Anatomy of a Republican

Recently I was on another blog that in which the blogger commented in wonderment on some of the recent negativity surrounding Obama's Middle East and European tour. The comments that followed were mostly negative towards Obama and out in left (ok, maybe right) field.

I did post a half hearted rebuttal, but didn't want to be too pointed in my response since most of them were regular readers far be it from me to pick pick a fight on someone else's blog. Which brings me here.......

The comments criticized Obama on a rage of issues from tax policy to the absurd. All of that made me think about the constituency of the Republican Party. I have bucketed the Republican Party into 4 groups.

True Believers The true believer in my estimate make up about 25% of the Republican Party. They are the true right wingers on everything from immigration, the militarty, fiscal policy, et al. A large portion of this group has strong xenophobic and racist tendencies.

True believer example: Ann Coulter, Sean Hanity

True believer's perfect candidate: Newt Gingrich

Fiscal Conservatives: It's all about taxes and spending for this group. Probably about 20% of all Republicans fall in this group. This group accepts but doesn't like the wacko true believers, but puts up with them out of necessity.

Fiscal Conservative examples: Mitt Romney, Steve Forbes

Fiscal Conservatives perfect candidate: Jeb Bush

Neocons: Everything else is secondary to a strong military and hawkish policy. These hawks make up about 15% of all Republicans. Mind you, supporting the troops is also secondary to this group. They talk a good game about how important the troops are but their actions often say otherwise.

Neocon examples: Rudy Giuliani, Dick Cheney

Neocon's perfect candidate: John McCain, Condoleeza Rice (since it's pretty obvious she is easily manipulated)

Boobs: I couldn't think of any way else to describe this group. This group is defined by being easily manipulated to spout the daily talking points. This is the biggest group of Republicans (40ish %). They listen to Rush Limbaugh and believe every word he says. They believe things like "He thinks he’s running for President of the world! What the hell is he doing speaking in Europe when hes not even president." or "Included in this healthcare he has said he’d give it to people who are not even legally allowed to be in our country.". Spouting off Rush Limbaugh's talking points without knowing full well that John McCain made two speeches abroad or that we are spending far less on illegal immigrant health care than we are on Iraqi health care.

These people are easily scared on things like gay marriage or flag burning even though neither issue has any bearing on their quality of life. They are also manipulated on taxes, never mind that the Republicans have but increased their gas prices, lowered their investment income, lowered the value of their housing through their poor regulation and lack of an energy policy.

Boobs Example: Bill O'Reily, Rush Limbaugh

Boobs perfect candidate: George W Bush