A serious flaw in evolution

[Wetzelbill]

I am not sure I believe in the so-called merits of natural selection. It's supposed to improve a species over time as they better adapt and adjust to their environment.

So why did the Republican Party devolve over the course of 150 years from the party of Abraham Lincoln to the party of Sarah Palin and Joe The Plumber?

Think about that for a second.

Or don't. :)

[Heidi]

1. In evolutionary terms, 150 years is overnight.

Evolution doesn't happen overnight, unfortunately.

Mornin', Bill. :pals:

[Wetzelbill]

4. so the GOP

might have hope then, huh? :)

Good morning!

[Heidi]

9. As long as there's something in it to feed their lust for money and moral indignation,

they'll be around, I predict. :(

[WeDidIt]

2. Ahhh, but you're not playing it out fully

Mutations, both malignant and benign, occur. Those that better suit the environment in which the organism finds itself survive. Those that are detrimental in the environment die out.

Look at the environment these organisms must face.

Plus, the GOP is dying out.

[City of Mills]

3. Inbreeding produces flawed individuals

:)

[ThomWV]

5. Its is not that the Neocons are a new species emerging, they are an old one dieing out.

Evolution works, you may notice that young Republicans aren't breeding like they used to - there are less and less of them every day (a natural result of calling 50-year-olds "young" Republicans). So its not that the Republicans you see today are a new species that has evolved and is rising, in truth they are simply the remnants of an old and dieing breed.

[nuxvomica]

6. As Mort Sahl once said:

"There were four million people in the American Colonies and we had Jefferson and Franklin. Now we have over 200 million and the two top guys are Clinton and Dole. What can you draw from this? Darwin was wrong!"

Actually, he said it more than once and changed the names depending on who the current political baffoons were, but it raises an important and distressing point about American history.

[ThomWV]

21. And what is that important and distressing point if you don't mind me asking?

I fail to see any point in that comment at all to tell you the truth.

[nuxvomica]

22. That we seem to have less capable people running things...

...than we did with a smaller talent pool.

[Botany]

7. Biology 101 answer

inbreeding

[lunatica]

8. If politicians are the highest evolved form of humanity

We're doomed...

[shadowknows69]

20. I've always thought of them as the lowest common denominator.

[nebenaube]

10. natural selection

does produce evolutionary dead-ends and they die off.

[Kid Dynamite]

11. In other news

General Discussion is "evolving" into the Lounge

[Wetzelbill]

12. well how would you know that if you've only been here two days?

[Kid Dynamite]

23. I didn't say gradualism was involved

[Wetzelbill]

25. ahhh

now that makes sense.

[Quantess]

29. Past life memories, perhaps?

:evilgrin:

[Kid Dynamite]

31. Not at all

It is my opinion that the main forum is not a makeshift place for lame comedy tryouts. You may have noticed that things are pretty bad offline?

[Quantess]

37. I was just teasing. Welcome to DU!

If you see a thread that looks especially trivial, you can always click on "alert" on the bottom left margin of the OP, and let the mods decide whether it belongs in the Lounge. I do this a lot.

[Kid Dynamite]

38. Thanks for the welcome ;)

[gmoney]

13. Evolution doesn't mean "better" just "more able to continue the species"

Watch the first part of "Idiocracy" for clarification.

And also part of evolution is mutations that prove to NOT be advantageous, which tend to not continue forward. Consider Palin and Joe the Plumber to be specemins of mutations that will, hopefully, be the end of the line.

[dysfunctional press]

14. the parties kind of flip-flopped over civil rights.

a lot of the then dems became r's over it.

[kristopher]

15. Isn't that from Maddow's show last nite?

[Wetzelbill]

26. I think David Shuster said something similar

on Countdown. I put a slightly different spin on it.

[Myrina]

16. because evolution has been co-opted by technology/marketing

... people no longer have to read and think critically and interact with each other in order to make their decisions; "manufactured consent" as derived by the media and marketing entities pretty much eliminates most of the choices for us and presents us with a few false options - all of which benefit them instead of us, so actually the stupid and the lazy (the sheeple) are the ones flourishing, while the real critical thinkers are marginalized and isolated.

It's almost Reverse Darwinism.


:shrug: Just my opinion ...

[dembotoz]

17. as long as we have an upper class, we will have republicans

as long a people feel they are better than others they will support people and policies that support that.
The magic that is republican is the way that large numbers of the underclass will support the policies of their overlords.
"because when they whip me, I deserves it..."

[el_bryanto]

18. They evolved to meet conditions

THe party wanted to grow; once LBJ passed civil rights, the Republican Party saw a huge voting block were open to them. And so they moved to gobble up those southerners. Evolution in action.

Evolution isn't about trying to be good or nice; it's about trying to survive.

Bryant

[Javaman]

19. Because evolution changes to meet the challenges of nature

while politics change to meet the direction of the wind.

[Wetzelbill]

27. Despite my OP not being serious

You have come up with an actual plausible explanation. I think you're right.

[slackmaster]

24. The scary thing is, the GOP has successfully reinvented itself many times

History suggests that it will do so again.

[joeybee12]

28. I've always said George W Bush disproves evolution...

...when I see those wonderful, intelligent apes compared to Dubya, i think no way is he an evolved creature from them.

[NC_Nurse]

30. Ever see Idiocracy? It's almost scary.

[spanone]

32. it was once a comedy, it's becoming a documentary.

[csziggy]

33. Evolution does not just lead "onward and upward" sometimes species devolve

Or develop in ways that lead to extremes. Look at bower birds - you think all that flash and ceremony are really advancements when they make it more difficult to breed and more vulnerable to predators?

Or look at the megafauna and other extremes produced by evolution - they might thrive for a while but then some trigger will push them over the edge to extinction since they are in a dead end of evolution.

I think that is where the GOP is headed - a dead end.

[Fumesucker]

35. The great majority of species eventually go extinct..

Some do so more rapidly than others.

And besides, politics is not an evolutionary process, it's more about memes than genes, memetics is similar but not identical to genetics.

The freeper meme is similar to the ebola virus in some ways, it will kill its host very rapidly and limit its own spread. The US has about five percent of the population of the world and yet contains most of the freepers so the number of freepers in the world population is actually quite small in terms of percentages.

[lpbk2713]

34. My mistake.

I was almost certain this thread was going to be about Coultergeist.






:eyes:

[Uncle Joe]

36. Even during the 19th century, the Republican Party wasn't totally the Party of Lincoln.

They had a strong corporate supremacist bent even then, after the Civil War; the golden age of monopolies, robber barrons and trusts began. Grant had one of the most corrupt administrations in history.

There were evil elements within the Republican Party then as there are now, willing to screw the average American over for the almighty dollar, they just happened to be on the right side of history regarding the critical issue of slavery.