VRWCAgent said:
No republican can win without the support of the religious right, that's just how it is. Romney, no chance. McCain, doubtful. Giuliani, very doubtful due to that whole adultery and pro-abortion stance.
Frankly, Republicans do best when they go full bore conservative unreservedly. It's when they start pandering to the left and center that they do poorly.
Geez. Another Republican that just doesn't get it. The problem is not that the Republicans weren't conservative enough it is because they
forgot to govern the country. Instead, spurred by the religious right, they spent all their time on foolish domestic and international ideological crusades.
To borrow a story from a book, an artist was once asked what the most difficult thing to draw artistically is - a dog or a demon. The artist said a dog. A demon, a fantastical mythical creature of legend is easy to draw in a way that inspires passion. However a dog, an ordinary everyday thing is hard to draw in a way that inspires passion. However it is the dog, the stuff of daily life, that affect people most and what makes life good. In this case the "dogs" are oversight to make sure corruption is kept in check, oversight so political sexual predators are kept in check, things like Katrina, immigration, balancing the budget, healthcare. Sure these things are not as exciting and exhilerating as say going on a domestic moral religous based crusade or freeing the world's oppressed masses (that live in oil rich areas) but it is the stuff that people are most concerned with. For years the GOP has chased the exciting ideological and religious demons and forget all about taking care of the boring financial and government dogs, as shown for example by the incompetence with Katrina. Iraq is also an example of what goes horribly wrong when you don't pay attention to details, don't pay attention to reality and generally expect reality to bend to your ideology rather than the other way round.
Basically what the last few years have revealed is the religious right are just as bad as hippies at actually governing a country. Both groups while on the opposite ends of the spectrum love to indulge in high-flown ideological/religious fantasies and crusades while completely forgetting about reality and the boring task of actually governing a country. Their heads are in the clouds and there's no connection with the earth. But it's so much more
exciting going on a crusade while actually taking care of the yucky details and responsibility is so well,
mundane. However it is the mundane boring issues that require grinding through, protracted negotiations and discussions, and well bureaucratic competency, oversight and efficient systems that ordinary people are mostly concerned with. The old-style Republicans i.e. the non-religous-right used to keep the GOP grounded in reality while the social conservatives provided the excitement and passion. However, since the balance was destroyed and the religious right gained complete ascendency in the GOP and became even more extreme and uncompromising as a result (power does that to people...) the GOP has become the party of flights of fancy and wistful dreams. Reality? Too boring for us! We have ourselves some demons to catch. Woohoo.
The only reason the GOP lasted as long as it did before it got kicked out was because for years now they have been living off the reputation of good governance and responsibility that the hard work of
previous generations of conservatives generated. People had been giving them a break since "Hey they're Republicans. They can't possibily be like that." The thing is now people have realized the truth. That the Republican party that generated the reputation of dependability and stability are long gone. All there is is the right-wing version of hippies, and people who run away from the boring responsibilities of governance by joining wacko crusades. OK they are addicted to Jesus instead of dope, but same diff. What the Republican party needs is not more social conservatism. What it needs is for the Republicans to stop dreaming, roll up their sleeves and start doing some of the boring tedious frustrating work that comes with making sure a country is run efficiently: oversight, scrutiny, planning, details, negotiations etc.
At least in terms of science.
