Partisan Stupidity in US Politics, part 1

Which is why the liberal press is promoting Romney while attacking the others. There is a lot invested in no change. If Obama wins re-election liberals will see it as an affirmation of their "moral" right to rule. If Romney wins the election conservatives will think that the people finally recognize the need to advance some fiscal social moderation. No other options are to be considered. Ron Paul gets a patronizing pat on the head for saying what could be done if there was actually the political will to do so. The argument is moot. Paul's a dreamer, and really old, so he can afford to be an isolationist. Besides, should anyone ever really listen to someone who doesn't own this weeks Iflop17. Everyone knows there is no political will to withdraw from the stage as world leader until the very last moment, and the very last tax dollar is spent to support the Federal governments hegemony in the global market place. That none of the partisan rhetoric is true is meaningless. The perpetuation of the myth craft that fills the front pages of the nations newspapers and fuels the editorials is what the people want. Myth sells. The truth is a harsh light that reveals the flawed myth the herd approves of and would rather march to. Damn few what to hear the truth. If the herd wanted the truth they would analyze the policy the government enacts in their name rather than give blanket support when ever their team comes to bat and scream injustice and "moral" outrage when the other team comes to the plate. The truth is that it is just too damn easy to play the public against each other. The hundreds of special interest groups are all doing it. Conspiring, lobbying, bribing, and lying to get their way over society. Somebodies got to direct the herd.

I don't always agree with you, but this was excellent.

Yes, Clint Eastwood has become a real hero. He started out as a right-winger, but his more recent offerings were much more balanced and much more powerful.

     Partisan party voting has increased exponentially in the last few decades. Party leaders on both sides often vote on the party line 95% of the time. Can they still claim they are voting their conscience?

     This is the only first world country without publicly financed elections. The only reason this horrible situation exists is because incumbents get more money (cf., playing the favorite at Belmont). 

     The partisan U.S. Attorney firings under Bush11 (American Knight of the Long Knives) was a disgusting partisan and criminal affair.

     Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Party could never have gotten elected in this environment because he was too independent and would have bucked the plutocracy. Ron Paul's ill treatment by the media is a function of his failure to tow the party line.

     We have moved from Democracy to 'Democritism', to wit, the illusion of a viable alternative party where both sides tow the status quo line answering to the Big Money. 

all true, we have two colors of koolaid, each actually made the same, yet each side guzzles the blue or red and is convinced once their guy gets in next time all will be just swell. 

the big money:  

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Foreign_Policy_Institutions/Council_Foreign_Relations.html

if you have time read it all, it's an eye opener, but it sums up our broken system at the end:

Democracy, Peace, and Justice

We do not have a real democracy in our country. In the current system, elections and political power are for sale to those who have the money and media access to purchase and advertise the candidates they want to see in power. The occasional weak efforts to control money in politics have clearly failed and the media has become even more concentrated and influential. The poster child illustrating this power is "establishment outsider" Howard Dean, the once popular Democratic presidential candidate who was crushed by adverse media coverage, especially by CFR-connected media corporations. Furthermore, the winner-take-all election system without runoffs means that "spoiling" and "lesser evil" voting are built into the structure of the system.

The winner-take-all election system disenfranchises large sections of the electorate, when, for example, a party, group, or person supported by 49 percent of the voters in a district gets zero representation. The Bush administration's preemptive war doctrine, its disdain for allies, treaties, and international organizations, its refusal to consider or respect the interests of others, its attempts to shred constitutional rights and to justify torture and other illegal and immoral activity all occurred with considerable help from the Democratic Party. These policies have increased anti-Americanism in the Middle East and worldwide. This will translate into significant support for terrorism against the U.S. and its interests even if Kerry is elected and his Administration applies a different set of tactics.

The ongoing question facing the vast majority of people in the United States is how to build a social movement that can effectively put democracy and a peaceful foreign policy on the national agenda. Only then can some of our other key needs be addressed. Something more basic than a mere switch in the means of empire is needed at this juncture in human history, something more fundamental than an imperial agenda dressed in the classic Democratic Party garb of multilateralism, something better than merely fastening a progressive tail to Kerry's Democratic kite.

What is needed is a mass social movement acting directly and independently in its own name. Only when it is independent can a social movement undertake the kind of bold and uncompromising militancy required to put key issues on the agenda and to effect a fundamental reconstruction of society. People want health care for all, full employment at a living wage, excellent public education, good retirement benefits, the right of workers to freely organize unions, affordable decent housing, ecological sanity, economic democracy, civil liberties, an end to all racism, sexism, and discrimination, fundamental electoral reform, and the democratization of the media. A unified social movement to demand a working people's agenda needs to be born.

--------------------------------

A little more to the left than you usually hear from me but you shouldn't mistake my right leaning foreign policy beliefs for blind conservative views, they form an enigma which deems I cannot belong to either party and keep my lunch down. 

BTW the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PE5V4Uzobc 

couldn't figure how to post it. 

I think the right winger image is displayed in the roles he's been cast in (and has casted himself in as well as produced and directed others in)

IIRC his stint as Mayor of the City of Carmel was distinctively leftist in nature. 

I wasn't sure what to make of those "any which way but loose" movies he made. Wrote, produced, directed, starred....the level of intelligence was pretty low. Bronco Billy? Huh?

And how about the Outlaw Josey Wales, which was in the early stages of his "colorful" relationship with the (then) very hot Sondra Locke... a blatant, unapologetic rape scene. Was there a message there? 

Was he saying to women, or her even, you haven't come too far from the day when you were always helpless and vulnerable and there was nothing you can do about it.?

Maybe just shock value. I always liked "Play Misty for Me". Especially the end. 

Thanks batvette. I appreciate your clarity and ability to articulate your points very well.

     There is not a dimes worth of difference between the GOP primary runners positions between each other, nor the positions of Obama. The exception being Ron Paul who is the only real alternative on both domestic and foreign policy.