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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The main thing to remember is that republicans are defined (or should be, in any case), by their conservatism. This brand of republicans may not believe that all change is evil (though some sure do) but they prefer to go at it slowly lest they get burned.
As they say: liberals are needed to avoid stagnation and conservatives to stop the liberal from jumping off a cliff.
What I really hope is that the party will wake up and kick the bad apples out note or that the most toxic members of Trump's base will leave the GOP after he loses the election, blaming them for working with Clinton to rig the election against their messiah.
If the latter comes to pass, I'd expect them to form their own party/coalition and remain a thorn on the Democrats and Republicans alike, but keeping them relatively harmless by making them a single-issue party.
On the home front here in PA...
Some local (county-level) GOP party officials have resigned, because Trump.
They say he doesn't represent their party or their values and that he's unfit to be president. "I can't be supporting Donald Trump and whatever his views are this week," said committeeman John A. Fielding. William Cinfici, chairman of the Republican City Committee (Reading, PA) said, "I can't be associated with Trump in any way."
Connor J. Kurtz of Amity Township said, "I will not vote for a vulgarian who lies with impunity. I will not vote for a crook whose business bankruptcies are rivaled only by his moral bankruptcies."
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.Now, even Christie is against Trump's attacking the Khans. No, seriously
.
But in seriousness, to describe what's "good" about Republican ideology, here's a list of things. It's really a list of interests, but knowing someone's interests often makes them more sympathetic:
1. They're dedicated to protecting American national pride, which I think is a noble goal.
2. They seek to protect the image of law enforcement and the military, which I think is important in an age where Cool People Rebel Against Authority.
3. They seek to promote self-reliance.
4. They value duty, tradition, and bravery.
These are the 4 "best" things I'd say about the Republican party.
edited 2nd Aug '16 4:31:18 PM by Protagonist506
Leviticus 19:34That's a bit of a
Dead Horse Trope. Nowadays people don't rebel for the sake of it: they do it because the authority's choices genuinely don't sit right with them. Furthermore, the military and the police, the force-using arms of the government, need to be held accountable for their actions, as much so as any other branch whose work is a matter of life and death.
No man is an island: self-reliance comes with caveats. People should not be drags if they can help it, but they should be able to count on each other, and, more importantly, they should be able to recognise when they owe some of their success to others, and acknowledge it.
I can't say that I find tradition and duty to be valuable unto themselves, not without a thorough knowledge of the whys and hows of their demands. Example: the Confederate Flag.
edited 2nd Aug '16 4:30:56 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.What the Republicans see as "national pride" I call it jingoism.
And seriously, it's the Republicans that made this "Blue Lives Matter" bullcrap. Law enforcement must earn its reputation by not shooting innocent black people.
edited 2nd Aug '16 4:33:54 PM by flameboy21th
Non Indicative UsernameIt's not about Cool People Rebel Against Authority so much as an acknowledgement that there are a lot of problems with law enforcement and their treatment of certain demographics. That's more or less just a symptom of a larger problem, but it is what it is.
Also, I'm basically in agreement with what the two posts above said.
I might also add that "self-reliance" seems to translate as "we don't care about or don't believe in systemic and structural inequality, so we're going to stimy any attempts at addressing those and leave things that should be fundamental rights to individual states".
edited 2nd Aug '16 4:33:45 PM by wehrmacht
Upholding national pride certainly sounds like a noble goal, but there is a line between patriotism (healthy love of country) and nationalism (unhealthy obsession with country).
And Democrats are pouncing on the opportunity to become the party of patriotism and civic duty, now that the Republicans have so blatantly drifted into nihilistic nationalism that requires a savior from above.
Duty and tradition are important things for a society to have. Mind you, it isn't always a good thing, but it usually is. In the case of the Confederacy, they weren't exactly patriots (though some of them had a sort of state-level loyalty). Having said that, there are legitimate questions of who deserves your loyalty. In general, I would say the Confederacy is a good example of almost (but not quite) opposite ideals of the Republicans. Confederates turned against their country, relied on slave labor, and were generally not meritocratic in any way.
A good way of describing it is that Republicans are channeling a sort of "eagle scout" mentality. In practice, this hasn't been working out well for them. Trump is basically the opposite of a boy scout.
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City living requires more mutual dependence, to be sure. Having said that, there's different types of self-reliance. Also, self-reliance being important doesn't necessarily mean that it's always the #1 priority all the time.
Again, I'm arguing that there are good things about the Republican party, not that you should necessarily vote Republican right now. Actually, I would strongly encourage everyone to vote Clinton in this election.
edited 2nd Aug '16 4:57:37 PM by Protagonist506
Leviticus 19:34Traditionally, presidents are White Anglo Saxon Protestants; traditionally, black people don't vote; traditionally, gays don't marry; traditionally, transgenders don't exist; traditionally, women stay at home; traditionally, you sell your daughter for a piece of land; traditionally, porn is evil.
edited 2nd Aug '16 5:13:26 PM by flameboy21th
Non Indicative UsernameBut the thing about the current GOP is that it isn't conservative. It's a combination of reactionary, where they seek to undo whatever the opposition did, and revolutionary, where they want to tear down the current system and "return" to an idealized version of the 50s that didn't exist in the first place. A genuinely conservative political party would look extremely different from the GOP has pretty much ever looked in its history.
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I'm not suggesting that all change is bad (in fact, I myself am significantly less of a traditionalist-more on that later), but I do think it's safe to say that some sort of cultural stability is desirable, if only because "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Some progress can, ironically, come from traditionalism as well (the "tradition" of "all men are created equal" has led to progress-think of it as "tradition of progress")
Personally, I consider myself more of a "right-leaning progressive" than a conservative so traditionalism isn't a major aspect of my ideology-most Republican ideals I support for reasons other than strict traditionalism (indeed, I view some of them as being essential to the foreward march of society).
edited 2nd Aug '16 5:14:23 PM by Protagonist506
Leviticus 19:34Now that I think about it, isn't the Boy Scouts affiliated with the Mormon, and they had a hard time accepting gay members and gay leaders are almost impossible?
Non Indicative UsernameAs an immigrant to Canada, I always find national pride to be a bit of a odd thing. Why should anyone be proud of a place he or she is in simply because of an accident of birth? Should someone born in Best Korea be proud of the Kim dynasty and their poverty stricken hellhole? Or should a woman born in Saudi Arabia be proud of how she is being oppressed?
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Only the BSA. I believe the Canadian version is more reasonable.
"a better place" is, of course, fairly subjective...
edited 2nd Aug '16 5:24:46 PM by nightwyrm_zero

Me, this election season makes me hopeful to see the GOP burn. I'll probably be disappointed, but still.
Non Indicative Username