The GOP has a huge problem that doesn't lend itself to an easy solution. They NEED to attract new members. Yet potential new members are turned off by their extremism and their angry my-way-or-the-highway attitude. So, how DO you attract new members when the conservative base is busy chasing so-called RINOs OUT of the party and the conservative base is threatening to leave and start a 3rd party if there's any moderation of GOP 'principles' which don't lend itself to compromise?
*** PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU'RE A HARDCORE ABSOLUTIST DITTOHEAD RIGHTWINGER, I'M NOT ADDRESSING YOUI, I'M NOT TRYING TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, THIS IS NOT A COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY TO DESTROY THE COUNTRY, PLEASE READ SOMETHING ELSE, THANKS ***
My best guess is that it's going to take a few high-profile party leaders (Who? I don't know) to publicly and clearly disavow the Norquists and Limbaughs and Pauls and the rest of the absolutists. Surely it will come at the expense of being "primaried", it may cost them their cushy gubmit job, so I don't know who has the balls.
The crazies have to be marginalized, somehow. Not eliminated, just marginalized. They make the party an easy target, and they just don't/won't see it.
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I assume you are also addressing the crazy far left whack jobs as well. The far left extremists have take hold of the dem party and obama is more than a willing accomplice. The liberals always push this meme of "conservatives are so extreme and nutty"....well, those of us who are not blinded by hatred who can see beyond the rhetoric of the far left can see what the liberals can't. Call them conservatives, call them independents, call them liberterians, call them repubs.....but we can see where the liberals will fail, and they will fail BIG TIME. The US is center-right and the more the liberals push, the sooner the public will denounce liberal causes. So, keep going you crazy libs....the conservatives can't wait to get rid of you!!
I'm seeing many attempts at diversion on this thread about the GOP, and that's part of the problem. Pointing the finger at the other guys and saying, "yeah, but they're even WORSE" doesn't work when your own side is so busy shooting itself in the foot.
I'll say it for the 50th time (not that it will matter) and I'll say it as clearly as possible: The Republicans are looking like "the stupid party" right now, the Dems are looking like the sensible party. Why? Because, driven by their hardcore absolutists, the GOP is quite willingly playing right into their own worst stereotypes, allowing the Dems and the media to paint them as neanderthals. There are people within the party who see this and are trying to mitigate the damage, but so far they're not having much luck. Jindal has made himself a target now.
Are the Dems capable of the same kind of self-destructive behavior? Hell yes, and that may be next on the menu. But right now, at this moment in history, the GOP is looking foolish. And there are still too many in the party who don't/won't see it, even though there are many in the party who are trying (fruitlessly) to point it out.
Divert all you want. The GOP has a real problem right now, they lost House seats, Senate seats and the White House to a historically vulnerable party, and 2014 is right around the corner. If the party doesn't manage to crawl out of the little world it has created for itself, they'll be handing the Democrats too much godddamn power, and I for one sure as hell don't want that.
Deny it all you want. Divert all you want. The clock is ticking.
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