Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, with his collaborator Howard Rosenthal of New York University, has spent decades charting the ideological shifts and polarization of the political parties in Congress from the 18th century until now to get the view of how the political landscape has changed from 30,000 feet up. What they have found is that the Republican Party is the most conservative it has been a century.
"On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be much impetus on the part of the leadership of either political party to really do something serious about our budget crisis. I doubt very seriously we'll see much improvement.
"People forget how utterly irresponsible our political leadership has been for the last 30 years. ... The current political class of the U.S. just isn't in the same league as Truman and Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. You just don't have that kind of leadership now, just when we need it.
Like I said before, THIS election in 2012 is going to be perhaps the ugliest one we have seen in America for decades.
I think Obama is destined to win, but I am not sure how badly the country will be damaged by the political conflict. And how do we possibly move forward when all anybody wants to do is fortify their bunkers an gather even more ammunition for the next engagement?
So Clinton's balamced budget and surplus don;t count? I agree that there is NO leadership in the GOP, but hell, Democrats have to spend years cleaning up after them. Can these guys not be honest?
ReplyDeleteYeah! A return to Post Civil War conservatism.
ReplyDeleteJust the way the corporate banking cabal wants it to be, and oh yes throw in the palin types to keep the people focused on hating each other, so as not to look in the cabal's direction.
And for good measure make sure there is plenty of racial, sexual preference, gender wars and general discontent to go around.
Remember.....follow the money...who benefits...who loses...who is funding/promoting this shit.
If the President does not win we can look forward to personhood amendments, gays out of the military, no taxes on interest, dividends or capital gains and then we won't have to complain about the 1%, they will pay NO taxes.
ReplyDeleteMake sure every Democrat votes!
DeleteLook at how the democratic party has changed for the crazy, or just worse.
ReplyDeleteConvert right here. I will not go back to the left until it becomes bearable again, meaning until intelligent people popularize it.
Get lost, righty!
Deletehttp://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/07/09/most_scientists_support_democrats.html
DeleteAnonymousApr 15, 2012 06:12 AM
DeleteSTFU Krusty!
Is 'Chamber' referring to the Independents...LOL.. Because that graph looks erratic, just like Independents, who are wishy-washy. Running back and forth from Dems to Repub, to Repub to Dem.
ReplyDeleteChamber refers to the house and the Senate. Being the elected officials, their party lines and pattern of voting over the years. Right now, inspire of two years as a predominantly liberal chamber, the last marker being representative if the 2010 seizure of the chamber by the teaparty.
DeleteChamber refers to the house and the Senate. Being the elected officials, their party lines and pattern of voting over the years. Right now, inspire of two years as a predominantly liberal chamber, the last marker being representative if the 2010 seizure of the chamber by the teaparty.
DeleteIt would be interesting to compare these findings to Strauss & Howe's generational theory, i.e. the Fourth Turning. They've pretty much been dead on with predicting dominant attitudes for about 20 years now.
ReplyDeleteAs for the recent Communist scare, someone ought to ask Mittens to explain why the United Order is still official Mormon doctrine. That first started in 1831, when Karl Marx was only about 13 years old.
Welcome to Talibanessee!
ReplyDeleteOkay, most people might be aware by now of Tennessee’s new Taliban-inspired abstinence education policy. If you’ve just come in from Kabul, go back to whatever you were doing; you’re already familiar with all this. The rest of you, listen up. This is important.
First of all, throw out all your references to first base, second base, third base and homerun – that’s out. There will be no French kissing, “feeling up”, oral sex, let alone actual penetration. For a long time now we’ve all felt that first base was the “gateway sexual activities.” Turns out we were wrong. The “gateway”is a long way before french kissing – turns out holding hands is a real viper’s nest of sin.
Don’t do it!
But seriously, we really have to figure out what a “gateway sexual activity” is – and isn’t. I mean you’re not slipping anyone the tongue until you can get this down. And it’s not as easy as you think. Virgins manage to fumble their way to sex but I’m not sure Republicans can manage it, not after reading both the bill summary of SB 3310 and its House version, HB 3621 or the bill itself. Don’t even think about leaving a reading of the bill’s justification by the Family Action Council of Talibanessee – er, um…I mean, Tennessee, and leaving with your sanity intact.
Okay, I get that teenagers in Tennessee are getting it on in record numbers and I understand (I think) the Republican concept of abstinence. I do: that’s when Bristol Palin says “no, no, no, keep that nasty thing away from me!” and gets pregnant anyway. See, I get it. So did Bristol.
http://www.politicususa.com/welcome-to-talibanessee/
For most of my adult life, up until about six or seven years ago, I was a Republican and I even worked in both of Reagan's campaigns. But I left the party for several reasons. The inclination of Republicans to get us into war was one of them but I also object to the Republicans dependence on fundamentalist Christians and Tea Party radicals.
ReplyDeleteI do not think being Christian is the problem. When I read news articles about problems in the world, it is amazing how often some fundamentalist group, religion does not matter, are involved in the issues. There is something about being a fundamentalist that makes people uncompromising. There seems to be this desire to make others like themselves and they have the desire to use the power of government to accomplish that end.
I also believe that the Republicans have become anti-female, not because they disrespect women but because they want to force fundamentalist principles upon them.
So even though I am now an independent, I do think President Obama has a case on this issue. If I were female, I sure as heck would not vote for a party that wanted to put me in my place. Of course I am male and what they want to do will only impact people like my wife, daughter and other people I care about, so I will not vote for a Republcan either this time around.
As for Mitt Romney, it does not bother me that he has changed his mind on several of his positions. A mature adult, when faced with new information, is willing to alter previous positions. But, Romney has changed so many important positions that I find it difficult to know what he really stands for. I do not want a surprise elected to the White House in Novemberf.
I really wish the party would get back to the principles that I supported when I was a member. But, for now, I realize they will be pulled around by Christian fundamentalist, Tea Party members and other right wing nut cases who only care about their right to carry a weapon.
It is all very sad that the GOP has fallen this far.
In November, I will vote for President Obama.
U're 100 % correct.
DeleteTo me, conservatism has always been diametrically opposed to Christ's teachings. As Gandhi said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
ReplyDeleteI'm going to attempt to make a clear contrast between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Not necessarily their policies, but their character...who they are as people, if you will.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/safjb/im_going_to_attempt_to_make_a_clear_contrast/
Eric and Sarah 4-13-2012
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UvodHqax8U&list=UUEUKMWREa6HLwfUlD3a3vtQ&index=1&feature=plcp
If you haven't seen the utter fail that was Sarah on this love letter to the gas companies, voila!
I cannot help but wonder just what ELSE the rightwing extremists can call the President, that they haven't already.
ReplyDeleteIllegal alien, terrorist, nazi, socialist, communist, liar, dictator.
What's LEFT?
I agree this election is going to be VERY negative and hateful, especially coming from the uber-conservative GOP, but I also believe it's important that this play out.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the president being reelected so that at the end of his second term, we can show that guess what? He's not a socialist. Not evil. Not trying to steal our liberty, etc.
It reminds me of the Clinton years. The GOP absolutely LOATHED that man and accused him of everything, including murder, yet today, he is very respected and MOST people realize the negative stuff said about him in the 90's is complete b.s.
In a way, it is to be expected since President Obama is our first black president. I think we all knew it would come to this because the GOP is so transparent, predictable and ignorant.
Besides, Republicans are mostly made up of scared, old, white men in their 70's, who are slowly dying off. History will not be kind wen it is written about a hundreds years from now.
O/T Beefy on Stossel skirts the topic of "Prostitution Rings" and also, too, shows that she does, indeed read books.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0pb5r4-VtM&feature=autoplay&list=UUEUKMWREa6HLwfUlD3a3vtQ&lf=plcp&playnext=1
When the speaker of the house states publicly that his party's only goal is to ensure a one term Presidency for Barack Obama, without giving a clear, cognizant reason, it's pretty clear that the old GOP no longer exists. What room, if any, is there for compromise and progressing issues real people care about?
Democrats need only go back to the last Democratic President, who left this country with a huge surplus.
Republicans not only have to reach back to Regan, they have to re-write his presidency, as if Bush 1, Bush 2 and Cheyney were a "good thing".