You're Advising the Republicans....

[Scam of God]

Step one: Drop the mindless social conservative rhetoric that alienates many New England and coastal voters. Many of these people are moderately libertarian, and as long as the Democrats build a new 'Solid South' in those two areas you will be hard pressed in the future to win elections. The Mormons and the rednecks will vote for you anyway, just as the South voted for Al Smith in 1928.

Step two: As a corollary to the above, stop feeding the real-life racial trolls through anti-immigrant rhetoric. Immigration is good for business, and hence good for Americans; and as long as you continue whining about an illusory racially pure America of the past, you will never again win Colorado or New Mexico or Nevada, and without these you cannot win the Presidency.

Step three: Focus purely on the economy. Demonstrate to voters that conservative principles, applied intelligently and with an eye towards maximizing economic efficiency, is better for them and their pocket-books than big government programmes. A good Republican President in the future will probably be indistinguishable from Bill Clinton - or Jack Kennedy.

[Scam of God]

I want to comment on one thing in particular:

Kennedy was a totally different animal. Let's not forget much of the great society, price controls, etc. were his ideas.

He also cut the top tax bracket from ~90% during the Eisenhower years to under 75%, which is a larger per capita tax cut than that delivered by Ronald Reagan.

[Scam of God]

I agree with many of these Democrats. We need to focus more on economics and why free-market principles are the best way for the economy.

This is the Democrats' position on the economy?  I would have never guessed.

It is mine, and Mint's, and a not-insignificant number of other Democrat's who support free-market economics and would vote Republican on the issue if you nitwits wouldn't pander o the lowest-common-denominator of social bigots.

[Scam of God]

Or, alternatively, I suspect that the Republicans will get one more thrashing during the 2010 midterms over their resistance to the stimulus package and will re-shape themselves as the modern-day inheritors of William Jennings Bryan, running to the left of the Democrats economically but retaining their zombie-like affection for the social stratification of the 19th century.

[Scam of God]

I can tell you now what they're going to (eventually) do, and I can do it in such a way that even our social conservative friends can understand it: through pictures.

[Scam of God]

While I love what Einzige is saying, and would be in heaven if the party actually adopted these principles, I don't know if the proposed reforms would really cure the party. Sure, we need to tone down the rhetoric on wedge issues... but as much as I hate to admit it, we (rational, Rockefeller Republicans) do take the Religious Right for granted...

It doesn't matter anyway, since within twenty years all those pissant rednecks that you are presently in collusion with will be lining up Crosses of Gold along Wall Street to crucify the brokers - and you'll have long been voting Democratic.

[Scam of God]

While I love what Einzige is saying, and would be in heaven if the party actually adopted these principles, I don't know if the proposed reforms would really cure the party. Sure, we need to tone down the rhetoric on wedge issues... but as much as I hate to admit it, we (rational, Rockefeller Republicans) do take the Religious Right for granted...

It doesn't matter anyway, since within twenty years all those pissant rednecks that you are presently in collusion with will be lining up Crosses of Gold along Wall Street to crucify the brokers - and you'll have long been voting Democratic.

So you believe there is no hope to save the party from the "pissant rednecks"?

No. This is a natural evolution of the Parties: the Republicans from economically/moderately socially conservative to populist/hardline social conservative; the Democrats from populist/slightly socially conservative to economically moderate/socially liberal. The Republicans will probably be the 'left' Party economically speaking in 20 years, and the impetus for this transformation is all the poor white people the Republicans grew to rely on in the last three decades.

But everything comes around in the end. The influx of blacks into the newly populist Republican Party (they seem to like that sort of thing) will drive many racialists out, as it comes to be viewed as 'the black party', and eventually, in forty years, the Republicans will be the liberal Party, and the Democrats the conservative, just as it was in that first election of 1860.

That's my prediction at any rate.

[Scam of God]

Oppose the GOP positions on immigration reform, welfare reform, etc., if you want, but the "Republicans are racist" accusation is seriously played-out.

No, not really. Most Republicans are racist, they hate blacks, they hate the Voting Rights Act of 1964, they hate Hispanics, etc.; but you'll refuse to admit it, because you're a subhuman legalist, and your Party can do nothing wrong.

Dude, did Newt Gingrich run over your dog or something?

Goddamn admit it already. The only reason the Republicans win the South year after year is because those people still have animosity against the blacks that Lyndon Johnson admitted into the Democratic fold. The sooner you come to terms with the genuine composition of your Party, the better. I am tired of liberals being the only ones demonized in American political discourse; you people damn well deserve it.

Oh, I'll absolutely admit there is a significant voter block in the South that still has a certain level of racial animosity, and I'll admit the Republicans play to it pretty often, and effectively (Willie Horton, S.C.- Rove Push Polling, etc.), but your assertion that:

Most Republicans are racist, they hate blacks, they hate the Voting Rights Act of 1964, they hate Hispanics, etc.

...is truly magnificent hyperbole, comparable to a conservative claiming "Most Democrats are bigots, they hate Christians," equally false, and equally nauseating.

All those states in blue? Those are the only states to shift towards the Republican Party this year. Arizona is acceptable; those Southern states are not. Because they were the only states to trend towards the Republicans, it is more than fair to say that most Republicans, at least after the 2009 elections, are racists.

[Scam of God]

Oppose the GOP positions on immigration reform, welfare reform, etc., if you want, but the "Republicans are racist" accusation is seriously played-out.

No, not really. Most Republicans are racist, they hate blacks, they hate the Voting Rights Act of 1964, they hate Hispanics, etc.; but you'll refuse to admit it, because you're a subhuman legalist, and your Party can do nothing wrong.

Dude, did Newt Gingrich run over your dog or something?

Goddamn admit it already. The only reason the Republicans win the South year after year is because those people still have animosity against the blacks that Lyndon Johnson admitted into the Democratic fold. The sooner you come to terms with the genuine composition of your Party, the better. I am tired of liberals being the only ones demonized in American political discourse; you people damn well deserve it.

Oh, I'll absolutely admit there is a significant voter block in the South that still has a certain level of racial animosity, and I'll admit the Republicans play to it pretty often, and effectively (Willie Horton, S.C.- Rove Push Polling, etc.), but your assertion that:

Most Republicans are racist, they hate blacks, they hate the Voting Rights Act of 1964, they hate Hispanics, etc.

...is truly magnificent hyperbole, comparable to a conservative claiming "Most Democrats are bigots, they hate Christians," equally false, and equally nauseating.

All those states in blue? Those are the only states to shift towards the Republican Party this year. Arizona is acceptable; those Southern states are not. Because they were the only states to trend towards the Republicans, it is more than fair to say that most Republicans, at least after the 2009 elections, are racists.

I'm having trouble organizing my thoughts into a clear message, so bear with me:

1. Check out the racists up in Massachusetts.

Kerry was the home-state candidate in '04. It was natural that Massachusetts ought to trend slightly more Republican, since they basically maxed out four years ago.

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No; my argument is that the South is racist, and the Republicans today are mostly Southerners, and so Republicans are mostly racist.

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Did you not vote for him because he is black?

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I'm more than willing to believe 51% of Republican voters dislike/despise/hate blacks, and, when added to the number that hate Mexicans, that's probably considerably higher. I'd be willing to bet everything I have that an outright majority of Republican voters are racists, and you'd be a fool not to agree.

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Alaska doesn't have counties.