I would say we live in a neo-feudalist society where president, vice president, congressman, senator, governor, etc. have become pseudo titles of nobility.
Dutchman
April 13, 2015 11:50 am
We are now into dynasty politics. Just like South America.
What scares me even more is the thought of electing a series of ‘President of the Month’ : woman, lesbian, gay, transgender, Muslim, Hispanic, Somali, fucking Martian for all I know.
Are the Millennials going to vote for this shit? And dig their own grave?
Persnickety
April 13, 2015 11:51 am
“I would say we live in a neo-feudalist society where president, vice president, congressman, senator, governor, etc. have become pseudo titles of nobility.”
The question is – was it ever truly different? Or has it always been this way, and people either didn’t recognize it or didn’t care? What I’ve read of US politics suggests that c. 1830-1900 was quite thoroughly corrupt in this way. I haven’t read as much on Congressional politics from c. 1900-1980 but don’t have much reason to think they magically got clean for that era.
Anyone? (Bueller?)
Persnickety
April 13, 2015 11:54 am
“Are the Millennials going to vote for this shit? And dig their own grave?”
@Dutchman: probably yes. They seem to be the dumbest generation in history when it comes to politics. Political advertising today is about the same as consumer advertising, and a generation brainwashed since infancy by sophisticated and ever-present consumer advertising is generally helpless against the same for politics. Obama was sold in 2008 just like a trendy new beverage, and we will keep seeing more of the same.
So I’ll be voting for Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, and you should too. Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.
Stephanie Shepard
April 13, 2015 12:01 pm
“They seem to be the dumbest generation in history when it comes to politics.”
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa…You act as if Obama was a grand choice in 2008. For the Dems it was either Obama or Hillary, and no matter how much Obama has fucked up he looks like a precious little angel compared to Hillary. Then Obama was matched up against McCain, the old senile coot who wanders off to Revolutions in the Middle East and acts as if his opinion of one out of 100 senators is already law. Then we had the Obama vs. Romney election where most republicans didn’t like the GOP selected golden boy.
Dutchman
April 13, 2015 12:08 pm
@Persnickety: “The question is – was it ever truly different? Or has it always been this way, and people either didn’t recognize it or didn’t care? What I’ve read of US politics suggests that c. 1830-1900 was quite thoroughly corrupt in this way. ”
There were quite a few less people in 1830, they were dispersed, there was no mass transportation or communication. Therefore it was much harder to control them – simple farmers.
Today the state has figured out that all the ‘creature’ comforts can be used to control / dominate us.
Dutchman
April 13, 2015 12:20 pm
@Steph: “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa…You act as if Obama was a grand choice in 2008. For the Dems it was either Obama or Hillary, and no matter how much Obama has fucked up he looks like a precious little angel compared to Hillary. ”
For either party – the selection process (primary elections) is the problem.
I sat in on one local level Republican caucus. I thought we would talk, vote, exchange ideas. Not how it works. The ‘good old boys’ (the slimely, bullshit, no nothings) immediately take charge. These good old boys are like the Stasi of East Germany. The caucus gets railroaded into chosing someone like John McCain (cause that’s what the national boys want).
We can’t allow candidates to be chosen by the same idiots that elect these idiot presidents – otherwise we’ll never get change!
Stephanie Shepard
April 13, 2015 12:28 pm
@Dutchman
Oh, I saw the same thing play out both times Ron Paul was running for president. In 2012, Romney didn’t even win the Iowa or New Hampshire caucus, he didn’t win at CPAC, but he was still the “GOP forerunner”. They are saying the same thing about Jeb Bush being the “forerunner” even though his stance at CPAC was severely underwhelming and even Phil Robertson had better turn out for just accepting an award. The Dem’s put all their eggs in Hillary’s basket back in 2008 and are so blindsided to how many people don’t want Hillary as their nominee we could very well see another nobody candidate like Obama come in and take the election from her again.
Persnickety
April 13, 2015 12:49 pm
“You act as if Obama was a grand choice in 2008. For the Dems it was either Obama or Hillary, and no matter how much Obama has fucked up he looks like a precious little angel compared to Hillary. Then Obama was matched up against McCain”
The choices offered by the two-faced party sucked, to be sure. But I saw genuine enthusiasm for Obummer among young people, particularly the just barely able to vote members of the millennials, and I saw no real support for any third party, particularly among that same younger group. Had the election showed no turnout in the 18-35 bracket, or turnout for a third party, I would agree with your defense. However, what it actually showed was massive turnout for the hip new soft drink, errr I mean Obummer, history’s most famous post turtle. Up until c. 2011-2012 I was still seeing strong support for Obummer among that group, but shortly thereafter many of them seemed to no longer defend him or particularly want to talk about him. Maybe because he had so blatantly broken all the campaign promises they cared about.
Stephanie Shepard
April 13, 2015 12:58 pm
@Persnickety
No doubt, but I view it as “Fool me once” concerning Millennials. The Democratic party burned Millennials so bad I don’t see them turning out for Hillary, in fact many Millennials voted republican in the 2014 mid-term elections. I think the strongest candidate for Millennials will be Rand Paul.
Brian
April 13, 2015 1:40 pm
Yup, first election I could vote in was Clinton – Dole. My absentee ballot chased me all over the world and arrived a number of days after we got back to homeport….on Nov 8th.
Persnickety
April 13, 2015 2:22 pm
“No doubt, but I view it as “Fool me once” concerning Millennials.”
I certainly hope so. I’m not super optimistic, but I know that’s been said before too. I hope to be proven too pessimistic. Assuming, of course, that voting is actually worth anything any more, which I’m not sure it is.
“I think the strongest candidate for Millennials will be Rand Paul.”
I like Ron Paul but I have major reservations about Rand, who seems to 25% Ron, 50% Neocon, and 25% regional middle of the road type. While Hilarity is terrible, uncloseted neocons aren’t better. I’m keeping an eye on Dennis Kucinich.
Victor
April 13, 2015 7:16 pm
I still like Ike.
Rainman
April 14, 2015 2:45 am
If you add the names Nixon and Dole to those names and that touches every election going back to 1952, except for 64. Political royalty controls most of the political money. And what is the end result of all this ‘experience’?.
Close to a 100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. The entire mid east on fire and our govt importing as many of the jihad mad muslims into this country as fast as they can. This is after they blew up NY on 911. On top of all that secretary of state Clinton started off the policy of blowing up the Ukraine which has Putin promising to go nuke if he is pushed any further.
I’m writing in Ron Paul for president. Or else the Bayer aspirin man.
Rainman…..
Sensetti
April 14, 2015 2:58 am
Republicans will win the White House in 2016 and keep both houses of congress. Rand Paul will not make it out of the primaries, he lost my support with his first interview. I thought he would be a powerful force instead he came off as convoluted and unsure, you can’t win projecting that those vibes.
Stucky
April 14, 2015 3:21 am
“Republicans will win the White House in 2016 ” ——–Sensetti
You have no way of knowing that. So, why make the prediction? It’s a complete fucking waste of time. What does it accomplish? Predicting shit changes nothing.
I would say we live in a neo-feudalist society where president, vice president, congressman, senator, governor, etc. have become pseudo titles of nobility.
We are now into dynasty politics. Just like South America.
What scares me even more is the thought of electing a series of ‘President of the Month’ : woman, lesbian, gay, transgender, Muslim, Hispanic, Somali, fucking Martian for all I know.
Are the Millennials going to vote for this shit? And dig their own grave?
“I would say we live in a neo-feudalist society where president, vice president, congressman, senator, governor, etc. have become pseudo titles of nobility.”
The question is – was it ever truly different? Or has it always been this way, and people either didn’t recognize it or didn’t care? What I’ve read of US politics suggests that c. 1830-1900 was quite thoroughly corrupt in this way. I haven’t read as much on Congressional politics from c. 1900-1980 but don’t have much reason to think they magically got clean for that era.
Anyone? (Bueller?)
“Are the Millennials going to vote for this shit? And dig their own grave?”
@Dutchman: probably yes. They seem to be the dumbest generation in history when it comes to politics. Political advertising today is about the same as consumer advertising, and a generation brainwashed since infancy by sophisticated and ever-present consumer advertising is generally helpless against the same for politics. Obama was sold in 2008 just like a trendy new beverage, and we will keep seeing more of the same.
So I’ll be voting for Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, and you should too. Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.
“They seem to be the dumbest generation in history when it comes to politics.”
Whoa, Whoa, Whoa…You act as if Obama was a grand choice in 2008. For the Dems it was either Obama or Hillary, and no matter how much Obama has fucked up he looks like a precious little angel compared to Hillary. Then Obama was matched up against McCain, the old senile coot who wanders off to Revolutions in the Middle East and acts as if his opinion of one out of 100 senators is already law. Then we had the Obama vs. Romney election where most republicans didn’t like the GOP selected golden boy.
@Persnickety: “The question is – was it ever truly different? Or has it always been this way, and people either didn’t recognize it or didn’t care? What I’ve read of US politics suggests that c. 1830-1900 was quite thoroughly corrupt in this way. ”
There were quite a few less people in 1830, they were dispersed, there was no mass transportation or communication. Therefore it was much harder to control them – simple farmers.
Today the state has figured out that all the ‘creature’ comforts can be used to control / dominate us.
@Steph: “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa…You act as if Obama was a grand choice in 2008. For the Dems it was either Obama or Hillary, and no matter how much Obama has fucked up he looks like a precious little angel compared to Hillary. ”
For either party – the selection process (primary elections) is the problem.
I sat in on one local level Republican caucus. I thought we would talk, vote, exchange ideas. Not how it works. The ‘good old boys’ (the slimely, bullshit, no nothings) immediately take charge. These good old boys are like the Stasi of East Germany. The caucus gets railroaded into chosing someone like John McCain (cause that’s what the national boys want).
We can’t allow candidates to be chosen by the same idiots that elect these idiot presidents – otherwise we’ll never get change!
@Dutchman
Oh, I saw the same thing play out both times Ron Paul was running for president. In 2012, Romney didn’t even win the Iowa or New Hampshire caucus, he didn’t win at CPAC, but he was still the “GOP forerunner”. They are saying the same thing about Jeb Bush being the “forerunner” even though his stance at CPAC was severely underwhelming and even Phil Robertson had better turn out for just accepting an award. The Dem’s put all their eggs in Hillary’s basket back in 2008 and are so blindsided to how many people don’t want Hillary as their nominee we could very well see another nobody candidate like Obama come in and take the election from her again.
“You act as if Obama was a grand choice in 2008. For the Dems it was either Obama or Hillary, and no matter how much Obama has fucked up he looks like a precious little angel compared to Hillary. Then Obama was matched up against McCain”
The choices offered by the two-faced party sucked, to be sure. But I saw genuine enthusiasm for Obummer among young people, particularly the just barely able to vote members of the millennials, and I saw no real support for any third party, particularly among that same younger group. Had the election showed no turnout in the 18-35 bracket, or turnout for a third party, I would agree with your defense. However, what it actually showed was massive turnout for the hip new soft drink, errr I mean Obummer, history’s most famous post turtle. Up until c. 2011-2012 I was still seeing strong support for Obummer among that group, but shortly thereafter many of them seemed to no longer defend him or particularly want to talk about him. Maybe because he had so blatantly broken all the campaign promises they cared about.
@Persnickety
No doubt, but I view it as “Fool me once” concerning Millennials. The Democratic party burned Millennials so bad I don’t see them turning out for Hillary, in fact many Millennials voted republican in the 2014 mid-term elections. I think the strongest candidate for Millennials will be Rand Paul.
Yup, first election I could vote in was Clinton – Dole. My absentee ballot chased me all over the world and arrived a number of days after we got back to homeport….on Nov 8th.
“No doubt, but I view it as “Fool me once” concerning Millennials.”
I certainly hope so. I’m not super optimistic, but I know that’s been said before too. I hope to be proven too pessimistic. Assuming, of course, that voting is actually worth anything any more, which I’m not sure it is.
“I think the strongest candidate for Millennials will be Rand Paul.”
I like Ron Paul but I have major reservations about Rand, who seems to 25% Ron, 50% Neocon, and 25% regional middle of the road type. While Hilarity is terrible, uncloseted neocons aren’t better. I’m keeping an eye on Dennis Kucinich.
I still like Ike.
If you add the names Nixon and Dole to those names and that touches every election going back to 1952, except for 64. Political royalty controls most of the political money. And what is the end result of all this ‘experience’?.
Close to a 100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. The entire mid east on fire and our govt importing as many of the jihad mad muslims into this country as fast as they can. This is after they blew up NY on 911. On top of all that secretary of state Clinton started off the policy of blowing up the Ukraine which has Putin promising to go nuke if he is pushed any further.
I’m writing in Ron Paul for president. Or else the Bayer aspirin man.
Rainman…..
Republicans will win the White House in 2016 and keep both houses of congress. Rand Paul will not make it out of the primaries, he lost my support with his first interview. I thought he would be a powerful force instead he came off as convoluted and unsure, you can’t win projecting that those vibes.
“Republicans will win the White House in 2016 ” ——–Sensetti
You have no way of knowing that. So, why make the prediction? It’s a complete fucking waste of time. What does it accomplish? Predicting shit changes nothing.