
jefe68

You’re going to stop posting on this forum?
http://www.facebook.com/fbonjo Forrest Bonjo

bring it on dude

hennorama

Republicans are definitely adept at repeating their talking points over and over and over and over ad nauseum. Their spokepeople often seem able to do little else.

Barbour said:
-we’re the party of opportunity
-we want to get to the truth
-we have a real model within our party – our governors have very fresh ideas – they are the laboratories of democracy
-we have to be the party of ideas, the party of principle… a welcoming party … more opportunity and not just being opposed necessarily to whatever the President might be for
-from a technology standpoint the Obama campaign had an advantage
-from an organizational standpoint they went to a completely different level than where we are
-we have to train our candidates – a handful of candidates say some really stupid thing that put us in a bad position
-we have to get very serious in voter contact
-we have to engage we can’t just send out a flyer three weeks before the election and think that’s gonna have any impact
-the’ve gotta go out and talk about ideas in these communities and be ENGAGED
-we’ve gotta do a better job of explaining what we’re for why we’re for it and why it’s good for their lives and we have to go after every voter in every state

One could argue the Republican Party’s 2012 fate was sealed when they ousted Michael Steele from the RNC chairmanship in January 2011.

Steele was both cryptic and prescient when he remarked to CNN “…the establishment … they have control of the RNC now; let’s see what they do with it.” When discussing how Karl Rove had attacked him in the Wall Street Journal prior to his ouster, Steele said “Karl’s been attacking me for years … I think the reality of it is Karl doesn’t know what he’s talking about…”

In the video in the link below, Steele goes on to discuss his approach and how it was different:

“The other thing that we did, that a lot of the establishment folks like Karl and others don’t get, is that we not only took our volunteers and got them out there and engaged again, but they actually began to donate to the Party. So a lot of small dollar donors came to the table as well.”

Hmmm … engaged volunteers out in the community, small dollar donors … does this remind you of another political organization, one that was a tad more successful in 2012? Does this sound anything like what Barbour and others are saying now, about voter contact and engagement?

Steele was right, and Rove and the other Republicans were wrong. Again. Steele seemed to see what was coming, but was ignored. I guess it takes getting their asses handed to them by losing the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections for them to wise up.

We’ll see. Prince Reebus (yes, I know that’s not his actual name) was just re-elected. While accepting, he said ““We want to be Republicans for everybody. We have to take our message of opportunity where it’s not being heard. We have to build better relationships in minority communities, urban centers and college towns. We need a permanent growing presence.”

There’s that “we’re the party of opportunity” thing again. As any good Missourian might say – “Show me.”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/19/steele-gop-relieved-im-gone/

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZVJEN7QITAHQJRBWIZCPGQXNAE Chris

Tom’s display of patience during that segment is remarkable. To quote Colbert it was “like boxing a glacier.” I’m disappointed we could not get any straight answers from these guests. The callers had reasonable gripes and concerns and all they got in return was political spin and diversion tactics. The guests seem so determined to better sell their BS rather than explore what makes it BS. Wealth distribution graphs don’t lie. The hard working people of this country are not getting anywhere close to a fair deal and they know it. Minimum wage is a joke, people’s rights are being constrained, poor kids are fighting wars for rich men, schools are underfunded while colleges overcharge, the private prison system is running wild, African-Americans are unfairly targeted by it . . . the list goes on. Democrats, while far from perfect, at least seem to acknowledge these injustices from time to time, while Republicans refuse to face anything that could hurt the status quo.

2Gary2

This is like trying to polish a turd–just trying to change how the turd looks does not change the fact that it is still a turd.

barneshr

Is it really possible that you went through this whole hour without uttering the words “Tea Party?” Hello? Generally, I find that TA is more inclined to generate controversy than to establish a factual basis to evaluate the question proposed, but tonight both he and the guests were totally oblivious to one of the most urgent problems confronting the republicoids. As a very liberal Democrat, I find it heartening to see how dull witted and delusional are the poor ninnies charged with rehabilitating the republican brand. There is some hope. But On Point should be recruiting for a more effective interviewer.

seethingsclearly

The Republican party deserves
no sympathy for its electoral woes. Tone-deaf
guests Barber, Korn, and Alfano only care about “rebranding,” as if putting poison
into cheery new bottles would magically transform it into nourishing food. Their efforts amount to pure PR through and
through, which several callers saw clearly.�
What these people reveal is a bedrock Republican principle: strict evasion of any responsibility for foisting
upon the public policies that have long been discredited and exposed as
miserable failures. These so-called
strategists easily avoided answering any of the softball questions lobbed at
them by an entirely too sympathetic Tom Ashbrook, while demonstrating an
adamant unwillingness to muster even a moment’s worth of genuine self-reflection.

Conservatism is a morally and
intellectually bankrupt movement. It has
had its day in the sun. It has dominated
the economic and political world for thirty-odd years, and the results have
been spectacularly, flamboyantly disastrous.�
But instead of admitting this obvious yet painful truth, these diehards hang
on to their outmoded notions with a willful ignorance reminiscent of the
villagers in the fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

bjp4321

Your guest went on a rant about the “bloated” federal government and then followed it up with “how great Virginia” was doing.
I am disappointed that she was allowed to get away with that since Bob McDonnall and the republican party are responsible for:
1) Borrowing $700 M from the state’s already underfunded employees’ pension plan with no solid plans to raise the revenue to pay it back. That is how they balanced the state budget, with borrowed money.
2) cutting budgets for the Virginia School districts, colleges, and universities. Causing larger classes and fewer teachers.
3) depending upon that “bloated federal government” for more than 25% of the Virginia economy. In fact, they fought against a federal government military reorganization that would have eliminated government jobs in VA but would have cut federal waste and saved money.
4) A clear war against women by threatening the board members of the Board of Health with law suit if they didn’t make the recommendations he and cuccinelli desired.
5) Created a governor slush fund to give tax payer money away to privite industry without any public hearings, or legislator action. He has given away over $100,000,000 M to private companies in the guise of job creation. No metrics are maintained so noone knows if this is creating jobs or is just a patronage system.
The Republicans are not doing good things for the State of Virginia.

http://www.facebook.com/william.henry.allen.williams William Henry Allen Williams

It was disappointing on two fronts: First, although a lefty, I’m always interested in a free market idea to solve a problem before resorting to the government. So I expect, on climate change to hear the Republicans free market centered approach. What I get is them arguing about weather climate change is happening. This is more than just annoying, it means handing over possibly the biggest challenge to our country and our world. It could be a moment of American global leadership, and the Republicans are washing their hands of it. It cuts the innovation input in half. We’ll only get Democratic solutions. We’re gonna need ALL solutions.

Second: I prefer the Democrats, but if the Republicans render themselves unelectable, my party will go into decline. With no real competition they will become entrenched and corrupted. The Democrats need the right wing to keep us competitive and healthy. They LOST this election more than we won it.

After the civil rights movement had not produced a new utopia, as was expected, and stagflation set in the Democrats were in the wilderness in the 1980′s. With the wars in the middle east not an easy victory (as was promised), and laize faire’s failure at producing a Shangra-La economy (and resulting in the Great Recession), the Republicans are in the same boat. They should take a lesson from Clinton era democrats: What can they adopt from the other party and do better?

SamEw

After the party’s hit job on Newt Gingrich who was the only candidate for better or worse with new ideas in the last election cycle and also the party’s successful foisting on voters of ‘elect me because I’m a capitalist’ Romney, I don’t want to hear party officials talking about the need for visionaries or big thinkers.

http://www.facebook.com/mike.pomatto Mike Pomatto

Why all of the discussion on rebranding the Republican Party? This implies that society should maintain a two-party system. That’s anachronistic, possibly dangerously narrow thinking. We need to demand that election laws be relaxed to allow for more parties to have the opportunity to assert their ideas and candidates for elections.

Sy2502

I very much agree with you, America does need other voices in the political debate. Unfortunately people still consider votes to third parties as wasted. Moreover American politics has become a plutocracy, if you don’t have vast amounts of money you won’t go anywhere, and only the 2 main parties can drum up enough cash. So while I am with you on this, I don’t see it happening any time soon. But we still have the problem that one of the 2 parties in our 2 party system is in shambles. And that worries me a lot. Because all other countries where one party had unchecked power went down a really nasty road.

http://twitter.com/allen2saint allen 2saint

Isn’t it obvious that the Republicans, following McConnell’s orders to stop Barack at any cost, sold out to the Tea Party, like they did the Evangelicals before them, FULLY UNDERSTANDING that their ideas were poison. It’s not a mystery.

http://twitter.com/allen2saint allen 2saint

How does one exacerbate Limbaugh?

http://twitter.com/allen2saint allen 2saint

Kim Alfano is a talking point machine with zero nuance. Come on.

alanrleake

The GOP is only as good as the people it has. One thing that Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck & company do not have to qualify as respectable conservatives is that they do not practice the values of being constructive, intelligent, open minded, responsible, sincere, & truthful.
Alan Leake

Jerry Dunaway

You know, my local public radio station plays this show twice a day. I had to listen to it a second time to make sure I wasn’t being a “biased liberal.” After the second listen, I can say it appears to me that the GOP has no interest in changing their approach, or considering other views. The only real message I heard was that they were looking at how they could win — not how they could help this country…

NrthOfTheBorder

Speak for yourself.

plunkadelic_daydream

I have never heard so much “whistling in the dark” in one hour of radio. (It was honestly a little cringeworthy) Callers clearly stated they want their politicians take fact-based positions. The verdict is in on Supply Side economics, and Global Climate change is real. They also clearly want a separation of Religion from politics. The panel tearfully blamed negative adds and claimed that not enough people have heard about their great and innovative ideas, otherwise they would clearly vote for them. (very $ad)

I remember seeing both the conventions and I thought to myself one party has a lot of rich white people and a mishmash of aspirants, and the other looks like America.

In which tent would the hardcore racists rather be? What about the paranoid anti-government gun nuts? What about the tent that dictates what you should do with your body, or who you should or shouldn’t be married to?

To sum up, the ground has shifted underneath the pannel, and what we heard was an excruciating denial of political reality. The house is hopelessly gerrymandered, which is the only thing between us and a one party system.

Thank you Tom Ashbrook for a very revealing discussion.

http://twitter.com/blasterman1 blaster man

I have 3 points to make.
1. Science. They Republican guests did everything EXCEPT say they’re at war with science. Fiscal conservatives called in and said the thing holding them back is the stance on evolution, the climate, etc and in reply to this there were nothing but vague unrelated comments. “Well we don’t all have to agree on everything”. He’s right, we don’t all have to agree on everything but if they continue their war on science *I* believe the Republican party will be gone in a few decades.
2. Social Issues. In the last election social freedoms won every moral issue there was. Every state that had a vote on gay marriage approved it. Telling 2 consenting loving adults that they CAN’T be married is the IMMORAL thing to do and the population of the US is moving in a way polar opposite of the republican party.
3. Religion in government. I’ve heard Rush Limbaugh claim that we’ve always been a Christian nation. This just shows the complete ignorance of history within the Republican party. Most of the founding father’s were deists. They believed in god but they believed in science as well. They didn’t believe the bible was “the” word of god. Thomas Jefferson created his own bible. It’s funny how the Republican’s claim to be “scholars of history” yet don’t know this.

The guests answered all questions with vague generalities and it’s clear from their responses that they have no intention of actually changing their beliefs. Give it time, we’re at the start of a huge change in society and after a couple more elections you’re going to see them changing. Maybe they’ll actually admit that climate change is man made by 2025 or 2030.

http://www.jobwaltz.com JobWaltz.com

The caller Ben from Georgia nailed it – the GOP is a clone of the the Dems on the major issues. Both parties are the parties of ongoing deficits, war and crushing civil liberties. You’ll notice that Tom’s guests couldn’t even address Ben’s point; they are part of the establishment and couldn’t wrap their heads around it. Ron Paul was the only candidate that polled higher than Pres. Obama., because his policies attracted the middle, and most Americans describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially progressive.

effectfollows

Does Kim seriously think the problem is that Republicans don’t communicate their ideas clearly? Seriously? No, really, seriously?

The only problem the GOP has communicating their ideas, is that they do, in fact, communicate their ideas, and their ideas are disgusting. Americans heard the ideas, considered them, and rejected them, because they are bad ideas.

If the Republicans ever want to win another Presidential election, they should either change their ideas to make them acceptable to modern people, or they should go back to their previous decades-long tactic of lying about their intentions.

absolom99

Nothing but Republican doubespeak. They truly believe: We’ll win the Latino vote if we have MotherGoose and Little BoPeep whispering, “Hey all you Hispanics, get out of the USA!” rather than Rush Limbaugh shouting it.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=730150923 Brian Kitchen

I’m not exactly a young guy anymore…I was six years old when Ronald Reagan was elected. Yet, these Republicans keep talking about his musty old corpse and his musty old ideas. People younger than me in general don’t care about what supposedly worked 32 years ago…because it didn’t work then, and it still doesn’t work after three decades of change in society. These Republican PR people are just “putting face on their face,” to use a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” phrase. They’re out of touch, and after listening to this show, I heard no reason to believe that they will be any less out of touch four or forty years from now.

What I really loved was their statements about Republican governors in the states. In Pennsylvania (where I have the misfortune to reside), Virginia, Wisconsin etc, Republican governors are gutting labor rights and making efforts to change election laws to favor conservative districts at the expense of the popular vote. Winning elections by changing the rules is really the big Republican plan, while all this talk of “Big Ideas” and “coming together” is just window dressing, doublespeak, and lipservice.

They talk about the United States as a “center-right” nation. That could be true, but unfortunately they haven’t realized that the center-right party in this country is the DEMOCRATIC PARTY. The Republican Party is way out there far beyond the center-right.

The admonition to candidates like Todd Akin to “stop saying stupid things” won’t mask their stupid ideas forever.

I sincerely hope that people will not be fooled.

Regular_Listener

I have tried to tell this to the Republicans before, but they don’t want to know. They would prefer to think that the problem is with their messaging or branding or choice of candidates. They prefer to go on about Ronald Reagan and how they can once again be as popular as he was. I actually agree with the GOP on a number of things, but time and again, they come down on the side of the very rich against working people, and against the environment too. Again and again. And as these commentators demonstrated, they seem unable to accept that in order to appeal to more working people, people of color, and younger voters, some of their policies should probably be changed.

ExcellentNews

What do you expect from a party that is funded by corporate owners who KNOW that the way to make money is to change the advertisement, not the product…

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=529703489 Dan Bianco

Sevilla Korn speaks with such a quick, breathless cadence that it’s clear that her message is merely well-rehearsed. It sounds like she graduated with honors from the Paul Ryan Academy of BS. She can’t formulate a spontaneous argument… she can only try to fit her rehearsed bits into the varying shapes of the conversation. Plus she sounds like an addict who refuses to take responsibility for his or her failures. It’s all everyone else’s fault… the media… the Democrats.

Such a disappointing show in terms of coming in hoping to hear interesting new ideas from the GOP and instead hearing about branding and word-choice.

ExcellentNews

Oh man, when will the liberal media stop distorting the republican message ?!?! It is not “tax cuts for the rich will create jobs” – our conservative message really is “OBSCENE tax cuts for the rich will create jobs and turn your tap water into beer”… Plus, republicans have no problem with science, women and immigrants – just look at Bobby Jindal. Under republican rule, scientists who dissent from the corporate advertisements will be shot, and women and immigrants will be put in their place – pregnant in the kitchen and pruning the lawn respectively.

ExcellentNews

I have an idea for a new platform for the republican party that would be “believable” and would focus on what unites the voters:

“We like beer, pizza and babies”
“We are for losing weight”
“We are nice and we like kittens too”
“Look at that picture of my kitten!”
“Hola Pancho, como estas?”

If anyone from the communist liberal terrorist pro-death left tries to ask about tax cuts to bankers and oligarchs, more wars in the Middle East, environmental degradation, declining wages for people who actually do the work, indentured servitude through loans…etc, just say:

“Hola Pancho – did you look at that picture of my kitten!”

Problem solved!

Jasoturner

Wow, I just listened to this entire podcast on delay. If these people represent republican party thinking, they have no hope, none. The absolute refusal to grapple with facts and reality is staggering. Evolution isn’t something Henry Barbour can have an opinion on? Are you kidding me? Look, I’m not a republican fan, but the democrats need a reasonable ideological competitor. The republicans need to clean house before the party utterly collapses under a pile of delusions and fallacies.

http://www.facebook.com/denise.hunt.104 Denise Hunt

I am a African-American woman, who is a registered republican voter in the inner city of Jacksonville, Florida. I recently was sent a notice by a head-ranking republican party official asking me how to increase African-American voters in the republican party. The first thing, I told him he had to do, was stop the mean-spirited rhetoric coming from the party. Second, revise the image, show African-Americans that you care, come to where they are, explain your message of economic hope for all. Third, lose the social ideologies and focus on the economics. Fourth, change the mind-set, stop making assumptions that influence policy, for example, that African-Americans are just for Obama because he is Black, examine why they feel a natural affinity towards him, and let it go, and continue to focus on the economy and money. Fifth, incorporate social media and change how they communicate with the youth. I don’t think he listened to anything I had to say, he was stuck in his philosophical racist agendas that will continue to sink our party. They need to clean house at the helm of this party and reconnect with the average working class citizens of this nation. Leave racism, sexism and classism at the door, and lets get down to winning political races. After the only color that matters in America, is green, let that be the focus!

Guests

From Tom’s Reading List