Are we pushing the Republicans further right?

[JVS]

In the argument between the leftists and the centrists it seems to be taken for granted by many that we have to go to the right in order to attract swing voters. Well, how come the Repulicans don't seem to need to try to swing left for more voters? From what I've seen they keep moving further and further right and still succeed. Now that we have leftists abhoring bush-lite candidates it makes me wonder, did the republicans start going to the extreme right to differentiate themselves from democrats?

[gristy]

1. Hmm, maybe.

did the republicans start going to the extreme right to differentiate themselves from democrats?

And maybe we can push them further right - right off the cliff!!!

Ha ha ha. I'm killin'

[TolstoyAndy]

2. no subj

I disagree that Dems must go to the right - the right has gone so far (towards the fascism cliff) that they are making themselves seem crazy without any help from us.

They succeed because of the voting machines (2002) or more primitive frauds (2000) and because of the media.

[JVS]

8. I agree

I think that by moving right we only hurt ourselves

[Frances]

3. Richard Nixon realized that

Southerners would vote for Republicans after the Democratic Johnson passed the Voting Rights act. Those people who joined the Republican party in the South were very far to the right on social and economic issues. The South Carolina primary is very important for the Republicans presidential candidates and it "vets" the candidates so that only a conservative will get the nomination. Remember how McCain had built up steam in New England only to get ambushed by the phone calls from Bush supporters saying he was unstable and the father of a black child?

[RainDog]

4. LOL

It's the freaking repukes who have pushed me by their anti-democratic and anti-enlightenment base.

where have you been for the last twenty years???????

Do you not know about Nixon's "southern strategy" or the way he assisted Pinochet in overturning a popularly/democratically elected president of another country??

Do you not know about Iran/Contra and the blatant flaunting of the Constitution by North and others...by our willful assistance in drug running and mass murder in Central America??

Are you unaware of the theocratic tali-born-agains who could care less for the Constitutional guarantees of separation of church and state?

THEY are the ones who have created a backlash, and rightfully so because they are a threat to our very democracy, imo.

[JVS]

5. Back off

Carter ran toward the center, maybe the Republicans came under the control of the religious right because they needed to form a strong right-wing base to counter the dem. move toward the center. Sorry I don't know, I was a child at the time. The point is does our chasing the center votes allow or even encourage them to go further right.

[RainDog]

11. During the election

Bush ran as much more moderate than he has acted during his presidency.

The tv news has failed to inform the American people of the many ways that Bush has pillaged America for the benefit of his crony crook friends, but the media has been especially effective (and manipulated by Bush's handlers) at projecting an image of Bush which is nothing like reality.

The nation was split 50/50 in the last prez election, after the Murdoch/Ailes media blitz that ceaselessly criticized Gore and never asked George to be accountable for his failed Harken Energy Co, or his insider trading, or his AWOL moment, or his stupidity about just about everything.

So, if you don't have a press which informs, and you have a public which gets soundbites and thinks it knows what's what, I don't think that what you do is that important in America, at least before the election.

It's after you get into office, if Bush is the template, that you forget all the lies you told while campaigning.

Did you happen to see the Daily Show yesterday eve? Steve Colbert nailed the problem in this country with his bit about Alabama...their refusal to agree to raise taxes and instead decimate the state govt. Add to this the idiots who were claiming that if they removed the Ten Commandments from the Courthouse, people wouldn't know that it's not okay to murder other people.

If that's what you have to appeal to to win a presidential election, then I think I'll start begging on the street for money to be able to leave this country and let it choke on its own stupidity.

[Ardee]

6. swings left and right

are not uncommon in the history of american politics. The GOP has been usurped by a coterie of far right wing ,religiously motivated money men, who have found a strategy that succeeded to an extent. They honed their tactics during the eight year Clinton inquisition and have used the "Big Lie" and the repetive citing of falsehoods until they gain credence through sheer repitition and because the democrats refused ,again and again, to step up to the plate.

The swing to the right of the democrats , sparked by the Clinton successes and the increasing usurpation of power by the DLC leadership is a policy doomed to failure. The effort to woo corporate funds has made the democrats toothless and virtually invisible.Time and again we see the democrats present no united front against a very vulnerable Bush administration, and, except for the actions of a very few within that party, Robert Byrd, Henry Waxman, Ted Kennedy or Dennis Kucinich ( sorry gang but it is the truth, he must be included here), the democrats are seen as silently supportive by inaction alone.

It is not a forgone conclusion that Bush will win a second term, but it will have to be Bush who defeats himself, and further, whoever the candidate of the democrats turns out to be, and I doubt seriously it will be Dennis, Al,though it might, through sheer numbers, be Dean, things will change rather little. At a time when the entire system of governance here in America hangs in the balance the democrats have contributed nothing whatsoever in her defense!

[poskonig]

7. They're getting more "socialist." Look at Arnold.

The Republicans are compromising on social and economic issues all over the place. If 911 never happened, Republicans would be very annoyed with Bush.

[ixion]

9. are they pushing us further left?

hmmmm... well, I'll say one thing for them, they've made me more politically vocal then I've ever been. ;-)

[JVS]

14. Some of us

and there seems to be great tension in our midst between those who would move distinctly to the left and those who want us to stay put.

[sendero]

10. IMHO....

... the country as a whole has swung to the right somewhat, the main impetus being that the RW is good at slogans and visceral yet basically incorrect sound bites. they have turned 'liberal' into a dirty word among a populace that has no idea what their life would be like without various liberal victories over the decades.

That said, I think these left-right swings are basically self correcting. There is a core of leftists, and of rightists but the swing voters react to the excesses of either side. I also think that the excesses of the right are clearly visible now, and of such a magnitude that they will not be sound-bited away.

[CWebster]

12. Ha!

Great musing.

[Homer12]

13. Clinton's Penis did it! Really it did.