How did American's get so damn stupid that teabaggers actually have a chance in their races?

[HopeHoops]

I thought the shrub was bad and he made Quayle look like a genius. Just how did our country get to the point where people are so stupid that they would actually consider voting for idiot teabaggers?

[xchrom]

1. it was ever thus. nt

[emulatorloo]

5. True - Tea Bag Movement it is like the John Birch Society. But the media never acted

like the Birchers were "Mainstream", nor did they cover them 24/7 acting like their views were credible.

[Common Sense Party]

2. You may be on to something with the Farmville theory.

[arbusto_baboso]

3. Destroying the education system helps republics in this way.

An informed public won't vote "R". An ignorant one will.

[emulatorloo]

6. I wonder if that is why they are so hot to shut down the Department of Education?

[HopeHoops]

9. They depend on ignorance. Why else would FOX Noise exist?

[Burma Jones]

4. Racism

and its companion, fear

and it has indeed been ever thus.

[HopeHoops]

8. I file "racism" under "fear".

[Poboy]

7. In the absence of any challenge with conviction (wimpy Dems)

The typical dumbass American will follow the person who appears to have convictions.

[HillbillyBob]

10. When that person should be convicted instead of elected.

the stupid repeating lies at high volume, Rs gutting everything they can to send us down the to turd world status. Americans cant seem to get off the couch, yet put down the French for makin their government at least listen up while we bath in apathy and ignorance..not all of us of course, but the significantly stupid do.

[Initech]

11. How about all of the above?

[Marr]

12. The messages in our political propaganda have gone on for so long,

and at such frequency, that they've really become woven into the national character.

[edbermac]

13. You're asking this after 8 years of Bush?

[NNN0LHI]

14. Bush's +90% approval rating let the cat out of the bag

Republicans realized that more than 9 out of 10 people we see walking down the street is a potential idiot.

Don

[Zephie]

15. Other: Aliens holding the brain of Elvis hostage told them to vote for teabaggers.

There I fixed it for you.

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

16. The corporate media overall

though FAUX is the most blatant example of it, CNN is almost as bad. As is even MSNBC before 6:00 PM eastern.

[AmandaRuth]

17. combination of the media giving them way more

time than they deserve (when they could have been talking about real issues) and the mega money the corps have been pumping into the race. As other smarter DUers have pointed out, this is looking less and less like a democracy.

When you add mandatory health insurance, and a bill that no one will talk about (I, personally. am disappointed that the 80% on care is has not been talked about, nor the fact that lobbyists are trying to get salaries, advertising and bonus's included) I sure am not surprised.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. The usual ignorance, fear and racism that's always been around, but

amplified by FOX Noise. Give the John Birch Society the megaphone of FOX and you've got the teabagger movement.

[nyc 4 Biden]

19. Mass Media in General.

Lazy, Inept, Corrupt, Complicit.

[BeFree]

20. Lies

America loves the lies. The truth just isn't an option, so lies will always win.

[NightWatcher]

21. 30 years of Social Engineering, education cuts, cable news, junkfood, learned helplessness...

Plus add a dash of Fear and Loathing mixed with rampant Capitalism, hubris, religious fundamentalism....

I could pretty much just list shit I hate that has contributed to this for the couple of hours.

[KansDem]

22. The "American Legend"

It struck me over the last few years that we've been constantly lied to by the "movers and the shakers" in this country. By that I mean the Rich Fuchs of America.

Let me explain:
I came of age during the Vietnam era. We were told about how badly the Commies wanted to take over Vietnam, march down SE Asia into Australia and right down Main Street, USA. The "authorities" had us children during routine air-raid drills which always seem to involve getting under our desks or going out into the hallways and, on command, dropping on or knees and curling up with our hands over our heads. How this was supposed to save us during a nuclear attack, I don't know--but the propaganda effect was tremendous.

This was on a steady diet of John Wayne movies that show Americans as wholesome, righteous, and unbeatable--usually centering around killing "Injuns" or "Japs" who would do us harm. All the time we were being manipulated by corporations to accept the "American Legend," all the while as they ripped us off left and right (no pun intended).

Well, we were such "good" people we didn't notice, or mind much, how the MIC and industrialists, including the oil companies, were fabricating lies to keep us in failed wars while robbing us blind. After all, we were "Murikans!" Good and wholesome...

It's clear to me now that there was no good reason to be in Vietnam. However, voicing this view brought on accusations of "Commie," "Pinko," and "Love it or leave it." I laugh now when I go to major retailers and see clothes and other consumer items made in Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. These were the "god-less" bastards who wanted to "march down Main Street, USA" Now we buy their products and services on Main Street, USA.

Corporatist were geniuses in crafting a propaganda program that would have Americans believe that any opposition to their capitalist agenda was tantamount to treason. Real "freedom" and "liberty" meant embracing corporatist doctrine, even though that doctrine would eventually lead to the outsourcing of jobs, diminishing wages and job security, and eroding health care and education (Oh, yeah! Love capitalism while capitalists take your jobs and move them over to--gasp!--"commie" countries!). We were played for chumps and we are still being played for chumps.

This all came to a head during the bogus election of 2000, the bogus call for invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the bogus accusation that public-financed healthcare was "communism," and the bogus bailing-out of the Big Banks and Wall Street---

Now I ask you, didn't you hear growing up about how if you want to succeed in this country, you work hard. And you don't make foolish choices because you'll be held accountable for those choices? Sound familiar? Well, we just trashed that "philosophy" with TARP! Failed capitalists were bailed-out and even rewarded for making foolish choices (even criminal choices). The game's rigged, folks, but keep believing in that old mantra: "America's a land of opportunity for those who want to work hard."

So go back to enjoying your "freedom" as an American, courtesy of the Rich Fuchs of America.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe "Back to Bataan" is coming up on the TV...

[NoNothing]

23. Desperate != Stupid

Americans are thrashing about in a panic over the economy. That doesn't make them stupid, and frankly aspersions like this are one reason that they are lurching away from us.