Why can Republicans never be for something that might help the people?

[kentuck]

Why do they feel like they have to support everything that helps the wealthiest? Why do they always side with the haves over the have nots?

If there is a dispute between you and the bank, Republicans will almost always take the side of the bank.

If there is a need to give health-care to almost 50 million of our people, the Republicans almost always side with the insurance companies.

If there is a request to raise your wages just a little in order to share just a little in the rewards of your labor, the Republicans almost always take the side of management over labor.

If there is a choice between building a new weapon or feeding the poorest amongst us, the Republicans almost always will choose to build a new weapon.

And on and on they march. Have they always been this way? :-)

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. Excellent Question

I don't have an answer for you and I'm not sure it has always been the case but what you are describing seems to have described the Republican party for at least a century now- with no signs that they plan on changing anytime soon. The better question to ask IMHO is how have so many people over the years allowed the GOP to manipulate them into believing that the GOP are the true "populists" and that THEY, not the Democrats, are the ones standing up for the values and financial well being of the "average joe" (or jane) or, post-9/11, better at ensuring the national security of our country despite the fact that 9/11 happened on THEIR watch and THEIR guy(s) were essentially asleep at the wheel when it happened. Fortunately, I don't think that the public, especially the younger generation, is as easily swayed by the GOP and the GOP's base seems to be shrinking at the moment but people like them who support the "aristocracy" in our country will, unfortunately, always exist to further their own interests, as well as those of the financially well-endowed.

[Cleita]

2. Elites or what used to be the aristocracy are only comfortable among

themselves. When the mob are subjugated as their servants, they are okay. The rest of the rabble deserves what they get because they asked for it, maybe by being born to a serf. They cannot accept any of the rabble into their ranks, even if that person got rich enough to do so, because it makes them feel unstable and like their little insular club is being invaded. Sure, they might invite the cast of some traveling show company to entertain their matriarch for her birthday, but then they prefer that they go home and never come around again. The CEOs of the corporations are our new aristocracy. They do not want their serfs to be uppity and they only want to be around their own kind.

[Cleita]

3. Dupe

ISP acting up.

[OHdem10]

4. When the individual is the focus, this eliminates any concept of a

common good.

When you hold Personal Responsibility up as a most important
tenet, you eliminate common good.

It is each for him(herself).

This is what separates the parties and it has become such
a chasm over the last decades that at times I wonder
how we can ever work together.

[TlalocW]

5. My hypothesis

Some of them are just plain douchebags, but there are also several who are either so divorced from reality that they believe (or make up any excuse to keep believing) that their tenets actually work and will benefit all - I'm specifically thinking of trickle-down economics/Reaganomics - because they're so in love with the image of Reagan that to say he was wrong in anything brings down their whole house of cards and destroys their reason for living.

I've had a running argument with an old college buddy for years that we just got through 8 years of the purest form of Reaganomics ever, and you see where it got the country, but he refuses to listen to word one because Reagan is his god and to speak ill of him is blasphemy.

TlalocW

[scubadude]

6. From their viewpoint everything they do helps the people.

They believe that helping corporations helps people because the corporations employ the people.
They believe helping the rich helps the poor because the rich employ the poor by owning the corporations that employ the poor.
They believe killing baby killers (abortionists)is ok because of all the babys they save.
They believe torture is ok because it may save lives in the end.

In other words they believe the ends justify the means.

I once had this intense argument with a right wing whack job would insisted that the rich are paying more than anyone else on their taxes because they make more money. He couldn't get the concept that the rich pay less taxes thanks to their ability to write off expenses, hire good tax lawyers, save their money, invest their money in tax free devices. He couldn't understand that they pay a lower percentage than lower earning earners do. Even Warren Buffet admits he pays less taxes than his secretary does. He just couldn't get it because at the end of the day the rich guys taxes were more in dollars than the poor guys. The rich guy could have made 50 million and paid $100,000 in taxes and the poor guy made $10,000 and paid $3,500 in taxes.
As a percentage of gross income the rich guys taxes were much lower but that didn't register with the whack job. He screamed "The rich guy paid more" and pointed to the $100,000....

I guess the culmination of all this ruminating is that Conservatives see things in a warped way that is possible for us to imagine but we feel is absurd to believe.

And for both of us looking at the other it is the same thing. How can't they see how wrong they are.... Sorry, but for this Liberal we are the ones on the right side of the argument, at least as seen through my rose colored glasses...

On edit I left out a large part of the Republican constituency, the "Just Fuck Em" crowd.
If anyone disagrees with or embarrasses this group in any way, they should be imprisoned, or killed but do it quickly, it's cheaper! What, they're innocent? Hang Em anyway. What, whe hanged an innocent man? He deserved it anyway. We've all met this kind.

That's it for now. Pretty sad eh?


Scuba

[kentuck]

20. But do the facts back them up?

Your point is right on.

[scubadude]

27. I don't believe the facts back them up.

And to prove it I use simple analogies to point this out.

As an example I sometimes address global warming with the following logic.

If the global warming theory is incorrect but we treat it as correct what have we lost? Nothing that can't be used after the argument is settled anyway. But if global warming is correct and we don't respond to it, what have we lost? We may lose our ability to reverse it, and to that there is no return...

Scuba

[leftstreet]

7. Nixon was

Think OSHA, the EPA, Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

He also advocated a Guaranteed Minimum Income.

:shrug:

[TheKentuckian]

8. They are a group constituted of moneychangers, warmongers, theocrats, fascists, racists, and idiots

What could they possibly come up with that is of any account?

[opihimoimoi]

9. They are a DRAIN on Society...the Evidence is the PAIN seen everywhere...

They possess DRAINITIS....they drain everything they are in control of....

W Bush has drained America to the point of PAINUS in the ANUS....

Mama always tole us to never be a DRAINUS....

Those guys never contribute anything original...usually gets sole credit for the work of others..

The GOP is DEAD in the WATER....clueless and on the Wrong side of the Reason, Truth, and Sanity..

They will soon adapt to Positivity or go the Whig Way.....

[pnwmom]

10. Simple. Because it goes against their deepest belief

that government CANNOT and DOES NOT help people.

[Joe the Liberal]

11. Because it goes against their interests.....

with that being said, imagine if they were as aggressive about defending and helping regular people in this country as they are about defending and helping corporations and the wealthy.

[zbdent]

12. Because they aren't "people" ...

I don't mean that as "they're aliens" or "animals" ...

They feel that they are above the "rabble" ... thus, they aren't "the people" ...

[GoCubsGo]

15. Exactly.

They are the party of Big Business, the wealthy, and their ignorant wannabes. They don't take any populist stands because they don't care about "the people", except as their cash cows. They are all about money and lining their own pockets. Everything else be damned.

[zbdent]

16. They would sell out to the highest bidder ...

remember, there's plenty of businesses which are actually under another country's banner because it's better for them in taxes ... and there are plenty of people using "dual citizenship" to avoid paying taxes ...

I honestly believe that, if a country told them that, if they renounce their American citizenship but are allowed to keep their money and jobs, they'd be there saying "America stinks!"

[Gman2]

13. That is so last century. The repugs thought that what was good for GM etc.

Now, they dont give a fuck about GM. SO, their original excuse for siding with power always, is defunct. Now, we should ask them directly, who they work for and why? What is the purpose of fronting for them. I think they are doing it now cuz they dont know any other path.

[Vinca]

14. Democrats are the party of "we;" Republicans are the party of "me."

They've got their gold-plate, government-sponsored insurance so to hell with you.

[Dappleganger]

17. Because they are God's Gift to the World

[tabasco]

18. Because they have been brainwashed by the corporate oligarchs

and their corporate mass media.

[PVnRT]

19. They aren't "for" a lot of things

Most of conservative philosophy in this country revolves around being against things. That's what happens when you are a reactionary ideology.

[Arkansas Granny]

21. I think they have bought into "St. Ronnie's" trickle down theory so heavily that

they still believe that if we allow those on top to acquire great wealth, they will share with us peons and we'll all be rich. Isn't that how it was supposed to work?

[ItNerd4life]

22. You ever study Milton Friedman?

If you want a better perspective on what they believe, read up on him.

[Solomon]

23. Because they have the fantasy that one day they will be rich

so they don't want the rules changed before they get there. They want to act like asses too when they get rich, notwithstanding the fact that it's all a fantasy in the first place.

[Uncle Joe]

24. They're authoritarian, loyalists; everything they do is in support of the top down

approach, whether this is based on government, business or religion.

The glue holding the allegiance to this authoritarianism together is their true God; whether implicit or explicit, by conscious or subconscious, however to stamp on the face of their true God "In Money We Trust" would be too blatant an offense particularly after Jesus; in his most violent act threw the money changers out of the Temple, thus they subliminally reverse the process.

The owners of their corporate media propaganda machine spin the myth of a Republican reverence for smaller government, as a means to camouflage their lust for a corporate/oligarch dominated government. A true government of "We The People" would threaten this agenda, so the government must be demonized to estrange it from the people, thus citizens are turned in to "consumers or customers" as means a of weakening their inherent power, while turning corporations in to the "middle man" between the people and their government.

This story; while having seen some modifications; in detail, scope and ability since pre-history is in large part repetitive; greed, lust for power, bearing of false witness resulting in brainwashing, fear and hatred are difficult obstacles for the human psyche to transcend.

Thanks for the thread, kentuck.

[opihimoimoi]

25. Simplified down to a root cause::: THEY ARE DELUDED....posing as normal

[LaPera]

26. Because it always goes against corporate interest...we are peons, workers, peasants here to be labor

exploited for the rich & the corporations, that's what republican ideology is, corporations over people, we are just workers who should pay corporations for everything that they privatize with colluded prices they set...workers should have NO voice (unions) wages as low as possible, They deserved no benefit...keep the economy bad and there's plenty of workers who'll work always for less... that's the elitist corporate republican ideology & agenda.

[Hutzpa]

28. It's simple

It's not in their DNA!

[PatSeg]

29. Though Republicans have been more business friendly

for as long as I can remember, they weren't always this bad. There was a time when Republican leaders were more liberal and actually competent. It seems to me it all started going downhill with Reagan who promoted trickle-down economics and deregulation. He opened the door for greed and corruption, naively believing the market would correct itself and people would do the right thing. I don't he was necessarily a bad person, just a really bad president. He was more personality than substance, certainly not qualified to be leader of the free world.

[Stellabella]

30. Because they're greedy, selfish, stupid, and cruel.

And out for themselves only.

[nichomachus]

31. I was going to say "traitors," but this is good too n/t

[C_U_L8R]

32. It's the very definition of conservative

they conserve all their compassion for themselves.

[Kablooie]

33. Conservative -- Holds to traditional attitudes and values. Averse to change.

Everything we are talking about is a change ie: an anathema to Republicans.

[jmondine]

34. Answer: Greed