Originally posted by grover
what is to become of the GOP and will it fall or return to some form of relevance?

I have a dream ... in my dream the GOP and the Democratic Party will both be seen for what they are .. and Americans will wake up and vote them all out.

That's what I hope becomes of the GOP AND the Dems.

As for reality .. both the GOP and the Democratic party will probably continue to flip flop in a power struggle. I see no reason why this won't continue. The dems hold power for a while. Then the republicans. Then the dems again. There is no reason to believe this will change anytime soon.

Originally posted by grover

Originally posted by Uphill
Once the extreme right wingers go to the wall and fail, then and only then will the GOP have a chance to redefine itself. And I think that they will more successfully redefine themselves. We sure could use a political party that would accept a politician like Abraham Lincoln once again.

An excellent post and a star for you.

The GOP should no more defined by its right wing branches than the Democrats should by their most left wing ones... both are the poles and polarizing and most people fall somewhere in the middle.

I do not consider myself a Democrat... I have said that I have no faith in the Democrats but I have less faith in the Republicans... however I am an unabashed liberal.

Like most people while I lean towards one party over the other, in my case Democratic, I have voted Republican, especially on the local level and will probably do so again...

If the right wing continues its stranglehold on the GOP we will see it either fracture or fade away like the Whigs, Know Nothing party and other once powerful parties.

[edit on 29-4-2009 by grover]

Both very accurate observations. They (the very vocal and ignorant face of the Republican party), doesn’t get it. The “average” republican is a sane, reasonable person, that I believe just wants to be left alone by the Gov’t and not taxed into poverty. That is something that EVERY reasonable American wants. However they are NOT represented by what is left of the GOP. Their refusal to confront the extremely intrusive beliefs of their religious core has led them down the path to blind extremism and ignorance. Fiscal conservatism only applies to social programs. As can be seen quite clearly by the last 8 years, money is no object.
Afghanistan was an extreme response to extreme conditions but Iraq is a questionable project. Yet that is where all the focus has been.
I have always said they are both (Dems and Pubs) tax and spend. It’s just a matter of who they tax and what they spend it on. Personally I’d rather see it spent at home. And though they speak to the common sense of the people, they pander to the richest 5%. And while they try and hide behind the shield of alleged morality, it is nothing more than the intrusion of religious extremism into everyone’s personal rights. Yes, you are free to believe whatever you want, as long as it’s the same as them.
The republican party has disgraced itself and deserves to go down in flames.
Anybody who believes in true conservatism should consider another party like Libertarians (though I still have a few issues with them). I vote Lib on locals when I can just to help keep their numbers up, and I will occasionally vote for a Pub (rarely) but when it comes to presidential I am almost always voting AGAINST a Republican rather than for a Democrat. I am not a Dem. I am a little bit of all 3. That IS America.
The right is always screaming about the liberal news media but what they don’t get is that the news is just exposing their ignorance to the light.
You’re right. They don’t get it. Just like they don’t get Stephen Colbert.

Look at it this way... bush minor got selected... and spent a good portion of his first months in office deliberately undoing a lot of Clinton era laws, executive rulings etc.

Next Barack Obama gets elected and proceeds to undo bush minor era laws, executive rulings etc.

Then in 4 or 8 years down the road another guy comes along and (assuming they are still a viable party) is Republican and proceeds to do the same.

What good does any of this do the nation? The answer can be summed up in one word:

NONE!!!

IF both parties take the extreme polar opposite stances on the issues and then waste a lot of their political capital undoing each others work upon getting elected all it does is to serve their bases, serve the party instead of the nation and in doing so weakens the fabric of the nation itself until you reach what we have found ourselves in for the most part of the past two decades... gridlock.

And in the long run this serves no one; not the parties nor the nation, but instead serves only those who benefit from the lack of action.

So much faces us as a nation... if not immediately (and there is plenty now) but within the next 20 years (the environment, global warming, social security/medicare etc.) that unless we put this hysterical bickering aside...

just based on the projections regarding social security and medicare alone...

Put simply, the nation itself is doomed...

It will not be able to sustain itself... and we all suffer.

BTW I would argue that with bush minor the hard right of the GOP was tried and found wanting already which is why they are in the mess that they are in.

With the election of Barack Obama the voting public soundly repudiated their ideology and policies... and regardless of the fact that many conservatives did not consider McCain conservative... the voters did not make that distinction and the choice of the far more right wing Palin as his running mate ultimately scared off more than it attracted.

Also I still maintain that if McCain had run with the grace he conceded with as opposed to constantly sounding like a shrill, hysterical old man... he could have beaten Obama.

[edit on 30-4-2009 by grover]

The GOP seems hell bent on devouring itself from the inside... I am almost embarrassed for them every time I read the news about their infighting... when the Democrats did their soul searching it was far more private.

I think it is now possible for a third party to gain power, and I hope it happens.

And if the GOP dissappears, I say good riddence. Especially if the posters on this board are any indication.

I think it is now possible for a third party to gain power, and I hope it happens.

And if the GOP dissappears, I say good riddence. Especially if the posters on this board are any indication.