Too many youngsters that don't understand what you're saying. Hope. Change. Not a strategy. Not a destination. _
I find it harder to believe that people still think there are multiple parties fighting for control of our government.
President Obama is the second President in American history to govern without a loyal opposition. Clinton was the first. The GOP will deeply regret their response to the last two Democratic Presidencies.
care to elaborate? seems to me there is a good chance the GOP is in complete control by the next president.
Can you believe some of the message boards are calling the beheading fake because of the lack of blood and emotion. Even one new source reported it
It has nothing to do with who is in control and everything to do with what happens after they gain control. The assumption in US politics was always that a President got a 2 year gap in which to try to enact his reforms and that the opposition party would bow to public opinion in the process and if not assist at least not hinder the process too much. The Republicans have now changed that assumption. The assumption now is that the opposition party will fight tooth and nail, by any means necessary, to prevent the President from enacting the reforms he believes he was elected to make. That cuts both ways. Whoever the next President is they are going to have a series of very unpopular reforms to put in place. Unless they have a strong majority they are going to be going it alone in that process. It's going to really suck if it's Rand Paul elected to cut the size of government and finding that he and his party are completely on the hook for the blowback. Democrats supported Reagan's Tax Cuts in the House, giving him a wide margin of victory. They supported G HW Bush's push to throw Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, again giving him a wide margin of victory. They supported G W Bush's Tax Cuts, Medicare Benefits change and Plan to Invade Iraq, giving him wide margins of victory on all counts. These were all important displays of bipartisan support that solidified undertakings that were otherwise very risky politically speaking. Since Obama took office the Republicans have supported him on nothing. In the midst of the worst financial crisis in 70 years all 178 Republicans in the House chose to vote No on the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, more popularly known as the Stimulus. The bill is estimated to have saved 1.6 million jobs a year from 2009 to 2014, effectively forestalling another serious depression in the process. Republicans used it as a political football instead of a vehicle for economic recovery. On health care the Obama Administration took a Republican plan that was not a decade old and modified it some to meet changes in the circumstances caused by the Great Recession. No Republican votes. Lots of angry noise to the point of civil disorder in some cases. On foreign policy every decision the Republicans have made has been calculated to swing the opposite direction from the administration. Positions on things like intervention in foreign lands have depended completely on where the administration was. Libya? Obama wanted to support and the Republicans were against. Syria? Obama wanted no part of it and the Republicans were for. This pattern has gone on over and over again for the last 8 years. You cannot run a nation with the opposition fighting you tooth and nail at every opportunity. This is something that the next Republican President, assuming there is one, will learn to regret.
Great post, Bradway. This is the problem with having a 2 party system. Many folks act in the best interest of their political party rather than the country, or it's citizens. It's a major problem and has been for a while. I know that 3rd parties are allowed to run, but they aren't funded millions of dollars from corporations with vested interests, so they aren't recognized and aren't even given a chance to win. Until this changes, this country is doomed to keep repeating the cycle. I do kind of agree that we won't see another republican president for a while. Neo conservatism is dying, IMO. The whole tea party nonsense, and how they avidly fight against anything the president ever tries to do speaks volumes about their intentions and they are slowly but surely becoming a joke. If the republicans don't reform the party majorly, they are going to go the way of the whig party.
This was never a problem before the Clinton era. It wasn't a problem early in the W presidency. It's now the biggest problem facing the US. The Republicans will come to us all with shit-eating grins in a few years and try to make up. Good luck with that.
Who is Hillary's competition for the Democratic primary? It appears she is going to be the lead favorite and should win in a landslide. The Republicans have who? Christie and Ryan. 2016 card looks awesome (insert champ frown face)
I still can't figure out why the GOP didn't let Obama and Boehner make the deal that would have moved us forward instead of forcing the sequester on the country. It's not like Obama was likely to lose in 2012 anyway given the dynamics in play. It was pure three stooges boxing on their part and it removed any chance that a workable deal would get done before 2016. When people say we have one party in play with different faces I point at that moment in time when the fix was in and the GOP couldn't hold up their end. We're never going to get the long-term fiscal problems solved when a party that gets an 80/20 split on the deal can't say yes.
The value of the dollar is so far down the toilet that any deal they made would have been laughable window dressing. Face it, we'll be under a different regional currency in a few years that makes this country about as powerful as Uruguay. But hey, we have plenty of military assets to loan out to countries that will commit genocide and make that age old German superpower look like a nanny state. And when figurehead Hillary gets voted out, guess who is next? That movie star looking half Latino grandson of HW. And still, the parties will be irrelevant.
Hillary looking more and more like our next Prez. There is no one on the Republicans side that I think can challenge her. Anyways, that is a topic for a Presidential debate thread that should come soon to a TGG forum near you in 2015
Romney is not running, he already said he wasn't. Of course, if he did run; he would not stand a rain drops chance in hell.
After Mitt got roasted in the last debate and how his quick tongue got him in trouble about the embassy event I'm sure he wants no part in running again.
I think it's unlikely and I know he's said he isn't. I've seen a lot of headlines lately suggesting he's warming up to the idea. I never bothered to read them though so maybe they were just attention grabbers. Dr. Ben Carson is another potential I've seen thrown around but I think that's also very unlikely. personally I like the libertarian values rand paul brings but I think he'd have a hard time given some extreme views like "abolish the IRS" his desire to end the war on drugs is something everyone should be on board with IMO. all that has done is cost us billions of dollars, make cartels rich and incarcerate a ridiculous amount of non violent young "criminals" most of whom are minorities. we still have as many drugs as ever here.
I'm pretty sure it's going to be Rand Paul vs Hillary in 2016 and no wave election no matter who wins. The wave election will be 2020.
