Various Things In Brief

[poliphilo]

Ailz's mother has a cold, Ailz has a cold and I'm doing my best to avoid getting one. Echinacea is the answer. That's my belief. 

I felt fairly ropey yesterday (because I was fighting getting a cold). I suggested we had lunch in Morrisons (while we were out shopping) because I didn't feel like fixing a meal.

I keep scanning the headlines to see if Lord McAlpine is in them. 

I'm pleased about the US election. People (journalists and LJ friends) are saying the Republican Party is paying the price for signing a pact with the Christian Right. It worked for them for a while, but now demographics are against them. As someone said, America is "running out of angry white men".  That's part of the story. Also Romney was a lousy candidate. I don't think much of Obama either but at least he knows Iran has a sea coast. 

RIP Clive Dunn. A very funny man and a very decent man too by all accounts. Dad's Army wasn't particularly well written but it had the most wonderful cast. 

Comments

Re: WCZ 1401.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I haven't said anything libelous have I?

I'd just like to see Lord McAlpine receive some public acknowledgement for everything he's done. How would Thatcher have managed without him and that Morrison chap?

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

How odd.

The Christian Right failed to turn-out for the Willard, at least in the numbers he'd hoped for. Evangelical participation at the polls was surprisingly depressed, even here in conservative Christian bastions like Virginia.

It was the Tea Party that murdered Willard Romney's campaign, with a hearty assist from his own political ineptitude and profound lack of charisma. It was the Republican war on women, blacks, Hispanics, the young and working-class people. What killed the GOP's chances this year were racism, bigotry, and the ignorance that led them to those positions.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The GOP has got itself into a terrible bind. It has formed this alliance with the Christian Right, but cannot field a candidate who embodies the values of the Christian Right without alienating everybody else. It's not clear how it's going to extract itself.

Romney was a compromise candidate- a social liberal prepared to make the right noises to get himself selected- but nobody really believed in him. He didn't appeal to the Christian Right (they knew he wasn't really one of them) and he didn't appeal to the floating voters either.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

It was really difficult for a Mormon to ally himself with the Christian Right, because the CR regards Mormonism as a CULT - in the same vein as Hare Krishna, Scientology, Spiritism, and others. They have no "live and let live". So they put the emphasis on "let us pray and then let us vote for the candidate who is most in line with godly principles" (meaning anti-abortion, etc.).
It was not easy, but WE WON!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Over here we regard Mormonism as a joke religion. We have a Mormon church just round the corner- which means we see a lot of Mormon missionaries- usually young white American men in suits straight out of the "Mad Men" era. Europeans would have a tough time taking a Mormon President seriously.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

As a political junkie, with a ringside seat these past four years, I disagree. Do you honestly believe that the Christian Right drove 100% of the African American vote into the Democratic camp? Do you honestly believe that the Christian Right caused the Willard to lose the Hispanic vote even among the traditionally Republican Cuban community? In the past, the Christianist crusade against abortion and homosexuality has been very popular among Latinos but not this year.

That loss among Hispanics alone cost Romney the swing states he needed to win. What killed him was the deadly embrace of the Tea Party, launched by a hedge-fund trader and funded by filthy-rich John Birchers like the Koch brothers. The Christian Right is at best a baleful influence on our body politic but they shouldn't be scapegoated to protect the real criminals, here.

The racism, the bigotry, the nativism, the aggressive ignorance, the anti-tax and anti-government jihad, this is what killed the Republicans and that platform came straight out of the Confederate South, the Republican parties last stronghold. Thankfully, it is no longer enough to win a national election.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the campaign is over and the victory is decisive enough that there won't be a long siege of recounts. I'm disappointed with the election results, particularly because I believe the Republican party, in addition to fielding some really boneheaded candidates, allowed the Democratic party to define it in unlovely terms. But it serves them/us right for not accepting that they've lost the culture war. Ah, well -- Philadelphia survived eight years of John Street as mayor and the country will survive eight years of Barack Obama.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly. Presidents have limited power. The USA has survived having all sorts of crooks and nobodies serve as president.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

We survived eight years of George W. Bush and TWELVE years of Reagan and Bush I, so I guess the GOP fans can hunker down for four more years of Obama. However, they had better mellow down or they will not have a prayer in 2016! And they are going to need prayer - LOTS of it!

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear!

[chochiyo-sama.livejournal.com]

The Republican party in the US has turned into a lunatic fringe group. In their thirst to appease the right wing lunatics, they have alienated most of the people in the center. Also, they have honed the act of lying and fear-mongering into an art. They've got half the people convinced that democrats are trying to abolish God from America and actively seek to turn all the little straight children into raving homosexuals.

My mother is convinced that "gay sex" is going to be taught in the first and second grades.

I am constantly amazed at the complete and utter nonsense that they spew AND THAT PEOPLE BELIEVE.

It's really astonishing.

In my opinion, the blatant racism is a big factor in the downfall of the repulbican party--but the biggest of all is the choice of candidates they are running--Sarah Palin? Michelle Bachman? Some nutjob who wants to make it legal for parents to kill their disobedient children so long as they submit the situation to the state for permission first??!!?? These people are completely crazy. And the people who support them are apparently insane as well. anyone who IS sane is scared to death by this bunch.

Also, the recent "slut shaming" that the republicans have heaped on women who want insurance to cover birth control--and the whole "Pregnancy doesn't happen if it is REAL rape" and "A pregnancy from rape is really a GIFT from God" are also big turn-offs for intelligent and sane voters.

The republican party needs to reinvent itself and move back to the center of the playing field. At present, their "base" is as terrifying to people like me as the Taliban. In fact, other than the "baby Jesus" factor, there isn't much difference between the fringe right wingers and the Taliban, so far as I can see.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, the alliance with the Christian Right clearly worked for the party in the past, but it's not working now. The culture is changing. The centre is becoming increasingly liberal and the right is becoming increasingly shrill.