Hope and Change for the Republican Party

[kwc57]

The GOP lost control, because the employers ( as a whole ) have been pathetic. Pathetic employers hiring political hacks and political whores, believing that voting party is all it takes.

We don't have a GOP problem or a Democrat problem. We have a "We The People" problem.

To say that the GOP lost because of the war, is to not understand the core problem.

I agree and disagree BGG. You are correct that neither party should depend on party loyalty to win a vote. People willing to vote strictly on party are morons. Where I disagree is that they didn't lose because of the war. In total, no the didn't. But in large part they did. Republicans were the party in charge and there were many missteps on many issues including the war. People got tired of having smoke blown up their collective asses. Who really believes that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists are jealous of our affluency and freedom? Bullshit. They told us why they hated us and why they attacked us. Then 9/11 gets translated to Saddam supporting terrorists and having WMD's that could be passed off to terrorists. Yet even an casual armchair observer of world issues knows that is bullshit. We go to war and it lasts longer than WWII and we are told we are fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. More bullshit. What, are they going to have transport planes dropping troops into the heartland with tanks?

Americans love their country and like to believe the actions taken by their elected officials are in their best interest. But eventually reality takes over and people begin to get a "fool me once, shame on you......fool me twice, shame on me" attitude. The party lost credibility with Americans and the majority of their thrust over eight years was the war. All that Cole finally admitted was that the war was a war of choice and it helped kill the party's chances for political power and influence.

 

[Sweet Willy]

It was all a neo-con gamble. Let's find someone over there that we can run in, kick their ass and make an example of to their neighbors. You know, someone who is incapable of putting up a fight. Oh yeah, there is this country that we had a war with a decade ago and defanged. They would be perfect. People already see them as a villian and we can sell that they could plausably have ties to terrorists in the region. We can also raise the spectre of WMD's since they had some before we took them away. Yeah, the perfect candidate to show theat we are tough and won't take any crap. As long as we make the American citizens fear a terrorist attack by this would be enemy, we can get our point across.

I've heard all of the far reaching explanations for the Iraq invasion and none of them really add up.

GW had a hard on for Saddam. That's the bottom line.

That's not true. The accepted myth that GWB wanted to go after Saddam "because he threatened to kill my daddy" was waaaaaaay overplayed. Read Woodward's second book "Plan of Attack" on this (he had access to top level interviews and meetings and the book vetted before publication), and you will know that it was Cheney and Rumsfeld (both political veterans of the first Gulf War) who USED the attacks of 911 to push for an invasion of Iraq and had to do a lot of convincing to force George W. Bush to go along with it. In fact, when Bush first read the gathering of "intelligence" presented by Cheney's little quasi WMD investigating team, Bush's response was "Is that all you've got?"

The Bush admin had it's own reasons, in any event, for the Iraq debacle. The entire case made to the public was a lie. There was no threat to us, there were no WMDs, there was no 9/11 connection. The whole lot of them should be hanged.

 

[rightwinger]

The Republicans built their platform around guns, gays, abortion and fear
The American public finally grew tired of their act. Right now the party has no message, no funding and no candidates. They are in exile for a reason

 

[MaggieMae]

I've heard all of the far reaching explanations for the Iraq invasion and none of them really add up.

GW had a hard on for Saddam. That's the bottom line.

That's not true. The accepted myth that GWB wanted to go after Saddam "because he threatened to kill my daddy" was waaaaaaay overplayed. Read Woodward's second book "Plan of Attack" on this (he had access to top level interviews and meetings and the book vetted before publication), and you will know that it was Cheney and Rumsfeld (both political veterans of the first Gulf War) who USED the attacks of 911 to push for an invasion of Iraq and had to do a lot of convincing to force George W. Bush to go along with it. In fact, when Bush first read the gathering of "intelligence" presented by Cheney's little quasi WMD investigating team, Bush's response was "Is that all you've got?"

The Bush admin had it's own reasons, in any event, for the Iraq debacle. The entire case made to the public was a lie. There was no threat to us, there were no WMDs, there was no 9/11 connection. The whole lot of them should be hanged.

Just so you'll know, I wasn't letting George Bush off the hook. He eventually went along with it after *somebody* (my guess is Rove) began to play up the spread-democracy-so-they'll-love-us stuff, appealing to Bush's "compassionate conservative" side. Bush was The Decider, after all.

 

[MaggieMae]

The Republicans built their platform around guns, gays, abortion and fear
The American public finally grew tired of their act. Right now the party has no message, no funding and no candidates. They are in exile for a reason

I have no doubt that Republicans will win back some seats in 2010, simply by virtue of the economy which isn't expected to show any significant signs of improvement by then. Democrats will be blamed, especially Obama, and people will rush to the other side hoping for a few strands of hope the Republicans will offer.

The next mid-term cycle has all the historic signs of being just like 1994 when Clinton couldn't follow through on his promises, lost popular support, and just enough time had passed that people forgot the "It's the Economy Stupid" mantra chanted to propel him into the Oval Office. So along came Newt Gingrich with his simple Contract for America that even the dumbest of dumb could understand and the Republicans took back Congress.

BUT--that actually was a GOOD thing (surprise surprise ) because it became the opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to get together and actually accomplish some things that were satisfactory to both parties. Welfare to Work is a perfect example of compromise: The president wanted a more liberal approach; but Congress demanded stiff rules. It has been the most successful program in decades, but ONLY because of gentlemanly negotiations, absent all the grandstanding bullshit and inevitable gridlock that we're seeing these days.