MARK CUBAN: Here's What Republicans Should Do Next

[DCPatriot]

Very Good use of Colorful Metaphors. I was expecting a man with your education to pick better words.

Believe me, it wasn't my first or second choice.  I settled.   

[alicewonders]

There is a board for social conservatives who are actively rooting for the "GOPe" to fail in their races these mid-terms.  It's call FreeRepublic.  Although donations look low there, so I suppose JimRob will author another one of his famous 180s, and say people should vote for "RINOs," in order to keep his money train a rollin'.   

Yep.  I check over there every so often, less and less as times goes by.  JR seems to be even crazier, as are a lot of the posters.  Used to go there everyday, now I don't miss it at all.

[Bigun]

Mystery needs to check who is posting and their tilt.

There is no one here more conservative than I but I must tell you that IMHO you have gone WAY over the line with this one!

[EC]

There is no one here more conservative than I but I must tell you that IMHO you have gone WAY over the line with this one!

Totally agree. We've seen what happens when approved thoughts or views are the only posts permitted. Besides, it goes totally against what myst and repub believe.

[SPQR]

Totally agree. We've seen what happens when approved thoughts or views are the only posts permitted. Besides, it goes totally against what myst and repub believe.

 I just wanted to know people stood on issues. I already knew that the owners of the site were ultra-conservatives from another site.

[DCPatriot]

I just wanted to know people stood on issues. I already knew that the owners of the site were ultra-conservatives from another site.

The owners here are no more Conservative than any of us.  We've been together long enough that we KNOW what everybody's position is on the issues. 

We've been together since the stained blue dress and hanging chads.   Since Waco, Monica, Elian Gonzalez and Terry Schiavo.

Long enough to know that the core group here are "Big C" Republicans and that the GOP is the ONLY vehicle we have to stop the Left's agenda.

What we also are is tolerant. And pragmatic.

...at least, MOST of the time!   

[olde north church]

Although the owners of TBR are ultra conservative, Tracy and I welcome all the factions of the GOP here...liberals....there are none here that I know of....over the years I have occasionally allowed a few liberals here but they haven't lasted long....

No one here is more conservative/Conservative than me.  I know because I say so.  I consider Birchers to be libertine.  I know because I say so.  Just because my ass isn't parked in some pew somewhere on a Sunday morning doesn't mean I'm not conservative/Conservative.  I know because I say so.

[DCPatriot]

No one here is more conservative/Conservative than me.  I know because I say so.  I consider Birchers to be libertine.  I know because I say so.  Just because my ass isn't parked in some pew somewhere on a Sunday morning doesn't mean I'm not conservative/Conservative.  I know because I say so.

 

[MACVSOG68]

No one here is more conservative/Conservative than me.  I know because I say so.  I consider Birchers to be libertine.  I know because I say so.  Just because my ass isn't parked in some pew somewhere on a Sunday morning doesn't mean I'm not conservative/Conservative.  I know because I say so.

                                                                       

[Cyber Liberty]

No one here is more conservative/Conservative than me.  I know because I say so.  I consider Birchers to be libertine.  I know because I say so.  Just because my ass isn't parked in some pew somewhere on a Sunday morning doesn't mean I'm not conservative/Conservative.  I know because I say so.

Sez you!   

[SPQR]

I apologize to everyone over yesterday. I have 2 weeks developing a Powerpoint presentation for two classes at the same time. I was just cracking under pressure. Again, I apologize and I hope that you forgive me.

[mystery-ak]

 

[DCPatriot]

I apologize to everyone over yesterday. I have 2 weeks developing a Powerpoint presentation for two classes at the same time. I was just cracking under pressure. Again, I apologize and I hope that you forgive me.

And I apologize to you, Trigger.

No Powerpoint presentations...no classes.  I'm just too old, that's all.   

[Cyber Liberty]

I apologize to everyone over yesterday. I have 2 weeks developing a Powerpoint presentation for two classes at the same time. I was just cracking under pressure. Again, I apologize and I hope that you forgive me.

 

[olde north church]

I apologize to everyone over yesterday. I have 2 weeks developing a Powerpoint presentation for two classes at the same time. I was just cracking under pressure. Again, I apologize and I hope that you forgive me.

 

[MACVSOG68]

I apologize to everyone over yesterday. I have 2 weeks developing a Powerpoint presentation for two classes at the same time. I was just cracking under pressure. Again, I apologize and I hope that you forgive me.

What happened yesterday...

Not to worry Trigger.   

[SPQR]

What happened yesterday...

Not to worry Trigger.   

I had to give a Powerpoint presentation on Russia and on the Civil War. Two different classes at the same time. These teachers have made my life miserable and riding me for 8 weeks. I have to thank everyone for forgiving me

[Luis Gonzalez]

Shit!

What'd I miss?

[Luis Gonzalez]

A couple of points if I may.  First take a look at Reagan's nomination acceptance speech and find me a social issue he talked about.  A good friend of mine was kicked off of TOS in 2007 for mentioning the fact that Reagan signed the largest abortion bill ever as California governor, in spite of his later concerns that doctors took advantage of it.

The other point is one I see often here...and elsewhere.  You said, "We're merely the 'staff'. Called upon to serve the dinner, and treated with anything from condescension to contempt.", and then later in the same post said this, "Because to us, moderate Pubbies are merely well dressed Democrats."  A little condescension and contempt there perhaps?

Social, fiscal, defense and the role of government aren't stand-alone issues.  Some in the Party lean more heavily in one than the other.  But in order to win the head seat at the table in 2016 the GOP needs more than just a vocal group from the social right.  To be sure the Party needs the stronger viewpoints to help push it in the right direction, whether socially, fiscally or otherwise.  But it also needs those who can sit across the table from the opposition and work out compromises.  Reagan was a genius at that.  Principle and pragmatism are not mutually exclusive.

But what the Party needs to understand most of all is that while its job is to lead America, it's also there to listen to America, something many have difficulty doing.   

"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it. "Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything. "I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.”

"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it. ~~ Ronald Reagan, in his autobiography, An American Life

[olde north church]

"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it. "Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything. "I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.”

"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it. ~~ Ronald Reagan, in his autobiography, An American Life

My problem is conservatives are such poor compromisers.  They are satisfied with the 80% they received and start parading it around like some sort of trophy head.  Liberals, on the other hand, start slicing back to 79%, then 78%, then to 75% and so on until the bloody hands the conservatives have left.  Then the MEDIA puts the photo on front page for all to see, "WE TOLD YOU WHO THE VILLIANS WERE!".
Until there is comparable MEDIA organization to what the Leftists have, we are going nowhere.
After Fox News, there should have been a news organization further to the right, then another further to the Right and so on.  That would have undermined the FAUX News thing right in the bud.

[MACVSOG68]

"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it. "Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything. "I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.”

"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it. ~~ Ronald Reagan, in his autobiography, An American Life

Yes, Reagan was a hell of a negotiator.  Problem with negotiation, you're expected to give the other side something in return.  But since you know you're right about an issue, why compromise anything.  The world should see you're right, and if they don't, screw 'em. 

[EC]

The world should see you're right, and if they don't, screw 'em.

You sure you ain't my wife?

[MACVSOG68]

You sure you ain't my wife?

This ain't Massachusetts; it's South Carolina.   

[Luis Gonzalez]

Yes, Reagan was a hell of a negotiator.  Problem with negotiation, you're expected to give the other side something in return.  But since you know you're right about an issue, why compromise anything.  The world should see you're right, and if they don't, screw 'em.

So we have people thinking that politics=ideology and when politicians engage in the give and take of politics they're accused of being... well... politicians and traitors to the ideology.

Ideologues want their side to rule over the other side via politics and the side trying to swim upstream (conservatives) is going to lose 9 out of 10 battles where they don't compromise, and "compromise" (as Reagan pointed out in his memoirs) is a dirty word to them.

Societies have been moving left since societies were conceived. Conservatives are supposed to treasure individual freedom above all else, yet, these days many conservatives seem to be constantly fighting against individual freedoms to one degree or another. 

Swimming upstream.

[Oceander]

Social issues have been, and will continue to be, the death of the republican party because, for one thing, the social issue positions demanded by the social conservatives are, if viewed objectively, anathema to the principles of individual liberty and freedom that this country was founded on.

In point of fact, if it hadn't been for the social conservatives' fascist insistence on denying any recognition whatsoever to gay couples, the country wouldn't be dealing with the concept of gay "marriage" because there would have already been sufficiently robust civil partnership arrangements - available to everyone, and essentially what civil marriage is now - and wouldn't be facing the specter of having the government start forcing churches to recognize gay marriages.

You don't protect your house from a raging river by standing in front of it with a STOP sign.  You protect your house by redirecting the river's flow.  Social conservatives think they can sit athwart the current of culture and make it stop.  They cannot, and as a result, their houses are in danger of being swept away.

To the extent that social conservatives want to fit society to their own Procrustean bed, they are merely a fun-house reflection of liberals.