Progress

[TheBigotBasher]

It is hard to appreciate how much of the World has changed since 2004. There was no youtube in 2004. The "internet" is no longer that box in the corner of your bedroom. It is on your tv. It has replaced your tv programming. It is easy to get the full web via your mobile.

The internet allowed the World to not just watch the US election, but to participate in it. Blogs supporting the candidate Barack Obama appeared worldwide. What happened in Mississipi was known in Mumbai, without a broadcasters filter. From Australia to Austria the World was able to closely watch and report. Searching google UK for Obama produces 28,000,000 million hits. Google.com has 313,000,000. The Internet has President Obama to achieve an unprecedented level of international support. The World looking on in 2004 was scary enough for Republicans to block access to the Bush campaign website and the contrast in support is clear. Google UK has only 656,000 hits for John McCain.

The World, was shocked by the Republican victory in 2004. It is understandable. The first 4 years were bad enough.

The Republican brand was fear. Their 2004 campaign was a total vindication of fear over common sense. Where would we be now if Iraq had been under a transitional government supported by the United Nations and not what became an occupying force of UK and US troops?

How much better would the World economy have been if the US had a Cabinet that understood Economics? If the US Government had not placed itself in hock to the foreign banks (and mostly that of Communist China) for trillions of dollars.

The Democratic victory, led by Obama killed off the need to "go negative" in political campaigns. It ended the Rove playbook. It made those who used it look stupid.

The faltering economy made that worse for the GOP. As voters wanted solutions - they did not need to know dirt. They wanted to know what the Party stood for and the McCain campaign failed to tell them.

The Obama campaign also fundamentally changed the issue of campaign reform. Millions of small donations broke the power of lobbyists and it meant that the normally "shy" youth vote turned out as they had an investment in this campaign.

So how has the GOP responded?

They are eating their own. There is no sense of Party Unity. There is no strong leadership, except from an extremist and "Ugly" "entertainer".

The so called Conservative base are now more becoming a new McCarthy. The "American Thinker" compares the Obama programme to that of the American Communist Party and then its readers call for armed uprising and this discussion of uprising against the Government is becoming more and more common amongst the hard right. Posters calling for it were more than evident with the "tea party mob".

This is a dangerous road for the GOP. The people laying claim to the "Conservative" banner are not Conservative. They are becoming authoritarian revolutionaries. Conservative ideas were first given voice by the likes of Peel and Disraeli in the UK. Not Rush Limbaugh. Way before the days of the Welfare State, they saw a need for limited Government to look after the population. A complete antithesis of Limbaugh.

How does a Party that sold itself on the idea of the "maverick" reign in the "mavericks" to portray some semblance of electability?

How does a Party that sold a "maverick" discipline a "maverick" senator, representative of even leaflet dropper to show some common voice.

How is a Party, that is so scared of the likes of Limbaugh, able to develop policies that please the broad church of Libertarians to Christian Fundamentalists that it has become?

If they follow the hard right, they will stay on hard ground for a very long time. America is not just about its billionaires, it does not want its poor to starve on the streets and it wants the decent medical care it is already paying for. For those simple challenges, the GOP offers nothing but hate and fear.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. All they still have is fear. Just heard Cramer on SoftBall push fear and failure.

they are just self destructing before our very eyes!

[TheBigotBasher]

2. Which is why you will fid their "Conservative" base calling for revolution.

This is why they are talking about everything from tax strikes to uprising. The hard right of the GOP are descending into dangerous territory. My own view is let them.