Has the GOP Learned It's Lesson?

Their ship is sinking.

Are they willing to dump overboard the social baggage regarding which they have become increasingly out-of-touch with the American public and go more libertarian? My guess is that the Washington denizens will mouth empty platitudes to keep the theocratic zealots from making too big a stink (a la Reagan) and will focus on excusing the wealthiest Americans from the responsibility of reducing the deficit.

That's a loser with the public as well, as polls amply attest, but if they can disguise it as fiscal responsibility and sell that, they should be able to run with it.

What else can they do? Republican governors and senators have already begun taking to the lifeboats.

Politicians lead by following the votes.

 

No. They will continue as they have been (toward the extremes), until the American people vote the 'majority' of them out of office.

 

So senseless. What would you have said in 2010 if some idiotic poster just kept posted "Democrat ship sinking", bleh bleh bleh

 

The unyielding intransigence and power-grasping of the GOP, will ultimately be their undoing.

 

They turnt on Chris Christie lmao. He is their best hope. They have their own voters thinking he's a rhino!! It's just crazy!! Most of these people have never in their lifetime had to even amend how they think for one second let alone now that it's a crucial time for their party. They still don't get that people don't believe in them.

 

What is the lesson that the GOP should learn? They think the answer should be immigration reform.

 

Interesting. Some just don't get it.

 

A political party's objective is survival and the brighter Republican ones are already amenable to reason concerning immigration reform, same-sex marriage, universal health care, minimum wage, etc.

It'll take more than Boehner and McConnell getting liquored up on Milagro and cutting a mean Mexican hat dance in front of the Capitol, but they will do whatever is necessary to win back enough Americans and their votes.

Dumping that ayatollah theocratic shtick is essential.

 

Only of getting elected President, if the public's high regard for him in New Jersey is any indication. Some will still stick with Limbaugh, preferring bombastic fiction to competent governance, though - which is their right.

 

You mean the lesson that you can't win by running as the lesser of two Santa Clauses? Or the lesson that a plurality of the american people prefer to believe almost any lie you can come up with over an incovenient truth?

 

As most Americans envision an America about which you cling to an aberrant view, your reviling the populace constitutes an inconsequential self-indulgence.

The Republican Party's existential problems with younger Americans, Black Americans, and Hispanic Americans has been well-documented, but, as the GOP attempts to broaden its appeal, it would do well to treat Asian-Americans with greater consideration as well.

Senator Lindsey Graham(R)'s Inconvenient Truth: “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”

 

1st a plurality is not a majority.

2nd we do not need angry white guys. What we need are well educated rather than well indoctrianted people who understand that homosexual rights and the freedom to mess up your head in what ever way you think best are side issues when one looks at the fact that the primary problem is a government that grows day by day in all kinds and manners of ways that are increasingly more destructive of everyone's personal freedom.

 

And the 51.2% of Americans that re-elected President Obama would be...?

That's exactly what smart Republicans must keep telling themselves. You can't afford to depend upon angry white guys any longer, Senator Graham'(R)s blunt message.

True. Parroting whatever silly mantra their talk radio masters train them to spout, or expressing fear over democratic self-governance, are no substitutes for an education. One need only note the comparative levels of academic attainment amongst the states and the correspondence with their political orientation - as well as states that look to a "Santa Claus" federal government to subsidize them vs states that contribute to such subsidization.



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Yes the indoctrination levels are much higher in blue states than in red ones...

 

An educated population would mean the death of the extreme right, which happens to run the repub party these days.
More educated people tend to be more liberal.
Nobody with a brain would put up with the litany of ignorant nonsense that passes for ideology among the right.

 

Don't you mean "income," "family stability", "quality of life," or some such metric?

If you have figures to sustain your bizarre pretense, a link to such a study would be appropriate. Otherwise, it is would appear to be a matter of ignorance, alienation, prejudice and/or envy.

 

It is not the social baggage of same-sex marriage that is the problem with going increasing Libertarian, they have no problem with that, it is that chunk of the 47% that Raygun did not scare into thinking they would be back to the Libertarian position of being old or disabled living in a shack with a gold watch when they lost everything in an S&L collapse... Being against reasonable regulations on banking, which Democrats seem to be for, any old lady from the Depression can remember was necessary.

No, they have not learned their lesson if they think going Libertarian on economic issues and safety nets is the answer. The Liberal media made Ron Paul the darling whenever they wanted a Republican view on Social Programs and Fox News campaigned for Obama with every John Stossel and most Hannity...episodes.

The Libertarian position is basically saying that if you cannot be the best, and everyone be high tech, as if the mob could all do the math at any time in history, and save and be safe with minimal regulations, which obviously failed even with super computers, as there can be no Socialist Security or basic Health Care, when Charity by the minority rich mob has never cut it at any time in history, you will be worse than a Chinese peasant or a legless Mexican on a plywood board with skates on the botton begging with no trickle down of any kind.

I just do not see the Mob seeing entitlements and regulations as the problem, which was the constant refrain of the Republicans, when the rich are seen to be getting richer as if they are Robber Barons.

 

Just to give you an example of reliable documentation in a specific matter, according to the US Census, ranking the median family income by state yields the following top ten: Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Alaska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, California, and Delaware.

At the bottom are: Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Montana, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

The correspondence in level of education, divorce rate, teenage pregnancy, health, longevity, and other quality-of-life indexes is not absolute, but is striking.

Consider, in regard to "indoctrination", cigarette-smoking with its attendant enormous health costs for the nation: Top smoking states? West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, Indiana, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Nevada; and, those that have the lowest rates: Utah, California, Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.

Quite rightly, the wealthier state largely subsidize the poorer ones, and not just in health care. Are "the indoctrination levels are much higher in blue states than in red ones" as you opine? If that were the case, it is to the distinct general advantage of the states with the lower levels of whatever it is that you deem "indoctrination,"

 

If anti-government-of-by-and-for-the-people ideologues truly believe that a preponderance of society's ills can be assuaged by private initiatives, all they need to do is demonstrate that hypothesis, and The People will be delighted to have been relieved of the burden. The same quid est demonstratum might be attained by them merely by demonstrating an instance where unbridled capitalism has resulted in a just society.

The implicit challenge: If you think you can do it better, don't merely harangue to that effect. Just do it!, and you will have effectively co-opted a basic governmental responsibility.

 

Their problem is that they don't know what to believe in or stand for any more. They're on the back foot because they failed to recognize that the left's target was the culture, tradition, religion etc. By the time they realized what the revolutionaries were up to, it was too late. Aware of the significant damage that had been done and the change of opinions brought about by decades long subtle psychological warfare and the long (completed) march through the institutions they became unsure of themselves. Some wanted to fight, others, terrified of the left's near total power over media and academia, wanted to work within the status quo (which of course means that they cease to be conservative).

So........... the lesson they have failed to learn is that the revolution has long gone cultural. They see it now because the demographics have changed so much. They’re not getting elected. Their sons and daughters are coming home from university droning on about "American imperialism" and "rights". There’s no Christmas tree in the centre of town any more. They have also failed to learn that no matter how "inclusive" they are, they will never be able to attract the metropolitan elites and minorities. That can only have a negligible affect as people are tribal voters by nature. You can pander to rights, fashionable bohemian nonsense and every modish left wing cause going, but why would you vote for the right when you have a ready made bunch of "former" radicals who do it so much better. Worse still by doing this they are giving their consent to cultural revolution and normalizing certain behaviours that everybody would have been against 50 years ago.

Conclusion: The right have to stand for something different or else they cannot justify their existence. Something different as in real cultural, moral and fiscal conservatism.

 

Per the OP...it's not possible for the GOP to learn anything other than they have already learned..that being excess, greed, and elitism. They know no other way to live and they believe it's normal...THEY (and only they) are important enough (in their minds) to warrant life's offerings. To them, everybody else is sheet. They'll continue their arrogance, greed and corruption to even higher unprecedented levels because it's the only way they know how to behave.

 

2014 a fax will go out to GOP candidates....."Don't talk about abortion, unless you are in a closed room and make sure all the camera phones are confiscated. Don't EVER talk about rape and abortion. Don't talk about gay marriage unless, again, it's a closed room or church; no cameras."

Look for "no press allowed" meetings with Social Con groups.


The GOP will HIDE their social con agenda.

 

Instead of just doing it in the environment given they shot themselves in the foot constantly arguing that business cannot hire because they do not know what their taxes will be, and president comes off as the underdog against spite, which could only have the effect of demonstrating a lack of business sence, instead of just figuring the worse case and if the environment does not happen to be worse than planned for they have a windfall.

"Taxmageddon is already causing uncertainty in the economy. 'The uncertainty is slowing the economy because businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs can’t plan for the near future,' explained Curtis Dubay, a Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation.[9] As Dubay further explains:



Because [businesses] they don’t know what their taxes are going to be in just a few months. If they don’t know what their taxes will be, there is no way for them to determine if their potential job-creating investments would be profitable. Without being able to make that vital calculation, there is no way they can move forward on projects that would speed growth and create much needed jobs. So they’re sitting back, waiting for Congress to provide some certainty. http://www.taxeducationfoundation.org/briefs/2012-07.htm

 

Fast learner?

It is as if a gaping Florida sinkhole has suddenly appeared under the GOP platform!



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Excuses for reality failing to support theory abound, and evoke the apocryphal tale alleging that it had been proven by scientists that bees can't fly.

The actual readily trumps the formulaic, in economics as well as other disciplines, no matter how dogmatically held and stridently expressed.