Republicans stopped being conservative, and paid the price

Watermark said:
I don't think Obama is going to be anywhere near as liberal as FDR.

I don't honestly and truthfully believe this is a sea-change. He's not an FDR or a Reagan.
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Ornot made a great point last night in that Obama really is a wild card. No one truly knows if he will try and govern from the left or will he be a more moderate President.
 
cawacko said:
Republicans did well when they fought for principles of smaller government and fought against huge spending. Republicans got their asses kicked when they started spending and earmarking like crazy and committed multiple ethic violations.

If you want to call returning to fighting for more limited government and against huge spending being more conservative then yes that is what the Republicans need to do.

If you somehow think they need to switch directions and outflank the Democrats on the left you would not last long as a Republcan consultant.
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Why do you always set up false dichotomies?
 
Epicurus said:
Nah desh, the electorate is the same one it was in 2004. They're just tired of incompetence. Once the Republicans run a principled candidate things will even up again, but in the meantime I hope Obama makes some substantive changes to drug policy and gets out of Iraq.
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Do you have any idea how many new voters their are fella?

This is a new electorate
 
SmarterThanYou said:
It's ridiculous to declare that America is leaning left now simply because there were no conservatives to vote for.
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Yeah every Republican senator and Rep candidate that lost, lost because they were such liberals. Wow I couldn't even keep a straight face when saying that.
 
I really don't think you can make the claim that McCain was a particularly conservative candidate, even taking a very broad definition of the term.
 
The masses were drawn into this fight by Obama , they have tasted victory and will not easily give up their new found power.

Voting matters and they now have concrete proof of it.
 
Socrtease said:
Yeah every Republican senator and Rep candidate that lost, lost because they were such liberals. Wow I couldn't even keep a straight face when saying that.
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the only solid conservatives that lost were dole and chambliss, which isn't surprising considering that both states went anti-republican.

Like I said, this doesn't mean america turned left, just that there weren't any serious conservatives to vote for.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
the only solid conservatives that lost were dole and chambliss, which isn't surprising considering that both states went anti-republican.

Like I said, this doesn't mean america turned left, just that there weren't any serious conservatives to vote for.
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The serious conservatives were run out of the party by the Bush administration and its years of bullshit.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
the only solid conservatives that lost were dole and chambliss, which isn't surprising considering that both states went anti-republican.

Like I said, this doesn't mean america turned left, just that there weren't any serious conservatives to vote for.
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In my state an ultra conservative ran for Domenici's seat and lost to a democrat. A conservative lost in Colorado, Three conservatives lost here in NM Rep seats, one that had been held by conservatives for 28 years. Even my local senate rep lost a seat he has held since 1992. Lots of conservative Republicans lost races in the US. It is not like it was all Liberal and moderate republicans.
 
Obama deserves all the credit in the world for winning. He ran an amazing campaign in both the primaries and the general election. He made history and he and his supporters have every right to celebrate.

The idea that voters will now forever vote Democratic regardless of results is an extremely tough sell. The Republicans were entrusted with power and did not do the job and were rightly voted out. The belief that because now people have voted and 'felt power' they will never vote Democrats out if they don't perform will only sell to a select few.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
the only solid conservatives that lost were dole and chambliss, which isn't surprising considering that both states went anti-republican.

Like I said, this doesn't mean america turned left, just that there weren't any serious conservatives to vote for.
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Bob Schaeffer had an ACU rating of 99.
John Sunnunu had an ACU rating of 93.2.
Steve Pearce had an ACU rating of 94.
Elizabeth Dole 91%.


They all lost to much more liberal candidates.
 
Socrtease said:
America is a moderate country. We want government to leave us alone. We want to keep the money we earn, and we want government to stay out of our personal lives. The vast majority of us work very hard for the money we earn. We are mostly generous people who will help those in our communities that need help. Most of us think abortion is the last worst choice a woman can have to make but it should be a decision she makes after consulting her doctor and if she believes, talking to her creator. I also think that a large minority of us believe that two consenting adults should have the right to enter into a relationship with eachother and call it whatever we want to call it. Most of us know that the health of our soul is not a governmental concern but a private one, that some choose to share with their spiritual community. Most of us do not want a government that is too far left or too far right. One that believes that so long as an individual's actions do not infringe upon the rights of others, then NO ONE should have anything to say about. To paraphrase Jefferson, So longs as it does not pick my pocket nor break my leg, who am I to care what another does with their life. That is who I believe most americans are, and any leader or party that strays to far from that does so at the peril of their position.
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honestly, i see everyone here, and also on television, everyone really, claiming that "america is..." and then filling it in with descriptions of themselves. it's kinda funny.

i pay attention, close attention actually, to issue polling.

the question has always been will we ever get a leader who can marshall and then lead based on where americans really stand on issues...i don't know if that person is obama, but i suspect it might be. we'll see.
 
Socrtease said:
In my state an ultra conservative ran for Domenici's seat and lost to a democrat. A conservative lost in Colorado, Three conservatives lost here in NM Rep seats, one that had been held by conservatives for 28 years. Even my local senate rep lost a seat he has held since 1992. Lots of conservative Republicans lost races in the US. It is not like it was all Liberal and moderate republicans.
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If they stood solidly behind bush/cheney, they were not conservative....just puppets and they deserved to lose.
 
Epicurus said:
I really don't think you can make the claim that McCain was a particularly conservative candidate, even taking a very broad definition of the term.
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McCain just wasn't much of a leader. Like I've said before, McCain's weakness and centrism ironically lead the independents to abandon him.
 
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