Doug the Bass sent this other piece by Sam Harris in the LA Times. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
"Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the “Who would you like to have a beer with?” poll question in 2004, and won reelection.
This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages – and loses – both necessary and unnecessary wars. McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. He has so little respect for the average American voter that he thinks this reckless and cynical ploy will work."
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13 comments:
yeah, but you also have to remember that the real people in charge of that particular campaign and later, administration, knew this very well and milked it to all its worth. So, in a way, it's a sort of "created need" - like they do in advertising - which basically is the same shit as a political campaign.
Someday they'll pitch a candidate that cleans 2 times faster and more efficient than any other candidate.
and "McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States..." - What the hell is that supposed to mean? EVERYBODY that participates in an American campaign, be it republican or democrat, just wants to get there. Whatever it takes. They all participate in the farce, and by doing so, they develop it and make it the norm. Obama's political campaign is no stranger to this either. He might be less bad than the other, but he's using the same tools.
What would Horatio Alger say?
Pretty damn stupid, after all look at the number of people who voted for bush in 2004. Look at how close the damn election is and remember that the Republican has always gained ground during September and October.
Bad craziness
Yeah, but what made Bush win in 2004 wasn't only the "beer pal" average man bullshit.
It was that, plus the fact that Kerry was another democratic shoot in the foot (kinda like a lamer version of George McGovern) and, most importantly, the very convenient Bin Laden videocast just a few days before the election. Which made thinking impossible and the fear factor once again proved flawless.
fuckin-ay CIA.
Only reasonable, sane, thinking people see the horror show that Palin/MaCain is.
That doesn't define the general electorate. They've been operating on the reptilian brain level at least since 9/11 if not before. Palin is made to order for the reptilian brain.
Mick, sorry I missed your birthday. Happy day-after!
I like Jon Stewart's take:
“Doesn’t elite mean good? Is that not something we’re looking for in a president anymore? … The job you’re applying for — if you get it, and it goes well, they might carve your head into a mountain. If you don’t actually think you are better than us, then what the f@*k are you doing? … Not only do I want an elite president, I want someone who is embarrassingly superior to me. I want someone who speaks sixteen languages and sleeps two hours a night hanging upside down in a chamber they themselves designed.”
Personally, I don't know that I'd want an "Average Joe" in the oval office, but I also have seen too many career politicians at the helm. At this point, Sam Harris' arguements aside, I'd consider a populist candidate if they had a prayer of being elected. I'm only voting for Sen. Obama because he's less likely to fuck things up as bad as the Republicans would (or have).
"...Only reasonable, sane, thinking people see the horror show that Palin/MaCain is."
No shit?! Who died and made you the judge of what constitutes "reasonable, sane, thinking people"? So, anyone who doesn't completely agree with your uber- liberal, hippy-dippy viewpoint is...what, a babbling idiot? With that attitude you're as bad as the 'far right' that you bitch about incessantly.
I'm not about to vote for the McCain ticket, but that hardly makes them a 'horror show'; just more politicians doing what politicians DO.
"Reasonable, sane, thinking people" covers a hell of a bigger group than just those who think as I do. As for your rather narrow categorization of me (speaking of who died and made who a judge), I've never identified myself as a liberal much less an uber one, and "hippy-dippy" says a lot more about you than me. But were I those things, it would make me a very small subset of the group I referred to.
That said, I do think anyone using reason and thought (Jon Stewart is a good example - see above) and not the reactive reptile brain would see the danger of Palin/McCain. Even you yourself have said you are not going to vote for the pair... why not if they're just "politicians doing what politicians DO"?.
I don't think horror show is over-the-top for someone capable of plunging us into nuclear war. Personally, I see that as a bit beyond what politicians just do.
PS: I don't bitch incessantly about what you call the far right. Not my style. It's a waste of breath. Besides, I see most of them as fellow victims of the corporate occupation. They're being used, as best described in Thomas Frank's book What's the Matter With Kansas? I just wish they'd wake up. If that's judgmental, so be it.
'We have a government run almost entirely by lawyers. What do lawyers do? They look up precedent. That means the government is always governed by the past, never by the present, much less the possibilities of the future. They're always looking backwards. A government made up of lawyers is by definition reactionary.'
- Robert Anton Wilson
Realist, who died and made you a representative of reality?
No attitude can be as bad as the god-fearing, gun-waving, proud-dumbness of the far-right. And dismissing this as a "liberal comment" won't help you see things any clearer.
I would say that McCain/Palin are at least the thin end of a horrorshow, as first they ban books, then they burn books, then they burn people.
McCain/Palin keep proclaiming themselves Mavericks. I knew all three Maverick brothers and those two lames aren't them.
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