Freitag, 16. Juli 2010

To sum it all up...


As we could see from the different posts, it is nearly impossible to compare those two parties. The US-party exists much longer and has an important tradition, whereas in Germany the Republikaner are a pretty new party. Second of all, you have to consider the size: In the US, the party is one of the two major parties and you could even consider it as a personal political attitude. In Germany the party is often too small to even get some seats in the Bundestag or Landtag.
The third point is, that you can not compare the two parties, because in the US you vote for a candidate and in Germany you vote for the party and its policies.
I think the political culture plays an important role as well, because in Germany it is not too welcome to be a bit more extreme than the others are and especially not when it goes into the direction of being patriotic or even nationalist. All in all we figured out that "being republican" means something totally different in the two countries.

pictures from democraticunderground.com and politik-visuell.de

Dienstag, 13. Juli 2010

Reactions to the German Republicans

Wow, that was hard. The only thing you will find when you search for, let's say "deutschland republikaner reaktionen", is firstly reactions to the US-Republicans, and secondly you'll find websites that are actually created by the party "Die Republikaner". There are some facts and reactions to Landtags-elections, but they are from 1986. That was around the time (as we know from the historical aspects of the party) they first appeared.
The only thing that was somehow in the news recently about the Republikaner was that they used a German comedian for their campaign in a campaign TV-spot, which was prohibited by a court shortly after it came up.
A few antifascist websites try to inform about the party, but even they somehow are not up to date about some facts.
What does that tell us about the party? Maybe that it is not important at all, maybe that you can’t take them seriously? Are there no reactions of the bigger parties on the web, because they ignore the Republikaner? I don’t know. If you have ideas – please comment!

The reactions to the US-Republicans concerning the election 2008

In this post, we wanted to write about the reactions to the presidential elections concerning the role of the republicans. I found out pretty fast that it is hard to find some reactions to the election that are NOT about Obama. So let’s try to figure out how we can use that.
Some took the election’s result as a reason to comment the general situation of the republican party. Many comments rated the situation of the Republicans not too good, many are speaking of a general loss of identity and direction.
In comparison to that, in a sum-up of the world’s reactions to the election, most country welcome the new Democrat president. In Europe people welcome the choice of the Americans for “youth, freshness, openness, optimism and change” , in the Middle East, people in general think that everyone is better than Bush were and they hope for better opportunities. The South-American states also hope for better relations to the USA (especially Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, who named George W. Bush “the devil”). I think that tells us a lot about the world’s opinion on the Republicans and their presidential candidates!
On the other hand, maybe it showed that Barack Obama is just extra-ordinary and speaks for many people, not limited by their general political opinion. As a proof for that, I’d like to show you a website I found: http://www.republicansforobama.org/ That’s amazing, right?
Well if you would like to hear some opinions on one of McCain’s speeches in September 2008, you should really watch this video. It is pretty interesting because it contains a broad spectrum of opinions.

Sonntag, 11. Juli 2010

Head of the German Republicans - Rolf Schlierer


Rolf Schlierer was born on 21st February 1955 in Stuttgart. He is married, a Protestant and has two children.

He studied medicine in Gießen and got the license to practice medicine in 1979. From 1981-1988 he studied law and philosophy in Tübingen. He got his First Legal State Examination in 1988, his Second Legal State Examination in 1991

Schlierer has done practical work as a doctor and journalist. Since 1991, he is established as an attorney with a law firm in Stuttgart.

German election - facts

Because of the fact that the German republicans have a different candidate for each land, I decided to introduce the National Chairman of the German republicans, Rolf Schlierer, to you.

As you know from before, he is the head of the party since 1994. I did not find out with how many votes he was elected as the chairman of the german republicans on the party conference in Sindelfingen on 17th of December 1994. Maybe that is simply not important. What seem to be sure is the fact that his election was a curtly one.

Furthermore he seems to be really disliked in his own party. There were rumours in 2008, that he had left his position. In 2009 some Republicans claimed his resignation. The reason for his unpopularity in his own party might be that he does not want to cooperate with NPD and DVU. Moreover he is blamed for the fact that the party lost its political meaning since several years. During the Bundestag elections of 2009, the party reached only 0,4 percent of all votes.

Republican face of the american presidential election in 2008 - John McCain


In spite of the fact that a loser image clunked to him while his applications for the White House, John McCain, the white-haired senator from Arizona, was suddenly the front runner of the Republicans for the presidential election in 2008.

The Vietnam veteran was one of a rush forward in Iraq, which itself was unpopular even among many Republicans. Therefore remained donations for his campaign. In July 2007, his campaign was broke. He had to laid off many employees. McCain rose from the elections by jet and receptions in expensive hotels around on his good coach, the "Straight Talk Express" and toured the States early code, now as underdog. In this role, he was more credible. At that time the number of attacks has fallen in Iraq.

McCain was now regarded as the wise man who tells the citizens, "what you do not want to hear, but need to know" - and kept the law.

His sudden popularity might have arose from his complex relationship with the Republican Party and the conservative voters.

They do not love him, because he is too liberal. But they respect his principled, they respect his character and honour him as the war hero of Vietnam.

He has the reputation that he does what he think is right, even if it is politically bad. Often he was called a "Maverick": an outsider, a young animal without a brand, that is uncontrollable.

Sworn conservatives criticize McCain for disregarding the basic republican virtues.

So let's have a look on at his political attidudes:

He repeatedly voted against Bush's tax cut programs. In his opinion, they were not fair and vulnerable to budgetary discipline. He rejects this from abortion, but is also against an absolute ban on abortion. He opposes the claim of the right to ban the gay marriage by law. The State must not interfere in such private relationships.

Even when dealing with around eleven million illegal immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America, he rejects the ideological course of the right - punish, track and deport. He supported a pragmatic solution: the offer of a legalization, if the person concerned taxes.
Own conservative values, but tolerant of differences: This is the typical attitude in the west of the country, including Arizona, which McCain represents more than 20 years in the U.S. Senate.

Fierce battles he has delivered with Bush, who wanted some kind of "torture light" prevail against terror suspects. McCain spoke against: America must not betray its values in the fight against extremists. Torture "confessions" were also unreliable. Each man has a grievance border, from which he say all you want to hear the tormentors.

This was particularly credible because he himself had been tortured in North Vietnamese prisoner of war five and a half years. Until today he can not lift his arms above his head.

He comes from a military family and is seen as a fighter. Several stories from captivity has moved religious and conservative Americans.

For example the story about one of his missions as pilot during the vietnam war: He was shot down and came in captivity. Initially he was treated courteously, just as his father had become Commander in Chief Pacific, the Navy and the North Vietnamese a propaganda success when they release McCain. But he refused preferential treatment. He wanted released only with his comrades.

McCain was in 2008 also known as a moderate conservative and a pragmatist, not an ideologue.

He wanted correct Bush's domestic policy, for example, taxes and budget. He wanted withdraw the restriction of civil rights in parts and seek to close the Guantanamo prison camp, because he sees how much it harms America's standing in the world.

But he wanted continue the course of a strong military in Iraq and Afghanistan. He believes that the U.S. can end both conflicts with a clever strategy still victorious - and that they also have to do all because the consequences of failure would be fatal.

McCain wanted also do more for climate protection. He has announced that climate change is a fact, but wants no principle dispute with conservatives who do not believe it. “Let us not argue about it. What's the harm if we try to leave our children the earth cleaner than we found it?” McCain was aware of the fact that he cannot win without the votes of the Right.

In 1984 McCain and his wife Cindy had their first child together, daughter Meghan. She was followed two years later by son John Sidney McCain IV (known as Jack), and in 1988 by son James (Jimmy). In 1991, Cindy McCain brought an abandoned three-month old girl needing medical treatment to the U.S. from a Bangladeshi orphanage run by Mother Teresa The McCains decided to adopt her, and named her Bridget.

American election - facts

To understand the American system of election, you might have to know, that an American president is not chosen directly by the people. Instead, an Electoral College is used. In a close election, the importance of the College grows.
So, how does the Electoral College work?
Each state has a number of electors in the Electoral College equal to the total of its US senators (always two) and its representatives, which are determined by the size of the state's population. Technically, Americans vote for the electors not the candidate.
California, the most populous state, has 55 electoral votes. A few small states and the District of Columbia have only three.
There are 538 electors in the College. In all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, the College works on a winner-takes-all basis. The winner of the popular vote in a state gets all the Electoral College votes in that state.

To become president, a candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes. The winning candidate does not need to win the national popular vote.

John Mc Cain got 173 votes and lost the presidental election of 2008. If you want to know more about him, read our next blog!