Palin, republicans and mediocrity

[Agathon]

The problem is that the Democrats really do know what's best for these dumbos. At least better than they'll decide for themselves.

What's also amusing is that the right wing wackos accuse the democrats of being patronising, yet it is the right wing wackos who are all about telling the rest of the world how to live and behave, often at the point of a gun.

[rah]

But the difference is that that they do it from the pulpit where that's expected, not from a podium where it's not appreciated.

Dems really do know what's best.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by rah
But the difference is that that they do it from the pulpit where that's expected, not from a podium where it's not appreciated.

Don't you mean from the Oval Office?

This is boring anyway. Fake black guy versus Alzheimer's patient. Don't you have any real politicians? The whole thing is rather ghey. If only it were over and proper news could resume.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Agathon


Don't you mean from the Oval Office?

This is boring anyway. Fake black guy versus Alzheimer's patient. Don't you have any real politicians? The whole thing is rather ghey. If only it were over and proper news could resume.

Yet you still post in all these boring threads.......

ACK!

[rah]

What's boring is boring white guy vs. boring white guy.

This year it's actually different.

And yes, if it's so boring, why are you posting frequently in every single thread that involves it? Maybe it's your elections that are so boring that you have to spew bile about ours. You could always go to the Canadian election thread.

[chequita guevara]

It's less that America is an extremely right-wing country and more that areas where reactionaries predominate have disproportionate amounts of representation. What does it matter if half the country is center-right if the far right gets 60 percent of the representation?

Our system was designed to give the conservative elements of our society more influence. It is, inherently, anti-democratic.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

in pretty much every other western democracy this level of "right wing" is at most 15% of population so that they have minimum influence... proportional representation would not matter much if average American was a bit less authoritarian...

[chequita guevara]

Most of you other Western Democracies are also fairly densely populated, while a significant chunk of our population is widely dispersed. Ruralism tends to breed conservatism.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

interesting point, not sure about Canada and Australia though...

[chequita guevara]

Both countries' rural regions are extremely conservative.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Comrade Snuggles
Most of you other Western Democracies are also fairly densely populated, while a significant chunk of our population is widely dispersed. Ruralism tends to breed conservatism.

That statement might have been regarded as utterly ridiculous a couple decades ago.

In the early 1900s the rural states were known for radical agrarian populism.

I've been reading: What's the Matter with Kansas, haven't gotten too far in but it's interesting.

edit: http://www.dilbert.com/2008-09-03/

[GePap]

Originally posted by Victor Galis


That statement might have been regarded as utterly ridiculous a couple decades ago.

In the early 1900s the rural states were known for radical agrarian populism.

I've been reading: What's the Matter with Kansas, haven't gotten too far in but it's interesting.

edit: http://www.dilbert.com/2008-09-03/

Populism is not the same as liberalism or progressivism.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Populism can be conservative as well as progressive. In fact the rural agrarian populism of the early 1900s was progressive economically, but very conservative socially.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Victor Galis
That statement might have been regarded as utterly ridiculous a couple decades ago.

In the early 1900s the rural states were known for radical agrarian populism.

I've been reading: What's the Matter with Kansas, haven't gotten too far in but it's interesting.

edit: http://www.dilbert.com/2008-09-03/

Tendencies are not absolute, Victor. After all, we see in the 3rd world guerrilla armies composed of peasants overthrowing governments and attempting to create socialism. And yet, these movements are very conservative in their own way. For example, the number one cause for a death sentence in Democratic Kampuchea was extra marital sex.

The agrarian populist "revolt" in America had less to do with social liberalism than it had to do with small towns and rural people being squeezed by capitalism. As the only game in town that opposed capitalism was the socialist movement, American socialism was very strong in otherwise socially conservative areas like Kansas and Oklahoma. With the rise of the Klan, that changed.

[DanS]

Interestingly, for the last 7 elections, Dems have put up lawyers for President and VP. The exception was Gore, who dropped out of law school.

Maybe people get bad vibes from lawyers and are therefore easy targets to the GOP. Perhaps people are anti-lawyer instead of anti-intellectual.