GOP Antics

[davidbcoe]

Two months ago, I thought that the GOP was poised to make huge gains in this year's elections.  But with Republican House members shouting about how the health reform bill is a "baby killer", with Tea Party activists using racial epithets against John Lewis and other African American Democrats and calling Barney Frank "a faggot", and now with this,

Comments

[kmarkhoover]

If they keep this up we might be able to hold our own in the elections this November.

[davidbcoe]

I think so.

[hedwig_snowy]

Will they still have Congress people to vote for?

1/3rd aren't filling out the census... :)

And...1/3rd aren't going to pay taxes...tough to vote in jail...

And the final 1/3rd are in their basements cleaning their guns...

Who will be going to the polls?

[davidbcoe]

Interesting point. I love the idea of the wingnuts thinking that they're outsmarting everyone by not filling out the census, and all they end up doing is costing Utah and Texas and Nebraska Congressional seats

[madkestrel]

My middle school students have more decorum than most of the GOP these days. *sigh*

[davidbcoe]

Agreed. I'm pretty partisan, but even I believe that a vibrant two party system makes us stronger. But the behavior of this GOP is just too ugly....

[ext_216252]

Of course you can only have a viable two-party system if both parties participate. The GOP's skulking around only shows they're willing to make things harder for everybody when they don't get their way. It's clear, however, the message they're sending and the lesson the REST of us are learning about them from this is not the one they think they're teaching us. Will they NEVER learn? *double-sigh*

[davidbcoe]

Valid point, John. Participating ought to mean engaging with the issues, addressing them maturely and substantively, and being willing to debate and compromise. We've moved away from that. both sides have, to be honest, although I think the most egregious abuses have come from the right.

[davidbcoe]

Yes, Tiffany, I do. But I know that we as a nation have survived worse than this, and always at times when progressive movements are on the rise. The nativism and anti-government rhetoric in the 1930s during the New Deal was pretty appalling, and of course the resistance to the Civil Rights movement was horrible. Even during the Clinton years, when Rush Limbaugh was doing his "America Held Hostage," schtick, things got ugly. The right in this country is often virulent in its resistance to change. So I don't see anything now that is much worse than what we've seen before. Still, it is worrisome.

[hedwig_snowy]

Once you light the match...let the genie out of the bottle...let the Beck on TV...it's hard to go back.

The most recent poll shows self-ID with the GOP at 23% and these:

Strong Democrat 18%
Not strong Democrat 12%
Independent, lean Democrat 17%
Independent, not lean 20%
Independent, lean Republican 13%
Not strong Republican 8%
Strong Republican 13%

And, they had a Research 2000/Daily Kos poll out a few months ago that was savaged on the right because of who put it out and that the GOP wasn't really insane. Harris just put out a poll that proves a lot of them are....

http://hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com/351964.html

[davidbcoe]

Others reading this comment should check out Hedwig's post -- the numbers above are promising. The numbers from the Harris poll he mentions are terrifying.

[madkestrel]

We can't. She has it friends-locked. *smile*

[davidbcoe]

Oh. Oops....

[mythusmage]

David, if the media focused on the bad boys of the Democratic Party what would your impression of Democrats be? All movements attract dweebs and jerks, and all movements can be made to consist mostly of dweebs and jerks by how they are studied. I remember when D&D players were presented as dorky Satan worshippers with body odor and obsessive habits Being a D&D player at the time I can assure you no one I knew even knew any Satan worshipper, or even why you'd want to.

I learned about media duplicity back in the 80s, and nothing I've seen since then has changed my mind.

We tend to remember the disruptions and the bozos, the quiet and the reasonable tend to get over looked.

[davidbcoe]

What you say about the media looking for the worst in people is probably true. But who do you look at for the GOP to use as an example of "quiet and reasonable"? Certainly not Sarah Palin, who was the first to popularize the "Death Panel" nonsense. Certainly not Michelle Bachman, or Steven King (R-Iowa), Certainly not Limbaugh, or Beck, or any of the other clowns at Fox News. Do we look at Boehner or McConnell? They've been repeating lies about the health care package, too: "It's socialized medicine, it's being passed using fraudulent legislative strategies (which, by the way, we've used again and again, but never mind that). We need to start from scratch because we've been left out of the process. We can do this piecemeal." They never mention that in fact they've been brought into negotiations on this bill again and again from the beginning, but never offered any positive suggestions. They opposed it from day one, not because they disliked the policy, but because they disliked the politics. They know that passage of this

[mythusmage]

David,

How much do you think it would cost if your car insurance paid for oil changes and tire rotation?

[davidbcoe]

I find it funny that opponents of health care reform use the car insurance analogy selectively to make points. How many states in the US REQUIRE people to have car insurance in order to drive? And how many of those states are the same ones talking about challenging the health insurance mandate? (My state is one of them, sadly.) Are our cars more sacred than our health? Than our children's health