They're just better criminals than the Democrats. They've got think tanks that work around the clock to figure out ways to steal and shift wealth and power into their hands. Their recent heist was so big that it's crippled the world economy. But they've got people who will find ways to transform W's reign of terror, war and oppression into something glorious and wonderful in the history books.

Clearly, they weren't aggressive enough over the past two years. The GOP needs to become more conservative. I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"; encourage citizens to report any suspicion of neighbors, friends or family who engage in anything but missionary-position intercourse for the purpose of procreation - that sort of thing.

You got too soft GOP, it's time for a hard right turn!

This isn't that surprising, given the nature and tone of most of the comments coming after the election. Republicans are out in the wilderness now, and we are going to need to do some serious soul searching and reorganizing. So all of the discussion has been based around that. Of course your approval rating is going to go down when all you hear is "Republicans suck, they need to do X or they're going to die/become irrelevant."

The silver lining is simple - there's nowhere to go but up. After January 20th, the blame shifts.

Ideologues think that Republicans need more ideology: what a shock! The absence of peace and/or prosperity doesn't matter; Hannity/Beck/Limbaugh/O'Riley etc getting good ratings will save the party.

Lionel Mandrake: Clearly, they weren't aggressive enough over the past two years. The GOP needs to become more conservative. I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"; encourage citizens to report any suspicion of neighbors, friends or family who engage in anything but missionary-position intercourse for the purpose of procreation - that sort of thing.

You got too soft GOP, it's time for a hard right turn!

You're my new hero.

DeltaXi65: The silver lining is simple - there's nowhere to go but up.

Bush's approval ratings suggest that this is not true. They could keep dropping until the GOP ceases to exist and is replaced by another party.

The GOP needs to pray for guidance.

Lionel Mandrake: Clearly, they weren't aggressive enough over the past two years. The GOP needs to become more conservative. I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"; encourage citizens to report any suspicion of neighbors, friends or family who engage in anything but missionary-position intercourse for the purpose of procreation - that sort of thing.

You got too soft GOP, it's time for a hard right turn!

Well, in a way you are right. The only real hope for the GOP is to head towards a more Conservative agenda. But, that means that the GOP is going to have to abandon the radicals that have been leading the charge for a while.

Unfortunately for a lot of the folks with the reins, that means that the Neocons, the Corporatists, and the Religious Right need to relegated back to fringe roles, if not expunged from the party.

Conservatives need to take the party back from the radicals. The radicals have led us into bad waters, and if they want to keep going that way, they need to form their own party, and let the GOP head back their Conservative roots, as opposed to the radical shift that has dominated the party as of late.

Actual fiscal Conservatives need to step up--not the folks who blinded by a skewed table vision of "free markets" that are neither free nor fair; not the so called "social Conservatives" who likewise are neither terribly social in their revulsion for their neighbors, their choices, or trying to force their agenda down our throats; not the Neocons who have a radical vision of foreign policy that is dangerous and blinded by not just hatred of other social systems, but bound up with the Corporatist agenda of skewed markets and client state politics. We need real Conservatives, and not just the folks who like to use the brand to cover their very short sighted and radical agendas.

hubiestubert

I have Republicans like you highlighted in a color I like to call Rational Right Red. Unfortunately it doesn't get a whole lot of use around here.

Aarontology: hubiestubert

I have Republicans like you highlighted in a color I like to call Rational Right Red. Unfortunately it doesn't get a whole lot of use around here.

What bothers me, is the "I revile you for doing what I do" mentality. The whole monniker "RINO" is something imagined by folks who wouldn't know good Conservative politics if it bit them on the ass.

If anything, the folks who bandy the term about are the real RINOs. They are radicals who use the banner "Conservative" like a name brand, and to cover their radical agenda.

We let the Religious Right under the tent in a bald faced move to get their cash. Reagan played some footsie with them, George Bush sort of ignored them, and then they came full into their blush with Clinton to help the GOP surge ahead with the Contract for America. What is sad about it, is that in the push to get their cash, we ignored the cost of massaging these radicals.

We have seen a lot of folks who take their cash forget about what smaller, more efficient, and less obtrusive government means. And we've used these radicals to drum up support for horrible foreign policy, and justify it with visions of God, Guns and Glory that appeals to a sort of frontier mythos that none of these folks have ever really seen, save as on the big screen Western.

That these RINOs--yes, I'm looking at you Neocons and religious Fundamentalist asshats--have no idea what their policies really entail is what bothers me. Conservatism is about far reaching and long term solutions. Not the short term fixes and quick patches that the radicals prefer.

And as a Conservative, I despise radicals, because they are too quick, and none too bright to understand the implications of their actions. Which has typified the so called "solutions" to our problems with the Congress and the Presidency for the last ten years or so.

We don't need reactionaries. We don't need radicals. We need well thought out plans, that are backed by actual research, thought, and a long look at the Constitution. We need thinkers again. We need visionaries. We need better than the selfish and short sighted radicals who like to claim the title of Conservative, but have no intention of doing more than paying lip service, and just want to service their own very small, very tight agendas.

DeltaXi65: This isn't that surprising, given the nature and tone of most of the comments coming after the election. Republicans are out in the wilderness now, and we are going to need to do some serious soul searching and reorganizing. So all of the discussion has been based around that. Of course your approval rating is going to go down when all you hear is "Republicans suck, they need to do X or they're going to die/become irrelevant."

Oh yea - the discussion about their epic failure is what caused their epic failure. Right.

DeltaXi65: The silver lining is simple - there's nowhere to go but up. After January 20th, the blame shifts.

There's still a long way to go in the downwards direction.

Think Libertarian, Green or Socialist.

DeltaXi65: Republicans are out in the wilderness now, and we are going to need to do some serious soul searching and reorganizing.

You really should have been thinking about that a long time ago. The soul-searching should have begun when your party abandoned principle to cleave to GWB--supporting him in spurious wars and torture.

And you should have thought of it, too, when Delay and Abramoff and company were mortgaging your soul to big-money interests.

It may just be too late to save it all for a party that no longer actually stands for anything.

It could be their attitudes after the election. Obama DESTROYED McCain, but there's ten times the whining and crybaby bs as you got from the 'libs' when Bush beat Kerry.

Thanks alot President Grant.

Lionel Mandrake: I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"

They need to concentrate on this especially. According to Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (new window), saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" has caused the economic meltdown and will eventually lead to civilization breaking down a la Mad Max.

Lionel Mandrake: Clearly, they weren't aggressive enough over the past two years. The GOP needs to become more conservative. I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"; encourage citizens to report any suspicion of neighbors, friends or family who engage in anything but missionary-position intercourse for the purpose of procreation - that sort of thing.

You got too soft GOP, it's time for a hard right turn!

It was the death penalty part that made me LOL ...

Republicans;

Stop telling people what America is.
Stop telling people they hate America.
Stop telling Americans how to live.

You can start there and work your way up.

Renart: They need to concentrate on this especially. According to Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (new window), saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" has caused the economic meltdown and will eventually lead to civilization breaking down a la Mad Max.

Unfarkingbelievable.

DeltaXi65: The silver lining is simple - there's nowhere to go but up. After January 20th, the blame shifts.

Your brethren are still blaming Bill Clinton for everything that goes wrong. I wouldn't bank on that blame shift.

Kick the republican party out of the seats, put in the Libertarian party.
not because that's my party but because they would be next in line as far as # registered voters.

is this just a nice dream?

i know that scares the hell out of the bible thumpers.

GurneyHalleck: They're just better criminals than the Democrats

Democrats are crooks but they don't pretend to be otherwise. They don't claim to be moral and Christian and loyal and whatever else.

vernonFL:
Democrats are crooks but they don't pretend to be otherwise. They don't claim to be moral and Christian and loyal and whatever else.

I'm a former democratic candidate for elected office, so I'm really getting a kick out of your replies.

There's a reason Democrats ran the congress for 50 years after the Great Depression.

mediaho: Renart: They need to concentrate on this especially. According to Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (new window), saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" has caused the economic meltdown and will eventually lead to civilization breaking down a la Mad Max.

Unfarkingbelievable.

It's been said before, but lately it has become impossible to parody conservatives. Stephen Colbert barely even seems like an exaggeration now.

hubiestubert: We need real Conservatives, and not just the folks who like to use the brand to cover their very short sighted and radical agendas.

The problem is that all of the dissociated elements of the (former, I would say) GOP coalition consider themselves "TRUE" conservatives. I think I have an idea of what you mean when you say that, though, as my (mostly formerly) Republican friends are generally fiscally conservative, but socially libertarian. They may be a bit squeamish with things like gay marriage or abortion, but they're not too keen on using government to "protect" them from "evil" gays or "abortion mills." They now call themselves independent, but they are effectively Dems, if you go by how they vote.

Then there's my Bible-thumping aunt and uncle. They consider themselves the "TRUE" conservatives. They pay lip-service to "small government" and "fiscal responsibility," but pray (literally) for Constitutional Amendments to ban gay marriage and flag burning. It's also pretty clear that they blame every Muslim in the world for 9-11 and would gladly quintuple the debt to fund a Crusade against Islam (they never actually said this, but I don't believe I exaggerate much, if at all).

The first group (consisting of reasonable people with whom I frequently disagree) allied with the second group (people I consider entirely unreasonable and rarely capable of rational discourse) to build a winning coalition, which worked for a while but it is no longer viable.

Maybe this alliance can be patched up and held together long enough to win again, but it will always be fragile, especially since the Bible wing of the GOP is only getting more reactionary (witness the adoration of Palin and their willingness to defend her every action or statement, regardless of how ludicrous, and the active effort by many columnists/radio hosts to organize a purge of "moderates" and people who dared to criticize McCain's VP choice). This does not bode well for the Reasonable wing of the party.

Renart: Lionel Mandrake: I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"

They need to concentrate on this especially. According to Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (new window), saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" has caused the economic meltdown and will eventually lead to civilization breaking down a la Mad Max.

Baahaha

I like the picture caption:
Did the forces behind the movement to replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" have any correlation to the nation in a financial crisis? Dan Henninger of WSJ Editorial page looks at the issue.

The issue? Can you really call something you just pulled out of thin air an issue?

Dear Republican Party:

I would be a member if - You didn't spout such Amero-centrist propaganda. You didn't allow people like O'Reilly and Limbaugh to be your talking heads. You didn't crush civil liberties to stop things like abortions and gay marriage.

I will be a member if - You actually show some fiscal conservativeness. And I don't mean the BS 'well so and so voted against proposition 7677b which would have increased government spending by .0006%.

You practice smaller government, allowing each individual state to determine it's own laws on things like 'marijuana'

You got churches out of the equation, and removed fundamentalist christians from your party entirely. I'm a practicing christian and am debating seminary and a life in ministy. MY religious beliefs should not equal national law.

Defend and uphold the Constitution. We should fight to keep things more open, not less.

Kick out your fringe groups, focus on good economic development, let states do their activist judge crap and stop making legislation from the pulpit.

Until then, color me blue.

Republicans, we NEED you. The country needs you. We need you to be the voice that calls for less government involvement. We need a voice calling for ant-interventionism.

The country doesn't work well without you, we need you to temper the pace of change.

Please, take your party back.

They'll bounce back.
The pendulum will swing.
Americans are fickle people.

The question shouldn't be "What are Republicans going to do now that their image is in the crapper?"

The question should be "What will Democrats do with what time they have in the spotlight?"

HotWingConspiracy: Renart: Lionel Mandrake: I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"

They need to concentrate on this especially. According to Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (new window), saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" has caused the economic meltdown and will eventually lead to civilization breaking down a la Mad Max.

Baahaha

I like the picture caption:
Did the forces behind the movement to replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" have any correlation to the nation in a financial crisis? Dan Henninger of WSJ Editorial page looks at the issue.

The issue? Can you really call something you just pulled out of thin air their well-paddes, over-paid, fat arsean issue?

FTFY

HotWingConspiracy: I like the picture caption:
Did the forces behind the movement to replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" have any correlation to the nation in a financial crisis? Dan Henninger of WSJ Editorial page looks at the issue.

The issue? Can you really call something you just pulled out of thin air an issue?

Enquiring minds want to know!

The funniest thing to me about conservative outrage over the "war on Christmas" is that for the most part the "forces" behind it are businesses afraid of alienating their non-Christian customers. It's the free market at work!

PizzaJedi81: HotWingConspiracy: Renart: Lionel Mandrake: I suggest they appeal harder to "real" Americans by proposing a complete ban on abortions, no exceptions for incest, rape or the "health" of the mother; a proposed Constitutional Amendment to mandate strict observance of evangelical Christianity; the death penalty for people who say "Happy Holidays"

They need to concentrate on this especially. According to Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal (new window), saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" has caused the economic meltdown and will eventually lead to civilization breaking down a la Mad Max.

Baahaha

I like the picture caption:
Did the forces behind the movement to replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" have any correlation to the nation in a financial crisis? Dan Henninger of WSJ Editorial page looks at the issue.

The issue? Can you really call something you just pulled out of thin air their well-padded, over-paid, fat arse an issue?

FTFY

Crud...ftfm

Running a-puck: Republicans, we NEED you. The country needs you. We need you to be the voice that calls for less government involvement. We need a voice calling for ant-interventionism.

The country doesn't work well without you, we need you to temper the pace of change.

Please, take your party back.

You sound like the abused woman who still loves the boyfriend who beats her every night after dinner.

I told them Republicans and puppet show

Running a-puck: Republicans, we NEED you. The country needs you. We need you to be the voice that calls for less government involvement. We need a voice calling for ant-interventionism.

But they haven't actually practiced these things in my lifetime and I'm almost 38. The country needs a party that doesn't just play lip service to these ideals.

Whoops, wrong thread, but same thing applies.

Hideously Gigantic Smurf: They'll bounce back.
The pendulum will swing.
Americans are fickle people.

The question shouldn't be "What are Republicans going to do now that their image is in the crapper?"

The question should be "What will Democrats do with what time they have in the spotlight?"

I think the question should be "What are the Republicans going to do now that the Democrats have the spotlight?" Their reactions so far have been, in a word, childish.

It's hard to like a political party that has done it's utmost to destroy logic and progress.

When they get back to FISCAL conservatism and stay the hell out of people's lives, they'll have one HUGE line of people waiting to re-join them. Until then...

qorkfiend:

I think the question should be "What are the Republicans going to do now that the Democrats have the spotlight?" Their reactions so far have been, in a word, childish.

As anybody who voted for Obama because they actually listened to what he said and not what others said he said will tell you; Change doesn't happen overnight.

Lionel Mandrake

Maybe this alliance can be patched up and held together long enough to win again, but it will always be fragile, especially since the Bible wing of the GOP is only getting more reactionary (witness the adoration of Palin and their willingness to defend her every action or statement, regardless of how ludicrous, and the active effort by many columnists/radio hosts to organize a purge of "moderates" and people who dared to criticize McCain's VP choice). This does not bode well for the Reasonable wing of the party.

Thats the part I don't understand.

Why champion Governor Palin? I truly believe her to be an utter failure of a representative.

An elected representative should be the best among a group of people. I don't want my neighbor to be my Governor. I think she is a great neighbor, very nice, agrees with me on almost every moral issue I have, and have had a beer with her more then a couple times. But she is not fit to be my representative.

It's the LIB'S fault!!!

Yesterday some Republican was on NPR said it was "Lib's joining the party and saying they where Conservatives" that destroyed the party.

/couldn't find the archive for a link...

Wow, all these consolatory articles about the Repubs.

God I feel so sorry for them.

*snif*

The GOP's transformation to the Dixiecrat party is almost complete.

It's not the Evangelical's fault.

If you look at the Dixiecrat's from the 1970's and compare them to the GOP of today, you'll see there's more similarities between those two groups than between Evangelicals and Republicans.

1) Hostility towards minorities
2) Hostility towards civil rights (except for gun control).
3) Overdeveloped sense of victimhood.
4) Paranoia
5) Hostility towards non-rural people.

GurneyHalleck: Their recent heist was so big that it's crippled the world economy.

Glad somebody else noticed.

The only way the republicans can turn this around is if they are even more anti science, even more religiously nutty and even more fear mongering...

Aarontology: hubiestubert

I have Republicans like you highlighted in a color I like to call Rational Right Red. Unfortunately it doesn't get a whole lot of use around here.


Hubiestubert and I tend to be on opposing sides of most issues , but I've got him farkied for exactly that reason.

Reasoned debate with a Fark conservative? It's more likely than... ok, that might be pushing it a little. ;)

Philip J. Fry: Running a-puck: Republicans, we NEED you. The country needs you. We need you to be the voice that calls for less government involvement. We need a voice calling for ant-interventionism.

The country doesn't work well without you, we need you to temper the pace of change.

Please, take your party back.

You sound like the abused woman who still loves the boyfriend who beats her every night after dinner.

Sometimes I feel that way. We really do need a balance in government, however. Unalloyed conservatism breeds stagnation and inflexibility, possibly disastrous in the face of change. Unalloyed liberalism breeds instability and a tendency to look ahead and not see the pit at your feet.

mediaho: Running a-puck: Republicans, we NEED you. The country needs you. We need you to be the voice that calls for less government involvement. We need a voice calling for ant-interventionism.

But they haven't actually practiced these things in my lifetime and I'm almost 38. The country needs a party that doesn't just play lip service to these ideals.

No, they haven't. That doesn't mean that they can't in the future.
Honestly I think that if the libertarians can kick some of their whackjobs to the curb and.... moderate some of their more extreme party platforms they will be able to take the spot in the political landscape that is currently owned by the republicans.
They'll have to stop calling their countrymen fools while arguing that those same fools are capable of looking after themselves, but it's possible.

The GOP will be fine because once this administration is out of office they won't be burdened with trying to explain away the greatest heist in the history of civilization.

The GOP has suffered because the leader of the party was actively engaged in SO MANY unethical, corrupt activities that the biggest job any Republican had was finding a new way to spin the idiocy without stepping on the toes of the administration.

The 800 lbs. gorilla in the room will have retired to a ranch in Texas to snort bananas and get drunk.

But, their biggest ally will be time. See, by this time next year, anything that hasn't changed will become Obama's fault. They'll do what they always do when they want to mask their failures. They'll create a new enemy. It worked on 9/11.

Free Radical: Republicans;

Stop telling people what America is.
Stop telling people they hate America.
Stop telling Americans how to live.

You can start there and work your way up.

But that would be smart.

The other inconvenient truth is that outside of those three, the only remaining part of the party's platform is the utterly discredited every-man-for-himself, fark-the-rest unregulated, trickle down economics

What, seriously, do Republicans have to offer that reflects this decade, as against an Andy Griffith Show-style hallucination of The Way Things Used to Be?