What happened to...

[Repo]

What happened to the Republican Party? What happened to the GOP? It went from being the Grand Old Party to the Gay Old Party. They are gay in every sense of the word. There are plenty of homosexuals in the Republican Party and they are gay in the "showing a merry, lively mood" as they traveled around the world thanks to the very generous Jack Abramoff. Many Republicans are not straight and even more of them have not been straight in talking to the American public. The president, the vice president and Condi Rice have all misled the public trying to tie the 9/11 attacks to Saddam. They can deny it but the videotapes show them insinuating a mushroom cloud; there was no straight talk there and there is no straight talk now as they deny that Iraq is in a civil war. The Bush Administration is basically having the American public bend over as they give a Mark Foley salute up the butt...

The Republican Party has lost its way. They are no longer the party devoted to smaller government, less spending, individual and state's rights or morality. They have become the party of megalomania. The Republican Party controls all branches of government so they can't blame the Democrats or anyone else for the country's fall from greatness into a souring abyss...

First and foremost the Republican Party and those that make America's great war machine of aircraft, tanks, Hummers and those that supply support for wars wanted a war with Iraq. They said and did just about anything to coax Americans into believing a war with Iraq was in America's interest. Now years later America is stuck in an Iraqi civil war with no end in sight as American soldiers needlessly die and the same president, vice president and Condi Rice claim leaving Iraq would make it worse but they have no plan on how to make the situation in Iraq better other than stay the course which translates to continue letting American soldiers die. I didn't trust the Bush Administration's judgment to go to war and I don't trust their judgment to stay in Iraq. Even a trapped animal knows it is better to chew off your arm and leave than stay and die. President Ronald Reagan was smart enough to leave Lebanon when Hamas bombed the American base. Cheney would call that cut and run but then Cheney was a draft dodger when it was his life on the line not someone else's kid or parent. A good leader doesn't sacrifice American soldiers because he is afraid to change his mind and admit a mistake. George W. Bush is no Ronald Reagan. They both may cut wood in the bush but it ends there...

What would President Reagan think of his party if he were still alive? The Republican Congress passed legislation making the biggest government ever and the most spending ever. The Republican Congress passed legislation taking away individual rights. The Republican Congress passed legislation increasing the federal government. The Republican Congress has been convicted of taking bribes, they have members that preyed on young children, children that the Republican Congress was suppose to protect. The Republican Congress is now practicing nation building in Iraq. What happened to the Republican Party? It is now the party of big spending, big government, less personal rights, nation building and immorality. Question: How can any true conservative be part of that party? Answer: Any real respected conservative would chew off their arm and flee the Republican Party and start their own party. They just haven't come to the realization that they are trapped by the religious right and big money lobbyists, when they do, they will flee...

[theknife]

nice post, Repo...i was just thinking the same thing. the GOP got hijacked a few years ago - dunno what you call them, but they sure ain't conservative.

timely case in point, from Johnson County, Kansas. the conservative head of the local paper, the Johnson County Sun, is also asking the same question:

So, what in the world has happened?


The Republican Party has changed, and it has changed monumentally.


You almost cannot be a victorious traditional Republican candidate with mainstream values in Johnson County or in Kansas anymore, because these candidates never get on the ballot in the general election. They lose in low turnout primaries, where the far right shows up to vote in disproportionate numbers.


To win a Republican primary, the candidate must move to the right.


What does to-the-right mean?


It means anti-public education, though claiming to support it.


It means weak support of our universities, while praising them.


It means anti-stem cell research.


It means ridiculing global warming.


It means gay bashing. Not so much gay marriage, but just bashing gays.


It means immigrant bashing. I'm talking about the viciousness.


It means putting religion in public schools. Not just prayer.


It means mocking evolution and claiming it is not science.


It means denigrating even abstinence-based sex education.


Note, I did not say it means "anti-abortion," because I do not find that position repugnant, at all. I respect that position.


But everything else adds up to priorities that have nothing to do with the Republican Party I once knew.


That's why, in the absence of so-called traditional Republican candidates, the choice comes down to right-wing Republicans or conservative Democrats.


And now you know why we have been forced to move left.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...155725&rfi =8

[napho]

No surprise. Far right wing cartoon characters are troubled sickos. Tortured homo pedophile priests, gay self loathing politicians, mental cripples using religion as a crutch, drug addicted Limbaugh, they're all the same. Instead of less government, you have more government, just THEIR version of it. It's now illegal to sell vibrators in much of the US if you can imagine. http://pandagon.net/2006/10/02/scotu...y-ban-is-a-ok/

[RDixon]

Bush was sighted early yesterday in the rose garden waving at the last three remaining Republicans in America.

They couldn't see it though as they had their backs turned to him.

[Mazer]

Originally Posted by Repo

What happened to the Republican Party? It is now the party of big spending, big government, less personal rights, nation building and immorality.

If I were a more cynical person I might say that they've finally joined the 21st century, but you're right (err, I mean correct ). I only wish there was a better alternative.

[theknife]

Nancy Pelosi stands a better-than-average chance of becoming the next Speaker of the House. she's on record as proposing the following agenda for her first 100 hours and thereafter (my italics added). ambitious and arguably politically unrealistic, but the issues are relevant:

- Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation." (politically dubious, but a worthwhile goal)
- Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (a no-brainer)
Time remaining until 100 hours:
- Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. (a feel-good gesture of dubious economic value)
- Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. (no problem - direct benefits to the middle class)
- Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients. (another no-brainer)
- Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds -- "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday. (an obvious winner)
-All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority. To do that, she said, Bush-era tax cuts would have to be rolled back for those above "a certain level." She mentioned annual incomes of $250,000 or $300,000 a year and higher, and said tax rates for those individuals might revert to those of the Clinton era. (no problem - nobody should get a tax cut when there is a war to pay for)

these proposals contrast starkly with the Bush administration rubber stamps and wingnut giveaways we've seen recently like defense of marriage, bans of online gambling, bans of flag-burning, erosion of habeas corpus rights, fake border walls, etc etc from the GOP-controlled Congress. keeping in mind that the GOP has had six years as a majority party and could have passed pretty much anything they wanted, their record is pretty thin.

[JackSpratts]

bush'll be a veto-happy moran for the rest of his term, that is if any of this gets by the senate.

i'd like sunset clauses on patriot and the so-called torture bill, and then of course a balls-to-the-wall investigation of what the f--k happened during the last five years with executions to follow.

finally, toss the dmca and the internet radio and hd tv drm rules. that wouldn't hurt either.

yeah, and wake me up when the mets win.

- js.

[Mazer]

I guess I'm kinda looking forward to a do-nothing government for the next couple years. Perhaps it will have a humbling effect on them. It won't bring the end of Iraq's occupation any closer, but I'm betting that after everyone in the House has thoroughly squandered their chances to keep their campaign promises they'll be ready to deal and accomplish something substanitive in a bipartisan manner.