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Conservatives roar; Republicans tremble

goldendog

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Conservatives roar; Republicans tremble - Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party’s chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives.

Congressional leaders talk in private of being boxed in by commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh — figures who are wildly popular with the conservative base but wildly controversial among other parts of the electorate, and who have proven records of making life miserable for senators and House members critical of their views or influence.

Some of the leading 2012 candidates are described by operatives as grappling with the same tension. The challenge is to tap into the richest source of energy in the party — the disgust of grass-roots conservative activists with President Barack Obama and their hunger for a full-throated attack on his agenda — without coming off to the broader public as cranky and extreme.

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The Republicans are trembling because the conseratives are roaring to the RightWing base.
They feel that they are now painted into a corner by the likes of Limbaugh and Beck. Funny how they will support each other up to a certain point. That point seems to lie in the area of their nature of one having the need to blame SOMEBODY for their failures.
Health Care is on the verge of passing and apparently with the public option.
This would be considered within the conservative movement to be a total failure. They have to blame somebody and all of their attacks on this administration have fallen on deaf ears. There only choice is to start blaming people on their own side of the aisle. Blaming is their nature.
Is this the beginning of the internal combustion of the Republican party?

Pull up some chairs folks and enjoy the laughs...there will be many laughs to come.
 
Conservatives roar; Republicans tremble - Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party’s chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives.

Congressional leaders talk in private of being boxed in by commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh — figures who are wildly popular with the conservative base but wildly controversial among other parts of the electorate, and who have proven records of making life miserable for senators and House members critical of their views or influence.

Some of the leading 2012 candidates are described by operatives as grappling with the same tension. The challenge is to tap into the richest source of energy in the party — the disgust of grass-roots conservative activists with President Barack Obama and their hunger for a full-throated attack on his agenda — without coming off to the broader public as cranky and extreme.

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The Republicans are trembling because the conseratives are roaring to the RightWing base.
They feel that they are now painted into a corner by the likes of Limbaugh and Beck. Funny how they will support each other up to a certain point. That point seems to lie in the area of their nature of one having the need to blame SOMEBODY for their failures.
Health Care is on the verge of passing and apparently with the public option.
This would be considered within the conservative movement to be a total failure. They have to blame somebody and all of their attacks on this administration have fallen on deaf ears. There only choice is to start blaming people on their own side of the aisle. Blaming is their nature.
Is this the beginning of the internal combustion of the Republican party?

Pull up some chairs folks and enjoy the laughs...there will be many laughs to come.
Are you trying to channel Jim Jones or what?
 
I don't know enough about the writers of this article to know if they have an agenda in the tone or if it is in fact a real concern of republicans who have in recent years strayed from the model set down for us by Ronald Reagan.
I believe what is needed is a leader who is set in and is comfortable with his Conservative ways and has pragmatic realistic ideas for solutions that are logical achievable and can be communicated to the people in such a way as to make them understand his or her positions. I believe such a leader would be seen in short order as a Statesman and could garner the support of not only the Republican party but that of Independents, and Libertarians alike. Someone with ideas too solve the energy mess and environmental issues at the same time are not rocket science and are available off the shelf without causing economic hardship, in fact I can think of ways to address all these issues that would create jobs without draconian measures that would be compromises that should satisfy all but the most radical groups.
The problem with the party as it stands now is that too many see the important thing is party success when the focus needs to be on the Nations success and to hell with the party. It's about the future of our children's children that needs to be the focus and not getting rid of the other party. By presenting policies that they too can embrace because it's the right thing to do there is no end to the possibilities for success.
Sadly few people these days have the management and decision making experience and the ability to speak in public without doing an Obama impression and usin um and ah as the words used most when trying to convey a cogent thought.
But this is just what I think. I happen to believe I'm right though.
 
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Conservatives roar; Republicans tremble - Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party’s chances for reversing its elec. . . de of the aisle. Blaming is their nature.
Is this the beginning of the internal combustion of the Republican party?

Pull up some chairs folks and enjoy the laughs...there will be many laughs to come.
As I have taken pains to explain, we are conducting a political movement, not managing a professional sports team. Victory for the party, without victory of our principles is worthless.

A part which courts us, but will not serve as a proper tool and vehicle for our ideals is less than useless to us, and we feel free to treat it accordingly.

Parties, unlike principles, are easily replaced.
 
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Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party’s chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives.

What top republicans are saying that?

I just read that entire article, and nowhere in it did I see a quote from any "top republican" that said a word about "commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh". Even the quotes from Tim Pawlenty, Karl Rove, and Eric Cantor didn't say anything about conservative personalities and activists. All they were talking about were generalizations and election strategies.

This paragraph on page 2 seems to contradict the message they wanted readers to believe on page 1:

The only Republicans standing up to Beck and other conservative activists right now are familiar iconoclasts like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and New York Times columnist David Brooks — both of whom are distrusted by many Republicans for their frequent departures from conservative orthodoxy.

I think you've been fed a line of crap personally... If you read it very carefully, I think many of you will come to believe as I do, that this whole article stinks of liberal bs and quotes taken out of context.

.
 
What top republicans are saying that?

I just read that entire article, and nowhere in it did I see a quote from any "top republican" that said a word about "commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh". Even the quotes from Tim Pawlenty, Karl Rove, and Eric Cantor didn't say anything about conservative personalities and activists. All they were talking about were generalizations and election strategies.

This paragraph on page 2 seems to contradict the message they wanted readers to believe on page 1:



I think you've been fed a line of crap personally... If you read it very carefully, I think many of you will come to believe as I do, that this whole article stinks of liberal bs and quotes taken out of context.

.
Lindsey Grahamesty? OMG, I hope they are counting him among true conservatives? He's about as far left as the Republicans go.
 
1984, Reagan, the model of a Conservative President... won 49 states.

1994, the Conservative resurgence in the House.

Contrast 2006, 2008 when the "party of the Republicans" got their asses handed to them for moderation and being the kid brothers to the Democrats.

Hmmm.... over whelming success or continued mediocrity.... I dunno, seems a no brainer to me.
 
With all the dissatisfaction of the Democrates, the conservative base is saying you can't be a centrist in the Republican party. I hope they do **** it up for Republicans, then both the party and the base might learn something.
 
With all the dissatisfaction of the Democrates, the conservative base is saying you can't be a centrist in the Republican party. I hope they do **** it up for Republicans, then both the party and the base might learn something.

Well if you look at polls, people are more dissatisfied with Republicans by a wide margin than Democrats.. Also I read in a new poll that only 21% of American's call themselves Republican these days.. lowest since 1983.
 
Well if you look at polls, people are more dissatisfied with Republicans by a wide margin than Democrats.. Also I read in a new poll that only 21% of American's call themselves Republican these days.. lowest since 1983.

Hey! You're European aren't you? What are you doing on a US Politics thread? Y'all follow our politics?
 
Yea I love soap operas.

Yeah, I kinda enjoy watching the Constitution...er....Treaty diplomacy myself. Too bad France cannot control the diplomacy any longer. Long live Poland!
 
Yeah, I kinda enjoy watching the Constitution...er....Treaty diplomacy myself. Too bad France cannot control the diplomacy any longer. Long live Poland!

Eh? makes no sense at all ..
 
Eh? makes no sense at all ..

France used the developement of the EEC and later the EU to exercise its diplomatic muscle and have international influence through controlling Europe. When the EU started expanding after the Soviet Union collapsed, France lost that influence. Poland is a growing power within the EU and has an oppositional voice to France's interests.

At least, that's the way I see it.
 
France used the developement of the EEC and later the EU to exercise its diplomatic muscle and have international influence through controlling Europe. When the EU started expanding after the Soviet Union collapsed, France lost that influence. Poland is a growing power within the EU and has an oppositional voice to France's interests.

At least, that's the way I see it.

Well you are wrong on almost all fronts. Not to mention this is off topic. IF you want to discuss it then start a thread and I will join.
 
My Poll shows Conservatives are surging. More claim Conservatism than moderate or liberal.

Conservatives Maintain Edge as Top Ideological Group

Apples and Oranges. If you look at polls who ask "are you a Republican, Democrat, Independent" then the last one I saw, showed only 21% said they were Republican.

Plus the question asked in the poll you reference is at best very fluid. A person might think he or she is a "conservative" when asked the question but might not be when he or she is asked in more detail. Its like the old cola test.. ask a person what cola they prefer, a large portion will say Coca Cola, but put them under a blind taste test, Pepsi wins in a majority of cases.

So while the poll might show that people think they are more conservative, it does not mean that they will vote with the Republican party or say they are Republicans.
 
Lindsey Grahamesty? OMG, I hope they are counting him among true conservatives? He's about as far left as the Republicans go.

If Lindsay Graham is as far left as Republicans go....therein lies the problem with the GOP of today.:doh
 
Hogwash to the OP ...

There may be some angst among "certain" republicans in that "certain" mold, but not among Reagan republicans. Frankly, what needs to happen before we can move forward is a cleansing of sorts. The RINO's need to go! We need a leader who can articulate in an effective way, opposing arguments that ascribe conservative principles on issues like illegal immigration, abortion, gay marriage.. - rinse repeat. Let's take gay marriage as an example. All too aften I see even hard-core republican's FAIL, when confronted with the rhetoric from the left. As if to appeal to some unknown electorate that has been upheld, and administered by the leftest MSM. What they don't realize, and as CA recently showed us, is that, even democrats, mainstream as they may all initially be, are against such nonesense.

What are they afraid of exactly? What, 2 million gay American's, and maybe 20% of the liberal American left? It's not like they're ever going to get those votes anyway, so what's the big deal? Stick to your guns, and integrity will win out among the contemporary American electorate.


Tim-
 
I don't put much stock in the article itself, but I do believe that the GOP has lost its way.

In my opinion, the fiscal conservativeness they still attempt to tout has gone out the window. That was the one powerful counterpoint they have used to defeat Dems among people who vote mainly on economical issues.

And the whole catering to the Christian base, though I am a Christian myself, is getting old. I loathe the legislation of morality. Be it a left-wing affirmative action stance, or a right-wing anti-civil union position.

And finally, they need an intellectual to head that party. I personally know many conservative Repubs that are intelligent.

With reason, they can debate Obama's policies, instead of just screaming socialism, and Obama kicks puppies - unlike so many of the visible Republicans such as Palin, Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, etc.

Dems have their morons as well, but the high profile Republicans just can't have a conversation that couldn't be reduced to simplistic soundbites that cater to the alarmist portion of their base, or one that isn't filled with vitriol and rhetorical fear.
 
The Obama won in 2008 because McCain was not a conservative.
 
Apples and Oranges. If you look at polls who ask "are you a Republican, Democrat, Independent" then the last one I saw, showed only 21% said they were Republican.

Plus the question asked in the poll you reference is at best very fluid. A person might think he or she is a "conservative" when asked the question but might not be when he or she is asked in more detail. Its like the old cola test.. ask a person what cola they prefer, a large portion will say Coca Cola, but put them under a blind taste test, Pepsi wins in a majority of cases.

So while the poll might show that people think they are more conservative, it does not mean that they will vote with the Republican party or say they are Republicans.

that is fair enough since I consider myself conservative but not republican.
 
The Republicans face a twofold problem when they try to "move to the center".

1. The base gets mad and stays home.

2. The "great undecided" look and say "Both candidates are saying Big Government Is Good...one promises me a little BigGov, the other promises a lot of BigGov. If both are saying More Is Better, then I'm voting for the one promising lots of it," which is generally the Democrat candidates.

The 2008 campaign failed to distinguish a major difference between the Republicans and the Democrats... which is a big reason why the Republicans suffered major losses. If your choices are Social Democrat and Social Democrat Lite, why bother?

As someone pointed out, the Repubicans biggest victories were the Reagan era of 1980-88, and the 1994 congressional takeover...both cases where Republicans ran as unabashed conservatives, and then largely pursued a conservative agenda while in office. They started losing when they stopped being conservative.
 
As someone pointed out, the Repubicans biggest victories were the Reagan era of 1980-88, and the 1994 congressional takeover...both cases where Republicans ran as unabashed conservatives, and then largely pursued a conservative agenda while in office. They started losing when they stopped being conservative.

I agree totally. After the 2004 elections, I changed my registration to Independent as the Republicans that the party was supporting no longer represented my values and beliefs. I vote for Republicans more often than Democrats, but I will vote for the candidate that is promising fiscally conservative ideals and minimal government intrusion into my life.

I also am tired of basing the party on religious values. At the same time, I don't think it is right to allow a small group of people to change the meaning of the word marriage (which has deep religious meaning to a large percentage of the population). Marriage has always been a religious contract until the last 60 or so years. I do support civil unions with the same rights, responsibilities and benefits as marriage. On that note, I don't believe the government should be involved with marriage in any aspect. Civil contracts, okay. Not marriage.
 
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