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[Stephen Colbert]

The majority of the country is socially liberal but with fiscally conservative leanings.

Not fiscal conservatism geared towards punishing the poor and rewarding the rich as the modern GOP mind you, but fiscal conservatism in wanting to cut back on the military industrial complex, fiscal conservatism in seeing the debt as unsustainable and rapidly growing out of control, fiscal conservatism in seeing the govt as too bloated, too inefficient, too bogged down in bureaucratic policies to function well in the 21st century. What the govt needs is an efficiency task force whose sole job it is to clarify and simplify unnecessary policies, merge together government agencies that serve the same functions and generally find and remove waste by allowing individuals to report to them directly any sources of inefficiencies and waste they identify in their own day to day experience. After all in the age of the Internet, what better way to find inefficiency than to crowd source the task of finding inefficiencies, fraud and waste to the very individuals who deal with it on a personal level everyday?

A party based on those principles better reflects the electorate than either the GOP or the Democrats.

End drug trafficking and the spread of crime, legalize, regulate and tax marijuana.

End human trafficking and the spread of disease, legalize, regulate (regular STD testing, mandatory condom usage) and tax prostitution.




Just speaking from my dads small business example, businesses, small businesses especially do feel immensely burdened by...

Unneccesary and repetitive govt paperwork

Too many different administrations that all serve similar functions and all make businesses jump through similar unnecessary hoops.

Dated inefficient practices that manage to do things in the most ass backwards way possible.

Hell don't take my word for it, read this article about how govt policies have held rocket tech back by decades...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/ff-elon-musk-qa/

 

[sphagnum]

The majority of the country is socially liberal but with fiscally conservative leanings.

Not fiscal conservatism as gears towards punishing the poor and rewarding the rich as the modern GOP mind you, but fiscally conservative in seeing the debt as going out of control, fiscally conservative in seeing the govt as too bloated, too inefficient, too bogged down in bureaucratic policies to function well in the 21st century. What the govt needs is as efficiency task force whose sole job it is to clarify and simplify unnecessary policies, merge together government agencies that serve the same functions and generally find and remove waste.

A party based on those principles better reflects the electorate than either the GOP or the Democrats.]

I disagree. People say that, but if the government actually sat down and "streamlined" itself, do you think people would really care? It's too wonkish.

People don't like government spending insofar as they don't feel its effects; middle class whites will rail against welfare, but don't you dare take away their Social Security! If the government actually went out and spent like crazy and sparked the revival of the economy, I think you'd see a lot less people complaining about debt.

 

[speculawyer]

Actually they have fairly clear positions on a variety of issues. They are generally against regulation of the economy and the environment, against abortion, against public welfare benefits, against labor unions, against restrictions on an individual's ability to own and carry firearms, and against affirmative action. Your post is a bit bizarre to anyone who follows American politics.

At least that is what they want you to believe. In reality, they love regulation as long as it benefits them. Many in the GOP don't mind abortion but they just use it to get votes (although many are true believers). And they love public welfare benefits . . . if they are the ones that get them (below market oil/gas leases, bank bail-outs, weapon system purchases even the military doesn't want, zero-interest money from the Fed, low interest loan programs backed by the government), insurance subsidized by the government (flood insurance, Price-Andersen act, etc.).

They just don't like it when those things go to poor people instead of big business and the military-industrial-complex.

 

[Deified Data]

The majority of the country is socially liberal but with fiscally conservative leanings.

Not fiscal conservatism geared towards punishing the poor and rewarding the rich as the modern GOP mind you, but fiscal conservatism in wanting to cut back on the military industrial complex, fiscal conservatism in seeing the debt as unsustainable and going out of control, fiscal conservatism in seeing the govt as too bloated, too inefficient, too bogged down in bureaucratic policies to function well in the 21st century. What the govt needs is as efficiency task force whose sole job it is to clarify and simplify unnecessary policies, merge together government agencies that serve the same functions and generally find and remove waste?

A party based on those principles better reflects the electorate than either the GOP or the Democrats.

End drug trafficking and the spread of crime, legalize, regulate and tax marijuana.

End human trafficking and the spread of disease, legalize, regulate (regular STD testing, mandatory condom usage) and tax prostitution.

*squints*

Yeah, that whole post is bolded, isn't it?

Huh.

 

[q_q]

The country is moving left on social issues but right on economics.

If this is true, then how did the Democrats win an election in which the central issue was the economy?

 

[harmonize]

*squints*

Yeah, that whole post is bolded, isn't it?

Huh.

He couldn't decide which part was the most important.

 

[Stephen Colbert]

If this is true, then how did the Democrats win an election in which the central issue was the economy?

Because...

A) Romney didn't actually propose any actual economic policies or solutions, thus he did a piss poor job of running on the economy.

B) Idiots like Akin brought social issues back to the forefront of the election.

C) President Obama is a likable, competent person that continues to inspire a whole generation of minorities and youth in general, is clearly trying to stand up for the economics of middle class families, saved the auto industry, and thus people didn't feel like voting him out.

 

[ProtoCents]

GAF's Republican bashing threads are really fucking old and basically nothing but trolling.

 

[Jimothy]

If this is true, then how did the Democrats win an election in which the central issue was the economy?

Obama is center-right fiscally.

 

[relaxor]

The majority of the country is socially liberal but with fiscally conservative leanings.

Not fiscal conservatism geared towards punishing the poor and rewarding the rich as the modern GOP mind you, but fiscal conservatism in wanting to cut back on the military industrial complex, fiscal conservatism in seeing the debt as unsustainable and rapidly growing out of control, fiscal conservatism in seeing the govt as too bloated, too inefficient, too bogged down in bureaucratic policies to function well in the 21st century. What the govt needs is an efficiency task force whose sole job it is to clarify and simplify unnecessary policies, merge together government agencies that serve the same functions and generally find and remove waste by allowing individuals to report to them directly any sources of inefficiencies and waste they identify in their own day to day experience. After all in the age of the Internet, what better way to find inefficiency than to crowd source the task of finding inefficiencies, fraud and waste to the very individuals who deal with it on a personal level everyday?

A party based on those principles better reflects the electorate than either the GOP or the Democrats.

End drug trafficking and the spread of crime, legalize, regulate and tax marijuana.

End human trafficking and the spread of disease, legalize, regulate (regular STD testing, mandatory condom usage) and tax prostitution.

I think the federal government is more complex than this, and operates at okay efficiency. There are lots of things to work on in making it simpler and more efficient but this quest to make it more streamlined is less important to me than debating what social systems work, and having a discourse about what we prioritize.

Edit: As to the thread itself; I'll always assume there's a coalition of conservatives/conservationists/localists in food and government/anarchists/libertarians waiting in the wings to take over a new American right. If they found space for this on the left end of the existing spectrum so be it.

 

[Stephen Colbert]

I think the federal government is more complex than this, and operates at okay efficiency. There are lots of things to work on in making it simpler and more efficient but this quest to make it more streamlined is less important to me than debating what social systems work, and having a discourse about what we prioritize.

Just because its less important to you personally doesn't mean it's not important.

Just speaking from my dads small business example, businesses, small businesses especially do feel immensely burdened by...

Unneccesary and repetitive govt paperwork

Too many different administrations that all serve similar functions and all make businesses jump through similar unnecessary hoops.

Dated inefficient practices that manage to do things in the most ass backwards way possible.

Hell don't take my word for it, read this article about how govt policies have held rocket tech back by decades...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/ff-elon-musk-qa/

 

[demolitio]

GAF's Republican bashing threads are really fucking old and basically nothing but trolling.

Yea, I had to open this one just for the laugh though. I tend to avoid any political threads on OT since they're redundant at this point.

People always preach tolerance but never practice it. It just depends on the forum you're on and who the majority is on it.

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

Well, that's the thing... republicans don't *actually* believe or value anything. They only give a shit as long as it has the republican branding.

You normally post intelligent posts. This is not one of them.

 

[Zeus Molecules]

1. Go left

2. Win election.

3. Go back to right.

4. Profit.

Somebody got Chris Christie's 2016 campaign notes....

 

[Ikael]

It's fun and easy--especially here on a left-leaning site like GAF-- to say "THE RACISTS ALL BECAME REPUBLICANS, LOL," but it's actually a result of economics instead and long preceded the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

That's a very acute vision, and you have shown quite a bit of historical knowdegle, kind sir. I always mantained that the bitter racial divisions in the US had probably more to do with economic unequality and the general lack of a proper safety net (thus keeping minorties entrenched into "poverty traps") rather than some kind of historical determinism towards racism, hence the failure of the Affirmativa Action policies.

 

[Scrow]

I don't think that'll happen.

I think Carl Sagan got it:

well of course the republicans wouldn't say they were wrong

they'd just shift their stance, pretend that was their position all along, and paint their rival in the colours they were previously.

most people change their tactics to what benefits them most. the difference with what you're talking about is the admission of a mistake.

humility is rare in politics and religion.

 

[Zaptruder]

You normally post intelligent posts. This is not one of them.

I just post whatever I feel like, and some of it is bound to be dumb and wrong!

 

[TUSR]

but what are they going to do about the rape thing

 

[rac]

but what are they going to do about the rape thing

Instead of no one being able to get an abortion everyone has to get one.

 

[TUSR]

Instead of no one being able to get an abortion everyone has to get one.

extreme

 

[kittens]

The democrats are barely leftist anyways. The republicans can be more leftist than them and still be conservative.

 

[mclem]

Yeah, Republicans should just switch everything they believe and value so they can get a dude in office. Makes sense.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=499093


I've often been curious about the fact that it's in my understanding that some time ago (was it Civil war era? Something like that), it was the Democrats who were the right party and the Republicans were the left. I've never quite understood exactly how the change happened, assuming my understanding of how things were is right.

 

[beat]

Yeah, I think the "Republicans don't believe in anything" meme first really became a thing with Mitt Romney's etch-a-sketching. Of course they've always had their hypocrisies...

Wasn't just Romney. The entire party did a complete 180 on how to fix health care insurance. Remember, years ago, the Democrats were for single-payer and the Heritage Foundation came up with the privatized fix that Mitt Romney implemented in MA. "Obamacare" is essentially "Romneycare" (complete with individual mandate too), and in a few short years it went from being a private industry fix invented and championed by right-wing think tanks to something they straight up claimed was unconstitutional. All because the Democrats picked it up as their plan B and got it enacted.

So, yeah, Republicans don't believe in anything.

 

[Gadfly]

This is like committing suicide out of the fear of dying.

 

[beat]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=499093


I've often been curious about the fact that it's in my understanding that some time ago (was it Civil war era? Something like that), it was the Democrats who were the right party and the Republicans were the left. I've never quite understood exactly how the change happened, assuming my understanding of how things were is right.

As far as I understand it, the parties have always been 'big tents', aka coalitions. That's inevitable when a system tends to stabilize around two parties. So the Dems were a coalition of populism and social conservatism and Dixiecrats (segregation); while the GOP were both socially liberal and the party of big business.

And that was largely the case for a long time until the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, when LBJ's support for civil rights pushed the Dixiecrats to either renounce segregation (a few did) or switch to the Republican party, which by and large welcomed the power shift rather than denounce racism. The Southern Strategy worked, politically, for a long time.

(Here's another interesting thing, which I only learned a few weeks ago: abortion used to not be an evangelical Christian issue. As recently as the 1970s, evangelical scholars and leaders thought that life began at birth, not conception.

 

[D.Lo]

I don't think that'll happen.

I think Carl Sagan got it:

Well that's a complete piece of bullshit. I guess scientists can be generalising assholes too.

 

[lednerg]

The GOP went so far and so quickly to the fringes, they fell off the political spectrum and are dragging everybody down with them. They don't believe in conservatism, they merely believe in believing in conservatism. It's only a matter of time before the few sane individuals left come to terms with how their party is a cartoon version of its former self. The GOP doesn't need to go to the left, they need to come back to reality.

 

[relaxor]

Just because its less important to you personally doesn't mean it's not important.

Just speaking from my dads small business example, businesses, small businesses especially do feel immensely burdened by...

Unneccesary and repetitive govt paperwork

Too many different administrations that all serve similar functions and all make businesses jump through similar unnecessary hoops.

Dated inefficient practices that manage to do things in the most ass backwards way possible.

Hell don't take my word for it, read this article about how govt policies have held rocket tech back by decades...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/ff-elon-musk-qa/

Thanks for bringing this Musk interview to my attention.

 

[Buddha Beam]

Between this thread in the other thread earlier today I think this is all a plot for zaptruder (who we now know is secretly Mitt Romney) to run for President again in 2016.

Although I too have admittedly wondered what would happen is a bunch of progressives just started running for state and local offices as Republicans.