2012 US General Election Discussions: Start to Finish

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Kobi

I like the rationality in #3. Adding in, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment would be imperative.

More and more, this particular election seems to be more ideological based as to who America is and what America stands for, rather than the usual and customary issues of the ecomony and stuff.

The GOP or the Gods Of Patriarchy and their promises for renewed and overt oppression of all beings they view as inferior are a scary bunch.

Yeah, they are. The thing that scares me the most about Santorum, Huckabee, et. al. is that they mean it. It isn't a posture, they aren't just saying what they think the base wants to hear. I know this sounds horrible but I have never wanted the right-wing populists who you see on TV to be a bunch of cynical grifters more than right now. I wish they didn't believe a word, then they could be trusted to stop. Cynical grifters don't want to break the world because then the game ends and they want to gravy train to never stop. True believers, however, are perfectly happy to break the world in pursuit of the purity of their goals. These people who are going to be intimidating black and Latino voters at the polls are going to believe themselves patriots. They will not believe themselves racists. It's not what they will consciously be thinking. They'll believe they are acting on the side of all that is Right and True and Good.

I actually am kind of glad that we're having the conversation about what we, the citizenry, believe our nation to be about. I wish we were having it across a broader spectrum and I could do without the racism but maybe, just maybe, this is their last hurrah. Not conservatism, that will always be part of the American strain as will populism. But this particular strain of right-wing populism may be seeing its swan song in the United States--at least for a while. I think, I hope, that Mittens' embrace of the birther madness will be a bridge too far. If it isn't and it is close, I'll be very, very disappointed in my fellow citizens. I hope we are a better nation than to let ourselves be devoured by the Tea Party whose vision of America is so harsh that dystopian doesn't even begin to cover it. Take the Gilded Age, add in the London of Charles Dickens, and cover liberally with a pre-Gallilean mindset about science. Cover in Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale". Season with Calvinist Old Time Religion. Bake in hot nation until done.

That doesn't sound at all appetizing to me.

Cheers
Aj