After the recent butt rip of Rick Perry, I've come to the conclusion that conservatives don't want anyone to be president. Of course, this makes sense on the one hand because they'd rather have the private sector run everything.
But their continual excitement followed quickly by derision and dismissal of every candidate that jumps into the race really has me wondering...who exactly do they want? At this point, I think it's just NOT OBAMA. This makes perfect sense to me in a whole "proving the opposition wrong" and "winning the argument" kind of way.
Or maybe it's that they have this fantastical vision of their perfect candidate...a former CEO...wealthy...a "job creator"...perhaps an ex-Governor from the South...a vehement hater of all social programs...someone who wants to privatize education and increase defense spending...pro life...pro death penalty...pro gun...pro Bible...pro Wall Street...Health care repealer...and someone who will benignly neglect the population of the country.
Does such a person exist?
4 comments:
Big deal.
4 yrs ago the GOP leaders were Giuliani (28%) & Thompson (23). Dems were Hillary (47) & Obama (26).
Total destruction of your opponent, regardless of their party affiliation, is the logical outcome of the Republican strategy of total demonization of the Democrats.
When your opponent is the ideological enemy, and you're on a crusade from God, anything is fair game. When victory is the only criterion, the ends justify the means. You saw this with Bush's campaign against McCain in 2000, where outright racist lies were told during the primaries.
The Republican Party is not an ideological whole. Just like the Democrats, they have several subgroups: pro-life activists, gun advocates, low-tax businessmen, oilmen, libertarians, racists (anti-immigration advocates these days), etc. Since the base of the Republican Party has been in the minority (basically, since the 1930s), they become better at banding together these often-disparate ideological threads and presenting a common front.
But this is a relatively tenuous grouping in the grand scheme of things. Catholics have historically been Democrats, but since abortion has become a hot-button issue Republicans have picked up many Catholics. But that's not written in stone: the death penalty, the disparity between rich and poor, the problem of too many guns, and the disintegrating social safety net are also Catholic concerns and in the long run the Republicans may lose many Catholics.
Similarly, many evangelicals don't think we should poison the water, foul the air and burn down every forest: we should be good stewards of the earth, not the overseers of its destruction.
Libertarians are suspicious of the Republican tendency to build a monstrously huge defense department and wage never-ending wars, and interfering with every third-world country that has two drops of oil. The marketplace should decide where we buy our oil, not our battleships. Real libertarians don't think government has any business telling gays or women what they can do with their bodies.
Businessmen are worried that the Tea Party is going to destroy public confidence in the markets, which do actually need regulation in order to avoid another meltdown. The problem is that businessmen always want other businesses to be regulated, but want a free hand in their own dealings. They also know we need to spend real money on crumbling infrastructure because they need it to do business.
These groups have gotten along for thirty years, but fault lines are there. If Republicans actually do some of the things they've been screaming about, their coalition will begin to collapse. In particular, if the abortion question were resolved in some way, Republicans would lose a great deal of support from religious groups that cannot condone the death penalty, torture, outright hatred of immigrants, screwing the poor, etc.
The issue of gays is quickly approaching that point: young people just don't give a damn about gay or straight, DADT is out, and even Dick Cheney is for gay marriage. Many states have gay marriage amendments coming up, but these are all dying gasps. In 10 years gay just isn't going to be an issue. If such a generational shift occurs with abortion -- and it's certainly possible in the Catholic Church with the way the Vatican is losing credibility with all the sex abuse scandals -- the Republican Party could lose a lot of steam very quickly. Note also that nearly all Hispanics are Catholic, and the vitriolic anti-immigrant fervor of many Republicans that so easily morphs into anti-Hispanic racism is a definite factor.
its going to be funny watchign you guys demand answers about the past of the republican nominee. you guys weren't curious at all about obamas past. you set your precedence so you better remember it because we sure remember it.
Total destruction of your opponent, regardless of their party affiliation, is the logical outcome of the Republican strategy of total demonization of the Democrats.
Funny how easily you can flip that around. Not that you see it that way I'm sure.
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