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Lambik

McCain’s former campaign manager Steve Schmidt says what the GOP needs is to
embrace gay marriage, move away from religion, and be more leftist.

McCain strategist endorses same-sex marriage - Washington Blade

acclaimed by the GayPatriot, the internet home for the American gay conservative.

GayPatriot » Steve Schmidt Plots Strategy for GOP on Gays

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Is this the "right" new way for the GOP ?

Jet Gorgon

^ No.

Lambik

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Why ? please

Norton

“I think that more and more Americans are insistent that, at a minimum, gay couples should be treated with respect and when they see a political party trying to stigmatize a group of people who are hardworking, who play by the rules, who raise decent families, they’re troubled by it.”

A reasonable statement supported by poll after poll. A political party that embraces a policy of stigmatizing gays or for that matter any other group will continue to lose support of moderates.

__________________
There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

Woodrow Wilson

Milkman

Where does Steve Schmidt say "leftist?" Can you paste this please.

Norton

Didn't see much on these in your link. Can you expand?

Attilla the Hen

Yes, I think it is. There are many, many people that are fiscally conservative, yet, socially liberal. Their natural tendancy is probably Republican, but, are put off by the religeous right and their looney agenda, so, they vote Democrat.

It's a simple numbers game. Are the Republicans losing more votes than gaining them by snuggling up to the religious right? That point may have now been reached.

Lambik

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McCainiacs: GOP Needs More Leftist Mavericks — New England Republican

Milkman

Here is the article - you should have just included the article, instead of a link, only.

Steve Schmidt did NOT say this. He is not quoted anywhere about "left-wing."

The link below in blue, the color blue is from a blog with an anonymous author.

A very dodgy post.

Link (again): McCainiacs: GOP Needs More Leftist Mavericks — New England Republican

S Landreth

Norton

^Your link sends me to the New England Republican site. Still can find nothing which is a direct quote from Steve Schmidt regarding religion and moving to the left.

None the less, it is my opinion if the Republicans want to regain the support they once enjoyed, they cannot run hard line on social issues. Whether the issue is abortion, gay rights, gun control, or foriegn policy the Republican Party is big enough to embrace a variety of opinions on these issues and should not a party exclusively for those who are to the far right on these issues.

Norton

No? No change needed in the GOP?
Dems will be delighted with this in the next election.

GooMaiRoo

Picking the taxpayers' pockets by the trillion$ and sending it on to Wall Street is a much bigger issue than whether gays should marry. Neither Democrat or Republican politicians will address the fact that their leaders are in the hip pocket of Wall Street and enabling the destruction of the US economy. A candidate from either party can energize American voters if he addresses this overriding issue. All of this crap about gay marriages is just another irrelevant and distracting sideshow.

Attilla the Hen

You seem to believe that there was a choice in bailing out the banks. There was none.
It wouldn't have mattered who was in the whitehouse, the action would have been the same and if you deluded right-wingers think otherwise, then you clearly don't understand the problem.
The banks and the financial industry is the foundation that the whole of the capitalist system rests upon. If it fails, everything else goes with it. It is unique.
No matter how distasteful, the financial system had to be saved with whatever means at the disposal of the government and without respect to any ideology, left, or, right.

If the government hadn't poured trillions of tax-payers money rescuing banks and shoring up confidence, the resulting Depression would have made the one in the 30's look like heaven on earth.

GooMaiRoo

I'm not sure if it logically follows that a person is a "deluded right-winger" if he believes that Washington is owned by Wall Street and leading the country into an economic abyss. Sorry if I've been reading deluded right wing publications such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone and The Atlantic, all with excellent articles about how Wall Street has taken over Washington and is driving the country toward disaster. Obama's economic policies are warmed-over Bush giveaways to Wall Street, bond-holders and credit-default swap counter-parties in faraway countries.

"Financial Policy Despair" ( Paul Krugman):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/op...gman.html?_r=1

"How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution" (Matt Taibbi):
The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone


"The Quiet Coup" (Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the World Bank): The Quiet Coup - The Atlantic (May 2009)

I'll leave you with a recent quote by economist and fund manager John Hussman:
Hussman Funds - Weekly Market Comment: Green Shoots over Thin Ice - April 13, 2009 excerpt:

"Fundamentally, my view is that the U.S. economy is on very thin ice, and that by focusing on the bailout of corporate bondholders rather than the restructuring of debt, we are courting the risk of a far deeper downturn. Last year, I didn't think it was conceivable that policy-makers would attempt to address this problem by making lenders whole with public funds. This is an ethical abomination, putting the public in the position of absorbing the losses that should properly be borne by those who provided capital to these institutions. It is not sustainable. What it does is place the public in the position of losing first, but it will not, and cannot prevent the ultimate failure of the debt – for the simple reason that without restructuring, the debt can't be serviced."

Jet Gorgon

That's not what I said. (You turning radcial libbie on me, Norts?)
I still think many folks like the old values. Hey, it works in muslim countries.
I don't give a fek if gays want to marry, and it's a state decision anyway. The main reason they want marriage rights, as I can see, is economic -- one dies, the other can get the spouse pension benefits.
I hope the Reps hold onto their values. For example, anyone who agrees with late-term abortion is an a**hole, IMO.
But go ahead, let the libbies demoralise the nation like China did. Funny, how many Christians and Buddhists have come out of hiding since commie China relaxed religious rules?
Don't forget, many blacks and Latinos are church-goers. Probably the main reason Prop 8 passed in California.

sabang

Simply put, the GOP needs to move towards the more moderate, tradtionally conservative Republicanism embodied by Ike, Bush snr, and mcCain.

Unfortunately, McCain ain't the man to take them there- too old & lacks the charisma. The far right will go back to being what it always was- a faction- or the GOP will remain in the political wilderness until it does. The US electorate won't be fooled again, at least not anytime soon.

__________________
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Lambik

[quote=Milkman;1028115]Here is the article - you should have just included the article, instead of a link, only.



A very dodgy post.

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In agreement if dodgy is synonym to malicious.

DaffyDuck

Yes, they should be more open mind, but judging by their members, I doubt that will happen...

Jet Gorgon

^ Why change a good thing?