20 comments

• Comment Link Monday, 29 April 2013 13:59 posted by Evan Morris

  At one point the side against, specifically Ralph Reed, brought up Goldwater as an example of the traditional strong conservatism that existed in the past. While I agree that Goldwater was staunchly conservative, I find it deeply ironic that a member ofthe Religious Right would point to Goldwater, since Goldwater considered the RR to be an invidious poison to the party. He had similar misgivings about the new breed of Neo Cons coming into the party.
  
  Republicans need to stop invoking Goldwater. Based on his comments I do not believe he would be a supporter ofthe current republican party.

• Comment Link Sunday, 28 April 2013 18:54 posted by Phil Ashford

  I vote against the proposition. Becoming democrat lite will only cause the conservative base to stay home. And why would any knee-jerk democrat switch votes when they are getting the class warfare mob message and promised freebies paid for by someone from the genuine left?

• Comment Link Sunday, 28 April 2013 18:46 posted by Rebecca Hughes

  I just received a survey from the RNC that was perfectly indicative of the problem... the questions were so skewed to be laughable. There was no desire to hear from the members - only a desire to reinforce the existing extremist, uncompromising beliefs of what amounts to a cabal controlling the platform.
  
  Igrahm is delusional if she thinks moderates lose elections because they're moderate - they lose because the GOP forces the primary candidates hard right, and that leaves the nominee in a terrible position in the general election, when moderate voters no longer trust the candidate IS a moderate and the hard right doesn't constitute a majority of voters.
  
  McCain and Romney were forced away from their natural centrist positions to push hard right in the primaries, and they were never able to recover. I voted for them both ONLY because i trusted that once in office they would get their guts back, tell the RNC hard liners to take a hike and govern from the center where they had been before the primaries.
  
  I am furious with the RNC and Republic party. I registered to vote as Republican when I was 18, but this party no longer represents me as a single woman. It is a party that believes government is bad - except when it wants to invade my body and my bedroom. 22% of citizens self-identify as Evangelicals BUT even an Evangelical researcher admitted that only 7% actually live by the true Evangelical platform.
  
  Ultimately, the United States is not a Theocracy and the modern Republican party is determined that the American public wants one - which is ironic, because it's also generally xenophobic and Islamaphobic - and if the same statements coming from many Republican legislators were coming from Muslims, the party would rail against it. Where did separation of church and state go?
  
  All the polls the party quotes are pointless because the phrasing is so extremely biased. If you ask are you in favor of gay marriage, you get a statistically different outcome than if you ask if you are in favor of marriage equality. If you ask whether the public are in favor of "some" kind of restriction on abortion, you will get a different outcome than if you ask whether someone favors outlawing abortions after 12 weeks. Obsfucation is the party's only method to get polls to come out in their favor anymore.
  
  BTW - it's a fascinating difference between the in-person and on-line voting. I'd like to know the average age and ethnicity and gender of the in-person audience, compared to the online audience.

• Comment Link Friday, 26 April 2013 16:38 posted by Jamal Jordan

  I think the proposition itself is flawed, "The GOP Must Seize The Center Or Die." I would argue the GOP has moved so far to the right that what was once a Republican is now a moderate or conservative Democrat. If anything, the Democrats need to move further left because the entire political paradigm has shifted to the right. Otherwise, I enjoy listening to the show.

• Comment Link Tuesday, 23 April 2013 17:47 posted by Spec

  The Republican dug their own grave. They sided with the wrong side of history on gay rights and preemptive wars and it has now come back to haunt them. And 'cutting taxes' is not an evergreen policy. As Reagan found out, eventually you cut too far and just create massive deficits. So they just have no useful policy prescriptions to offer.

• Comment Link Saturday, 20 April 2013 02:52 posted by Tiring

  Two observations:
  
  1. Why did Ralph Reed and Laura Ingraham feel it necessary to incessantly argue the parameters of the topic of the debate. Both Mr. Reed and Ms. Ingraham knew well beforehand what the topic would be. Both agreed to take part. Both used not merely their openings but repeated statements throughout the event to alter or even denigrate the debate's central topic.
  
  2. Ms. Ingraham's effort disappointed me. I find Ms. Ingraham to be a credible intellect with a trained background and a fine education. Yet Ms. Ingraham repeatedly made sarcastic comment, talked over and around issues, interrupted other speakers, and, in general, acted as if she were talking her daily radio show and NOT a public debate featuring three other individuals. Ms. Ingraham's efforts or lack thereof and rather unprofessional, rude attitude really reduced the quality of not only her own arguments and positions.

• Comment Link Thursday, 18 April 2013 18:51 posted by fred b

  "...the party of...economic growth, job creation..." When the GOP stops pandering to economic bullies such as Big Oil, Big AG and Big Pharma, when they take a stand against the corrupting influence of money on the US political system, when they support the seemingly inevitable necessity for job creation and economic growth through a green tech lens and a return to (at least moderate) tariffs and import quotas to keep jobs in this country, they'll see nothing from me but the back of my head.

• Comment Link Thursday, 18 April 2013 14:52 posted by Richard Fluhman

  In my opinion: there should be no political parties. All independent elected representatives should represent the citizens Not the lobbyists, etc.

• Comment Link Thursday, 18 April 2013 14:45 posted by Martin Thistle

  Republicans just need to disappear. It's highly unlikely they have what it takes to evolve into a more thoughtful, caring political party. They are modern day Whigs, and they should take the same path to oblivion that party was relegated to. The Repugnican platform contains far too many ideas which simply don't make sense in today's modern societies, and they express these antiquated ideas with words and phrases that have lost most of their meaning or impact; words such as Freedom, Justice, Opportunity, small government, Free Markets, and the like. I've got an idea; instead of 'small' government(which works best to promote the needs of the extremely rich), how about an appropriately-sized government that works for all(irrespective of size). Republican freedom is a sham as well; republicans only want true freedom for the wealthy, drones and SWAT teams and unwarranted surveillance and Gitmo for the rest of us poor schmucks. We as a society would be better off if they simply disappeared.

• Comment Link Thursday, 18 April 2013 11:38 posted by Kathleen Berger

  I would like to think the GOP could naturally move towards center, but I think it would be more of a manipulation to appear more towards center. Must they or die? I think they really do need to move more towards center but a part of me (untrusting of their motives) , would like to see them (truthfully not die) but evolve to a less inhumane group of people. Therein lies our differences...sympathetic vs. unsympathetic to the sufferings of life. They must do what they must do until they are awoken; my hope today is that some will hear the cry of the people! On further thought, don't seize center just die, rebuild from a healthier platform.