Originally Posted By tiggertoo <<For every relatively conservative poster on here...>> Relatively? Are you serious? It was the very conservative Heritage Foundation proposal from which Obamacare was founded. It was very conservative folks like Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole from whom the idea of comprehensive immigration reform was born. Today these proposals are tantamount to communist ideas by extremists on the Tea Party/far right. So don't you DARE call yourselves "relatively" conservative. The current incarnation of what constitutes conservatism fell off the linear ideological continuum graph a couple years ago. The current Republican Party is ten steps to the to of the John Birch Society! It's more of a neo-confederate position. And the south will lose...AGAIN!
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I was a conservative, Republican poster on here until the Republican party left me. I didn't leave them and I think that is a difference that many of my conservative friends can relate to. That said, I don't think President Obama is the answer either and I've become so disgusted with the entire political process, the media's role in dumbing down everything, and our own inability to hold a conversation without things getting ugly that I've just chosen to remove myself from the noise. I come to LP for entertainment, not for frustration.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I was a conservative, Republican poster on here until the Republican party left me. I didn't leave them and I think that is a difference that many of my conservative friends can relate to.> Absolutely. My folks retired to the South. It's gotten so bad there that my Dad - a lifelong Republican who once voted straight R ticket without thinking twice - refuses to call those currently dominating GOP politics "conservatives." To him, "conservative" is a term with honored connotations of caution, moderation, preserving what's worth preserving. It drives him nuts when someone like Cruz or DeMint calls himself a "conservative" - my Dad says they're nothing of the sort and are in fact just the opposite: incautious, radical and willing to blow everything up just to get their way. He insists they should not be called "conservatives" but only "Tea Partiers" or "far-right-wingers." He retains his party affiliation so that he can vote in primaries for the moderate Republican, in a place where winning the GOP primary is tantamount to winning the election. But I'm sure he'd become an independent if he lived in a more moderate area. Like Wahoo (and numerous others here) have said, he feels like the Republican party has left him.
Originally Posted By Ivan55 You guys keep talkin abou t how the republican and conserative party has changed the last few years but your wrong. In my lifetime we always wanted gun rights, death to murderers, no abortion, great spending on army, small goverment, prot ection for flag, no gay nothing new here The only thing new is socail media and 24 news on a lot of chanels and intrnet that is cheap to have. And cel phones. But our likes and dislikes have been the same since reagan
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost To bad none of you got an education or figured out how to use spell check. You Mr. Ivan are an example the very reason that your good buddy, Obama, got elected, other then his personality and intelligence.
Originally Posted By tiggertoo The devolution of the Republican Party is less about changing policy areas per se, but more of a movement away from reasoned fiscal and social policies to unreasonable absolutism. For example: 1) Even the paragon of modern conservatism, Ronald Reagan, supported an assault weapons ban and background checks. Today, any attempt at gun control is viewed as freedom hating communism. 2) The EPA was started by and expanded by Republicans through to George Bush 41. As late as 1990, the Clean Air Act, which included cap and trade, was heavily supported by Republicans. Today, any legislation aimed to limit greenhouse gas emissions is regarded as a communist plot, and climate change is called a hoax. 3) Republicans has always be advocate of comprehensive immigration reform. Now the xenophobic bigots dictate the party’s immigration policy. 4) Before this last decade, Republicans largely supported campaign finance reform. Now they are against any such legislation. I could give many more example, but I think these few make the case that the Republican Party’s policy arguments are very far from where is used to be. This is why the party has lost most of its intelligent, reasonable partisans.
