View Story | 315 comments
Comments: Expand Shrink Hide (Always) | Indented Flat (Always)
I should get hazard pay, I think...
by cedubose on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 09:46:51 AM PDT
payer universal psychoanlyst health care initiative in the near future! ;-)
So, to sum up your excellent diary, Republicans are totally hosed unless people get more and more stupid with the passing of time and start believing that wingers are good and conservatism is all encompassing of all socio-economic groups in America?
Nah, never happen.
Another day, another devalued Dollar. -6.00, -6.21
by funluvn1 on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 09:54:15 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
Idiocracy? I wouldn't be surprised if it did happen, although I hope it won't. People getting dumber with the passage of time, that is.
a new musical instrument
by ubertar on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:40:13 AM PDT
are trying to do to public education (cough, NCLB, cough) and to higher education (make it unaffordable for middle and lower-class students through various maneuvers) I wouldn't be surprised if kids' ability to reason continues its downward drift.
by el dorado gal on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:48:58 AM PDT
carry too much info for that to happen, and with the increased availability of broadband, more's to come.
I think (hope) the upcoming generation will be too well informed to fall for the GOP's scams like the current (in power) generation has.
A Pew Research poll from earlier this year supports my own observations. Gen Y is coming better prepared to the fight than Gen X or my own generation were.
by scoff0165 on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:39:11 AM PDT
I think you may be a bit too optimistic. Gen Y, of which I'm a member, seems to be the most self-centered, morally bankrupt, apathetic group of people I've had the displeasure of associating with. Having an unprecedented amount of information and knowledge immediately available is useless if most people would rather spend a couple hours trying to drum up their number of myspace friends.
Self entitlement and outright greed seem to be the gods of my generation, and the policies and ideas of GOP acelebrate and idolize them.
Open your eyes. Open your mouth. Close your hand. And make a fist.
by IfTheseHands on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:10:25 PM PDT
all gen "y"'s... I have not met (and have much exposure to) many younger folks who think past themselves. There seems to be a natural progression from that narcissism to an interest in something not themselves.
Speaking from the X generation (im 33, am I a W?) I still am frustrated at the lack of interest in the news of the day, perhaps even my generation doesn't want to see what color Brittany's panties are run over and over again on a Serious News Network...
by califdem on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:28:31 PM PDT
They are the biggest audience for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, overwhelmingly so. That shows good taste, and of course, smarts!!!
Where the mind is without fear ... Where knowledge is free... Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake -- Rabindranath Tagore
by horatius on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 03:01:14 PM PDT
one of the younger members of so-called "generation x", a name we certainly didn't choose for ourselves any more than the previous so-called, "me generation". There was no W, and if there was, it's not you.
by ubertar on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 03:27:36 PM PDT
That's exactly what everyone said about my generation (X) when we were younger.
I think it's just a function of being younger. Maybe some life experience, health problems, kids, aging parents, are what kick the average person into an interest in politics (assuming they're ever going to develop one).
I've actually hired a long string of college students as babysitters (they tend to graduate, I've never had one more than a year and usually have 2 or 3 in rotation), and even including the ones I didn't hire, that sample looks like a good future to me - good minds, good hearts. No clue if they vote though.
"Civility costs nothing and buys everything." - Mary Wortley Montagu
by sarac on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:09:59 PM PDT
I'm too old to have a letter, but that's how I viewed my cohort at that age. I'm more optimistic now! And this group will turn out fine as well. :>)
"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children." Bonhoeffer~~~~~ Start here: freerice.com
by LAMaestra on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:32:41 PM PDT
I have a long string of teenagers (18-20 years old) come through my house each week. I always ask them if they are registered, and if not I give them a voter registration form on the spot, and make them fill it out then and there. I mail it for them.
Then, next election, I ask them if they voted, and most say yes. You just have to help them over the inertia that develops naturally at that age.
"Even if [BUSH] weren't a complete idiot, which he is, he'd still be an asshole." Digby
by Bob Friend on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 05:50:34 PM PDT
Yes, a lot of middle class white kids growing up in suburbia are likely to have access to the t00bz, but urban an rural poor kids are unlikely to have those advantages. And just because somebody has access to the information, doesn't mean they will use it. Kids use the internet for social networking, mostly, not self-education.
'[Obama] has treated us like adults throughout this primary, and it is time to act like adults.' - John Cole
by RichM on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:59:23 PM PDT
Kids use the internet for social networking, mostly, not self-education.
That exposure is, in itself, an influence. Kids'll come across ideas they'd never have imagined. They'll get educated whether they know it or not.
by scoff0165 on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:04:16 PM PDT
Kids weren't getting "educated" thirty years ago reading "trash" by Hunter S. Thompson and Thomas McGuane, or perhaps even Rolling Stone for that matter. Which goes to show that education is pretty much subjective...
I've always wanted to make a comment that ends with the word Mayonnaise
by frankzappatista on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:49:18 PM PDT
and "Idiocracy" is political saitire dynamo.
Fantastic Diary! Wish I could "Super-Duper" Rec!
You Sacrifice the Thing You Love the Most. I Love My Guitar - Jimi Hendrix
by jds1978 on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:59:32 AM PDT
9-11 changed everything? Well, Katrina changed it back.
by varro on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:29:15 PM PDT
'cuz it's got... electabilities!
by AmirBukfifti on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 03:10:03 PM PDT
Force lower middle class and poor voters into sensory deprivation chambers into which is piped in, over and over again, the 63 page speech by John Galt in "Atlas Shrugged."
Don't let them out until they accuse themselves of being "looters" for even THINKING about universal health care coverage.
"Mom, did you hurt yourself, or are you yelling at the TV again?
by litigatormom on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 03:58:49 PM PDT
it's not sumthin I'd do.
(-8.00,-7.85) "Jesus Christ was the first nonviolent revolutionary." --S. Stills
by bubbanomics on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 09:55:06 AM PDT
I happen to think we should take things for granted. All this GOP-fighting has become dowright tiring these past few years, and I think it's time to kick back and relax a little :)
Seek first and final principles at The Mean Free Path.
by Cream Puff on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:06:35 PM PDT
each other, while we watch and prepare ammo. We give away too much ammo battling it out here.
by bubbanomics on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:10:56 PM PDT
is anything to go by, we're in danger of them sneaking in and blowing us up.
by rlochow on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:52:38 PM PDT
You're my kind of stupid.
by SteamPunkX on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:15:39 AM PDT
thanks for the idea.
To fully understand Christianity's duplicity, first recognize that the Vatican's St. Peter's Square is actually an oval.
by agnostic on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:56:24 PM PDT
party and realizing they have a major hangover.
Thou shalt not kill except for a long list of good reasons is like saying you should not covet your neighbor's wife unless she's hot.
by FudgeFighter on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:23:52 AM PDT
... sane people call it war crimes and war-profiteering. At least the "party" seems to be close to over. Alas, I don't think even the barking-righteous can resurrect those murdered for Republican Party values.
Vote TORTURE. Vote DEATH. Vote REPUBLICAN: the party of torturers and war criminals.
by Yellow Canary on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:13:44 AM PDT
.... can find its way into the Democratic party as well.... and will...
Probably quite persistently -- look for lots of money to be had if the Republican rump ends up focused on Ron Paul types.
by Carrington Ward on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:20:49 PM PDT
Does he still have any influence at National Review?
I miss the good ole days when the only critter that spiked my blood pressure was Buckley.
How did the neocons gain control of the National Review?
When a coward sees a man he thinks he can beat he becomes hungry for a fight. -Chinhua Achebe, Things Fall Apart.
by BughouseWW on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:35:35 PM PDT
At least they had fun during the party.
Let's support our candidate in the primary and if he/she loses, let's think of John Roberts and Sam Alito when we think of John McCain.
by Dave from Oregon on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:06:31 PM PDT
this is a pattern. Hoover's mess took a war to get us out from under. Reagan's mess took a fluke of dot-com revenue to get us out from under.
They just keep doing this. The only rational, responsible Republican administration I can think of us Eisenhower's. All the others have apparently looked at the national treasury as their birthright and looted it, and counted on Democratic administrations to get things back on their feet. The Democrats have consistently outperformed the Republicans on "core Republican principles" for over 50 years.
Nobody seems to notice that -- until Bush fucked things up so bad that people cannot help but notice.
Je suis inondé de déesses
by Marc in KS on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:15:16 PM PDT
for maybe about one election cycle. Maybe.
Sigh.
by rlochow on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:54:07 PM PDT
......the lower poll rating that Congress has compared to Bush's but did not mention that nearly 50% of congress is Repug. When polling questions the public rating of Democratic Congress men/women vs. the Rep-ug members the Democrats are given a much higher rating.
by calibpatriot on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:54:44 PM PDT
believe the dog laying next to them upon awakening the next morning after the hard night of heavy drinking, a.k.a. coyote love, i.e., having to eat your arm off in order to escape without waking the dog. And that goes for either gender.
by brjzn on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:11:25 PM PDT
And right the NRO is. Their party's screwed. There is NO excuse for the Dem congress not laying into Mr. 24% over the next 11 months.
"People hate Bush and hate this war. It's that simple, and it's been true for quite some time" - Atrios
by atrexler on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:24:01 AM PDT
the Dem congress will find a way....
by Marc in KS on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:15:42 PM PDT
They're feckless. Or to put it more crassly, they're pussies.
Oh wait, those are the reasons why the won't lay into President 24% not reasons. Silly me.
"I'm not writing to make conservatives happy. I want them to hate my opinions. I'm not interested in debating them. I want to stop them." - Steve Gilliard
by grog on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:15:54 PM PDT
reasons, not excuses.
by grog on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:17:29 PM PDT
...to Ms.-Impeachment-Is-Off-The Table.
by varro on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:30:18 PM PDT
I'd tip and rec a diary citing NRO as its prime source - I excoriated someone yesterday for writing one - but yours is so beautifully contemptuous of them that I just had to.
"There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America." - Otto Prince Bismarck
by MBNYC on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:36:48 AM PDT
You call it Bush Derangement Syndrome; I call it sanity.
by RickMassimo on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:51:29 AM PDT
candidates are favored, why do some show such weakness in arguing to give the losers a seat at the table to destroy progressive solutions. We need more and better Democrats, not those who call for "bipartisanship." They simply are afraid to win.
"There is one man who knows in his heart that we have to build one America - not two - and that man is Barack Obama." John Edwards 5/14/08
by TomP on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:52:29 AM PDT
I don't mind calls for bipartisanship, as we definitely need to steer even the GOP to the left. Remember, the problem we have now is that we've shifted so far right that even some 'Democrats' are essentially what used to be middle of the road Republicans in the day. We now need to haul everything far enough left that people can still call themselves Republicans and be espousing universal health care, lobbying reform, and other progressive issues.
Got a problem with my posts? Email me, and let's resolve it.
by drbloodaxe on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:37:12 PM PDT
while we shift the overton window so far over the left horizon that a Democratic candidate, somewhere in the USA, would state in a campaign ad that s/he advocated raising some tax some time.
Minimum 20 years.
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy.... --ML King "Beyond Vietnam"
by Gooserock on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:16:57 PM PDT
Thanky much!
by cedubose on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:53:33 AM PDT
Excellent diary.
by RichM on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:14:08 AM PDT
OK, now I'm jealous!
by RichM on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:08:35 PM PDT
you might also consider washing your clothes (maybe in moderate bleach solution). Also, no righty talking heads for you for a week -- gotta cool those neurons a bit.
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, And wretches hang, that jurymen may dine.
by magnetics on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:17:48 AM PDT
Couldn't you have just read it in the local library and kept your money in your pocket? Or maybe the Republicans in your town cut property taxes to the point where your library was closed due to lack of funds.
Anyway, kudos to you for your courage, but you should probably offset the cost of that magazine by donating to your friendly neighborhood progressive cause. Well done, otherwise.
The Bush Family: 0 for 4 in Wisconsin
by Korkenzieher on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:53:52 AM PDT
I actually tried to find the article on line -- but the magazine itself does not seem to be on line. Apparently National Review and National Review Online are two different entities ... or at least, I could not find the article.
by cedubose on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:34:26 PM PDT
... "bullshit offsets". Every time I tune in to O'Falafel to see what he's up to, buy a BS offset. Every time I tune in Michael Medved during evening drive time, buy an offset.
Anyway, kudos to you for your courage, but you should probably offset the cost of that magazine by donating to your friendly neighborhood progressive cause.
"Not only do I want an elite president, I want someone who's embarrassingly superior to me." -- Jon Stewart, 4/15/08
by pat208 on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:07:33 PM PDT
a really funny piece :-)
the shane life The story of a boy alone in New York City. God help the city.
by Shane Hensinger on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:27:55 PM PDT
escape unscathed. You should get an emotional purple heart.
"I said, 'wait a minute, Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man'". Robbie Robertson
by NearlyNormal on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 12:42:50 PM PDT
My heart.
Thank you for reading it so I don't have to, and thank you ten times more for writing it up!
by sarac on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:03:00 PM PDT
I needed something to cheer me up.
by mickey on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:04:47 PM PDT
You need a heavy duty scrubbing after that.
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities.
- Albert Einstein
by Walt starr on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:58:21 PM PDT
they did something like this in 2002 when the Democrats looked like they were about to dissolve into separatist camps.
It's a bunch of bullshit and it makes us soft to even think about it. The Republicans aren't going to go anywhere and crap like this makes lesser thinking Democrats smug and cocky - which, if we'll recall, led to the collapse of the Republican party's rule in 2006.
So let's not buy into anyone's collective hype about the demise of Republicanism quite yet. IIRC the election is still about a year off.
by Jeremiah on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:56:04 PM PDT
I am not a liberal nor a Democrat, but I could have told you that.
And since magazines are unreturnable..........
by chaoticform on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 06:16:45 PM PDT
muck to bring us this report. Great diary.
by Tennessee Dave on Sat Dec 01, 2007 at 09:15:34 AM PDT
wide narrow
View Story | 315 comments