The Republican Civil War is Here

 Posted by at 4:43 pm  National Politics
Nov 112012
 
The Republican Civil War is Here

Months ago, when I first launched Green Dragon, I wrote a post about the implications for the future of the Republican Party of the effectiveness of the Obama campaign’s critiques of Bain Capital and its vulture capitalism. I said a civil war within the Republican Party was coming…one that would make the Tea Party split look like a garden picnic. Well, it’s here. Each of the GOP’s three major blocs is reeling, trying to make sense of a campaign result it did not anticipate and which flies in the face of its core beliefs. With the reelection of the President, trouncing of anti-abortion candidates and unprecedented approvals both of marriage equality and election of openly gay legislators, Republicans now know that 2008 wasn’t a fluke. It appears finally to be dawning on conservatives that their imagined version of the United States simply is not real. Take the Christian right, for [...]

Predictably, the GOP is Learning the Wrong Lessons

 Posted by at 11:32 am  National Politics
Nov 082012
 
Predictably, the GOP is Learning the Wrong Lessons

“We need Latinos”. That’s the only consensus conclusion being drawn by Republican talking heads after watching their candidates walloped on Tuesday. Seeing the Latino vote climbing steadily, GOPers today all seem to be nodding soberly and agreeing that, yep, they need them some Latinos. (Well, okay, except for Viagra Rush and Bill-O the Clown. Those guys are just fulminating about the end of “traditional America”, apparently simply shattered at the prospect of a pluralistic society not ruled by old white guys.) So: what’s wrong with that? The thing about the Latinos, I mean. Well, to begin with, Republicans who are soberly talking about the urgency of getting with some brown people today are seemingly operating out of a stereotype of the Latino voter as Juan Valdez: a simple, hardworking and basically conservative Catholic, who is only backing Democrats because of the immigration issue. They don’t seem to understand that Latino [...]

Miscellaneous Observations on Election 2012

 Posted by at 5:02 pm  National Politics
Nov 072012
 
Miscellaneous Observations on Election 2012

This is a grab-bag of observations I made on Facebook the day after Democrats’ electoral romp on November 6, 2012. Stuff I thought readers might find interesting. FWIW…   The people in the GOP we are NOT hearing from today (in the wake of the Republican trouncing) are the social conservatives/Christian right. They are the anchor around the neck of the Republican Party, and they are ***INCAPABLE*** of moving one inch on their flagship issues of abortion and hating gays. Their leaders will not let them. Huckabee is talking about trying to get to Latinos, but it was WOMEN who drove Obama’s victory more than anyone else, and the Robertson crowd is never going to move off its position on abortion. It raises too much money for the televangelists and it’s too convenient a tool for whipping up fervor among low-education social conservatives. If it were just about their insistent [...]

For a Better Future: Endorsements for the 2012 General Elections

 Posted by at 6:42 pm  California Politics, National Politics, Sonoma County
Oct 242012
 
For a Better Future: Endorsements for the 2012 General Elections

Hurry up, please, gentlemen, ladies: it’s time. Here…let me get the good stuff from under the bar and pour you a shot. This is serious work, this democracy. Every couple of years, as the elections approach, a number of my friends ask my opinions about candidates and ballot measures. Now I have an online megaphone, so those suggestions go here, for what they’re worth. There are gaps here. I haven’t paid as much attention to Sonoma County municipal races this cycle, for instance, and will not endorse where I don’t feel I know what I’m talking about. Federal Offices For President of the United States: BARACK OBAMA. This is such a no-brainer I don’t feel I need to say more. If you have questions about this endorsement…well, wake the hell up, for one thing. But you could also look around this site for other posts on the race. For U.S. [...]

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