Yankee Republicans on Last Legs (GOP is now ''the party of Dixie.''

[wakeme2008]

This AP is listed new so I guess it's LBN :shrug:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Yankee-Republicans.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

November 13, 2006
Yankee Republicans on Last Legs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:23 a.m. ET

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The classic New England Republican -- fiscally conservative, socially liberal -- is near death, following a long and quiet decline that began more then a decade ago when the GOP nationally began its move to the right.

It is a political breed generations old.

..cut..

Twelve-term Rep. Nancy Johnson, Connecticut's longest-serving congresswoman, lost by 12 percentage points to a Democrat. Another Connecticut moderate, Rep. Rob Simmons, is fighting for his political life. With a recount under way, Simmons trailed Democrat Joe Courtney by fewer than 200 votes

..cut..

John Kenneth White, a politics professor at Catholic University of America in Washington, said the GOP is now ''the party of Dixie.''

''George W. Bush has taken the party further and further south,'' he said. ''This has really severed off the Yankee Republican New England establishment.''

..more at link

[AIJ Alom]

1. Something within in me tells me that this election is also a purge

for the Republicans of their moderate members. That they really didn't mind these losses, because these are the fellows that they too marginalized with their shift to the right. Then again there are the House seats in IN.

It also means we need to be ever more vigilant and keep our doors and hearts open to all, if we are to maintain our majorities.

[Cosmocat]

16. YEP ...

what is their mantra right now ... "we lost our values" and "we need to go even more to the right" ...

The extreme elements of the party still wield the big bats ... And, their whole philosophy is to "play to the base" ... The THINK as long as they get out THEIR vote, that is all that matters ... They don't realize that the difference in elections is the MIDDLE ...

As noted, the democrats needs to take a breathe, then go back to work ... They have a chance to FINALLY break the republican stranglehold on the MSM, and they can keep the momentum going if they can craft a consisten and coherent discourse that features a POSITIVE vision of the future ... The middle is STARVED for positive leadership, and if the democrats can drive the discussion in that direction, it will highlight the negative tones to the republican message on its own merit, for those in the middle ...

[lapfog_1]

2. Let's welcome them on board.

I have no problems with fiscal conservatives... as long as they don't mind strict government oversight.
In fact, I think that it's critical that we not only eliminate deficit spending, but start reducing the debt.
Social conservatives, otoh, can go pound sand...

[aquart]

3. Yup. These guys lied about being conservative

in addition to every other damn thing.

[w4rma]

4. Fiscal conservatives are good. Reganomics and screwing the non-upper classes is bad.

What do you call the type of economics that Republicans practice if Democrats are fiscally conservative? Are Republicans fiscally liberal? That is the term the rest of the world uses for the type of economics that Republicans have been practicing, correct?

[DemoTex]

5. Under Bu$h, the GOP has been fiscally IRRESPONSIBLE.

Our status as one of the world's biggest debtors threatens our national security.

Mac

:hi: Rick

[lapfog_1]

7. Yup, we are so Pwn3d.

Especially by the only large COMMUNIST nation left on earth.

[w4rma]

10. Agreed. I can't see how the Republicans could have been more irresponsible.

Hey, friend! :hi:

[lapfog_1]

8. If they turn off Kudlow and quit listening to Steve Forbes...

perhaps we can convince them that "trickle down" doesn't work...

not only that, but a healthy middle class is really really good for the corporate owners if they look more than 1 or two quarters into the future.

Maybe they would listen to Warren Buffet.

Well, one can hope.

[annabanana]

13. You call it. "profligate"

It is also irresponsible, reckless, abandoned, corrupt, debauched, degenerate, depraved, dissipated, dissolute, iniquitous, lax, libertine, loose, reprobate, shameless, unprincipled, vicious, vitiated, wicked

(gotta love the thesaurus..)

[calimary]

23. Love those! I vote for dissipated, libertine, reprobate, and vitiated!

AND profligate too! These are GREAT! And so fitting!

And best of all, you could say ANY of these directly into bush's face and he wouldn't have the faintest idea what you're talking about. It'd zoom straight over his little pointed head.

So sayeth this insufferable, bloviating schmuckette!

:headbang:

[Tesha]

18. It'd be kind of nice to spend within our means again. Remind me...

It'd be kind of nice to spend within our means again.
Remind me again which party last did this? ;)

Tesha

[Raine]

6. I will be more than happy

to welcome them to the Democratic Party. :hi:

[Alexander]

9. Looks like there's only 1 GOP congressman left in New England.

Unless Simmons ekes out a narrow victory in the recount, it seems that Chris Shays is the last of them. And while he's a wanker, he's not half as crazybatshitinsane as most of the rest of these clowns.

Must be getting lonely up there, eh Chris?

[Kolesar]

11. Dems MUST keep waving the bloody shirt of Iraq for several election cycles

We cannot let the memory of this republican failure get colored by misinformation and then fade as a mobilizing issue.

[Zyxx]

12. Party of Dixie

First time post, long time browser.

I have to say that George W. has been drilled into to brains
of most southerners. Being from the south myself, I tried to
show some of my fellow citizens many of their "God given President's"
mistakes and inconsistencies with his own words. I once counted
myself as a Republican. From the rape of the Constitution, to the
culture of corruption that permeates that party, I no longer label myself
in that way. I'm happy to say, I voted for a change. Even though my
own state did not care to make a change, I was glad to be a part
of bringing this country back from the brink of G.W.B.'s totalitarian
rule.

We are the people, we have the power.

[annabanana]

14. Welcome to DU!

It is clearly past time for Americans who love their Country to apply a corrective to this dismal and dangerous regime. I was please to see the start of that corrective last week.

Welcome to the world of Patriots, Zyxx!
:toast:

[newyawker99]

20. Hi Zyxx

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[hatrack]

15. If they keep moving south, they're going to be the party of the Gulf of Mexico

Not that this would be a BAD thing . . .

[CTLawGuy]

17. Phenomena like this is what convinces me that

there are really two Americas, and there really are red and blue states, as much as some people don't want to accept it.

Northeastern Republicans are on their way out, but they've always been much more liberal than Republicans from the South and west. Conversely, southern dems have always been more conservative. That's how you can continue to have close elections in those red states.

America has two cultures: a progressive libertarian culture in the blue states, and a backward, religious fundamentalist culture in the red states.

[Odin2005]

19. Our winner-takes all election system greatly exaggerates the regional divisions.

The Red/Blue state thing is totally contrieved, the diferences between regions of the country are only a few %, not the huge gaps the culture warriors are making it out to be. What we are actually seeing is the completion of a realignment that started in the 60's that is making the Democratic Party more libertarian and populist and the Republican Party more authoritarian and paternalist.

[CTLawGuy]

21. remeber that is partisan %

a southern dem is much more conservative than a northeastern dem and same with republicans.

the candidates are calibrated to the position of the state on the national political spectrum.

If a dem gets 40% in the south, that doesn't mean 40% of the south is liberal.

[mainegreen]

22. I thinks it's more urban vs rural.

New England while retaining its rural character, is economically urban in nature.