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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 02:53 PM
Original message
Why on Earth Would Americans Vote the Old Bush-Cheney Agenda Back into Power? Europeans Are Perplexe
Why on Earth Would Americans Vote the Old Bush-Cheney Agenda Back into Power? Europeans Are Perplexed

http://www.alternet.org/story/148841/why_on_earth_would_americans_vote_the_old_bush-cheney_agenda_back_into_power_europeans_are_perplexed


Even conservatives in Europe are scratching their heads over their transatlantic allies who appear to hate the idea of cheaper, universal health care.

<snip>

Like the rest of the world, Europe cheered the election of Barack Obama as a change from the economic and foreign policy disasters of his predecessor. Yet just two years later the US government is returning to Bush-lite. How could this be, Europeans are wondering? The American electorate is looking like a coyote with its leg caught in a trap, chewing its own leg off to get out of the trap.


Europeans are puzzled by the success of the populist Tea Party movement, which seemingly wants to roll back the last two years and return to how things were at the end of the Bush-Cheney years. Even conservatives in Europe are scratching their heads over their transatlantic allies -- “Americans don’t want health care??? How can these Tea Party people say ‘Get government out of my Medicare -- don’t they know Medicare IS a government program???”

<snip>

Previously, Obama’s failure at the Copenhagen summit on climate change to deliver a serious commitment to that agenda, and instead to strike a deal with the Chinese to do next to nothing, was a real wakeup call to the Europeans. It was as if they suddenly “got” it, that it wasn’t George W. Bush who was the problem, but something more profound about America’s broken political system that prevents any leader, even one as talented as Obama, from delivering. That political system is marinated in money, is paralyzed by a “filibuster-gone-wild” Senate that has allowed a minority of Senators to obstruct all legislation, and is hamstrung by a sclerotic, winner-take-all, two-party electoral system that has left voters poorly represented and deeply frustrated.

<snip>



more at link
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Drale Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 02:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. Because WE ARE FUCKING STUPID!
This is what happens when you don't fund public education.
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. That about sums it up.
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #4
14. FANTASTIC VISUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 02:58 PM
Response to Original message
2. Because unlike Europeans we have no choices beyond blue team, red team, and not voting.
We hated what the red team did so we voted for the blue team. They didn't deliver so many took the third option and the default team gets back in.

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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:02 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Amen..
Edited on Sat Nov-13-10 03:10 PM by SoCalDem
SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-31-07 08:45 PM
Original message


Move over, Intelligent Design.. Meet, Selective Ignorance.

Selective Ignorance is the technique invented by, and now practiced widely, by republicans everywhere.

SI is what allows them...no, ENCOURAGES them to simultaneously embrace two opposing philosophies , and to bifurcate their thinking processes.

SI is what causes them to march in parades, carrying woefully misspelled signs, as they protest abortion, while at home, their 14 year old granddaughter recovers from a "D&C" performed by the family doctor...for "female troubles".. Her "troubles" started when Uncle Fred took her camping with his family.


SI is what causes them to repeatedly vote against school levies, and then to complain loudly at school board meetings about the deplorable state of their schools, and the threatened demise of their beloved football program...

The eventual solution has to be to de-fund the public school, fire the union teachers, and start up a voucher program. Of course, the vouchers are probably only worth enough for a storefront-Jesus school or a co-op quasi home-school system. These same people will now demand that their children still be welcomed into the athletic programs , and the extra-curricular programs of the shcools they left behind..

SI is what allows them to send in their hard-earned money to support candidates who promise to close those borders, but when it comes time to vote, they always come up short on delivering. It's a moot point anyway, since SI devotees often have no qualms about "getting themselves a Mexican" from Home Depot, if they need some hard landscaping done....or their car waxed cheaply...or their garage cleaned out..or their roof repaired..


SI makes it possible for them to repeatedly elect gay congressmen and senators, while these same voters feel perfectly okay about getting drunk and bashing a few "gays" when the opportunity arises.

The same SI allows those elected gay officials to portray themselves as NOT GAY..NO WAY , in order to get elected, and then live unhappy, closeted lives..always one "incident" away from being exposed. They spend their time in office pretending to be the "confirmed bachelor", or worse yet, find some desperate woman willing to play the part of devoted wife.

SI is also what causes them to sacrifice their long-held beliefs , and to be willing to support multiply divorced, lifestyle-challenged candidates, when no other republican is available.


SI allows them to praise big business and to pretend to follow the intricacies of the stock market because they have a 401-k, and it will somehow make them rich. It allows them to demonize unions, because they might have to pay those "damned union dues", and lord-knows , they don't want some union boss telling them how to vote. Little do they know that their beloved 401-k's are morphing into 001-k's. SI tells them that as long as Maria & Erin are smiling and flirting with them, everything's gonna be okay.

SI lets them love their guns, and still be worried when they send their young 'uns off to college . Of course the solution they come up with , is to arm the teachers AND students.

SI can turn a campus into a shooting gallery, but at least their son/daughter is locked & loaded.

SI allows them to love their God, while actively hating other people for not loving the same God.

SI allows them to think at, as Christians, they are the favored ones, while at the same time, believing that God created everyone, and everything.

SI allows them to feel free to destroy nature, and to think that they will still find enough animals to hunt, and fish to catch.

SI allows them to eschew evolution, yet accept the fear of evolving mutations of Bird Flu and other pandemic possibilities. It allows them avoid science, and then run to science to cure what ails them.

SI allows them to fight like maniacs to deprive already-born children of food, shelter & a decent education, while claiming to want to preserve pregnancies of women they don't know, will never meet, and never plan on supporting.

SI makes it possible for them to value huge tax cuts for rich people, and meekly accept pay cuts for themselves. It makes them happy to HAVE a job..any job, even if it means that the profits of the company they work for, are never distributed to them and their families.

SI makes them crave the biggest baddest car/SUV/truck, and gives them license to bad-mouth people who choose smaller, safer, cleaner forms of transportation. SI allows them to feel superior, even if they have to choose between braces for their kids, and gas for the cars.

SI gives them a euphoric lift when they deliver a crushing blow to an opponent, even if the opponent was right. SI is what makes them savor pyrrhic victories, as they watch their own world crumbling around them.

SI is also what creates the illusion that they are the majority, instead of a cacophonous minority, hurling insults and epithets at the rest of civilization.
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #5
15. Prescient!!!!!
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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 04:21 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. Who knew I was psychic
Now..where's MY reality show:)

I did not know they would embrace the teabag..but I knew they would be doing something:)

Did we even know about Obama running then?

spooky:)
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 07:11 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. AMAZINGLY accurate.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 06:21 PM
Response to Reply #5
18. Yes indeed. SI is epidemic here.
The majority are not infected but the symptoms of it keep them away from the breeding ground (polling places) so that only a quarter of the people bother.


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demosincebirth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 02:59 PM
Response to Original message
3. Its standard procedure here. Every 4-8 years we shoot ourselves in
Edited on Sat Nov-13-10 03:01 PM by demosincebirth
the foot, just to see if it hurts just as bad as the last time.
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:03 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. That would be funny, if it were not so sadly true.
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dbonds Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:09 PM
Response to Original message
7. So are many Americans perplexed
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BlueDemKev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:15 PM
Response to Original message
8. Bush-Lite?
No-no-no, Bush was the "lite" version of what we're getting now: Boehner-McConnell-Bachmann Brew.

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ixion Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:25 PM
Response to Original message
9. Yeah, like no country in the EU ever does anything stupid. This is not limited to the US.
Humans are just not very bright, collectively speaking.
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Vinnie From Indy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
10. I am perplexed that they cannot figure it out - FYI EUROPE - OUR MEDIA IS CORRUPT
This is about a simple an answer as there is to find. The fact that so many Americans appear to be crazy is because our modern, corporate media wants and makes them that way. We do not get news hardly anymore in America. We get misdirection, hate mongering, propaganda, fear and lies masquerading as news.
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Individualist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
11. Maybe for the same reason Americans voted the old DLC agenda back into power?
Edited on Sat Nov-13-10 03:29 PM by Individualist
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Uncle Joe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:29 PM
Response to Original message
12. That's the price of being an empire or superpower.
An empire/superpower becomes rigid in thinking because much of its' interest is tied to the status quo, this is especially true for the most powerful people and institutions of that empire/superpower.

To hide the weakness of this lack of flexibility, pride is exalted as a national virtue, the flag becomes an idol, singing the national anthem an implied and sometimes overt requirement and extreme nationalism takes hold. Your patriotism can even be brought in to question during a national debate for the most powerful job in the land, if you don't or don't believe in wearing a flag lapel pin.

If you're in a prideful state of mind, there is no way in Hell that you can change because you can't learn from anybody or any other nation because you already know it all.

The exception to this rule is if the power-brokers of said empire/superpower can gain even more power from another nation's experience, even if that nation is autocratic and anathema to the ethos of the every day people; which make up the empire/superpower.

Thanks for the thread, BrklynLiberal.
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:41 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. ...
:thumbsup: :hi:
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JVS Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
13. Lack of options.
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IDemo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 07:14 PM
Response to Original message
20. Europeans aren't too quick on the uptake
If they still believe that Americans are.
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