"I give up"

[mahnmut]

Despite Anthony Weiner's passion and a clear majority, the House Republicans defeat a bill providing health care for 9/11 first responders."

Comments

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

It's as if Republicans are purposely repelling current and prospective party members :( I mean, what are they thinking?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

My issue is with Democrats now - why are they so keen on scoring own goals into their own net?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The Democrats have the entire kitchen sink of outgroups where the Republican Party is mostly that of old rich white dudes. For the Democrats to do their bills right would require extremely savvy and talented politicians able to corral multiple herds of cats. The GOP doesn't really bother with that it because it has a very homogeneous base. Hence the GOP for the longest time could string along the Christian extremists without doing jack shit for them, while the Democrats have the unenviable task of uniting multiple Outsider groups with their only commonality being excluded from the mainstream.

For instance Muslims vote Democratic but are really more of a GOP Constituency, but under the present-day GOP they'll vote Republican when Hell freezes over. It takes really good politicians to unite that kind of diversity and today's Democratic leadership is a bunch of moderate conciliators which isn't really what they need to combat a more homogeneous GOP with Parliamentary-style party discipline.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

That's normal. When juxtaposed to the rest of the world, the US political spectrum looks rather tilted. What you call liberals is just the center (or less rightist) to the rest of the world (you know, that huge place outside the US). The GOP are the extreme right, and wings tend to be more homogeneous, whereas the center is more diverse, hence harder to unite and please.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And I agree with this. The US political system *is* very imbalanced by the rest of the world. However again, it's not that these groups are the center it's that they are excluded from the kind of power and influence GOP voters, even the Teabagger types, have. Blending completely different have-nots together takes more talent than meeting the common interests of old rich WASPs.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Oh come on now, there really isn't anywhere outside the U.S.
It's just Hollywood sound stages and computer graphics.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

I was speaking of a parallel universe that you have no access to.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

This is why the Republican Party should be down on its hands and knees in thanks that it's up against the Democrats. A serious political party with actual party discipline would run roughshod over these motherfuckers. But instead the Democrats are well....the Democrats.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Pussies, right? :-))

Bipartisanship my ass.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

No, actually as above the Dems have the harder task. Their base includes a bunch of groups discriminated against and the only commonality these groups really have is said discrimination. American Muslims are wealthy religious types with values that would fit right in with the other religious conservative movement but they very logically vote Democratic because today's Conservatives to put it bluntly hate everyone who "looks Arabic."

For another example the Democratic Party has as its bases groups like women, who can have vastly different interests when one blends ethnicity in, blacks who are always the US Chew Toy, the LBGT Alphabet soup which has its own problems.....they need a William F. Buckley and they've no such figure at present. So I don't envy Howard Dean or Barack Obama their tasks with regards to the Democratic Party base.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

The downside of being so diverse is that it's not easy to organize like you said. The upside is that there's potentially more room for expansion and inclusion of even more groups, while the GOP is mostly hovering around using its maximum capacity. Very effectively indeed, but still too confined within its self imposed frames.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Right, and that is a downside. However a sufficiently charismatic individual of a slightly different bent than President Obama, who is a moderate Right Wing conciliator like Bill Clinton was, could blend these movements together and then their combined punch *would* negate the GOP as it's already doing that to itself.

This is why I was really pro-Hillary back in the primaries because Mrs. Clinton knows how to hogtie people into effectiveness. Our current President is a Right-Wing conciliator against a movement he'll never be able to satisfy and inexplicably keeps trying to reach the unreachable.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Meh, our friend is only mostly correct about the republican party. Out side of the south the tent is a bit bigger. I even know some black republicans.

In Calif, the wealthy tend to be liberals (maybe because so many are Jews?)

He did bring up an interesting fact that socially most minorities do fit better, or more naturally under the republican tent.