The dumbing down of the GOP

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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)?

Quote:

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?

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Type: Discussion • Score: 10 • Views: 5,327 • Replies: 49

[+3] - nimh - 10/05/2008Ah, but the author is missing the point... [quote][Palin] will endure as an alternative to the standard feminist model--a feminist for the rest of us--which is the ultimate fear of the enclave...

@Robert Gentel,

From the article:

Quote:

Palin's phony populism is as insulting to working- and middle-class Americans as it is to American women. Why are basic diction and intellectual coherence presumed to be out of reach for "real people"?

Why are conservatives just now seeing what their party has become. They didn't complain about it back when George W Fratboy was winning the election. Only now that the american people are beginning realize that having someone smart in office to represent your best interests is not such a bad thing, are conservatives starting to complain about the lack of coherence from their party leaders.

It's about time.

Smart people make better leaders. Smart people with integrity make even better leaders. And smart people with integrity and wisdom make great leaders, regardless of the party label the put on themselves.

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@rosborne979,

Cripes. I bet nobody ever thought of that before.

Not that it's necessarily true of course. None of the key words have any agreed definition.

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Ah, but the author is missing the point...

Quote:

[Palin] will endure as an alternative to the standard feminist model--a feminist for the rest of us--which is the ultimate fear of the enclave that tried to destroy her. She [..] will serve as a magnet for the millions of women who are put off by the left-wing orientation and abortion 'rights' litmus test of establishment feminism, not to mention its now-revealed snobbery. [..]

There is something else that Palin brings to the table, that may be an unspoken source of this angst. She is the first woman near the very top level of politics who really looks and behaves like a woman, a woman whom men want to look at, and other women may want to look like. She has cheekbones to die for, movie-star hair, and has mastered the delicate dress code of looking both stunning and powerful.

-- Noemie Emery, The Weekly Standard

Quote:

I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.

-- Rick Lowry, National Review

Quote:

She showed originality, charisma and sass [..]. She didn't just win the vice-presidential debate, she showed that she belongs with Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as among the best communicators of our modern political times. [..]

[S]he was thrilling and exciting [..]. That smiling face, those novel phrases, that informal style " it was all a pleasure and a refreshing change. [..] Her authenticity and unique style will be with us for years to come.

-- Dick Morris

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Quote:

The dumbing down of the GOP

A rather simple task that they accomplish with aplomb.

Quote:

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

Not only at the vp level?

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

1 Reply

@rosborne979,

rosborne979 wrote:

From the article:
Quote:
Palin's phony populism is as insulting to working- and middle-class Americans as it is to American women. Why are basic diction and intellectual coherence presumed to be out of reach for "real people"?

Why are conservatives just now seeing what their party has become. They didn't complain about it back when George W Fratboy was winning the election. Only now that the american people are beginning realize that having someone smart in office to represent your best interests is not such a bad thing, are conservatives starting to complain about the lack of coherence from their party leaders.

It's about time.

Smart people make better leaders. Smart people with integrity make even better leaders. And smart people with integrity and wisdom make great leaders, regardless of the party label the put on themselves.

That mantra from America's right seems to me to have been strong since at least Nixon's time, with Spiro Agnew's constant denigration of educated and intellectual people.

(Remember the effete snobs stuff? "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals." to which one response was "the calm one that came from Senator William Fulbright. He wasn't disturbed by the attack, said the Foreign Relations Committee Chairman; "I just considered the source." The newest gag in the G.O.P. Senate cloakroom:

Q. What is the new definition of effete?

A. Effete is what Spiro puts in his mouth.").

Actually, Palin has been reminding me a l0t of Agnew.....do others think she is the worst vice-presidential candidate since Agnew?

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

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

Actually, the thing that lost McCain all respect as a candidate from me (he seemed to me to be a reasonably moderate Republican with some reasonable ideas) was his choice of Palin, followed by his immoderate reaction to her critics (some of whom deserved a damn fine bagging themselves, I agree...but still) and his cynical use of this to justify her avoiding reasonable scrutiny and testing by the press.

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Pink dawn over a snowy expanse. Silence. Camera picks up a wolf running fast. Quick close up shows wide fearful eyes and drool falling from his fangs. Sound now, quickly rising, of a hot, high revving engine. Soaring over a snowy rise, a pickup truck which lands solidly, but the person standing in the bed is unfazed, her stance sure. She's a tall, dark haired amazonian type wearing a bikini made from an american flag. She has dual six guns (or perhaps an M16 - we'll have to focus group the weapon). She winks at the camera. Fade into white. Gunshot and echoes.

Remember Hadley when asked how soon the attack on Iraq might commence, "You don't roll out a new product in September."

Palin is a product roll out precisely in the manner of "Chevy trucks are tough!".

1 Reply

@blatham,

nice to see you back, bernie!

1 Reply

@kuvasz,

hi kuv

That's very kind of you. I had a fair bit of fun over the late spring and summer. Several of us, working online (with an initial tip from a Wired article) managed to throw some effective poop into the gears of a covert RNC operation (it set up the whole PUMA, Clintons4McCain, JustSayNoDeal groups and many others all inter-linked...Cristi Adkins is a central figure). It was an interesting exercise. One thing I found is how hard it can be to move a story up from the blogosphere into the mainstream press, mainly, I think, because of the number of such stories which deserve attention.

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@blatham,

I always thought PUMA was a covert republican plot.

These republicans are so clever. Do they get their skills from running corruption corporations? Just think of how effective they could be if they used their cleverness to improve the status of the poor and middle classes.

BBB

1 Reply

There are much deeper currents than this trivial dross you are all drooling over.

Does it make you feel all wise and politically savvy like?

1 Reply

@spendius,

Ah, spendi.

We're no match for you.

1 Reply

@BumbleBeeBoogie,

BBB

Here's a little 'conversation' I had with Cristi back in late June (the operation got going in early June with the RNC hoping to capture disaffected Hillary supporters). It wasn't a long conversation for reasons obvious. I'd seen an interview with her on Fox and her game was immediately transparent. My first post is about half way down. http://www.alan.com/2008/06/10/on-tuesdays-radio-show-20/

1 Reply

@blatham,

Quote:

Ah, spendi.

We're no match for you.

And you seem to have no intention of becoming so Bernie. Fine example to set the kids in science classes I must say.

The problem, or one of the problems more like, is that you don't seem aware of it. The assertion and the low wit suffices. Mrs Palin is perfect. Maybe you don't like her becuse she shows you yourselves WRIT LARGE. She's Miss Mature America.

Some of the recent responses I've been getting from "you know who" are a disgrace to the dollars expended on a long education and which is lengthening as we speak. Although recent events might have brought that nice little earner to a pause. It's probably not permanent but you never know. I've not seen so many headless chickens since I don't know when. At least they look like they know what they are doing when dealing with a natural disaster. FEMA excepted of course.

You have actually come to believe that you are giving the kids a proper education to fit them for their future roles as bed-pan washers and gas pumpers simply on the evidence that you have made a speech to that effect. And sat down hrruumpping. As if the budding scientists can't take good care of themselves whatever you try to teach them. There's more budding vice girls in the classes than budding scientists. Proper scientists I mean. Not asserted ones. They have a production line for them like Detroit used to have for cars.

I daresay you might have been a bit of a budding something yourself once Bernie. Matthew Arnold mentions the trait in some young men to confound their teachers. Match them. Over-match them. Show the buggers up not to put to fine a point on it. If you ever felt that urge they've put you right since. You're a bourgeois twit to a scientist. I'm one myself actually but I'm only acting. It's a comfortable life I find. I de-internalised the role a long while ago.

But it's a pleasure to hear from you again after all this time. Have you been redecorating?

Your remark has the intention of despising the higher learning, to which I aspire, using inverted snobbery. Hofstadter explains it better than I can.

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@blatham,

Quote:

Just to be straight on who these jerks really are.

They obviously don't mind Bernie. They know full well who knows what about who they really are. Is what they did illegal?

You have brought it to more people's attention though.

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@spendius,

And, Bernie, you, having read Mr Hofstadter's book, a posh thing to have done, have come to believe that you are against anti-intellectualism and your earlier remark, "We're no match for you" , suggests to me that you are a blowhard anti-intellectualist on closer scrutiny of your assertions.

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@spendius,

Quote:

Your remark has the intention of despising the higher learning, to which I aspire, using inverted snobbery.

Not at all, spendi. I think your learning aspirations are a damned fine thing. Except where they might be accompanied by a zest for using them to toss batshit at anyone you are talking to.

Nice to see you too.

1 Reply

@blatham,

What's PUMA then? Some years back, the hookers of Boston actually organized themselves into a sort of labor union, called -- aptly enough -- Prostitutes Union of Massachusetts. PUMA was the accepted acronym. True story.

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@Merry Andrew,

I wondered too.

http://www.puma08.com/

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The dumbing down of the GOP

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