Thursday, August 01, 2013

Rank and file Republicans believe the party needs to shift further to the right. In other news survivors of lightning strikes believe they need to play out in the rain more.

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee the three horsemen of the GOP Apocalypse
Courtesy of TPM:  

The findings from Pew suggested that rank-and-file Republicans agree with the national party leaders who have led an autopsy following their humbling showing in last year’s election. A huge majority of Republican voters — 67 percent — said that the party needs to “address major problems” in order to fare better in future presidential elections. Fifty-nine percent said the party “needs to reconsider some positions” if it wants to do better in presidential races. 

But when it comes to a prescription for the party’s electoral ills, a majority of GOP voters said their leaders should move further to the right, not the center. Fifty-four percent of Republicans told Pew that party leaders should move in a “more conservative direction,” while 40 percent said they should take a “moderate direction.” 

With regard to the issues dominating Washington these days, more Republicans believe that the party’s positions are not conservative enough. By a roughly two-to-one margin, more Republicans said the party’s position on immigration is not conservative enough than those who said the position is too conservative. The margin ballooned to four-to-one when it came to the party’s position on government spending. 

On gay marriage, slightly more Republicans (31 percent) said the party’s position is too conservative than the number who said it’s not conservative enough (27 percent). Gun policy was the only issue tested by Pew wherein a majority (58 percent) said the party’s position was about right.

You know from the outside looking in this seems  almost pathological. The idea that by continuing to do something which is marginalizing your party so badly that it may cease to exist is essentially political suicide, yet the majority of these people simply do not see it that way.

You know I was sitting here trying to think what this reminds me of and then it struck me. THIS is almost exactly like when very religious families refuse medical care in favor of faith healing and prayer. As their relative gets sicker and sicker, they simply pray harder and harder, without ever considering reaching out for medical assistance.

And then once the family member dies, the family chastises themselves for not having had enough faith.

Essentially that is the Republican party in a nutshell. They have faith that will win more elections if they are more conservative, and if that does not work then they need to try harder to be more conservative. And if THAT does not work, well there is always trying to be more conservative.

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:10 AM

    If they go any further to the right, they'll fall off the cliff.
    That's OK by me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:01 AM

      And the sooner the better!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous10:22 AM

    Do they know that the further they're going to the right, the closet they get to something that starts with an N, ends with an I and has a Z in the middle?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:46 AM

      You get an A for that reply!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:43 PM

      I see what you did there :p

      Delete
  3. Anonymous10:26 AM

    Great analogy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:30 AM

    O/T. More Frank Rich. On Christianist politicians.

    http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/08/01/ask-frederic-rich-anything-are-christianists-really-still-a-threat/

    ReplyDelete
  5. lostinmn10:31 AM

    I'd like to see the numbers on outlawing all abortion and women's rights and equal pay.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10:38 AM

    Could these numbers reflect the loss of more moderate republicans? I think it is more of a concentration of conservative beliefs than anything else. The fewer moderates the more extreme the party becomes and many moderates no longer claim they are republican.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:39 AM

    They are so unflipping believable they take my breath away.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It’s hard to comprehend. They’re not necessarily stupid, as judged by a test, but they cannot imagine nor think out of the box, to use a stale but accurate description. They live by rote, always doubling down on what they already know. I believe it’s genetic, since I’ve tried to force sheep to “think for yourself” to no avail. A sheep is a sheep, and a goat is a goat, and I’m proud to be a goat, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:54 AM

    Let's call it what it is: Fascism.

    These asshat's bought and paid for by the likes of the Koch brothers & friends to take over our Congress to destroy our Republic.

    Chris Mathews calls them terrorists. I've been saying that for a long time.

    They are setting out to destroy our country - bamboozling the low info/ non-critical thinking voter - in the name of God, Nationalism and the Constitution.

    Like the song in the 60s - "Don't attack America, wear it down gradually."

    It makes me sick - literally.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:58 PM

      Christianists...see Frank Rich video above.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous11:03 AM

    I'm trying to imagine what more conservative would look like.... closing all but Christian schools? Banning women from government and workplace? Slavery? The mind boggles....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:16 PM

      Think Ozzie and Harriet.

      Except these RWNJs think that was a documentary, not a sitcom.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous11:28 AM

    Gryphen, sorry to do this, and I don't normally point out typos, but you've made this one a couple of times, so I thought I'd let you know...

    You've misspelled "lightning" in the headline. There shouldn't be an E in it. "Lightening" is the act of reducing weight or color, as in lightEning one's load.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's funny because when I typed it I thought it looked off, but when spell check did not highlight it I thought it was my imagination.

      Stupid words looking so much alike just to mess me up.

      Delete
    2. I always notice that typo because for some reason the other meaning of lightening is always what pops into my head so I am faced with a sentence that makes no sense:

      light·en·ing
      /ˈlītn-iNG/
      Noun
      A drop in the level of the uterus during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.

      Delete
  12. They are terribly good at hurling nasty epithets towards anyone they perceive as being progressive, and turning good words like "liberal" and socialism" into the equivalent of 4-letter words. The sooner they are called "terrorists" and the American Taliban by society at large, the sooner they will be marginalized -- hopefully right out of existence. The "liberal" media are far too kind......

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous1:10 PM

    Any further to the right, will have to involve everyone marching in goosestep fashion, with arms stuck out straight, hollering, "HEIL REAGAN!"

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous2:47 PM

    The Supreme Court Will Soon Decide Whether CEOs Can Impose Their Religious Beliefs On Their Workers

    http://www.businessinsider.com/contraception-mandate-will-go-before-supreme-court-2013-8

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous2:48 PM

    The GOP's Entire Budget Strategy Collapsed Yesterday, And Almost No One Noticed

    http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-transportation-bill-sequestration-ryan-budget-debt-ceiling-2013-8

    ReplyDelete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.