The Conservatives' Day is Over....

[Dob Bole]

Ronald Reagan DID change the nature of American politics. To an extent, there was a Reagan Revolution, especially insofar as he won the entire South in 1984. But that day has passed. Not only is Reagan himself dead, but consider the following:

1. The Influence of the Religious Right has waned. They are no longer that great of a political force- they have caused themselves to become marginalized, predictable, and irrelevant to the political climate.

2. Newt Gingrich has disgraced himself, and is no longer of any importance to the conservative movement.

3. Rush Limbaugh is facing drug charges. If he were to get jailtime, that would knock a lot of the wind out of conservatives' sails. (that's a big IF, though)

4. Republicans have not won the popular vote in a presidential election since 1988. If shrub loses this year, the most viable future Republican candidates would be Tom Ridge, Rudy Guiliani, Colin Powell, John McCain- not conservatives.

5. Most Americans, even if they are scared of the term "liberal" are very progressive, on almost every issue. Conservatives cannot compete in this field.

And that's not all. But I think we're in OK standing right now.

[David Dunham]

1. Bush is far from losing the White House. We all have to work hard.

At best, the presidential election this year is 50-50, in large part because the economy may be seen to be rebounding, which helps Bush offset Iraq. We all need to work very hard to unseat Bush if we are to succeed,

[NewJeffCT]

2. Disagree

1) I think we're all fooling ourselves if you think the Religious Right's influence has waned. They see it as a long term struggle and are slowly consolidating & expanding their power. They have control of multiple state legislatures and have huge $ on their side, and they breed like rabbits.

2) he hasn't been for a while, but has been replaced by Tom DeLay

3) a new name will take his place in the unlikely event of jail time.

4) Bill Frist & Jeb Bush are more likely in 2008 - McCain will be too old and Rudy will never get the approval of the Religious Reich. Frist has already formed an exploratory committee.

5) Conservative control of the media helps them frame issues positively for issues Americans are progressive on - Healthy Forests; Clear Skies; Clean Water; No Child Left Behind; etc.

[frankly_fedup2]

5. Dubya has taken over the leadership of the

religious right. All of his followers look up to this born-again man. Jerry "all Jews are going to Hell" Falwell has a bedroom in the White House just as Pat Robertson. The Religious Right have such a hold on this man it is unbelievable.

They have Bush believing that God has chosen for him to be president at this time. They are telling him that the things that are happening in our World is from text in the Bible.

I'm waiting for them to proclaim he is the Messiah returned.

[Kinkistyle]

6. put a big fat bold star next to 1 and 5

Money and control of the information. Thats all you need.

[SheilaT]

3. Furthermore,

the Bush cabal came to power in a coup, and they know that perfectly well. They will not give up their power willingly, certainly not just because of a silly election. They will do anything in their power to steal the election come November. Heck, I can readily think of several ways to do it, and I'm not someone who spends all of my time scheming about these things.

We must not, for one minute, think this election is in the bag. We must be out there campaigning, not merely for the guy at the top of the ticket, but for every single Congressional seat, every Senate one that's up this year, as well as state senators, representatives, mayors, governors, every single city council seat out there.

And we must not think that just getting President Kerry and a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, despite how sweet that would be, will mean or troubles are over. We'll still have 135,000 soldiers in Iraq, maybe more, and they'll still be dying on a daily basis. The economy will still be in a shambles. Restoring the old taxes will be vilified as raising taxes.

Just because the Republicans claimed to be compassionate didn't mean that they were. Quite the opposite, and they helped change many other Americans into being greedy, selfish, and mean-spirited just like them.

I'm afraid we have a long way to go.

[elfwitch]

4. I think you are seriously underestimating them...

1. If anything their influence has gotten worse. Look at the new witch-hunts on decency in the media, for ONE example. They feel they have some sort of moral high ground and are not afraid to push it. If Bush II retains the WH expect their war against everyone else to get worse. Expect school prayer to be pushed through. Expect abortion to become illegal again. Expect the Flag Burning Amendment to go through. Expect Patriot Act II to become permanent.

2. You are correct. But there are ones FAR worse than he ever was that have taken his place.

3. He will NEVER see the inside of a jail. EVER!

4. They don't need the popular vote. They own the voting machines. They have already started up their voter roll shenanigans in Florida. The Gropinator is in California. They don't need to win an election to take office. All they need is Diebold and the SCOTUS.

5. Most Americans are not progressive. Over the last 6 years I have worked with a bunch of college professors on a project that measures just that. The study has found that a self described "liberal" (left of center to far left of center) is far more conservative than self described "liberals" in the rest of the world. I'll put it on a scale. If the conservative to liberal scale goes from 1 to 10 with 1 being the most conservative and 10 being the most liberal - Americans who describe themselves in the 7-10 range, when comparing attitudes to Europeans in the study, attitudinally fall in the 4-6 range by comparison. So a American Liberal 10 has the same attitudes as a European Liberal 6.

We are not OK right now. We are very far from it. The Right has taken over and will not let go without bloodshed. I would not put it past them to let things far worse than 9-11 happen if they believed it would secure their control.

[frankly_fedup2]

8. Can anyone explain WHY Limbaugh has not been arrested yet?

I mean he has a maid who has been arrested with her husband for supplying illegal drugs. Why has he not been arrested for buying them? All he froths at the mouth about is his friggin medical records where they are trying to see if he was doctor shopping. Why would he need to. He had suppliers so who needs a prescription filled.

[elfwitch]

11. Easy...

He is a rich white Republican male.
If he was poor, black, liberal, or female he would have been in jail already. Just look what they did to Tommy Chong.

[peacetalksforall]

7. To me the right is all about death.

If you examine it in detail, all their important tenets are about death, even their tenet about 'right to life'.

No one needs anyone to elaborate, but just in case, here are some of the blatant:

The most blatant are the thousands of little people who have been massacred, raped, killed because of political manipulations and deals with leaders who are in favor one day and out of favor the next - brought to us under the myth of the need to fight communism and now terrorism - which was and is a cover to gain earth wealth and all that goes with it - for a few.

Death of our rights and constitution and foundations of separation of chruch and state.

Death of our voice and our vote.

[frankly_fedup2]

12. Since the 2000 selection, I have been so

disgusted with what WE the American People allowed to happen. It stuck in my mind then and now. We have "Taxation WITHOUT representation." We are slowly losing our rights to privacy.

I have been told that Bush is seeking to change some laws that would allow the medical records of every woman who has ever had an abortion to see if it was medically required OR if it was just because she did not want the child. Anyone else heard of this?

I know this past year that every doc I went to I had to sign a paper stating who I would only allow to see my records. I do not know how the Repukes plan to do this OR even if this is true.

Comments?

[peacetalksforall]

14. I haven't heard this.

There is a lot of suppostion on this forum when people hear something atrocious and take it to the next degree. I hope it was suppostion.

These people read 1984 and asked "Why Not?"

[pocoloco]

9. Shouldn't daydreams be posted in the Lounge??

[Warpy]

10. 4. They're slow learners, they'll probably run Jebbie in 2008

If Kerry is unable to deliver, Jebbie will probably win.

[AndyTiedye]

13. Would that it were so

1. The Fundies have power far beyond their numbers. They have succeeded
in getting substantial Federal money diverted from social programs to
"faith-based" programs that are only available to Fundies. Your freedom
of religion now ends as soon as you need help, if the help you need has
been contracted out to a church group.

2. The Bush* contract on America makes Newt look like a piker.

3. Rush is one among hundreds or even thousands of reichwing talkshow
"personalities". The voices of the left or even the center can be
counted on one hand. The right owns the news, because they own the media.
This consolidation of the media in right-wing hands has been enabled
even further by the current FCC chairman, despite massive public outcry.
If we try to make too much of an issue of this in the election, the
media will refuse to air us.

4. The Republicans don't need to win the popular vote. They only need
the Fundies and Diebold. We cannot win the election unless we stop Diebold.

5. Most Americans are progressive on most issues, but far too many can
be persuaded to vote reich-wing based on some "hate" issue.

I think our pluralistic democracy has never been in such dire peril.

[ithacan]

15. you are absolutely wrong about the religious right!!!

Overall I agree with your point.

But the religious right's influence has not waned, in fact in some ways it has never been greater.

The Religious Right now basically controls the Republican Party.

If you want to educate yourself on this issue check out this website:
http://www.TheocracyWatch.org/

There's nothing they would love more than for people to think they are out of influence.

In fact, they've hijacked the GOP.

Of course, we need to get that fact out, and that will help split the GOP, this is an excellent wedge issue to split the fundies from the secular Republicans.