US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

I gotta get off the bus at that point k3v & alfred

I mean I don't have any admiration at all for either side but your choices here are people who will sit idly by while other people hurt you & lie about how they wanted to help vs. people who are actively trying to hurt you - the former category at least might be fun to take in a movie with, the latter are just a drag

I don't wanna go to a movie with them – I want them angry enough to blow up the projectionist for threatening to show "Transformers 3."

They're holding their representatives accountable!

this, and yeah, on that level, i "admire" them (in a distanced sense) far more than current democrats. more than the democratic party, more than its candidates, and more than its constituency. the tea party and its candidates/supporters are active, engaged, morally committed, and willing to make and stand by strong demands. everything any worthwhile political party needs to be.

yeah I cannot take what they are standing for out of the equation

of course not. on that level, they're reprehensible and i admire them not at all.

(that other level, i mean...)

No one here has expressed support for the GOP platform.

Here's what makes the national press so excrutiating. From The NYT story posted this afternoon about Obama's press conference:

The president’s tone about his Democratic allies changed as well. Mr. Obama appeared eager to demonstrate that the difficulties House Speaker John A. Boehner is having with conservatives was matched by Mr. Obama’s willingness to talk tough to his own liberal constituency.

Obama's willingness to shit on what is presumably his base is as courageous as Kerry, Gore, and Clinton's.

Wait never mind: his true base is Wall Street. Sorry.

This is the kicker line: “Let’s do it,” (Obama) said. “I’m prepared to do it. I’m prepared to take on significant heat from my party to get something done.”

They're holding their representatives accountable for not holding up idiotic economic and social policy lines. There's also enough fragmentation in belief that the only common thread really ends up being "don't vote for anything that involves payment" including but not limited to federal programs that tea partiers depend on (medicare, ssi).

yeah but in the 20s & 30s the business community needed Americans a lot more than they do now; it's all about "emerging markets" now. We're already in debt, so we've fulfilled our purpose.

seriously; the matrix aliens weren't nice but at least they needed our bodies for batteries

http://i.imgur.com/k8xni.jpg

They're holding their representatives accountable! They're not like Democrats who year after year go, "Oh well, I gotta vote for Gore/Kerry/Obama cuz god knows what THE OTHER SIDE is gonna put on the Supreme Court."

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 11 July 2011 20:40 (1 hour ago)

Come presidential election time, they totally are like that. Do you really think Tea Partiers are going to sit out presidential elections if the GOP candidate isn't conservative enough? They think Obama is a communist marxist muslim terrorist whatever. In my view, one of the strengths of the Republican party, and their base, is that they are BETTER at rallying around their candidate no matter what, because they have so thoroughly demonized their opposition.

yup

do you guys not remember 4 years ago

when GOP turnout was depressed and tons of the party hated McCain

and McCain had to pander to the base by making a desperate hail-mary VP nomination. which still didn't save him.

Do you really think Tea Partiers are going to sit out presidential elections if the GOP candidate isn't conservative enough?

We'll soon see! Can't wait!

McCain's campaign was a trainwreck and he had previous election cycles worth of baggage - he ran against W. & the base hated him forever for it

red = bush; yellow =mccain, 2000 primary:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/2000_Republican_Primary_Results.svg

when GOP turnout was depressed and tons of the party hated McCain

― a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, July 11, 2011 6:06 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

and McCain had to pander to the base by making a desperate hail-mary VP nomination. which still didn't save him.

― a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, July 11, 2011 6:06 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

this is... uh, a generous retelling of the events

well, it's not really, but they're not perfectly comparable situations -- one of the reasons why mccain lost was bcuz he didn't appeal to the GOP base as much as w bush, but it was only one of the reasons

Do you really think Tea Partiers are going to sit out presidential elections if the GOP candidate isn't conservative enough?

no. they're not that passive. they'll more likely force the candidates they want on the GOP.

the GOP circa 2008 much more a party that was in disarray than one that stood up nobly and said "you don't support republican values, so we're not voting for you"

they'll more likely force the candidates they want on the GOP.

― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Monday, July 11, 2011 6:12 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

this is really hard on a national level -- they tried to in 2008, but they failed, which is why there was a lot of moaning about mccain -- maybe they'll be able to do it in 2012, but i have my doubts

they're not directly comparable for all sorts of reason but the base wasn't motivated by McCain and I'm sure that depressed GOP turnout. This is in response to the assertion that the GOP base ALWAYS turns out, no matter what. It just isn't true.

i think the problem w/ that statement is that bases ALWAYS do turn out, that's why they're the called "the base" -- i think ppl, including republicans themselves, probably overestimated the size of the base

really what you can see in all this is Obama trying to pry the oligarchic wing of the GOP out of the GOP entirely - "come deal with me! I'm reasonable!" - so that the GOP will be a hollowed-out shell of nutjobs who can't win elections. that's the real conflict going on here.

sorta got the sense that gop knew they couldn't win that time around and were like, "hey look, an old man! let's throw him on the fire. *inferno* bahahaha! look at him dance around!"

man McCain wanted it SO BAD

lol hunt3r that is a grim little poem right there, well done

I should have been clearer: it's more true to say that the GOP screens its candidates more closely in local races than the Dems. The GOP after all loves to nominate the tired old satrap (Dole, McCain) every couple of cycles.

It's totally true that the GOP nominates the tired old satrap when they know they won't win (e.g. 1996, 2008).

"We got rid of THAT fossil"

photo of the day

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/gty_joe_biden_sc_110704_wb.jpg

i still don't get how romney couldn't beat mccain, a disaster of a candidate, but is the odds on favorite to win this election cycle

all the candidates are terrible?

GOP has more conservative candidates/house representatives thanks in part to some v generous gerrymandering

I mean seriously have you looked at the 2012 Republican nominee poll thread, it's hilarious

xp

because of the winner-take-all nature of the GOP primary system

xp to j0rd

Reagan couldn't beat Ford in '76

xxxxp

is it sorta like if you think about sleeping w/ someone but you're like "that would probably suck", so then you sleep around, and go "wait, this REALLY sucks", and decide to go back to the first person

lol

btw those of you who spend as much time in The Corner zoo as I do will note that their commenters admire how organized and principled the Dem base is, rallying around their candidate when necessary.

I think you left out the part where you catch herpes

xp

Depends on what the definition of is is

xxpost

romney and mccain compete for the same natural constituencies in the party, with other candidates dividing up the right fringe -- romney couldn't beat mccain just because mccain was there, if that makes sense

btw those of you who spend as much time in The Corner zoo as I do will note that their commenters admire how organized and principled the Dem base is, rallying around their candidate when necessary.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, July 11, 2011 5:25 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

worth repeating!! people like rush and breitbart say shit like this constantly.

this is really hard on a national level -- they tried to in 2008, but they failed, which is why there was a lot of moaning about mccain -- maybe they'll be able to do it in 2012, but i have my doubts

― gucci mande (J0rdan S.), Monday, July 11, 2011 3:15 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

would agree that it's hard on a national level, but they've proved they can do it very effectively on the state level. that's what i was getting at.

I for one salute the devotion and commitment of my socialist brothers in arms

whereas the Dems rarely nominate tired old satraps -- they nominate young satyrs

can someone photoshop some goat legs onto John kerry