What Republicans Might Learn "In The Wilderness" - A Gather Poll

I think this is brilliant.

Considering that they think the fundementalist likes of Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford -- the latter, by the way, didn't remember to take his own voter registration card to the polling place in 2006, and that's the least egregious of his crimes against his own state -- they haven't learned anything and I don't care if they do. Keep marginalizing yourselves. It'll be the best thing Republicans have done for their country in over a generation.

If the experiences of the Israelites during the Exodus are any guide, I vote for nothing.

If they're pragmatic, they'll dump ideology. In the long run I don't think ideology works well for vote getting in a two party setup.

Peter,
I couldn't get the "poll" to load, but I frequently have such problems with Gather. On a serious note, which may not fit with your poll, I think the Repubs have a populist phenomenon in Sarah Palin ( as experienced a Gov. as the woman from Kansas, who was on the VP shortlist for the Dems and perhaps a better choice than Biden). She could be their best bet for 2016. Put her on the rubber chicken circuit. That's what Nixon did after he lost his election in California in 1962.

The concept of "learning" and "Republican" are diametrically opposed, like when pigs fly. Republicans come fully formed from the womb imbuded with implacable certainties not removed by any amount of reasoning or concrete evidence. It's a birth defect, like club foot or hairlip. The only solution is sterilization. Tell 'em it's in the Bible, like God's punishment for following the false idols of torture, unfettered market capitalism, violation of privacy rights.

A less radical solution: Round them all up, load up their guns, coondogs, twinkies, Coors and Bibles and march them two by two down the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma. (Rename it the "Patriot Highway," they'll love it.) OK is red state anyway. There is precedent: America shunted unwanted Indian tribes to a "new home" in OK, why not send 21st Century savages too? This way the Indians can get some payback as all the RWN play nickle slots forever.

Create a electronic curtain around the place and bombard it with FOX news stories about the Obama swear in on the Koran, Rev. Wright as the new Congress chaplin and White House religious advisor, mandatory Maddrass education K-12, nominating Bin Laden as UN leader, Rush and Coulter waterboarded in GITMO, every RW nightmare possible and adivse them to keep their AK's pointed outward and pray for salvation, the rapture is coming, hunker down and wait. Air drop cases of cheesedoodles, hotdogs, Coors and Jack Daniels every few weeks.

Relocation is humane, a tremedous cost saver, and the world will heave a collective sigh of relief. Just keep in mind, it was MY idea when they start handing out Nobel Prizes for Peace.

I hope for our sake that the Republicans do the necessary soul searching and consider attracting other people to the party. They can if they ditch some of their old ideas that didn't serve the country well anyway.

"Considering (what ) they think (about) the fundementalist likes of Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford-- they haven't learned anything, and I don't care if they do."

I agree, totally, Kris.

Building the future on Jindal, Palin, Romney, or (Heaven help us) Newt Gingrich isn't going to end the "wilderness" years.

Thanjks for the kind words, Sharon.

"If the experiences of the Israelites during the Exodus are any guide, I vote for nothing. "

If it took Israel 40 years to unlearn the bad habits of Egypt, it might take the Republicans that long o learn clean government, the public interest, and the limitations of "wedge" issues.

"She could be their best bet for 2016. Put her on the rubber chicken circuit. "

I don't believe that Palin has any appeal beyond a circumscribed "base", Clarke.
Her popularity faded continuously during the campaign, and she accumulated enormous "negatives".

Most of her loudest detractors were thoughtful Republicans who are concerned about Republican "ideas"

The Poll Daddy feature on Gather sucks.

"Relocation is humane, a tremedous cost saver, and the world will heave a collective sigh of relief."

Your proposals are hysterical, Sam, but I recall that "relocations" have a bad historical reputation.
I am not sure that even those on the "Patriot Highway" are likely to be better.

We liberals tend to oppose forced evacuations and ideological cleansing.

The House redistricting that will occur after the 2010 census may concentrate Republican voters in a smaller number of "toxic" districts.

Peter,
I couldn't resist teasing you again about the "Divine Sarah," but I do think she may recover from the negative treatment and become a serious candidate. (I am more in the Nader and Ron Paul camp than for either of the candidates but I would have voted for Obama if might have made a difference.)

I have taken a lot heat for liking Sarah. I responded to a friend in Brazil:

You have mentioned Sarah Palin represented "the worst of America" to the world. I like her, although I don't share most of her political views. The very liberal feminist and literary teacher and critic, Camille Paglia - best known for her excellent studies of poetry and poets, - has been a fervent supporter of Obama and still is. Although her comment on Sarah is a bit over the top, it does represent some of my feelings about Sarah (especially her use of the King's Englsh):

"Given that Obama had served on a Chicago board with Ayers and approved funding of a leftist educational project sponsored by Ayers, one might think that the unrepentant Ayers-Dohrn couple might be of some interest to the national media. But no, reporters have been too busy playing mini-badminton with every random spitball about Sarah Palin, who has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamation merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.

How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don't know their asses from their elbows.

Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology -- contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.

I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World. As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee -- what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry's nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama's pick and who was on everyone's short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin's. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.

The U.S. Senate as a career option? What a claustrophobic, nitpicking comedown for an energetic Alaskan -- nothing but droning committees and incestuous back-scratching. No, Sarah Palin should stick to her governorship and just hit the rubber-chicken circuit, as Richard Nixon did in his long haul back from political limbo following his California gubernatorial defeat in 1962. Step by step, the mainstream media will come around, wipe its own mud out of its eyes, and see Palin for the populist phenomenon that she is."

You may right Peter. I'll stick with sterilization. Clean up the gene pool for America.

"A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology..."

You have to be quite twisted to compare the two campaigns and conclude that the Democrats exhibited "emotionalism and infantile rage" in any degree that compared to the desperation of the Republicn campaign.

Palin's power derived entirely from her willingness to make crowd-pandering remarks (when the crowd contains the neo-fascists found abundantly within the Republican "base") about "real Americans".

There was no emotional fear-based smear campaign by any Democrats that copmpares to the dishonorable stream of outright lies told by the Republican noise machine.

The fact that some fearful and deluded souls on Gather still believe Obama is not a citizen goes to the heart of "infantile" fear-mongering.

Sam, I can't embrace radical solutions before we have tried other interventions.

I think a 12-year "Time-Out" period for Republicans may help them learn to control their base instincts.

Melinda, I am not anti-Republican.

I am concerned that a political party has degenerated into a mass of angry people yelling horrible insults on cue.

If the sight of thousands of people yelling "terrorist" at an American (because of his middle name) does not sadden or terrify you, you aren't going to enjoy much of my writing!

Let's compare Palin with someone highly similar, Huey Long. One big difference is apparent. Huey Long could think on his feet and never feared the press.

I feel bad for Bristol, the longer her mama keeps sniffing around the national stage, the longer she'll have to stay in her shotgun marriage.

Melinda,

If the Republicans are not the angry masses of people yelling horrid insults - why aren't the leaders telling them to stop it right then and there when it happens? I'll tell you why. Because, they like that sort of divisive politics. That has been the Republican way for quite a many years, now. Until they change - they will always be known as the mean spirited party.

LOL - John. Bristol is sure in a pickle. I sincerely hope that the situation works out for them.

I checked the first choice but really have hope that they will learn one thing - to drop ship* (where's your flag?) from their a**es instead of their mouths.

I just think it's sad that is what the party is being identified with anymore.
I don't think the majority of Republicans are an angry mass of people yelling horrid insults.

Since I can't personally interview every registered Republican, I have to go with the ones I encounter in my life, on television, and on the Internet. Of those, I will absolutely say the majority are angry, horrid people who yell insults, email insults, and vote insults.

I think the gays should watch out, we'll see how Mrs. Palin wants to tolerate us out of existence.

"I think the gays should watch out, we'll see how Mrs. Palin wants to tolerate us out of existence.
John M"
>>>>>
http://www.gaypatriot.net/2008/08/29/sarah-palin-diva-for-gay-republicans/

"Sarah Palin is anything but a Bush Republican. And we gay Republicans have something to cheer in her record. Shortly after taking office, she vetoed legislation that would have prevented the state from providing benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees."

Bury them.

"Huey Long could think on his feet and never feared the press. "

I agree that Sarah Palin is no Huey Long, Nippy.

She has the rakish charm, the smiling lies, and the fundamental corruption down pat, but she isn't smart enough to achieve the success of the kingfisher.

"I don't think the majority of Republicans are an angry mass of people yelling horrid insults."

That may be true, Melinda. But, a campaign in which this was prominent helps to explain the results.

I agree with you that exasperation with the Bush years was critical to Democratic success.

"...I have to go with the (Republicans) I encounter in my life, on television, and on the Internet. Of those, I will absolutely say the majority are angry, horrid people who yell insults, email insults, and vote insults. "

This is the "image problem" of the Republican party.

" I think the gays should watch out, we'll see how Mrs. Palin wants to tolerate us out of existence. ".

Palin's dancing around the issues of civil rights for LGBT citizens is one of the reasons I distrust her, John.

I suspect that they will learn nothing. Too many believe that they lose because they are not conservative enough. But I hope for this one:

"It is really hard to build an "enduring Republican majority" upon a base of anti-intellectual fundamentalists."

This is the "image problem" of the Republican party.

I don't think it is an image problem. I think it is a sincere problem of "valuing" all the wrong things.

"I suspect that they will learn nothing. Too many believe that they lose because they are not conservative enough."

That has been their history, WM.

"I don't think it is an image problem. I think it is a sincere problem of "valuing" all the wrong things. "

I was adopting, for the sake of argument, the perspective of the writer who belives that the GOP is nothing at all like the crowds shouting insults at campaign rallies.

I believe, as you do, that the GOP has contradicted every value it professes to uphold - and is intellectually bankrupt.

Here is what has been entered as "Other" at PollDaddy:

There's still hope as long as Dems continue to condescend to flyover States
That honey and locust are a tasty treat?
Morality requires accountability.
Will get back to their conservative roots
That self-pity won't make you popular except with other whiners
They were right about Obama being a horrible leader.
All of the above.

Peter,
Isn't "honey and locusts" more realistic ?

So many excellent choices... I picked one that hasn't received a vote before, even though it has merit. It concerned the nature of the [not] enduring majority.

"I am concerned that a political party has degenerated into a mass of angry people yelling horrible insults on cue."

WOW! You have described the Democratic party perfectly here. Just look back at the name calling, personal insulting remarks on this site, alone, by the Democrats....which far outnumbered any other group.

Peter,
What "liberals" might learn.

School of Heart's Content (Novel of the "other America")
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?memberId=63486&articleId=281474977518714&nav=MyGather

"Isn't "honey and locusts" more realistic ?"

Certainly more realistic, if the wanderers aren't going to starve.

I did not make any editorial corrections, but cut-and-pasted everything that had been submitted.
The individual entries under "Other" are available from the PollDaddy results page.

"So many excellent choices... I picked one that hasn't received a vote before, even though it has merit."

Many things with merit are sometimes overlooked, Aniko.

I am fond of the response you selected.

"WOW! You have described the Democratic party perfectly here. Just look back at the name calling, personal insulting remarks on this site..."

Very lame and thoughtless, Willa.

Very typical of Republicans to reject any criticism by saying, "so are you".

In this case, of course, there was no Democratic activity that compares to the hateful mob-action at Republican campaign events.

Democrats sang and cried together, Republicans yelled hateful slogans and denounced anyone who disagreed with them.

It would be slightly less alarming if the under-educated and provincial Republican "base" had a clue about the terms they were roaring in unison.

I voted for they will learn nothing. I base this on the fact that there are still people running around thinking Bush was a good president.

" I voted for they will learn nothing. I base this on the fact that there are still people running around thinking Bush was a good president. "

People cling to comfortable illusions for a long time, Lori.

Bush just delivered a speech to a military audience in which he communicated quite clearly his belief that he has done a "heck of a job", too.

I will be glad to see Bush go, Peter. I suspect the Republican Party may need a few years to sort out their strategies and principles after the last two elections.

"I suspect the Republican Party may need a few years to sort out their strategies and principles after the last two elections."

I believe it may be ten years, Mary Louise.