Oral Sex and the Economy

[maseman]

I was mowing my grass today where I spent about an hour thinking about the 2000 Presidential election versus the current cycle for the 2008 elections.

Back when Shrubby and Gore were duking it out things were good. The economy, no war, there were no deficits, the debt was being paid down, people were working, the dollar was relatively strong, etc. The biggest problem the Dems had was the President had a BJ in the oval office. Couple that with the right-wing machine of Rove and the MSM and it was wedge-issue city.

When the country doesn't have major problems what better to unite the masses than with "social" wedge issues such as abortion, gay marriage, restoring honor to the "oral office" type chatter. Add in the typical RW rhetoric of "tax and spend Dems" and you have yourself a decent message.

Fast-forward 8 years. The economy sucks and people are starting to really feel it, the dollar is historically low, people are afraid of losing their jobs and homes, the deficit is soaring along with the debt, gas prices are ridiculous, we are mired in two endless wars, and our healthcare sucks. Let's add on the fact that the poor are poorer and the middle class are shrinking.

How can a wedge issue even make it in the 2008 election? Will people care about gay marriage when their job is in jeopardy and they haven't had a raise in three years? Do people whose sons, mothers, brothers, daughters in the war (or whom have died) care much about the "social morality" of the next President?

This is going to be a much different election I believe. People out their are really hurting. I hope the media (may be a long shot) will actually focus on real issues facing the nation versus who had better hair for the debates. Our nation cannot afford to screw this one up. If we elect another Bush we are royally done for as a superpower.

Sorry for the rant but I wanted to share my thoughts with fellow DUers.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. I Am Afraid This Election Will Focus On Trivial Things As Most Elections Do

And it's not an uniquely American phenomenon...

[PDJane]

2. sigh..........

I've been reading Naomi Wolf, End of America; Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. I'm seriously wondering if there will be a next election, or if there will be an election that accurately counts the votes ever again.

[spag68]

3. gas prices

If you think gas prices are bad now, wait until the 80$ a barrel oil works it's way into retail gas in about three months.That would be just in time for the primary's.

[AdHocSolver]

4. Not to spoil your day, but this link is to a book in PDF format that may provide insight into this..

phenomenon. The author talks about studies done of authoritarian personalities. I haven't finished reading it, but my impression is that these people possess a large amount of fear and hostility, and therefore seek out "leaders" who appear "strong" and play on those fears. Reality doesn't enter into their beliefs or actions.

Our main hope is that these authoritarians are only a minority, and at the same time, the Democratic candidate can connect to enough moderate Republicans and independents to win with a large enough margin of votes to prevent the Republicans from stealing the election.

For this reason, I prefer John Edwards to be our candidate. I went to one of his rallies and was very impressed with his ability to connect with an audience. He is a candidate that could appeal to moderate Republicans and independents.


(snip)

If, on the other hand, you’re way ahead of me, and believe the extreme right-wing elements in America are poised to take it over, permanently, I think you can still get a lot from this book. The studies explain so much about these people. Yes, the research shows they are very aggressive, but why are they so hostile? Yes, experiments show they are almost totally uninfluenced by reasoning and evidence, but why are they so dogmatic? Yes, studies show the Religious Right has more than its fair share of hypocrites, from top to bottom; but why are they two-faced, and how come one face never notices the other? Yes, their leaders can give the flimsiest of excuses and even outright lies about things they’ve done wrong, but why do the rank-and-file believe them? What happens when authoritarian followers find the authoritarian leaders they crave and start marching together?

I think you’ll find this book “explains a lot.” Many scattered impressions about the enemies of freedom and equality become solidified by science and coherently connected here.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey /

It also provides links to download the book a chapter at a time, if you have a slow connection.

[AuntPatsy]

5. Good post and I think valuable reading material for every single person in this country.

[TahitiNut]

6. You should mow your lawn ...

... and harvest your grass. :silly: :smoke:

The Democrats have the best chance in over 30 years to elect a solid, liberal, pro-labor ticket ... but they're good at blowing it.

I'd support a Edwards/Kucinich ticket, too.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Just to set the record straight

this wasn't the biggest problem.

"The biggest problem the Dems had was the President had a BJ in the oval office."

The biggest problem was looking the American People in the camera lens and telling them quite adamantly that he didn't. That opened up a whole new can of worms, because that magnified or amplified the integrity issue, something Bush was happy to run on because he didn't have any thing else. This made it easy for the corporate media to transfer the integrity question on to Al Gore as they began slandering and trashing the political leader most responsible for empowering the American People over their owners and CEOs, by his championing of the Internet while he was in Congress. So they played Zeus to his Al Gore's Prometheus with their millionaire pundits and trivia columnist puppets acting as the vulture or vultures.

The corporate media came to view the Internet as a threat against their monopoly on information, information = power, money and influence, they saw this as slowly slipping away. I believe the corporate media would love nothing more than to put some one in the White House in 08 that isn't sympathetic to the Internet making it easier for them to neutralize their competition, one way or another.

[maseman]

8. No BJ, no reason to lie.

The mistake was made that he cheated on his wife and in the Oval Office nonetheless.

[Uncle Joe]

10. I agree, however

when that happened the primary people betrayed were his family, when he told the American People with such certainty that he hadn't only to be proved to be lying, this turned it in to a betrayal against the people. This is were the political damage took off. He and Al Gore would've been better off if he had never got in front of the camera and lied to the people.

[BlooInBloo]

9. This is why Frank Rich is no more than *partly* right.

[Larry Ogg]

11. One little teeny weenie bj in the oval office turned into

the republicans breaking it off in the ass of every American for the next hundred years. We should outlaw oral sex altogether…

Noooo… no no no no Just kidding just kidding…