General Discussion

Tab

(11,093 posts) Sun Nov 29, 2015, 02:24 PM Nov 2015

This was originally in a thread about Trump and how it's come to this.

But I wanted to pull out my comment:

The way sections of this country has been going (veering into evangelism, xenophobia, science-denying) he's simply a product of the times. We should have expected no less.

What is frustrating is the reluctance of good qualified people to run - and I don't blame them. Your life is under a microscope, everything's 24/7/365, you have to fundraise like crazy, expect to get villified for things you didn't do, much less for things you did. I
don't blame people for not wanting to run. But we have to change it if we want adults running the country.

Main point is that we've created an election system that rewards populism, which I guess was the point, except we've simultaneously dumbed down our populace. AM/FM radio is no help in this regard, much less Fox.

Before you minimize AM/FM, my last visit to the dentist had him playing some RW xenophobe, although I didn't catch the station, but the point is that there are zillions of people that listen to the radio - dentists, garbagemen who have the truck radio tuned to a RW station, etc. In fact, a lot of people get their info over the radio when they're commuting, and aren't watching cable.

6 replies

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Highlight:

This was originally in a thread about Trump and how it's come to this. (Original Post) Tab Nov 2015 OP

The primary system as created appeals to a very small percentage of hardcore partisans. Agnosticsherbet Nov 2015 #1

Hate radio has turned my truck driving brother into a RWNJ. nt valerief Nov 2015 #2

^^ THIS ^^^ Tab Nov 2015 #4

K&R! MeNMyVolt Nov 2015 #3

right, it's "bigmouth politics": doesn't matter if everything you say contradicts reality or itself, MisterP Nov 2015 #5

Hate radio helped foment the Rwandan genocide, it gives too many too much negative bs to harm others uppityperson Nov 2015 #6

Agnosticsherbet

(11,619 posts)

1. The primary system as created appeals to a very small percentage of hardcore partisans.

Reply to Tab (Original post)

Sun Nov 29, 2015, 02:35 PM

Nov 2015

Republicans that advocated a path to citizenship must run from that what they once said because hardcore partisans will not accept them.
You can apply the same metric to a woman's right to choose, or any other hot button topic.
Hell, we know that most Americans support marriage equality and some form of national healthcare. A candidate on the right can not hold an opinion that most Americans hold.

The primary system as designed doesn't work.

valerief

(53,235 posts)

2. Hate radio has turned my truck driving brother into a RWNJ. nt

Reply to Tab (Original post)

Sun Nov 29, 2015, 02:53 PM

Nov 2015

Tab

(11,093 posts)

4. ^^ THIS ^^^

Reply to valerief (Reply #2)

Sun Nov 29, 2015, 02:59 PM

Nov 2015

Democrats have abandoned radio, particularly AM radio, but that's where a lot of people tune their radio while driving around collecting refuse/mail/whatever.