Dear Jon..can you please tell me the last time a progressive head stomped their opponent? thanks.

[ORDagnabbit]

[KansasVoter]

1. +1 Jon was trying to look nice to both sides. And failed!

[virtualobserver]

2. you are forgetting Franklin "Mad Dog" Roosevelt......

He stomped on quite a few Republicans.

[FirstTimeVoterAt37]

3. When did a progressive pundit call for the assassination of a doctor?

Thanks Jon.

[LostInAnomie]

4. Jesus fucking Christ! Did everyone miss the fucking point?

[sharp_stick]

5. Of course they did

it's a little too easy to miss the point and a lot of people unfortunately don't even bother to try.

[Fumesucker]

6. We know the point..

"Both sides are equally guilty".

[jberryhill]

14. No, that's not the point

The point is that headstomper guy is headstomper guy. He is not "every Republican".

Absolutely headstomper guy is reprehensible, but it does not contribute to sane discourse to call every Republican "headstomper guy" and think you've made a point.

[Fumesucker]

23. How many Republicans are condemning what "headstomper guy" did?

I haven't seen any yet.

[jberryhill]

27. Looked real hard, did you?

http://www.randpaul2010.com/2010/10/rand-paul-condemns-supporter%E2%80%99s-actions-outside-debate/

“The Rand Paul for Senate campaign is extremely disappointed in, and condemns the actions of a supporter last night outside the KET debate. Whatever the perceived provocation, any level of aggression or violence is deplorable, and will not be tolerated by our campaign. The Paul campaign has disassociated itself from the volunteer who took part in this incident, and once again urges all activists — on both sides — to remember that their political passions should never manifest themselves in physical altercations of any kind.”

Here's the deal. Rand Paul is a nitwit. He was a nitwit before headstomper guy, and he'll be a nitwit after headstomper guy. He is a nitwit not because of headstomper guy, but because of the utter bankruptcy of his political ideas and positions.

Making the Conway/Paul race "all about headstomper guy" doesn't advance the political dialog, doesn't inform voters, and doesn't change any minds among people who are inclined not to know that Rand Paul is a nitwit, but who did manage to catch Paul's own denunciation over headstomper guy.

This is the "where are the Muslims who condemn terrorism" thing. I don't have to condemn terrorism because Tim Mcveigh is white, and I am also white.

There are millions of Republicans who didn't stomp on anyone's head last week, and who don't need to condemn or apologize for headstomping, BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T STOMP ON ANYONE'S HEAD.

I Tivo KO and Rachael, and watch every show. But, really, when KO is going to spend 15 minutes on headstomper guy, it is giving waaaay too much attention to one moron. I'd like to get some news. Yes, headstomper guy is a symptom of divisive de-humanizing political rhetoric. The answer is not to de-humanize all Republicans as if they are all headstomper guy. They know they are not, and trying to convince them otherwise is a waste of time that enlightens and informs nobody.

Is the point that I'm supposed to loathe and fear all Republicans because of headstomper guy? That's a stupid point.

[Fumesucker]

28. I didn't bring up the headstomper guy, you did that..

I was just responding to what you said.

Maybe you don't recall Democratic politicians falling all over themselves to condemn MoveOn and ACORN but I do remember their eagerness to point the finger at people ostensibly on the same side they are.

Of course Paul had to condemn what his own supporter did, now show me the rush of *other* Republicans that have done that.

[jberryhill]

29. Headstomper guy is referenced in the title of the thread

WTF - "I didn't bring up headstomper guy, you did" - Read the thread title.

Have a nice day, Fumesucker.

The country cannot move forward on anything if the political dialog is a constant parade of recriminations and characterizations which do not advance the actual political dialog on the issues.

Barack Obama won the election by staying focused on issues of interest to actual people living actual lives. As McCain/Palin learned, the electorate at large just really isn't all that responsive to Ayers/Wright/Kenya/Muslim sideshows that are not responsive to their concerns as voters who want to know what policies are going to impact them and how.

The political sideshow is a lot of fun and intensely interesting to people who have the time for it. Stewart's point is that it is not serving the function of informing the electorate, and it promotes a distorted picture of who we all are and what we really care about.

Go watch this week's Real Time Maher for the reaction of the National Review reporter to Maher's attempt to hang headstomper guy around the neck of all Republicans.

Those Republicans who stomped on someone's head last week definitely owe an apology to those whose heads were stomped. If you think that whether or not some non-headstomping Republican did or did not condemn headstomper guy is going to change the mind of a single independent or Republican voter, or if you think that demonizing all Republicans over headstomper guy is the way you are going to change the mind of a single Republican voter, then you do not understand either politics or psychology.

[Fumesucker]

33. Funny how you ignored my point about Democratic politicians condemning MoveOn and ACORN..

When neither organization did anything actually wrong. And yet MoveOn was condemned by an act of Congress and ACORN's funding was cut by another act of that same Congress.

I'm surrounded by Republicans, I live in deep red state and an even deeper red county, I don't think there's anything you can do to change the minds of any more than an infinitesimal minority of them anyway no matter what you say, just like there's nothing you could say to get me to vote Republican.

The politically involved Republicans I know are *still* fuming over Saul Alinsky, I actually had to look him up the first time I heard one of them bitching about him, I vaguely recalled the name but other than that I drew a blank.

Oh, and I don't give the slightest fuck what a reporter for National Review might have to say to Bill Maher or anyone else.

[jberryhill]

35. Because it is fucking irrelevant

ACORN was indeed shafted by the spin cycle of the bullshit machine. And here you are doing it yourself... "oh, you didn't respond to my pointing out a piece of bullshit politics was bullshit politics." Sweet baby Jesus, I also know that Al Gore never said he invented the internet, and the Willie Horton ad was unfair, but I'm not going to spend the rest of my days on earth plowing that field.

I'm not going off on some hunt-n-find for "Republicans against headstomping" to have you say, "Oh, I don't care what they said" when you were the one demanding it.

Absolutely, nurture whatever tit-for-tat sideshow bullshit tickles your fancy. The election in California is whether or not someone in Jerry Brown's camp said "whore"; the election in Kentucky is a referendum on headstomping; the election in Delaware is about masturbation; and so on.

The 2008 election was the first one to which my teenagers were paying attention. I told them that, ideally, elections are about a choice between various sets of policies which respond to issues of interests in voters, but it is a shame that we were all cheated out of that by having only one side actually running a campaign based on that simple concept.

Yes, the Republicans standard bearers are a freakshow. I believe the voters are smart enough to figure that out, without having the freakshow aspects be the centerpiece of the dialog.

Good golly gosh, go get yourself a soapbox and stand amid your red-state neighbors calling them all headstompers for the next couple of years, if it makes you feel better. It's not going to do diddly for anyone, including yourself.

[Fumesucker]

36. ACORN for one did a lot of GOTV for the Democrats..

I'm sure that not having ACORN doing GOTV this election is entirely irrelevant to the Democrats chances at the polls.

Or maybe if it's not so irrelevant maybe the "bullshit politics" wasn't quite as bullshit as you are making it out to be.

I long since quit talking politics with my neighbors, like trying to teach a pig to sing it wastes my time and furthermore it annoys the pig.

[gkhouston]

7. Not everyone, but a surprising number, apparently. n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. yes. they did.

[CBR]

12. yes... nt

[SidDithers]

16. Too many have deliberately missed it...nt

Sid

[AspenRose]

17. WHOOSH!

Duck!

[mzmolly]

24. I'm calling you out for not listening and having an over the top

response. :sarcasm: ;)

[DevonRex]

26. Did they miss it or are they misrepresenting it?

Honestly, I don't know what to hope for. :shrug:

[LostInAnomie]

30. Here's my take

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9435322

[DevonRex]

32. That's a great OP. I just linked to it to explain my position in another thread.

Honestly couldn't think of a better way to say it. :hi: and thanks!

[Atman]

8. Here we go...

Fuckin' A...I love DU, but I hate DU.

.

[AspenRose]

19. We should have coffee sometime.

Seriously. :hi:

[Recursion]

9. Mid-70s, give or take

That was pretty much the end of the "violence is the answer" groups on the left.

[Poboy]

10. recommended.

[DirkGently]

13. Love Stewart, but he is stretching way too hard to appear "fair."

We don't have a Glenn Beck or a Sharron Angle or a Sarah Palin or a Joe Miller over here. There is no liberal group carrying guns and signs about spilling the blood of "patriots." We haven't nominated a Senate candidate who believes "Second Amendement remedies" are needed if we don't win an election. There is no liberal policy position as crazy or disingenous as characterizing healthcare reform or having the rich pay their taxes as "tyranny."

I get the notion of tamping down partisan hysteria, but let's be serious. What Stewart / Colbert showed is that if you hold a rally for "Sanity," NO CONSERVATIVES SHOW UP.

Which undercuts the notion of false equivalency better than anything Jon could say.

[ORDagnabbit]

15. nicely said. n/t

[Poboy]

21. good post Dirk -nt

[southern_belle]

22. thank you, Dirk eom

[mzmolly]

25. ...if you hold a rally for "Sanity," NO CONSERVATIVES SHOW UP.

:thumbsup: Well said.

[old mark]

18. We really should start, don't you think? If ANYONE deserves it...nt

[EFerrari]

20. Comparing Keith to Beck is ridiculous. Jon means well

but he needs to rethink this bit of things.

[Skidmore]

31. Did we watch the same rally?

Boy, did you miss the point.

[Kennah]

34. Not speaking up

They came first for the Socialists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because they capped my ass.

Jon Stewart, circa 2018