Republicans will NOT moderate if Willard loses the election.

[RandySF]

John is a great guy, but let's be honest, our heart was not with him so much as it was into defeating George W. Bush in 2004 and look how that turned out. So after we lost, we decided "to hell with it", and looked for someone we were passionate about (For half the party, it was barack Obama. For the other half, Hillary Clinton). Right now the Republicans are having their 2004. They got behind Mitt Romney early because they hate Barack Obama so much they entered a marriage of convenience. If he loses, they will go with THEIR hearts in 2016 and get behind someone like a Rand Paul or Rick Santorum. So if you think the GOP is crazy now, just wait until next year.

[oldhippydude]

1. god i hope so..

all other things being equal the demographic changes alone will kill them...

[former-republican]

2. I disagree

They will go for a moderate.
They thought that's what they were getting with Romney. They were wrong.
Hard right wingers won't win an election ever again.

The country is shifting and many republicans are shifting with it.
By every poll republicans don't want a voucher system for Medicare.

They want it saved but with no drastic changes.
Most have become antiwar just like democrats.
Most republicans want marijuana decriminalized and a significant percentage say made legal.
30% of republicans are pro choice

It's the end of the hard right wingers ever being elected .

good riddance...

[railsback]

9. Its makes no sense

if these people do exist, they wouldn't even be considering voting for Romney.

[former-republican]

14. They aren't voting for him they are

voting against Obama.

[lunatica]

17. And evidently voting against their own interests

which is just so stupid it defies all common sense.

[former-republican]

27. yes they are , I can't explain it entirely

racism for some maybe , being brought up to vote party lines for others.

Think of it this way. If republicans in the house had not try to vilify Obama care like they did.
A good percentage of republicans would have also supported some type of reform to health care in this country.

You have plenty of republicans that lose their jobs , lose their health care coverage ,have preexisting medical conditions , have older children with out health care insurance.

The hate that has come out of the both houses and the talking heads in the right wing is shameful against this administration and personally against Obama and Michelle.

I really hate to say this about a large percentage of my former party but I think it's about his race and nothing else.

As to the other points I listed , being pro-choice , antiwar etc...

You have a lot of republicans in that category so why are they voting for Romney and not Obama?
My explanation is racism still runs deep in this country. People have just learned to hide it better .

[Cosmocat]

20. And voting against the things

you noted that they are for/against ...

[railsback]

28. That still doesn't make any sense

Moderates aren't supposed to be petty.

[cyclezealot]

15. Don't agree.. At least not immediately.

American elections are about money... Money can choke off real decision making by bamboozling the public with ads over substance.. A majority of Republicans might be sane. But, those who control the party with their tons of cash are not..
Those that pull the strings of the party are libertarians and will the GOP base be able to take back control.. And remember just 5% of Republicans believe in Science, almost half believe Obama is a Muslim , not born in America.. That is the base of their base.
Still a majority of Goppers don't want anyone screwing around with Social Security or Medicare..

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. This is why Hillary will be a shoe-in in 2016, if she wants it. Repukes actually

like her and she has always been perceived as more conservative than Obama.

I think that they republican party has been hijacked by the far right. Moderate republicans have nowhere to go

[Cosmocat]

22. They CURRENTLY "like" Hillary because she is not Obama

But, they spent 18 years, starting from the day Bill Clinton got elected, absolutely eviscerating Hill because they knew she would one day run for President.

They spent an entire decade screaming about hair cuts and everything else, and had the "liberal" media follow their lead in penning her "DIVISIVE!" going into the 2000s.

Which is another way of saying the lunatic republicans hate her.

They only put their hate of her on hiatus when it became clear that BO was going to win the primary and at that point she was their best friend.

But, make no mistake.

BO wins reelection and one year in Hill steps down at SOS, they will find their Hill hate 10 times over.

One of the reasons I supported BO over Hill was that I was niave enough to think that he was such a good guy, genial and new to things, that they might be a BIT less ridiculous with him than they would with Hill. But, they have managed to find 1,000 off the wall reasons to hate someone who is incredibly even keeled, has bent over backwards TRYING to work with them and is a pretty fine president.

I do think Hill would be the prohibitive favorite assuming BO gets his second term and things go well.

But, this whole thing about Rs liking Hill and Bill will come to an IMMEDIATE halt the moment the steps down at SOS.

[backscatter712]

3. Santorum's likely to try again next term.

According to the "conventional wisdom", the guy that gets second place in the GOP primaries has the top shot at getting the nomination next time.

Though I suspect the "A-list" Republicans are going to come out for 2016 - Christie, Jeb Bush, Rubio, McDonnell.

I suspect the 2016 election's going to be far more dangerous - Obama can't get a third term, so we need to be fielding someone who can fire up Democrats and get the votes like Obama did. I hope we don't get another John Kerry...

[Scootaloo]

4. Who ever thought they would?

They react to every loss with more extremism. They've become so intellectually isolated that they really, honestly, devoutly believe that they lose because they're "not conservative enough." it's the only direction they can possibly go; further and further to the right. The whole time they shed another tier of moderate voters (moderate relative to the party at that time, that is.)

Nobody's rushing to register Republican, except perhaps the children of current Republicans - and even those kids don't seen in any huge hurry. No new ideas are coming in, either; instead they have the same thirty year-old ideas... Except they keep trimming those down, too! With no fresh faces, and no fresh ideas, and with dissent harshly punished, the party just keeps shedding layers. Pretty soon it's just going to be a core of disgruntled white men hanging out in bars and occasionally seeking office as postmaster.

We are witnessing the heat-death of a political party. They've exhausted their ideas, they're exhausting their voters, and there's no new fuel for either coming in. They're approaching maximum entropy, and they're doing it faster and faster with every election cycle. You could probably map out their rightward lean as a Fibonacci spiral, in fact; starts slow and board, and rapidly becomes a tight, inverting vortex.

That is to say in layman's terms; they're fucked, and win or lose, they will continue to be fucked. The goal is to keep ourselves from being fucked by them on their way down.

[Lil Missy]

5. One can only hope. n/t

[madrchsod]

6. it`s going to be their version of "the night of the long knives"

it`s not going to be pretty....

[Monk06]

7. If or should I say Obama wins Issa will begin hearings to construct a pretext for impeachment.

He will attempt to force Obama to testify under oath to anything, it doesn't matter what, so that he can twist the facts and accuse Obama of lying to Congress.

Count on it. That's what they did to Clinton. They will do the same thing to Obama.

[jillan]

10. When they did that to Clinton, there wasn't fb and as many ways for us to connect - they will try

but we are going to be on them like flies on cow pies, with them being the cow pies.

We cannot let that happen again.

[Monk06]

31. Acually I think you are dead on. Social media would stop Issa in his tracks by outing phoney

witnesses and their political connections. Not to mention Barack is the squeakiest clean president in history. He is an actual for real family man which is why the RWs hate him so much. He stole their paragon.

[lunatica]

18. Just because they don't learn from their mistakes doesn't mean we don't

The reason Obama's campaign has been so relentless is because they learned from the Party's mistakes. The Republicans, on the other hand, just keep doubling down on theirs.

[silvershadow]

8. I saw where several of them, including Santorum, are already touring Iowa for 2016.

[Incitatus]

11. good, let them move more to the right and see what happens. nt

[B Calm]

12. The GOP leadership pick who will be

the republican presidential nominee.

[mykpart]

13. There are powerful people pulling the strings in the Republican Party,

and they sometimes don't choose the same people that the rank-and-file Republican citizens might want. The puppet masters co-opted the Tea Party movement, which probably would have died out by now. For all we know, it is foreign governments controlling the Republican party, since no one will tell us where the money comes from. Not all of it.

[quaker bill]

16. I break it down this way

Mitt, like John Kerry, was considered "Mr. Electability". Kerry's status as a decorated veteran was supposed to neutralize W's commander in chief advantage in the war on terror. However, the swift boaters had been out there since Nixon pulled them together to mess with Kerry's career. Mitten's business experience was supposed to provide him an advantage over BHO in the rough economy. That has been turned completely on its head, in the same way that Ted Kennedy did it years ago, but with a bit more force this time around.

Which way the Rs will go from here will very much depend on who shows up at the party meetings once Mitt loses. There will be those who say correctly that unless the Rs reform in a manner that allows them to do far better with hispanics and college educated single women, the Rs are doomed to near permanent minority status. There will be those who argue that only being more purely conservative in various ways can they pull together the coalition of reactionaries needed to win.

Had they run Newt or Icky Ricky and lost, the going full bore hard right meme would have been defeated. With Miitt they picked a guy that few are passionate about but most thought could be elected. His loss does not defeat an ideology because Mitt is anything but an ideolog (he has two opinions on most subjects). His defeat will harm the party leadership as they pumped the electability angle.

In 2016 they will nominate an "outsider" who has one strong opinion on things. Whether it is a hard right opinion or a more reaching for the center opinion remains to be seen and will significantly depend on which groups dominate the party meetings after the defeat. If they go hard right, they will not regain the WH for a very, very long time. If they head toward the center, they could be back in 2020.

Time will tell.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

21. the thing is, if they move to the center next time, they lose all the whack jobs. There won't be

enough constituency to win (primaries or general)

They are basically screwed. Not enough support on the far right to win general; not enough of the moderates either.

[quaker bill]

24. That is true

A pivot to the center is unlikely because someone from the far right will run and likely take the primaries. Either way I would not predict them winning 2016 because either they demoralize the far right base going to the center or completely marginalize the center by going far right. Niether path will work in 2016.

If they lose hard right in 2016, then both the political winds and the demographics will force a pivot to the center. The demographics in 2016 are markedly less favorable, but get completely hostile to the RW by 2020. At some point over the next 10 years to stay remotely politically relevant they will need to shift to the center.

[renie408]

26. But they will gain back independents and moderates that only moved out of the party

because they can't tolerate the whack jobs.

Moving to the center is actually the smartest thing they could do.

[bluestate10]

30. The problem is that republicans don't have centrists in their party.

The lone exception is Huntsman may be. A moderate will not get nominated by the republican party. Republicans have to rebuild their farm system, but unfortunately that farm system is full of nut-cases. I really like the democratic farm system with the likes of a young Joe Kennedy III and people like Tulsi Gabbard running on our side.

[Pab Sungenis]

23. The better parallel is 1988.

Our party's reaction to Dukakis' defeat was to misinterpret why he lost. It wasn't his liberalism that lost him the election, it was his ineptness as a campaigner. But we swerved rightward with Clinton. Then we did the same thing in 2008 reacting to Kerry's loss.

The Republican base is going to make the same mistake. They see Mittens as a moderate, and will assume it was his moderation that lost not the fact that he's a blithering idiot. So they will put up someone even more insane in 2016. And if THAT maniac wins, we will make the same mistake by putting someone even further to the right of Barack Obama up in an effort to "triangulate" once more.

[Wounded Bear]

25. I think it depends.....

Over the last few cycles, I've noticed something. When Repubs lose, they tend to blame PR problems and say things like, "We didn't get our message across well" and such. They have yet to realize that the public is starting to realize how much their policies suck and are turning away.

I'm not sure if the Repub party is seriously ready to address their policies. So far, they've continued to double down on the failed message of the last generation and just upped their PR assault. But there's only so much shine you can put on a turd like that. Will they take a realistic look at why they're losing so badly? Time will tell. I long for the days when a moderate Republican could actually be a possibility to vote for. I haven't seen a Pres candidate like that since the 70's and I stopped considering down ticket R's many years ago.

[bluestate10]

29. Good. I want them to go triple bat-shit crazy instead of bat-shit crazy.

Republicans will scare off 65% of the country and then we can finally get rid of the assholes.

[Kennah]

32. GOP history is varied

After Goldwater, they moderated themselves, until Ronnie Raygun. Bush I was a little less crazy and out of touch than Saint Ronnie. Dole was more moderate, then they came back with Bush II, but it took the SCOTUS to install him.

Reason says they will moderate, because they should. However, I am inclined to think they will go bat shit fucking crazy in 2016. Romney is still seen very much as a moderate/liberal in the eyes of many of the GOP faithful.

The pattern appears to be that they are becoming more and more out of touch, so their love affair with the crazy is getting worse. They are going moderate for shorter and shorter periods of time.

My fear is that the Congress will remain in the hands of the Teabilly Fucksticks, and they will just ride out 2 more years as the Congress of No. If that happens, then the only hope is complete repudiation of the GOOP in 2014 with the Congress and Senate handed back over to the Democrats, 61 or 62 in the Senate, and 240 in the House, and Obama's last 2 years will be a slamfest of legislation passed. Economy starting to come alive, and the Democratic Nominee in 2016 rides in with the House and Senate working with them. Obama will have been a wartime President, fighting a war against insanity waged by a party with some members who border on being domestic terrorists.