What is it with Republicans, Teabaggers, & Conservatives and their love for world class idiots?

[mtnsnake]

Of course George W Bush and Sarah Palin come to mind immediately. That goes without saying.

It seems to me that in order to be the most attractive candidate to Republican voters, the number one requirement is that you have to be incredibly dumb. Being corrupt and acting like a spoiled brat certainly helps, too. The dumber you are, though, the more popular you are with Republican voters. Why is this?

Is it because Republican voters want to feel right at home and on an equal playing field with the idiots they vote for? Can they only relate to people who they feel are just as dumb as they are?

On the other side of the spectrum, does this sentiment coincide with why they hate Obama and a couple of our other recent presidents so much....because our guys are so intelligent?

Seriously, if this is not it, then WTF is it with Republican voters being so attracted to such imbeciles as Palin and Bush??

[Iris]

1. This video is 15 minutes long, but it tries to answere a similar question

in terms of FOX News:

http://pressthink.org/2010/11/resentment-news-and-more-blondes-per-square-foot-explaining-what-fox-news-channel-is/

[Blue Owl]

2. It's the fake tidal wave of blithering idiocy and hypocrisy

Thanks M$M.

[grasswire]

3. big tent?

big enough for freaks? It is kinda like an old time sideshow. Someone ought to do a spoof through the lens of "Believe it or not" museum.

[butterfly77]

4. ...

[golfguru]

5. Ideology trumps IQ

[jenmito]

6. They want someone who they think is just like them. In 9/08, I started

a thread that addressed this issue with a suggestion for an ad:

An idea for an ad: "WAKE UP!"


Have a couple watching McCain standing next to Palin who's giving her stump speech. The woman says to her husband, "I LIKE that woman. She reminds me of myself." Then switch to the same woman getting a call from the Sec. of Def. or someone similar. She doesn't understand what's going on but the voice on the other end says, "The president is unavailable so I need YOU to tell me what to do..." She looks confused after hearing the voice go on saying something we can't quite make out. Suddenly, she sits up in bed scared, realizing she'd been dreaming. Then a voice says, "WAKE UP before HER nightmare becomes OUR reality."

Just an idea.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=7054623

[Enthusiast]

12. Wow, quite an idea! nt

[jenmito]

22. Thanks! It could still be used if Palin runs for president in '12,

just omitting the line about the president not being available since the woman would be the president in the dream.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. IMHO they have (or at least promote)

a simpler and MUCH less complex (less frightening?) view of reality and one that is much easier and more comfortable for some people to digest and understand. Plus, they tend to validate their own narrower worldview and don't challenge it. Now, it is, of course, true that what people like Bush and, particularly, Palin, are promoting has about as much basis in reality as Vampires, Werewolves, Unicorns, and Zombies (o.k., well, maybe not Zombies ;-)) but it's still feels/sounds "good" to their supporters, so they stay locked in it.
I think that nearly everybody has felt overwhelmed by the actual complexity of "reality" at some point in time and I can admit that occasionally it's tempting for people like myself to want to withdraw into a more fantasy-like reality (like in the movies) where problems have simple straightforward answers and life in general is simpler and easier to understand. However, most of us are rational enough to realize and accept the fact that the reality that we have to inhabit on a daily basis is black, white, grey, fair, unfair, just, unjust, etc. We, of course, don't necessarily reject the possibility of social change but realize that it must occur within the context of the present reality.
People (i.e. your typical teabagger) clinging to the fantasies and BS being spouted by people like Bush, Palin, and (insert any Fox News commentator or hate radio host) do not seem to realize and accept reality, at least not as most people observe it, and are engaged in an effort to reorder and re-structure reality to more or less accommodate their own view of it.

Does that make any sense? :shrug: I'm feeling way too philosophical tonight.

[Enthusiast]

13. It makes perfect sense. nt

[JI7]

8. where have you been ?

[Cosmocat]

9. A black hole that exponentially sucks every ounce of responsibility ...

out of the party, and sadly over time the country ...

A lot of factors involved, but the 90s saw the opening of the Rush Limbaugh era of right wing AM radio coupled with the freakshow that was the "class of 94" ... With the MSM increasingly being coopted by the republican party, and now at the point where it makes not effort to even pose as an unbiased relayer of news, but instead a sounding board for every last bit of nonsense the republican party throws out, we are in a perverse state where reality has no bearing whatsoever in the face of whatever nonsense the right wing spews ...

They know there is no check involved, and they play the same cards over and over ...

1) Anything the Rs stand for is what the founding fathers intended
2) Conversely, whatever the Ds stand for is based in foaming at the mouth communism and socialism
3) Rs love the country more than anything else
4) Ds hate the country
5) The very foundation of the country is the "free market." Any attempt to properly manage it is an afront on the founding of our country
6) Rs are ALWAYS victims - be it an attack on christmas, be it trying to take guns

With a compliant MSM, they know they can say whatever they want and never be held accountable for it, and even better, they get to play the indignation and victim card ... It is bad and only going to get worse, and frankly, it has spilled over to our society at large ...

The modern "conservative" movement is responsible for a lot of bad in this country, but this is perhaps the most damaging to our soul as a people ... There is absolutely NO responsiblity - a complete rejection of intellectual honesty and honor coupled with a mentality that there ALWAYS is some sort of boogeyman to blame for not getting your way ...

[Enthusiast]

14. One of the best posts ever!

This is a near perfect explanation of our situation. Their behavior is really doing long lasting harm to the nation, contrary to their 'Rs love the country more than anything else'. We might never recover from these abuses.

[BeyondGeography]

10. The fact that it pisses us off is about 80 percent of the attraction

Maybe more.

[rasputin1952]

11. There have been a remarkable # or GOP presidents that have been...

a tad low on the IQ scale, and the few that were intelligent, (like Nixon), were incredibly corrupt.

Reagan really gave a serious push to the dumbing down of the presidency; not all that bright, he could at least read the scripts handed to him. bushI, I wonder how he made it through college, bushII...one could have a better conversation w/sphagnum moss. McCain, although not president, (thank God), gave me headaches when he'd do his "speechifying".

One can also take into account the amazing show of cowardice when it came to service as well. bush, cheney, Rove, and a host of other neo-cons were all for tossing people into conflict, as long as they didn't have to do any sacrificing themselves...in fact, far from sacrifice, they profited from the wars they sent others to fight!

Eisenhower was no genius, but he had a great knack for delegating authority to those who could get the job done. Harding and Coolidge, didn't crack the mean at 100, and Hoover, although considered a remarkable failure, was actually pretty bright, but he got beaten into the ground for what Harding and Coolidge set up that brought about the Great Depression. Hoover was excellent at logistics and was a humanitarian pioneer by GOP standards in the latter part of his life.

When I see people at the local grocery in the veggie aisle, I always wonder if they are deciding which rutabaga they are choosing as the next GOP candidate...:D

[Enthusiast]

15. Nice nt

[Enthusiast]

16. I find it hard to believe

recommendations for this thread were completely overwhelmed by un recommendations. But, apparently it happened. There must be many Republicans posing as Democrats registered on the DU. This is a great thread with several excellent posts. Keep this on the front page!

[Generic Brad]

17. Fear

They represent people who are afraid of our changing world. Scared people vote against their interests. They embrace people who loudly voice simple solutions because critical thinking is just too damned hard for them to do.

[rasputin1952]

20. Sad part is...fear is born of ignorance...

and these people refuse to educate themselves at any level...:(

[craigmatic]

18. It stems from their denial of real history. Their ideology demands that they nominate

someone with a simplistic enough world view to embrace their simple view of history which says that America has always been the good guy.

[rasputin1952]

19. True, but's devolved from there...

now it is complete revisionism...and by people that need step-by-step verbal instruction son how to put on a pair of slippers...;)

[polichick]

21. They want to go back to a time that made sense to them...

Less complicated, less colorful (more white), a time when America was America (not a global citizen) and anyone with "common sense" could keep up with what was going on - to a time before gov't had conned them so many times they became, as Matt Taibbi says, "deranged."