Exhaustion 2012 (or, It's Not Forcible Rape if the SuperPAC is Willing) - by june gloom
june gloom on 30/8/2012 at 20:31
So while the (
http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/storms/2012/ISAAC) Republicans are partying while black people (
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/30/happy-to-party-with-black-people-drowning-yahoo-news-bureau-chief-fired-for-thoughtless-romney-joke/) drown, I got to thinking a bit about the upcoming election.
I've pretty much given up on the Republican Party forever. They've turned into a cartoon parody of themselves and I can no longer justify giving them my vote. Before, I felt they were a viable alternative to Democratic strategies I didn't always agree with, but at this point I feel like the party has lost all reason and has become a fractured, self-contradictory mess. They claim to fight for the middle class, but all their economic plans would benefit the wealthy while guys like me get screwed.
So I'm going to hold my nose and vote for Obama. What choice do I have? The Republican Party keeps distracting themselves with social issues that shouldn't matter in an economy-focused election. SuperPACs dump oodles of money into politician pockets. And the voting-rights debate has a strong undercurrent of race to it -- because of who votes overwhelmingly for Democrats; nevermind that the Bush administration itself (
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/24/voter-id-laws-target-rarely-occurring-voter-fraud/) could find no evidence of voter fraud after a five year investigation.
What the hell happened to politics in this country? When did reasoned debate start going down the shitter?
(I blame Newt Gingrich but the problem's root causes predate him by decades, I think.)
SubJeff on 30/8/2012 at 23:48
Quote Posted by dethtoll
What the hell happened to politics in this country? When did reasoned debate start going down the shitter?
We've been asking this about you guys since 1990.
It probably all went wrong when people starting thinking of the Republican party as a viable alternative to the Democrats.
Jason Moyer on 31/8/2012 at 00:14
Yes, because Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were such terrible presidents.
I don't know why non-Americans even pay attention to our elections since they seem even less informed about our history and political system than most of us are. Then again we have have a black president from the pro-slavery party so what the fuck do I know.
LarryG on 31/8/2012 at 00:17
And most of us are totally uninformed about our history and political system!
Azaran on 31/8/2012 at 00:19
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
I don't know why non-Americans even pay attention to our elections since they seem even less informed about our history and political system than most of us are.
Because the outcome tends to impact the rest of the world
Jason Moyer on 31/8/2012 at 00:21
I'd buy that argument if people were paying attention to our congressional elections, which are more important.
SubJeff on 31/8/2012 at 00:23
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
Yes, because Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were such terrible presidents.
yo whatsup i heard republican party policies and members have stayed the same since forever man are they vampires or WHAT
Phatose on 31/8/2012 at 00:24
Sadly, I'm pretty sure that reasoned debate is dead in politics because it's dead in the populace. We are a nation the very divided on loads of key issues, and it's not the kind of divide where everyone wants the same thing but disagrees how to get there. What the liberal and conservative portions of the population want is drastically different. A fair number of the issues have a moral character - each side believes the other's position is fundamentally immoral, even evil. It's basically impossible to have a reasoned debate when that's the situation.
SubJeff on 31/8/2012 at 00:38
On a serious note though; US politics have baffled almost everyone I know and everyone I've spoken to on the subject here in the UK, for lots of different reasons. I suppose you could start with Sarah Palin. That such a person could even be considered for the role of Vice President outside a 48 hr binge-drinking brainstorming session on Worst Idea Ever is more amazing to us than, well anything. There's your starter. It was... unreal.
