How did the Republican Party become so extremely right wing?
It has been the result of numerous trends over the past several years. I would argue the most jarring shift has been the Tea Party movement after 2008. In 2008 John McCain was a very moderate nominee, who could be considered downright liberal by today's standards. Mitt Romney was essentially promising Obamacare at the time as well. The 2006 Democratic wave election essentially wiped out liberal Republicans in most of the country from Congress, so it is expected that we would have seen fewer progressive ideas from the GOP since then.The 2008 election was a massive loss for the GOP, but they saw 2010 as the big prize. Prior to that the Tea Party started to protest the large amounts of spending at the start of the Obama administration. The Republican Party also demagogued against the stimulus package, which really agitated the Republican base. Republicans promised to make Obama a one term President, and largely refused to work with him at all. The 2010 election resulted in much more conservative Republicans getting elected. After 2010 Congressional districts were redrawn to favor Republicans, and it is estimated that it may be impossible for Democrats to take back the House until 2030. Now many districts are safe Republican districts, and Republican incumbents no longer face challenges from Democrats, but challenges from more conservative Republicans. Many like Eric Cantor lost their seats to primary challengers, and John Boehner was replaced with Paul Ryan, an ideologue, as Speaker of the House.The trend seems to be moving in the other direction now. The Republican Party has gotten too right wing to appoint serious candidates for the White House. If Republicans wanted to win the easiest answer was to nominate John Kasich. Donald Trump is actually pretty moderate on core economic and social issues, but he holds extreme positions on issues of race, that arguably can be considered racist. While the party may want to move on after the election, there is a decent chance that the party is stuck with the nonsensical policy positions and racist sentiments that Donald Trump has unleashed.
Who was a better Vice President; Dan Quayle or Dick Cheney?
That's like asking "What's a better disease, Leukemia or Hodgkin's Lymphoma?"
Is Dick Cheney more like Emperor Palpatine than Darth Vader?
He does have that hoover vacuum sounding respiratory regulator.
Dick Cheney told ABC-TV that we would have attacked Iraq whether they had WMD or not because...?
their version of the truth, rather than perpetuating the continual lie. About Iran, it says that now we have intelligent people in the white house (in January) perhaps common sense will prevail again. You don't attack countries and waste billions of dollars and 4200 US soldiers lives based upon lies of imminent threat when a nation might develop the capacity to attack the US - if you follow that kind of stupid logic, there isn't country in the world that a dim-wit like Chenney and his puppet Bush wouldn't attack.
Im libertarian so neocon is my "enemy", so what are the pros and cons of neoconservative? try and sway me?
Very simplistic "question" that provides you the rare opportunity to "rant" excessively and throw out your sophomoric "opinions". Disagree with "majority" of your conclusions and by the way..........Wikipedia is NOT a credible source to cite as the validation of your "thoughts". NEVER believed in this "stereotyping" of people based on one definition, since nobody, in any Party or political ideologies, share ALL the beliefs or positions. If your a Libertarian and "need" more enemies, won't be hard to achieve for you.
Has there been speculation about Dick Cheney running for President in 2012?
Given Mr. Cheney's health issues, the unpopularity of the Bush administration and the potential for him to face indictment in the ICC (International Criminal Court) in the Hague for his admission of using illegal acts to obtain information from suspects, any speculation that Mr. Cheney would run for the White Hose will almost certainly be just that: speculation.UPDATE: Since I wrote this answer in 2011, two things have changed: Dick Cheney underwent a successful heart transplant operation and he has also thrown his support behind the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2012 US Presidential Election. It is a virtual certainty for those two reasons alone, that former Vice President Cheney will not seek the nomination for President of the United States.
Why do people seem to hate Dick Cheney so much more than George W. Bush?
By all accounts, Dick Cheney had far more influence over President Bush than is typical for a Vice President. Vice Presidents typically have minimal influence and almost no real power, but Cheney quickly gained a reputation as being someone President Bush listened to, even to the point of directing policy. He's older than Bush, had been in government much longer, and was often seen as smarter (whether that's true or not, it's a common perception).Whether cultivated or real, Bush has a very homey, simple persona, seeming friendly and earnest, but not all that smart. Cheney comes off as much smarter, but far less likeable. Their personalities, coupled with Cheney's uncommon level of influence in the executive branch, lends itself easily to particular narrative: Bush is the naive newcomer who has the charm and the family name, Cheney is the old hand with the intelligence and experience. So he puts Bush up as the public face of the administration, while he pulls the strings from behind the scene.Now, like most narratives about real people, that may be totally inaccurate, and is, at least, highly oversimplified. Still, neither of them has done much in public to counter it. For example, having left office with low approval ratings and two highly unpopular wars still dragging on, Bush basically retired to his Texas home to paint and spend time with his family, while Cheney keeps going on TV to insist that invading Iraq and torturing detainees were the right thing to do. Which is exactly what you'd expect to happen if those were Cheney's initiative. It proves nothing, but if you believe that narrative, it really supports it.If you think that the policies of the Bush administration were disastrous, and that some of the things they did (like indefinite detention and torture) were out and out evil, then the person who was really driving those would be the evil one, and Cheney seems like the most likely suspect.