General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Is The End Of The Tea Party (and the GOP as we know it)
Their Party Platform was SOUNDLY REJECTED last night. Not just with the re-election of President Obama. But with the beating the Republicans and the Tea Party candidates took in the Senate, House and local races.
For the Republican Party to be viable moving forward they are going to need to drop the following issues from their platform:
1. Abortion and Restricting Birth Control - the whole fertilized cell is a person bullshit will keep their party from gaining any ground in the mainstream population.
2. Regressive Social Policies Regarding Women -- Including the health care issues above, they will continue to lose women in droves if they don't support equal opportunity in the work force and assistance for women as both professionals and heads of households.
3. Regressive Social Policies Regarding LGBT -- Keep on trying to ban gay marriage and the GOP will get nowhere with the vast majority of this country. Continue obstructing equality of LGBT in government policies? Expect this to be key in sinking that party.
4. Continuing to Alienate Minorities Through Racism and Xenophobic Laws and Policies -- The whole birther movement and Obama is a muslim bullshit has to go if they are to ever consider gaining ground. Voter ID and "show-me-your-papers' laws are going to continue to lose them minorities.
5. Immigration -- The platform of the GOP on the immigration situation in this country is completely unrealistic. Latinos came out for Obama almost 80-20. That is a referendum on the GOP platform
6. Pushing Christian Religion into Education -- America is a secular country founded on the freedom of religion. That means the government should not have religion in its laws, policies or execution. Part of the executive is Education. If they want their kids to pray, they are free to have them do so, but they should not expect to force others to pray or to have teachers lead prayer in public schools. Pushing religion over science is only going to alienate the educated members of society who don't prescribe to their particular flavor of God.
7. A Lack of Economic Fairness -- By grasping tightly onto Grover Norquist and his pledge to never raise taxes, the GOP has sunk its own issue of fighting budget deficits, increasing debt and balancing the budget. The tax policy was already unfair to the vast majority of working class. By not raising taxes on the wealthiest, they are pushing the burden to the working class every day the deficits exist and the debt increases. The wealthy have protected themselves against these future burdens with diversification and managing their wealth in other countries. Mitt Romney was the poster child of the unfairness of the economic policy in this country. And if they continue to hold the economy hostage because they don't want Obama to have a successful presidency, America will rebuke them even further.
Did they really expect to win on these issues? Do they expect to suddenly win more by going further to the right? If they do, then it is certainly the end of not only their party, but their entire ideology. And a recent phrase comes to mind as I consider that they will: "please, proceed."
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)that is probably beyond repair for a couple of generations.
African Americans - 90+% Obama
Hispanics and Latinos - 80% Obama
Asian Americans - 70+% Obama
Women - 55% Obama
The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.
doc03
(35,364 posts)conservative.
CakeGrrl
(10,611 posts)as our prescient President alluded a short while ago, there'll be an intra-party struggle taking place with his win:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/obama-morning-joe_n_2038103.html
It's up to the sane faction of the party to determine where the party is headed.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)And they just found out their mistake in not taking that into account until too late. The Republican Party either changes fundamentally or it will be left on the dust bin of history.
leftstreet
(36,112 posts)The GOP killed itself with trickle-down Reaganomics and the Religious Right
Both rejected by voters
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)Great post, thanks for putting it all together here.
Liberal Veteran
(22,239 posts)CrazyOrangeCat
(6,112 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)The Tea Partiers can't pretend to have a mandate for anything any more. The 2010 mid-terms involved regional elections but yesterday was the exercise of the popular will of the entire nation. I hope Obama continues the campaign against these extremists and keeps throwing this reality in their faces when they try to obstruct him, which they surely will.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)I expect to see even MORE and WORSE fanaticism.
berni_mccoy
(23,018 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)Boner said Obama's win is not a mandate for raising taxes on the rich. McTurtle said the win for Obama simply meant the people gave him a chance to correct his fuck ups from his first term. There is no effort to strike a conciliatory tone here. They want war.
berni_mccoy
(23,018 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)But it is only going to get worse for them.
I know it may seem too early to think about the mid-terms, but we still have a House to win. The bozos will continue on their path to irrelevance and self-destruction, and in 2014 we can gain control of the entire federal government and REally get some important things done!
Although I have to say I'm a little too tired to start today, and would prefer to wallow in schadenfreude.
PD Turk
(1,289 posts)Organizing a voting block consisting mainly of a bunch of bigoted old white people was a pretty good trick, for a while. It's starting to become apparent that they have fewer and fewer BOWPs to vote for them. They had a pretty good surge when the Dixiecrats left the Democratic party and joined up with them, but now they are dying off and at the same time the demographic makeup of the US is becoming more diverse.
They developed a platform that appeals to piss ignorant bigots so they could get a poor and middle class majority to vote against their own financial interests and for policy that increasingly favored the richest elite in the party. They erected a propaganda machine that would make Goebbels green with envy, but, it looks like the beginning of the end for them. Their day in the sun is coming to a close and they are faced with a decision. Go left back toward the party of Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower, or take a hard right, straight off into oblivion.
It sure is going to be interesting to watch