Posted on 10/31/2006 11:28:16 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Most of the House seats that the Democrats are expected to take from Republicans are in the Northeast and industrial Midwest, heartland of the old Republican Party of Lincoln, McKinley and Eisenhower. Many of the Republicans holding these seats are a distinct minority in a party now dominated by Southerners who are more supportive of executive branch authoritarianism and yet also more government-phobic. And the Republican moderates, judging by their own comments, are boiling mad that the Democrats are going after them.
"There is no one who has voted more often with the Democrats than Linc Chafee," Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, told the New York Times of her Rhode Island colleague, who is trailing Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in the polls. "Yet that didn't stop them from going after him with everything they had."
And we all remember how moderate Republicans stopped the conservatives who control their party from going after moderate Democrats in previous elections, right? How they pleaded with Tom DeLay not to push through his mid-decade reapportionment of Texas, which led to the ousting of such veteran conservative Democrats as Rep. Charles Stenholm? How they deplored the campaign that Republican Saxby Chambliss waged against Georgia Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who'd lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, for being soft on national security?
Indeed, it was precisely the Republicans' success at defeating the centrist and center-right Democrats in the South over the past two decades that has driven the GOP steadily rightward. And for all their protestations of moderation, the northern Republicans -- from Susan Collins to Lincoln Chafee to Rep. Chris Shays -- abetted that transformation.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
so a story of what hasn't happened yet....
This is, of course, next to that big article titled, "How the Democrats lost the Solid South."
It's not?
Imagine that...
These guys are shocked that the Democrats have no loyalty?
They need to talk to Liberman about that fact.
Democrats only care about power.
They must be crushed as a major political Party.
But the Republicans got it back when their opponents' former presidential candidate egregiously insulted all USA soldiers of every branch past, present and future in a vicious and slanderous attack on the honor and integrity of each one of them.
Every American with the faintest whiff of patriotism rushed to the polls to vote against this party of traitors, cowards and dilletantes, the DemonRATS.
how americans (and business) in droves are voting with their feet and abandoning the tax and spend hillary/kennedy/durbin northeast and midwest for the friendly low tax red state south.
The Washington Post has lunged to the left.
It leaves no good deed by liberty leaning Republicans go unpunished.
Your post is based on inaccurate information and is extremely offensive.
There is considerable debate about the accuracy of NY Times columnist Bob Herbert's quote of Lee Atwater, purportedly made when Atwater was dying. If you're going to grab a Wiki page as a source, you better check the debate behind it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Southern_strategy
The "southern strategy" wiki page is little more than leftist propoganda.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
I live down south and if my personal observation means anything, it seems that the successful are leaving the north in droves and coming south, hence the democrat's loss of the south.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
It really pees me off, seeing the Left make that argument about Chambliss.
The reality is that people took a hard look at Max's record, in the wake of 9/11, and Max came up wanting. He was far too Liberal for Georgia, based on any objective analysis of his voting record. Georgia voters figured this out.
"This election heralds the Death Of The RINOs. Good riddance. "
And if Republicans can hold with the death of the RINOS, so much the better.
I would disagree with that. While they may pay lip-service to less government, in fact they embrace it at the slightest opportunity
That's old news. If we write off the North and Northeast we lose, period. If the Democrats write off the entire south but win every state that they won in 2004 plus Ohio then they win, and we're swearing in President Clinton in 2009.
What is wrong when a quality Senator like Santorum is so far behind a bonehead in Pennsylvania? Sadly, the Senators prove how far gone most of these states are, how ignorant and clueless the people are. Look at Massachussetts and my own pitiful state of NY, which I would love to say goodbye to. Just a liberal mindset and they are giving us the worst.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
And the liberal west is still getting plenty of newcomers.
The author is wrong.
It was always left vs right. Conservative vs socialist.
The blue dog democrats simply switched parties.
If zell miller was a man of 35 he would have switched parties too.
The NE CITIES went left because politicians promised more FREE STUFF FREE STUFF!
I come from SW Ohio (moved South 20 years ago), and let me assure you that conservative sentiment is strong in that area, but when the GOP PTB puts Mike DeWine on the ballot, what motivation is there to even vote.
The demographics are not good in Michigan.
The Mackinaw Center is counting about 10,000 young people leaving the state every month for jobs in other states.
That leaves the state populated with the entitlement crowd - union members, teachers, welfare bums - with their hands out looking for free government goodies.
We have people here whose family members have been on welfare for generations, and I'm not talking Detroit. Their ancestors came over during the last big immigration wave (1890 - 1920) and many were the "red flag" wavers - socialists and Marxists. And three generations later they're still socialists and Marxists looking the government hand-out.
A friend ran for state rep last cycle and was amazed campaigning in senior communities that the number one concern of these freeloaders was how much they could get from government. He promised to fight for free enterprise and individual liberty. He lost 31% to 69%.
There are so many blue states in the north that are all but lost. They are lost because the majority blue people that populate them would rather vote themselves largesse than actually have to work for it. They are stubborn and arrogant; above all, they are condescending to their fellow countrymen to the south. If the Civil War were held today, they'd get their asses handed to them on a platter.
In my neck of the woods (suburbia Philadelphia), the local population increase is made up of many former city dwellers who are seeking refuge in the beautiful county of Bucks County.
Unfortunately, many continue to vote Democratic, like trained seals.
Also, I am stark raving worried over this increase in absentee voter usage, because I can see how easy it would be for partisan operatives to manipulate a person's vote.
Especially in nursing homes, or for family members who might not be aware their vote is being cast for so-and-so.
And don't forget this big growth in Hispanic and other ethnic immigration, whether legal or illegal, most of whom seem to gravitate to the Dem-lib-weenie party --- because they've been told by the Lame-stream media over and over that the Democratic Party stands up for the little guy and will 'give you' free benefits.
My in-laws are dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, so much in fact, that they constantly berate me for being a Republican.
They are also raving racists, the mom and dad and four kids, constantly peppering their conversations with the 'n' word, and constantly disparaging those living in the black part of town.
These 'Democrats' support Democratic US Senate candidate Bobby Casey Jr. to the hilt.
They laugh when they see the purposely destroyed Republican campaign signs around town, and have even called me up to brag about the destruction.
Make no mistake. It is the Democratic zealots who carry much of the subliminal racism seen in America today.
Lincoln Chaffee is a sick person and a RINO. Good riddance - now he sees how acting like a RINO did not help him! dump this guy.
Well, duh. Maybe you should learn from this, Susan.
I also live in New York and am going to vote for Faso, Spencer and Callaghan but I know it is hopeless. We have been abandoned.
"If the Civil War were held today, they'd get their asses handed to them on a platter."
Exactly. Blue staters are afraid of guns and wouldn't know how to use them. Also, its the red staters who have most of the military experience.
Essentially, the Whoppo article is saying that the Democratic Party is trying to weed out the non-conservative members of the Republican Party, whereas they do their own culling (à la Joe Leiberman) of those who don't toe their own line.
I'm sure the Dems are not trying to ensure philosophical purity. They're just sniffing the blood in the water and going after it.
My recommendation is that we stay on message. D@mn the torpedoers.
There is no way we can win in 08 if we lose the whole NE, Ohio, the upper midwest, the west coast and maybe Nevada and Colorado. Trends in VA do not look good either. I think if the GOP is to have any future it will have to strike a better balance/compromise between its social conservative and libertarian "live and let live" bases. Middle class economic anxieties due to globalization and US manufacturing base erosion and consolidation are also apparently ignored by the GOP leadership at their peril. Trade restrctions and entitlements are what the Dems will bring as solutions and they will fail as they did in the past. The democrats have built a coalition for this election put over the top by so called former republicans driven there by Iraq. When Iraq is not an issue anymore after the Dems pull a saigon 1975 we will see if these people (Webb in VA, Shuler in NC) are true conservatives and are willing to stand to the Dems true agenda of neosocialism and secularism. Go to the Nation, Daily Kos, Huffington Post and see their language and way of thinking. Scary
"I think if the GOP is to have any future it will have to strike a better balance/compromise between its social conservative and libertarian "live and let live" bases. Middle class economic anxieties due to globalization and US manufacturing base erosion and consolidation are also apparently ignored by the GOP leadership at their peril. Trade restrctions and entitlements are what the Dems will bring as solutions and they will fail as they did in the past."
Superstitious religious fanatics (paging Tom Delay, paging Tom Delay) have had a suffocating grip on House Republicans; forgetting that human beings are motivated primarily by economic security, they have ignored loss of industrial jobs, outsourcing etc. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
If you look at recent electoral maps, you'll see that there are two states that have been the keys to electoral wins and have prevented the 'Rat tide from sweeping out of the Northeast and fully engulfing the Great Lakes Midwest states. Those are IN and OH. We absolutely, positively need to hold those. I'm not too worried about IN, but OH is more a concern. It is a swing state and may very well swing to the 'Rats this cycle. That's 20 electoral votes and without those we lose.
True, we picked off IA and NM in '04 from '00, but I'm not sure we can count on those the next time around. We can probably hold the south and the Midwest plains states. I'm guessing at this point that the '08 map may look more like '00, but if OH flips, we're done.
Welcome aboard, boys. Thanks for expressing your opinions.
But what next week's election seems likely to illustrate is that the laws of thermodynamics -- in particular, the one that states that for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction -- have not been repealed.
Now... I'm a bit fuzzy on my high school physics, but I'm nearly certain that there are three laws of thermodynamics - conservation of energy, entropy, and absolute zero. That action - reaction thing was Newton's idea, IIRC.
When they can't get basic factual stuff like that right, why should we listen to anything they have to say?
That's why I think we should focus on California. There are numerous scenarios in which we win the Presidency without California, but there are NO Democrat scenarios in which they win without California. If we can take away California, or at least make them spend a ton of money there, it's to our benefit.
I think the voters are going to do just that.
If its Hillary, IA will stay in the GOP column. She has an extremely uphill battle in that state for support among dems, with almost no crossover support from likely GOP voters, unlike many other Dem prospects. She's politically dead after the Hawkeye Caucci. New Mexico will likely go red again if Hillary was the nominee.
Maybe we need to concentrate in a series of other blue states with fewer electoral votes each, but enough to make up for losing Ohio. Win Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and Ohio won't be such a factor..
we need to stop worrying about RINOs on the issues. What matters is who they vote for majority leader/speaker etc. While their votes on some issues worries me, it also reflects the political climate of the areas they represent.. Lincoln Chaffee is the Senator from Rhode Island, not from Alabama.
I'm inclined to agree. It's sad to see the former political base of Ronald Reagan and Proposition Thirteen going down the political crapper.
"... at least make them spend a ton of money there ..."
I think that was the thinking behind pushing hard in Florida, and that seems to have paid off.
Of those you list, probably WI is the closest in terms of flipping. I'm not sure that 'Rat dirty tricks in Milwaukee (i.e., slashing tires of campaign vehicles) didn't cost Bush the state in '04. PA is trending 'Rat very strongly so I think that one's a goner. MD is just too rich in 'Rat tradition. Minnesota? I don't know. It's the land of Humphrey and Mondale, but there have been signs of life there recently for the GOP.
we need to stop worrying about RINOs on the issues. What matters is who they vote for majority leader/speaker etc. While their votes on some issues worries me, it also reflects the political climate of the areas they represent.. Lincoln Chaffee is the Senator from Rhode Island, not from Alabama.
I'm not worried. I'll pull the lever for a RINO over a 'Rat any day. But it may not do any good. I live in a state where we are on the verge (if you believe the polls) of sacking a decent and good man in the Senate in favor of a radical lib scumbag who votes to the left of Dennis Kucinich, for cripes' sake. Voters in a swing state can sure be ignoramuses sometimes...
This sounds straight out of the DNC.
Meyerson is another elite left wing girlie boy who spends his time writing articles pushing the gay agenda and condemning Republicans who block the Gay agenda.
The link below has his long and shrill history of pushing the Gay Agenda in his words and the hatred of Republicans and GW.
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?fr=ybr_sbc&p=Harold%20Meyerson%20+%20gay
No Republican has ever been elected President without winning Ohio. Also, Pennsylvania is larger than Ohio, but if you think that Pennsylvania or any of the other states you list are more likely to vote Conservative than Ohio, you are delusional. For crying out loud, Maryland even voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980!
Well, it is the Washington Post, after all. They don't have to go far for their source material.
Which is why Rudy Giuliani will be the Republican nominee for president in 2008, and the next president of the United States of America...
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