GOP Primary Megathread!

[derspiess]

I'm impressed, derfetuss;  you didn't have to edit that post 4 times.

I got lucky.

[Admiral Yi]

I think a better question is are there any issues which haven't been subsumed into the culture war?   It seems to me that it's about a lot more than abortion and gays now.

An even better question is if you and Mihali are using this culture war language to describe the fact that every little fucking issue has gotten politicized and partizan.

[grumbler]

An even better question is if you and Mihali are using this culture war language to describe the fact that every little fucking issue has gotten politicized and partizan.

Agree.  I think the whole "culture war" drumbeat is way overdone... if not positively partisan itself (I am talking in general, not aiming this at specific people here).

I just don't meet many people who think that way, either from the right or the left.  I know a few, but they are a small minority.  They are far more prevalent on Languish than I find in real life, for which I blame the fact that a lot of it here is posturing enabled by anonymity.

[Valmy]

I just don't meet many people who think that way, either from the right or the left.  I know a few, but they are a small minority.  They are far more prevalent on Languish than I find in real life, for which I blame the fact that a lot of it here is posturing enabled by anonymity.

What are you talking about?  And are we realy that anonymous here?  We know who most of us are and where we live and have been friends of a kind for nearly a decade. 

[Sheilbh]

An even better question is if you and Mihali are using this culture war language to describe the fact that every little fucking issue has gotten politicized and partizan.

What do you mean?

[fhdz]

He was under appreciated.

And over weight!

[Admiral Yi]

What do you mean?

I mean is there anything to your comment that the culture war is subsuming other issues such as health care other than the fact that the debate is filled with partisan rancor and invective?

[Eddie Teach]

I just don't meet many people who think that way, either from the right or the left.  I know a few, but they are a small minority.  They are far more prevalent on Languish than I find in real life, for which I blame the fact that a lot of it here is posturing enabled by anonymity.

What are you talking about?  And are we realy that anonymous here?  We know who most of us are and where we live and have been friends of a kind for nearly a decade.

People I know IRL are more likely to buy into culture war rhetoric than Languishites.

[fhdz]

The hyperbole surrounding every political issue in the US today is worse than Hitler.

[Sheilbh]

I mean is there anything to your comment that the culture war is subsuming other issues such as health care other than the fact that the debate is filled with partisan rancor and invective?

I wasn't actually thinking of healthcare, I was meaning more about economic and, to a lesser extent, foreign policy (foreign policy seems to be the last bit with strong bipartisan elites).  But I think the tone and thought of the debate is different and resembles the culture war.  It's not an argument between two parties with different agendas but, to use Buchanan's language from his 92 speech, 'a war for the soul of America...a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself'.

I think that sort of rhetoric and the beliefs behind it are now affecting a lot of your political debate outside of the issues the culture war was originally about.  In fact I think that Buchanan line's been more or less adopted into Romney's stump speech, but it's not used about abortion or anything like that.

On the other hand a lot of the original culture war issues are settled or settling down.  The culture war fire has gone out of gun control for example (the controllers lost) and is dying down on gay marriage (the gayers are winning).  That's been replaced by partisan posturing.  I've read a few lefty writers who think Obama supports gay marriage and thinks he should just come out and support it.  Personally I hope he doesn't because I think it would make the issue flare up and become partisan again which would be really counter-productive.

[Valmy]

The hyperbole surrounding every political issue in the US today is worse than Hitler.

If we do not correct it immediately we are all doomed.

[derspiess]

What are you talking about?  And are we realy that anonymous here?  We know who most of us are and where we live and have been friends of a kind for nearly a decade. 

That may well be, but I doubt most of us would act the same face-to-face with each other as we do via an online forum like this.  Speaking for myself, I'm less likely to want to discuss politics at all when I'm hanging out with someone in person.  In fact, I think I'd get along with most of you a lot better than you'd think I would.

[fhdz]

The hyperbole surrounding every political issue in the US today is worse than Hitler.

If we do not correct it immediately we are all doomed.

In all seriousness, I think that while partisanship is as old as the hills there's a relatively new beast running around which involves an inability to compromise. I run into far more people today than I used to who seem to think "if this person/NGO/what-have-you does not agree with me on every single political issue, I cannot support them". The inability to look at something pragmatically has greatly worsened partisan rhetoric and voting patterns, IMO.

[derspiess]

People I know IRL are more likely to buy into culture war rhetoric than Languishites.

Opposite for me.  Most people I know IRL (including my family, which is uniformly conservative GOP) don't seem to go for that.

[Eddie Teach]

Opposite for me.  Most people I know IRL (including my family, which is uniformly conservative GOP) don't seem to go for that.

Do they watch Fox News?