US/pol/Republican

the United States Republican Party (GOP)

About

The US Republican Party (the "Grand Old Party" or GOP) generally represents the political right wing in the United States, in opposition to the US Democratic Party which is commonly believed to represent the left wing. From about 1990 to 2020 or so, as the political leadership lurched rightward while mainstream thought has slowly moved leftward, the GOP has come to represent the far-to-extreme right while the Democrats came to represent the center-to-right.

During the neoconservative era, the Republican Party became little more than a puppet for the agenda of a number of powerful groups (most notably the religious right and the plutonomy) and acting mainly on the grounds of:

obstructionism -- the "party of No", "the Republican'ts" -- opposed to any measures supported by Democrats, even if Republicans originally supported or proposed those same measures
corporatism -- rewriting laws and decimating public-interest government regulation to suit their corporate sponsors; see RepubliCorp
ignorance, fear, and untruth (counterfactualism) -- furthering their agenda at any cost, including promotion of long-debunked falsehoods, embracing radical populism (e.g. the Tea Party), abandoning rational discussion, and failing to have any sense of shame over repeated instances of hypocrisy

During this time, Republican votership became essentially a belief-tribe centered around propaganda from those same powerful groups.

Subpages

/fiscal policy: Republican management of public funds
/misogyny
/propaganda: GOP talking-points
/sexual predation: to keep in mind whenever GOPers accuse Dems of being sexual predators
/counter-ideology: Republicans working against elements of Republican ideology

Related Pages

American republicanism: the mindset of those who tend to be attracted to the Party's ideology
Bush-Cheney administration: this may have been the high water mark of GOP influence
2004 US Republican Party Platform
2000 US Republican Party Platform
Republican Party Platform of 1956 (save this as a page later)

Actions

1995: Republican-led Congress Closed the Office of Technology Assessment
1994: The Contract with America was a significant Republican platform in the 1994 Congressional election

Qualities

Seemingly hostile towards science [1], while the Democrats are sometimes opposed to large engineering projects for environmental reasons
Known for pointlessly "dirty" campaigning [2]

Links

Reference

Wikipedia
Conservapedia
dKosopedia
SourceWatch: no contents; page is "under review" as of 2014-03-10
RationalWiki
Campaigns Wikia: seems not to have been updated since 2012

Official

Republican National Committee official web site
Google+ account

Filed Links

2019/10/28 [L..T] Victory over the worst gerrymander in modern history: Court blocks North Carolina GOP's House map “On Monday, a bipartisan panel of state court judges delivered a monumental victory against the worst gerrymander in modern history when it blocked North Carolina from using its Republican-drawn congressional map in the 2020 elections, clearing the way for a fairer replacement that could see Democrats pick up three or more seats.”
2015/10/29 [L..T] GOP and the Rise of Anti-Knowledge "Ben Carson's rise to the top of the Republican presidential field shows that many Republicans, especially Christian fundamentalists, have decoupled from the real world – and are proud of it. The more that GOP candidates embrace "anti-knowledge" the more popular they become, as Mike Lofgren explains."
2015/04/07 [L..T] Rand Paul declares presidential bid "It’s official: "Libertarian Conservative" Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) says he'll be running for president of the United States in 2016. [..] Paul, 52, announced Tuesday morning that he'll indeed be pursuing the Republican Party's nomination for president ahead of next year’s election.
2015/01/30 [L..T] Rush Limbaugh lays down the law for Republican candidates "Not long ago, Mitt Romney seemed to be indicating that he was thinking about running for President. Shortly after that, he indicated that he thought Anthropogenic Global Warming was for real and important. Then Rush said..."
2014/08/05 [L..T] GOP bury House Benghazi report "In public relations it is understood if you want to bury bad news you release it on Friday afternoon in August. [..] So it was the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee declassified its two-year-old investigation into the Benghazi tragedy last week, releasing its findings last Friday, August 1, at 3:30PM Eastern Time."
2014/07/22 [L..T] An "unfortunate political stunt" goes awry «Earlier this year, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) thought he'd come up with a great idea: he'd file a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act in the hopes of making coverage more expensive for Capitol Hill staff. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Johnson's home state of Wisconsin, conceded the senator's lawsuit was "frivolous" and an "unfortunate political stunt."»
2014/06/11 [L..T] Eric Cantor Pushes GOP To The Edge Of A Cliff, Falls Off
2014/05/16 [L..T] Miami Will Be Underwater Before the Senate Acts on Climate Change
2014/05/13 [L..T] The Totally Misleading Way The GOP Plans To Attack Obamacare Next "But they left out one crucial piece of information: Obamacare is designed to protect enrollees against year-to-year price fluctuations. Warning about higher premiums leaves an impression that people will pay more, and the GOP surely won't hesitate to push that line again whenever news of rising premiums breaks."
2014/05/05 [L..T] Tennessee State Senator Compares Obamacare To The Holocaust "A brief post published at the blog of state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) read: "Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of manditory [sic] sign ups for 'train rides' for Jews in the 40s.""
2014/05/02 [L..T] Why There Is No Cure for the GOP's Benghazi Fever
2014/05/02 [L..T] GOP Went Fishing For Bad Obamacare News And Came Up Empty "Perhaps the most interesting thing about the House GOP's Obamacare survey, which an insurance industry source dismissed as "incredibly rigged" when sharing it with TPM, is the question that it didn't manage to answer: How many of the law's enrollees were previously uninsured?"
2014/05/01 [L..T] Why we talk about the Kochs "As a writer for one outlet that talks about the Kochs frequently, let me explain why we do so: The Kochs threaten to destroy American democracy, regardless of their views. And, as it happens, their extreme and self-interested positions are taking over the Republican Party."
2014/04/24 [L..T] Conservatives begin backing away after Cliven Bundy's remarks disparaging "the Negro" "Republican politicians began backtracking on their support of Nevada anti-government rancher Cliven Bundy after the New York Times caught Bundy making racially-inflammatory remarks blaming African-Americans for willingly submiting to dependency on federal assistance."
2014/04/24 [L..T] In 2014, it's like deja vu all over again «Bill Kristol, the Republican National Committee, and conservatives everywhere instead dug into the internals to declare the poll is... skewed. It's as if 2012 has already escaped their memories.»
2014/04/24 [L..T] GOP can't even win the healthcare argument in the South «As new polling from the New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests, even in the deep South, voters aren't actually buying what Republicans are selling on health care.»
2014/04/23 [L..T] Six Studies That Show Everything Republicans Believe is Wrong "The great 20th-century economist John Maynard Keynes has been widely quoted as saying, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" Sadly, in their quest to concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the wealthiest members of society, today's Republicans have held the opposite position – as the evidence has piled up against them, they continue spreading the same myths."
2014/04/16 [L..T] Obama's equal-pay myth is one thing. The GOP's chauvinism is a problem "Go ahead, turn the White House's 77-cents quote into the new 47% video. But don't preach until you know where wage-gap vigilantism gets us"
2014/04/14 [L..T] CBO: Affordable Care Act getting even more affordable «The report found that coverage is likely to cost less thanks to premiums being lower than expected through the exchange marketplaces. In other words, take pretty much everything you've heard from congressional Republicans lately and believe the opposite. [..] And as part of the same review, of course, the CBO added that the Affordable Care Act will also continue to reduce the federal budget deficit, which is also the opposite of critics' claims.»
2014/04/10 [L..T] House passes GOP budget plan despite bipartisan opposition «Because federal spending levels for this fiscal year and the next are already set, there was no practical reason for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to unveil a budget blueprint last week. Indeed, since it'll never be approved by the Democratic Senate, the mere introduction of the plan was an obviously political exercise – more a statement than an attempt at governing.»
2014/04/08 [L..T] Maddow: Obamacare "Armageddon" for Republicans in November Midterms (Video) "MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow investigates this swing of public support in favor of Obamacare, and describes a political scene where the Affordable Care Act's success converts into a literal Armageddon for the conservative party – and not just temporarily."
2014/04/07 [L..T] GOP's Woman-Haters Club Swells: Why Their Hatred Is Actually Getting Worse "From Christie to Limbaugh the right's view of women is steeped in the 18th century. It may finally catch up to them."
2014/03/31 [L..T] Obamacare fails to collapse. Time to move on, folks.
2014/03/11 [L..T] A Major Victory for Obama: House Republicans Introduce 3 Bills That Improve Obamacare In what is a major victory for the president, House Republicans will vote on three bills next week that correct small issues and unintended consequences in the ACA.
2014/03/08 [L..T] Republicans Want to Replace Obamacare With...Obamacare-Lite? Ever since Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010, the Republicans in Congress have tried to repeal it. This week's vote was their 50th attempt.
2014/03/08 [L..T] Republicans Must Make A Choice About Obamacare: Repeal Or Relent The number of uninsured Americans has dropped by three to four million since Obamacare coverage took effect Jan. 1, according to a new Gallup survey. How much of the drop can be precisely attributed to the health care law is a matter of debate, though there are signs that enrollment among the uninsured is picking up.
2014/03/04 [L..T] Obama to Republicans: You're Right, Let's Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
2013/10/09 [L..T] Koch Bros. gave $500k to Heritage Action
2012/12/11 [L..T] Explaining Socialism To A Republican “My friend seemed totally shocked when I said "All socialism isn't bad". She became very serious and replied "So you want to take money away from the rich and give to the poor?" I smiled and said "No, not at all. Why do you think socialism means taking money from the rich and giving to the poor?"”
2011/07/25 [L..T] Taxing The Poor: The Only Tax Increase Republicans Support While they fight the expiration of the budget-busting Bush tax cuts, Republicans have continually cited a report that shows that 51 percent of Americans don't pay income taxes, even admitting that middle- and lower-class Americans need to shoulder a larger burden in deficit reduction efforts.... further results

Video

2014/04/08 [L..T] Maddow: Obamacare "Armageddon" for Republicans in November Midterms (Video) "MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow investigates this swing of public support in favor of Obamacare, and describes a political scene where the Affordable Care Act's success converts into a literal Armageddon for the conservative party – and not just temporarily."

Dirty Campaigning

2006 [3][4]:

Commentary

2006-10-31 This Is No Fun: right-wing blogger John Cole shreds the recent performance of the GOP
2005-11-14 Is the GOP still the conservative party?
ShelleyTheRepublican.com: ok, I confess... I can't tell if this is meant to be serious...
Republicans for Humility

Findings

2015-11-05 For The Republican Far Right Facts and Reason Are Irrelevant (via)
2005-12-21 Fear of death may factor into who we vote for: specifically, subtle reminders of mortality caused people to switch votes from Kerry to Bush; this seems likely to be a specific of a more general trend of voting Republican/Conservative being correlated with perceived danger level. The Party seems well aware of this, as they have a created a number of entities whose sole purpose seems to be to generate calculated levels of alarm and fear, at will, in the general population.

News

2007-05-09 Retired Generals Challenge GOP in Ads: "Three retired generals challenged a dozen members of Congress in a new ad campaign Wednesday, saying the politicians can't expect to win re-election if they support President Bush's policies in Iraq." The generals in question are Maj. Gen. John Batiste (ret.), Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton (ret.), and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark (ret.); the ads were created by VoteVets.org.

Bumper Sticker Ideas

Respect Republican Principles Now!
WHAT PART OF "ME ME ME!" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?