Sex scandal of one congressman(tom foley) can affect the whole republican party?

Question

I don't like republicans do in general, but one congressman can affect the whole republican party's polls with an near-sex scandal? That's kinda ridiculous don't you think. Its like implying that all republicans were in on sending sexy emails to minors.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061010/ts_nm/election_dc

I feel this is another indication that democracy or mobocracy is imperfect. You want to let the majority make big decisions, but you don't make them take time out to learn the issues. Therefore myths, TV campaign soundbytes, and religion take center stage. I think Americans should be required to study for 1 week out of the year on all major issues and reading viewpoints from both sides. That would be a true democracy. Right now, I feel it is a oligarchy struggling to please the whims of a mobocracy.

I love America though.

Answer 1

Republicans have used attack and smear technique for years of painting all Democrats with the same brush. One person is representative of the entire party. How many times have you heard this? This has now come back to haunt them.

Republicans claim they are the party of moral values.If so, then why didn't Congressional leadership get rid of this Congressman? They knew of his proclivities for his flirting with young male students for at least 5 years according to retiring Arizona Congressman Colby and others. So this is not just the seamy behavior of one Representative, the leadership is involved including the person who is 3rd in the line of Presidential succession. And it's not just minors that happen to be walking down the street. It's high school sophomores living away from home for the first time whose parents have entrusted them to the care of the Congressmen.

Your thoughts regarding more education are good ones, but shouldn't this be done in jr. high and high school? People keep their critical thinking skills once they've acquired them. It's like riding a bike.

You say, " Right now, I feel it is a oligarchy struggling to please the whims of a mobocracy."

You're absolutely right, the US is being ruled by an oligarchy, but the 'mob' as you call them, educated or not, still has a valuable functon in keeping these rulers from taking total control.

Answer 2

Tom Foley Scandal

Answer 3

I am not a republican, nor am I democrat, I am an independent conservative. What Foley did cannot be justified, but it doesn't sink the whole republican party. Perhaps there was a cover-up, but I don't think it was massive. If there was then the people responsible must go, but again it doesn't sink the whole party. Rational people in this country can distinguish between the behavior of an individual and the party as a whole. The only people who cannot seem to is liberals who are desperate to win at any cost after years of having their proposals rejected by American voters. Whatever happens will happen in November. Washington is not going to change, the Democrats were no better when they were in power and the next go around is not going to change that. Just take a look at how they chose to handle the last scandal involving Pages and now they want to act like paragons of virtue. trust me the American people aren't buying it. In answer to the Answerman question about what bothers me. Yes scandal bothers me no matter who is involved, but let's not forget the liberal response to a President who lied under oath. What was it? Oh I remember, it's none of our business, or we were blowing it out of proportion. I don't know about anyone else, but I am sick of liberals lecturing the rest of us on how we should feel or respond to scandal when they themselves give a pass to everyone in the Democratic party who becomes involved in one.

Answer 4

I could not agree with you more. Most Americans are willing to make all their decisions based on sound bites that the major news networks manipulate. Whether people want to believe it or not, the media in this country is controlled by Liberals. That is fine. It is what it is. Americans need to understand what that really means and how it effects their opinions. All Americans need to spend at least three hours a week studying at least three different news sources in an effort to really understand what is going on. The truth is that a small number of people already have control of how the new is presented - which is controlling what the public thinks.

And one other thing, actors and other entertainers need to stop telling the world what they think and sharing their political views. No one really cares!!!

Answer 5

I think the reason it is effecting the entire Republican Party is because it is just another example of corruption in the Republican Leadership. For one, there is plenty of reason to believe than a number of Republicans knew about Foley's behavior and were more concerned with protecting the Party than the children in the Page Program. Second, we've had Republican after Republican involved in scandals, and I know that Democrats aren't immune from scandal but you can't deny that Republicans have been involved much more. I think the Foley scandal is just the last straw for many Americans.

Answer 6

It goes beyond the mere act of sending emails. The ruin of the Republicans over this is a given, for the following reasons:
1) The Republicans run on the ticket of "holier than thou";
2) The Republicans have touted family values (their version of such) as essential to "electability";
3) Folley ran on an anti gay platform, albeit implied, merely by virtue of his alliances and evidenced by his subsequent votes; and
4) The Republicans ensured Americans after Clinton scandal that they were better because they could be trusted.

So its not the mere act, in as much as it is the mileu, the lies and deceit on all fronts, with Folley's folly "the cherry on the top" and the "straw that broke the camel's back." :)

Answer 7

each and every of the Democrats have achieved is factor out that the Republican management knew approximately this "slimeball" only approximately a 12 months in the past and did not something approximately it. this is almost tousled on the management's section - and it is stunning of the Democrats to show this out. Are you so with out recommendations-potential which you think of that the management has no criminal accountability to do away with a sicko like Foley on their very own and not enable him carry close around for yet another 12 months? the guy ought to have been kicked out of the occasion some time past, yet as a exchange the moron Republicans allowed the difficulty to stew till stunning formerly the election... so now his call remains on the poll. thank you to circulate Republicans! you have particularly helped my occasion out.

Answer 8

It's not democracy that's the issue it is the Americans' obsession with sex... Anything dealing with it is amoral... Women can be arrested for walking on a beach without a top! But movies and games can depict graphic violence of the most extreme type as 'cool'....

In Europe views are far more relaxed concerning sex....

Answer 9

It's not so much the Foley thing itself as the "coverup" that's causing political fallout.

The problem really is that idiots are encouraged to get "involved" in politics exactly because they don't get what's really going on. People like that are very, very easy to manipulate. Hence the popularity of Rush Limbaugh. Not that the Dems don't do it too, but under the GOP in recent years there has definitely been a ramping-up of emotional appeals to the ignorant peasants to get them behind agendas they don't understand.

Answer 10

The reaction to the Foley issue is the culmination of a simmering discontent with the Republicans. The proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back'