Why do Republicans get such a bad rap?

Flo_Rida_2016

Active member
Teenagers today seem to think conservatism and the republican party are utter evil. 90% of them don’t really know much on either side of political issues, American history, or the actual constitution of the demographics of both the democratic and political party. What they do see is that young celebrities love the democrats and the republicans get a bad rap. Why? Does anyone really know?



I mean, most kids don’t even know what the real difference between conservatism, republicans, liberalism, and democrats.



Let me break it down the easy way.



Conservatism.

There are really thre major categories you can be conservative in: Fiscal conservativism, legislative conservatism, and traditional conservatism.



If you are a Fiscal conservative, you believe the government should tax as little as possible, be as small as possible, run as little debt as possible, leave as many things as possible to the private sector, and most of all spend as little as possible.



If you are a legislative conservative, you believe in protecting original civil liberties. You dislike new legislation unless absolutely necessary. You dislike court decisions that include “implied powers” but you do believe in the original intention of law.



If you are a traditional conservative, you believe in traditional values. These tend to be patriotism, family values, anti-drugs, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage (though not as much anymore), and a few are active religious believers.



Liberalism.

There are really three major categories you can be liberal in: Fiscal liberalism, legislative liberalism, and traditional liberalism.



If you are a fiscal liberal, you believe the government should tax a lot for the greater good and many services should be provided by one institution- the government. You believe the government can grow in size in terms of programs sponsored, but not in terms of power so to speak.



If you are a legislative conservative, you like laws that promote civil equality, and protect certain individual rights over the moral justification for laws in the first place. You also enjoy a loose interpretation of the constitution and you like constant modifications to the constitution.



If you are a traditional liberalism, you promote the counter-culture and are against the current system. You like to see things progress from where they are now towards an end (there are many ends among liberals)



Republicans(GOP)

Republicans like to promote free trade, business, and tradition (listed above in traditional conservatism). Modern republicans like to defend the country, and are less likely to sign binding treaties and overextend diplomatic boundaries. Most (about 70%) republicans are conservative so their plans are generally lucid. The other 30% consists of mainly moderates.



Democrats

Democrats were once pro-slavery and pro-segregation but now they are trying to repair their image with very aggressive equality legislation. They like the ACLU, and like to promote liberal ideas. More importantly, they believe in extending the power of the government, and are almost socialist in nature.



This is where the democratic party splits into Liberal-elitists and the Unionized class.



Liberal-elitists

First lemme deny the negative connotation of the term “elitist.” Liberal-elitists are those who are relatively well off, usually upper middle class- high class. Most hollywood celebrities belong to this group as well as the majority of teenagers/ americas first time voters. These people are usually well off enough that they don’t worry too much about their own financial survival. With the free time, they get to be idealist and like to become active in politics. Being well-off themselves, they never really experience what its like being dirt poor and having to be selfish (but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about the poor). As a result, they are very idealist and since most haven’t had to work hard for their money (very broad generalization, im really speaking on the celebrities and pop culture at this point), they like taxation and socialism. A HUGE population of these people are relatively naïve to what it takes to survive financially first hand, and many lack a lot of knowledge of history or politics. This group is really attractive to younger voters because it is inherently rebellious. If you are reading this, are on NS, have the money to ski, and consider yourself liberal, chances are you are a liberal elitist. These guys only make up about 30% of the democratic party.



Unionized class

These democrats generally support the blue-collar lower/middle class, they are pro taxation in that, the more rich you are, the larger percent of taxation (I forget what the economics term is, I got that question wrong on the final lol. If someone can name it, +karam). This taxation system is based upon the idea that if one’s income is low, and they get taxed, they won’t be able to buy things. Take the following example: Bob makes $10,000 a year and Mike makes $1,000,000 a year. The basic cost of living (a relativly constant thing such as groceries) is say $7,000 a year. Now lets say the income tax is 35%. Bob is left with $6,500 and mike is left with $650,000. Mike can still easily afford groceries but bob can’t. They like to support union wishes and dislike the freemarket. They like to impose many government regulations on the market.



The reason the republican party gets a bad rap from today’s youth and teenagers is because of many things- adolesence breeds rebellion, middle/upper middleclass breeds liberal elitism, pop culture, celebrities over-extending their intellectual bounds, but most of all because of several misconceptions of the GOP.



The minute group of rich people who vote Republican come from old money or easy money.



This is simply not true. The main reason people vote republican in the first place is because they feel that taxation is taking their hard-earned money. Most of these “evil” type republicans are stock brokers, doctors, lawyers, and business men. Let me remind people how competitve all of these fields are and just how hard it is to become a successful doctor, lawyer, or businessman no matter what your demographic background. On the other hand, it’s really the liberal elitists who fill this description.



The rest of the Republican party are stupid rednecks or from the south.



Yeah its true a lot of traditional conservatives hail from the south. These conservatives make up a large portion of the republican party. However, most rednecks from the south are actually Democrat. In short; most conservatives are from the south, but most of the south are democrats. Most southerners and almost all rednecks (“redneck”demographic consists of whites earning less than $35,000 combined annual income and reside in areas of a population density of less than 500 per square mile) are part of the Unionized class of democrats. They vote so that they can cash in on social security, relieve their taxation and possibly collect welfare. Lets not forget democrats were started by Andrew Jackson, a southerner. The democratic party itself is there for the “common folk” or the lower class.



Republicans only care about money.



This is somewhat true but the overlying picture is that they want to improve the condition of life in the USA. They want the economy to boom. In fact, most republicans value family, community, nation, and sometimes religion over their own economic status.



Republicans are very pro war.



This is not true. In fact, republicans are actually mainly isolationist. Only George W Bush is pro war and he had a historical anomoly- 9/11. Republicans remember the lessons learned from the Cold War and NATO controversies. They tend not to sign binding treaties that would drag us into war. They also tend not to meddle in foreign affairs. Democrats on the other hand, such as Bill Clinton, liked to settle peace in areas such as Israel, Lebenon, Syria, Pakistan/India, etc.



Republicans don’t care about the poor.



This is also not true. Republicans only really don’t want the government driving up debt and heavy taxation. They still donate much to charity and most create, endorse, or own charities. They just believe things such as welfare should be largely a private sector issue.



Republicans are racist biggots.



Democrats were the pro-slavery and pro-segregation party only 40 years ago and extend for more than 200 years ago. Members of the KKK were almost all democrats and still are democrats. Democrats along with the ACLU are the ones who allow KKK and neo nazi demonstrations in public(because they believe in letting everyone express the 1st amendment no matter what). They are also the ones who allow KKK and neo nazi parades and town festivals. Most Republicans like to avoid color all together and view only the issues, not the person addressing the issue.



Republicans are all ignorant idiots who have too much faith in the USA



Yeah we have a lot of faith in the USA. Am I still living? Am I relatively safe? Are my relatives being dragged off to a dungeon because they express anti-government ideals? Are there sedition laws? When I go outside, is there utter anarchy with car bombs exploding every hour and people weilding AK47s in public? Are there spaceships being hidden from us? Is the government sending me subliminal messaging through radio waves? NO thank you very much. I guess this issue is a matter of opinion.



Are republicans against the government overstepping their bounds and getting too big? YES! Do most support the Patriot Act? Yes, but not in the parts that you think. Many people don’t truly understand the patriot act, but that is for another thread. In general, republicans would like there to be no government, but that would just be impossible.



Well I hope the past half hour I spent typing this up will shed some light on republicans and conservatism and I hope many people will stop posting threads blaming us for a lot of the worlds problems. I don’t plan on converting anyone, but I hope this educates some who are in dire need of education and for those who are undecided, to read this. Republicans may not be the cool rebellious group, but historically they’ve done pretty well I’d say.
 
and before anyone tells me i have no life, let me just say i used a lot fot his from research papers i did in the past, and its really just a compilation of thoughts while i shit and shower. Not to mention im sitting at home right now with nothing to do waiting for my summer internship to start and the rest of my friends to come home for the summer.
 
this needs to be shown in all public schools i hate it how out here in the NW teachers are always ragging on bush and other republican leaders. well done
 
If we are talking about the parties in traditional senses, I would label myself a Republican. However, what the parties actually are today are quite different than what you described at the beginning. Many republicans are neo-conservatives, while traditional republicans are quite few - Ron Paul being one prominent "paleocon".

In our current system, the "small government, small debt" ideas you stated, are NOT characteristic of the republican party. Yes, they reduce taxes, but they don't cut spending. Our government is huge, unwieldy, in a lot of debt, and very much not a small government, it isn't one that allows states to make many decisions (instead of policy being made on a federal level).

Unfortunately, republicans like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, DeLay, and similar guys have really ruined people's perceptions to the point that it's like you described - people simply assume Republicans are bad. Like it or not, that's how it's come to be in the last decade or so. As such, in today's society, my views are much more aligned with the democrats.
 
i agree but both major parties consist of both various kinds of conservatives and liberals both. While i am rather eclectic on many issues, its hard to ignore the tendency that if you believe in a few from one side, you generally believe in the rest of one categories views.
 
True i agree with a lot of what you say particularly the second paragraph. Current republicans like cutting taxes but only the Bush administration has continued spending. This is not a totally bad thing. Most of what he is spending on is in the department of Health and Human Services which runs between 56%-67% of the federal budget. Health and Human Services is largely the residual legacy of FDR's New Deal program and are heavily democratic enactments. Republicans enter office and want to cut taxes but Democrats still in power won't let them slowly eliminate the now failing Health and Human Services departments such as Social security.

The "Bush type" republicans have enacted plans through the fiscal year of 2012. This year's fiscal spending is supposed to be a slight increase above last years as a setup for next year's drastic social security cuts. Already in 2008, the amount of national debt has fallen to about 1.78% of our national GDP rather than 2.6% in 2006. In the fiscal year of 2012, we should see an economic surplus of about .7% of GDP. this comes when almost all countries in the world run a debt of 3% of their GDP or higher. Countries like france run at about 3.5% of their GDP. This doesn't mean we shouldn't cut spending but keep in mind our GDP grows faster than other countries.
 
Ron paul was spot on in his ideals but i think he was rather unrealistic. He wanted to cut spending in a way that would leave many poor people, unionized workers, and democrats (lets not forget they still own the majority in the house) very, very unhappy.

I think lots of republicans would like to get rid of social security which would help the economy in uninmaginable ways. But like ive said before, you still have to consider poor/dumb people's well being and strike a balance wit hthe people who are too dumb to save for retirement.
 
I really don't like the neo-conservative agenda that Mighty Warlord Bush pushes every day. I don't care that much about republicans being republicans though, most of my friends are republican and they all hate bush. I think Bush makes a bad name for republicans, and also I live in the San Francisco BAY AREAAAA so republicans just generally get hated on everywhere because its a super liberal area.
 
Yeah, absolutely Ron Paul was unrealistic...I just was throwing him out as a contrast to neo-cons.
 
Fuck i forgot one more thing.

Many liberal elitists feel the US is doing a great job of isolating itself from the rest of the world in an age when globalization runs the show. I think this is mostly a result as an attempt to undo a lot of Clinton's work. If theres one thing to learn from the cold war, its that binding treaties such as NATO are really terrible for the world and could create WW3. Look at all the bad things that have resulted in binding treaties and over-diplomacy: That little stint in greece/ turkey, Korean war, bay of pigs, vietnam war, CIA's whole slew of illegal actions (such as nicoragua, afghanistan, iraq, panama, sierra leone, etc). Our military should only be used to defend the USA and humanitarian aid. Never should it influence other countries' policies.

I think most countries hate america these days is not really the Iraq war (which really has no effect on any countries) but more so on Bush's reluctance to sign numerous treaties such as environmental ones, missile defense ones, and economic ones. Bush has also, for the first time in the history of NATO, started military action without NATO's approval which really ticked of france. In my opinion NATO should be disbanded somewhat.
 
"Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart.

Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains" - Winston Churchill
 
especially since nato was a treaty of war not of peace.

Also if youre a tourist and are a liberal elitist and you feel europeans don't like you, its not because youre inherently american. More so its because we went to war with afghanistan and iraq when france and poland and other countries didn't want to. France actually didn't help us out and we were basically fine screw you, disregard nato we dont care. so now france hates us.

The forget all we've done for them! Al qaeda and Hussein would never be in power in the first place. the CIA puppeted hussein and bin laden to power in the first place because of NATO and saving france's ass for like the 3rd major time this century.
 
wow that is the best quote i have ever heard. Its so true. When i was in 8th grade- 11 grade i was a diehard liberal. The past few years i have been much more conservative, although i still feel a little ahead of my time lol. but anyway +karma!
 
Liberals get just as bad a rap among conservatives. I don't side with either because I hate being labeled as one or the other but I'd probably side with being a liberal that believes in small government if that makes any sense. I think that you see conservatives as getting a bad rap because you are one yourself. Liberals are probably wondering the same thing. But if conservatives are getting a bad rap, it is because of neo-cons like Bush and Cheney.
 
you can't deny among the young or "hip" population liberals are waaayyyy more popular. On facebook most college networks are like 70% liberal. But after you get past that first time voter age, a lot more people are conservative which is why it seems just when the GOP is going to get voted out, they remain. That winston churchill quote is so money.
 
people who write essays on newschoolers =

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Seriously dude.. if I wanted to hear horseshit, i'd just read one of Anne Coulters bullshit columns on "why Canada should be nuked"

keep your fucking biased bullshit to yourself PLEASE.

 
what the fuck? what in here can be considered biased or bullshit!? All i am doing is defining what things are in politics... im not trying to describe one being better than the other im only clearing up misconceptions on the definition of certain political groups. you really show that you have the ability to read.... naht.
 
Are you serious? The reason the Repulican party is so disliked today by anyone who has their shit strait is because it has a NEOCONSERVATIVE philosophy, which has almost nothing to do with conservatism. The conservative party of today is a pawn for the PNAC agenda. Get your shit straight son.
 
Good original post.

I just think a large number of republicans are just fucking idiots, like the ones who deny that global warming and evolution exist. These are two things that have been scientifically proven. How disillusioned with reality can you be?
 
Haha, look, even I subconsciously fell into their trap.

I meant to say REPULICAN PARTY, not conservative party...
 
^ yes the are a theory, there is no way you can prove evolution..Conservatism v. Liberalism is just like traditional ideas v. new ideas....
 
Do you serously believe that what you wrote isn't biased? Because it REALLY is. The entire concept of the essay was to defend the Republicans, or in your words 'clear up misconceptions'.

If it wasn't biased why would you mention that democrats were pro slavery twice? Once you've said it, we know, it was irrelevant the first time, telling us twice just shows us your bias some more. I didn't see you adressing any misconceptions about the Democrats.

In my opinion, as someone who isn't American, but lives in America half the year, the Republican party has such a bad reputation amongst the young because they have just been through nearly 8 years of George Bush. 8 years to a 20 year old is probably the entire time they have been politically aware, so when they hear 'Republican' they think about 'Bush' (and Rove, Cheney, Rummy et al), who essentially stole an election and then set about fucking up the world. THAT is why people hate the Republicans.
 
LOLZ!!!!

But really, don't you find Bush talking about bringing 'freedom and democracy' to Iraq the most horrificly ironic thing ever?
 
i'll admit it and say that i find myself to be a traditional conserative and am going to vote for Mcain.

i think the reason that teens are liberals is because of all the media. there is no reason for a 5th grader to be at a anti-gay rally on the 5 o clock news. these teachers are starting them off young. my little brothers 5th grade teacher hates on bush and loves clinton. I COULDNT BELIEVE THE SHIT he was saying because of her. TRUE BRAINWASHING. there is no reason that my little brother knows about marriage laws and is anti-war. i talked it out of him and my parents were a little mad too. my parents arent the ones to complain but other parents did and the teacher was forced to stop being biased. but also, in high school, i must of watched inconvient truth 3 teams in seperate classes. its alsmost like brainwashing. most teachers i had were liberals or hippies. (i grew up near the oringinal woodstock site). i hated it. the other day, at the dinner table, my ex-gf;s 11th grade sister was complaining about bush polluting the enviroment and killing thousands of innocent civilians in iraq. she had no idea what she was talking about but i bit my tongue. no used to argue and make a fool of myself. non-liberals cant win these days. liberals heads are too big

mcain 08
 
i can tell everyone of you are bitter, and cling to your guns and religion!

also, stop being such typical white people.
 
Yeah man, life sure must be tough with all that liberal media polluting peoples minds. I see kids on TV at 'anti-gay rallys' (Wtf?) all the time, I'm outraged.

 
no shit parts are biased because IM DEFENDING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Im not bringing you the 5'oclock news here. Im giving my editorial. Why would i be defending the democratic party? What i mean by unbiased is i mean im not giving any personal attacks nor am i directly insulting the democrats in anyway.

I mentioned they were pro slaver to prove a point. And that point was to refute previously grounded conceptions oft he republican party. It wasn't irrelevant the first nor second time. I brought it up twice because i thought it was good support for 2 seperate arguments.

I would argue they won the election fair and square and never really fucked up the world. I think a lot of the hatred towards neocons is total and utter misconceptualized bullshit.
 
Thank you, thank you.

I would like to thank skiminnesota. "Great minds really do think alike."

I would like to thank Josh in Boulder. "Conservatives really do exist there."

I would also like to thank my mom. "Evil Conservatives fo' life!"

And I would like to thank my hunny. "Even though you stand on the left side - I still
 
Ahahahaha, I thought you might.

Just for your information, the media I saw whilst living in the States was not liberal at all, I was genuinely horrified when I saw Fox for the first time, that is bias right there.

If I was a teacher I would pass on my values and beliefs as well, just like religious schools have been doing for centuries. There's nothing wrong with that, just as long as it's made clear that there are other views, regardless of stupid they may be.

I think it would be very hard to have a truly 'unbiased' education. I dont think anyone would be able to find any statistics about how many teachers are Republican or Democrat so I don't really think the schools system is to blame for the Republicans having a bad rep.

 
ahhhh people dont go to school, to learn about what the teacher thinks, they go to school to learn what 3+3 is.

we dont need teachers pushing their beliefs on young minds, save it for college.

if i was in class, and the teacher started lecturing me about GAY rights, about how Bush stole the election, i could go on for ever. this is not learning, that is BRAIN washing.

keep in mind i was talking about grade school.
 
CNN, Timewarner, PBS, and NBC are way more situated towards the left than fox is towards the right. Only the editorials on fox (Hannity and colmes, greta wire, the factor) are rightly biased.

But on the other hand, CNN employs mostly left-wing progressive liberals though they are quite subtle about it. the NY times has fully declared itself to be an Obama endorser and has donated money to Obamas campaign. NBC/CNBC/MSNBC has also publically declared it will be "Obama HQ" in order to reach out to younger viewers. Time magazine has publically declared it will now be a Liberal Advocate Periodical. PBS's Moyer fellah is an extreme far left advocate. Yeah its easy to pick on fox but people like to ignore the obvious. The media has been strongly liberal since its invention but when the first conservative outlet pops out, people are quick to criticize it.

For the record, Obama was on fox news the other day with chris wallace and he has been complimented repeatedly on fox for how well he handled it.

You can't pass on beliefs in a public school. Kids under high school don't know any better and as adolescents, they are very susceptible to influence. If you're a public school teacher you seriously can't be passing on political ideology. Kids that age don't read political works and don't watch the news so they really only get political opinion from one source- the teacher.

I think it would be very very easy to find out how many teachers are democrat. Most teachers in the US are part of a union and as such, they are democrat. More so, most teachers are liberal (i think the fact that they became a public school teacher speaks for itself) not only because education is a highly underpaid profession, but because they tend to like helping the greater good.
 
Well then, what you mean by unbiased, isn't actually what unbiased means, so I wouldn't use it.

I don't want to get into an argument about the election here, but most people accept that some very suspicious shit happened there.

As for the world being fucked up, I think you should read some newspapers, much of the world is screwed and as the head of the most powerful country in the world, Bush has got a lot to answer for.

I respect your right to be a Republican, but I really think you need to calm down, liberals aren't out to get you. I know I'm not going to change your mind, but I just felt I had to respond because the stuff you're saying is pretty terrible.

 
Fuck. If a professor tried that shit on me I would drop the class. Don't try to push your views on me because quite frankly I won't believe you anyway. I might actually look at you and laugh.
 
So are religous schools ok? How about learning about evolution and other contentious scientific theories? How can you teach History without a political context? Everything is going to be framed by whatever the teacher believes, just because the teacher has different views to you doesn't make it wrong.
 
I think if you actually read the newspapers, watched the news, read a lot of books, took comparative politics, and studied history, you'd realize the world isnt really being fucked up that bad. The world today is still a better place than it was 20 or 50 years ago...

Id argue that all of your posts in this thread have been far more biased and personal attacking than mine. What am i saying that is pretty terrible? Im pointing out the republican party is pretty independent from what Bush alone does, and im helping kids learn the definition of political classes as many seem to have them mixed up, confused, or simply unknown.

I respect your right to be a liberal, but i think you would agree that most have misconceptions about the republican party, even yourself.
 
Haha, 'pushing' views is different to teaching, some views are so widely accepted that they become acceptable (ie Facism was bad) others are open to more debate. Teachers have to tell you their views otherwise they wouldn't be able to teach you anything.

 
religious schools are ok BECAUSE THEY ARE PRIVATE! People choose to go to those schools or choose not to go to those schools... most who go to public schools have no choice. Thanks to the VERY liberal ACLU a lot of schools can't teach evolution. You can teach history from a very neutral point of view, and if you think you can't teach history from a neutral point of view, then i think that speaks towards your intelligence. Not everything can be framed by whatever the teacher believes, in most districts it is strictly against the rules for the teacher to give his or her religious or political beliefs.

Its not that its wrong for a teacher to have different views. Its the fact that the teacher is imposing them on otherwise politically unaware students who are like 12 and really have no idea what is going on.
 
Sorry, but religious schools are usually private schools. I have never seen a "Catholic public high school". Evolution is in science. Science is full of theories. Theories can be tested. That's why Evolution is in our textbooks. You have to teach about political context in History, but you prabably shouldn't stick to one side when you talk about present politics.
 
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