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Reflecting on the Republican National Committee's "Growth and Opportunity Project," Dave Weigel noted that the blueprint "is less a program of reform than a rough blueprint about how to marginalize the nutters."
That's clearly true. The structural reforms are intended to "marginalize the nutters" in terms of their electoral influence; the rhetorical reforms are intended to "marginalize the nutters" in terms of public perceptions of the party; and the policy reforms are intended to "marginalize the nutters" who are pushing Republicans to embrace an even more radical policy agenda.
At times, Reince Priebus and his report aren't subtle on this, specifically criticizing "third-party groups that promote purity."
With this in mind, the simmering intra-party "civil war" between the Republican base and the party establishment is intensifying, right on cue.
"It looks like a system of the establishment, by the establishment, and for the establishment," said conservative P.R. executive Greg Mueller, a veteran of Pat Buchanan's campaigns. [...]
Davie Bossie, head of the conservative group Citizens United, fretted that the proposals would mean conservative grassroots candidates, already outmatched organizationally and financially against the GOP establishment on the presidential level, "even less opportunity to break through."
"I don't think that is a good thing for the party and I definitely don't think it's a good thing for the conservative movement," said Bossie.
Rush Limbaugh wasn't happy, either, saying Republican leaders have been "bamboozled" by focus groups. "They think they've gotta rebrand and it's all predictable," the radio host said. "They gotta reach out to minorities. They gotta moderate their tone here and moderate their tone there. And that's not at all what they've gotta do. The Republican Party lost because it's not conservative."
This is probably going to get worse before it gets better -- and for a party in transition, it's a fight that's probably unavoidable.
Priebus' plan is not necessarily going to be what the party does in the near future. The RNC's membership will need to debate and approve any changes, and that will take place over the course of several months, starting in April at the party's spring meeting in Los Angeles. One assumes those meetings will be quite lively, with the fights playing out in public.
And here's the kicker: that's not necessarily a bad thing, since the Republican Party really does need to have these fights. At the presidential level, the GOP has lost the national popular vote in five of the last six elections. The electorate has elected a Democratic Senate majority for four consecutive elections. The party hasn't been this unpopular since Watergate; its ideas are struggling for public support; and with no real leaders, it's not even clear what the party's core beliefs are in several key areas.
There are still about 19 months before the midterm elections and nearly three years before the party begins choosing its new standard bearer. This is, in other words, an ideal time for the party to have a knock-down, drag-out fight over what the party intends to be.
It won't be pleasant, and some party contingents won't be pleased with the results, but it's arguably a worthwhile endeavor for the party's long-term health.
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LOL pass the pop corn, and lets get ready to rumble teapublican style.
How do you like the way they let Sarah Palin lead the beginning of the CPAC show?
Should we question if a desperate RNC wanted to expose the Republican extremists first to make the moderate Republican leaders following her not look so bad?
Republicans fighting republicans...it don't get any better!!
Frank: Speaking of Sarah Palin did you see her childish exibition of intrusive big government with the Big Gulp? Maybe next time she will have a doctor give her an invasive ultra sound on stage to show what republican led "small government" states are trying to do to womens rights.
It's normally pretty small government with invasive ultrasound...you could probably drive a van into that nasty old hooch!...I'm just sayin...
I have a suggestion for Benen. Instead of his non-stop crusade to help the Republican party by pointing out what's wrong with it, try doing the same for the Democrats.
Here's why: This is a holy war for Republicans. They will not change a significant part of their party. Helping them by pointing out their problems (as if they don't know them) will do nothing to change their approach to governing, but only serve to put a smily face on a vicious, pre-historic predator determined to destroy the government.
But pointing out the flaws of Democrats -- and they are legion -- has possibilities. A moment's thought will let you see it if you're not blind. And Democrats need a good kick in the ass.
Stop wasting your time with Republicans. We know they suck. But so do Democrats; just not as much and in not the same way.
The one thing that I think many people are not saying about Palin's little show, and one of the issues that I have with Bloombergs plan, is that 7-11s were exempt from the law so Big Gulps (which she was holding) would still have been available.
Disgruntled: This is not a cheerleading or steering blog, and most of us do not carry the hostility towards Obama and the Democrats that you do. You implicitly distrust Obama, and most of us feel he is mostly honest. This Republican civil war is interesting and germane, it effects all of us. And discussing Republican intransigence is completely harmless, they are too far gone to accept anything from the Maddowblog...
Thank you for your penetrating and insightful lesson, Dependably Useless Democrat, Lebowsky DUD. But you must be a slow learner. (I am not surprised.) We know the Republicans suck. What most of us realize, however -- just not you -- is that Democrats suck, too. Just not in the same way, like I said. The particular form of sucking that the Democrats excel in leads them to, despite having the public on its side on nearly all the issues, continually lose in determining the direction of the country and in policy battles. It won't be easy to reverse this. But somebody needs to start changing the conversation. And Benen has a voice, small though it may be.
Benen could make better use of his time. And ours.
Ha the nut case here thinks Democrats have a problem? hahahhaha and calls everyone else a slow learners? Talk about bipolar schizophrenia? You do have a day job after all and I hope it pays well?
From this nearly incoherent post, I can only take it to mean Loopy thinks the Democrats got it goin' on. That makes him one serious and astute observer of the body politic!!
There's one thing clear, for sure. The wingnuts don't have a monopoly on delusion.
Oddly, I was under the impression that how each of us spends our time is ours to choose. If you don't like how Steve is running this blog, there are plenty of other blogs devoted to kicking around Democrats where you could choose to spend that most limited and precious commodity called time. Just as the rest of us can make our own choices about what it is we deem worth spending our time reading. That's the cool thing about living in a more or less free country.
Or is the problem that you don't like the choices the rest of us are making about how to spend our time? Because that's a whole other conversation, albeit one likely to end in acrimonious exchanges of anatomically impossible suggestions.
And Lupe the Obamabot shows the depth of her political knowledge. With "Democrats" like you we don't need too many enemies.
Yes, that's true Steve. But I wasn't talking about how I spend *my* time. Maybe I didn't even read Steve's post, you see. Because I already know it. But thank you for the useless lesson on time management.
I wonder how many more posts TODAY Steve will do about what Republicans are doing wrong? Just today. And then tomorrow. And then...
#1.13
guessing i can be expecting a blog from you soon on just this subject? i mean why harp on Steve if you have the info why don't you write something up.
Disgusted - I get your point. You're not trying to tell people how to spend their time. Oh no. You were simply suggesting a better use of time, like self improvement, rather than just criticizing "the other guy". While criticizing the other guy can be fine, and fun (schadenfreude anyone?), the self improvement would ultimately be of better long term use. In fact, while the Repubs are busy with their own inner conflicts, it would be a great time for Dems to self reflect. Why wait 'till one's party is totally at odds and about to emplode? Just wanted to let you know that there is a liberal reading for comprehension and not simply a knee jerk. I especially relate to when you wrote "The particular form of sucking that the Democrats excel in leads them to, despite having the public on its side on nearly all the issues, continually lose in determining the direction of the country and in policy battles." AH!! You hit it with this. It makes me nuts! One of the things that really pissed me off about Obama during the first months of his first term. He had the good will and hope of the nation AND both houses of congress and did not use it to full advantage. I still voted for him this second go, of course, but it doesn't change this suck factor you point out. And it is a suck factor that could be changed. I get lost though in where exactly it comes from or how changing it would start.
Thank you for understanding it, chloechloe, and saying so. It's time liberals/progressives/Democrats start demanding that the people they vote for actually start fighting for the policies, positions, and arguments that are the reasons for which we vote for them. I'll have more to say at a later time on this.
We already know Republicans suck and are wrong about everything. That's not hyperbole. Republicans are wrong about EVERYTHING. But the country needs a change of direction, and a change of conversation. It's time to get out of that rabbit hole the Republicans have dug for the world.
Someone here is a republican playing a democrat whom is unset that things are not going their way, while playing a democrat whom is disgusted with it all. That's a real nutter in the making. Hypocrites are like that. I love it when someone from the tea party plays both sides of the fence but only blame one party for all the problems of the world.
You're a clown, Loopy. You're no better for Democrats and the country than the fanatical, deluded, loyalist wingnuts are for (Republicans and) the country.
If you enjoy the 20 year caving act of Democrats to the conservative vision, then by all means, find a wingnut you can bend over in front of. They're used to taking advantage of clueless asswholes like you.
...for a party in transition, it's a fight that's probably unavoidable.
And may the craziest win this fight between the wackjobs and the fruitcakes! Especially the ones who keep crying that the reich wing crackpots are not reich enough to be 'real' repuknicans.
Rand Paul for President on the 2016 repuknican ballot!
See. How I stand corrected. The troll took the bait and was hooked in seconds flat.
Sweety we know your number. A sane person would try to change their game.
Gotta hand it to the genius, Loopy! When is it you're going to try to change your game, Ms. Sanity?
Shut up, clown.
Still waiting on that free gas from Iraq, eh?
You know, Disgusted. Pilotshark at 1.14 actually has a viable idea for you...have you ever thought about it?
Oddly ironic how this blog thread about Republicans fighting among themselves has Democrats fighting among themselves. Perhaps the lesson to take away is that criticism among like-minded believers, to be constructive, ideally has a lot to do with a tone of cooperation and mutual respect. Take it down a notch, guys, and keep your eyes on the prize.
Or not, and flame away.
Democrats have the opportunity to learn from Republicans in this whole mess and to ignore that fact is to Disgusted's point. We all remember Cheney's response to the news that a majority of Americans oppose the war in Iraq. "So" Or the unprecedented obstructionism conceived and implemented on the night of President Obama's first inauguration. Mediocre behavior is not well received or respected by the American electorate.
So many of the republican faithful adamently support the party because they have faith...despite any evidence to the contrary. To ignore like faux pas from Democrats put's us into the same category. We need to be mindful of both parties and actively engage when D's are asleep at the wheel. And we need the media to include the whole of the story and not just our sides spin.
Case in point. The post office fiasco has been largely in part to a bill Pres. Bush passed in the lame duck session of 2006. The bill siphoned 5 billion a year to "pre-fund retiree benefits for the next 75 years". So future employees not even born yet will get their benefits. The Ed Show covered this extensively with Bernie Sanders leading the charge. A review of the bill confirmed this however, I was surprised to the learn the bill passed the House (of which Sanders was a member) by voice vote and unanimous consent in the Senate. Which returns me to the point, D's can learn a bit from the R's and need to start obstructing some of the inane things contrary to their values and counter to the country's best interest.
...specifically criticizing "third-party groups that promote purity."
There's another phrase for "Third party groups that promote purity":
"Republicans without whom the GOP would not control the House"
Purity, is that code for insanity?
No, Jane -- more like "inexperienced."
Ole Reince himself is a "nutter", look at some of his quotes during the election. Thats another amazing thing to watch, this dance that Republicans have to do in and out of reality.
Well I do not know how happy Democratic leaders who cannot get Republican Congressional leaders to compromise on anything feel about these public statements, but people at the Democratic National Committee must be doing the snoopy happy dance!
Queen Prebius is a whore totally owned by the Koch brothers.
The (few) GOP adults in the room have always known that Limbaugh's state of mind is an inverse measurement of sensible policy, they've just never had the courage to say it out loud.
There's a well known Troll here on this site who will routinely parrots whatever Limbaugh said the day before, as if it were an original or valid thought. It's pretty funny.
Forgive me as I indulge in appropriately felt schadenfreude.
Priebus might as well have slipped on Limbaugh spit while telling his constituents everything would be fine if the Republican Party just pumps out more propaganda!
The Republican Party is all about hate and fear of "the others."
And trying to get them that they to stop now, is like the leader of the "Tappa Kegga Beer" fraternity, telling his members that they've got to give up drinking forever.
In other words, it ain't gonna happen!
You're a Republican, because you hate and fear "the others," just like you joined the "Tappa Kegga Beer" fraternity, because you like to drink.
"Not doing" either of those things, is not an option.
The problem with unleashing crazy is it's very hard to get the collar back on.
That's true. The Southern Strategy is (hopefully) now biting the GOP in the ass. Maybe some Republicans are now wishing they had asked themselves why the Democratic Party was so eager to be rid of the Dixiecrat mutt.
So what does it really mean to be conservative? Against gay rights; against birth control; against abortion in any circumstances; against protection of the environment; against immigrants; against sharing power with anyone except fat, bald, white men over 55; against paying taxes and therefore against paying the country's debts; against investing in the country's infrastructure, etc.
In general against any kind of collective action for the good of the country. Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.
“Their political reactions express rather a profound and largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways -- a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence ... The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows 'conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness' in his conscious thinking and 'violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere…… The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.'"
No. Rush is wrong, wrong, wrong.
The Republican party lost because of the "nutters." That wasn't conservatism, it was thinly veiled fascism, and we knocked it down.
Conservative is one thing, I'm all for frugality and less spending, sensible government...c'mon, who isn't? But, even smart conservatives know you have to have a balance to make it all work, and for gawd's sake stay out of my bedroom when you do it.
One look at the 2012 Republican Party Platform was enough to show us we didn't want that kind of governance. The "nutters" had taken control and the rest of the party believed it's what the nation wanted.
We. Said. No!
At least they are realising it now, but mark my words: They will say just enough to get elected to retake the majority, then the new Reich will begin. They can't be trusted if the "nutters" are given creedence, and allowed to operate and maintain influence within the Republican Party.
I agree. The GOP platform was terrifying. During the election I felt like if the GOP won I would personally loose the level of, civil rights, reproductive freedom and justice Americans have fought for and won. And although I am a capitalist and fiscal conservative I could never support a party that believes a CEO that is responsible for the company failing should receive a golden parachute but the employees shouldn't receive unemployment and other government support.
I'm pretty sure the GOP platform isn't really serious. They don't expect to win on it. They expect to win based on the amount of fear they can generate from both sides of the aisle. The scarier they are able to make conditions in this nation, the more likely it is that they can win votes of people who are simply hoping to get out of this alive.
They have pulled together a coalition based on fear and greed, and they absolutely cannot afford the loss of any part of that coalition BUT they can't win with it either. They have only one real option that will prevent their total marginalization: Weaken the government and discredit it as a prelude to civil war. If they can't hold the reins of power, they will see to it no one does. This kind of veiled terrorism has been a part of their strategy since the 2008 election. That is why they are ramping up their rhetoric and doubling down instead of changing course.
I was just wondering: Has there EVER been a time when Rush wasn't wrong??
Knobson's words...the most important you'll hear for years to come. Must-remember words!
"...mark my words: They will say just enough to get elected to retake the majority, then the new Reich will begin. They can't be trusted if the "nutters" are given creedence, and allowed to operate and maintain influence within the Republican Party."
We cannot allow anyone in the GOP to have any power for a very long time, decades. The nutters will be there, squirming their way through any crack they can find, and they'll do the same thing again. The GOP isn't there to govern, they're there to obstruct. Nothing but **obstruct**. Maybe the party moderates can pull away, but I'll believe that when I see it AND only after many, many years of proving they can marginalize their nutjobs.
You only have to look at the state houses full of these rethugs and their far right ALEC agendas. The t-baggers say whatever it takes to get elected and then do the bidding of their Kock bros. orders. ( intentionally misspelled )
How do you like the way that the RNC chairman offers new 'campaign strategy' instead of policy differences, which no Republican congressional leader seems to have to offer the RNC to use.
Republican leaders can not think to transfer the corporate loopholes to small and mid-size businesses, like the Obama administration has done for small businesses who 'earn' tax credits by doing something towards employment and business?
They won't change their policies. They are conservatives. Their defining feature is the resistance to change. They'll just try to pretty it up and stop talking about the things that get them into trouble, or lie about them.
The GOP is going to fracture - there is no way around it.
From your lips to Goddess' ear.
It's fascinating watching all the in-fighting in the GOP party. I can't think of a Democrat equivalent. We are watching evolution, my friends, and may the fittest (meaning, GOP moderates) survive and the Tea Baggers become just another footnote in history.
Or we get a teabagger like third party. Thing that I'm confused by is the Libertarian influence. Some teabaggers seem to like it and others not so much. That seems like it could even be a third split. Maybe of Libertarians called by another name? hmmmmmm.....
They may look like a mess at the national level...but they seem to be well organized and in lock step in the State houses they control...controlled by ALEC and their patrons...
You're right, sunmusing, that the GOP and ALEC are sailing in front of the wind in the state governments. My suspicion is that there's not as much scrutiny and savvy commentary at that level during the election cycle. But they're sure busy little bees when it comes to rolling back:
The quiet invasion of Republicans in state governments is the dirty little secret. If you're so inclined to "make a difference" in the political environment, perhaps this is where we all need to start.
Also, there is always far smaller turnout in the off-year elections, most of which are the elections where important state level offices are in play.
I suspect Priebus is responding to financial concerns because establishment Republican campaign donors are holding back cash for fear that nutters are going to take control of the national party and its finances. But the problem is that if the nutters are minimized, they will complain with the next election loss that the candidate was not a true conservative. The best course for Republicans is to let the fringe right get their candidate and a national referendum on their agenda. If that had happened in the last election, we would not have the fringe complaining about Romney. And the election losses would have marginalized the far right. That would have allowed moderate Republicans to retake the party.
well they currently have 30 governors, but there are about 5 who will be voted out soon, and another 2 or 3 that are very closed to getting the boot.
And this morning congresscritter Blackburn 'lauds' the bickering in the ranks as healthy. She is HAPPY that they are a party of different ideas while the Democrats march in 'lockstep'. Wow...when did THAT happen? I swear they use Dem talking points from the last 7 decades and twist them...
Republican projection, in action.
Well the one thing Republican leaders on all levels of government seem to be in agreement on, is in following GOP leaders in ‘not’ taxing overseas corporate profit, overseas Wall Street investments and overseas salary and wage expense as ordinary income instead of giving ‘it’ a tax break.
At least President Obama wants to reward businesses operating business in America to create incentive for corporations bringing jobs back to America.
Wait a second. Is this THE Citizens United? The ones that brought the lawsuit that resulted in the SCOTUS decision that there should be no limit on how much individuals and corporations can contribute in campaigns? This guy is now complaining that his preferred candidates won't be able to "break through" because they will be outmatched financially by the GOP establishment? Oh dear God, the irony here is so thick you need a chainsaw to cut through it. Be careful what you wish for, pal!
I am all for criminal prosecution for Bush, Chenney and their cronies with all their power craving, corruption, being hypocrites, arrogance, greed, and deceiving. An example needs to be set that rich bastards and politicians need to think very carefully of their actions. All these people ever do is how they can screw people over for their own selfish gain without the care of how many people are murdered, affected and how more people end up hating America. America is better than what this garbage has done and caused. And we wonder why people become suicide bombers, when all they see is this crap that rich bastards, politicians and false Pharisees do and way too many are suffering from PTSD. How much more proof do you need when cry out that enough is enough. If you cannot start doing things in better ways, then get out of government and politics, because We the People don’t need these stupid narrow-minded types. And all Bush, Chenney, and their cronies have ever done since 911 was to continue their deceit and lies.
I just heard a discussion on public radio yesterday about the GOP re-branding efforts and they had a Marketing expert on the show. He said that the first rule of re-branding is that you do not announce that you intend to re-brand your company. The changes must seem to be organic in order for the public to buy it. I am not buying it from the GOP. Until they change their hearts, how they deliver their message is kind of moot.
Here is the problem as I see it.
There are millions of Republicans out there who don't hate the LGBT community or immigrants (even the illegal ones), who accept science, (including economic science), who want some provision made for the less fortunate, and who understand that a successful economy is not the same thing as one that provides ever-greater rewards for the wealthy (and only the wealthy). But these voters are routinely taken for granted by their party. As the Republican caucus has grown increasingly conservative, its electoral base has shrunk demographically and geographically. There were at least two ways the party might have responded to this. It could have moderated its policies in hopes of growing its electorate; this approach would have increased the power of the mainstream Republicans described above. But it didn't do this. It chose the second option, sectarianism: an insistence on ever greater doctrinal purity, on a fundamentalist version of the conservative faith. It believed the passion and activism this would engender in its "base" would offset any numerical losses it suffered.
This strategy worked, for a time. But its weakness was already evident by 1996, and it took the Supreme Court and a terrorist attack to install George W. Bush for two terms in the first decade of the 21st century. It is now abundantly clear that--- on the national level, anyway--- the strategy is completely played out; the country has moved past it. But 30+ years of purges and purism have left the party in a very difficult spot. To leverage the resentments of its base, it has committed itself to what is, essentially, a denial of political modernity. The message it wants to do a better job of marketing to the working- and middle-class is this: your lives will be greatly improved if they depend wholly on market forces. The government must be removed from the economy, and nothing should stand between individual citizens and the world of corporate and economic power. It's you vs J.P. Morgan, dude. Welcome to Paradise!
Inexplicably, most Americans do not find this a terribly appealing future. They probably aren't huge fans of the federal government, but they do (perhaps grudgingly) accept the basic terms of political modernity: that in a modern economy, the federal government is the only entity of sufficient scope and power to interpose itself between the citizenry and the corporations. What they want from Republicans is some sign that they also accept this basic truth, but this is an assurance the party is in no position to offer them. To do so would be to abandon the rock on which it has founded its church, as well as the "base" whose activism and passion it now depends upon. It would amount to an admission that the party must reform "principles" as well as rhetoric, policies and not just presentation. Until it's willing to do this, look for more of the willful illogic and perverse incoherence that took center-stage at CPAC
But the Southern Strategy worked so well when the majority of the electorate was White ...
Here's the problem as I see it with the problem as you see it (and now my head hurts).
The rabidly conservative wing of the GOP thinks THEY'RE being taken for granted, too. Neither faction gets 100% of what they want, but until recently, the GOP plan tended to be "campaign hard to the right, govern hard to the center-ish-right-esque."
While there has been a gradual shift further to the right for Republicans, it picked up pace after 2008. After all, they were robbed. ACORN and Black Panthers and all of that, don't you know. And they don't seem to have learned their lesson after 2012, an election they were told was in the bag for Romney by people who lie to them for a living.
What we have to watch out for is this - traditionally, the uber-right and the mods in the GOP tended to hold hands and Kumbaya (wait, Republicans don't Kumbaya, I guess they Margaritaville) to the voting booths together. Because the uber-righties love being Republicans enough to not vote for a fringe third party, and far too many of the moderates still like being a Republican enough to not vote for a Democrat. If there's a shift in that line of thinking, if either mods say enough and take control of the party or abandon it, we'll see it during the midterms
Here's the problem as I see it with the problem as you see it (and now my head hurts).
The rabidly conservative wing of the GOP thinks THEY'RE being taken for granted, too. Neither faction gets 100% of what they want, but until recently, the GOP plan tended to be "campaign hard to the right, govern hard to the center-ish-right-esque."
While there has been a gradual shift further to the right for Republicans, it picked up pace after 2008. After all, they were robbed. ACORN and Black Panthers and all of that, don't you know. And they don't seem to have learned their lesson after 2012, an election they were told was in the bag for Romney by people who lie to them for a living.
What we have to watch out for is this - traditionally, the uber-right and the mods in the GOP tended to hold hands and Kumbaya (wait, Republicans don't Kumbaya, I guess they Margaritaville) to the voting booths together. Because the uber-righties love being Republicans enough to not vote for a fringe third party, and far too many of the moderates still like being a Republican enough to not vote for a Democrat. If there's a shift in that line of thinking, if either mods say enough and take control of the party or abandon it, we'll see it during the midterms
I also believe they've locked on to Supply Side Economics beginning with the Reagan Administration and espoused by David Stockman. Since then David Stockman no longer supports that theory but the whole idea of tax reduction has become this mantra of the Republican Party. If tax reduction would lead to job creation, why did the economy take a huge dump following Bush's tax cuts. Why did unemployment climb so high at the end of that administration.
Magoo, I like your opening line. Hope your head feels better.
I don't think we have a disagreement here, just different emphases, maybe. While the deepest roots of today's Republican party lie in the '50s (McCarthy) and '60s (Goldwater, Nixon), I would lay its current reliance on slash-and-burn politics at the door of Newt Gingrich and the 1994 mid-terms. So I take things back a little farther than you, but I completely agree that 2008 was a watershed moment of sorts; the election of a black liberal President clearly drove the Confederate contingent of the GOP base insane.
My personal opinion is that the party as currently configured will hold together for at least one more election cycle. I expect it to nominate a true believer (Paul, Rubio, Santorum, Cruz etc) in 2016--- the moderates simply aren't powerful enough just now to impose their will on the primary process--- who will then lead them into a Goldwater-style 1964 debacle. Only then will the moderates have enough leverage to attempt a serious "rebranding" (awful word) of their party. At that point we could very well see the Limbaugh Rump split off into a third party, centered mainly in the South.
Hey, the Confederacy always said it would rise again!
Master Lather Reince Repeat has spent the last few years catering to the 'nutters', pulling the party as far right as possible. If the GOP was serious about making changes this guy wouldn't have a job.
That's right, Maureen! Republican leadership has all the same old Bush political leaders in the House and Senate because the elected Republican leaders voted for the same politically aggressive leaders, but blame Democrats and the Obama Administration for lack of political compromise. Even Carl Rove gets into the leadership action because Republican leaders have not acknowledged the Republican policies part in the Bush administration's failures.
If the mainstream Republican old guard is really serious about moving to the center and mitigating the influence of the third parties then they should kindly suggest to starting with the "Tea Party" that they in fact put up or shut up by starting their own registered "party" and run on their own ticket in elections. The Tea Partiers have been hiding behind the "R" on the ballots to push their own extreme platform, knowing full well that the "Tea Party" would otherwise fail miserably without the respect of the established Republican party's sponsorship. Make no mistake about it the Republican party allowed it to happen to the party but now's the time to cut bait. If you don't want your crazy, drunk uncle to ruin your backyard bbq don't invite him.
How is this different from a suicide pact?
The real suicide pact was when the mainstream Republican party decided to consort with the "Tea Party" movement to begin with.
I find it hysterical Priebus advocates spending $10,000,000 for "community organizing". Weren't those dirty, dirty words just a few years ago? Look like Republicans have learned at least one thing from our President although not one would ever admit it.
The repub civil war is going to intensify, and I believe that it will in fact split, meaning that their days as a national party are numbered. The nuts aren't going away--their take home from the last two elections is that they weren't nutty enough, and have to find even more extreme positions. They may still win at the local level, and at the congressional district level because of gerrymandering, but their chances of winning the White House and even the Senate seem to be dimmer every day, just like their mental powers. Even nutty Bachmann here in MN has passed on running for Senate, because she realizes that she only hangs on because she represents an unusually conservative district. Statewide she would be blown away, just like many other wingnuts across the nation. The nuts will have their own party, but will be largely irrelevant.
Limbaugh "...The Republican Party lost because it's not conservative." So...since the GOP isn't conservative enough, the voters decided instead to elect moderate and progressive Democratic candidates instead? LOL.
Romeny had some good ideas. The best one was the deduction bucket. You take the upper middle class above average deductions and use that for the bucket for the 2%. We could even have the top 2% file a short form with this bucket deduction.
"...arguably a worthwhile endeavor"
Also INarguably entertaining to watch.
Favorite CPAC moment: Quitter Palin suggesting that Loser Rove run for office in Texas.
The Republican Party lost because it's not conservative enough? Now imagine if they were really way more conservative than they are at this moment in time. What would they be likem sliding into Rand Paul world? Read any thing by John Hawkins at Right Wing News. He is the worse nutcase out of all of them.
P.s., try this one. It is real crazy talk. http://www.rightwingnews.com/john-hawkins/25-examples-of-what-america-would-be-like-if-we-were-all-christian-conservative-tea-partiers/
Holy s***. That is scary.