Dude- you have actually hit apon a good point.  The old real centrist right republicans are for strong defence, a relativley limited government but with some safety nets, and an entrepreeurial friendly government.  The new wacko christians and their business first brethren have sort of hijacked the party and taken it way to the right.

All the perjoritives you asked about DO seem to apply to this new leadership.  But not to the vast rank and file.  I mean how many real conservatives beleive that the Bible is totally factual?  But this President and a lot of his staunchest supporters are PROUD of being so.

This is why the real radical in this election is Bush!  He's the equivelenat of Jerry Rubin (did I get the name of the Steal this Book writer right?)or Tim Leary in their day.  Wants to take us back to the dark ages of illegal abortions and Robber barons in industry, the raping of the ecology etc.

Of course the avarage GOPer is less wacko, it would be impossible to live in a country where there were so many nut jobs!  

This does help explain why the lefties and their more centrist rank and file are so engaged!  For us, it's hard to see  our centrist counterparts who used to be just across the aisle from us support one of their wackiest "leaders".  We wonder what is driving them to it or if they have gone nuts.

They seem to think we are like the Centrist Russian democrats who got bamboozled into the soviet takeover. We liken them to the centrist German conservatives who got conned into welcoming Hitler!

That's what made Clinton so smart- he was centrist from ther start.  Let's all hope that the wackos on both sides get ignored in the future or that the centrists can generate their own powerful candidates- although if that happened, the defining differences would be hard to campaign on.

Euros think of Bush as way radical and Kerry as slighly left of center, if that is any help.

On the question of intelligence, I can't really respond to the "majority of Republicans."  I have been dismayed by many of Bush’s supporters’ posts on this forum, but that’s just here and you can’t extrapolate to the rest of the world – and I know I have given a pass to equally lame-brained Kerry-supporting logic because of my own bias - but the Bush arguements on this board have dismayed me more often than the Kerry ones, for whatever reason.

I do believe that George Bush is not a very smart man and that his approach to leading the country appeals to very black and white evaluations and reasoning, and that isn’t a hallmark of intelligence.  Now people like Rice, Powell and Chaney are clearly very, very bright people - but they aren't the President and candidate.  I guess I think both candidates have their fair share of pretty uninformed, unsophisticated supporters who don’t have much to base their vote upon.  

I don't believe your second question is true for most Republicans.  I think most human beings are caring and generous – some more than others, but I don’t think it breaks on party affiliation.  Clearly Republicans talk a “personal responsibility” line more than Democrats, but I hold to that value myself.  

However, there is enough evidence to make me wonder if the administration is being forthright in communicating its intentions about much of its economic policy, and it makes me, someone who doesn't usually see conspiracies and corruption lurking in the shadows, wonder how much is really focus is on the common economic good and how much on a very small but powerful segment of the country.  In other words, are Bush supporters being duped?  Maybe not - but then again, maybe so.

As to the diverse and open society, at the “base” of the Republican party are fundamentalist Christians whose values drive conformity.  I know these people intimately, having grown up in the South, where Bush is very strong, and they absolutely do not value a diverse and open society. As the 21st century becomes more chaotic and challenging, the move to conformity from this base will become more strident, because that’s what people do under stress.  

Too broad a brush to just say Republicans.

Just as any group has its blind faith followers that are unwilling or afraid to open their eyes the group you are referring to are in my opinion ignorant.

One thing that truly has me stumped though...

Why, after all the facts that have come out to contradict the things Bush & Co. have been telling US, do these people still support him?

My question, sort of related to all this, what brought about the mean-spirited nature of political discourse today?

I remember shortly after finishing high school in the late 1980's, there was this popular conservative TV show on WWOR called the "Morton Downey Jr. Show".....He would really get mean w/the guests, w/his in your face style, then the audience would go wild....I mean, I never saw anything like that(at the time)& was shocked....Were there any shows whether radio/TV before M.D. Jr. that was so in-your-face; did shows like that exist in the 70's?.......

When did civility (and it applies to both parties) leave & the mean-spirited, f-you attitude took over??....