The Republicans are a national party.

[TheMarauder]

Originally Posted by Itzena

There was a brief bit about that on the BBC's US election coverage: Urban populations are going up all across the south, and rural populations are declining...well, the white rural population is.

Another decade of the same changes and Texas will be a coin-toss. Another two, and it'll be solid blue. The WASP demographic which is the Republican party's core is going to become a minority within the US by the middle of the 21st century so either the Republicans drop their "One (white, Christian) nation under (a white Christian version of) God" rhetoric, or they become a footnote.

Pretty much what he said but on a longer timeframe. It all depends on future Republican and Democrat presidents and how they do. Democrats fail and Republicans "triumph": more conservatives and a new generation of "Reaganites". Democrats "triumph" and Republicans fail: accelerated trend of new liberal voters and Obama could be the new Reagan.

[Araxen]

If the economy turns around(highly unlikely) under Obama the Repubs are done for especially after the zero votes towards the stimulus thing they just pulled.

[Sharmai]

If the republicans supported Obama they would still be out of it for many years since they would essentially be agreeing that Obama is right and was the right choice.

If half of them supported Obama then they would just look like a party that's split and they would still be out of it.

Republicans are in a lose/lose and they see their best way to a return to victory as jumping on anything negative that should happen during Obama's administration. That way they can exploit it and say I told you so in the next election.

Of course if all this pressure from both sides just makes Obama work that much harder to succeed then politics is going to be very interesting for awhile.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Sharmai

If the republicans supported Obama they would still be out of it for many years since they would essentially be agreeing that Obama is right and was the right choice.

If half of them supported Obama then they would just look like a party that's split and they would still be out of it.

Republicans are in a lose/lose and they see their best way to a return to victory as jumping on anything negative that should happen during Obama's administration. That way they can exploit it and say I told you so in the next election.

Of course if all this pressure from both sides just makes Obama work that much harder to succeed then politics is going to be very interesting for awhile.

So in other words. They will do what every party does when they aren't the one who has the presidency.

[Dr. Funkenstein]

That and the "stimulus package" hardly has any "stimulus" in it. Why would a Republican vote for a huge Democratic pork bill? The Republican party IS split and divided...or at least was until the Democrats decided to present this bill and demand "bipartisanship".

The Republicans solidified the Democratic party by being morons when they had full power. The Democrats are going to do the same. Both parties suck. That's the whole point. They are supposed to balance each other out, keep the government from being able to do too much too soon and, hopefully, lead us down a path down the middle. Hopefully the next pendulum swing won't be as far right as the last swing that way. The country needs middle of the road for the next 10-15 years.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Dr. Funkenstein

That and the "stimulus package" hardly has any "stimulus" in it. Why would a Republican vote for a huge Democratic pork bill? The Republican party IS split and divided...or at least was until the Democrats decided to present this bill and demand "bipartisanship".

The Republicans solidified the Democratic party by being morons when they had full power. The Democrats are going to do the same. Both parties suck. That's the whole point. They are supposed to balance each other out, keep the government from being able to do too much too soon and, hopefully, lead us down a path down the middle. Hopefully the next pendulum swing won't be as far right as the last swing that way. The country needs middle of the road for the next 10-15 years.

This! Really couldn't have been said any better.

[Sharmai]

Everyone says they want the middle of the road but noone knows where middle is.

Edit*
Ok Both sides agree that something must be done. (Well there is a small minority that believe doing nothing is OK and that millions of hungry unemployed people will work it out for themselves but Lumie and his followers also believe in alien space dinosaurs with stone carving lasers sooo..)

The question has always been 'what' should be done. Now democrats could sit down with republicans and come up with a bi-partisian plan but then there's two more problems. 1. How much time do we have on this since evey day is another bad announcment. Maybe we have a whole year or 4 whole years but we do need to factor in how long it will take for whatever plan we implement to work. 2. When is the last time you saw a bi partisan plan that wasn't massively overblown with pork? That is not to say a non partisan plan has no pork because they do to. I just seem to remeber a recent previous stimulus package that got even bigger with more pork when it had to be made bi partisan to pass just as it was before.


Will Obama govern from the middle of the road? Define middle of the road and we will see.

[I'm Rich Bitch]

Originally Posted by Araxen

If the economy turns around(highly unlikely) under Obama the Repubs are done for especially after the zero votes towards the stimulus thing they just pulled.

It was a risk but a risk they had no choice but to take it. It could pay off for them however, the normal cycle of the economy says that it will turn itself around regardless of the stimulus bill. If the economy turns around, Democrats will argue that the stimulus bill helped and Republicans will argue that it did not.

It will be exactly like the "surge" argument except in reverse. Democrats argued the surge was not the reason for the turn around in Iraq while the Republicans argued it was.

Therefore, the stimulus bill may become a wash politically with the advantage to Obama by default.

At the end of the day the Republican party will remain predictable with its handful of topics:

1. The media is liberal and bias and against them. I am not sure if they think FOX News is part of the "media" or not.
2. They do not want to pay taxes.
3. They want endless war with Muslims, Communists, Illegals, Socialists, or whoever the latest talk radio bogeyman may be to blame the problems of the country on.
4. Ronald Reagan was great.

[Frieza_Prexus]

Originally Posted by IRB

They do not want to pay taxes.

And you do?

[I'm Rich Bitch]

Originally Posted by Frieza_Prexus

And you do?

No one wants to pay taxes but the Republican party is based on dodging taxes. This is not consistent with their so called support of the military. I am not sure who they think pays for the military.

The Republican party is a party whose only platform is that they do not want to pay taxes. That is their solution for every problem the country faces regardless if the issue is terrorism, economy, immigration, infrastructure, or public schools. Apparently according the Republicans if no one paid taxes all the problems in the world would be solve. It could solve world hunger also.

If you listen to the leader of the Republican party, Rush Limbaugh, every issue comes down to not paying taxes.

My Bipartisan Stimulus - Rush Limbaugh

I say, cut the U.S. corporate tax rate -- at 35%, among the highest of all industrialized nations -- in half. Suspend the capital gains tax for a year to incentivize new investment, after which it would be reimposed at 10%.

As a way to bring the country together and at the same time determine the most effective way to deal with recessions, under the Obama-Limbaugh Stimulus Plan of 2009: 54% of the $900 billion -- $486 billion -- will be spent on infrastructure and pork as defined by Mr. Obama and the Democrats; 46% -- $414 billion -- will be directed toward tax cuts, as determined by me.

The economic crisis is an opportunity to unify people, if we set aside the politics. The leader of the Democrats and the leader of the Republicans, me, can get it done.

[CnCGOD]

To Congressional Democrats Bi-partisan means "do everything we want". Obama seems to understand it but the Pelosi democrats don't. They excluded Republicans from every part of the bill, put tons of pork with no ties to stimulus into the bill, and then expected Republicans to vote for it without any compromise.

[Heylel Teomim]

You know, it bugs me that Rush can't bring himself to call him "President Obama" yet. It's always "Mr. Obama", never "Mr. President" etc.

It's tradition that we address the President with a certain amount of respect. It's why former Presidents are always referred to with their title once they're out of office. The guy won fair and square, Rush needs to at least show respect to the office if he can't show respect to the man.

[Heavens_Myst]

Republicans should have voted against the $700 billion in September and they should vote against this bill now. It's good for the country and good for the party for them to do so because the bill won't stimulate anything.

It's amusing to me that all these people who had Ron Paul's cock in their mouths during the Republican primary last year are now arguing for this bill when Paul wouldn't ever vote for this shit in 1000 years.

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by Sharmai

Everyone says they want the middle of the road but noone knows where middle is.

"Middle of the road" is slightly to the left of the current Democratic party. The Democrats 'as is' are occupying approximately the same political space as, say, the Nixon-era Republicans i.e. centre-right.

The Republican party has lurched significantly rightwards in the last two or three decades to such a degree that they're way, way to the right of where they used to be, and the Democrats have filled the void (Blue Dog democrats and all that).

Originally Posted by Frieza_Prexus

And you do? (want to pay taxes)

Nobody likes paying taxes. Most people understand why taxes exist, though - ignoring Randian silliness, certain things can simply be done better by Government than private industry.

...

In the longer term, of course. Free market capitalism is great for "So how much profit did we make this quarter?" while ignoring the "When this ride stops there's going to be Hell to pay" part.

[chaos]

Republicans should offer an alternative. Until then they are just a bunch of whiny bitches. First thing I learned about leadership in the military was that you don't sit around and bitch about the proposal, you either propose an alternative or STFU. If we can expect 18 year old high school drop-outs to master this logic, maybe the leaders of our nation could pull up their skirts, grab their balls and try doing something positive for their country for once. I understand that there isn't as much money in that, but for appearances sake at least you would think they would give it a shot.