Posted on 11/05/2004 5:36:53 AM PST by ClintonBeGone
The day after the election, Slate's political writers tackled the question of why the Democratic Party—which has now lost five of the past seven presidential elections and solidified its minority status in Congress—keeps losing elections. Chris Suellentrop says that John Kerry was too nuanced and technocratic, while George W. Bush offered a vision of expanding freedom around the world. William Saletan argues that Democratic candidates won't win until they again cast their policies the way Bill Clinton did, in terms of values and moral responsibility. Timothy Noah contends that none of the familiar advice to the party—move right, move left, or sit tight—seems likely to help. Slate asked a number of wise liberals to take up the question of why Americans won't vote for the Democrats. Click here to read previous entries.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.msn.com ...
Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. There used to be a kind of hand-to-hand fight on the frontier called a "knock-down-drag-out," where any kind of gouging, biting, or maiming was considered fair. The ancestors of today's red-state voters used to stand around cheering and betting on these fights. When the forces of red and blue encountered one another head-on for the first time in Kansas Territory in 1856, the red forces from Missouri, who had been coveting Indian land across the Missouri River since 1820, entered Kansas and stole the territorial election. The red news media of the day made a practice of inflammatory lying—declaring that the blue folks had shot and killed red folks whom everyone knew were walking around. The worst civilian massacre in American history took place in Lawrence, Kan., in 1862—Quantrill's raid. The red forces, known then as the slave-power, pulled 265 unarmed men from their beds on a Sunday morning and slaughtered them in front of their wives and children. The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are—they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. The blue state citizens make the Rousseauvian mistake of thinking humans are essentially good, and so they never realize when they are about to be slugged from behind.
Here is how ignorance works: First, they put the fear of God into you—if you don't believe in the literal word of the Bible, you will burn in hell. Of course, the literal word of the Bible is tremendously contradictory, and so you must abdicate all critical thinking, and accept a simple but logical system of belief that is dangerous to question. A corollary to this point is that they make sure you understand that Satan resides in the toils and snares of complex thought and so it is best not try it.
Next, they tell you that you are the best of a bad lot (humans, that is) and that as bad as you are, if you stick with them, you are among the chosen. This is flattering and reassuring, and also encourages you to imagine the terrible fates of those you envy and resent. American politicians ALWAYS operate by a similar sort of flattery, and so Americans are never induced to question themselves. That's what happened to Jimmy Carter—he asked Americans to take responsibility for their profligate ways, and promptly lost to Ronald Reagan, who told them once again that they could do anything they wanted. The history of the last four years shows that red state types, above all, do not what to be told what to do—they prefer to be ignorant. As a result, they are virtually unteachable.
Third, and most important, when life grows difficult or fearsome, they (politicians, preachers, pundits) encourage you to cling to your ignorance with even more fervor. But by this time you don't need much encouragement—you've put all your eggs into the ignorance basket, and really, some kind of miraculous fruition (preferably accompanied by the torment of your enemies, and the ignorant always have plenty of enemies) is your only hope. If you are sufficiently ignorant, you won't even know how dangerous your policies are until they have destroyed you, and then you can always blame others.
The reason the Democrats have lost five of the last seven presidential elections is simple: A generation ago, the big capitalists, who have no morals, as we know, decided to make use of the religious right in their class war against the middle class and against the regulations that were protecting those whom they considered to be their rightful prey—workers and consumers. The architects of this strategy knew perfectly well that they were exploiting, among other unsavory qualities, a long American habit of virulent racism, but they did it anyway, and we see the outcome now—Cheney is the capitalist arm and Bush is the religious arm. They know no boundaries or rules. They are predatory and resentful, amoral, avaricious, and arrogant. Lots of Americans like and admire them because lots of Americans, even those who don't share those same qualities, don't know which end is up. Can the Democrats appeal to such voters? Do they want to? The Republicans have sold their souls for power. Must everyone?
Progressives have only one course of action now: React quickly to every outrage—red state types love to cheat and intimidate, so we have to assume the worst and call them on it every time. We have to give them more to think about than they can handle—to always appeal to reason and common sense, and the law, even when they can't understand it and don't respond. They cannot be allowed to keep any secrets. Tens of millions of people didn't vote—they are watching, too, and have to be shown that we are ready and willing to fight, and that the battle is worth fighting. And in addition, we have to remember that threats to democracy from the right always collapse. Whatever their short-term appeal, they are borne of hubris and hatred, and will destroy their purveyors in the end.
now i really don't think that america HATES democrats. that is giving the dems victimhood to hide behind. we'ed really like to see them join us for a better america.
no hatred here. hate is what the libs do to us.
Tee hee hee.
:-D
[snort]
Bwahahaaaahaaaaaa!!!!!!
Stop it!!! Ahahahaaa! You're killing me!!
Oh, good grief. Another liberal finds the courage to congratulate herself!! It's so inspiring to see them willing to take a stand...
Is Jane Smiley the sob-sister novelist who's always writing about incest? Or is that another Jane Smiley?
America hates the Democrats (in part) because they push Whiny garbage like this article down our throats.
This is what happens when you make one too many trips to Starbucks before sitting down to write.
"progressives(code for rat/liberals) have only one course of action now. React quickly to every outrage...."
Sounds like they just don't get it, we will be up to 60
in the Senate and looking over our shoulder at these
idiots. Even 45% of the Hispanic vote was ours, could be
50% next time, let them have their outrage,it works for us.
Yea, the concentration of Democratic voters in the Los Angeles slums, in Detroit, Newark, Harlem, and Washington D.C. really reflects this difference: Republicans really appeal to the coarse and uneducated and Democrats to the enlightened. Do these people ever leave the Upper East Side?
Yea, the concentration of Democratic voters in the Los Angeles slums, in Detroit, Newark, Harlem, and Washington D.C. really reflects this difference: Republicans really appeal to the coarse and uneducated and Democrats to the enlightened. Do these people ever leave the Upper East Side?
"We're smart and you are ignorant, cheating savages."
No wonder the rats lost.
Wow! These people are really blind.
Clinton campaigned on middle class tax cuts and the image of a poor boy made good. Once elected with 43% of the publics support, he proceeded to push through Universal Healthcare and gays in the military. He never passed the promised tax cut but increased them instead. He was bitch slapped down by the public 2 years later losing the House dramatical. He was impeached in his second term after winning 49% of the publics vote and was so bad his Vice President couldn't even campaign with him for fear of losing.
Bill Clinton lied to get into office and most people who were suckered by him are much wiser today.
Hey Dems! Want to win? Become a real party not beholden to freak shows and Communists/ UN one worlders and be honest what you are.
"We're smart, they're stupid" is what cost Kerry the election. Keep it up, Ms. Smiley, and the GOP will add another 20 seats in 2006.
Do you realize you're shrinking into irrelevance?
...and he calls it a "dialogue". Uh-huh.
Jane, you ignorant slut, you're too stupid even to see the irony in what you wrote.
They still don't get it, do they?
The American People do not appreciate being lied to. The Dem party has been lying to the public since 1995. Forget Clinton. Most of the US knows Bush wasn't AWOL, we are not going it alone in Iraq, where there was some evidence of both WMD's and Alquada ties, and TheRAYuh and John only paid 12 percent taxes.
When given a choice, the American people will not vote for raving, foam at the mouth, lunatics. The democratic party's finest moments in this campaign were Dean's primal scream, Gore's rants, and Michael Moore's 9/11. The democratic party did nothing to distance itself from these folks.
Finally, when given a choice, at a time of war, the American people are not going to vote for a guy who already has a proven record of trashing the troops.
BTW, folks ... did anybody else hear the Pelosi chickie on CNN this morning ... proclaiming herself a devout Catholic who goes to church on a regular basis! It was a hoot!
Clinton pretended to have some morals and carried a bible for the camera because he knew it would allow silly religious people to lie to themselves just enough to allow them to soothe their conscience as they voted for a leftwing humanist fornicator.
OK, let's be objective. The Democrats are essentially the party of Socialists and Communists. Outdated political philosophies that have NEVER WORKED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. In addition, countries embracing such ideologies have engaged in the worst atrocities recorded in the 20th, and promises to break those records in the 21st.
They are embracing an ideology that has amounted to a "miserable failure".
They want to subject all of us, against our choice, to this "miserable failure".
To do so, they have actively engaged in the open destruction of American culture, our liberties and freedoms and our most beloved and firmly held beliefs.
And we should embrace this? We are ignorant for rejecting them? What do I care what an enemy of this nation thinks about how I should live my life as a free American?
I'm not inclined to entertain their ridiculous attitude, behavior and anti-culture beliefs.
They are silly.
I won't ignore them, however. I will resist them at every turn, though. They are the enemy, and we must drive them into the sea.
"Wise liberals?"
Now there's an oxymoron.
These are the people who keep repeating the lie that Bush wants to start up the draft.
When confronted with HR 163, they dissemble while looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
First, having lived through the Carter administration as a member of the US Armed Services, I would like to say Carter lost because for over 400 days he let this nation be held hostage by a group of thugs. It was a humilitaing time. Secondly, how can it be those who "do not what to be told what to do" be ignorant? I am a free man; I make my choices!
Jane... stop!
For G-d's sake, woman: that stuff is KILLING you -- !
The only thing we have to fear from these people is laughing ourselves to death.
Pure denial.
Uh, no....
He asked Americans to bend over and lube-up.
My parents recently went on a sailing cruise in Maine. One of their fellow cruisers was a NYC liberal. While this guy travels, he never really leaves his liberal bubble. Just flies from one major city to another. Perhaps an occasional weekend in CT.
He was annoying to all the passengers. Once he found out that my parents live in Ohio, he kept asking them how anyone could support Bush when kerry was obviously the better choice.
The hysterical part of this is that his reading of Rousseau is half right.
Rousseau noted that civilization turned people, all people, bad. He believed that man in a "state of nature" was basically good; goodness being defined as "yes I'll bop you over your head for your dinner and then rape your wife, but I won't put up a pretense or make excuses for why I HAVE to do it.."
It is worth noting that Rousseau was:
French
Viewed as a womanizing kooky freak by an artiste class in the 1700's that were all fairly warped themselves
Is now required reading in most college philosophy classes.
The author, while calling US ignorant, mis applied the rantings of perv to reinforce their position.
There truly are none so blind as those that refuse to see...
Whew! Every time I read one of these "why we lost" articles, I'm afraid they're actually going to get it and change. They are still so off the mark, it's actually hilarious.
The liberals complain about our ignorance.
We didn't swallow their line of guff the their star hollow man Kerry, so now we're ignorant.
If we don't agree with them, we are ignorant.
If they believe that their ideas are the path to enlightenment, I would rather remain ignorant.
MOVE TO EUROPE AND MAKE ROOM FOR EUROPEANS LONGING FOR LIBERTY TO LIVE HERE.
Your communist ways are not wanted HERE!
"I can't believe I'm losing to that f***** idiot".
They just can't get past this notion that they are smarter and we are willfully ignorant. We're just wayward, benighted children who can't be made to understand. Bush and the red states...misunderestimated again.
" ... cast their policies the way Bill Clinton did, in terms of values and moral responsibility."
NOW, as long as they do that the GOP wins
One indication of intelligence universally accepted is to be able to see the CONSEQUENCES of ACTIONS. If you can predict that a certain policy will have certain CONSEQUENCES, then you are smarter than the person who cannot foresee them.
Case in point: WELFARE REFORM. The left constantly ignored the devastation to precisely those segments of the population they wanted to "help". The governement dole combined with DISINCENTIVES to work, to remain or become monogamous, destroyed the welfare family, extracted their very dignity, and caused them to remain in poverty and psychological misery.
The left cannot see that making corporations and their CEOs the declared enemy HARMS EMPLOYEES. Only a dunderball would not grasp the cause and effect, yet they persist. We have PROOF that tax cuts and tax incentives to corporations help employees.
Affirmative Action has harmed black people. How would you like to be a black parent attempting to prepare your child to be a winner in life, which involves instilling a sense of responsibility for one's lot in life, when the built-in crutch of racism provides a ready excuse?
For me, the left's most sacrosanct tenets have been proven bankrupt every step of the way, and conservatives fought them because conservatives understood CONSEQUENCES,and had the gray matter to explore possible collateral damage resulting from leftist policy.
I'm confused by the title. Are they admitting they arent' Americans or that they hate themselves?
"I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not. (Well, almost 58 million—my relatives are not ignorant, they are just greedy and full of classic Republican feelings of superiority.)"
And they wonder why we don't like them???
Idiots....
the big schism in the democrat party is the old kennedy faction being supplanteed by the new socialistic clinton faction. kerry was a hybrid between the two, but as time goes on, the kennedy faction's influence wanes leaving the way clearer for the clintonistas to wreak their havoc on the party.
let 'em wreak. i won't shed a tear at their demise.
Jane:
Colmes:
Shades of Victor/Victoria?
BWHAHAHAHA! OMG...thats too much.
I don't know what Jane Smiley is smoking, but she'd better pass it around. Talk about a "bad trip" moment. Stay away from the brown acid Jane!
BUSH RE-WON!!!!!!
I think they're really onto something here. I think that if the Donks go down this road it will lead them to victories and political dominance for the forseeable future...
Yeah, that's the ticket!
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
Ever notice how all these leftwingers hate the Bible and always have to attack the Bible. She cannot understand the Bible so she hates it just like a communist would.
Her take?
Blue staters believe that Humans are essentially good, especially themselves.
The only exception is those evil, violent, red-staters, who are just full of hate.
I just don't hear much love coming from this woman!
The worst civilian massacre in American history took place in Lawrence, Kan., in 1862—Quantrill's raid. The red forces, known then as the slave-power, pulled 265 unarmed men from their beds on a Sunday morning and slaughtered them in front of their wives and children.
One little problem. Quantrill was pro-slavery...
you know, like the DEMOCRATs of that era!
Lincoln was a Republican, you twit!
And she calls conservatives ignorant?
Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. There used to be a kind of hand-to-hand fight on the frontier called a "knock-down-drag-out," where any kind of gouging, biting, or maiming was considered fair. The ancestors of today's red-state voters used to stand around cheering and betting on these fights.
Oh yeah, I remember these types.. didn't they make a movie about the "Gangs of NY"? Oh wait, didn't NY go for KERRY? Hmmm.....
Exactly. Never give a liberal a second chance.
With all due respect, yours is not proof that they are dumb, but that they are irrational and illogical.
The quintessence of irrationality is to repeat a process and expect different results.
I think that a t-shirt with that county map with the slogan "Better RED than dead" would be a real kick in the teeth of the old time, anti-nuke, commie libs.
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