No. I'm Not Glad.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Today, yet another fellow Democrat (that makes four) told me that I should be happy about Newt Gingrich winning the recent primary. I’ve been told I should be glad that Republicans are apparently going to have to choose between Gingrich (a rightwing firebrand who has no hesitation about appealing to racists) and Romney (a social darwinist millionaire who sees anyone complaining about income inequality as a commie pinko Castro-lover.)

Well I’m not happy. I’m not happy because the year is 2012 -- not 1996. Gingrich is not just some gadfly, energizing the right from the sidelines and offering tips to conservatives about how to use unfairly biased language. He's in the running for the Republican presidential nomination, and he did not get there through some act of God. He’s there because he represents a significant portion of one of our two major political parties. And so does Romney, with his obvious contempt for the poor.

This is not good news for any American, even if it means President Obama gets another four years in office.

Comments

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

What was that clip taken from?

[paft.livejournal.com]

bye.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Ouch! That must have hurt.

Wait, I can see that the glass is actually made of sugar. Never mind.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

I object to the whole idea of basing one's emotional state on the political foibles of Babylon anyways.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Yes. Caring about the state of the world can clearly lead to being stressed by things greater than oneself.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

...k.

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

I don't like Gingrich. I wouldn't vote for him in the least, yet I can't share your pessimism on what it means for the base. None of the candidates have been able to muster more than a single primary win, and the favorite du-jour changes from week to week. This, to me, does not indicate a strong level of support on the part of the base for any of the candidates. In fact, seemingly the least reasonable conclusion would bethat any of these primary wins is indicative of some kind of substantial support.

The base will probably settle on Romney, but even if it's Gingrich, I would not take it as being some kind of sign of enthusiastic support (and you can't count the support of the die-hards in each campaign. If they mattered, Ron Paul would have been a 2-term president by now).)

[paft.livejournal.com]

Yours is so far the most sensible response I've gotten here.

If these candidates don't represent the desires of the GOP base, then plainly there is something wrong with the system for selecting candidates.

Who do you think would get substantial support from Republicans?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

So if Obama gets four more years in office because of this four more years in office is not good for Obama?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Having re-read the OP, I revise my response to a combination of this icon and this macro:



I mean if it's particularly surprising that some of this stuff happens it's a little bit late to realize this *now* as opposed to when Santorum said that John McCain doesn't know anything about torture and got away with it.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Could you rephrase your question? As written it makes little sense to me.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

They were both chosen by the media, not the general population of Republicans.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't the same thought process that leads to this argument also lead to the conclusion that more money = bribing people to get what the people who have it want politically regardless of the majority and thus every reason to oppose the CUNT decision?

[awdrey-gore.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, how would different would the list of GOP front runners appear if it had been chosen by the general population of Republicans?

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

You give much more power of influence to the media than they actually have.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Considering your stance on corporate influence, how is this not the correct result?

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping Vermin Supreme will make a comeback. I want a pony!

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

It is good because it brings to light the fact that there are people out there who are like this. I've been told by many people that they don't exist. It serves as a reminder that most people don't want to take the country where they want to go.

To wit: A black journalist being booed by the crowd for stating what a number of black people think. Gingrich making statements about the work ethic of poor "urban" children apparently without the slightest clue of how racist it was. And whoever that nitwit was who said that our (Republican) black people are better than yours.

I predict that if Gingrich is the nominee, the result will be a landslide for Obama. This will make a much bigger statement than if he isn't nominated.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

This is not good news for any American, even if it means President Obama gets another four years in office. -- FINALLY, confirmation that no option in this election is a good option. At least we can agree on something.

I personally would have voted for Huntsman and I think he could have won if he'd only stayed in a bit longer and pushed for better name recognition.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Oh, I consider Obama a good option. I just don't think the extremism embraced by the Republicans is good news for this country.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

It does reflect poorly upon us to a certain degree, yes. You'd think we'd gotten Newt out of our systems many ethics violations a decade ago!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Conservatives need something to forgive. It warms the cockles of their collective heart.

[pawsie.livejournal.com]

It depress me as well. I find it depressing because these people are consider legitimate politicians. We have one pathological liar and a soulless robot that founded half of Obama's position.

Obama should have had a better percentage of vote during 2008, when facing an old flip flopper and some crazy helicopter lady. I don't believe Obama has done much to deserve our vote and the other party is ready to knife someone.

We're i a stage where policy no longer needs to make sense, and this is why people are discourage.. because some extra 20 dollars in your paycheck is suppose to solve everything.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

They are legitimate politicians.

If one appreciates "the art" of debate and rhetoric, watching those two go at it is like watching a pair of ancient kung-fu masters.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Yard sign for conservatives:

"VOTE FOR (INSERT NAME) IN 2012"

"He's the best we could do!"

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

I would actually put that up if I had a yard ;)

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

You say that Gingrich did not get into the running by an act of God, but that is probably not the way his supporters view it. For them, Gingrich is God.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

If Gingrich is God then that's the best argument for atheism there has ever been.

[acollectivegood.livejournal.com]

Well said paft. One thing to keep in mind is that the primary season pulls the candidates to play the extremes more than they might actually govern. Whichever one becomes the nominee will likely regress more to the middle once they secure the nomination. I've been covering this kind of thing at The Excluded Middle (http://www.excludedmiddle.org), and I'm hoping we'll get some relief from this hyperpartisan stuff in the spring!