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Title: What Does It Mean to Be a Republican?
Source:
The Atlantic
URL Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics ... ean-to-be-a-republican/485486/
Published: Jun 5, 2016
Author: staff
Post Date: 2016-06-05 07:24:28 by buckeroo
Keywords: None
Views: 3601
Comments: 39
Historically, party identification is weaker among Republicans than Democrats. A Pew Research analysis released in 2015 found 23 percent of Americans identify as Republicans compared with 32 percent who identify as Democrats. The findings align with a pattern in the United States. As Pew put it: “For more than 70 years, with few exceptions, more Americans have identified as Democrats than Republicans.” But that may also be contingent on who’s running that election year—and in 2016, Trump poses a conundrum for the Republican Party. “Party ID is very strong, but that depends on the candidate actually being clearly a Republican,” said Tammy Frisby, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The nominee is expected to be the party’s standard-bearer, embodying its conservative values—even as they evolve. “What ‘conservative’ meant in 1954 is not what ‘conservative’ means in 2016,” said Leah Wright Rigueur, an assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, pointing to when the religious right came into the party in the 1980s. Even so, various strains of conservatism have found a home in the Republican Party, Rigueur said. Trump is showcasing a type of conservatism that mainstream Republicans believed to be held at the fringes of the party and at odds with true conservatism, she added. And for some registered Republican voters, that has challenged how they identify with the party. Take, for example, when Ted Cruz dropped out of the presidential race in May. Conservatives came out in full swing against Trump, in some cases going so far as to pronounce Hillary Clinton the winner in November and burn their voter-registration cards. Bryan Akner, a 40-year-old Cruz supporter who lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, was among them. “Every time I hear him (Trump) speaking, I never hear ‘Constitution,’ I never hear ‘liberty,’ I never hear ‘freedom.’ It’s always fear-mongering pretty much to me and playing on the uneducated or under-informed people,” he said. Akner has been a registered Republican since 1993, but after Cruz exited the race, he decided to disaffiliate, frustrated with what he believes to be the party’s slow drift away from conservative to moderate. “It was the last straw on the camel’s back for me,” said Akner. Disillusioned by the party, Ben Kopciel, a 32-year-old Cruz supporter who lives in Brooklyn, New York, also decided to drop his Republican affiliation after 12 years. “I voted based on values,” Kopciel said. “I’ll vote for some values over nothing, but I won’t vote for no values.” Around the country, 25 percent of Americans identify as Republicans as of April 2016, according to a Gallup survey, while a separate analysis found that 20 states are “solidly or leaning Republican.” But the number of registered Republicans in some states has decreased. In California, which holds its primary next week, 27 percent of voters are registered as Republican, down from 30 percent in 2012 and 33 percent in 2008, according to records from the California Office of the Secretary of State. A similar trend has unfolded in New York, where Republican registration has also dropped. Nevertheless, a majority of those still identifying as Republican voters want their party to back Trump, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. Broken down, this race has shown that there are registered Republican voters who are loyal to the party, those who are staunch supporters of Trump, and those who have reservations about a candidate who doesn’t hold conservative values. But these fractures are not unprecedented. In 1964, Barry Goldwater also rattled the party. Then, Republicans rebuked Goldwater. A Lyndon Johnson campaign ad titled “Confessions of a Republican” expressed grievances with Goldwater. “If you unite behind a man you don’t believe in, it’s a lie,” the man says in the four-minute ad. The ad was intended to coalesce support behind Johnson, serving as an example of a time when voters faced a divisive candidate. In 1966, California Republican Party Chairman Gaylord B. Parkinson established the “11th Commandment.” It said: “Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican.” He added: “Henceforth, if any Republican has a grievance against another, that grievance is not to be bared publicly.” The commandment continues to thrive among Republicans today. The Republican National Committee has called for unity and relayed confidence in the party. GOP Chairman Reince Priebus has defended Trump, saying the presumptive nominee is “trying” to bring the party back together. And most recently, House Speaker Paul Ryan, the party’s highest-ranking official, said he’ll vote for Trump in November. “What you end up seeing, especially as Republicans are vulnerable in terms of their political reelection who have strong reservations about candidates from the mid-1960s and forward, you see them start to rally around candidates they had reservations about before. It’s party over everything,” Rigueur said, adding that Trump is pushing the boundaries of party loyalty by explicitly airing the differences between his brand of Republicanism and traditional Republicans. Then and now, voters don’t want to appear disloyal. But how they balance their identification to the party with their allegiance to it is pushing many to new limits. They are a pack of traitors, no matter who is elected. Donald Trump’s surge has been anything but subtle. He climbed the polls throughout the primary season while his rivals exited the race one by one. His controversial rhetoric rarely made a dent on a campaign built on ardent, loyal supporters. And now, Trump’s candidacy is complicating the relationship between party identification and party allegiance within the GOP.
The GOP are traitors to the nation just as the Democrats; so, what does it mean to be a Republican? Rhetorically, don't pay the federal debt and tax the people to death for making wars around the world and forget about US sovereignty.
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#1. To: buckeroo (#0)
A Republic is a system of government characterized by the rule of law; and the American republic was constituted having a narrowly defined and constrained purpose: TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS. The GeeOpie / Military Industrial Uniparty is none of the above.
To be a "Republican" means to be registered as a member of the Republican Party. That's it. It's not the same thing as being a "Baptist", an affiliation that brings with it mandatory beliefs. There are no mandatory beliefs to be a Republican, or Democrat. All that is required is the will to go declare one's self one thing or the other to the local election board and, voila, you are a Republican, or a Democrat. People with an ideological hobbyhorse will tell you that it means a great deal more. They try to make it so. But it doesn't.
Depends on who you ask: If you ask the average public school educated millennial, the answer is "it means you're a bigoted, homo-phobic (fear of one?) rich hater who wants to starve children, kill minorities and start WWIII." You'll get pretty much the same answer from any brain-dead Xlinton supporter. But if you ask an actual elected republican - say, a Mitch McConnell, you'll get a different answer (that is, unless he's running for re-election and therefore lying): "A republican is someone who will give the emperor everything he wants, because to do otherwise would cause the media to say bad things about us. They might even call us racist." So how do I answer? What does it mean to be a republican? It means you're pretty much satisfied to take whatever crumbs come your way for playing the part of an actual opposition party. You get to appear on "Meet The Press" and you might even get a nice, corner office." As long as you don't rock the boat and go along with the Kabuki Theater that is the American Uni-party system, all will be cool" Trump - on the other hand - is NOT a republican. Not in that sense, anyway. And love him or hate him, that is why he is where he is at this time. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD . . . " ~Psalm 33:12a
He is always going “yadada” trying to say libertarianism is great. If libertarianism is such a good idea, then why hasn’t at least one country tired it? Wouldn’t there be at least one country, out of nearly two hundred, with minimal government, free trade, open borders, decriminalized drugs, no welfare state and no public education system … at least one? Stop trying to show things are bad when you cannot even prove what you are trying to promote is good.
Well, I'm an independent... but the first thing that comes to mind answering this is.... Then you aren't a Paultard and Demotard. I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
It means getting backstabbed & crapped on by the Establishment Elites for the last 25~30 years...
The traitors have broken the back of the middle class while creating lower classes by forcing millions of Americans into poverty while ensuring a super wealthy class (about 1%) possess 75% of the wealth. Neither of the major political parties address the twenty trillion dollars of federal debt they have amassed by creating an unnecessary HUGE federal buracracy and rampant wars around the world.
All you mean to say is that you vote for either a Republican or a Democrat. You are no more of an independent than Bernie Sanders (and he was a registered independent).
Neither of the major political parties address the twenty trillion dollars of federal debt they have amassed by creating an unnecessary HUGE federal buracracy and rampant wars around the world. What we have here is another annoying promoter of libertarianism who tries to tell us that Republicans and Democrats are the source of all evil and yet he cannot point to a single country in the world that is organized along libertarian lines where libertarianism works.
Forcing a massive military armada to fight fabricated wars around the world breaking the backs of US taxpayers while allowing an illegal alien invasion this nation has never seen before is what the Republican/Democrat single political [party] has done to America.
All I mean to say is that I refused to be labeled with a party... especially a party that supports meth vending machines at the elementary school cafeteria and open borders. I simply refuse to join the asshole club... the libertarian and constitutional parties have a fair percentage of assholes that stink the rest of the members up. Kinda what you do to this site.
I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
But you vote for either of the two major political parties the first chance you get? C'mon, that doesn't add up.
I don't vote to elect the perfect candidate... I vote to keep the worst one out, asshole... and you're to ef'n stupid to add that up. lol I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
You are the reason why the US government is all fuckedupped. You might as well vote for a goddmned communist.
Well, I'm an independent... So was yukon. And then ye wuz hacked! You are the reason why we have a mother ef'n communist for the last 8 years, douchebag. But this election, it won't matter. Your 6% cult can't split the vote up enough to screw a person as popular as TRUMP. We ain't equal, Buckyboy. Some people are worth more than others... and in your case, almost everyone is smarter than you. I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
lmao, Yukon kicked your ass so bad you still shit your panties over him. I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
That RESPONSIBILITY that you assigned to me is a function of the GOP/DEM political party and the laffable, so-called 'Independents.' LQQK @yerself, as an example, a government worker sucking the teat of excessive benefits and receiving a pension for doing nothing worthy of achievement.
We kicked his ass off the internet, pal.
Me neither. A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them. He's a small fish in a small pond.
ConservingFreedom: "Me neither." Don't you think that anomaly is strange?
You mean like paying into it for 20 years? You have the IQ of a chalkboard. lol I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
An obvious explanation occurs to me ... A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them. facsism?
Republican politicians are in essence no different than Democrats - they aren't concerned with what the voters want. They are there to serve the elite and make as much money as they can while in office as they advance the NWO agenda. It is all too true that government can stray in the wrong direction. But your contention that government interventions are always wrong and make everything worse so there should be no government at all is pure madness. You libertarians always have condemnation and are never constructive in your skepticism. But you keep at it with your “how dare you disagree with me and not see what I see and therefore you area a selfish, indolent, stupid piece of shit!” And “you must be a paid government troll and obviously don’t love liberty like I do!” Yep, that a good way to convince those who may disagree with you that your path is correct.
You received a government check for doing not much for twenty years. Often, I equate your job as another form of welfare as we have to ensure little cretins are housed/provided some clothing and maybe some sort of dignity like a STOP SIGN as a purpose in life; nevertheless, your income was a government subsidy. You may have used taxpayers money to fund a minor retiree stipend but the money came from hardworking taxpayers in the private sector.
We aren't equal, Buckyboy. That's why you were never good or smart enough to EARN a pension. lol I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
NONE DARE CALL IT CONSPIRACY (1971) We keep electing new Presidents who seemingly promise faithfully to halt the world-wide Communist advance, put the blocks to extravagant government spending, douse the tea of inflation, put the economy on an even keel, reverse the trend which is turning the country mto a moral sewer, and toss the criminals into the hoosegow where they belong. Yet despite high hopes and glittering campaign promise these problems continue to worsen no matter who is in office. Each new administration, whether it be Republican or Democrat continues the same basic policies of the previous administration which it had so thoroughly denounced during the election campaign. It is considered poor form to mention this, but it is true nonetheless. Is there a plausible reason to explain why this happens? We are not supposed to think so. We are supposed to think it is all accidental and coincidental and that therefore there is nothing we can do about it. FDR once said "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." He was in a good position to know. We believe that many of the major world events that are shaping our destinies occur because somebody or somebodies have planned them that way. If we were merely dealing with the law of avenges, half of the events affecting our nation's well-being should be good for America. If we were dealing with mere incompetence, our leaders should occasionally make a mistake in our favor. When you think about it, there are really only two theories of history. Either things happen by accident neither planned nor caused by anybody, or they happen because they are planned and somebody causes them to happen. In reality, it is the accidental theory of history preached in the unhallowed Halls of Ivy which should be ridiculed. Otherwise, why does every recent administration make the same mistakes as the previous ones? Why do they repeat the errors of the past which produce inflation, depressions and war? Why does our State Department "stumble" from one Communist-aiding "blunder" to another? If you believe it is all an accident or the result of mysterious and unexplainable tides of history, you will be regarded as an "intellectual" who understands that we live in a complex world. If you believe that something like 32,496 consecutive coincidences over the past forty years stretches the law of averages a bit, you are a kook Thats a fact. I worked in the private sector (other than a 4 year stint in USACEEIA) to change the world around me. You, on the other hand, walked around with a STOP SIGN for traffic at an elementary school for twenty years. But, I am not near retirement as you, a quiter have performed. I am still making money and socking the stuff in the bank.
So am I retard. What's better than investing in one pension? Investing in TWO. If I could live until 125... I'd have worked 3 twenty year pension jobs. You don't have the work ethic to complete one. Loser. You are like all those Ferguson urban angry animals. Pissed that other have something you aren't willing to work for. I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
You havn't worked a day in your life. You have never worked a day of risk analysis or manual labour. All you have performed is raising a STOP SIGN to traffic that would otherwise have obeyed the laws without you in the first place. Well, I have to give creit: wearing a green or orange chest cover really made you one colourful socialist, didn't it?
IMO, the following fails to fit Trump in many respects: "Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete, and they regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties. Such a state is led by a strong leader — such as a dictator and a martial government composed of the members of the governing fascist party — to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society. Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war, and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation." If Trump doesn't talk about ‘Constitution’ nor ‘liberty’ nor ‘freedom’ it's because he sees those matters as unrelated to his primary concerns - which is because he's not an American conservative. A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them. Facsists are interested in control, free from any restraints; they thrive on POWER. What makes you so sure that Trump is not a facist when he doesn't argue lower taxes, lower debt, smaller government and the elimination of being a world cop?
I don't think the label is accurate in this case - and I don't think it's useful in any case, having been stripped of its meaning through decades of leftist reflexive overuse.
A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them. Fascists believe the federal government have the POWER to regulate small, private business and create unnecesary regulations. Your point is moot.
It often means a person was a gemogogic psychopathic asshole looking for a career in politics and there happened to be an opening in the repubican party. There is no quality control in either party and not enough people of caliber in either party to even form a panel of review to initiate such.
Does any source other than the bucktionary confirm this definition? A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them. 
"Just Relax - It won't be Trump"
#2. To: buckeroo (#0)
#3. To: buckeroo (#0)
What Does It Mean to Be a Republican?
#4. To: buckeroo (#0)
(Edited)
The GOP are traitors to the nation just as the Democrats…
What we have here is another annoying promoter of libertarianism who tries to tell us that Republicans and Democrats are the source of all evil and yet he cannot point to a single country in the world that is organized along libertarian lines where libertarianism works.
#5. To: buckeroo (#0)
What Does It Mean to Be a Republican
#6. To: buckeroo (#0)
#7. To: Gatlin (#4)
Republicans and Democrats are the source of all evil
#8. To: GrandIsland (#5)
Well, I'm an independent.
#9. To: buckeroo (#7)
The traitors have broken the back of the middle class while creating lower classes by forcing millions of Americans into poverty while ensuring a super wealthy class (about 1%) possess 75% of the wealth.
#10. To: Gatlin (#9)
(Edited)
Republicans and Democrats are the source of all evil
#11. To: buckeroo (#8)
#12. To: GrandIsland (#11)
All I mean to say is that I refused to be labeled with a party
#13. To: buckeroo (#12)
But you vote for either of the two major political parties the first chance you get? C'mon, that doesn't add up.
#14. To: GrandIsland (#13)
I don't vote to elect the perfect candidate... I vote to keep the worst one out, asshole
#15. To: GrandIsland, yukon, independent log cabin republicans (#5)
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#16. To: buckeroo (#14)
You are the reason why the US government is all fuckedupped. You might as well vote for a goddmned communist.
#17. To: hondo68 (#15)
So was yukon.
#18. To: GrandIsland (#16)
You are the reason why we have a mother ef'n communist for the last 8 years,
#19. To: GrandIsland (#17)
#20. To: buckeroo (#0)
“Every time I hear him (Trump) speaking, I never hear ‘Constitution,’ I never hear ‘liberty,’ I never hear ‘freedom.’
#21. To: GrandIsland (#17)
lmao
#22. To: ConservingFreedom (#20)
article: “Every time I hear him (Trump) speaking, I never hear ‘Constitution,’ I never hear ‘liberty,’ I never hear ‘freedom.’
#23. To: buckeroo (#18)
receiving a pension for doing nothing worthy of achievement.
#24. To: buckeroo (#22)
Don't you think that anomaly is strange?
#25. To: ConservingFreedom (#24)
#26. To: buckeroo (#0)
The GOP are traitors to the nation just as the Democrats; so, what does it mean to be a Republican?
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
#27. To: buckeroo (#10)
#28. To: GrandIsland (#23)
You mean like paying into it for 20 years?
#29. To: buckeroo (#28)
#30. To: Gatlin, buckeroo (#27)
It is all too true that government can stray in the wrong direction.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
#31. To: GrandIsland (#29)
We aren't equal ...
#32. To: buckeroo (#31)
I am still making money and socking the stuff in the bank.
#33. To: GrandIsland (#32)
#34. To: buckeroo (#25)
facsism?
#35. To: ConservingFreedom (#34)
"Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete, and they regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties. Such a state is led by a strong leader — such as a dictator and a martial government composed of the members of the governing fascist party — to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society. Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war, and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation."
#36. To: buckeroo (#35)
#37. To: ConservingFreedom (#36)
#38. To: buckeroo (#0)
What Does It Mean to Be a Republican?
#39. To: buckeroo (#37)
Fascists believe the federal government have the POWER to regulate small, private business and create unnecesary regulations.
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