Considering the Base of the Pyramid

[MineralMan]

A pyramid is a very stable structure, as buildings go. If you consider a pyramid as a representation of a political party, with the blocks that make it up representing voters, the base of the pyramid makes up the vast bulk of those voters. Take the Democratic party as an example of this.

The base of the party is the vast number of voters who vote consistently for candidates of that party. They provide the stability and strength of the structure.

Now, imagine the pyramid turned upside down, resting on the tip, where the blocks are fewest. The stability is gone, and the pyramid will simply tip over on its side when the smallest force is applied.

It is not the limited number of blocks at the tip of the pyramid that are the base of the pyramid. It is the vast number of blocks that form the base of the pyramid that maintains its stability so well that it can last for thousands of years.

In US political parties, that base, made up of huge numbers of voters, is made up of voters who hold moderate opinions, not of those who hold narrow, limited opinions.

The base decides elections, not the pointed tip.

Just one guy's opinion.

GOTV 2014!

[RainDog]

1. This is not a good analogy

To claim that all members of a large population are moderate is simply not true because the party is made up of people with a variety of opinions.

You surely know better than to try to pass this off as something real. It's your ideological position. One of many that make up the many.

If you look at opinion polls on issues, many people call themselves moderate, but when you ask about specific issues, they poll far more liberal than they believe they are, politically - even people in the Republican Party, if you get beyond slogans, are more liberal than their leaders who get elected.

The pyramid is composed of people from many different geographic areas and those areas also have people with a variety of opinions, while, at the same time, have larger and more urban areas with more liberal opinions than the government that represents them.

[MineralMan]

2. Thanks for posting your opinion.

We differ.

[RainDog]

3. Exactly. n/t

[Bonobo]

4. Perhaps, but if you cut off the tip, it is unrecognizable.

It is transformed into a lump. An ugly lump. With no height or elegance.

[Phillip McCleod]

9. the pyramids at giza had their tips removed..

used to be capped by limestone.. would've been a blazing lights reflecting the sun, but they were stolen or removed or simply crumbled away ages ago. great 'ugly' lumps are all that remain.

and then there's step pyramids, which have no cap.

is this just an ugly lump?

[Bonobo]

12. Compared to the Egyptian pyramids?

Absolutely. From an aesthetic perspective, it is exactly that.

[Phillip McCleod]

14. i completely disagree. 180 degrees opposite.

a plain pyramid is so plain, dull, undecorated, inaccessible. it's a boring geometric form, lacking any greater sense of beauty than the absolutely linear and minimal.

*yawn*

but then i prefer dave mckean to agnes martin. to each their own. fortunately for us both there is no objective standard for beauty. it's in the eye of the bee holder.



VS

[Bonobo]

15. I suppose you didn't know...

that the Egyptian pyramids actually are 6 sided and not 3 sided.

So much for a boring geometric form.

[Phillip McCleod]

16. oh 6 sides makes it more interesting?

to you maybe. not to me.

here's a couple dodecahedrons. which is more beautiful to you? i like #2.



VS

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Got any support for your assertions or any definitions from English that claim

moderate means what you claim it means? Here are some synonyms for 'moderate':
abstinent, balanced, bearable, careful, cautious, compromising, conservative, considerate, considered, controlled, cool, deliberate, disciplined, dispassionate, impartial, inconsiderable, inexpensive, judicious, limited...limited.

Limited is a synonym for moderate. Straight, limited, dispassionate middle of the road politics is moderate politics.
http://thesaurus.com/browse/moderate

Pyramids are strong as buildings, but as schemes or plans the word most often implies a system which supports few on the backs of the losses of many. Good way to build a building, bad way to build a system.

[MineralMan]

11. It's an analogy. And the political distribution of the

voting public in the US is well-known. I'm not sure why you're having trouble with the analogy.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. Why not just type 'no, I have no support for any of my assertions'?

You say in your OP that moderate = 'not limited' but limited is an actual synonym for moderate. That sort of destroys the wee conclusion you tried to draw at the end. Words have meanings, we don't get to make up meanings to suit our needs that day.
Pyramids are nice, that photo is very nice. Your analogy is not so good, and your use of the language is fully off base, pun intended.

It is interesting to me that the 'pro cuts' crowd, when asked to support their assertions, offer snark and swipes, but never any cites. And you don't break that trend here, that's for sure.

[jerseyjack]

6. The base decides the election but..

they decide based on information provided by the tip of the pyramid.

[MineralMan]

22. That's a good point. But that can be

information or disinformation. Both can trickle down from the tip.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Perhaps you can share a few issues where Americans don't hold Liberal beliefs?

Two-thirds of Americans are for:

- Raising taxes on the wealthy
- Medicare for all
- Raising the minimum wage
- Protecting unions
- Holding bankers accountable

And so forth.

The "middle" sought by Third Way types isn't the moderate middle - it's far to the right of America's values, jus a little to the left of the farther-right Republicans.

[MineralMan]

10. The country is almost evenly divided politically.

The center may be a movable concept, but elections depend on it. Always. I'm speaking of how people vote, and nothing else.

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Ok, but on which Liberal issues do less than a rousing majority of Americans agree?

Third Way triangulation against imaginary and shadowy boogiemen to the left has caused astonishing damage to our country.

Time to talk specifics, I think, not about "those on the left".

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Specifics? Why that's some foul lingo you spew there Goldstein! Next it will be 'facts' and

then 'figures' and 'cites' and where will it end, how can a good moderate spin when people keep calling for specifics and definitions? How indeed.

[MineralMan]

23. On the pyramid, it's those on the top, isn't it.

Very visible, but not the base.

[dawg]

26. Manny, the Sheep are only in favor of those things when ...

the Pigs aren't telling them they can't have them. When push comes to shove, half the Sheep follow one set of Pigs, and half follow the other set of Pigs, and both sets of Pigs tell their respective Sheep what to believe. And most of them get in line.

Any moment now, I'm sure a few Dogs will come along to tell me just how wrong I am. But I'm not wrong. It has been this way for a while.

[jsr]

27. Manny, you don't understand Orwellian mathematics

Two-thirds is really one-third in the new counting system. It's superlative science.

[JaneyVee]

8. This is how I feel about capitalism. The majority of the wealth should be concentrated in a pyramid

structure. Except what we have today is an upside down pyramid. Instead of the money trickling down, the weight of it concentrated at the top is crushing everything beneath it.

[Marr]

19. Big talk for a man who was making cat food jokes a few days ago.

I suppose "moderates" love that stuff-- right?

[MineralMan]

21. Cat food jokes? Nope.

Nobody's eating cat food, now or in the future. That's a false meme from the start.

[TheKentuckian]

28. Yup, they have other options now and won't be able to afford it in the future

[Bluenorthwest]

20. Pyramid as analogy for systems as opposed to buildings:

A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme

[Armstead]

24. "Moderate" is a meaningless term

For most people moderate simply means what they personally agree with and believe in.

I, for example, consider myself a moderate. I'm not expecting fundamental changes in society. I just want to see more balance between the "public good" and the capitalist system. The principles of basic populist liberalism.

But to some people that makes me a "fringe leftist" and a radical.

Moderate? Is allowing powerful corporations and a tiny elite class to suck all of the oxygen out of the room moderate? The policies that keep enabling that are what I consider radical and fringe.

[YoungDemCA]

25. "Narrow, limited opinions?"

Like protecting the safety net for the poor and the middle classes against Wall Street?

Also, as stated up-thread: The majority-in some cases, the vast majority-of Americans support progressives on many, many specific issues.

[fishwax]

29. the comparison between moderate opinions and narrow, limited opinions doesn't

quite make sense to me.

"In US political parties, that base, made up of huge numbers of voters, is made up of voters who hold moderate opinions, not of those who hold narrow, limited opinions."

Voters who hold moderate opinions may, in fact, hold narrow, limited opinions.

[Bluenorthwest]

35. In English, the words 'moderate' and 'limited' are synonyms.

They are listed as such in any Thesaurus.

[Rex]

30. Bob has a red ball and Sue a blue one

how many times does Bob have to bounce his ball to keep up with Sue if she bounces her ball twice as fast as Bob, but only on Sundays? Bouncing balls are like political parties and Bob and Sue are running for POTUS. Now imagine a dog and a fish entire the scene, both want to eat something, but both eat different food. Now Sue is a vegetarian, but Bob is a carnivore. How many fish could Bob feed Sue and the dog without losing his bounce?

You know, I just realized fish is both spelled out as singular and plural! Wow how smart we are sometimes...pat pat.

[JoePhilly]

31. Have you noticed ...

that the same folks who claim they are being told to "sit down and shut up" are telling you to "sit down and shut up"?

[MineralMan]

33. Thanks for pointing that out...

I had never noticed that.

[Bluenorthwest]

34. Can you point out which poster is telling you to sit down and shut up?

I asked you to support your assertions. To be questioned or criticized is not the same as being censored or shouted down. To imply that others have done what they have not done is simply dishonest. It is not just hyperbole, it is dishonesty.
That poster has typed up variations of that unsupported allegation material in other threads. It is the theme of the day 'they say sit down and shut up'. No one every says either thing, but that poster claims it has been said then wails about it. It's the same people, he says. But no one said it. The same no one? Who knows, it was no one, not one. It's like when Christians claim they are persecuted in America because others don't follow their rules. Same thing, fantasies of persecution.

[Marr]

37. I didn't. Can you point that post out?

[immoderate]

32. A pyramid is just as stable if the tip is offset in any direction.

I can even be outside the base, and still be stable.

--imm

[HereSince1628]

36. a 4-sided pyramid upside down is at a locally unstable node, it has 5 other nodes of stability

4 of them are related to sides, the other is the bottom.

I don't see any geometric reason why the stable node associated with the base must be moderate.

It just needs to be large relative to the position of the center of gravity so that 'usual' forces aren't enough to flip the base of oneside of the pyramid above and beyond the center of gravity, which causes the pyramid to acquire a new and somewhat less stable position on its side.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

38. "In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place" -Gandhi

"Moderation in temper is always a virtue, moderation in principles is always a vice." Tom Paine