marmar
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:04 PM
Original message |
Are Democrats too intelligent to be elected president? |
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Edited on Sun Sep-07-08 08:06 PM by marmar
We've had two candidates - Al Gore and John Kerry - who were CLEARLY more intelligent than their Republican opponent, and they lost (yeah, they probably didn't really lose, but the races shouldn't have even been close.) And here again we have a close race with a Constitutional law scholar/thinker who clearly leaves his competitor in the intellectual dust, and he has to APOLOGIZE for suggesting that American students should broaden their horizons by learning a foreign language. Is this country by and large too intellectually lazy and soundbite-oriented to understand nuance and look at the complexity of issues? It just seems like a bravado-filled slogan, no matter how false or empty it is, trumps reason every time.
I blame the idiot box known as TV. :argh:
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BlooInBloo
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:05 PM
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buzzard
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:09 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
3. I have always liked your sig line I would laugh if I wasn't crying.n/t |
misanthrope
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:37 PM
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14. Yet another accurate Mencken-ism... |
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...He wasn't always correct but when he was...
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BlooInBloo
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:46 PM
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16. Yup. He was an asshole, but he dialed it up right a number of times. |
dkf
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:08 PM
Response to Original message |
2. The problem is that they and many here think people vote based on reason. |
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And a lot of times they don't.
We have got to make it work at every level, emphasizing reason, but also hitting on emotion.
In addition, we have to create positive feelings about us and negative feelings about them.
If we don't at least TRY to win at all these levels, we aren't using everything at our disposal.
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depakid
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:11 PM
Response to Original message |
4. "seems like a bravado-filled slogan, no matter how false or empty it is, trumps reason every time." |
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One would think that smart people would have learned that lesson by by now.
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ileus
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:13 PM
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5. These are the same people that won't ride bikes to work, what do you expect. |
ixion
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:16 PM
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6. Funny you should mention that... I watched "Idiocracy" today |
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and it's truly visionary, IMO.
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babylonsister
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:17 PM
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7. I think many Americans are too stoopid; I'm not blaming this on |
2Design
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:20 PM
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8. no we just have too many dumb redneck white sheet people voting n/t |
treestar
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:21 PM
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9. It's enough to make you lose faith in democracy |
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Some people shouldn't be allowed to vote. Trouble is, how do you decide? But this country is going down due to its idiocy.
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OwnedByFerrets
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:25 PM
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10. No, they refuse to cheat and lie. |
firedupdem
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #10 |
11. the newspapers and some of the tv stations are bought and paid |
villager
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:26 PM
Response to Original message |
12. Yes. I'm hoping some of the smaller republics/countries that rise out of the ashes of the old U.S. |
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can actually honor competence, public service, the greater good, etc.
The Pacific Northwest might be a good bet -- or perhaps there will be a "coastal community" in the west.
In any case, it's hard to imagine the U.S. as anything but inexorably doomed.
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kestrel91316
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:35 PM
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13. I see idiocy every day in my practice. I am convinced that it is |
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in large part due to people's television addiction. They acquire information passively, rather than learning concepts by reading and thinking. People don't read anymore - have you noticed?
I knew about the time the third client said to me, "What do you mean by twice a day?" when I tell them to give their cat a medication I'm dispensing twice a day. I dunno, maybe it's me, but it seems pretty obvious what that means.
Americans are STOOPID. I could tell you the one about the dog with his "intestines falling out", or the dog with "ticks", or what the owner of the cat with diarrhea did with the kaopectate I sent home, or what the human ophthalmologist did with the amoxicillin suspension I sent home with his cat with conjunctivitis. But you get my point.
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Greyhound
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Sun Sep-07-08 09:07 PM
Response to Reply #13 |
17. My new position forces me to talk to them all day every day and it is scary. |
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Seriously scary.
Like, "how do you find food everyday", scary.
Some of them are other people's bosses.:scared:
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bowens43
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Sun Sep-07-08 08:40 PM
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15. I have come to realize that |
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Democrats expect their leaders to be exceptional; to be intelligent, to be passionate , to be both inspired and inspiring. Republicans on the other hand just want someone with whom they can sit around, drink beer and tell fart jokes.
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GoesTo11
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Sun Sep-07-08 09:23 PM
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18. If so, the country is in for a long downward spiral |
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Stupidity leads to poor decisions and then poor outcomes. Look at where we were in 2000 and compare it to now. If it were a company, the US stock price would have dropped from 120 to 80. One more bozo and it will drop to 50.
GM thought it would always be on top, then it made one mistake after another and now its entire stock is worth less than one month's profit at Exxon Mobil. Not my favorite example, but it is certainly possible to go from dominant to also ran to loser by incompetence.
Many take it for granted that the good times will continue forever because of our inherent greatness. But that's what every country that's ever been on top thought. You want to stay on top for a long time, or you want your decline from the top to be gentle, then you can't have the dummies run things. They just crash everything leaving wreckage behind.
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