This takes the prize for the most idiotic Right Wing cartoon of the day

[n2doc]

I mean, now it is a BAD thing to get a higher education? Students are just "cows" to be mindlessly herded? And it is the Dems who are pushing for mandatory vaccinations? Did "Goodhair" Perry change parties?

Talk about insulting your audience!

[Drifter]

1. Like my grandfather used to say ...

(regarding college). The world needs post hole diggers too.

He did not want me to go to college. He thought I would do better off learning a trade (like plumbing).
Of course he may have been biased in his suggestion, as he owned a hardware store all of his life.

Cheers
Drifter

[merh]

7. I wish I had learned a trade

to do over again, electrician or plumber

[atommom]

2. They like to denigrate higher education, because educated people

are more likely to be liberal. The funny thing about this cartoon is that it's the RWers who like to use the herd mentality to manipulate the public.

[Atman]

3. Remember, "liberals" are just pointy-headed elitists

To the GOP, being stupid is an honor. As long as there are enough people even more stupid than you who'll give you they're money and think they got a tax break.

.

[jobycom]

4. Simple case of Repubs not understanding that others think differently than they do.

Republicans truly see government that way, as a bunch of superior cattle drivers or kings or rulers or whatever forcing their will on the people. Government by, for, and of the people are just words to them--words they don't really grasp. And that's exactly the shape their governments take, which is why all of their leaders have been such failures as presidents.

Democrats see it all the other way. The people lead the government. We see those in Congress and the White House as our employees, there to do what we tell them. That's why Democrats are less likely to trust what a leader says or let a leader get away with not listening to us. We don't see them as leaders, we see them as hired hands.

To Republicans, the leader is a divine figure they have to listen to, obey, and defend despite all evidence to the contrary. Compare Bush and Reagan to Clinton and Carter. The Republicans defend everything their presidents did, even when they clearly lied and broke enough laws to fill a prison. Reagan's Iran/Contra scandal was ten times more impeachable than Watergate, yet Repubs defended Reagan, and bought every lie he sold, even when the lies contradicted what he had said the week before. Democrats never gave Clinton a pass like that. When Clinton went to war in Serbia, Democrats were the loudest protestors. When Clinton signed legislation we didn't like, we screamed the loudest.

Republicans are cattle, and they have limited intelligence, so they believe everyone else is just like them.

That, and they really are bad at humor. That cartoon just doesn't work on any level, even if I agreed with them. Reverse it, have the Republicans on the horses trying to herd the people to support one of their programs, and it's still not funny. It's just lame.

[InternalDialogue]

5. Great post.

You captured an essence of a mentality I've been trying to put my finger on for a while -- the Republican trait of always claiming to be at the mercy of government or public opinion or whatever. They present a distinct sense of lack of control over one's own life. I've seen it in crystal clarity in both of Ann Coulter's most recent outbursts, the 9/11 widows situation ("They can say what they want, and you can't criticize them") and the John Edwards "faggot" swipe ("If you say 'faggot' they put you in rehab"). In both of those situations, she's using the device of some unseen monstrous force that limits her behavior or speech. Ann, you and every other Republican is allowed to say whatever you want -- be ready to deal with the backlash of public opinion if it's unpopular -- but for goodness' sake, it's your life, you make your own choices, you decide what you want your government to do, not the other way around. It's a concept that resonates with Republicans who seem so susceptible to the authoritarian crap. Hollywood, liberals, elites, college professors, communists, terrorists -- "they" all have dastardly plans and unexplainable powers.

[jobycom]

8. Notice also what Coulter is really complaining about.

She implies that someone is out to stop her from saying what she says. Well, sort of, but who is that someone? The Constitution guarantees her the right to say what she wants, and no law or government agency is trying to take that away from her. Thus, her implications of censorship are bunk. What she's really complaining about are the people who are speaking out against her. In other words, what she is saying is that you and I don't have the freedom to express what we don't like about her speech. She can say it, we (meaning the general public) can't speak back.

She's not against speech control, she's all for it. But she wants to be the one controlling it. Same with every other conservative. Remember Tim Hardaway, and all the Republicans who came out and said he had the right to say what he did, and that liberals were inconsistent for condemning him. No one argued he didn't have the right to say it. We only argued that what he said was bad. That was us expressing our freedom of speech, just as Hardaway did. Republicans hate debates. They like dictation, with no possibility of rebuttal. They are entitled, they play the victim, and they accuse us of their sins.

[treestar]

12. So true, and they are such hypocrites, because when it was the

Dixie Chick remark about *, they were exactly the opposite. They go by a perfect double standard.

[lectrobyte]

10. Excellent post. There's a link here somewhere on the Authoritarians,

fits right in with "The Decider" and their way of thinking about government. Found it http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

[mwb970]

6. This cartoon seems to have no point, and no wit.

Of course, you did say it was a right-wing "cartoon".

Again: wingnuts cannot do humor.

[bunkerbuster1]

9. I re-read "be able to go to college."

I keep focusing on this aspect of the wingnut ethos. They'll claim such utterances are merely a concern that "government schools" take a one-size-fits-all approach to education, that some people would be better off doing vocational training rather than a classic 4-year academic undergrad program.

Of course, that's a total strawman argument. Progressives aren't opposed to providing appropriate education levels compatible with a person's skill sets. But that's what wingnuts would have you believe.

[NoGOPZone]

11. That's even worse than Mallard Fillmore

Another graduate of the 'humor optional' school of cartoon creation.

[HughBeaumont]

13. Right. Everybody OUGHTA be able to go to college, you stupid shit.

Point number 22 on Thirty-Six Sure-Fire Signs That Your Empire Is Crumbling: "You know your empire’s crumbling when instead of making it easier for citizens to obtain a higher education, you’re making it harder and more expensive."