Noam Chomsky says most Americans dont care about stolen elections!

[3121guitarist]

In a talk that he gave, Noam Chomsky said that the reason most Americans don't respond to the left's crazed response to the Republicans stealing elections is because they dont care that much. His reason was that about 75 percent of Americans feel so marginalized by the candidates and that they don't stand for much, that the two elite parties stealing each others elections doesnt mean much. They also believe, that both parties do it. I think the stolen election is important, but Chomsky may have a point.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

1. I don't get it.

I don't get how people can just not care.

Oh well, maybe they'll start to care someday if they're detained in a Halliburton detention center with the rest of us. It'll be too late by then, all because they didn't care.

[maveric]

8. They dont care aslong as their creature comforts are safe.

As long as they have their cell phones, i-Pods, shopping malls, SUV's and Dancing With the Stars, they will not give a shit about election fraud.
Take away these material and creature comforts and then they might start to care about that.

[elocs]

24. Which is why there will be no revolution or people taking to the streets. n/t

[OneBlueSky]

10. many people "just don't care" because they see . . .

the Democrats pretty much voting straight-line support of the BushCo agenda, from the war to the Patriot Act to the bankruptcy "reform" . . . and on, and on, and on . . .

to a lot of people, nuance and "shades of gray" don't mean a whole lot . . . they look at Congress and see essentially one party with two divisions -- and much of the time, they're right . . .

[krkaufman]

13. Well, if that's what they see, then they are myopic, incurious dumbasses.

The Democratic Party has been the only active resistance to the Republican Occupational Government for the last 5 1/2 years. The media and the American people have largely looked the other way, out of fear, apathy or who knows what. But it has been members of the Democratic Party who have tried to resist the rightward shift of this country.

The Democratic Party's record may not have been perfect, but at least a majority of them are resisting.

[rumpel]

2. that seems to be a problem

voter apathy -

they say, if you know 5 people - you know everyone on the globe - in other words - spread the word.

:)

[Ezlivin]

3. Nation on Auto-Pilot

Or cruise-control. You pick the suitable metaphor.

Think of all the changes in the law since 9/11. Yet are any of us truly affected? If you are politically informed you are well aware of what these laws seek to accomplish or have accomplished. But the man in the street doesn't "feel" the changes, so why should he act?

If the water is heated slowly enough, the frog never jumps from the pot.

[elocs]

25. You are right

Since 9/11 really nothing in my life has changed at all. It is probably that way for most Americans.

[helderheid]

4. 66% think the 2006 elections will be stolen

:wtf:

[3121guitarist]

6. Half of Americans don't vote.

That tells you plenty.

[helderheid]

17. true that. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[elocs]

26. Which also means half of Americans DO vote. The glass is also half full. n/t

[lisa58]

5. I don't think that's true...

...it's been my experience that the people who think the elections have been stolen really care, and the people who don't care don't believe the elections were stolen. I've never encountered anyone in the last six years that thinks the elections have been stolen but don't care (unless of course, they liked the outcome).

[no_hypocrisy]

7. They'd feel otherwise if it were alleged that DEMOCRATS

stole an election from innocent republians, thwarting the "will of the People".

[Mme. Defarge]

9. Based on my experience

in the workplace, most people are simply a-political. Politics simply is not a part of their world. There are too many other competing interests, and more immediate demands. It isn't that interesting to them.

In the case of people closer to my own advanced age ("Boomers")-- including educated, professional people -- the idea that the democracy we have taken for granted for so long could be at risk is simply inconcievable.

Many are so preoccupied with making endless mundane choices that any capacity for curiosity about the world has atrophied. And the notion of principles is way too abstract.

[MrSlayer]

11. Considering half the people eligible don't even vote.

I'd have to say he's right.

[Generator]

12. The more I hear from Chomsky the less I can stand him

He lives in some rarified air.

I don't think he's the "hero" that everyone on the "left" does. OF course people feel marginalized, you fucking would too if your votes for the last two damn elections for president didn't count! He thinks 9/11 truth movement is hooey, and he basically reminds me of some old man that has nothing to do with his time but pontificate about those people down there.


Fuck he he pisses me the hell off! Did he acutally say the "Left's crazed response?" That's worthy of Fox News.

[krkaufman]

14. Sounds like Nader in 2000. The unreality of the idealist.

The Democratic Party isn't perfect, but it the only effective organization for institutional resistance that we have. It is our responsibility to elect leaders who better represent American values, and to change the electoral process to enable greater participate and more effective representation.

[annabanana]

15. Most people are just finding out about it. . .

The whole business of balky machines is only now getting coverage in "MSM". People don't respond to the banging of pots on the left because we've been marginalized as "sore loser loony lefties" for all these years.

[blm]

16. So Chomsky will tell women's clinics, min. wage earners there's no difference?

Does Chomsky want to tell that to the thousand more dead since Jan 2005?

Does Chomsky believe 9-11 would have happened under Gore's watch?

Does Chomsky believe Bush wants the books opened on BCCI and IranContra as much as Kerry does?

[Geek_Girl]

18. I only maybe know 5 or 6 people

that think the elections were stolen. Everyone else just thinks the left is crazy or sore losers.

[sendero]

19. He's right.....

..... folks it's time to face reality. The country is fed up with Republicans but they don't think much of Democrats either.

You can thank the corporatist/DLC/"centrist" crowd for that. You can thank a party that's actually done little to stem the Bush agenda. As far as large numbers of Americans are concerned, it doesn't matter which party is in power, they all suck.

I know this is not a message anyone here wants to hear, but I hear it from friends and family all the time. It doesn't matter how "true" it is, perception is reality and THE FUCKING DEMS WE HAVE ARE TOO GODDAMNED AFRAID OF LOSING THEIR CUSHY JOBS TO DO ANYTHING REAL FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Ok, that's what I think and believe me, I'm not even CLOSE to being alone.

[BeFree]

20. There is your problem

"...that's what I think..."

Who built social security?

Who is for the minimum wage?

Who is for taxing the rich?

For equality among the sexes, races?

Clue: it ain't publicans.

You need to change what you think.

[sendero]

21. Dude....

.... in politics it's all about "what have you done for me lately".

Resting on the laurels of decades ago won't cut it.

[sendero]

22. Note the careful..

... choice of words. "Americans" not "voters". The reason Americans don't vote is the same reason Chomsky cites about stolen elections. Most don't think it makes any difference. (I don't agree with them but I DO believe it ought to make twice the difference it does now)

[Kansas Wyatt]

23. Anyone wanting to know why that is?

If the Democratic Party took both the House and Senate, and even the White House in 08, would the wheels of justice turn and all those involved with it and other criminal wrongdoings by held accountable for everything?

NO, it would be swept under the rug and forgotten about. Democrats would be complicit after the fact, for refusing to make it right and looking for their due. After all, the same criminals we see today, we have seen before, doing the same dirty deeds.