Major Damage

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deleted15807

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Wow what a shock and the characters promise a redo the next go around.....

The budget confrontation that led to a partial government shutdown dealt a major blow to the GOP’s image and has exposed significant divisions between tea party supporters and other Republicans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey highlights just how badly the GOP hard-liners and the leaders who went along with them misjudged the public mood. In the aftermath, eight in 10 Americans say they disapprove of the shutdown. Two in three Republicans or independents who lean Republican share a negative view of the impasse. And even a majority of those who support the tea party movement disapprove.

Poll: Major damage to GOP after shutdown, and broad dissatisfaction with government - The Washington Post
 
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texas41-38

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As American's we get exactly the government that we deserve. All power is truly with the people; but only when the people use that power. And that comes in the presence of voters actually showing up at the polls. As example, here in my beloved Texas, we consistently have on of the lowest turn outs in the country. The last election was in the 43% range. With wing nut Ted Cruz coasting to victory. Is this kook representative of this State? No because we are actually about five states in one. But the point is, with the level of turn out that we had, Cruz was actually only the choice of 18% of registered voters in Texas.

Damage done to the r's because of the shut down will be negligible.
 

dandelion

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Damage done to the r's because of the shut down will be negligible.
I agree with you that most people find politics irrelevant: the same is true in the UK where we have succesive governments elected by a small proportion of the people. However, with the two parties so closely matched, small changes may be important.
 

Bardox

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The thread I put this in originally asked if the damage done to the GOP could possibly "destroy" the republican party, but it fits here as well...

I don't think there is a danger of the GOP being "destroyed", but they are starting to realize there are differences between the TEA party ideology and the Republican ideology. It might tear a chunk out of them when they are forced to split, but the Grand Old Party will survive.

The Republican party I grew up around believed in market based solutions, common sense realities toward government spending, and the need to defend ourselves from a dangerous world. That was it. These days however you have be homophobic, you can never miss a day of church, you have to deny facts, think scientific research is a conspiracy by the liberal elite, and believe poor people are living on easy street. The biggest requirement of course being that you have to hate democrats and think any republican that even thinks about the word compromise is a traitor to the cause and must be removed.

If the RNC wishes to remain a rival to the DNC then sooner or later they are going to have to accept that the TEA party ideology and the Republican Party ideology are not one and the same. They must adapt to the changing times or they will not survive the next generation of voters. The next generation of voters don't believe Gay people are abominations, they don't want a firearm in their home, they want renewable fuels to replace fossil fuels, they want a Tesla Turbo instead of another Ford F150, and they don't want to wait for Jesus to save us from climate change. Deal with it.

The damage done to the GOP in the short term is massive, but will it last or will the leaders of the Republican party immediately alter course and recover from this cluster-fuck before the 2014 midterms?
 

hot-rod

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If all Democrats would get out and vote in all elections, from city to national elections, they would win all the time. It will take a while but Texas will be blue again.
 

Eric_8

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If all Democrats would get out and vote in all elections, from city to national elections, they would win all the time. It will take a while but Texas will be blue again.

The same could be said, more accurately in fact, about Republicans/Conservatives voting.

I can't speak to the state by state breakdown, but the United States as a whole is more Conservative than Liberal...at least according to its citizens.
 

breeze

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It doesn't matter what the public thinks 1 or 2 or 3 years from elections. It matters a couple of months from elections. They know that.
 

hung15us

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If the demo's would have talked it would not have happened. The government knew this was going to happen. Look at the closing of the parks. How long do you think it would take to make the signs and get the gates to close the parks. MONTHS.
 

manju

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Not sure how long the rancid taste of the tea baggers will linger in our collective mouths as the general public has a pretty short memory and even shorter attention span. If this had happened right before an election maybe it would have been damaging to the Republicans but midterms are over a year away and old news has a way of just being swept under the rug.

The tea bag districts are so gerrymandered by the Republicans into ultra conservative enclaves that they are almost guaranteed not to loose any House seats. It's the only reason why the likes of Michelle Bauchman get re-elected I can think of.
 

hsarge

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Republicans, actually all voters, need to vote in the primaries. A small, vigorous, galvanized minority can hijack a primary, because regular voters are too bored to vote. A tea party candidate, with outside money, does not need many voters to upset a party regular. That minority candidate then represents the whole party in the general election. It has happened many times recently. That is why the tea party threat to run their candidate in the republican primary scares the incumbents.
 
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deleted15807

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Republicans, actually all voters, need to vote in the primaries. A small, vigorous, galvanized minority can hijack a primary, because regular voters are too bored to vote. A tea party candidate, with outside money, does not need many voters to upset a party regular. That minority candidate then represents the whole party in the general election. It has happened many times recently. That is why the tea party threat to run their candidate in the republican primary scares the incumbents.

THIS
 

OhWiseOne

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Reality is main stream politicians don't like the Tea party because they can not control them. Pretty simple really.

The shutdown effected roughly 17% of the government and was at best a inconvenience. The scare tactics that people used were complete BS and the economy was not influenced. It's still going in the crapper for many other reasons.
 

tarheel6

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Reality is main stream politicians don't like the Tea party because they can not control them. Pretty simple really.

The shutdown effected roughly 17% of the government and was at best a inconvenience. The scare tactics that people used were complete BS and the economy was not influenced. It's still going in the crapper for many other reasons.

Standard and Poor's estimates that the shutdown cost the economy roughly $24 billion.

The far bigger concern, thankfully averted by a deal on the debt ceiling, was that uncertainty over whether the U.S. would, even temporarily, be unable to pay all of its bills (not just payments to bondholders, but to all creditors) would introduce a level of credit risk to bonds that would result in increased interest rates. That happened after the last debt limit stalement two years ago.

The reason so many analysts, bondholders, analysts, investment banks, and economists see the debt ceiling showdowns as dangerous is they risk causing a spike in interest rates, which would immediately spike the debt because the U.S. would then be paying higher interest on all of the outstanding debt.

Since World War II, U.S. government bonds/debt has always been viewed as the most safe/least credit-risky investment. Although that's not likely to change immediately, the posture is seriously undercut by repeated demonstrations that the political process in the U.S. is so fractious that investors cannot be 100% certain that the U.S. will always pay all of its debts.

Two final thoughts:

1. The very point you make -- that the "Tea Party" members of Congress cannot be "controlled" contributes to the sense of risk that the U.S. Congress might, at some point, fail to take the steps necessary to insure the U.S. never fails to pay any of its debts. That introduces credit risk, and could lead to higher interest rates and a debt that balloons no matter what spending the Congress authorizes.

2. You are right that there are other factors weighing down the economy. Among them, according to Moody's Mark Zandy (a centrist economic analyst), the sequester cuts are starting to "bite". Also, we have an aged infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports, trains, electric grid) that imposes a hidden drag on economic activity. It's like with corporations that shortchange research and development or capital investments because they don't pay immediate results. Over time, the lack of those investments shows.
 

OhWiseOne

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^^^ thanks for the insight^^^

I don't disagree that it cost the economy some amount of money.

As a side note, If was an investor the U.S. would be the last place I would look for a return.

Your comment about the Tea party members and the fear of not being able to control them I feel is a good thing. One problem we "America" has is the follow the party line, don't think outside the box syndrome. Most, not all politicians, look out for their own interests and have no desire to work for the people.

Anywho, thanks