Republican Party Rhetoric Hitting Rock Bottom

The Republican Party and some of its spokes people are hitting rock bottom with many of us wondering how we ever stayed Republican for so long. What I have learned in the last six years makes my head swim today! How could you even defend such a Party when it starts rotting from the head down with the RNC Chair Priebus being unethical starting with his days as head of the Wisconsin GOP. He is a perfect fit to head the GOP -- still unethical using RNC funds to support Governor Walker during recall while sending out letters looking for donations to the RNC for their Convention but like so many of the worthless Republican National Committees in the past they chose to look the other way!  

On a sidenote -- a very good friend and I tried to get the RNC Chair canned in 2000 by contacting all the members of the Committee as the RNC Chair was showing a bias in the Presidential primary for Senator McCain.  Effort failed but looking back that was probably my start of being disgusted with Republican politics.  

Email shows RNC chair Reince Priebus leaked info to Scott Walker about primary opponentRepublican National Committee chair Reince Priebus gave Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) inside information leading up to his 2010 election, Isthmus reported Wednesday night. Among the thousands of emails recovered as part of a recently-concluded investigation…

On a sidenote, you would think with as much as I have written against RNC Chair Priebus and the RNC not to mention emails and phone calls telling them to 'shove it' that someone would have taken me off their snail mail list.  That would be wrong -- received another fundraising letter yesterday except unlike in the past they didn't include any dollar bills to send back.  Wonder how much they lost on that scheme -- I was one of those who kept the money.

Anyone who has any type of reading comprehension, knows Preibus and Gov Walker are not very ethical and with the release of emails in Wisconsin the people of the state are finding out that neither one of them have any ethics and don't care.   Still recovering from the people around Governor Walker being a bunch of racists according to emails that have been released.

Taking a lot around at some comments out of Republicans this week makes me extremely happy that I have told them to get lost.  From CNN:

IGOR BOBIC – FEBRUARY 20, 2014, 10:35 AM EST14691 

Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott (R) was happy to campaign with conservative troll Ted Nugent this week, despite the fact the rocker once called President Obama a "chimpanzee" and a "subhuman mongrel." 

Asked repeatedly by CNN's Ed Lavandera whether he thought it was appropriate to associate himself with someone with such a history of vitriolic and racist remarks, Abbott deflected by saying Nugent was instrumental in going after his opponent. 

"Ted Nugent was a way to expose Wendy Davis for her flip-flopping on gun related issues," he explained about the Democrat's support of an "open carry" gun law. 

At one point in the video, Abbott's communications director tries to cut off the reporter in front of the camera. 

Watch below:

This tells you a lot of Texas Governor candidate Gregg Abbot and none of it good -- he puts his own campaign ahead of decency and responsibility by admitting that with Ted Nugent with him he brings in more people.  Nugent is pure slime and to use him to get people out are not the kind of people I would want supporting me.  Unbelieveable at how low the GOP candidates are going in 2014.  Always thought Abbott would do and say anything to get elected and he is still proving me right.  GOP Attorney Generals for the most part in the states are some of the worst and most hard right who are wasting a ton of money on lawsuits they cannot win but make them feel good while costing the taxpayers of their states.     Not to be outdone for stupidity, out comes Michelle Bachmann again:

Michelle Bachman Says President Obama Got Elected Because of Slavery

By: Jason Easley 

Thursday, February, 20th, 2014, 2:24 pm

Republicans aren’t even trying to hide their racism anymore. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) that Barack Obama was only elected president because white people felt guilty about slavery. 

Bachmann told Cal Thomas that she didn’t think America was ready for a woman president, then she gave her race based theory of why Barack Obama was elected:

Bachmann says a lot of people “aren’t ready” for a female president. “I think there was a cachet about having an African-American president because of guilt.” (Presumably she means because of slavery and the lengthy denial of civil rights to blacks.) “People don’t hold guilt for a woman,” she says, adding that while people vote for women for virtually every other office “I don’t think there is a pent-up desire” for a woman president.

How does she explain how President Obama also won in 2012?  Answer is she doesn't -- she is stuck in the same GOP mantra that President Obama was elected because he was black not because the Republican Party put up such lousy candidates.  If the House Districts were not so badly gerrymandered,  the Republicans would not be in charge of the House either.  Republican Party and its hard right are turning off common sense Americans including Republicans who have had it with their anti-rhetoric if it is not their idea.  The 'my way or no way' are fully in charge of the Republican Party at all levels today with common sense thrown out the window.

Speaker Boehner now says Congress may be done with meaningful legislation before the election.  Guess you could call it a Boycott of Legislation by Republicans?  This is February 20th and they don't plan on anything meaningful until after the November 4th election?  Yet the American Taxpayers are paying those lowlifes to do nothing but start and expand investigations that have no basis in reality?  Time for the American people to wake up and vote them out of office because they have turned their backs on us and the oaths they took when they were elected.  Politics trumps all for the hard right Republicans while passing bills to help Americans and run the Government comes in dead last.

To anyone out there thinking they want to stay a Republican -- read that paragraph above and tell me why?  There is not a legitimate answer that I can come up with on why anyone with a working brain could remain a Republican.  The hard right has taken over the entire Party and from what most of us can see the effort by the Chamber and other more mainstream Republicans is failing.  How can anyone support a Party that uses Ted Nugent as a spokesman for the face of the party?

Only one answer for November since no one wants to start a new Centrist Party:

Chairman Priebus Declares GOP is Party of White Conservative Christians

TODAY I am declaring that I am not longer a Republican and will be registering as a Democrat very shortly.  I refuse to be a member of a Party where the RNC Chairman declares the Party is a Religion.  Have never been a social conservative and unlike the RNC Chairman I am a tolerant person except for bigots and racists who I detest with a passion.  

Our party believes that life begins at conception. I think those are foundational issues that aren’t going anywhere but what I have said, which I don’t think should be controversy at all and I would think that Christians and pastors and everyone in between should agree that our principles have to be draped in the concepts of grace, love and respect and that’s not code language. That’s the New Testament so I don’t think there should be any problem with that thinking in our party.  RNC Chairman Priebus, 23 Jul 2012

Just got off the phone with the RNC giving them my more than two cents as I had a problem with what he said.  Kept getting passed from person to person to finally getting a voice mail that they will call me back - probably in the year 2020 after what I had to say.  Just a side note, the RNC has a petition to sign on their website to to Obama on jobs - guess Priebus was too caught up in the GOP is a religion to know the House GOP is the one that won't consider a jobs bill.  Glad I am not as dumb as they think we are.

Let me give you some of my background as a Republican which will explain why it has been hard to make the change and leave everything I have known behind:

• Walked doors as a teenager for Barry Goldwater
• Charter Member of the Ohio Teenage Republican Club
• Member of the Young Republicans
• Vice Chairman of County GOP
• President of the Oldest Women's Club in Oklahoma
• Precinct Chair
• Consultant/Analyst/Researcher/Full-time Volunteer to various campaigns at National, State, and local level
• Republican Blogger (Morphed into Progressive Blogger with this new site)

You can see that I was a died in the wool Republican from my days as a teenager.  My Uncle was the Secretary to the Ohio Republican Party and my parents and grandparents hard core Republicans.  That's how I got to see Barry Goldwater and had to skip school for the day as the Principal wouldn't allow us to go see him and miss school even with our parent's permission.  He said we would take zero's but he was overruled by the Superintendent who just happened to be our next door neighbor.

After taking a break from politics while working for the Air Force as civil service, I started getting involved again on our transfer to Norton AFB, CA.  Did a lot of volunteer work at the schools for my three kids so politics even then took a backseat until they were older when I became very active once again.

My break-up with the Republican Party started with the shift to hard right which I thought originally was just in Oklahoma but I was dead wrong as it is across the Country.  By the time the 2012 campaign came along I was really disgusted with what I was hearing in debates.  I was a Rudy supporter in 2008 and took a lot of grief for that since he was Pro-Choice and for Gay Rights.  When the Romney camp systematically got rid of candidate after candidate, I had no one to support because there was not enough money in the world to make me support Mitt Romney.  I am not a Libertarian so the minute I found out that Gary Johnson, their potential candidate, was a big support of Ayn Rand that did me in with him.  I liked him as Governor of New Mexico but I don't support Ayn Rand supporters.

Talked to good friends, talked to my brother, and then decided that I would join Republicans for Obama which meant I was still hoping that after Romney lost big that the Republican Party would go back to being normal.  I was WRONG as it went further hard right.  After being spotlighted on R's for Obama, I started getting some nasty email but it didn't faze me as I have been used to 'nasty' out of the "my way or no way crowd."  I have had my foot out the door since then.

I have no regrets for my action to make the move to the Democrat Party.  I have never been a social conservative  because I always said social issues belong in my home and community not as Federal issues.  I don't even believe that abortion or gay marriage would be a political issue so you can see where I no longer fit in the Republican Party.  As late as 1994, the Contract with America contained no social issues.  Now that is all changed with today's Republican Party where social issues are put over economic issues.  I cannot be a member of the Republican Party of religion who puts Christian religious beliefs as their core principles.  When Priebus said the 'New Testament' that left out a whole group of people.

Would imagine that I am not the only common sense Republicans who is disgusted at what has happened to our Party if the reaction I got on my comments on my phone call to the RNC was an indication.  Priebus is going to have the privilege of reigning over a Republican Party that is about to become a shadow of its former self.  Already I meet a number of people on line who are former Republicans and within a few days you can add me to that list.

The following article is the straw that broke the camel's back in my case as I was staying a Republican to vote against my conscientious objector State Rep in the primary and then switch.  There is no way I can last that long in a Party where I don't share their core principles of religion as the basis for their Party.

Had to grit my teeth to include the You Tube of Priebus because it puts his face on my website which irritates me to no end.  The Koch puppet is destroying the Republican Party as a viable Party.  I am livid that the National Committee and the State GOP Chairs allowed this to happen but then the religious right, social conservatives have taken over a lot of State GOP as we are seeing play out in the State Legislatures.  This interview by Priebus sent me through the roof and was told by a close friend to wait until today to read the article if I want to sleep - he was right.  I have been steamed since I watched the video which was painful since I have NEVER liked the Koch Brothers puppet Priebus from Wisconsin from Day One.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Says the Republican Party is a Religion (Excerpt)
By: Hrafnkell HaraldssonJul. 23rd, 2013 

Talking to The Brody File on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) yesterday, Reince Priebus assured conservative Christians of every stripe that the GOP stands for God’s Own Party. 

After the catastrophic failure of God’s brand in 2012, College Republicans came up with a scheme to get more votes without budging an inch on socially divisive culture war issues. As Salon put it, “Seem Tolerant.” 

Priebus reassured his audience, however, that the GOP is “a party that embraces marriage,” and that he “is a chairman that understands that there’s only one sovereign God and that we ultimately aren’t dependent on what happens in politics, that what ultimately matters in our lives is that we’re salt and light in the world and that we’re honoring God in the things that we do every day.” 

There you have it. From the RNC chairman’s mouth. Priebus doesn’t want to seem tolerant. He doesn’t even like the word “tolerant.” 

Watch courtesy of Right Wing Watch: 

Brody: I want to talk to you about this way forward for the GOP. When you use that word “intolerant” in what the RNC put out, Evangelicals start to grab the Excedrin bottles when they hear “tolerance” because they think “oh no the GOP is changing and the whole gay marriage situation.” Why don’t you address this and maybe put evangelicals at ease, or can you put them at ease at all here? 

Priebus: Well, one hundred percent. I don’t know if I’ve used the word “tolerance.” I don’t really care fo for that word myself. I don’t have a problem with it. I just think it has another meaning politically that can go the other direction. I happen to believe that our principles are sound. I do beleive, and I still will tell you that our party believes that marriage is between one man and one woman. Our party believes that life begins at conception. I think those are foundational issues that aren’t going anywhere but what I have said, which I don’t think should be controversial at all and I would think Christians and pastors and everyone in between should agree that our principles have to be draped in the concepts of grace, love and respect and that’s not code language, that’s the New Testament, so I don’t think there should be any problem with that thinking in our party. That’s all I’ve said. It’s not what you say, I think, it’s sometimes like our moms used to tell us, it’s how you say it; and I think that’s really the issue and quite frankly I think some of that has been overblown. I’m happy to address it but clearly myself and our party haven’t changed on those principles. 

Priebus: I happen to believe that our principles are sound. I do believe, and I still will tell you that our party believes that marriage is between one man and one woman. Our party believes that life begins at conception. I think those are foundational issues that aren’t going anywhere but what I have said, which I don’t think should be controversy at all and I would think that Christians and pastors and everyone in between should agree that our principles have to be draped in the concepts of grace, love and respect and that’s not code language. That’s the New Testament so I don’t think there should be any problem with that thinking in our party. 

If you’re looking at the evidence, what you will see is a party that embraces life, a party that embraces marriage and a chairman that understands that there’s only one sovereign God and that we ultimately aren’t dependent on what happens in politics. What ultimately matters in our lives is that we’re salt and light in the world and that we’re honoring God in the things that we do every day. I get that. I think our party gets that and there’s never been a movement away from that.

More from the article at Politicususa.com

What is sad for Americans is that the Republican Party was not always the party of intolerance and hate. Social issues were not always foundational principles for the GOP. Our differences with the GOP were truly political rather than religious and the two had not yet become conflated in conservative imaginations. 

But now, what Priebus is telling us, is that the GOP is the party only of white conservative Christians, a “political” party whose only interest is in “honoring God” according to some narrowly defined, cherry-picked, and misrepresented (sometimes invented) biblical mandates.

When you read something like this from a Progressive website, you realize how hard right the GOP has gone because they realize it used to be political differences where the two sides would fight in Congress and go have dinner together because they were friends.  Today's Republicans in Congress especially the House are some the most mean spirited, nasty people I have ever seen who believe 'compromise' is a dirty word.  They don't care if they lose as long as they stand on principle.  You cannot deal with people like that as Democrats are finding out.

The last paragraph of the article at Politicususa.com describes the Republican Party of today:

When Americans vote, therefore, they must recognize that the election is not between two political parties, but between one political party and a religion, a religion which, if it had its way, would ultimately do away with the political party in order that America become some dystopian, corporate-sponsored theocracy.

The Republican Party of intolerance that puts the Christian religion as its core principles goes against the Constitution which says quite plainly "Freedom of Religion" which means we do not have a state sponsored religion which is exactly what today's Republican Party wants after what Priebus had to say yesterday.

It is important that voters understand that today's Republican Party officials are all about making this Country a corporate-sponsored, Christian theocracy bought and paid for by the Koch Bros and other wealthy donors.  I have heard it too often not to believe it is true.

When it Comes to GOP, Facts are Stranger than Fiction

Some of what comes out of the mouth's of today's Republicans is truly shocking but today's winner of dumb comments goes to Henry Barbour, author of the latest reboot fot the Republican Party.

The latest from RNC confirms what I have been saying for years that they are in a bubble hiring friends and family of donors, Governors and other elected officials.  RNC Chair Priebus made headlines yesterday with his voluminous report on what went wrong with the Republican Party in 2012 starting at the top with the Presidential race and then Congress.  Still haven't recovered that the GOP actually believed Romney was going to win.  More of inside the bubble telling each other what is happening.  Thought his comments about the report shows a general lack of understanding why the GOP is in such trouble.

On Monday, RNC chairman Reince Priebus rolled out his party's Growth and Opportunity Project plan, aimed at identifying the mistakes the GOP made in 2012 and fixing them before 2016

The person who wrote the plan to reshape the GOP, Henry Barbour, is the nephew of the former MS Governor and RNC Chair Hailey Barbour so this all stayed in the RNC family.  It gets better as "Henry" called President Obama a "Socialist" yesterday after the report was released - you cannot make this stuff up as the stupid party gets more stupid by the day:

Henry Barbour, the nephew of the former governor of Mississippi and author of the RNC’s plan to reboot the party and broaden its appeal, thinks President Obama is a “socialist.” 

“We all want to make America strong economically and militarily and every other way but you can’t do that if you’re not in office,” he told The Hill. “We’ve got a socialist in office right now — how’s that working for us?” 

When pressed on his choice of words, Barbour said: ”I don’t care. I mean, look, I think he’s a socialist. I’m not saying he doesn’t love our country,” he said. “No, I don’t care.”

The RNC is spending $10M to get make sure their message gets out but the problem is with the 'message' not delivery which they don't seem to understand even a little. What Priebus and others fail to realize that the old grassroots who were not hard right are totally disgusted with hard right lunge and no amount of messaging (rhetoric) is going to change that.  A lot have moved on to becoming Independents or Democrats.  Then there are those of us in states with a State Democrat Party that leaves a lot to be desired so we joined Republicans for Obama, are now part of Organizing for Action after being part of Obama's Organizing for America during the campaign.  We will helping Democrats win in 2014 because have had enough of today's hard right GOP to last a lifetime.

One thing I will admit is the Obama campaign was much more effective at getting at the message out to supporters through email and social media then the snail mail of the RNC/Romney campaign that didn't even make it into my home as I stopped by the trash barrel to deliver the snail mail which sometimes was 3-4 letters in one day asking for money.  Still cannot believe they send $1 in snail mail for you to make a donation.  Obama was much smarter sending out emails asking for small donations which I clicked on numerous times.

As a woman, there is no amount of packaging/rhetoric that is going to convince me that today's RNC/GOP isn't in a War Against Women:

"The 'we need women and Hispanics to stop thinking we hate them' message belies a core set of policies that are hostile to these demographics and can't be papered over by some rhetorical reboot," said Kelly Steele, a longtime Democratic operative who helped Sen. Harry Reid win another term in 2010. "Look at the fact [Sen.] Marco Rubio didn't utter a single word about immigration at CPAC, and that its audience was openly hostile to any reform."

The White Press Secretary, Jay Carney, sums up perfectly what is wrong with today's Republican Party.  It does not look to be changing anytime soon after what was witnessed at CPAC:

"I think it's important to note that the best way to increase support with the public for your party is to embrace policies the public supports. And embracing policies the public does not support or aggressively rejects makes it more difficult to earn the public's support," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at the briefing Monday. 

"And when it comes, again, to matters like how we grow our economy and, as we grow our economy, how we deal with our deficit and debt challenges," Carney said, "the public overwhelmingly supports a balanced approach to that challenge." 

When you stop and realize how many issues today the GOP is on the wrong side, ways to deliver your message are not the answer:

• NO on Sequestration offer by President Obama to cut spending while closing loopholes for the wealthy
• NO on Violence Against Women's Act by the vast majority of GOP in Congress including Republican women voting NO.  Some GOP were trying to say after voting NO they voted YES 
• NO Contraceptives Provided by Prescription Plans
• NO Money for Women's Health provided by Planned Parenthood
• NO on Abortions for any reason including Rape
• NO on Gun Background Checks (Over 90% want checks)
• NO on Assault Weapons Ban (Over 60% want new ban to also include magazine clip limits)
• NO Budget Deal unless Affordable Healthcare Act (AHA) is repealed by Obama
• NO on Implementation of AHA as OK Congressman Bridenstine & OK Legislature consider it 'unconstitutional' even though SCOTUS ruled it was Constitutional but John Birch Society now recognized by the GOP is for state nullification of Obamacare
• NO on Gay Marriage
• NO on True Immigration Reform that eventually gives path to citizenship 

These are just a few items from the Republican Party of NO which is a perfect name for the GOP as anything that President Obama recommends, they automatically say NO.

Now learning there is push back from the hard right on the Priebus/Henry Barbour RNC plan to win over voters.  This was a given the day Priebus was reelected and now has come out with this plan.  Most longtime Republicans think Priebus is the worst chair ever who is owned by the Koch Brothers after what we saw in Wisconsin.  Now Priebus who catered to the hard right during the election now has a problem with the hard right when he tries to go back more to the center.  Please pass the popcorn:

The 'nutters' push back against RNC blueprintBy Steve Benen  -
Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:08 AM EDT 

Reflecting on the Republican National Committee's "Growth and Opportunity Project," Dave Weigel noted that the blueprint "is less a program of reform than a rough blueprint about how to marginalize the nutters." 

That's clearly true. The structural reforms are intended to "marginalize the nutters" in terms of their electoral influence; the rhetorical reforms are intended to "marginalize the nutters" in terms of public perceptions of the party; and the policy reforms are intended to "marginalize the nutters" who are pushing Republicans to embrace an even more radical policy agenda. 

At times, Reince Priebus and his report aren't subtle on this, specifically criticizing "third-party groups that promote purity." 

With this in mind, the simmering intra-party "civil war" between the Republican base and the party establishment is intensifying, right on cue:

"It looks like a system of the establishment, by the establishment, and for the establishment," said conservative P.R. executive Greg Mueller, a veteran of Pat Buchanan's campaigns. [...] 

Davie Bossie, head of the conservative group Citizens United, fretted that the proposals would mean conservative grassroots candidates, already outmatched organizationally and financially against the GOP establishment on the presidential level, "even less opportunity to break through." 

"I don't think that is a good thing for the party and I definitely don't think it's a good thing for the conservative movement," said Bossie. 

Rush Limbaugh wasn't happy, either, saying Republican leaders have been "bamboozled" by focus groups. "They think they've gotta rebrand and it's all predictable," the radio host said. "They gotta reach out to minorities. They gotta moderate their tone here and moderate their tone there. And that's not at all what they've gotta do. The Republican Party lost because it's not conservative." 

As this excerpted article form MSNBC shows, it is a total mess and what happens to a political party when they go too far to the extreme either way.  In this case it is made worse with the very idea that the wealthy loopholes have to be protected at all costs leading to a lot of longtime GOP grassroots telling the GOP to "Shove It!"

No wonder Democrat strategists are not that worried as they know the plan is DOA in Los Angeles during the Spring Meeting of the RNC when it has to be approved.