GOP is in REAL Trouble if THIS is What I'm Seeing On Facebook from Previously STAUNCH Repubs:

[Skraxx]

Let me make sure I have this right. The Tea Party lost the vote on ACA, lost their legal challenge to it in the Supreme Court, lost the Republican primaries AND the presidential election and now they're shutting down the government and ignoring the will of the electorate because they love America? That's it, right?

Followed up by this from the same guy:

What is the goal of all this? I'm a high income, pro-business, gun owning, truck driving patriotic American and the Republicans have completely lost me. Is the strategy to just go for the kooks now?

They got big, big trouble. This guy is an old friend, I knew he was a Repub, but we never talked politics. If they lost him, there are almost certainly millions more like him. He's a Repub, but old school.

[LonePirate]

1. I just visited my Teabagger rep's FB page and I was sickened by the amount of support for her

That guy is an anomaly given what I have seen. The Teabaggers are ecstatic and they are out in force too support this shutdown the Republican tactics in DC.

[Skraxx]

2. He's Not A Tea Bagger, So He's Not An Anomaly. The Point is There are Plenty of Non-Tea Baggers

in the GOP, and if this is any indication, they are fed up.

The Tea Baggers will never come around. So what?

[LonePirate]

3. My point is that his voice is being drowned out by the Teabaggers in his party.

His voice is but a whisper against the chorus of screaming Teahadists.

[Skraxx]

4. For Now, Yes

I think that will change. This is the fissure that is being exploited and should, I believe, ultimately crack the GOP wide open.

[jeff47]

12. To win elections, they need a coalition of teabaggers and sane people.

They're losing the sane people. That's the point.

[LonePirate]

13. The next election is 13 months away. The sane ones will return by then.

[Skraxx]

14. That's wishful thinking

With absolutely no evidence whatsoever to back it up. In fact, evidence suggest otherwise if you look to the shutdown during Clinton's term when the GOP went on to suffer massive electoral mid-term losses.

[LonePirate]

25. What massive GOP losses? They controlled both houses of Congress during Clinton's final 6 years

1992 election results: 259 (D+I) vs. 176 (R) in the House and 57 (D) vs. 43 (R) in the Senate
1994 election results: 230 (R) vs. 205 (D+I) in the House and 53 (R) vs. 47 (D) in the Senate
1996 election results: 228 (R) vs. 207 (D+I) in the House and 55 (R) vs. 45 (D) in the Senate
1998 election results: 223 (R) vs. 212 (D+I) in the House and 55 (R) vs. 45 (D) in the Senate

Where are these massive GOP losses of which you speak? The shutdowns during the Clinton years did not generate massive losses for either party in Congress.

The GOP voters are going to return to the fold by November. As Democrats, it is wishful thinking for us to think the GOP will suffer a rout in 13 months.

[Uncle Joe]

27. The Internet is much stronger now than it was in the 90s, that's not to say things can't turn

around for the Republicans by next November, but I do believe it will much more difficult this time.

We have a saying in Tennessee, "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me."

That was too complex a thought for Bush the Least to grasp with out mangling the phrase, but it does have some validity.

[Blanks]

32. The republicans lost seats in the 1998 mid-terms...

It wasn't enough for the democrats to take over, but I remember that Bill Clinton said at the time that the lame duck president's party usually loses seats it the mid-terms.

So shutting down the government was not beneficial to the republicans.

[Springslips]

36. You have the time line wrong.

The Clinton shutdown happened in the winter of 95-96, which effected the 1996 presidential election. The midterm election you are talking about, occurred because of the impeachment.

[Blanks]

38. I'm theorizing that they still had mud on their face...

from the shutdown. Although, you are right the impeachment would have been the current thing, and the logical thing to point to.

It seemed to me that the case was being made for the republicans playing games instead of doing the people's work on both issues.

It seems that it was still fresh in my mind at the time, but I am going from memory. I know that they did lose seats in the mid-term.

[Skraxx]

34. WTF are you talking about?

Newt lost the speakership as a result and the Dems gained seats.

[LonePirate]

35. What are you talking about?

When does a loss of 5 seats constitute massive losses as you called it? Those were your words, not mine. The shutdown or elections certainly didn't stop the impeachment train.

I think you have a completely inaccurate view of history as it relates to how the last government shutdown impacted Congress. The House never changed hands and the Clinton hate continued unabated.

[Skraxx]

37. No one said it stopped the impeachment train, but they lost seats steadily after that debacle

It certainly wasn't beneficial.

[Blanks]

39. If my memory serves...

The republicans made a big deal out of Newt losing the speakership because of his choice to make 'the Clinton affair' a campaign issue (while he had his own affair at the time).

There was quite a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth over Newts choice to make that the issue in the mid-terms. It seemed that they attributed that (and his affair) as the reasons why they didn't support him. I was thinking he resigned not just the speakership, but his seat even.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich

[joeunderdog]

21. Not if their new healthcare is threatened

If it's keeping them alive, they'll quietly vote for survival.

[bigbrother05]

26. The thing about Teabaggers drowning out the realistic Repubs is fatigue

The Teacritters consume all the oxygen and the gerrymandered Reps think they are walking on water. What is starting to come out are the moderate/old school Right are getting fed up with the crazies and while they might not drop the local Rep anytime soon, they are much more likely to vote for the Dems in statewide races and could eventually be so sickened by the Tea-hype, they will move their districts back to the center.

Attempts to enforce purity will make the Tea Party more disconnected and hasten their own destruction.

[kwolf68]

5. Nothing like that on my FB page

The righties are happy the government is shut down, bashing the ACA, etc., etc...I post rarely and I am very reserved in my comments (I am a hockey coach and many of my player's parents are friends of mine so I need to stay chill). ... that all said, I haven't seen ANYONE's mind change...well, since 2008.

[RedCappedBandit]

6. I see much of the same

*everybody* is mad at the house, and most people realize it is the GOP to blame.

Although there are still a few nutjob libertarian types blaming Obama and Obamacare for all of this.

[rbrnmw]

7. I am hearing crickets and I grew up in Southern Ohio

One of my friends was crazy posting Tea Party meme's and she is now posting recipes

[davidn3600]

8. They aren't going anywhere....

Who are they going to vote for? Democrats?

You see your "gun-owning, truck driving, high income, pro-business, patriotic American" friend ever voting for Hillary?

[Skraxx]

11. I see him staying home at the very least, and yes, maybe voting for Hillary

[sulphurdunn]

16. I'm a life long Democrat,

and I can't see myself voting for her either. Since this fiasco has pushed me back hard into the Democratic camp, I intend to do my best to ensure the party doesn't sell me out again, as is its custom.

[Motown_Johnny]

9. Yes, it is a Kook only Strategy.

I'm glad this guy figured it out.

[maui902]

10. Unfortunately, what I'm seeing is that the shutdown has brought the truly committed out in force

Some of whom I'd otherwise believe were pretty reasonable now seem emboldened to post anything that supports their ideological viewpoint, misguided as it may be. And even more disturbing, I've seen the same mischaracterizations being repeated all day long. I've tried to respond to as many of the falsities as I can (and still get my work done), but the volume of misinformation is overwhelming. No, Congress did not exempt itself from the ACA. No, the Senate has not failed to pass a budget since 2009; in fact, the Senate passed a budget in March 2013 and the Senate's request to negotiate differences between the Senate and House budget proposals have been repeatedly rejected by the House. No, the President has not refused to negotiate on the budget or even what he calls "improvements" to the ACA; he's just not going to negotiate any of those points as a condition to approving the continuing resolution or raising the debt ceiling. No, the President did not "exempt" unions and large companies from compliance with the ACA nor did he unilaterally change the law. Implementation of the pay or play provisions of the ACA were delayed for one year because certain guidance from the government on fairly complex issues was not published by the government until fairly recently; and most businesses that would have been affected by this guidance have been providing health insurance for their employees. And on and on and on.

[pffshht]

20. The kids need to see this

I imagine there are a lot of college-aged apathetic voters and high school-aged soon-to-be first time voters- too young to even remember Newt- who haven't really experienced the Republicans "bring the crazy" in such a high-profile, mainstream way; and who had no idea that there were still people like this running the country in 2013 or so many idiots supporting them, and they're going to vote Democrat en masse.

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. I'm seeing some non-ideologically driven Republicans act with disgust- but the Tea Bagger types are

unrepentant and in some case ecstatic

[kestrel91316]

18. The Reasonable Republicans (yes, there are a few) have ceded control of their party to

the Teahidist faction. They will NEVER get it back.

[ailsagirl]

19. The repukes are an UTTER DISGRACE to real Americans

I keep waiting for them to back down, but the SOBs won't. I think they're certifiable.

[Liberalynn]

28. This

[DeSwiss]

22. Tell 'em......

...that this is the ''B'' side of that Republican ditty written by the infamous Republican sociopath, Richard Milhous Nixon: ''That Ol' Southern Strategy Rag.''

I don't remember them complaining about these racist kooks and nuts back when they opened the doors wide for them to come in back in '68. But now that the Crazy Cancer that those racist nuts carried has begun to metastasized and is threatening to take over the entire body, they want to know what went wrong?

- Riiiight.

K&R

[center][/center]

[Snake Plissken]

23. Just about every sports board I post on has a Right Wing Circle Jerk going on it, all I hear lately

from them is ... crickets

they know there is no way they can defend the insanity they have created.

[ColesCountyDem]

24. In my economically-depressed area of Illinois, all but a few Republican friends have gone silent.

My cousin is one of them. An otherwise sane and rational person, she became a Teapublican back in 2010. She LOATHES the President, 'Obamacare', blah, blah, blah.

Since the shutdown, MANY of our mutual friends (and a few family members) have been furloughed. Learning about their fates, her tea kettle went from 'rolling boil' to 'simmer'. THEN she learned that her granddaughter's WIC card wasn't funded. She is now discussing her grand children's and great-grand children's health and welfare, and thinks that Speaker Boehner should let a 'clean' CR come to the floor for a vote.-- NOW!

Three guesses on who turned the burner under the tea kettle completely OFF, and the first two don't count!

[awoke_in_2003]

29. They are in trouble...

until the next election, when their sheep will vote for them again.

[Cha]

31. I love that.. "Is the strategy to just go for the kooks now?"!!!

That should be made into a stunning Graphic and sent VIRAL!

Thanks Skraxx!

[livingwagenow]

33. Was going to say the exact same thing.. knr nt