Republicans Are The Problem

[Straight Shooter]

The GOP is to blame for the dysfunction in Washington. Both the Democrats and the Republicans share some blame but the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party. The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. They are ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

Discuss:stir:

 

[Will E Worm]

They are both the problem.

We need a Third Party and term limits.

Career politicians need not apply.
Statesmen not politicians.


"A politician thinks of the next election - a statesman of the next generation." - James Freeman Clark

Article

Statesmen versus Politicians Article

 

[Straight Shooter]

They are both the problem.

Wrong. It's a false equivalency to say both are the problem. As I said in the OP, the GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. They are ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

 

[Supafly]

You need AT LEAST one more party. Just to break up the fixed system, as during the, say, last twenty years, both sides of the isle got pocketed so well by Wall Street, Big Oil, the Pharmacy companies, Koch Brothers, you name it, there are very few left, and those few not surprisingly drop out soon when they start to stir up trouble. One of my fave examples: Mr. Alan Grayson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NYBTkE1yQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-usmvYOPfco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U73dfpQ4YGg

I could share more, but you get the picture. Only a handful of politicians in the USA right now dare to stand up like him right now.

 

[mikexmoran]

They are definitely both the problem. IMO the Republican platform has gone off the track and they don't have the narrative that the Democrats have at this point. So, they get to take a bit more of the blame, but I do not agree with "Republicans are the problem". There is a leadership void in Washington. Just politics.

 

[Johan]

IMHO, the problem is guys saying that those who don't think like them are the problem, wether they are Republicanq, Democrats, Liberals, Socialists, Conservatives or whatever...

 

[Will E Worm]

Wrong. It's a false equivalency to say both are the problem. As I said in the OP, the GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. They are ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

You need AT LEAST one more party.

They are definitely both the problem.

Looks like people are agreeing with me. :tongue: :elaugh:

 

[Straight Shooter]

Looks like people are agreeing with me. :tongue: :elaugh:

I don't know why people keep saying we need more than two parties. There are hundreds of different political parties besides the GOP and the Dems, they just happen to be the two biggest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States

Looking at the list there a few parties that I could see myself backing. Particularly the Justice Party which is center-left on both social and fiscal issues or the Unity Party of America which is moderate when it comes to both fiscal and social issues or even the Modern Whig Party.

 

[Will E Worm]

I don't know why people keep saying we need more than two parties. There are hundreds of different political parties besides the GOP and the Dems, they just happen to be the two biggest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States

Looking at the list there a few parties that I could see myself backing. Particularly the Justice Party which is center-left on both social and fiscal issues or the Unity Party of America which is moderate when it comes to both fiscal and social issues or even the Modern Whig Party.

People keep saying we need more than two parties because the media only shows two parties.

Where's the Independent debates? Why can't Independent parties debate Republicans and Democrats?

Independent Presidential Debate Thread

Independents: Might 2012 be the Year of the 3rd Party Candidate? Thread

 

[Straight Shooter]

People keep saying we need more than two parties because the media only shows two parties.

Where's the Independent debates? Why can't Independent parties debate Republicans and Democrats?

Because again those two parties are the biggest parties represented. If you want them to cover more of the independent parties why don't you and your friends go out and build some support for them so they can have their voice heard?

 

[Will E Worm]

Because again those two parties are the biggest parties represented. If you want them to cover more of the independent parties why don't you and your friends go out and build some support for them so they can have their voice heard?

It doesn't matter how big they are. The media is not supposed to be bias. They should show all sides, not just the ones they want.

Also, there's room for Independent debates and Independents debating with Republicans and Democrats.

 

[Straight Shooter]

It doesn't matter how big they are. The media is not supposed to be bias. They should show all sides, not just the ones they want.

Also, there's room for Independent debates and Independents debating with Republicans and Democrats.

Yes it does. The GOP and Dems are represented in every state and you want the media to cover the 20 or so people who make up the whatever side you're talking about. Instead of bitching that the media this and the media that, go out and do something about it

 

[Mayhem]

The Bush II presidency was a classic case of saying one thing and then sprinting the opposite way. The creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security is in complete opposition to what Republicans say they stand for. And it does so on a few different levels.

Preaching smaller, less intrusive government while shoving your religion into public schools is another contradiction in Republican terms.

The Patriot Act....complete and total perversion of everything the GOP has been yammering at me my entire life.

You get hypocrisy all across the political spectrum. But the Republicans have no idea who they are or what it is they are trying to achieve anymore.

 

[xfire]

Republicans base a great deal of their rhetoric on religious dogma. The nature of religious dogma doesn't leave room for debate, dissent, or difference. They have painted themselves into an angry corner and wonder why rational people shun them and look at them with disdain and contempt. Point out any of their myriad of inconsistencies and they ignore you. Fight back and they want to kill you. Republican fiscal policy isn't conservative. You can't run up trillions of dollars of debt and claim you're fiscally conservative. Republican social policy isn't conservative, either, they're all for big government when it suits their religious interests. There's going to have be a schism in the Republican party before they heal from their internal hemorrhaging. You can't serve two masters, and the futile attempt to do just that is what's killing the GOP.

 

[Trident1]

The creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security


The Patriot Act....

Do you even know why both of these entities were formed? Please say yes.

 

[Mayhem]

Yes son, I know why they were formed. And before you go off on some diatribe that barely makes any point whatsoever, let alone refutes mine, the central point here is Republican hypocrisy. They want smaller gov't by creating new, monolithic agencies; they say they are about freedom, while wiretapping your phone and intercepting your email. Hypocrisy.

 

[Trident1]

Yes son, I know why they were formed. And before you go off on some diatribe that barely makes any point whatsoever, let alone refutes mine, the central point here is Republican hypocrisy. They want smaller gov't by creating new, monolithic agencies; they say they are about freedom, while wiretapping your phone and intercepting your email. Hypocrisy.

Uh no son. It shows the Republicans were doing the American thing, you know doing what was in the interest and security for the people of the country. I would expect such actions from either side of the aisle under such trying times.
Understand?

 

[ballzano]

the dems have control of washington....they only lost the house in november of 2010. Or do you just miss blaming bush?

 

[Mayhem]

Uh no son. It shows the Republicans were doing the American thing, you know doing what was in the interest and security for the people of the country. I would expect such actions from either side of the aisle under such trying times.
Understand?

That all sounds good until you realize that I had been a Republican since Reagans first term. Thats a couple of decades worth of hearing about how they want more funding for the DoD, FBI and CIA. 9/11 handed them (and the country) the only opportunity that we will see in our lifetimes to secure appropriate funding for all three. And what do we do with this opportunity? We piss it all away on a completely separate bureaucracy. A multi-billion dollar one at that. Are you safer? Are you safer with all the money and resources (direct and implied) flowing into this waste-o'-time agency, instead of the the original Departments of Homeland Security?

Do you "Support the Troops"? Do you? Not if you support the DHS. Remember when the soldier asked Rumsfeld why they were stuck with un-armored vehicles? The answer was because the money that should have been spent on it went towards strip searching granny. Why can't we get better overseas intelligence? Because the intelligence budget went toward arresting tow-truck drivers on reality TV. Why are our ports not secure? Because we won't let the Coast Guard secure them. We have someone better.

If all of this had been constructed by a liberal, I'd still be a Republican. But after seeing everything I was taught get well and truly demolished by the Party that taught it to me, the platform may be alive, but the people who can bring it about are well and truly dead and gone.

 

[Trident1]

The reasons why are clear. What happens to them years later are obvious: as gov't entities they grew out of control and inept as gov't has no idea ultimately how to run things efficiently.