GOP Primary Megathread!

[Neil]

The Democrats are equally determined to ensure that nobody rises too high, and that all the power is concentrated in the hands of a new aristocracy.

Link plz, foreigner.

Link?  What sort of nonsense is that?

If only you were a Canadian.  Then you would already have won the culture war.

[Razgovory]

It's hard to blame a guy whose enemies will stop at nothing to destroy him.

That's why it's difficult to blame Nixon's enemies.  The man would stop at nothing to destroy them.

They went after him first.

Somehow I doubt Alger Hiss knew much about Nixon in the early 1940's.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The rhetoric being thrown around is scary.  Both parties are dominated by True Believers. 

But they are irrelevant.  The parties themselves are machines that exist only to win elections.  The success or failure of any initiative is irrelevant so long as their marketing specialists are able to convince enough of the electorate that it's all someone else' fault.

[Neil]

It's hard to blame a guy whose enemies will stop at nothing to destroy him.

That's why it's difficult to blame Nixon's enemies.  The man would stop at nothing to destroy them.

They went after him first.

Somehow I doubt Alger Hiss knew much about Nixon in the early 1940's.

Nixon was an American, and thus Alger Hiss had it in for him.

[Ideologue]

I concede being biased, but by no means do I believe, nor do I think you believe, that Obama is as mean as the average Republican presidential candidate in 2012,  nor most Democratic candidates in general as mean as Republican candidates.

When Dems get called "socialists" (or have their policies called such), I've never heard one fire back with "fascist," "theocrat" or "anarchist," as appropriate; when called "class warriors," I've never heard one respond by calling their opponents "job destroyers," "mercenaries" or "thieves," as appropriate.

They also seem to make a lot fewer statements that aren't true or are incredibly viciously spun, e.g. that the Obama stimulus did nothing, that Obamacare includes death panels, or that Obama isn't an American.

Maybe all the "no blood for oil" stuff counts, but I don't remember any actual candidates who said that...

Oh come now Ide.  Fascist is hardly the counterpart to socialist.  Democrats have been engaged in a non-stop rhetorical war about fat cats and greedy millionaires and billionaires and out of touch Republicans who own thousands of vacation homes and special tax loopholes for the rich, etc., etc.

It's not that fascist is the counterpart to socialist, it's that it's a dirty word.  And of course not all of them are fascists.  Some are dominionists, and a lot are "libertarians," whose defunding policies would have anarchic effects.  And some are just selfish rich people, but they also tend to be crypto-anarchists.

And some precious few are just decent guys who distrust statism and misunderstand the necessity of a strong welfare state.

But seriously, maybe I don't watch the news enough, but has any Democrat (of high rank, I don't mean me) called Mitt Romney a greedy millionaire who is not only not human, but barely has anything in common with humans?  Or Newt Gingrich a filthy racist?  Or Ron Paul an insane person?  Or Rick Santorum a misogynist fruitcake?  Because Obama, or Pelosi, or somebody, should do that.

But, on reflection and going into the Bush years, you might be right.  I think maybe Howard Dean made comments to that effect (although even then I doubt as harsh) about the then-current administration.  I miss Dean.  He was my second favorite.

[Ed Anger]

Santorum is apparently of ITALIAN descent.   

[Ideologue]

Dukakis was a pansy for that stuff. The ACLU thing, Willie Horton... he could have and should have fought back instead of taking it like  a little bitch.

Swift Boats...
Story of the Democrats;  taking the High Road just means you've got farther to drop when the Republicans put you through the guard rail.

It wasn't the Republicans who used electoral fraud and media stoogery to win the 1960 election.

LOL, and Nixon was the height of political honesty.

But he authorized air war, founded the EPA, and opened China (it's not his fault that worked out so poorly).  It's a backhanded compliment, but Nixon may be the best/only good Republican president since Lincoln.  I guess Eisenhower was OK.

[Berkut]

But seriously, maybe I don't watch the news enough, but has any Democrat (of high rank, I don't mean me) called Mitt Romney a greedy millionaire who is not only not human, but barely has anything in common with humans? 

So unless the Dems call Mitt Romeny non-human, they aren't mean enough for you?

[Ideologue]

Or something similar.  "Sociopath," "devoid of human feelings," "amoral," "bad," "robotic."

"I-BELIEVE-IN-AN-AMERICA-WHERE-MILLIONS-OF-AMERICANS-BELIEVE-IN-AN-AMERICA-THAT'S-THE-AMERI-SQUEEEEEEEE"

[Darth Wagtaros]

Some of the stuff ya hear these days would make calling him non-human tame.

[alfred russel]

But seriously, maybe I don't watch the news enough, but has any Democrat (of high rank, I don't mean me) called Mitt Romney a greedy millionaire who is not only not human, but barely has anything in common with humans?  Or Newt Gingrich a filthy racist?  Or Ron Paul an insane person?  Or Rick Santorum a misogynist fruitcake?  Because Obama, or Pelosi, or somebody, should do that.

But, on reflection and going into the Bush years, you might be right.  I think maybe Howard Dean made comments to that effect (although even then I doubt as harsh) about the then-current administration.  I miss Dean.  He was my second favorite.

Ide, if Gingrich, Paul, or Santorum gets the nomination, plenty of shit will get thrown their way. Everyone needs to keep their mouth shut right now because they don't want to screw up whatever remote chance there might be of them getting the nomination.

[katmai]

But he authorized air war, founded the EPA, and opened China (it's not his fault that worked out so poorly).  It's a backhanded compliment, but Nixon may be the best/only good Republican president since Lincoln. I guess Eisenhower was OK.

wtf 

[Ideologue]

Oh yeah, I forgot about FDR's relative.  He was better, I suppose.

[mongers]

Dear god, was this stuff used to break the will of prisoners in Guantanamo ?

Our elections are 4 weeks long and even the historically almost unprecedented interregnum* in May 2010 only lasted like 3 days. 



* No doubt there is a word to described the period between the formations of governments, but I can't be arsed to find it, besides the sovereign isn't really sovereign here, so sod it I'll use that word if I please. 

[Ideologue]

Anyway, Yi, Berkie, I'm not arguing with you for the sake of arguing.  Maybe it is just my bias.