Is Mitt doing long term damage to the Republicans?

[yourout]

I like to think so.

Most middle of the road voters now see them for what they really are....the Party of the Rich, By the Rich, and for the Rich.

He is opening more eyes then we could ever hope to on our own.

[still_one]

1. if the republicans lose, which I hope they do for the country's sake, there will be a lot of blame

and pointing fingers in the republican party

You will have two groups

one group will say you have gone too far to the right and that is why they lost

and the other group will say they didn't go far enough

One will win that fight, I would like to hope the moderates would, but I would not bet on it

[DJ13]

5. One will win that fight, I would like to hope the moderates would

I hope the crazies stay in charge.

Every election they move more to the right they will continue losing.

Eventually their ideology will be so tainted they will have to crawl back under a rock for another 70-80 years like their last attempt at world domination.

[Jamaal510]

10. Sure, the wingnuts do make it easier to win presidential elections.

But I think the issue is that by the GOP moving even further rightward, they are less willing to work together with Democrats whenever they have control of at least one of the two houses of Congress. This is a problem not only because the actual "center" of the political spectrum has shifted rightward as well, but also because many Americans out there aren't that informed about the checks and balances system in government, so they think a president can automatically do anything with a stroke of a pen.

[still_one]

12. You see I do not look at things that way. I believe not only is extremism is bad, they could win.

[brewens]

2. His tax rate alone blows the lid off the b.s. you used to hear about the wealthy paying 50% or

more. I knew even before Buffett that there was no way that was true. Anyone in Romney's league or higher can get it down to 15% or so easy. They might not always, but none of them pay 50%.

They try and convince middle class people that any tax increase on them is unfair and will cause their taxes to go up. They may have a little trouble pushing that crap from now on.

[LiberalFighter]

3. As long as they don't have real wages above the 15% rate

and the remaining is related to capital gains or dividends it will never reach 15%. It could only be 15% if all of their income was at the 15% rate and they had no exemptions or deductions. Or the right combination of income not taxed, income at 10%, 15%, and 25%. Otherwise, it will no higher than 14.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999%

[oldhippydude]

4. i am hoping so..

couple of things are happening... first of all there a number of economic myths that republicans have used at least since Reagan, that are rapidly being exposed for the myths that they are.. credit President Clinton, among others at the Democratic convention (as well as OWS if the truth be known)..

as luck would have it this is probably the worst year to run a Plutocrat for President.. especially an inarticulate one.. also the Republicans rather than fix the economy have doubled down on the misery, believing the American People would blame the POTUS.. the good news of this is that except for their base, the rest of the population knows who caused the mess..

the real gift this year is having a candidate that on a daily basis confirms our worst fears, Willard himself can't help but be the chief architect of his own demise..

with any kind of luck at all the party will be branded for a generation, changing demographics will do the rest.. as the base gets smaller, and smaller they will face either change or extinction..

[BlueStreak]

6. Nothing is forever, but he is definitely setting some very bad precedents

When has the Democrat ever been trusted more on defense?

When has the Democrat ever been trusted more on the economy?

When has the Democrat ever been favored by NASCAR fans?

On top of that, it looks like Romney is solidifying women and Latinos as strongly Democratic. This is not entirely Romney's fault, but Bush did a heck of a lot better with these groups.

And Romney is doing his best to turn active military away from the Republican Party.

You can't take any group for granted. But when people get into a pattern of voting, many of them stick with it for a generation.

[madrchsod]

7. i`d say the moderates will take back the party

[truebluegreen]

8. I don't think there are any moderates.

I think they are going to get worse, and some of them might start shooting.

[TroyD]

9. I think George W. Bush did much more damage

I don't think Mitt has caused anywhere near as much damage to the Republicans as Bush did.

Yet.

[modrepub]

11. It's self inflicted

I expect them to take one of two strategies; double down, "the square peg will fit in the round hole if I just hit it harder this time" or more voter suppression, "everyone knows busloads of other people show up in the big city wards to vote for dead people". But as Benny Hill said, a broke clock is right twice a day. Party preferences shifts over time and we're hopelessly stuck in a two party system.