by donny 38 Replies latest social entertainment
Lewis Black said it best: The Republicans are the party of Bad Ideas. The Democrats are the party of No Ideas.
My meager hope is that after Obama and that hideous female impersonator (Pelosi) tax everything while groveling before international elitists, the polls collapse and some guy like Pawlenty gets elected on a program to Drill like Crazy and end dependence on foreign oil.
A little more medical marijuana and get the heck out of Absurd-i-stan would be nice, too.
metatron
I hope the repeal of prohbition passes.
There are more people in prison in the US now (per capita) than were in the gulag at the height of the Stalin era (per capita).
If the Democrats dropped all their other schemes and focused on ending the war on drugs and de-ciminalizing marijuana and simple possession of other drugs, and pardoned everyone in prison now on non-violent drug offenses, I would vote for Obama in the next election.
This one act would do more to help our country than anything legislated since the civil rights legislation that the Democrats opposed in the 60s.
Republicans and Democrats began to dosi-do and changes places around racial issues in the 60's. Currently, GOP dog-whistle politics are about race - immigration, health care, 'real Americans,' etc.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of old Republicans who don't realize this. You can recognize some of them here at JWD because their comments are never actually about the topic at hand, but about snarking at "lefties" and "libs." The relevancy ship sailed without them and they completely missed the co-opting of their party by the evangelical, fundamentalist, apostolic far-right movement conservatives.
The good news is that conservatives can change - I voted for Reagan. I've shaken hands with W. F. Buckley, Jr. and Newt Gingrich. Dems have their faults for sure - but I'd much rather go with their ideology.
BizzyBee,
I'm not a Republican, i'm a Goldwater conserative, Bush the Elder sold out conservatism in his first term, Bush the Lesser was orders of magnitude worse.
and the issue isn't immigration, it is illegal immigration
health care should be an issue, the DemoCong plan to bankrupt us over it
the ideology of fraud science? fiscal policies that will give us hyper inflation and bankruptcy? ruinous tax rates, thought police, censorship?
why not just move to North Korea where you can have all those things without waiting?
As someone mentioned above, I am talking to current events. I agree that a lot of the stuff said or placed at the feet of the Republican Party is either false or exagerated. I am not trying to demean the party as I was a part of it for 25 years, but am simply trying to show that it does not appear to want to be inclusive as it was in the past. Many of my Republican friends are not aware that I jumped ship in 2006 and they still send me emails on a regular basis that include various jokes, feel good stories and commentaries.
Too many of these emails reflect a dislike (sometimes hidden, sometimes outright) for anything that is not from a southern white evangelical viewpoint. Several have made light of either Obamas blackness or his bi-racialness. More recent ones have been really tacky regarding the Tiger Woods issue. One said that his promiscuity was because "that is all black guys think about." Another said "the only ones who will dismiss his behavior are nigger-loving liberals." That was from a guy that I thought I knew and one I had discussed the Repulicans Party insentivity with before. Also, it was a Republican who asked McCain during his campaign "Obama is an Arab, no?"
Again, I am not saying this is representative of the party as a whole, but it does show that this is a problem and image that it does not seem to be working very hard to change. When I hear folks talking derogatory about anything non-white, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, they virtually always end up being Republicans.
The Republican Party has done some great things, but it needs to examine itself and make some corrections. And folks like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are not doing the party any favors in this area.
And for the record I am not a Democrat either. That party also has some serious issues which also need attention, but I commented on the Republicans because that is what I was for a quarter of a century.
Donny
Funny update,
Rick Roberts, the conservative talk show host I mentioned at the beginning of this thread stated this morning that the Republicans have to abandon the Good Ol' Boy, It's my way or the highway mentality as it does not work anymore to which I completely agree. The Party is going to have to appeal to more than those who enjoy the entertainment in Sean Hannity's Freedom Concerts 2010.
Donny
Again, I am not saying this is representative of the party as a whole, but it does show that this is a problem and image that it does not seem to be working very hard to change. When I hear folks talking derogatory about anything non-white, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, they virtually always end up being Republicans.
The Republican Party has done some great things, but it needs to examine itself and make some corrections. And folks like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are not doing the party any favors in this area.
And for the record I am not a Democrat either. That party also has some serious issues which also need attention, but I commented on the Republicans because that is what I was for a quarter of a century.
Donny
If the GOP is trying to reach out to those whom it formerly excluded, someone needs to make sure the three you named above get the memo!
Sylvia
This is a good example of what I mean by not trying to reach out.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3457015
Tea party protesters call Georgia's John Lewis 'nigger'
By William Douglas, McClatchy Newspapers William Douglas, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Sat Mar 20, 7:21 pm ET
WASHINGTON — Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol , angry over the proposed health care bill , shouted "nigger" Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis , a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.
The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus , lawmakers said.
"They were shouting, sort of harassing," Lewis said. "But, it's okay, I've faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean."
Lewis said he was leaving the Cannon office building across from the Capitol when protesters shouted "Kill the bill, kill the bill," Lewis said.
"I said 'I'm for the bill, I support the bill, I'm voting for the bill'," Lewis said.
A colleague who was accompanying Lewis said people in the crowd responded by saying "Kill the bill, then the n-word."
"It surprised me that people are so mean and we can't engage in a civil dialogue and debate," Lewis said.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver , D- Mo. , said he was a few yards behind Lewis and distinctly heard "nigger."
"It was a chorus," Cleaver said. "In a way, I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff - they're being whipped up. I decided I wouldn't be angry with any of them."
Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank , D- Mass. , an openly gay member of Congress . A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a "faggot."
Frank told the Boston Globe that the incident happened as he was walking from the Longworth office building to the Rayburn office building, both a short distance from the Capitol. Frank said the crowd consisted of a couple of hundred of people and that they referred to him as 'homo.'
"I'm disappointed with the unwillingness to be civil," Frank told the Globe. "I was, I guess, surprised by the rancor. What it means is obviously the health care bill is proxy for a lot of other sentiments, some of which are perfectly reasonable, but some of which are not."
"People out there today, on the whole, were really hateful," Frank said. "The leaders of this movement have a responsibility to speak out more."
Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol on Saturday as the House Democratic leadership worked to gather enough votes to enact a health care overhaul proposal that has become the centerpiece of President Barack Obama 's domestic agenda. Most were affiliated with so-called tea party organizations that originally sprang up during last summer's protests of the health care proposals .
Heated debate has surrounded what role race plays in the motivations of the tea party demonstrators. During protests last summer, demonstrators displayed a poster depicting Obama as an African witch doctor complete with headdress, above the words "OBAMACARE coming to a clinic near you." Former President Jimmy Carter asserted in September that racism was a major factor behind the hostility that Obama's proposals had faced.
The claim brought angry rebuttals from Republicans.
On Saturday, Frank, however, said he was sorry Republican leaders didn't do more to disown the protesters.
Some Republicans "think they are benefiting from this rancor," he said.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn , D- S.C. , said Saturday's ugliness underscored for him that the health care overhaul isn't the only motivation for many protesters.
"I heard people saying things today I've not heard since March 15th, 1960 , when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus," Clyburn said. "This is incredible, shocking to me."
He added, "A lot of us have said for a long time that none of this is about healthcare at all. It's about extending a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful."
( James Rosen contributed to this story.)
