What caused the downfall of the Republican Party?

The GOP was riding high in 2005 and well on their way to a so-called "permanent majority." When did the ceiling start cracking? Pick your favorite "moment of truth" or add your own.

Though they all keep cramming it in there as best they can.

I tried my best to list them once, an exercise in futility:

The Buffalo Jump to Hell
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x899312

Their policies all proved to be total failures, foreign and domestic.... so much so that even a chunk of their own partisans finally abandoned them, and leaving only the most hardcore, brainwashed, fundie whackjobs left.

Should have been one of the choices.

They had the plan to remove from their party all the moderates. Now all they have left are the dumbest, craziest, rightest people. People who's political policies are all old ideas that have failed multiple times in American history.

What?

I was talking about Reagan, who did you think I meant?

One of the tea party signs said "We are Reagan Republicans and love it."
Where's the Bush-love?

The cynical (Situation-Comedy) selection of Sarah Palin as the running mate on the ticket. There are ebbs and flows and then there are peaks and valleys.

The last-ditch effort to save the party has marginalized them into the 20-25% arena.


Not good nationally.

...dontcha know.

torture
Iraq
Katrina
Tax cuts for the wealthy
surplus into deficit
Nasty people like Cheney, Rove, Limbaugh
Breakdown of the economy
Incompetence
Fox News
Habeas Corpus
Wire Tapping
Patriot act
9/11

The list goes on and on....

Americans woke up and realized that the bullshit fear train the GOP continually crams down our throats is a big fucking lie.

Remember when gas prices started dropping really fast right before the November 2006 elections? That didn't fool enough Americans. The Republicans still got their ass whupped. That, and people still remembered Katrina.

swore he would drag every democrat back into the House until something was done about high gas prices. Boehner forgave ciggy breaks to swoon in front of cameras and trumpet his determination to get the dems to "care about our country." And when gas prices suddenly took a dive, well, they went home for the holidays just like the, uh, "negligent" dem House members. Tee-hee.

...and we can not afford to get cocky or complacent.

I'd say first and foremost, Iraq. The American people had an expectation of Desert Storm, redux, and they expected to find the WMDs. The failure on both accounts began a pattern of very visible Bush administration bungling and incompetence. That pattern was continued with the failure to capture Bin Laden, and the utter failure of Katrina. By '06, the American people were pretty angry, and when the economy started to collapse in '07, and gas hit $4, that was it.

...meanwhile, back at the ranch, Christian conservatives and small government were understandably peeved. They had finally gotten all of the pieces in place; the SCOTUS; the WH; and both houses of Congress. Did they get smaller government? No. Did they get an end to legal abortion on demand? No. Did they get a flat tax, or a simplified tax code? No. Prayer in Public School? No. Tuition Tax Credits for private schools? Nope. Flag burning amendment -- even after 9-11? Not hardly. In short, many invested a lot of time and millions of dollars and got not one thing they wanted in return.

Why can't they turn things around now? To solve a problem, step one is to admit you have one. They can't or won't do that. For all of their cheap, hollow talk of accountability, they steadfastly refuse to shoulder any blame for the current economic mess or the problems of the last eitght years, and instead point fingers at their favorite targets: Bill & Hillary Clinton, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and even Jimmy Carter. Hell, the opening page of the FReeper site states that the Iraq War protests were organized by Communists. Wake up, people - that war ended 20 years ago. For them to have any hope for the future, they have to start stepping up to the plate, and stating without equivocation that "the GOP was badly led from 2001-2009, screwed up and squandered a golden opportunity. " Then, they need to find new voices, and strike a new tone in the National debate.

But the GodGunsGays congregation still hops in bed with the GOP every night. A tortured marriage for sure, but they wont divorce "for the sake of the children" or other such nonsense.

Put another way: the Ron Paul supporters (granted - only about 10% of the party overall, but a much larger segment in parts of the Mountain West, Alaska, etc. ) aren't particularly keen on imposing family values. They want less government -- much, much less government...and they want to abolish the IRS.

I work in a business with a lot of what I would still term "Country Club" Republicans. These are people whom I would associate with politicians like the Governator, Rudy, even the recently departed Jack Kemp. These are people who are often supply siders, pro business, pro low tax; but (again) don't have particular religous convictions and couldn't care less about issues like same-sex marriage. These are people for whom the nomination of Sarah Palin was genuinely embarrasing. I don't see the GOP, as it exists right now, appealing to these folks.

At some point, these people will start looking to register independent, register Libertarian (in the case of the Paul supporters) , or start looking for s 3rd option for 2012 (Lou Dobbs? Mike Bloomberg? Colin Powell? Drew Carey?)

It's good enough to stand alone, for sure.

I'd recommend it if I could.

It's that good.

:beer:

I also think the Plame-Libby-Rove-Cheney-Miller cyclone and what it represents did some damage. To the Party more than its supporters, but still.

They also pushed out all the moderates and embraced the radical right.

The GOP was crushed by two things:

1. They hitched their wagon to GW Bush in ways that are just plain embarassing. And they left no chance to unhitch.

2. The math: Without the right wing, there is no GOP. With the right wing, there is no chance for the GOP to win. Game over.

before I replaced it with "Keith Olbermann."
And thank gawd for the right wing. Let this be a lesson - we should never kick the DLC out.

I would say most of the things on your list are relevant, except for Olbermann and Fox. As much as I like Keith, he's mainly preaching to the choir on his show. And Fox follows the Republican party, it doesn't lead it. If I had to pick one of your choices, it would be Katrina, but there was a lot more to it than that.

It was headed that direction anyway, he just didn't spare the whip.

I remember being startled to hear my staunch bush-loving mother suddenly murmur - "he REALLY let everybody down."

That's when the veil started to fall from her eyes. She never felt quite the same about him after that. Hell, I remember hearing some republi-CONS at least at the local level experiencing the same epiphany about the benefits and relevance and importance of a strong, viable, and effective federal government. One of 'em stammered about how "well, I guess maybe there's a reason why we DO need to rely on the federal government sometimes..." No DUH!

When it's WAY bigger 'n you and it crosses state lines, then you're talking Federal Government, and that, quite simply, is that.

I didn't vote, because that was not choice included ...

handlers. They just started having the desired result, and people, thrown out of work, priced out of school, thrown out of their homes just noticed.

the constant pandering to a base of religiously insane whackos.

The Jesus Landing Pad
http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-05-11/news/the-jesus-landing-pad/1

In Line for the Rapture; we're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.

http://www.opednews.com/pearlstein_052804_rapture.htm

They lost their hold on the voting machines and total corruption of the vote counting.

Once upon a time they controlled how all the votes are counted. But along came the citizens who recognized that Diebold et al were set up to count the votes for the republicans and against the democrats.

Once the citizens finally got rid of Diebold in most places and in most races, the counts returned to normal and republicans lost, as they would have if the votes had been counted correctly to start with.

And as an example of the pubbies previous success you didn't even list stolen elections in your poll.

...which is why they were installed against the will of the people to begin with.

It was their "New Pearl Harbor" that saved them. IOW Bushco benefited greatly from 9/11. Imagine what a crew who would steal elections might do on other playing fields and you can imagine how 9/11 might have happened the way it did.

But that's just my take on it

The people have powerful and entrenched enemies. We voted against them time and again but since they controlled how the votes were counted they remained in power. Their theft has just about ended, but the theft at state levels, I'm afraid, continue. We can't quit yet but it seems many have, or at least forgotten.

Kath Harris and that scumbag Blackwell of Ohio - not around to steal elections.

But the machines are still in place in many locales.

Americans -- at least those who found out about it since the corporate media gave it short shrift -- were APPALLED to learn that the entire Republicon Senate caucus gave a standing ovation to Sen David Vitter of Louisiana after it was revealed that he was into having diaper sex with hookers, but that Jesus, and Mrs Vitter, had 'forgiven' him

These REPUBLICON FAMILY VALUES were deemed, um, less than EXTREMELY MESSY by those who were able to, um, get the news

SS reform went over like a lead balloon. Remember Bush's nationwide tour? It was the first instance when Republican Congress critters began distancing themselves from him due to the overwhelming opposition of constituents.

It was the first dent in their armor and it was all downhill from there.

The depression they caused did it.

1.) Non-stop scandal and overreaching in 05-06 (Mark Foley, Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay, Larry Craig, Rush Limbaugh)

2.) Katrina response lost them the house majority in 2006.

3.) Economic collapse in September 2008 drove the final nail into the coffin.

I'd like to say it was torture and Iraq since those things are clearly wrong but most swing American voters don't give a shit about anything that goes on overseas until the bill comes due (see 2 and 3).

But also, they're just dead fucking wrong and have been since the 80s. They developed a major media propaganda machine in the form of Fox, CNN and hate radio programs funded by Scaife and they fooled a lot of people for about twenty years and now that everything has gone to shit, finally, FINALLY the majority of people see through them.

The Party of NO!

The Party of Torture

The Party that is the defender of "family values" getting BJ's in public bathrooms. Preaching and Holy on Sunday then meeting male prostitutes during the week while snorting meth.

Hate radio's neverending, nihilistic negitivity.

"Patriotic" amerrkans threatening secession death and torture to any fellow Americans that disagree with their political fantasy world.

The plain fact that the only plan the republican party has to solve our problems is the excat same BS that got us where we are today.

"Defenders of the holy Constitution" that said not a peep when George Bush was wiping his ass with it.

The outraged tea-baggers that said nothing about Bush spending money like a drunken sailor on a trumped up war but OMG! we cant spend money on kids healthcare!!!!11!!

Oh and massive, MASSIVE, GREED! This asshole aren't really Christian. Their god is MONEY! the almighty dollar, republicans worship it above all other.

The republican party is on its deathbed. I cant wait for the total collapse of this traitorous party. Its members are all anti-american scumball, Confederate, secessionist KKK freepers IMHO.

It's damn clear they are not a family-friendly political party, nor are they fiscally responsible.

And the party of Lincoln? That must be why Reagan was against the civil rights act of 1964...

By "we" I don't just mean here at DU -- I mean American citizens who grew weary of the * administration perpetual LIE MACHINE and who took the time to educate themselves and other people -- mostly via the internet -- about what was really going on.

First off it is grave error to believe that the Republican party and the * cabal "made a lot of mistakes". They didn't make "mistakes". What they did was make policy decisions which benefited them, their cronies and their corporate sponsors at the expense of the American people. They designed these policies to look like their aims were one thing when, in fact, their real aim was something completely different. One can think of lots of examples but the most obvious one is the war in Iraq. It wasn't to keep us "safe," it wasn't to "spread Democracy," it was to extend the reach of US Imperialism into the ME, end the Iraq oil borse and establish military control of resources -- as well as stir up a hornets nest of militant extremism that would institutionalize their permanent "war on terror" excuse for abridging civil liberties at home and abroad while financing the "rebuilding of America's defenses" for global hegemony. Along with all this they fine tuned such things as their control of the US "news" media and their understanding of disaster Capitalism. (Katrina was not a mistake, for them, but an opportunity they exploited to the hilt.)

What has brought the beginning of the end of all that (we are far from "there" yet), is the constant efforts of people here and elsewhere to EXPOSE their real agendas, expose the hypocrisy, expose the lies, expose the criminality. It has taken millions upon millions of man-hours of people reading, writing, talking, moving information from one web site to another, doing the work that the corporate media can not and will not do: Informing the public about a regime that had taken control of this country and its military assets first through the coup of 2000 which was reinforced and cemented in place by the events of 9/11.

WE DID IT.

And, sorry to say, it ain't over yet.



typo

they wound up completely alienating almost everyone who wasn't a white Southern Christian or a rich white corporate executive.

This is just a partial list of the people the Republicans shat on over the years:

Women -- can't control their own bodies, don't deserve equal pay protection, etc.
Gay People -- don't deserve rights, threaten "real" Americans
Minorities -- "welfare queens," etc.
Labor -- how dare they challenge corporate management and multi-millionaire CEOs? Lazy, whining workers.
Immigrants -- "illegals"
Well-educated people -- "elitists"
East and West Coasters -- not part of "real" America
City dwellers -- snotty urbanites, also not part of "real" America
Environmentalists -- "tree huggers"
Opponents of the illegal invasion of Iraq -- "anti-American, anti-military"
Non-religious people -- George H.W. Bush, for example, said that atheists should not be considered citizens nor patriots
Latte sippers, arugula eaters, Volvo drivers, etc. -- un-American effetes

A lot of people started re-evaluating Bush once their eyes were open and didn't like what they saw.

... been answered by either Ronald Reagan or Jesus so they don't bother learning how to come up with a solution to a problem by themselves.

Swing voters and moderate reps finally woke up and smelled the coffee - the Republican Party wasn't conservative, just a bunch of incompetent and crooked liars. Unless the Dems totally F-up (which I don't see them doing), then the Reps will be in the wilderness for many years - until such time they come up with REAL ideas for the problems facing the country (not just "tax cuts solve all problems"), and can convince voters they aren't pulling another scam.

Arrogance combined with stupidity is a sure recipe for disaster.

The Katrina response destroyed their credibility.

...right on the heels of the Schiavo circus. I think they might've weatherd the Schiavo storm had they been able to keep their dicks in their pants. Kind of an avalanche after that.

but if I was to construct a narrative I'd say...

The Republican party was organized around a questionable ideology and an unstable coalition which collectively served as the means to political power for a small group who implemented policy that was largely unsuccessful and incompatible with the values of majority of the electorate. The result was the Republican coalition dissolved, leaving only the sociopaths we see today.