Conservatives Win While Republicans Lose

This is a good thing. Cut out the FAR RIGHT and the FAR LEFT and maybe we will finally have a decent Congress.

Of course, if that happens, how will they tell themselves apart?


Jamie

 

Then we can all be Americans again and not meaningless labels.

 

We will not have a "good" government until socialistic ideals are abandoned and replaced with the libertarian, limited gov't ideals of the founders.

Statism has been tried time after time. It always enslaves the people, confiscates their liberties, and ultimately falls into totalitarianism then anarchy and/or revolution.

Any political ideal that starts out with "control" over the people is a bad one... virtually all of the ideals espoused by liberal Dems start out with that premise.

 

The diversity of the Democratic party means that it goes through cycles faster and more frequently than the Republicans. Its leadership changes more frequently and it understands the give and take of negotiation and consensus. This will be a centrist Congress, since many of the Republicans who were defeated Tuesday were extremist right wingers and many of the Democrats who defeated them were centrists.

The Religious Right, around which the Republican Party had centered itself, thus losing most of its own centrists, is seen as having a "winner take all, majority wins, minority loses" attitude which is neither consistent with the American principle of majority rule with protection of the rights of the minority, nor with the current mood in Washington. What happened Tuesday was that the crack in the Republican Party broke open and the Religious Right was left standing pretty much by itself while the centrists in the Republican Party voted Democratic in massive numbers.

For Republicans, the first order of business will be re-visioning, developing an identity that represents who they have become, and starting over, just like the Democrats did when this happened to them in 1994. There will be a new base and the party will move to the left, toward a centrist position. The more sensible elements among the Religious Right will get on that same bandwagon, if they want to continue to have a voice, and learn how to build consensus, negotiate and live with things they can't change. Insisting on my way or the highway will leave the right wing conservatives out in the cold as a miserable minority.

 

How on earth you viewed the former members of Congress as right wing extremists is beyond me.

Many of those who lost were big government liberals with an R behind their name.

If anything, it looks as though the new Congress is more conservative, aside from the leadership.

Bush has become a liberal, abandoning most of his former conservative stances and pushing for liberal ideas such as amnesty for lawbreaking illegals. I still don't think it will get through the Congress. There are too many conservative Republicans and Democrats this time around.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if these incoming new comers really paid attention to their constituents -- the ones who actually voted them into office -- instead of a national party machine?

The voters wanted a Defense of Marriage act -- that statement is supported by multiple states' voters -- and the Republicans did not provide that.

The voters wanted a military that wins, not a police force that holds.

The voters wanted integrity, not corruption and scandal. Well, except for Louisiana, maybe, who returned William Jefferson to office. But the charges against him aren't sexual, are they?

 

:thumbsup:

 

Carpro,

I pray that the swing to the right for the Dem's will signal a ground swell of support against the evils of abortion, homosexuality, and the moral failure of pastors and politicians.

God bless & thanks for the thread!

Wayne

 

While it might be true that a good many of the Democrats that won are more centered than left.

I find it funny that the Republicans that won or lost, did so by trying to stay FAR far away from Bush and the "Right".

Something else that is also amusing, is the fact that everyone keeps saying that the Democrats didn't win, the Republicans lost. I don't know about you, but a win is a win. The Republicans were corrupt, and full of themselves and thought nothing could stick and the people were fed up with it, and they wanted change.

Since the only other option was the Democrats, they voted for change. If there has been a 3rd party there, mayb we would have seen the people not voting for either of them, but we didn't have a 3rd party in place, so we didn't see that. So for this election, in my opinion. The Democrats won. Balance was restored.

Jamie

 

The reason that is said is:

... and a few other issues as well. The Dems didn't win because they didn't come forward with any ideas or an agenda. They just said the Republicans are wrong. The media let them get away with not pressing them for their own alternative ideas.

The problem is that every bit of substance you presented affirms what you were apparently trying to disprove.

If the Dems had come out and said we are for a, b, and c... then their program had been favored over the offer of the GOP then you call it a win. When the reasons given most heavily by the voters had nothing to do with what they expected of Dems but rather what they disapproved of in Republicans... the summary of "The Dems didn't lose, the GOP lost" is correct.

 

McCain and Newt are probably the first to realize that restoring Goldwater/Reagan idealism is the key to bringing the GOP back. Newt is absolutely correct in his analysis. There are many who will want to make the GOP less conservative. That is a roadmap to permit minority status.

Conservative-libertarians will be pushed out of the process (pleasing the leftists just fine), will reassert themselves within the Dem party (which would be a pretty funny result of the tactics libs used to regain power), or they'll look for a third option.

 

Yep!

This issue is grandstanding to the far right base. You want to defend marriage? Here's how:
1. Don't rush into marriage
2. Husbands and wives love each other, and set an example for their kids. Children need a mom AND a dad if at all possible
3. Take divorce off the table as an option (Christians have higher divorce rates than just about any other group, according to Barna)
4. Men should not rule over their wife, and vice versa. It is a partnership.
5. Finally, quit worrying about the non-issue of gay marriage. It affects my marriage not one whit if gays marry or not.

Like I have said before, it is unfortunate that the word "marriage" is used for 2 different things... a religious commitment and a civil contract.

It helps not to invade countries that are no threat to us in the first place.

We definitely need more integrity, but then again, we do elect from ourselves; we elect men and women, not gods.

 

Trying to spin out of losing mid term election

notice that there was not even one thread before the election about democratic centrists fiscal conservatives ??? wow! come on take responsibility for once in your life....checks and balances won!

American people wanting to be listened too about Iraq occupation

American people want a raise in pay

Amercian middle class want to be listened too

bush culture is the big loser...and karl rove should be shown the door he is bad for America.

 

==I think this is 100% true. People are tired to "stay the course" regardless of how one defines that position. People want to see progress and little to no progress is being made. The Bush administration has allowed this war to drown in politics and the people who are suffering are our troops and their families. If they are not going to allow the military to fight in Iraq with the actual purpose of defeating the enemy then they need to pull out. Its time for the politics to end and for this administration to take a long look in the mirror at itself. While I don't believe that the democrats have any answers, in fact the more I listen the more sure I am that they don't, their rise to power might force this administration to re-examine it's policy.

==A raise in the minimum wage should be a state issue (only). Here in North Carolina we have already raised our minimum wage. Starting Jan 1 the minimum wage will be $6.15 per hour. Our Governor Mike Easley (D) signed this into law back in July (I think). The reason it should be a state issue is very simple. Each state, indeed each area, has a different economy. While $6.15 is not much, by anyone's standard, it will go further in rural North Carolina than it will in New York City. Each state should set a minimum, livable, wage based on its own economy (etc). In this I am going far beyond what federal democrats want. I know that a person cannot live off $7.15 per hour. I believe that all "full-time" (40+ hrs per week) should be paid a livable wage. I know that there are many full-time jobs in this state that are paying minimum wage, or just above that, per hour. Nobody can live off that.

My point? Democrats are playing political games. What they offer is "not" a solution. It is just a bunch of fluff that, at the end of the day, will still leave many hard working people in poverty. We need to get this issue out of the federal government, put it soley on the states, and pressure the states to require a livable wage. A livable wage would be set by what it would require, in that area, to pay rent (on a basic living space, nothing fancy), pay for some sort of transportation (basic, not fancy), food and clothing.

==True. However I doubt the democrats have any better ears than the republicans do on this. Both parties must give their special interest bases what they want. Thus you will see the democrats, over time, move toward agendas that might very well make life harder on the middle class. One thing that comes to mind is the various enviornmental bills (etc) they support. While we all want clean air (etc) there are powerful democrats who support bills that would raise the cost of energy. That is not good for the middle class. Yes alternative forms of fuel (etc) need to be found and put into use. However the middle class, and the poor, should not be punished in the mean time.

==Rove is a political advisor. He does his job and, in general, he is good at his job. This is why democrats don't like him. If Rove worked for the democrats they would love him and the republicans would hate him. O, the utter and shameless hypocrisy of politics.

 

If the marriage issue is an appeal to the "far right" then certainly the minimum wage is the most deceptive of all ploys directed toward the gullible.

The net effects of a minimum wage increase are at best neutral after everything levels off. At worst, it decreases entry level opportunities, takes money away from other means of compensation (like the company portion of insurance premiums), limits the amount of labor "fat" a company can carry, reduces capital expenditures making us even more vulnerable to foreign competition and job loss, inflates pricing on the goods purchased by the supposed beneficiaries, eliminates summer jobs for kids, and puts small businesses out of competition.

The minimum wage demagogury is pure deception. Labor is a cost. The "rich" employer doesn't just take it in the shorts when his costs go up... he either raises prices, goes out of business, or cuts somewhere else.

 

ScottJ,

Let's use an example and you tell me how it goes...

You have two sports teams Team A and Team B... They are playing a playoff, and Team A wins. Team B made all kinds of errors along the way, but never the less, Team A won by having more points at the end.

Did the Team A win? In the History books of sports will it say Team A won, or will be say Team B lost because of their errors?


I know you guys want to think that the Republicans are a "better" party, but that is not the case. Both parties are corrupt, but the people of the USA were tired of the Republicans thinking they could do as they will and get away with it. In the end History will say. The Democrats won, and the Republicans lost.

In the REAL end, we all lost, because we didn't pull together and get a good 3rd party in the mix rather than picking a lessor of two evils.

Jamie

 

Apples and oranges. Politics isn't a zero sum game. The people had no winning choice this time.

Au contraire. The GOP has simply espoused/affirmed the better, more libertarian/foundational ideals since Reagan.

They are not better people. In fact, cursed is the man who trusts in the arm of man. The only solution if we want integrity in gov't is to disempower gov't. So long as there is power to be brokered... politicians with integrity will be the very rare exception, not the rule.

That is probably true and if the GOP doesn't follow Gingrich's advice... a third party is probably not too far off. I certainly won't vote for a Republican party that moves toward the left. This country still needs less gov't and a reversal of the socialist trend that started with FDR.