‘2016’ is based on an experiment: what if you let Obama do it himself? That experiment is necessarily limited because I’m not factoring in a Republican House, a Supreme Court or the tug of public opinion.
I’m a dedicated Republican and a proud party man.
The fact is, when you hear the Republican candidates on immigration, when you see them and hear them talk about contraception, mammograms, abortion, and not the economy, it’s clear to me they’re moving farther and farther away from the mainstream.
I think, with Hank Paulson, the concept of a bailout was anathema to him from day one. He was a Republican; he’s a free marketeer. He believes in capitalism, and part of capitalism is believing in failure. And so the idea of bailing out an institution, I think, went against every part of him.
A Republican philosophy goes something like this: If you take your car to the mechanic, and instead of fixing it, they take out the engine and charge you an arm and a leg, you should conclude that mechanics can’t fix cars and you should probably just take yours to the junkyard and sell it for scrap metal.
There’s no doubt that when the Republican Party took over in 1994, the ‘Contract with America’ was an opportunity to implement some things – like welfare reform and some of the other initiatives. Then, it kind of lost its steam.
I’ve gone to Detroit. I’ve been to Ferguson; I’ve been to Baltimore, because I want our party to be bigger, better and bolder, and I’m the only one that leads Hillary Clinton in five states that were won by President Obama. I’m a different kind of Republican.
Our adversaries – our Democratic adversaries – like to be able to portray the Republican Party as a bunch of wingnuts – narrow based, always have some agenda that’s not attractive to the public… That’s easier for them, and more fun, than dealing with their own problems. And I think their problems are significant.
I would never want the show to be a Democrat show or Republican show, because for us the show’s more important than that. It isn’t for everybody else in the world, but it is for us.
My view is that Trump will not change the Republican Party, America’s right-of-center party. If he brings in new followers, that’s great, and well worth the effort, but he will not change the Republican Party.
I’d like to see a Republican Party that embraces a lot of the libertarian ideas.
Studies have consistently shown that financial hardship is the biggest obstacle to heterosexual marriage, yet the Republican leadership has done precious little to help address the financial hardship faced by American families.
The International Brigades and the British volunteers were, numerically, only a small part of the Republican forces, but nearly all had accepted the need for organization and order in civilian life.
Every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.
I know that my Republican colleagues are as ashamed as I am that the United States is forced to borrow over $1 trillion from foreign nations to pay for our national priorities like reconstruction of the gulf coast and the war in Iraq.
It’s a technical, fairly difficult job that has no particular political connotations, so I doubt there are any big campaign contributors dying to be on the Fed. And remember, it doesn’t pay very well, certainly by Republican standards.
Sadly, this is the same old Republican story of Robin Hood in reverse – tax cuts for the rich while programs for average and low income Americans suffer.
I may not be the favourite candidate of some people within the Republican establishment, but the voters made a decision.
Public office is supposed to be a public trust. This is a clear sign of the rampant corruption at the highest levels of the Republican leadership.
I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, Whip McCarthy and the entire republican conference as we repeal Obamacare, fight rampant job killing regulations, cut spending and help put folks back to work.
I’ll be at the table, as I’ve been, willing to talk to any Republican who says, ‘Look, my country is more important, this pile of bills is not going to go away, the challenges that we have is not going to disappear, we need to cross that divide.’ I’m ready. I’m waiting.
Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan. They’d all fit more under the Libertarian label than the modern day Republican label.
Tonight we send a message to our party that here in Illinois, there will be a new generation of Republican leaders and we will fight to provide a better tomorrow for future generations. We’ve made clear the status quo is no longer acceptable.
Admittedly, no Republican can get elected statewide in California anymore, but nor can what we think of as, nationally, the Democratic Party. There are no Joe Bidens running; it is not working-class Democrats vs. liberal Democrats, or whatever their division is these days. It is Hispanic Democrats vs. Asian Democrats.
The first priority of the Republican majority is the security of Americans.
And some of those people that voted Republican are now going to say, what a mistake I made because I didn’t know they were going to take my job away. I didn’t know they were going to take collective bargaining away.
My view is, Democrat, Republican, it doesn’t matter, my view is I’m in Washington to try to work with people.
I’m a Reagan Republican, which means I don’t speak ill of other Republicans.
I’ve been wrong on everything about Trump; I’ve been wrong about everything on the Republican side of the ledger. But allow me – with that caveat – to made the prediction that Donald Trump will not be the president of the United States. It just will not happen.
Let me just be very clear that the Republican Party will select a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton.
The debate in the Republican Party needs to be between libertarians and conservatives.
Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican nominee in 1952, made a strong public commitment to ending the war in Korea, where fighting had reached a stalemate.
I don’t intend to leave the Republican Party, but I would like to move the Republican Party more to the center.
I had been born a Republican. My dad was an active Republican, but he was not active in politics and I really never was either. It’s true that I did belong to that party, but it really had very little impact on my public work or my private views.
Part of the challenge of being a black Republican anywhere is that you start off with people walking in with chips on their shoulder trying to figure out what is wrong with you.
My commitment to the Republican movement was pure and simply patriotism, a love of Australia… a desire or passion that all of our national symbols should be unequivocally and unambiguously Australian.
I don’t like to define myself as necessarily conservative. What is it to be a conservative? What is it to be a Republican, even?
So I’m in the Republican Party for the same reason I was in the Democratic Party: to make sure blacks are included, along with everyone else.
Mitt Romney speaking to a $50,000-a-plate Republican fundraiser says he doesn’t have to worry about the 47 per cent of Americans who don’t pay tax. He was not counting on the smart phone recording his speech and then posting it on YouTube.
I believe the people of Wisconsin elected me because I said I will work with anyone – doesn’t matter if they’re a Republican or a Democrat – I just want to get things done for Wisconsin families. But I also believe Wisconsinites elected me because I will always put people before politics.
That’s one of the problems with this country: they put you in a box. You’re a Republican, you’re a Democrat, you’re conservative, you’re liberal. And that’s really unfair.
The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it’s hardly a traditional political party anymore.
The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party.
Naturally, I’m conservative; I’m a Republican. I always was.
I’m not a Republican, but I was one once – when I was 7 years old. Not my fault. The symbol of the Republican Party is an elephant, I’m a Hindu – I was confused.
I’m a conservative Republican.
There’s room in the Republican Party for anyone who wants to be a part of the values that we espouse when it comes to the role of government, free enterprise, free markets.
Scott Brown may be the last Republican to win a statewide fight in Massachusetts for a very long time. He caught the machine flat-footed in January 2010 when he out-hustled Martha Coakley and stole the Senate seat Ted Kennedy held all those years. And since then, the Democrats haven’t lost a single statewide fight.
A government full of Democrats would rather have you be a Republican, and a government full of Republicans would rather have you be a Democrat, than have you oppose both.
Whenever a Gujarati or Sikh businessman comes to a Republican event, it begins with an appeal to Jesus Christ. While the Democrats are really good at making the outsider feel at home, the Republicans make little or no effort.
The zeitgeist is for cutting spending and balancing the budget. But I do not want the Republican Party to be perceived as putting the budget ahead of people, jobs and education.
