I regard John McCain as

[abaris]

I offer as counter-evidence George (Jesus is my favorite political philosopher because he changed my heart) Bush and Tricky Dick Nixon.

As far as Nixon is concerned, he wouldn't even get a nomination as dog catcher from the GOP these days. Not because running a criminal racket out of the White house would be frowned upon but because he would be considered a commie liberal by todays standards.

[Crossless2.0]

I offer as counter-evidence George (Jesus is my favorite political philosopher because he changed my heart) Bush and Tricky Dick Nixon.

As far as Nixon is concerned, he wouldn't even get a nomination as dog catcher from the GOP these days. Not because running a criminal racket out of the White house would be frowned upon but because he would be considered a commie liberal by todays standards.

No doubt.  Nixon is, historically, an ideological anomaly (in the sense that his style of Old Guard establishment Republicanism lost the intraparty struggle) and is anathema to today's GOP.  But even in his day, the seeds of the GOP's rightward drift were already there in Goldwater.  Goldwater was crushed, of course, but the Goldwater people (the Tea Party of their day) persevered and finally found their boy in Reagan.  Yeah, they all but disown Nixon and would erase him from our collective memory if they could.  But they owe him a great debt.  When it came to understanding the need to pander to Southern religious and 'cultural' conservatives, Nixon was there first.  He gave us the poisonous Southern Strategy, which Dutch and his people consulted like it was holy writ.

[Thumpalumpacus]

A few things:  First, the GOP becoming ever more right wing doesn't necessarily limit their appeal to religious conservatives; they will continue to appeal to the business interests, to the Tea Party people (who are not all religious), and to the foreign policy hawks.  The Evangelical/Baptist/conservative-Catholic voters are just the useful fools the party needs to win general elections and are not necessarily taken seriously by the other wings of the party.

The thing is, the foreign-policy hawks tend to alienate the businessmen, for the most part, because international commerce functions best in times of peace. As for the Tea Party, they are a schism waiting to happen.

Second, to the extent that the GOP continues to drift to the right, expect something of the same -- though in a much more moderate form -- from the Democrats, who continue to demonstrate their astounding lack of fucking backbone whenever possible.  The GOP has been framing and driving the debate on issue after issue for decades now.  I don't think that will end just because they are collectively losing their minds.

You may well be right here ... but I think after the treatment Obama has received, we'll be seeing more and more younger Democrats fed up with the leaderless drift in their party, and start insisting on a little more starch.

Finally, with regard to Republican failures sticking to and marginalizing religious fuckheads, I offer as counter-evidence George (Jesus is my favorite political philosopher because he changed my heart) Bush and Tricky Dick Nixon.

The demographics of faith show a continuing decline in believers, meaning that appealing to the religious sector of the vote will give less and less return for each campaign dollar spent on that segment of the vote. I also think that chasing the evangelical vote will tend to alienate both Wall Street Republicans and Tea Partiers, who both tend to be more secular and often atheist in their outlook. It's been eleven years since Bush ran for office last, and 43 since Nixon.  I think that the changes the nation is undergoing vis the erosion of faith among the young not only renders those example not particularly illuminating, I think that erosion also spells huge problems for a Republican Party bent on pursuing the evangelical vote, because in doing so they will be alienating young secular voters; they will be betting the future to gain present-day voters.

 

When the GOP fucks up on a jaw-dropping level as happened in those two notorious cases, they just excise the offenders from the historical narrative and move on.  The Right in America learned several lessons from the Communist regimes during their years of obsessive worrying about the Red scare, not least the value of forgetfulness.

I think there are a large number of Americans who will never forgive the GOP for the Iraq Invasion. Some of those were themselves Republicans.[/quote]

[c172]

I try to avoid most Arizonans over the age of 30.

I went to boarding school in my senior year, in Paradise Valley, Maricopa Co. PV/Scottsdale was nice in a way. A sterile sort of way. This was 1993/94. Things seem worse than back then, but I haven't actually been back. 

[Minimalist]

PV/Scottsdale is about as ritzy as it gets.  Maybe throw in Fountain Hills for some true 1% assholes.

[A Theist]

Me, too.

Kudos for managing to stay sane. 

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!! DAMN!!!! Definitely wins the award for best quote of the day!