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Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[Rez]

I made a very shitty argument.    After thinking about it a bit, they are pretty far in the field, relative to generally accepted cultural norms these days.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they've stayed where they've always been, while social change has proceeded quite quickly.

[FearfulJesuit]

That's not true at all. Let's take a look at the work of my favorite president, Richard Milhouse Nixon:

-Almost got single-payer healthcare passed.
-Created the EPA and passed the Clean Air Act.
-Created OSHA.
-Desegregated more schools than any president before him.
-Was a staunch supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

If a Democrat tried to get any of these done today, the cries of socialism would be heard from the Aleutians to Miami.

[Steeled]

They've come out the loser in every confrontation with the White House; real question, can anyone name an issue they've won on?

Gun control (by preventing ANY meaningful action)

What "meaningful action" should have happened? Universal Background checks? That they didn't make anything other than single shot .22s illegal? The fact of the matter is that gun crime and shootings have been on the decline for over 20 years and yet there are more guns on the market than ever.

Obamacare (by forcing it to be watered down)

I personally wouldn't have a problem with it if it was voluntary, as it stands it should be illegal. Sure the government isn't forcing you to buy something it will just force you to give them money instead. Although maybe I'm just insane when I see premiums skyrocketing and people losing coverage. But sure, go ahead and blame the people that didn't want to pass the bill instead of the party that had a majority.

[RedKing]

That's not true at all. Let's take a look at the work of my favorite president, Richard Milhouse Nixon:

-Almost got single-payer healthcare passed.
-Created the EPA and passed the Clean Air Act.
-Created OSHA.
-Desegregated more schools than any president before him.
-Was a staunch supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

If a Democrat tried to get any of these done today, the cries of socialism would be heard from the Aleutians to Miami.

Don't forget:
-Opened relations with Communist China
-Signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with the Soviet Union

What a commie pinko hippie.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Well he did open relations with the Chinese to piss of the Soviets.

[mainiac]

The fact of the matter is that gun crime and shootings have been on the decline for over 20 years and yet there are more guns on the market than ever.

Well it's true that if you start with a particularly bad year (1993 being the worst in many years) then just returning to a rate of much worse then normal is improvement.  But the 11,000 homicides that took place in 2010 (the most recent year the CDC has revised data for) is actually an upward trend from more recent years.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2010: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm

prior:

If you are going to be making spurious correlations then please at least make accurate spurious correlations.  It would have taken you all of five minutes to figure this out.

[SalmonGod]

However, this is a criticism you see all the time from right-wing pundits and commentators; Republicans go to DC and forget their constituency so they can hobnob and go to cocktail parties.

Going to admit straight off that this is based mostly on my own perception of the right, but... I think that these complaints are misattributed. 

I think the republicans behave pretty well the way their conservative constituencies expect them to the overwhelming majority of the time.  (The one thing I see cited most often as a major failing of the Democrats is their party discipline nowhere near matches that of the Republicans)  And conservatives just get pissed off when this doesn't get them the result they expected, either because their party representatives lost a political battle or they did get their way and didn't like the results.  It seems like the most common reaction when this happens (which is quite frequently anymore) is they conclude that things didn't work out because they weren't conservative enough, so they raise the bar for ideological purity and attack any of their representatives who don't match the new standard.

Example:  Economics --  We've seen nothing but de-regulation of the economy for a very long time now.  The result has been a ton of corruption taking advantage of that de-regulation and a consequently shitty economy.  The conservative response to this is always to demand more de-regulation.

[Owlbread]

It's funny how "other guns" on that chart kill fewer people than knives, yet it's the "other guns" (scary black assault weapons with 100 round assault clips and high powered death rifles) that Obama is trying to place restrictions on. He wouldn't dare touch handguns.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That's because it's not just politically unfeasible, it's physically impossible.

[Owlbread]

It would require genuine courage, of which Obama is sorely lacking in. He is weak. A puppet of the handgun and shotgun lobbies.

[Descan]

His commie-muslim flesh would burn away from the sheer AMERICA™ that all hand-guns exude were he to touch them, and he would fall over dead and blackened, burnt to a crisp.

[Owlbread]

His commie-muslim flesh would burn away from the sheer AMERICA™ that all hand-guns exude were he to touch them, and he would fall over dead and blackened, burnt to a crisp.

Handguns are America.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Handguns are the stars and Long guns are the bars, and you aren't taking either.

[Descan]

And thus, hand-guns exude hand-guns.

Or they WOULD except that would be COMMUNISM!

[mainiac]

That's because it's not just politically unfeasible, it's physically impossible.

"Physically impossible" meaning "done extensively in many other countries".