So which political party is best at playing politics?

Personally I think it's the republicans. Now before you nuts on me I really do mean this as a compliment. Playing politics is exactly why they are back in (at least partial) power and it's why they are able to get away with bluffs without getting called on it. Also it's why they can get what they want fairly often with or without a majority.

In other words they are good at getting a message out and democrats have kinda sucked at that.

Anyways who do you think is better at playing politics?

They both have their times.AutoPilotOn

Over history in the U.S. both major political parties have be shown to have a relatively similar amount of political talent over the course of history, but overall I'd have to give it to the Dems. As of late, it's difficult for me to gauge.

It's a tie.

[QUOTE="AutoPilotOn"]They both have their times.Serraph105

It's a tie.

Espada12

They are both corrupt, that's all that matters.

They both are.

They've successfully cut off and chance of there ever being a strong third party by uniting and using their money and power to control the system.

The republicans and democrats have disenfranchised the american citizens of their right to a true democracy.

They've successfully cut off and chance of there ever being a strong third party by uniting and using their money and power to control the system.>xLFTMx

The ones in office. They got there for a reason.

[QUOTE="xLFTMx"]They've successfully cut off and chance of there ever being a strong third party by uniting and using their money and power to control the system.>wstfld

Not at all. There are examples of the parties acting together to shut out 3rd parties dating back years upon years.

After Clinton was elected they got together and changed who held the debates so they could cut out 3rd parties.

Ross Perot got 12% of the popular vote and changed the outcome of the election.

I don't know if it's so much a matter of playing politics, Democrats have done almost everything Republicans have done in terms of messaging and such. I just think the nature of the Republicans' stance on issues lends itself to the types of ploys that allow them to message successfully. Look at healthcare reform, when it was going on I heard Democrats continuously defending the package, explaining what was in the bill that they liked, doing this on news shows, in newspaper articles, etc. In terms of publicity, slanted viewership numbers aside, the Democrats did everything they needed to in order to get their message across. The problem was that their message was complex, most voters start tuning out as soon as you go into details, and going into details is exactly what the Dems' message was comprised of, there was no way to avoid it. Republicans, on the other hand, just needed to keep spouting buzzwords like death panels in order to cast the reform in a negative light. Their platform just naturally lends itself to "better messaging."

I don't know if it's so much a matter of playing politics, Democrats have done almost everything Republicans have done in terms of messaging and such. I just think the nature of the Republicans' stance on issues lends itself to the types of ploys that allow them to message successfully. Look at healthcare reform, when it was going on I heard Democrats continuously defending the package, explaining what was in the bill that they liked, doing this on news shows, in newspaper articles, etc. In terms of publicity, slanted viewership numbers aside, the Democrats did everything they needed to in order to get their message across. The problem was that their message was complex, most voters start tuning out as soon as you go into details, and going into details is exactly what the Dems' message was comprised of, there was no way to avoid it. Republicans, on the other hand, just needed to keep spouting buzzwords like death panels in order to cast the reform in a negative light. Their platform just naturally lends itself to "better messaging."

theone86

Interesting, and possibly insulting, but I admit that people tend to tune out after so many details. Heck I got caught doing it just the other day when I was listening to a particularly lengthy logic question on the radio.

[QUOTE="AutoPilotOn"]They both have their times.Serraph105

Well currently, Republicans.

Times of weakness bread craftiness. The Republicans were devastated during Obama's election year, and had to fight tooth and nail to get power.

Though the power table starting to shift (again), and put the Republicans in power. When that happens the Dems will get more crafty and political.

[QUOTE="theone86"]

I don't know if it's so much a matter of playing politics, Democrats have done almost everything Republicans have done in terms of messaging and such. I just think the nature of the Republicans' stance on issues lends itself to the types of ploys that allow them to message successfully. Look at healthcare reform, when it was going on I heard Democrats continuously defending the package, explaining what was in the bill that they liked, doing this on news shows, in newspaper articles, etc. In terms of publicity, slanted viewership numbers aside, the Democrats did everything they needed to in order to get their message across. The problem was that their message was complex, most voters start tuning out as soon as you go into details, and going into details is exactly what the Dems' message was comprised of, there was no way to avoid it. Republicans, on the other hand, just needed to keep spouting buzzwords like death panels in order to cast the reform in a negative light. Their platform just naturally lends itself to "better messaging."

Serraph105

Interesting, and possibly insulting, but I admit that people tend to tune out after so many details. Heck I got caught doing it just the other day when I was listening to a particularly lengthy logic question on the radio.

This past election cycle I was explaining the fillibuster to my dad and I could tell I lost his attention after maybe a minute, you can sway voters more easily if you can fit your position into a sound byte and even easier than that if you can add some emotional appeal to that byte. I will say that I have seen conservatives suffer from this at a more local level where wedge issues aren't typically as big a deal and they're more trying to satisfy budget concerns than anything, but even then there are other parts of their platform where they're playing the sound byte game. On the financial issues if you're not in either the anti-tax or pro-service camp at least in terms of rhetoric then you typically don't get anywhere.

Yeah I'd say republicans, democrats look like jerks, and republicans look smart. (If you watch fox.) But both sides suck when it comes to news, everything's biased. Oreilly's pretty good though.

Yeah I'd say republicans, democrats look like jerks, and republicans look smart. (If you watch fox.) But both sides suck when it comes to news, everything's biased. Oreilly's pretty good though.

dunl12496

Bill O'reilly is the devil.

[QUOTE="dunl12496"]

Yeah I'd say republicans, democrats look like jerks, and republicans look smart. (If you watch fox.) But both sides suck when it comes to news, everything's biased. Oreilly's pretty good though.

xLFTMx

Bill O'reilly is the devil.

Yeah I'd say republicans, democrats look like jerks, and republicans look smart. (If you watch fox.) But both sides suck when it comes to news, everything's biased. Oreilly's pretty good though.

dunl12496

Oreilly's pretty good though.

dunl12496

[QUOTE="Serraph105"][QUOTE="AutoPilotOn"]They both have their times.dercoo

Well currently, Republicans.

Times of weakness bread craftiness. The Republicans were devastated during Obama's election year, and had to fight tooth and nail to get power.

Though the power table starting to shift (again), and put the Republicans in power. When that happens the Dems will get more crafty and political.