What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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IkarisOne
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What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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(A possible future blog posting in the works here)

Elections are not referenda on issues- they are tribal pep rallies. Issues don't decide elections, the manipulation of Symbolism does. The Democrats either don't understand this, or my theory is correct and they are simply the phony opposition in a phony system. Liberals everywhere are outraged over this dangerous idiot from Alaska that McCain picked. But this choice shows McCain's handlers (I get the distinct impression the man doesn't really want to be president) understand the truth of anywhere from 40-60% of the electorate- they are completely and willfully uninformed. To the point that they loathe and resent anyone who is informed. They loathe people who care about the environment, the energy crisis and even personal health (morbid obesity has reached epidemic proportions in many "red states." Even some Southern state governments are beginning to wake up). The very idea of eating healthy and exercising is actually offensive to a huge swathe of WalMart America.

Republicans understand that 40 to 60% of American voters have a worldview that is differentiated from Dark Ages Europe only in its narcissism and hypocrisy (see Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter). And this isn't a "red state/blue state" thing- step outside metropolitan Boston (which admittedly is growing by leaps and bounds) and you will find rednecks just as willfully ignorant and militantly selfish as ones in the south. A better example is the huge swath between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, lovingly known as "Pennsyltucky." Republicans understand that a huge bloc of their constituents will live in a leaky trailer and subsist on Kraft Mac&Cheese forever if it means keeping their guns (even though Democrats dropped gun control a generation ago) or their "faith" (a 70s-vintage corporate concoction that would have given Calvin a coronary with its rampant egocentrism and biblical illiteracy).

I was mildly interested in Obama for a few minutes back in February because I thought he might be able to restore my country's tattered reputation overseas (I've never been under any illusions his actual policies will be much different than Bush's, which themselves were different from Clinton's only by degree). But then he picks the ultimate Washington insider's insider for VP and throws a wet blanket over his supporters enthusiasm. In fact, ever since he won the nomination he has embraced every previous Democratic loser's position or pose. Almost like he wants to lose. But then again it seems McCain wants to lose and this Palin pick might be a "Producers" scenario- a deliberate act of self-sabotage that backfired precisely because Palin is as ignorant, aggressive and hypocritical as half the country.

Admittedly, I am just bitter because I'm just a castoff Yankee liberal/moderate old-line Republican at heart who hates the modern Republican Party with every single atom in my body, and who feels the Democrats will never, ever grow a set of testicles. I also am extremely pessimistic about the future of this country. While media idiots argue about Sarah Palin, the government is desperately trying to keep the banking system afloat while carving up and selling off every single asset we have. I'm not planning on voting because I don't think it matters anymore and nothing can prove to me otherwise.

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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"I'm Spiff and I agree with this message."

When Kerry lost to Bush in 2004, I remarked on several occasions "How can we get dumb people to vote Democratic?"

The answer is, as you point out, to become better at symbolic manipulation. Don't win their votes through rational appeals supported logically, but rather hit home on the issues that are decided by the gut.
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D'you know that you can use it?

-- There's no fairytale ending with cocaine.

IkarisOne
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Here's a similar rant from another pissed-off Yankee: http://www.counterpunch.org/rhames09062008.html

eumaas
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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The Biden pick pretty much nailed the coffin of my possible voting.

Now at least I'm registered to vote and still not voting, so there's that.
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IkarisOne
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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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eumaas wrote:The Biden pick pretty much nailed the coffin of my possible voting.

Now at least I'm registered to vote and still not voting, so there's that.

Right? Business as usual. I was hoping he'd do something ballsy and pick Hegel. Or anybody but Biden. Fuck.

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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The Biden pick was an acknowledgement that this is still politics and not a crusade. Concessions have to be made, unfortunately. I'm not saying I think Biden is a fine individual blah blah blah, but I'd ask who the alternative choice should have been. (I agree with CK that Hagel would have been a ballsy pick, but he's not exactly a squeaky clean pick either.) If Obama had picked someone outside the mainstream, he'd get destroyed in the media and eventual election. The GOP would make the entire election about one question: Do you feel comfortable about turning the keys over to two outsiders when you have all these dangers around? As is, they're making that argument, but it'd be even stronger because McCain would have picked another "experienced" guy as his running mater. Furthermore, someone who knows how Washington works, as John Dean argued in his last book, Broken Government, is a practical need even if the "outsider running against Washington" narrative works better during a campaign. Clinton found that out in a hurry—his first year or so was one fuck up after another because he didn't know the pulleys and levers yet. So what you may see as cynical backtracking, I would regard as a concession to politics. McGovern ran a principled campaign and ate his nuts because of it.

As for why the GOP are better at winning elections, it's because they're better at—more comfortable with—targeting the reptilian parts of people's brains (fear, lust, aggression) whereas as Democrats have a (misplaced?) faith in people's reason and ability to discern complex issues. Every GOP campaign since Reagan has been about fearing bad people outside the US and within, amping up jingoism to punish those bad people, and to promote the idea that selfishness and greed are virtues. They've stolen the principles of populism and amped up the outrage and resentment against the phony targets (scientists, teachers, foreigners, the poor).

The other major factor that can't be understated is the effect of the canceling the equal time doctrine under Reagan. After that, overtly political opinion programming—Fox News, right wing talk radio—bloomed and didn't need to let the other side present its views. Contrary to the right's myth of the liberal media (David Brock traces this in his excellent The Republican Noise Machine, the mainstream media is largely rightist to centre-right. This allows those of a right wing bias to determine the political narrative, or at least how it should be presented, for the public. The practical effect is to drum up phony controversies and ignore real issues. How many weeks did Barack Obama have to deal with the issue of why he didn't wear an American flag pin? How come McCain doesn't get similar questions when he rarely wears a flag pin? How come the mainstream media doesn't care that McCain doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam? This tilts the game board massively in favour of the GOP. Does anyone really think that Obama could have gotten away with a VP pick like Palin—that is, her limited experience plus an pregnant teenage daughter? It constrains the Democrats considerably but opens the field up more for Republicans.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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I still wouldn't bet the farm against Obama- his handlers have a nasty habit of pulling some last minute surprises on his opponents. Just ask Jack Ryan.

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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IkarisOne wrote:I still wouldn't bet the farm against Obama- his handlers have a nasty habit of pulling some last minute surprises on his opponents. Just ask Jack Ryan.
Ryan made it easy. A colossal dolt. I still expect Obama to win around 300 EC votes when the smoke clears unless something very unusual happens (voter roll chicanery, October surprise, etc.). Check out fivethirtyeight.com for some rather advanced analysis of polling. I don't get the nuts and bolts of Nate's methodology and all (contrary to what Tep says, I'm not a math nerd), but he does explain things well enough for a dope like me. The way the states break down right now, Obama only needs to hold on to what he's got right now and collect another toss-up, whereas McCain has to turn a bunch around. In an election where 80% of the electorate think the country's heading in the wrong direction, both guys on the Dem ticket are pretty damn good orators (Biden, for his many many faults, does populist anger really well), and I still think Palin will be an ongoing embarrassment as the race goes on, not because she's a moron but because she's being forced into a meat grinder without much preparation. McCain and Biden have been high profile guys for a long time and Obama has been a media darling for the past four years. Even the best candidates fuck up, but hers are going to be worse because she's new at it and the media always magnifies the noobs' errors.

Nevertheless, I don't expect Obama to really turn around America's slide into corporate feudal society so much as to slow it some. It'd take a generation of public-minded elected officials to make a meaningful dent into the damage done by the GOP (just finished Thomas Frank's The Wrecking Crew last night—a depressing but well-argued examination of the thugs and organizations behind the authoritarian Republican movement). My disillusioned belief is that it's going to take a massive crisis, such as that brought on by climate change, to really have a chance of shaking things up. Water riots, say?
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
IkarisOne wrote: Nevertheless, I don't expect Obama to really turn around America's slide into corporate feudal society so much as to slow it some. It'd take a generation of public-minded elected officials to make a meaningful dent into the damage done by the GOP (just finished Thomas Frank's The Wrecking Crew last night—a depressing but well-argued examination of the thugs and organizations behind the authoritarian Republican movement). My disillusioned belief is that it's going to take a massive crisis, such as that brought on by climate change, to really have a chance of shaking things up. Water riots, say?
Or maybe the Republicans are just useful idiots, unwittingly dismantling America for its new owners. That's kind of what I'm thinking. Corporate Feudalism isn't just coming to America, it's coming to the entire world- even Canada, I'm sorry to say. And most of the big corporations are less and less based in the US. We're having all these rah-rah bullshit with the conventions while American corporations are being bought out on an almost daily basis. I still say that Bush was just put in to keep the rednecks under wraps. If they go for the hat-trick with McCain, that means they don't want any trouble with the Trans-Texas Corridor (aka the NAFTA Superhighway). The entire central portion of America is going to be devastated by these plans- America itself is going to be split in two by a massive, privately owned and operated superhighway. Toss the rednecks some red meat and keep them happy while their entire world is bulldozed into unrecognizable form. Throw in gas shooting back up into the 4 dollar range in November and what looks to be a very busy hurricane season, maybe it's best to keep them quiet with some symbolic back-scratching.

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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IkarisOne wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote: Nevertheless, I don't expect Obama to really turn around America's slide into corporate feudal society so much as to slow it some. It'd take a generation of public-minded elected officials to make a meaningful dent into the damage done by the GOP (just finished Thomas Frank's The Wrecking Crew last night—a depressing but well-argued examination of the thugs and organizations behind the authoritarian Republican movement). My disillusioned belief is that it's going to take a massive crisis, such as that brought on by climate change, to really have a chance of shaking things up. Water riots, say?
Or maybe the Republicans are just useful idiots, unwittingly dismantling America for its new owners. That's kind of what I'm thinking.
I think that's definitely the dream of the wacko "free" market zealots. Frank's book has a chapter on the "laboratory of liberty" (either DeLay or Abramoff's phrase) in Saipan, where the island was a capitalist's wet dream. Business controlled the government completely and the imported workers had zero rights. They'd love to turn the US into a similar plantation.
Corporate Feudalism isn't just coming to America, it's coming to the entire world- even Canada, I'm sorry to say.
We're a bit behind on the timetable, but, yeah, we're not immune to these forces. The current federal election might actually be the most important of my lifetime to this point. A Harper majority would give us a real taste of what you've had the last eight years.
Bush was just put in to keep the rednecks under wraps. I've always thought the "anti-terror" laws were written to keep the milita crowd under control once things get hairy.
I agree. It's a multi-stage operation to first take out what remains of the left and then go after the willing dupes on the right. The whole "When they came for the Jews I said nothing because I wasn't a Jew" pattern repeated.

One of things that gives me some hope is that the leaders of this corporate takeover is that they aren't as smart as they think they are. Too many of them believe their own propaganda. They get lazy, they're prone to short-term thinking. And they won't be immune to the effects of climate change. It'll hurt the poor more (but everything always does) but their arrogance will take more than a few of them down along the way.

Then again, maybe on Wednesday when the Haldron collider fires up this'll all be a non-issue. :hmm:
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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oh shit, that's wednesday?

better get laid soon, we don't have long to live.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
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I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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eumaas wrote:oh shit, that's wednesday?

better get laid soon, we don't have long to live.
The beauty is that, unlike so many other end of the world scenarios, I would guess we'd never know what happened. It'd be as instantaneous as we're capable of perceiving.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
eumaas wrote:oh shit, that's wednesday?

better get laid soon, we don't have long to live.
The beauty is that, unlike so many other end of the world scenarios, I would guess we'd never know what happened. It'd be as instantaneous as we're capable of perceiving.
Hopefully it'll just turn us into a race of enlightened, immortal gods.






AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Whew. That was a good one.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
eumaas wrote:oh shit, that's wednesday?

better get laid soon, we don't have long to live.
The beauty is that, unlike so many other end of the world scenarios, I would guess we'd never know what happened. It'd be as instantaneous as we're capable of perceiving.
No!
According to Bavarian chemist Otto Rossler:

"Nothing will happen for at least 4 years. Then someone will spot a light-ray coming out of the Indian Ocean.
"A few weeks later we will see a stream of particles coming out of the soil on the other side of the planet. Then we will know there's a quasar inside the planet.
"The weather will change completely, wiping out life. There will be a biblical armageddon.
"Scorpions will be the only survivors.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: What the Democrats Never Seem to Learn

Post by Rat Patrol »

eumaas wrote:
Dr. Medulla wrote:
eumaas wrote:oh shit, that's wednesday?

better get laid soon, we don't have long to live.
The beauty is that, unlike so many other end of the world scenarios, I would guess we'd never know what happened. It'd be as instantaneous as we're capable of perceiving.
Hopefully it'll just turn us into a race of enlightened, immortal gods.
http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3984

Don't worry. Good ol' idjits will save you from reaching that fate worse than death. With fire.

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