Ghastly Outdated Party

[NJMaverick]

Quote:IT’S finally sinking in.

Republicans are getting queasy at the gruesome sight of their party eating itself alive, savaging the brand in ways that will long resonate.

“Republicans being against sex is not good,” the G.O.P. strategist Alex Castellanos told me mournfully. “Sex is popular.”

He said his party is “coming to grips with a weaker field than we’d all want” and going through the five stages of grief. “We’re at No. 4,” he said. (Depression.) “We’ve still got one to go.” (Acceptance.)

The contenders in the Hester Prynne primaries are tripping over one another trying to be the most radical, unreasonable and insane candidate they can be. They pounce on any traces of sanity in the other candidates — be it humanity toward women, compassion toward immigrants or the willingness to make the rich pay a nickel more in taxes — and try to destroy them with it.

President Obama has deranged conservatives just as W. deranged liberals. The right’s image of Obama, though, is more a figm

ent of its imagination than the left’s image of W. was.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinio....html?_r=1

[jaxx]

That's +2 for Dowd this week knocking the GOP. I have to think when she publishes this kind of rebuke to them it's really getting serious.

[pappy]

It must be very hard for old line Republicans this year. They know in their hearts that the field they have before them is disastrous to the future of the party.

The old line Republicans also know that a "brokered" convention will also be disastrous for the party but do they have any choice but to try for that outcome? Not exactly a "Catch-22" but not exactly good for them either.

Even if Romney wins he has proven a weak candidate and campaigner. If he loses you get Santorum or Gingrich, both highly unelectable in the general election. If somehow the primaries do not select a clear winner and the convention ends up in a floor fight it will expose the sharp divisions within the party.

I cannot see how the GOP survives this election without deep and lasting scars.

It almost makes me feel sorry for them.

[azmouse]

(02-26-2012 01:14 PM)pappy Wrote:  It must be very hard for old line Republicans this year. They know in their hearts that the field they have before them is disastrous to the future of the party.

The old line Republicans also know that a "brokered" convention will also be disastrous for the party but do they have any choice but to try for that outcome? Not exactly a "Catch-22" but not exactly good for them either.

Even if Romney wins he has proven a weak candidate and campaigner. If he loses you get Santorum or Gingrich, both highly unelectable in the general election. If somehow the primaries do not select a clear winner and the convention ends up in a floor fight it will expose the sharp divisions within the party.

I cannot see how the GOP survives this election without deep and lasting scars.

It almost makes me feel sorry for them.

<-------this is me thinking about the Republican party self-destructing

[SemiCharmedQuark]

They're saying that Romney's attack ads worked in MI because he is not going to win that state after being behind by 15. That's probably true to some degree, but personally I think what is helping Mitt there is Santorum himself and his batshit crazy tour across America.

[janedrake]

The law of unintended consequences... is making mincemeat of the Republican primaries. Power-hungry and desperate, they thought Citizens United would only bite "the other" in the behind. Gingrich and Santorum would long have been footnotes if it weren't for their private, hard-right patrons, and the GOP could have had a good eight months or so to propagandize to make Mediocre Mitt look like the best thing since sliced white bread. As it is, people who weren't paying attention before are now gazing with horror upon what remains of the Republican Party. Way to go, dumbasses!

[Andy823]

(02-26-2012 02:39 PM)SemiCharmedQuark Wrote:  They're saying that Romney's attack ads worked in MI because he is not going to win that state after being behind by 15. That's probably true to some degree, but personally I think what is helping Mitt there is Santorum himself and his batshit crazy tour across America.

I totally agree. The more Santorum opens his mouth, the more people can see just how crazy he really is. Now the die hard "crazies", the teabaggers, love him, even though they don't really understand that he is not in the same "religious" thinking process as they are. All they know is he "claims" to be a christian, and they don't consider Mitt to be a "real" christian, well that's good enough for them. If they only too the time to really see where Santorum would take the country, they too would be dumping him, but Santorum has to thank God everyday that the teabaggers are dumber than a box of rocks, so no matter what he says he will at least get their votes!

On the other hand any republican with an ounce of brains knows he is crazy, and they don't want him as their candidate. Even if they don't like Mitt, they "really" don't like Santorum.

Newt, well he is already history, his ego just won't admit to it!

[OptimistesMaddie]

When they married themselves to Jerry Fallwell and his ilk they doomed their party.

I don't just want them beat in the election....I want them crushed.

[jaxx]

(02-26-2012 08:26 PM)OptimistesMaddie Wrote:  When they married themselves to Jerry Fallwell and his ilk they doomed their party.

I don't just want them beat in the election....I want them crushed.

Crushed and their dreams of theocracy crushed with them. This bunch is nuts.

[Ikonoklast]

from the Faustian bargain the Republicans made with the religiously insane; they rode that tiger for near thirty years now, and they don't know how they can safely jump off without getting eaten.

[pappy]

(02-27-2012 09:37 AM)Ikonoklast Wrote:  from the Faustian bargain the Republicans made with the religiously insane; they rode that tiger for near thirty years now, and they don't know how they can safely jump off without getting eaten.

I think they actually hoped that jumping on a "tea party" band wagon they could pivot away from the religiously insane to the economically naive. Unfortunately for them, there is a large crossover membership between the two. Now they have one one foot balanced on the backs of the religious nuts and the other on the "tea party" bandwagon and the whole crew is lurching out of control towards the precipice of political oblivion.

I couldn't be happier.

[Ikonoklast]

(02-27-2012 09:44 AM)pappy Wrote:  

(02-27-2012 09:37 AM)Ikonoklast Wrote:  from the Faustian bargain the Republicans made with the religiously insane; they rode that tiger for near thirty years now, and they don't know how they can safely jump off without getting eaten.

I think they actually hoped that jumping on a "tea party" band wagon they could pivot away from the religiously insane to the economically naive. Unfortunately for them, there is a large crossover membership between the two. Now they have one one foot balanced on the backs of the religious nuts and the other on the "tea party" bandwagon and the whole crew is lurching out of control towards the precipice of political oblivion.

I couldn't be happier.

The end result from that little bit of acrobatics is that now instead of firmly riding the back of one tiger, they have one foot on the back of two tigers running full tilt over bumpy ground.

[pappy]

(02-27-2012 09:53 AM)Ikonoklast Wrote:  

(02-27-2012 09:44 AM)pappy Wrote:  I think they actually hoped that jumping on a "tea party" band wagon they could pivot away from the religiously insane to the economically naive. Unfortunately for them, there is a large crossover membership between the two. Now they have one one foot balanced on the backs of the religious nuts and the other on the "tea party" bandwagon and the whole crew is lurching out of control towards the precipice of political oblivion.

I couldn't be happier.

The end result from that little bit of acrobatics is that now instead of firmly riding the back of one tiger, they have one foot on the back of two tigers running full tilt over bumpy ground.

I just flashed on the image of the GOP as the coyote chasing the road runner and not realizing he was already 5 feet past the cliffs edge and he is still trying to run but there is no ground under him. I think we are now in the shocked look on the coyotes face stage and soon he will be plummeting towards a valley floor far below.