The election already seems like a distant memory, and thankfully so.
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The flow of media postmortems has slowed to a trickle. Within that once-mighty flow, however, I missed a shining diamond in the Washington Post – Charles Krauthammer's take on what the GOP needs to change to be successful going forward. Here's a hint: nothing. It doesn't need to change anything. Well just one thing, I guess:
For the party in general, however, the problem is hardly structural. It requires but a single policy change: Border fence plus amnesty.
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Yes, amnesty. Use the word.
That takes care of the Hispanic vote! Problem solved. Electoral success guaranteed.
Republicans lost the election not because they advanced a bad argument but because they advanced a good argument not well enough. Romney ran a solid campaign, but he is by nature a Northeastern moderate.
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Spoken like a man who is wrong about everything. He's also pretty excited about the next generation of GOP celebrities:
Behind him, the party has an extraordinarily strong bench. In Congress — Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Kelly Ayotte, (the incoming) Ted Cruz and others. And the governors — Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Nikki Haley, plus former governor Jeb Bush and the soon-retiring Mitch Daniels.
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It's not merely strong; it's extraordinarily strong.
I didn't even have the heart to give this the full FJM, as it's 4 weeks old and monumentally stupid. Read it all yourself if you dare, and Republicans, take comfort in this 70 year old white guy's prognostication. Everything's fine.
Middle Seaman says:
I wouldn't dismiss Krauthammer off hand. Yesterday, NPR reported on 200 arch conservatives who came to Washington to advocate for a way for citizenship for undocumented immigrant who have been here for a long time and an immediate enactment of the Dream Act. The justification the bible calls for decent treatment of foreigners and the kids clearly are guilty of anything. The GOP has started to read the bible and even obey it. What a surprise.
What's more, 50% of our citizens vote GOP regularly anyway. Why wouldn't it work for 5% more?
Anonymouse says:
Yes, yes, Salt Lake Mitt's a "northeastern" (snort) "moderate" (double snort). Yeah, that's it. It can't POSSIBLY be that the GOP is so far to the right that batshit insane looks moderate compared to them.
RosiesDad says:
It is amazing how many conservative pundits are wrong about everything. Krauthammer, Brooks, Douthat, Will, and so on and so forth.
But it does make for amusing reading sometimes. Like those moments when you need to be reminded just how stupid and crazy some members of out society are.
c u n d gulag says:
Douchenozzle's a feckin' idiot.
But that doesn't mean that he's wrong this time.
As Middle Seaman says, there is a percentage of the voters who will reflexively vote Republicanas in any election – my opinion on the percentage is 45%.
That means that to win, they'll need some true Moderates to join in. A good chunk of what the MSM polled as "Independents" were really Republicans who rebranded themselves as "I's" after the disasterous Bush Presidency. "Independents" are not always "Moderates" – or vica versa. At least not in the last two elections.
And the Republicans could slap a token minority, or a woman, at the top of their ticket, or the VP slot, and the base might even be willing to go along: The evidence is that Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann all led at one point or another in their primaries. So someone of color or a woman might make it through the primary process.
And, agreeing to pass The Dream Act will certainly help.
Maybe that base will even accept The Dream Act, like they did when Reagan decided to allow the immigrants already here to stay here.
But the prejudices and hatreds of the Republican base run wide, long, and deep.
And I'm not sure that slapping some token minority or woman on the ticket won't lose them some voters, who'll stay home, rather than vote. Remember, with their Dominionist Evangelical Christian Manichean base, Jesus will also have to be consulted. But something tells me that after 4 years of Obama, they'll say that Jesus told them that a black, gay, woman, might just be ok with him.
The question is, how much will a minority or woman help with Moderates?
There's no argument that having either a minority or woman at the top won't hurt.
But they'll have to find some message for that minority or woman that will disguise and provide cover for the parties core remaining racists, misogynists, lingering xenophobics, and/or homophobics.
Remember that in 2016, unless Duvall Patrick or Corey Booker win the nomination, the Democratic candidate will be either a white male or female (so, how many anti-Obama voters may switch back to the Democratic party?).
But will finding a compelling message be enoough? Putting lipstick and a wig on a pig, still leaves them with a prettier, wiggier, pig.
But, enough Americans bought Bush's cover of "Compassionate Conservative" to make the 2000 election close enough for Jeb Bush and the SCOTUS to steal – so, don't discount their rebranding efforts.
So, making some slight consmetic changes, and their continued voter disenfranchisement and suppression efforts in Democratic areas, means that Republicans will certainly have a chance.
Also too, in the next 4 years, some states with Republican Governors and legislatures may shift their electoral votes from the winner with the most votes being given all of that states voters, to apportioning them via Congressional districts.
If that happns, states like PA, WI, OH, etc., may end up on the Republican side.
Having a minory or woman on the ticket will help the Republicans, but they'll continue to try to find ways to lie, cheat, and steal, to win elections.
Just like racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and/or homophobia, it's in their nature.
xynzee says:
"Why wouldn't it work for 5% more?"
Sadly and scarily there's far too much truth in that.
doug says:
How many brains did he screw up as a psychiatrist?
anotherbozo says:
I don't have the heart (no, make that stomach) to read Krauthammer uncut, but Riley over at Bats Left, Throws Right had fun with other Republican "analysts" yesterday. The attempts of the right to divine what happened to it and prescribe for the future make for the most entertaining spectacle since the primary:
http://doghouseriley.blogspot.com/
Meanwhile it finally came home to me what the Tea Party means to the GOP. Bob Dole (!) and McCain both came out for the U.N. disabilities treaty but it failed to pass. Even if we inspired it, we cain't trust no goddam U.N. treaty!
LK says:
"The darker arts of public persuasion."
Priceless.
deep says:
c u n d gulag said:
I'm one of those "I's". I'm a big supporter of Obama because a Dr. Cornel West said, he's a "Rockefeller Republican".
When I hear things like even BOB DOLE can't convince his party to ratify international treaties, you'd better believe I'm not going back to the GOP until they get some sense knocked into them. (or out of them? I don't know anymore.)
c u n d gulag says:
deep,
I grew up in NY, and l loved Rocky – everything except for the draconian and idiotic drug laws that he gave his name to.
what the karp?!? says:
I'm sick of hearing about Scott Walker. I hope this John Doe investigation turns up something big and all these republicans realize they voted for a criminal, twice.
acer says:
I tend to think the GOP has a MUCH stronger bench than the Democrats and particularly worry about Rubio. But I'd be a bit surprised if the next big superstars were Paul Ryan and Scott Walker. Is Sarah Palin not available?
deep says:
Good point, sir.
bb in GA says:
Now's the time to trot out the factoid that the 'Romoney' got the same percentage of the Evangelical vote (78% to BHO's 21%) that Bush 43 got in 2004 and he got a slightly higher percentage of that vote than did McGoo and Palin.
So much for y'all sneering about how the Evangelicals wouldn't vote for no damn Mormon…
//bb
c u n d gulag says:
bb,
I never thought that. Or if I ever did, I stopped thinking that when Romney was the obvious nominee.
Being Mormon was nothing compared to being a Nigrah.
bb in GA says:
Yeah, but the Black man won twice. How could that happen in the evil racist America?
//bb
c u n d gulag says:
bb,
Mebbe 'cause the racists is dyin' out?
Or, at least being outnumbered by the people who ain't.
Also too – W was so, so bad, that even a black guy with the most unlikely name possible for a US President, won that election.
Bob says:
Everything is fine for the party that has lost the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 elections. For the party that last had a presidential candidate attain 300 electoral votes in 1988 – something the Democrats have done 4 times since. Sure Chuck, all is well.
bb in GA says:
Why are y'all so concerned about the Rs? If they are self immolating in slo mo, shouldn't the response be per Machiavelli? Hush and get out of the way?
//bb
mothra says:
Why are y'all so concerned about the Rs?
Because only stupid people sit back and become complacent about having vanquished their "enemy?" In politics, nothing is dead (or killed) forever.
Alan C says:
I think a lot of people will vote for a candidate whose principles they disagree with but whom they respect because he sticks by his principles while being able to work across the aisle. Of course the present GOP nominated someone with absolutely no principles, and most of their party holds to batshit crazy principles and shows no willingness to compromise with Democrats on anything. That's not a recipe for success.
Da Moose says:
Chuck Cracksmoker. Always good for a laugh.
bb in GA says:
@mothra
I think you're right. Our young President is trying to drive the staub into Dracula's heart…
He may succeed in having the Rs rip themselves apart 'tween the RINOs and the T-party Rs by remaining intransigent on the Cliff non-deal.
//bb
HoosierPoli says:
Liberals ought to be terrified of Rubio. Dems don't have a candidate at all. 2016 looks grim, Executively-speaking.
mel in oregon says:
kraughthammer's sickening to listen to, which is why people with good sense never listen to him or any other rightwing blowhard. but why would any progressive care what the republicans need to do to be more relevant? we have two branches of a very conservative plutocracy in this country, demos & repubs. both are disgusting, the only difference is the republicans are so far to the right, they are beginning to look like nazis from the 1930s. everything americans want they don't get, the wars to end now, taxation that makes the wealthy pay their fare share, no more bailing out of banks, stopping the hemorrhaging of jobs to china, leaving social security, medicare, unemployment benefits & food stamps alone. but then that would be democracy, which we had decades ago, but is rapidly disappearing.
Major Kong says:
Better make it a double border fence, and put a moat in between just to be sure.
It'd probably be cheaper just to pay people to stay in Mexico.
"Fixed defenses are monuments to the stupidity of man" – George S. Patton
sluggo says:
Can we put that fence along theOhio River?
sluggo says:
Woops I forgot I moved ten years ago.
Isaac says:
Major Kong:
It's actually about 5 miles of fence, moat, electrified barbed wire and the occasional river, I drove across it several times this summer for work. And those ex-marine types we have stationed on the Southern border are the meanest sons-of-guns I've ever come across.
Major Kong says:
@bb
I am both surprised and on the other hand not surprised at all that evangelicals went of Romney as much as they did. I mean, better a Mormon than a kenyanatheistsatanworshippingmuslimsocialist right?
I wonder if Franklin Graham's website has gone back to listing LDS as a "cult" now that one isn't on the GOP presidential ticket.
Bernard says:
nah, don't count the American version of the German Nazis down or out. they will scurry away under the light of day, but when the practitioners of the dark arts have their opportunities to do what they do best, BS the white folks, blame it on the "Other". you will see how quickly the Republicans/American Nazis return to their everloving Feudal heaven on earth.
the Gods of Greed has snookered the dumb white folks for a long time. the only way for the Republicans to stop is through not enough dumb whites and then this "game" will crash, hard. very very hard.on all of us, unfortunately. we are all Jesus' children and" what you do unto the poor…." Krauthamer and the rest of the Rats know the money and the media are behind them.
just watch what happens if blacks and latinos, et al. don't stop them come 2014,which i doubt. the glow of victory is a good drug of apathy. the Republicans are still practicing their dark arts.State redistricting means safe RED House seats. and see Michigan today. and the loonies like Rubio, Jeb Bush's children, Jindal and other tokens,"white on the inside," "hollow" minorites carry the formaldehyde that is the Right's BS.
I always think of NPR, Nice Polite Republicans, as proof of how smart and adaptive these thugs are. play to the audience and make them think they are smart and powerful. and then whap! lol
Republican control is the default position in the "game" of US politics now. only if the blacks, latinos, gays, women and "47%" repeatedly stop the Republican hate machine will their be any respite from the vitrol of the Right. at least until the dumb white folks die off or educate themselves. choices, choices, choices.
at least now we know what a 3rd world banana Republic looks like. Welcome to the Republican version of America.
cromartie says:
@sluggo If you've ever been to Cincinnati, you know that that fence needs to be a few miles north of the Ohio River.
In fact, the South starts in Monroe, OH. Look to your left on I-75 and you'll see a gigantic statue of Jesus. Look to your right and there's a flea market with a gigantic, anatomically correct statue of a horse. Everything from there on down needs to be south of that fence.
bb in GA says:
Much is made here of how y'all would like to cut us loose (Red States generally- The South in particular) and be done w/ our teat suckin' life style from the Federales (most Red states are net Tax consumers).
What is the real deal here? States send money to DC unencumbered (both the government and individuals) in that it goes to the Feds w/o any conditions on how it can be spent However, money flowing in the other direction is decidedly not always a straight cash transfer to our State or individual debit card.
Reams of conditions, regulations, and paper work accompany many of the megabucks to the point that maybe all of us would be better off without it.
Y'all who pay the extra freight and we who receive the 'largesse' wrapped in bullsh*t Do away with most of it and maybe we will all be better off.
Or as you suggest, do away w/ us.
//bb
bb in GA says:
@bernard
as an old, dumb white person….Huh?
//bb
Brian says:
What happened to NPF?
beejeez says:
Yeah, Dems are lucky that right now Republicans are looking in all the wrong places to restore their competitiveness, but that won't last forever. Gotta keep the pedal down and the steering wheel all the way counterclockwise every day.
mel in oregon says:
right now conservatism & the republicans that worship at that altar are in disarray proven somewhat by jim demints leaving the senate to go be a whore for the "heritage foundation". he's really no different though than all the whore athletes & hollywood movie stars who whore it up for whatever corporation pays them the biggest bucks. but the real issue isn't so much that the conservatives are down, so we as progressives can say, "happy days are here again". nope, we've got much more troubling news regardless whether gin & tacos or other liberal websites are even aware of it. when you have bernanke constantly fiddling with our finances through quantative easing & other measures that lower the value of the dollar, the poor & working people in america suffer from this even if they don't know why. gasoline keeps going up, so do groceries, so does medicine, that's the american capitalistic way, fuck the poor, make every motherfucker with $10 million net worth much richer. but wait a minute! countries holding our debt like china & japan don't like it when the fed keeps pouring new capital into the system because their loans become a lot cheaper. so those two countries are entering into an agreement to use their own currencies bypassing the dollar in all future trades. so are russia, china, india, brazil & south africa. when the dollar is no longer the world's currency, it won't be worth diddly as a foreign exchange value. why do you think gold & silver have spiked so much in the last ten years? well here's a clue, their amount isn't less, they can't be increased with a printing press like a paper product. so hyper-inflation is a real probablity in our near future, much like it was for germany after ww1. well what about all these doomsday preppers you might ask? they're somewhat deluded into believing storing up 50,000 rolls of toilet paper, water & food & plenty of ammo will get them through. nope, when hyper-inflation sets in in america, the threat of nuclear war increases by several orders of magnitude. the radiation would contaminate everything including the animals you would hunt or the plants they feed on. the answer? oh we all know that, no point in stating it again. just suffice it to say, wallstreet, the pentagon & our outsourcing corportions won't let us change or modify our system whereby we would become a democracy & not exploit america's poor & the rest of the planet's poor.
Bernard says:
BB, i have to admit i was a dumb white person, i actually thought white folks cared about others, you know, that Christian thing they banter about. and being from teh South myself, well. Now, i know better. took a long while to learn. BUT i learned.
thing is, i chose to educate myself and see the "error" of my ways. that is the gift of thinking/aging/getting older. for i once was a dumb/Republican idiot/ who voted for the Great Communicator once.! St. Reagan who sold us out to the American Nazis. i at least have educated myself enough to see the stupidity of hate and greed and/envy the Republicans have bestowed upon America.
those three things, hate, greed and envy/. are the foundation of the REpublican party today. i hope you like what your kind has done to the South and the Country. from my point of view, Hell is probably a nice more congenial place than those who seek to impose their moral values on others, or use hate to "get over". what's more, i understand where the Right is coming from. Southern White people think southern white people are the same. Skin color bought me access to the mind of the Southern White mindset.
America is now a 3rd world country, thanks to the Repubilcan party. i can tell you that, cause i have always lived in one, a 3rd world state, Louisiana. i had hoped the rest of the US would pull Louisiana up out of the morass of hate, greed and envy.
i was wrong there too. hate from the Republicans used the fear of uneducated Whites against Blacks in the South. akd the Southern Strategy. Thank your great hero, St. Ronnie Reagan.
i hope your children and those you care about like what this EVIL has done to America, cause that is what you sowed. and what you reaped.
i do wish these so called Southern Baptists were somehow and somewhat a little bit Christian. but they are just as EVIL as the Taliban in Afghanistan, in fact the Southern Baptists and the Catholics et al.
may even be worse. to destroy others in a God's name is not human much less Christian. and the Right has done such a wonderful job of destroying Americans AND their values.
so yes, there are a lot of dumb white folks, especially in the South. i hope you appreciate the whirlwind you have reaped, BB. it is yours to enjoy and dwell in as a testament to the Right wing's power.
you are your own worst advocate, BB, in my view. and the Right is mightily proud of the destruction they have sown in America. if you think America is better off now due to the Rightwing, well, enjoy. i have no way of communicating to those who think like those of the Rightwing/Red States. Your points of views, BB, are really alien to me. scary, frightful and offputting. i truly am a stranger in a strange World. your strange world. Kudos to all those "dumb white folks".
Being nice and loving towards those that are "lost" is the hardest thing, but the most important thing i can do. for me to be EVIL like Republican/Rightwingers would be lowering myself to a mindset i see devoid of hope, love and brotherhood. we are all in this little EARTH alone, together. we sink or swim, together. i guess that scares the Right enough so they freak out and respond with Hate and Fear.
we are going down together mostly due to the FEAR and HATE of the RightWing. economically, poliltically and ecologically. if i was really smart i would have moved to a 3rd World country to avoid the horrow of having to live through what has happened to America, but no, i had hope the Fear and Hate would be seen through and countered with REAL Christian Americans. lol what a fool i was. lol.
Enjoy this version of American BB. it ain't pretty. at least to me and i gather lots of people who AINT dumb white folks, anymore.
bb in GA says:
@bernard
Thank you for an explanation of where you are coming from. I take full responsibility for my shortcomings.
I think it sad that you have lost the ability to ascribe any but the basest motives to any who disagree with you.
I think that is goin' around…
Imperfectly yours,
//bb
gruaud says:
The US should split apart. I think being chained to the ravening zombie of Confederate America brings the rest of us down. Just go, already. It was a good try, but it doesn't work and it never will.
bb in GA says:
Your guy (at least the not ZCSA's guy) won twice
His major policy initiative (Affordable Care Act) is being implemented
Your guy's enviro policies are being implemented
He is likely to win on his tax fight
He is having some difficulty w/ the oppo party's house majority…
What's not working? He's not the Emperori..yet.
bb in GA says:
Your guy (at least the not ZCSA's guy) won twice
His major policy initiative (Affordable Care Act) is being implemented
Your guy's enviro policies are being implemented
His military policies are being implemented
He is likely to win on his tax fight
He is having some difficulty w/ the oppo party's house majority…which means he's not the emperor…… yet.
What's not working? How is the ZCSA bringing you down? Surely you're not bitchin' about a paltry few hundred billion we cost you out of a 4000 billion dollar budget.
//bb
Seeing/analyzing says:
@bb: I think it sad that you have lost the ability to ascribe any but the basest motives to any who disagree with you.
So, what motives do you ascribe to "people" (and I use the term loosely) who bleat that their only goal is to assassinate the POTUS? Or their leaders, who insist they will not agree with any bit of legislation proposed by the POTUS? Cranky toddlers with full diapers behave better.
bb in GA says:
What members of the national R party (not my faves) – you know Boehner et al have offered to 'do in' our President other than politically?
And what prominent R non-office holders have threatened assassination of our President? Not to play 'No True Scotsman' on you but you gotta come up w/ a real player – not some David Duke kind of character (not that he has threatened that I know of…)
Don't whine about non cooperation on politics when guys like Reid say 'The President (w) is a a loser' in public to school kids. Or Ms Pelosi calls the President a liar. Just give it up. It's part of our system.
And I don't even like these R guys and most of their policies…
//bb