There was a Teabagger from Arizona on NPR this morning being interviewed regarding the debates and the Primary.

He said he was looking forward to Santorum winning the nomination as he would "tear Obama apart" in the debates. I shiat you not.

These people are ridiculous...

Of course not!

They're more than welcome to wear shoes while making sandwiches.

Our government is supposed to be acting for the common good of the people. The Republicans are letting a vocal minority try and dictate what they think the 'common good' should be. This is happening in more and more ways, the loud screamers are getting their way.

The silent majority needs to get off its duff and make it known they don't want their lives run for them by a select few. 100 people speaking in a normal tone of voice can drown out a screamer. It's time we started letting them know they we care too.

... letting then know that we care too.

Grumble, typos are a great way to ruin your message.

Slives: 100 people speaking in a normal tone of voice can drown out a screamer.

You might think so, yet the very existence of Fox News and Talk Radio disproves your hypothesis.

...OK, I'm a little curious. The crowd on Fark tends to lean godless, liberal, and male, so it's hardly a representative sample of the US; but I'm wondering if there are any females who want to try and defend the GOP's push to allow religious institutions to exclude contraceptives from health care coverage, to mandate abortion requirements like getting a vaginal ultrasound beforehand, and generally to get a government small enough to stick up your vagoo.

Anyone?

That's not true. They'll be allowed to wear socks.

It's "Does the Pope shiat in the woods," subby, sheesh. Now where is my white russian...

Even with all the crap that Harper has been pulling, I am so very, very glad to be a Canadian right now. This kind of ridiculous garbage would never even get off the ground here.

snowjack: What I want to know is, does the Pope crap in the woods?

Not sure about this one, but the last one was an avid hiker as bishop and still early into his papacy. I would assume, therefore, that at one point he had to lay a deuce in the Alps.

Goldwater predicted this shiat.



Evangelicals were never very political, for the most part. Many of them completely abstained from voting at all (including Jehovahs Witness, Pentecostals, Mennonites, and even most Mormons). And their religious leaders constantly preached this practice of political non-participation.

But sometime around the 60s or 70s, maybe as a Hegelian backlash against the government-enforced Civil Rights laws/movement, these people suddenly started taking an active role and interest in politics. I think the final nail that pushed them over the edge was Roe vs Wade in 1972. After that point, they mobilized en masse, because they disliked the way the government was legislating morality to them.

The first big campaign to really bottle and capitalize on this powerful new demographic bloc was Reagan in 1980. By selling politics to the evangelicals, suddenly the Republicans -- the the party of small government, fiscal spending and laissez-faire economics -- became the Super Evangelical Right, and dropped the small government and fiscal spending part (they had to if they wanted to re-engineer society by legislating morality the way the liberals tried to the 60s).

Hardcore Christans turned out in droves, and every Republican now operates in the shadow of Reagan. The modern party is pretty much an amalgamation of opportunists trying to duplicate Reagan's success by appealing and re-appealing to the Evangelicals, reinforcing their narrative.

Because of this, the Republicans have increasingly looked less and less like true Conservatives and more like moral crusaders for God and country. The Evangelicals, whom no more than 40 years ago weren't even a politically relevant voting bloc, now have completely taken over the Republican party, or at the very least convinced Republicans that the party can't win without them.

And that is what's wrong with America.

KiltedBastich: Even with all the crap that Harper has been pulling, I am so very, very glad to be a Canadian right now. This kind of ridiculous garbage would never even get off the ground here.

Oh yeah? Well little do you suspect that we are sending conservative politicians to Canada with harper's complicity. Soon you will drown in derpish santorum. There shall be no mercy!!!

Wadded Beef: keylock71: There was a Teabagger from Arizona on NPR this morning being interviewed regarding the debates and the Primary.

He said he was looking forward to Santorum winning the nomination as he would "tear Obama apart" in the debates. I shiat you not.

These people are ridiculous...

I heard that too during my drive this morning. They also interviewed some GOP pundit and he used the term "by-product" when it came to Santorum's appeal.

Oh, man... I missed that one. I can't believe there are people in this country who seriously believe this clown should be president.

In some ways, I do hope the morons in the GOP do pick Santorum as their nominee, simply because it will be hilarious to see these people go ape shiat when Obama wins reelection. Though, after watching a clod like Bush get elected twice, I'm afraid to actually rout for it, to be honest.

I basically have no faith in my fellow Americans at this point in my life...

Grievances against the GOP from a (former?) Republican woman (new window)

Pope Ursus I disapproves of your shenanigans.

sabreWulf07: KiltedBastich: Even with all the crap that Harper has been pulling, I am so very, very glad to be a Canadian right now. This kind of ridiculous garbage would never even get off the ground here.

The same could be said about the US twenty years ago. It's a slow process, dragging the Overton Window along. Just be patient, you guys will get there.

Gergesa: Oh yeah? Well little do you suspect that we are sending conservative politicians to Canada with harper's complicity. Soon you will drown in derpish santorum. There shall be no mercy!!!

Actually, the Canadian government uses a parliamentary system, which is more resistant to this kind of jerk-ass politics. This is because the whole concept of a loyal opposition means that the minority party (the NDP currently) are literally expected to scrutinize and criticize everything the government does, and hold it up for public evaluation. It's much harder to attack your opponents as reactionary partisans when it is literally their entire job in government to act as partisan watchdogs. If they weren't being openly and rigorously critical, they would be derelict in their duty in the Canadian system.

Because of that phenomenon, I am frankly not worried about the Overton window being dragged back like is happening in the USA, because by the time it could overcome the institutional roadblocks in the Canadian system, the older more fearful generation that might go along with it will be mostly dead and gone. They don't have that 20 years to push this, because by then the next generation will be running things I they simply have no interest in this sort of garbage whatsoever.