To the editor:
Where are the old-fashioned Republicans of yesteryear? The ones best known for their commitment to conserving, protecting and maintaining that which we as a nation already had. The ones who believed in repairing and refurbishing before the last result of replacing. People who took the responsibilities of public office seriously, who would have been ashamed to be elected to Congress, to accept taxpayers’ money as salary, and then refuse to do the job of governing.
Traditional Republicans would have looked beyond “whose administration introduced this legislation” to ask themselves “What does our country need at this time?” For example, Republicans of the old school, even those who did not believe in job stimulation in the U.S., would have acknowledged how badly our roads, airports, bridges, levees, pipelines, sewers and national parks need repair and maintenance and would have done something about it. Grand Old Party, where are you? Our country needs you.
Comments
kgrimes 5 years, 7 months ago
I have a heavy heart when I say this, but I feel like the last group of people to truly do the 'right' thing were named Jefferson/Washington/Adams and co. It's been a steep decline ever since.
Sean Livingstone 5 years, 7 months ago
Every nation seems to face the same problem.... they have the best at the beginning... and always go downhill after that....
Abdu Omar 5 years, 7 months ago
Compared to what they should be.
Jayhawk1958 5 years, 7 months ago
LOL!
Abdu Omar 5 years, 7 months ago
I am an Independent now, but frankly, I was a Republican once, but George Bush changed my mind. His lies to get us into a war with a country that never threatened us (or could), was just too much for me. Then he spent billions to fight an enemy we created. I was always a drinker of their tea until that. His sneaky and lying ways pushed me right out of his party.
Where are the real conservatives who put country first and party second? Where are the real patriots who want nothing but the best for the American People? Who is willing to put aside their party loyalty (or loyalty to the lobbyists who give money and prizes) to strike out for what is best for all of US? No matter who brings to the forefront a good, lasting and affordable idea for the American People, they will support it, fight for it and then pass it. That is the party I will join.
pizzapete 5 years, 7 months ago
+1
whats_going_on 5 years, 7 months ago
+2
tomatogrower 5 years, 7 months ago
Which puts them into the category of flaming liberals, according to the teapubs.
Corey Williams 5 years, 7 months ago
Where are the old-time Republicans? Now they are just self-righteous ideologues who pander to virtually every special interest group and far-right activist group out there.
It's funny how interchangeable that is. Funny because it's true.
ignatius_j_reilly 5 years, 7 months ago
It's not very funny, because he was reversing the letter around to say the same could be said of Democrats. You simply reversed that back, or restated the letter. Not funny.
akuna 5 years, 7 months ago
I found it funny.
ignatius_j_reilly 5 years, 7 months ago
"The Lamestream Media" -- nice one, Ms. Palin
pace 5 years, 7 months ago
Oh it is everyone else's fault and it is their responsibility to fix what the Bush Tax cut and unregulated banksters have caused. And to do it without making you think about anything except your feelings, born of fear and cowardice. You claim it is other people's job to bear the results of corrupt policy. You do not accept responsibility, Your argument about the money flowing to the wealthy and the working class being robbed is you want your groceries cheap. You claim the minimum wage is fair and anything else is unfair. You denigrate hard working people, claiming your inability to stand on your own is justified. You are not a responsible person, nor do you present responsible argument. You denigrate the press and the occupy movement, any person who disagrees with you or stands up to you. You have a right to your feelings, but you should examine your reasoning that you use to support your feelings.
pace 5 years, 7 months ago
Oh,now the reason you don't respond to the argument about your responsibility, is my fault, I didn't present my remarks with dry and accurate scholarship. Poor baa, you are correct, I take responsibility, I write carelessly. My reasoning is good, my prose is careless. The opposite of you.
pace 5 years, 7 months ago
You would know that blessing, (not a blessing in my opinion) more than most. I am tired of your denigration of people and your mean hearted alibis. It is one thing to think the tax cuts have worked, another to cry red when you want your groceries kept cheap because you don't value the particular people you think have those jobs. Why do you think the ultra conservatives do not take responsibility for their policies failing? Low pay, no jobs, and you want more tax cuts. How is that working? The American worker is being herded into dark corners with the teanuts cry of "socialism and regulation is ruining the country". Access to health care, job safety standards and fair employment aren't what is hurting our country. Tax and policy favoring the rich and on the back of the majority of it's citizens is not only unfair, it is ruinous to our economy. So rather than argue those points, just post some more of your worthless drivel about how you feel about me. That is your argument. Stand up and take responsibility for your voice, It isn't the fault of my prose style that keeps you from responding to the arguments.
pace 5 years, 7 months ago
Oh, now you have nothing, oh, your same argument. How are the tax cuts doing on creating jobs? You say that paying a fair wage to labor makes your groceries too high. You support that by just saying a fair wage is unfair. Not too shabby an argument if you are a 5 year old. Why don't you repeat how they are teenagers or people and their work ( you don't think) aren't important.
pace 5 years, 7 months ago
No. the market idea sounds good, until you realize the illegal bosses use illegal immigrants and the stifled economy to create a false base for payment for work. Not only are many people not receiving a fair wage, many are pressed to do the work of two or three employees, many in unsafe conditions. Unless you think industries and corporations utilizing illegal workers is just part of the good old boy fair market? What is keeping immigrant reform laws from being enacted and legal action taken against the industries and corporations? Who is enriched by abusing labor? The republicans and democrats are both $oliticians. But you are blaming the workers. They are better than you. Don't buy it is the american working families fault. If the workers need skills, why are we cutting education. You blame the teenager or the janitor. FOLLOW the money.
yourworstnightmare 5 years, 7 months ago
Many of the old-time GOPers became democrats.
In Kansas alone, Mark Parkinson and Paul Morrison. Nationally, Arlen Specter.
I also think that many of them still register as republicans but are a bit more open-minded about voting across the aisle in presidential and other elections.
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
Need a few new democrats as well!!!
Medicare Single Payer Insurance for ALL - Health Insurance for All Kansans meets November 15 7 PM -IMPROVED City Library gallery
Paying More, Getting Less How much is the sick U.S. health care system costing you? http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/0508harrison.html
IMPROVED Medicare Single Payer Insurance is the Solution...Not the Problem http://www.healthcare-now.org/
Medicaid Pays Less Than Medicare for Prescriptions http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/us/16drug.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
From Politico – http://www.healthcare-now.org/supercommittee-dems-offer-350-billion-in-medicare-cut
Supercommittee Dems offer $350 billion in Medicare cuts
The Super Committee does not represent us!
Operating in secret with no public accountability while laden with ties to special interests, the Super Committee is tasked with identifying $1.2 trillion in cuts to federal spending by November 23rd.
Co-chair Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) has said cuts to everything, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, are on the table. This is unacceptable.
Super committee Democrats quietly floated details late Wednesday of a $2.3 trillion tax-and-cut proposal that includes $400 billion in Medicare and Medicaid reductions, but also clears the way for a new physician payment formula.
The framework — a counterproposal to one offered by Republicans on Monday — calls for $350 billion in savings from “Medicare reforms,” including $250 billion from the providers and another $100 billion from beneficiaries.
Democrats also plan to siphon about $50 billion from Medicaid, according to a document obtained by POLITICO. The proposal seeks to save about $20 billion from increasing Medicaid’s “inflationary rebate” — an apparent reference to the program’s prescription drug rebates — and $13 billion in provider taxes.
“Democrats have continued to offer serious compromises on spending and entitlements in an effort to get a bipartisan deal, and now it’s up to Republicans to finally do the same when it comes to revenue,” a Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said.
Carol Bowen 5 years, 7 months ago
The Super Committee is made up of six Republicans and six Democrats. One has to wonder if anyone in congress represents us. But if you identify yourself as a Republican and "the other side" as Democrats, you are equally represented. Did you want to be more than equally represented?
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
The old GOP is history.
My father in law moved on to the democratic party a couple of years ago due the reckless war policy,reckless spending policy,the savings and loan home loan scam then finally a repeat of the Savings and loan home loan scam only this time it was the Wall Street banks.
MY father in law is not pleased with the move to put Social Security Insurance into Wall Street. And he is not happy with the idea that Medicare should be privatized.
We're talking about a man who spent 60 years as a Fiscal Conservative/Socially responsible republican. That party is dead.
RINO's took over the party by eliminating republicans through big spending and lies. Jerry Falwell,Koch money,Wal-Mart money etc etc etc help fund the demise of the GOP. This is known as a covert operation. Stripped the party of republicans yet retained the name.
Republicans were replaced because they were republicans,not christian enough or for voting across the aisle against the radical right wing RINO leadership.
An old GOP concept: Republicans for Choice - If abortion rights are gone we stand to lose our rights about childbearing
The GOP became the Party of Big Spending, Big Government Buttinskys who proceeded to try and control our lives from cradle (attacks on a woman's right to choose and restricting stem cell research) to grave (Terri Schiavo) - a viewpoint from the former GOP.
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
Karl Rove also demonstrates what happen to the GOP. RINO's use the same strategy against the old GOP thinkers as they do against democrats. http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/nov...
It's known as lies and misinformation a platform that began under Reagan/Bush. Gingrich was a great leader in this covert action. Karl Rove is not old GOP!
These examples do not represent the old GOP:
End of repub party
Reaganomics aka Wreckanomics was the end of the republican party. Shining examples of no more republican party for which Reagan/Bush set the stage in the name of criminal led politics goes like this:
All of the above were accomplished by republican "business people" posing as republicans yet in real life are lying. RINO leadership do not want republicans in office nor democrats. RINO's want one party..... their party.
Jayhawk1958 5 years, 7 months ago
Most Republicans are not conservative. They are far-right radicals that what to implement a two class system similar to 3rd world countries. And they want to hide behind religion to make people think they aren't that bad. They want to pin the dems for being "liberal or far-left" yet they claim they are conservative.
parrothead8 5 years, 7 months ago
"Where are the old-fashioned Republicans of yesteryear?"
What do you mean? They're all still around...they're just called "Democrats" now.
labmonkey 5 years, 7 months ago
Both sides are guilty of pandering to the extremes of their base. Both want to control our lives, conservatives using religion and liberals using laws and taxation. Neither party uses common sense and cannot see the other side has a good idea once in awhile.
We have had this wild pendulum swing and it is only getting worse (Bush, Obama, Tea Party, OWS... what's next, The Fred Phelps/KKK party followed by the Earth Liberation Front/La Raza party?). Centrist Republicans get labeled RINOs and centrist Democrats (if there is such a thing outside Joe Leiberman) get labeled DINOs. If you aren't registered with a party during the primaries and you are a centrist, then you are part of the problem... especially with state offices in Kansas. Until moderates vote in the primaries again, this pendulum swing is going to continue to widen.
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
I somewhat agree, but not completely. Yes, both parties have representatives who will do anything and pander to anyone in order to get elected. I feel the Republicans are a little worse at doing the pandering, specifically to their base, than the Democrats. Democrats are routinely trying to say they are centrists, which I find frustrating, even if they are hiding a liberal bent. Rarely will you see a Democrat vying for national office come on as a full-blown liberal. When that happens, the person is instantly dismissed. Ask Dennis Kucinich. Never have the Democrats promoted someone like that as a viable option. (Unless, of course, the Democratic base actually is centrist, to which Dems do a great job of pandering to them.)
Republicans on the other hand, at least based on the weekly GOP Debate Reality Show, pander to the extremes of their base with great regularity (when will they start voting people off the island, anyway?). It is well known that Republicans run to their right in the primaries, then try to sell themselves as more of a centrist in the national debates.
I am not sure how independents could be allowed to vote in primaries. Would they have to pick a side, or could they vote in both the Democratic and Republican primaries? Can a Democrat vote in the Republican primaries as well, and vice versa?
tomatogrower 5 years, 7 months ago
Examples?
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
I'm sorry, but I don't know who you mean by "Panderer-in-Chief." Please use your adult words. Otherwise, just stick to responding to Tusch. Thanks for your understanding.
tomatogrower 5 years, 7 months ago
I think the taxpayers need to stop paying for these primaries. Let the parties pay for deciding who their candidate will be. I know most of these come from local county taxes, but there are other things to with tax money. And they will only pay for the Republicans and the Democrats. Ever see a Green Party or Libertarian Party primary? I'm really tired of all these career politicians spending all their time running for office, instead of running the country.
jafs 5 years, 7 months ago
I'm not sure about Democrats, but you need to be registered as a Republican to vote in those primaries.
Since registering doesn't confer any obligation on how you vote in the general elections, it might be worth considering, if you want to influence the primary decisions.
For example, if a more moderate Republican (Praeger?) ran against Brownback in the next gubernatorial election, one might want to register and vote for her in the primary.
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
And I have no doubt you believe what you are told.
But others are "dim." uh huh
verity 5 years, 7 months ago
I seem to remember rumors of the Kansas Republicans doing this very thing in the 2008 presidential caucus in Lawrence and the Republican Party chairman (Christian somebody?) saying that if it was true, it was great to mess with the Democrats.
Can't prove it, but that's what I have been told.
jafs 5 years, 7 months ago
To me, it's less a matter of "messing" with the Republicans, and more a matter of realizing that Democrats in KS will have very little chance of electing a Democrat, and that their energies would likely be better spent supporting a moderate Republican vs. a more extreme one.
It is of course completely legal, as far as I know.
And, if one wants to, one can support the moderate Republican in the primary, and then vote for a Democrat in the general election, if it's too uncomfortable to vote Republican in that one.
Paul R Getto 5 years, 7 months ago
"labmonkey (anonymous) says… Both sides are guilty of pandering to the extremes of their base. " === A rational comment in the typically emotional thread. When we realize again we are all Americans and need to work together, we'll be getting somewhere. Two possible solutions: Let the Radical Right Start their own party.......or form a third party for the 80% or so who think the follies of the left and the right are just that...follies.
verity 5 years, 7 months ago
As long as we allow politicians to be bought by the highest bidder, it's only going to get worse. As long as we allow ourselves to be swayed to vote for the person who spends the most money, it's only going to get worse.
I am in favor of having publicly funded and very limited campaigns, but it's also our fault that we don't educate ourselves.
We used to elect presidents that didn't want to be president. Now one has to raise bajillions of dollars and campaign for up to 6-8 years. Even if they used to be one of us, they can no longer identify with the average citizen.
Abdu Omar 5 years, 7 months ago
Yes, this is the main problem. The lobbyists buy the congress and we wonder why they don't support what's right for Americans. Let's limit what lobbyists can do, but then that limits free speech. So we need a law that lobbyists cannot give money or gifts to the congress. Period. Would this stop the buying of our government?
But who in congress would support this?
verity 5 years, 7 months ago
I think that's why we're seeing movements like the Tea Party and OWS (I'm not equating the two). People see that the only way to make change is to take things into their own hands. Everybody that is able needs to become a political activist. Even is it's only something small, every little bit counts. The elections on Tuesday blew back on some of the most extreme ideas and hopefully we will be seeing more of that.
If the support is there, perhaps more people with integrity will run for office.
I'm also seeing push back on the Citizen's United decision, but I'm afraid that will take a long time to undo. We now have a number of activists on the Supreme Court who too often rule against the common people in favor of the wealthy and corporations. While I don't like a lot of what President Obama has done---or not done, I do believe he has made good Supreme Court decisions and I will vote for him against any of Republicans if only to keep them from appointing more right wing activists.
Fred Whitehead Jr. 5 years, 7 months ago
The "Republican Party (aka "GOP") was hijacked by the representatives of the American Nazi Party, Beck, Limbaugh and that crowd who seek to enhance their wannabe status with sales of ditto crap. T shirts, coffee mugs, "informative" newsletters, still-born TV shows, etc. Think I am full of crap?? Check out your history books and learn about Joseph Goebbells, propaganda minister for the Thire Reich who said that you can "tell the people anything you want, just keep them entertained" Limbaugh is always dancing around claiming he is an "entertainer" The feckless fools in the Republican party have bought this drivel to the point of recklessness and now the tea baggers and the Palinists have started to wrest control of what was once the Party of Lincoln and now give us the party of Governer Hair and Pizza mogul Cain.
Fred Whitehead Jr. 5 years, 7 months ago
Sorry for the spelling errors, I was in a hurry, old, new here and trying to get ready for the game.
pace 5 years, 7 months ago
The tax cuts are not producing jobs. They are producing portfolios for the few.
deec 5 years, 7 months ago
The "Dims", that is the far-right followers of Koch-fueled fantasies, are helping to ruin the world. Their mindless addiction to the delusion that the uber rich will somehow reward them for being loyalists is ruining the country, and the world. The government's socialized risk/privatized profit for the 1% is causing bankruptcy for Birmingham, Alabama, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United States. When the Euro crashes due to bankers' greed, it will take down the world's economy with it. And the 1% won't care, because they'll still be in the 1%.While half the people in the U.S. made $26,000 or less last year, the mega banks and corporations record record profits.
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
Isn't "Dims" and "Fleabaggers" name-calling? You write about wanting to flag posters for name-calling, then take part in doing the same. Sad.
Jayhawk1958 5 years, 7 months ago
The tax cuts are just making the rich richer while everyone else just barely breaks even.
Fred Whitehead Jr. 5 years, 7 months ago
Gandalf, I am having a lot of fun here. The real problem that I see is not conservative or liberal, I hold views in both directions on differing problems, and I suspect that most people are similarly inclined. The real problem is the elected leaders that go to the Congress and squabble like petulant childern, their "my way or the highway" attitudes.
We are ill-served by these elected officals, including the ones that now occupy the offices of government in Kansas. Their theocratic and self-serving acts bely their incompetance and failure to represent government that was supposed to by, according to Abraham Lincon, "of the people, by the people and for the people".
To summarize, if "pro" means good and "con" means bad, well consider this: Progress = good Congress = well, you get my point.
It is difficult to understand what the "founding fathers" intended for the government of this country when they wrote the U.S. Constitution, but I seriously doubt they would be pleased with the way things have worked out, how government officials regularly "interpret" and define just what their plain English words really meant.
But since we are selling our country to China in chunks at a time, it will not matter much in the future. I just hope that Rosetta Stone has enough Manderin Chinese language courses available in time for us to need them.
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
"Where are the old-fashioned Republicans of yesteryear?"
What do you mean? They're all still around...they're just called "Democrats" now.
Some have gone democrat,some quit voting and some still vote blindly without realizing those candidates are not republican.
Mike Ford 5 years, 7 months ago
A century ago the gop was so exploitative and so much the party of the rich that Teddy Roosevelt went bullmoose as a progressive. as the gop was exposed as the party of laissez faire and the teapot dome scandal during the twenties and had no answers for a bank collapse and attacked the bonus army of WW 1 vets people went to FDR in droves. FDR wiped the floor with alf landon and was re elected 4 times to fix the gop mess. after WW 2 Harry Truman integrated the armed forces and created the dixiecrats of orval faubus, john stennis, george wallace, strom thurmond, and jesse helms. the southerners further endeared themselves refusing to integrate little rock, alabama, and ole miss. then the dixiecrats and the klan terrorized at places like birmingham, al and philadelphia, ms and enough was enough. the civil rights act was passed in 1965. george wallace ran as a third party candidate and courted angry disenfranchised archie bunkers and richard nixon stole the idea to make the southern strategy in 1968. the gop took the southern strategy and the evangelical movement of the mid 1970's and created the fascism we now know and created a mythical ideologue in reagan to use the evangelicals for their votes and toss them aside which the gop has done numerous times to the religious dimwits. i witnessed the emergence of the evangelical movement as a methodist preachers kid in louisiana and mississippi as a child so i've seen the mess firsthand. the tea party emerged as the archie bunkers and the dimwits realized they were being used by the gop for votes. the gop knows that the tea party is crazy but without them the gop is a minority party having to embrace the crazies to survive. Obama will win in 2012 because no self respecting closet bigot will vote for a morman as perry's texas preacher stated. ron paul will be the third wheel as a perot retread and Obama will win as Clinton did in 1996. I paid attention in history class.....laissez faire and teapot dome....spin that mess libertyone...
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
What is the answer?
Stop sending back incumbents? Not one Kansas delegate is republican. And they are all incumbents. Ralph Nader has been saying for a few years to replace 90% of incumbents each cycle yet voters blow him off = dumb politics.
Stop supporting the parry choices which also are the biggest spenders that which are largely supported by a wide variety of corporate owned PAC"s .
And this which is breaking conventional wisdom in trade for Democracy,justice and USA jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs:
Let’s demand a new system and vote in Fair Vote America : http://www.fairvote.org/irv/ Demand a change on the next ballot.
Incumbents say NO to the voters while officials live in glass houses and digest corrupt money.
We need public financing of campaigns. Citizens cannot afford special interest money campaigns for it is the citizens that get left out. Let citizens vote on this issue. http://www.publicampaign.org/
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
Is this the GOP?
The home loan scandals are by no means the only incident of questionable, and actually illegal, financial activity that the Bush family has been involved in.
The line of questionable, illegal, and unethical businesses practices goes back at least to Prescott Bush Sr., George Bush Sr.’s father. Prescott Bush was a Senator from 1952 – 1963. Previous to his time as a Senator Prescott was a banker and businessman. Prior to the American entry into WWII Prescott Bush was director of Union Banking Corporation. Union Banking Corporation helped to finance Hitler’s regime.
The Concentration Camps of Nazi Germany were labor camps that the Nazis used to make products for their regime as well as for sale to raise money. Prescott profited directly from the Auschwitz labor camp.
In 1942, after Hitler declared war on America the United States government seized the Union Banking Corporation under the Trading with the Enemy Act as a front operation that was supporting the Nazis. Much of the profits from the operation were already pocketed by Prescott however, and $1.5 million was put in a trust fund for George Bush Sr.
For more on Prescott Bush's ties to the Nazis see: http://rationalrevolution0.tripod.com/war/bush_family_and_the_s.htm
Carol Bowen 5 years, 7 months ago
Newt Gingrich thinks that a third party will evolve. It should be called the Fed Up party.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/us-washington-summit-mccain-idUSTRE7A77U820111108
George Lippencott 5 years, 7 months ago
Maybe the change results from the $800B annual social safety net already in place. Before the sixties and that level of net the old GOP played. Now the new GOP plays because the priority is avoiding bankruptcy
Jimo 5 years, 7 months ago
Perfect slogan expressing the GOP agenda:
Live within our means .... as a bankrupt third-world country. Vote GOP!
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
Osama? As in, the guy that Bush couldn't find but President Obama took out? Is that the Osama you mean? It must be.
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
You clearly have, since what you routinely speak of has no bearing in real-world reality.
Jimo 5 years, 7 months ago
Indeed.
Where are the conservatives? Why are so few remaining in the Republican Party?
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
The RINO party is the "third party". What they did was buy out the repub party by way of very big bucks and genuine deception = sound repub but act and vote RINO.
This method allowed the RINO party to avoid the ballot process that would provide recognition as a "third party". Had the RINO party revealed their platform and agenda they would have been run out of town if not out of the USA. This RINO party is definitely Anti American and largely responsible for outsourcing USA jobs and industry under the guise of "The New World Order" as GHW Bush would say which is scary.
Face it folks Brownback is RINO!
voevoda 5 years, 7 months ago
ksrush, You must stop trying to smear the president by calling him by the name of an infamous terrorist, Osama, rather than by his own name, Obama. Disagree with him all you want, but such name-calling is immature and offensive. Why should anyone assume that you have any ideas worth listening to when you resort to such silly way of voicing them?
Ralph Reed 5 years, 7 months ago
@voevoda You've got to understand a couple of things about ksrush. His screen name implies he wants to be a KS version of Rush Limbaugh, which should give you pause right there. Second, his favorite form of argument is to smear President Obama and any Democratic leader, blaming them for any and all of his little woes.
Learn to read around him and you'll be fine. However, I must admit that his posts make for humorous reading.
Richard Heckler 5 years, 7 months ago
Obama Free Trade Agreements are not any better. The only way they could be better is if all the USA named products going abroad were made IN America by USA workers. That is not likely.
Clinton's NAFTA was smelly as well.
Where did the GOP go?
headdoctor 5 years, 7 months ago
This isn't political rocket science. The old GOP started to go away as the baby boomers gained age and power that they now don't want to give up. Insult was added to injury when the Neo-Cons were added to the ranks. With similar basic thoughts they have now welcomed the infestation of the US version of the Neo-Liberals. The old GOP is dead and I doubt can ever be revived.
Jim Phillips 5 years, 7 months ago
Where are the old-fasioned republicans? Wait a year and you'll see.
headdoctor 5 years, 7 months ago
Sounds like Guardian believes President Obama will lose the next election. Perhaps, but if he loses it will not be because of the old GOP. It will be because of the people who are Republican in name only.
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
Lotsa zombies too.
Crazy_Larry 5 years, 7 months ago
Ron Paul is the closest thing to an old-fashioned republicrat there is, and he's totally ignored by the main stream media even though he does well in straw polls. Why is that? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqUlQ-fPzGw
pace 5 years, 7 months ago
Well he has some reasonable things that he says, he cocks his head to one side and acts charming, but most of his ideas are just nutty, wrong and would be ruinous for us to actually adopt. He doesn't scream and rant, he feels like a nice ol guy. When you examine his policy and ideas in their depth, they are pretty odd. I do like his teasers getting into the conversation. His first lines of argument often have a germ of something. It is the fruit that is rotten.
voevoda 5 years, 7 months ago
When you have read some of Ron Paul's old publications from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, as I have, it becomes apparent that whatever good ideas he has are totally intertwined with peculiar and dangerous ones. Some examples: "Medically there is no justification for abortion. Treatment of a pregnant woman for any serious disease need never be denied.”
“Morally, the regulations [OSHA] are an abomination. All regulations presume guilt before an act has ever been performed. To concede such arbitrary authority to the bureaucrats is the concession of one’s life to another; and in this case, it is to a bureaucrat who thinks he knows what is best for everybody. The intollerable [sic] arrogance displayed by these bureaucrats should stir men to action." "Yes this means an individual has the right to be selfish, the right to self-indulgence, and the right to freely choose all associations.” "Since government produces nothing, Congress, in order to bestow material benefits on any citizen, must first take them from a productive citizen. Congress can do nothing but engage in redistribution—the equivalent of a hoodlum robbing a citizen at the point of a gun. The victim of the theft has his rights violated and the government becomes the initiator of violence.” "Before the Civil War, state laws in the south protected the slaves from physical abuse. They were to be fed, clothed, given medical care, and housed. The elderly were not to be thrown out into the streets—and they weren’t... The slaves’ interests were officially protected by laws guaranteeing food, housing, medical care, and old age care."
"I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in [Washington DC] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal." "Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for that pro-communist philanderer, Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressmen [sic]. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day."
thebigspoon 5 years, 7 months ago
Voe, I'd like the sources of the above quotes, also, but not because I believe you are an idiot, but because L_1 needsw to see his hero as the man he really is. It's quite interesting that, rather than entertain the thought that Paul might just be the profuct of people who are tired of "business as usual" but haven't enough mental energy to think for themselves, L_1 believes it to be better to denigrate those who actually do think than to re-think his opinions of a very minor player in the political game, one who is never going to gain Democratic, Republican, nor Libertarian acceptance as long as he rants and raves the way he does.
headdoctor 5 years, 7 months ago
Of Course Ron Paul has a certain number of supporters. He is a misogynistic jerk and a racist. His whole approach including his economic ideas fits right in with the modern Republican party.
Flap Doodle 5 years, 7 months ago
Wow, merriill hasn't posted that Nazi & Prescott Bush text in weeks. He must be running short of new copy.
Mike Ford 5 years, 7 months ago
hey math....eight years of total idiocy don't go away in two or three years especially when the dimwits who supported W get amnesia and act like W never happened while throwing a temper tantrum and driving this country deeper into a hole. will you be cheering victory as the titanic is doing a statue of liberty and going straight down claiming victory as you drown because you want all of us to be part of your dumblican evangelical rapture? own the W dummie you probably voted for because amnesia and ignorance is no excuse....
Mike Ford 5 years, 7 months ago
oh...does your math reference refer to the family guy episode where peter puts a foreign kid on the desk to do his SAT math questions because americans like you don't do math unless it's fuzzy and nonsensical like President Bush or Voodoo like Reagan?
ivalueamerica 5 years, 7 months ago
What is gone is the days when ladies and gentlemen could behave like ladies and gentleman.
I realize that congress has, at times, fallen in and out of that state, but for the better part if the first half of this century, it really had become a club of ladies and gentlemen.
When dumbarse jumped up and yelled you lie to the presiding during his speech, it was the nail that drove home that there is little difference in maturity from our elected leaders than there are a a drunken frat party. A bunch of well educated and normally reasonable people who devolve into ignorant whiny brats.
My criticism is very clearly directed at both sides of the aisle. I expect better from them, even if they disagree. If they can not, they are failures and should resign instead of disgrace their position.
CocoaCrystal 5 years, 7 months ago
A favorite quote: "Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives..” -- Editorial Page, Portland Oregonian, 2011
tbaker 5 years, 7 months ago
Mr. Obama has 359 days left.
thebigspoon 5 years, 7 months ago
Let me fix that incomplete statement for you:
"Mr. Obama has 359 days left before the election that will prove to the world that the Republican party has gone overboard in ignoring the real issues and concentrating on gathering to its bosom the voters who refuse to look at reality and wish for pie-in-the-sky fixes to problems created mainly by their heros in the past and retains the presidency during which he will continue to attempt making this country as great as it was and should be."
No thanks necessary.
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
Mr. Obama has 359 days left ... until he is reelected.
Sorry, if anyone thinks that the Republicans are a shoe-in for the Presidency, then that person must not be watching the Republican debates. There simply isn't a dynamic person that Americans will gravitate toward in the bunch. Republicans will likely, though reluctantly, select Romney as their nominee. While I admit that he will have a chance, as I've already said, that is a slim chance. He lacks the likability factor that Presidents must have. For the rest of the pack, the same can be said.
beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago
"The election is not a popularity contest ..."
Now who is picking their own reality?
Yes, elections should be about capabilities and who can best lead the country. However, we don't vote on actual ability, we vote for candidates. I, too, would much rather have a candidate who could fix the economy over just someone who is popular, but I live in the real world and recognize reality when I see it. Why do you think people used to say of Bush that "He is someone I can see having a beer with"? That was their way of saying they just like him, without worrying about whether or not he was a good president. Same can be said of Obama, I'm sure.
"The election is not a popularity contest" ... that is just rich, even for you ksrush.
George Lippencott 5 years, 7 months ago
Right on Bea
Mike Ford 5 years, 7 months ago
maybe the gop constituency is dumber than the candidates.......wait.....I've known that to be a fact for some time.......especially in Kansas....
lunacydetector 5 years, 7 months ago
a letter to the editor written by a die hard democrat complaining about republicans ....go figure.
lunacydetector 5 years, 7 months ago
there's a thing called google.....sometimes it brings up people who give money to candidates, all who happen to be democrats
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