American Public About to Send a Message to the Republicans?

[bisonbison]

The media keeps trying to make this about Iraq. Websites like this are the only place to find out what people really think.

People have decided that they don't want the religious right in control anymore imo. No more legislating morality.

NIraq is clearly the #1 issue for the public according to most polls. It helps that the Foley and Abramoff scandals help illuminate the hypocrisy of so many preachy public officials, but it really is more about the terrible leadership the GOP has shown in the wake of 9/11 than it is any rebellion against pro-life, anti-gambling or anti-drug whatever.

[whiskeytown]

[ QUOTE ]
The media keeps trying to make this about Iraq. Websites like this are the only place to find out what people really think.

People have decided that they don't want the religious right in control anymore imo. No more legislating morality.

NIraq is clearly the #1 issue for the public according to most polls. It helps that the Foley and Abramoff scandals help illuminate the hypocrisy of so many preachy public officials, but it really is more about the terrible leadership the GOP has shown in the wake of 9/11 than it is any rebellion against pro-life, anti-gambling or anti-drug whatever.

[/ QUOTE ]

it really has taken a ton of incompetence - from Katrina in NOLA to the cronyism that was the standard for Post Iraqi reconstruction to just the bald faced hypocricy of it's elected officials to the idiocy of this administration in diverting forces from the capture of Bin Laden to Iraq prematurely.

Had any of us done our job this badly, we'd be homeless trying to scrape out a living at 1/2NL in Vegas -

It's like trying to take out [censored] Tony Montoya - 20 shells in the chest and he's still fuming saying "wanna mess with me?" - except half the shots were self inflicted and the other half will come from defecting Repubs. and values voters who no longer share the values of the Rep. party.

makes me smile - see? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

rb

[andyfox]

I'm not so sure the public is sending a message to the Republicans. I think too much emphasis is placed on the political parties. I think most elections hinge on the people runing and issues which people in the states and localities are concerned about. If the Dems win big, I don't think it is necessarily because the public repudiated the Republican Party and what it "stands for." Nor would it mean they have approved of what the Democratic Party "stands for."

It would just mean that more candidate who were Democratic won than who were Republican.

[CharlieDontSurf]

http://amconmag.com/2006/2006_11_20/feature.html

[JaredL]

I agree with the OP that these issues should be a big factor, but I don't see how you could say that they are.

If they mattered at all, wouldn't they be brought up at least every once in a while by someone, whether a media person or democratic candidate?

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
Back in the days of the reconstruction following the civil war, it was the southern democrats who enacted all of the Jim Crow laws. Most southern states who seceeded were almost exclusively electing democrats. Lincoln, a republican, was all about civil liberties.



[/ QUOTE ]
This is so mixed up, I have to respond, even if it is off topic.

First of all Lincoln may have been about civil rights but not civil liberties. There was a great deal of suppression of civil liberties during the Civil War, particularly in areas with strong Confederate sympathies, such as Maryland, Missouri, and southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Secondly, the Jim Crow laws were not enacted during Reconstruction. Right after the Civil War, most southern states enacted laws stronger than Jim Crow, which attempted to maintain a status of blacks similar to slavery. The radical Republicans in Congress enacted laws that prevented most whites from voting. These radical policies were fueled by anger in the north over heavy casualties in the war and a desire to make the war accomplish something by giving the slaves real freedom. This also assured control by teh Republican party of the national government, and resulted in the further looting of the south by politically connec ted northerners. Most southern governments then had Republican governments, with large numbers of black office holders and many northerners in key position.

With the compromise of 1876 which gave a disputed Presidential election to the Republican Hays, the military occupation of the south ended, and southern states reverted to white Democratic rule. Blacks continued to vote in most areas and were generally not subjected to legal restrictions.

The Jim Crow laws were generally passed in the 1890s long after Reconstruction and they remained in place until the 1960s.

The part that is true is that the Republican party was generally the party of civil rights and the Democratic party the party of segregation. However, the Republican party was also the party of big business in the late nineteenth century.

[betgo]

I think the public is unhappy not so much with the Republicans as with Bush. This is due primarily to the Iraq war, but also the Katrina, Cheney shooting the guy, and other things.

I think the Democrats may make gains larger than predicted. This may create more of a mess as the Democrats have a history of spending excessively, enacting questionable "liberal" legislation that creates various problems, and taking a weak approach to foreign policy.

[Meech]

[ QUOTE ]
This may create more of a mess as the Democrats have a history of spending excessively, enacting questionable "liberal" legislation that creates various problems, and taking a weak approach to foreign policy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I Loled.

Record budgets, medicare prescription plan, iran, north korea..

You sure you got your parties right?

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This may create more of a mess as the Democrats have a history of spending excessively, enacting questionable "liberal" legislation that creates various problems, and taking a weak approach to foreign policy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I Loled.

Record budgets, medicare prescription plan, iran, north korea..

You sure you got your parties right?

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't like what the Republicans have done, but from their past history, Democrats may make a bigger mess.

[Meech]

I think the only possible way anybody could make a bigger mess, would be to elect a majority of Jerry's kids to congress.