I can support women who want to have abortions--even though I have never had one

[Horse with no Name]

I can support sick people with their illness even though I have never had their illness.
I can support poor people who are hungry even though I have never been hungry.
I can support the homeless even though I have never been homeless.

Why is it such a stretch to believe that any of our candidates cannot do the same?

[Az]

1. Huzzawha?

Is this a reaction to something specific? I think most people assume others are capable of empathizing with even things they have never directly experienced.

[Madspirit]

2. ...AND!

I can support a Horse With No Name even though I've always had a name and I'm not a horse...

First k&r comes from A very Madspirit.
Lee

[Horse with no Name]

3. ....

:hug:

[Midlodemocrat]

4. Well, I cannot support republicans even though I have never been one.

:P

:bounce:

:hi:

[Horse with no Name]

6. I wouldn't dream of asking the impossible

;)

[mrcheerful]

10. Ah but unlike republicans I bet you have supported people without knowing

their political party or belief system. Odd thing about godless liberals, they offer help without a thought to anything except a fellow human being needed support. Where republicans tend to question in detail everything about a person before turning them down on an offer of support.

[Madspirit]

14. Midlo's a Smarty Pants.. : > ..n/t

[mrcheerful]

16. Well we are even then, I'm a smart ass, ask my dad lol.

[Midlodemocrat]

19. I don't believe I have run into you on the boards before, but

your user name? That's what we call my son. He is the embodiment of cheerful. :rofl:

[mrcheerful]

21. I got the name from a 81 yo lifer that I knew, he was serving life without parole and

AI got him released to an old folks home but unfortunatly a week before he was to be released he passed away and was laid to rest in a prison grave yard with his prison number on it. Sad that even in death the state still punishs and dehumimanizes prisoners. He found it amazing that every time he saw me I had a smile on my face and a kind word for everyone I came into contact with, so he started calling me Mr. Cheerful. I was doing AA work in the state prisons.

[mrcheerful]

5. Because the ones who can't support others are under the false belief

that people caused all of their own problems and are incapable of being anything other then shiftless lazy criminals who want everything done for them. Trust me, I have had some of these good Christian types who came up to me and said that my handi caps were either caused by some sin I committed or a sin my parents committed.

[Horse with no Name]

8. Those people don't know how to love

Only to hate.
I'm sorry you have experienced that.

[EFerrari]

9. Sounds like your family rocks.

:)

[mrcheerful]

15. How did you know that it was relatives behind that? One of them was a GM worker pulling $40 an hour

skill trade wages and he couldn't understand how anyone wouldn't work, even though every job the person had he was fired from for falling and injuring himself. He also couldn't believe that said person was living off less money per month then he made in a 3 day work week.

[EFerrari]

20. My family is split right down the middle.

Holidays are really exciting. :)

[EFerrari]

7. Consultants. Who themselves are so out of touch with the real

lives of real people that their services are worthless.

Imho, to be a political consultant, you should be required by law to live in a marginal neighborhood and work a minimum wage job for 90 days.

[fasttense]

11. No, if you support women who want abortions, you must have an abortion first.

Oh, it wasn't a question.:sarcasm: But really what kind of logic is that? You have to have an abortion to support women who want abortions? What idiot thinks that?

[ThomCat]

22. The people who think Edwards can't fight poverty

because he's rich? :shrug:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. Took me a minute, but I got it.

One doesn't have to have lived an event to understand it. Just because someone isn't living a parallel life to your own doesn't mean they can't empathize with who you are.

If that's where you were going with this I agree with you 100%.

[Horse with no Name]

13. ...

:)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

18. I'm slow today

Trying to cram two days of paperwork into one day has my brain going into spasms. Your writing was clear, it was my brain that was on a different track.

:)

[Az]

17. That is the model of human behavior

We learn by internalizing other's conditions and actions. We can imagine ourselves in others people's places because we are wired for it. Read up on Mirror Neurons. Interesting stuff.

[Madspirit]

23. Truthfully

What's it called when you apply psychology to an era in politics/culture? Sociology? Anthropology?

I think, as a nation, we are developing symptoms of sociopathology/psychopathology. HWNN is actually asking for something that should be common in humans. It's just Empathy. "There but by the grace of..." and all. We are turning in to a nation that does not have that.

My shrink, who is a way leftist leftist and has been in politics, can actually, for a brief moment, look at Republicans and other conservatives, from a more analytical view than I can. I just get pissed. Anyway, we were talking about all the issues that tend to bring out the Far Right Wing in people...guns, immigrants, gays, death penalty, abortion, etc. and she said if you actually sat down and talked to a RWer, calmly...something that is beyond me...their beliefs are much more rooted in Gut Fear than in actual ideology. The ideology is just a wrapping paper to cover their fear.

The problem is, their fear is powerful and they are supporting and actually creating a nation of Sociopaths Lite.

Rich conservatives are a different matter. They are scared of loosing their wealth and they don't want to share and unfortunately they use the fear of the working class conservative, middle class conservative and poor conservative to further their shameful, selfish and dangerous agenda.
Lee

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

24. Not A Stretch By Any Means. In Fact, A Premise Of Otherwise Would Be Quite Silly And Foolish.

Of course our candidates can do the same. :)