Posted on 12/30/2007 6:17:57 PM PST by Lorianne
Partisan warriors may love our polarized political culture. Everyone else is turned off, and tuning out. ___ There are, as they say, two Americas. There is the America of the rich and the America of the poor, as Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards likes to point out. There is the America of Red States and Blue States, populated, as columnist Dave Barry likes to joke, by "ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying road-kill-eating tobacco-juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks" and "godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving leftwing Communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts."
These divisions seem to grow, and to grow more antagonistic, by the year. But the real divide, the separation that may matter more to the future of American democracy, is between the political junkies and everyone else. The junkies watch endless cable-TV news shows and listen to angry talk radio and feel passionate about their political views. They number roughly 20 percent of the population, according to Princeton professor Markus Prior, who tracks political preferences and the media. Then there's all the rest: the people who prefer ESPN or old movies or videogames or Facebook or almost anything on the air or online to politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
I think there might be a couple of folks like that here in Alabama.
Semper Fi,
as columnist Dave Barry likes to joke, by “ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying road-kill-eating tobacco-juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks” and “godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving leftwing Communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts.”
***Around here, such a joke requires a /s sarcasm tag, it’s just a little too close to reality.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
In this poll Hunter is up 3% and even with Paul and Thompson.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=3481ef60-8195-46a9-af04-b87b907bcfdd
Under new leadership, the lefts love of France is out the door. Currently, France has more conservative leadership than we do.
Lets see, IN THIS CORNER THERE ARE:..FREEPERS, CONSERVATIVES, RUSH-SEAN-ANNIE-LAURA FANS
AKA THE KINGS OF LOGIC AND LINEAR THINKING...
AND THEN OVER THERE, THERE ARE THE LIBS ...WHO CAN’T THINK IN A STRAIGHT LINE AND WHO ARE NOT INTIMATE WITH LOGIC ON ANY LEVEL N WHEN YOU TRY TO BRING THEM AROUND WITH SANE ARGUMENTS..... ANN COULTER EXPLAINS WHAT HAPPENS:
‘Liberals traffic in shouting and demagogy. In a public setting, they will work themselves into a dervish-like trance and start incanting inanities: “Bush lied, kids died!” “racist!” “fascist!” “fire Rumsfeld!” “Halliburton!” Fortunately, the street performers usually punch themselves out eventually and are taken back to their parents’ house.
Also resembling the Arab street, liberals are chock-full of conspiracy theories. They invoke weird personal obsessions like a conversational deus ex machina to trump all facts. You think you’re talking about the war in Iraq and suddenly you start getting a disquisition on Nixon, oil, the neoconservatives’
I DON’T really SEE HOW WE CAN BE AT FAULT HERE.
My guess is that Evan Thomas is not familiar with the 1988 book of the same title by Allan Bloom.
Good book—I recommend it.
Just the opposite occurs. The less people pay attention, the more government intrudes into their lives.
I'm not really convinced of that. As recently as the 1970s, when there were only 3 TV networks, no internet or cable or home-video to distract people, and everyone got their news from Walter Cronkite, and arguably the goings-on in politics dominated peoples' thoughts to a far greater degree than they do now, government was quite involved in peoples' lives in ways that are somewhat unthinkable today.
Wage and price controls for example, implemented by Republican President Nixon.
Bingo
I see. So this is an example of "both sides" becoming more partisan and antagonistic? I must have missed where Bush (or any other republican president) has EVER said anything like this about his political enemies. Even as Tip O'neill was calling Reagan "an idiot" in the press, Reagan never said anything in reply. Hate is 99.99% a product of the left. They are the ones at the protest marches, with pictures of Bush as Hitler, screaming obscenities. Then they go back to their Newsweek desks and write a story about how awful it is that political discourse has "degenerated".
Not so oddly, I bet Norman Thomas was wealthy like most good marxists. I bet his grandson Evan hasn't had to work a day in his life either.
Typical boring drival from the lame Evan Thomas.
Yawn
A gross mischaracterization. My cousin married somebody else.
This is total BS....I have NEVER dribbled tobacco juice.
Partisanship is how good and evil stay divided in politics.
Gun-fondling? What’s wrong with guns?
I see nothing wrong with fondling my guns while sipping a latte’.
Exactly. This article is more close-minded than most people reading it.
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