There are times when I just...

[WilliamPitt]

Duelling concepts.

From the comments section of my most recent Truthout article: "i am thankfull that i am one of the people who have been brain washed by fox and friends, at least now i know the truth about this president of ours. A socialist, lier. At least fox gives both side of the news not just the kind people want to hear. The only person i fear is this dictator that we have leading this great country of ours , and bringing it down from the most respected country in the world to where most people in the world hate the United States. If your wise you shouls listen to Fox. Because if Obama gets elected again, this countr is DOOMED!!!!!"

From history, by way of Winston Churchill: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

From me: (facepalmheaddeskheaddeskfacepalmderpderpderpderp)

Yeah, no, really, that happened. Again.

[ibegurpard]

1. she's series...

[WilliamPitt]

2. Asparagus

[Ellipsis]

8. platypus

...just seemed to fit.

[ibegurpard]

14. indubitably...

[fascisthunter]

3. Now I truly understand what people made Germany 1939 possible

...and I'm sure people like her live in every country.

[treestar]

4. This person missed the Bush Administration

Where we were hated by a lot of the world. Too young to remember? A coma?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. A lot of these people didn't follow politics

until they woke up one morning to see a black guy being sworn in.

[rustydog]

5. Todally series, man...if your in Amurika, speek Amurikan dammit!

Everybody noes Obama is a muslin afrikan terrerist who wants to take my guns!

[MoreGOPoop]

6. Time to pad-lock Fox and pass out textbooks!

This current crop of foot-soldiers, however, appears beyond redemption.

[PDJane]

7. Mr. Pitt, when you figure out what this thing is, and whether it's in the air, the water,

or it's just simply willful blindness, please let me know. Thank you.

Bemused in Canada.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Also from Churchill:

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

And the real problem with representative democracy isn't so much the relative ignorance of the average voter; it's when the process gets hijacked by ideologues for whom political conviction carries the same weight and force as religious conviction, and for whom compromise and moderation are impossible. In most democratic societies, such ideological hardliners represent a minority interest; in the US, they've taken over one of the main parties.

As an aside I think that the American system tends to encourage some degree of extremism and demagoguery; the separation of the executive and legislative (that you don't have in parliamentary democracies) means there are greater politcal rewards to be had from legislative obstructionism from the party which doesn't occupy the Presidency, and the rules of the Senate (for instance the requirement of a three-fifths supermajority for a cloture vote to pass) mean that a committed minority can block legislation (and then cynically claim it's because the other party won't work with them, or the President won't...the Goebbels principle, which the American right has absorbed and perfected through their various propaganda outlets: a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth).

[patrice]

10. They're liking that word "doom", because we're likely in for some hard times anyway, so they're

hitching a free-ride on what's already in the cards.

Pretty depressed myself these days, watching the reactions on "our" side to the PP & ACA. Missing the streets with the Occupy.

I NEED to march . . . .

[ibegurpard]

15. DOOMED I tell you!!!!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. They're liking that word "doom"

Yeah,....it DOES seem to be a favorite....along with accusing us of being zombies.

[img][/img]

[Tennessee Gal]

11. Got a quote for you ...........

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." ~John Stuart Mill

Applies to what that person posted to you.

[freshwest]

12. What gets me through the day:

It's fucking great to be alive, ladies and gentlemen, and if you do not believe it is fucking great to be alive, you better go now, because this show will bring you down so much. ~ Frank Zappa

The whole Universe is a large joke. Everything in the Universe are just subdivisions of this joke. So why take anything too serious. ~ Frank Zappa

[pinboy3niner]

13. Sometimes you just have to put your foot down, Will, and tell her...

..."C'mon, Mom, knock it off! You promised to stop trolling my comments section."