What are the ideological inconsistencies within the Republican Party?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Akin to this thread.

[DC Al Fine]

Economic policies that don't support the nuclear family.

As so many pro-aborts like to point out, not taking care of children after they're born.

[TNF]

A better question might be what the ideological consistences, if any, there are within the modern Republican Party.

[King]

They worship money and God equally.  Every other inconsistency stems from that broken principle.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Rabid anti-environmentalism. Isn't there a quote out there along the lines of ,"Conservation is conservative"?

Tax cuts + defense spending increases + protecting entitlements = fiscal disaster. Reagan, GWB, McCain, and Romney really want to "turn the US into Greece" with their reckless and unsustainable "borrow and spend policies"(if i may borrow a phrase from the GOP playbook). So much for fiscal conservativism.

The overwhelming majority of their social and foreign policies that restrict freedom contradicting their love of freedom.

Anti-intellectualism directly conflicts with 1.) the business community, who are mostly educated and owe their success to their education, and 2.) their messages of personal responsibility and self-improvement, as education helps people move up the economic ladder.

Putting the rights of businesses over the rights of workers and consumers

[bballrox4717]

Rabid anti-environmentalism. Isn't there a quote out there along the lines of ,"Conservation is conservative"?

Tax cuts + defense spending increases + protecting entitlements = fiscal disaster. Reagan, GWB, McCain, and Romney really want to "turn the US into Greece" with their reckless and unsustainable "borrow and spend policies"(if i may borrow a phrase from the GOP playbook). So much for fiscal conservativism.

The overwhelming majority of their social and foreign policies that restrict freedom contradicting their love of freedom.

Anti-intellectualism directly conflicts with 1.) the business community, who are mostly educated and owe their success to their education, and 2.) their messages of personal responsibility and self-improvement, as education helps people move up the economic ladder.

Putting the rights of businesses over the rights of workers and consumers

Besides the first and latter points, this explanation isn't really a dig at the inconsistencies of the Republican Party, but rather the current split that's going on between the more secular business wing, the religious conservative wing and the more libertarian Tea Party wing. The only one who was really hypocritical was Reagan, who blew up deficits while going on about a Balanced Budget Amendment. McCain and Romney were purely pandering and W Bush never gave a damn about the deficit. The GOP has always been based as the business friendly party.

[Lief 🗽]

A better question might be what the ideological consistences, if any, there are within the modern Republican Party.

^^^^

[hopper]

Rabid anti-environmentalism. Isn't there a quote out there along the lines of ,"Conservation is conservative"?

Tax cuts + defense spending increases + protecting entitlements = fiscal disaster. Reagan, GWB, McCain, and Romney really want to "turn the US into Greece" with their reckless and unsustainable "borrow and spend policies"(if i may borrow a phrase from the GOP playbook). So much for fiscal conservativism.

The overwhelming majority of their social and foreign policies that restrict freedom contradicting their love of freedom.

Anti-intellectualism directly conflicts with 1.) the business community, who are mostly educated and owe their success to their education, and 2.) their messages of personal responsibility and self-improvement, as education helps people move up the economic ladder.

Putting the rights of businesses over the rights of workers and consumers

Besides the first and latter points, this explanation isn't really a dig at the inconsistencies of the Republican Party, but rather the current split that's going on between the more secular business wing, the religious conservative wing and the more libertarian Tea Party wing. The only one who was really hypocritical was Reagan, who blew up deficits while going on about a Balanced Budget Amendment. McCain and Romney were purely pandering and W Bush never gave a damn about the deficit. The GOP has always been based as the business friendly party.

Lets see....

Reagan added 2 trillions dollars to the deficit
Clinton added 1 trillion dollars to the deficit
Bush W. added 5 trillion dollars to the deficit
Obama has added 6 trillion dollars to the deficit

So it looks like Reagan wasn't as bad on the deficit as you make him out to be.

[bedstuy]

Their only consistent ideology is Christian fundamentalism and being the lapdog of the financial/insurance/pharmaceutical/military contracting/ oil & gas industries or whomever wants to line their pockets and screw over everyone else.

Everything else is just rhetoric to attack the other side and their beliefs morph to whatever is politically expedient.  For example, Republicans didn't care about spending until Obama got into office.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

A better question might be what the ideological consistences, if any, there are within the modern Republican Party.

^^^^

[All Along The Watchtower]

They worship money and God equally.  Every other inconsistency stems from that broken principle.

They're just following the lead of the megachurch pastors, who have gotten quite wealthy off the Gospel of Positive Thinking that supposedly leads to prosperity for the faithful flock.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Rabid anti-environmentalism. Isn't there a quote out there along the lines of ,"Conservation is conservative"?

Tax cuts + defense spending increases + protecting entitlements = fiscal disaster. Reagan, GWB, McCain, and Romney really want to "turn the US into Greece" with their reckless and unsustainable "borrow and spend policies"(if i may borrow a phrase from the GOP playbook). So much for fiscal conservativism.

The overwhelming majority of their social and foreign policies that restrict freedom contradicting their love of freedom.

Anti-intellectualism directly conflicts with 1.) the business community, who are mostly educated and owe their success to their education, and 2.) their messages of personal responsibility and self-improvement, as education helps people move up the economic ladder.

Putting the rights of businesses over the rights of workers and consumers

Besides the first and latter points, this explanation isn't really a dig at the inconsistencies of the Republican Party, but rather the current split that's going on between the more secular business wing, the religious conservative wing and the more libertarian Tea Party wing. The only one who was really hypocritical was Reagan, who blew up deficits while going on about a Balanced Budget Amendment. McCain and Romney were purely pandering and W Bush never gave a damn about the deficit. The GOP has always been based as the business friendly party.

Lets see....

Reagan added 2 trillions dollars to the deficit
Clinton added 1 trillion dollars to the deficit
Bush W. added 5 trillion dollars to the deficit
Obama has added 6 trillion dollars to the deficit

So it looks like Reagan wasn't as bad on the deficit as you make him out to be.

You really need to learn the difference between the deficit and the debt before you post anymore. Also, you need to understand this thing called "inflation" which impact those "nominal" numbers you posted.

Yes, Reagan was pretty bad in the long run.

[barfbag]

Oh we have our logical inconsistencies too. We're pro-life but a lot of Republicans cut programs which help single parents and low income families. I love how much our party preaches about moral values but when it comes to programs to help the poor, the GOP is nowhere to be found. One of our party's selling lines is limited government but it's usually only the case with economics. When it comes to defense we like wiretapping into phone conversations, more law enforcement, and larger defense spending. Limited government my ass. I'm not saying it's bad to support more, government on defense, homeland security, and foreign policy, but it's not consistent with our economic ideology.

What's more important is that ideology shouldn't matter. It's about what solution is best to handle the problem at hand. Just because Republicans support limited government for the economy and larger government for defense doesn't mean there's a fallacy. The Republican Party speaks to my views on the free market and defense which is largely why I'm a member of the Grand Old Party. We are Republicans! We are one!

[memphis]

Not sure if this counts as a logical inconsistency, but in their rhetoric they constantly refer to everything they don't like as "elitist" but their only real purpose for existence is to ensure that rich people have more and more money. Speaking of money, they claim to want fiscal responsibility, but they're constantly trying to lower taxes and find new zillion dollar weapons programs and places to use them. They also love to talk about how much they like small government, but when the issue is military, or drugs, or people's sex lives, they always want as much government as possible. Used to be true for porn and forcing religion on school children too, but they've let those go in recent years.

[Blue3]

Honestly, I didn't make this thread because there were so many big inconsistencies, especially compared to the Democrats


The biggest has to be between the Religious Conservatives and Big Business. Or Nativists and Big Business. Or small businesses and Big Business.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

A better question might be what the ideological consistences, if any, there are within the modern Republican Party.

^^^^

[Napoleon]

Whining about death panels, but wanting to take a hatchet to medicare and social security
Claiming to be pro life, but won't support preventative health care for those who cannot afford it

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

There is NO ideological inconsistency within the GOP among those who actually pull the strings.  They know exactly what they are doing and are extremely good at it.  

If we want to talk about their vast constituency:
1. Equal reverence for Christianity and capitalism.
2. Anti-abortion/pro-death penalty
3. No real idea what socialism is, and complete blindness to how it benefits them

... that's enough, I could go on and on and on here. 

[DC Al Fine]

There is NO ideological inconsistency within the GOP among those who actually pull the strings.  They know exactly what they are doing and are extremely good at it. 

If we want to talk about their vast constituency:
1. Equal reverence for Christianity and capitalism.
2. Anti-abortion/pro-death penalty
3. No real idea what socialism is, and complete blindness to how it benefits them

... that's enough, I could go on and on and on here. 

Fair enough on #1. There's a reasonable argument for #2 (Baby innocent, murderer guilty).

What do you mean by #3? One can be ignorant of socialism and still be consistent. Or are you referring to the "Socialism=Bad, Social security/Medicare=Good" Republicans?

[bballrox4717]

Rabid anti-environmentalism. Isn't there a quote out there along the lines of ,"Conservation is conservative"?

Tax cuts + defense spending increases + protecting entitlements = fiscal disaster. Reagan, GWB, McCain, and Romney really want to "turn the US into Greece" with their reckless and unsustainable "borrow and spend policies"(if i may borrow a phrase from the GOP playbook). So much for fiscal conservativism.

The overwhelming majority of their social and foreign policies that restrict freedom contradicting their love of freedom.

Anti-intellectualism directly conflicts with 1.) the business community, who are mostly educated and owe their success to their education, and 2.) their messages of personal responsibility and self-improvement, as education helps people move up the economic ladder.

Putting the rights of businesses over the rights of workers and consumers

Besides the first and latter points, this explanation isn't really a dig at the inconsistencies of the Republican Party, but rather the current split that's going on between the more secular business wing, the religious conservative wing and the more libertarian Tea Party wing. The only one who was really hypocritical was Reagan, who blew up deficits while going on about a Balanced Budget Amendment. McCain and Romney were purely pandering and W Bush never gave a damn about the deficit. The GOP has always been based as the business friendly party.

Lets see....

Reagan added 2 trillions dollars to the deficit
Clinton added 1 trillion dollars to the deficit
Bush W. added 5 trillion dollars to the deficit
Obama has added 6 trillion dollars to the deficit

So it looks like Reagan wasn't as bad on the deficit as you make him out to be.

You really need to learn the difference between the deficit and the debt before you post anymore. Also, you need to understand this thing called "inflation" which impact those "nominal" numbers you posted.

Yes, Reagan was pretty bad in the long run.

Clarko is spot on with the difference between the deficit and debt. Note that during both Clinton and Obama's presidencies, the budget deficits took a downward trend, while with the Reagan and W Bush presidencies, the budget deficits had an upward trend. I will add that the deficit began to fall around 1986-1987, but it took 6 years to happen. I could get the data out if you would like.

I don't like quoting Ron Paul because I don't like him or what he stands for, but this quote rings very true when you talk about Reagan's hypocrisy.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Vosem]

Obviously both parties are very ideologically inconsistent (you have, say, me and Pat Robertson in the same party, obviously it's quite diverse), being consistent isn't the point. What's concerning is when individual people hold mutually exclusive positions, which is quite a common problem essentially worldwide, but is even more concerning when such are held by politicians.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

There is NO ideological inconsistency within the GOP among those who actually pull the strings.  They know exactly what they are doing and are extremely good at it. 

If we want to talk about their vast constituency:
1. Equal reverence for Christianity and capitalism.
2. Anti-abortion/pro-death penalty
3. No real idea what socialism is, and complete blindness to how it benefits them

... that's enough, I could go on and on and on here. 

Fair enough on #1. There's a reasonable argument for #2 (Baby innocent, murderer guilty).

What do you mean by #3? One can be ignorant of socialism and still be consistent. Or are you referring to the "Socialism=Bad, Social security/Medicare=Good" Republicans?

Precisely the latter.  Those peeps are very commonplace within the GOP.

[Ogre Mage]

The Republican Party believes in freedom for corporations, but not for individuals in their personal lives.  Tied up in that is their whole "corporations are people" nonsense.  If I get married to another man maybe I can fool them by calling it a corporate merger.

[barfbag]

Whining about death panels, but wanting to take a hatchet to medicare and social security
Claiming to be pro life, but won't support preventative health care for those who cannot afford it

It depends on what your definition of pro-life is. What the GOP stands for is not allowing one to kill another when innocent. I don't know of a single Republican recently who opposes some limited type of subsidization for the less fortunate when it comes to healthcare. No Republicans want to take a hatchet to social security or Medicare. Obama did hatchet the program though with Obamacare. A more realistic inconsistency you should've proposes would've been Republicans being pro-life but supporting the death penalty.

[All Along The Watchtower]

The central inconsistency within the Republican Party-similar to that of the Democratic Party, actually-is between the monied individuals and interests who control the direction the party goes and many of the people who vote for the party, although there is more overlap than you might assume between those groups (grassroots activists, for example, are "ordinary people" despite their tendency to be upper-middle class).