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ThatDamnedPanda -> RE: Why the GOP is unraveling. (4/22/2009 10:21:28 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: samboctThe GOP was the party of Lincoln- but he'd be a democrat today.
Sam, it's even worse than that. If you really want to illustrate how far to the right the Republicans have moved over the last 30 years - and, at the same time, how far to the right they've dragged the entire country - consider this. Imagine, if you will, a Presidential candidate who advocates not only universal health care, but also a national minimum income for every adult in America; along with creation of new federal agencies to promote increased minority small business ownership and the protection of workers' rights and the environment, as well as drastic expansion of existing federal agencies devoted to civil rights and affirmative action. What do you think the Republican Party's reaction would be to such a candidate today?
Well, their reaction in 1968 was to make him President. The man I'm talking about is not some hypothetical candidate; it's Richard M. Nixon. Nixon advocated, but failed to enact, universal health care and a national minimum income. He established the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, greatly expanded many of Johnson's Great Society programs, attempted to add new social welfare programs of his own with the Family Assistance Plan and the Child Development Act, instituted a cost-of-living increase in Social Security and established Supplemental Social Security, sponsored and signed the Water Quality Act and the Endangered Species Act, quadrupled federal spending on the arts, and was the first President in American history under whom spending for social programs exceeded defense spending.
If Richard Nixon he were running today even the Democrats wouldn't dare let him near the nomination because it would be political suicide. The very same party that nominated him and rode him to the White House 40 years ago would crucify him as a communist, if not worse, today. Charles Barkley nailed it a few years ago when he said, "I used to be a Republican, until they went insane," and he couldn't have summed it up better. The Republican Party has not only given in to their lunatic fringe, they've fucking become the lunatic fringe. It's an extremist splinter group that's absorbed and assimilated a political party representing over a third of the voters in this country.
They're not unraveling, they've simply gone completely insane, and this is why I'll never vote for another Republican again - for any office, at any level of government - as long as I live. That whole goddamned party can collapse on itself and burn to the ground like the Hindenberg as far as I'm concerned, and not only would I not feel a single pang of regret, I'd consider it one of the most encouraging political developments in the history of American politics. I have no interest in seeing anyone resurrect that party; let them finish immolating themselves, and then work with whatever rises from the ashes.
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