How would you fix the Republican Party?

[AggregateDemand]

The social platform is laughable in the 21st century, and it infects they way conservatives handle economic issues. For instance, conservatives get-off by denying access to economic privileges for homosexual couples. This leads them to believe that our tax system and healthcare laws and so forth should be retained as backdoor gay-bashing. Another classic is Republicans who've been complaining about Medicare spending for decades, suddenly lambast Obama for trying to cut $500B from Medicare over 10 years. Suddenly, Medicare is a cons best friend when it helps them block Obamacare.

It's basically just the Sean Hannity wing of the GOP.

[AggregateDemand]

1. Support a $15 an hour minimum wage. What's more conservative than opposing government handouts to businesses that pay their employees so little that they have to take advantage of food stamps and other government programs in order to make ends meet?

Doesn't work that way. Higher min wage is associated with lower levels of employment, lower labor efficiency, and higher entitlement spending.

2. Support the right to organize and repeal anti-union legislation. If the Republican Party really wants to avoid state-mandated redistribution of wealth, why shouldn't it support free individuals entering into agreements with one another and then bargaining collectively over wages, hours, and working conditions?

Unions have no acquitted themselves as being agents of the employees they represent. Their mission statement cannot overcome their recent history.

3. Support a universal basic income program. Again, if the Republicans want to get serious about slimming down the size of the state, why not implement a universal basic income program in lieu of traditional welfare programs? Send everyone a check every week and get rid of the counterproductive and often wasteful bureaucratic behemoths that deliver inadequate services and waste public money. As an added bonus, such a program would allow mothers to spend more time with their children (thus strengthening the family unit the GOP cares so much about!) rather than being swept up into the labor force after child birth.

The marginal tax rate is 100% for workers who do not eclipse the minimum income threshold. The current system is nearly as bad. Expanding the problem is not a solution, and no one wins if we continue pandering to the know-nothings.

4. Support paid parental leave and other family-friendly additions to the welfare state. Again, what's more conservative than allowing mothers time to take off work and provide for their children? What might strengthen the family unit more than allowing families more time off from work and more time with their children in the most critical years of their lives?

More conservative and liberal is creating an economy where the mother can choose to remain at home, if she is so inclined.

5. Support comparable worth laws for women. Pretty self-explanatory. If you want strong families, you should at least support paying women the same wages that men are paid, rather than put them in a situation whereby they are unable to provide for their families in the event that something tragic happens and the father is no longer around, no?

Women with equal education and experience are paid the same as men. The "pay gap" is a fictitious construct, exploited by amoral politicians who wish to disparage women for sacrificing compensation to have stable careers with lots of flex time (e.g. teaching).

[AggregateDemand]

Not really. The GOP has no awareness of any problem in this country because they don't believe anything is wrong.

The poor aren't really that poor and don't need any help, the environment is just doing it's thing and doesn't need anybody's help, schools are just being wasteful and don't need any help, infrastructure is fine don't worry about it, defense department's budget can't spare one penny, we our money losing health care system as is don't reform anything. Their anger is about completely intangible ideas.

Once Republicans get into power in DC, they suddenly feel like they're living in a utopia and not one thing need be changed.

The GOP's stance is that most of the suffering in the United States is caused by poorly conceived and poorly executed government policy. Their platform is basically a postulate at this point.

When the GOP get elected, they enjoy drinking from the chalice of legislative power, and since most of them are accomplished individuals, they aren't really effected by government incompetence. Rather than upset the applecart, they administer stimulus and pain killers to counter-act the effects of bad policy.

Eventually, the disease grows stronger and overpowers the Republican drugs. Democrats are elected. They blame Republicans for the disease, and Dems set about making the disease much worse to appease the viruses in DC. Eventually, people lose faith, and move back towards Republicans.

[AggregateDemand]

^ lol that's what he actually believes

Prove me wrong. Show me examples of Democrats fighting to stop generational theft. Find examples of Democrats trying to reduce the incredible tax rates within the welfare system or examples of Democrats defeating paternalistic non-cash benefit systems. Show me examples of Democrats working to eliminate the inherent inequality caused by graduated tax bracket systems. Identify a circumstance in which the war on poverty actually produced a sustainable long-term result.

I've been looking for years. As far as I can tell, Democrats are only interested in raising taxes on the wealthy to redistribute money to the people who are adversely affected by Democratic policies. The disease of legislative inequality compounds its growth rate.

[AggregateDemand]

lol "generational theft"

The conservatives are the ones proposing  real generational theft. They get to pay the low taxes, they get full Medicare/SS benefits, they get every thing as is. Younger people? Don't worry, we'll slash all of your benefits and rights to pay for ours so you aren't saddled with the debt. We'll also be sure to repeal Medicaid, Food Stamps, the law that lets you stay on your parents healthcare coverage until your 26, and do nothing about student loan debt. Good luck kids!!!

Really caring about the next generation would involve tax increases for now, benefit cuts to Medicare and SS for right now, and more focus on social programs for the youth. GOP faux caring for our next generation is just an attempt to wash their fingerprints off the cookie jar after cleaning it out.

What tax cuts are you speaking of? I don't see any appreciable decline in Federal Revenue, except for the phenomenon created by W Bush, which I explained earlier. In fact, FICA taxes have been increasing for the last half-century. Originally capped at 100% median income, the tax threshold is now over 200% of median income, the exclusions for self-employed have been dropped, and the rates are higher.

The theft is caused primarily by lack of means-testing and unwillingness to adjust qualifying age to reflect lifespan.

[AggregateDemand]

The Social Security program has dramatically reduced poverty rates among those over 65.

Our food stamp program is considered one of the most successful and beneficial in-kind benefit programs, even by many conservatives.

True, and look at what social security taxes and senior citizen take-over of Medicaid have done to the under-24 poverty rates and employment rates. We merely shifted hardship from one demographic to another. Most troublesome is that SS functions as workfare, while welfare and Medicaid are more like retirement pensions.

Food Stamps has done wonders for the ag industry. I will concede that much, but non-cash benefits are virtually never more efficient that cash benefits.