Are there any intelligent Republicans?

[Sharklive6]

I have been trying to find a Republican that shows signs of intelligence and or a brain.

I cannot find even one.

[AngryAmish]

1. No, but they all crave human flesh.

[and-justice-for-all]

2. I have'nt seen any, but will let you know if I do...

but it is not likely.

[RDANGELO]

3. The cultural conservatives are dominating the party.

The majority of Americans are repulsed by them, which is why they are so screwed.

[seabeyond]

4. lots of intelligent repugs and stupid to suggest otherwise. lots of conditioned

and illinformed repugs too

[Captain Hilts]

5. Our relations are very self-selecting. We gravitate towards our own kind.

Yes, there are many intelligent Republicans who simply believe in that party's 'small government' message.

'Rockefeller' Republicans, as it were. They're not ignorant. They're not racists. They're not sexists. They just believe in small government or lower taxes.

I know several. And, no, they didn't think much of GWB.

[SteelPenguin]

14. They're actually quite intelligent

I think if the Republican party were dominated by Rockefeller Republicans our country would be in much better shape...

A situation where the Democrats come up with a grandiose plan to provide some service to the American Public and the Republicans say "yeah but how are you going to pay for it? How bout we trim that part off, it doesn't actually help anyone...." etc. Sort of like the Democrats efficiency expert. Then at the same time they come up with ideas that reduce public spending, and get things into the private sphere "we can deregulate this, we can make that open to private development" and the Democratic party can respond by sying "well lets keep this and that regulation so the envrionment doesn't get totally hosed, and lets put some restrictions on that development that give benefits to peopel developing things to help lower income poeple..."

Both parties win, both come up with ideas, and balance each other out...

Instead the Republicans have been taken over by the extreme fringe who won't cooperate or help in any way at all whether they're in power or out. People accuse the Democrats of being weak, but they're just doing things like they've always been done in a 2 party system. It's the Republicans who stopped playing ball.

[Captain Hilts]

22. I lived in VA during the 70s/early 80s when Bible Thumpers pushed military vets out of the R party

It left a lot of folks partyless in VA. The R's lost a whole constituency that had lived various places, worked with young people and poor people and with minorities as equals. A sad turn.

[salguine]

6. Oh, sure. It's only most of them that are stupid. The rest are cunning but malevolent.

[Orsino]

7. Being Republican can pay very well.

Some are smart enough to take advantage of that fact, and the rest are stupid enough to support them.

Advocating for the Republican platform doesn't require stupidity, but believing in it does.

[T Wolf]

8. Their bigotry and selfishness negates any "smarts" they may innately possess. But their success

in destroying so much of our nation (and the world) does show that they can execute a plan, sometimes using fairly complicated tactics.

So, there is (some) intelligence on their side. Just not so much as to enable them to recognize objective truth.

[graywarrior]

9. Chuck Hagel is no dummy

[rurallib]

20. Well at least about Iraq

[graywarrior]

28. Touche

[SteelPenguin]

10. I wanted to joke answer, but yes...there are intelligent Republicans

I know a few. The republican party has been hijacked by a few extreme groups. The party made the mistake when they were out of power in the early 60's of embracing a number of fairly radical fringe groups in order to regain power. They leveraged a white majority base with their southern strategy, and got the evangelicals out to vote for the first time en masse. The longer they did this the more libertarian and socially liberal republicans drifted from the party, and the more socially conservative single issue voters drifted towards them, leaving a few radical groups in control of the party. The extreme anti-government libertarians, along with the socially conservative evangelicals, along with the white southern racists.

There are OTHER republicans, they're just holdovers from a different age who still have hope that their party won't completely die. I say more power too them. I just don't think it's gonna go well for them.

[frogcycle]

11. do pigs fly?

[Atman]

12. Of course there are. I have plenty of Republican friends.

And when I say "plenty," I mean just enough. ;)

But the Republicans I know aren't idiots. We dined with some friends a few weeks ago and I had a very nice, even handed, non-vitriolic discussion regarding the Paul Hodes and Tim Murphy races (both of which I worked/am working on). No fighting, no name-calling. We come from different places -- this particular person was a 40-something DINK who ridiculously thinks that she shouldn't have to pay taxes on their very handsome six-figure income just because they don't use the services a family of five or six is likely to use. Flawed logic, but she's willing to discuss it, and doesn't go off on Hannity-esque or O'Lielly rages and rants. Unfortunately, she is a Fox News watchers, and think O'Lielly is one of the only people on TV News who actually tells the truth. Which I guess gets back to the "gravitate towards ones own kind" argument.

But my point is, these people are degreed professionals. They aren't stupid. They may be wrong, but that doesn't mean they aren't intelligent. I try to resist pigeonholing just because they don't agree with my opinions.

.

[NJmaverick]

13. There are many intelligent republicans, never under estimate them

many are narcissistic, selfish or just plain evil, but they are smart and they can be dangerous. They are just struggling at the moment, but don't count them out or relax.

[peace frog]

15. My husband is a registered Repub

and he's smart as all hell. Of course, he's been voting Democratic since 1992, but nevertheless... ;)

[Seeking Serenity]

17. Mine, too. Conservative, yet with a mind as sharp as a razor.

But, unlike your man, mine has not voted (D) (on any national race) since Dukakis in '88.

(He will vote D in local and state races, but that's more a matter of there being no other real choice.)

[DrDan]

16. of course there are . . . however, had your question related to "neocon intelligence"

that, of course, would be a difficult element to uncover.

[Peacetrain]

21. Thank you Dr Dan... that is just about it.. you can almost put it all back to neo con philosophy

[DrDan]

25. that is such a contradiction of terms - "neocon" and "philosophy"

almost suggesting their bizarre mutterings are based on some actual thought

[Brewman_Jax]

18. Sure there are

in a criminal sociopathic and psychopathic kind of way. They're the ones that get Bush* into office, pander to the elites at the expense of the common people, extoll ignorance over learning, etc. They are too many. Then, there are the knuckle-dragging, willfully-ignorant, inbred screaming yahoos that have been on the news lately; they are too many, also. :scared:

If you mean in an educated, empathetic and understanding kind of way...don't know, haven't met any. :shrug:

[rurallib]

19. Susan Eisenhower?

[saltpoint]

23. There used to be a few. There doesn't ever seem to have many.

The ones who are actually intelligent nevertheless lend their brains to extremely questionable ideology.

It seems as if the smarter Republicans are the more likely they are to use their smarts in the service of policies and ideas which subvert the democratic impulse.

I wouldn't argue that Dick Cheney was unintelligent. I would argue that he has the ethics of an eel.

[Bluerthanblue]

24. of course there are. Intelligence isn't the problem though it's

the ability to think things through for themselves, and the willingness to speak out with thoughts or opinions that differ with the loud self-proclaimed 'majority'.

The republican tendency is to dislike change (which would include progress) and independent thinking. Not to say all republicans are like this, or that all democrats are the opposite.

:hi:

[ladjf]

26. Yes. Former Republican senator Cohen who served as Secretary of

Defense during the Clinton years. nt

[xiamiam]

27. john dean..thats about it...nt