I am sure the corrections and public editor slap down will result from this column as well.

Your use of the perfect tense implies that this is a quite recent development, subby. What you probably need here, if not the simple past, is some form of the past progressive.

the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem,

That line right there applies equally to both parties Mr. Biasedashell Columnist.

Republicans, once hailed by Republicans as the "party of ideas," have become the party of stupid

FTFY

That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

The Republicans have always been the party of stupid, its just some years they are better at shining turds than others.

GaryPDX: That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

I call fellow citizens stupid all the time. Hell, I did it twice on my way to work today. I have to say, it's worked out pretty awesomely for me.

FTA:

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism - the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise - has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy.

[snip]

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don't count on it.

Stupid is a pretty powerful constituency.

GaryPDX: That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

That sort of accusation usually evens out pretty well across the aisles. I'm sure you've noticed by now.

Skleenar: Republicans, once hailed by Republicans as the "party of ideas," have become been realized as the party of stupid

This article pretty much sums up the last 8 years.

Why does Paul Krugman hate America? Shoot the traitor!

GaryPDX: That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

Actually, what you said there is a pretty good demonstration of the truth of what the article writer was saying.

And yeah, I know you're not a republican, but you're conservative enough, and it suits my point, so there you go.

Judith Miller is waiting for her W.H. memo on how to refute these wild allegations.

An op-ed in the NY Times criticizing the Republican party?

How unexpected!

GaryPDX: That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

Popcorn for breakfast....

"brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise - has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy."

Thanks, Liberal Bashing Industry. You've ruined the conservative movement. Hope you're satisfied

.

BravadoGT: An op-ed in the NY Times criticizing the Republican party?

How unexpected!

It's actually a fairly accurate piece, though. For instance, he mentions that it was right about the Katrina bumbling that republicans, nationally, began to fall out of favor. Something I had never really thought about before, but it is true.

CalvinMorallis: For instance, he mentions that it was right about the Katrina bumbling that republicans, nationally, began to fall out of favor. Something I had never really thought about before, but it is true.

Funny how when the party that claims that 'government doesn't work' is running the government, it doesn't work.

Skleenar: Funny how when the party that claims that 'government doesn't work' is running the government, it doesn't work.

See, they're right!

DistendedPendulusFrenulum: "brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise - has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy."

Thanks, Liberal Bashing Industry. You've ruined the conservative movement. Hope you're satisfied

I think the problem is that the Republican congressmen themselves bought into the garbage being spewed out of the mouths of the talking mouthpieces on TV and radio.

I'm not certain if the Democratic congressmen are failing their constituency to the same degree, but they may very well be picking up things here and there from media personalities on the left. Although the messages from the left are not as hive-minded, so that might be why it's harder to pick up on them.

Groupthink eventually makes everyone dumber. It's like the old saying, "none of us are as stupid as all of us."

And thanks, GaryPDX for inadvertently proving most of the points made in the article. You truly are a caricature of a human being, and for that you should be proud.

Locke3k: DistendedPendulusFrenulum:

I think the problem is that the Republican congressmen themselves bought into the garbage being spewed out of the mouths of the talking mouthpieces on TV and radio.



It worked so well for them during the eighties. But it became a racket. Very much like feminists, the republicans failed to distance themselves from their radicals, and divisive politics and rhetoric caused their whole platform to shift. They essentially Dworkinized themselves.

.

Skleenar: CalvinMorallis: For instance, he mentions that it was right about the Katrina bumbling that republicans, nationally, began to fall out of favor. Something I had never really thought about before, but it is true.

Funny how when the party that claims that 'government doesn't work' is running the government, it doesn't work.

To be fair, though, I don't think it ever really works. It just happens to not work to a more emphatic degree when the repubs are in control.

Locke3k: And thanks, GaryPDX for inadvertently proving most of the points made in the article. You truly are a caricature of a human being, and for that you should be proud.

I'm just annoyed up to my eyeballs with the "We, the Party" shiat. Our first President didn't like it and neither do I. I prefer a "We, the People" perspective like is supposed to be.

CalvinMorallis: To be fair, though, I don't think it ever really works. It just happens to not work to a more emphatic degree when the repubs are in control.

Not a great example, but who was in power when the space shuttles blew up?

GaryPDX: That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid.

if you insist. you're stupid. i don't know why you wanted me to do that though.

Code_Archeologist: The Republicans have always been the party of stupid

I agree. That whole emancipation proclamation thing- STUPID

GaryPDX: I'm just annoyed up to my eyeballs with the "We, the Party" shiat. Our first President didn't like it and neither do I. I prefer a "We, the People" perspective like is supposed to be.

Most rational people are annoyed with the "We, the Party" garbage, including most of your fellow Farkers. All of the problems arise when citizens stop calling politicians on their BS because they're "on our side" and we fear we might not "win".

It's not our job to sell the politicians to others, it's their own. It's our job to remain skeptical. Regardless of the letter next to their name. The movement you're seeing right now on the left (Obamaniacs) is just as ugly as the movement that's essentially taken over the right (Neocons). And the former is most likely a direct (albeit subconscious) response to the latter. Neither are healthy for the future of our country. Buy into the bullshiat that either side is shoveling and you become their pawn.

SpeshilEdjukashin

What's the WHARRGARBL scale? Three WHARRGARBL's out of five?

Kruggy, Kruggy, Kruggy... you used to be an economist, right? This should be an easy one for you...

In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: "The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking," said Representative John Shadegg.....

...According to one recent poll, 69 percent of Americans now favor expanded offshore drilling - and 51 percent of them believe that removing restrictions on drilling would reduce gas prices within a year.

We're farked. We Americans deserve what we get.

"Real men don't think things through."

That about sums it up in a nutshell right there.Mike Judge had it right in his Idiocracy movie.
Anyone with intelligence is labeled a fag.

Locke3k: The movement you're seeing right now on the left (Obamaniacs) is just as ugly as the movement that's essentially taken over the right (Neocons).

Examples?

Or are you just making specious equivalencies?

MasterThief: Kruggy, Kruggy, Kruggy... you used to be an economist, right? This should be an easy one for you...

he predicted exactly what's now going on in the economy years ago and all the dittoheads railed against him like he was crazy.

GaryPDX: I'm just annoyed up to my eyeballs with the "We, the Party" shiat. Our first President didn't like it and neither do I. I prefer a "We, the People" perspective like is supposed to be.

You keep saying that, but you keep railing on democrats endlessly at every opportunity.

Gary: I hate red. Red is stupid because of this. Red is wrong because of this this and this. Red is a bunch of pinko commies. Red is stupid because of this.
Everybody else: Gary, you do realize that blue caused this problem and this problem. So, blue is wrong too. Blue has been wrong for quite a while now.
Gary: I hate blue too. Why would you even think I like Blue? I most certainly do not like blue. But red is stupid. Red is wrong for this reason and this reason. I mean, why is red so stupid?
Everybody else: *facepalm*

GaryPDX: That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

Nearly half of them are below median intelligence.

MasterThief: Kruggy, Kruggy, Kruggy... you used to be an economist, right? This should be an easy one for you...

Fundamental shift in supply costs (such as a decrease in the cost of accessible energy), resulting in a decrease in prices and increase in production (going from S₁ to S₂); the opposite transition triggers stagflation, and is closer to what we're seeing.

/IAmNotAnEconomist

Hobodeluxe: Anyone with intelligence is labeled a fag.

No, some of us are just called crazy.

GaryPDX
That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

The Republican campaign strategy during recent election cycles has relied heavily on anti-intellectualism. They brand the other side as intellectual elitists who don't have any common sense like the virtuous regular folk. It smacks of playground resentment of the smart kids in the class. They encourage people to ignore expert opinion and research, to disdain it even. What do those silly experts know anyway? They're probably all liberals, atheists, and America haters!

Witness how they pandered to the masses even though every economist out there said a gas tax holiday was a terrible idea. And yes, I was disappointed to see Hillary Clinton support it too even when she couldn't name a single economist who supported her position.

See how the Republican party consistently comes down on the anti-science side of issues. Here are a few:

Global warming - forget what most climatologists say! What do they know? Elitists! It's an agenda designed to drag America down!

Evolution - It's just a theory! We demand equal time for intelligent design. Damn those secular God hating evolutionists.

Stem cell research - How dare you destroy those babies! Nevermind that we're talking about tiny blastocysts and fertility clinics already throw away tens of thousands of them a year, but we could be using that waste to research lifesaving and life improving treatments. Murder! Murder!

So yes, I'll call a spade a spade. The Republican Party strategy is to pander to stupidity and ignorance.

because the democrats are offering all of these things government can do for us (they seemed to have forgotten the famous JFK speech) and the republicans are trying to become more like the democrats.

which is why i now just support the libertarian party.

Skleenar: Locke3k: The movement you're seeing right now on the left (Obamaniacs) is just as ugly as the movement that's essentially taken over the right (Neocons).

Examples?

Or are you just making specious equivalencies?

I'd bank on the latter. I don't get it. No Obama supporter I've ever met has been dancing around, wearing funny hats and yelling, "HOPEHOPECHANGECHANGEMESSIAH!!" It's completely, 100 percent, a fabrication.

The vast, vast majority of us realize he's not perfect. The FISA thing, in fact, was just a sobering reminder of how true that fact is.

abb3w:
Nearly half of them are below median intelligence.



Exactly half of them are below the mean, however

.

Suddenly, the way "No Child Left Behind" is set up makes perfect sense.

GaryPDX: That's right, keep calling your fellow citizens stupid. That will work great!!

Quite a few of my fellow citizens are, in fact, stupid.

As evidence, I submit the popularity of American Idol.

patrick767: The Republican Party strategy is to pander to stupidity and ignorance.

Quoted for truth.

Skleenar: Examples?

Or are you just making specious equivalencies?

Both blindly support an ideology. Mind you, I'm not in any way saying anyone who thinks Obama is supporting him blindly - especially since I will be voting for him come November, too.

But there are some who come off like he's incapable of doing anything wrong. Whether you like the comparison or not, that's the same type of complete absence of skepticism that got us into this problem in the first place.

Obama has some very good ideas and some very bad ideas. One idea of his that I cannot stand is this idea of a "windfall profit" tax. But on the other hand, I do like his stances on foreign policy and regulating the commodities market, among many others.

And McCain has totally botched his campaign so far, so he's not really swayed me to his side very much at all. This campaign is rivaling Bob Dole's campaign in 1996 for sheer awfulness.

Locke3k: anyone everyone who thinks supports Obama

FTFM

/brain farts

Like you're gonna get an objective article from Paul freaking Krugman, come on now. That's like Karl Rove or Sean Hannity writing an anti-Democrat article -- it's just something you need to expect.

The party's de facto slogan has become: "Real men don't think things through."



What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be "insignificant"?

He's missing the point -- the real reason that drilling would be good is that it would allow us to replace foreign sources of oil with domestic sources. Obviously I only support offshore drilling if it is allowed with the caveat that the oil has to be sold in the domestic US market.

Well, I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly - that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business.

That's just as retarded as well.

Locke3k: Obama has some very good ideas and some very bad ideas. One idea of his that I cannot stand is this idea of a "windfall profit" tax. But on the other hand, I do like his stances on foreign policy and regulating the commodities market, among many others.

It's never been Obama's ideas, really, that got my attention. It's his ability to compromise, even on things that mean a lot to him (See: Fisa, offshort drilling, Iraq policy), for the sake of actually getting shiat done.

Man realizes that it doesn't matter who's right. What matters is who's willing to engage in give-and-take. Unfortunately.

KaponoFor3: He's missing the point -- the real reason that drilling would be good is that it would allow us to replace foreign sources of oil with domestic sources. Obviously I only support offshore drilling if it is allowed with the caveat that the oil has to be sold in the domestic US market.

I've never understood that (not being snarky). How can "Free market" types rectify their let-the-market-decide attitudes with the decisively unfree market (for lack of a better term) practice of excluding markets outside the U.S.?