Religion and Guns in small-town America

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Of course it should never be vocalized. Doing so makes me wonder just how scary super smart Obama truly is.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Of course it should never be vocalized. Doing so makes me wonder just how scary super smart Obama truly is.

Dude, politicians aren't really smart. They're just politicians.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Obama wasn't supposed to be the same ole politician. He was the super smart messiah all the kool college kids could rally behind cause he read Marx and all. Are you now saying he is after all just the same old politician? Joe Biden with a darker sun tan.

Thanks for clarifying.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Well, I guess I can see it as both. Of course this type of thing speaks directly to his lack of experience. He can privately think it, but he should NEVER say something like that out loud. Ever.

Well to you it's all about getting elected, for selfish reasons. That's all Clinton thinks about. She likes the type of situation where she can say the right things in order to get elected, and she doesn't really mind that it's a bunch of idiots who are voting for her.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Obama wasn't supposed to be the same ole politician. He was the super smart messiah all the kool college kids could rally behind cause he read Marx and all. Are you now saying he is after all just the same old politician? Joe Biden with a darker sun tan.

Thanks for clarifying.

Not at all. He's more like Jimmy Carter but with a lot more charisma. Carter said a lot of things that people say were stupid but the guy is a freakin genious. Take Reagan on the other hand, great politician there, and a ****in idiot.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Obama wasn't supposed to be the same ole politician. He was the super smart messiah all the kool college kids could rally behind cause he read Marx and all. Are you now saying he is after all just the same old politician? Joe Biden with a darker sun tan.

Thanks for clarifying.

[q=Kidicious]Well to you it's all about getting elected, for selfish reasons. That's all Clinton thinks about. She likes the type of situation where she can say the right things in order to get elected, and she doesn't really mind that it's a bunch of idiots who are voting for her.[/q]

Apparently to some, the Messiah is intact! He isn't trying to "[get] elected". He's trying to change America and none of it is for him!! He would never say things just to elected (*cough*NAFTA).

He's the transcendent figure still! He's what SMAC imagined humanity to become! Avert your eyes, the brightness will blind you!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Kidicious
He's more like Jimmy Carter but with a lot more charisma.

Oh, God, this is great . One of the worst Presidents in US history... but with more charisma!!!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

To paraphrase Louis Black.

We've got a ****ty (idea) president, but the opposition party can make it even ****tier.

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Obama wasn't supposed to be the same ole politician. He was the super smart messiah all the kool college kids could rally behind cause he read Marx and all. Are you now saying he is after all just the same old politician?

If he isn't now, he probably will be before he's elected president. Because our nation just won't have the truth come out. A politician starts talking about actual problems, which tend to be because of us, and people will throw a hissy fit. You also can't just speak your mind, you have to have someone carefully word what you "think" so you don't slip up and say something someone somewhere might take offense at and get on the news to replay endlessly.

(Plus he's a D, which means he has to be ~the same as all the other D's, so he gets the D nomination and a ~50% chance of winning so long as he can figure out how to read a teleprompter and avoid addressing issues.)

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Michelle Obama thinks it would take a few more years for him to be corrupted and circulating in a different (DC) orbits. I sugggest the time has already passed.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Kidicious


White: yes. Bitter: no.

Sure

[Ramo]

But I also believe that argument to be completely bull****. It isn't that economic frustrations get deflected onto other issues, but those issues are already there and are important to those voters. The economic frustration is somewhat secondary to a lot of voters. To a lot of people, values tend to carry the day, regardless of economic frustrations.

The national Democratic Party tends not to get it most of the time, but the "conservative" (mostly just in terms of values) Democrats in those areas do understand that people have strong values that the believe in and care for, regardless of regular boom/bust economic conditions (now a second Great Depression may lead to something different, of course).

Now if Obama stuck to economic frustrations lead people to become anti-immigrant and anti-trade, I can see that... because those are directly related, but guns and religion? WTF, Obama?

Read Frank's book. It's pretty compelling. The political system's failure to address economic stagnation, combined with market forces that elevate dissident, heterogeneous values allowed the equation of class with culture. The alien therefore became the elite, and a politics that sought wealth equality turned into a politics that sought cultural homogeneity. As I wrote in my previous post, it's no coincidence that the NRA and the Christian Coalition became prominent political forces while the wealth distribution began to rapidly diverge.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It also could have been, you know, a religious reaction to the liberating of the culture in the 60s. As for the NRA, how many efforts were there to severely limit gun rights prior to the 70s?

[Ramo]

But how many other Western societies have our brand of religious politics (since, by and large, the same cultural changes were happening there as here)? There are obviously other factors involved here, but a very reasonable case could be made (again, see Frank for elaboration) on this point.

[Imran Siddiqui]

How many other Western societies have our history (escaping religious persecution to practice freely is part of the national mythos of how this country was founded) and fascination with gun ownership (due to the American revolution)