It bothers me that 57 Million Americans voted McCain Palin

[SmileyRose]

In other circumstances I can understand why some people might lean toward a Republican - the Goldwater kind. I would likely not agree with the choice but I could understand it.

57 Million votes for the same old shit, kicked up a notch, disturbs me. 57 Million Americans apparently think we have not bombed enough countries, made enough rich people richer, fear black people, or some such horrible thing.

Between the realization that my own generation helped participate in the Palin hatefests and the realization 57 Million Americans are selfish, stupid, racists or some such, this election has certainly been a eye opener for me personally.

We have a lot of work to do.

[stray cat]

1. These are people we need to work with to some extent at least to bring change

The ones I know are actually smart people and generally tolerant who were concerned with Obama's lack of experience and afraid he would be an empty suit who could be manipulated or disagreed with basic policy principles. Also, in many circles dems are considered wimps who are incapable of standing up to international problems. We can work with at least 25% of the McCain/Palin voters and we must.

[Warpy]

2. Many of them are simply frightened of change, any change

They cling to the familiarity of right wing pundits and right wing propaganda.

Our job is to push them aside and change things for the better, whether or not they like it.

They are what the founding fathers meant when they warned us to be vigilant.

[Lancer]

7. I hesitate to suggest pushing 57 million voters aside;

Obama has told them he will be their president, too. And he can't accomplish his ambitious agenda without the help of some of them. Some will never acknowledge Obama as their president, but some may come to see that his policies and programs are beneficial to them as well.

Although I am enough of an old yeller dawg to wonder why in this year -- of all years -- anyone could vote Republican, I have to believe that their votes weren't all driven by fear; the "God, guns and gays" sect isn't 57 million strong. Some are just old-fashioned Republicans, the fiscal conservatives and social moderates for whom voting for John McCain was a no-brainer. He was the safe choice. They may have had their misgivings about Palin, but they must have been confident in McCain's ability to reel her in.

[Warpy]

10. When 57 million people out of 300 million are that addlepated,

you have to shove them aside in order to get anything done. They're not going to approve of any change, whatsoever.

That doesn't mean you never listen to their concerns. It just means you have to reassure them that change isn't going to hurt them. Much.

[DireStrike]

13. That still means there are tens of millions of those conservatives

People who lose out on conservative policies but still feel they benefit the economy as a whole. In spite of everything that's happened in the past 30 years or so. Hell, the last 100 years.

How? What is wrong with these people?

[galileoreloaded]

12. I suppose they would say the same about you. Only question left is

when and where.

If we don't want a culture war, don't start culture wars.

As a moderate thinker, I think it's fair to say that your opinion, met with an equal but opposite opinion, is where the shit gets really nasty.

Don't overestimate 200 years of relative civility, following 100,000 years of Barbarism and natural order. Dedicated people, especially driven by control mechanisms, religious, political or resource based, revert to their instinct in the blink of an eye. Your and my relatively short lives on this planet is not the totality of the human experience. In fact, it is the exception.

You can hate them all you want, and marginalize them all you want, but as we have experienced the same thing for eight years, you must recognize the powerful impact of motivation and commitment, especially in the face of perceived or real marginalization.

Would you agree?

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. What was about life in 2000 that most of these same voters

wanted to change? Too much peace? Too much prosperity? Too much freedom?

These idiots voted for "Change" when we were enjoying the best years for the United States and our children and grandchildren will still be paying the price for their mistake.

[mrcheerful]

3. Those 57 million who voted for McCain don't want change, they want to believe that everythings the

Same as it was in 2000 when they elected the town drunk. They believe it was the democrats that deregulated the banks to get poor loans for houses they couldn't afford. Just because it has been shown since that it wasn't the loans that were the problem but the banks trading the loans as securities, that caused the problem. But even as we speak these 57 million are blaming Obama for Wall street, some how it's Obama's fault that their stock market went down after the election, hello those stocks have been on a roller coster ride for at least a year.

Here in Michigan some of these 57 million are blaming the governer because the big 3 are down sizing. Funny how GM is whinning and begging for government hand outs yet at the same time they are opening a new factory in Russia. WTF, if GM is broke and trying to get a welfare check, why are they building in Russia and where did the money come from to build? Questions like this never enter their pointy heads. Conservatives are either dumber then a rock or else they have their heads shoved so far up their ass they are on a perment methane high, or both.

[judy]

4. Don't forget that the election might still have been stolen

If it wasn't for the Obama landslide!
Maybe they tried all they could to manipulate the vote for McCain/Palin, but since they could only do it by a small margin (as the polls all indicated an Obama victory) it was a difficult job, and they could not calculate it beyond a certain point.
Also, voter disenfrachisement, vote switching, etc. certainly happened during this election as well.

[MrScorpio]

5. Barry Goldwater would have no place in today's Republican Party

Pro choice, anti-dominionist, pro-environment, pro-rule of law, pro-Constitution.

The fact that 57 million people voted to corrupt the country would cause Goldwater to spin in his grave.

[Athens30603]

11. Good Point

A lot of people thought similar things about McCain, too, when he was running for the nomination back in 1999. Even Bill Maher said McCain sounded like a reasonable person who broke from the Republican ghetto. McCain in 2008, though, had turned into Bush III.

[MrScorpio]

15. Did I mention that Goldwater was also pro-gay rights?

Shit like support for Prop 8 would make Barry Goldwater cry

[Athens30603]

16. Conservatives still like to prop up

the ghost of Goldwater when they speak of their "rich" history but, sadly, they've probably never even read his book "Conscience of A Conservative." There's actually quite a few classic, well-reasoned conservative texts out there that I would bet good money 99.9 % of McCain and Bush voters have NEVER even heard of, much less actually read.

You're correct: Goldwater would want nothing to do with them.

I dunno, I mean, I like going back to primary texts of all political stripes to learn the roots of movements, attitudes, ideas, etc. If conservatives were to do this they'd probably be a much different type of voter (which might be bad for us, but still...). Or maybe what constitutes "conservative" ahs changed. I dunno.

But, seriously, why do people buy books buy Hannity, Coulter, etc by the millions but hardly any of them have ever heard of, say, Mandeville?

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. We actually need them to do what they do.

See, it's the bell curve.
You know, that old "above" and "below" average curve.

49% percent of the people are below average.
Not many of them are on DU.

For US to be where we are, THEY have to be where they are.


Kinda lightens your heart about those who don't vote the way we do, doesn't it?
Just a little?

One of the few times I am ok with making comparisons.

[AlCzervik]

8. that's 5 million less idiots than in 2004, baby steps, baby steps.

[Athens30603]

17. True, true. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Yep:

http://z.about.com.nyud.net:8080/d/politicalhumor/1/0/X/_/bush_dailymirror_dumb_people.jpg

[Motown_Johnny]

9. it bothers me that 57 Americans voted McCain Palin

[ileus]

18. WE should use GW detention camps for those voters...n/t

[Zorra]

19. De-monopolizing the media, and reinstating the Fairness Doctrine would help

some.

[End Of The Road]

20. YOU need to listen to some conservative talk radio

Democrats have been completely demonized. Spend some time with Limbaugh and Boortz, and you'll be positively relieved that ONLY 57 million Americans voted McCain Palin.

[KayLaw]

21. Yes.

I say that all the time and it's true. Think of the CA woman who had an effigy hanging from her apartment balcony. She said something I've heard many times: Obama is bad because he refuses to wear a flag pin or touch a bible. Both false as we all know, but it's coming from somewhere.

[Deja Q]

22. Party unity -- there were technically far superior candidates.

Given all the hype about executive orders, "Election 200_ is going to be canceled, eeeeeeeeeek!" and so on, I'm surprised the tinfoil hats haven't come back into vogue about "They let Obama win because they have something big planned."

:silly:

[LiberalPersona]

24. Until the media is

wrested from control of rich conservatives so they can no longer paint lies and push subliminal messages against left wing politics people will continue to vote against their best interests.