American Politics and the Word Rhetoric Part 2

Presumptive  Republican nominee- Mitt Romney 

Since I last approached this topic a couple of weeks ago here: American Politics and the Word Rhetoric (Part 1) a number of major events have been happening in the murky world of American politics. Firstly, the Republicans now have a presumptive nominee (Ron Paul remains in the race) in Mitt Romney who will most likely take on a newly pro-marriage Barrack Obama in November (read a more specific post about this soon). 


As detailed in the last post I believe in the separation clearly of news and opinion on television and thus the obvious bias of Fox News and MSNBC in my opinion has no place in the national media of any country. These two bodies representing Conservative and Progressive opinion respectively are damaging to the national discussion and thus the productiveness of the entire political establishment.

However, I also stated in that piece that I don't feel the two parties are neither as vitriolic nor as fundamentalist at their fringes as each other. As an Irish citizen I have no vested interest in the policies of either of these parties and it seems as has been said many times that at its heart America is a centre-right leaning state (Gallup) but it seems as though the Conservative party is being increasingly lead by its fringes to the deteriment of all moderate Americans. 

Rep. Allen West

I could quote numerous hate filled comments such as the following by Rep. Allen West in December last year saying Joeseph Goebbels would be "very proud" of Democrats but that could be countered with such outrageous videos as that linked here, appearing to show republican speaker of the house Paul Ryan throwing a grandmother off a cliff. Thus this must be an argument based on fact. 


Much has been made of the Republican war on woman. Let's look at the facts. This comprehensive survey on abortion rights in America carried out in 2009 shows public support for abortion falling and the Republican party has always been an anti-abortion party. But in recent months this support has been in my opinion over stepping its mark. The mandatory vaginal probe ultrasound bill was signed into law by Governor Bob McDonnell and will go into effect in July. The Party also was staunchly anti the mandate of religious organisations to provide contraception as part of the Obama Healthcare bill, even though polling shows over 95% of women use contraception. A committee organised to discuss this mandate was comprised entirely of man. When the Democrats allowed student Sandra Fluke to speak on behalf of women she was staunchly criticised by republican mouthpiece Rush Linbaugh. 

Tea Party Republicans

It also seems that the public blames the Republicans more than the democrats for the record of one of the most unpopular Congress in the nations history. Two in three voters want to see their current representative out of Congress for the next year. By more than two to one the Republicans are seen as the party less likely to co-operate in a bi-partisan manner and by 53 to 33% are seen as the more extreme of the two parties. 


The two subjects seem to go hand in hand. The Tea Party movement has a much greater sway in republican politics than the Occupy Wall Street Movement does on the left and it has grown to such an extent that the primary candidates were forced so far to the right that any centrist swing for the election ( a feature of all presidential races to sway independents and moderates) can be easily written off by Democrats as just another Romney flip-flop, pragmatic and disingenuous. 


As stated at the outset I have no vested interest in the re-election of Barrack Obama, a man who while I do admire I feel his record has been somewhat less admirable in certain areas. However, for me I see a Republican Party in crisis, mired at its fringes in the same Bible bashing pollitics of decades ago, only now the moderates have moved on. Perhaps it is time for the leaders of the party to do the same thing.