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...vote for the Republican ticket, which in the long run is best for the nation as a whole.
Not sure how, historically the economy has done worse when Republicans were in power. In fact the more power the republicans have the worse it seems to get. The national debt grows more under republicans too, which is odd considering they claim that the democrats are "tax and spend".
Firstly, I never stated my position on nuclear power. Secondly, my point was a general one. Its very easy to say X should be done if you don't have to live with the effects of X. Also, most nuclear power plants are relatively close to people. For a number of reasons you can't just put one in some random location. And obviously, drilling for oil has to be done where the oil is located. Personally, like many Californians I don't want a bunch more oil rigs on our coasts. Its easy for someone 3000 miles away to support this, they don't have to look at it. That was the point I was making.
Its easy to support things if you don't have to deal with the effects.
Thats nice, but I'm not liberal nor a member of the democratic party. Thanks for my daily dose of partisan drivel though.
Regardless, I created this thread to talk about political strategy not argue about partisan politics. What I mentioned in my initial post is a well known republican political strategy. I wanted to hear why people think the strategy is so successful, not why republicans think liberals are so bad.
I live within 30 miles of a nuclear power plant and support drilling in the gulf so I am right near both. I still support them even though they are right in my back yard so to speak so your point is moot.
You may not be liberal or a democrat but spew much of the same nonsense I hear from many of them.
The two parties divide on a lot of important non-economic issues, as well, and it is easy to persuade people to vote against their economic interests if it strokes their psyches to do so. Voters in red states are often pro-life, flag-waving, military, anti-hippie, G-rated. tough-on-crime, Baptist gun nuts, and they can always ask for an increase in their credit card limit if the war on Liberals has an economic price tag.
If the current republican party had to rely on the people that actually benefited from its policies they would never get elected. I think its rather interesting from a strategic point of view that they have gotten so many people to vote against their economic best interest by creating side issues that really don't matter to focus on instead.
The strategy has worked brilliantly, but its a bit surprising that it has worked so well. Why are so many people willing to vote against their best interest?
If I am reading your post correctly, I think you mean people who make little money and possibly without private health care, and struggle to feed their family who do not benefit from government policies that help only the rich. Yes, this is a very interesting phenomenon indeed. It's like American workers who support job outsourcing because they are told it's good for the country and not doing so makes them unpatriotic, and the party members believe it. It's like people who don't support the war in Iraq are told they are Muslims and terrorists, and the party members believe it. Is it party loyalty that keep them from seeing the truth, or thinking for themselves?
It's called the "Southern Strategy" that Nixon implemented & Rove manipulated. Instilling fear in people already brainwashed by evangelical hate creates strange bedfellows. These poor folks are so dumb as to oppose opportunity for themselves in favor of ignorant "cultural" issues
And the reason why the GOP is disintegrating before our very eyes [good riddance.
Speak of the devil. Krugman has opinion piece on this very subject today.
Nixon. Cultural divides. And the GOP still favoring a small fraction of Americans who are very rich at the expense of the middle class.
This is a silly thread.
The OP said Rep voting was voting against our best interest & then One Thousand told why the Dem policies werent in his best interest & got told not to think of that, to think of the whole. The whole benefits from smaller Gov't & less intrusion in a myriad of ways. If we had no welfare class the Liberal Democrats would never win an election. Winning because you have a huge block of non contributing leaches voting for you is pretty lame. That voting block is why Obama is even in the position it is. They chose between pleasing women & minorities.
Nw, the Republicans of oday are no better but Conservatism is by a long shot.
Liberal thinking is what is destroying the Country. Vote Obama so you can make sure you did your part in its continued demise.
Oh yes! Social programs are bad! See this list? It's a list of countries ranked by Standard of Living. The UN puts it out.
2007) Change compared to 2004 data (published in 2006)
1 ▲ (1) Iceland ▲ 0.968
2 ▼ (1) Norway ▲ 0.968
3 ▬ (0) Australia ▲ 0.962
4 ▲ (2) Canada ▲ 0.961
5 ▼ (1) Ireland ▲ 0.959
6 ▼ (1) Sweden ▲ 0.956
7 ▲ (2) Switzerland ▲ 0.955
8 ▼ (1) Japan ▲ 0.953
9 ▲ (1) Netherlands ▲ 0.953
10 ▲ (6) France ▲ 0.952
11 ▬ (0) Finland ▲ 0.952
12. USA
Yep. All these countries ahead of us have universal healthcare and gobs of social programs. Remember that when some poor white GOPer is rambling on about how social programs just make things worse....LOL
Nixon, and scores of right wingers after him have taken gullible GOP middle class voters for a ride.
I live within 30 miles of a nuclear power plant and support drilling in the gulf so I am right near both. I still support them even though they are right in my back yard so to speak so your point is moot.
Yeah the point is moot because it doesn't apply to you? Perhaps if I was actually talking about you....in particular that would make sense. But I was making a general point and I say again the claim is that its much easier to support something when you don't have to deal with it. Do you dispute this?
Also, I haven't stated my positions in this thread so not sure how my views are similar to liberal and/or democratic views. I suppose its because I said something you perceive as an attack on your party? Let me make this clear, I think both parties suck. I think both parties use deceptive strategies to suck voters in. But at the moment, I'm talking about the republican ones. If you think the republican party doesn't use deception to get votes then I would suggest you were born yesterday.
I was listening to NPR and this limey brit was making the same statement, saying that americans voted republican against their best interests. Only by playing to division do the republicans get elected. If only it was that simple. If only it was even true!
The majority of americans favor gun ownership and that pesky Constitution is on their side.
Americans in general, don't like being told what to do. Tell them they can't have Christmas programs in school or Christmas displays on public property, they get annoyed. At least the majority of americans do.
Gay marriage is pretty far down on the importance list, but the decline of the family unit and the weakening of society as a side effect has people concerned it might not be a good thing so they are hesitant to go along with it. At least the majority of americans are, anyway.
People want to be rich, at least the majority of americans do. So higher taxes that cut into their earnings rankle them. Especially when the government rewards those who don't work hard, or pisses money away on programs that help very few. Both parties are guilty of extremism here, its the "tax and spend liberal" against the "steal and spend conservative", neither looking out for the middle class.
Late term, partial term abortion, the majority of americans are opposed to it, with a few common sense exceptions. Abortions, like with guns, the majority favor common sense limits and controls. Its a nasty business, abortion, but so is war, and war isn't going away either.
Socialism is not all its cracked up to be and one look at Europe will prove that. High unemployment, low productivity, rampant problems with immigration, a dwindling tax base, abuses of social programs, and failure of government institutions like health care.
Fortunately, the vast majority of americans, say 60%, are folks in the middle of these issues and while the conservative base and the somewhat smaller liberal base fight it out for control, they'll always have to moderate their views to get even a fraction of what they want done. Lets hope in 2 years we'll see the liberals kicked out to the curb(again) like the conservatives will be and this time real change happens, third party and independants take over.
The majority of americans favor gun ownership and that pesky Constitution is on their side.
Even your very first example is pure fantasy. There is no credible effort on the part of the Democrats to take away guns. Nothing. Now there is an effort by some Democrats to regulate guns. Gun regulation has popular support. http://www.pollingreport.com/guns.htm
See? You can't even go three sentences with falling on right wing talking points that don't hold up?
People want to be rich, at least the majority of americans do. So higher taxes that cut into their earnings rankle them.
Yeah, the majority of Americans want to be rich but of course the vast majority of them will never be rich. So, clearly it makes much more sense to vote for the guy that cuts taxes for someone you're unlikely to ever be.
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