2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

[French Rage]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

1870 was a pretty good year.

NB3 walked right into that one.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

1870 was a pretty good year.

Hillshire Farms remembers

[Bob Gray]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

Like most conservatives Bob remains rooted in 1982. Before you get on his case about that, it should be said the entire GOP field running for President shares that state of mind.

As always I see that unofan's sense of humor is missing in action.

[Kepler]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

As always I see that unofan's sense of humor is missing in action.

If we're voting, I'd say unofan has one of the best senses of humor in the board.

[Kepler]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

Give me your tired, your poor, your... ah, f-ck it.

[French Rage]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

Give me your tired, your poor, your... ah, f-ck it.

To some that's a feature, not a bug.

[joecct]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

Give me your tired, your poor, your... ah, f-ck it.

As long as he doesn't go near the World Cup construction sites, he'll be fine.

[Bob Gray]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

If we're voting, I'd say unofan has one of the best senses of humor in the board.

Don't agree, but he totally missed this one from what I can tell from the response to him. Or maybe he's clueless about cultural references like Duck Dynasty. The horror of not getting someone's references! The horror!

[Bob Gray]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

Interesting quote from Nikita Khrushchev.
"We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have communism."


And yes, to head off this question, when I say I think it's interesting, I mean I think it's interesting.

[Kepler]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

A long but excellent synopsis of the rise and fall of the Republican coalition.

[GrinCDXX]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

A long but excellent synopsis of the rise and fall of the Republican coalition.

A Republican lobbyist of my acquaintance whose corporate client has been caught in the middle of the political disturbances shared a provocative insight. “I finally figured it out,” he told me. “Obama created the Tea Party.” I laughed at first, but he explained what he meant. “We told people that Obama was a dangerous socialist who was going to wreck America and he had to be stopped, when really we knew he was a moderate Democrat, not all that radical,” the lobbyist said. “But they believed us.”

Republican lobbyist nails it.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

A long but excellent synopsis of the rise and fall of the Republican coalition.

Wow. This would have been a fascinating read in book form where the author could go into greater detail. Fascinating stuff.

[Kepler]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

With Benghazi dead and the Emails dying, the GOP could use some good news about how their other fake scandals are faring.

This is not that news.

But hey, I'm sure Fast and Furious or Solyndra will bring down the administration any day now.

[SJHovey]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

A long but excellent synopsis of the rise and fall of the Republican coalition.

So here's a question I have. Is the Democratic party at risk of having the same occur? Haven't the power brokers of both parties taken advantage of certain constituencies with a mix of broken promises and belief those voters really have nowhere else to go? At what point do African Americans start asking exactly what the Democrats have done for them in exchange for their 90% loyalty, even when a black president has been elected?

[Kepler]

Re: 2nd Term Part X - A link to a fore gone conclusion

So here's a question I have. Is the Democratic party at risk of having the same occur? Haven't the power brokers of both parties taken advantage of certain constituencies with a mix of broken promises and belief those voters really have nowhere else to go? At what point do African Americans start asking exactly what the Democrats have done for them in exchange for their 90% loyalty, even when a black president has been elected?

Fair question. Blacks would probably be leaving the Democratic coalition already if they had anywhere to go, but obviously, right now, they don't -- when the Dixiecrats migrated to the GOP they brought their virulent racism with them.

Still, blacks are only about 15% of the Democratic coalition. The better question is: when do the poor start holding Democrats accountable for sitting passively while conservatives destroyed the American Dream and pushed inequality and poverty through the roof, even during times when Dems held the presidency and/or Congress? Look at how much damage, er, influence the social conservatives have been responsible for via the GOP, while the poor, who have similar numbers relative to the Democrats, have gotten nothing. But again, they have nowhere to go -- at the same time the Democrats shifted from a working class to a middle class party, the Republicans shifted from a middle class to an upper class party, albeit one with useful idiots among the rural poor who vote to slash their own throats in return for a religious head fake.

In each case, a sizeable chunk of the Demcoratic coalition could be up for grabs, but in each case the Republicans can't be the beneficiary unless they change so fundamentally that you'd almost not even call them the same party anymore.

A socially conservative, economically progressive working class third party would draw heavily from both parties. You can see people like Huckabee feeling blindly around, trying to get something like that off the ground, but so far the big two have managed to keep their strangleholds. Such a party could also be heavily statist and of course jingoist and anti-immigrant and thus hijack a lot of the firepower that the Tea Party had. Sure, it would be repellent, but we're already seeing in Europe how recession is the ideal Petri dish for racial parties. A younger, less isolationist Pat Buchanan could do some serious damage with that.