We have been sold a lie
And some of us have bought it hook, line and sinker. In comments in a post a couple days back, about voter fatigue, Dan opines:
As Mark Twain famously stated “if voting made a difference it would be outlawedâ€. A very wise and sage observation as it really does not matter in more than 90% of the races in America which candidate you vote for.
I got a little news for you Dan: Mark Twain was a comedian. His politics were merely stupid, and his business sense worse than awful. Yes, funny, yes, thought provoking at times, but a comedian. I would not take the political advice of Jeanine Garofolo or Bill Maher, and I won’t take the advice of Mark Twain. It is not only misguided, it is demonstrably wrong. Voting and the people we have voted for have gotten us squarely into this mess. It is the very height of ignorance to say this, and I cannot imagine how stupid you have to be to say “Look what voting has done! DON”T VOTE BECAUSE IT DOESN’T WORK!!!!”
Then there’s this:
NO candidate who poses a serious threat to the status quo will EVER have more than an outside chance at winning ANY office above state level…..EVER.
So long as every time the press gins up some manufactured bullshit about one candidate or another, all the dans morons press their lips up against the TV set and begin to suckle, so they can say “I CAN”T VOTE FOR ROMNEY/SANTORUM/BUSH/MCCAIN BECAUSE THEY’RE XXXXXXXXXXX” That is exactly correct. So long as the renfields are getting their marching orders from the press, no real conservative will ever get elected- but then, that is the plan.
Virtually ALL the power in America now resides in Mordor on the Potomac and ALL candidates for national office, ALL candidates for judicial appointment and ALL candidates who might possibly have ANY chance at helming ANY federal agency are owned lock stock and barrel by the special interests that control this country.
Lets see: Why would that be? That would be because we let that HAPPEN.
Folks….we ain’t voting our way out of this mess…..
If you think that voting is a switch you flip and it changes everything, you are correct. However, it is not. Traitor.
the choices are VERY SIMPLE…..accept the ever growing size and scope of the fed government with eventual enslavement of everybody or rebel…..
yes, because rebellion always works so well. How about we ignore your patently ignorant and childish advice, not have infantile temper tantrums, and actually go out and work to make things better, instead of sitting in your mom’s basement playing WOW having wet dreams about the Glorious Revolution, renfield? Let me explain what the REAL choices are: We accept what the left tells us to do, which is what traitors like you are doing, or we work to make things better. And at the core of that are three principles: Always vote. Always vote for the more conservative person, even if the difference is only minuscule, and be prepared for it to take generations to happen. While you are sitting around hoping for a revolution that will never come, or if it does it will devastate the decent people in the world and leave the worst of the worst morons in charge, the adults are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
neither choice is pretty, both choices will result in massive casualties…
neither choice is fact based, either.
BUT, choice number two results in casualties where government insiders ALSO die. Choice one ONLY has citizens dying
BOTH choices result in the very people you “claim” to despise winning. Pity you’re such a moron, you might open your eyes and see how stupid you are being.
Look, people. Love this country, or hate it. Loving it means doing your part, and that means becoming engaged in the process and making it work. Don’t take the advice of comedians, morons, or the tube. Don’t give up because you cant have things your way this very second. Don’t sit around waiting for a revolution that will never come (Or if it does it will be an unqualified disaster). get off your halfmoons and fix things.
Hating it means emulating Dan.
18 comments Og | Uncategorized
You can debunk what Dan said with just three words:
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Was he perfect? No. Was he a better President than Jimmy Carter was or Walter Mondale would be? YES!!!
I do my part to improve where I am. But I am losing. It is hard to get people to your banner when you tell them a vote for me is a vote to reduce government.
We need to have a national conversation on the effect of taxes and how that is the sand in the gears of a truly free society.
You need to be free to fail, which is what we are currently trying to correct with the people we have in office now.
I agree that a revolution is a bad thing as it rarely gets anything better in its place. Our original revolution being the sole example of a successful revolution in history.
Yes, we can vote our way out of this mess, but it will take an over whelming majority until we can get the voting booth out of the Dems control. I would estimate 20% of the last elections dem votes where manufactured. I am sure it was the difference in the election.
I do think the ride is about to get bumpy.
At the risk of being “danned” here, I’m going to point out a human factor that you either are unaware of or silently reject, Og.
Pyschology, the study of human behaviors, notes that most behaviors fall back to risk-reward decisions. The autocrats know this, and constantly change the game rules to maximize the risk in behaviors they don’t want, and also minimize the rewards.
Those rebelling against autocratic politics need to start creating their own reward systems to encourage desireable rebellious behaviors as well as discouraging go-along-to-get-along behaviors. The Free Shit Army exists because there are rewards in it for those who follow that path. Don’t like the FSA? Start thinking of ways to introduce more palpable risk into that system. Reward those who exit the FSA.
Sorry, but I just don’t see the Loyal Opposition (GOP) taking any psych courses any time soon, Og.
Riiiight. It’s all about psychology. You keep banging that drum, and see where it takes you. Meanwhile, I’ll be- you know- doing things, instead of just whining about how the game is rigged.
Seems to me that you want a very plausible RINO, acceptable to left and right, who when elected, adheres to your constitution.
And maybe puts the commie sympathizers where they belong.
I don’t want anything but for people to participate in the process.
Not so silent now, you appear to be rejecting the behavioral sciences, Og. The discipline has plenty of charlatans, to be sure, but most all who observe the process agree that risk-reward decisions drive most forms of human endeavor. When decisions are driven OUTSIDE of risk-reward, there’s even a name for that: deviancy.
Whine? Me? I don’t read a whine in my comment. It WOULD be a whine if, like those of the (oxymoron warning!) Leftward intelligentsia, I actually EXCUSED deviant behavior with twisted behavioral theory, but I excuse nothing here.
So, where does psychology take the careful observer of the human condition?
Directly to the truth of conflict, Og. Yes, it’s that simple.
Indeed. Again: Study that for a while and let me know how it works.
here’s the bottomline: Politics is a tug of war. Drop the rope, and the other side wins more easily, and the ones remaining suffer. You want to parse it into risk reward issues on an individual level? Look around you. While you’re fucking with a tree, the forest is ignoring you.
I’m libertarian (not “a Libertarian); so was W.F. Buckley, Jr., but he was smart enough to know that you vote for the most libertarian or conservative candidate who had a chance of winning. He, like I, never believed in giving up & just saying “that’s the way the game is rigged.”)
I hear it all the time (& it was echoed recently on Tam’s blog); “I’d vote for so-&-so, but he doesn’t have a chance of winning.” Self-fulfilling prophecy: if the candidate gets no support, he or she won’t do well, of course. I vote my conscience. If my candidate doesn’t win, there’s next time. Reagan didn’t get the ’76 nomination; Ford was trounced, & we got 4 years of Carter. Reagan didn’t figure he’d shot his bolt & go live in retirement. He came back & won.
If we’re going to take anything back, we have to stick with it & get used to the idea that a loss isn’t forever.
I really don’t understand the folks that don’t want to vote for the losing side; if they’re afraid of the stigma, they’re so shallow that I really don’t want them around me. Do they think they’ll be treated like those (miniscule, & foolish) few that voted against Stalin et al? This is not a game. (Not a democracy either, thank God.) I’m proud of the votes I’ve cast, despite the fact that Obumble’s won twice. I may have been on the losing side; still not convinced it was the wrong one.
Sorry for the long-winded comment, all, but these people annoy me.
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic”…..
Ben Franklin…who like Mark Twain better known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens…could be astonishingly funny he was also one of the smartest men to have walked this planet.
More than HALF of the people in this country live off the government. The are NOT, NEVER, EVER going to vote for ANY candidate or ANY policy that endangers that gravy train. THAT is why we will NEVER vote our way out of this mess….because WE VOTED OURSELVES INTO IT.
And Ronald Wilson Reagan would probably not be able to win a vote
for governor these days let alone president. Because THIS IS NOT 1980.
And Oh……I VOTED for Reagan….both times. I’m not some young squirt who doesn’t know anything.
Nope. You’re an old asshole who doesn’t know anything. Franklin made the above statement as a warning, and his warning has come precisely true because of people like yourself. Franklin also famously said, when asked what form of government they had established at the constitutional convention: “A republic, if you can keep it”. In other words, it will be a republic and it will remain a republic so long as a bunch of whiny bitches don’t give up on the process because things aren’t going their way.
I especially love this: “we will NEVER vote our way out of this mess….because WE VOTED OURSELVES INTO IT.” Ah, that explains everything. Voting has worked to effect change, so we must not vote because VOTING WORKS TO EFFECT CHANGE!! Do these ideas sound that ignorant inside your head, or only when you type them for the world to see?
Moron. Come back when you understand what reason is.
“who like Mark Twain better known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens…could be astonishingly funny he was also one of the smartest men to have walked this planet” Oh really? Mark Twain wasn’t his actual real name? I’m so glad you came here to tell me that, because I had NO IDEA.
Good lord. Make an effort to keep up with the conversation if you’re going to sit at the adults table.
Geeze, Og, you really have a pebble stuck in your shoe….
It’s making you really grouchy.
We shall vote ourselves out of this mess… but, we all have to keep at it, and not listen to the pundits and major media guyz n gals and the politicians drone on about more free stuff for you, while they are all sleeping together taking money from the people actually working for a living, and giving it to the poor in the form of some kind of government handout or the rich as windfall from insider trading or inside information or crony nepotism (by blood, or golf club membership) [see also Reid and Son in the Nevada desert].
Rich in NC
Rich, the pebble in my shoe is the morons who drop the rope making it that much more load for the adults. The Verruca Salt mentality is killing me
Ben Franklin…who like Mark Twain better known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens…could be astonishingly funny he was also one of the smartest men to have walked this planet.
Oh ya?? What was his SAT score?
[…] are owned lock stock and barrel by the special interests that control this country.
The “special interests” that actually “control this country” are the ones with votes.
The NRA is a very powerful special interest.
The AARP is an even more powerful one.
And both of them are so exactly and only because they represent “The People” and have ballot power.
Politicians don’t want money, especially, at least not while on the job. They want power, and that power is acquired by getting people to vote for you, and you get that by giving them what they tell you they want.
“Big Oil” or “Big Finance” or “Big Whatever” can’t magically make the votes appear, no matter how much [not much!*] campaign money they can funnel in.
(* The unions and big “social/political/activist” organizations have a lot more campaign money than the Big Scary Industries, last I checked on OpenSecrets.
Of course, unions have a fair number of votes, and so do the “social” organizations via the people who’ll vote against anyone that MoveON tells them to.
It’s all votes all the way down, though.)
It’s turtles all the way down. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
roflmao