WHEN will they learn?

[GopperStopper2680]

When I look around at the state the US is in today I think to myself 'When will these people learn, and stop putting criminals in office?' The victory of Barack Obama in 2008 was frankly to me, completely expected. George Walker Bush did such a miserable job in his time as the leader (Some might say dictator) of this nation for eight years that there was no way the voters could do otherwise. The Oval Office, the Senate and Congress all had Democratic majorities.

Jump forward a while and when it turned out that Obama couldn't fix eight years of Bush in just a couple years, and what did voters do? They flip-flopped and put the same Republican criminals right back into office!

Are we as voters blind in America? How can people continue to put the same ravenous criminals right back into positions of authority after they've been removed? The healing will never begin until the infection is drawn. But the infection is deep down, festering inside and the boil will have to be incised and debrided to remove it. Cleaning the surface may temporarily make it look and feel better but the core remains there continuing to suppurate.

In part I blame what I call 'zombie voters' for putting people like this in action. What is a zombie voter? Zombie voters are people who cast votes based on emotional reactionism rather than prior planning and paying attention to who is doing what. People that might say "I got me a gut feeling'. Well, I don't know about these people but my brain is higher than my gut!

Take for example the 'values voters'. These are people that have some right wing opinion or other-for instance let's say, they're anti abortion. So they blindly put into office the people who spout anti-abortion rhetoric without looking to see what their real motivations are. Corporate oligarchy, plutocratic dictatorship. Authoritarian type micromanagement of peoples' personal lives. And why do they suffer this? Because abortion is such a bad thing that they feel they have to endure any slight, any privation, any hardship to make sure it is abolished! It's okay for the GOPs to cut our foodstamps off or our medical coverage while taking the funds once used for these things and use the funds to pay obscenely large bonuses to corporate plutocrats as long no abortions take place. Because 'God is against abortion'. God also railed against the rich.

Then you have the 'redneck right'. The people who mostly aren't paying attention enough and frankly aren't educated enough to seriously vote either way. The 'Well my daddy was a Republican and I am too" voters. Usually these are motivated by some hatred of some minority group etc. The white bigot voters. As everyone knows the GOP is a white men's club. (And by the by I AM a white male. So please don't make any anti-racist comments. I'm telling the truth.)

What we end up with is a broad spectrum of voters that are putting criminals in office and bowing to the will of 'Consent to Rule by the Rich'. What amazes me is that after all this time they're still willing to continue to live under the rule of thieves to serve some personal goal. LET IT GO! Sometimes to make an omelette you have to break some eggs! I don't personally like all the things that the Democratic Party stands for but in order to get these thieves out of office I need to make some sacrifices. Yes, abortion is bad. I don't like to think about it. But consider the consequences. You can't pass morality as law. If abortion were outlawed tomorrow, would that make it go away? Or would it just make it less safe and less available? Did the Prohibition cause people to change so drastically that there were never any more drunks? No. And it didn't even make alcohol unavailable. It just created a profitable environment for niche criminals. Did the 'War on Drugs' make drugs go away? No. Did it get rid of the tendency among Human beings to have addictive personalities? No. What it did was cut some of the supply making the drug trade even more profitable to the kingpins.

Zombie voting hurts. Period. Frivolous, hasty, or reactionary votes are dangerous votes. If you don't belong to some corporate plutocracy, if you aren't an oligarchist elite, if you don't make in the top 10 or so percent of the country's money-then you DO NOT have any reason to vote Republican. You're Republican for the Wrong Reason. Take a good look, because this is the true face of the Republican Party. In the end they don't really care about Human Rights. They call those of us that do 'Hippie Liberals'. They don't care about the Environment. They call us 'Standing in the way of Progress'. And they don't care about liberty. They call us TERRORISTS For daring to oppose their will. Take a good look. This is what the GOP TRULY cares about. If they have to use some rhetoric that appeals to you to get your vote they don't mind. They'll laugh about how they took you on the way to Paris for dinner in their private jets. You don't have to elect criminals to see to it that your moral issues are heard. In fact, you're cutting off your nose in spite of your face. The only thing you're going to get is higher taxes, lower wages, and criminals laughing at you behind your backs. Consider these things!

[lunatica]

1. You're right of course

But unfortunately in this country we're taught faux history and most people believe we're the good guys and that George Washington cut down the apple tree and that we all wear white hats and that our wars are always good wars, and that our elected officials are upstanding and perfect people who truly have our best interest at heart. That's why we don't have to pay attention to what they're really doing. Because they know better than we do.

Unfortunately most people's eyes glaze over when it comes to the topic of politics and reality. And when reality does intrude on occasion they very quickly avert their eyes and go right back to their lives. As long as it isn't rudely awakening them directly they will avoid thinking about it.

[GopperStopper2680]

2. Well, there's a rude awakening coming.

N/T

[AmateurPolymath]

3. Well said... prospects for the 99% are pretty damn bleak right now

I'm getting a feeling that the election system has become rigged, mainly due to the monstrous Citizens United v. FEC that passed not too long ago, which essentially put a price tag on elections. Also to blame is the increasing disenfranchisement of minority voters with strict voter ID laws, harkening back to the good ol' days where only WASP male landowners could vote, and the deconstruction of our education system with radical right wing politicization. Frankly, I'd be through with America if Romney actually wins, and the Ryan budget passes.

[libtodeath]

4. It has been my experience from every conservative I have ever met that they think

they are the ones entitled to wealth.
They hate anyone that disagrees or admits the truth about the lie of the so called american dream.
One of the founding principles of this country was freedom from tyranny and that means social justice yet they think that will mean some undeserving person gets something for nothing.
They are vindictive and power mad,believe only they should control what everyone does and we all need to answer to them.
They are the enemy of all this country was intended to be.

[GopperStopper2680]

5. You hit the bullseye dead in the center.

Everything that you said about them is true from everything I've ever seen. Well, from Neoconservatives at least. I've met some old school conservatives that thought differently or appeared to. What you listed are several 'symptoms' of what I call the right wing syndrome.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I just had a Facebook discussion with someone

who said that hip replacements are considered elective surgery in Canada so people just had to suffer up there while here they would get fixed.

Obviously someone who doesn't get out enough.