2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

[duper]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

while the point is exaggerated ("chosen ones", etc) I've found that the general attitude that smart people ought to be prescribing allowable behaviors to the masses 'for their own good' is a very common one in academia. The condescension is palpable.

Yesterday I overheard two profs congratulating each other over their wonderful idea that we should set up a panel to approve or decline permits for childbearing. Obviously this panel would be made up of people who share their exact same values and would approve children only to those couples who also share them, since no conservative person is going anywhere near this idea and if it ever passed, would either move out of the country or revolt. I hope. But they were sure elated about the idea. Since obviously conservative people could never raise their kids "properly".

BS. I PROMISE you that some conservatives would think this was the greatest idea since sliced bread.

 

[joecct]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

BS. I PROMISE you that some conservatives would think this was the greatest idea since sliced bread.

Not me. When you remove randomness in the population, you get a population that is headed for a long, but certain, death.

 

[duper]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

It is interesting to see, as always, the instant offense that is taken to anyone suggesting that Reagan may not have been worthy of sucking Christ's dick. Especially from people who are incapable of referring to any liberal politician WITHOUT being insulting.

 

[duper]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Not me. When you remove randomness in the population, you get a population that is headed for a long, but certain, death.

Certainly. But the supposition was made that conservatives, with a heavy implication of ALL conservatives, would hate the idea. I was merely pointing out the extremely obvious.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

What the. . .?

He's right. Don't get me wrong, I liked Reagan - he was perhaps the most presidential President of my time, but the right's genuflecting at the mere mention of his name ignores the greater totality of his time in the White House. If it were up to some he'd have replaced half the faces of Rushmore and US currency.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Will somebody please explain to me why actors are good enough to give reach-arounds to any Democrat....

No one gives the Hollywood types any credence. Just because they spout off doesn't mean the electorate gives a rip.

 

[huskyfan]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Ronald Reagan didn't know who he was during his last term in office.

the idea that he was suffering from dementia while still in office came from one story from one reporter who claimed Reagan didn't recognize her therefore he was out of it. none of his doctors or staff agree.

 

[Priceless]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

the idea that he was suffering from dementia while still in office came from one story from one reporter who claimed Reagan didn't recognize her therefore he was out of it. none of his doctors or staff agree.

It was in the National Enquirer so it must be true.

 

[Carter]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

the idea that he was suffering from dementia while still in office came from one story from one reporter who claimed Reagan didn't recognize her therefore he was out of it. none of his doctors or staff agree.

I swear I remember one of the inner circle saying that they knew he had Alzheimer's disease during the second term, but I'm too lazy to try and dig it up. I'm one of those blasphemers who thought he was clueless before the onset of Alzheimer's.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Demented and clueless enough to beat Jimmy Carter like a rented mule.

 

[joecct]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Demented and clueless enough to beat Jimmy Carter like a rented mule.

If Jimmay! was a rented mule, what was Mondale?

 

[geezer]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Conservative writers blame the Republican party for sucking the life out of conservatism.

 

[amherstblackbear]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Conservative writers blame the Republican party for sucking the life out of conservatism.

Could the problem, instead, be that there is more than one party?

I'm probably not what you think of as Conservative, and I loathe the GOP as well. The best (and most uncomfortable) laugh at the correspondents' dinner last night was when Jimmy Kimmel (riffing on pundits' books) said something to the effect of: the spoiler in O'Reilly's book on Lincoln was that Lincoln wasn't assassinated. He had a vision of what the Republican party would become 150 years later and blew his own brains out.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Conservative writers blame the Republican party for sucking the life out of conservatism.

Interesting article. And pretty accurate...but I didn't see where it highlighted the underlying causes of this change.

IMO it is the impact of negative radio/media from the right. Critical can be good and hate is too extreme...much of the right's media typically just opinion and is negative towards the opposition (you now see it on MSNBC on the left). The problem is that listeners of negative opinion 'news' on both sides are then incapable of finding solutions because they're not wired that way.

The reason that its a problem is that 25% (or whatever) of the right is charged by this which is a very motivated and active segment to begin with. The addiction of this group is what makes negative media the bucks. Although historically career politicians were the norm, this new zealot right is where many of the party come from now and the GOP has been hearing the voice of the right from the more active right zealot populous.

As has been stated many times...Carter, Nixon (looking at policy strictly), Eisenhower, Goldwater and possibly even Reagan himself would have a hard time being nominated today as all being too far left for their respective parties.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Interesting article. And pretty accurate...but I didn't see where it highlighted the underlying causes of this change.

IMO it is the impact of negative radio/media from the right. Critical can be good and hate is too extreme...much of the right's media typically just opinion and is negative towards the opposition (you now see it on MSNBC on the left). The problem is that listeners of negative opinion 'news' on both sides are then incapable of finding solutions because they're not wired that way.

The reason that its a problem is that 25% (or whatever) of the right is charged by this which is a very motivated and active segment to begin with. The addiction of this group is what makes negative media the bucks. Although historically career politicians were the norm, this new zealot right is where many of the party come from now and the GOP has been hearing the voice of the right from the more active right zealot populous.

As has been stated many times...Carter, Nixon (looking at policy strictly), Eisenhower, Goldwater and possibly even Reagan himself would have a hard time being nominated today as all being too far left for their respective parties.

The right has a particular problem coming up with ideas right now because of their strongly anti-intellectual posture. Reagan's "revolution" started with thinkers. The right now has such disdain for the reality-based community that there are no new ideas in the pipeline. That's why their thinking is dominated by recycled ideas from thirty (masturbation to big business), forty (anti-immigration, racial dog whistles) and even fifty (the culture wars) years ago.

 

[geezer]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

The right now has such disdain for the reality-based community that there are no new ideas in the pipeline.

This is what I get for trying to take part in an open an honest dialogue: the obvious problems with the Republican party are sweepingly applied to "the right", thereby scorning half of America.
Let's not pretend today's office-holding Republicans represent conservatism ("the right"). Let's also not charge half of America having "disdain for reality". Those are the political disciples of Newt Gingrich, and the problem is that otherwise intelligent people have been conned into repeatedly voting for them.

 

[Kepler]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

This is what I get for trying to take part in an open an honest dialogue: the obvious problems with the Republican party are sweepingly applied to "the right", thereby scorning half of America.

That's a fair criticism. Substitute "the GOP" for "the right," below. And I was actually not trying to subvert the discussion; I was just being lazy.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

This is what I get for trying to take part in an open an honest dialogue: the obvious problems with the Republican party are sweepingly applied to "the right", thereby scorning half of America.
Let's not pretend today's office-holding Republicans represent conservatism ("the right"). Let's also not charge half of America having "disdain for reality". Those are the political disciples of Newt Gingrich, and the problem is that otherwise intelligent people have been conned into repeatedly voting for them.

Sorry if it came across that way.

Some of us just don't put that much stock in labels...with the only exceptions are gross misrepresentations such as commies, socialists or nazis which aren't even close to societal accepted defintions. So we have a tendancy to be more about making the broader point than paying attention to the nuance within specific labels.

If your concern is strictly with the label conservative...that's a bit more tricky.

See I don't see big differences between myself and others that might consider themselves liberal...such as a priceless or rover...if anything, their delivery style. We're kind of a big group that sorta gets along and doesn't sweat the small stuff. The thing about conservatives is that...although there are many you don't consider conservative (and I can't disagree)...those same people (and there are many) absolutely do consider themselves conservative and swear that you're not. Remember that second group is very loud and active. So in end, the rest of us have a hard time seeing one definition as right and the other wrong. At worst, we think of 'conservative' as the loud voices of Gingrich, Falwell and Nugent...and at best, see differences of opinion on what conservatism is.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

If Jimmay! was a rented mule, what was Mondale?

A red-headed step child.

 

[joecct]

Re: 2012 Elections - Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death....

Say what you want about Newt, at least he has ideas on how to fix things. Out of 1,000 ideas (solutions), 990 may be crazy, but the remaining 10 are spot on and would eclipse the 990.

Can he ever get elected nationally? Sadly, no. Instead we get actors and actresses starring in "Platitudes, Platitudes" or playing the game of "Kick the Can".