GOP’s Red America forced to rethink what it knows about the country

[quote]Beth Cox wore a Mitt Romney T-shirt, a cross around her neck and fresh eyeliner, even though she had been crying on and off and knew her makeup was likely to run. MARY!

http%3A//www.washingtonpost.com/national/gops-red-america-forced-to-rethink-its-image-of-country/2012/11/11/3bb15fb8-2ab0-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html



• Bitterly ironic that these folks can't see themselves as the problem with America today.

• The problem with these people is not that they want to live their lives that way. That is their right to do so. They don't understand that other people have different values and want to be free to live their lives how they want to as well. Just because my idea of America is different from hers doesn't mean the sky is falling.

• These people aren't crying or angry because Romney lost. They're crying or angry because they're being forced to acknowledge that their idea of America as some kind of sanitized 50s sitcom is gone and it's never going to come back. Bill Maher made a very good point last weekend when he said that Barack Obama's re-election says more about the way that the country is headed than his election did. If 2008 had been a one-off, it would have been a very, very long time before we saw a minority candidate again. Even though I'm a bad soothsayer, I'm willing to bet that having elected Barack Obama to the nation's highest office twice, we will NEVER again see an election where the presidential and vice presidential candidates from the two major parties will be four white men. And the Teabaggers can rend their garments and make as much noise as they want to pretend that they matter more than they do, but they're over. They were always a means to an end for the GOP oligarchs, and now they've outlived their usefulness.

  The Voice of the Night

• I've heard the conservatives saying they need to become more conservative to win back the voters. These people are either simpletons or insane.

• [quote]And the Teabaggers can rend their garments and make as much noise as they want to pretend that they matter more than they do, but they're over. They were always a means to an end for the GOP oligarchs, and now they've outlived their usefulness. I'm not sure about that last part. How will the GOP cobble together a majority without them? The clear way forward will be to do enough on immigration to attract some latino voters. And surprise: Today Lindsay Graham and Charles Schumer announced a bipartisan immigration compromise.

• [quote]How will the GOP cobble together a majority without them? If you didn't notice, they didn't really cobble together a majority WITH them. If they ever thought long term, they'd purge the wackjobs entirely, moderate themselves on the social issues, and acknowledge they would probably be sidelined for an election cycle or two. But they can't, because everything is about short term profit instead of long term stability. They tried to by the election with the most bland, amorphous candidate they could find and they still couldn't do it. If they want to be relevant again, they need to stop sanctifying Ronald Reagan and come up with some new ideas.

  The Voice of the Night

• The "tea party" was manufactured. Didn't anybody find it suspicious that their movement was quickly deemed legit by news media right away in 2009? Hell, the 2010 midterm election-night coverage on CBS -- then-anchored by Katie Couric -- indicated "Ts" right by those Republican pols (such as Florida's Marco Rubio). What a fake movement that was! (A real one takes time to build.) As for the power of the "tea party," that was a power grab by Republican operatives who knew 2010 would favor their party. You compare those who vote for the House of Representatives in presidential years to that of midterm elections, and the midterms have about 30 percent less turnout. This favors one party over the other for the turnout. And the "independents" magnify the victory. The elections of 2012 -- in which assholes like Florida's Allen West and Illinois's Joe Walks -- lost their seats is purely just. They never should have won them in the first place in 2010. But the "movement," the predicted (and manifest) turnout, along with the trajectory was there for them. As was the case in 2012 with their unseatings.

• Not every American likes Country Music.

• [bold]The elections of 2012 -- in which assholes like Florida's Allen West and Illinois's Joe Walks -- lost their seats is purely just.[/bold] Correcting: The elections of 2012 -- in which assholes like Florida's Allen West and Illinois's Joe Wal[bold]sh[/bold] -- lost their seats is purely just.

  R7

• [quote] I've heard the conservatives saying they need to become more conservative to win back the voters. This belief should be strongly encouraged.

• [quote]She had devoted her life to causes she believed were at the heart of her faith and at the core of her Republican Party. At the heart of her faith and core of the Republican Party is white supremacy. When America was founded, diversity already existed - whites, native Americans, and blacks were all here. Yet whites (violently) enforced white only rule and minorities had no self determination. Now she's crying crocodile tears when a peaceful election results in minorities participating in the governance of their country. Oh, yes, the past was so glorious and we should return to it immediately. What an idiot.

• R4 -- "Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake." Napoleon Bonaparte

• [quote]assholes like Florida's Allen West and Illinois's Joe Walks It's Walsh, but it probably doesn't matter that much anyway since history will soon forget him.

  Tammy%20Duckworth%20%28Rep-Elect%2C%20D-IL%29

• Didn't nearly half of voters vote for him? It was close, y'all.

• [quote]I've heard the conservatives saying they need to become more conservative to win back the voters. These people are either simpletons or insane. It's gone like this: David Frum/Matt Taibbi/Karen Hughes/you name it: "Position X really hurt in this election, as it's supported by only (pitiful)% of voters, and the GOP needs to rethink -- " Hysterical Tea Party GOP: "Oh, that's just what you'd LIKE us to do, isn't it?! Thanks but NO THANKS!" Sensible People: "Uh... OK."

• R14, Romney got less than 48%, and lost by over 3 million votes and by over 100 electoral votes.

• [quote]If you didn't notice, they didn't really cobble together a majority WITH them. Yes, dear, but the thing to do after failing to get a majority is to add to your coalition, not jettison part of it. They will make the calculation that they will gain far more latino voters via immigration reform than they will lose in hard-core anti-immigrants. Immigration is not a core issue for most of the Tea Party.

• R14, only four presidents have gotten more than 50% of the vote twice in modern history - Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Reagan, and Obama.

• Conservative whites also stayed home in DroVES, what makes anyone think that next time they won't be disgruntled enough with a centrist candidate to do likewise?

• The whole election turnout reminds me of Survivor legend Russel Heinz who was convinced his see through game strategy of pissing off the other players with his bullying and lies was so awesome that the other player had no other choice than to declare him the winner. At one point in some reunion episode he even said that the Survivor show is flawed, because he and his 'genius' game play were not given the win and title of sole survivor. Russel blamed everybody else but his own flawed game play. It's the same with the Republican Party. The people who want 'free stuff' are to blame, the stupid Americans who are all sheep and vote for that black man who hands out free candy like it's Halloween all year while all these hard working and god fearing Republicans have to foot the bill. Soooooooo unfair!*stomp* *whine* *stomp*. How can America not let a guy like Mitt Romney be great who is such a great businessman outsourcing US jobs, ruining the lower and middle class which is for the greater good of America! A man who is all wishy washy about the things he stands for and against. A man who should be allowed to lie about everything he wants to. Someone who doesn't have to show his tax returns (the nerve of some assholes to even demand to see them!). A true American who just offends everything and everyone in his way (like baked cookies and the UK Olympic games). A scary robot looking man and his Mormon religion which is somehow off limits. But hey, it's the freeloaders who are to blame for the downfall of this great nation called the USA!

• I WANT SEX WITH YOU

  Anonymous

• Saw this on a blog. This guy is a regular I always assumed he was trolling but about 12 people have reported him to the SS and HLS. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I say again, the obama administration is just a bunch of chicago thugs and any true patriot will fight it. Obama has proved himself a terrorist by using drones to kill unindicted US Citizens, their children, and the citizens of countries we are not at war with. If the UN had any strength of character it would charge obama with Crimes Against Humanity. And the blood on obama's hands has spilt over on to the hands of his supporters. History tells us that the Revolution was not supported by the majority of the population, but by the few. The bringing down of the chicago thugs will take a few dedicated patriots. The oath of office is "defend the Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic." The obama administration clearly is a domestic enemy of the US Constitution. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx There are an awful lot of blowhards on the net these days.

• I HAVE A BUBBLY ASS

  Anonymous

• R22 fuck my bubbly butt, i want you daddy.

  Anonymous

• [quote]The "tea party" was manufactured. Didn't anybody find it suspicious that their movement was quickly deemed legit by news media right away in 2009? Everybody with a brain that works in common sense mode knows that the Koch Bros. created the Tea Party.

• BORING TOPIC. PAY ATTENTION TO ME BAD SANTAS!

  Anonymous

• I CAN GIVE YOU THE WORLD AND MY ASS

  Anonymous

• [quote] Romney got less than 48%, and lost by over 3 million votes and by over 100 electoral votes. If Romney had gotten Obama's numbers, they right would be shrieking about LANDSLIDE until they lost their collective voices.

• The Koch Brothers didn't create the Tea Party, but they organized and financed it.

• [quote] Everybody with a brain that works in common sense mode knows that the Koch Bros. created the Tea Party. Not everyone caught on right away. Even my late mother, a true liberal, was terrified that it was a grass roots movement, and didn't see the light until - wait for it - watching Aaron Sorkin's show The Newsroom. Then it all fell into place for her and everything her children had been saying finally made sense.

• Unless the Bill O' Reillys, Hannitys and Limbaughs of the world shrivel up and die, so will the GOP if they continue to subscribe to their stereotypes of anyone who isn't a white, Christian, hetero male. When the GOP comes to the realization that there are a lot of blacks, gays, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims and women who have loving families and who work just as hard as any "white, hetero male," then they'll be able to compete as a pol. party. Until they stop demonizing people based on race, ethnicity, sex pref., religion... as well as demonizing SCIENCE/EDUCATION/INTELLIGENCE/FACTS, they will continue to lose on a national level. The GOP's platform should consist primarily of their beliefs on economic policies and (intelligent)foreign policy. PERIOD.

• They can't do that, r31. They have sold what little soul they had to the rabid haters and science deniers in the party. They will implode very soon under the weight of their own stupidity. The teabaggers will go on - probably move to the Libertarian side and still remain just as oblivious as ever.

• R30, though I knew about the tea party movement being an astroturf one, I'd actually never seen that footage of one of the Koch Bros being asked about Citizens United until I saw it on "Newsroom." I love the comments section under the clip. Some attempting to essentially say "Who are you going to believe? Me or your eyes/ears?" We're seeing this man pretend not to know what CU is, but let's just ignore that and bash Sorkin/Soros/HBO.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DjMvExt1rUY8

• [quote] but let's just ignore that and bash Sorkin/Soros/HBO. Thanks R33. I wish my mother could have seen some of those comments. She would have begged me to open a Youtube account for her just so she could respond.

  r30

• R31, they can't focus primarily on economic issues. If they did that then more people would catch onto the fact that their economic ideas of the last 30 years are what has destroyed America. They've really painted themselves into a corner. It's lovely!

• The big change in the last week is that we've gone from the GOP cynically exalting the common man as everything that is right about America ("real Americans, not D.C. bureaucrats!") and are showing what the party really thinks: Americans are a bunch of moochers.

• Being forced to think? Quelle horreur!

• The funny thing is that some Republicans think they merely need to bend on immigration to capture minority voters. They have no clue that the majority of people - minority or not - do not see the extremely wealthy as an endangered species who need Republican protection.

• they are delusional

• Watch for a new national populist party opening up to the left of the Democrats. The GOP is on the margin now, like the BNP in the UK.

• [quote]The funny thing is that some Republicans think they merely need to bend on immigration to capture minority voters. They're probably right. Plenty of latinos are conservatives who voted for Obama due solely to immigration. Many Asians were also put off by the anti-immigrant rhetoric. They don't need to capture much of the latino or Asian vote to be able to win.

• I wonder where they're going to get the information for their rethinking? Their usual echo-chamber approach won't result in anything new.

• forced to think, as someone already said, what a horrible fate for these non-thinkers!

• I'm with R10. The further to the right they go, the more quickly their complete demise occurs. And how much further can they go? They are the party of racists and rapists already.

• Uh-oh. Jon Huntsman said something completely logical yesterday on Face the Nation, and they're acting like he threw acid on them: "If we spent as much time talking about solutions in the future as we did the President’s birth certificate, for heaven’s sake, we probably would have won the darned election."-- Jon Huntsman Lucianne/Freeper rage: "Someone should have pointed out that it´s perhaps idjits like you [Huntsman] that Romney lost - i.e. two faced, jelly-spined, two mouthed, RINO buffoons! Get lost pinhead." "Perhaps Huntsman should challenge Madam Broomstick in the demonrat primaries." "Huntsman is a favorite of the MSM. They know he will eat his own. He`ll be back in 2014 and 2016 to do as much damage as possible. Christie will probably help him."

  And%20the%20beat%20goes%20on

• Go ahead and mock this woman But she represents many of us who are still in absolute shock that incompetence and di isiveness would be rewarded with a second tsrm. We are in grie for this coneys values.

• Huh R46?

• I think R46 is playing a role, R47

• The problem isn't the party, it's the people who vote Republican. If they "bend" on immigration or abortion or whatever, they won't get the votes from a large segment of the Repubs.

• This is true, R49. The repugs that I know are absolutely convinced that immigration is what's destroying this country and won't listen to any evidence to the contrary. FOX news and their ilk have spent decades convincing their stupid viewers of this and teaching them otherwise is going to be a challenge, to say the least.

• [quote]A day after the election, she tuned the radio to Glenn Beck Yeah, that's good for your mental health.

• Just on a side note: I know people who work at FOX (behind the scenes). Hate to tell the white trash who live and breathe for FOX, but every group they hate works there. They make a really good living off of the stupidity of viewers.

• Freeper blog comment. Obama has ordered 284 drone strikes just in Pakistan!!! (when did we declare war on Pakistan?) For example, did you know about: Anwar al-Awlaki Samir Khan Abdulrahman (16 years old) etc. Yet, they never mention Bush Sr. or Jr. killing thousands of Iraqi civilians.

• [quote]Anwar al-Awlaki Samir Khan Abdulrahman (16 years old) etc. These assholes are so transparent. They'd want this kid in GITMO if it wasn't Obama.

• No shit R54. If Bush did it they'd be singing in the streets and chanting America #1. These were Muslims and we know they hate them.

• The Right is like Louis CK in his SNL monologue; they thought they were helping themselves get rich and powerful by talking to the crazy people. Now they HAVE crazy people they have to carry with them wherever they go.

• Agree with R54. I laughed at R53 when I read that. Like Republicans have any concern for anyone outside their own white racist brethren.

• What exactly did they hate about Huntsman? The fact that he believes in science? The fact that he wouldn't run foreign policy like Yosemite Same? The fact that he was... normal (for a Republican)? Or all of the above?

• Narrow-minded, smug bigots like her are the problem with the country. She is basically saying unless you are a stay-at-home mom you are not a Christian or leading a godly life. What a nasty bitch. Tolerance, understanding, not judging others or making assumptions about everyone who is receiving some form of support from the government, is what makes a good person. 1950s America is gone - you know, when incest and child abuse were secrets behind closed doors, women did not have equal footing in the workplace and were expected to wait on husbands, segregation in the South was in full swing - the good old days! One of the best things about that time - the United States as an industrial and manufacturing power the built a strong, blue collar middle class, has been destroyed, largely by those same Republicans this idiot is espousing.

  Anonymous

• Lack of fair paying jobs is what is destroyi8ng the country. Everyone is looking for somebody to blame, so when rich immigrants move to the USA (because the poor ones can't afford to) blue collar people, who lost their jobs to China, look at the luxury cars and new homes and freak out. Even though this money was often imported. Return the quality jobs to Americans and all this nonsense will disappear. Keep killing good jobs and forcing people to take work at Walmart and America will EXPLODE!

• Sam*

• True, r59. And they "blame" affirmative action, women's lib and "liberals" for "fucking it up" when their failed policies are to blame.

• [quote]Everyone is looking for somebody to blame, so when rich immigrants move to the USA (because the poor ones can't afford to) blue collar people, Sorry, no. My father came here and was dirt poor, as were other friends/family. They worked their asses off for decades before they were solidly upper middle-middle class.

• [quote]Tolerance, understanding, not judging others I know you're setting the bar low so these primitive thinkers can have some hope of achieving it, but I think we should raise it anyway. I think acceptance is what they should be striving for. Until the Republicans accept that others have a right to work, live, worship or not, marry who they want, etc., just like Republicans do, the party will continue to lag behind. "Tolerance" is really just gritting your teeth until you can get the upper hand. Until the GOP gets over the idea that they can legislate away others ownership of their own bodies, they have little hope. The country has become too diverse to allow them to determine the rights for all others. Until they see and accept that, they'll continue to fail.

• The bitch almost had me feeling sorry for her until the "Her children are not allowed to read Harry Potter or Twilight" line.

• I hate how the so-called Tea Party co-opted the name. To me it used to symbolize "patriotism" and conjured up images of colonists dumping English tea in Boston Harbor in defiance/protest. Now when I hear "Tea PartY" all I think is hateful, racist, homophobic crackers holding up illiterate signs.

• R65, why are Harry Potter and Twilight banned in fundie households? (not that the latter is worth reading anyway, but that's not the issue)

• So basically, this bitch is living exactly how she wants to live. The other bitches in her little bible study group are living exactly how they want to love. They are raising their children exactly how they want to raise them. And yet, they feel persecuted simply by the concept that some people they will never lay eyes on in some other state are going to be able to live the way they want to live. I have absolutely no sympathy for this bigot bitch.

• R67- Because those books talk about magic and supernatural things. And the Bible is the only acceptable book on magic and supernatural things.

• Harry Potter is probably banned because of witchcraft/ Gay Dumbledore. Twilight is most likely banned because even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

• [quote]why are Harry Potter and Twilight banned in fundie households? (not that the latter is worth reading anyway, but that's not the issue) Because they're about the superantural, magic, and things deemed "satanic."

• [quote]What exactly did they hate about Huntsman? The fact that he believes in science? The fact that he wouldn't run foreign policy like Yosemite Same? The fact that he was... normal (for a Republican)? Pretty much this. The right wing base of the Republican Party considered him a "RINO" which is Republican in Name Only. Essentially because instead of towing to the hardcore rightwing stances and rhetoric everyone else in the primary took he tried to be reasonable, had positions on social issues that wasn't out of the 50s. The funny thing is Hunstman is one of the candidates the Obama campaign was really worried about, but they failed to account for the fact the tea party wing which controls the Republican Party primaries has no room for reasonable candidates. Instead they do things like force Mitt Romney to be to the right of Rick Perry on immigration issues, saw how that worked out for them...

• Because HP and Twilight contain material that is frowned upon by churches, r67. Namely, wizards, magic, vampires and sex. ALL of these are anathema to the fundies.

• Witches, the occult

• [quote] So basically, this bitch is living exactly how she wants to live. The other bitches in her little bible study group are living exactly how they want to love. They are raising their children exactly how they want to raise them. And yet, they feel persecuted simply by the concept that some people they will never lay eyes on in some other state are going to be able to live the way they want to live. Their anger is predicated on the fear that someone somewhere might be happy and unrepressed.

• Happy, unrepressed and living an ungodly life! Wooo-hooo!

• There is no upward mobility in the USA anymore. The American Dream is dead.

• Plenty of Latinos are not conservatives, R41, who voted on issues such as economic equity, and education reform.

• Fuck off and get AIDS r69.

• LOL, that Republican well of hate is bottomless.

• R79, I think R69 was being sarcastic.

• I think you are missing the heart of the story, which the reporter also missed. What is the key? Little Mrs. Cox was a "Feminist" who went off to California to live for a couple years and then came back to Tennessee to be an obedient stay at home Mom and devote herself to the cause of the Church and the GOP. It's important to note that people like this are not IGNORANT of secular America. She watched the same t.v. programs as you and me. She wanted freedom and a career. But she went back into her little Tennessee hell-hole. Whatever her reasons, failure or love or self-interest or accident or family, we can infer that she concluded that they were going to be winners at life and people like us were going to be losers. Her distress is about her own choices. What seemed so obvious to her - that because of what other people believe, gay liberals were doomed to inferior status forever - was a mistaken calculation. She built her whole life around the idea that attaching herself to stupid men passionately committed to God and Guns would be her best strategy in life. That there was something wrong with HER that she had once thought differently and sped off to California to make her own way. All of this hate is geographically based. "Chicago thugs" or "San Francisco liberals" or New Yorkers - the whole fact that Wall Street is politically conservative is not a fact she has processed or recognized. The real question is why these people have confused their address with their political identity.

• [quote]Yes, dear, but the thing to do after failing to get a majority is to add to your coalition, not jettison part of it. That works great in theory, but one thing about having a big tent is that you actually have to want to share the tent with the rest of the party. I think the Teabaggers scare the mainstream Republicans, and their own insistence on absolute ideological purity has cost them the White House, the Senate twice, and would have probably cost them the House if they hadn't gerrymandered that to be safe. There is absolutely no reason on paper that Claire McCaskill should be headed back to the Senate, but she beat Todd Akin by *16* points. Mike Castle should be heading into his third year as junior senator from Delaware, but because Christine O'Donnell, not being a witch and all, met the litmus test, Chris Coons will probably be there until Jack Markell or Beau Biden decide to run for it. They will continue to find themselves on the fringes as long as they keep thinking that Richard Mourdock and Sharron Angle are people who need to have voices in national politics.

  The Voice of the Night

• [quote]why are Harry Potter and Twilight banned in fundie households? (not that the latter is worth reading anyway, but that's not the issue) Harry Potter I can understand but Twilight was written by a Mormon fundie and it has a Mormon fundie message (don't have sex before marriage, the man should be in charge, settle down and have babies).

• The article circles around the main problem: Evangelical Christianity's stranglehold on much of middle American Republicans. [quote]It was a demographic that, in so many other places, would have voted for Obama: white women, college-educated and in their early-to-mid-20s, most of them upper-middle class. But here they had almost all voted for Romney, and they consoled each other as they entered the room. BUT, they're churchy.

• [quote]Her distress is about her own choices. This is insightful. Maybe others not choosing her life threatens her confidence in her choices, and to extinguish that threat, she must seek a government which mandates her lifestyle for others. Seems like it would be easier and more fulfilling just to make better choices in her own life. But then she'd lose that belief in white Southern Christian privilege she clings to so dearly.

• [quote]I think the Teabaggers scare the mainstream Republicans Nope. Today, the Teabaggers ARE the mainstream Republicans.

• indeed.

• This brain dead, entitled, white, bitch cunt can go fuck herself.

• Another article about the insular rethug cocoon. That is insightful, r86. Seems like a lot of people are in the same boat with her. Mostly whites.

  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83704.html

• I feel for this woman. We are all together in this and all traumatized by Romney's loss.

• R86 has hit upon something that is hardly ever expressed. For a long time, shame was the big motivator as to why people didn't engage in the behavior they wanted. Having sex outside of marriage was shameful, having a baby out of wedlock was shameful, being gay was shameful. Even a wife working outside of the home was shameful (because it implied the husband was not a good provider) But gradually over time the rules changed, and those things that used to be shameful no longer were. And the people who denied themselves their desires really resent it. It drives them mad to see people doing things they always wanted to do and not paying the price. Their positions on these social matters isnt about the issue, its all about them. Its just not fair that they didnt get to do the things they wanted to do while others can and not feel the guilt they know they were required to feel.

• R91 Speak for yourself. Not all of us are traumatized. In fact most Americans are delighted.

• That article at R90 is worth reading. It does a good job of going through the real heart of the problem, and I am happy to see a lot of GOP operatives agree. It isn't a simple policy shift. It is the whole package and presentation of the Republican party that has to change. Bobby Jindal basically said the same thing. [quote]Their positions on these social matters isn't about the issue, its all about them. Its just not fair that they didnt get to do the things they wanted to do while others can and not feel the guilt they know they were required to feel. There is a reason why the most virulently antigay people are often deeply closeted gay men. They have spent so long trying to deny and hating that part of themselves because they felt they had to that they can't accept seeing gay people live happily and openly and that society actually thinks its okay.

• i want to punch her in her smug, entitled, scrapbooking, white face. just because she chooses to live a small and bitter life, doesn't mean she should try to impose it on the rest of us.

• I've just now noticed this thread and haven't had a chance to read it all. Pardon if this has already been said, but I think we saw the first glimmerings of the so-called "movement" back in 2000 during the Florida recount. Only it didn't have a name then. Remember that unamed wealthy donors were flying "protesters" in on corporate jets and bringing them in from elsewhere in state. They wore silly costumes and hats and congregated around the Secretary of State's office and the various locations where ballots were being recounted. I can't remember exactly what their signs said, but they were every bit as bone-headed as the ones you see today's teabagger carrying. And for eight years they didn't have to be active about anything, even as Bush and Co. were cutting taxes to the super-wealthy and running up the astronomical deficit. After the 2008 loss to a totally unacceptable candidate and with Palin's emergence as right-wing darling and icon, the there was a moment where the Kochs and their footsoldiers could strike and set up this "alternative movement." The Kochs could set up non-profit PACS that funnelled money to Palin for speaker fees as she travelled the country after the election and leaving the governorship to preach their bible. I honestly believe it was they who talked Palin into leaving the governorship to to their bidding on the road and fomenting the rage. Who better than she and who more money and publicity hungry and willing than her? Her brand is dead. Now what?

• Well said, r92. And it goes a long way to explain the various GOP attitudes we've seen over the years regarding Larry Craig, Jerry Falwell, etc.

• Right-wing pundits Cal Thomas and Jonah Goldberg are upset that America has become more "like Europe."

  Europe

• I want to know how they think Obama "betrayed" America? Anyone?

• To build off of R86, I also think that people like this woman want to live in a hermetically sealed world where nothing they don't want to hear about is spoken and nothing they don't want to see ever crosses their line of vision. Plus they want compelte control over the kids as their other great fear is that their children won't think and feel the same way they do. The strong presence of young voters in this election really frightens them.

• [quote] I also think that people like this woman want to live in a hermetically sealed world where nothing they don't want to hear about is spoken and nothing they don't want to see ever crosses their line of vision. And where their precious children won't be exposed to nuts (the tree kind, not the right-wing kind.)

• Because, r67, those books are DARK-SIDED!!

  The Late, Great Marguerite

• ACORN!! ACORN!!

  GOP%20Mommy

• R92 I blame Jerry Springer

• I blame in the main the Southern Baptist Church. W/o the South the GOP would be dead already. Tea partiers found a welcome home in the South. In fact, my thinking is that Baptists have caused much of the South's social/racial problems since the Civil War.

• What is the Baptist Church doing in the South to keep the GOP alive? I'm not familiar with Southern Church politics, so could you explain it?

• r3 is right. It's not Romney they are upset about. It's the fact that the country has got it's head so far up it's own arse that people can't even see they are being lied to and believe it's the other side that's the problem. Romney and Obama are two sides of the same coin, (it was Romneycare before it was Obamacare). Bush kicked off the current financial fiasco, and Obama came in and wedged it open even further. This is all planned people, wake up.

• R106, here's some background for you.

  http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/organizations/southern-baptist-convention

• Get some help, R107.

• It just keeps getting better.

• Romney isn't having much success wrapping his head around it. Ryan isn't doing any better.