Posts in "Republican Party"

BenLevine16's picture
By Benjamin Levine at 12:09PM
Dec 27, 2011

A Conservative's Perspective on Why the GOP Is Unpopular

Before I interpret anything, consider the following:

  • In January of 2010, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that an overwhelming 58% of respondents prefer "smaller government" whereas only 38% favor "larger government and more services."
  • In September of 2011, a Washington Post/Pew Reasearch poll found that 65% of respondents think that cutting the budget to "reduce the federal deficit" would help either a lot or a little to create jobs, 70% favor cutting taxes on businesses for the same purpose, and finally 60% support cutting personal income taxes to stimulate job growth (only 35% think it would not help at all).
  • In April of 2011, another Washington Post/Pew Research poll found that 81% of respondents believe that our federal budget deficit is a "major problem to address now" but only 31% of respondents believe that in 5 years we will have "made significant progress" in diminishing our deficit.
  • In one of the latest Reason-Rupe polls, it was found that 88% of Americans have a favorable impression of their local grocery store while only 33% have a favorable impression of the federal government.  This can be attributed to many things but explicitly shows Americans' disgust with our growing government.
  • In December of 2011, another Reason-Rupe poll found that 44% of respondents said that they were definitely not going to vote for President Obama in 2012 (only 29% said they were definitely going to vote for him).

So, what do these numbers mean?  First, quite obviously, Americans still do not favor big government. Although the classic "I don't want bigger government but don't cut the programs that I like" sentiment will always be present, polls consistently show that Americans fear bigger government the most. 


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Don Rasmussen's picture
By Don Rasmussen at 3:33PM
Jul 18, 2011

Rudy Giuliani: Blind Squirrel

imageThe old adage that even a blind squirrel will occasionally find a nut seems to fit former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's appearance on CNN Sunday morning:

...[the] Republican Party would be well advised to get the heck out of people's bedrooms and let these things get decided by states...Stay out of it... And I think we'd be a much more successful political party if we stuck to our economic, conservative roots and our idea of a strong, assertive America that is not embarrassed to be the leader of the world.

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.   Meanwhile, America's mayor is rumored to be considering another presidential run.   Last time he spent $52 million and won one delegate.  He was recently quoted as saying, "This time I'd run to win."  Apparently last time he was running to finish seventh and, having succeeded wildly, plans to step it up a notch.
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Steve Heidenreich's picture
By Steve Heidenreich at 12:43PM
Feb 24, 2011

On the Electability of Ron Paul

As a thick snow falls upon Seattle, melting upon contact, I'm amazed by the results of the LibertyPAC moneybomb. Over 400K in one day is quite the accomplishment, and with the CPAC strawpoll victory less than two weeks old, it seems ever more undisputable that Ron Paul and his message of freedom are a real force in American politics. 

Ron Paul's grassroots supporters have plenty of ethusiasm and have shown that they can organize successfully within the Republican Party -- but nevertheless Dr. Paul and the liberty movement have their detractors.  These detractors comes from all walks of the Republican Party, and even from the typical conservative base. Not to defend any of these detractors, many of whom are only marginally electable themselves (and unprincipled to boot!), but the same way Republicans have made an error in marginalizing libertarian opinions, we will make an error in ignoring the opinions of the conservative majority. 

Ron Paul is the most principled candidate out there, and if there is one man who would make radical changes to America, it would be him.  However, if we're talking politics here (which we are), Ron Paul is unelectable. Many of us are former conservatives (I know I am), maybe even former neoconservatives, who have realized the importance of embracing liberty in all its forms. Former lovers of Reagan, and defenders of George W. Bush, we ditched the war effort and staunch social conservatism for the revolutionary classical liberalism that makes us the Young Americans for Liberty.  However, it looks like most of the party didn't get the memo. 

The Republican base just isn't ready for some ideas


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Brian Beyer's picture
By Brian Beyer at 5:24PM
Jan 31, 2011

The GOP Caves Already

Tea Party "favorite" John "Could you pass me the Kleenex" Boehner has already strayed from the fiscal conservatism that he loves to lecture the American public on. When asked about Congress not raising the debt limit, Boehner responded, "That would be a financial disaster not only for our country, but for the worldwide economy...Remember, the American people on Election Day said we want to cut spending and we want to create jobs. You can't create jobs if you default on the federal debt."

Except who said anything about defaulting on the national debt? Refusal to raise the debt ceiling would not result in a default. If the debt ceiling is not raised - something which seems out of the question as of now - the Treasury would have to pay off debt obligations and interest before it could use that money for other things (this would, however, be limited to discretionary spending).  So, whatever money is leftover after servicing the debt could be used by the government. This would force the government to make the drastic cuts that the Tea Party politicians promised to make. 


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Robert Bentley's picture
By Robert Bentley at 4:09PM
Jan 24, 2011

Obama to Push for New Spending

image

We are $14 trillion in debt, the Republicans in Congress have proposed considerable (though inadequate) cuts, but the president seems to have other plans.  From Fox News:

President Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.

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Jeremy Davis's picture
By Jeremy Davis at 9:22PM
Jan 14, 2011

Too good to be true

For the ambitious Congressman, the Constitution has become a nuisance, a mere obstacle to be overcome or ignored rather than a guiding document of set limitations of power. Remaining faithful to their oath of office is not a priority; it is simply a formality.

However, House Republicans are now championing a new rule that requires all proposed legislation to be cited by powers within the Constitution as proof that they intend to restore constitutional integrity to Congress. That's all well and good, but unfortunately their claims do nothing to ease my skepticism.

A memo issued to the members of the 112th Congress by the Republican leadership states that:

A bill or joint resolution may not be introduced unless the sponsor has submitted for printing in the Congressional Record a statement citing as specifically as practicable the power or powers granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact the bill or joint resolution. The statement shall appear in a portion of the Record designated for that purpose and be made publicly available in electronic form by the Clerk.

I’ll admit that this new rule is undoubtedly a good first step in the right direction in reining in the power of Congress; however it omits a key factor.


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TJ Baurain's picture
By Tom Baurain at 5:04PM
Jan 13, 2011

Same as the Old Boss?

Don't count on the GOP  to shrink the size of government, says Fox Business' John Stossel.

A burning question on my mind, as I'm sure many of you have wondered, is "Will the GOP really work towards cutting spending and reducing the size of government?" Will it keep its promises to the Tea Party? John Stossel takes a close look at the GOP's past, and the state of our economy in this Reason.com article.

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drumsrgr8forn8's picture
By Nathan West at 3:47PM
Nov 4, 2010

Some Perspective from Nick Gillespie

From Reason.

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Nick Davies's picture
By Nicholas Davies at 6:53AM
Jul 16, 2010

Charlie Brown Takes the Bait

Charlie Brown

I got the idea to do this drawing while reading a column by Thomas Sowell. However, I wouldn’t give many Republicans as much credit as Sowell did. Some of them are just as happy to run up deficit spending to help their special interest as Democrats are.

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Dan John's picture
By Dan John at 12:33PM
Jul 4, 2010

Warmongers Unite to Pressure RNC Chairman to Step Down

Recently Bill Kristol, Liz Cheney (daughter of Dick), and Erick Erickson and other neocons and digressive warmongers came together in agreement recently to suggest that GOP chairman Michael Steele step down from his position after making remarks about the Obama Administration’s strategy in Afghanistan.  As Cody London mentioned in his post, there has been a gigantic push by Bill Kristol and other warmongering so-called “conservatives” to persuade Steele to resign, just because he might make the party look like it is taking a more peaceful stance on the war in Afghanistan than the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.

How wicked and un-patriotic of Steele to suggest that the war in Afghanistan is a lost cause, and for bringing up of all things, the history of wars in Afghanistan. He is such a terrorist, queue the thunder and lightning for his un-patriotic evil presence!

In Steele's defense, there is nothing in Steele’s statement that is even remotely suggesting that the war itself is a mistake, much less anti-war.  In fact Steele himself referred to the war in Afghanistan as a "necessary endeavor" in a statement issued after his initial "controversial" comments.  Just as Rand Paul's comments were twisted around by the media to imply racism, Steele's comments were twisted to imply that he may actually advocate a completely rational, logical, and mature non-interventionist foreign policy that may be considered "un-patriotic" by people with a considerable amount of influence in the GOP, like Bill Kristol.


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