Comments on: GOPers Going To See “Massa”

By: Joe S.

Joe S. — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:43:02 +0000

“But among the Republican frontrunners I don’t see anyone with Bush’s skill at navigating and satiating the GOP’s crazy base.”
No, the real skill is navigating the GOP’s crazy base without freaking out the rest of the electorate. I agree that the frontrunners can’t do this, and neither can Sam Brownback (a certified Talib.) But Huckabee is scary. The Talibs like him, and he comes across as sane.

By: Jody

Jody — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 01:31:39 +0000

I’d like to agree with you, Oliver, but if Giuliani gets the nomination they’ll all just sort of forget his many and varied indiscretions. It’s in their authoritarian nature.

All he’ll have to do is prattle on a little about how he’s “found god”, our x-tian mullahs will declare him absolved, and the sheep will flock to the voting booths, confident that they’re voting for one of themselves and keeping the ebil libruls who want to tax them to death and give health care to brown people at bay.

Our only hope is that, by then, Bush will have polluted the GOP brand so badly that enough other folks will simply stay home in disgust.

By: mdhåtter

mdhåtter — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:50:34 +0000

Mike, I’ve noticed an ‘anti-christian’ is anyone who calls a christian on their hypocracy. Also, the leaders of those advocacy groups are elected… and pay taxes on their property.

So how’s that glass house treating you?

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:55:07 +0000

Mike, this is why you’re wrong. Democrats go to NARAL events, they don’t hide the fact that they go to NARAL events. There’s no penalty for Democrats going to these things because most Americans are pro-choice. We don’t have to hide the way Bush does with the anti-choice folks.

By: mdhåtter

mdhåtter — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:11:14 +0000

Ok, that is the T-Shirt of the decade right there. The smiley face of the 00′s. (pronounced uh-oh’s, or nought’s)

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:59:10 +0000

I’ll remember this “thesis” when the Democrats line up to kiss the *ahem* “rings” of NOW, ACTUP, and NARAL-ProChoice – not exactly what I would call a bastion of centrist/middle American values.

The Democrats have a chance to capture the growing “emergent” Christian movement, which tends to lean leftward on a number of issues and is posing a real challenge to the old-school “evangelical” leadership like Robertson and Fallwell. But if the party keeps shooting itself in the foot by identifying itself with belligerant anti-Christians (see: Marcotte, Amanda) then this chance will be lost.

Check out http://www.godspolitics.com and see for yourselves the level of support that these Christians have for Obama and the progressive agenda.

By: merlallen

merlallen — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:23:42 +0000

you’d think the fundie whackos would of figured out by now how they’re being played by the Republican’t Party. They have never gotten a thing they want and never will.

By: UncommonSense

UncommonSense — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:55:17 +0000

Oliver, the best recent illustration of your thesis is this year’s March For Life. Bush addressed the crowd over the telephone. He literally phoned it in.

Bush is the best thing they have right now, so religious conservatives have to keep talking the talk, even if they know in their heart of hearts that he doesn’t really love them. But in 2008, the person who gets their support is going to be the one who demonstrates he is really their boy. They’re not going to be pacified any longer.

This is a nightmare for the GOP. The extreme right-wing agenda is genuinely frightening to the majority of Americans, yet nobody will be able to get the Republican Party nomination without prostrating himself to them.

They created this monster, now they can’t control it. I almost feel bad for them.