Still, the balance seems a bit off kilter when congress can constantly grind progress to a halt despite the best intentions of the President and the vocal support of the Real Americans who elected him to be their leader.
Careful what you wish for, STOMP....I'm with you that one-issue voting is stupid, but when you look at places with multiple parties and "Coalition" governments, oftentimes concessions are made to 3rd- or 4th-tier parties to get their backing that wouldn't normally happen. Imagine if, to get PPACA passed, there were 45 D's 30 Tea Party New GOP, 14 "Whacko Evangelicals for a Godly America" partiers and 11 "Peace in our time" Ron Paul/Cindy Sheehan Isolationists. You don't think that some concessions that most people would abhor would be made to get some of the 3rd-party types into the fold to get the votes?
I was horrified by 2 talking points (granted, from Fox) that I saw today: 1) 42% of exit polled said Hurricane Sandy response was the "most important" factor in their vote, and 15% said it was "very important" 2) I don't remember the number, but it was a significant amount that chose within the last week who they were voting for.
Yeah I was old enough. I was fed up with bush sr and his broken promises. Just like I am fed up with Obamas broken promises. I actually was hoping for change like Obama promised to. His first two years he had majority house and senate. Same as Clinton. He had a great shot to do things that would promote our economy and blew it. Then hit the road block with the house majority being republican. He had two years to make big changes and we went further in peril. If he handled it like Clinton; there would be no question of reelection.
The Republican party is pretty much in the same shape the Democrats were in 1992. No real leader, an identity that doesn't sell to the masses, adrift. The Dems fell in behind a moderate DLC type guy in Clinton, and it turned out great and put the party in position to win 4 of the next 6 presidential elections. Republicans need to find someone who inspires people and who can lead the party. Someone like Clinton, who pulled the party to the center - that appealed to a coalition of voting blocs that wins elections. Mitch Daniels is out of a job (term limits), who is a grown up who ran Indiana's state govt. extremely well. He's willing to take on the extremists in both parties. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/02/mitch-daniels-promotes-abortion-truce-again-in-new-interview/ Marco Rubio is a great speaker, great in interviews, energetic, young, articulate on the issues, etc. He's also hispanic, which means there's potential to connect with hispanic voters.
Yeah, this is what I imagine needs to happen for them to be relevant again. They have to become more moderate. Stop denying they are extreme right wing. If the economy was doing better, Obama would have won the popular vote by a landslide based on his social issues.
I don't think they're extreme right wing. That's bogus rhetoric. What they are is beholden to a lot of fundamentalist christians and to pander to that group they have to take up positions that aren't so popular (anti-abortion, for example). The left wing in this country if far more skewed to the left of the left/right political spectrum than mainstream (even tea party) republicans. Extreme right wing would be neo-nazi types. Extreme left wing would be communists (of which we have plenty).
BUMP! If there is a silver lining to Trump - he put the nail in the GOP coffin. Bachman? Mr. 999? Palin? Carson? Trump?! Dishing out complete garbage candidates so consistently is a stain on the GOP that will never come clean. I'm not saying that the Dems have been pumping out great candidates but there is a huge difference between mediocre candidates and total batshit crazy candidates.
The best thing for America would be if we could kill off both major parties and reinvent the political system with about five new ones. The current two party system fosters a hatred between members of each group. It seems like having multiple parties, none with a pure majority, would force politicians to work together.
