So...
Republicans are going to give up being republicans on the issues they really supposedly care about and beat the democrats bynrunning on two things they've really messed up whenever they've been in power,
Foreign policy and the economy.
Yeah, sure, that'll work.
Martin makes a very basic mistake. Its not democrats who made progress a wedge issue, it's the g.o.p.
Republicans are going to give up being republicans on the issues they really supposedly care about and beat the democrats bynrunning on two things they've really messed up whenever they've been in power,
Foreign policy and the economy.
Yeah, sure, that'll work.
Martin makes a very basic mistake. Its not democrats who made progress a wedge issue, it's the g.o.p.
8
Now my little lefties, say after me..pivot. The sound of readers annunciating their new word, "pivot!" That's good, now open your big mouths and mama grey will give you some fresh koolaid. Good boys and boys! Good girls and girls! Now, what did we learn to say? Sound of masses yelling, "pivot!".
1
During the Cold War, we were told that communism was a threat to our very existence. Perhaps it is now time to consider that Republicans are a threat to our very existence.
The bedrock of conservative thinking is:
1) Supply-side economics: cut taxes on the wealthy and something will trickle down to the rest of us. Mitt Romney said on "60 Minutes" that he deserved to pay lower taxes because he created jobs. The conservative mantra that government should be limited (read: Democrats want to tax and spend, therefore, vote Republican) is simply nonsense.
2) Social Darwinism: the rich are rich because they are more fit than the poor who are less fit because they are dependent on the government (Romney's 47%). This is nonsense because the logic is circular. If I am rich, then it is because I am more fit and if I am more fit, then it is evident in the fact I am rich.
Why anybody who is not a member of the 1% would vote Republican escapes me. Maybe Mencken was right. "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the general public."
The bedrock of conservative thinking is:
1) Supply-side economics: cut taxes on the wealthy and something will trickle down to the rest of us. Mitt Romney said on "60 Minutes" that he deserved to pay lower taxes because he created jobs. The conservative mantra that government should be limited (read: Democrats want to tax and spend, therefore, vote Republican) is simply nonsense.
2) Social Darwinism: the rich are rich because they are more fit than the poor who are less fit because they are dependent on the government (Romney's 47%). This is nonsense because the logic is circular. If I am rich, then it is because I am more fit and if I am more fit, then it is evident in the fact I am rich.
Why anybody who is not a member of the 1% would vote Republican escapes me. Maybe Mencken was right. "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the general public."
3
If Republicans want to talk about economic issues, they will have to address dubya's runaway budgets and the financial meltdown that happened on his watch. If they want to talk about national security, they will have to talk about two failed wars and who destabilized the Middle East. If shifting to these topics gets them out of a fire, they will still be in the frying pan and it could still be very hot.
11
And one hopes that the media will do its job of managing the record of each candidate's "pivot," because a pivot is not a turn until action follows the words.
By all means, "evolve" on the issues but no wolves in sheep's clothing.
By all means, "evolve" on the issues but no wolves in sheep's clothing.
5
The really good thing about recent events (a Reagan appointee writing the opinion legalizing gay marriage nationwide, the Southern Bourbon GOP governors taking a cue from their Big Business masters and abandoning the Rebel flag, etc.) is that this will depress turnout of the GOP voting base next year, and insure there will be no third Bush presidency. That alone is a not just a good, but a great, thing.
7
If you're not very 'cultural'-------at least you can pivot.
1
Nothing is more disgusting than right wing demagogues like Mike Huckabee invoking Dr. King—whom they hated and despised while he was alive—in order to attempt to sway the Black Church to reject this decision.
Citing Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” where he chided the white clergy for their reluctance to take a stance against segregation, Huckabee stated: “They will go the path of Dr. Martin Luther King, who in his brilliant essay the letters from a Birmingham jail reminded us, based on what St. Augustine said, that an unjust law is no law at all. And I do think that we're going to see a lot of pastors who will have to make this tough decision.”
Black people will not be fooled by Huckabee’s warped attempt to take Dr. King’s essay completely out of context and misapply it. Moreover, there is absolutely nothing in Dr. King’s writings, speeches, and sermons to even suggest that he would denounce the decision.
Two of Dr. King most trusted advisors during the Civil Rights Movements were openly gay black men, such giants as Bayard Rustin, without whom there is no “March on Washington” and the great James Baldwin.
Unlike Huckabee and his ilk, Dr. King was on the right side of history.
Citing Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” where he chided the white clergy for their reluctance to take a stance against segregation, Huckabee stated: “They will go the path of Dr. Martin Luther King, who in his brilliant essay the letters from a Birmingham jail reminded us, based on what St. Augustine said, that an unjust law is no law at all. And I do think that we're going to see a lot of pastors who will have to make this tough decision.”
Black people will not be fooled by Huckabee’s warped attempt to take Dr. King’s essay completely out of context and misapply it. Moreover, there is absolutely nothing in Dr. King’s writings, speeches, and sermons to even suggest that he would denounce the decision.
Two of Dr. King most trusted advisors during the Civil Rights Movements were openly gay black men, such giants as Bayard Rustin, without whom there is no “March on Washington” and the great James Baldwin.
Unlike Huckabee and his ilk, Dr. King was on the right side of history.
10
The history of humankind is by and large a history of exclusion. This includes the much-revered Puritans of Plymouth and Massachusetts fame who hung Mary Dyer in 1660. Her crime - being a Quaker, that is being "not of the tribe."
Americans have struggled from the beginning with the warring impulses of hard-wired "kill the outsider" and counterintuitive "let's build something new that's not about tribe." That struggle is not over, but as our emblematic president, Barack Obama said this week, "We have made our union just a bit more perfect" echoing the words of his hero Abraham Lincoln.
Ideas are important. The building a a more just, fair, and decent society is an exercise primarily of using the persuasive power of language and bedrock ideas to override much of the programming of our mechanism. Such can be done, and is being done. This week's tectonic shifting which was almost impossible to miss is only the apparent effects of the long buildup of cultural discoveries and inventions that have seeped into the consciousnesses of millions of people over time only to manifest themselves suddenly before our eyes.
Now if we could only pivot more strongly toward those areas in which we are most deficient and vulnerable, those having to do with money and violence. But surely there is hope.
Americans have struggled from the beginning with the warring impulses of hard-wired "kill the outsider" and counterintuitive "let's build something new that's not about tribe." That struggle is not over, but as our emblematic president, Barack Obama said this week, "We have made our union just a bit more perfect" echoing the words of his hero Abraham Lincoln.
Ideas are important. The building a a more just, fair, and decent society is an exercise primarily of using the persuasive power of language and bedrock ideas to override much of the programming of our mechanism. Such can be done, and is being done. This week's tectonic shifting which was almost impossible to miss is only the apparent effects of the long buildup of cultural discoveries and inventions that have seeped into the consciousnesses of millions of people over time only to manifest themselves suddenly before our eyes.
Now if we could only pivot more strongly toward those areas in which we are most deficient and vulnerable, those having to do with money and violence. But surely there is hope.
4
It's incredible that republicans can still get traction on "national security" and the economy after upsetting the balance in the middle east by taking out Saddam (even if he had WMDs, it wasn't prudent plus we don't go after many others with WMDs) and and how wrong they were about the effects of invading Iraq, the havoc they wreaked on the economy leading to the financial crisis, the obstruction to doing anything about the financial crisis, how wrong they've been about the effects of the stimulus and fed policies, and that they are less fiscally responsible than the democrats (acceleration of spending, deficits, debt under Reagan, W Bush; deceleration under Carter, Clinton - Obama inherited the worst economic crisis by far since the great depression). But, they still do get traction because a large chunk of Americans just don't get it, still believe the hype.
14
All these so-called "cultural wins" are of course but window dressing, tinsel, as the transnational corporate python with dispassionate and ever-increasing power continues to tighten its grip on and crush the life from any concept of "democracy" ever entertained on earth – bread & circuses to the peasants, all true power to the patricians.
13
Credible pollsters say Republican nominee needs close to 44% of Latino vote GWB received to win against Hillary. Romney got 27%. It is highly unlikely this will happen with any of the Republican potential nominees. It is amazing that Republican Party repeats same Presidential election strategy mistakes.
2
RE Daniel Friedman's remarks about how difficult it would be for the GOP to spin its mistakes in 2016 because, in part, of the "Bush Cheney war,"he should be reminded that w/o Dem. Party support, not once but twice, the authorization to use force in Iraq never would have been put through. OBAMA promised to end the war, and almost 8 years into his presidency, we are still there, and contemplating even increasing our involvement. Likewise for Guantanamo, which Obama pledged to close, and surprise, we r still there. I believe it was the late George Wallace--who was considered a liberal by the Alabama standards of the 1950's-- who said there was not "a dime's worth of difference between the two parties!" Given GOP support for the TPP, without which Obama's pet bill never would have passed, was not GW right on the money? One thing that has changed is the increased marginalization of "little whites."By the time Obama's term comes to an end, the cultural cleansing of this socio-economic class will perhaps be complete! Maybe that's what Mr Friedman wants. Obama himself set the tone when, in a fund raising event in 2007 before wealthy contributors in Pacific Heights, the future President spoke condescendingly of the white working class as being "anti immigrant, attached to their guns and their bibles." Not a nice thing to say about a large segment of the population, but perhaps Mr. FRIEDMAN agrees with the President's assessment.
2
Why is it that liberals are incapable of posting comments that are nothing but disgusting attacks? I've read about how we Republicans are such evil people yet according to an Emory University study on domestic discretionary spending President Bush increased domestic spending and outlays to social programs at a far higher rate then Obama or Clinton. In fact, Bush increased welfare spending far greater than Obama. Democrats also cut $8 billion for SNAP from the last farm bill. But you're the benevolent ones.
I spent 6 weeks in Cameroon helping to build a school in 1997. Don't recall seeing any of you. Why is that? That channel changer sutured to your hand?
How many of you liberals donate to any social programs? Volunteer at a food bank or homeless shelter?
Have any of you graduates from the Liberal School of Walking on Water heard of Samaritan's purse? It's a non profit Christian organization Who help those in need during disasters, Hurricane Katrina and Sandy? They were in front assisting and donating food, clothing medicine Where were you ?
In the Philppines they set up water desalinization plants, gave food, water, clothing, temporary housing and set up field hospitals after the Super Typhoon. Where were you?
You can mock us all you want.We're doing the work you can't seem to be able to find the time. I'd enjoy reading ALL of the things you people do. Go ahead. I have about a minute. That should be more than enough time. I mean until you turn water into wine. Aypaks
I spent 6 weeks in Cameroon helping to build a school in 1997. Don't recall seeing any of you. Why is that? That channel changer sutured to your hand?
How many of you liberals donate to any social programs? Volunteer at a food bank or homeless shelter?
Have any of you graduates from the Liberal School of Walking on Water heard of Samaritan's purse? It's a non profit Christian organization Who help those in need during disasters, Hurricane Katrina and Sandy? They were in front assisting and donating food, clothing medicine Where were you ?
In the Philppines they set up water desalinization plants, gave food, water, clothing, temporary housing and set up field hospitals after the Super Typhoon. Where were you?
You can mock us all you want.We're doing the work you can't seem to be able to find the time. I'd enjoy reading ALL of the things you people do. Go ahead. I have about a minute. That should be more than enough time. I mean until you turn water into wine. Aypaks
3
Plenty of liberals do those things (including me--volunteer work in poor communities, and MOST of the people I know who have worked in the third world are liberal, some secular some religious). But I am not impressed with conservatives who think charity will alleviate the problem that they themselves cause or exacerbate by the terrible, destructive policies they support. And you should actually read comments here--most are well reasoned and supported with facts. If they read like "disgusting attacks" maybe it is because what conservatives have been doing for decades is disgusting. As Stephen Colbert said, "reality has a well known liberal bias".
14
Interesting. So you think volunteer work in other countries absolves you of any wrong doing here at home?
7
Really, Healed By God? I don't even own a TV to change channels on. I've spent 15 years defending the constitutional right of US citizens to spout whatever hateful, regressive nonsense they please - anti-vaxxers, anti-abortionists, anti every human right. I've left my family more often than I would like and spent more time than I would like bleeding and sweating in places people like you (not saying YOU PERSONALLY, just many LIKE you) can't even find on a map, and I'm getting ready to go out again in a couple of months.Want to see my ribbon rack for proof? I continue to serve and will do so until they pry my weapons from my cold, dead hands, because I believe US force projection is ultimately an instrument of good on this planet. We are the Good Guys. Nothing you say can change this.
Turning water into wine is child's play - wish you could've tried the canteen hooch I used to make out of MRE freeze dried fruit back in the day before GO1B told us not to have any alcohol downrange. Turning polluted water into safe, potable water is much more satisfying. It's not even my job, but it doesn't stop me showing people in conflict zones how to construct their own gravity filters so they wouldn't be dependent others for clean drinking water.
But by all means, keep up your holier-than-thou attitude - I am prepared to defend it to my death, whether I agree with it or not. You are my countryman and my responsibility, regardless of what either of us thinks of that.
Turning water into wine is child's play - wish you could've tried the canteen hooch I used to make out of MRE freeze dried fruit back in the day before GO1B told us not to have any alcohol downrange. Turning polluted water into safe, potable water is much more satisfying. It's not even my job, but it doesn't stop me showing people in conflict zones how to construct their own gravity filters so they wouldn't be dependent others for clean drinking water.
But by all means, keep up your holier-than-thou attitude - I am prepared to defend it to my death, whether I agree with it or not. You are my countryman and my responsibility, regardless of what either of us thinks of that.
5
Quite frankly I don't care who wins the next U.S. election, I, like most Canadians just want a stable and friendly neighbour.
What I do have is a few questions on the G.O.P.'s hypocrisy, they tout themselves as the moral Christian front and yet decry the poor access to affordable healthcare and food stamps, they travel the country in style hosting $1000 a plate dinners denouncing the poor as a drain on the American economy, all the while amassing millions of dollars in contributions for their self serving agendas! If any politician was actually there for the good of the people, lining their own pockets would be the last thing on their minds!
They seem to have the idea that to keep America safe they need to create more enemies within and outside of the country, they have spewed fear and hatred fuelling the domestic gun craze, much to the N.R.A.'s delight, resulting with an average yearly domestic death count of 32.000, sadly 60% of those are suicides!
The world is now embroiled in combating forces that arose out of the ashes of America's controversial invasion of Iraq, that so far, just fighting ISIS has cost the U.S. taxpayer $4.8 trillion and since 2001 the U.S. has spent $1,623.5 trillion (or $8.36 million per hour) on fighting wars, let's not forget to mention the personal costs to families of the 60,000 dead or injured American troops, add to that coalition troops, enemy troops and countless civilian lives lost or maimed, how has this been good for the U.S. economy?
What I do have is a few questions on the G.O.P.'s hypocrisy, they tout themselves as the moral Christian front and yet decry the poor access to affordable healthcare and food stamps, they travel the country in style hosting $1000 a plate dinners denouncing the poor as a drain on the American economy, all the while amassing millions of dollars in contributions for their self serving agendas! If any politician was actually there for the good of the people, lining their own pockets would be the last thing on their minds!
They seem to have the idea that to keep America safe they need to create more enemies within and outside of the country, they have spewed fear and hatred fuelling the domestic gun craze, much to the N.R.A.'s delight, resulting with an average yearly domestic death count of 32.000, sadly 60% of those are suicides!
The world is now embroiled in combating forces that arose out of the ashes of America's controversial invasion of Iraq, that so far, just fighting ISIS has cost the U.S. taxpayer $4.8 trillion and since 2001 the U.S. has spent $1,623.5 trillion (or $8.36 million per hour) on fighting wars, let's not forget to mention the personal costs to families of the 60,000 dead or injured American troops, add to that coalition troops, enemy troops and countless civilian lives lost or maimed, how has this been good for the U.S. economy?
16
The GOP has convinced many voters that they are suffering economically because of spending on social programs like SNAP and "entitlement" like Social Security and Medicare.
Unfortunate some Times columnist such as Thomas Friedman, David Brooks and Steven Rattner have espoused this false concept.
The Democrats must make clear to voters how the tax code is the culprit.
This table shows tax breaks main ly for the rich.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/17/business/tax-breaks-mostly...
160 B /year is lost by not taxing capital gains and dividends as ordinary income. The top .1% receives half the capital gain income. However the ordinary person with a 401k/ 403B plan has all of his capital gains and dividends taxed as ordinary income [and not the lower capital gains rate] upon withdrawal. He is getting shafted.
About 43 B /year is lost by not taxing unrealized gains at death [the step up in basis].
In addition about 400 B /year in income tax due under the present tax code is uncollected. In 2011 7000 millionaires paid no tax.
see http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21578387-irs-has-behaved-bad...
Yet the GOP plan is to cut Social Security and Medicare instead of removing tax breaks for the rich.
This is the case the Dems have to make and they must make it in terms that lower class voters [who have been voting GOP because of guns, school prayer abortion etc] will understand.
Unfortunate some Times columnist such as Thomas Friedman, David Brooks and Steven Rattner have espoused this false concept.
The Democrats must make clear to voters how the tax code is the culprit.
This table shows tax breaks main ly for the rich.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/17/business/tax-breaks-mostly...
160 B /year is lost by not taxing capital gains and dividends as ordinary income. The top .1% receives half the capital gain income. However the ordinary person with a 401k/ 403B plan has all of his capital gains and dividends taxed as ordinary income [and not the lower capital gains rate] upon withdrawal. He is getting shafted.
About 43 B /year is lost by not taxing unrealized gains at death [the step up in basis].
In addition about 400 B /year in income tax due under the present tax code is uncollected. In 2011 7000 millionaires paid no tax.
see http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21578387-irs-has-behaved-bad...
Yet the GOP plan is to cut Social Security and Medicare instead of removing tax breaks for the rich.
This is the case the Dems have to make and they must make it in terms that lower class voters [who have been voting GOP because of guns, school prayer abortion etc] will understand.
8
"Settling" these social issues may diminish their importance in the general election, but increase their impact in the Republican primary. If Republicans have to be more extreme on these issues to win the primary, then their pivot to distance themselves from them in the general election, may not be that easy.
4
If you run a for profit company and sell to the general public then you have not a leg to stand on for refusing to sell to anyone- gay, straight or transgendered. A religious institution is a different story; run by and serving the faith alone is a whole different situation and legitimately outside the public sector.
11
Eleanor, you are so right. But because Fox news and other GOP-propaganda outlets keep misinforming listeners, most Republicans actually believe that Christianity is being attacked by marriage equality. And that they have a God-given right to discriminate against LGBT people. Once again, the GOP is trying to scare people into voting for them!
5
Gay marriage becomes one less arrow in the Repubs' "divide and conquer" quiver. Nice, but many more issues remain to be overcome in the march toward societal and economic equality for the majority of Americans.
Make no mistake - this was always about doing what was right and human. So it is with the rest of the issues affecting average Americans. Let's frame them in this context and overcome the damage done by years of obstinate conservative economic and social policies.
Make no mistake - this was always about doing what was right and human. So it is with the rest of the issues affecting average Americans. Let's frame them in this context and overcome the damage done by years of obstinate conservative economic and social policies.
5
Everyone needs to step back and take a look at this from the arc of history both socially and politically. The courts have always been behind public sentiment in its judgments on social issues. Remember, 20 years ago, Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act now Hillary is bashing that and it is now illegal. The ruling on ACA was more of a decision over letter of the law versus spirit of the law not ideology. I do think the Dems got away with one, but obviously the plaintiffs did not adequately make the case. As for the political arc of history recently it has been bending conservative world wide starting with the 2014 mid-term elections and the elections in England and Israel in what were all thought to be close elections turned out to be decidedly conservative in outcome. Right now the Dems have one horse, Hillary who could not make it out of the primaries in 2008, had to restart her campaign this time and has two potential bombshells hanging over her head-- the email and Benghazi. More importantly she is so well known and polarizing that her numbers have topped out. At this point everyone knows her and has pretty much decided if they want her as president. Other than Donald Trump no one can say that about the republicans and with the social issue off the table other than two years of ACA premium adjustments to come. Foreign policy and the economy play central roles. Areas were the president does not score as high.
2
Well, Roe vs Wade is an exception. The Court was far ahead of public attitudes on that, and still is. Abortion is the one social issue that is still in the game, and possibly winnable.
it's always good news for republicans in your book, right? What bone-headed analysis is this? The country is moving beyond some of these issues, but the dead enders on the right are showing every sign of losing their marbles and making a ridiculous last stand on these issues. The democratic party is in line with the beliefs of most of the country, the GOP is not.
Not much to add to that, since no GOP candidate that doesn't rail against the scourge of gays marrying, the phony new "war against christians" and Americans with access to health care has no chance of surviving the primaries. The train has left the station and the GOP, rather than get on board, is busy throwing rocks at the caboose.
Not much to add to that, since no GOP candidate that doesn't rail against the scourge of gays marrying, the phony new "war against christians" and Americans with access to health care has no chance of surviving the primaries. The train has left the station and the GOP, rather than get on board, is busy throwing rocks at the caboose.
8
Talk about chutzpah in the first degree. I don't recall Republicans complaining about judicial overreach when the Supreme Court handed the presidency to the party that had lost both the popular and electoral college votes, by carrying out what was in effect a judicial coup d'etat.
What goes around will eventually come around. In 2016 they will finally get get their just desserts, when President Clinton and a Democratic majority take office. In 2020, the combination of presidential election and census will send the GOP to the political oblivion a party that thinks its still in the middle of the 20th century deserves to inhabit.
What goes around will eventually come around. In 2016 they will finally get get their just desserts, when President Clinton and a Democratic majority take office. In 2020, the combination of presidential election and census will send the GOP to the political oblivion a party that thinks its still in the middle of the 20th century deserves to inhabit.
7
I guess the 2010 and 2014 Republican landslides and utter rejection of Obama and his leftist policies (he himself said the 2014 midterms were a referendum on his policies) was just a bad dream.
1
Except that voter turnout for the 2010 and 2014 elections were much lower than 2008 and 2012, and even so, Democratic candidates for congress in those low turnout elections got millions more votes in total than Republicans. You can't claim a "mandate" when your electoral victories are based on gerrymandered district and voter suppression.
9
Sorry but why can't the hope and change crowd show up to vote every 2 years?
2
Primary voters vs general election voters: Can we talk in plain language about rural and basically unproductive, under-educated voters from the south and midwest and plain states versus dynamic urban concentrations of voters who know they have to pay for garbage pick-up and education for a change instead of fake ideologies? Government as evil as opposed to good government as a necessity of life today that is not a log cabin fantasy? That's what it's all about. Republicans have been warned there is no future in this silliness. The GOP leadership created and pumped the Tea Party but it has always been astroturf and a very damaging christian and rural hysteria unleased from the bottle. Doubt any Republican can get it back in before 2016.
6
"Can we talk in plain language about rural and basically unproductive, under-educated voters from the south and midwest and plain states versus dynamic urban concentrations of voters who know they have to pay for garbage pick-up and education"
At the same time, can we talk in plain language about the non-productive urban underclass who think that it is their "right" to have free housing, food stamps, obamaphones and numerous other welfare benefits?
At the same time, can we talk in plain language about the non-productive urban underclass who think that it is their "right" to have free housing, food stamps, obamaphones and numerous other welfare benefits?
1
Get your facts straight --most of the poor people on what the right calls "welfare" are poor rural whites (yes, we get that your reference to a "urban underclass" means black people). And most of the people who qualify for "welfare" are the WORKING poor of whatever race. When will the conservatives get the memo that "getting paid to not work" ended with Clinton's welfare "reforms" twenty years ago? Except of course, farm subsidies, and the payouts that benefit white people who vote Republican.
12
They say a farmers' work is never done; even on Sunday the stalls need to be cleaned!
Sorry to tell you, GOP dreamers, but this analysis has it exactly 180 deg. from what's ahead. As *the evidence shows* Obama's economic policies have been (almost) dead-on and would have been even more effective had he listened to Krugman and ignored timid Democrats scared by Republican mooing about defcits in a period of near-depression.
Republicans seized on social issues because even they knew they had udderly nada to offer Everyman and Woman on the economy, being in hock up to their tail-end (to be modest) to the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny thousand G-note oligarchy. Nothin' new there!
So dream on, y'all! The South shall rise again with the Good Lord marchin' on before!
Sorry to tell you, GOP dreamers, but this analysis has it exactly 180 deg. from what's ahead. As *the evidence shows* Obama's economic policies have been (almost) dead-on and would have been even more effective had he listened to Krugman and ignored timid Democrats scared by Republican mooing about defcits in a period of near-depression.
Republicans seized on social issues because even they knew they had udderly nada to offer Everyman and Woman on the economy, being in hock up to their tail-end (to be modest) to the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny thousand G-note oligarchy. Nothin' new there!
So dream on, y'all! The South shall rise again with the Good Lord marchin' on before!
4
The paranoid among us might wonder if the Supreme Court didn't just clear the decks of the most self defeating of the ultra rights propositions: the ACA and the right to marry are no longer going to be first up on the docket. Since the right had no alternative health plan and their standing in the way of human rights made them seem bellicose and out of step, this saves them from some of their more self-defeating behaviors.
1
Great news! For John McCain!
1
Settled?
The Supreme Court's decree that SSM is a fundamental right reversed the democratically encated laws of nearly 40 states making up a majority of the electoral votes for President. Support for SSM is largely restructed to white urban middle and upper classes and is not shared by the minorities in the Democrat coalition. The GOP will have a definitie wedge issue hanging SSM around the neck of the Democrat candiate in the African Amercan and Hispanic media. The social conservatives are understandably furious and will be out in force in 2016.
Politically, this is Roe all over again.
The Supreme Court's decree that SSM is a fundamental right reversed the democratically encated laws of nearly 40 states making up a majority of the electoral votes for President. Support for SSM is largely restructed to white urban middle and upper classes and is not shared by the minorities in the Democrat coalition. The GOP will have a definitie wedge issue hanging SSM around the neck of the Democrat candiate in the African Amercan and Hispanic media. The social conservatives are understandably furious and will be out in force in 2016.
Politically, this is Roe all over again.
1
Fundamental rights are not to be voted upon. They are Constitutionally protected. Do you think voting rights or desegregation would have "passed"? That's why we have a Constitution and a Court.
5
While support for same-sex marriage is lower among African-Americans than it is among whites, I don't think the issue animates African-Americans to the extent that it does white social conservatives.
Most black voters are not soon going to forget that the Republican Party has been the party of the Confederate flag since Richard Nixon. And, I think recent events in Charleston will just reinforce that, despite Republicans scrambling to try to get in front of the issue.
Most black voters are not soon going to forget that the Republican Party has been the party of the Confederate flag since Richard Nixon. And, I think recent events in Charleston will just reinforce that, despite Republicans scrambling to try to get in front of the issue.
2
Republicans seem convinced that the right to "religious freedom" only applies to right-wing evangelical Christians. Any more liberal variations of Christianity or other spiritual or philosophical beliefs are "not true religion", and are not worthy of Constitutional protections.
7
These events represent a golden, may I say God-given, opportunity for Democrats to take back Christianity and family values from conservative Republicans who have done both the teachings of Jesus and the welfare of the family great harm for decades. Love thy neighbor, regardless of what that neighbor's skin color, sexual orientation or religion may be. Reject the heritage of slavery that destroyed black families then and continues to through economic and educational barriers, low self-esteem and self-destructive behavior. Reject the sins of greed and pride that infect our economic system and the laws that uphold it. Honor and materially support our mothers and fathers and those who do the hard work of raising children with love and stability regardless of their marital status. gender, age or biological relationship. Declare unapologetically that "one nation, under God, indivisible" can still, as it has before, improve the lives of all who are tired, poor, sick, old, disabled, shunned, struggling and hopeless. All the big issues facing our country now, from climate change to unemployment, income inequality and gun violence, can be re-imaged in words of Christian teaching and family values. With a measure of amazing grace, we can move forward, not backward, toward the promised land.
8
I seriously doubt that the GOP will rise above its long history of shortsightedness to grasp the opportunities you describe. Ever since Reagan it's been this way. There are a number of qualified individuals in the GOP such as Romney and Lindsey Graham, but unless they take untenable right-wing positions in the primaries they will not become the candidate.
Republicans can hold onto their positions for perhaps another generation but those who shout hooray for the Confederacy, guns for everyone and god is on our side are dying off. They can continue to strangle early voting for minorities and the poor and create districts that look like pythons with five heads, but the end draweth nigh. Thank god.
Republicans can hold onto their positions for perhaps another generation but those who shout hooray for the Confederacy, guns for everyone and god is on our side are dying off. They can continue to strangle early voting for minorities and the poor and create districts that look like pythons with five heads, but the end draweth nigh. Thank god.
5
That the Repubs, in their current form more or less, can hang on for another generation should be the scariest of thoughts. Plenty of time for them to reach their ultimate goal of destroying access and opportunity for middle class Americans
2
Scalia is just doing his part to re-create the civil war...because the Koch Brothers told him to.
(The Koch Brothers) Purchase the people who make the laws and interpret them, control the country. Isn't it interesting that "Justice Samuel Alito also bitterly accused the majority of advancing a “deep and perhaps irremediable corruption of our legal culture’s conception of constitutional interpretation.”
When!
"Reports that two Supreme Court Justices have attended seminars sponsored by the energy giant and conservative bank-roller Koch Industries has sparked a mild debate over judicial ethics.
On Tuesday evening, the New York Times reported that an upcoming meeting in Palm Springs of "a secretive network of Republican donors" that was being organized by Koch Industries, "the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes." Buried in the third to last graph was a note that previous guests at such meetings included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the more conservative members of the bench."
(The Koch Brothers) Purchase the people who make the laws and interpret them, control the country. Isn't it interesting that "Justice Samuel Alito also bitterly accused the majority of advancing a “deep and perhaps irremediable corruption of our legal culture’s conception of constitutional interpretation.”
When!
"Reports that two Supreme Court Justices have attended seminars sponsored by the energy giant and conservative bank-roller Koch Industries has sparked a mild debate over judicial ethics.
On Tuesday evening, the New York Times reported that an upcoming meeting in Palm Springs of "a secretive network of Republican donors" that was being organized by Koch Industries, "the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes." Buried in the third to last graph was a note that previous guests at such meetings included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the more conservative members of the bench."
7
Let's get some reporters to cover that meeting and report back. What say you, NYT?
1
"IF" the republicans were to do as this article suggests, that would indicate that the Republicans actually had plans. We all know that Republicans only have solutions for problems that do NOT YET exist! Take health care, have you actually heard, after five years, a plan other than to give the States Block Grants and let them, the states, take care of it as they see fit? Of course not, because as I said, the only plan the Republicans have is to speak negatively about any and all plans that will really help people and the economy
4
David Frum, the conservative writer, claims "Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.”
Do these hypocrites not realize that most of America is (hopefully) smart enough to realize and to remember that those very same gays, blacks and migrants (and women, as well) have always been the GOPs favorite targeted groups to hate?
Do these hypocrites not realize that most of America is (hopefully) smart enough to realize and to remember that those very same gays, blacks and migrants (and women, as well) have always been the GOPs favorite targeted groups to hate?
14
This article promises beef but it delivers none. Why do all Republicans sound like Confederates, who lost the war, on every single issue? Somewhat behind the times or auditioning for the movie, "Lincoln?"
8
Forget the clown car.
This election promises to be the most entertaining ever - better than ping pong balls launched by mousetraps.
If Ole Flip-Flop made you laugh, just wait to witness the Republican Party flip about on every issue - like an ole catfish on the bank of the bayou - caught and facing the frying pan.
This election promises to be the most entertaining ever - better than ping pong balls launched by mousetraps.
If Ole Flip-Flop made you laugh, just wait to witness the Republican Party flip about on every issue - like an ole catfish on the bank of the bayou - caught and facing the frying pan.
5
I am fully aware that commenting on the elections of foreign countries is generally considered bad form. However, as a Brazilian Liberal, I must admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed the many Liberal triumphs this past week in the U.S.
Privately, I can even imagine that if I were a Republican Presidential Candidate and wished to win the nomination, I would have to attack all those same Democratic victories. After all, it was I and my party who indoctrinated the Republican base with: Love of the Confederate flag and hatred of the Federal Government; An eternal belief in White Supremacy over blacks and immigrants, A visceral disgust of Gays and Gay Marriage, and; the conviction that middle and lower class Republicans should never, ever accept low cost/high quality Healthcare.
But darn, if I attack and win in the Primary then how do I do an about-face in order to win the General Election? I might say that what I said in the Primary was just political mumbo-jumbo in order to be elected President and that I didn’t really mean what I said.
I know, I'll give our party’s best friend Benjamin – a true Republican Hero – a call. If he can’t tell me how it’s done, nobody can.
Privately, I can even imagine that if I were a Republican Presidential Candidate and wished to win the nomination, I would have to attack all those same Democratic victories. After all, it was I and my party who indoctrinated the Republican base with: Love of the Confederate flag and hatred of the Federal Government; An eternal belief in White Supremacy over blacks and immigrants, A visceral disgust of Gays and Gay Marriage, and; the conviction that middle and lower class Republicans should never, ever accept low cost/high quality Healthcare.
But darn, if I attack and win in the Primary then how do I do an about-face in order to win the General Election? I might say that what I said in the Primary was just political mumbo-jumbo in order to be elected President and that I didn’t really mean what I said.
I know, I'll give our party’s best friend Benjamin – a true Republican Hero – a call. If he can’t tell me how it’s done, nobody can.
4
The 'clean slate' for the Republicans presumably includes continuing to be defending the effort to conclude that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide through fossil fuel use has no actual effect on the environment or human endeavors.
This will be increasingly difficult to assert, and I suspect that the 2016 election will be the last one in which they can take that position.
And of course, as we are seeing played out in California, it is the rural economy that will collapse first under climate stress.
I do not think I am going out on a limb to say that the current constituent base of the Republican party will not be sufficient to win national elections by 2020.
It is perhaps fitting that the party that was born to break the institution of slavery in the United States will lose its ability to lead as the last vestiges of the slave holders cause are taken down.
"the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Which means we need another alternative to the Democrats.
This will be increasingly difficult to assert, and I suspect that the 2016 election will be the last one in which they can take that position.
And of course, as we are seeing played out in California, it is the rural economy that will collapse first under climate stress.
I do not think I am going out on a limb to say that the current constituent base of the Republican party will not be sufficient to win national elections by 2020.
It is perhaps fitting that the party that was born to break the institution of slavery in the United States will lose its ability to lead as the last vestiges of the slave holders cause are taken down.
"the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Which means we need another alternative to the Democrats.
OK, but 'pivot' to where? They haven't budged an inch on any front since the disastrous Bush/Cheney years, so what of the chances of the outcome being significantly better? How much must you hate Hilary and her barely left of center instincts to risk subjecting our country to that horror show again?
8
This column alludes to matters of economic well-being and national security as potential GOP strong points, but does so without the least bit of specifics.
Just how is the party that ignored warnings prior to 9/11, overreacted in many ways to that tragic event, mired us in two endless and ruinously expensive wars of choice, then, by ignoring sound economic regulation and oversight, overheated an inflated economic bubble so ineptly that the resulting crash nearly wiped out the entire developed world's economy, with the result today that, even in the midst of a reasonably healthy recovery, income and wealth distribution are hideously skewed in favor of the wealthy few–THAT party– supposed to find electoral strength on matters of national security and economic policy?
As I mused in 2005:
Wolfy and Rummy and President Dummy
Have us on the road to Perdition
Let's crash the economy, let's have a war
It's a Bush family tradition
I just don't get it.
Just how is the party that ignored warnings prior to 9/11, overreacted in many ways to that tragic event, mired us in two endless and ruinously expensive wars of choice, then, by ignoring sound economic regulation and oversight, overheated an inflated economic bubble so ineptly that the resulting crash nearly wiped out the entire developed world's economy, with the result today that, even in the midst of a reasonably healthy recovery, income and wealth distribution are hideously skewed in favor of the wealthy few–THAT party– supposed to find electoral strength on matters of national security and economic policy?
As I mused in 2005:
Wolfy and Rummy and President Dummy
Have us on the road to Perdition
Let's crash the economy, let's have a war
It's a Bush family tradition
I just don't get it.
12
'Deeply divisive'? Did the Times ask or tell you to write this column, Mr. Martin? This 'news analysis' has as much in common with an editorial as it does analysis. Sure, it's 'deeply divisive'...to the same people who think president Obama is a 'deeply divisive' and polarizing figure.
But they're not the nation. They couldn't prevent his reelection. They are the 30% who were never going to vote Democrat anyway, and the same 30% who believe government shouldn't exist. Or if government must exist, that it be based on the Ten Commandments.
I'm not worried about those people. I see them as being victimized by the unscrupulous, who use terminology like the 'culture wars' as a proxy to confuse notions of freedom and conscience, with personal identity and belief systems.
To the extent 'they' have always wished to politicize the personal, they now need to learn how to lose, as everyone who truly respects democracy must, when their 'beliefs' collide with the Constitution and its notions of fairness and equal protection under the law.
No, I worry more about how well the 99% are represented. Whether our votes are counted when they should -- and where they should -- be counted. Whether money truly does buy our democracy. I worry about 'one person, one vote'. That's the truly, and 'deeply divisive' issue of our time. Not who pays a tax and can get a marriage license.
But they're not the nation. They couldn't prevent his reelection. They are the 30% who were never going to vote Democrat anyway, and the same 30% who believe government shouldn't exist. Or if government must exist, that it be based on the Ten Commandments.
I'm not worried about those people. I see them as being victimized by the unscrupulous, who use terminology like the 'culture wars' as a proxy to confuse notions of freedom and conscience, with personal identity and belief systems.
To the extent 'they' have always wished to politicize the personal, they now need to learn how to lose, as everyone who truly respects democracy must, when their 'beliefs' collide with the Constitution and its notions of fairness and equal protection under the law.
No, I worry more about how well the 99% are represented. Whether our votes are counted when they should -- and where they should -- be counted. Whether money truly does buy our democracy. I worry about 'one person, one vote'. That's the truly, and 'deeply divisive' issue of our time. Not who pays a tax and can get a marriage license.
8
The media proposes that most Americans support Lesbians, Gays, Transvestites, Bi-sexuals. LBGT
The media supports them so everyone does?
The media supports them so everyone does?
All Americans are entitled to equal treatment and all Americans should be supportive of that value. It's what our country was founded on.
7
Many party officials see an opening to turn the election toward economic and national security issues, and then set the country back to 1950.
5
I would like to see a GOP candidate tell this 40% of the Republican primary voters our nation is not a religious theocracy, remind them of the religious and tax-exempt freedoms they enjoy, and leave it at that. There's too many problems facing our nation that deserve more attention than disingenuously patronizing this self-victimizing minority.
10
Democrats and Republicans use the social issues as red herrings to mask the fact they're both responsible for the deterioration of the American middle and lower income class income and wealth equality and future opportunities.
Republicans actually want this deteriorating economic result and Democrats are simply too politically incompetent, ineffective, and cowardly to stand for something enough to do anything about it (not to mention, most of them are financially advantaged to play the game that way). To pile on Democrats, as they should be piled on, Democrats can take no credit for the recent good events on marriage equality and the Confederate flag. In the former, that is the result of gay groups fighting and advocating over long periods and moving the Overton window. Democrats did nothing but act as tentative cheerleaders. As for the flag, that was conservative leaders finally relenting after one of their own massacred nine people. Democratic influence? Zero. Democrats are impotent. As for the Supreme Court ruling on the ACA, we have Democrats cheering wildly over a court ruling in a case that shouldn't even have been taken by the court. Net advance: zero. We still have the situation where the Democratic solution to improving health care was to enrich health care insurance companies and, with TPP, to aid in increasing drug prices across the world by comforting and aiding American drug manufacturers (who get their initial research paid for by the public).
Sad.
Republicans actually want this deteriorating economic result and Democrats are simply too politically incompetent, ineffective, and cowardly to stand for something enough to do anything about it (not to mention, most of them are financially advantaged to play the game that way). To pile on Democrats, as they should be piled on, Democrats can take no credit for the recent good events on marriage equality and the Confederate flag. In the former, that is the result of gay groups fighting and advocating over long periods and moving the Overton window. Democrats did nothing but act as tentative cheerleaders. As for the flag, that was conservative leaders finally relenting after one of their own massacred nine people. Democratic influence? Zero. Democrats are impotent. As for the Supreme Court ruling on the ACA, we have Democrats cheering wildly over a court ruling in a case that shouldn't even have been taken by the court. Net advance: zero. We still have the situation where the Democratic solution to improving health care was to enrich health care insurance companies and, with TPP, to aid in increasing drug prices across the world by comforting and aiding American drug manufacturers (who get their initial research paid for by the public).
Sad.
5
I disagree with the premise of this article. There may be a leftward shift in public opinion overall, but based on what I am seeing on my FB timeline, the extreme right has been driven into a mindless rage that will make it harder for GOP candidates to move away from divisive social issues. In the minds of the GOP base, questions of race, sexuality and access to healthcare are anything but settled. They feel more threatened than ever.
4
This article was a fair and well written piece, but it did not address that both parties are not monolithic. Both parties are composed of groups that band together to win elections. Democrats have labor unions, environmentalists, liberals, and others. Republicans are composed of social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and others. These rulings will allow elements in both parties to change the dynamics of both parties. There is no clear favorite for the republicans so whoever wins the nomination will be no surprise. On the democratic side if Hillary has an LBJ moment and Bernie Sanders is a modern
day McCarthy, that could be quite a surprise.
day McCarthy, that could be quite a surprise.
If the Republicans look for cultural war openings, as they seems to want to do, they will further alienate Millenniums and the growing number of Latino and Asian citizens. It is unlikely that this strategy will ever get them into the White House. Come redistricting after the 2020 Census it may help keep them out of the House too.
4
I suggest it is rhetorically best to describe the flags of the Confederacy as representing slavery and white supremacy, not hate. One stands on solid ground with slavery and white supremacy. These causes are written into the constitutions of the rebelling states for which these flags are emblems. One who waves the confederate flag can quibble about whether he/she hates anyone. They can't deny the history from which these symbols emanate.
The myth of White Supremacy served slavery beyond justifying the right of a man possessing wealth sufficient to own a person with skin darker than his own to do so. The myth of White Supremacy also was used to convince those with little wealth but an ancestry in Europe that they had standing in southern society even though dark skinned persons worked for sustenance at jobs that could be done by those poor white persons to increase their own income. This is the heritage represented by the flags of the Confederacy, Slavery, white supremacy and its corollary, the impoverishment of the non-oligarchic white. These are the causes for which white Southerner’s ancestors fought. Let them glory in that heritage if they continue to wish to do so, but not at the cost of governments that represent all people of the south.
The myth of White Supremacy served slavery beyond justifying the right of a man possessing wealth sufficient to own a person with skin darker than his own to do so. The myth of White Supremacy also was used to convince those with little wealth but an ancestry in Europe that they had standing in southern society even though dark skinned persons worked for sustenance at jobs that could be done by those poor white persons to increase their own income. This is the heritage represented by the flags of the Confederacy, Slavery, white supremacy and its corollary, the impoverishment of the non-oligarchic white. These are the causes for which white Southerner’s ancestors fought. Let them glory in that heritage if they continue to wish to do so, but not at the cost of governments that represent all people of the south.
3
I welcome this period where the social issues are done with, once and for all (though easier said than done but at least as far as the lawsuits are concerned). The next Presidential elections should absolutely be about the economy and the world affairs and the individual freedom (wiretaps anyone). If Democrats want to win that then come up with new ideas, and if Republicans win it with some fresh thoughts then so be it. Though in the case of latter, the current string of candidates don't have any!
1
hmmm...
seeing as it was the GOP who initiated the so-called Culture Wars.
and that their fear-mongering-rampage has now been nullified
by the highest court in the land...
we can anticipate that they will now open an assault on the Economy?
just another fine mess that they have almost singlehandedly destroyed?
well,
to quote their leader-in-charge as the Great Decider:
bring it on...
their attempts to return our country to the 19th Century will be an
excellent platform upon which to get people energized enough to
actually vote in 2016.
we could wish for so much.
why do republicans hate the rule of law?
why do republicans hate america?
why do republicans hate americans?
david frum:
"And Republicans can say,
‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country,
we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”
who among us can possibly refuse such a magnanimous invitation?
6
The history of the Republican party in the past several decades suggests they hate anything that can interfere with business profit.
5
I subscribe to President Obama's theory of leading from behind. You truly do have to believe in the electorate over the long haul, not just the next election cycle. In 20 years, the millennials will be middle-aged, and living in an era in which racial and gender bias will still exist, but mostly as an anachronism, something old weird Uncle Chad talks about at reunions. People will be much more apt to be judged by the content of their character.
However, the entrepreneurial spirit will be much more prevalent than seen today...and that's saying a lot. The electorate will continue to provide for those truly in need, but will have no patience for a bureaucracy that pays people for not working. Unions will, for all intents and purposes, be relics read about in history books. Personal responsibility will be at the top of any list of moral values.
While we may safely put this week's battles in the win column, this is no time to rest. We will not find ourselves on the right side of history if we continue to place bets on unions and finding was to increase unemployment coverage, when better models exist for better training and education. (The Germans and Finns have excellent models.)
Conservatives will have to let go of a rancid past to move forward. And despite their reservations regarding Darwin, they will evolve. The time for progressives to plan for that future is now, so that they don't find themselves in the same position conservatives find themselves today.
However, the entrepreneurial spirit will be much more prevalent than seen today...and that's saying a lot. The electorate will continue to provide for those truly in need, but will have no patience for a bureaucracy that pays people for not working. Unions will, for all intents and purposes, be relics read about in history books. Personal responsibility will be at the top of any list of moral values.
While we may safely put this week's battles in the win column, this is no time to rest. We will not find ourselves on the right side of history if we continue to place bets on unions and finding was to increase unemployment coverage, when better models exist for better training and education. (The Germans and Finns have excellent models.)
Conservatives will have to let go of a rancid past to move forward. And despite their reservations regarding Darwin, they will evolve. The time for progressives to plan for that future is now, so that they don't find themselves in the same position conservatives find themselves today.
2
When business profiting from reducing wages, benefits and worker protections is a "relic of the past", then unions can be a "relic of the past". When capitalism itself is a "relic of the past", then unions can be a "relic of the past". The destruction of unions is central to the conservative project of destroying the middle class in this country. Every modern industrial nation that does better on general prosperity and social mobility than the US (and there are a number of them now), have a strong element of organized labor in some form. Also, "paying people for not working" has not been significant part of our very shredded safety net since Clinton's welfare "reform" of the 1990s. It is depressing that so many "liberals" or "centrists" buy into these conservative shibboleths.
Well, the Republicans have been drug kicking and screaming by the rest of the country into accepting the ACA and same-sex marriage and have even joined forces in removing the Confederate flag off public grounds. All that is to the good. But in my mind they still have some ways to go before they're ready to run the show. They're going to have to work themselves out of the corner they've painted themselves into over man made climate change, be a little more enthusiastic about Darwin's Theory of Evolution, accept that government is not the source of all evil, and that in fact some problems can be dealt with only by government, that there are times taxes should be raised (as in Kansas and Louisiana) as well as times they should be lowered, and as a plus maybe even they could rethink the widespread availability of guns.
4
I believe that the GOP is hostage to its own base. They will say things in the primaries that will make them unelectable.
That said....I am still scared about the next election over two factors:
1) Republicans will try to work even harder to voter suppress and make it harder for minorities, the elderly and the young to vote. The courts with their Bush appointees will continue to try and preserve this...another legacy of the Bush presidency...think about it if Jeb is one on the ballot.
2) Low information voters and the stupid factor...at the risk of sounding like a snob...people have short memories, don't do the simple honest research on the candidates and vote against their better interest.
The latest example is W who managed to fool the electorate not once but twice and got us into Iraq and was at the helm of the 2nd biggest recession ever in American history.
I hope my fears will not be realized in 2016.
That said....I am still scared about the next election over two factors:
1) Republicans will try to work even harder to voter suppress and make it harder for minorities, the elderly and the young to vote. The courts with their Bush appointees will continue to try and preserve this...another legacy of the Bush presidency...think about it if Jeb is one on the ballot.
2) Low information voters and the stupid factor...at the risk of sounding like a snob...people have short memories, don't do the simple honest research on the candidates and vote against their better interest.
The latest example is W who managed to fool the electorate not once but twice and got us into Iraq and was at the helm of the 2nd biggest recession ever in American history.
I hope my fears will not be realized in 2016.
5
If you believe in representative government, an elected official should promote the electorate's ideas. So how is this hostage taking? If your constituency hates abortion, gays, blacks and loves really rich people and wants to have policies that make them richer, those are the policies you support and vote for. It's called democracy.
This is not news analysis; this is news speculation, seemingly fed by anonymous Republican sources. The Republicans can win on economic issues? How? By continuing to vote for the 1%? Or by continuing to restrict the vote? Oh wait. That's a cultural issue, and that's behind us now.
4
So they're going to pivot from gay marriage to Scott Walker and Sam Brownback bankrupting their respective states? Doesn't seem like a good strategy to me.
4
Too many commenters trash the GOP in facile fashion. Harry Blackmun wrote the SCOTUS opinion in Roe v Wade as most readers know. He was a Republican appointed by Nixon. Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion in Obergefell v Hodges and he was appointed by Reagan. Earl Warren was
a Republican though the apocryphal story is President Eisenhower said appointing him was "a damn fool mistake". Possibly so but Warren was the
author of Brown v Board of Ed.
I concede it is very hard to accept that Ted Cruz is of the same party as
Blackmun, Kennedy and Warren. But there it is.
a Republican though the apocryphal story is President Eisenhower said appointing him was "a damn fool mistake". Possibly so but Warren was the
author of Brown v Board of Ed.
I concede it is very hard to accept that Ted Cruz is of the same party as
Blackmun, Kennedy and Warren. But there it is.
2
Ted Crus is not of the same party as Blackmun, Kennedy and Warren. That Republican Party is long gone.
1
As long as the Senate and the House remain GOP, then the culture battles can continue, and strengthen. Jeb! in 2016 looks more likely than ever, as Middle America gets energized by Obama's acute Mideast failures and the evisceration of traditional family values, too. If Justice Ginsburg remains on SCOTUS into 2017, her replacement will be a feather in Jeb's! cap, if he or she can survive the auto-da-fe before Congress, lest another wild duck like Justice Kennedy, faux Catholic, sneak in.
1
Jeb doesn't really want the job and will probably be relieved when he loses.
Your idea of the Republicans gaining strength on cultural issues is laughable. No more confederate flags, marriage equality is the law of the land, young people don't care about anyone's sexual orientation etc.
Your idea of the Republicans gaining strength on cultural issues is laughable. No more confederate flags, marriage equality is the law of the land, young people don't care about anyone's sexual orientation etc.
Looking in from the outside, I don't put a lot of stock in arguments that the Republican base is qualitatively different from the Democratic base (although assuredly quantitatively less rational). But speaking of David Frum (and conservatives of his ilk), is there a group of analog progressives, also so well-known and so reviled by their former party-members, as Frum is by his?
1
The victories for the Democratic Party and for our citizens are reflected in the more evolved policies of our government. The political victories - distinct from policy victories - may indeed provide an avenue less fraught with bigotry and hate for the GOP if they can avoid the temptation to be bigoted and hateful.
What is remarkable and worth celebrating is the change in political strategy in just a dozen years. In 2004, the Republicans got measures placed on the November ballot in many states that were intended to enhance GOP turnout motivated by fear of marriage equality. The worm has turned.
Now the social issues would seem to favor the Democrats who would be well served to note the precarious balance in the Supreme Court as a legitimate campaign issue.
What is remarkable and worth celebrating is the change in political strategy in just a dozen years. In 2004, the Republicans got measures placed on the November ballot in many states that were intended to enhance GOP turnout motivated by fear of marriage equality. The worm has turned.
Now the social issues would seem to favor the Democrats who would be well served to note the precarious balance in the Supreme Court as a legitimate campaign issue.
1
"Bruce Jenner, the famed Olympian, became Caitlyn Jenner in the most prominent moment yet for transgender people. "
Ironically Caitlyn Jenner is a Republican.
Ironically Caitlyn Jenner is a Republican.
2
Ironically and shamefully.
Complete hogwash.
Conservatives, 40 years after Roe v Wade, are still fighting the abortion wars.
Conservatives, 50 years after the Voting rights Act are still trying to limit lawful access to the ballot box.
Conservatives, 50 years after the Civil rights Act are still trying to end affirmative action.
Conservatives, 50 years after the Medicare law are still trying to gut or privatize it.
Conservatives, 80 years after the Social Security Act, are still trying to either gut or privatize it.
Conservatives, 80 years after the Wagner Act are still trying to bust labor unions.
Conservatives, 150 years after the Civil War still fly that treasonous battle flag as a badge of honor.
Do you see a pattern here? These people never give up. They may lay dormant for a brief period to let the liberal celebrating die down, but then they are back with a vengeance.
Gay folk better sleep with one eye open.
Conservatives, 40 years after Roe v Wade, are still fighting the abortion wars.
Conservatives, 50 years after the Voting rights Act are still trying to limit lawful access to the ballot box.
Conservatives, 50 years after the Civil rights Act are still trying to end affirmative action.
Conservatives, 50 years after the Medicare law are still trying to gut or privatize it.
Conservatives, 80 years after the Social Security Act, are still trying to either gut or privatize it.
Conservatives, 80 years after the Wagner Act are still trying to bust labor unions.
Conservatives, 150 years after the Civil War still fly that treasonous battle flag as a badge of honor.
Do you see a pattern here? These people never give up. They may lay dormant for a brief period to let the liberal celebrating die down, but then they are back with a vengeance.
Gay folk better sleep with one eye open.
14
It's fascinating what the writer of this article calls a 'wedge issue'--wedge issues are apparently such things as gay marriage, racial discrimination, and health care that *Democrats* were hoping to use against Republicans. Let's be clear: It's a wedge issue when Republicans try to get white religious people to vote against their own economic interests by electing a GOP politician that promises, for example, to preserve the sanctity of marriage while undermining unions and the minimum wage to insure that the wealthy become wealthier. That's a wedge because they are seeking to split off part of the big group of ordinary people and get them to vote against the interests of ordinary people. In particular, they are appealing to a bigotry based in a sense of superiority of their group, non-gay Christians, against another group, gays. When Democrats invoke something like gay marriage, this is clearly not a wedge issue--they are trying to pursue justice for a discriminated against minority at the possible risk of losing votes by bigots among ordinary people who don't realize that they are harming themselves on issues that really matter by voting for the GOP. Democrats in this case are not trying to split the public against its own interests by appealing to foolish bigotry.
4
The Republicans will lose either way. If they nominate a moderate, the evangelicals won't turn out and if they nominate a nut like Cruz or Huckabee, the independents will flock to the democrat.
As long as they continue to pander to the worst elements of their party, and fall further and further behind on social issues, they won't win a national contest.
As long as they continue to pander to the worst elements of their party, and fall further and further behind on social issues, they won't win a national contest.
4
One can't wait to see what hilarious nonsense emanates from Republicans as they emerge from their clown car. One Presidential hopeful after another attempting to trump the Trump for shear audacity. I can hear them now:
We God-fearing Christians are not gonna take this. Get rid of the Supreme Court, Repeal ObamaCareS, ban Marriage Equality, let States Rights decide to fly the Confederate flag. President Obama, who is a sleeper cell Muslim according to them, has demonized Christians. The Left is taking over this country. Is nothing sacred? For many of these Republicans, that will just be a start. Wait till they really get going.
As it grows each day, the GOP clown car carries with it the promise of every Republican Hopeful going full-bore and charging Hard Right to get the nomination. Each of them will be trying desperately to up the ante and clamoring to be heard above the Tea Party's crowded din of White Noise. Republicans are riled up and ready to explode, striking fear into their base, angry fearful old white men, by threatening them with a future of an America they won't recognize.
Open the doors to that clown car, GOP. We can't wait to hear what comes out of their mouths. It ought to be a real hoot.
DD
Manhattan
We God-fearing Christians are not gonna take this. Get rid of the Supreme Court, Repeal ObamaCareS, ban Marriage Equality, let States Rights decide to fly the Confederate flag. President Obama, who is a sleeper cell Muslim according to them, has demonized Christians. The Left is taking over this country. Is nothing sacred? For many of these Republicans, that will just be a start. Wait till they really get going.
As it grows each day, the GOP clown car carries with it the promise of every Republican Hopeful going full-bore and charging Hard Right to get the nomination. Each of them will be trying desperately to up the ante and clamoring to be heard above the Tea Party's crowded din of White Noise. Republicans are riled up and ready to explode, striking fear into their base, angry fearful old white men, by threatening them with a future of an America they won't recognize.
Open the doors to that clown car, GOP. We can't wait to hear what comes out of their mouths. It ought to be a real hoot.
DD
Manhattan
5
"Southern heritage and its symbols are to be unambivalently revered "
Only a liberal would think that "southern heritage" is a conservative or republican value. Yes there are large numbers of republicans in the south, and many of them value "southern heritage". But it doesn't follow that the rest of the republican party does. Most certainly do not.
Only a liberal would think that "southern heritage" is a conservative or republican value. Yes there are large numbers of republicans in the south, and many of them value "southern heritage". But it doesn't follow that the rest of the republican party does. Most certainly do not.
1
Voter suppression efforts tell a different story.
Certainly this has been a rough week for rednecks, red states, and Republicans. The events this week have been a clear indication of the America's changing demographics, attitudes, and temperament. Now, at roughly two and a half cenuries old, the character of America is morphing into a form that its founders could not have even imagined.
Change comes hard to traditionalists, and those that find it most difficult become regressives, not only resisting change but actively trying to undo it. That is the nature of today's Republican party. Its moderate candidates try to hold the line, while its extremist candidates agitate for a return to the past. There is no such thing as a progressive Republican.
The problem for the candidates is that the majority of the electorate embraces progressive change, and the majority is well-informed about the Republican agenda. It's difficult to imagine how Republican candidates can appeal to the majority, and disturbing to imagine that they somehow manage to do so.
Change comes hard to traditionalists, and those that find it most difficult become regressives, not only resisting change but actively trying to undo it. That is the nature of today's Republican party. Its moderate candidates try to hold the line, while its extremist candidates agitate for a return to the past. There is no such thing as a progressive Republican.
The problem for the candidates is that the majority of the electorate embraces progressive change, and the majority is well-informed about the Republican agenda. It's difficult to imagine how Republican candidates can appeal to the majority, and disturbing to imagine that they somehow manage to do so.
3
Why would anyone think that right-wing Republican candidates would stop playing to their base? Those are the people who applaud, and so the candidates feel comfortable there. It also helps that notorious radio and television talk-and-news show personalities reinforce their positions with free publicity by appealing to the same people. This is a powerful opiate that few, if any, of these candidates can deny themselves.
The only chance the Republican Party has of winning a 2016 general election is by again supporting a moderately conservative candidate who is unaligned with divisive "cultural issues." If such a person comes from a blue state, better yet.
Looking back, Mitt Romney fit the bill, but an "economics everyman" he was not. George Pataki is a "maybe," but may have been out of the game far too long. Donald Trump - Sorry, way too much baggage, governing inexperience, and an inwardly-focused ego.
A perfect solution would be an economically conservative turncoat Democrat. There must be another Mike Bloomberg out there somewhere seeking an opportunity.
The only chance the Republican Party has of winning a 2016 general election is by again supporting a moderately conservative candidate who is unaligned with divisive "cultural issues." If such a person comes from a blue state, better yet.
Looking back, Mitt Romney fit the bill, but an "economics everyman" he was not. George Pataki is a "maybe," but may have been out of the game far too long. Donald Trump - Sorry, way too much baggage, governing inexperience, and an inwardly-focused ego.
A perfect solution would be an economically conservative turncoat Democrat. There must be another Mike Bloomberg out there somewhere seeking an opportunity.
3
Social issues are economic issues. This is what many don't see and that includes many on the left. Reproductive rights mean that poor people can choose the size of their families and have children when they can better afford them. Widely accessible healthcare isn't just a moral issue. Before the ACA, one of the leading causes of bankruptcy were medical costs. Affirming the right of LGBT people and their families to be treated by our government the same way that other families are brings a whole host of economic benefits.
The outrage against Wall Street is rooted in people thinking that they won't have the same opportunities as other generations. Economic disparity means that access to things most middle and upper income people take for granted, like good schools, adequate infrastructure, health care, higher education (which leads to better jobs) and so on are limited for those with modest incomes. These are all positions which many those on the right are actively trying to undermine. Trade is an issue for many because they see high-paying jobs being shipped elsewhere; people are concerned about providing for their families. Foreign affairs consume wealth that could be used to support Americans. Controversy over the Confederate battle flag is really about regressive racial attitudes and those lead to policies that harm minority communities.
Candidates who see the nexus between these issues and have real solutions for them will win; who are those people in the GOP?
The outrage against Wall Street is rooted in people thinking that they won't have the same opportunities as other generations. Economic disparity means that access to things most middle and upper income people take for granted, like good schools, adequate infrastructure, health care, higher education (which leads to better jobs) and so on are limited for those with modest incomes. These are all positions which many those on the right are actively trying to undermine. Trade is an issue for many because they see high-paying jobs being shipped elsewhere; people are concerned about providing for their families. Foreign affairs consume wealth that could be used to support Americans. Controversy over the Confederate battle flag is really about regressive racial attitudes and those lead to policies that harm minority communities.
Candidates who see the nexus between these issues and have real solutions for them will win; who are those people in the GOP?
7
Then how come all the big corporations take socially liberal positions?
Well said.
Bravo.
Bravo.
"‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ "
But the republicans simple don't welcome these people. Their opposition is deep and they will find other ways to diminish or marginalize "we the people."
But the republicans simple don't welcome these people. Their opposition is deep and they will find other ways to diminish or marginalize "we the people."
3
The GOP is fast becoming the Whig party. That didn't fare well for the Whigs.
3
Of course the issue of health care and sexual and social issues have been "settled" for a long time except for Republican politicial positioning. So you think they can now spin a winning political position on substantive economic and security issues? Sorry, it's the ACA all over again: Republicans shout crime and misdemeanor at Obama but they have not offered one single policy idea, foreign or domestic, in years! Not one. If you write an analysis, please don't base everything on the wise opinions of professional political consultants. Quote actual policy they are proposing, not their dreams of spin.
7
Culture battle is not quite correct. It is a Extremist Christian battle.
2
“determined to lead us right back into the past.” I agree. The Grand Oblivion Party just wants to drive the car into the right ditch instead of the left ditch against the oncoming screaming traffic of humanity and demographics. It will be the same old wreck. The GOP will still engage in voter suppression even if all the confederate flags are burned. Their candidates are still determined to destroy ACA that has been blessed twice by the conservative SCOTUS, will still dismiss the Pope's missive on moral responsibility for climate change and the environment, will still propose budgets that are anti-poor, anti-minority, will still continue the war on women etc.No, this tiger can never get rid of its stripes.
4
Republican presidential candidate "Bobby" Jindal was on Meet the Press today, dissing the Supreme Court of the United States decision to make marriage a right for two consenting adults, regardless of their sex, as an infringement on "religious" rights. He means "organized religion ideology". That alone makes him ineligible to run for any office. Good People of Louisiana, send him home in the next elections and help restore democracy, and freedom FROM religious ideology, in America.
4
Religion is not under siege. One religion has been stopped from imposing on others.
10
If the Republicans are smart enough to drop the "culture war" and realign themselves with the center of American opinion on social issues, it will expose the fact that on economic and financial questions there's scant difference between the parties. Democrats, in the end, align with Republicans when big money PACs pull the politicians purse strings.
1
Yes, the Repubs are losing their "value" issues and will need to actually deal with the worlds real problems. That's going to be a struggle. Lower taxes on the rich, cut regulations, give more welfare to corporations, spend more on defense, cut social programs, start another mid east war, Stop all immigration., deny global warming, cut education. These are their positions, forever, and they will not have a chance in H--- to sell the majority of voters these ideas. Hilary and Bernie are already staking out their positions and the polls show the majority of Americans love it. Which Repub will be able to do a complete reversal of his record and talk to sell these?
3
Happy about the rulings of these cultural issues.
Not about the economy and national security and where are we going with these issues and how we are dealing with them
current parties are taking us down their own paths,not what Americans want.
If you are an elected official (president & congress) and renege on the issues one campaigns on...
What are the platforms each Republican and Democrat is vying for?...what ever the day brings tomorrow.....
we are a divided nation on almost all issues
With Senator Bernie Sanders we know were we stand...will congress stand behind him or their own campaign promises to no one....
Not about the economy and national security and where are we going with these issues and how we are dealing with them
current parties are taking us down their own paths,not what Americans want.
If you are an elected official (president & congress) and renege on the issues one campaigns on...
What are the platforms each Republican and Democrat is vying for?...what ever the day brings tomorrow.....
we are a divided nation on almost all issues
With Senator Bernie Sanders we know were we stand...will congress stand behind him or their own campaign promises to no one....
These so-called definitional ideas are ploys that the GOP has used for decades to cover up the reality that they have nothing to offer the average voter. I certainly wouldn't take advice on financial management from Marco Rubio, family life from Sarah Palin, marriage from Newt Gingrich, or end-of-life care from Jeb! Bush. The GOP has but one pathetic economic idea: as money is shifted to the already rich, somehow enough crumbs will fall from the table to keep the masses quiet. Just another phony GOP flim-flam - it wasn't true in Reagan times, and it is not true now. Remember their last candidate, Mitt Romney? His profound economic idea, which the 47% were too dumb to grasp, was that somehow having run businesses, he knew how to run a huge country. Step one: get the costs down, outsource those jobs to India and China. The GOP economic snake oil is even more outrageous than their cynical use of social issues. As for small government, they are not giving up on prying into what goes on in one's uterus or bedroom. As for inclusiveness, they've talked about it for 20 years or more, but just can't help themselves from continuing to insult women, LGBT people, African Americans, and Hispanics, and anyone else who is not a white Christian male. Vote for a party that could not care less about you, if you like, but I think that's crazy.
4
So what this article is saying is that if the GOP can't scare its voters with gays marrying or the Kenyan socialist taking over their health care, they may have to move on to things that really matter. And they are calling this a victory? Those were the issues they could flog away at instead of things like income equality, which, suddenly, they're dying to talk about. Thank goodness their full out assault on abortion (and, increasingly, contraception) is still going strong, and there are still guns, thank heaven, and immigrants taking our jobs away while getting free medical care and housing.
What troubles me, for real, is that the marriage equality victory is being played on the right as an assault on religious liberty. I can't wrap my head around how someone's free exercise is crippled by legal recognition of someone else's rights, whether it's marriage equality or the right to use contraception. Free exercise means that you get to practice your religion as you see fit and believe whatever you want to. It's an individual liberty. It does not mean you can stop someone else from exercising her constitutional rights even if they offend you. If you don't approve of same sex marriage, don't do it. If you don't approve of abortion, don't have one. If you don't approve of premarital sex, don't have it. Recognizing one person's right does not make it someone else's duty to use it.
What troubles me, for real, is that the marriage equality victory is being played on the right as an assault on religious liberty. I can't wrap my head around how someone's free exercise is crippled by legal recognition of someone else's rights, whether it's marriage equality or the right to use contraception. Free exercise means that you get to practice your religion as you see fit and believe whatever you want to. It's an individual liberty. It does not mean you can stop someone else from exercising her constitutional rights even if they offend you. If you don't approve of same sex marriage, don't do it. If you don't approve of abortion, don't have one. If you don't approve of premarital sex, don't have it. Recognizing one person's right does not make it someone else's duty to use it.
7
I say give them what they ask for. If they want to stick to the biblical idea of marriage than no more divorce, if they're sinful enough to get a divorce and then try to re-marry then no cake, no wedding venues etc.
I think it is all about businesses fearing law suits from customers who are discriminated against. The real Republican foundational belief is nothing must obstruct business profit. However, the public will vote with its feet. Businesses that welcome diverse clients can advertise as such; others can remain silent, and customers can choose which to go to. There is usually an air of hysteria in Republican complaints that liberals are forcing them to do something. The issues get more complicated in hiring and renting, and lawsuits may occur.
The GOP has gone to the well of cultural fear for the last 30 years, and they won't be able to stop themselves now.
Until they stop attacking abortion rights and start accepting reasonable gun control measures, the GOP will not appeal to the moderate voter. And, since their corporate sponsors won't allow them to make any changes to our current exploitable immigration system, those two social issues are the only ones that the GOP can use to augment the "religious liberty" froth.
Until they stop attacking abortion rights and start accepting reasonable gun control measures, the GOP will not appeal to the moderate voter. And, since their corporate sponsors won't allow them to make any changes to our current exploitable immigration system, those two social issues are the only ones that the GOP can use to augment the "religious liberty" froth.
3
Now that they have lost their personal war on human rights' issues, the Republicans will have to acknowledge what has been their primary agenda all along -- to amass wealth at the expense of the majority; to rob the majority of any hope of discretionary income; and to promote war to feed their machine.
4
I hope that Republicans realize that they can't win a national election by beating dead horses. Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker and Rick Santorum had better drop their hostility toward these settled social issues if they hope to appear anything but ridiculous. They are going to lose on immigration, the minimum wage and a host of other progressive issues as well. Smart candidates will realize this and move on.
That said, Republicans have another challenge. They have to actually have ideas to run on. The stupid opposition strategy against social equality and other cultural issues they have been following now will not work. The wind is out of their sails and it is time to rouse themselves from the intellectual coma that has paralyzed them since 2000 (with the sole idea that spending trillions attacking and blowing up things is in our national interest).
I don't see anything of any interest coming out of the Republican field. They have a few months to recover their wits. If they don't they are doomed in 2016, and I for one won't be very sorry.
That said, Republicans have another challenge. They have to actually have ideas to run on. The stupid opposition strategy against social equality and other cultural issues they have been following now will not work. The wind is out of their sails and it is time to rouse themselves from the intellectual coma that has paralyzed them since 2000 (with the sole idea that spending trillions attacking and blowing up things is in our national interest).
I don't see anything of any interest coming out of the Republican field. They have a few months to recover their wits. If they don't they are doomed in 2016, and I for one won't be very sorry.
8
The stakes in the battle of culture in this country are high. Refuting the allocation of basic rights and protections under the law based on sexual orientation is important. Refuting denial of the basic right to health care because a program conceived by a conservative think tank, first implemented by a Republican governor but implemented nationally by Obama is important. Not turning our back on the plight of millions of hard working undocumented aliens is important. But I fear that the next great important fight will be refusal to give in to legislative terrorist when they threaten more draconian cuts in social programs as the price to avoid default on the national debt.
2
Forget social issues. The real problem for conservatives is their failed policies of the past, domestic and foreign. Who want to return to a recession and unnecessary wars?
5
Sorry Mr. Martin but I'm not buying it. The sorry old decrepit Republican beast can not change it's spots.
Turn to economic issues. Sorry again but the country has had it with trickle down.
National Security. Not a chance. The country rejects their colonial wars as not in our interests not to mention that we still have to pay for the last two they started under false colors.
The Republican party is dieing. Let it.
Turn to economic issues. Sorry again but the country has had it with trickle down.
National Security. Not a chance. The country rejects their colonial wars as not in our interests not to mention that we still have to pay for the last two they started under false colors.
The Republican party is dieing. Let it.
7
David Fum opined that some Republicans might say "Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition."
Well, he ought to bring that idea to the current group of Republicans running for president, from whom he'd have to pry opposition to gay marriage and universal health care from their "cold dead hands" to borrow a phrase from Charlton Heston.
Seriously, this article ignores the fact that politicians of the Republican Party and to a large extent the Democratic Party are trained seals for whichever billionaires bankroll them.
Well, he ought to bring that idea to the current group of Republicans running for president, from whom he'd have to pry opposition to gay marriage and universal health care from their "cold dead hands" to borrow a phrase from Charlton Heston.
Seriously, this article ignores the fact that politicians of the Republican Party and to a large extent the Democratic Party are trained seals for whichever billionaires bankroll them.
4
David Frum acts as if the Republicans actually have some economic ideas worth pursuing. When they are in power, deficits don't matter because they are a convenient way of slowing down the effectiveness of good government. But they do believe in massive deregulation, weak environmental laws, lowering taxes for the top five percent, privatizing programs like Social Security and Medicare and eliminating public education and decent loans for students of higher education. They have nothing new to bring to the table. They are trapped in the meanest of their minds and spirits.
9
Republicans?
Hillary Clinton was against gay marriage before she "evolved".
Hillary Clinton was against gay marriage before she "evolved".
3
True, so was Barack Obama, both until the matter was vetted
in the polls.
in the polls.
"As Left Wins Culture Battles, G.O.P. May Gain Opening"
A Tar-Sands truck could be driven thru that opening. America only needs to want find someone, that can and wants to climb in there and drive.
The Lib's made hay while the sun shined, i.e. stacked the Court. Then played how they wanted the Court to vote as -- the 'country is ready'. However, in reference to the country that matters, the anti-'country is ready' wave is promising, very promising. Congressional legislation; the House 3 elections running has continually said NO! No, to virtually all Lib social engineering. The Senate now can block another 'will of the people' Court usurper. These bodies much more accurately reflect the the peoples 'readiness'. The 'ready country' Lib's refer to, apparently is unaware that Local, State & Congressional Elections take place. America & its Courts need believe in the 'will of the concerned-people', e.g. all 'election polls'.
America, immediately following the afterbirth of Roe, surrendered in a War. Then soon forced its democratically elected leader to resign amid a petty scandal, in comparison to later Executive Branch conduct.
Does another temporal judgement, like the afterbirth of Roe await America? Will the people of Afghanistan and the ME, like those of Vietnam and Kampuchea, pay a price for America's spiritual warfare? If God is not done with America, someone may soon be driving a very big truck.
A Tar-Sands truck could be driven thru that opening. America only needs to want find someone, that can and wants to climb in there and drive.
The Lib's made hay while the sun shined, i.e. stacked the Court. Then played how they wanted the Court to vote as -- the 'country is ready'. However, in reference to the country that matters, the anti-'country is ready' wave is promising, very promising. Congressional legislation; the House 3 elections running has continually said NO! No, to virtually all Lib social engineering. The Senate now can block another 'will of the people' Court usurper. These bodies much more accurately reflect the the peoples 'readiness'. The 'ready country' Lib's refer to, apparently is unaware that Local, State & Congressional Elections take place. America & its Courts need believe in the 'will of the concerned-people', e.g. all 'election polls'.
America, immediately following the afterbirth of Roe, surrendered in a War. Then soon forced its democratically elected leader to resign amid a petty scandal, in comparison to later Executive Branch conduct.
Does another temporal judgement, like the afterbirth of Roe await America? Will the people of Afghanistan and the ME, like those of Vietnam and Kampuchea, pay a price for America's spiritual warfare? If God is not done with America, someone may soon be driving a very big truck.
The GOP/Tea Party made a pact with evangelical religious leaders in the 1970s and Ralph Reed showed them how to use grass roots organizing to take control of government. They employed what they learned as Democrats gave up on ward healers and its own version of grassroots politics and so started to lose elections at all levels. Today's GOP has given up on democracy, rejects national elections by popular vote (at least until they can control elections), established new pacts with America's oligarchs and certain corporate leaders to control the economy as they have tried to control the personal morals of the public with the imposition of their religious orthodoxy. All this is being done by the GOP as they hypocritically proclaim themselves as defenders of individual rights in opposition to their actions. What the GOP has today is a well-funded propaganda communications arm that is devoted to the division of Americans against each other. The terms of left and right, liberals and conservatives are being defined by the spokespersons and have no meaning to the individuals in America who have knowledge and are capable of rational thought. People who think are too complex to be labeled as issues are complex and do not lend themselves to bumper sticker explanations. Throw off the cults of society and be yourself.
3
“We have been observing the deconstructing of America in the last six and a half years,” said Tony Perkins, the head of the conservative Family Research Council. “The tolerance level has been exceeded.” Oh for Petes sake. Get a grip! Your Family Research Council has just increased its membership by including gay and transgender families.
4
The Republicans can pick any topic they want, economic or cultural or international, and the bottom line is that they are a clown parade on ALL these topics. They do not have a shred of credibililty except to the most extreme rigfht-wing segment of the population. And, thankfully, that will not win them a national election. Those fools allowed themselves to be hijacked by nutcases like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, etc. Now they can reap what theuy sowed.
10
Anybody who thinks that those of us to the left of center are ready to rest on our laurels misses the point.
The ACA decison is not a "win" but a "hold." Had that decision gone the other way, there would have been a change. But the decision in King was a "nothing changes" decision.
The decison in Obergefell was clearly a "win" in that things changed for the better.
Getting Southern states to take down the Confederate battle flag was a very costly "win" (with enormous quotes around the word win).
There are many more issues that need correcting. In no particular order they include fixing the Citizens United decision and its consequences, fixing people's access to the polls, fixing economic issues such as those that lead to the 2008 financial debacle, fixing our infrastucture, dealing with global warming, and numerous issues relating to foreign affairs. We are nowhere near finished making progress.
Those on the left of center (which includes people who once thought of themselves as moderates) need to get out and vote in November 2016.
Keep in mind in particular thet the President nominates people as Justices of the Supreme Court and as judges in the inferior Federal courts. If you think about nothing else, consider who you want to be making those nominations, which are likely to have effects long after that President leaves office.
The ACA decison is not a "win" but a "hold." Had that decision gone the other way, there would have been a change. But the decision in King was a "nothing changes" decision.
The decison in Obergefell was clearly a "win" in that things changed for the better.
Getting Southern states to take down the Confederate battle flag was a very costly "win" (with enormous quotes around the word win).
There are many more issues that need correcting. In no particular order they include fixing the Citizens United decision and its consequences, fixing people's access to the polls, fixing economic issues such as those that lead to the 2008 financial debacle, fixing our infrastucture, dealing with global warming, and numerous issues relating to foreign affairs. We are nowhere near finished making progress.
Those on the left of center (which includes people who once thought of themselves as moderates) need to get out and vote in November 2016.
Keep in mind in particular thet the President nominates people as Justices of the Supreme Court and as judges in the inferior Federal courts. If you think about nothing else, consider who you want to be making those nominations, which are likely to have effects long after that President leaves office.
5
The premise of this article seems to be that some Republicans would like to forget about the culture war stuff and concentrate on how many troops America might send back to Iraq while at the same time fighting a war with Iran (I guess nostalgia for fighting 2 wars in the middle east simultaneously must be rampant among the Sunday morning generals.)
While it is understandable for the losers of a war to want to quickly change the subject, it just won't happen. After Pat Buchanan made his speech at the GOP convention a long time ago declaring a culture war, a rather large cottage industry of professional cultural war makers has appeared to cash in and they will not be denied.
While it is understandable for the losers of a war to want to quickly change the subject, it just won't happen. After Pat Buchanan made his speech at the GOP convention a long time ago declaring a culture war, a rather large cottage industry of professional cultural war makers has appeared to cash in and they will not be denied.
2
To a large extent Americans simply don't much care about the social issues that "progressives" obsess about. On the other hand they will look at the miserable economic and foreign policy legacy of the last 6 years (8 years by the time of the election) and want change. The democrats simply don't have a chance to win the presidency in 2016.
1
Republican businessmen like Mitt Romney exported millions of American jobs to Asia and Latin America -- for decades.
Republican-led deregulation by Congress eliminated Great Depression-era reform legislation like the Glass-Steagall Act. That inevitably led to the Great 2008 Financial Meltdown.
Blaming Democrats for Republicans' economically destructive policies and social Darwinist ideology is absurd.
Republican-led deregulation by Congress eliminated Great Depression-era reform legislation like the Glass-Steagall Act. That inevitably led to the Great 2008 Financial Meltdown.
Blaming Democrats for Republicans' economically destructive policies and social Darwinist ideology is absurd.
To the extent Democrats are guilty of being lead to champion failed conservative economic ideas, they are as culpable as if they'd invented them. Both Clinton and Obama have a lot of culpability on their hands because as political cowards they were co-opted by the conservative/Republican agenda. They need to own up to it, and state unequivocally that conservative economic ideas are wrong-headed and that Democrats should have never gone down that road.
Yes, let's compare the last six years with the prior 8 years shall we? Starting with employment figures and the stock market.
3
Personally, except for Bernie, I'm sick of the political game playing (well documented in this piece) that has only to do with one goal. And that's getting votes and winning the prize; not what's good for the country. And even though my leanings are progressive, saying/doing anything for the vote seems more ingrained in elephant candidates than donkeys. For example, "Every major Republican candidate criticized the Supreme Court's ruling affirming same-sex marriage the law of the land." That's statistically impossible. It only reaffirms what many of us suspect/know, that often beliefs held in independent Republican hearts isn't what comes out of their collective mouth. Also, let's rephrase our social/cultural battles not in terms of the winner being either left or right. Instead let's make the winner or loser the American people based on the consequences which either increase freedoms and rights and move us forward or do the opposite and hold us back.
3
Thanks, Mr. Martin! You gave me the biggest laugh I have had in days: Visualizing the GOP as sensing the giant losses they, the GOP, as having endured in recent days as "containing an opening to the Republican Party to move beyond losing battles and seemingly lost causes". Also, thank you for referring to, and admitting that, the Republicans are simply out of step with the Amercan public. That is like reporting that Barney Fife and Gomer Pyle were simply "out of step".........Thanks, and keep the laughs coming.....
5
The title of your article assumes the Republican Party has enough cultural savvy "to move beyond losing battles and seemingly lost causes." But the cast of characters who most excite their rabid base display no such social intelligence.
Sadly, yet another presidential campaign dominated by the Republican Party appealing to the hateful id of the American people appears to be more likely ...
Sadly, yet another presidential campaign dominated by the Republican Party appealing to the hateful id of the American people appears to be more likely ...
3
Yes, there is a division but I suspect many Republicans have evolved on these social issues. By putting it in the context of left and right always you reinforce the divisions. Let the clowns wail but I don't think you can lump all Americans in with that idiotic bunch.
A silly article, because the Republicans cannot ever compete with the Democrats on economic issues since their policies are designed to protect the wealthy of those already wealthy and going to war is not a vote-getter. The Republicans, since 1964, have seized on crime (really race in disguise) and abortion/homosexuality to siphon votes from the white working class and entice the previously apolitical evangelical and fundamentalist Christians to the polls---they had been apolitical for decades before the 80s). So, without these wedge issues the Republicans are not in a position to compete unless their is an economic collapse or we are invaded.
3
What in the way of new ideas does the Republican party bring to the national debate on income inequality? I see nothing but the same tired old rhetoric about trickle down economics.
2
"What in the way of new ideas does the Republican party bring to the national debate on income inequality? "
Opportunity. The problem is not really income inequality, its that its much harder for people to move up. And this has happened under Democrat rule. What is needed are policies that make it easier to start and run a business and to hire employees. Regulations need to be streamlined so its easier to open a factory. You may complain about "tired old rhetoric about trickle down economics" but the democrat platform is massive debt, government handouts that actually trap people in poverty and stagnant economic growth.
Opportunity. The problem is not really income inequality, its that its much harder for people to move up. And this has happened under Democrat rule. What is needed are policies that make it easier to start and run a business and to hire employees. Regulations need to be streamlined so its easier to open a factory. You may complain about "tired old rhetoric about trickle down economics" but the democrat platform is massive debt, government handouts that actually trap people in poverty and stagnant economic growth.
1
The premise that we will forget where Republicans have stood on these cultural issues, and that the affirmation of Marriage Equality by the Court signals that this "moment will be remembered as an effective wiping of the slate before...," is nothing but wishful thinking. When it comes to the road ahead on the LGBT agenda, 'you ain't seen nothing yet.' There is a backlog of work on anti-discrimination laws, and the cultural warriors on the right are intent on basing their political strategy on 'religious freedom' to discriminate.
5
What questions of race is the left winning or even fighting fiercely for? The VRA was gutted, and that's the cornerstone of civil rights. Taking down the Confederate Flag in the few states that still fly it? That''s kind of an empty gesture.
4
I'm going to respectfully disagree. While we still need to work to protect voting rights, taking down that evil flag sends a loud and clear message that the majority of Americans will not stand for that kind of hatred and bigotry.
Empty for sure. It's a mystery as to why it took so long.
Should have happened 100 years ago.
Should have happened 100 years ago.
With unemployment continuing to decline, the stock market up, the GDP (generally) going up, and with the Affordable Care Act providing some measure of relief for middle class and lower middle class Americans, I am reasonably optimistic that come the 2016 election the country (as a whole) will not be hankering for a return to Bush family economics. While some people have incredibly short memories, the 2008 economic collapse is still in enough people's minds that the Republicans will not be able to sell their old trickle down tax cut nonsense. Economic fairness is today's clarion call, and on that issue the Republicans are a flim flam operation.
1
And so far, it appears that the seemingly least extreme candidate, Jeb!, is relying on the same incredibly incompetent advisors that helped his brother damage the economy and start an unwinnable war.
1
I dunno, 2016 looks like a horse race to me.
Republican candidates are more likely to respond to the socially liberal wins of the past weeks by whipping up the basest parts of their base, than by treating the issues as settled. It will be effective, and not to do so would set off red flags on the personal integrity front. Once those angers flare up in the primaries, it will be all but impossible to damp them down and tack to a moderate position in the general. And in the general that reactionary stance will be a loser as the center has moved leftwards on social issues, decisively so.
Yes, that leaves economy and security, but these are far from clear winners for conservative Republicans. The Democratic Party is capable enough to demonstrate that Republicans have never in modern times been any good with money, and on security the Bill Kristol set has discredited the whole lot of 'me for decades to come. Can the plain truth in the areas of security and the economy overcome the American public's longstanding appetite for a good story that the Republicans are the Daddy Party and will take care of us? I guess we shall see.
Republican candidates are more likely to respond to the socially liberal wins of the past weeks by whipping up the basest parts of their base, than by treating the issues as settled. It will be effective, and not to do so would set off red flags on the personal integrity front. Once those angers flare up in the primaries, it will be all but impossible to damp them down and tack to a moderate position in the general. And in the general that reactionary stance will be a loser as the center has moved leftwards on social issues, decisively so.
Yes, that leaves economy and security, but these are far from clear winners for conservative Republicans. The Democratic Party is capable enough to demonstrate that Republicans have never in modern times been any good with money, and on security the Bill Kristol set has discredited the whole lot of 'me for decades to come. Can the plain truth in the areas of security and the economy overcome the American public's longstanding appetite for a good story that the Republicans are the Daddy Party and will take care of us? I guess we shall see.
Separation of church and state was reaffirmed by the current decisions of the Supreme Court. The GOP so called Christians will have not have that. They advertise their Christianity, but in the mean time, punish the poor, pass the ammunition, and are prejudicial towards the LGBT community and people of color.
1
The American people have been so overwhelmed and inundated with left wing socialism by the white house and the judicial system, that inevitably there will be a public reaction to it. And that reaction will show up at the voting booth in 2016. The American people are a forgiving compassionate people but the political socialists in the white house, on the supreme court and in the Clinton campaign are clearly not. What these three entities have done is to marginalize and reduce the power of the 1st Amendment with respect to the practice of religion and the moral values it represents. God will not let these godless politicians and judges stand forever. There will be a reckoning someday.
1
Doesn't your Constitution guarantee freedom of religion but also freedom FROM religion.
At least, Jefferson thought so.
At least, Jefferson thought so.
As Left Wins Culture Battles, Antonin Scalia needs to get over it. His dissenting opinion in Obergefell was a study in bitterness. He wrote and I shamelessly quote his opinion out of context "(California does not count)".
It may not count to him but it has 48 electors who will count in 2016.
It may not count to him but it has 48 electors who will count in 2016.
4
Make that 55 Electors.
That would be a very broad and wide slate to clean if they really want to do that. Little by little the nation at large has been telling conservatives that their ideas are not welcome here. The past couple of weeks have only shown that in official form.
We've been telling them that trickle-down economics and their Atlas Shrugged-inspired worldview are also not welcime here for a while, most recently in November, 2012. They keep winning elections because they've rigged congressional districts so our votes get diluted and also, we must admit, because too many of us don't bother to show up to vote.
In light of all this a clean slate would mean changing virtually their entire platform and becoming a new party. I doubt they will have the ability to do that. Their paymasters won't allow it.
We've been telling them that trickle-down economics and their Atlas Shrugged-inspired worldview are also not welcime here for a while, most recently in November, 2012. They keep winning elections because they've rigged congressional districts so our votes get diluted and also, we must admit, because too many of us don't bother to show up to vote.
In light of all this a clean slate would mean changing virtually their entire platform and becoming a new party. I doubt they will have the ability to do that. Their paymasters won't allow it.
5
If the GOP has to rely on economic and security concerns they have their work cut out for them. Under the Democrats the economy has been doing well. The big concern is income inequality and on that score the Republicans have little to offer. Changing the tax code (raising taxes on the wealthy) , promoting infrastructure spending including education are areas the GOP is opposed to. Their best hope is that the economy hits a downturn and that they can blame this on the Democrats. In the area of security....it should require a lot of spinning to sweep away the Bush/Cheney years and our entrance into a kind of permanent war in the Middle East. So Spin away Republicans....you are providing many high paid jobs for lobbyists, former Congressmen...political operatives and ad men/women.
2
Republicans think they can win on economic and security issues? By what...doing what they do best and starting another WAR? I don't think so. Their record speaks volumes, and voters will not forget Iraq or Afghanistan or "bring it on" or the recession/depression they caused. If it's the economy, stupid, and if they think they can win on economic measures...HA.
4
The headline and premise of this article is complete fallacious. Marriage equality is something that over 60% of ALL AMERICANS are in favor of -- left, right, and in between. To say this is a win for the "left" is wrong headed, it is a win for HUMAN BEINGS everywhere in America. LGBT folks come in all political stripes, economic constitution, family beginnings, etc. LGBT folks and their allies are both conservative and liberal. I think THAT is biggest story here and no one is writing about that. Why not? I would think that would be the ultimate click-bait, don't you?
Conservatives just want you think that this is a win for the left, it's much broader than that. I'm disappointed the NYTimes can't work outside of the false paradigm presented in this article.
Smh.
Conservatives just want you think that this is a win for the left, it's much broader than that. I'm disappointed the NYTimes can't work outside of the false paradigm presented in this article.
Smh.
5
@ Jude
"To say this is a win for the "left" is wrong headed"
You're disappointment probably stems from your comprehension problem. This article is not about the relative merits of marriage equality; or the number of people it may have benefitted; or even the number of people who approve of the notion; but about the stance of the two political parties towards the issue. Overall the Republican party (they are the right) have been fanatically opposed to it (some of their presidential candidates are urging civil disobedience against the ruling) while the Democratic party (they are the left) have supported it. Thus in political terms (and that is the context of this article) it is a win for the left. Compris?
"To say this is a win for the "left" is wrong headed"
You're disappointment probably stems from your comprehension problem. This article is not about the relative merits of marriage equality; or the number of people it may have benefitted; or even the number of people who approve of the notion; but about the stance of the two political parties towards the issue. Overall the Republican party (they are the right) have been fanatically opposed to it (some of their presidential candidates are urging civil disobedience against the ruling) while the Democratic party (they are the left) have supported it. Thus in political terms (and that is the context of this article) it is a win for the left. Compris?
It is laughable that the most intolerant party of all, the Democrat party, is considers themselves tolerant. The left has systematically destroyed anyone and everything who may oppose their views and will not tolerate anyone's view but their own. To the left tolerating of opposing views is non-existent. So far the have been successful in the courts because of their tactics. However, I suspect that when the dust clears and voters see what a mess the left is making of our once great country their will be significant change to the right of center. The ACA is really not affordable and leaves more people uninsured than are insured under ACA. The cost of ACA is unlimited because insurance rate increases are not passed along to the consumers of ACA they are borne by taxpayers through ever increasing subsidies. That is why insurance company stocks went up when the Court decided to ignore plan language and the true intent of that language and ruled it is OK to spend billions of taxpayer earnings outside the law. They in effect changed the intent the Democrat Congress authors had when implementing the ACA because it would be messy not to. So be it. ACA is likely to collapse on its own as the cost increases. Let it go and just wait. If it is truly successful then it will stay. If it ends up costing much more than originally predicted it will eventually collapse.
1
NYChap
Chappaqua
A typical Republican gives us the his appreciation of what constitutes reality.
J. S. Mill famously pointed out that most stupid people are conservative. Now we have hard evidence.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/2/187.short
As if any were needed.
Chappaqua
A typical Republican gives us the his appreciation of what constitutes reality.
J. S. Mill famously pointed out that most stupid people are conservative. Now we have hard evidence.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/2/187.short
As if any were needed.
I am not sure how the republicans play national security. First their candidates have no national security experience, other than Lindsay Graham. Second, they get whupped with Dubya as soon as they open their mouths on the middle east. On the economy, same deal: jobs are growing moderately, the economy is growing moderately, even wages are growing again. The numbers just don't work for the republicans on the economy. Their whole attempt to court Latino voters will fold like a cheap suit as soon as they have to bring their hateful words to bear on the primaries. Their only chance is that, after 8 years of a brilliant african american president with a tendency toward arrogance, people may not have the appetite for another first, a powerful, experienced, unapologetic woman in the white house. So they will be hitting hillary with all they got, from benghazi to email...I expect to see whitewater come up again. They have no other play at this point.
3
RE: "... and broadened access to health care ..." Nobody including conservatives are against access to health care. Even before obamacare everyone in the country had access to health care.
But if "broaden access" means taxpayers paying for "free" health care for unwed mothers (who already are getting welfare, food stamps, housing vouchers, etc...) and their children then yes count me as against it. Also count me against it if it means rewarding old people who irresponsibly did not save for old age. Same thing if it means reward illegal aliens with "free" health care.
But if "broaden access" means taxpayers paying for "free" health care for unwed mothers (who already are getting welfare, food stamps, housing vouchers, etc...) and their children then yes count me as against it. Also count me against it if it means rewarding old people who irresponsibly did not save for old age. Same thing if it means reward illegal aliens with "free" health care.
1
"But if 'broaden access' means taxpayers paying for 'free' health care for unwed mothers"
Grumpy reader in Washington, DC--what is your problem with Bristol Palin? Her mother would have made a far better vice-president than Joe Biden according to conservatives like you, right?
Grumpy reader in Washington, DC--what is your problem with Bristol Palin? Her mother would have made a far better vice-president than Joe Biden according to conservatives like you, right?
What these Supreme Court rulings do is solidify the Republican base. Not one candidate has said, the Supreme Court has ruled so let's move on, the reason being that the base respects adherence to principles. Any candidate that changes his or her mind will no longer be a GOP candidate. This is illustrated by the Confederate flag, the battle flag of a cause that was lost 150 years ago, but is still alive and well in the South. It may come down from State property, but it won't be removed from the hearts and minds of those that still adhere to its principles. As a result, conservatism (in America) needs to be properly defined and dealt with for what it is, a concept that equality is only an ideal that cannot be achieved and that only those that have proven themselves as having higher values have the right to rule.
2
Not quite. Look at Kentucky, citizens there are benefitting from the ACA. Look at the polling on marriage equality, an increasing number of people support it or simply don't care enough to oppose it.
The number of die hard ignorant bigots is shrinking.
The number of die hard ignorant bigots is shrinking.
The Republicans only have one play in their playbook, and that is stir up the masses on social issues so they will vote for politicians who will further cut taxes on the rich. They don't have anything to pivot to, so I don't see how recent events will change anything.
7
It's a good thing that Republicans can move past these issues. I'm way left but to realize that Governor Jerry Brown is better at financial decisions than anybody on the right is scary.
We do need a strong two party (at least) to intelligently work out the problems of the nation. We haven't had that lately.
We do need a strong two party (at least) to intelligently work out the problems of the nation. We haven't had that lately.
3
Why do you find it scary that Jerry Brown is better at making financial decisions than anybody on the right? Is there some evidence that Brown is a reckless spender? Did California go into some kind of financial black hole during his first time around as governor from 1975-83?
The Times assumes that most of the momentous issues in the news recently have been "settled in quick succession" to quote from the first sentence. It might be useful to remember that the murderous rampage in Charleston and elsewhere are fueled by continued unfettered easy access to high power weapons. That the health care subsidies provided by Federal marketplaces do not help tens of millions of poor American citizens who are denied the expanded Medicaid benefits by Republican governors and legislatures.
The Republican leadership at a national and a state level has few practical solutions for these critically important issues. (or does following the NRA dictates of "more guns!" count?) Nor do they offer solutions to global warming, and environmental degradation, other than less regulation, as if deregulation hadn't been the main policy goal during 8 years of Cheney-Bush, and a the previous 12 years of the Bush Sr. and Reagan presidencies.
This article is a classic case of "one one hand"..."on the other hand" journalism where every perceived short-term victory of one party or politician has to be balanced by a positive message for the other side, even if the overall story makes no sense. Instead of discussing the ramifications of the shifting politics and cultural life of the country or discussing the increasing toll of gun violence, the Times devotes its front page to football-level score keeping of politics.
The Republican leadership at a national and a state level has few practical solutions for these critically important issues. (or does following the NRA dictates of "more guns!" count?) Nor do they offer solutions to global warming, and environmental degradation, other than less regulation, as if deregulation hadn't been the main policy goal during 8 years of Cheney-Bush, and a the previous 12 years of the Bush Sr. and Reagan presidencies.
This article is a classic case of "one one hand"..."on the other hand" journalism where every perceived short-term victory of one party or politician has to be balanced by a positive message for the other side, even if the overall story makes no sense. Instead of discussing the ramifications of the shifting politics and cultural life of the country or discussing the increasing toll of gun violence, the Times devotes its front page to football-level score keeping of politics.
4
Its been 40-years since Roe vs wade and the GOP is still trying to overturn it - although most Americans favor a woman's right to choose. Economics - that's a joke. Lets take up the GOP House ans Senate trying to protect predatory private colleges paid by tax payer funds fleecing students, but cutting Pell grants.. Minimum wage, tax cuts for the wealthiest - block tax equality for gays but pass millionaire friendly tax regulations. Or some more corporate welfare. Bush, having recited his ode to the Vatican n gay marriage can will tell us how the Terry Shiavo case when he was Governor really wasn't about the government advancing a specific religious view. But holding religious institutions harmless from providing birth control or gay accommodation complies with the first amendment in GOP logic. By the times the GOP primaries are through things will be a total logic mess.
5
Mr. Frum, while it's absolutely true that Republican leaders can tell gays, blacks or recent migrants to our country they are welcome as "fully cherished members of our coalition", even if they don't really mean it, they won't because it will destroy their Party.
Maintaining Republican power at the national level depends on preserving its Red State Bastion, a nation-within-a-nation, although I consider it more like a tumor. The Bastion is its bloc of gerrymandered Congressional districts that empowers Republicans to control the House of Representatives. A more formidable roadblock to reform cannot be imagined. Discarding the politics of religious intolerance, racial bigotry and social resentment, what that welcome accomplishes, undermines the Bastion from within.
Attend any Red State Republican rally today what is most striking, beyond the overabundant American political symbols (flags, streamers, bunting)? The audience. Overwhelmingly white. Ask anyone "is ours a white Christian conservative nation?", most will agree. They might not shout it from the rooftops like they did in the past, but they vote for those echoing such sentiments. Furthermore, they feel besieged, and many still insist President Obama is illegitimate, or mock and disparage him.
Not only will welcoming gays and racial minorities marginalize them. It will leave them feeling betrayed and abandoned. The Red State Bastion will fall soon after, accomplishing a goal that has eluded Democrats since 1968.
Maintaining Republican power at the national level depends on preserving its Red State Bastion, a nation-within-a-nation, although I consider it more like a tumor. The Bastion is its bloc of gerrymandered Congressional districts that empowers Republicans to control the House of Representatives. A more formidable roadblock to reform cannot be imagined. Discarding the politics of religious intolerance, racial bigotry and social resentment, what that welcome accomplishes, undermines the Bastion from within.
Attend any Red State Republican rally today what is most striking, beyond the overabundant American political symbols (flags, streamers, bunting)? The audience. Overwhelmingly white. Ask anyone "is ours a white Christian conservative nation?", most will agree. They might not shout it from the rooftops like they did in the past, but they vote for those echoing such sentiments. Furthermore, they feel besieged, and many still insist President Obama is illegitimate, or mock and disparage him.
Not only will welcoming gays and racial minorities marginalize them. It will leave them feeling betrayed and abandoned. The Red State Bastion will fall soon after, accomplishing a goal that has eluded Democrats since 1968.
3
Conservative Republicanism has as much of a future as does the coal industry. They're both sitting on a depreciating asset and should be thinking about how to get out of the business.
7
This article is grounded on the most convoluted logic I've seen in a while: the Republicans are deeply identified with outdated and regressive social ideas, they just suffered a series of defeats, and therefore they have an opportunity to reposition themselves more effectively. Only a Republican PR firm could have fed such a bizarre argument to the Times.
The problem with this idea is that Republicans have been exposed as reactionary thinkers and many have, nonetheless, double-downed on their backward tiinking. This week marks the beginning of the end of the Republican party and will inform the birth of something like a Libertarian party (a whole different kind of crazy).
The problem with this idea is that Republicans have been exposed as reactionary thinkers and many have, nonetheless, double-downed on their backward tiinking. This week marks the beginning of the end of the Republican party and will inform the birth of something like a Libertarian party (a whole different kind of crazy).
3
I think the debate over the ACA ought to be included when discussing battles over culture. Hostility to the ACA among right-wing Americans is part of their truly odd worldview which argues the following:
Upper-income people are pure, 100% self-made individuals who don't owe a damn thing to anybody--not their country, not their fellow citizens, not their employees. Upper-income people pay the bulk of the income taxes that support a bloated, corrupt, overly generous welfare state that gives "free stuff" to the "moochers" of society. Therefore, the social welfare state should be radically cut down in size or eliminated altogether NOT because of any falsely expressed concerns about the size of the national debt, but because of the belief that upper-income people are purely self-made individuals who shouldn't have to pay for anything they don't want to pay for. Apparently, upper-income people don't object to paying for bloated defense spending, since right-wingers have no trouble with pumping the Pentagon full of cash nonstop.
This is tripe of the highest order, and it is what people like Paul Ryan believe in their hearts. It is a cultural argument, mystifying and utterly wrong. Why so many Americans buy into this utter and complete nonsense is an urgent question in need of answering. Something is really wrong with a country where so many people harbor such a slavish, servile, sycophantic attitude towards people who have a lot of money.
Upper-income people are pure, 100% self-made individuals who don't owe a damn thing to anybody--not their country, not their fellow citizens, not their employees. Upper-income people pay the bulk of the income taxes that support a bloated, corrupt, overly generous welfare state that gives "free stuff" to the "moochers" of society. Therefore, the social welfare state should be radically cut down in size or eliminated altogether NOT because of any falsely expressed concerns about the size of the national debt, but because of the belief that upper-income people are purely self-made individuals who shouldn't have to pay for anything they don't want to pay for. Apparently, upper-income people don't object to paying for bloated defense spending, since right-wingers have no trouble with pumping the Pentagon full of cash nonstop.
This is tripe of the highest order, and it is what people like Paul Ryan believe in their hearts. It is a cultural argument, mystifying and utterly wrong. Why so many Americans buy into this utter and complete nonsense is an urgent question in need of answering. Something is really wrong with a country where so many people harbor such a slavish, servile, sycophantic attitude towards people who have a lot of money.
8
Actually, our taxation burden falls heaviest on those least able to afford it, the working poor and lower middle class, because the federal tax code subsidizes high-income earners. Warren Buffet pointed the anomaly out by using himself as an eample. On a multi-multi-million dollar income he paid proportionately less tax percentage wise than his secretary, earning a lowly $50K.
Based on what I'm seeing on my FB timeline, I have come to exactly the opposite conclusion. The extreme right has been driven into a mindless rage by the events of last week and will not allow their candidates to pivot away from social issues. This will provide Democrats an opportunity to portray their opponents as backward and out of touch with reality.
8
They don't have to be portrayed that way by the Dems. Just look at the GOP stand on "trickle down", the obvious climate change and a woman's right to choose to see how out of touch that party is.
so what, the republicans are going to win on the economy an national security? What a joke. More trickle down theory that nobody believes in anymore and fighting wars all over the world for no good reason that we always lose or come back to bite us (ie isis)? Dream on, the republican party is a dinasour and its starting to crumble. Like the tea party was a movement you are going to see Bernie Sanders rise as enough people have seen too much of this madness.The country is going to move way left.
4
hmmm. I keep on seeing stories with lots of economic good news. the republicans will have to rely on their base's continuing ignorance. also, so far, the terrorist attacks have mostly been by Americans since the big ones in 2001, no?
5
A turn toward economic issues is no panacea for the Republicans. Their ideas on job creation, taxation, inequality, are as outmoded and unappealing as their positions on culture.
4
I go back to what Howard Dean said several years ago. It was something to the effect that Democrats need to figure out how to talk to the good ole boy in his pick-up truck and the Confederate flag sticker. Yes, we don't agree on that, but with everything else his REAL concerns align much more closely with the goals and objectives of the Democratic party than the Republicans. The Republicans have become experts on using him as a 'human shield' behind which to execute their pro corporate strategies.
4
Our economy has been better under president Obama than it was under president Bush. So what republicans will be selling? Does national security mean more wars? The country is not ready for that.
5
When a senator from South Carolina (the white one) has to tell his party to stop being so racist, that party has a problem.
4
If the Republicans are careful in choosing the right candidate for the Republican nomination, they have a very good chance of winning the election. Now that the Supreme Court has voted on two hot button issues, ACA and gay marriage, they can move on and stress the important issues of the day.
They must concentrate on improving the economy for all and the growing threat of terrorism here in the USA and abroad. These are of the utmost concern for most Americans presently. I have faith they can succeed and win in the general election. We need a change in leadership and they are our answer.
They must concentrate on improving the economy for all and the growing threat of terrorism here in the USA and abroad. These are of the utmost concern for most Americans presently. I have faith they can succeed and win in the general election. We need a change in leadership and they are our answer.
1
The Supreme Court did Republicans a big favor last week. Forced acceptance of homosexual marriage and Obamacare will galvanize the heart of America to vote Democrats out of office in 2016, just as they were voted out in 2016. The Republican base will make it clear to our elected representatives that the will of the majority cannot be subjugated to political correctness. Democrats, liberals and progressives are flaunting homosexual values on the east and west coasts today. The heart of America will be celebrating middle American values in November, 2016.
1
The "heart of America"? What on Earth is that?
Leaving aside: "Forced acceptance of homosexual marriage and Obamacare will galvanize the heart of America to vote Democrats out of office in 2016, just as they were voted out in 2016.".
That makes no sense. No sense at all. "2016" (November) is sixteen months away yet you describe it in the past tense, as if the shape and substance of our world a year and a half from now is preordained, a foregone conclusion. Ludicrous.
That makes no sense. No sense at all. "2016" (November) is sixteen months away yet you describe it in the past tense, as if the shape and substance of our world a year and a half from now is preordained, a foregone conclusion. Ludicrous.
Economy? After the economic meltdown Bush helped engineer? Of course, when have facts on the ground ever gotten in the way of Ryan's budgets, the NRA, or any of the other ideological battles tea-party and other Republican extremists can't move beyond?
4
"Of course, when have facts on the ground ever gotten in the way of Ryan's budgets, the NRA, or any of the other ideological battles tea-party and other Republican extremists can't move beyond?"
The GOP can now refer to states like Kansas as demonstrations of the merits of their economic policies, and how well decreasing taxes increases revenue.
...Andrew
The GOP can now refer to states like Kansas as demonstrations of the merits of their economic policies, and how well decreasing taxes increases revenue.
...Andrew
Every religious Republican should be in church tor temple praising God for allowing SCOTUS to free them from these burdensome issues.
3
It is unfortunate for the country that both political parties are dominated by their respective extremism, rather than moderation. Americans are in majority, a moderate people, but have no true moderate party or candidate. Which is among the reasons that every election looks the same: a nearly evenly divided outcome, among a minority of actual voter turnout. That is a path to the loss of a democracy and the State becoming inherently dominant despite political party turnover.
“There will always be side issues, but none of that will compete with people’s primary concerns, which are the economy and who is going to be able to keep the country safe,” said [Marco Rubio pollster] Rick Ayres...
=====================================================
That is a VERY excellent point. Thank you!
Now tell us - exactly HOW did the Republican government of South Carolina keep nine innocent, peaceful churchgoers safe from a homegrown terrorist they allowed to flourish right under their own noses?
=====================================================
That is a VERY excellent point. Thank you!
Now tell us - exactly HOW did the Republican government of South Carolina keep nine innocent, peaceful churchgoers safe from a homegrown terrorist they allowed to flourish right under their own noses?
3
Why use a divisive headline like this one to report what happened this week? It does nothing but exacerbate the us vs. them name-calling that has brought Congress to a virtual standstill in the last few years.
Yes, all the events give the GOP and Republican candidates an opportunity to step away from their increasingly unpopular social platform. Will they take advantage of this opportunity? I doubt it.
4
The events of the week will serve to be a rallying call for the GOP presidential candidates. Instead of moving on, the GOP campaigns, and especially the debates, will demonstrate a greater push to the right. The central themes will be how Americans with core values of Christianity are under attack by the gay agenda, socialism, militant judges, and ISIS. And, let's not forget, how the liberals are going to take their guns away,
As usual, but with more fevered pitch, the candidates will attempt to show who will be able to push through an amendment to the Constitution to restore marriage for only heterosexual couples, kill Obamacare days after being sworn in, and wage another war with Iran and ISIS, The debates will be nothing more than a showcase on who can demonstrate the most extreme forms of conservatism.
And again, as usual, other than some vague, feel good references, there will nothing mentioned that actually will improve the lives of Americans.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
As usual, but with more fevered pitch, the candidates will attempt to show who will be able to push through an amendment to the Constitution to restore marriage for only heterosexual couples, kill Obamacare days after being sworn in, and wage another war with Iran and ISIS, The debates will be nothing more than a showcase on who can demonstrate the most extreme forms of conservatism.
And again, as usual, other than some vague, feel good references, there will nothing mentioned that actually will improve the lives of Americans.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
2
Ah yes! "From the people who brought you the Iraq War and the deepest recession since the 1930s: vote Republican for President!!" Good luck with that.
On economics, the real political energy in the country is all with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton is a lot closer to their positions than the eventual Republican nominee will be. On national security, Republicans have a failed recent record, and will be reduced to hoping for highly visible terrorist attacks, Russian military adventurism, or a new Ebola outbreak, none of which Republicans have any better plan for than do the Democrats.
But in reality, there will be no "getting beyond" the social issues. The last few decades have made it clear to people on both sides of our racial, ethnic, gender, religious, and gun divides which team they are on. The white rural fundamentalists and the multi-hued urban sophisticates all know which party is simpatico with them and their views and values. When it comes to the culture wars, Faulkner had it right: the past is not past.
On economics, the real political energy in the country is all with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton is a lot closer to their positions than the eventual Republican nominee will be. On national security, Republicans have a failed recent record, and will be reduced to hoping for highly visible terrorist attacks, Russian military adventurism, or a new Ebola outbreak, none of which Republicans have any better plan for than do the Democrats.
But in reality, there will be no "getting beyond" the social issues. The last few decades have made it clear to people on both sides of our racial, ethnic, gender, religious, and gun divides which team they are on. The white rural fundamentalists and the multi-hued urban sophisticates all know which party is simpatico with them and their views and values. When it comes to the culture wars, Faulkner had it right: the past is not past.
3
When an anti-abortion, anti-feminist Republican dresses up in a bustier and a wig and calls himself "Caitlyn," it is not a victory for the left. It may be a victory for Caitlyn herself, and may she enjoy her little chats about nail polish and make-up, but as a cause for progressive celebration it is thin gruel indeed.
4
You need to stop referring to most of us as "left." We are Progressives. The other side is not "right," they are actually wrong. They are regressive.
9
Republicans themselves are the national security issue. The world moved on and they stood still. They are not only obsolete but are oblivious to our current issues. To me they are a non-entity.
11
Did Dixie move on in the 60s'?
Did sexists move on in the 70s'?
Have republicans come to terms with the fact that supply side economics doubled the national debt during the 80s' and early 90s'?
The thing defines conservatives worldwide is they are VERY slow to move on - they never forget, and that elephant has been out of the closet a long time.
Did sexists move on in the 70s'?
Have republicans come to terms with the fact that supply side economics doubled the national debt during the 80s' and early 90s'?
The thing defines conservatives worldwide is they are VERY slow to move on - they never forget, and that elephant has been out of the closet a long time.
4
The wise political course for the GOP would be to accept their lumps and move on, but the hard right base will never accept that.
3
The quote at the end of the article from Mrs. Clinton, saying that Republicans are "determined to lead us right back into the past", is rather amusing because, on the issue of same sex marriage in particular, she was happy to live in the past until she got dragged into the future.
3
The Left (I would argue the Center-Left, but that's a different argument) wins three major, major battles -- and that might be good for the GOP. So let me get this straight: If the GOP wins battles, that's good for the GOP. And if the Dems win battles, that's good for the GOP. Uh-huh.
4
The problem with conservatives is that their economic and national security positions are based on the very same cultural and racial biases, which drive their social agenda. Conservatives hate government spending and deficits. It isn't the money, though. As Dick Cheney said, "deficits don't matter". They have problems with who they think the main recipients are. They don't like unions, government employees and the like because people they dislike the the people who work in those jobs and are angry that those institutions have helped make some in those groups more successful, while ensuring their rights. They don't like welfare and unemployment,affirmative action and voting rights, because of their idea about who receives benefits. I am talking about rank and file Republicans (conservatives) and not business leaders who simply want no regulation so that they can make the maximum profits - to the exclusion of morality, environmental damage and, yes, even patriotism.
The rank and file take economic positions directly against their own self interest due to their cultural biases.
Republicans are strong on national security because they fear the "other". They do not want,"those people" in this country. They do not want those people threatening this country, because they are a threat. That the threat is minuscule is irrelevant.
If you want to understand a conservative economic or national security position, you must understand their cultural biases driving them.
The rank and file take economic positions directly against their own self interest due to their cultural biases.
Republicans are strong on national security because they fear the "other". They do not want,"those people" in this country. They do not want those people threatening this country, because they are a threat. That the threat is minuscule is irrelevant.
If you want to understand a conservative economic or national security position, you must understand their cultural biases driving them.
3
Stereotypes and ad hominem tactics are counter-productive, whether from those on the left or the right. I define myself as a moderate conservative: I value personal restraint and dignified comportment, I value reason as superior to emotion in the realm of public policy (and public discourse), I value notions of initiative and personal responsibility, and I value financial prudence on the part of governments and individuals alike. I am also a registered Democrat who voted for President Obama twice. Russell Kirk famously opined that being conservative is more a personality trait than an ideology. That's a little disingenuous, but worth considering. I think all three developments in this article are salutary, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Please: Rush Limbaugh in no way speaks for conservatives as a whole. Colin Powell, David Brooks, David Cameron, the late William F. Buckley--we really aren't all Gadsden flag types. What I fear this article misses are just those sorts of people who, regrettably, identify as conservative with little grasp of the nature of the term , for whom the week's developments will be a sign that the collapse of civilization is upon us, sparking more intransigent, truculent extremism-- which, if we're lucky, will manifest only in the political arena, as opposed, horrifyingly, to houses of worship.
I honor all religions and ideas. I believe Jesus was a man who personified the christ spirit available in all of us, just as other leaders like Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Nelson Mandela did. However, America is a true democracy, and will remain a true democracy, only if keep religious ideology out of OUR politics and government at all levels and keep it in our homes and places of worship where it belongs.
3
No, they will not pivot. GOP candidates will reconfirm their positions on the losing side of these issues as they have always done, using them to gain votes from those who cannot reconcile their views with more current ones on race, gender equality, gay rights, etc. This will be done by creating false dichotomies around these issues, e.g. the right to historical heritage (code for ignoring the defence of slavery the core value of the Confederacy), religious freedom regarding marriage (ignoring the fact that no religious institution will be forced to perform gay marriages). The GOP appeals to the worst in the voters, veiled in hyperpatriotism, while it caters to the top few percent of the population. Some of the candidates sound like southern governors of the '50s and'60s railing on about states' rights in their opposition to integration. How long will people continue to vote against their own best interests?
5
W Bush carried our state because of antigay marriage initiative on our ballot in 2004. Yes, thanks for making "left" the winners.(sarcasm)
2
What poor writing. Citing "some Republicans," then going to Frum, whom most of the Republican establishment shuns, quoting his wishful thinking as if it had traction. Ah, but every reversal is always "good news ... for the Republicans."
It's not the Republican party I was raised in any more. It's the rebranded Confederate party. And they're going down with their flag. If this election goes to economic issues, Bernie wins. If it goes to national security - where we're really tired of wars - it's Bernie or Rand Paul, just if Rand can cut through. Unless James Murdoch fires Ailes and reforms Fox in a hurry, all that remains to be seen from the Republicans is a billion dollars in sleazy advertising, playing to paranoias the population is moving beyond.
It's not the Republican party I was raised in any more. It's the rebranded Confederate party. And they're going down with their flag. If this election goes to economic issues, Bernie wins. If it goes to national security - where we're really tired of wars - it's Bernie or Rand Paul, just if Rand can cut through. Unless James Murdoch fires Ailes and reforms Fox in a hurry, all that remains to be seen from the Republicans is a billion dollars in sleazy advertising, playing to paranoias the population is moving beyond.
4
Yes indeed, great news for John McCain! The Republican Party won the '14 mid-term election with a little more than a third of eligible voters going to the polls, and with the 2010 gerrymander insuring victory. This seems to blind them to the truths of contemporary America. So, 2016 will feature their desperate attempt to go back in time coupled with fact free smears of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Sadly, the country will have to wait for the 2020 census to undo the disastorous results of 2010. A that point in time the Republicans will still be pushing for tax cuts for the Koch Brothers, a race to the bottom on income distribution and dismantling 3 departments of the executive branch of the federal government. They just won't remember which 3 they want to disband.
5
Where the discussion should have been all along.......
2
The only way our economy can be healthy is to find a proper balance between capitol and labor. Obviously capitol has been emptying the pot of money for too long. It is when these concentrations of wealth occur that the economy tanks: i.e. the 1890's, 1920' and the last couple of decades before the Great Recession. Trickle-down? How about choking the economy? The choking of our unions, the choking down of wages, the choking downn of pupblic works projects, like the NY/NJ tunnel, killed by our govrnor to abet his personal presidential ambition. Clinton seems to be going populist this time. Of course Republican are going to rely on ad hominem slurs and epithets. Are they now saying they will also run on issues? I look forward to Ms. Fiorinna, for example, talking economics to the country.
3
Perhaps if the "40% white evangelicals" formed their own political party, the rational Republicans could take their party back and focus on financial conservatism and have a big tent instead of a closed box. As long as the "40% white evangelicals" insist that Republicans remain on the wrong side of history, 2016 will be a slam dunk for any Democratic candidate.
5
This makes perfect sense, actually. The Democratic party has for several decades been a big tent party with a bunch of single issue constituencies within it.
The Gay community's economic policy preferences swing a bit to the right, so, with Gay rights, apparently, a settled issue, the left might no longer capture that vote. The ACA was Bob Dole's health plan, so it had broad appeal- now that it's a settled legal issue, the left might lose that constituency.
On economic policy, the GOP has been pushing non-sensical pro-cyclical fiscal policy for 8 years now. Unfortunately, the Obama administration didn't create much of a distinction between themselves and the GOP on this issue. The fed's unprecedented monetary policy allowed the administration to get away with contractionary fiscal policy during a recession. Hopefully, we'll find the GOP to follow their historic pattern of campaigning as Hayekians, governing Keynesians, but who knows.
The kicker, though might be that Military intervention in the Middle East is, however, not a settled issue, and the GOP might succeed in driving away voters by too eagerly espousing interventionism. This certainly scared away would be H. Clinton and J. McCain voters in 2008.
The Gay community's economic policy preferences swing a bit to the right, so, with Gay rights, apparently, a settled issue, the left might no longer capture that vote. The ACA was Bob Dole's health plan, so it had broad appeal- now that it's a settled legal issue, the left might lose that constituency.
On economic policy, the GOP has been pushing non-sensical pro-cyclical fiscal policy for 8 years now. Unfortunately, the Obama administration didn't create much of a distinction between themselves and the GOP on this issue. The fed's unprecedented monetary policy allowed the administration to get away with contractionary fiscal policy during a recession. Hopefully, we'll find the GOP to follow their historic pattern of campaigning as Hayekians, governing Keynesians, but who knows.
The kicker, though might be that Military intervention in the Middle East is, however, not a settled issue, and the GOP might succeed in driving away voters by too eagerly espousing interventionism. This certainly scared away would be H. Clinton and J. McCain voters in 2008.
1
I think many of the commentairat are forgetting how far behind most politicians have been on this issue. Both sides have been completely out of step with culture/society. Remember, even Obama was fer it before he was agin it.
I would call this a victory for Liberty well before I'd call it a victory for Democrats.
I would call this a victory for Liberty well before I'd call it a victory for Democrats.
2
Or was he agin it before his was fer it? I can't keep track...
1
"Republicans contend that America is still receptive to a more conservative approach on economics and national security".
Yes, I'm sure there are lots of Americans who secretly envy how amazing the economy's doing in Kansas and Louisiana. I mean, doesn't everyone want their hospitals to struggle, their universities to see a catastrophic slash in funding, to watch those getting by on SNAP and similar programs be openly humiliated with a cut in benefits and a list of what they CAN'T buy (like potatoes, for instance) and have their schools close early because they don't have enough money to stay open?
Yep, Americans are gonna LOVE that Ebenezer Scrooge "conservative approach" to the economy.
Yes, I'm sure there are lots of Americans who secretly envy how amazing the economy's doing in Kansas and Louisiana. I mean, doesn't everyone want their hospitals to struggle, their universities to see a catastrophic slash in funding, to watch those getting by on SNAP and similar programs be openly humiliated with a cut in benefits and a list of what they CAN'T buy (like potatoes, for instance) and have their schools close early because they don't have enough money to stay open?
Yep, Americans are gonna LOVE that Ebenezer Scrooge "conservative approach" to the economy.
3
Economy? Kansas, Louisiana and Wisconsin are first hand public examples of how Republican trickle down economic theory works in the real world. In other words, it doesn't.
9
All three states have balanced budgets today, due to Republican leadership. If that is trickle down economics, I'll take it every day. You can't keep spending what you don't earn and expect the top 10% to pay your way.
Yep, and CA & IL with Democrats in charge have absolutely no problems. Not to mention Democratic run cities like Detroit & Baltimore.
Oh wait, maybe it's both mainstream parties have run things into the ground on a bipartisan basis.
Oh wait, maybe it's both mainstream parties have run things into the ground on a bipartisan basis.
Paul, you need to get out more. Do you have any clue at all about the budget deficits that have grown larger every year since they elected their respective republican governors and legislatures and what those states have to do to achieve those "balanced" budgets? All three states have attempted again to cut taxes and spending to grow revenue (trickle down economics) and in those states, revenue is declining. They have either reached or are reaching the point where they are not earning enough to keep government functioning no matter how much they cut spending. Please leave white plains and move to one of those states and tell us how it works out in the real world where we live.
In 1945, Nazi Germany fell and Britain wildly celebrated the victory. Less than three months later, the British electorate turned the great war hero, Winston Churchill, out of office. Such was the mood - now that the war had been won, the British wanted to move on.
The Republican party is still the party of hyper-conservative Supreme Court appointments. It is still the bulwark of blocking voters, catering to bigotry, protecting Semi automatic assault guns in our streets, our neighborhoods and even in bars. Open carry laws are their cause. It is at the root of schemes to paralyze our legislative branch and hogtie our executive branch. Oh yes, I was once a Republican, but the Republican Party left me in order to pick up the votes of the far right.
A liberal moment in the Court, with extremely close votes advancing some liberal causes underlines the necessity of keeping a Democrat in the White House for the coming. All of this "Liberal Spring" can be turned around for our children by a couple of deaths at Scotus.
The Republican party is still the party of hyper-conservative Supreme Court appointments. It is still the bulwark of blocking voters, catering to bigotry, protecting Semi automatic assault guns in our streets, our neighborhoods and even in bars. Open carry laws are their cause. It is at the root of schemes to paralyze our legislative branch and hogtie our executive branch. Oh yes, I was once a Republican, but the Republican Party left me in order to pick up the votes of the far right.
A liberal moment in the Court, with extremely close votes advancing some liberal causes underlines the necessity of keeping a Democrat in the White House for the coming. All of this "Liberal Spring" can be turned around for our children by a couple of deaths at Scotus.
4
In the immortal words of that ultimate Washington-insider, the redoubtable and apparently inescapable Cokie Roberts, whatever happens, anywhere and anyhow, it's always "bad for the Democrats".
Is that because anyone who knows anything knows that corporate America and its allies won long ago and that liberals are either dreamers or liars? Or is it that elite media figures paid so well, they identify with all the wrong people?
Is that because anyone who knows anything knows that corporate America and its allies won long ago and that liberals are either dreamers or liars? Or is it that elite media figures paid so well, they identify with all the wrong people?
1
Looking at ANY political campaign over the last couple of decades, it becomes very clear that the G.O.P, is utterly bankrupt when it comes to real ideas to help real Americans.
They have relished throwing hand grenades into the cultural wars for so long, dividing the country as best they can with social issues, that they have absolutely NO idea how to actually govern to make people's lives better.
They have relished throwing hand grenades into the cultural wars for so long, dividing the country as best they can with social issues, that they have absolutely NO idea how to actually govern to make people's lives better.
5
I don't believe it is reasonable to include "big government" as one of the settled social issues. I don't believe it should even be called a "social issue". It's in a different category altogether.
2
Boy, are they ever just whistling Dixie! Economic issues -- Republicans refused to extend unemployment benefits, oppose equal pay for women and an increase in the federal minimum age. Rebuild the country's failing infrastructures? Nah.
As to national security issues: the U.S. may have no choice but to use military force in Iran eventually, but there's absolutely no enthusiasm for it. Most voters had enough of wars that Republicans started in the Middle East long ago.
As to national security issues: the U.S. may have no choice but to use military force in Iran eventually, but there's absolutely no enthusiasm for it. Most voters had enough of wars that Republicans started in the Middle East long ago.
2
Not so much decided on Republicans behalf. The Koch machine has a vested interest in Walker and pledged using just shy of a billion dollars to have their candidate prevail. Jeb! has his work cut out for him, especially since the Tea Party is a reliable voting block for the Koch agenda and Jeb! hasn't committed to that, yet.
Most of the Republicans running are far right and I think voters will want someone who can win. Given the reaction to last week's events, my bet is Jeb Bush. He has to be rejoicing with his opponents standing by old issues that have been resolved.
Do we will have a Clinton vs. Bush race. I think it's already been decided.
Do we will have a Clinton vs. Bush race. I think it's already been decided.
1
So now Republicans feel free to focus on the economy and keeping the country safe? The last Republican President ignored clear warnings about 9/11, got us into two costly wars on false pretenses and put them on the credit card, took a budget surplus and put us in unprecedented debt, and then finished off his term by dumping us in an economic depression. It has taken 7 years for President Obama to clean up the carnage the last Republican left us with. People, please!
7
The problem the GOP has is they represent the past, its not just health care or gay marriage or as simple as removing a symbol of hate (that flag). What about the issues of minimum wages or equal pay for women and it will take more then a foreign policy base on fear. The Republicans have to get past themselves to win in 2016. That's why it will be hard for them this season.
5
Too bad for the party obstruction that Obama has done such a terrific job with the economy, and that he has kept safe – unlike Bush, who nearly drove us into a huge depression and bungled foreign affairs and certainly did not keep safe. Try to remember who was president on 9/11. The notion that the Republicans are terrific at economics and national security has been exploded too many times now. Very deceptive headline here. In fact, the Republicans have nothing going for them.
2
Do you really believe that a labor non-participation rate of 20% represents a good economy? How about record payouts of unemployment insurance, food stamps, and public housing usage.? Your statement is simply wrong.
If the GOP thinks that it can regain a political footing by shifting back to economic and national-security issues....well, let's hope they keep on thinking that way because it's a losing ticket.
Now that some of the biggest culture-war and health care battles are over (at least for the time being), it's only a matter of time before our national political debate shifts full-gear into inequality and capitalism, inequality and capitalism, inequality and capitalism. We've seen the first signs of that the past 4 years, first with Occupy and then with the Fight For 15. This issue isn't going away - and Republicans are going to quickly find themselves in a VERY tough spot when forced to defend their pro-oligarchy policies.
Now that some of the biggest culture-war and health care battles are over (at least for the time being), it's only a matter of time before our national political debate shifts full-gear into inequality and capitalism, inequality and capitalism, inequality and capitalism. We've seen the first signs of that the past 4 years, first with Occupy and then with the Fight For 15. This issue isn't going away - and Republicans are going to quickly find themselves in a VERY tough spot when forced to defend their pro-oligarchy policies.
3
Shame on the NYT's title. This is not a "Left" vs"Right" issue. Gay rights is an issue of common decency. Lets change the struggle to those for freedom and those against it.
To those who are going to claim that the right for gays to marriage interferes with their right to practice their religion. Frankly those same people were against ending slavery, allowing women to work outside the home, and the right to vote for women and minorities.
It is simple, if your religion is against Gay rights, then don't marry someone of your sex.
If your religion is one of hate then I have nothing but disgust for you. Have you no shame?
To those who are going to claim that the right for gays to marriage interferes with their right to practice their religion. Frankly those same people were against ending slavery, allowing women to work outside the home, and the right to vote for women and minorities.
It is simple, if your religion is against Gay rights, then don't marry someone of your sex.
If your religion is one of hate then I have nothing but disgust for you. Have you no shame?
5
The shear number of Republican candidates belies any possibility of their taking up this strategy. Let us all agree now that the ACA is nothing more than a stalking horse, as it has always been, for if there was ever any possibility of actually revoking this legislation the Republicans would never have taken it up. It is after all a fully conservative healthcare law.
But for the wide array of true 'social issues' let us also be candid. This is really all about white European Christianity as it hybridized in 20th century America. As with all hybrids it is a very hardy strain, capable of flourishing in a hostile environment. And 21st century America is a very hostile environment indeed to both those who were raised in religion and those who have come to find it after passing through their teen and young years in our frenetic society.
What is happening here is nothing short of a religious civil war. Nurtured in a tradition of patriotism, civil liberties and freedom these new religious warriors have chosen to believe in the wages of sin. They will seek out candidates who appeal to their growing bunker mentality and confirm that all they see is due to the sins of the wicked and must be put down.
And in this busy field there will be many candidates eager to jump into the lead of such a mob.
But for the wide array of true 'social issues' let us also be candid. This is really all about white European Christianity as it hybridized in 20th century America. As with all hybrids it is a very hardy strain, capable of flourishing in a hostile environment. And 21st century America is a very hostile environment indeed to both those who were raised in religion and those who have come to find it after passing through their teen and young years in our frenetic society.
What is happening here is nothing short of a religious civil war. Nurtured in a tradition of patriotism, civil liberties and freedom these new religious warriors have chosen to believe in the wages of sin. They will seek out candidates who appeal to their growing bunker mentality and confirm that all they see is due to the sins of the wicked and must be put down.
And in this busy field there will be many candidates eager to jump into the lead of such a mob.
4
"National security" and "economic" issues are mutually exclusive ones to Republicans. How can you pay for expensive wars, cut taxes and do anything to improve the economy? You can't. All you can do is raise the deficit and increase economic inequality. A smart Democratic opponent ought to be able to use the Republicans' war-mongering, defense of the wealthy, and the economic insecurity of the past several Republican presidents to shoot down these issues if Republicans try to use them to their advantage, too.
3
The thrust of the "picks" on this piece is entertaining -- Martin's pretty good analysis ignored, these guys are like very nervous secularists whistling past a graveyard a midnight.
Republicans these days are at their MOST convincing when they leave behind them the culture wars and focus on jobs, finance and national security, as I do in these pages. If they keep the focus on these factors, they'll sweep up moderate Democrats and Independents by the MILLIONS, who view the leftish excess of a Bernie Sanders with SERIOUS suspicion.
And it's those moderate Democrats and Independents who will decide who our next president will be.
Read Jonathan Martin more seriously on this piece and TRY to keep whistling past that graveyard.
Republicans these days are at their MOST convincing when they leave behind them the culture wars and focus on jobs, finance and national security, as I do in these pages. If they keep the focus on these factors, they'll sweep up moderate Democrats and Independents by the MILLIONS, who view the leftish excess of a Bernie Sanders with SERIOUS suspicion.
And it's those moderate Democrats and Independents who will decide who our next president will be.
Read Jonathan Martin more seriously on this piece and TRY to keep whistling past that graveyard.
You might do that but none of the Republicans running for office do it, unless you count Jeb's eagerness for another war national security.
Without a doubt, some Republicans will now start mounting endless and fruitless Pickett's Charges arevolving around culture wars, which they refuse to dislodge, no matter how much it costs them. But If the rest take refuge in some make-believe silver lining revolving around national security and foreign affairs, they're in for a hard slog at best. These people over-reached mightily under George Bush and their voices have been marginalized appropriately. They have few good ideas to peddle in foreign affairs either, but if you're into cant and 'boots on the ground' fantasies, they do have a used war in Iraq they'd be happy to try to sell you if you'd like to buy.
5
Social issues became prominent in Republican politics as a smokescreen to hide their economic agenda,which benefits almost no one in America. I welcome the laying bare of this agenda. With the middle class in its worst shape in 50 years, perhaps this will lead to a new progressive resurgence.
4
If the recent Supreme Court decisions had gone the other way, this so-called "liberal spring" would have been labeled in the press, including this outlet, as an "unalloyed catastrophe for Democrats." Maureen Dowd would have carped about President Obama's failure to reach out to his brain-dead oppositional wrecking crew. David Brooks would have pontificated about -- something -- who knows what?
So now, these signal events are analyzed as something less than a victory for equal justice, access to decent health care, common sense and just plan human decency. As for the putative "opportunity" for the GOP to "pivot" toward issues of economic and military security (2001-2009 were great years in these respects), the Republican clown train has qotten off to a lousy start with virtually all 435 presidential candidates wailing about the degradation of marriage equality and threatening to continue sinking the ACA through all and any means possible.
The GOP "opportunity" described by David Frum is pure illusion. No party can "pivot" to new issuers in the absence of a single, constructive policy idea. Even if it could, the GOP's hatred of ordinary Americans and its woeful track record on the issues toward which it is ostensibly pivotIng offers little hope that any such opportunity will ever be seized.
The GOP has placed itself regressively on the wrong side of history. It will take more than window dressing to fix it.
So now, these signal events are analyzed as something less than a victory for equal justice, access to decent health care, common sense and just plan human decency. As for the putative "opportunity" for the GOP to "pivot" toward issues of economic and military security (2001-2009 were great years in these respects), the Republican clown train has qotten off to a lousy start with virtually all 435 presidential candidates wailing about the degradation of marriage equality and threatening to continue sinking the ACA through all and any means possible.
The GOP "opportunity" described by David Frum is pure illusion. No party can "pivot" to new issuers in the absence of a single, constructive policy idea. Even if it could, the GOP's hatred of ordinary Americans and its woeful track record on the issues toward which it is ostensibly pivotIng offers little hope that any such opportunity will ever be seized.
The GOP has placed itself regressively on the wrong side of history. It will take more than window dressing to fix it.
6
Next up, right to die. Hope Kennedy is around to rule on that.
2
If the GOP moves "beyond" the quaint idea of a constitutionally limited government that palys a small and limited role in the lives of citizens (as Democrats did a long time ago) then neither major political party will honor the founding principles of limited government.
And at that moment, there will be no reason for there to be a GOP.
It will also at that moment that Jefferson's tree of liberty will be most in need of refreshing.
And at that moment, there will be no reason for there to be a GOP.
It will also at that moment that Jefferson's tree of liberty will be most in need of refreshing.
2
Eventually Americans will begin to not fall for the simplistic nationalism and 'exceptionalism' sold in election cycles by Republicans. Why? Because it really isn't, fundamentally, a "them or us" world --- it's "them and us", which itself is gradually shape-shifting into "we". Political philosophies that integrate and embrace diversity of thinking and being will be the emerging source of traction, the cat being out of the bag.
Why? Because it is the direction that evolution's arrow has.
Why? Because it is the direction that evolution's arrow has.
1
The culture wars have benefited the Democratic and Republican parties both. Many of my upper-middle class friends are center-right on economic issues and have only voted for the Democrats because of issues like gay marriage, abortion, gun control, and opposition to the influence of the religious right. They aren't particularly enamored with redistributionist economic policies, or supporting the social safety net, even if the cost of those things will disproportionately fall on the upper classes. So many of these lawyers, engineers, and doctors depend on the upper classes for their livelihoods, and I wouldn't be surprised if more of them started voting Republican in the coming years. But with the culture wars wrapping up, I wouldn't be surprised either, though, to find many working-class and middle-class whites switching to the Democratic party, so perhaps everything will even out.
1
Were none of your friends impacted by the great recession?
I think it's apparent that there are a vast array of Republicans, and that there are conservatives and then there are reactionaries. At the moment, I think the Republicans have a very good shot at a sweep in 2016 and of course, the presidency. But the reasons why have more to do with spying on Americans, the ACA which will show its true economic colors in 2016, and the fact that Americans more than ever feel a real lack of opportunity, to which the Democrats have consistently had no solution. Most Democratic officials have ignored the plight of a struggling middle class, expensive college tuition, lack of decent jobs and instead have crowed about lowering the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is low because people are forced to work for substandard wages. And then of course, there's the TPP, secretly conducted with the inclusion of big business, to gut more reasonably paid American jobs. And all of it, was under the guiding hand of a Democratic president. So my guess is that the Republicans have a very good shot at the presidency, and with the social issues having fixed themselves, it could be a landslide.
5
And you actually believe that a Republican President will fix these problems? You do remember that a certain two-term Republican President had a big hand in creating all of the issues you highlight.
3
You are the poster child for Republicans - fingers in your ears, eyes shut tight, yelling "LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA" as loudly as you can so your thought process is not disturbed by reality.
It's a long time until November 2016, and your assessment is based on the Republican fantasy that the population will get even dumber between now and then, even though the exact opposite seems to be happening.
It's a long time until November 2016, and your assessment is based on the Republican fantasy that the population will get even dumber between now and then, even though the exact opposite seems to be happening.
2
Carolyn, Republicans were promising a landslide in 2012, and we know how that worked out.
Please come tell us on November 9, 2016 how well the Republicans have done.
Given the likely 15 to 18 people all trying to "out-Conservative" each other in the primaries, we will see how well any Republican nominee will do in the general election. If the Republican Convention is an open convention, that will be a spectacle which some of us will be watching with baited breath.
Please come tell us on November 9, 2016 how well the Republicans have done.
Given the likely 15 to 18 people all trying to "out-Conservative" each other in the primaries, we will see how well any Republican nominee will do in the general election. If the Republican Convention is an open convention, that will be a spectacle which some of us will be watching with baited breath.
2
It's what David Frum predicted. Fox News and Republican media have narrowed the Republican Party base to the point where the Democratic base is significantly larger. To enlarge the base, the party can no longer continue hewing right -- but if it doesn't, some of its most passionate backers will bail. The moderate left is starting to get its legs again. I hope liberals don't overreach though. Hillary Clinton's task is to give the base enough reason to vote while defending herself against the Republican Party onslaught of lies that is sure to come. If anyone understands the loony Republican media world and how (or when) to respond to it, it should be Clinton.
3
The headline of this article does not properly describe its content. The Republicans quoted give very little indication that they want to pivot anywhere. Even if they wanted to pivot to the economy their way is blocked. They just voted overwhelmingly to continue down the corporate "free trade" road, guaranteeing the continued offshoring of American jobs, the undermining of the middle class and all the rest of the ills attendant upon this destructive policy. It will probably get worse when the TISA treaty bars us from placing any conditions or restrictions on the importation into our country of cheap foreign workers. With that way blocked the Republicans have nothing to offer but more of the same hollow nostrums which make their rich overlords ever richer. They have nothing to offer economically.
2
Mr. Martin sums up the challenge for the GOP from their viewpoint when he quotes the Republican strategist Forti: “I’m glad I’m not on a campaign and don’t have to advise my candidate on how to navigate those three issues this week, because the answers for the primary and the general are radically different.”
A more accurate reality of what challenges the GOP would be for him tell it like it really is: "I'm glad I'm not on a campaign and don't have to advise my candidate on how to LIE through these three issues this week, because the answers for the primary and the general are radically different.
As one writer wrote earlier this week; reality trumped ideology on the ACA. Reality also trumped ideology, regarding that traitorous flag flown from public places and the employment discrimination issue decided this week.
The GOP chickens hatched from the eggs of its Southern Strategy are finally coming home to roost. As long as the GOP must cater to those chickens to get nominated, the reality is that they must lie. The only difference this week from others past is that reality overwhelmed even the FOX in the Henhouse.
Honest Abe must be turning over in his grave. The chickens strangling his once great party are the offspring of the same hatefully ignorant ideology that shot him dead.
Sadly, those chickens in their GOP henhouse are too busy watching the FOX to see the reality around them.
A more accurate reality of what challenges the GOP would be for him tell it like it really is: "I'm glad I'm not on a campaign and don't have to advise my candidate on how to LIE through these three issues this week, because the answers for the primary and the general are radically different.
As one writer wrote earlier this week; reality trumped ideology on the ACA. Reality also trumped ideology, regarding that traitorous flag flown from public places and the employment discrimination issue decided this week.
The GOP chickens hatched from the eggs of its Southern Strategy are finally coming home to roost. As long as the GOP must cater to those chickens to get nominated, the reality is that they must lie. The only difference this week from others past is that reality overwhelmed even the FOX in the Henhouse.
Honest Abe must be turning over in his grave. The chickens strangling his once great party are the offspring of the same hatefully ignorant ideology that shot him dead.
Sadly, those chickens in their GOP henhouse are too busy watching the FOX to see the reality around them.
2
Be careful with the white hot rage that's coming. The old Dixiecrats (Tea Party, fundie religious) are losing their power and control. This tends to translate into aggression and that can be violent at times. The backfiring of the Charleston plot, the USSC decision to recognize gays as humans and the release of statistics that Caucasians will be a US minority in the relatively near future has become the perfect storm. Watch carefully for the new Jim Crow laws now titled "religious freedom" which will seek to erode these latest human rights gains.
2
The Republicans are the ones who made social issues of such great importance. To their core supporters they say how important they are; to the rest of the electorate they downplay their importance. If they really believe in keeping government out of people's lives then why are they so vociferously pushing anti-abortion laws that make sure the government will be as intrusive as possible in reproductive decisions.
1
Moving on from a lost cause? Since when does the GOP ever do that? The culture wars are the best thing that ever happened to them. They need the distraction from their views on other issues.
3
By all means, let's have "the left" be "forced" to deal with economic and national security issues.
Do you want your Medicare and Social Security benefits cut?
Do you want to put boots on the ground in the Middle East?
Do you want the federal government to listen in on your phone conversations, extend the madness at Guantanamo and perhaps tortue a person or two outside of American soil?
Please, let's have honest conversations about these things and what will be required for legitimate change so they are no longer on the table.
Do you want your Medicare and Social Security benefits cut?
Do you want to put boots on the ground in the Middle East?
Do you want the federal government to listen in on your phone conversations, extend the madness at Guantanamo and perhaps tortue a person or two outside of American soil?
Please, let's have honest conversations about these things and what will be required for legitimate change so they are no longer on the table.
3
Since the inception of The Voting Rights Act, Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, The Fair Housing Act, and countless other laws and institutions aimed at evening the playing field for " average " Americans, Conservative Republicans have fought tooth and nail to destroy them. The idea that these same Republicans who are fueled by anger and hatred and racism and a handful of billionaires are suddenly going to pivot to other issues seems naive. Besides which economic issues will they be running on? Abolishing The Minimum Wage? Privatizing Social Security? No Equal Pay For Women? Protecting The Rights of Corporations To Pay No Taxes??
We will soon find out what the strategy of the Republican Party is for 2016, when their donors and paymasters tell them.
We will soon find out what the strategy of the Republican Party is for 2016, when their donors and paymasters tell them.
3
What political left? Reaganism spelled the end of the political left as a viable force in the U.S. Marriage equality and the ACA are two fairly centrist issues. What the right will do, however, is to galvanize the unhappiness and discomfort that is just below the political surface and turn it into an electoral victory. Those on the edge economically will succumb to the ugliness (most often thinly-veiled racism) that is the Republican right. Get ready to say goodbye to the Republic with the far right in control of the three branches of the federal government.
2
David Frum, a Republican, says whether "you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.”
That's hilarious!
That's hilarious!
5
"... And Republicans can say, ‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”
Oh, so after years and years of vilifying (and efforts to suppress and block the rights of) gays and minorities... NOW you want our votes?
We won't forget so quickly.
BTW, it's not like the GOP has done a lot of good for the economy lately. "Trickle down" indeed.
Oh, so after years and years of vilifying (and efforts to suppress and block the rights of) gays and minorities... NOW you want our votes?
We won't forget so quickly.
BTW, it's not like the GOP has done a lot of good for the economy lately. "Trickle down" indeed.
7
Carl Forti, a Republican strategist, is quoted as stating “I’m glad I’m not on a campaign and don’t have to advise my candidate on how to navigate those three issues this week, because the answers for the primary and the general are radically different.” How long can the Republican Party survive such structural hypocrisy?
3
It is a shame that the Republicans pander to the least enlightened Americans and have, accordingly, locked themselves into a fundamentalist, evangelistic, backwoods straitjacket that will further undermine the America that they claim to revere because it will merely guarantee the election of Hillary Clinton, whose illustrious history from the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas to Travelgate in Washington to the impeccably Gulf-State-funded Clinton Foundation will assure us no lack of material for 4 or 8 years of tabloid reading pleasure. There is a significant component of educated, rational Democrats and Independents who would be more inclined to vote Republican than Democrat if there were educated, rational, reasonable Republicans with the finesse of their predecessors of 40 years ago. But the current crop of Republicans, a creation of tabloid media and on the receiving end of Koch Brothers hush money, prefers to play to the least common denominator since a dim-witted, illiterate, dependent working class best suits those of the Koch type while repelling the educated electorate that the Republicans need to win. And thus they will ensure that the famous family from Little Rock will occupy the Oval Office once again.
4
Republican establishment would love to say the courts have ruled on marriage equality and the ACA, time to move on. The base (and indeed some of the candidates) wants to keep on fighting and the solutions they're demanding will be even more unpalatable to moderate Americans.
3
The fact that Repuglicans would EVER embrace wacked-out social positions (e.g., conflating birth control with abortion, denying science, pushing so-called "religious freedom" laws, etc.) in order to gain and hold office tells me they are morally, ethically, and intellectually unqualified to "serve". So let them pivot all they want. It should not change anybody's vote.
6
While it's all well and good for the GOP to pivot to the next generation of issues, there won't be much traction on economic and national security issues, and the GOP can thank Bush 43 for that.
Moreover, there remains the larger issue of government itself; the GOP has repeatedly shown its distaste for doing the hard work of making government work, particularly at the federal level. I submit that economic and national security issues properly belong to federal, not local, government.
Moreover, there remains the larger issue of government itself; the GOP has repeatedly shown its distaste for doing the hard work of making government work, particularly at the federal level. I submit that economic and national security issues properly belong to federal, not local, government.
3
It all SOUNDS good, but how do you reconcile this pure conjecture with the irrefutable enforcement of the RINO prohibition? (Republican in Name Only.) The GOP seems much more committed to 1) enforcing a purist form of Republican Libertarianism; 2) relying heavily upon donors with very strong opinions that are varying shades of anathema to the American electorate; and 3) retreating to ever smaller states with manageable electorates (made so by gerrymandering and restricting voting rights) where coalition building is not required. Nothing about the GOP on the ground since 2010 promotes or is supportive of the idea of The Big Tent. And the reaction to the Supreme Court decisions this week is as reactionary as ever. Republicans will continue to run against immigrants, gay marriage, continue with ad hominem attacks against Democrats, and continue to restrict voting rights rather than honestly examine the paucity of their vision and its increasingly limited appeal to the majority of American voters. They have painted themselves into a corner.
4
The primary reason that the GOP has fought the past couple of decades on "social wedge issues" was specifically to avoid having elections decided on the sort of core ecomonic, health, educational, worker pay, unionization, and secular social policies that are, at their heart, against the very interests of their working and middle class constituencies. Religious-based social issues like abortion and gay marriage, and a totally mis-represented vision of the Affordable Health Care act were their chosen battlegrounds in order to prevent their ordinary-American-hostile, obscenely-wealthy-and-banking/corporate-elite policies from being issues in the campaign. Take away the faux "family values" wedge issues, and even in gerrymandered districts, a large number of their ordinary American supporters will be likely to realize that the very ideology of the GOP is to pull up the ladders and protect the rich, corporate, and banking elite from the great mass of the Main Street American voters. Switching the battleground, as you suggest, will merely remove the distractions that prevent millions of people from seeing that the GOP has had them voting against their own interests and well-being for decades.
The GOP has dug itself a hole and is now unable to climb out with their only ladder - with the fading support for their divisive wedge issues.
The GOP has dug itself a hole and is now unable to climb out with their only ladder - with the fading support for their divisive wedge issues.
5
"Religious Liberty" appears to be the latest code term for "Religious Tyranny". True Religious Liberty would be freedom from having religious mythology imposed on society through secular law. When blocked from imposing their mythology on others certain groups claim their "Liberty" is being limited. Not so, discrimination in the guise of religious liberty is still discrimination plain and simple. You are free to practice your religion but not to impose it on society. Christianity is not under attack. However, resistance to it being imposed on others is certainly growing as more and more of the citizenry exercise their constitutional rights not to be subjected to constant attempts to erode secular principles.
5
This one baffles me as well. Most of my family are very conservative Catholics but I was brought up to believe that religion was very personal and not something that could be peddled like a product or forced on another person.
Im a little confused here. On issues and cultural confrontations that brought fervent liberal comments on NY Times stories this past week, the husband of the presumed Democratic nominee for President was firmly on the wrong side of history, and she did nothing, apparently, to educate him...
Please show me where Democrats have shown real courage and leadership on issues with the potential for catastrophic impact here and globally. We got the war that opened the gates of hell via Democratic support in Congress and we continue perpetual war under President Obama. We got trade deals that began the final destruction of the middle class--or what the middle class used to be--in this country under Democratic presidents. We got the furtherance of Big Brother cozied up to every communication method we use under a Democratic president.
And most arguments for electing Democrats are not because the party represents the golden ideals of a modern society--but merely that theyre better than the other guys...
Until third-party candidates are not merely spoilers, but real contenders, no election will really matter. Even with the evidence of this week, because the key vote was by a Reagan appointee...
Please show me where Democrats have shown real courage and leadership on issues with the potential for catastrophic impact here and globally. We got the war that opened the gates of hell via Democratic support in Congress and we continue perpetual war under President Obama. We got trade deals that began the final destruction of the middle class--or what the middle class used to be--in this country under Democratic presidents. We got the furtherance of Big Brother cozied up to every communication method we use under a Democratic president.
And most arguments for electing Democrats are not because the party represents the golden ideals of a modern society--but merely that theyre better than the other guys...
Until third-party candidates are not merely spoilers, but real contenders, no election will really matter. Even with the evidence of this week, because the key vote was by a Reagan appointee...
1
The Republicans may well see this week as their opening, considering that they have built their party recently on what they oppose, not on what they support. Because what they support (exclusion and protecting the privilege of white, straight, wealthy males) presents such an ugly vision, as Gov. Romney discovered.
3
please stop with these kinds of articles and attributing a leftward slant to the recent supreme court decisions. there is no leftward slant this is all a pert of the lie...... what happened is what used to be called "doing the right thing". no left no right. society marched on and the court followed. now, getting the people to vote in sufficient numbers to turn our congress into a responsive body? that seems to be the hard part.
44
Republican party foreign policy? Confrontation, intransigance, warfare. Energy policy? Drill, frack, burn. Environmental policy? Deny, pollute, deregulate. Economic policy? Socialize the risk, privatize the profit, heads I win, tails you lose. Diplomacy? Our way or the highway, give war a chance.
What's not to like?
What's not to like?
9
Which of the following threads about economic and national security policy will the Republicans tout to voters in 2016?
Housing market price crash started in 2007 (G.W. Bush presidency 2001-09):
-- Republican-led Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004 allowed threefold increase in leverage ratios at investment banks, from 12:1 to 40:1.
-- Republican-led Federal Reserve failed to restrain overleveraging of financial institutions.
Labor share of GDP squeezed in GW Bush years to lowest since 1940s as manufacturing jobs fell to lowest number since pre-World War II.
-- Congressional Republicans had provided votes necessary to pass NAFTA, other trade agreements.
-- Income taxes on capital gains reduced to lowest in decades under GW Bush.
-- Republican congressional intransigence throughout Obama presidency on infrastructure spending; on maldistribution of income that effectively amounts to a tax of 5% of GDP on the bottom 95%-99% of the income distribution; on remedial action on climate change, ... All have retarded the economic recovery from the 2007-09 GW Bush recession.
Iraq War started under false pretenses by Bush and Cheney. Destabilized Middle East. Incompetent prosecution of wars in Afghanistan (entire GW Bush presidency) and Iraq (into 2007).
Yes, Republicans, pivot to economic and national security issues.
Housing market price crash started in 2007 (G.W. Bush presidency 2001-09):
-- Republican-led Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004 allowed threefold increase in leverage ratios at investment banks, from 12:1 to 40:1.
-- Republican-led Federal Reserve failed to restrain overleveraging of financial institutions.
Labor share of GDP squeezed in GW Bush years to lowest since 1940s as manufacturing jobs fell to lowest number since pre-World War II.
-- Congressional Republicans had provided votes necessary to pass NAFTA, other trade agreements.
-- Income taxes on capital gains reduced to lowest in decades under GW Bush.
-- Republican congressional intransigence throughout Obama presidency on infrastructure spending; on maldistribution of income that effectively amounts to a tax of 5% of GDP on the bottom 95%-99% of the income distribution; on remedial action on climate change, ... All have retarded the economic recovery from the 2007-09 GW Bush recession.
Iraq War started under false pretenses by Bush and Cheney. Destabilized Middle East. Incompetent prosecution of wars in Afghanistan (entire GW Bush presidency) and Iraq (into 2007).
Yes, Republicans, pivot to economic and national security issues.
8
"A great unburdening on race"? " These issues have been settled"?
We are so far away from "settling" race issues it is frightening and disgraceful.
The only thing we have accomplished in the last year is to exposé exactly how deeply prevalent racism still is. The work has just begun.
We are so far away from "settling" race issues it is frightening and disgraceful.
The only thing we have accomplished in the last year is to exposé exactly how deeply prevalent racism still is. The work has just begun.
5
Ha! Good luck with that, David Frum. You might have a chance if you stop listening to the extreme negativity of your leading party members, and realize they are challenging what the rest of the country feels.
2
...the only true opportunity to break the deadlock of dysfunctional 'politics' is to elect a true 'socialist': Bernie Sanders for President, 2016!
4
What the GOP really has here is an accelerated path to extinction. The party leaders remain stubbornly grounded on the wrong side of history. Their goal of building a bridge to the 19th Century (without raising taxes, of course) is becoming less and less appealing to the majority of Americans.
2
Whichever angle the Republican Party thinks they should take to lead in the next elections will simply not work. The genie is out of the bottle, they made it happen themselves. Their cardinal mistake is to cater to a minority in their states, a minority that has absolutely nothing to offer anyone. except misery, ignorance, relentless insults and putdowns. They are the party of nihilism. The only way they won the majority in the House of Representatives is because they falsified and manipulated redistricting, an abhorrent concept that should be scrapped ( a case waiting for the Supreme Court to settle down ) and by taking away the votes of black people and minorities. They are the party of no values and no scruples. That doesn't include over half of the population which is women. I think they are Self destroying. They are the kind of parents every kid hates to have!. When I hear Mr. Huckabee, Bobby Jindal etc. I shut the machine down, a clergy man who belongs in the Middle East with other disgusting imams. The Republicans have nothing to offer . They are incapable incapable of change because they don't have the intellectual capacity to do so. or the decency to be straight. O
1
The headline reads "Culture Battle".
I'd say it's rather a "civil rights battle".
I'd say it's rather a "civil rights battle".
2
Bernie Sanders is going to be the Ralph Nader of this election, forcing the discussion on important issues. The Republicans won't be able to create widespread panic over religious policies and imaginary villains. The country is falling apart and we dump trillions into the Middle East. We are a Third World country in most quality of life factors, especially health, education, and homelessness. We ignore those who served and now are in need.
That said, look for GOP strategists to come up with some lame distraction, like pit bulls in the city or excessively large rims on urban vehicles.
That said, look for GOP strategists to come up with some lame distraction, like pit bulls in the city or excessively large rims on urban vehicles.
1
I agree with the assessment, that the slate has been cleared. Health care and the major cultural war issue of the last few years have been resolved. However, Republicans will continue fighting a rear-guard action to weaken both. But as Republicans continue to press ahead for repeal of the ACA by legislation, Democrats can hopefully use that as a wedge issue and accurately argue that the Republicans want to take away health insurance from 20 million of our fellow Americans. I am hoping that just as the Republicans thought they could ride to power on their social agenda and they ultimately lost, they will also lose as they campaign on repealing the ACA.
And if Republicans want to campaign on economic issues, there are a lot of models that show how disastrous their policies are: Kansas, Wisconsin's lower performance than neighboring Minnesota, and the total economic failure of the eight years of Bush II--virtually no growth in non-farm employment, converting a $200 billion surplus to a $1.8 trillion deficit, and on and on. And of course, Republicans security position is just more wars, more Americans dying, another mess. As a liberal, I say "bring them on". We're ready.
And if Republicans want to campaign on economic issues, there are a lot of models that show how disastrous their policies are: Kansas, Wisconsin's lower performance than neighboring Minnesota, and the total economic failure of the eight years of Bush II--virtually no growth in non-farm employment, converting a $200 billion surplus to a $1.8 trillion deficit, and on and on. And of course, Republicans security position is just more wars, more Americans dying, another mess. As a liberal, I say "bring them on". We're ready.
27
Interesting situation. The Republicans are in control of both houses of Congress and 70% of all state legislative chambers, and yet they seem irrelevant. Democracy works in mysterious ways. The Republicans gerrymandered themselves into their dominant position, and yet the will of the majority prevails. I don't believe there will be a "silent majority" backlash as there was in the 1960s and 1970s giving rise to the New Conservatism of Ronald Reagan. That's because this time around the majority is not with them.
8
(1) Nearly all the republicans opposed gay marriage and the healthcare law. The voters have to stand their ground and refuse to let them run away from that.
(2) If Cruz and Huckabee want to run against Chief Justice Roberts let 'em. It assures neither one will be consequential in the race to White House as the Chief Justice is not a candidate. Anybody notice the anti-Hillary soundbites went to zero this week?
(3) Frum's idea is misplaced. The party run against the Court and cherish is decisions as a way to change the message at the same time.
(2) If Cruz and Huckabee want to run against Chief Justice Roberts let 'em. It assures neither one will be consequential in the race to White House as the Chief Justice is not a candidate. Anybody notice the anti-Hillary soundbites went to zero this week?
(3) Frum's idea is misplaced. The party run against the Court and cherish is decisions as a way to change the message at the same time.
3
Republicans have a long, tough row to hoe to get on the right side of economic issues, in my opinion. If people vote their paycheck and their prospects under a Republican-run country that eschews decent pay, okay health insurance and eventual dismantling of Social Security and Medicare, they will vote for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, or in fact anyone running as a Democrat. The GOP has become too hostile toward the people who actually make the country work to have much hope of winning.
2
"A cascade of events suggests that 2015 could be remembered as a Liberal Spring: the moment when deeply divisive and consuming questions of race, sexuality and broadened access to health care were settled in quick succession, and social tolerance was cemented as a cornerstone of American public life."
You must be kidding. For conservatives, these questions are considered about as "settled" as Roe v. Wade. To the contrary, they will scream, "War on Religion", "War on White Men," and "Repeal Obamacare" right up until election day. The candidates will talk about religious freedom, government overreach, judicial activism, state's rights and use all the same old code words to signal to their base that they will immediately try to reverse all of these changes.
Mitt Romney tried to make the 2012 election about the economy. How's that working out?
You must be kidding. For conservatives, these questions are considered about as "settled" as Roe v. Wade. To the contrary, they will scream, "War on Religion", "War on White Men," and "Repeal Obamacare" right up until election day. The candidates will talk about religious freedom, government overreach, judicial activism, state's rights and use all the same old code words to signal to their base that they will immediately try to reverse all of these changes.
Mitt Romney tried to make the 2012 election about the economy. How's that working out?
2
The Republican Party in the United States and rightwing parties all over the world appeal to people’s lowest instincts of chauvinism, superiority and fear of the other, which result in excessive emphasis on warfare and keeping us safe in a "hostile world". The United States has progressed tremendously since the days of Segregation, McCarthyism and seeing a communist under every bed. However, there is a sizable minority of people who still stick to those old prejudices and phobias, and they provide reliable recruits for Republican candidates.
The way to change this situation is not by name-calling but by educating the public. There is no reason why the most technologically advanced country in the world should lag behind other democracies in sentiments about race, gun ownership, militarization and unending wars. I believe that the liberals have not done a good enough job in pointing out the horrors of segregation, of vast military spending and the disaster of unilateral and illegal wars that were waged under the previous Administration. If we want to make sure that the next president will not be the same or even worse than the last one there is a need for a great deal of public education. I cannot understand why the same people who led us to the Iraq war are still allowed to dominate the media. In a country that prides itself in freedom of expression, the warmongers cannot be silenced but they must be exposed and refuted.
The way to change this situation is not by name-calling but by educating the public. There is no reason why the most technologically advanced country in the world should lag behind other democracies in sentiments about race, gun ownership, militarization and unending wars. I believe that the liberals have not done a good enough job in pointing out the horrors of segregation, of vast military spending and the disaster of unilateral and illegal wars that were waged under the previous Administration. If we want to make sure that the next president will not be the same or even worse than the last one there is a need for a great deal of public education. I cannot understand why the same people who led us to the Iraq war are still allowed to dominate the media. In a country that prides itself in freedom of expression, the warmongers cannot be silenced but they must be exposed and refuted.
2
There is so much wonderful luxury to possess, and the 1 present, especially the top 0.1 percent, have an insatiable appetite tow get it all. Everyone else must work, toil, worry, -- there is really no access to the real power. Nothing is assured. The wealthy know their positions are precarious-- sustainable only with force, intimidation, and a rigged system that requires ongoing lobbying and limitless spending on brain washing ads that pit one segment of the working class against the other. The degradation of the family is the result of GOP economic policies favoring the wealthy. Stronger jobs and opportunities strengthen families. We now have 35 years of proof that trickle down economics never worked -- the wealthy have an even greater share, and everyone else, despite more working hours, more educational debt, both spouses working, is stagnating or getting less in absolute terms. Globalization is a weapon the rich use to suppress everyone else. US kids now compete with kids from Asia, Latin America, Europe, for the same jobs -- but the wealthy compete with no one-- they are holding all of the cards. If the GOP really want to lead, and improve the real economy, the economy that working Americans live in, they should throw their wealthy donors under the bus, and help the rest of us.
1
Administrations and those that want to fill administrations create national security and economic issues. Isn't it possible that if the intelligence apparatus and members of the Bush Admiinistration had simply done their jobs 911 would have been prevented? But then billions of dollars on overpriced contracts and a jobs program wouldn't be spent on a DHS that demonstrates its sucess and necessity by citing the absence of another attack. If US Embassies were ordered to pull out when the first sign of danger surfaces we wouldn't be spending a billion dollars a year on protecting them because they want to wait until the last minute or in the case of Benghazi ignore common sense warnings. US citizens who wish to flaunt North Korea's totalitarian regime should do so at their own peril. NGOs that find it absolutely necessary to be in regions of the world like Somalia that have a reputation for kidnapping and killing westerners should use common sense and stay out of those countries. As far as the economy the only thing that both parties seem to agree on is that harsh winters are responsible for bad economic reports for a quarter or so--the same excuse used when America relied on commerce that was rail and barge driven and the telegraph was king of communications. Any one running for president regardless of their party affiliation who lays claim to understanding the economy is not worth your time or consideration.
2
I believe the author and the Repubican spokespeople who think these decisions will free up candidates to focus more on economic issues and who can keep the country safe do not understand their voters, the Frankenstein monsters they have created over the past six and a half years, behold Trump's appeal, for instance. Putting aside the facts that GOP economic policy is a disaster, see Kansas for a template, and Republican's ideas to keep us "safe" involve more wars, troops on the ground in the Middle East, confrontation with Iran and undying support for Netanyahu, the continued "rhetorical opposition to the Affordable Care Act in the primaries" is much more than rhetorical for their voters. Out here in regular folks land, the so called rhetoric is full blown hatred. Six and a half years of viscious, hate fueled lies (rhetoric, ha!) cannot be undone that easily as Boehner discovered early after the last election when he declared that Obamacare was the law of the land. He changed his tune and it has remained changed.
1
Climate-change denialism will be the next wedge-issue that separates GOP candidates from the sane Republican voters. GOP leaders are whistling in the dark each time they use the "I am not a scientist" excuse to deny what's becoming increasingly obvious to the rest of us.
4
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. The Dems also need to do some soul searching. They need to acknowledge that the poor of the USA and the world are just having too many children. It is fundamentally counter to human development that upper and middle income people should pay to take care of the children of the poor.
1
Hahaha, really? The GOP also campaigns to deny poor women access to family planning services and sex education both in the US and abroad. The vast majority of women on the planet - rich and poor alike - would be happy to have far fewer children, if said kids had a reasonable chance of surviving to adulthood and faced decent economic prospects once they got there. It's not the Democrats who slash funding to Planned Parenthood, demand abstinence-only sex ed (Bristol Palin, abstinence heroine extraordinaire, is knocked up out of wedlock again!) and impose ridiculous hurdles to contraception and abortion access for women who can't afford private insurance. You want to stop paying for the children of the poor? Stop making it so hard for poor women to avoid having them.
1
Good point. Democrats need to stress contraception, sex education and yes responsible behavior.
Knocked up? What a crass, disgusting comment. Do you walk on water? Can you tell me what these hurdles are to abortion when Roe V Wade is the land? Did you know under Obama Care abortions are covered? Did you know that the number of abortions has actually gone down significantlly? Did you know that there are 20 contraceptives listed under ObamaCare women can use?
How can Republicans slash funding to Planned parenthood when Harry Reid was Senate Majority leader from 2006-2014? He would have had to allow that bill to come up for a vote, if it existed. Obama has been president for 6 1/2 years. When did he sign a bill cutting it? By the way, in 2009 Obama said he would not use federal funds to fund Planned Parenthood.
Instead of making ridiculous and immature statements try doing some research. Maybe somebody can you since that appears to be above your pay grade
How can Republicans slash funding to Planned parenthood when Harry Reid was Senate Majority leader from 2006-2014? He would have had to allow that bill to come up for a vote, if it existed. Obama has been president for 6 1/2 years. When did he sign a bill cutting it? By the way, in 2009 Obama said he would not use federal funds to fund Planned Parenthood.
Instead of making ridiculous and immature statements try doing some research. Maybe somebody can you since that appears to be above your pay grade
I agree wholeheartedly with this analysis. I believe that while this great progress does put some of those "wedge issues" for Democrats in danger, it also opens the door for the Republican Party to once again become a worthy contributor to the public discourse. The current incarnation of the Republican Party is mired in old resentments, fears, and even hatred, and its social and economic policies reflect that. Speaking as a partisan Democrat, but not a blind Democrat, I believe that we Democrats need a robust but sensible Republican Party partner to forge the best public policies for the country we all love. I celebrate all of the Supreme Court decisions of this week, because countless precious human beings, particularly the disadvantaged among us, will as a result know more security, joy, and freedom. So, the loss of "wedge issues" be damned. We're a better country now, and maybe the recovery of a sane and responsible Republican Party is in sight. Should that actually come to pass, I will celebrate.
16
The Greed Over the People (GOP) is going to suffer greatly in the 2016 elections. They are a racist, overwhelmingly white, southern-based political party who are also warmongers. Heck, Donald Trump may be their nominee because of their lack of talent. Meanwhile, I will easily vote for Hillary even though I support Bernie. We have Elizabeth Warren for 2024 and beyond. Happy Days are here again!
4
Rupert Murdoch and his sons dashed all the plans of these "economic-security" Republicans by reappointing Roger Ailes this week. The worst of the Republican base will still be fed their daily doses of White Christian supremacy, xenophobia, and sexual moral panic. Always accompanied by young girls in bikinis at spring break or Hooters waitresses.
2
I am so tired of the attempt to cram *everything* into a binary liberal/conservative narrative, and then assign winners and losers.
The issue of how large a role the federal government should have in our lives is hardly a left/right fault line. It all depends on what that government is trying to do. Does the left truly want more NSA domestic surveillance ?
The Obamacare win at the Supreme Court only allowed a deeply flawed program to continue to dominate & perpetuate a deeply flawed health insurance system that we have in the US. Is that what liberals truly want ?
Gay marriage is actually the only issue that many conservatives were on the wrong side of. But it was a win for individual freedom, which is held in much higher esteem by many conservatives. Liberals currently seem to be on the wrong side of the question of personal choice. And this will probably come back to haunt them, if they continue to push for more overt control over others.
Yes, there are current winners & losers in these battles, but too often more important wars are lost, even though political hay has been made by one party or the other.
The issue of how large a role the federal government should have in our lives is hardly a left/right fault line. It all depends on what that government is trying to do. Does the left truly want more NSA domestic surveillance ?
The Obamacare win at the Supreme Court only allowed a deeply flawed program to continue to dominate & perpetuate a deeply flawed health insurance system that we have in the US. Is that what liberals truly want ?
Gay marriage is actually the only issue that many conservatives were on the wrong side of. But it was a win for individual freedom, which is held in much higher esteem by many conservatives. Liberals currently seem to be on the wrong side of the question of personal choice. And this will probably come back to haunt them, if they continue to push for more overt control over others.
Yes, there are current winners & losers in these battles, but too often more important wars are lost, even though political hay has been made by one party or the other.
1
Interestingly, conservatives were also a major party of the coalition opposing TPP. Many conservatives are fed up with the government giving away the country to corporations that are only interested in making money any way thy can.
I see settling minority issues, gay rights, confederate flag flying, health care for the uninsured want it, etc. as just that, issues that affect the various minority groups of Americans. When those issues are taken off the table as far as hot buttons and settled, what issues will right to the forefront? The economy and jobs. Many of us republican's don't carry religious baggage.
When it comes to the issues about the economy and jobs the reality is that many Democrats are incompetent, less Republicans are. The majority of the American people know this, however the various minority groups have been voting for narrow self interest issues, that Democrats have supported to build a collation. With those issues going away these groups will now turn to the issues that concern the middle class, jobs and the economy.
As a economy and jobs Republican I can't stand the "social conservative" part of the party, as they are a minority who want to force their beliefs on the majority. However I am a Republican because I support the issues that affect all American's, which means effective foreign policy (Obama has failed, so did Bush, Reagan and Clinton succeeded) and a smaller government, as our Federal Government has become to bloated, too large to manage with any type of efficiency. I think there is a chance for many Democrats to change how the see the world over the next year.
When it comes to the issues about the economy and jobs the reality is that many Democrats are incompetent, less Republicans are. The majority of the American people know this, however the various minority groups have been voting for narrow self interest issues, that Democrats have supported to build a collation. With those issues going away these groups will now turn to the issues that concern the middle class, jobs and the economy.
As a economy and jobs Republican I can't stand the "social conservative" part of the party, as they are a minority who want to force their beliefs on the majority. However I am a Republican because I support the issues that affect all American's, which means effective foreign policy (Obama has failed, so did Bush, Reagan and Clinton succeeded) and a smaller government, as our Federal Government has become to bloated, too large to manage with any type of efficiency. I think there is a chance for many Democrats to change how the see the world over the next year.
Apparently, author Jonathan Martin doesn't own a television set.
The G.O.P. will run a campaign modeled on the typical American reality show. There will be no serious discussion of issues - just discussions of Hillary Clinton's e-mail and plastic surgery - stunts and drama, nothing substantive at all.
Don't expect anything serious to be flung out in the G.O.P's massive advertising bombardment - just drivel for the witless to sop up, because that is exactly their opinion of the average voter; and Hillary's crew will do no better.
What's the last time you saw presidential candidates on the "Tee Vee" engage in a "Presidential Debate" that was actually in the form of a debate, at all?
Don't expect to see it in 2016. Real issues do not count in a "Mega Funded" electoral contest - it's all about the "throw weight" of propaganda that the two sides can bring to bear on their opponents.
Issues are something Europeans deal during their short and cheap election campaigns; they have no place in a American election.
So cheer up, stuff your "chads" back into the card, and be proud that you live in the "greatest democracy the world has ever known".
The G.O.P. will run a campaign modeled on the typical American reality show. There will be no serious discussion of issues - just discussions of Hillary Clinton's e-mail and plastic surgery - stunts and drama, nothing substantive at all.
Don't expect anything serious to be flung out in the G.O.P's massive advertising bombardment - just drivel for the witless to sop up, because that is exactly their opinion of the average voter; and Hillary's crew will do no better.
What's the last time you saw presidential candidates on the "Tee Vee" engage in a "Presidential Debate" that was actually in the form of a debate, at all?
Don't expect to see it in 2016. Real issues do not count in a "Mega Funded" electoral contest - it's all about the "throw weight" of propaganda that the two sides can bring to bear on their opponents.
Issues are something Europeans deal during their short and cheap election campaigns; they have no place in a American election.
So cheer up, stuff your "chads" back into the card, and be proud that you live in the "greatest democracy the world has ever known".
4
No matter how we construe the four Justices dissent, it is a thinly veiled religiosity that fuels their discontent. It is that religiosity that governs the GOP. There is no Republican Party without it. Justice Scalia is simply the most undisguised and mephitic in his effort to impose his personal pieties in the guise of constructionist interpretation. We can, of course, compare this week's events to the civil rights movement that has indeed shifted attitudes and values with a generational tide. But that tidal wave too has also seen new walls built to prevent the sea change: the Court’s regressive ruling concerning the Voting Rights Act along with the Republican Congress’s unwillingness to renew its critical provisions are supported by States imposing restrictive voting laws aimed directly at repressing minority voters. Law may be a measure of progress---and now regression--- but progress is not best measured by law. Neither is what we teach our children the meaning of law; it is the difference between right and wrong.
Perhaps it’s also a good time to remember that there are seventy-nine countries in which being actively gay is still very much a crime. (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-25927595) Things have changed and the law speaks to change. But the law is not all we must contend with. Human decency has a far longer road to travel.
http://contraiety.blogspot.com/2015/06/as-we-celebrate-marriage-legality...
Perhaps it’s also a good time to remember that there are seventy-nine countries in which being actively gay is still very much a crime. (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-25927595) Things have changed and the law speaks to change. But the law is not all we must contend with. Human decency has a far longer road to travel.
http://contraiety.blogspot.com/2015/06/as-we-celebrate-marriage-legality...
3
The GOP has proven itself to be the representative of what Joseph Conrad called "the Heart of Darkness." There is no dark part of the human soul it does not like and use for exploitation. Money and the vote is what it craves, like a primitive, brainless parasite sucking nutrition from its host (the ignorant). Gay issues, affordable health care may have dried up for them (I bet not yet), but the GOP is quickly using its tentacles to locate the id of frightened, discontented and uneducated people to extract more of what nourishes it, fodder for potential culture wars and divisive bent buried in humanity's " Heart of Darkness."
I paint a chilling picture, but I only take it from the repulsive rhetoric of the Republican Party's presidential candidates (and the Supreme Court Justices their shills have chosen); these are the faces the GOP chooses to show the world.
I paint a chilling picture, but I only take it from the repulsive rhetoric of the Republican Party's presidential candidates (and the Supreme Court Justices their shills have chosen); these are the faces the GOP chooses to show the world.
4
There is certainly an opportunity now for the Republicans to abandon their platform of hate and move on past social issues and put forth a legitimate platform of development, investment and growth. My guess? They double down on "religious freedom," aka the permission to discriminate, and immigration as the last planks of hatred left to them.
5
"Opportunity to Pivot…?" Republicans don't actually have a compelling economic argument to run on. Most Americans are not shouting for more tax cuts, but they are in favor of such things as raising the minimum wage, which Republicans oppose. Most Americans also wouldn't object to a small increase in the gasoline tax to re-build our infrastructure, and, by the way, create jobs, but Republicans can't even agree to that. And privatizing Medicare and Social Security? Once again, ordinary Americans aren't asking for it. As far as national security, Republicans seem to be pushing for more military action first, and diplomacy can wait for another day. Raise your hands, American people, if you're itching for another war. No? I didn't think so. If we want to be honest about it, these 'culture war' issues are the main things causing many working people to vote for Republicans, against their own interests on most other issues.
57
The "values" voters will continue to vote Republican, because the Republican candidates call themselves "men of God."
The victories of the "culture wars" this week are won, they are not what the Democrats will be running on. Sanders impetus to run is based on the economy. I don't see how the Republicans can possibly trumpet their achievements on that.
2
The very concept of a Republican pivot to economic and national security issues--as if those areas are their real strong suits--is laughable.
30 years of growing global fealty to conservative/Republican ideas about "free" markets, deregulation and "trickle down economics--culminating in the six-year period from 2000 to 2006, when the GOP controlled all three branches of the U.S. government--leading to a global economic collapse and income inequality rivalling the Gilded Age--left us all in a smoking wreck that we are still just crawling out of.
The only new economic idea the GOP has to offer involves pretending we have tried all of their old ones--which they continue to peddle.
There's an old line about how when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
With the Republicans, their hammer is tax cuts for the rich and deregulation for big business. It is utter buffoonery, peddled to the ignorant and naive.
The only thing more laughable is the notion that the GOP has a fresh, new and effective idea on the national security front.
30 years of growing global fealty to conservative/Republican ideas about "free" markets, deregulation and "trickle down economics--culminating in the six-year period from 2000 to 2006, when the GOP controlled all three branches of the U.S. government--leading to a global economic collapse and income inequality rivalling the Gilded Age--left us all in a smoking wreck that we are still just crawling out of.
The only new economic idea the GOP has to offer involves pretending we have tried all of their old ones--which they continue to peddle.
There's an old line about how when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
With the Republicans, their hammer is tax cuts for the rich and deregulation for big business. It is utter buffoonery, peddled to the ignorant and naive.
The only thing more laughable is the notion that the GOP has a fresh, new and effective idea on the national security front.
3
Liberals will win a few laudable, but essentially meaningless cases, like gay marriage, while the right wing criminals continue to rob the middle class into penury, demolish what's left of the environment for short term profit and wage wars of aggression around the world that spread incalculable human suffering.
2
I think the Republicans will be more on the defensive. It's up to us to keep them there. At the moment, I'm not so pessimistic as you.
1
The Republican fall back position is always to attack women's rights or those of minorities. The black-robed clergy in the Supreme Court are probably waiting for their next best chance.
3
How about the elephant in the room .... climate change?
The Republicans are so far on the wrong side of this issue that is is a suicidal act to vote for them.
The Republicans are so far on the wrong side of this issue that is is a suicidal act to vote for them.
8
Tis the season again where Democrats run against Republicans and Republicans run against Democrats and the media. It is a shame that there is no public format where things like race, gender, climate change and other topics can be discussed calmly and openly. This surely will not happen as school teachers, radical college professors and the news media tell young Americans what they must believe or get an F. There is no discussion. The media rarely reports both sides evenly on any issue. A perfect example is the main stream media will never report a story of a person protecting themselves or their property with a gun. Only bad gun stories get reported. This is truly a world of censorship through omission in which we live.
1
How is nine people getting murdered because of their race a victory in the culture wars? Politics is garbage.
2
How can anyone seriously suggest that in 2015, "deeply divisive and consuming questions of race, sexuality and broadened access to health care were settled in quick succession, and social tolerance was cemented as a cornerstone of American public life?" A few battles have been won, and public consciousness of the deep-seated racism in our criminal justice system has been raised, but the war against bigotry has a long, long way to go. And as for health care, Republicans will almost certainly shred the ACA if they win the White House next year.
Journalists rushed to proclaim the "Arab Spring" after the toppling of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and we know how that turned out. Proclaiming a "Liberal Spring" is just as premature.
Journalists rushed to proclaim the "Arab Spring" after the toppling of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and we know how that turned out. Proclaiming a "Liberal Spring" is just as premature.
2
The Angry Party (read GOP) has nowhere to go except to turn on itself. With respect to security and the economy, just two things, mobile biological labs and the pronouncement just weeks before the crash of Wall Street by Mr. Bush (W) that America's economy was robust and doing well.
5
And if the Democrats are smart, a focus on women is next, which it should be given Hillary's likely candidacy. Let's see what the Republicans have to say in that case. And it is not only a social issue, but an economic one, of course. We need to keep pushing the cause of women in general here and in the world. The Republicans base continues to shrink and shrink. it is only locally gerrymandered "no contest" elections where they win. If the Dems are successful, a general election, as we've seen with the last two, may lead to a Democrat Senate and Presidency, and the House difference can be narrowed.
8
I love the headline, as if the republicans can run on their signature issues of continued tax cuts for the wealthiest among us and more military intervention in foreign wars... and win! hilarious!
11
At the end of the day the thing that will hurt the Democratic party is national security. We need a very strong military and need to equip our soldiers with the best equipment money can buy.
We have that, what we don't need is another war. Saber rattling and carnage don't equal security.
1
What have the Republicans achieved on national security? Are we more secure? Spending billions is hardly relevant to the task. Using our heads is. The Republicans and all the national security warmongers have it all wrong, in my opinion. One could even reasonably say that ISIS is the outcome of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
1
I vote republican almost all the time and I have no problem with gay marriage. But I do sympathize with the people who oppose it because of their religion. I wish that the government would get out of marriage altogether though. Let everyone have civil unions and let the churches call it marriage if they want to.
2
Anyone opposed to gay marriage has no obligation to marry anyone of the same sex nor ever invite any gay couple into their home.
The obligation of the government is to support citizens' rights and not to uphold particular interpretations of religion.
The obligation of the government is to support citizens' rights and not to uphold particular interpretations of religion.
1
Too many people in the GOP see politics as zero sum games. Politicians like Scott Walker and Ted Cruz, two of the most outrageous opportunists of our age, encourage marginal right wingers in thinking that they are 'losing' when civil rights are extended to minorities who were denied them in the past. Lobbyists like Tony Perkins hide behind deliberately mis-named hate groups and try to convince their bigoted members that somehow God created a limited amount of love and that acceptance that God can love non-Christian and gay people is some form of theft that reduces the grace that God gives to them. These politicians and organizations - and their ilk - are the forces that create an America that has more in common with 1930s Germany than post Civil War America. They are anathema to anyone of real faith or understanding that 'family' is more than myopic allegiance to a particular set of genes, no matter how corrupted they are.
5
Frum: "‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ” Bull----. Every four years, the GOP makes gestures it thinks will entice a few more black folk into its fold -- but continues to shoot its foot off with black and other traditionally Democratic voters. Are we supposed to forget about the Southern Strategy, about voter "ID" laws that really should be called "minority, poor and young voter suppression laws," or about the dismantling of the Voting RIghts Act? Are Latinos supposed to forget about cantaloupe calves, Mexican rapists and the lack of progress on immigration reform? Are gay voters supposed to erase from their minds the memories of the GOP anti-gay strategy in 2004? Frum and other GOP heavyweights need to face reality: A significant portion of his party's voters and elected officials are either racists and/or homophobes, hold racist and/or homophobic views or support racist and/or homophobic policies -- or all of those. It's apparent now and has been for decades. Supreme Court decisions and non-government occurrences (such as Jenner's) don't lift those issues away from the minds of minority and gay voters, and their straight, white sympathizers. Nor will racist and homophobic Republican voters suddenly change their tune. Not in 17 months and probably not for several more years, if ever. No, the GOP tune that's been played for decades is now back in high relief.
8
I do believe the Republican tune is sounding tinny and off key to increasing numbers of voters.
2
Zebras cannot change their stripes. Snakes will not pretend to walk because they are snakes. Republicans and Conservatives just c-c-c-can’t g-g-g-get the words out without everyone seeing their noses get longer with every attempt to pretend that they are born again democrats with a small “d.” No matter how they re-label the bottle it will still be the same ‘ole snake oil that they have been peddling for years.
6
Today's GOP resembles a jumbo jet in a death spiral, augering towards the ground with Cruz, Walker, et al sitting behind the controls. The reaction to the SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage follows the traditional game plan: pursuing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage; proclaiming that the Constitution does not cite gay marriage as a right. (Not surprisingly they omit the fact that marriage, either heterosexual or same sex, is never mentioned in the Constitution.) The next step will be making opposition to same sex marriage an additional litmus test for Federal and Supreme Court justices. As long as the GOP remains enthralled to religious fundamentalists who are intellectually living in 500 BC it will increasingly distance itself from the rest of the country.
11
The GOP "pivot" will be a road to the past as always
11
I believe fewer will follow the GOP.
2
Republicans have poisoned the well and thus their brand. Playing dress-up won't work. Young people identify republicans as scolding elders with no ideas of their own. There is nothing to build on when the foundation is rotten. Hillary is lucky to have such an opponent. Totally out of step and clueless.
10
I see only two possible outcomes:
1) The Republicans continue to rail against same-sex marriage and the ACA, and thus (continue to) alienate more than half of the U.S. population, or;
2) They create one of the biggest (insincere, disingenuous) flip-flops in history.
Either way they fail. The American people are not that stupid.
1) The Republicans continue to rail against same-sex marriage and the ACA, and thus (continue to) alienate more than half of the U.S. population, or;
2) They create one of the biggest (insincere, disingenuous) flip-flops in history.
Either way they fail. The American people are not that stupid.
8
Really? They have had control of the House and the Senate for how many days? All they have worked on is this relentless attack on women's reproductive rights. Jobs? No. Infrastructure? No. They wouldn't know economic development if it hit them on the head.
14
Last time the GOP had the White House, we were treated to the "neocon" version of the world. Next time, it will be more of the same, only now those same cons will have the billionaire-libertarian and Tea Party wings helping to stir the pot.
9
It may be useful to note that the NYT and its readership seems biased to the left, compared to the national population's views.
How on earth did the voters elect so many Republicans in 2014?
How on earth did the voters elect so many Republicans in 2014?
1
A combination of gerrymandering and low voter turnout by stupid and lazy Democrats.
The Left appears to have "won" some battles in the area of morality or immorality (depending on how one views the battles) but the seeming victories are not truly successes.
Those on "the right" aka those who follow Traditional Morality (mainly Roman Catholic Christians, Orthodox Jewish etc.) now have only one real choice.
The "choice" that Traditional Morality believes have is to Emigrate to a new nation and there establish Traditional Morality in a less hostile environment.
There are a few nations left (outside of Islamic faith) that adhere to Traditional Morality and the greatest hope for Traditional Morality people is to establish and new presence in a new land in the same way that the Pilgrims did in North America.
It is time to "Abandon (the) Ship" of America and to set sail for more Moral Nations.
Those on "the right" aka those who follow Traditional Morality (mainly Roman Catholic Christians, Orthodox Jewish etc.) now have only one real choice.
The "choice" that Traditional Morality believes have is to Emigrate to a new nation and there establish Traditional Morality in a less hostile environment.
There are a few nations left (outside of Islamic faith) that adhere to Traditional Morality and the greatest hope for Traditional Morality people is to establish and new presence in a new land in the same way that the Pilgrims did in North America.
It is time to "Abandon (the) Ship" of America and to set sail for more Moral Nations.
2
See ya!
The Supreme Court ruling on marriage is based on the US Constitution. It is decidedly NOT the role of SCOTUS to uphold any traditional religious instructions or values.
Amendment I "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free expression thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Amendment I "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free expression thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
1
Democratic candidates will do just fine if they keep asking that perennial yet simple question: "Are you better off now than under the Republicans?" then point to the previous presidential administration's two unfunded wars and near economic collapse in 2008 as well as how poorly Republican governors are serving their working-class constituents.
9
Let the focus start on Mr. Scott Walker, the MIA Governor of Wisconsin who is currently in Colorado bending at the foot of the Koch Bros. war chest.
We are currently in a structural deficit of hundreds of millions. He wants to borrow another $1.5 billion (total of $3.7 billion on his credit card).
scal restraint and planning!
Scott Walker inherited a deficit from Jim Doyle, just as Jim Doyle inherited a huge one from his predecessor. Problem is, Scott Walker is still borrowing money and there is no sign yet of stopping.
He has travelled the country and world on the taxpayers dime. He opted not to move to the Governors mansion and has had his personal home modified with a $1.5 million security system.
He flies between Milwaukee and Madison. He spends $8 million a year in state trooper security for himself and his family.
He can't even get his own party on board with his budget.
His great financial planning? Back the Milwaukee Bucks Arena. Why? Because it's cheaper to keep them.
We pay over $500 million (with interest) to keep $6.7 million in taxes each year. How does that work out?
We are currently in a structural deficit of hundreds of millions. He wants to borrow another $1.5 billion (total of $3.7 billion on his credit card).
scal restraint and planning!
Scott Walker inherited a deficit from Jim Doyle, just as Jim Doyle inherited a huge one from his predecessor. Problem is, Scott Walker is still borrowing money and there is no sign yet of stopping.
He has travelled the country and world on the taxpayers dime. He opted not to move to the Governors mansion and has had his personal home modified with a $1.5 million security system.
He flies between Milwaukee and Madison. He spends $8 million a year in state trooper security for himself and his family.
He can't even get his own party on board with his budget.
His great financial planning? Back the Milwaukee Bucks Arena. Why? Because it's cheaper to keep them.
We pay over $500 million (with interest) to keep $6.7 million in taxes each year. How does that work out?
13
So sad that the writers of this "news analysis" cannot or will not state the obvious underlying problem of the GOP: by deliberately and knowingly adopting its Southern Strategy, it became the party of the southern white man. As a short term political strategy it worked very well. But the party of Lincoln was captured by the reactionary politics of Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms and is still beholden to reactionary white southern politicians.That party has no place in it for African Americans and Mexican Americans, among others.
The GOP must repudiate its Southern Strategy and embrace the vision of Lincoln once again. Then and only then can there be a true and honest competition for the hearts and minds of all Americans. American Conservatism is tainted by the politics of white racism. It must once and for all free itself of that albatross! When Republican political conventions reflect the diversity of the American people, then we will know this sad chapter in the history of the Republican Party is over.
The GOP must repudiate its Southern Strategy and embrace the vision of Lincoln once again. Then and only then can there be a true and honest competition for the hearts and minds of all Americans. American Conservatism is tainted by the politics of white racism. It must once and for all free itself of that albatross! When Republican political conventions reflect the diversity of the American people, then we will know this sad chapter in the history of the Republican Party is over.
6
Right, hand over our national security and economy to the Republicans...what a great idea. How soon we forget the Iraq War and stock market crash of the Bush years eh? This piece is ridiculous.
7
The GOP doesn't need to change its message, but rather stay on its talking points:
1 - The poor have too much money, and the rich don't have enough.
2 - Role back those job-killing regulations that protect our food, water, air and planet.
3 - lets start another war. Look at all the jobs Iraq and Afganistan have created for prosthetics makers.
4 - get back in that closet and stay there!
Sign me up!
1 - The poor have too much money, and the rich don't have enough.
2 - Role back those job-killing regulations that protect our food, water, air and planet.
3 - lets start another war. Look at all the jobs Iraq and Afganistan have created for prosthetics makers.
4 - get back in that closet and stay there!
Sign me up!
12
While the last two supreme court decisions made my day, some of my friends are bitter over them. Yeah, they are in some cases cranky conservatives winding down their lives, but they are also good people whose heads are spinning over the cultural changes between now and their youth.
I once convinced them to vote for Jimmy Carter and I was hoping in 2016 to sell them on the possibility that an odd Vermont senator and self-confessed Socialist could start an overdue overhaul of Washington DC.
But I fear they are a target rich environment for Rovian Republican operatives and slick operations like Bush 3 -- always ready to pounce on their fears.
The continual press for minority rights, and the affirming of ever more obscure sexual orientations (with concomittant privileges, don't kid yourself) will bring a backlash.
For instance, how many American voters are going to be sympathetic to that White House heckler the other day? Let's see -- She was a rude illegal transgender immigrant yelling about deportation of her kind... Now, I would bet that 75% of Americans, including the president, would think that was a good idea. Wait till her group starts demanding hiring quotas.
My point is that could we just consolidate and celebrate for a while without the continuing call to the barricades?
I once convinced them to vote for Jimmy Carter and I was hoping in 2016 to sell them on the possibility that an odd Vermont senator and self-confessed Socialist could start an overdue overhaul of Washington DC.
But I fear they are a target rich environment for Rovian Republican operatives and slick operations like Bush 3 -- always ready to pounce on their fears.
The continual press for minority rights, and the affirming of ever more obscure sexual orientations (with concomittant privileges, don't kid yourself) will bring a backlash.
For instance, how many American voters are going to be sympathetic to that White House heckler the other day? Let's see -- She was a rude illegal transgender immigrant yelling about deportation of her kind... Now, I would bet that 75% of Americans, including the president, would think that was a good idea. Wait till her group starts demanding hiring quotas.
My point is that could we just consolidate and celebrate for a while without the continuing call to the barricades?
1
Do any of your friends need to be concerned with health care?
The GOP wildly gain opportunity if it gets back to being a credible party representing a credible world view.
There is an eternal and legitimate debate between a market-based approach to problem solving, with all the benefits and costs associated, and a government regulation and oversight based approach to problem solving, with all the associated benefits and costs.
Government is not always ineffective and not always the answer. Much of corporate America is run far worse than the most dysfunctional government on the planet. Some corporation are breathtaking examples of innovation and efficiency worth emulating.
The best balance is an ever shifting dynamic one that requires constant good faith debate to maintain and adjust. That is what our system was set up to allow.
In the past, we have had moments when we did a pretty reasonable job. My hope would be that the GOP will use this opportunity (perhaps it will take a drubbing in the presidential election) to return to credible, adult, exposition of a reality based world view.
How much better could the ACA have been if we had looked around the world and had an honest debate about the best parts of market best forces and single provider efficiencies?
What could reasonable gun safety become? How much leadership on environment, energy, equitability, sustainable progress (as opposed to endless growth) could we attain if we had a respectful, reality based debate?
That would have been 'American Exceptionalism'.
There is an eternal and legitimate debate between a market-based approach to problem solving, with all the benefits and costs associated, and a government regulation and oversight based approach to problem solving, with all the associated benefits and costs.
Government is not always ineffective and not always the answer. Much of corporate America is run far worse than the most dysfunctional government on the planet. Some corporation are breathtaking examples of innovation and efficiency worth emulating.
The best balance is an ever shifting dynamic one that requires constant good faith debate to maintain and adjust. That is what our system was set up to allow.
In the past, we have had moments when we did a pretty reasonable job. My hope would be that the GOP will use this opportunity (perhaps it will take a drubbing in the presidential election) to return to credible, adult, exposition of a reality based world view.
How much better could the ACA have been if we had looked around the world and had an honest debate about the best parts of market best forces and single provider efficiencies?
What could reasonable gun safety become? How much leadership on environment, energy, equitability, sustainable progress (as opposed to endless growth) could we attain if we had a respectful, reality based debate?
That would have been 'American Exceptionalism'.
1
Before the GOP can "pivot", their ultra- right base will have to give up the traditional racist and sexist litmus tests that too often doom their presidential candidates.
3
Security, security, security, when will we ever have "enough."? Play on fears while doing nothing real for the citizens. Maybe the strategy will not work (hopefully) because apparently a large portion of our country IS interested in "culture" issues.
Its odd that "the Left" is for increased freedom (for transgenders, gay, race, etc) but "the Right" (supposed party of "freedom", esp. the libertarians) are the ones who promote (expensive) "security" in opposition to social rights.
Its odd that "the Left" is for increased freedom (for transgenders, gay, race, etc) but "the Right" (supposed party of "freedom", esp. the libertarians) are the ones who promote (expensive) "security" in opposition to social rights.
2
Economy? National security?!
Those are two subjects that Republicans have ALSO flunked for years and decades.
Those are two subjects that Republicans have ALSO flunked for years and decades.
9
The Tony Perkins quote, "The tolerance level has been exceeded", while implying that America was doing just fine prior to 1/20/09, sums up today's GOP. If threats like Perkins's can't get Democrats and liberals motivated, nothing will.
8
The Republican cultural political strategy only works on the Congressional level because they have gerrymandered voting districts. It no longer sells in presidential elections. For a Republican to win, he or she will have to be fiscally conservative and a social centrist, in effect making the evangelicals a separate party and appealing to swing voters.
2
Let the Republican's focus on the economy... fact is Obama has turned this economy around in less than 8 years... and without support from the Republican party. You would never know how good things are now compared to 2008, because Obama is terrible at public relations. Hillary (being a fellow Democrat) would be wise to do Obama's job and remind people (specifically) how far we have come. It's a fallacy that Republican's are better for the economy.
5
If the Republicans think that We the People are going to be more "conservative" on economic matters in 2016, then they are even farther out of touch than they appear--and that's saying a lot. It is precisely the destruction of the economy by neoliberal/austerity economics that has caused people to lose faith in rightist policies and created the opening for the "liberal spring" to happen.
We progressives are just beginning. It is time to roll back the war and prison state; bring our troops back home; and start re-building our devastated economy and infrastructure at home. As for "national security": People are beginning to see that true national security is a strong and fair economy at home and peaceful relations abroad, and that wars for oil and empire are counterproductive.
We need a new FDR. Fortunately there's one on the horizon:
BERNIE IN '16
We progressives are just beginning. It is time to roll back the war and prison state; bring our troops back home; and start re-building our devastated economy and infrastructure at home. As for "national security": People are beginning to see that true national security is a strong and fair economy at home and peaceful relations abroad, and that wars for oil and empire are counterproductive.
We need a new FDR. Fortunately there's one on the horizon:
BERNIE IN '16
5
Alamac, Yes, either a 'liberal spring' or more likely next year a "Revolutionary Summer"
1
“Every once in a while, we bring down the curtain on the politics of a prior era,” said David Frum, the conservative writer. “The stage is now cleared for the next generation of issues. And Republicans can say, ‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”
The critical question is whether the Republican Party will embrace such a message in order to seize what many party officials see as an opening to turn the election toward economic and national security issues."
We DID bring down the curtain on the politics of a prior era -- the REPUBLICAN era of hatred and discrimination. And now we're supposed to listen to them on economic and national security issues when they couldn't keep us safe on 9/11, they lied America and the world into a war against a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and they ruined our economy with 'supply side, trickle down, voodoo economics,' all the while giving further massive tax cuts to the filthy rich, and handing America the worst Right Wing-leaning SCOTUS activists' ruling in decades -- Citizens United.
So thanks GOP, but 'no thanks.'
The critical question is whether the Republican Party will embrace such a message in order to seize what many party officials see as an opening to turn the election toward economic and national security issues."
We DID bring down the curtain on the politics of a prior era -- the REPUBLICAN era of hatred and discrimination. And now we're supposed to listen to them on economic and national security issues when they couldn't keep us safe on 9/11, they lied America and the world into a war against a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and they ruined our economy with 'supply side, trickle down, voodoo economics,' all the while giving further massive tax cuts to the filthy rich, and handing America the worst Right Wing-leaning SCOTUS activists' ruling in decades -- Citizens United.
So thanks GOP, but 'no thanks.'
8
The left did not "win" any culture battle. It is merely imposing it's agenda against the will of the people and to all of our detriment.
2
Whatever makes you feel better. The rest of us are moving forward. I'm sure it's scary for you but you can either accept it or get left behind. Or, alternatively, I guess you could take your bitterness to your grave.
Wrong, a majority of Americans now support marriage equality.
Conservatives have an annoying trait of taking a fact, inverting it and calling a new fact. According to your comment, gmason, more inclusive society and government is better only when it's less inclusive. If the left's "agenda" was including a heretofore disenfranchised class of citizens, so be it.
"some Republicans predict that this moment will be remembered as an effective wiping of the slate..."
So, though conservatives are the ones who have been most obsessed with these issues all along, now we're supposed to believe that, far from being mortified that they've gone 0-3 this past week, secretly they've been yearning for the chance to talk about how unemployment has dropped from around 10% down to around 5.4%, and how the destruction of labor unions has left the middle class weakened and vulnerable.
Sounds like a winning strategy to me! (for the Democrats.)
So, though conservatives are the ones who have been most obsessed with these issues all along, now we're supposed to believe that, far from being mortified that they've gone 0-3 this past week, secretly they've been yearning for the chance to talk about how unemployment has dropped from around 10% down to around 5.4%, and how the destruction of labor unions has left the middle class weakened and vulnerable.
Sounds like a winning strategy to me! (for the Democrats.)
39
"... to turn the 2016 presidential election toward economic and national security issues"
Wouldn't it be nice. For all of us.
Wouldn't it be nice. For all of us.
2
So if the Republican presidential candidates have to pander to the far right in order to win primaries, then sidle back toward the center to win the general election, doesn't that spell doom for the GOP on the presidency?
3
The top 10% of the wealth holders in America own 75% of everything, and virtually 100% of the capital assets (stuff you need to make wealth), while the bottom 40% own less than 0% (ZERO percent!) due to debt. So what has changed this past week to alter this picture?
I don't think the moneyed interests really care about same-sex marriage -- they can exploit gays as well as straights. And they are already making a bundle off Obamacare. The Confederate flag is coming down, but nine people are still dead and gun laws have not changed, though President Obama did "knock it out of the park" on his eulogy.
Where's the fight for economic justice? How's that doing? When will people have the freedom to earn an honest living without this "right" being granted to them by a corporation?
I don't think the moneyed interests really care about same-sex marriage -- they can exploit gays as well as straights. And they are already making a bundle off Obamacare. The Confederate flag is coming down, but nine people are still dead and gun laws have not changed, though President Obama did "knock it out of the park" on his eulogy.
Where's the fight for economic justice? How's that doing? When will people have the freedom to earn an honest living without this "right" being granted to them by a corporation?
5
Great. More wars and a trickle down!
4
If the conservative Republicans think that they are only on the wrong side of cultural issues then they are only fooling themselves. Americans are quietly angry about our increasing economic disparity between the 1% and the rest of us. They are tired of unbridled capitalism that runs rough shod over the common worker. They favor a living wage for all.
On the international front the message is clear, no more military incursions, no more wars.
The righty wing Republicans are going to find themselves left out in the cold.
On the international front the message is clear, no more military incursions, no more wars.
The righty wing Republicans are going to find themselves left out in the cold.
4
My party must accept the social liberalism that is taking over our country. I agree with the gay marriage ruling, disagree with the Obamacare ruling, I'm for less government in our daily lives and believe it makes the individual weak to depend on the government. I agree that the confederate flag be relegated to a museum, the time has come, it's primarily a symbol of hate. Republicans do better on national security and the economy they don't do well at all on the social issues. This week has been truly amazing some good things some bad things happened, but America will survive, the sun will come up, republicans this is not the end of the world. We had our time for over 25 years we overreached on some issues, the democrats will do the same, American attitudes shift every generation from liberal to conservative. We are now in a liberal mode but they will overreach as all parties do.
8
National security and the economy like in 2001 and 2008. I guess it is all in how you define as better.
2
The individual is weak to rely on what would essentially be an insurance system for health care? So you believe that if an individual cannot pay hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical bills on their own, then they are weak? You believe there should be no such thing as insurance at all? After all, that is the individual relying on many people paying in to something that they may or may not need any time soon. I thought that is what government is.
1
I find this analysis completely backwords. The purpose of politics is to enact policy, not (just) to win elections. Sure the two are coupled. But I'd much rather have a good period of time for liberal policies and lose elections than have majorities in both chambers but be unable to do anything with them.
2
"The purpose of politics is to enact policy, not (just) to win elections."
Interesting. And, cynically speaking, not true. The purpose of elections is to get just enough votes, by whatever means, to enact the wishes of the wealthy backers.
Interesting. And, cynically speaking, not true. The purpose of elections is to get just enough votes, by whatever means, to enact the wishes of the wealthy backers.
1
Definitely the Republicans have been handed a number of defeats. But think about, the defeats, like most of the previous wins, have been handed down by one of 2 people who were not elected (we know that the other 7 always make their decisions before the process even starts). By the sheer number of prominent Republicans running for President it is clear that Republicans do not feel that they have a good candidate, but a few billionaires or the supreme court (as in the case of Bush) will decide who becomes President.
4
The Fox News approach: dumb'em down then scare'em? This isn't 2001. We've spent over a trillion on security and the economy is healing. If Congressional Districts weren't gerrymandered this would be a different country. Republicans know these facts. Why else pander to extremist viewpoints to hold a majority?
8
Just recall, those of you who think that the Republicans are forward-looking, that if it had been their choice, every decision decided this week –fair housing – healthcare subsidies– gay marriage –would have gone the other way. Read the dissents,, and you will learn the kind of country we will have if the Republicans continue to control Congress and elect a Republican president. Citizens United still rules, and the Roberts court is far from having its final say.
Roberts cited Lochner as a case that was wrongly decided. He did not mention that, thirty years later, Lochner was effectively overruled only because FDR and public opinion pressured the Supreme Court into doing so. Roberts was absolutely right to free that Supreme Court judgments were influenced not merely by constitutional precedents and history but also by the ideology of judges and influence of public opinion. That how it works.
No legal or social concept, not even that of heterosexual marriage, is natural, original, essential or immutable. Roberts deplores what is in fact reslity, imagining an original, essential constitution that never existed. A vote for the Republicans is a vote for their view of society and history, and for the conservative interests that exploit those views to benefit corporations and other large economic interests at the expense of the middle class.
It was a good week, but some things have not changed. The ideology and direction of the Republican party are among those things.
Roberts cited Lochner as a case that was wrongly decided. He did not mention that, thirty years later, Lochner was effectively overruled only because FDR and public opinion pressured the Supreme Court into doing so. Roberts was absolutely right to free that Supreme Court judgments were influenced not merely by constitutional precedents and history but also by the ideology of judges and influence of public opinion. That how it works.
No legal or social concept, not even that of heterosexual marriage, is natural, original, essential or immutable. Roberts deplores what is in fact reslity, imagining an original, essential constitution that never existed. A vote for the Republicans is a vote for their view of society and history, and for the conservative interests that exploit those views to benefit corporations and other large economic interests at the expense of the middle class.
It was a good week, but some things have not changed. The ideology and direction of the Republican party are among those things.
10
The meme, that the more the conservative-republicans lose on important issues, the better they will do in the Presidential elections is something that I find a little puzzling. Imagine if the same rational was applied to a sports team that consistently fails to win, or a business that is always losing market share, crowing about how "this is really a good thing!" Sorry, I don't buy it.
7
I know I don't get this-it's a total fantasy.
Republicans will need to undergo some serious conversion therapy if they are going to learn to control their more hateful impulses. It all starts with really wanting to change...
10
The GOP "trickle down" stuff and deregulation of banks has proven to be a disaster for the economy and working people especially. And, since the GOP doesn't have anything else to offer I don't see how the economy something they can run on. Does anyone think getting rid of inheritance taxes is going to help anyone but the 400 wealthiest families that this would benefit? As far as foreign policy, the GOP got us embroiled in Iraq and made enemies of our friends so how is that going to be something they can run on. Just pointing out Obama's problems, mostly including the Iraq region that the GOP war devastated, without having any viable solutions other than more military involvement isn't much help for the GOP IMO. Does anyone think calling our Mexican neighbors rapists good diplomacy?
11
I do not see how the Republican Elect, who opposed even the proposed $10.10 Minimum Wage increase, is going lead the nation’s money anywhere different with the economy. I would put my money more on Bernie Sanders $15-an-hour agenda putting public pressure on Democratic leadership to promise more in wages and/or benefits in the campaign.
I would think that The White House may have found it economically and politically safe to publicly support the proposed $10.10 amount because many ‘small-businesses’ may already be paying their lower-wage workers around that amount. However, the GOP is lobbying in financial favor of nationwide corporations only paying their lower-wage workers what the government said ‘small-businesses’ could only afford to pay in the last set Minimum Wage.
At this point, Progressives can ask if Democratic leadership is playing the economy too safe, and if the GOP is not taking any economic risk. Why not $10.10 for small-businesses; $11.10 for mid-size businesses and $12.10 for corporate-businesses, with a businesses size based on their profit recorded on their tax records from the year before?
Why not move as much business money as we can through the Minimum Wage to move some money at the corporate top on Wall Street back-down through our working sector, and back-up through our business sector on Business Avenue and Main Street, for more businesses, jobs and better paying jobs?
I would think that The White House may have found it economically and politically safe to publicly support the proposed $10.10 amount because many ‘small-businesses’ may already be paying their lower-wage workers around that amount. However, the GOP is lobbying in financial favor of nationwide corporations only paying their lower-wage workers what the government said ‘small-businesses’ could only afford to pay in the last set Minimum Wage.
At this point, Progressives can ask if Democratic leadership is playing the economy too safe, and if the GOP is not taking any economic risk. Why not $10.10 for small-businesses; $11.10 for mid-size businesses and $12.10 for corporate-businesses, with a businesses size based on their profit recorded on their tax records from the year before?
Why not move as much business money as we can through the Minimum Wage to move some money at the corporate top on Wall Street back-down through our working sector, and back-up through our business sector on Business Avenue and Main Street, for more businesses, jobs and better paying jobs?
9
In a fight, don't watch the fist, the body will telegraph what punch is coming next. The body:
The Koch brothers didn't just inherit their father's fortune. They also inherited his politics. In 1958, Fred Koch was a founding member of the John Birch Society, the right-wing extremist group that opposed civil rights and claimed that both the Democratic and Republican Parties were infiltrated by the Communist Party. In his 1960 self-published book, A Business Man Looks at Communism, Fred Koch wrote that "The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America," and that welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks and Puerto Ricans to Eastern cities to vote for Communist causes and "getting a vicious race war started." The John Birch Society helped fuel a wave of hysteria against unions, civil rights groups, intellectuals, public schools, liberal clergy and others whom they considered a threat to America.
Following in their father's footsteps, Charles and David Koch have for three decades been by far the biggest funders of right-wing politicians, causes, and organizations. Their political activities are primarily dedicated to eliminating government regulation of business and lowering taxes on the rich.
Essentially, the G"OPP" are being paid by Koch Brothers to work out their father’s war on communism. If you look at it, this is the Republicant platform wrapped in prejudice. David Koch is spending a billion dollars to make his father's words live.
The Koch brothers didn't just inherit their father's fortune. They also inherited his politics. In 1958, Fred Koch was a founding member of the John Birch Society, the right-wing extremist group that opposed civil rights and claimed that both the Democratic and Republican Parties were infiltrated by the Communist Party. In his 1960 self-published book, A Business Man Looks at Communism, Fred Koch wrote that "The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America," and that welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks and Puerto Ricans to Eastern cities to vote for Communist causes and "getting a vicious race war started." The John Birch Society helped fuel a wave of hysteria against unions, civil rights groups, intellectuals, public schools, liberal clergy and others whom they considered a threat to America.
Following in their father's footsteps, Charles and David Koch have for three decades been by far the biggest funders of right-wing politicians, causes, and organizations. Their political activities are primarily dedicated to eliminating government regulation of business and lowering taxes on the rich.
Essentially, the G"OPP" are being paid by Koch Brothers to work out their father’s war on communism. If you look at it, this is the Republicant platform wrapped in prejudice. David Koch is spending a billion dollars to make his father's words live.
16
Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980: He couldn't win the presidency so he bought congress and SCOTUS. 1....BILLION.....DOLLARS.
Repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission
Eliminate Medicare and Medicaid, All programs in support of child-bearing, taxation in support of children, Welfare, Relief Projects, Aid to Poor,
Eliminate compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services
Deregulation of the medical insurance industry
Eliminate Social Security, Government Postal Service, EPA, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Food and Drug Administration, Consumer Product Safety Commission
Eliminate all taxation to include income and capital gains, criminal/civil sanctions against tax evasion
Eliminate minimum wage laws
Eliminate any governmental control of the education system and compulsory school requirements
Privatization of the railroad system, public roads, national highway systems, waterways, and water distribution systems
Eliminate laws concerning safety belts, air bags or crash helmets
Eliminate the Occupational Safety and Health Act
Eliminate all branches of the services except the Army.
BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.
Repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission
Eliminate Medicare and Medicaid, All programs in support of child-bearing, taxation in support of children, Welfare, Relief Projects, Aid to Poor,
Eliminate compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services
Deregulation of the medical insurance industry
Eliminate Social Security, Government Postal Service, EPA, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Food and Drug Administration, Consumer Product Safety Commission
Eliminate all taxation to include income and capital gains, criminal/civil sanctions against tax evasion
Eliminate minimum wage laws
Eliminate any governmental control of the education system and compulsory school requirements
Privatization of the railroad system, public roads, national highway systems, waterways, and water distribution systems
Eliminate laws concerning safety belts, air bags or crash helmets
Eliminate the Occupational Safety and Health Act
Eliminate all branches of the services except the Army.
BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.
To be perfectly honest and frank, I don't want today's version of "conservative" minds anywhere in my government.
9
These victories allow the GOP an opening? Is it rather the opposite - the tea-party victories have made the GOP so toxic it became possible for these battles of basic fairness to be heard by a wavering political middle? The GOP intransigence on things like global warming and a billionaire tax loopholes hasn't yet born all its fruit.
7
Meanwhile, elsewhere in this very same news outlet, Mr. Rosenthal wrote a piece entitled "The Instant Republican Backlash on Gay Marriage" which quoted many the Republican contenders as saying they would not give up.
Remember when Obamacare legislation was enacted. Did the House realize it was defeated and turn their efforts elsewhere? No. It voted FIFTY times to repeal.
This article is nonsense.
Remember when Obamacare legislation was enacted. Did the House realize it was defeated and turn their efforts elsewhere? No. It voted FIFTY times to repeal.
This article is nonsense.
7
Aw heck. Or as we used to say in the blogosphere back in 2008 (when every news item was always heralded as a plus for Republicans) "This is excellent new for John McCain!"
3
The main strategic outcome of this for the Republicans will be to fire up the base: "Vote Republican or gay black men are coming for your sons."
4
So the republicans are saying they are not going to follow the laws on gay marriage and that the bible is the new constitution,well if that is the case where in the bible does it say that I have to pay taxes? These people(republicans)don't give a darn about the bible its just a wedge issue I will never vote republican.
9
Perhaps one of Mr. Martin's sources for this article was Mitt Romney's primary pollster, the one that convinced him he would win the last Presidential election by a landslide. Seriously. Will the majority of Americans suddenly wish to commit their sons and daughters to boots on ground combat in support of Republican world views? Will consumers have such confidence in industry that they would wish to deregulate more, as Republicans seem committed to doing? Well, there is always hope. Right?
8
The article mentions gay marriage, the Affordable Care Act, and Southern cultural icons as areas where Republicans have recently suffered cultural setbacks. The Pope's Encyclical Letter on the environment also bears mention, because conservative values have failed the world there as well. But conservative ideology is a dismal "fail" video on defense and the economy also. It was the Republican Administration of 2001-2008 that gave us the greatest defense and international relations debacle of modern history -- the needless war in Iraq. The Administration of 2001-2008 also left us with a deep and lasting recession. Since that time, Republican Congressmen have kept us lurching from costly government shutdown to government shutdown, and they have done all they can to obstruct President Obama's economic policies, making recovery from their recession even more difficult than it might have been. I cannot believe that many Americans see any reason at all to put any stock in any area of conservative thought. From horizon to horizon, conservative ideology has demonstrated its stubborn wrongheadedness, in spectacular and obvious ways.
9
If the Grand Old Tea Party hopes to win on economic and national security issues, let the fun begin! The GOTP, which led us into the Greatest Recession since they led us into the Greatest Depression? The Party of Bush II, which exposed us to the greatest terrorist attack in our history and lied us into a war in Iraq, which still goes on? Are you and they serious? Now, I don't doubt that the GOTP can win in benighted states, with sufficient voter suppression, and in off-year elections. Not, fortunately, in presidential election years. A final point -- if anyone thinks that the GOTP will give up after its signal failures to prevail on social issues, such a hope will be crushed. Social, not economic or national security issues are their reason to exist. So, onto 2016!
10
"As Left Wins Culture Battles, G.O.P. Gains Opportunity to Pivot for 2016" - Incredibly misleading headline. Nothing in this fairly vacuous column demonstrates that the GOP has actually "gained" anything. Just that they talk a lot.
8
The GOP has gays and lesbians and some are rich and will contribute to campaigns of those who serve their interests. I think gay rights was a closet issue for many in the GOP; they wanted to support it but couldn't do so openly for fear of offending the religious wing of the party.
2
This spin is taking hold fast: we'll hear variations on all the Sunday shows. Thus memes are born.
Right now, every political reporter in America with warm, close ties to Republican sources (all of them) is making this claim.
A reporter like Mr. Martin, who earned his "horse race reporting" stripes at the GOP publication Politico, is certainly demonstrating his access here, as well as his ability to bear witness to the birth of the new conventional wisdom.
But America's political press ought to stop and think. Even as it celebrates this Baby Meme, this notion that the GOP, liberated by great events from moral responsibility for its own bigotry, could walk away with next year's elections in a blaze of theocratic glory, is it good journalism to make their case for them?
There's another story to be told: the story of how the Republican Party, in the face of sweeping progress toward social justice, has set its course on winning through covert, artful appeals to rage, rancor, and bigotry.
Isn't that a story worth telling?
The political press might want to reconsider its elation about the GOP's ability to shred social progress into political compost and its willingness to profit from the dark arts of backlash.
If I were a reporter who'd decided to pick sides, I wouldn't pick the side Mr. Martin and his confreres appear to have chosen. This breathless reporting about the nascent GOP advantage is, to a troubling degree, a codification and celebration of bigotry and reaction.
Right now, every political reporter in America with warm, close ties to Republican sources (all of them) is making this claim.
A reporter like Mr. Martin, who earned his "horse race reporting" stripes at the GOP publication Politico, is certainly demonstrating his access here, as well as his ability to bear witness to the birth of the new conventional wisdom.
But America's political press ought to stop and think. Even as it celebrates this Baby Meme, this notion that the GOP, liberated by great events from moral responsibility for its own bigotry, could walk away with next year's elections in a blaze of theocratic glory, is it good journalism to make their case for them?
There's another story to be told: the story of how the Republican Party, in the face of sweeping progress toward social justice, has set its course on winning through covert, artful appeals to rage, rancor, and bigotry.
Isn't that a story worth telling?
The political press might want to reconsider its elation about the GOP's ability to shred social progress into political compost and its willingness to profit from the dark arts of backlash.
If I were a reporter who'd decided to pick sides, I wouldn't pick the side Mr. Martin and his confreres appear to have chosen. This breathless reporting about the nascent GOP advantage is, to a troubling degree, a codification and celebration of bigotry and reaction.
13
Well said!
I get the hypothetical. If Republican candidates were to end their spoken rhetoric against marriages, which they show no sign of doing, if they were to renounce their embrace of a traitorous symbol of rebellion against our country, which they only partially are doing, if they would embrace the idea Americans should accept personal responsibility for paying for their own health care but if the poor might receive year-by-year financial help from the government in doing so, which they universally oppose, if their opposition to abortion were such they supported reproductive health care to avoid unwanted pregnancies, which they continue to oppose, if they supported economic policies that contribute to a growing and stable economy as we've experienced during the two most recent Democratic administrations rather than boom-and-bust polices favoring select Republican Party benefactors, and more, if all these things, then yes, Republicans have an opportunity to move beyond their own past and pursue votes beyond their current constituency which has been reduced to a confederacy of reactionary factions.
I get it; I’m sure most New York Times readers get it; maybe some Republican strategists get it; so which Republican candidate for office will show he, or she, gets it, and how many votes might that candidate win in next year’s Republican caucuses and primaries?
I get it; I’m sure most New York Times readers get it; maybe some Republican strategists get it; so which Republican candidate for office will show he, or she, gets it, and how many votes might that candidate win in next year’s Republican caucuses and primaries?
11
But, then, they would be Democrats.
This is too funny!
The last time the GOP held the presidency they wasted trillions on Iraq only to establish ISIS and make Iran the most powerful force in central Asia.
Not to mention the fact that their criminal cronies on Wall Street almost sank the economy of the entire world with their worthless derivative investments.
They really should just admit defeat now and save us from their boring pronouncements of their alleged competency. They are the gang who couldn't shoot straight and it couldn't be more apparent than when they collectively thump their chests in public.
The last time the GOP held the presidency they wasted trillions on Iraq only to establish ISIS and make Iran the most powerful force in central Asia.
Not to mention the fact that their criminal cronies on Wall Street almost sank the economy of the entire world with their worthless derivative investments.
They really should just admit defeat now and save us from their boring pronouncements of their alleged competency. They are the gang who couldn't shoot straight and it couldn't be more apparent than when they collectively thump their chests in public.
15
"The last time the GOP held the presidency they wasted trillions on Iraq only to establish ISIS and make Iran the most powerful force in central Asia."
Obama initially ignored ISIS (the were JV at the time) and then aided it by stoking the flames of civil war in Syria and Libya. On Obama's watch we've seen the Middle East go up in flames from end to end, pivoting over all those lines that could not be crossed and with the reset button all worn out.
Obama initially ignored ISIS (the were JV at the time) and then aided it by stoking the flames of civil war in Syria and Libya. On Obama's watch we've seen the Middle East go up in flames from end to end, pivoting over all those lines that could not be crossed and with the reset button all worn out.
1
How can we not forget, it was the GOP that tanked the economy, thrusting this country into such a deep recession we are still working our way out of it. That 9/11 happened on a GOP President's watch, and his response was to go after Iraq and Saddam Hussein, which had nothing to do with 9/11, but was, as George w. Bush told Jonathan Mann on CNN Internationation "because he tried to kill my daddy." Good luck with that, because we voters are not that stupid.
17
The Republican Party is in a political pickle, as this article shows. Candidates must go through two hurdles--the primaries and the general election. A significant block of Republicans are social conservatives and candidates who may show any inkling of approval of recent Supreme Court decisions are in a spot--they will lose political cash and support for their campaigns, which ought to focus on fiscal conservatism and national security. If a candidate survives the primaries, then he/she will face a more emboldened opposition who will continue to harp on that candidate's party's ugly political past. What the Republican Party needs at this time is a complete rebuilding with new 'material' such as Charlie Baker, the current Massachusetts governor, who is a conservative but has embraced the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriages.
5
The Republicans have cooties, all of em. Theoretically they could gain an opening by abandoning racism, homophobia and misogyny, but that isn't happening this election, far from it, and if their history is any guide, they will still be fighting recent gains for many years.
14
A great many people are fed up with the ever more progressive, holier-than-thou mantra of the lastest version of "utopia."
6
I am fed up with the holier than thou religious gestapo called the GOP.
2
Counting comments here, I don't think so. But you can go back to Red State and feel right at home. Which site is the paper of record, the one the world reads?
Yeah. We're utopians, because we think we should have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and the trillions of dollars we spend destroying countries and massacring people could be put to better use at home.
Yes, it is true that the decisions and events of the past week have saved Republicans from fighting cultural battles they cannot win. It is probably a mistake, however, to think that Republicans are now able to cast aside old albatrosses they’ve worn around their necks for more than two decades.
It is evident from statements by Republicans after the Supreme Court losses and from pledges by pro-life provocateurs like Tony Perkins that the cultural wars will continue – even in the next general election. For one thing, Republicans will be unable to resist putting social issues like women’s reproductive rights and, yes, gay rights on the ballots of key states to spark voter turnout by evangelical Christians and other religious groups. Republicans have done this many times before, most notably in 2000 in Ohio to win the state for George W. Bush.
Democrats will need a strategy to handle the cultural moves on a state-by-state ad hoc basis. Probably more important for Democrats will be the effort to explode the tired myths that Republicans are better for the economy and for national security.
The past irresponsibility of Republicans about monitoring the financial industry and in forcing an unnecessary austerity which kills jobs must be hammered at by Democrats. The reckless shoot-first foreign policy espoused by most Republicans must be exposed again by Democrats as endangering our national security. Americans and our treasury have been exhausted by Republican wars.
It is evident from statements by Republicans after the Supreme Court losses and from pledges by pro-life provocateurs like Tony Perkins that the cultural wars will continue – even in the next general election. For one thing, Republicans will be unable to resist putting social issues like women’s reproductive rights and, yes, gay rights on the ballots of key states to spark voter turnout by evangelical Christians and other religious groups. Republicans have done this many times before, most notably in 2000 in Ohio to win the state for George W. Bush.
Democrats will need a strategy to handle the cultural moves on a state-by-state ad hoc basis. Probably more important for Democrats will be the effort to explode the tired myths that Republicans are better for the economy and for national security.
The past irresponsibility of Republicans about monitoring the financial industry and in forcing an unnecessary austerity which kills jobs must be hammered at by Democrats. The reckless shoot-first foreign policy espoused by most Republicans must be exposed again by Democrats as endangering our national security. Americans and our treasury have been exhausted by Republican wars.
10
Here is the irony. The wins for Obamacare and gay marriage this week give the GOP exactly what it wants. Both issues have now been taken out of play as far as those they impact most greatly so those individuals will feel no imperative to vote in the coming general election. Unfortunately, complacency will be created particularly among younger cohorts who already do not vote with the consistency of older ones..
And, as Bill Clinton has famously established it is always about the economy for most voters.
What the Democrats and their most likely nominee Mrs. Clinton must do is to both articulate strategies as to how their party and Mrs. Clinton specifically will attack economic development and national security in an age of globalization while they/she will work to protect the rights established in the past. The GOP is most likely to continue to push for a trickle down economic strategy which has already proven a failure and can be positioned as such but Mrs. Clinton needs a specific economic and tax reform agenda to persuade the nation a progressive agenda is going to produce more and higher paying jobs than what the GOP will be presenting.
And, as Bill Clinton has famously established it is always about the economy for most voters.
What the Democrats and their most likely nominee Mrs. Clinton must do is to both articulate strategies as to how their party and Mrs. Clinton specifically will attack economic development and national security in an age of globalization while they/she will work to protect the rights established in the past. The GOP is most likely to continue to push for a trickle down economic strategy which has already proven a failure and can be positioned as such but Mrs. Clinton needs a specific economic and tax reform agenda to persuade the nation a progressive agenda is going to produce more and higher paying jobs than what the GOP will be presenting.
11
Yes! Play the old fear and patriot card GOP. It's what you excel at, so go with your strength. And of course, don't forget the canards that religion (Christianity that is) is under attack, global warming is a conspiracy by the vast majority of the world's scientists, and income inequality will be rectified by more tax cuts for the wealthy. Regardless of how much the Republicans hold out their arms and shout noooooo, progress is just inevitable. The will of the people have a way of prevailing, and moving forward. Unless the Republicans want to go the way of the Whigs or the Know-Nothing Party of the 19th century, they need to accept that societies change, and start addressing the problems with meaningful solutions, or get out of the way.
6
I found this article confusing. The title suggests a great opportunity for Republicans in the next year, while the guts of the article counts all the ways this may definitely not happen.
First and foremost is the difference between winning the primaries and winning the country. As Jeb! famously bragged, he plans to lose the primaries while winning the general. How he plans to do that is anyone's guess, but I guess money can buy just about anything and he has the most.
But also important is how hard it is to change mindsets and attitudes on a dime. Thus this line seemed particularly salient, if understated:
"And Republicans can say, ‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”
Does anyone truly think such a leap is possible? That a party with so many candidates blasting the lost of 50s cultural values will suddenly appear welcoming to new cultural coalitions? Frankly, it can't fly: because so much of their agenda is built around exclusion (voting restrictions) and future fights (religious liberty vs gay marriage rights). I know politicians can contort themselves into pretzels (eg, Jeb!) but really.
Finally this: nobody knows where we'll be in a year, given the tumults of this past week. To predict future election issues in fast-moving country is to truly consult the 8-ball for accuracy.
First and foremost is the difference between winning the primaries and winning the country. As Jeb! famously bragged, he plans to lose the primaries while winning the general. How he plans to do that is anyone's guess, but I guess money can buy just about anything and he has the most.
But also important is how hard it is to change mindsets and attitudes on a dime. Thus this line seemed particularly salient, if understated:
"And Republicans can say, ‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”
Does anyone truly think such a leap is possible? That a party with so many candidates blasting the lost of 50s cultural values will suddenly appear welcoming to new cultural coalitions? Frankly, it can't fly: because so much of their agenda is built around exclusion (voting restrictions) and future fights (religious liberty vs gay marriage rights). I know politicians can contort themselves into pretzels (eg, Jeb!) but really.
Finally this: nobody knows where we'll be in a year, given the tumults of this past week. To predict future election issues in fast-moving country is to truly consult the 8-ball for accuracy.
10
With all the republican hate and divisiveness towards people of color, and gays, voting rights suppressed, along with the bad economic polices of the last GOP resident in the White House, tax cuts for the rich while starting 2 wars and borrowing from china to pay for it I would think it would be hard to change their ways in time for the 2016 election. The may need to start by getting candidates who EMBRACE equal voting rights and housing rights for all.
Americans have short memories its true, sadly from the maimed veterans who have had their benefits cut, to the homeowners who lost their homes, to the memory of how Katrina was handled, and the fact that the president on 9/11 DID NOT KEEP AMERICANS SAFE, after numerous warnings from OBL, we have not recovered from those last nightmarish 8 years.
And now running for president is the brother who helped steal the election in 2000 by purging 92,000 black voters from the Florida voting list will help remind those who may have forgotten while his name is on the ballot.
Americans have short memories its true, sadly from the maimed veterans who have had their benefits cut, to the homeowners who lost their homes, to the memory of how Katrina was handled, and the fact that the president on 9/11 DID NOT KEEP AMERICANS SAFE, after numerous warnings from OBL, we have not recovered from those last nightmarish 8 years.
And now running for president is the brother who helped steal the election in 2000 by purging 92,000 black voters from the Florida voting list will help remind those who may have forgotten while his name is on the ballot.
13
Yes, everyone needs to be reminded of Jeb Bush's role in stealing the election for his brother. That should be the ultimate deal breaker.
I hope at least Rachel maddow brings it up.
Republicans have the opportunity to turn the conversation to economics and national security, two areas where their most recent stewardship was a huge disaster? All they have to offer here is trickle down tax cutting, mindless jingoistic belligerence towards all. Some opportunity.
13
Yes, yes. Now that bigotry,theocracy, upholding symbols of racism, and an "I've got mine, screw the rest of you" approach to health care for Americans have been mostly put on the back burner, Republicans are now free to come fully into the light and tell us what they plan to do. Wait...They could do that before but didn't. I wonder why.
15
Not so sure about this analysis.
The Republican offer to the "What's Up with Kansas" folks has long been - we'll protect you from government interference in your religion, your health care, your view of marriage, a culture you hold dear and your guns, as long as you support us in passing tax cuts for the wealthy.
Their credibility is kaput when a solid Republican majority in the House and Senate and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court cannot deliver on most of these promises. They are now only delivering on the guns promise. But with mass slaughter with guns happening in more and more states, even that promise is looking dubious.
Americans are weary and wary of war. So the "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" political strategy may not play well, even with angry folks who feel they are losing their place in society.
And how much credibility can Republicans have in claiming that they will be effect, will do anything to promote blue collar jobs - when they pushed TPP through Congress, when they voted to support the Paul Ryan budget, which is designed only to fund an enormous tax cut for the wealthy by increasing taxes on the not-so-rich and cutting virtually all federal programs that allow Americans the opportunity to get into or stay in the middle class. http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2014/04/another_ryan_budget_gives_millionaires...
It's going to take a lot of snake oil to sell that proposition!
The Republican offer to the "What's Up with Kansas" folks has long been - we'll protect you from government interference in your religion, your health care, your view of marriage, a culture you hold dear and your guns, as long as you support us in passing tax cuts for the wealthy.
Their credibility is kaput when a solid Republican majority in the House and Senate and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court cannot deliver on most of these promises. They are now only delivering on the guns promise. But with mass slaughter with guns happening in more and more states, even that promise is looking dubious.
Americans are weary and wary of war. So the "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" political strategy may not play well, even with angry folks who feel they are losing their place in society.
And how much credibility can Republicans have in claiming that they will be effect, will do anything to promote blue collar jobs - when they pushed TPP through Congress, when they voted to support the Paul Ryan budget, which is designed only to fund an enormous tax cut for the wealthy by increasing taxes on the not-so-rich and cutting virtually all federal programs that allow Americans the opportunity to get into or stay in the middle class. http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2014/04/another_ryan_budget_gives_millionaires...
It's going to take a lot of snake oil to sell that proposition!
13
Economics - as it affects fairness, happiness, and the environment - is the defining issue of our times. I hope Republicans or Democrats come up with a plan to harness all our ingenuity and productivity so that we can all share in the benefits without racing to the bottom.
4
Racism, sexism and homophobia are the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction invented by humanity. The Republican Party's response to these WMDs is to develop and fine-tune dog whistles, their weapons of mass deception:
--Nixon's Southern Strategy,
--Reagan's references to young bucks and welfare queens in his speeches,
--Bush, Sr.'s Willie Horton commercial, and
--Bush, Jr.'s campaign of destruction against John McCain in SC in 2008 which referred to McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh as his illegitimate black daughter.
Yes, the "opening" for the GOP is there to put social issues to rest. However, there is a much bigger abyss of ignorance and bigotry which the GOP is likely to fall back into. They will just develop more sophisticated dog whistles so as not to be considered plain bigots. Remember Steve Scalise is the man who first denied he ever addressed a white supremacist group, then said he was not aware of the nature of that organization and then said nothing is still the Republican Majority Whip.
Nothing changes that easily for the GOP. They just need a new lipstick... on the pig of their policies and beliefs.
--Nixon's Southern Strategy,
--Reagan's references to young bucks and welfare queens in his speeches,
--Bush, Sr.'s Willie Horton commercial, and
--Bush, Jr.'s campaign of destruction against John McCain in SC in 2008 which referred to McCain's adopted daughter from Bangladesh as his illegitimate black daughter.
Yes, the "opening" for the GOP is there to put social issues to rest. However, there is a much bigger abyss of ignorance and bigotry which the GOP is likely to fall back into. They will just develop more sophisticated dog whistles so as not to be considered plain bigots. Remember Steve Scalise is the man who first denied he ever addressed a white supremacist group, then said he was not aware of the nature of that organization and then said nothing is still the Republican Majority Whip.
Nothing changes that easily for the GOP. They just need a new lipstick... on the pig of their policies and beliefs.
14
On the bright side for republican front runners, they can look forward to fewer idiotic questions from the media like, "Are you a homophobe?" and "Do you hate [gays/the poor]"?
Because we know the answers already? Yes, and yes. How does that help?
The media doesn't have to ask. They all openly declared their bigotry the minute the SCOTUS decision was announced.
I have to ask..... Why don't you ever actually read or watch the news?
I have to ask..... Why don't you ever actually read or watch the news?
I'm hoping that taking the issues of Obamacare and gay marriage off the table (assuming that these decisions by the Supreme Court do so) will force candidates of both parties to have a real debate about our economy and our spending priorities. I can't say that I'm too optimistic, because the Democrats are just as dependent on Big Money as the Republicans.
3
Pivot? Does anyone think the Republicans will abandon their anti-science, anti-reproductive rights, anti-immigrant , anti-regulation, indeed anti-goverment stance, ? I think they are pretty well dug in and will double down in 2016. And they'll use the Koch dollars and voter suppression to play out the string.
11
Yes, these Supreme Court decisions are exactly what Republican candidates for president have been praying for: anything to get these social issues off the table. Just as Roe v. Wade got them off the hook on abortion, these recent decisions get them off the hook on gay marriage and ACA. Now they can say (regarding these social issues): "Well, it's the law of the land, so we obey the law. Let's focus on the dismal economy we've had for the past 8 years under a Democrat president. Do we really want 4-8 more years of that? "
I don't they are at the point of giving up on gay marriage, abortion, ACA. Not even ready to accept social security, medicare and medicaid as the law of the land.
1
The headline for this article is misleading. It speaks rosily of Republicans' supposed opportunities to woo voters on economic and security issues, but 95% of the article describes how Republicans have lost ground on social and cultural issues. Almost nothing concrete is said about Republicans' ideas for the economy and for security, beyond mentioning the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which I very much doubt most American voters are passionately in favor of.
And it is no surprise that the article fails to mention Republican ideas, since on the economy in particular, as with social and culture issues, they are out of step with American voters. The public favors minimum wage legislation and is growing more and more dismayed by the struggles of the middle class--struggles which are mounting up as the super-rich hoard more and more of the nation's wealth.
Let's hope the 2015 Liberal Spring is followed by a 2015 Liberal Summer & Fall, in which American voters see through the disinformation and the appeals to fear, and finally realize which side (the Left) truly has their interests at heart.
And it is no surprise that the article fails to mention Republican ideas, since on the economy in particular, as with social and culture issues, they are out of step with American voters. The public favors minimum wage legislation and is growing more and more dismayed by the struggles of the middle class--struggles which are mounting up as the super-rich hoard more and more of the nation's wealth.
Let's hope the 2015 Liberal Spring is followed by a 2015 Liberal Summer & Fall, in which American voters see through the disinformation and the appeals to fear, and finally realize which side (the Left) truly has their interests at heart.
5
I'm thinking that while the GOP generally preaches to their choir, they will have gained many more of the previously unconverted this week with the Obamacare and same-sex marriage decisions.
1
Those decisions may energize (or dismay) their voters, but I doubt too many voters were on the fence about those issues. You'd pretty much have to have been dead not to have had some kind of opinion about health insurance and gay marriage.
1
You're thinking isn't that great. You predicted a win for Romney and a defeat for marriage equality. You've got the worst track record I've ever seen.
What you're engaging in is wishful thinking.
What you're engaging in is wishful thinking.
The question is: Does the recently observed "mass extinction" include ultra-conservatives? Time is not kind to forms of life that do not adopt to changed circumstances. I see no trilobites, dinosaurs, wooly mamoths or dodo birds out there and perhaps one day soon no closed minded humans.
2
[[As Left Wins Culture Battles, G.O.P. Gains Opportunity to Pivot for 2016]]
So, only the "left" wins? There are no gay republicans who will benefit from the right to marry?
So, only the "left" wins? There are no gay republicans who will benefit from the right to marry?
1
>
The GOP has three hopes to maintain their stranglehold on this country:
1] Continued success on gerrymandering the House districts;
2] Low Dem voter turnouts via apathy, laziness, organized voting barriers, e.g., voter ID laws, long lines in minority dem districts.......; and,
3] The stupidity of the American people.
These objectives are not hard to meet for the GOP. I'd say they have a good handle on all 3.
The GOP's biggest problem resides in the electoral college, but it does not need the WH for its inane ideology to dominate. It can control the Gov't and resist change and cause chaos via the House and a swinging Senate. The WH is just the final nail to its complete domination. One wrong move by the Dems and they'll have it. It boils down to OH and FL.
These recent issues (ACA, Gay Rights, immigration...) are not fundamental changes in the power structure, but rather, issues that positively or negatively affect the bases of the parties. Good or bad, popular or not they have very little affect on the current power structure.
The power structure will hand out goodies to the people just as long as their power in not at risk, and their is no evidence that suggests liberal causes threaten the power structure. “The rich", says Marx, "will do anything for the poor, but get off their backs”
The GOP has three hopes to maintain their stranglehold on this country:
1] Continued success on gerrymandering the House districts;
2] Low Dem voter turnouts via apathy, laziness, organized voting barriers, e.g., voter ID laws, long lines in minority dem districts.......; and,
3] The stupidity of the American people.
These objectives are not hard to meet for the GOP. I'd say they have a good handle on all 3.
The GOP's biggest problem resides in the electoral college, but it does not need the WH for its inane ideology to dominate. It can control the Gov't and resist change and cause chaos via the House and a swinging Senate. The WH is just the final nail to its complete domination. One wrong move by the Dems and they'll have it. It boils down to OH and FL.
These recent issues (ACA, Gay Rights, immigration...) are not fundamental changes in the power structure, but rather, issues that positively or negatively affect the bases of the parties. Good or bad, popular or not they have very little affect on the current power structure.
The power structure will hand out goodies to the people just as long as their power in not at risk, and their is no evidence that suggests liberal causes threaten the power structure. “The rich", says Marx, "will do anything for the poor, but get off their backs”
6
The evangelical churches were relying on the Republicans to hold the line on same-sex marriage. The GOP failed and I think these churches will leave the GOP fold.
In 2016 American voters will have a chance to vote for two projects of a nation. One looking forward the other looking backward.
The GOP vision of an idealized-exclusive America of the past. Democrats with a reality based-inclusive America of present/future. The GOP wants to turn the history's clock back. Democrats want to move it forward.
The GOP vision of an idealized-exclusive America of the past. Democrats with a reality based-inclusive America of present/future. The GOP wants to turn the history's clock back. Democrats want to move it forward.
4
This article smacks of gloating rather than analysis. The 2016 election will be competitive. In our system it is simply hard to win a third term. The presidential election will not be fought in decidedly red Arkansas or blue Massachusetts. Instead VIrginia, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina and the same handful of states will determine who has a majority in the electoral college. While Republican tactics will undoubtedly evolve, the party in the White House has substantial burdens, that do not weigh on the opposition party.
The way the Republicans are going the only opening they will gain is extinction.
2
This article outlines what our politics have devolved to. Say this during the primary, not during the general. This law passed, so it won't be debated. Previous bigotry erased. Yes in one state, no in another. Play the game, follow the script. Totally, calculatingly disingenuous. That's the strategy that seems to work with an uninformed electorate and the main stream media should be held accountable for this situation.
Go, Bernie! How refreshing.
Go, Bernie! How refreshing.
1
So the GOP prefers to talk Economics and Foreign policy in 2016?
The Democrats need only take a page from that inimitable strategist, Bre'r Rabbit: "Please, oh please, don' throw me in de briar patch, Bre'r Bear."
Republicans who think those issues favor them more than the social issues on which they have just taken a massive drubbing should take their heads out of their apps and start preparing answers to questions like: Which party drove the economy into the ditch in 2007? Lied us into endless & futile wars that threw us trillions in debt to the Chinese and left us with more enemies in the world than when they started? Continues to fight health care -- an economic issue - for millions of ordinary Americans? Continues to resist minimum wage increases (more economics); Is backed by the likes of the Koch Brothers and other billionaires who rape the environment and ship good jobs overseas (more economics)?
In short, Dems will relentlessly remind voters which party and its oligarchs wage hot war overseas and class war here at home, all to line corporate pockets, and how much better things have gotten with a Democrat in the White House.
And other issues won't disappear, such as Voting Rights, abortion (still), the environment, global warming, immigration -- all issues that will shove Republicans and Conservatism further into the dumpster of history.
The Democrats need only take a page from that inimitable strategist, Bre'r Rabbit: "Please, oh please, don' throw me in de briar patch, Bre'r Bear."
Republicans who think those issues favor them more than the social issues on which they have just taken a massive drubbing should take their heads out of their apps and start preparing answers to questions like: Which party drove the economy into the ditch in 2007? Lied us into endless & futile wars that threw us trillions in debt to the Chinese and left us with more enemies in the world than when they started? Continues to fight health care -- an economic issue - for millions of ordinary Americans? Continues to resist minimum wage increases (more economics); Is backed by the likes of the Koch Brothers and other billionaires who rape the environment and ship good jobs overseas (more economics)?
In short, Dems will relentlessly remind voters which party and its oligarchs wage hot war overseas and class war here at home, all to line corporate pockets, and how much better things have gotten with a Democrat in the White House.
And other issues won't disappear, such as Voting Rights, abortion (still), the environment, global warming, immigration -- all issues that will shove Republicans and Conservatism further into the dumpster of history.
4
As an "independent conservative" I have long hoped that Republicans would cease fighting a culture war on sex, marriage and the failed war on drugs and start focusing on defense, better more favorable trade deals and reducing regulations on business etc.to get elected. However anyone who thinks that America is stronger because we are losing the traditional family and standards of morality is sadly mistaken. The unpleasant truth based on scientific fact is located in the hated Harvard book called the "Bell Curve" which exposes the root causes of African American under performance (and its not the police) and articles originally published in the Atlantic on the effects of single parent and non traditional couples on child development. Today anything that does not fit the agenda of the 10% who have zero respect for religion or leading a life based on personal responsibility are winning the "noise war" but in the end their neighborhoods and kids will suffer as they are today for failing to make the changes leading to a better life. Here's a hint, getting tattoos, using dope, mutilating your genitals because you are "another person" and blaming the police for criminal offenses will get you exactly what you have now, zero progress. So enjoy the party the "hangover" will be intense.
I thought these now disillusioned social conservatives voted Republican in spite of their economic policies, not because of them.
3
While constantly vilified as the ones out of touch, Whites are leaving the Democratic party in droves. And the Latino vote which is constantly being counted in the Democratic column continues to advance economically through hard work and education. Making them more likely to vote with their wallet rather than with their compassion for those flooding the country with cheap labor. Leaving the Blacks who will find themselves the odd man out since trying to duplicate the Obama story will be tough if the candidate is not black.
Simply putting Carson on the Republican ticket with Rubio on top will put an end to the fanfare and insure the return to sane economic policies and a reining in of the strangulation of the private sector and its wealth creation.
Take your hollow victories of the past few years, for the swing to rational economic policies and much needed national security issues will now prevail. For millennium voters see the future also and it's in Mandarin, not good if you have problems learning a second language.
Simply putting Carson on the Republican ticket with Rubio on top will put an end to the fanfare and insure the return to sane economic policies and a reining in of the strangulation of the private sector and its wealth creation.
Take your hollow victories of the past few years, for the swing to rational economic policies and much needed national security issues will now prevail. For millennium voters see the future also and it's in Mandarin, not good if you have problems learning a second language.
Selfishness and loathing of the less well off and 'other' runs too deep in Republican politics. It's not a short term bug, it's a defining feature that it borrowed from the old Democracy that took more than hundred years to shed its hate. And a good week for progress will, unfortunately, not change that difference. Until the root selfishness of the Republican party is gone, it will never deserve our respect.
3
"Rhetorical opposition to the Affordable Care Act will still be de rigueur in the primaries, but litigating the issue in theory is wholly different from doing so with more than six million people deprived of their health insurance."
So, "in theory," GOP candidates can continue to froth at their mouths about their stances on health care and cultural issues only because their base (what an apt term!) has not been hurt by them yet.
So, "in theory," GOP candidates can continue to froth at their mouths about their stances on health care and cultural issues only because their base (what an apt term!) has not been hurt by them yet.
1
Yes, I am conservative, republican I am not. That being said, what happened this week had nothing to do with anything other than the liberal fringe which has whined and complained for years. Depending on your point of view, they have the MSM including the NY Times behind them with no check or balance from the fourth estate. I might or might not agree with ACA but no one has addressed the problem, which is cost. If we move to single payer, how do you pay for it. You can tax the rich 100% and you still don't have enough money. The liberals will move onto guns next because its easy. However, the liberals have never, ever addressed how one continues to pay for things once everyone is out of money.
Funny. Clinton balanced the budget & Obama has reduced the debt. Look up the economy under recent Presidents, in Forbes for example. All agree that the economy was better under Democratic presidents.
2
hmmm...the European nations and Canada have been managing just fine for decades. But the richest country on earth can't pay for a decent healthcare system? Maybe its time to stop spending 98 percent of our wealth on napalm and predator drones?
"But even as conservatives appear under siege, some Republicans predict that this moment will be remembered as an effective wiping of the slate before the nation begins focusing in earnest on the presidential race."
"Those" republicans are the ones that have perfected a unique form of self defeating cognitive dissonance while whistling past the graveyard.
They love to give voice to such obvious conclusions, but their dark id nevertheless prevents them from acting on them in a way that would actually further their cause politically.
This isn't an opportunity for them, it's a complete catastrophe, despite their seemingly upbeat protestations to the contrary.
This can only result in a circular firing squad, just like "legitimate rape" did in the 2012 election.
"Those" republicans are the ones that have perfected a unique form of self defeating cognitive dissonance while whistling past the graveyard.
They love to give voice to such obvious conclusions, but their dark id nevertheless prevents them from acting on them in a way that would actually further their cause politically.
This isn't an opportunity for them, it's a complete catastrophe, despite their seemingly upbeat protestations to the contrary.
This can only result in a circular firing squad, just like "legitimate rape" did in the 2012 election.
2
Funny thing is, these yahoos will not move beyond the lost causes. It's like a spasm; they just can't help themselves, the result of arrogance and their belief in their personal superiority. It's clear that none of them will be able to function within a pluralistic society.
2
So, now that the conservatives have wasted umpteen years using regressive social positions to prevent meaningful governing - and lost on these social positions - they may now have an advantage because they want to get serious about governing?
Please!
Please!
4
Yes, how is it an advantage for the GOP to continue to push their decade old losing economic agenda of giving our largest corporations a huge financial advantage to out-compete all other sizes of businesses locally, regionally and nationwide?
The GOP has been asking, where are the jobs; well, where are all of our lost ‘businesses’ on Business Avenue and Main Street? I mean, the politically-stubborn Republican-led Congress have managed to keep most of their business policies the same. What is their economic agenda; more of the same in the American Public’s face?
The GOP has been asking, where are the jobs; well, where are all of our lost ‘businesses’ on Business Avenue and Main Street? I mean, the politically-stubborn Republican-led Congress have managed to keep most of their business policies the same. What is their economic agenda; more of the same in the American Public’s face?
Yes, let's talk about Republican policies on economics. Tax breaks for the wealthy creating deficits, privatizing public education, economic meltdowns and bankrupting states. Recently on you tube I saw Jeb Bush talking about his brother's idea of privatizing social security as a good idea and calling Medicare an entitlement. Even my Republican mother will vote for Hillary over that.
Before this election season is over, Americans from coast to coast will hear alternative ideas to these failed policies from Bernie Sanders. And a nation that has seen wage stagnation and increasing economic insecurity will listen.
Before this election season is over, Americans from coast to coast will hear alternative ideas to these failed policies from Bernie Sanders. And a nation that has seen wage stagnation and increasing economic insecurity will listen.
3
So Bernie Sanders is supposed to wake people up but Hillary is supposed to benefit? Don't think so!
Once upon a time, the Supreme Court affirmed a woman's right to an abortion. The Republican party realized that the public was against them and they were on the wrong side of history. They abandoned the abortion issue for once and for all.
Oops. Didn't happen. Not in this universe.
Once upon a time, a madman entered a Connecticut elementary school and shot 20 children. The Republicans, horrified at the ease with which this madman procured his weapons, abandoned their pro-NRA positions in favor of gun control.
Oops. Didn't happen. Not in this universe.
Once upon a time, the Supreme Court unanimously declared deliberate public school segregation illegal, effectively overturning "separate but equal" doctrine. The South immediately recognized the error of its ways and announced immediate and peaceful de-segregation.
Ok, you get the point. Winning battles should be celebrated, and some folks will change. But the above examples show the ridiculousness of the article's premise, and of the ridiculous overanalysis of political issues by pundits who have to fill column space.
Oops. Didn't happen. Not in this universe.
Once upon a time, a madman entered a Connecticut elementary school and shot 20 children. The Republicans, horrified at the ease with which this madman procured his weapons, abandoned their pro-NRA positions in favor of gun control.
Oops. Didn't happen. Not in this universe.
Once upon a time, the Supreme Court unanimously declared deliberate public school segregation illegal, effectively overturning "separate but equal" doctrine. The South immediately recognized the error of its ways and announced immediate and peaceful de-segregation.
Ok, you get the point. Winning battles should be celebrated, and some folks will change. But the above examples show the ridiculousness of the article's premise, and of the ridiculous overanalysis of political issues by pundits who have to fill column space.
6
The Republican party, the party of Lincoln, Reagan, Dole and Eisenhower is dead. The Onion joked that the SCOTUS vote for gay marriage was something like 190 million yes to 115 million no.
1
The GOP can not pivot inside of the supermassive socioeconomic political educational black hole that they have buried themselves within. With the 2016 POTUS candidates divided among the Three Stooges- Cruz, Jindal and Trump- the Seven Dwarves- Huckabee, Santorum, Carson, Perry, Fiorina,Walker and Paul and the hobbits- Bush, Rubio, Christie etc. there is no hope.
But science teaches us that there is no such thing as a pure vacuum and that 95% of physical reality is hidden behind dark energy and dark matter. Science also teaches that information and energy are eternally available to open clever wise mind. But they are not scientists. Nor are they wise.
The left is not winning these cultures battles. What is winning is human humane righteousness. That is so right.
But science teaches us that there is no such thing as a pure vacuum and that 95% of physical reality is hidden behind dark energy and dark matter. Science also teaches that information and energy are eternally available to open clever wise mind. But they are not scientists. Nor are they wise.
The left is not winning these cultures battles. What is winning is human humane righteousness. That is so right.
4
The content of the article disproves the assertion of the headline. The candidates cannot move beyond cultural issues. And even if Republicans could move to an emphasis on economics and foreign policy, can anyone believe a platform of supply side economics, regressive taxation, income inequality, and readiness to bomb our way out of any foreign entanglement would win the White House? Not without the help of the undemocratic electoral college and "overreaching" Supreme Court.
3
Now the major point where economic and social issues intersect will become inequality, of both wealth and income. It will be interesting to see how broadly the Republicans embrace this as an issue, vs. denying there is a problem. But we already hear messages from both camps on this. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
1
There is nothing "left" about this evolution except there are fewer people left behind. We are evolving from "One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for straight white men," to "One nation with liberty and justice for all." But we are not there yet.
4
The problem for Republicans isn't just that they can't seem to let go of the bone of social issues, but their positions on the economy and defense are even worse.
On the economy, the Republicans call for austerity, cloaked in the form of a balanced budget amendment. Yet when you have jobs to be done, low interest rates and high unemployment, printing a little money and sending it to the states for infrastructure repair is the best thing for the economy.
On defense, I really think that Americans are sick of intervening in middle eastern countries where there is no clear reason to prefer one side over the other, such as supporting Sunni-backed ISIS over Iranian-backed Iraqi militias. When the Republicans call for bombing Iran, do they realize that the Iranians are fighting ISIS?
On the economy, the Republicans call for austerity, cloaked in the form of a balanced budget amendment. Yet when you have jobs to be done, low interest rates and high unemployment, printing a little money and sending it to the states for infrastructure repair is the best thing for the economy.
On defense, I really think that Americans are sick of intervening in middle eastern countries where there is no clear reason to prefer one side over the other, such as supporting Sunni-backed ISIS over Iranian-backed Iraqi militias. When the Republicans call for bombing Iran, do they realize that the Iranians are fighting ISIS?
3
Carl Forti's comment, as quoted in the story -- “I’m glad I’m not on a campaign and don’t have to advise my candidate on how to navigate those three issues this week, because the answers for the primary and the general are radically different.”
Why on earth would a candidate's answers be different? Whatever happened to honesty and integrity?
Why on earth would a candidate's answers be different? Whatever happened to honesty and integrity?
3
These sweeping changes are actually giving the Republicans "an opportunity"? This article feels like the result of a brainstorming session among junior NYT writers, and in an East Coast bubble at that.
I've lived in metro Boston since 1999, and within the scope of business travel, get to Alabama and Georgia a few times a year. Aside from accents (the Southern being more attractive than the New York or Boston), Americans seem remarkably similar in attitudes and lifestyle, especially those under 40 (I'm 59).
The decisions of recent days are here to stay. The Republicans can't change them, as they have such a paucity of ideas to replace what they attack. I've been waiting for their recommendations on what is to replace Obamacare for years. Nothing's been forthcoming. Nothing.
I say, gun control is next up. Let's crush the power of the NRA while we have the momentum.
I've lived in metro Boston since 1999, and within the scope of business travel, get to Alabama and Georgia a few times a year. Aside from accents (the Southern being more attractive than the New York or Boston), Americans seem remarkably similar in attitudes and lifestyle, especially those under 40 (I'm 59).
The decisions of recent days are here to stay. The Republicans can't change them, as they have such a paucity of ideas to replace what they attack. I've been waiting for their recommendations on what is to replace Obamacare for years. Nothing's been forthcoming. Nothing.
I say, gun control is next up. Let's crush the power of the NRA while we have the momentum.
4
Let the election stand for conservative values. The Presidency, House, Senate: for all the marbles.
A win for the 1%; to debtors prison for the 99%! Ahhh democracy so near, yet slipping away!
1
What could the party that has clearly demonstrated that its ideological handcuffs have made it incapable of governing possiblly offer our nation? Take a sober look at their track record since the Great Mouthpiece Reagan started us on the road to ruin and you'll see that they have accomplished exactly zero that has benefitted anyone other than the wealthy and the permanently angry.
Other than attack ads the Army of Millionaire Lawyers has only their self-benefit in mind.
No thank you.
Other than attack ads the Army of Millionaire Lawyers has only their self-benefit in mind.
No thank you.
3
The GOP denies the success of civil rights, the EPA, the minimum wage, regulation, mass transit, evolution, science, Social Security, Medicare, public education, the Clean Water Act. They tout the success of record gun ownership, religious bigotry 'freedom', unlimited campaign finance bribery, trickle-down poverty, income tax welfare for millionaires and billionaires, CEO pay that is the disgrace of the world, and a 'free-market' that has driven the American healthcare, internet, TV, pharmaceutical and military-industrial markets to be the most expensive and unaffordable products in the western consumer world.The GOP denies physics (global warming), biology (evolution), and math (who created the deficit mess we are in). And it expends more political energy on anti-abortion and anti-gay measures than anything else by far. This is the Party of Stupid. It isn't the message, or the messenger or how it is pitched. It's simply ludicrous wrong headed policy that marks the decadent and decaying GOP, no question.
5
The election will still come down to the middle 10% of the electorate and which candidate can sway more of it to their side. The dems have the cities and the blacks and the limousine liberals; the reps have the rest of the country. If the reps can get 25% of the Hispanic vote, they win the Presidency. Also forgotten is that the reps have the vast majority of state houses, governorships and will most likely keep them as well as the House and the Senate. Outside of the mainstream media, America is still a center-right nation.
"America is still a center-right nation."
Aside from Fox News Channel repeating this constantly, what evidence do you have to support the claim. Plain majorities favor so-called liberal positions, and marriage equality recently gained a plurality. Most Americans are not wealthy and do not want their jobs sent overseas. Most Americans favor clean drinking water and clean air.
Maybe you're referring to a system of false choices, "Clean water or jobs," that skews poll results. Maybe you're referring to a system of party affiliation that pushes the notion that you have to support TPP or the government will take you guns.
Real family values are protected by real left-of-center politics. But then, the facts have a liberal bias.
Aside from Fox News Channel repeating this constantly, what evidence do you have to support the claim. Plain majorities favor so-called liberal positions, and marriage equality recently gained a plurality. Most Americans are not wealthy and do not want their jobs sent overseas. Most Americans favor clean drinking water and clean air.
Maybe you're referring to a system of false choices, "Clean water or jobs," that skews poll results. Maybe you're referring to a system of party affiliation that pushes the notion that you have to support TPP or the government will take you guns.
Real family values are protected by real left-of-center politics. But then, the facts have a liberal bias.
Most of us have fairly clear ideas on what is right and what is wrong. The main difference between the parties seems to be whether one can be satisfied advocating and doing what one believes to be right, or whether one feels the need to use the government, through the courts and the police, to force others to do what one believes to be right and not do what one believes to be wrong. Republicans can only pretend to be a party of freedom--which, after all, is how they started out--by following the course the author suggests.
The Republicans will, for the foreseeable future, not be able to get out of their own way. They have whipped-up their racist, homophobic, science-denying base and there is no turning back. In order to become nationally competitive, they should try to join the progressive conversations on big issue matters like inequality and climate-change, with specific strategies - but they won't. As for the Democrats, the main reason they need to keep the Presidency is to name the next Supreme Court justices.
5
This article assumes republican candidates have the foresight and discipline to not pop off on cultural "war" issues. Pandering to far-rights voters has costs republicans the white house once, and they're here to do it again. None of the current candidates have the courage to avoid public comments of offense to a majority of Americans when it comes to these issues. The ONE candidate I see hedging his bets is Gov Kasich from Ohio. While not a candidate YET, he is playing the necessary middle ground on a lot of issues the general election will demand moderation......
1
If the GOP/T want to emphasize economics, they need to convince voters that trickle down economics, the "Laffer curve", the argument that national economy is the same as family economy, and other nonsensical ideas are correct.
2
Obama was unable to get out front on gay marriage until Biden forced the issue. Or maybe it took that long for Obama's focus groups and political handlers to tell him which way the wind was blowing -- he certainly has no conviction about personal liberty. In the meantime, Hillary was out defending DOMA.
Perhaps this will serve as a wake up call to (some) Republican candidates that the Libertarian wing of the party matters.
Perhaps this will serve as a wake up call to (some) Republican candidates that the Libertarian wing of the party matters.
If the straight, white, conservative, Christian men I work with everyday are any indication then this culture war nonsense will continue. These men fear and despise anyone not them. And that includes women. Tomorrow morning should be fun. They will have spent the whole weekend being told what to think by the right-wing-noise-machine and will stand in a circle, teeth clenched, and repeat what they were told to think. Can't wait.
3
Economic and national security issues? Does anyone remember the 2007/2008 economic collapse and the terribly failed Iraq War?
4
The best course for the Republican Party at this point would be to reconsider what it really stands for.
The agendas of the religious right and social conservatives are what stand in the way of the party's relevance. The attempts to bring about a more bible oriented government are clearly unconstitutional as they seek to impose religious dogma as the law of the land as well as require a specific set of beliefs as a litmus test for public office; a violation of freedom of religion.
Social conservatives have long attempted to codify behavior in an attempt to make conformity a legal requirement. For a party that talks a lot about 'getting government off our backs' there is a lot of effort being put into laws to limit ways to pursue life, liberty and happiness.
There is no way either of these objectives can be achieved in a free country without the imposition of an absolute dictatorship.
The GOP denial of the human impact on climate change is irresponsible and will turn the party into a clear and present danger. The trend of public opinion is toward the acceptance of the reality and the need to take action, if not to remedy, which may be impossible, but prepare to deal with the consequences. The facts are there and can no longer be denied. Large and small climate related events are hitting the country and the world in ways that illustrate just how vulnerable we really are.
True conservatism consists of working to manage change in ways that cause the least harm.
The agendas of the religious right and social conservatives are what stand in the way of the party's relevance. The attempts to bring about a more bible oriented government are clearly unconstitutional as they seek to impose religious dogma as the law of the land as well as require a specific set of beliefs as a litmus test for public office; a violation of freedom of religion.
Social conservatives have long attempted to codify behavior in an attempt to make conformity a legal requirement. For a party that talks a lot about 'getting government off our backs' there is a lot of effort being put into laws to limit ways to pursue life, liberty and happiness.
There is no way either of these objectives can be achieved in a free country without the imposition of an absolute dictatorship.
The GOP denial of the human impact on climate change is irresponsible and will turn the party into a clear and present danger. The trend of public opinion is toward the acceptance of the reality and the need to take action, if not to remedy, which may be impossible, but prepare to deal with the consequences. The facts are there and can no longer be denied. Large and small climate related events are hitting the country and the world in ways that illustrate just how vulnerable we really are.
True conservatism consists of working to manage change in ways that cause the least harm.
1
It is so typical of the GOP to take a bashing and reinvent it as opportunity. The GOP today is so deep in its own disgusting culture, it has now decided to prove "ignernce" is bliss.
Amazing. And the GOP men wonder why they are viewed by most Americans as living in a world of their own?
Amazing. And the GOP men wonder why they are viewed by most Americans as living in a world of their own?
2
I'm not buying the article's argument. Not because it's not well reasoned, but because, despite what Frum or Bush may say, I don't see the Republican party leaving behind its more strident cultural voices, or lessening its animus toward immigrants. Simply put, Republican candidates must show that they toe the party line in the primary season, where such red meat is demanded by the base.
Let's not forget that after the GOP's defeat in 2012, there were voices within the party calling for more inclusion and - dare I say - moderation. The party-wide response was to double-down on the angry old man rhetoric.
It would indeed be good to see the GOP pry itself away from the culture wars, given that they're clearly out of step, and - as the author states - it would give them an opening to discuss economic and defense issues on which Americans are receptive to their message (except the "no taxes for the rich" message - at some point the GOP is going to have to figure out that most Americans now see that as the ruse it is). It could lead to a vibrant and inclusive, 21st century conservatism, which - after two decades of reactionary extremism - would be a welcome development.
Let's not forget that after the GOP's defeat in 2012, there were voices within the party calling for more inclusion and - dare I say - moderation. The party-wide response was to double-down on the angry old man rhetoric.
It would indeed be good to see the GOP pry itself away from the culture wars, given that they're clearly out of step, and - as the author states - it would give them an opening to discuss economic and defense issues on which Americans are receptive to their message (except the "no taxes for the rich" message - at some point the GOP is going to have to figure out that most Americans now see that as the ruse it is). It could lead to a vibrant and inclusive, 21st century conservatism, which - after two decades of reactionary extremism - would be a welcome development.
1
How exactly have any prominent GOP candidates made the "turn" described in this article? To leave the culture war behind and "pivot" toward economic issues? The entire clown car of GOP buffoons has done nothing but throw red meat to the rage-filled base ever since the opinion came out. This article is complete wishful thinking.
3
Liberals elect Presidents on emotion, Conservatives elect on qualifications.
Do please list all of candidate George W. Bush's qualifications. Ron Reagan (son of the former president) said his campaign slogan should have been, "Vote for me, I'm no longer an obnoxious drunk." Did he have any other qualifications we might have overlooked? Job history? Military service? Education? I seem to recall those were pretty spotty. Bush and his running mate both had DUI arrests. Are those the qualifications prized by Conservatives? Apparently so.
The sad fact is that many Republicans at the state level are preparing to offset the marriage equality ruling with legislation that allows broader forms of discrimination towards LGBTQ people. Their efforts will be very high profile and may continue to turn off moderate voters who are not party-oriented.
In this context, it is interesting that Mr. Martin highlights Jeb Bush, who added fuel to the fire with a reference to states rights, as moderate on this issue while Marc Rubio, who cited rule of law and invited closure, is being profiled as an "also-thinks".
If moderate Conservatives want to change the conversation, they need to give credit where it is due and reward candidates who get it right within the framework of the party platform.
In this context, it is interesting that Mr. Martin highlights Jeb Bush, who added fuel to the fire with a reference to states rights, as moderate on this issue while Marc Rubio, who cited rule of law and invited closure, is being profiled as an "also-thinks".
If moderate Conservatives want to change the conversation, they need to give credit where it is due and reward candidates who get it right within the framework of the party platform.
This is the kind of story that could only have been written in Washington. Beyond the Beltway, the rest of the nation has been watching and worrying about economic issues, especially growing inequality, even as we have been concerned about race, gay rights and the other matters that affect not votes but the lives of real people. Out here, love is love and jobs and jobs, not political talking points. Unlike Washington, we think about a lot of these problems at once, not just one at a time. If this kind of insider space-filler is a harbinger, 2016 is going to be a very tedious year indeed.
1
Although the issues of marriage equality and health care are indeed important, in twenty or thirty years they will pale next to the unfolding disaster of climate change. And what do the Republicans have to say about that?
3
Whenever I need to be reminded about hatefulness, bigotry, intolerance, divisiveness, smugness, and a steady practice of demonizing those with whom we do not identify or share beliefs; I need only read the NY Times and NY Times commenters. Why not just line up all of those who do not live on the coasts in large cities, vote Republican, do not trust government, or are "too white" and send them to work camps? Oh, that's right, we are already doing that...
The republican tactics are simple. Deny equality to some groups ( LGTB, minorities ) but be more subtle about it so they won't know that they are getting hosed! These clowns kill me and possible your child by the policies they espouse. Sure, take down the confederate flag just don't give minorities access to a good education, healthcare or the voting booth. Puhleese!
It will be amusing to watch the Republicans, the party that brought us the Great Crash of 2008 and the triumphant invasion of Iraq, pivot to concentrating of economic and foreign policy issues. They have so much to offer us!
3
Popular, on-demand social issues won the day, a plus for the democrats. As to why the G.O.P. insists in shooting its own foot, is hard to grasp...unless you add spite for Obama, racism when the poor are thought of being only black, and a make-believe faith-based religious dogma that appeals to the far right; all, by the way, on the wrong side of history. Willful ignorance at its 'best'. Why would the people vote these folks in, again and again, when it goes against their own interests? A deep mistery indeed that even Fox Noise, a rabble-rouser, may not unravel.
3
“I’m glad I’m not on a campaign and don’t have to advise my candidate on how to navigate those three issues this week, because the answers for the primary and the general are radically different.”
And this is part of the problem--too much $$, too many campaign and political advisers, consultants, PR people, handlers for the candidates in each party, which ends up by making the candidates about as appealing as processed food and about as unhealthy for us and our democracy
What we want in a leader is someone with intelligence and good instincts at identifying problems and superb judgement in bringing people together to resolve issues and problems--despite the always determined and ruthless opposition. Lincoln had it; TR and FDR had it; and it came from within.
But the gargantuan media-public relations empire that has mushroomed in our campaign and election process has turned politics into a game of winners and losers. It's not about pragmatism, judgement, or may the best man or woman win; it's about strategy, tactics, image, big money, and nasty, negative gotcha politics.
So the ill-advised and appallingly weak candidates trip over themselves to say and do anything, no matter how untrue or outrageous to outdo & undo each other. No wonder the country has been manipulatively polarized into left vs. right, elections are a circus, and Republicans make sure nothing gets done when we have a Democratic president.
And the winner is.... the power elite and their status quo
And this is part of the problem--too much $$, too many campaign and political advisers, consultants, PR people, handlers for the candidates in each party, which ends up by making the candidates about as appealing as processed food and about as unhealthy for us and our democracy
What we want in a leader is someone with intelligence and good instincts at identifying problems and superb judgement in bringing people together to resolve issues and problems--despite the always determined and ruthless opposition. Lincoln had it; TR and FDR had it; and it came from within.
But the gargantuan media-public relations empire that has mushroomed in our campaign and election process has turned politics into a game of winners and losers. It's not about pragmatism, judgement, or may the best man or woman win; it's about strategy, tactics, image, big money, and nasty, negative gotcha politics.
So the ill-advised and appallingly weak candidates trip over themselves to say and do anything, no matter how untrue or outrageous to outdo & undo each other. No wonder the country has been manipulatively polarized into left vs. right, elections are a circus, and Republicans make sure nothing gets done when we have a Democratic president.
And the winner is.... the power elite and their status quo
2
This is a pretty weak thesis - the modern GOP's economic platform is even more insidious and dangerous than the transparently bigoted homophobic/misogynist/racist perennials. And dismantling what little is left of the New Deal is not distinct from, but of a piece with, the "culture war" (I've never seen a white guy in a suit use an EBT card or drive 500 miles for constitutionally protected health services)
1
Lol. The Right wants to take on economic and national security issues?
I say, bring it on.
I say, bring it on.
3
So, the Republicans want to make the economy and national security their issues in the next election. Is that because their policies were so effective during the Bush years? It's possible, but one has to hope that the collective memory of the American people isn't that short.
2
There are no issues the GOP can win on, they won on the issue of security in 1980 which in hindsight was completely wrong. They won on the issue of economic security in 1980 which in hindsight was completely wrong. They won on the issues of the culture wars in 1980 which in hindsight was completely wrong. Reagan had no vision of the future and our mistake in 1980 has not prepared us well for the challenges of 2015. The proliferation of conmen and one conwoman wishing to carry the GOP banner into the oval office keeps those who love country above self awake every night.
The spew machine may like to rail against liberals and socialists, but when Libertarians and Pharisees make common cause the understanding becomes apparent the foundation rests on quicksand.
The GOP as currently structured promises nothing but a dystopian future of hate distrust and division.
We live in a world that offers us unprecedented security of person where health, education, welfare and FDR's four freedoms should be a granted all but we are blinded by our human history.
The GOP tells us we are slaves to our humanness the anthropologists tell us that in our societies form follows function. The time has come to throw away the old script and find new script writers.
The spew machine may like to rail against liberals and socialists, but when Libertarians and Pharisees make common cause the understanding becomes apparent the foundation rests on quicksand.
The GOP as currently structured promises nothing but a dystopian future of hate distrust and division.
We live in a world that offers us unprecedented security of person where health, education, welfare and FDR's four freedoms should be a granted all but we are blinded by our human history.
The GOP tells us we are slaves to our humanness the anthropologists tell us that in our societies form follows function. The time has come to throw away the old script and find new script writers.
2
As a (Republican) member of the 1%, I don't really care about the gay marriage issue too much. It seems fair that LGBT people can marry but this doesn't affect me personally. My wealth insulates me from so many of these social issues.
All I really care about is a tax cut on dividends and capital. If the Democrats can deliver on that issue for us, they'll undercut one of the main reasons huge funds flow to Republicans.
All I really care about is a tax cut on dividends and capital. If the Democrats can deliver on that issue for us, they'll undercut one of the main reasons huge funds flow to Republicans.
1
Oh, great. Here come the "born again" republicans/libertarians/tea party members. Too bad they have fallen out of Grace with the vast majority of Americans and we don't forget easily.
Good luck with your media spin on the effect of the latest SCOTUS decisions on 2016 politics. If anything they show the country the absolute importance of electing another democrat to the White House. Another conservative mandarin on the Court would spell disaster for civil rights, environmental protection, and regulation of big business, to name just a few issues the country will face on an ongoing basis in the future.
1
Well--the GOP has a ways to go as far as this voter is concerned. On climate change, immigration, and economic policy the party platform is on the wrong side of history and public opinion. And as far as foreign policy, once a strong point for the Republicans, they have a long way to go to live down the Neo-Cons and Iraq invasion disaster. And they have completely disgraced themselves by their petulant obstructionism towards President Obama.
Maybe, just MAYBE if Boehner and McConnell did the honorable thing and voluntarily resigned I would consider voting for a Republican again.
Maybe, just MAYBE if Boehner and McConnell did the honorable thing and voluntarily resigned I would consider voting for a Republican again.
In case you haven't noticed, while the left is winning the culture wars, the current president is playing footsie with the right on economic issues.
1
Our last Republican president left the economy in free fall and allowed the most devastating attack on America since the British burned Washington, D.C. What exactly is it that makes the Republicans think that the economy and national defense are their issues? Or will the Republican history be that Obama was president when those things happened?
2
Mr. Martin perpetuates the mythical Left/Right caricature of US public opinion while reaffirming that, somehow, the GOP is preposterously on the side of the people against "labor unions" in supporting TPP, which was passed, like so many bills, laws, and regulations, to serve the interests of shareholders and corporate interests guided relentlessly by K Street.
The dichotomy is not Left/Right but Top/Bottom or Wall Street and K Street against Main Street. The so-called Culture Wars were always a successful diversion for the GOP and not a few Democrats. Now, perhaps a new diversion must be cooked up. Nativism?
The dichotomy is not Left/Right but Top/Bottom or Wall Street and K Street against Main Street. The so-called Culture Wars were always a successful diversion for the GOP and not a few Democrats. Now, perhaps a new diversion must be cooked up. Nativism?
1
Sadly, the GOP candidates haven't offered any economic strategies or ideas that make any sense or have proven effective for the middle class in the past. Yes, there's opportunity, but they seem unprepared and lack the creativity and resourcefulness needed to exploit this opportunity.
2
Fine. The GOP employed the tactics of misinformation and fear mongering for the "culture wars" just as they do for national security and economics (with a bit of magical thinking thrown in with economics).
1
"...some Republican officials see an opening to turn the 2016 presidential election toward economic and national security issues."
Oh the cleverness! Tackle real issues! How long have they been concocting this novel strategy?
Oh the cleverness! Tackle real issues! How long have they been concocting this novel strategy?
1
The cultural victories of the Democrats have been victories of common sense in a nation founded on principles of reason. The writer of this article is absolutely correct in suggesting that the Republicans will turn to armageddon-emotional- paranoia for a political strategy. Still, Americans may be more comfortable with their renewed faith in reason and less comfortable getting all worked up over propaganda based on fear.
1
The reason the Right focused on the culture issues was to get the poor and middle class voters to vote against their own economic best interests. Shifting to their ideas of privatizing Social Security, destroying Medicare with a phony voucher program, keeping the minimum wage below the minimum living wage and so on, does not seem to me to be a promising idea for future GOP success.
The basic problem seems to me to be that the 1% have very different agenda for America than the rest of us want.
The basic problem seems to me to be that the 1% have very different agenda for America than the rest of us want.
2
I'm an American expat. It's good to see the US coming into the modern age but don't be fooled: there is still a long way to go. My core healthcare insurance here in France, like everybody's, is paid for from social taxes -- basically, social security -- that cost less and cover more than an ACA policy. Gay marriage has been legal here for years, legalized by elected officials, not courts. There's also "PACS," a type of contract that gives the benefits of a marriage without the religious burden or need to get a divorce if a couple splits up. I don't know if Nazi flags are legal here but, if they are, they'd be universally despised, unlike the confederate flag in the US. Guns are strictly regulated (I live in the boonies and see more hunters here with guns than I did in the US).
Yesterday I was speaking with another American expat: our kids go to school together. We were happy to hear about progress back home but as long as schools still need to have "shooter drills," like fire drills for shooters, there's still a long way to go.
Yesterday I was speaking with another American expat: our kids go to school together. We were happy to hear about progress back home but as long as schools still need to have "shooter drills," like fire drills for shooters, there's still a long way to go.
2
The big question is, When will the GOP and much of the country move beyond trickle down economics?
2
Ok, we do have economic, mostly income and taxation, problems, but I guess unemployment almost cut in half, stock market values doubled, housing starts going up, businesses expanding etc. don't count.
They may find a battle on the economic front as fruitless as the one on the social and culture front. Come up with something else and that includes an every growing "Clown Car" of white guys and one gal who almost destroyed HP. I'm really impressed.
They may find a battle on the economic front as fruitless as the one on the social and culture front. Come up with something else and that includes an every growing "Clown Car" of white guys and one gal who almost destroyed HP. I'm really impressed.
That up to 40 % of the Republican nominee's vote may keep him from being able to shove this issue to the side because they have a very angry leader in Mike Huckabee.It's very unlikely he'll be the GOP nominee,but I doubt that this time he'll go away quietly.He's insisting that Biblical law overrules the Supreme Court's opinion in this regard,and something tells me he'll insist on having his say at least through the GOP Convention,bringing a sizable following to demonstrate ,whether inside or outside the Convention.
More spin from the Republicans. They've been using social/cultural wedge issues to distract voters from their disastrous economic and foreign policy record. As they've plundered the middle class and handed more wealth and power to the 1%, they've villainized gays, immigrants, Democrats, unions, poor people, Muslims, and our twice-elected President Obama. They've used fear and hate in order to present themselves as our protectors.
This is not going to end. They may or may not shift targets. Republican candidates are still going to say "Elect us and we'll rescue you from that very evil Affordable Care Act". Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.
Republicans CAN'T run on their record, and CAN'T run on what they truly stand for.
This is not going to end. They may or may not shift targets. Republican candidates are still going to say "Elect us and we'll rescue you from that very evil Affordable Care Act". Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi.
Republicans CAN'T run on their record, and CAN'T run on what they truly stand for.
1
Please don't overstate the case. Nine people were gunned done by a racist who was the product of a perverted culture of ignorance, misinformation, and paranoia. That culture will not go away because a flag comes down. It is truly remarkable that poor white southerners flock to the Republican party despite the lack of real attention to their plight.
1
It is difficult to believe the party built around the repetition of the same 'ideas' they have promoted for the past 35 years has much to offer in the way of "the next generation of issues". Rational-thinking members have either been tossed aside or forced to renounce the 'heresy' of intellectualism. Even public figures who were once reliably supportive are now heard criticizing Republican positions. How, exactly, does the party explain their denunciation of the Pope to the millions of Catholics they once counted on supporting them?
Recent events are more analogous to the stage floor being painted, backing the Republican Party even further into their dark corner with each decisive stroke of the Supreme Court's brush. Republicans are not going to meekly throw up their hands, declare "well, we fought the good fight" and simply move on. In all likelihood, any number of deep red states will be lashing out in direct defiance of these decisions.
The idea that this is some sort of intellectual exercise with each side making their best case and accepting the result ignores the anger that is the Republican base and its paranoid, extreme and potentially explosive core.
The national consensus may be shifting firmly to the rational side but the irrational beast FoxNews and the Republicans have been feeding is straining at its chains. Once you get people all worked up it is extremely difficult to calm them down and get them to think rationally again.
Recent events are more analogous to the stage floor being painted, backing the Republican Party even further into their dark corner with each decisive stroke of the Supreme Court's brush. Republicans are not going to meekly throw up their hands, declare "well, we fought the good fight" and simply move on. In all likelihood, any number of deep red states will be lashing out in direct defiance of these decisions.
The idea that this is some sort of intellectual exercise with each side making their best case and accepting the result ignores the anger that is the Republican base and its paranoid, extreme and potentially explosive core.
The national consensus may be shifting firmly to the rational side but the irrational beast FoxNews and the Republicans have been feeding is straining at its chains. Once you get people all worked up it is extremely difficult to calm them down and get them to think rationally again.
1
It does indeed get the GOP the hook from some of its more extreme views, but it also gives it a leg upon others. With gay marriage settled, I suppose abortion rights will take center stage.
1
Racism is not a conservative value, but I think the Republicans' Southern strategy has made it a principle of their party. It spills over into the economic sphere when people are urged to believe that, in a free market, you get what you deserve and you deserve what you get. Even the low tax meme has been employed to suggest that it's wrong to take "your" money and give it to "those" people.
White supremacy was one of the major reasons for the Civil War. Southern churches preached it and justified slavery based on the Bible, but a lot of people everywhere assumed that white people had been chosen by God to rule the world. Too many still refuse to believe that race, with all its ancillary baggae, is just a social construct.
White supremacy may be challenged by new demographics, but it will continue to damage this nation until it has been brought out into the open and debunked. I challenge all Republicans who are not racist to sanction those in their party who use racial dog whistles for political benefit. If those appeals to racism no longer work, they will be abandoned, but I think we have a very long way to go for that to happen.
White supremacy was one of the major reasons for the Civil War. Southern churches preached it and justified slavery based on the Bible, but a lot of people everywhere assumed that white people had been chosen by God to rule the world. Too many still refuse to believe that race, with all its ancillary baggae, is just a social construct.
White supremacy may be challenged by new demographics, but it will continue to damage this nation until it has been brought out into the open and debunked. I challenge all Republicans who are not racist to sanction those in their party who use racial dog whistles for political benefit. If those appeals to racism no longer work, they will be abandoned, but I think we have a very long way to go for that to happen.
1
Well, I for one can not forget the positions the GOP has taken on economics, jobs, civil rights, war and just their general vindictiveness towards anybody that takes a different view since Ronald Reagan took the White House. Trickle down, Newt Gingrich and the coarsening of the discussion, eight years of beating up on the Clintons, Richard Mellon Scaife, Ken Starr, 2000 and the Supreme Court, two wars, economy crashing and then years of beating up on Obama, everybody needs to gave a gun, and the unrelenting nastiness of the GOP and Fox News to any type of progress. A while ago I contacted John Boehner with a criticism about something they were doing (who can remember) and they put me on his e mail list. Right in the middle of the Charleston news, his office sends out a picture of Harry Reid in his sunglasses, with the screaming headline that Harry is going to shut down the government. They will continue what they are doing because that is what they do. Good luck changing the subject to the War on Christianity.
2
Sweet that you include the comment from Secretary Clinton. She is a recent supporter of gay marriage. Bernie has supported it for decades. The young vote in presidential years but not in non-presidential years. If this changes we will all be better off. Please tell us the thoughts of Bernie and not just HRC in these columns. I might also help to lower the voting age to 16, as it is in Scotland.
1
Don't fret. The Supremes decision on redistricting is to be announced on Monday. The voters in some states elected to have independent commissions draw district and congressional lines. Republican legislators in AZ didn't like it and took it to SCOTUS. With the ease that the justices jumped on this case, they may very well institutionalize the congressional gerrymander. Republicans can't win with ideas, but sometimes they win with the court.
1
It is most interesting that the losses on two issues that have been in the forefront of Republican opposition to social change and progress are deemed to be opportunities to discuss other issues. Perhaps I would have viewed life more optimistically when my wife divorced me if I had only considered it as an opportunity to buy a new house for myself. Not. There is a saying in the South about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. No matter how one cuts it, these are still sows' ears for the GOP with nary a piece of silk in sight. These wedge issues, which the GOP used to try to attract more voters to its fold, really did little more than excite its base but now have been buried as dead, baby, dead. The fallacy of this article is the proposition that the GOP will drop these issues and move on to something else like national security. Let us remember that the GOP is still trying to abolish Social Security after 80 years and is attacking across this nation public sector defined benefit plans because they detest any program that benefits the working class that industry must pay for either directly or through taxes. They have successfully abolished defined benefit plans in almost all of the corporate world and now are going after it in the public sector. Witness, for example, the desire to convert military retirements to partial 401(k) plans. No, the GOP does not study history or science so it does not learn from its mistakes. Rational? Not.
1
Both sides should be appalled at how much hate came about from many same sex proponents who spit at, cursed, and diminished those who still believe in marriage being between a man and a woman. The Left may want to hold social issues as their cause, but they won't get my vote because it's apparent that they determine anyone who doesn't adhere to their social views must be wrong. Sad state of the world.
2
Yes, their reaction to religious observers in recent years has made everyone stand up and notice.
Disagree on religious grounds? We'll boycott you and run you out of business. Believe in the sanctity of life? We don't care. We'll give you no choice but to stop offering insurance to hundreds of employees.
Not to mention we'll accuse you of being "racist", "homophobes", "sexist", etc., essentially slandering anyone whose views don't comport. It's nasty business these days disagreeing with the left.
Disagree on religious grounds? We'll boycott you and run you out of business. Believe in the sanctity of life? We don't care. We'll give you no choice but to stop offering insurance to hundreds of employees.
Not to mention we'll accuse you of being "racist", "homophobes", "sexist", etc., essentially slandering anyone whose views don't comport. It's nasty business these days disagreeing with the left.
1
Lord knows it would be a blessing for Republicans to conduct a campaign on actual issues rather than sowing division, but I simply don't see their base letting them do that. This entire week, which, for me as a progressive in the Deep South (yes, there are actually quite a lot of us, so don't give up hope yet!), was exhilarating and joyous but was tempered by the unsettling knowledge that the extremists on the right have no intentions of going quietly into the night. I predict a steady push back, particularly at state level, where CEOS (who seem to have collectively decided that progressive social stances are good for business) have less direct influence and less-than-enlightened legislators hold a strong hand. Politics in this country are always pendulous, and this week that pendulum swung very far to the left. How far back to the right will it swing now?
Or, as I was wondering yesterday as I heard a woman at a nearby lunch table bemoan the fact that her daughter had no problem with gay people, is this simply the first stirrings of the new demographic of millennials influencing the public sphere? We know things will change when they become wholly involved in public policy. Was this past week a bold entrance of their progressive ideals, or was it simply a temporary pendulum swing to the left? I don't know the answer, but I will never forget this past week. What an amazing experience it is to be an American living in this beautiful, sloppy, chaotic, undisciplined nation!
Or, as I was wondering yesterday as I heard a woman at a nearby lunch table bemoan the fact that her daughter had no problem with gay people, is this simply the first stirrings of the new demographic of millennials influencing the public sphere? We know things will change when they become wholly involved in public policy. Was this past week a bold entrance of their progressive ideals, or was it simply a temporary pendulum swing to the left? I don't know the answer, but I will never forget this past week. What an amazing experience it is to be an American living in this beautiful, sloppy, chaotic, undisciplined nation!
The battles are just beginning and being further exposed by this week's rulings. There are still 30 million uninsured Americans who desperately need access to affordable healthcare. The ACA is not a destination, but a point along the journey to single payer, aka medicare for all.
The right to marry is also just a destination along the road to living a life free from discrimination. Ask people of color if they thing they have arrived at that destination and one can see how hard it is to breakdown institutional and individual hatred.
Politicians were never leaders on these issues and don't expect them to be so in the future. The vast majority love the status quo and their only allegiance is to the moneyed interests. Yes, that includes Democrats.
The right to marry is also just a destination along the road to living a life free from discrimination. Ask people of color if they thing they have arrived at that destination and one can see how hard it is to breakdown institutional and individual hatred.
Politicians were never leaders on these issues and don't expect them to be so in the future. The vast majority love the status quo and their only allegiance is to the moneyed interests. Yes, that includes Democrats.
3
Re "There are still 30 million uninsured Americans who desperately need access to affordable healthcare"
Gov´t Perry of Texas sets the example of remarkably crass politics. His state is ranked first for the number of people with no healthcare coverage at all ... fully a third of its population ... a condition which he has deliberately precipitated by refusing provisions of the ACA.
Gov´t Perry of Texas sets the example of remarkably crass politics. His state is ranked first for the number of people with no healthcare coverage at all ... fully a third of its population ... a condition which he has deliberately precipitated by refusing provisions of the ACA.
Just how is a right also a destination of something which you first assert is not? Rainbowland is so confusing.
It won't be the first time the GOP has abandoned its core principles in order to maintain power. Remember Nixon's "Southern strategy"?
4
If Republicans want to take a hard line on national security by getting us more involved in fights in the middle East and elsewhere, they should also show that they're willing to take the hard steps necessary to pay for our involvement: raising taxes and reinstating a draft.
6
Such an odd article. For one, who says GOP has locks on economic and national security affairs issues? Or, that these decided issues of gender equality and ACA health insurance now removed from the political scene?
Not from what I've heard this past week. There's plenty of brave talk to drag these dead horses across the 2016 finish line.
On economic matters, I don't see the GOP s having lock on discussions on income inequality. Rather, this issue may well go to Democrats. On national security, where exactly is the GOP advantage...more wars?
The list goes on. We haven't heard the last of them. Nor should the writer forget the GOP re-invents itself all the time.
Off the top of my head. Against: Equal Rights Amendment, Civil Rights Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, workplace safety, tax reform, immigration, education, re-productive rights.
I have little doubt the list will continue to go on. And, I am still curious who floated this thesis that the Republicans see these losses as a political plus just in time for 2016?
These issues aren't behind them. There are no better issues ahead for them.
Not from what I've heard this past week. There's plenty of brave talk to drag these dead horses across the 2016 finish line.
On economic matters, I don't see the GOP s having lock on discussions on income inequality. Rather, this issue may well go to Democrats. On national security, where exactly is the GOP advantage...more wars?
The list goes on. We haven't heard the last of them. Nor should the writer forget the GOP re-invents itself all the time.
Off the top of my head. Against: Equal Rights Amendment, Civil Rights Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, workplace safety, tax reform, immigration, education, re-productive rights.
I have little doubt the list will continue to go on. And, I am still curious who floated this thesis that the Republicans see these losses as a political plus just in time for 2016?
These issues aren't behind them. There are no better issues ahead for them.
9
So Republicans think they can win on the economy? Do they think we have all forgotten how G.W.Bush and company broke the world's economy by squandering our budget surplus on two wars while at the same time cutting taxes and designing the tax cuts to benefit the most wealthy thereby redistributing wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich? Admittedly, Americans have short memories but we have yet to recover from the damage inflicted by Republicans during the Bush years so we're not likely to forget them yet.
10
The last thing Republicans want is an election where the deciding issue is their economic policy. It's still trickle down economics from the 1980s. Great for business owners, horrible for workers.
I thought Mitt Romney explained the problem. 47% cannot afford the basic necessities of life. The people he was talking about include the working poor who harvest our crops, stock the shelves at out supermarkets, and pick up our trash. People who we would die if they didn't do their jobs.
The Reagan Revolution created working moms and latchkey kids returning from school to an empty house. When even two incomes were not producing enough money for middle class families to pay their bills, it forced the middle class families to borrow heavily from the equity in their homes that created the beanie baby housing market that collapsed in 2008.
I thought Mitt Romney explained the problem. 47% cannot afford the basic necessities of life. The people he was talking about include the working poor who harvest our crops, stock the shelves at out supermarkets, and pick up our trash. People who we would die if they didn't do their jobs.
The Reagan Revolution created working moms and latchkey kids returning from school to an empty house. When even two incomes were not producing enough money for middle class families to pay their bills, it forced the middle class families to borrow heavily from the equity in their homes that created the beanie baby housing market that collapsed in 2008.
75
The people Mitt was talking about were described as lazy parasites, who didn't work or pay taxes. Actually, you can probably ascribe that description to many of the 1%.
1
Re "I thought Mitt Romney explained the problem. 47% cannot afford the basic necessities of life".
Recall that in the 2012 election, Romney won 24 states:
- 9 of the 11 Confederate states
- 8 of the 10 states with the lowest population density
- 0 of the 10 best educated states (based on percent of population with a college degree, median household income and percent of population below the federal poverty line)
- 9 of the 10 least educated states
- 1 of the 10 healthiest states
- 9 of the 10 least healthy states
- 10 of the 10 weakest gun control states
- 0 of the 10 strongest gun control states
- 9 of the 10 largest net recipients ("takers") of federal money states. call ha n In the 2012 election, Romney won 24 states:
- 9 of the 11 Confederate states
- 8 of the 10 states with the lowest population density
- 0 of the 10 best educated states (based on percent of population with a college degree, median household income and percent of population below the federal poverty line)
- 9 of the 10 least educated states
- 1 of the 10 healthiest states
- 9 of the 10 least healthy states
- 10 of the 10 weakest gun control states
- 0 of the 10 strongest gun control states
- 9 of the 10 largest net recipients ("takers") of federal money states.
Recall that in the 2012 election, Romney won 24 states:
- 9 of the 11 Confederate states
- 8 of the 10 states with the lowest population density
- 0 of the 10 best educated states (based on percent of population with a college degree, median household income and percent of population below the federal poverty line)
- 9 of the 10 least educated states
- 1 of the 10 healthiest states
- 9 of the 10 least healthy states
- 10 of the 10 weakest gun control states
- 0 of the 10 strongest gun control states
- 9 of the 10 largest net recipients ("takers") of federal money states. call ha n In the 2012 election, Romney won 24 states:
- 9 of the 11 Confederate states
- 8 of the 10 states with the lowest population density
- 0 of the 10 best educated states (based on percent of population with a college degree, median household income and percent of population below the federal poverty line)
- 9 of the 10 least educated states
- 1 of the 10 healthiest states
- 9 of the 10 least healthy states
- 10 of the 10 weakest gun control states
- 0 of the 10 strongest gun control states
- 9 of the 10 largest net recipients ("takers") of federal money states.
1
Given the Pope's encyclical, religious liberty may take a back seat to evidence. Anathema to the Republican "religious right" who distort law to enforce their beliefs regarding marriage, women's health, southern traditional racism, and healthcare.
2
Republicans always win economic debates not because they are right, but becauses they & the right-wing media are able to advance a clear & simple (though nonsensical, in the real world) "free-maket" ideology that explains their policies. Democrats, who are required by their funders to support essentially the same policies, explain them in wishy-washy & vague rhetoric that only tries to avoid offending the voters they will betray & the funders they will obey.
Social policy is important to both parties for fundrdaising & publicity. How wins & losses help one party or the other is hard to predict. The Republicans were got more cash & support out of Roe v. Wade than did the Democrats, though the majority of Americans who understood the decision always agreed with it.
Social policy is important to both parties for fundrdaising & publicity. How wins & losses help one party or the other is hard to predict. The Republicans were got more cash & support out of Roe v. Wade than did the Democrats, though the majority of Americans who understood the decision always agreed with it.
2
Republicans can't turn the corner on social issues and the majority of us remember what they did to our nation during the Bush era.
Why they think they have the edge on national security is beyond me. They were in power when 911 happened and even though they were warned they did nothing to stop it. Then two wars. We all know the Iraq war was started based on lies and destroyed the balance of power in that part of the world.
The Afghanistan war was mismanaged by them and the original reason for that action was to get Osama Bin Laden but instead of focusing on the perp of the 911 tragedy they moved on to Iraq and left office with Bin Laden running free.
So national security being their forte is a myth.
Eight years of their incompetence gave us the Great Recession and the collapse of the stock market. Pretty much what eight years of Reagan did to our country as well. Only four years of Bush 41 and the housing market collapsed.
They're running on a record of failure and incompetence all the way around. During the Obama years they've had to gavel in both houses and have done absolutely nothing to create jobs, fix our crumbling infrastructure or anything else that would benefit anyone but the very rich.
Some people may have amnesia but I do not. Many of us do not. I will never forget protesting the Iraq war there were 56 million of us who knew it was a lie yet the Republicans dismissed us as a "focus group". We are no longer just a "focus group".
Why they think they have the edge on national security is beyond me. They were in power when 911 happened and even though they were warned they did nothing to stop it. Then two wars. We all know the Iraq war was started based on lies and destroyed the balance of power in that part of the world.
The Afghanistan war was mismanaged by them and the original reason for that action was to get Osama Bin Laden but instead of focusing on the perp of the 911 tragedy they moved on to Iraq and left office with Bin Laden running free.
So national security being their forte is a myth.
Eight years of their incompetence gave us the Great Recession and the collapse of the stock market. Pretty much what eight years of Reagan did to our country as well. Only four years of Bush 41 and the housing market collapsed.
They're running on a record of failure and incompetence all the way around. During the Obama years they've had to gavel in both houses and have done absolutely nothing to create jobs, fix our crumbling infrastructure or anything else that would benefit anyone but the very rich.
Some people may have amnesia but I do not. Many of us do not. I will never forget protesting the Iraq war there were 56 million of us who knew it was a lie yet the Republicans dismissed us as a "focus group". We are no longer just a "focus group".
13
The Democrat party and the New York Times are the champions of diversity.
1
I think this article is written with a little too much hope for the Republicans in regards to the presidential election. The events of this week confirmed the fright of the rural/right wing folks and the satisfaction of the urban/left. The coasts will remain blue, the interior will remain red, and the President will be a Democrat due to these demographics.
2
Actually, if anything these victories make me more committed than ever to voting for Democrats to make sure Republicans don't get in office and turn back the tide.
10
Yes. I'm hoping that Democrats will be energized and ready to keep this momentum going.
2
The next issue to battle needs to be removing elected politicians from controlling Reapportionment. This is the lynchpin of political incumbency.
4
The GOP tends to win when it's not a presidential election year. When it is, enough people make the time to vote that the Republicans don't do very well. Republicans struggle trying to convince people outside their base that the Republicans have ideas and are interested in really governing the country that is the leader of the free world. As people age out of voting, as the demographics change color, as we hit the redistricting election of 2020, the GOP should be very very afraid. They need a big pivot toward common sense, or they're doomed; fear and hate won't cut it with younger voters.
3
Unfortunately the 2020 redistricting will be done by people elected from 2010 districts - i.e. heavily favoring maintaining the Republican district status quo. I think it will take ballot issues to get fair districts. And those should propose open online competitions to form districts, not just a different group of people sitting in a private room.
1
“We have been observing the deconstructing of America in the last six and a half years,” said Tony Perkins, the head of Family Research Council.
Agreed. I've watched bridges and roads deconstruct, our educational systems deconstruct, our EPA protections deconstruct, etc. If Republicans want to run on economic and security issues, they may well succeed. The voting populace in this country has a memory of about one month. I would question what bona fides the Republicans "think" they have in either area, because I can remember their disgraceful governance over the past 15 years.
Agreed. I've watched bridges and roads deconstruct, our educational systems deconstruct, our EPA protections deconstruct, etc. If Republicans want to run on economic and security issues, they may well succeed. The voting populace in this country has a memory of about one month. I would question what bona fides the Republicans "think" they have in either area, because I can remember their disgraceful governance over the past 15 years.
8
Republican ideas on economics and security are as bankrupt as their positions on social issues. The economy looks to be favorable for the election season and on defense, what do they have to propose? Invade the Middle East? Again? Don't even get me started on immigration reform which was conveniently left out of this horse-race article. Why did I even click on it?
3
The GOP has had a deplorable value deficit. What else can be expected with the following talking faces overwhelming the media with vitriol, hatred, disgust, and deliberate mis-information -- Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Dick Armey, David Keene, Jim DeMint, Ralph Reed, Limbaugh, conservative talk-radio and TV-show hosts, Hannity and O'Reilly evening diatribes, Palin, Paul, Rubio, Coulter, Bachmann, Cruz, Rand, Norquist, Bopp, and the great dark prince Newt Gingrich.
Collectively these people have built a conservative alternate universe that their acolytes live within. It has been done with persistence, intent, drive and precision. It is a dark force.
They operate by appealing to reactionary gut emotions, gullibleness, and abject ignorance, repeatedly stoking the embers of simmering discontent. It's a complex enterprise that is now a propaganda effort greater than what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. It began with Nixon.
It's the only way the GOP knows how to operate. Its leaders ignore the pre-dominant political center and as a deliberate tactic they seek to create a divisiveness in the nation and drive the GOP propaganda machine to do this.
Collectively these people have built a conservative alternate universe that their acolytes live within. It has been done with persistence, intent, drive and precision. It is a dark force.
They operate by appealing to reactionary gut emotions, gullibleness, and abject ignorance, repeatedly stoking the embers of simmering discontent. It's a complex enterprise that is now a propaganda effort greater than what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. It began with Nixon.
It's the only way the GOP knows how to operate. Its leaders ignore the pre-dominant political center and as a deliberate tactic they seek to create a divisiveness in the nation and drive the GOP propaganda machine to do this.
7
Here in Texas (a Republican strong hold), it looks like the "leaders" want to take the state backwards. The attorney general here has told the 254 county clerks to not rush into issuing marriage license until he can get a better understanding of the ruling. Some counties have said that they did not have "the right forms" for a gay marriage. We have come so far here in Texas....
5
What is troubling about much of this discussion in this article and the comments on it is that very little is said about what is good for the country, unless, of course, you believe that only what is good for your party is good for your country. That does not necessarily follow these days where overtly partisan politics seems to be the rule.
1
I see your point but Democrats aren't fighting for wages, equality, clean air and water only for other Democrats, they're fighting for everyone to have these things.
The "Reactionary Party" cannot be expected to do anything differently. It would be against their primary objective.
5
The author seems to have missed that the GOP, for years, claimed that they would create jobs. However, once in office they quickly turned to social issues - controlling a woman's body, controlling who can marry, destroying education, forcing religion into government - while not just ignoring the economy, they were dstroying it through deregulation and failing to enforce the remaining regulations.
To claim that now there is an opportunity to focus on the economy is a joke. The GOP won't be able to help itself. It believes that everyone should live under its religion and rules. They will continue to try to control our behavior, and it will fail.
To claim that now there is an opportunity to focus on the economy is a joke. The GOP won't be able to help itself. It believes that everyone should live under its religion and rules. They will continue to try to control our behavior, and it will fail.
6
The absolute center of attention of the Republican Party and Republican partisans is to keep the poor as poor as possible and to decimate the middle class on behalf of the advancement of the wealthy class through the strengths of the corporate domain. The high end middle class is an aggregate of all the groups the Republicans hate: minorities, gays/lesbians/bisexuals/transsexuals, non-Christians, women, the poor and if any of these people vote for any Republican they only injure themselves. It is time the people take ownership in the full sense of the word of their own country.
4
This is one of the silliest things I've ever read .. . the GOP was just beaten rather soundly on any number of their core issues, their base is in a frothing fury over said losses and are vowing resistance, disobedience, and making outright calls for an armed insurrection . . . and this is GOOD for them?!? Just because they were defeated across the board on the social issues does NOT mean they're going to stop fighting or obsessing about them. Watch one of the planks of the GOP platform be a call for constitutional amendments to repeal SSM, and another be their demand that the ACA be repealed in its entirety. And wanting to go to war with Iran . . .
They won't let a little thing like being defeated slow them down. These are republicans - whatever didn't work before was only because they didn't do enough of it, or loudly enough, so they double down. Why? Because Jesus is on their side, and sooner or later he will come riding in to save them. They very simply CAN'T give up on these issues and move past them, as these are the issues that define their very existence.
Were the writer talking about any other party, he would be correct. But the GOP has moved well past being a political party, and has morphed into an apocalyptic christian dominionist cult which CANNOT get past these issues EVER and still remain who they are.
They won't let a little thing like being defeated slow them down. These are republicans - whatever didn't work before was only because they didn't do enough of it, or loudly enough, so they double down. Why? Because Jesus is on their side, and sooner or later he will come riding in to save them. They very simply CAN'T give up on these issues and move past them, as these are the issues that define their very existence.
Were the writer talking about any other party, he would be correct. But the GOP has moved well past being a political party, and has morphed into an apocalyptic christian dominionist cult which CANNOT get past these issues EVER and still remain who they are.
8
I hope they keep it up, so everybody in the world will know them for what they are, and fence sitters will realize they don't want to be associated with any of it.
Winning GOP stances on economy & foreign policy? Really? Like even lower taxes on the rich, even less regulation of finance industry? And more wars abroad … a sure-fire recipe to put 1 of the clowns in the WH. Right.
4
Here's the rub, conservatives have no plan. They still cling to their old theories of trickle down and low regulation. If you have an IQ over 67 you can understand that this type of thinking on three occasions have almost crippled our economy. Look at the Bush years. Tell me what happened there? It is especially magnified when the GOP combines their idiotic trickle down with intrusions in the Middle East and huge defense spending. Don't these people know simple math? Sure budgets have to be efficient, but at what expense of real people. The stupid "job" creator arguments are worthless except for campaigns. The present congress has shown no ability to even float a jobs bill so why would putting a Republican in the oval office work? The tragic record of Republican disasters in the White House should tell those people who vote for Republicans out of social issues, why now if there are basically over? The Tea Party is over since it was started on economics but somehow turned into a religious anti gay movement. Are they suddenly going to be hawks? I hope not.
2
If the republicans try to push economic they have to contend with the fact that millions of jobs during George W bush's term and that our economy usually does better under a democratic administration.
Oh and the safety issue, under whose watch did 9/11 happen?
Oh and the safety issue, under whose watch did 9/11 happen?
2
Mr Frum has been predicting a Republican party return to sanity for at least ten years. Didn't he used to have website (now defunct) preaching this gospel? In fact during this time the Republican party has moved steadily ever more rightward on just about every economic and social issue.
3
My teenage daughter and her peers think it is absolutely bizarre to discriminate against same-sex couples. So many of her friends are the children of same-sex parents that it's been totally de-stigmatized among her generation. Some of these enlightened kids are already joining the voter rolls, so the Republican party better come up with a different approach or they're going to lose an entire generation of voters.
6
How can homosexuals produce children? It is a biological impossibility.
1
I agree recent Supreme Court decisions will provide a release valve to Republicans WRT sexuality, but strongly disagree that “consuming questions of race…were settled in quick succession, and social tolerance was cemented as a cornerstone of American public life”.
It’s time we as a nation decided to end the longest lived, most visible culture war in America, that of structural racism. And no presidential candidates should get a pass.
Recent high profile killings illustrate the depth of hate and angst that fuel the continued demonization of a chunk of longtime American citizenry. Shooters citing “fear for their lives” [against the unarmed] or “they’re taking over the country” demonstrates how deep and ingrained this problem is.
On the right, potential presidential politicians [all 13] were quick to call the Charleston killings the work of a demented, lone wolf kid. They were measured in response and without vision for how much stronger America can be united, rather than enduring a humanly wasteful, expensive and prolonged internal race war.
On the left, focus slid to gun control. Neither Clinton nor Sanders addressed the issue head on. Neither outlined a path to real equality or racial harmony.
Yes it’s a hard problem to solve [I don’t have the answer], but that’s all the more reason for the plethora of presidential candidates to lead a national discussion on race and how to get beyond it… no one should get a pass.
It’s time we as a nation decided to end the longest lived, most visible culture war in America, that of structural racism. And no presidential candidates should get a pass.
Recent high profile killings illustrate the depth of hate and angst that fuel the continued demonization of a chunk of longtime American citizenry. Shooters citing “fear for their lives” [against the unarmed] or “they’re taking over the country” demonstrates how deep and ingrained this problem is.
On the right, potential presidential politicians [all 13] were quick to call the Charleston killings the work of a demented, lone wolf kid. They were measured in response and without vision for how much stronger America can be united, rather than enduring a humanly wasteful, expensive and prolonged internal race war.
On the left, focus slid to gun control. Neither Clinton nor Sanders addressed the issue head on. Neither outlined a path to real equality or racial harmony.
Yes it’s a hard problem to solve [I don’t have the answer], but that’s all the more reason for the plethora of presidential candidates to lead a national discussion on race and how to get beyond it… no one should get a pass.
1
To be fair most of the mass shootings in this country had nothing to do with racism and everything to do with the availability of guns in this country.
And yet, DR, the left wing Democratic response to Charleston is NOT gun control, but .... forcing states to remove the Confederate flag, which had exactly NOTHING to do with a mentally ill young man's horrific attack on innocent churchgoers.
It is typical of liberals to want a "symbolic" gesture over any real change -- like addressing the problem in our nation with mentally ill people like Roof being allowed to roam the streets.
Note that Southerners really love their flag, no matter what liberals think of it (in fact, some of their love is because they love that liberals HATE the flag!) -- and my guess is they will use this as a rallying point. So it was pretty stupid strategy to play right into this.
It is typical of liberals to want a "symbolic" gesture over any real change -- like addressing the problem in our nation with mentally ill people like Roof being allowed to roam the streets.
Note that Southerners really love their flag, no matter what liberals think of it (in fact, some of their love is because they love that liberals HATE the flag!) -- and my guess is they will use this as a rallying point. So it was pretty stupid strategy to play right into this.
The Republicans, authors of the last two recessions and opponents of every solution to the last, have a very weak economic record. Had the Republicans had their way we would be in a depression now.
The Republicans, who ignored warnings about 911 and protected their ally Osama Bin Laden, have an even weaker record on security. The best they can offer is yet another torturous war.
The Republican Party has moved from the main stream and become a party of radicals and kooks. They can't be serious.
The Republicans, who ignored warnings about 911 and protected their ally Osama Bin Laden, have an even weaker record on security. The best they can offer is yet another torturous war.
The Republican Party has moved from the main stream and become a party of radicals and kooks. They can't be serious.
9
“The stage is now cleared for the next generation of issues. And Republicans can say, ‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”
Unfortunately for Mr. Frum and the Republicans, the party has built a coalition including working class whites and social conservatives using racial hatred and fear. Without stoking racial and religious fears, the Republicans have little to offer low income whites, except more guns. Racial and religious hatred is the glue that holds the coalition together.
Unfortunately for Mr. Frum and the Republicans, the party has built a coalition including working class whites and social conservatives using racial hatred and fear. Without stoking racial and religious fears, the Republicans have little to offer low income whites, except more guns. Racial and religious hatred is the glue that holds the coalition together.
16
In 2004, Howard Dean was roundly lambasted for stating that the Democrats had to make an appeal to the guys who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flags on them. I thought he had a point. Maybe it is fantasy, but could this week really change the paradigm in this country? What happens if all the cultural wallpaper--Dixie symbols, gay marriage, the disingenuous battle to drive millions back off the insurance rolls in the name of "freedom"--is stripped away? Is it possible that working class white people, even in the South, may be free to evaluate candidates on the basis of how their stated policies will actually affect communities and families? Is it too much to hope that a lot of the Democrats' historic and natural allies might come back to the party that will actually try and do them some good?
8
Interesting that this article runs side by side with the one re ISIS recruiting.
While not so extreme in its practices, the 21st century GOP is just as backward and frighting as ISIS. It tries to seduce the uneducated with lies, to engender fear and to present a less stratified America as a threat. It is a intolerant of human rights as is ISIS; Walker with his constitutional amendment proposal, the rest with their apocolyptic doom procalamations when America becomes a little more respectiful and/or inclusive.
May the clown car riders should go to a class in the meaning of the US constitution. Perhaps then they'd stop trying to seduce Americans into GOP ignorance and hate.
While not so extreme in its practices, the 21st century GOP is just as backward and frighting as ISIS. It tries to seduce the uneducated with lies, to engender fear and to present a less stratified America as a threat. It is a intolerant of human rights as is ISIS; Walker with his constitutional amendment proposal, the rest with their apocolyptic doom procalamations when America becomes a little more respectiful and/or inclusive.
May the clown car riders should go to a class in the meaning of the US constitution. Perhaps then they'd stop trying to seduce Americans into GOP ignorance and hate.
6
Is it really "The Left" that won? These divisive labels aren't accurate. Even in cases where a conservative majority Supreme Court rules in favor of what is perceived as a leftist social cause, (it actually never was) the Justices somehow seem to vote the will of the people. A majority of Americans believe it is wrong to deny gay, lesbian and transgender people the same rights they enjoy. So who are the leftist? This is a fine example of the fact that most Americans are mainstream and not on polar ends of any party. The extremists may have started the debate on this one, but to the credit of the American people, gay friendly, or gay ambivalent, they realize what's simply unfair, and most of all illegal, and they corrected it with plenty of heart. Gay marriage from the start was a legal issue that the religious groups and their elected representatives with a high degree of manipulation, pulled gay people and their supporters into a discussion about morals and religious beliefs. These matters have no bearing on the facts, you can't deny two people the same right you just said yes to two other people. It came to down to gender discrimination, and no matter how you frame it, it was wrong. Now it is right.
2
How do you know that "A majority of Americans believe that it is wrong to deny gay, lesbian and transgender the same rights they enjoy"? Please cite the polls from which you draw these conclusions so that New York Times readers can examine the evidence.
1
The same exact pollsters have found, over and over, that most Americans oppose the ACA -- and oppose Roe v. Wade.
But somehow it only counts if they are in favor of gay marriage!
The truth is, polls are often very wrong. The pollsters have an agenda, and ask slanted questions. Their methodology, in an era of cellphones, is badly out of date.
Polls have utterly failed over the years to predate accurately election results -- for example, "the polls" said Prop 8 would FAIL by a large margin. In fact, it won handily.
This is a problem in other nations too. Polls in Israel widely predicted that Netanyahu would fail to get selected. In fact, he won handily. Note that polls seem to consistently predict lefty liberal victories! but are in fact, untrue.
But somehow it only counts if they are in favor of gay marriage!
The truth is, polls are often very wrong. The pollsters have an agenda, and ask slanted questions. Their methodology, in an era of cellphones, is badly out of date.
Polls have utterly failed over the years to predate accurately election results -- for example, "the polls" said Prop 8 would FAIL by a large margin. In fact, it won handily.
This is a problem in other nations too. Polls in Israel widely predicted that Netanyahu would fail to get selected. In fact, he won handily. Note that polls seem to consistently predict lefty liberal victories! but are in fact, untrue.
Jeb Bush's team of foreign policy advisors is largely populated by holdovers from his brother's inept gang that led us down the path to disaster in Iraq, e.g., Paul Wolfowitz. If that is any indication of the Republican approach to national security issues, count me out.
14
So, the hateful, reactionary base of the Republican party has had a couple of their central issues taken off the table. One was based on their abhorrence of gay people (same sex marriage) and the other on their abhorrence of the current black president (the Affordable Care Act).
What issues are left for them??? Well, there's still continuing the proliferation of guns (and gun violence), further suppressing minority voting (based on their abhorrence of minorities), opposing immigration reform (based on their abhorrence of immigrants), and imposing their denial of science on the rest of us (by stopping the teaching of evolution, blocking climate protection measures, etc.).
Or, perhaps, they'd prefer to further play into the hands of the Republican party's sugar daddy — corporate, big-moneyed interests — and their agenda to further enrich the top 1%. Less taxes! (for the wealthy), more jobs! (by eviscerating regulations which protect the environment and consumers), stronger defense! (so more tax dollars get shoveled to the military-industrial complex), etc.
See, there's no shortage of hate, inequity and carnage (aka "issues") which the GOP can still focus on.
What issues are left for them??? Well, there's still continuing the proliferation of guns (and gun violence), further suppressing minority voting (based on their abhorrence of minorities), opposing immigration reform (based on their abhorrence of immigrants), and imposing their denial of science on the rest of us (by stopping the teaching of evolution, blocking climate protection measures, etc.).
Or, perhaps, they'd prefer to further play into the hands of the Republican party's sugar daddy — corporate, big-moneyed interests — and their agenda to further enrich the top 1%. Less taxes! (for the wealthy), more jobs! (by eviscerating regulations which protect the environment and consumers), stronger defense! (so more tax dollars get shoveled to the military-industrial complex), etc.
See, there's no shortage of hate, inequity and carnage (aka "issues") which the GOP can still focus on.
9
David Frum: "......... we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition."
So Mr. Frum, does this mean you Republicans are going to do away with your slimy tactics of insisting on more stringent Voter Identification Laws and Means Testing for benefits that insure individuals get assistance that helps put food on the tables of families or helps them secure honorable housing?
I doubt it. This is just another spin cycle on your Washing Machine of Ways to dupe potential voters.
You should be ashamed but I know better. You'll continue to wring out behavior from the Lee Atwater School of Slimy Tactics until your final plunge over a cliff and into antiquity with the rest of history's nasty wildebeests.
So Mr. Frum, does this mean you Republicans are going to do away with your slimy tactics of insisting on more stringent Voter Identification Laws and Means Testing for benefits that insure individuals get assistance that helps put food on the tables of families or helps them secure honorable housing?
I doubt it. This is just another spin cycle on your Washing Machine of Ways to dupe potential voters.
You should be ashamed but I know better. You'll continue to wring out behavior from the Lee Atwater School of Slimy Tactics until your final plunge over a cliff and into antiquity with the rest of history's nasty wildebeests.
10
Some comments here do not see anything 'leftist' in the Supreme Court confirmation of what we consider basic rights. Decent medical care had prevailed in most civilized countries for decades and same sex arrangements (if not formal marriages) have been common for a long time in many of these countries.
From the point of view of true Republicans however, these victories (no matter how you call them), crossed the threshold they are ready to tolerate.
2016 is most likely going to be a Republican year, with a control of the government, both the presidency and the Congress. They may even gain a complete control of the Supreme Court...
From the point of view of true Republicans however, these victories (no matter how you call them), crossed the threshold they are ready to tolerate.
2016 is most likely going to be a Republican year, with a control of the government, both the presidency and the Congress. They may even gain a complete control of the Supreme Court...
4
Not a chance. Republicans will say anything to get elected. Once elected, they're the same old Republicans with the same old agenda. Lower taxes on the wealthy, increase them on the poor, destroy unions, cut education, privatize everything to fund other Republicans, increase defense spending, start wars,, etc. . Forget theiir social agenda, it's a way to keep folks from noticing their real agenda.
9
If the public accepts the elimination of social issues the Republican party will not benefit. Those are the issues that gave it power, especially in the South. What will replace them are likely to be economic and environmental issues, especially since the Supreme Court won't let the Republicans deliver on social issues. People will be better able to concentrate on what is best in their own economic and environmental position. The present distribution of wealth and income have been issues buried beneath social issues and character assassination. Even the Pope is not on their side once you bring out economic and environmental issues.
2
The culture battles are not over. The Republicans seem to have forgotten that women still want equal rights and to keep the government off their bodies. Few women are going to be dissuaded from their battle for equality which the right is still strongly opposed to.
And then there are guns. There is no excuse for arming everyone in a society except for creating anarchy and chaos. We have had it with guns. The Republicans are wrong on this issue, too, and it will always be a major one for liberals.
And then there are guns. There is no excuse for arming everyone in a society except for creating anarchy and chaos. We have had it with guns. The Republicans are wrong on this issue, too, and it will always be a major one for liberals.
5
Actually more women oppose abortion than accept it. Women form the backbone of every anti-abortion group.
If you accept polls as the ultimate word for SCOTUS decision making -- 62% of Americans oppose Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand.
Oh, I see. Polls only count when they are in YOUR favor.
If you accept polls as the ultimate word for SCOTUS decision making -- 62% of Americans oppose Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand.
Oh, I see. Polls only count when they are in YOUR favor.
The largest problem Conservatives have is a lack of brain power. I'm not talking about raw intelligence, there have been master criminals who were geniuses. I'm talking about the ability to think beyond oneself, hold two conflicting ideas in ones head at the same time, the ability to not see everything in absolutes, to not view everything as a zero-sum game. Not to mention to not be constantly looking reward and not assuming all change is bad.
Fundamentalist Christianity and right wing Conservatism are two sides of the same coin. They both use the same mindset.
The America that Conservatives feel is slipping away never existed for many people and may have only existed in Conservatives minds. We can't continue to live in the past when over three hundred million of us live in fixed boundaries while competing in a global economy. The West has been won, we can't all go pan for gold, stake a claim, or "go west young man". We are all in this together and we won't survive with "rugged individualism", "frontier spirit", or by worshipping individual wealth accumulation over the common good.
Fundamentalist Christianity and right wing Conservatism are two sides of the same coin. They both use the same mindset.
The America that Conservatives feel is slipping away never existed for many people and may have only existed in Conservatives minds. We can't continue to live in the past when over three hundred million of us live in fixed boundaries while competing in a global economy. The West has been won, we can't all go pan for gold, stake a claim, or "go west young man". We are all in this together and we won't survive with "rugged individualism", "frontier spirit", or by worshipping individual wealth accumulation over the common good.
138
That is exactly what Republicans are at heart: gold diggers. They want to find their nuggets in an untamed world. Don't talk to them about the needs of a planet with 7 billion people on it. They don't want to hear your social responsibility sermon.
The Court rulings of this past week will only serve to embolden the GOP's resolve to sell the same truckload of manure they've been harping on for the past six years: hate everything Obama. That's what it's all about. They've become the party of hate, lies, tricks and really wacky logic. And it's easy to sell when you have so many Americans who are more than willing to accept the manure as gospel.
We live in a time of smoke and mirrors. Good news is sold as bad. Data is churned into jaw-dropping conclusions. The 1st Amendment's right of religious freedom - put in place by our Founding Father to prevent government interference in religious matters - has been transformed into a means to project your bigotry onto others. The 2nd Amendment - put in place by our Founding Father's to protect the states from a federal government that many of them thought would quickly evolve into a monarchy - has been transformed into a patriotic plea to carry guns everywhere.
Obama has done a fabulous job, the economy is doing quite well, the ACC has survived another meaningless attack and same-sex partners have won an important victory. We should all be happy, but the GOP will paint a surreal image of failure, immorality and certain destruction. And to think they hate Hollywood.
We live in a time of smoke and mirrors. Good news is sold as bad. Data is churned into jaw-dropping conclusions. The 1st Amendment's right of religious freedom - put in place by our Founding Father to prevent government interference in religious matters - has been transformed into a means to project your bigotry onto others. The 2nd Amendment - put in place by our Founding Father's to protect the states from a federal government that many of them thought would quickly evolve into a monarchy - has been transformed into a patriotic plea to carry guns everywhere.
Obama has done a fabulous job, the economy is doing quite well, the ACC has survived another meaningless attack and same-sex partners have won an important victory. We should all be happy, but the GOP will paint a surreal image of failure, immorality and certain destruction. And to think they hate Hollywood.
8
These are not culture battles; they are human right battles. Calling them "cultural" trivializes them and makes them sound relativistic.
7
Since the era of Willie Horton, the GOP has successfully used hot button cultural issues to promote cultural wars and their own political fortunes. The instigated culture wars have had the designed effect of distracting middleclass voters from issues that might other wise hold sway over their political and election choices.
Thanks to the change in public attitudes and the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage we are probably witnessing the demise of one of the GOP's most divisive and distracting political/cultural issues.
Likewise the Nixon era GOP southern strategy might also be withering on the vine. The remarkable uplifting and liberating events emanating out of Charleston, S.C. in the wake of its recent tragic shooting gives us hope for even more positive changes to come in the GOP.
Thanks to the change in public attitudes and the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage we are probably witnessing the demise of one of the GOP's most divisive and distracting political/cultural issues.
Likewise the Nixon era GOP southern strategy might also be withering on the vine. The remarkable uplifting and liberating events emanating out of Charleston, S.C. in the wake of its recent tragic shooting gives us hope for even more positive changes to come in the GOP.
2
A majority of the American people support these decisions. Therefore, by definition, they are not "left" of center, they are the center.
7
How do you know that "A majority of Americans support these decisions"? Please cite your evidence for this statement.
1
Yes. I'm dismayed at the NYT's efforts to keep dividing the country this way. They're close to becoming another version of Fox News in this respect.
1
Hi John,
You may want to check these out:
Most Americans (56 percent) would prefer that the court rule in favor of the Obama administration, allowing the government to continue subsidizing premiums in all states, according to an April Associated Press-GfK poll.
http://ap-gfkpoll.com/featured/findings-from-our-latest-poll-17
Sixty-three percent of Americans say that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry and have their marriages recognized by the law as valid, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2015/images/02/19/rel2f.obama.and.domestic....
(Scroll down, the poll results are on page 11
Happy reading!
You may want to check these out:
Most Americans (56 percent) would prefer that the court rule in favor of the Obama administration, allowing the government to continue subsidizing premiums in all states, according to an April Associated Press-GfK poll.
http://ap-gfkpoll.com/featured/findings-from-our-latest-poll-17
Sixty-three percent of Americans say that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry and have their marriages recognized by the law as valid, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2015/images/02/19/rel2f.obama.and.domestic....
(Scroll down, the poll results are on page 11
Happy reading!
As they say "Bring it on!" Just what is the Republican policy on the economy other than more tax cuts for the already rich such as lowering corporate tax rates and eliminating the estate tax; and on security other than more meddling in the Middle East this time a war with Iran. This is the party that says "No!" to raising the minimum wage, increasing the benefits of Social Security as pensions disappear into the hands of the Mitt Romneys of the world along with the companies that never fully funded them, making Food Stamps more available, keeping college more affordable as they reduce Pell grants, extending long-term unemployment benefits, and spending a dime on repair our deteriorating, dilapidated and outmoded infrastructure that makes us less competitive economically among others. This is the party of income inequality and credit card wars and economic bust. As I hope most voters will remember, we've "been then done that" and the President was a guy named Bush.
3
How can they? They have no good plan for anything, only for creating chaos, divisiveness, hatred and small-minded bigotry. They are not the present or the future, only the past trying and failing to resurrect itself.
4
I relish the opportunity to watch the the Party of the Past (Republicans) sell their brand. Your personal religion justifies discrimination trumping civil rights? Jobs in a favored industry trumps environmental collapse that effects all people on the planet? My personal beliefs trump your freedom to choose reproductive rights? Money is free speech and thus good for our political process? Running on the economy? Two words: George Bush…remember. The GOP largely caused the biggest ecomomic collapse in our lifetimes. Running on national security? Two more words: Iraq war. An ill-conceived and ill advised plan stranding us in the desert for 10 + years costing thousnands of lives. Being the party of obstruction and marketing it as a governing strategy only works for the already converted. The rest of us (majority) have no desire for to go back to past transgressions.
4
I see a different outcome from the phenomenon the author suggests. The culture wars have driven the Right's ascendance. If Martin is suggesting the party won't fight the election on them, much of the enthusiasm and activism will be taken out of their electorate.
At the same time, if they wish to make the campaign about the economy and foreign affairs, they're on the wrong side of public opinion on both issues. Their only prescription for the economy, which is doing pretty well but certainly could use some jobs, is tax cuts for the wealthy, not very popular among the lower 90% right now, and polls suggest the nation is in no mood for foreign military adventures. Here, they have no viable alternative to Obama's current strategy of fighting a proxy war against ISIS and the others.
I simply don't see the reasoning.
At the same time, if they wish to make the campaign about the economy and foreign affairs, they're on the wrong side of public opinion on both issues. Their only prescription for the economy, which is doing pretty well but certainly could use some jobs, is tax cuts for the wealthy, not very popular among the lower 90% right now, and polls suggest the nation is in no mood for foreign military adventures. Here, they have no viable alternative to Obama's current strategy of fighting a proxy war against ISIS and the others.
I simply don't see the reasoning.
5
The republican party has won in the SCOTUS as well, especialy with the two recent decisions involving campaign contrubutions - Citizens United and McCutcheon. The most recent decision on healthcare proved to me which Supreme Court justices are corrupt, taking bribes from corporations and people lke the Kochs, especially Justice Scalia whose blather indicates he's definitely on Koch..
7
I like the words in the title, culture battles and agree with the premises of the analysis. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled on Obama Care and Gay marriage, as a Rockefeller style Republican I am pleased to just move on and get to the economic issues that I focus on with respect to politics and believe why I am a Republican.
I used to be a Republican, the great recession changed that forever.
I see nothing in their economic policies that benefit anyone but the very wealthiest of us and even the wealthy are going to have to live with the impact of climate change.
I see nothing in their economic policies that benefit anyone but the very wealthiest of us and even the wealthy are going to have to live with the impact of climate change.
I don't think anything that the GOP can come up will attract voters in 2016. First off, between now and then, the GOP is going to split apart from the inside. There is going to be so much infighting it will make an MMA contest look like a love-fest. The only way the GOP has succeeded lately is through voter-suppression and gerrymandering. Hillary, smartly, has brought the right of everyone to vote to the forefront. And gerrymandering is the bane of the GOP because Republican legislators who aren't conservative enough for the crazies, risk being replaced by someone who is crazy enough to win their seat. Their pandering to the right-wing has no appeal nationally. No worries on the GOP in 2016, no matter what they try.
4
The Republicans claim that to be a realistic candidate, to be practical in this election, they must follow the lead of their conservative "40%", rather than actually lead a constituency. This, to me, is their fundamental flaw. They have it backwards. We are voting for leaders, we want and need real leaders. Case in point: I believe that Barack Obama has navigated a most difficult Presidency (often hamstrung by "House leadership") and led us to this extraordinary week in America. He saw where he wanted to take us. THAT is leadership, warts and all.
4
Jon Martin has vastly misjudged this epochal change and Sen. Cruz has only half understood when he says that "the people sense the America they know is slipping away" --- it has already slipped away and they are just starting to recognize that it has already changed into an Empire.
The minor 'identity issues' described herein are nothing compared to average Americans (and candidates) understanding that the previously well disguised Global Capitalist Empire merely 'posing' as, and HQed in, our former country is now fully diagnosed by many academics and public intellectuals, and is being 'exposed' to a fast growing segment of voters in a swell that will grow to a tsunami by November 2016.
Unlike what Frum may wish, 2016 will be the first election based on the single, but universally 'causal', mega-issue of Empire, just as surely as the implied but essential election of 1776 was decided by the American people in that "Revolutionary Summer".
"What seems most historically significant, at least in retrospect, is how true each side was to the core values it claimed to be fighting for. It was the coercive power of an empire against the consensual potency of a fledgling (democratic) republic. History seldom provides pure embodiments of such contrasting political alternatives, but in the summer of 1776 they were both on display"
Ellis, Joseph (2013) "Revolutionary Summer"
The minor 'identity issues' described herein are nothing compared to average Americans (and candidates) understanding that the previously well disguised Global Capitalist Empire merely 'posing' as, and HQed in, our former country is now fully diagnosed by many academics and public intellectuals, and is being 'exposed' to a fast growing segment of voters in a swell that will grow to a tsunami by November 2016.
Unlike what Frum may wish, 2016 will be the first election based on the single, but universally 'causal', mega-issue of Empire, just as surely as the implied but essential election of 1776 was decided by the American people in that "Revolutionary Summer".
"What seems most historically significant, at least in retrospect, is how true each side was to the core values it claimed to be fighting for. It was the coercive power of an empire against the consensual potency of a fledgling (democratic) republic. History seldom provides pure embodiments of such contrasting political alternatives, but in the summer of 1776 they were both on display"
Ellis, Joseph (2013) "Revolutionary Summer"
1
Jeb Bush has not "done more to portray himself" as more tolerant, he is more tolerant. Perhaps the editorial staff might possibly like to consider that his more inclusive conservatism is not just posturing but genuine. Bush, from the current candidates, represents the best chance to lead the GOP away from its much-ridiculed angry old white guy base towards a modern Conservative party
Seriously? The guy who doubled down on every stupid remark he's ever made? Shaming unwed mothers, opposing marriage equality etc.
What the GOP "leaders" may see and what the base wants are two different things. The base still wants to fight the culture wars and will completely muddy any attempts to re-orient the campaign in another direction. Just talk to most rank and file Republicans. Many are wanting to die on the ramparts of cultural conservatism than win any battles in the economic sphere.
4
I think Democrats need to beware the backlash of these changes-a supreme court victory is different than winning a popular vote. If liberals stop turning out on social issues there might be an enthusiasm gap between angry conservatives and complacent liberals.
3
The Republicans who see culture issues having a smaller role in the 2016 are deluding themselves.
Not going to happen with the likes of Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal and Ben Carson in the race for the GOP. Not to mention Donald Trump.
Realistic Republicans must be cringing about this.
Not going to happen with the likes of Mike Huckabee, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal and Ben Carson in the race for the GOP. Not to mention Donald Trump.
Realistic Republicans must be cringing about this.
3
It's pure fiction that a party that voted more than 50 times to kill healthcare for millions of Americans, cost us $24 billion when they closed down our government, started two non-budgeted wars that cost us trillions of dollars, and created a recession now has the answers for prosperity for the large swath of the population Mitt Romney dissed as lazy bums. Is it April 1st?
14
Au contraire. The GOP will continue to use the same dog whistles to get out the base. Check out the statements by the Clown Car folks:
"I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch,” Huckabee
Cruz wants a constitutional convention to set things to right.
“Marriage, the family and our children are too central to a healthy society to not fight for what is best,” Santorum
“Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that,” Jindal
And that's just on gay marriage. There's the ACA and illegals and...
"I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch,” Huckabee
Cruz wants a constitutional convention to set things to right.
“Marriage, the family and our children are too central to a healthy society to not fight for what is best,” Santorum
“Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that,” Jindal
And that's just on gay marriage. There's the ACA and illegals and...
3
This is disgusting. Where are the good men who work for all rather those whose interest is their pocketbooks?
3
Who are the GOP's primary voters - white poors and lower middle class and rich. We can not put the conservative issues into one group - social and cultural issues are important drivers for white poor and lower middle class. For rich and upper middle class the important issue is tax cut and immigration. The last week's happenings will not change the strategy for rich and upper middle class. And for poor, 'immigration' is the new coded language to keep them together. This election for GOP is the battle of 'immigration'. The challenge for Democrats is to insert the 'wedge' on white poor and lower middle class by taking up the issue of 'inequality'.
2
"Few Republican leaders want to contest the 2016 elections on social or cultural grounds, where polls suggest that they are sharply out of step with the American public."
Republican leaders have had since at least the 2013 Windsor decision to forge a new strategy that did not put Republicans on history's losing side on social and cultural issues.
So, where are all the Republican leaders who do not want to play the gay card in 2016 the way Karl Rove did for George W. Bush during his campaigns?
In this article we hear from Republican strategists who are understandably nervous, but they are just the hired guns, not the leaders themselves.
But, if by "leaders" we mean we mean Republican office holders and candidates, this article proves that Republican leaders have every intention of turning 2016 into a crusade for "religious freedom," a cynical get-out-the-vote ploy on a par with the state-level initiatives to enact bans on safe-sex marriage that helped but Bush II in office.
As for Jeb, one reason he's less belligerent is because he's the proud possessor of the Terri Schiavo culture-war medal. It speaks so he doesn't have to.
Since this piece is about how the Republicans will use social and cultural issues in 2016, I submit they will stir religious opposition to same-sex marriage to win votes. The prize, four more years in which to sack the American economy for the benefit of the rich, is worth far more to Republicans than seeming out of touch culturally.
Republican leaders have had since at least the 2013 Windsor decision to forge a new strategy that did not put Republicans on history's losing side on social and cultural issues.
So, where are all the Republican leaders who do not want to play the gay card in 2016 the way Karl Rove did for George W. Bush during his campaigns?
In this article we hear from Republican strategists who are understandably nervous, but they are just the hired guns, not the leaders themselves.
But, if by "leaders" we mean we mean Republican office holders and candidates, this article proves that Republican leaders have every intention of turning 2016 into a crusade for "religious freedom," a cynical get-out-the-vote ploy on a par with the state-level initiatives to enact bans on safe-sex marriage that helped but Bush II in office.
As for Jeb, one reason he's less belligerent is because he's the proud possessor of the Terri Schiavo culture-war medal. It speaks so he doesn't have to.
Since this piece is about how the Republicans will use social and cultural issues in 2016, I submit they will stir religious opposition to same-sex marriage to win votes. The prize, four more years in which to sack the American economy for the benefit of the rich, is worth far more to Republicans than seeming out of touch culturally.
3
I'm a conservative but I've been saying for years what this article suggests... on many of these social issues, the direction of the country is clear. So now we can focus upon the REAL issues, namely the bankruptcy of this country via the national debt.
Real issues? Crumbling infrastructure, impoverished schools, embedded racism, nepotism and favoritism at federal, state, county, municipal levels, antiquated tax structure.
2
If every issue and point of contention and social debate going on in America were not presented in terms of a win or loss for "conservatives" and "liberals" or Democrats and Republicans, then maybe Americans could begin discussing the reasoning behind the positions they take, and maybe a dialogue could ensue.
As it is, people are lumped into one side or another based on their past partisan political persuasion, and everything quickly becomes a fight instead of a reasoned debate.
Civil rights don't amount to a "battle" won by "the left." A more civil society is a win for every member of that society. Why try to turn this into a dog fight?
As it is, people are lumped into one side or another based on their past partisan political persuasion, and everything quickly becomes a fight instead of a reasoned debate.
Civil rights don't amount to a "battle" won by "the left." A more civil society is a win for every member of that society. Why try to turn this into a dog fight?
1
Because it helps distract everyone from the fact that both sides are corporate owned, as is most of our media.
The social and cultural issues will not disappear. They will bedevil Republicans in primaries and the general election. Furthermore, without these cultural issues, what do the Republicans have to capture votes of blue-collar, older, rural, Southern, religiously-literalist, poor, less-educated white voters?
As for economic issues, still wanting to kill Obamacare, talking about "privatizing" Social Security (instead of expanding it as Bernie Sanders recommends -- and Hillary Clinton should), favoring big corporations, trying to run away from GW Bush's economic disaster, and pandering to the obscenely rich 0.01% are not winning positions. Security issues? Will they emulate Cheney-Bush who presided over the nation's worst security failure since Pearl Harbor and led (and lied) us into an unnecessary war in Iraq -- and then return their foreign policy "experts" to power? Do they want to follow John McCain's advice and put "boots on the ground" (i.e., put American service personnel at risk) in Iraq and Afghanistan forever, as well as in Iran, Nigeria, Libya, Syria...
No, the Republicans will still have to focus on denying climate change, beat the drum about abortion, guns, activist judges, capital punishment, terrorists (Jihadists, not anti-government ones), illegal immigrants, and government workers. We will hear about Benghazi, e-mails, supposed voter fraud, the "war" on religion (as the Republicans define religion), and Sharia law.
As for economic issues, still wanting to kill Obamacare, talking about "privatizing" Social Security (instead of expanding it as Bernie Sanders recommends -- and Hillary Clinton should), favoring big corporations, trying to run away from GW Bush's economic disaster, and pandering to the obscenely rich 0.01% are not winning positions. Security issues? Will they emulate Cheney-Bush who presided over the nation's worst security failure since Pearl Harbor and led (and lied) us into an unnecessary war in Iraq -- and then return their foreign policy "experts" to power? Do they want to follow John McCain's advice and put "boots on the ground" (i.e., put American service personnel at risk) in Iraq and Afghanistan forever, as well as in Iran, Nigeria, Libya, Syria...
No, the Republicans will still have to focus on denying climate change, beat the drum about abortion, guns, activist judges, capital punishment, terrorists (Jihadists, not anti-government ones), illegal immigrants, and government workers. We will hear about Benghazi, e-mails, supposed voter fraud, the "war" on religion (as the Republicans define religion), and Sharia law.
5
While Republicans will benefit from the issues mentioned in this article coming off of the table, they will continue to struggle to resolve a conflict between their base's concerns and millions of voters they must avoid alienating and driving into the Democrats' camp as successfully as they've made generations of gay and lesbian voters into loyal Democrats with their past behavior. That issue is immigration reform.
1
As we no longer have a functioning democracy, deeply polluted, as it is, by money, the impact is that, in the breach, our courts now assume a legislative function. This compounds rather than enhances the dysfunction and will lead to continuing turmoil and even further dysfunction.
Live and let live, as no direct harm is done, but to force either side to adopt and internalize the beliefs of the other is a loss, not a victory. Rather, let us admit that government can only adopt values by the assent of the governed except in the most egregious circumstances. The sweet-spot of just-compromise has yet to be found, here.
Live and let live, as no direct harm is done, but to force either side to adopt and internalize the beliefs of the other is a loss, not a victory. Rather, let us admit that government can only adopt values by the assent of the governed except in the most egregious circumstances. The sweet-spot of just-compromise has yet to be found, here.
2
With fewer bones to throw out to lower lower socio-economic white people, how will republicans keep convincing them to vote against their economic self interests? I see the republican party becoming either marginalized or forced to betray their paymasters. Either way, the American people will benefit.
4
As long as our "lower socio-economic" white people watch and believe the lies on Fox News they will remain duped. Years ago there was some sort of truth thing..where networks had to back up their views and not spew outright lies..now they can spew out broadcast whatever they want (ISIS coming over the border to behead us, raping, pillaging - see Trump) to frighten them into voting for the interests of the 1%.
1
Let them try it.
Our economy has done better under Obama and Clinton than under Bush Sr. and Bush Jr.
September 11 happened when Bush Jr. was in office.
If you want a better economy and safety, don't vote Republican.
Our economy has done better under Obama and Clinton than under Bush Sr. and Bush Jr.
September 11 happened when Bush Jr. was in office.
If you want a better economy and safety, don't vote Republican.
6
This has to be one of the strangest articles I've read in a long time. Slow news day I guess, after such a week?
So let me get this straight: we're supposed to start worrying because of...well, something? We're supposed to be wringing our hands because we -- Americans -- are doing the right thing and right is winning over wrong?
Whatever...
But don't count on me to worry. I'm too busy celebrating.
So let me get this straight: we're supposed to start worrying because of...well, something? We're supposed to be wringing our hands because we -- Americans -- are doing the right thing and right is winning over wrong?
Whatever...
But don't count on me to worry. I'm too busy celebrating.
4
Lets first see how fast the voter suppression laws are reversed and how fast gay couples gain rights in the work force and housing rights.
It takes time to change and given the GOPs stanch history with oppression and divisiveness at their core, adding to that their bad economic and foreign policies over their last reign in the White House......
I don't think this is a reality for them by 2016.
It takes time to change and given the GOPs stanch history with oppression and divisiveness at their core, adding to that their bad economic and foreign policies over their last reign in the White House......
I don't think this is a reality for them by 2016.
5
GOP candidates saying that their signature issues are settled? Their base and their fat cat donors will never back a candidate who walks away from promises to repeal ACA, or stop same sex-marriage, and even if they did, there are plenty of other culture war issues out there. What about a immigration? A woman's right to choose? Climate change? Vouchers? Voting rights? And the new favorites- the right to discriminate based on religious liberty, and states rights to decide culture questions. Don't worry, the GOP isn't ready to join the 21st century yet.
9
The Republican contenders won't be able to resist inflamatory speech about social issues because so many of them are really just aspiring demagogues. They live for the thrill of inciting the crowd. Frum is thinking magically when he predicts the Republicans will welcome gays, Blacks and migrants into the bigtop. They might play lip service, but the invitation couldn't possibly be sincere.
As to economic and security issues, they hate unions and working people, and even eat their young, as evidenced by their ridiculous shut-down of the EX-IM Bank, an institution that serves many small and medium businesses in red states. And we've already seen how blithely they send our children to war--any war will do, and if there isn't one, they'll start it.
The Republican base is backwards looking, filled with hypocrisy, anger and hate. As long as the candidates lean that way, they will never get the support of the mainstream, nor should they.
As to economic and security issues, they hate unions and working people, and even eat their young, as evidenced by their ridiculous shut-down of the EX-IM Bank, an institution that serves many small and medium businesses in red states. And we've already seen how blithely they send our children to war--any war will do, and if there isn't one, they'll start it.
The Republican base is backwards looking, filled with hypocrisy, anger and hate. As long as the candidates lean that way, they will never get the support of the mainstream, nor should they.
8
"June will go down as the month that dulled some of the wedge issues Democrats were hoping to wield next year." according to the polls? This might be true if Republican candidates could magically take back their character issue positions. Instead, they have doubled down on racism and southern strategy sentiment, same sex marriage, and obsessive anti-Obama healthcare opposition. Yet "many Republicans contend that America is still receptive to a more conservative approach on economics and national security while offering economic expertise and foreign policy as strengths." may be even more delusional than passing a Constitutional amendment to reverse the "same sex" decision. Democrats and the mainstream media can belie the attempt to re-write the recent catastrophes of Iraq and the financial collapse by playing the video tape, over and again.
"What outrages social conservatives is not only the narrow issue of same-sex marriage rights, but also what they see as a violation of religious liberties that they believe are intrinsic to the country." by ignoring the First Amendment which forbids government from enforcing religious beliefs on the people. Believing without evidence or facts is a religious right but can never be a law. Believing that "a violation of religious liberties that they believe are intrinsic to the country" is pathological when their "liberty" infringes on everyone's liberty.
"What outrages social conservatives is not only the narrow issue of same-sex marriage rights, but also what they see as a violation of religious liberties that they believe are intrinsic to the country." by ignoring the First Amendment which forbids government from enforcing religious beliefs on the people. Believing without evidence or facts is a religious right but can never be a law. Believing that "a violation of religious liberties that they believe are intrinsic to the country" is pathological when their "liberty" infringes on everyone's liberty.
2
Or maybe the opposite of your headline is true, as most Americans see the Republicans wrong on social issues, they will come to believe Republicans wrong on most others too?!
7
Republicans have traditionally had God, guns, and gays to campaign on. The suggestion that they may suddently "pivot" to the economy and national defense is rather like an actor in a long running play who must learn a whole new set of lines: sure, the actor may well memorize easily enough, but will the audience recognize anything but the old character?
3
How much utopia can we take?
Lean Forward until you topple over.
Lean Forward until you topple over.
4
This means absolutely nothing. I guess that's all you've got left since you can't come up with anything of substance.
A great many people are fed up with the ever more progressive, holier-than-thou mantra of your version of "utopia."
If you think this is all I, or others of my persuasion, have left, think again.
If you are trying to insult me, you have failed!
If you think this is all I, or others of my persuasion, have left, think again.
If you are trying to insult me, you have failed!
2
I so well remember how during the 2000 election the republicans (I refuse to call them the "right" since they usually aren't) screamed about how we needed "morality" back in the White House. At the time the economy was booming and the country knew little about the horrors of war, so they made it all about Monoca Lewenski, etc. Well, we got their "morality" and then some. Now they want to make it about the economy? An economy that they engineered via war crimes and deregulation? Hopefully the voters will continue to ingnore their shrill shill as they have no new ideas. Only failed nightmares.
9
Having a hard time putting my finger on what is troubling me. I'm to believe somehow we split between left and right and things are all going the left's way. The problem is I cannot see where I fit. I mean gay marriage and equal rights, I've wanted that for 40 or 50 years. Affordable care, needs tweaking, repeal, never. Racial tensions, my wife was a different race than I and we got married in 1974, so i know there are problems. But, here's where it gets tricky. We are paying what, couple hundred billion plus a year, just interest on the debt. That money would be better spent elsewhere. Hmm, glyphosate is certainly a carcinogen yet we spray more and more of it on corn. Speaking of corn, why do we have to import corn from Romania if we want it without glyphosate? Okay so who is protecting me? I know the Bush family has a long standing and deep relationship with Monsanto. Hillary? She took how much again from Monsanto and she has Monsanto types deeply involved in her campaign. I get emails from both sides telling me they are desperate for my money. But, there are so many bundlers, Hillstarters and what for Jeb, Jebbidites (?) or something … . Then there is this whole thing not mentioned in this piece. An old thing that used to mean something, ah INTEGRITY. I do not trust Jeb or Hillary. I do not know which I trust the least. I do know I cannot relate to either.
5
Bernie Sanders might interest you.
2
Bernie Sanders
1
Joey, check out Bernie Sanders. He doesn't need to check a poll to know what to say and he's been working for middle class and poor Americans consistently for decades. HRC is NOT the inevitable candidate.
1
The republican playbook has a core principle of picking the lowest hanging fruit for issues. They did not give up on abortion legalization with Roe v Wade. Most of the republican candidates and their supporters are hard wired on social issues so that this week's SCOTUS decisions will not be acceptable, they will have to fight them as an involuntary response. It is baked in that these social issues are a main form of funding and a way to keep their voting base agitated and involved. A pivot from social wedge issues is not in the cards for this bench of republican presidential players. The trained, fixed responses are too ingrained for these candidates and this party to pivot to higher ground. They will find the muck to be so much flypaper.
6
'We have been observing the deconstructing of America over the last six and one-half years.' Tony Perkins, Family Research Council.
Only a 'Psycho' would draw the conclusion that the progress of freedom, tolerance and equality that the nation has experienced during the Obama years would be 'deconstructing.' It raises the question of what 'construct' Perkins desires to retain. Not a place that I would ever want to visit, certainly not desire to return to.
Only a 'Psycho' would draw the conclusion that the progress of freedom, tolerance and equality that the nation has experienced during the Obama years would be 'deconstructing.' It raises the question of what 'construct' Perkins desires to retain. Not a place that I would ever want to visit, certainly not desire to return to.
23
Yes, Candy Darling Darling, the nail you so succinctly hit so squarely on the head of emphatic truth rings so true. And what about David Frum issuing forth;
"........We are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition."
Gag. Gag. Gag. Can you believe these guys?
"........We are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition."
Gag. Gag. Gag. Can you believe these guys?
2
Alfred Hitchcock didn't cast his film by accident. Too bad this repeat of history is more tragedy than farce. Wait, it is farce!
1
The writer characterizes these as wedge issues that Democrats plan to run on.
Actually, these wedge issues were created by Republicans who have been running on them for decades, to distract voters from noticing that Republicans have been advancing policies that have pulled the rug out from under the children of the great post-WWII American middle class.
Actually, these wedge issues were created by Republicans who have been running on them for decades, to distract voters from noticing that Republicans have been advancing policies that have pulled the rug out from under the children of the great post-WWII American middle class.
60
Yes the cons are as wrong about economics as they are about racism ,voting rights ,and health care
2
Yes, because certainly, people should expect to have marriage and health care and prosper economically, too.
5
If I live in Europe and the Mideast, I would apply for a Visa to the US and once here start the process to be a Citizen. This last week illustrates why our democracy is great.
6
You mean because we are starting to catch up with Europe on these issues?
So Republicans see a future based on their economic and military ideas? God help us, as this means incessant wars with mounting misery and death and continuing theft by the top one-tenth of one percent from the rest of the world, starting with theft from the American people. If penury and misery are what the people want, then surely theirs is a winning idea.
62
I didn't realize that equal rights, including marriage equality, could be cast as a "right" or "left" issue.
This latest Supreme Court ruling is not a "win" for the left. It's a win for fairness.
This latest Supreme Court ruling is not a "win" for the left. It's a win for fairness.
50
Sadly fairness IS a liberal issue! As well as live and let live.
7
Given that the right was the only group opposing it I would say it is a left victory and a country victory...no thanks to the right.
Sadly, Mark Hrrison, equal outcomes is also a liberal issue. That's where the disagreements begin.
“Every once in a while, we bring down the curtain on the politics of a prior era,” said David Frum, the conservative writer. “The stage is now cleared for the next generation of issues. And Republicans can say, ‘Whether you’re gay, black or a recent migrant to our country, we are going to welcome you as a fully cherished member of our coalition.’ ”
The only problem with David Frum's take on this is that most voters don't suffer from amnesia. The Republicans may want to believe they can "turn the corner" on these issues, but I doubt they will be able to, mainly because their base won't let them. When the Republicans stop playing to their base on every issue, social or otherwise, they can start talking about a changing coalition.
The only problem with David Frum's take on this is that most voters don't suffer from amnesia. The Republicans may want to believe they can "turn the corner" on these issues, but I doubt they will be able to, mainly because their base won't let them. When the Republicans stop playing to their base on every issue, social or otherwise, they can start talking about a changing coalition.
31
When they stop playing to the base they cease to exist, and someone else starts playing to the same base.
1
Frum obviously hasn't listened to any of the Republican candidates lately.
1
What does this writer mean by "left." I'm not "on the left" but only appear to be so because the GOP has moved so far right. These people live in their own echo chamber and never truly look at the world around them. These were real social issues that have come to the fore, and the GOP position has been rigid and unchangeable. As a former Republican, now independent, I can only hope we can find a candidate who can lead on the economic and environmental issues that need attention now. When Ted Cruz says he believes his America is slipping away, I can say the same thing - only for completely different reasons, such as money in politics and politicians who are beholden to special interests.
36
You remind me of my father in law who was a Republican and considered himself a conservative but couldn't understand how he, an intellectual who didn't have strong feelings about ( but had no problem with) abortion rights or gay marriage or immigration reform and had strong convictions in his atheism, had somehow cast his lot with Birthers and tea partiers and ( what he considered) religious fanatics
16
I too am looking for the fiscal conservative who is open to the social realities of our country and our times and has the courage to say so. Someone who shows an ability to bridge the dialogue across these miserable party lines. He or she hasn't shown up yet in either party.
On abortion, proposed laws like 20-week abortion bans get majority support. On immigration, it depends on how you ask the questions, but vast majorities oppose increasing levels of immigration and in some polls majorities do not support a "path to citizenship". On marriage, it's true that decades of propaganda from a culturally left media has created majorities supporting the redefinition endorsed Friday. But now as the leftist fight moves on to suing small businesses, making death threats against Indiana pizzerias, and threatening churches, even moderates who are softly supporting of same-sex marriage will have had enough. I know some of them.
This nation was founded on religious freedom. We are ready to fight for our 1st Amendment rights and we are not going anywhere.