To Speak the Unspeakable ....

[kentuck]

Editorialists are out in droves to tell us how Sarah Palin is not ready to be VP or possibly, President of the United States. She knows very little about national or international politics outside the boundaries of Alaska.

She does know Alaska politics. It's about oil and laying pipelines and giving the voters of Alaska more money each year in their oil rebate check. It's about sucking taxdollars from Washington and the rest of the American people to help build their roads and bridges, as was the attempt with the "bridge to nowhere."

Some fault John McCain for choosing such a person to be VP, in these critical times for our nation. It shows a terrible misjudgment on his part, they say. Some accuse Sarah Palin of having a false confidence that far exceeds her abilities and knowledge.

But who's really to blame? It's not John McCain. It's not Sarah Palin. It's the voters, stupid.

It's not ignorance. Ignorance can be corrected by education. It's hyper-partisanship. It's nationalism. It's naivete. It's stupidity. And it is a willful stupidity.

No one is permitted to say that. How can you call the voters stupid? Isn't that political suicide to call the voters "stupid"? Why would you do such a thing?

Because they are a threat to our entire nation. They have bought into the propaganda from talk radio and the lies of their political ads. They have turned a blind eye to the reality that our country is in a dire situation. They believe more of the same will cure what caused our problems to begin with. They have been taught to fear any opposing ideas.

We need to cut more taxes. We needed to invade Iraq. We need to talk tough and carry a little stick. We need leaders that are like us - someone we can have a beer with. We don't need intelligent folks skilled in the art of diplomacy. That is surrender, they are told. So they buy it. Why? Because they are stupid.

[cliffordu]

1. You aren't getting any argument from me on any of it.....

[AndyTiedye]

2. You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time

for the rest, there's Diebold, and caging, and purging the voter lists, and plain old-fashioned ballot-box stuffing.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Since Gibson vetted her more thoroughly than McBush, exposure of her epic inadequacies should help

But then again they already have Sarah Palin dolls for sale, so perhaps actual information isn't criteria for some in voting.

:scared:

[Sensitivity]

4. Sadly, the reform of the MSM and the "RE-EDUCATION' of the citizenry is the first order of business

for a new DEM administration. Sounds horrible but it is true.

The Clinton strategy of "accommodating" and "manipulating" voter stupidity has had tragic consequences for the Party and the county as a whole.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. I agree

I mean no disrespect to people who have come over to the light in the past few years - the people that voted for Bush not once, but twice. However, I don't trust their judgment. They ignorantly voted against their own interests to get their Jesus Freak and look at what those stupid asses have done.

I don't doubt we had Grand Theft Election 2000 and Grand Theft Election 2004. However, it would have been extremely difficult to do if Gore or Kerry had received 70% of the vote. I blame the 50% of the people who voted Bush for the mess this country is in due to their own abject stupidity. And the blood of Iraq is on their hands too - it's not on mine.

[Stanchetalarooni]

6. "Some accuse Sarah Palin of having a false confidence that far exceeds her abilities and knowledge."

This quality stands out like a sore thumb. Like a cheesy salesman.
I've interviewed people seeking employment who act like that. Brown-nosed kiss asses. Think they are made of teflon.

[Batgirl]

7. Desperate, wishful thinking that the US can somehow regain its world standing

by pushing down with even greater force on the toilet handle. Polls show more than 80% of Americans are not happy with the direction the country is going, but it appears that a lot of that 80% hasn't faced the obvious reality of just why it feels like we're circling the drain. They seem to lack the ability for self-criticism -- if we're in pain t has to be somebody else's fault. These are the people who are still angry that France didn't support our invasion of Iraq. Not only have they never acknowledged that everything that happened after the invasion proved that those were were opposed to it had been right, they can actually still work up outrage at the "terrorist sympathizers."

Their kneejerk reaction to being smacked on the head with a Karmic 2x4 is to become even more self-righteously defensive, ever the eternal victims of everyone else's stupidity if not outright evil.

And why should they worry their beautiful minds with any sort of troubling self-awareness. After all, the corporate mainstream media has been notoriously unwilling to ever issue any mea culpas for their own war boosterism. There's never been anything like a widespread acknowledgement that we fucked up. We, as a country, fucked up. Of course we know better than to ever think the poeple who were most responsible, the Bush GOP, would ever admit it. How depressing though to see just how widespread the culture of denial could be.

I remember learning that after WWII, German citizens were forced to confront the atrocities that had happened, by being taken into the camps, by having to look at piles of the dead, by having to help bury the victims of the regime they had supported. I can really see from what's happened here, where the public has been shielded from having to know what was done in our name, what an excellent idea that was. Unless you're proactive and take it upon yourself by digging, you never need know. The average citizen in this country doesn't have many reminders there is still even a war going on,much less any of the really bothersome particulars.

It's been quite easy for a frighteningly large segment of the citizenry to continue to maintain this absolutely, obviously insane notion that we need more of the same in order to fix our problems. Even more extreme religious Bible-thumpery in government. More proud chip-on-shoulder bragging about one's fucking ignorance. More circling the wagons provincialism. More greed, more corporate welfare, more authoritarianism in controlling women's bodies, more hypocritical moralizing. More just-plain-meanness beneath a transparent facade of folksiness. Yeah, that's the ticket. More venom as anti-venom.

America has a huge streak of everything-we-do-must-be-good-because-we-did-it. It doesn't take any kind of genius, such as is frequently ascribed to Rove & Co., to understand this and exploit it, just a gut-wrenching level of soulessness.

[kentuck]

8. Excellent Batgirl !

You should post this as an independent thread.

[Batgirl]

12. thanks, this thread is a fine start for such a conversation

I don't start many threads because I often can't stick around to participate and I end up doing a hit & run

[bbgrunt]

14. very well said, batgirl.

[sudopod]

9. Not necessarily stupid

just mislead.

To err is human.

[The Magistrate]

10. We Will Find Out, Sir

Whether there is a breaking point to the old axion "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"....

[Shine]

11. Even if it's true, which it is, calling them "stupid" serves no purpose

other than to feed the ongoing polarization of "Us" and "Them".

Like you said yourself, it becomes hyper-partisanship.

The name-calling won't work and only solidifies their support.

We need to work to find Common Ground and keep trying to educate them.

I know, I know.....easier said, than done, sometimes. :eyes:

However, I stand behind my point: Calling them "Stupid" does not serve our cause.

[kentuck]

13. Nobody ever considers themselves to be stupid...

It's always the other fellow behind the tree. So, I don't know that I would buy the theory that they would all accept that someone was calling them stupid. If it had a ring of truth, more than likely, they would agree with you that those "other" folks are stupid -- but not them personally. Just those other folks.

[ibegurpard]

16. True

But saying "Republicans must think you're stupid" might just do it.

[OneGrassRoot]

15. Perhaps the same media which contributed to the dumbing down...

of America is sufficiently scared of the possibility of a McCain-Palin administration that they'll start doing their jobs.

That includes exposing the lies from right-wing hate radio and TV.

Exposing lies all around. Just the facts. Let's get back to that; that's a start in reclaiming a free press.

[GeorgeGist]

17. Sarah makes wisdom seem easy ...

because she worked so hard to become ignorant.