Republicans Are The Problem

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I am really bored with all your problems, as you keep evading the real issues contained in the thread. Now you have the authors suing the OP, when I said something very different, which you then reveal your transparent ineptitude by further clouding the issue. To experienced forum persons, that is called...'OffTopic"

Goodbye.

 

Would you say that the republican party as a whole shares your general attitude?

 

Who did?

 

I don't think you can blame republicans in particular for the corruption of politics. Politics are inherently corrupt, government or otherwise.

 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has warned Congress that the continual increase of the national debt and projected deficits are going to have far reaching negative impacts on U.S Federal budget and the American economy. The 1.6% decrease in Real GDP growth in fiscal year 2011 and the current 2.2% Real GDP growth has a cumulative impact and results in a reduction of fewer and lower paying jobs. President Obama and The Senate Democrats are failing to address the problem in a serious manner. Obama proposed up to nearly $4 trillion of reduced spending over ten years but that only represents 20% of the deficits so the national debt will continue to grow at phenomenal rates. The U.S. Federal budget would accelerate from $14 trillion in debt to $22 trillion in debt as projected even with $2 trillion in deficit cuts then the interest on the national debt (public debt) would cost about $1.1 trillion per year. This procedure requires taxation proposed by the U.S. Congress that cannot be used for government programs and expenditures and is more than the projected annual deficits for the next ten fiscal years.

Obama, Congress warned: National debt growing faster

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/06/obama-congress-warned-national-debt-growing-faster/1#.T5xlZ8WliCg

 

I will retract the statement for Thomas E. Mann. He is the co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Panel but is apparently considered center-left.

 

You forgot to preface this tripe with "In my own mind..."

 

I think that those who take West seriously are foolish.

 

That's what YOU think.

 

You mean the Venona Messages? Of the 159 people McCarthy accused of being Communists only nine were and after the fall of the Soviet Union released documents from the former KGB stated the Soviets loved McCarthy since he actually distracted both the public and the government from their real infiltrators.

 

I officially apologize for my assertion in the OP that both writers were Republicans. I actually did do a search for their credentials but must have made an error. The only way I can think that this happened was that I pasted the same guy for both searches.

The article still contains valid points, however, from a center-left and center-right perspective and the sentiments ARE echoed by several Republican politicians expressing their concerns about the extremism that has taken over the Republican Party.

 

This explains a lot about what is wrong with Republicans today.

 

Here's a little glimps of how things are really going for the GOP from "WomenAreWatching.org"

Over the last few weeks, the battle over birth control and women’s health has dominated the national conversation. From Rush Limbaugh’s degrading comments about Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke to Mitt Romney’s saying he would “get rid of” Planned Parenthood, women’s health has become a defining issue ahead of the 2012 election. And now, a number of Republican elected officials are speaking out on women’s health, distancing themselves from the so-called “war on women,” even suggesting women may deserve a choice.

Last week, we heard from Senator John McCain, who was asked on Meet the Press if there was “a war on women among Republicans.” McCain responded, “We need to get off that issue, in my view. I think we ought to respect the right of women to make choices in their lives and make that clear....”

A few days later, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison spoke out and expressed concern with Rick Perry’s decision to cut off health care for more than 130,000 women.

And even later, at a rally for the Equal Rights Amendment, Republican Congressman Richard Hanna said the following: “[T]hese are very precarious times for women” and “many of your rights are under assault.”

Later, in an interview, he said:

“I think you’ve watched a number of things come up recently, like the proposal to defund Planned Parenthood. And I’ve gotten to feel that I owed it to my friends in the Republican Party to stand out a little bit and say, ‘Everybody doesn’t feel the way you feel.’”

Most recently, former Senator Arlen Specter spoke out on the issue. In his memoir, he lamented at the hyper-partisanship that persists in Congress due to wedge issues like women’s access to comprehensive health care, "The abortion issue continues to drive Senate polarization and paralysis.”

As a pro-choice Republican himself, he knows how lonely this position can be among members of his party. In an interview with the Huffington Post, when asked if the GOP is hurting its prospects with women voters he said, “Terribly! Terribly!” As Specter acknowledged, women’s health has become a partisan issue — a political football to be tossed around. And not only is it bad for women, it’s leaving pro-choice Republicans without much of a choice in candidates.

Republicans may be defecting from their talking points and acknowledging that this battle over birth control has gone too far, but unfortunately their actions have not always matched up with their rhetoric. Both McCain and Hutchison voted for the Blunt amendment, which would have allowed any employer the right to deny coverage for birth control based on a so-called moral conviction. So if these Republicans, who voted for the Blunt Amendment, think the fight over birth control has gone too far, it's frightening to think what the presidential primary candidates -- all who have pledged to eliminate funding for family planning and further restrict women’s access to health care-- would do if elected..

As we head into the November elections, one thing is clear: women’s health will be a defining issue.

That's just the most recent issue when viewed in content with all the other "wars" the GOP is waging against the American people, it's clear they are the problem and even some of their own are not comfortable with it.

 

Really?

In Australia the Democrat party would be centre right of politics.

 

You are incorrect. The most credible experts point out that the "Left" has moved further to the "Right".

But I'm one that seeks to change that. I believe America has moved to far to the Right as a whole. I will never support another candidate that looks like a Blue-Dog Democrat, and certainly not one who is politically to the Right of Ronald Reagan.

 

Maybe all those "religious people" should stop playing musical chairs with their marriages and cut down on the divorce rate that is destroying the fabric of society.
Unless, of course, you actually believe that everyone that gets divorced in the US is a liberal or a minority.

 

Agreed...The religious kooks (christians) are the main cause of the high divorce rate in the US. I guess its not cool to practice what you dictate.

 

I swear, I was reading a Christian magazine once, and it was talking about how gay marriage would destroy "...the sanctity of traditional marriage". Then, in the advertisements in the back of the magazine, it said "Missing: Sanctity of Traditional Marriage. If Found, Please call 1-800-xxx-xxxx"

 

If we want a perfect example of how extreme Republicans are in their attack on women we need only look to Arizona:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...m-abortion-20-weeks-jan-brewer_n_1422853.html

So the woman can be legally "pregnant" two weeks before she even has sex? If she decides against having sex does this mean she's committed a self-induced abortion? Why not pass a law that a woman is legally pregnant from the moment of puberty?

What kind of idiots does it take to pass a law like this?

The issues of abortion were resolved almost 50 years ago in the Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade. Why do so many Republicans still want to violate the Constitutional Rights of women related to abortion and reproduction? This isn't just an assault on women but it's an assault on the US Constitution by Republicans. Women have Constitutional Rights related to reproduction including abortion and the Republicans are doing everything possible to violate those Constitutional Rights.

 

LOL, the dems talking point I heard again on TV this morning is the republicans "War on Women" means they want to take away women's reproductive health. In other words, they want to turn the hearing on religious freedom to taking away all women's healthcare. If they streached this any further, it may snap back and slap them in the face.

 

I'm just going to keep repeating myself until you people get it through your thick skulls. When you are drifting out to sea, it's easy to think the land is moving. It is the Democrats who are moving, not the Republicans. JFK would be a Republican by today's Democrat standards. Do you realize that?

 

No. It's the other way around. The republicans are openly hostile to the working class now. They've gone so far to the right that they're practically East Indian, with caste systems. The democrats, for all their obvious flaws, are now the conservative party in America.

 

And Ike with his spending on a national highway system (infrastructure) and his opposition to war would be a Democrat. In the 1960's Republicans supported civil Rights and today they oppose the Constitutional Right of Women related to reproductive Rights and oppose the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment when it comes to gender discrimination in marriage.

Republicans of the 1950's and 1960's would be replused by the Republicans of today with their religious intolerance and their disregard for the US Constitution. Does anyone in their right mind think that Ike or Barry Goldwater would have authorized the torture of detainees or have authorized the invasions of Iraq or Afghanistan? Republicans used to believe in the US Constitution and human rights but that is no longer true with today's Republicans.

 

What I actually wandered into the thread to reiterate was that, as weird as republicans can be sometimes, they're not the cause of the problem. They're a symptom. So are the democrats, actually.

The problem, at its core, is something I can't quite put my finger on, to be honest. But I think it's a problem with the people ourselves. We don't care enough. I don't mean in a political sense, like they don't care about all the various races and actions and movements. It certainly isn't that people don't care enough about the government. I think people currently care WAY too much about the government. But not enough about each other? I realize that sounds corny but I'm not sure how else to put it.

It all comes down to motivation. Capitalism, socialism, Mormonism, Dadaism, it doesn't matter what system you use so much as the intention with which you use it. Whether you use corporations or the government, verbal eloquence or physical intimation or emotional appeal, it still comes down to what you actually do with it. Do you use your wealth to serve humankind, or do you use it to serve yourself? Or are you one of those real weirdos who uses it to attack humankind in retaliation for some imagined, impossible wrong?

It's something cultural. I think Americans are in danger of being less honest, less sympathetic, less ... good? Virtuous? Again, corny. But I think these are important things. Even on a selfish level. Ironically. They're really what holds America together -- not laws, not customs, definitely not sexual preference guidelines or family-unit-definitions or spiritual practices. Not boundaries on a map, either. It's the faith that Americans have in other Americans. Our trust in each other, to be good people.

It's all about game theory, in a way. And what's the fastest, most reliable way out of the prisoner's dilemma?

 

Indeed, the core of the Republican Party has been drawn Right, to a very troubling degree.