Political Crossfire Forums

It seems that the Republican party has been hijacked by George W. Bush and now they pander a lot to the rednecks. It was a good strategy by Bush to invigorate a portion of the population, but then it became something they can't step away from. McCain in 2008 had to step up the redneck religious stuff even though McCain 2000 and McCain 2004 was very logical and reasonable. Romney and Ryan doesn't pander as much to the rednecks, but still can't get away from it fully.

So, if you're currently planning on voting Democrat for the Presidential election, would your decision shift if the Republicans stop pandering to the rednecks?

All pandering to the rednecks has done to the GOP is lowered the intellectual profundity of their presentation. The absence of prominent conservative intellectuals in the mainstream hasn't significantly changed most of the platform ideas of the party............they just get delivered a lot simpler and slower, lol. Don't get me wrong, the Republicans have definitely adopted a handful of issues to appease the redneck base, that they probably otherwise would have ignored. But as much as I think a GOP that wasn't obliged to ridicule climate change and raise their hands in front of the entire world when asked if they doubt evolutionary theory would be great, these aren't exactly the bedrock issues of the party anyway. Throwing a few lines out at rallies referencing the ten commandments or the "war on christmas" isn't exactly what's making or breaking the GOP for me, personally, lol. Some of the most eloquent defenders of the modern GOP have been staunch "family values" social conservatives. The rednecks would have agreed with them if they could have understood them.

Anyway, the larger picture is that we're an entire nation of rednecks, and all politicians are pandering to all of us. The level of discourse has dropped across the board. Read any speech from Lincoln, FDR, or William Howard Taft, and then read any speech from Obama and Romney. It's enough to make you cry uncontrollably into your hands.

Well Stratgo I'm going to have to disagree with you..

This recent GOP platform is the most conservative I ever remember. Even the Republican/Reagan's 1980 platform was NO WHERE NEAR are conservative as this one..

And I also remember Romney as a very moderate Republican.. He's gone completely to the right now..

IMO the whole party is pandering to the very religious, evangelistic right. I don't know about rednecks, but they've turned far, far to the right on almost every social issue.

If the GOP didn't pander to Rednecks, America would be a communist country.

Regardless, we're on the verge of communism anyway. Rockefeller Republicans don't defend social values at all, yet they expect private property to survive without properness.

Over the next 10 years, America is going to be swarmed with debt from overwhelming and dysfunctional social programs, and because the American people don't appreciate rules of engagement, we'll be on the verge of anarchy.

White, straight, males will also be treated as the new Jew as if they aren't already.

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I'd rather they pander to rednecks than the religious right.