Salon: The Dumbing Down of the GOP: "Why aren't more conservatives disgusted" over Palin nomination?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

The dumbing down of the GOP

Why aren't more conservatives disgusted that their party nominated a person devoid of qualifications for the vice presidency (again)?

By Joe Conason

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/10/04/dumb/

Oct. 4, 2008 | Sarah Palin's debate performance should signal the beginning of the end of her fad. But for the moment it is worth looking at the meaning of her nomination, without the protective varnish of what conservatives usually dismiss as political correctness.

Why should we pretend not to notice when Gov. Palin's ideas make no sense? Having said last week that "it doesn't matter" whether human activity is the cause of climate change, she said in debate that she "doesn't want to argue" about the causes. It doesn't occur to her that we have to know the causes in order to address the problem. (She was very fortunate that moderator Gwen Ifill didn't ask her whether she truly believes that human beings and dinosaurs inhabited this planet simultaneously only 6,000 years ago.)

Why should we ignore her inability to string together a series of coherent thoughts? As a foe of Wall Street greed and a late convert to the gospel of government regulation, along with John McCain, Palin promised to clean up and reform business. But when her programmed talking points about "getting government out of the way" and protecting "freedom" conflicted with that promise, she didn't notice.

Why should we give her a pass on the most important issues of the day? Supposedly sharing the fears and concerns of the average families who face the burdens of mortgages, healthcare and economic insecurity, Palin simply refused to discuss changes in bankruptcy law and proved that she didn't know the provisions of McCain's healthcare plan.

All the glaring defects so blatantly on display in her debate with Joe Biden -- and that make her candidacy so darkly comical -- would be the same if she were a hockey dad instead of a "hockey mom." In fact, the cynical attempt to foist Palin on the nation as a symbol of feminist progress is an insult to all women regardless of their political orientation.

There was a time when conservatives lamented the dumbing down of American culture. Preservation of basic standards in schools and workplaces compelled them -- or so they said -- to resist affirmative action for women and minorities. Qualifications mattered; merit mattered; and demagogic appeals for leveling were to be left to the Democrats.

Not anymore.

[YOY]

1. They thought the stupid-glow would carry over to the rest of us.

Worked once before...twice actually.

Not this time. Not with these issues.

[Lorien]

2. They could run a sea spong and their base would worship it

as soon as they see an (R) behind a name, it can do no wrong.

A very sexist repug man I know told me recently " I never would have wanted to vote for a woman before, but after I saw Palin in the debates I knew that she is someone who can learn enough on the job to be a great President". I countered "Anyone running for President or VP needs to be ready on DAY ONE. No excuses". and he changed the topic.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lorien]

6. That's the thing; Obama already has an understanding of the issues

and knowledge of International affairs, constitutional law, world history, etc. Palin has obviously never read the constitution, can't name a single newspaper and doesn't even know who Hamas is. She would need at least seven years at Harvard or Yale to even begin to play catch up with Obama.

[Scurrilous]

4. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Bucky]

5. "There was a time when conservatives lamented the dumbing down of American culture." Really?

My first memory of movement conservatives is when they started demogoguing on the long overdue Panama Canal Treaty in 1978 or 79. The problem wasn't that I disagreed with their judgments, but that their arguments even in the proto-Reagan years were superficial, intolerant, and disingenious.

I think you have to go back to Barry Goldwater to find a conservative movement based on intelligent analysis rather than gut-instinct reactionary politics. Conservative consistantly go for the policies that contradict the facts and common sense. I'm not saying there are no intelligent conservatives. But when they do appear, they tend to be called moderates. Either that, or they're cases like William F. Buckley or Robert Bork--ideologues you might enjoy arguing with, but who tend to be unelectable.

[ravencalling]

7. The new R religion

Many people don't want to take the time to think on their own, they prefer someone else doing that work for them. Bottom line, they want to know that someone else is doing the thinking job as long as the outcome does not impact them in a negative way. Even when it does impact them, they don't want to connect the dots, they prefer the pablum of denial.

The reason I think the religious right does well in R politics, is because religion works in the same way. Give me a word or words that I can believe in so that when a problem happens I can use those words and I don't have to think about my own responsibility. In some magical way, which I know must work because the R minister told me so, I can repeat these words and I know I will be saved.

There are conservatives who are intelligent and outspoken, even if perhaps wrong in their ideology. However those conservatives are not allowed on the pulpit of the new R religion.

For instance, where is the R's Gore? Think about it? Shouldn't their be an R who could match Gore in intellectual respect while having an opposite ideology?

[treestar]

9. In fact, I would admit to being that way.

I don't have time to think about or understand the economic questions. So if someone's going to do it for me, I want it to be somebody smart.

[Vinca]

8. You reap what you sow. The GOP has been cultivating

dumb people for years. This year Palin admitted it was their target audience.

[neomonkey]

10. More emblematic evidence of the elitist views of the "other side"

The Republicans have been at the forefront of this wave of condescension toward the American public which basically nurtures their bloated well-being. They've presented us with a series of brain dead candidates for the last 3 Presidential election cycles (I guess it could be argued 6, but I think the Shrub the Elder actually had an iota of a brain). Much of corporate American and the mainstream media has followed (or even preceded) by feeding us a never-ending trail of dumbed down product.

The question we have to ask ourselves is: is the Democratic Party capable of feeding us crap? I would hope not, and if they do, I would also hope that we wouldn't tolerate it unlike John Q Republican.

[texpatriot2004]

11. How can Republicans justify supporting this? The rationalization

that they must resort to in order to put their party before their country is astounding.

[Bubbha Jo]

12. From what I've read here and there, the non-fundamentalist Republicans

are not even please with Palin's performance since her pick.

[seabeyond]

13. it is even worse than dumbing down. it is using degradation of female to hold onto slobbering

old, cant get it up white male.

fox news is a soft porn show for the old farts that cant get any, hate women, have chip on shoulders, and cant get it up anymore

[WillyT]

14. Big K & R !!!

:kick: