April 05, 2005

• also, the GOP is quickly turning against its long tradition of states' rights and decentralized government. whatever happened to the repubs wanting to get government OUT of americans' lives? sigh.
• Hmm... so, here we have it: republicans are no longer conservative other than in the sense that they are now the party of the religious, making sure they legislate morality to save us from ourselves. Which it distinctly -NOT- keeping government out of our lives. My only hope is the the moderates (which I believe really makes up the voting majority) who are for Bush and the republicans will come to realize that they are not being represented by the current batch of said politicians. Out of all the things I dislike about the right, the greatest of these is their desire to control my life. Stay the hell out of my life! Argh. Fiscal irresponsibility is tied with the desire to make war. I feel the key to the rights success is sound bites, most of them false. So I've come up with my own sound bite: "I like my life free of hate, fear and ignorance, thank you." I find this tends to be a great response to most any of the right's propoganda. It sheds the layers of 'reason' used by most 'right wing' arguments and gets to the root of things. Ok, that's probably a derail. Sorry.
• but if you repeat "tax-and-spend-democrat", "big-goverment liberal" and other such cliches enough times, people start to believe. democrats try to fund social programs via social programs; republicans fund social programs via an enlarged military.
• This is why I can never for the life of me figure out what people mean when they say "social liberal, economic conservative" .... I guess they are saying they are against wasteful spending, as if voting Democrat means you are PRO-wasting money somehow. i think it really boils down "i dont want to pay my taxes, please dont think I'm a bigot"
• "boils down to" [above] It is interesting how the whole states' rights thing comes and goes. Historically, much as they'd like to deny it, it has been nothing but an excuse to allow slavery and later Jim Crow laws. Now that the issue is gay rights, the states are the ones pushing for more equality, and the federal government is the one holding them back. And of course the Supreme Court intervened in the Florida election in 2000 and the Terry Schiavo case. ooh, look at me, I proved Republicans are hypocrites. What do I win?
• I'm sorry drjimmy, we are currently out of Ann Coulter cupie dolls and 'I licked Bush' bumper stickers, so your prize has been back-ordered.
• I just sent this link to my roommate. I have no idea why he's a republican. He's an environmentalist with gay friends and hates deficit spending. Maybe this will be the final straw. Or maybe there will be a slug in my bed when I get home.
• Heck, yentruoc, sometimes I wonder why I'm even a Republican anymore. They're proving, just as the Democrats did for many years when they had both legislative houses and the White House, that all they're interested in is spending incredible amounts of money on pet projects that make them look better to what they feel is their base demographic. For the Dems, it was centralization and social services, and for the Republicans, it seems to be moral outrage, centralized intervention in "moral outrage" issues, deregulation in exchange for short-term profit, and grudge wars. Hypocrites run both parties. I could do with more liberals and conservatives, libertarians and authoritarians to finally come to that realization.
• I have no idea why he's a republican. He's an environmentalist with gay friends and hates deficit spending. He, like the slug he may or may not put in your bed, lacks anything remotely resembling a spine. (Ironic that most of the people in this liberal/repub category criticize dems for the same thing.) He should grow some fucking balls and stand up for his values, or admit that he really doesn't give a shit about the environment or anyone gay besides himself. I wonder if this special breed of republican (which is alarmingly common) is related to the "democrat" who insists on being liberal, yet proudly claims to have voted exclusively for republicans because they thought all the dem candidates sucked, in every election they ever voted in.
• Anyone else up for forming an "American Moderate" party?
• How about the 'Nothing Party'? "We stand for nothing except for what seems to make the most sense at the time."
• Federal spending grew less under the Democrats, but it still did grow. The difference ($25 billion) is negligible. I find the newfound Democratic mantra of "we're the party of conservative values" to be nearly as silly as when the Republicans claim it. The way I see it, America has two anti-libertarian parties. You vote for the one that has more social and military positions you agree with. Thus, Republican = anti-abortion, pro-Iraq-war, anti-gay-marriage, anti-social-security, etc., and Democrat = pro-abortion, anti-Iraq-war, not anti-gay-marriage, pro-social-security, etc. Economics just doesn't matter any more: we go to hell with either party.
• A $25B difference in spending. A $47B difference in GDP. A $61B difference in the deficit. Lower inflation and more social services. The differences add up pretty quickly. Especially when you consider that the only thing Repubs are doing to offset these differences is giving tax cuts to those who least need them. How much did schoolteachers get? $300? How much did Cheney get? ~$60,000. I think the economics matter a lot. Also, of course federal spending will continue to grow - our population keeps increasing. Even libertarians would have to deal with that factor.
• The thing is, even faced with statistical evidence of their penchant for wasteful spending and bigger government and even though they now control both houses and the white house they'll nail themselves to the cross as victims while screaming from the hill that Democrats are somehow responsible.
• Ah, I meant that economics just don't matter to voters any more. Do you think the Republicans are losing any voters because of the state of the economy? I don't (though I'd really like the numbers on this). In my opinion, there is only one policy issue that excites voters: lower taxes. Yet, my impression is that even the prospect of lower taxes is not the reason people vote Republican any more. At this point genetics might as well be invoked to explain why the Republicans are so (politically) popular.
• More than half the country's hopped up on something. Keep the masses medicated and they don't have to think.
• Part of the reason for Republican popularity is their ability to convince the poor among them (usually white) that just being a Republican is enough to raise them out of their situations. All they really get, in the end, after they've voted for them, is more of the same but they can call themselves Republican and consider themselves better than those liberal, tax-n-spend, gay-loving, Democrats. The same Democrats whose states give them huge sums of aid every year, btw.
• There should be a (ha!) after "tax-n-spend."
• More than half the country's hopped up on something. Keep the masses medicated and they don't have to think. religion, the opiate of the masses
• Religion certainly played a significant role in the last election, but there's far more to it than that. I don't buy the "most people are stupid/bigoted" argument (though I admit I have my days). I think most Americans are apathetic. I think most of us are content as long as we're relatively comfortable, so we don't spend nearly as much time or energy questioning the "answers" our government gives us. Which makes most of us depressingly susceptible to advertising and talking points. Republicans have practically trademarked the words "life" and "freedom" and "America," and have done one hell of a good job painting Dems as a bunch of overly-PC namby-pambys who are after your money and want your kids to be gay. Meanwhile, the Democrats haven't done a damn thing to establish a solid vision since Clinton left office. All that has to be undone if the Dems want to rise up out of the gutter. Not to mention that we need to be mobilizing women and young people. The latter gets routinely fucked by politicians, they're the ones in danger of the draft, and they stayed at home and fucked with their X-Boxen on election day.
• "The party with the best record of serving Republican economic values is the Democrats Shouldn't that be: "The party with the best record of bending over backward to appease Republican values over their constituents is the Democrats."???
• I thought that 'young people stayed home on election day' myth was debunked! (Theit numbers were smaller as a percentage, but that's because lots more old people showed up.)
• Um, guys? It only looks like Republicans are the majority because the GOP has been fixing the elections. I still don't understand why Americans didn't riot in the streets over this. The most amazing piece of spin the repubs pulled off wasn't equating 9/11 with Saddam, or getting poor people to vote against their economic interests. It was getting 80% of America to think of the 20% with a skeptical outlook and some understanding of statistics as tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists.
• I could be wrong. The last stats I saw were pretty close on the heels of the election, but had less than 20% of eligible 18 to 24-yr-olds showing up to the polls.
• This website claims that between 48 and 52% of eligible 18-29 year old voters voted in the 2004 presidential election. (I haven't independently verified this site's claims; this was just the first Google hit. Still looking for primary sources.)
• Also possibly relevant, this PDF that summarizes some data. (Still not a primary source; caveat lector.)
• Not to further derail, but the Republicans also pulled off a significant strategic coup when they got anti-gay-marriage laws in so many states' referenda. People (more specifically, Evangelicals) made a special point to go to the polls to "preserve the sanctity of marriage" (whatever that really means) in column B and, since they were there, might as well vote for Dubya in column A.
• hikikomori: [The Republicans] nail themselves to the cross as victims while screaming from the hill that Democrats are somehow responsible. .
• Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy *giggle* If only!! We should be so organised.
• yentruoc I totally agree. I remember walking around Seattle the day after the election and everyone had the thousand-yard stare thing going on. You can't tell me they were thinking 'Oh, we'll get'em again four years from now.' These were people who were really and truly disillusioned. I think there are many more people than not around this country, and around the world who feel the same way.
• That too might have been how Republicans felt when they lost in '92 and they still couldn't get themselves together by '96 but they shook it off by 2000 and, with skillful campaigning and stealing, they marched to the white house.
• Yeah. It's just too bad that disillusionment leads so readily to apathy instead of activism.
• The American Zombi Party? Slogan: The party with Braaaaaaains. Oh, wait. There is one already. They have none, and they're out to get yours.
• I don't know why there isn't rioting in the streets either. I mean on top of things already mentioned, in June Jose Padilla will have been in custory for THREE YEARS without being charged with anything. However, I have little faith in the democrats as well since many of the things that Bush does (free speech zones, sending prisoners to other countries to be tortured, DMCA...) we all started under Clinton and as far as legistlating morality, while it isn't in the same ballpark, it is Democrats who are always trying to pass laws against videogames.
• And the most famous election cheat is still Daly, who I believe was a democrat. Still, it blows my mind that everybody is willing to play along and pretend Bush won legitimately. I guess I just don't get America.