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TheMastersNemesis

(10,602 posts)
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:34 PM Jun 2014

GOP Sadists Enjoy Inflicting Pain On The Vulnerable. So How Do They Keep Winning Elections?

We must be a cruel nation or something. The further right the GOP goes and they pretty much all tea baggers now, the more pain the inflict on the country at large. Yet they most likely will do well in 2014. Are so many people brainwashed that we continue this madness.

The country has so many very critical problems that will not be addressed as long a gridlock continues. And it will continue the direction things are going. And it is not just the RW politicians who say such nasty and hateful even destructing things, it the people who gladly approve of them that is worrisome.

Nothing is sacred to these people. Somehow GOP sadism is rewarded. And why is the most difficult question and what we do about it that we have to answer.

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GOP Sadists Enjoy Inflicting Pain On The Vulnerable. So How Do They Keep Winning Elections? (Original Post) TheMastersNemesis Jun 2014 OP
It speaks to the general derangement of the country and why it's dubious the US will ever be "fixed" villager Jun 2014 #1
This message was self-deleted by its author Adam051188 Jun 2014 #2
Not externally imposed by unremitting environmental crises, they didn't villager Jun 2014 #5
i believe what you are saying is impossible Adam051188 Jun 2014 #19
Again, I refer you to history: When ecosystems fray, so do Empires villager Jun 2014 #22
The madness of crowds, and all that. ChairmanAgnostic Jun 2014 #3
money wins elections. plain and simple. unblock Jun 2014 #4
money wins elections. plain and simple. yeoman6987 Jun 2014 #7
outlier, obviously. unblock Jun 2014 #9
Your right. yeoman6987 Jun 2014 #11
The GOPers have hornswoggled a lot of non-1-percenters into believing The Velveteen Ocelot Jun 2014 #6
Not to mention. Rod Beauvex Jun 2014 #13
It must be the love of Jesus or racial hatred that binds so many to blind right-wing indepat Jun 2014 #8
IMO we need CJCRANE Jun 2014 #10
Honestly... Rod Beauvex Jun 2014 #17
Sideshow Bob nailed it: deutsey Jun 2014 #12
This might explain why. pa28 Jun 2014 #14
This message was self-deleted by its author Adam051188 Jun 2014 #21
The three Ds. Uncle Joe Jun 2014 #15
Wedge issues... abortion, gays, immigration, religion, guns, etc... davidn3600 Jun 2014 #16
Because their victims keep voting for the GOP. muntrv Jun 2014 #18
Important question. k&r for exposure. n/t Laelth Jun 2014 #20
Half the people are ... GeorgeGist Jun 2014 #23
They appeal to people's fear that their freedom lovemydog Jun 2014 #24
 

villager

(26,001 posts)
1. It speaks to the general derangement of the country and why it's dubious the US will ever be "fixed"
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:37 PM
Jun 2014

...prior to climate catastrophes forcing a downsizing into separate, smaller polities...

Response to villager (Reply #1)

 

villager

(26,001 posts)
5. Not externally imposed by unremitting environmental crises, they didn't
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:44 PM
Jun 2014

But as we know, when ecosystems finally begin to topple, empires can't hold...

 

Adam051188

(711 posts)
19. i believe what you are saying is impossible
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:26 PM
Jun 2014

without the presence of a significant helping of good old fashioned american duplicity.

i could hire half the population to kill the other half...and so could my daddy....and his daddy....and his daddy's daddy....

but we got rid of monarchy right?

 

villager

(26,001 posts)
22. Again, I refer you to history: When ecosystems fray, so do Empires
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:45 PM
Jun 2014

The hubris of those living in the Empires notwithstanding

ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
3. The madness of crowds, and all that.
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:41 PM
Jun 2014

Don't forget the MK Ultra experiments either. Humans have an incredible capacity for evil and inflicting abuse and pain.

The Lord of the Flies would probably describe today's GOP best.

unblock

(51,974 posts)
4. money wins elections. plain and simple.
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:42 PM
Jun 2014

they once convinced a nation that the keys to the nuclear football and supreme court appointments and the veto pen should be awarded on the basis of which candidate was perceived to handle the pressing issue of flag burning, one of the least committed acts ever.

or whether or not one candidate sighed too much.

or looked silly in a helmet.


it works. people end up implicitly endorsing ridiculous supreme court nominees on the basis of presidential candidate sweater color choices.

 

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)
7. money wins elections. plain and simple.
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:48 PM
Jun 2014

Tell that to Canter....he has plenty of time to ponder that statement.

unblock

(51,974 posts)
9. outlier, obviously.
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:58 PM
Jun 2014

sure, there are examples of candidates who spent oodles and still lost, linda mcmahon leading the list, spending something like $100 million, largely out of her own pocket, running for both of connecticut's senate seats and losing both times

but on the whole, money (both in terms of campaign spending and media control) makes a big difference, and across 535 congressional seats, this is how the republicans remain as powerful as they do despite the fact that america disagrees with them on the vast majority of significant policy matters.

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,280 posts)
6. The GOPers have hornswoggled a lot of non-1-percenters into believing
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:48 PM
Jun 2014

that Democrats want to give "their" tax money away to people who don't deserve it - those people being mostly those mythical non-white "welfare queens" who have eight kids, all with different fathers, and who drive Cadillacs and buy lobster tails and malt liquor with their food stamps. No matter how much the middle class and poorer GOP-believers might be suffering as a result of GOP policies, they have been convinced that the GOP is nobly preventing the expenditure of public funds on that lower class of people. This allows the GOP to screw them almost as thoroughly as it screws "those people."

Lyndon Johnson might have said it best: "I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

Rod Beauvex

(564 posts)
13. Not to mention.
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:04 PM
Jun 2014

It's that everything the Republican's have done to harm their constituents and America in general, they just simply blame on Democrats if there is any blow back.

indepat

(20,899 posts)
8. It must be the love of Jesus or racial hatred that binds so many to blind right-wing
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:54 PM
Jun 2014

sadism, cruelty, malice, and perversion of liberty.

Rod Beauvex

(564 posts)
17. Honestly...
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:21 PM
Jun 2014

I think we're entering one, and the internet has played the most significant role in this, as it gave a voice and stage for America, and the America left in particular. We lost the radio. We lost the television. We do, however, still have the internet. I've said this before, but this is what the fight about net neutrality is really about. Controlling the message on the internet.

Certainly, change isn't happening nearly as fast as we would like, no argument there, but it is happening. I think is was both the Bush administration and, in particular, the crash of 2008 that were the breaking point for most of America. The Health Care law, whatever one may think of it is a result of this. So is the slow-but-sure death of the anti-gay marriage sentiment. As is the movement toward legal marijuana.

deutsey

(20,166 posts)
12. Sideshow Bob nailed it:
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:03 PM
Jun 2014

"...deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king."

pa28

(6,145 posts)
14. This might explain why.
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:06 PM
Jun 2014
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mark-ames/33836/we-the-spiteful

"We the spiteful"

If the left wants to understand American voters, it needs to once and for all stop sentimentalizing them as inherently decent, well-meaning people being duped by a tiny cabal of evil oligarchs--because the awful truth is that they're mean, spiteful jerks being duped by a tiny cabal of evil oligarchs.


This author has come to believe American voters are equally sadistic. The right fundamentally understands and makes use of that fact.

Response to pa28 (Reply #14)

Uncle Joe

(58,112 posts)
15. The three Ds.
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 04:11 PM
Jun 2014

Diversion - Diverting attention from what's important to fluff and sensationalism.

Delusion - Using the power of enraptured faith believers against reason and logic.

Demonization - To project selected of groups of people usually victims to be the culprits behind the average low information populace's source of woes instead of the oligarch/mega-corporate string pullers.

All of this is fed to the American People on a steady basis by the corporate media.

Thanks for the thread, TheMastersNemesis.

lovemydog

(11,833 posts)
24. They appeal to people's fear that their freedom
Wed Jun 11, 2014, 05:04 PM
Jun 2014

is threatened by minorities, immigrants, foreigners, unions and the federal government. It's the oldest trick throughout American history. Appeal to ignorance, small-mindedness, meanness, racism, sexism, homophobia and fear of the 'other'.

They also benefit from the ignorant notion that you shouldn't vote if you don't like everything about a particular candidate. That there is no major difference between parties.

I don't think it's a winning strategy in most national elections any more. Huge caveat - if most people vote.

I think the Democratic Party should go more grassroots populist. Get more women, younger people, minorities on ballots. Run as an outsider to washington bullshit. Know your constituents. They are angry. Declare your office is closed to big oil, big insurance, big corporate lobbyists. Engage locally on the ground with house parties, accessibility and localization of every election. Fight like hell for the majority economically. I'm encouraged by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Grassroots populists. We should have many more candidates like them. They will even get some former republican voters. Many are fed up with the establishment republican party too. They want someone to vote for, who tells it like it is without mincing words.

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