Democrats should work on dividing the Republican Party...

[kentuck]

It's hardball but that's what the Repubs have been doing, dividing and conquering. But how do we do it?

It is my opinion that many Republicans are questioning their Party at this time. Most of them are moderate Republicans. We have seen glimpses in the last few weeks in Congress, with Senators like Hagel and Sununu. It is a good bet that there are many "moderate" Republicans out there that feel similar to these Senators.

We should, as a Party, invite them to join us in taking back our country from the radicals. But to do so, we have to offer ideas that they agree with. We will ask them to put country over Party, especially when the Party is wrong, no matter which Party it is.

We ask them to join us in putting our country back on a sound fiscal footing. They have no duty to vote with a Party that is reckless with our budget and huge deficits. If they agree with us that there is no free lunch, then we ask them to join us and help save our country for our children and grandchildren.

We ask them to join us in working out a plan to save Social Security for the elderly in the future. This is not just a "big government" program. This has been the most successful program ever created in this country's history. We don't want to bankrupt it or throw it out. We want to save it. We want them to help us.

And we want to protect our Constitution and our rights, without putting our country at harm. We can do this without constantly living in fear and surrendering all of our rights. We can do better than that and we would like the sensible Republicans to join us in protecting our nation.

So, how would this divide the Republican Party?? Because there have to be many sensible Republicans that are very disenchanted with the direction their Party is going, but they are taken for granted because they have nowhere else to go. Our Party leaders should appeal to them and their common sense. Together we can defeat the radicals that have taken over our government. And if Bush and the Repub leaders thought they might lose some of their "moderate" support, it would divide them as to what action to take, whether or not any of them joined with us. But, I think this may be a strategy that might work? The trick would be to get the Democrats to accept the strategy.

[ThomWV]

1. Easier Than Chopping Up An Onion

Think about the splits that are available.

You can split off the Republicans who believe in fiscal sanity.

You can split off the Republicans who aren't religious finatics.

You can split off the Republicans who believe in the rule of law.

They can keep the NASCAR crowd.

[me b zola]

9. Right. These splits are already occurring, we just need to encourage more

McCain & Sanitorium are running from the wingnuts. Libitarian minded repubs voted against cloture on the patriot act. I believe that there is a lot more rumblings going on than we hear about, but it's there and unless we drop the ball, it will only become more pronounced.

I also agree with the posters who say that we should get our house in order. Right now the Demcratic wing of the Democratic Party is doing a fairly good job at setting the tone of the debate. The stronger their voices become, the less relevent the apologists become.




on edit: than, not then :D

[Warpy]

2. Nice try, but the DLC still has to go

Any party that has abandoned its base is only a shadow party. We can't think about dividing anybody else's party while we lack one of our own.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

4. Actually We Can. I think we are capable of doing both at the same time.

Democrats can multitask. :)

[Warpy]

11. Oh, I let the religious GOPers have it every chance I get

I don't mean I harangue them or argue with them or do anything else that makes them defensive. I just listen to them for 5 minutes and very quietly say "That's the most unchristian thing I ever heard in my life," and walk away.

They've read the words. They know what I'm talking about. They just think they've been given some kind of permission to ignore everything Christianity is about in the name of greed and a rapture fantasy.

It packs a wallop.

However, eliminating party conservatives from the center of power in the DNC is really my job, and your job, and the job of everyone who wants hope for a better future instead of the bleakness and despair the DLC have given us for so very long.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

13. Ok. Agree With Ya There.

Well Stated.

[FlemingsGhost]

3. Um ... dontcha think they should address their own Party divisions?

The DLC must be destroyed.

[kentuck]

8. That would be a way to address our own "divisions"...

Because those are all issues that few Democrats disagree upon, including the DLC. They would unite our own PArty and divide the Repubs, in my opinion. But since when do the Democrats get any credit for thinking? :)

[Initech]

5. Turnabout is fair play!

I would say the first course of action is simple:

Getting that fat fuck Limbaugh off the air.

Then it's only a matter of time before all the pieces fall into place.

[William769]

6. They can't

They are to damn busy trying to divide their own.

[leftstreet]

7. I'm surrounded by a sea of Repubs - they're getting cranky

about 2 issues in their own party:

1) religious evangelical nutjobs "they don't speak for me"
2) War in Iraq "we can't win it, it's just a civil war now"

[stopbush]

10. It will never happen because every Rethug in the country

has a skeleton in their political closet. If that skeleton doesn't involve outright theft/illegal actions tied to bushco then it's probably tied to the way they gained office in the first place. They have all - every one of them - taken the "Riverboat gamble" on bushco (the term that Howard Baker used to so succinctly described Reagan's disastrous economic policies).

The Rs know that they all sink or swim together. They will never break ranks to the extent that it hurts them as a party. They will squabble, and they will feign outrage, but at the end of the day they are loyalists, not patriots. The few who dissent will be trotted out 5 months later to chant the "now that I have ALL the information, it looks like bushco is totally innocent" mantra.

The very culture of Republicanism is a culture of corruption. They are a legal mafia.

I've got no suggestions to offer on how to bring them down, but I can't see many or any splintering off to join the Dems. Dems need party unity and a clear message that they parrot on EVERY occasion. If the question is, "How's the economy?," the answer should be, "bush needs to be impeached. The economy is going nowhere until he's removed." If the question is "what's your plan for Iraq?," the answer needs to be, "bush must be removed from office. No plan - no matter how good - can succeed with liars and thieves running the show."

[Flabbergasted]

12. Thinking that myself?

The Republican party is falling apart all on its own. The shame is the Democrats either do not want to or can't pick up the slack. Why they can't come up with a cohesive platform to capitalize on this oppurtunity. Their is so much division in the party that they just argue over the issues instead of finding common ground and sticking to their guns.

I was listening to Peter Defazio on 620 (A.A.) this morning. I paraphrase him saying the the Abramhoff deal is going to take down a good share of their party and a few democrats. The country is going to be in a leadership vacumm. Either the demos step forward or George is. He still has major clout with fundy's

[KyuzoGator]

14. It's actually easy: Republicans aren't conservative anymore.

They don't want to conserve natural resources, money, human lives, goodwill among our allies, respect or anything else. There is no definition of "conservative" that parallels the agenda of the modern Republican party.

[applegrove]

15. Simply holding each and every Repuke congressmen & senators responsible

for how they vote and whether or not they are Rove WH patsies... would work. Demand they act as adults. Then the brownshirt jack boot march has to stop. Only children are capable of being infantalized and led like that.

[Birthmark]

16. There is no Republican Party.

They back a king. They will be called the Monarchist Party by me (and hopefully others) until they hold the President accountable to the law, as all Presidents should be. If they don't believe that, then they are clearly in favor of Monarchy, not Republicanism and shouldn't be allowed to claim a title to which they aren't entitled.