Why are we so polarized?

[WillowTree]

An interesting article from BBC. I think sites like this, Brietbart, Daily Kos and the likes of Fox and MSNBC are first and foremost among the culprits. The internet has allowed us to accomplish a great deal, but the drawbacks are becoming more apparent with each passing year. Also, much of MSM has dropped it's impartiality in favor of gaining ratings with those who want news spun their way. I don't know if it will ever get better.

Well, now I see that I have to have 15 points (whatever the hell those are) to post a link to other sites. Kinda silly. Anyway the article is on BBC's web page and is called "What happened to America's community spirit?", if some one with this ponderous posting privilege is inclined to link it.

I wonder if I can say that.

We have more takers than we have givers now. the democrats want to take everyone's stuff away from them. We don't like democrats for this reason they mooch too much.

 

[Sallow]

An interesting article from BBC. I think sites like this, Brietbart, Daily Kos and the likes of Fox and MSNBC are first and foremost among the culprits. The internet has allowed us to accomplish a great deal, but the drawbacks are becoming more apparent with each passing year. Also, much of MSM has dropped it's impartiality in favor of gaining ratings with those who want news spun their way. I don't know if it will ever get better.

Well, now I see that I have to have 15 points (whatever the hell those are) to post a link to other sites. Kinda silly. Anyway the article is on BBC's web page and is called "What happened to America's community spirit?", if some one with this ponderous posting privilege is inclined to link it.

I wonder if I can say that.

In modern times..it basically started with Lee Atwater. But then again..it was Barry Goldwater who pointed out that "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice".

Heh..well here we are..still no vice?

 

[Seawytch]

Do you believe you are entitled to gain insurance coverage for your pre-existing conditions, or not?

And along those same lines, do you believe you are entitled to purchase car insurance for your car after you have wrecked it?

Why would you assume that a pre-existing condition is your own fault? If someone else sideswipes my car and wrecks it, why shouldn't I expect insurance?

This shouldn't even be a discussion. Healthcare, like education and defense, should be equally available to all.

I don't care if it is his 'fault' or not.

Gubmint does not exist to make life fair.

You made the ridiculous "fault" analogy with auto insurance. Healthcare and auto insurance are in no way the same.

If you don't own a car, I really don't give a shit that you don't have auto insurance. I don't pay for you. I do if you don't have health insurance.

The rest of us are ALREADY PAYING for those without insurance...in the most ineffective, inefficient and expensive way possible.

It doesn't make sense on a fiscal level and it certainly doesn't make sense on a human level.

 

[Meathead]

There are several factors in that which polarize us, but undoubtedly among them is Obama's gambit to stay in power by creating, or at least exploiting, the class warfare issue. It is buck-naked populism and its essence ignores an ugly little secret:

Increasing taxes on only the uber rich is not going to be the panacea that the left envisions. What will have to be done is across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts. No politician, right or left, will tell you that because the electorate is myopic. It is a glaring problem of democracy. Look at Greece. They are a democracy and yet they essentially are being "governed" from Berlin. If we're not prudent and willing to confront unpleasant realities we may be "governed" from Beijing someday

I agree....to a point. First off...We aren't Greece. Greece has very little in the way of revenue producing enterprise and industry. Furthermore, China is(economically speaking) starting to rip apart at the seams. They are doing too much, too fast...not to mention they manipulate their currency at a highly unsustainable rate.

But you're right in the fact that merely raising taxes on the wealthy alone is nothing more than a band aid. What we need to have lasting growth and to pay down this debt is a combination of two things...IMO, of course.

1. We need to put more disposable(and taxable) income in the hands of more people. That means not just jobs, but family sustaining jobs with enough breathing room that people can spend and save, not live paycheck to paycheck with a credit card as a backup or government assistance to make ends meet.

2. Reasonable and humane cuts across the board. Government employees positions not being filled when they retire is the simplest and the most humane way to take care of that....forcing the New Hires that DO take the place of people in needed positions into a 401k retirement program is another. Eliminating overly redundant programs, and of course...getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse is a given....along with eliminating No Bid government projects.

I am sure there are more ideas that do not involve hurting our poor and our elderly that could be employed.

The problem is that in my #1 point, it's going to take the cooperation of the private sector who is really not used to the idea of delayed gratification. They are kind of like that J.G Wentworth Commercial...."it's my money and I want it NOW!". But if people have that extra money...it will eventually come back to them in increased sales...it just won't be as quick of a turn around.

Yeah, these things are easy to say, but then we fall into the trap that we have to do this and not do that. In your case we have the "humane" and "fair" exemptions that we all would like to see but invariably compounds and mitigates any serious progress on issues like the national debt.

 

[dblack]

Why would you assume that a pre-existing condition is your own fault? If someone else sideswipes my car and wrecks it, why shouldn't I expect insurance?

This shouldn't even be a discussion. Healthcare, like education and defense, should be equally available to all.

I don't care if it is his 'fault' or not.

Gubmint does not exist to make life fair.

You made the ridiculous "fault" analogy with auto insurance. Healthcare and auto insurance are in no way the same.

If you don't own a car, I really don't give a shit that you don't have auto insurance. I don't pay for you. I do if you don't have health insurance.

The rest of us are ALREADY PAYING for those without insurance...in the most ineffective, inefficient and expensive way possible.

It doesn't make sense on a fiscal level and it certainly doesn't make sense on a human level.

And this can be fixed without forcing us into lifetime indebtedness to the insurance industry.

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

It's the basic battle of Good v/s Evil. Conservatives champion morals, God, country, Capitalism, liberty.

LEFTISTS champion secularism, socialism, apoligizing for American exceptonalism...

Any moderate democrat will tell you they do not reconize their party any longer. It was hijacked by fringe extremists.. I have an Aunt and Uncle who for the very first time in their lives will vote republican this year. Both are hard core democrats and one voted for Obama last time, my uncle. They are christians and can no longer be a part of what Democrats now represent. Good always overcomes evil so I know this fight for our nation's soul is one Conservatives can and will win.

 

[Steelplate]

There are several factors in that which polarize us, but undoubtedly among them is Obama's gambit to stay in power by creating, or at least exploiting, the class warfare issue. It is buck-naked populism and its essence ignores an ugly little secret:

Increasing taxes on only the uber rich is not going to be the panacea that the left envisions. What will have to be done is across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts. No politician, right or left, will tell you that because the electorate is myopic. It is a glaring problem of democracy. Look at Greece. They are a democracy and yet they essentially are being "governed" from Berlin. If we're not prudent and willing to confront unpleasant realities we may be "governed" from Beijing someday

I agree....to a point. First off...We aren't Greece. Greece has very little in the way of revenue producing enterprise and industry. Furthermore, China is(economically speaking) starting to rip apart at the seams. They are doing too much, too fast...not to mention they manipulate their currency at a highly unsustainable rate.

But you're right in the fact that merely raising taxes on the wealthy alone is nothing more than a band aid. What we need to have lasting growth and to pay down this debt is a combination of two things...IMO, of course.

1. We need to put more disposable(and taxable) income in the hands of more people. That means not just jobs, but family sustaining jobs with enough breathing room that people can spend and save, not live paycheck to paycheck with a credit card as a backup or government assistance to make ends meet.

2. Reasonable and humane cuts across the board. Government employees positions not being filled when they retire is the simplest and the most humane way to take care of that....forcing the New Hires that DO take the place of people in needed positions into a 401k retirement program is another. Eliminating overly redundant programs, and of course...getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse is a given....along with eliminating No Bid government projects.

I am sure there are more ideas that do not involve hurting our poor and our elderly that could be employed.

The problem is that in my #1 point, it's going to take the cooperation of the private sector who is really not used to the idea of delayed gratification. They are kind of like that J.G Wentworth Commercial...."it's my money and I want it NOW!". But if people have that extra money...it will eventually come back to them in increased sales...it just won't be as quick of a turn around.

Yeah, these things are easy to say, but then we fall into the trap that we have to do this and not do that. In your case we have the "humane" and "fair" exemptions that we all would like to see but invariably compounds and mitigates any serious progress on issues like the national debt.

those "exemptions" only slow down the rate in which the debt gets paid off....it does not compound and mitigate serious progress. No one says we have to pay it off immediately. Heck, even a mortgage goes 30 years anymore, and that's for a single family.

Remember...the number one agenda is to get more people into a situation where their incomes can sustain a family and still have money left over for taxation, spending and saving. That is the key to all of this. If the majority of the people are broke, the economy suffers, the tax revenue goes down and the debt goes up. I'd much rather that the private sector realizes their folly in hoarding wealth and start trickling down like Reagan said they would than to see them taxed to oblivion. The question is....do they have the courage and the patriotism to do it?

 

[Seawytch]

I don't care if it is his 'fault' or not.

Gubmint does not exist to make life fair.

You made the ridiculous "fault" analogy with auto insurance. Healthcare and auto insurance are in no way the same.

If you don't own a car, I really don't give a shit that you don't have auto insurance. I don't pay for you. I do if you don't have health insurance.

The rest of us are ALREADY PAYING for those without insurance...in the most ineffective, inefficient and expensive way possible.

It doesn't make sense on a fiscal level and it certainly doesn't make sense on a human level.

And this can be fixed without forcing us into lifetime indebtedness to the insurance industry.

Of course it can, but since we can't seem to keep monied interests from buying our politicians...

 

[Sallow]

It's the basic battle of Good v/s Evil. Conservatives champion morals, God, country, Capitalism, liberty.

LEFTISTS champion secularism, socialism, apoligizing for American exceptonalism...

Any moderate democrat will tell you they do not reconize their party any longer. It was hijacked by fringe extremists.. I have an Aunt and Uncle who for the very first time in their lives will vote republican this year. Both are hard core democrats and one voted for Obama last time, my uncle. They are christians and can no longer be a part of what Democrats now represent. Good always overcomes evil so I know this fight for our nation's soul is one Conservatives can and will win.

Actually..you sort of hit the nail on the head.

The Constitution is not a "moral" document. It is one that defines rights and how government should be constructed.

That has very little to do with morality..and nothing to do with religion.

 

[dblack]

You made the ridiculous "fault" analogy with auto insurance. Healthcare and auto insurance are in no way the same.

If you don't own a car, I really don't give a shit that you don't have auto insurance. I don't pay for you. I do if you don't have health insurance.

The rest of us are ALREADY PAYING for those without insurance...in the most ineffective, inefficient and expensive way possible.

It doesn't make sense on a fiscal level and it certainly doesn't make sense on a human level.

And this can be fixed without forcing us into lifetime indebtedness to the insurance industry.

Of course it can, but since we can't seem to keep monied interests from buying our politicians...

What? We should just sell out to them entirely?

 

[peach174]

None of the companies are hording wealth Steelplate.
They are holding back because of the policies from government.
They have to balance their books and have to make a profit in order to hire and expand. You can't do that when you can't do the figures of government policies cost.

 

[Meathead]

I agree....to a point. First off...We aren't Greece. Greece has very little in the way of revenue producing enterprise and industry. Furthermore, China is(economically speaking) starting to rip apart at the seams. They are doing too much, too fast...not to mention they manipulate their currency at a highly unsustainable rate.

But you're right in the fact that merely raising taxes on the wealthy alone is nothing more than a band aid. What we need to have lasting growth and to pay down this debt is a combination of two things...IMO, of course.

1. We need to put more disposable(and taxable) income in the hands of more people. That means not just jobs, but family sustaining jobs with enough breathing room that people can spend and save, not live paycheck to paycheck with a credit card as a backup or government assistance to make ends meet.

2. Reasonable and humane cuts across the board. Government employees positions not being filled when they retire is the simplest and the most humane way to take care of that....forcing the New Hires that DO take the place of people in needed positions into a 401k retirement program is another. Eliminating overly redundant programs, and of course...getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse is a given....along with eliminating No Bid government projects.

I am sure there are more ideas that do not involve hurting our poor and our elderly that could be employed.

The problem is that in my #1 point, it's going to take the cooperation of the private sector who is really not used to the idea of delayed gratification. They are kind of like that J.G Wentworth Commercial...."it's my money and I want it NOW!". But if people have that extra money...it will eventually come back to them in increased sales...it just won't be as quick of a turn around.

Yeah, these things are easy to say, but then we fall into the trap that we have to do this and not do that. In your case we have the "humane" and "fair" exemptions that we all would like to see but invariably compounds and mitigates any serious progress on issues like the national debt.

those "exemptions" only slow down the rate in which the debt gets paid off....it does not compound and mitigate serious progress. No one says we have to pay it off immediately. Heck, even a mortgage goes 30 years anymore, and that's for a single family.

Remember...the number one agenda is to get more people into a situation where their incomes can sustain a family and still have money left over for taxation, spending and saving. That is the key to all of this. If the majority of the people are broke, the economy suffers, the tax revenue goes down and the debt goes up. I'd much rather that the private sector realizes their folly in hoarding wealth and start trickling down like Reagan said they would than to see them taxed to oblivion. The question is....do they have the courage and the patriotism to do it?

The equation is simple. When you start with exemptions to something like spending cuts they snowball. When you start with exemptions a, b and c, before you know it you've got the entire frigging alphabet.

The problem with government is that it can borrow money. So what the hell, we need to protect these people and those people so we'll just have to borrow some more. It eventually becomes an addiction which passes the buck to future generations. If we're going to raise taxes across the board we have to be equally as austere in cutting spending. You might not like it, but I would urge you to look at Greece once again. I am a Greek citizen and have spent over 20 years of my life in that country including most of the 90s. I know exactly how this equation works.

 

[Steelplate]

None of the companies are hording wealth Steelplate.
They are holding back because of the policies from government.
They have to balance their books and have to make a profit in order to hire and expand. You can't do that when you can't do the figures of government policies cost.

Yet they seem to be making more in profits than ever in our history. Are your SURE you are getting the truth from the Pro-Business media?

 

[Steelplate]

Yeah, these things are easy to say, but then we fall into the trap that we have to do this and not do that. In your case we have the "humane" and "fair" exemptions that we all would like to see but invariably compounds and mitigates any serious progress on issues like the national debt.

those "exemptions" only slow down the rate in which the debt gets paid off....it does not compound and mitigate serious progress. No one says we have to pay it off immediately. Heck, even a mortgage goes 30 years anymore, and that's for a single family.

Remember...the number one agenda is to get more people into a situation where their incomes can sustain a family and still have money left over for taxation, spending and saving. That is the key to all of this. If the majority of the people are broke, the economy suffers, the tax revenue goes down and the debt goes up. I'd much rather that the private sector realizes their folly in hoarding wealth and start trickling down like Reagan said they would than to see them taxed to oblivion. The question is....do they have the courage and the patriotism to do it?

The equation is simple. When you start with exemptions to something like spending cuts they snowball. When you start with exemptions a, b and c, before you know it you've got the entire frigging alphabet.

The problem with government is that it can borrow money. So what the hell, we need to protect these people and those people so we'll just have to borrow some more. It eventually becomes an addiction which passes the buck to future generations. If we're going to raise taxes across the board we have to be equally as austere in cutting spending. You might not like it, but I would urge you to look at Greece once again. I am a Greek citizen and have spent over 20 years of my life in that country including most of the 90s. I know exactly how this equation works.

Once again....we aren't Greece. If our output was that of Greece's, comparatively speaking, I'd agree. Of course, with the popularity of outsourcing for slave labor within our business community....I could see it happening down the road.

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

It's the basic battle of Good v/s Evil. Conservatives champion morals, God, country, Capitalism, liberty.

LEFTISTS champion secularism, socialism, apoligizing for American exceptonalism...

Any moderate democrat will tell you they do not reconize their party any longer. It was hijacked by fringe extremists.. I have an Aunt and Uncle who for the very first time in their lives will vote republican this year. Both are hard core democrats and one voted for Obama last time, my uncle. They are christians and can no longer be a part of what Democrats now represent. Good always overcomes evil so I know this fight for our nation's soul is one Conservatives can and will win.

Actually..you sort of hit the nail on the head.

The Constitution is not a "moral" document. It is one that defines rights and how government should be constructed.

That has very little to do with morality..and nothing to do with religion.

Actually, the Constitution regulates what the GOVERNMENT can and cannot do.. Not what people can't do. Our Founders were wise men who knew that any Government left unchecked was bound to become tyrannical in their quest for power. It's what we've seen over the last decade or so, more and more.. George Bush and Barack Obama love the executive order as if they alone have the sole authority to bypass congress and write their own laws.. It's one of the many reasons I don't like George Bush either.

 

[naturegirl]

I do not believe we are more polarized then we have been in the past. The political divide has always been present 200 years or so ago we fought a civil war.

What is different today is that we KNOW what is going on more so in past years. But on the flip side is that we DON'T KNOW. In other words things are spun so much it is hard to separate the truth from the non-truth.

For example, the left has been painting for quite some time that the Republicans do not care about the poor. What is their evidence? I would say their only evidence is that the desire to put people who are capable back to work is painted as being against a person's rights. Which is pure BS we all know it but is the tact that the Democrats have taken and is why I can't see how we can ever be united. Then if we examine the rich in Congress it turns out to be Democrats, yet the Democrats will sell the story that Republicans are only interested in helping the rich. When in fact all tax reform effect the rich, or those paying taxes, it can't really effect anyone else, again pure BS. But that is all the Democrats have to sell is BS. They can not run on the economy but they try by saying things would have been much worse if they had they not plunged our grandchildren into untold debt. Yes, that is a really easy piece of BS logic, things are bad but they could have been worse. NO, things SHOULD be better now then then what we see as history has taught us in EVERY other recession. Again Democrat BS.

Of course the minority party isn't exempt from contempt. I think the broad brush approached because of SOME that Democrats are unpatriotic or do not love their country is an unfair characterization caused by a large few. To say that the whole of the DNC is against God because it sure sounded like a whole lot of them voted against God at their convention again may be a little overblown.

Bottom line, we do not have a common enemy to unite us. It is as it has always been party, party, party first. No one can be happy with the way things are today in the US. Yes, there are signs of a weak recovery but the recovery should have been one of the biggest and strongest. I seriously doubted that any one thought that the economy was not going to recover it has always been just a matter of time. 3 1/2 years is a history breaking weak recovery. To that we can be united and I think we are. The MSM will paint every bit of economic news they see as positive. The unemployment rate drops from 8.3 to 8.1 and that will be viewed, not as a statistical variance, but a sign of recovery. It is going to get worse as we approach November and that is the real cause of what we are seeing.

We never really had a totally independent media, Cronkite lied is ass off giving his opinion, and now we actually get to see both sides, one of course isn't true. Before all we ever heard is what the ABC news media blared at us on the nightly news.

So no, I don't care what the BBC thinks about what is going on in America. Second I think what we have today can be healthier in that we can know the truth it is just separating the turds from the apples which is hard. It is made even harder wearing the blinders of party first.

Bottom line, if this were a football team with the same morale and same lack of positive direction the coach would be fired. THAT we all should unite around.

There was a time when journalism was an honorable profession. In the past 25 years or so the MSM has moved so far left and thrown integrity out the window. They used to report news, now they express opinions. And as such, other news outlets have been born to combat the misinformation spewing from ABC, NBC and CBS.

I give full credit to the Main Stream Media for the divide that exists in America today. They need to return to the profession, not back a political candidate. Diane Sawyer, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopolous have spewed so much crap on ABC over the years I don't even watch Good Morning America anymore.

 

[auditor0007]

It's the basic battle of Good v/s Evil. Conservatives champion morals, God, country, Capitalism, liberty.

LEFTISTS champion secularism, socialism, apoligizing for American exceptonalism...

Any moderate democrat will tell you they do not reconize their party any longer. It was hijacked by fringe extremists.. I have an Aunt and Uncle who for the very first time in their lives will vote republican this year. Both are hard core democrats and one voted for Obama last time, my uncle. They are christians and can no longer be a part of what Democrats now represent. Good always overcomes evil so I know this fight for our nation's soul is one Conservatives can and will win.

As a moderate Republican, I will be voting Democrat for the first time in my life because the Republican Party has been hijacked by the fringe extremists. Just ask Chuck Hagel.

Hagel: Reagan wouldn't identify with today's GOP

The Republican Party has drifted so far to the right and become so partisan in recent years that President Ronald Reagan wouldn't even want to be a part of it, former Nebraska GOP senator Chuck Hagel told The Cable.

"Reagan would be stunned by the party today," Hagel said in a long interview in his office at Georgetown University, where he now teaches. He also serves as co-chair of President Barack Obama's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Reagan wanted to do away with nuclear weapons, raised taxes, made deals with congressional Democrats, sought compromises and consensus to fix problems, and surrounded himself with moderates as well as Republican hard-liners, Hagel noted. None of that is characterized by the current GOP leadership, he said. In his eyes, the rise of the Tea Party and the influx of new GOP lawmakers in Congress have driven the party away from common sense and consensus-based solutions.

"Reagan wouldn't identify with this party. There's a streak of intolerance in the Republican Party today that scares people. Intolerance is a very dangerous thing in a society because it always leads to a tragic ending," he said. "Ronald Reagan was never driven by ideology. He was a conservative but he was a practical conservative. He wanted limited government but he used government and he used it many times. And he would work with the other party."

The situation today is similar to where the GOP found itself in the early 1950s, when there was a battle for the direction of the party over the party's identity, Hagel said. Dwight Eisenhower and his moderate allies won that fight, diminishing the influence of extremists like Joe McCarthy, Hagel said.

But today, the extremists are winning.

"Now the Republican Party is in the hands of the right, I would say the extreme right, more than ever before," said Hagel. "You've got a Republican Party that is having difficulty facing up to the fact that if you look at what happened during the first 8 years of the century, it was under Republican direction."

George W. Bush started two wars while cutting taxes, added an unfunded prescription drug mandate, and ran up the deficit, but today's GOP leaders can't reconcile that history with their agenda today, Hagel noted.

"The Republican Party is dealing with this schizophrenia. It was the Republican leadership that got us into this mess," he said. "If Nixon or Eisenhower were alive today, they would be run out of the party."

Hagel decried the departure of the World War II generation, including figures like Ted Stevens, Bob Dole, and now Richard Lugar, and along with them the leadership provided by GOP senators who put national interests above party politics.

"They made it work because their obligation and responsibility was to a higher cause than their party. They were all partisan but they all knew their higher responsibility was to move this country forward and resolve issues through compromise and consensus. We've lost that glue in the Congress."

When moderate Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) resigned his leadership post in the Senate last year, that was a clear indication that the party had no room left for internal dissent, according to Hagel.

Hagel: Reagan wouldn't identify with today's GOP | The Cable

 

[LadyGunSlinger]

It's the basic battle of Good v/s Evil. Conservatives champion morals, God, country, Capitalism, liberty.

LEFTISTS champion secularism, socialism, apoligizing for American exceptonalism...

Any moderate democrat will tell you they do not reconize their party any longer. It was hijacked by fringe extremists.. I have an Aunt and Uncle who for the very first time in their lives will vote republican this year. Both are hard core democrats and one voted for Obama last time, my uncle. They are christians and can no longer be a part of what Democrats now represent. Good always overcomes evil so I know this fight for our nation's soul is one Conservatives can and will win.

As a moderate Republican, I will be voting Democrat for the first time in my life because the Republican Party has been hijacked by the fringe extremists. Just ask Chuck Hagel.

Hagel: Reagan wouldn't identify with today's GOP

The
When moderate Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) resigned his leadership post in the Senate last year, that was a clear indication that the party had no room left for internal dissent, according to Hagel.

Hagel: Reagan wouldn't identify with today's GOP | The Cable

LMFAO It's been noted and pointed out MANY times that no one here believes you were ever anything but a liberal so save your road kill for someone who gives a shit.

 

[Steelplate]

It's the basic battle of Good v/s Evil. Conservatives champion morals, God, country, Capitalism, liberty.

LEFTISTS champion secularism, socialism, apoligizing for American exceptonalism...

Any moderate democrat will tell you they do not reconize their party any longer. It was hijacked by fringe extremists.. I have an Aunt and Uncle who for the very first time in their lives will vote republican this year. Both are hard core democrats and one voted for Obama last time, my uncle. They are christians and can no longer be a part of what Democrats now represent. Good always overcomes evil so I know this fight for our nation's soul is one Conservatives can and will win.

As a moderate Republican, I will be voting Democrat for the first time in my life because the Republican Party has been hijacked by the fringe extremists. Just ask Chuck Hagel.

Hagel: Reagan wouldn't identify with today's GOP

The Republican Party has drifted so far to the right and become so partisan in recent years that President Ronald Reagan wouldn't even want to be a part of it, former Nebraska GOP senator Chuck Hagel told The Cable.

"Reagan would be stunned by the party today," Hagel said in a long interview in his office at Georgetown University, where he now teaches. He also serves as co-chair of President Barack Obama's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Reagan wanted to do away with nuclear weapons, raised taxes, made deals with congressional Democrats, sought compromises and consensus to fix problems, and surrounded himself with moderates as well as Republican hard-liners, Hagel noted. None of that is characterized by the current GOP leadership, he said. In his eyes, the rise of the Tea Party and the influx of new GOP lawmakers in Congress have driven the party away from common sense and consensus-based solutions.

"Reagan wouldn't identify with this party. There's a streak of intolerance in the Republican Party today that scares people. Intolerance is a very dangerous thing in a society because it always leads to a tragic ending," he said. "Ronald Reagan was never driven by ideology. He was a conservative but he was a practical conservative. He wanted limited government but he used government and he used it many times. And he would work with the other party."

The situation today is similar to where the GOP found itself in the early 1950s, when there was a battle for the direction of the party over the party's identity, Hagel said. Dwight Eisenhower and his moderate allies won that fight, diminishing the influence of extremists like Joe McCarthy, Hagel said.

But today, the extremists are winning.

"Now the Republican Party is in the hands of the right, I would say the extreme right, more than ever before," said Hagel. "You've got a Republican Party that is having difficulty facing up to the fact that if you look at what happened during the first 8 years of the century, it was under Republican direction."

George W. Bush started two wars while cutting taxes, added an unfunded prescription drug mandate, and ran up the deficit, but today's GOP leaders can't reconcile that history with their agenda today, Hagel noted.

"The Republican Party is dealing with this schizophrenia. It was the Republican leadership that got us into this mess," he said. "If Nixon or Eisenhower were alive today, they would be run out of the party."

Hagel decried the departure of the World War II generation, including figures like Ted Stevens, Bob Dole, and now Richard Lugar, and along with them the leadership provided by GOP senators who put national interests above party politics.

"They made it work because their obligation and responsibility was to a higher cause than their party. They were all partisan but they all knew their higher responsibility was to move this country forward and resolve issues through compromise and consensus. We've lost that glue in the Congress."

When moderate Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) resigned his leadership post in the Senate last year, that was a clear indication that the party had no room left for internal dissent, according to Hagel.

Hagel: Reagan wouldn't identify with today's GOP | The Cable

Cue the "You ain't no Republican!" hate speech in.....3.....2......1....

 

[Steelplate]

Shit....she beat me to it.