Unfortunately, I see masses of dumb people heading to the polls on November 4th and voting for the wrong presidential candidate and his equally wrong vice-presidential candidate.
From CNN.com:
"Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons ... Do it for your country," conservative columnist and former Palin fan Kathleen Parker of Nationalreview.com pleaded on Friday.
In defense, Republicans say the complaints are coming from "intellectual" conservatives -- not Main Street Republicans, who they insist love the "hockey mom," from Alaska, as Palin describes herself.
"These are the folks that really have responded to the candidacy of a McCain-Palin ticket. These are the folks that are showing up in huge numbers, tens of thousands, to the rallies," Leslie Sanchez, a CNN political contributor, said.
First of all, "intellectual conservative" is an oxymoron.
(Sorry. I had to get that out of my system.)
Second, that bolded statement shows both great strategic insight and a depressing realization: The Republicans do a great job of dumbing things down to reach their armless constituents. There are people out there who blindly pick a candidate simply because of the ticket or banner they run under, even if the candidate's policies end up putting them at a disadvantage.
The fact that this is even the case, that some people are so uninformed, with no reason or desire to become informed, that they will actually vote for a person, a party, or an ideology that limits or even oppresses them, is truly depressing and discouraging.
My wife, a staunch proponent of women's rights, argues that no woman should ever vote for a conservative candidate, as it's basically a vote against self-interest. The thought of a woman deciding for herself what her life should be like is just too much for conservatives to process.
She's right. But it's that blinding tie to ideology that continues this cycle.
Ideology is a heavy weight to shake once you have it. As my old professor, Dr. Bill Thompson once said, "Gang, ideology will get you killed."
He also said that "65 percent of the U.S. population has shit for brains."
Let's hope the masses forget to vote on Nov. 4.
2 comments:
I'd like to jump in here and recommend the book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" which deals with this frustrating issue: why are blue-collar people now voting against their own economic interests?
The author suggests that this phenomenon started with Richard Nixon & has been gaining momentum ever since. The repubs have been enticing these people with half-baked notions of a by-gone era that was rudely taken away from us in the 60s by the godless, un-American left- and their allies (the Jews, homosexuals and "minorities")- who "took Jesus out of the classroom," and abandoned the "Heartland." So the Repubs have offered themselves as the "party of traditional values."
At the same time, I think some blame should be placed on the Democratic party as well. Blue-collar workers are traditionally Democrat, but that doesn't mean that they are liberal on social issues. So long as the Democratic party had their backs on economic issues, they were willing to tolerate the liberal social ideas with which they disagreed. But then along came centrist Democrats like Joe Leiberman (and perhaps Bill Clinton as well) who pushed the party toward the right economically with their support of NAFTA and deregulation. So this may have given blue-collar Democrats no reason to remain with the party by creating the perception that the Democratics sold them down the river.
Fortunately, there are many signs that Barak Obama truly represents a clean break away from this disastrous policy.
Good point, cuz. I do think that the Dems are part to blame for this phenomenon of sorts. I know this issue really bugs Christine a lot, mostly for women's rights, but I think in general as well. Thanks for commenting. Glad a couple people are reading this blog.
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