Back from vacation -- wondering about politics

[dampscribbler]

We had a great time -- got warm, got a little sunburned (not enough for anyone else to notice, we are from Oregon, after all), got relaxed. And now it's good to be home! Although I have dozens of chores calling to me, so I'll have to post more details about the vacation later.

I've been trying to quickly cruise friends' ljs this morning to catch up a bit. There's lots of talk about Bush's news conference last night, which I missed due to the fact that I can't tolerate him in any size dose. My Bush exposure has to be filtered through The Daily Show, which is in repeats this week, so I'll have to do my own filtering somehow I guess.

There's nothing like driving 12 hours through farm country to remind you that there are a lot of people out there who really hate Democrats. What I want to know is -- why?????? Where and how did the democrats fuck up so badly that they are now seen as the party of the elite while the Republicans, of all things, are seen as the party of the common guy? I hope someone out there in LJland has some insight, because this is something that needs to be fixed, and fixed fast.

Comments

[zoe-trope.livejournal.com]

Did you see the Daily Show about the Condoleeza Rice questioning, where Jon Stewart just looks at the camera and says, "You've got to be FUCKING kidding me, right?"

God I was laughing so hard. He's excellent.

[tamyranev.livejournal.com]

Taxes?

Just a guess.

[(Anonymous)]

Why, you ask, do so many "common" people hate the Democrats? I live in Indiana, and around here I can tell you it's mostly because of the dangerous rise of the religous right.

It is a natural and predictable progression for religious fundamentalists to become political fundamentalists. They focus only on a few wedge issues based on their religious beliefs - the "rightness" of which they have ceased to question. Their is no middle ground, no shades of grey in their mental world. Anyone who supports their wedge issues becomes "good" and everyone else becomes "bad". So after a political fundamentalist makes his initial, easy, knee-jerk decision about "good" and "bad", he relieves himself of the troublesome need to do any further thinking.

Since the likes of Rush Limbaugh are "good", everything such people say becomes gospel. Rush's demogoguery is the political equivalent of pro-wrestling. (The only flaw with that analogy is that the lies of pro-wrestling are NOT particulary dangerous.) And here in Ft. Wayne, I can't drive anywhere without seeing Rush's big ugly face on a bus-hut billboard. (They should really include some kind of warning label, perhaps: "Germany was here ca. 1923".)

Anyone still capable of of independent thought should read "UNDERSTANDING POWER" by Noam Chomsky. It's not a comfortable book to read, regardless of your political beliefs, but we must be willing to look at unpleasant truths if we want a better world. The online documentation supporting his claims is longer than the book itself.

- Bob U.