Brutal must read from the Sun Sentinel....Republican party is finished

That's the most accurate and bleak assessment of the situation the Republicans are facing now.

Here's a sampling..

" Fact is: hardly anyone really likes Mitt Romney, even people who say they do — and it showed. He's everybody's Cracker Jack box without a prize, the kid to whose birthday party no one wants to be invited to, even though his house has a swimming pool. He's the would-be head of the richest and most powerful nation on earth, from whom you wouldn't buy a vacuum cleaner without a money-back guarantee."

" The GOP today is largely a party of rabid, old, white men in the unhappy dusk of their lives, railing against a nation in which they are no longer the dominant players. It is sad to watch — and sadder to be one of them. You can smell the mothballs of their memories and memorabilia (hats and banners resurrected for the convention), read the rage in their eyes."

" The undeniable truth is that the Republican Party is on the wrong side of demographics, which means it's on the wrong side of history. Tragically for our political system, which depends on a vigorous, healthy two-party system, it has chosen to assume the role of permanent obstructionist, ignoring the inevitable changes in population diversity that will eventually bury it."

I love calling him "the kid to whose birthday party no one wants to be invited to, even though his house has a swimming pool." That's the best description of Mitt yet!

that's twice this morning!

More coffee, less posting

I'm 60 so I believe that puts me in that group.

and 78 yr old Mom LOVE President Obama, and don't know what happened to their sons. (the brother who is a Fox-luvin, Limpbutt-kissin', RW christofascist also hates the Prez)

(I miss them--his parents, I mean. They are wonderful. They once said they believe President Obama is our country's only hope. My ex, on the other hand, in his drunken rages, screamed some horrible slurs that I won't repeat.)

I miss my ex's in-laws too; they died within three days of each other in 2006, after six years of marriage. We stayed close until the end, though, for which I am grateful. Unrepentant libs and college profs. Great people. Sorry you made a bad choice, but nice sentiments about your in-laws.

It only sounded old when we were teens. Do not accept the title of "old". I mean, really, old is like 80....for now.

85 is old.
My brother turns 60 next year, I'm 4 years younger. When he turned 50 I sent him a "ha ha look who's old" bday card, this time...good taste will prevail. I'm next.

The modern GOP is on the wrong side of every issue. If elections were decided strictly on the issues, they would lose 65% - 35% or worse every time. They have made the conscious decision not to adjust where they stand on the issues and instead do everything possible to get the elections decided on other bases, namely: disinformation, fear mongering, wedge issues, election system fraud, and voter disenfranchisement. I won't bore everybody with the details on those 5 things. You already know that.

But the key point of this election is that they had all the elements in their favor -- particularly the bad economy. Obama is a charismatic leader and Romney is a wreck. This should be an election that the GOP would win, but would somebody please tell me which of the primary candidates would be running any stronger than Romney? Santorum? Gingrich? Bachmann? Paul? Perry? Cain?

None of them would. 100% of their candidates would lose this election, because that's what the GOP has become. Those aren't the best possible conservative leaders in this country. Not by a long shot. But the better candidates cannot pass the party's litmus test.

Next time around they won't be going against Obama. That a plus for the GOP. But the demographics are slipping away. AND we are getting better at dealing with those 5 issues. I predict that by 2016, most of those 5 issues will be at least partially neutralized, and that is worth at least 5%. The ongoing demographic shift is worth another 3%. So if the GOP remains as ostrich-like as they are today, they will be fighting an 8% headwind.

Personally I hope they do change. I hope this election ends up as a real ass-kicking such that adults take over the GOP and they start holding up their half of the government responsibility. But I wouldn't put any money on that.

+1000000

Glad you're here - and it is a HUMDINGER of a take-down! And they earned every word of it!

We need you to make sure they stay OUT of power as much as possible!!!




Now get to work.

For the warm welcome

The South, and parts of the west, are largely GOP. The party is not finished as the the GOP can win elections.

on the Deep South and parts of the West, though not the West Coast, as you said.

It tells me the GOP will ultimately devolve into a largely regional party, though still competing at the national level.

The Republicans hold these areas because there's really no challenge against them. The Democrats have been conceding the south and middle for decades now. This is the core reason for Dean's 50-state strategy.

Although it still changing (for the better), very slowly, there still an ingrained prejudice against blacks in the south.
It gets a little bit better with each passing year and generation, but it's still there.

I'm living it.
I helped a black woman get elected to our city council in coastal Alabama.
I'm her campaign treasurer.
An old white man.
on edit: No crosses were burned in my front yard.

She won her first term handily.
She ran unopposed in her second election.


We're trying, honestly.
I wish it could be overnight.
Give us some time.

Keep on-keeping on!

Over the long term, I see the GOP being a mostly Southerm political party; the Northerners and Westerners will be of the 'go along to get along' type.

like the entire West Coast.

Nevada is not red anymore, neither is Colorado.

New Mexico is pretty blue.

Even Montana, purple, arguably.

What does that leave you:

Idaho 1.6 million
Utah 2.8 million
Wyoming 568k
Arizona (not so red anymore either) 6.5 million
Western Red States: 11.4 million
Population of States in the Rockies or west: 70.5 million

Time for new hypothesis.

as well. The jebster as the knight in shining armor coming to the rescue. He may be walking though. I think the rethugs might be a little horse shy after this year.

I mean, No one is really that stupid...right?

He was already half way there...and Romney will do anything for money....

But why would the media toss what little credibility they have away for this?

Not a chance. He is just that clueless all on his own.

Very good that you're here. The only way we can make sure they're no longer a problem is to VOTE!!! And fight them at EVERY turn!

That's why we need you! We've got an election to win!

Don't get complacent!




Now get to work.

Remember KKKKarl's boast that he would plant the gops up America's ass for the next forty years?

Well, thank all the Goddesses and Gods that you can't fool all the people all the time.

one of the older states in the country with younger people more likely to move out.

And, among the most ridiculously gerrymandered districts in the country.

I can't remember if it leans left or right.

I don't know if related to Orlando Sentinal, or which direction it leans.

At least it was when I left in 2006 to move to Arkansas. (Yikes! I know)

but the left may just read the Miami Herald. For some reason it's sticking in my mind that this paper's editorial page leans right.

That must have been some culture shock when you moved.

I honestly didn't know any republicans the whole time I was there. It felt blue to me, now I'm in jersey which is supposed to blue and everyone around me is republican. Can't figure it out.

(Palm Beach to be exact), and there is a big Cuban-American Republican voting block, and the district that elected Allen West!

"I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left ME". You can read between the lines of Olympia Snow's retirement the same sentiment. The Republican Party has moved so far to the right, with the Teabaggers and extreme religious right, that they are on the edge of a cliff.

Look at the growing numbers of "Independents". I was one for decades. However, at my age I am definitely old enough to remember what the Republican was back then. Almost unrecognizable to today's. This is why I, and my children, became Democrats. There is no way in hell I would ever vote for a Republican candidate today. I think the Repub Party, to please their new base, had to move Mitt so far to the right, that even he doesn't know who he is supposed to be. Was he really that far right as Governor? I doubt it. He never would have been elected in a state like Ma. as a "Teabagger".

They created their own doom. They will go over that cliff unless the more sane members of their party manage to pull them back.

To the far right wackos for decades (since Reagan if not a little before). But up until fairly recently, the pandering has been mainly during election cycles to get their vote; once the elections were over, the crazies were shoved aside and forgotten until the next election.

Recently (during Obama's first term), however, some in the old GOP establishment thought it a good idea to create the tea party to help thwart many of Obama's initiatives, especially healthcare reform. IMO what I don't think they counted on was the teaparty actually organizing in any meaningful way, much less actually getting very far-right people elected to very high positions. As a result, the party has gotten pushed so far to the right that even long seated establishment GOP politicians are being forced out to that limb just to keep their seats.

The inmates are now truly running the asylum and the GOP is fucked. No way to easiily turn back now.

I agree wholeheartedly. With the GOP's relying on vitriol and hatred to win elections, ratcheted up each election cycle for many years, it became an uncontrollable force all its own. The GOP establishment is reaping what they sowed.

Seriously, folks. Follow the link above. This piece is epic.

Can you imagine them having to wade through this link a couple thousand times?

... I'm getting a bit tired of the broad brush -- and the presumed "politics of self-interest" wherein EVERYONE is supposedly motivated by what benefits them the most. While I, as a liberal, firmly believe that it's a matter of "enlightened self-interest" to stand up for the civil liberties and rights of everyone, the notion that being older (why not "wiser"?), male (why not "human"?), and white (so, I'm not as tan as I often am) makes me some bigot is really demeaning.

As a lifetime supporter of the ACLU, NOW, and NAACP, I'd be one of the last to ascribe character flaws to someone based on their demographics.

Oh well.

I'm an older white woman aka human (still trying to figure if I fall into the "old" definition), I am wise, progressive and except for my newly developed disdain for republicons, I like to think I'm not bigoted. However, it is my observation that the GOP does seem overloaded with white humans who are indeed bigoted and hate me because I'm a democrat, many of them in the age bracket some would define as old. So, while I usual avoid ascribing character flaws, guess I'll make an exception in this case.

Blessings!

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

The Republican Party is still very much alive and competitive in a number of states and Senate and House races.

They haven't been put down yet.

Keep working for Elizabeth Warren, Clare McCaskill, Jon Tester and others. Those seats are needed!

It should be clear to everyone that the GOP is not interested in the human condition, only in the machinery of the rich. In four years the have managed to disenfrancise themselves from America by obstruction of congressional progress. The GOP do whatever it takes to get the black man including destroy America should be on your mind as you watch your neighbors lose their jobs and factories, homes, cars, and join the social services. You should be awake enough to see prices rising, your pocket emptying to the inaction of the GOP to defeat everything proposed to help you and your family an America in general. Idleness is costing you, but not the GOP cuddling the rich and profiting like Romney by offshoring, down sizing, outsourcing, and then taking those millions in investment profits out of American banks and putting them in foreign banks, so that there is no capital to loan for America business start-ups, home loans, student educational loans, or even to pay taxes for all millions he has unemployed. He left that for you. He flooded the market with foreclosed homes, driving down house prices in the billions, as you watched thousands of your home equity disappear. That is what the GOP is doing to you, and here is what "Let Detriot Go Bankrupt" Romney thinks of American workers.



So when you see poll numbers like these I have gathered from around the internet, you need not question who's side the GOP Party of NO is on. These millions of people know. They have suffered the rath of the GOP. They are your neighbors.


Remember when the GOP opposed Obama & the American people for 4 years? (58% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP ignored Black issues for 4 years?.....................................(100% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed Obama's Hispanic Dream Act?.........................(66% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed Women's right to chose?...................................(58% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed College student Loans?.....................................(75% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed Same Sex marriage?...........................................(66% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed Unions wages & benefits?.................................(100% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed Teachers wages & benefits?.............................(72% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed SS & Medicare for seniors?...............................(50% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed 911 Firemen medical care?................................(60% Obama for president)
Remember when the GOP opposed Youth Education?.................................................(49% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed Jewish abortion & gay marriage?.....................(68% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP opposed Asian civic and labor issues?............................(59% Obama for President)
Remember when the GOP Wooed Americans in the Swing States?...........................(47% Obama for President)

And their 2012 GOP Convention was more about the folks that might run in 2016 instead of it being about Romney.

In my opinion, I think that they KNOW that they've never had a chance of beating Obama in November and have pretty much just given up.

the vast majority of the media behind them, they will be capable of winning elections.

Wishful thinking at best.

If the Democrat's demographic isn't allowed to vote, then the moneymen will win.
If the Democrats are happy with Rahm and his ilk, than many won't swallow their core values
and pull the Democratic lever.

http://www.examiner.com/article/senator-lindsey-graham-says-gop-needs-more-angry-white-guys
“The demographics race we’re losing badly. We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”

with him not wanting his financial competitors knowing his tax strategies and
has nothing to do with 'you people' us knowing.


Tikki

was a subtle hint that he is not tithing 10% as required by LDS authority.

And more than 5 kids. But that's just wishful thinking.

a couple years ago.

He seems almost frantic to keep his tax returns hidden from our view.


Tikki

Makes sense if you consider the measure of the man - and what he's obviously regarded as important throughout his life. Consider his behavior past and present, plus his priorities, as indicators of the future. The picture these elements paint does not look very pretty.

The guy is obviously a high-finance gamer. Why else would he have money stashed offshore and in various partnerships and investment groups and complicated maneuvers and shelters and stuff? He's a game-rigger. That's how he got his IRA ridiculously inflated compared to what the rest of us commoners can do with ours. He's a predator and a vulture and an opportunistic infection.

I hope he takes his party down - and they splinter irreparably. Hopefully that will keep them from building the coalitions they'd need to get back into the White House. But they ARE on the wrong side of history. I think of my kids and their friends - who've grown up with peer groups that included kids of every color, faith, ethnicity, nationality, and even sexual orientation. Their generation will likely kill a lot of that old racist, sexist, and homophobic thinking as it dies out on the elder end and is not replaced on the younger end. Hopefully.

I must say - I certainly have had enough of that bullshit! MORE than enough.

I've been saying this for a while. Bankrupt of ideas, moral rectitude, veracity, compassion, co-operation. Totally bankrupt.

on more tax cuts for the rich and unfettered military spending. You know it's bad when millionaires and billionaires are saying 'I don't need another tax cut' and the pentagon has said they can do with less money, and the current republican party still wants more spending for both!

By the way, welcome here vlyons. Have fun!

And Welcome to DU!

So many new people - and most of them seem to be the real thing. We have had more than a few trolls lately.





Anyway - we need to win this thing. Glad you're here to help!



Now get to work.

"He's everybody's Cracker Jack box without a prize, the kid to whose birthday party no one wants to be invited, even though his house has a swimming pool. He's the would-be head of the richest and most powerful nation on earth, from whom you wouldn't buy a vacuum cleaner without a money-back guarantee."

there are too many states with those who believe the GOPT can do nothing wrong - look at MO - Akin is now soaring in the polls.

We can celebrate after the elections - now we must roll up our sleeves to get the job done.

the part with the dirt.

This line was so true of the republican party now.

...imbeciles of the Racist Inbred Tea Gargler party will still vote for Lurch the Fucking Stiff^TM.

They are so sad and they should thank the almighty that the President knows he's the President of them too.

. . . look at the field of candidates they had to choose from. Sooner or later, Repubs are going to ask why their shining examples of leadership, the greatest champions of the free market, are all incompetent, lying, corrupt, mendacious, egotistic, or two or more of those.

It's because an entire generation has been guided by conservatism. That generation is now in leadership roles. Bachmann, Perry, Cain, and Gingrich are the only leaders they're ever going to find. The party is now a kleptocracy and an idiocracy, with a few billionaires adopting them as pets.

it's a few steps down from "corporatocracy" but a much closer descriptive term, I fear. Also one we'll hear more often.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy

Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, (from Greek: κλέπτης - kleptēs, "thief" and κράτος - kratos, "power, rule", hence "rule by thieves") is a form of political and government corruption where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often without pretense of honest service. This type of government corruption is often achieved by the embezzlement of state funds.

No new ideas, no new solutions to problems facing average people, not enough angry white men to keep propping it up. All they can really do at this point is rig the electoral system but even that will eventually will fail too IMHO as people figure out what they are up to (and I'm thankful that the Justice Department and other groups have been out there rigorously fighting against these attempts). Unless they "evolve" a little and stop the obstructionism, I don't see much of a future for the GOP in general in this country.

And yet the Republicans are now the majority in the House, are close to being so in the Senate and they dominate the supreme court.

After the 2008 election, there was not a single Republican representative in all of New England. There were Republican Senators, but every single representative was a Democrat.

Chris Matthews was saying that the Republicans had been relegated to being a "regional" party, with the South being that region.

Today, even Elizabeth Warren is struggling against a Republican - in Massachusetts, of all places - for a seat once held by Ted Kennedy.

In spite of just how reprehensible Republican policies and behaviors are, they were still polling neck and neck with Obama right up until the Dem Convention - and this was without any significant Democratic negatives on the table.

Sure, we're polling 4, 5, 7% higher than Romney right now. But, Repubs have a way of coming back. There will be October surprises by these knuckle-dragging ass clowns. If Obama and the Dems aren't careful, then they could easily lose.

I worried when democrats controlled congress in 2008 by enough of a majority that 'lack of progress' could be blamed on them. That's why we lost the house; we were lucky to hang on to the senate.

The republicans belong in the minority. They're the opposition party. If it weren't for Fox News and hate radio; the republicans wouldn't have gained control again after '96.

Unless someone has a plan to end the pro-republican media; putting them back in the minority (where they belong) is just a pipe dream.

The fact is, there will always be an opposition party in an open political system. The GOP isn't going anywhere. They may evolve, as we've seen over the last few years, but they are here to stay.

Glad you're here! We need you to help us lock this away for Obama! Don't get complacent!




Now get to work.

" the kid to whose birthday party no one wants to be invited to, even though his house has a swimming pool"

n/t

Secondly we dont want it to die. If it did we would have a one party electoral system. I know it sounds like heaven but only if it were progressive. Problem is as the Repub Party dies the conservatives slip under our tent, can you spell Arlen Specter. With the money behind them the conservatives will try to buy control of the Democratic Party. Some think they already have, can you spell Rahm Emmanuel?

They got dissolved in 1860. If the Republicans don't change their current destructive course that they're on they could go the way of the Whigs. They could be replaced by the Green party or the Modern Whigs. We will see how this plays out.

there's always that "better the devil you know" thing.




Glad you're here. We need you!!!!!!




Now get to work.

Remember, the GOP was supposedly dead to rights in '06 and '08...

the editorial, but the comments on these articles and those in the PalmBeachPost will scare folks.

There is a tremendous amount of trolldom here in SoFLA.

FL is unfortunately not Blue. Yes, we Democrats have the edge in voter registration in the three most populous counties (PalmBeach, Broward, Miami Dade), but look at our Legislature... Gov. Skeletor, Prop 3 (further defunding education), etc.

The ones who are pulling the strings down here do not have the country's good in mind, much less the states.

The key is GOTV-- for Obama, but more importantly, the down-ticket votes.

Of the two (Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, the latter is more left leaning, but barely)

Not even going to touch the Miami Herald.

And no one will miss them.

They make up 10% of that party.

One of the big pollsters was showing a significant uptick in Gary Johnson's numbers. He's getting over 4% suggesting that stunt the extreme right pulled at the convention might have been the last straw.

I can never seem to get around the notion that so-called Libertarians are really those who are too embarrassed to call themselves republi-CONS. Probably just an oversimplification, although I have met people like that. When you really dig down with some of them, that's what you can often find.

Anyway - glad you're here . We need you!





Now get to work.

...it's just that the smell's gotten more noticeable. In fact, positively rank.

Spot on!
Thanks for the link.

I can only get online using my Blackberry and the page keeps crashing because it's too big.

Does anyone know anywhere else it can be read?


Thanks in advance, T

then we should be able to increase the number of Dems in the Senate and take back the House with no problem, right?

and Fox News is NUMBER 1!!! - they tell you this at every commercial break of their shows that play victim to the "liberal media".
Their primetime shows (and Fox & Friends) are not news shows by the network's own admission. They are "entertainment" and just like the whole entertainment industry (and sports and marketing and....etc.) it is a copycat business. Whatever is working - everyone does. So CNN follows what Fox News is reporting as do the networks (not that anyone is watching) in hopes of capturing some of the Fox News Believer audience. MSNBC spends 20% of every show basically countering Fox News. This allows Fox News to establish what issues will be highlighted (they even flat out make some up) and how they will be discussed.

AND Fox News basically runs the party now. During the Republican debates one wrong answer by any candidate to the standard Fox News dogma meant that the candidate might as well have left the stage.

1964? Look what happened in 1968.

1976? Look what happened in 1980.

1992? look what happened in 2000.

2008? look what happened in 2010.

The Republican party is like a TV network. If they have a bad season, they just try new shows and new actors until they find something the public likes, and then advertise it to death until the public is SURE that they like it. The one thing they do NOT do is go away. We are talking about a party financed by billionaires who stand to benefit to the tune of hundreds of millions in tax breaks and liberalized pollution control laws if their party wins. It doesn't even matter who their presidential candidate is (see "McCain/Palin" or "Romney/Ryan"). If they can block any reforming legislation and retain control of the Supreme Court, they are 90% of the way home.

There is a reason that Karl Rove picked out Roberts and Alito during Cheney's last term in office. You can bank on it that "Citizens United" was already discussed before their names were placed in nomination. Rove is no fool. He saw that no Republican was going to win the White House in 2008. He wanted to make sure that by 2010, the Democrat in office would be dead in the water, and that even if re-elected in 2012, that the Democratic Party would be reduced to a holding pattern until 2016, and blown away in 2016 by a wall of money.

But short of a successful nationwide drive to suppress Democratic voters' rights (this time, we saw it coming), they cannot stop a wave of Democratic victories at the polls unless they just commit blatant fraud (Florida 2000, Ohio 2004). This will NOT stop them. The Republicans have long acted as if they thought they had a permanent lease on the White House, and done everything in their power to harass Democratic presidents as if they were illegal squatters. They will buy every Senate seat and House seat they can. In 2016, they will not stand for a total incompetent as their Presidential candidate unless he is under their total control. They will be as ruthless in fighting for the White House in 2016 as they were in 2000 and 2004.

Thinking the Republicans are finished in 2012 is like thinking the Germans were finished in 1918. Much as we wish it were so, it won't be. Evil ALWAYS has a comeback planned. As the Germans themselves say, "Vertrauen ist gut. Kontrolle ist besser (trust is good, verification is better)."

I have been talking about something similar myself here, that is, even if Obama wins, he will probably be "hogtied" for the next 4 years, and the historical precedent is that it is extremely difficult for Democrats to have the White House for 3 consecutive terms (FDR and Truman are the only Democrats to have accomplished that since the Civil War. Gore would have made it 3 straight terms in 2000, but you know the story there).

Even if we win this time around, I am really worried that the most we can hope for is to just be treading water in choppy seas for the next 4 years.

"As the Germans themselves say, 'Vertrauen ist gut. Kontrolle ist besser (trust is good, verification is better).'"


Unfortunately, we will NOT be rid of them completely. As long as there are religious nut-cases there will always be an opportunity for rebranding and regrowth.

One reason why we MUST MUST MUST - ALWAYS - be on our guard. We MUST ALWAYS be mindful of what Mad-Eye Moody always warned Harry Potter: "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!!!!!"

register 5 new voters for the polls, Obama's reelection chances will go up further and we'll have a BETTER shot at taking the House back...