A question for older DUers and those who study history: Were repubicans always this nuts?

[rasputin1952]

105. No, the first Republican was Lincoln...

hardly a radical conservative. Grant was pretty decent, (his cabinet was a nightmare though). Teddy Roosevelt was a Progressive R, he was far more to the left considering what we are seeing these days.

Every president has had his flaws, just as every person has his/her flaws, the problem is, when in a position of power, regardless of party, presidents tend to allow themselves the "luxury" of allowing the flaws to override their better nature.

Eisenhower's "genius" was delegating authority to those around him that could get the job done. He was pretty good at finding people that could deal with multiple problems and he used them to the best advantage. He was conciliatory and had a knack for bringing opposing forces together on so that many problems could be dealt with without the usual flaps and floundering.

Nixon did some good, but his flaws were blatantly obvious, there is some talk that his apparent paranoia had a greater impact on his decisions than previously thought. Nixon was not a stupid man by any means, he had some serious issues though.

Ford was an all around decent man, not all that bright, but a "good guy".

Reagan was an idiot. His function was to be a conduit for those who actually wrote and enforced stringent ideology, (incredibly, the GOP emphatically states it despises everything "Hollywood", yet embraced a B grade actor as a kind of messiah). Reagan's claim to fame is to stick to the script he was handed...his first major flaw became apparent after the suicide bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. He pulled out, essentially lighting the the fuse that would become our current problems in the Middle East.

Poppy Bush was a dud, he strolled into the WH promising "no new taxes", blew that and was off to the political dust-bin, another dim-bulb that burned out while in office.

bush II...'nuff said.

The 19th and early 20th century R's were not a bad group per se, Harding and Coolidge were duds, setting up the economy for a free fall into the Great Depression, for which Hoover took the fall. Hoover was not a bad guy, but his cabinet set the stage for even more disaster. Hoover was a great organizer and did quite a bit to alleviate suffering during a few of the situation that came about after he was out of office.

The GOP accepted a radical agenda under Reagan, they have consistently moved to the Right until there is no wiggle room left at all. One of the profound problems w/this is that the D's have followed suit in the misguided belief that the country have moved to the Right when in reality the majority of Americans are middle of the road citizens that actually lean left.

The bat-shit crazy world of Romney/Ryan is about to be turned upside down...they are on the long path to losing, they touch an issue and it ignites, women people of color and a host of other citizens in affinity groups have written them off.

If Obama got away from his war stance, he has a chance of going down as a good president, the ball is in his court, if he pursues a line where citizens are helped and he ends the wars, he can make an impact. I'm not holding my breath though, he's been a dismal failure in many areas, he maintains some popularity which should hand him the election.

Thing that gets me, there are some 350 million citizens in this nation...this is the best we can up with?