The Republican Party

They've been represented by Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and Michelle Bachman. They've embraced Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. They regularly draw parallels between fascism and national health care. They regularly attribute all the nation's economic success to the upper class. For three years after Barack Obama was elected, they maintained that he forged his birth certificate. What makes them a relevant political force? Why are they still one of the two largest parties in the United States?

Their policy since Obama's election has been to oppose him in every single manner, paint him as a foreign born, and support every policy that they know he would have to reject. They just want him to be a one-term President because they probably fear he'll become another Clinton.

They haven't done anything productive; but then again, it seems both parties are guilty of that.

Originally posted by Quark_666
What makes them a relevant political force? Why are they still one of the two largest parties in the United States?

financial infrastructure and a party position that panders entirely to the most salient base urges of most people.

fox news, churches, wallstreat, racism, poverty, the american edjucation system.

in other words, propaganda, relegion, money, racism, depseration due to poverty, and general ignorance of the populace.

Not to mention, they come in swarms in the Yahoo! comments section on every article.

Why to be fair can't there ever be one thread that does not put down Christians or Repubican? I mean how is this fair?

Hold on lady, I was RAISED a republican and I tried my honest-to-god best to justify everything they did until they made it impossible. So that's why.

EDIT: actually, that's the story with Christianity too lol

I am not trying to start a fight here and this is not about you it is about other ppl who puts down everything and after awhile it does get very annoying.

And you're right, the rhetoric gets pretty condescending and judgmental, I know.

The Democratic Party isn't much better, either.

It's just funny watching Fox News and then switching over to MSNBC.

I think the real reasons you don't see splinter conservative parties is that the financial infrastructure to run candidates isn't there

tbh, as much as I disagree with them, the tea party seems to legitimately hold to their guns, and if they didn't need a major party fund raising establishment, I'm sure they would go in alone, Ron Paul (as much as he isn't a teabagger) would be another example.

I tend to think most conservatives follow the GOP for lack of any real alternative. I tend to think both established parties in America (at least right now) would do very poorly if other parties had the ability to run on equal footing.

Originally posted by inimalist
I think the real reasons you don't see splinter conservative parties is that the financial infrastructure to run candidates isn't there

tbh, as much as I disagree with them, the tea party seems to legitimately hold to their guns, and if they didn't need a major party fund raising establishment, I'm sure they would go in alone, Ron Paul (as much as he isn't a teabagger) would be another example.

I tend to think most conservatives follow the GOP for lack of any real alternative. I tend to think both established parties in America (at least right now) would do very poorly if other parties had the ability to run on equal footing.

Originally posted by Korto Vos
The Democratic Party isn't much better, either.

It's just funny watching Fox News and then switching over to MSNBC.

Originally posted by Quark_666
They've been represented by Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and Michelle Bachman. They've embraced Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. They regularly draw parallels between fascism and national health care. They regularly attribute all the nation's economic success to the upper class. For three years after Barack Obama was elected, they maintained that he forged his birth certificate. What makes them a relevant political force? Why are they still one of the two largest parties in the United States?

Because it works.

Originally posted by Quark_666
Those all sound like pretty good possibilities. I was wondering if maybe the Republican Party is full of intelligent thoughts and creative solutions that are being outshouted by the anti-liberal rhetoric - which seems to be an appendage of your point about the financial infrastructure. I've heard multiple economists say that they've heard conservative economic perspectives that make sense - most notably from the Chicago School of Economics, but none of them ever seem to make it into politics. And I think you're right about their chances in a 2< party system - my registration with the democratic party has a lot to do with republicans.

I think you have two ideas in here that are only sort of related. The first is about why the republican party is popular in the first place, and the second is about the quality of their ideas.

To the former, I don't think it really has anything to do with their policies or whatever, but rather with the way they market themselves. Psychology shows very clear things that endear us to politicians, and in almost no circumstances are they "this person is the smartest and best qualified". The republicans seem to just play this game better, and therefore tend to have less nuanced or academic policies, but are able to appeal to people because of simple psychology. W.Bush is the best example of this, as on paper, both of the people he beat (Gore, Kerry) are not only more qualified, they are academics who have studied issues and been politically and socially involved their whole lives. Obama, however, who on paper had no political history whatsoever, was able to topple heavy favorites in the democratic party, because of reasons entirely detached from his policies (he did lie a lot though).

To the other issue, I've even seen GOP representatives on the daily show or other similar programs talking about how radical the republican party has become. Salon had a good series of articles debating a similar issue, but essentially, the idea of a "moderate conservative" or, heaven forbid, a "progressive conservative", has been killed in the political establishment to the point where it is impossible to float any ideas without splitting the GOP. Because of their intransigence, the tea party prevents what would be otherwise normal negotiations. And even though I don't agree with them (for instance, their economics are childish at best), it is a bit refreshing to see people who don't shrug away from their positions.

So like, to rant at you a bit more, the republicans are able to stay in power while offering no real beneficial politics through manipulating of the democratic and electoral system. They game democracy the same way one harvests gold in an MMO, you find the most lucrative mechanism and you exploit it. This sort of allowed an extreme fringe group to now hold the party hostage, killing any chance that effective conservative policies might actually be adopted.

The Republican Party outlived it's usefulness in 1909. It's proven itself to be less a political party and more of a Feudal/Fascist cult bent on the implementation of institutional poverty, classism, and autogenocide of elements it doesn't approve of at the expense of national and global stability. In their absence, the current democratic party could easily assume the mantle of a conservative party against any more liberal or social democratic party. They should be crushed and marginalized into a minor party and those members associated with the Tea Party and the Corporate elites should be punished severely.

rarely do DJ and myself see so eye to eye

I lament the death of the "progressive conservatives" more than anyone save Edmund Burke

Originally posted by inimalist
rarely do DJ and myself see so eye to eye

I lament the death of the "progressive conservatives" more than anyone save Edmund Burke

Regardless, I sincerely hope the end of far right ideologies isn't something we have to solve through another World War.

Originally posted by Darth Jello
Really? I thought we agreed on more stuff. Then again, my posting over the last two years has been sporadic. Even more so what with more of a social life and all.

maybe I'm exaggerating... we probably agree more than not, just with an emphasis on the role of the state

Originally posted by Darth Jello
Regardless, I sincerely hope the end of far right ideologies isn't something we have to solve through another World War.

the problem I see is that your right wing sort of sets what becomes "right wing" around the world.

For the most part, more extreme right wing ideals haven't found root in Canada, but the more your political spectrum shifts right, the more everyone else's does. Our conservative party has become much more Republican than it was is the "Progressive Conservative" days... which is like one of those "I'm nostalgic for a time I wasn't even alive in" situations

I honestly take heart that every time I visit KMC, often months apart, I still find inimalist and Symmetric Chaos acting as lone bastions of sense.

Originally posted by inimalist
maybe I'm exaggerating... we probably agree more than not, just with an emphasis on the role of the state

the problem I see is that your right wing sort of sets what becomes "right wing" around the world.

For the most part, more extreme right wing ideals haven't found root in Canada, but the more your political spectrum shifts right, the more everyone else's does. Our conservative party has become much more Republican than it was is the "Progressive Conservative" days... which is like one of those "I'm nostalgic for a time I wasn't even alive in" situations

Right but you guys have more sense and seem less bogged down. Hence why Canada seems a lot more active, the UK is burning, and Israel is pretty close to rioting as well.

What I don't want to see is a situation where the cultists in power decide to default on the debt causing a global economic collapse. Like I honestly thought that by the way the world was reacting that we could have been at war with the rest of the planet right now.