The Republican Party Has Literally Become the Party of Stupid

[n2doc]

By Allen Clifton

While I’ve lived in Texas all my life, I’ve never seen Republicans behave how they have these last few years. After all, prior to George W. Bush becoming our governor in 1995, we had a female Democrat, Ann Richards, as our governor. That was two decades ago, but it’s still shocking to think that Texas has gone from electing a female Democrat to the highest office in the state – to electing someone like Ted Cruz as one of our two senators.

I remember not too long ago when things like evolution and climate change weren’t “topics up for debate” and anyone suggesting they were was viewed as an imbecile.

What the hell has happened?

In the last few years, the Republican party has literally become the party of stupid. We’re battling people who look at 97 percent of the world’s scientists and say, “No thanks, I don’t believe your liberal lies about climate change. Besides, winter… duh!.” As if there’s some massive global conspiracy against the GOP’s propaganda. Not only that, but much of the “data” these fools on the right use to try to debunk climate change is paid for by big oil – an industry that stands to lose billions of dollars if we were to ever move away from fossil fuels.

Then there are those trying to get creationism put alongside evolution in biology textbooks. These people want the belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and that dinosaurs walked alongside humans, right alongside evolution – a theory that’s soundly supported by overwhelming scientific data.

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/republican-party-literally-become-party-stupid/

[Takket]

1. the more educated people get, the more liberal they become....

and the harder they are to control. a stupid electorate will work for very little, demand few benefits and not complain when they need medical help or have bills to pay. in short: The GOP elite get to live like the French aristocracy and their supporters are the peasants but instead of dragging their oppressors to le guillotine, the stupid electorate not only tolerates having nothing but table scraps to eat, they thank the elite for it, because they are brainwashed to believe this is the "freedom" the founding fathers envisioned for them.

They are the party of stupid by design.

[RKP5637]

2. Well said!!! n/t

[bvf]

4. The war on education is paying off.

And it's escalating. We're fucked.

[Enthusiast]

18. It is part of the plan and it's also being fostered by right wing Democrats. Emanuel and the others.

[RecoveringJournalist]

6. And the beat will go on

Then there's the fact that they are fed by a self-contained alternative media which further brainwashes them to think that any news source which says something different is lying to them. And while some in that media truly believes the tripe, others are simply laughing at them behind their backs while taking their piles of cash to the bank. I mean, there's even Conservapedia now. If you don't like Wikipedia's "liberal spin," you can be fed lies by Conservapedia.

I was a journalist for more than 15 years. All the time I worked tirelessly to give all sides to stories, to keep my opinion out of things. When asked my opinion by local officials during various functions, I would tell them it was not my place to comment and that to express an opinion of any sort would destroy my journalistic integrity. But I was "downsized" by a business that is being taken over by corporations. Besides, truth doesn't sell like it used to. Lying to people, telling them what they want to hear, is profitable.

I have never in my life been more concerned for this society's future.

[appalachiablue]

20. Great post, never realized there's a Conservapedia. Matters are getting worse & I share your

concern about the future of this country. If the left doesn't do something about the RW corporate media then I have to consider them part of the problem, it's 20 years of this & the damage is major. (Great moniker).

[hifiguy]

12. I can't add one thing to your spot-on analysis.

Excellent!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. You can also create a culture of idiots who actually believe their boss really is holier than thou.

[Roy Rolling]

3. Wrong!

People did not walk alongside of dinosaurs, they rode on their backs. Soon, humans invented the wheel and no longer needed to ride dinosaurs.

You're welcome.

[valerief]

5. And the dinosaurs in Texas were BIGGER than anywhere else!

[onethatcares]

7. and they

trained to work in rock quarrys. I saw it on teevee

[RecoveringJournalist]

8. Uh

You mean, Texarock, right Fred?

[Enthusiast]

19. Naturally.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. And You Could Go To A Drive In For A Rack of Mastadon Ribs

I saw it on TV. Honest.

[MisterP]

9. well, mean comes first before stupid

[valerief]

10. I'll tell you what happened. Reagan and heavily televised Mega-Jesus shows were

ushered in during the 80s. The 90s gave us Fox News, RW radio, and the Contract On America Congress.

But the BIGGEST factor? Electronic voting.

1990: The FEC (Federal Election Commission) released a universalized standard for computerized voting.

1996: The Reform Party uses I-Voting (Internet Voting) to select their presidential candidate. This election is the first governmental election to use this method in the U.S. [14]

May 2002: The FEC revised the standards established for electronic voting from 1990.

Nov 2004: 4,438 of votes in the general election is lost by North Carolina’s electronic voting machines. The machines continued to count electronic votes past the device's memory capacity and the voteswere irretrievably lost.

Dec 2005: Black Box Voting showed how it easily it is to hack an electronic voting system. Computer experts in Leon County, Fl lead a simulation where they changed the outcome of a mock election by tampering with the tabulator without leaving evidence of their actions.

Sep 13, 2006: It was demonstrated that, Diebold Electronic Voting Machine can be hacked in less than a minute. Princeton's Professor of Computer Science, Edward Felten who installed a malware which could steal votes and replace them with fraudulent numbers without physically coming in contact with the voting machine or its memory card. The malware can also program a virus that can spread from machine to machine.

Sep 21, 2006: The governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich (R), advised against casting electronic votes as an alternative method for casting paper absentee ballots. This was a complete turn around since Maryland became one of the first states to accept electronic voting systems state-wide during his term.

Sep 3, 2009: Diebold, responsible for much of the technology in the election-systems business, sells their hold to Election Systems & Software, Inc for $5 Million, less than 1/5 of its price seven years earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting#Timeline_of_Development

http://bradblog.com/?p=10917

[rhett o rick]

11. And while we are being distracted by their "stupid" our party is being co-oped by

the conservatives. People that support fracking, the TPP, indefinite detention, torture, the Patriot Act and an unregulated NSA/CIA Dark State.

[Enthusiast]

17. +1 You nailed it.

There is a purpose behind the stupid.

Maybe long after we're dead and gone some brilliant historian will write an interesting book about this 21st Century phenomenon when the USA was defeated by the forces of darkness from within.

[appalachiablue]

23. +1. Behind the ridiculous drama, the real damage is being done. Add privatization of public

schools, before that prisons & hospitals, soon water, utilities & roads; elimination of unions, job benefits, safety net programs. Similar to what was done in Chile, other places from The Shock Doctrine.

If matters don't change, I see the left moving almost exclusively into the role of critic, analysis and coverage of GOP policies & antics, without any real role or power. (Like a spouse or employee notating what is being 'done to them' in a destructive situation where they have no power or anywhere else to go).

[rhett o rick]

30. The Left desperately needs to figure out how to counter the propaganda of the Right.

There are a lot of so-called political liberals right here in River City that are still drinking the conservative (e.g., all hail Herr General Clapper) cool-aid. Why settle for a status quo Wall Street candidate? Are they afraid to actually fight for the return of their liberties? That's a rhetorical question.

[appalachiablue]

32. In the last few years several respected people in the media & public affairs have said the

same thing, why aren't people opposing this? The complacency is extreme compared to other times. Is it the dumbed down TV viewers, internet hounds, something in the water or food? I'm starting to think the very cynical, that the left doesn't even bring up the issue of trying to alter the media, like those who think there was no real concern over the 2014 election loss (but rather relief) because then they were off the hook.

I've commented here often about the media and it falls on deaf ears; to close ones who don't want to believe I'm on the fringes almost. By accident I learned about Thom Hartmann. We had just terminated our terrible cable service and saw his Big Picture program one night, b/c someone nearby must have had satellite. Heard about DU from him, wish it had been years earlier, although better late than never. As I wrote in a recent post, you can have the best information and top communicators but if no one knows about it,

They'll be singing on the mountain and you won't be there to hear it, as my father said.

[CrispyQ]

38. We're there.

The US is an oligarchy, study concludes
Report by researchers from Princeton and Northwestern universities suggests that US political system serves special interest organisations, instead of voters
16 Apr 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10769041/The-US-is-an-oligarchy-study-concludes.html

snip...

The US government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities has concluded.

The report, entitled Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, used extensive policy data collected from between the years of 1981 and 2002 to empirically determine the state of the US political system.

After sifting through nearly 1,800 US policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile) and large special interests groups, researchers concluded that the United States is dominated by its economic elite.

Think how much worse it's gotten in 13 years.

[appalachiablue]

41. Saw the Princeton article when it came out, what we have is the failure of democracy, certain.

And how many Americans know or care about this, not many. Same with the brief 2013 NYT article about how the US middle class is no longer No. 1, for the first time. We're No. 2 behind Canada. In education we've fallen to No. 17 in the world. Decline of the middle class and democracy simultaneous with the rise of elite concentrated wealth by the 1% and huge losses for workers, the 99%. Stiglitz wrote a paper last year forecasting US economic stagnation and inequality for the next quarter century. A real mess we have now, culminating over 30+ years with the last 15 being the worst.

"You didn't think you were living in a democracy, did you?", Gordon Gekko to Bud Fox, 'Wall Street' (1987).
Oliver Stone, director.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_in_the_workplace

[hifiguy]

25. Yup.

The greedheads who can't stomach the religious stupid and open bigotry have taken over the Democratic Party. In part because the DLC and its successors were more than happy to sell it to them in return for feathering their own nests very nicely. Yes, I am looking straight at you, Bill and Hillary.

[Cosmocat]

13. We are too affluent in our lifestyle

There is really little in the way of jeopardy anymore.

SO, people mostly tune out, and what they do tune into they WANT to be outraged.

So, in a world where people live on their cell phones and reality TV reigns, people want soap opera bullshit to be mad about.

Which is right down the GOP's alley.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. A lot of useful idiots I guess

[appalachiablue]

34. +1 regular folk participating in their own demise unfortunately & the wealthy inside investor class

on both sides making out very, very well. Useful idiots have existed in every society and time in history-

[C_U_L8R]

15. The crazy thing is

Republicans wear their stupidity like a big bold badge of honor
while disparaging smart people for being all umm, smart and stuff.

You've really gotta be a total moron to be a Republican these days.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Like I've said, America is the only country in the world...

...where a bar fight can start with the words, "Yew sound lak one o' dem college boys."

[Enthusiast]

16. All this stupid is a manufactured distraction.

All the while we are being fleeced. Or we were fleeced.

[appalachiablue]

29. Correct. Human behavior in the act of theft. Reminds me of hustlers who ring the doorbell, claim

an auto problem; the drama gets the owners out of the house as intended while the partners come in the back and clean out the valuables. Intentional, manufactured distraction. Happened to us once in Europe with gypsy kids; luckily we ran them down, got our stuff back from their leader. Sad experience in every way.

[appalachiablue]

24. Thanks for the excellent post. What is happening to this country in 10-20 years is

beyond belief, state by state. At times it's an unrecognizable place.

[Skittles]

27. Reagan made greed and idiocy fashionable

that's the real turning point I remember

[hifiguy]

28. That's the way I remember it as well.

We have been going down the rabbit hole of teh stoopid for 35 years.

[appalachiablue]

31. That was the turning point, high water mark. I unfortunately remember so well working &

studying in DC at the time. Almost went into shock when he was elected, couldn't believe this country would vote in the old, painted B-movie clown. Must say we enjoyed the remarks of a nice boss who saw him up close at an event the next spring. It was daytime with good light; she said about his hair and makeup- orange face, tinted lipstick and dyed hair

[GeorgeGist]

37. Yup.

[YOHABLO]

26. We are a country in love with money. We are programmed to buy buy buy. Ask no questions.

[IDemo]

33. Idaho had two great Democrats when we moved here decades ago

Senator Frank Church and Governor Cecil Andrus, still considered by many as the greatest governor Idaho has had.

Our politics has plummeted into a septic tank of the absurd since then.

[appalachiablue]

35. Both of them I remember; this is happening in so many states and places. What happened that we've

produced embarrassing, ignorant and greedy legislators compared to those leaders- was it Reagan, B-School, free market trickle down lies, Hawks, Rove, Falwell & Fox?

[CrispyQ]

40. Reagan turned liberal into a dirty word & dems didn't even fight back.

I sent my Fox watching, right-wing mother the Joe Conservative essay & asked her which of those things she thought were bad & she never responded. Anyone born after 1980 has only heard that unions are bad & that people on welfare are eating steak & driving Cadillacs. I'm surprised how ignorant many people I know are. Smart people who only watch the news for a few minutes a day & probably from CNN or one of the networks.

[awoke_in_2003]

36. Dawkins calls them the 40 percenters

40% of Americans don't believe in evolution. That is scary.