Is the idea that Republicans even have a chance proof that there is some sort of tear in reality?

[ck4829]

Basically, the other side of the aisle believes that while the government and poor people are inherently evil and corrupt; Wall Street, corporations and the wealthy are inherently double-plus-good and constantly 100% righteous in every and any decision they have made and will make and that any and all while any and all taxation is socialism, oh excuse me, SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!one!!1, however if you want to make any cut to military spending (Which relies on... what do you think it relies on?), then you want the terrorists to win.

The idea that a hundred people would vote for that ideology is boggling.

So, this begs the question, who exactly left the door to the Twilight Zone ajar?

[slackmaster]

1. It's a predictable unintended consequence of power shifting so heavily to the Democrats

That's how the adversarial system is supposed to work. One side keeps the other in check.

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Sarcasm?

[slackmaster]

14. No. The country is deeply divided in several dimensions.

Understanding that provides a possible key to staying in power.

[EstimatedProphet]

16. What's going on today is not even close to how the adversarial system is supposed to work

All sense of reality has disappeared from the "loyal opposition" - they're not even close to loyal, and in too many cases are ready to pick up arms simply because their guy lost, and one of THOSE PEOPLE won.

[slackmaster]

17. I pay close attention to things that people on both sides of the divide say

Your comment could easily have been written by one of "them" in reference to "us".

[EstimatedProphet]

18. Except:

I have no plans to fly a plane into a building protesting taxes. I also don't pick up a gun and go off to shoot conservatives. The other side does these things. The other side also puts out a lot of lies about how Obama isn't the real president because he's not a citizen, and that he's trying to turn the country into a Muslim theocracy, and all sorts of other asinine stuff. Politics today have become dominated by temper tantrums like never before. Innocent people have gotten killed over them, and they will again in greater numbers. the far right is driving them. Anyone who believes the left is just as bad as the right is not paying attention.

[slackmaster]

20. ...

Please don't try to tell me that this guy did what he did because he's crazy, and the right-winger actions you cited were not the result of mental illness.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. I don't even know who that is

But you please don't tell me that the 24/7 brainwashing station called Fox News doesn't have an impact. Mental illness can be created.

[slackmaster]

24. Discovery Channel gunman

One of last week's big new items, now forgotten by the media because nobody except him died.

[EstimatedProphet]

25. Oh, OK. So you're saying he's one of our side.

Even though he went on and on about "anchor baby filth", taken right off of Fox News.

[slackmaster]

27. NO, NO, NO, WRONG!!!

I'm saying he's CRAZY.

Man, some people on this forum have serious problems understanding basic English.

[Hissyspit]

22. One vs. a hundred?

And yes, the guy was mentally unstable. And, yes, "the other side does it too" is naive equivalence.

[slackmaster]

23. Name the hundred

There is equivalence, even if it isn't perfectly balanced.

[EstimatedProphet]

26. Yeah, there's equivalence

Both a feather and a lead brick have weight. That doesn't mean they have the same weight.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. It is a binary system -- two parties, two choices

There is only one issue: The Economy

National economic policy has been a joke, with inadequate results.

The Democratic Party controls Congress and the WH.

People will pull the other lever.

That's all it is... a reflexive vote against the status quo. No real idealogical endorsement.

[vi5]

4. It's a blurring of the lines that does it...

..the Republican party has adopted enough talking points and phrases and tenets of a faux populism, and the Democratic party has done enough in favor of corporations, and big business and enough actions that hurt the working poor and the middle class that people just do not see enough of a difference so they are going to vote out the incumbent party because they are pissed.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Democrats mostly try to run on facts and ideas. Repubicans mostly run on concepts and feelings.

The obese black woman in New York who lies to the welfare office is their opponent. The fact that such a person doesn't exist, and never existed except for a very few aberrant examples years ago is immaterial. It is an easy picture to paint and an easy raw nerve to tweak.

It is easy to run against free spending Democrats, even as the cause of our problems is the profligate spending of repubicans who cloak it as tax cuts and support for the troops.

It is easy to run against desecration of Ground Zero even as the building in questions already exists and is already what is intended to be there in the future.

Listen to the likes of Palin or Beckkk. They don't actually *say* anything so much as imply things. They use emotional, evocative words. Those words resound well in the echo chamber that dwells in the rather empty space inside the skull of the congenitally stupid.

Colbert's "truthiness" embodies all of this. Truthiness isn't about fact. It is about the reality of what you feel in your gut.

The repubicans have raised this to an art form.

[ladjf]

10. Objective vs Subjective. nt

[Stinky The Clown]

13. No

Deception vs Actuality

[deaniac21]

11. Small point....concept and idea are synonymous.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. Not Twilight Zone...

Outer Limits.

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. "

[regnaD kciN]

7. No, it's proof that there is some sort of tear in US...

If Democratic-leaning voters turn out in numbers equal to Republican-leaning voters in November, losses will be minimal. Oh, sure, we'll lose a few seats, but no more so than is average for the party in power in a mid-term election.

Where this is turning into a blowout is that Democratic voters are expected to turn out at a far lower rate than Republicans, just like during the 1994 "Gingrich Revolution" mid-term. And why is that? Mostly, because of Democrats who are disgruntled that we haven't seen more change, and jump from that to putting all the blame on Obama (as opposed to Republicans and the handful of "blue dogs" who stood in the way of much-needed reform), demonizing him as a "sellout" who "betrayed" us, and opt to sit at home in November in order to "send a message." Oh, there will be a message sent, all right...that, no matter how bad the situation, any desire for "change" in a progressive direction will only last a few months, and then the electorate will return to the status quo of a "center-right nation." Don't want to see that happen? Get off your ass and vote!

[pansypoo53219]

8. zombie reagan is hard to kill,

when the media insists on feeding him brains.

[Bonhomme Richard]

12. +1

[Javaman]

15. ...

:spray: :rofl: !!!

Probably the best turn of phrase and double entendre I have ever read in my entire time here on DU!

I bow in the presents of greatness!

:applause:

[ladjf]

9. I fear that the "reality" is that there is a large number of unenlightened

Americas, numerous enough to vote us into political disaster. nt

[ProgressiveEconomist]

19. 'Door to the Twilight Zone': Media ownership, Propaganda/Disinformation, Repetition

Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes dominate cable TV with Fox 'News' and contro a big slice of "respected print journalism", including the Wall Street Journal. The more voters watch Fox and read the NY Post etc, the more their perceptions of politics and their own economic lives align with the Republican/Tea Party fantsy-world big corporate media sell. Repetiion of long-debunked lies, preferably with ever-more familiar video accompaniment, is key:

"The President's stimulus has had no effect".
"We have lost control of our borders".
"ACORN has stolen many elections with voter fraud"
"Terror alert level orange--stock up on duct tape"
"Tax and spend Democrats have raised the debt more in one year than Dubya did in eight".

IMO scores of millions of people live in bubbles of media-generated fantasy where Republican lies and deception are never challenged

[yella_dawg]

28. The evangelical right believes...

I'm not making this up. I may not understand completely, but conversation with evangelicals has convinced me that they believe that becoming saved bestows a certain infallibility. The idea that you are "saved" evidently envelops you in righteousness such that you can't commit evil. So should you feel the urge to ax murder, then it must be God's Will. You describe a similar value system attached to wealth. The only path to wealth is through good works, thus the wealthy are by definition morally, physically, and mentally superior. God's chosen.

I think that a man named Prescott Bush left the door unlatched. Bush was a highly visible minion of the wealthy during the first half of the twentieth century. Grandfather of the Bush we've all come to know and love. On the other hand, I suspect that reality may be entering a complex transition phase, in which case, it will get a lot weirder as things progress. Somebody removed the door frame, so to speak, and maybe the wall the door was mounted in. Real weird.

[w8liftinglady]

29. this map of voting trends of evangelicals is informative...

...as they seem to be growing-especially here in the South/South West

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2008/11/the_evangelical.html