StillIRise's Comments (14161)

“1) Many Republicans have ALREADY embraced some of the tea party principles, and have in fact joined the teabaggers. But the principles they've embraced are not the traditional principles of less govt. and lower taxes ... these have always been the so called principles of the right, even though they seemed to have forgetten these principles during the 8 years of Bush! The tea party principles they've embraced however are much less honorable, which is why moderate or centrist Republicans and true conservatives are not as engaged in the tea party movement as the extremists are.

2) The "disenfranchised" center of the Republican Party, has been disenfranchised by the tea party people themselves. What is evolving as the new Republican Party is a Party of extremists who want no more to do with the disenfranchised center of the GOP than the disenfranchised center of the GOP want to have anything to do with them. On the other hand, the center of the Democratic Party do not feel at all disenfranchised. If anyone feels disenfranchised in the Dem Party, it's those on the far left!

What is divided under Obama, and what Bush laid the foundation for over the last 8 years, are the extremes ... the extreme left and the extreme right. Even so, Obama's support among Dems still remains at 80%. I didn't say that Obama's not running the show. I'm sure he is, as a President should be. I just said that he's not a radical extremist.”

“As you've acknowledged, most people are to the left or right of center and are not radical extremists ...

However, if you consider the radical extreme Tea Party people who're not only usurping the Republican Party platform and agenda, but usurping traditional Republican candidates as well, replacing them with the Tea Party candidates, then I would suggest that the Republican Party itself is in a bit of a pickle!!!

In fact, moderate or right of center Republicans have been for all intent and purpose shut out of the party entirely, and even true conservatives (as opposed to the wannabes) have fled on their own from a party that would run Sarah Palin for President!!! So I don't think you'll be seeing GOP rule any time soon!!!

What the Republican Party has become doesn't even represent traditional Republicans any more, much less the majority of America!!!!

Also, whatever you may think of Pelosi and Reid, President Obama is far from a "radical extremist," and I doubt if you will even find many Republicans who think he is!!! One of the reasons President Obama is bombarded with criticism from both the left and the right is because he IS left or right of center ...”

“I have to agree that his behavior these last 2 years has been troubling.”

“I have a sneaky feeling that the Democratic ship is going to stay afloat a lot longer than the GOP sinking ship.

After all, there seems to be more Republicans not only retiring from both chambers of Congress than Democrats, but the Republican base has abandoned their party as well, with less than 20% even wanting to identify themselves as Republicans!!!!”

“Last I heard, it was LESS THAN 20%!!!!”

“Are you on the right thread?

Did you even read the article???

This has nothing to do with the healthcare bill ... Dodd's leaving, but will likely be replaced by another viable Democrat ... and the beat goes on!!! Including the healthcare bill ....”

“Dodd made significant contributions to the country and to the party as a Senator, but it's time for him and a lot of the others who've been serving for decades to leave and to make room for new faces, for new blood, as they say.”

“Great comment! Fanned!!!”

“Steele COULDN'T do the JOB they thought he was going to do!

No one could do the JOB they thought Steele was going to do!!!

Why? Because the JOB they thought Steele was going to do was to fool the electorate into believing that because they'd elected a black man to chair the RNC, the party itself had changed. Yet, at the same time that they thought that Steele could fool us into believing this, the party was becoming even more corrupt, more divisive, more exclusive as opposed to inclusive, more racist, and more delusional in all other ways than ever before.

Therefore, the JOB they wanted Steele to perform was impossible!!!!! I don't think Steele even knew anymore what his role was!!!! On the one hand, he's trying to convince us that the GOP has become the new hip-hop sensation, while on the other hand the teabaggers were taking the party over!!!!

If Steele has any sense or any dignity left, he WILL use this as an opportunity to GET OUT ...”

“What a bland world this would be if everyone was ... sane!!!!”

“Ifticar2: You got nothing!!!!!”

“Fanned ... for reading my mind :)”

“No, I would not call them racists. I would perhaps call them ignorant or mean-spirited or hateful ... but not racist, because white people have not historically been stereotyped as monkeys.

When President Bush's face is morphed inside of a monkey's body, the message is clearly not complimentary, but it's not a racist message! And yes, the target of the message, the content and context of the message, and the messenger himself are all part of what makes the distinction between what is racist and what is not.

And therein lies the difference, which is apparently the simple difference of knowing the definition of a racist and of racism ... and if you would look at this picture of Bush in a monkey's body and call it racist, or compare it to a picture of Obama being depicted as a monkey, then apparently you don't know those definitions ...”

“Good post. Fanned.”

“I'm from Chicago too postman ... and you're right!!! Obama was NEVER part of the "Machine," but you can never convince the tro//s of that!!!!”

“As a Chicagoan ... thank you for your comment.

Daley would be no loss to the city ... they can only go up from him!

And Rabat's remarks were definitely unnecessary and immature.”

“Neither am I what? Neither am I serious? Or neither am I not alone???? Or both???”

“What I call racists are people who've depicted our President as a monkey, calling upon him to go back to Africa. I call racists people who carry signs with pictures of our President with bones sticking through his nose and naming him as a Kenyan nationalist who hates America. I call racists people who send emails showing the front lawn of the White House covered with watermelons. I call racists people who've expressed or otherwise demonstrated their disapproval of a black man and a black family in the White House ... I call racists people who will attempt to disguise their racism by carrying banners decrying big government, yet choosing to march alongside the man or woman carrying a banner decrying the fact that our President is black!

These are people who believe that the color of one's skin not only defines one's character, but discerns one's superiority vs. one's inferiority. This, in my humble opinion, is delusional, and therefore not in reality.

I've neither said nor implied that those who've legitimately criticized the President are racist. In fact, I've criticized him myself and much of the criticism against him have come from those who support him.

So what I find shameful is that you would read my comment, and then twist it into something else to conform to a narrative that you've contrived. If this is your gripe, then put it in your own post; but don't use my post to expound on something that I've not said!!!!”

“Well said. Fanned.”

“After losing the 2008 elections, both the presidential election as well as congressional seats, the GOP realized that they needed to re-group. They talked about becoming more inclusive and reaching out to the younger generation as well as to minorities. They seemed to understand that their image had become obsolete and they needed to improve upon the perception that many Americans obviously have of them. I remember some of us saying that, even though we don't support the GOP, we did support and encourage the Republicans' effort to become a healthier opposition party.

And then, along came the Tea Parties ...

Today, the Tea Party Republicans are pushing moderate and even traditional right wing Republicans out!!!

Contrary to uplifting the Republican Party and making it more inclusive and more relevant, they're taking over the Republican Party to be a party of far right wing neocon racist extremists, and are actually making it worse than it was just a year ago.

Stay tuned in, because this is just the beginning of the end of the GOP as we've known it!”

“Actually, I agree with you ... but I also think that there're some who'll believe the lie themselves and will buy into it, thinking that they're "making a statement" by withholding their vote or voting for the other party (which is one and the same thing).

Even so, I still believe that they are in a very small minority of Obama supporters, and the majority of us - even though we're disappointed, disillusioned, impatient, discouraged and all of the other negatives that some have been posting - we're not crazy enough to turn our country back over to these nuts.

Unfortunately, I also think that there're some Dem organizations that are helping out with the dissemination of the Republican/conservative talking points.”

“Karl Rove in particular invited into the Republican tent the religious and cultural fanatics to bolster support for the right-wing agenda and their candidates. This new face of the Republican Party not only gradually overshadowed the influence of more traditional Republicans - such as Gingrich, Graham and others - but began driving moderate Republicans and true conservatves away from the Republican Party.

Today, we have Tea Party Republicans, like Bachmann and Limbaugh and Palin, insinuating their agenda onto the RNC agenda with the intent of re-defining the party by their standards, so to speak. Rush Limbaugh has even said that they don't want moderate or traditional Republicans in their tent; they only want Republicans like themselves. They're also challenging RNC candidates and replacing them if possible with Tea Party candidates. The Republican Party doesn't know how to stop this!!!

Likewise, Fox News - who actually helped to organize the Tea Parties - has allowed anchors like Beck and Hannity and others to cross the line so often that no one seems to know where the line is anymore. Hence, you have people like Brit Hume disparaging Buddhism and prostelysizing for Christianity on a cable network news show.

Their Frankenstein is on the loose, and they are self-destructing!”

“Not only is HE serious ....

But read some of the comments from the posters!!!! Appaently, he's not alone!”

“Don't forget the ACORN conspiracy by the black community to elect a black President, and of course there's the conspiracy to take their Christmas away from them ... and how can anyone forget the conspiracy to indoctrinate our children with the President's back to school speech and the conspiracy during Black History Month to make Barack King of the world by our grade school students giving honor to American's first black President ...”

“Drowning!!!!”