Obama a dictator, only GOP 'Legitimate' to represent America

[SirNitram]

Link

[quote]SIOUX CITY — Warming up a crowd in Sioux City this morning for GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, U.S. Rep. Steve King said Republicans are not going far enough to paint Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama as the purveyor of a socialist agenda.

King, known for provocative, partisan remarks, suggested Obama actually could be classified as even more extreme than a socialist. King also said his party is the only one with a legitimate claim on representing freedom as Americans know it.

“When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship,â€

[General Havoc]

Well what exactly did you expect the GOP to do? Come out and say "We lost because we're a bunch of venal, corrupt criminals who have fucked up every single thing we've touched in the last 14 years"?

The losing party always tries to paint their loss as some kind of biblical apocalypse resulting in the end of humanity as we know it. I'm actually GLAD the GOP is doing this, because it means they know they've lost.

[frigidmagi]

Considering that Georgia is within 3 pts and Arizona within 8pts I would say no one is listening. Besides if the McCain campaign is any example the Republicans should save their ammo for fighting each other after the election.

[SirNitram]

Well what exactly did you expect the GOP to do? Come out and say "We lost because we're a bunch of venal, corrupt criminals who have fucked up every single thing we've touched in the last 14 years"?

The losing party always tries to paint their loss as some kind of biblical apocalypse resulting in the end of humanity as we know it. I'm actually GLAD the GOP is doing this, because it means they know they've lost.

I would expect it to stop somewhat before 'There is no legitimacy to this election' and 'My opponent is a dictator'. This will shock you, but other democratic systems do exist where no one pretends them losing is some dastardly evil scheme putting illegitimate authority in power.

[frigidmagi]

I'd like to take a moment to expand my point. The Republicans are not just facing losing a Presidential election, but losing rather large chunks of power in the Senate and the House, to the point that the Democrats will have free reign. Add into the bargin that they're running out of money and you have a really bad decade coming in. This is a total, systematic and catastrophic lost on a lot of levels.

There are several reactions a group can take to a lost this total.

1: Moderation, decide you were being to radical and moderate your position, bringing it closer to your opponents. This was the reaction of the Democrats under Clinton and has we saw later there are dangers to this. As we can see the Republicans have pretty much rejected this plan as they would have to basically embrace a completely new crop of leaders.

2: Radicalize, decide the problem was you were far out enough, there wasn't a big enough difference between you and the other guy. This is pretty much what Obama is doing, before anyone screams I'm not suggesting he's leapt into a fringe position, but compare his positions to Kerry who basically ran as Bush the Nicer, to Obama, it's time for a Change. Sometimes you simply have to radicalize a bit. Perhaps taking his lead the Republicans are embracing this. The problem is when you already are the radical party radicalizing further just makes the problem worse not better! The direction they're radicalizing in as suggested by Palin is not one designed to appeal outside a limited region of the US and to a fading demographic (i.e. rural conservative whites).

3: Abandonment and Reinvention, everything you thought and pushed was wrong and you made a big, big mistake. This usually leads to a collapse or an utter reinvention. Frankly I wish the Republicans would chose this option. It would be best for the nation I think but it's unlikely to be.

In the face of current demographic trends (i.e the expansion of minority groups like Hispainics and the increasing urbanization of the US) the Republicans are picking a dead end. This is very firmly shown in the example of Virginia. Also let's consider something, there are no great leaders for the Republicans on the horizon. The people who could save them, Powell and company are in the process of dying or leaving. In their place we have Palin and Huckabee who are more likely to fight to the death then cooperate and Romney who has no damn chance of getting popular support within or without the Republican party. Even if Palin and Huckabee cooperate it is impossible for them to gain a national victory in the face of the rejection of their values and goals outside of their regions and even then their regions are shrinking, not growing. In the face of the Obama's, Webbs and other rising democratic personalities there is not much if anything to recommend them.

Are their attacks getting more vicious, shrill and brutal? Yes. Are they going outside the bounds of civilized discourse? Yes. Is this going to help them? No.

This is not the reaction of a party capable of conducting the kind of warfare needed to unseat Obama in 2012. It is the reaction of a party spinning out of control as factions fall out and 3rd rate personalities grab power and positions much above their abilities or even understanding. After the election you will see the next two months spend in brutal infighting, the outside of this effect will be uglier and uglier rhetoric aimed at anything they've labeled unclean at which point they will spend the next 2 years railing at anything and everything and basically making asses of themselves. This grand Republican counter attack will not work in it's objective expect among those who had already believed it before it was launched. In short it is not going to cause any new Republican majorities unless Obama blows his own feet off, the abilities shown by him so far makes me inclined to trust his ability to handle and defeat this.