Maybe we should stop calling our opponents "stupid" since they are "kicking our butts

[CK_John]

all over the lot".


The GOP voter sees the person on the ballot as just an avatar for RNC central.

They have tied up Congress, control over 30 states that is far from stupid.

[louis-t]

1. Not stupid, not brilliant, not genius...

just shrewd.

[RobertEarl]

3. The republicans bought it

Bought the best government money can buy.

They own the media, the voting machines and the hate machines.

They appeal to the stupid, the lazy and the ass-kissers who are afraid to think for themselves and those are the majority of the country. Half of them vote and the other half don't.

The 1/3 who always vote for the Democratic Party are without a doubt the smarter third. They can not be bought.

[Rex]

2. But they are stupid, that is one of the key points. The people that they vote for

control the mass media and huge amounts of Corporate America. A main point, is keeping them stupid or uninformed if you want to use a nicer term. The GOP owns a huge amount of this country, they've been buying it since the Reagan Era. For sure, a lot of them are very very smart - cruel, vindictive and petty too.

If we ever want to change the status quo, we have to take back control over Congress.

They are stupid and the GOP wants to keep them that way and expand the number of uniformed individuals. It totally works to their advantage as well as to Corporate Americas advantage and you know this.

[CK_John]

6. Just because they think politics is a waste of their time, they are not informed but..

believe the GOP will rule as they would, and will always press the R button.

[Rex]

7. So then does it matter what we call them? If they are going to press the R button always.

We should focus on the moderate undecideds imo. So much of the GOP has gone far, far right. Too far gone to have a rational conversation with.

[Major Hogwash]

41. And yet, excluding Schwarzenegger and Eastwood, the average repub is a wimpy Wally Cox type persona.

Who never served in the military.
Never carried a rifle in the field in a combat zone.

Yet, Gore did, while Kerry served aboard Swift boats in Vietnam, and they were both beat by Bush.

I think this is why machismo -- especially, over-the-top macho crap -- must be eliminated from the political scene.
We need to restore logic, understanding and bring reality back to the concept of bipartisanship in politics.
This is why I believe that women will be so important in the next few years.

Women don't have to compete in the "how many asses did you kick when you were in high school" bullshit macho games the men in politics play today with each other.
Bush was a fucking coward, but at least he joined the National Air Guard to keep from being drafted, but then he went AWOL.
I think that if a woman would have emerged back in 2004 to take Bush on, she wouldn't have had to engage in a macho man contest with Bush.

I think that is basically why Obama beat McCain in 2008, and then wiped the floor with Romney in 2012.
People grew tried of the big, bad, tuff guy routine that McCain and Romney both portrayed themselves as being.
I think the GOP base is stupid enough to believe in Hollywood stereotypes of tuff guys that both Schwarzenegger and Eastwood have played in movies.
I think they also tend to believe that both actors are tuff guys in real life, guys that could snap your neck if you looked at them cross-eyed.
Which isn't true of either one of them.

So, it is the perception that counts.
Or, like so many people like to say, perception is reality.
At least to many Republican conservatives.

They think shouting down someone the way Christie did this week to one of his own constituents makes him look tuff.
They love the idea of one of their leaders being a tuff guy.
The worst attribute that George H.W. Bush had to fight against while running for president back in 1988 was that he was a wimp.
So, his son, Dubya Bush, acted like a tuff guy smartass in 2000 and 2004, and smirked and made snide comments to both Gore and Kerry when he debated them, to fight off being accused of the same thing.

So, if a woman emerges in the next 2 years to combat this insane level of macho, macho man bullshit on the national level, it would bring the noise level down considerably.
And then maybe what the candidates were saying would be analyzed instead of all the pundits discussing their big man character, which was usually exaggerated anyway.

[Live and Learn]

4. It is pretty simple, the party is led by psychopaths leading the ignorant. nt

[CK_John]

8. They may be uninformed on purpose but not ignorant, they know exactly what they are doing..

[Live and Learn]

9. Not the ones I have run across.

I have actually been able to change quite a few minds (and votes).

[CK_John]

10. If you could peek behind that curtain you would be surprised, I don't believe

anyone changes their political stripes.

[Live and Learn]

11. If you are talking about the psychopaths leading the GOP,

you are correct. I am speaking about the the followers. Sure some of them are beyond reach but not the majority.

Are you suggesting that I should just accept what you say, give up on changing minds and accept the GOP and its ruination of America as inevitable?

[CK_John]

13. No, but don't call them stupid.

[Live and Learn]

15. I never did. Psychopaths aren't stupid at all.

And ignorance is just ignorance not stupidity. (Although one might have a case in saying that it is stupid to be ignorant in this day and age when information is so readily available.)

[tazkcmo]

20. I do call them stupid

And to their faces. Including two of my brothers. I don't care if it hurts their feelings or gives them a sad. They ARE stupid and deserve every shitty thing that happens to them because of their votes.

[Android3.14]

5. And the cheat

[MFM008]

12. not stupid

Evil.

[baldguy]

14. The only way the GOP wins is when people who should know better refuse to vote for Democrats.

[world wide wally]

16. Okay. Voters ARE stupid but the Republicans have even made Democratic candidates turn on

Obama. That was the best trick of all!

Unfortunately, these same Dem candidates are going to have their asses handed to them for just that reason

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251382708

[GeorgeGist]

17. Game over.

you lose.

[rock]

18. I believe as a general rule

we on DU do not call them stupid. We tend to call the repiggie voters ignorant and the repiggie politicians corrupt. Now it is true that politicians say a lot of stupid stuff which is then repeated constantly by the media to make the voters believe it and thus become ignorant.

[chowder66]

19. Their only focus is winning and control (mainly for the top 10%)... therefore

they are unable to enact good legislation and ideas for the rest of us (provably). That abusive/obsessive focus is screwing the rest of us over year after year. And while it works for the most part, it is still very damaging as a whole.
Democrats focus on the 90% and legislation that benefits the majority and have to step in and enact just enough legislation as they can to mitigate the Republicans constant damage. That kind of governing is a crapshoot for everyone except that upper echelon that the Republicans are in bed with.

Democrats focus and task is much larger than the Republicans, covering the welfare of 90% of 300 million people and which mostly does effect the upper 10% positively.
They (R's) conserve their energy/ideas to zero in on winning and everything that can get them there. Greased palms and people in position are making it work for them but again, their lack of focus once in position or in session shows they don't know how to govern at all.

Many voters hear what they want or the "bravado" and think, yeah, that's my guy/gal. When that guy/gal gets in they don't bother to find out how incompetent they really are. And even if the facts are presented, constituents tend to ignore it or miss it completely.


We (D's) need a political win-machine at every level/ a branch that allows our elected officials to perform at their highest levels up on the hill.
We have pieces of it.... but it isn't fully up to par yet...or so it seems.

[CK_John]

23. They have you fooled, you do not understand they do not believe in public schools, public health

care, public clean water and air regulation, public safety net, any function of the fed government except war/defense.

[BlueCaliDem]

30. You just made the case against your own argument.

They don't believe in public schools, yet they whine and wail when their children don't get a good education?

They don't believe in public health care, but they're one of the first to stand in line at a free clinic (while complaining that there are too many "darkies" there, too).

They don't believe in clean water and clean air regulations - but I assume they enjoy drinking safe water and, well, breathing?

They don't believe in the social safety net, yet they can't run (wheel?) fast enough to the nearest social security, welfare office to apply for social welfare benefits and Medicare?

They believe that Big Gubmit should stay OUT of their lives (except for funding their public schools and coming to the rescue when there's a natural disaster that wipes their communities away) but when it come time to suit up and ship out for those wars they cheer for (especially when there's a Republican president in the WH - and have no qualms calling anti-war peeps "traitors"- they all run and hide (unless they need the job) and are perfectly happy to have other people's sons and daughters - and they're generous enough to extend that courtesy to those with the permanent tans and those from south of the border - fight their petty battles?

That, dear CK, is the epitome of STUPID.

[chowder66]

43. Who has me fooled and how?

Either I didn't convey my point well enough or you have misread what I was saying. It could be a combo.

When you say "They do not believe in".....who are you referring to? If it is the Republicans you are referring to then please retract calling me a fool because by no means whatsoever do I believe that they care about any of those things. It's a fact that they don't and is part of my point.

They focus all of their energy on winning, they don't give a shit about anything else other than enacting legislation that benefits their buddies. And they fail miserably when it comes time to do their jobs. They don't even know what they are voting for unless it has some monetary value to them or increases/secures their power/position. Their narrow focus hurts the majority citizens as a whole.

[Vinca]

21. People who vote for them are stupid and ignorant and naive and gullible.

Why else would Kentucky Republicans love their new healthcare, but want "Obamacare" repealed?

[BlueCaliDem]

29. Yep. That's pretty damned stupid, all right. eom

[WinkyDink]

22. Stupid people are often wily.

[DCBob]

24. They are stupid which is why they need to cheat and lie to win.

[AngryAmish]

25. Pat Buchanan had it right.

Honestly, he did.

There is a cultural war in the US. Always has been, always will be. Right now, we are on the losing end election wise, winning side culturally wise.

It is Roundheads v Cavaliers, and we are Roundheads. Roundheads founded Harvard and settled in the northeast. Cavaliers moved to the south, and brought the scots-irish with them .

We had a civil war and we will have another one within the next 40 years. It will take an assassination of a President plus a changing of the filibuster rule. (There is a reason why changing the filibuster rule drives Senators nuts (.

[steve2470]

28. ok you've intrigued me

Please elucidate further. I'm simply interested, not looking for a fight. Thanks.

[AngryAmish]

42. Why was there a Magna Carta?

This is not an Insignificant question. Some folks got tired of listening to the King and said gives us power or else. The king said ok, or else he died.

So before the magna carta all authority was from the king or rome. Now anyone with a title could consult. Fast forward 600 years or so. Things have changed. Not only was there a parliament, it was ascendant. They had more money. Skilled trades and merchants. Urban. They traveled the world. They embraced protestantism. So they (roundheads) took over, killed the king and installed their own dictator. For the common good.

But it was a civil war. And the roundheads did not exterminate the opposition, the royals snd their supporters.

Fast forward to the settling of the americas. These people settled our lil nation. Roundheads in the northest and cavaliers (large landowners) plus their scots-irish supporters in the south. Scots-irish are hill people from scotland transported to ireland by cromwell to get rid of them and to punish the Irish. Then Ireland lacked the c a pacity to feed them and they mov3d here.

More tomorrow. Im drunk and going to sleep.

[polichick]

26. They're followers voting their team.

[MADem]

27. They aren't "kicking" anything. They game the system. They stop people from voting. They lie.

They cheat. They bribe. They steal. They smear. They insinuate. They use the dirtiest tactics known to humankind.

That's pretty stupid behavior, because it involves the subversion of democracy.

They couldn't win an honest contest in most districts. They don't know how to be honest.

[CK_John]

34. I doubt they have any love for democracy.

[RandySF]

31. Let's see

"Evolution is a fairy tale".
"Man-made climate change is not real."
"we should ban all direct flights from West Africa (there are no direct flights from West Africa)."

They are stupid. And stupid is winning.

[Iggo]

32. No, that's completely stupid.

[Warpy]

33. Lee Atwater proved that stupid and ruthless

would run right over intelligent and playing by the rules every time.

Republicans have stuck to that playbook ever since.

If you think you're above the laws of country and simple decency, it's easy to sway other stupid people. Since no one ever calls them on it outside lefty forums, they have absolutely no reason to stop.

Not until they get called and charged for what they are--racketeers--will anything change.

[NanceGreggs]

35. Voting Republican ...

... is a matter of the stupid voting to elect the insane.

In a world where the stupid didn't vote, Michele Bachman's highest achievement would have been Top Avon Saleswoman in her state, Ted Cruz's would have been owning the four most successful used car lots in the mid-west, Rick Santorum's would have been being named "Catholic Layman of the Year" in his diocese, and Sarah Palin's would have been being voted "Waitress of the Month" four months running in an Alaskan truck-stop diner.

Thanks to the stupid, these people were actually elected to positions of political power instead.

[spanone]

36. nobody's kicked our butts. only in media world.

[Peacetrain]

37. No one and I mean no one is kicking my butt!

[lumberjack_jeff]

38. Amoral trumps stupid.

In other words, you can get away with being pretty stupid if you're amoral.

[WhiteTara]

39. They are cunning and sly and have no morals or scruples

so it is easier to "kick our butts" when they lie, cheat and steal without a moment's hesitation.

[stupidicus]

40. that's like saying Sarah Palin is a business genius

for all the money she's fleeced from rubes.

[CK_John]

44. 12 million in 6yrs is not a stupid person, although she may be a lot of other things.

[stupidicus]

48. it doesn't make her a genius or even smart

the proper and ONLY distinction to make that supports what I thought to be your point, is that their leaders/masterminds obviously are, whereas those that fall victim to them mostly are dummies.

THat's the whole point behind the "voting against their own interests" line...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

45. The GOP isn't stupid, just the people who vote for them are.

[CK_John]

46. Calling voters stupid doesn't win many supporters.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

47. Only if you call them that to their face(s)

[LanternWaste]

49. Stupidity does not deny consistent popularity...

Stupidity does not deny consistent popularity...

[Orsino]

50. Short-sighted, weak and mean...

...but smart enough to parrot really stupid talking points.