Colin Powell: GOP Has An ‘Identity Problem’

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM



SAHIL KAPUR 10:59 AM EST, SUNDAY JANUARY 13, 2013

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press" that the GOP cannot merely represent the "far right wing of the political spectrum" if it wants to remain a viable party into the future. "I think the Republican Party right now is having an identity problem," he said. "And I'm still a Republican."

"In recent years there's been a significant shift to the right, and we have seen what that shift has produced: two losing presidential campaigns," Powell said. "I think what the Republican Party needs to do now is take a very hard look at itself and understand that the country has changed. The country is changing demographically. And if the Republican Party does not change along with that demographic, they're going to be in trouble."

"There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party," he said. "They still sort of look down on minorities." He pointed to Republican figures issuing racially-tinged slurs at President Obama and the GOP's tolerance of the birther movement. The former secretary of state said the GOP needs to come up with constructive solutions to problems like health care and climate change.

"I'm a moderate, but I'm still a Republican," Powell said. "And until I voted for Obama twice I voted for seven straight Republican presidents."

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Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/colin-powell-gop-has-dark-vein-of-intolerance

[BlueNoteSpecial]

1. Mr. Powell...he sure is quick on the uptake, can't get nothing by him, by golly!

[SHRED]

2. Both parties do

just sayin'


---

[L0oniX]

3. The Democratic party has moved enough to the right that there isn't room for the Repuke party.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defence
than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Powell proudly states his Party is still racist and intolerant and yet his very own beloved Party.

Powell plays a specific role for his Party that has to do with playing down that racism of the GOP, Powell says that they are racist, but that's not really that bad as he stays among them. He has common ground enough with the racists and bigots to cause him to feel affinity with them. That is to say he is a Republican.

[Third Doctor]

8. That's why I have trouble understanding why some members of the minority

and lgbt communiities find it possible to support the GOP. It blows my mind, this is not the party it used to be. Why would one be associated with a party that has members openly disrespected the first African American president of the US. The problem is that the GOP establishment has done nothing to reign it in. So why be a part of it? Why do members of the LGBT community support a party that believes that they should not be granted basic rights?

[pscot]

5. Colin Powell has an identity problem

[RKP5637]

7. Definitely!!!

[Nay]

6. The GOP has a bald-faced liar problem, and Exhibit A is Mr. Powell himself. nt

[Third Doctor]

9. I think Powell is a old conservative man

that will not admit to himself that the party that he knew is gone, so he makes excuses for it. His party has already left him behind but he just can't realize it.

[Arctic Dave]

10. No Colin, you're a dipshit and your party has always been like that.

You liked them because they are warmongers just like you, but in reality, they could never stand you.

[Danascot]

11. He spelled insanity wrong

nt

[jerseyjack]

12. They don't have an identity problem,

they have a thinking problem.

[Sherman A1]

17. Agreed

I like Powell, but the party does not have an identity problem at all. They know exactly who and what they are.

[John2]

13. I don't think Colin Powell

is a dip whatever. The only problem had was being tricked into representing the lies at the U.N prepared for him by the Bush Administration, therefore I think some people are taking that denigration of Powell too far. Powell was and still is a very honest and loyal career soldier. If anything is keeping him in the GOP is probably because he has those traits. It was Ronald Reagan that gave Powell an opportunity and he probably find it too hard to break that loyalty to the Republican Party.

I suspect that is why some African Americans just as some Democrats find it hard to break with their Party. Some African Americans still confuse the current GOP with the Party of Abraham Lincoln but that is further from the case. A lot of those racists in the South fled the Democratic Party. What Powell has not comprehended as well as Demographics is the change in Geographical terms of the Political Parties. The GOP use to be the Party of the North. Most of the members have changed but not the Labels of each party. The ideas changed with the members. The main core ideas of the Republican Party is not conservatism but State's Rights.

In my observations, Lincoln's Party was hijacked by politicians from the South like the late Strom Thurmond and Jessie Helms. They have aligned themselves with vulture capitalists in different regions, who have the same goals. They just tolerate each other for now. Both see themselves as superior to others in this country and feel they should be incharge. It was the same situation you had which slave owners and people who didn't own them in the Old South. His assistant put it best.

[davidpdx]

14. The #1 mistake he made was agreeing to be a part of Bush's cabinet

I think he was perhaps too loyal and that's the part that got him in trouble. Once Bush and his merry band of traitors had him signed up he was stuck.

[benld74]

15. Pssssssssssssssst! They're the douche bags, you can't miss'em!

[Bainbridge Bear]

16. Well, Colin, your credibility

went into the toilet after your disgraceful performance at the U.N. in 2003 telling the world about all of those non-existent WMDs in Iraq which were a direct threat to the U.S. As for the "identity problem" that is only a minor part of the Rethug's dysfunction. The main part can be expressed medically as a terminal case of Cranial rectitis.

[Scuba]

18. That's right, Colin. We've identified exactly what you assholes stand for, and we don't like it.

[question everything]

19. Mathews dedicated a large part of his show earlier to this

Citing Palin "Shucking and jiving," Sununu "lazy," and others.

Now, of course, the heads of the Republican party will say: you see, you cannot trust him (or Michael Steele). They are not like us.