The end of parties....

[viatroy]

Wow. Where's that Mencken quote when we need it?

[bjorn_skurj]

Wow. Where's that Mencken quote when we need it?

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

 

and these:

 

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

 

A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.

 

The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake.

 

No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. (Not P.T. Barnum, as widely believed.)

 

All right. Back to work.

[Atticus]

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental

[Mr. Heartbreak]

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

I had no idea Mencken was a prophet.

[owl]

well I guess we should all just pack it in, then, and get some rope.

 

 

Now there's a new and innovative idea that has potential!

 

Oh wait, you're speaking cryptically about Operation Iraqi Freedom. Nevermind.

[Atticus]

Oh wait, you're speaking cryptically about Operation Iraqi Freedom. Nevermind.

 

not so much.

[owl]

Oh, I thought you were talking about the U.S. hanging itself.

[Atticus]

Oh, I thought you were talking about the U.S. hanging itself.

 

no, I was sarcastically addressing the doomsday atmosphere of the selected quotes, as well as the rise in this country of self-loathing.

[owl]

Well, at least you'll admit that the Democrats are on the rise.

[Atticus]

Well, at least you'll admit that the Democrats are on the rise.

 

 

rising towards what exactly?

[owl]

You might first clarify exactly what self-loathing is rising toward?

[Atticus]

You might first clarify exactly what self-loathing is rising toward?

 

 

Greater amounts of self-loathing.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

I can think of at least half a dozen people on this board who would probably make a better presidential nominee than whatever douchewads the major parties trot out. No offense to said people, but that's pretty frickin' sad.

Unless the small parties can get behind someone who's likeable and somewhat moderate, I think we're stuck with the two major parties for at least the foreseeable future, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.

[owl]

Greater amounts of self-loathing.

 

I guess then, similarly, Democrats are rising toward greater amounts of Democrats.

 

(I really meant to joke anyway, as in being a member Democratic party (of which I'm not) is being a member of the party of self-loathing.)

 

Some, however, might not call it self-loathing, but perhaps humility- as opposed to arrogance.

 

Either way, I don't think that America is a package deal, as in "like it or leave it." I'm sure there are aspects or our fine country that you strongly dislike. This does not amount to self-loathing, though some would apply that same conclusion to liberals who want change.

 

I would think that taking our country on a suicide mission (like Iraq) is more akin to self-loathing than anything else in the last 6.7 years. After all, what is suicide (by our country's definition, anyway) but self-loathing acted out (or sheer craziness, which is also not entirely implausible)?

[Atticus]

I'm sure there are aspects or our fine country that you strongly dislike.

 

McKinney Criticizes Electronic Voting

Aug 15 11:55 PM US/Eastern

Email this story

 

By KATE BRUMBACK

Associated Press Writer

 

AUGUSTA, Ga.

 

Rep. Cynthia McKinney, in her first public appearance since losing her re-election bid last week, said Tuesday that the black community needs to oppose electronic voting machines, which she warned can be used to steal elections.

 

McKinney also said the state of Georgia should prohibit crossover voting among political parties in primary elections and end its system of runoff elections.

 

The fiery Democratic congresswoman, who scuffled with a Capitol Hill police officer earlier this year and has accused the Bush administration of having advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, said she considers herself a "black political paramedic," and the "black body politic is near comatose."

 

McKinney made the remarks during the National Dialogue and Revival for Social Justice in the Black Church, sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton's group, the National Action Network. The Augusta crowd, estimated at fewer than 200 people, gave her a standing ovation when she was introduced and again when she finished speaking.

 

Last week McKinney lost her bid for a seventh term in Congress. Hank Johnson, a former DeKalb County commissioner, defeated her 59 percent to 41 percent in the Democratic runoff. Johnson, like McKinney, is black, and so are most people in the suburban Atlanta district.

 

In her concession speech on election night, McKinney blamed her defeat on the news media and electronic voting machines. She continued to criticize both Tuesday.

 

"You won't know who won as long as we have those electronic voting machines, with the problems that have been manifested by them," she said, criticizing Georgia officials for not requiring that paper records be kept of all votes.

 

She also blamed her loss in part on Republican crossover voting. She said open primaries _ where voters can choose to vote in either party's primary election, regardless of how they are registered _ should not be allowed.

 

McKinney also charged that Georgia's system of runoff elections, where winners must always receive more than 50 percent of the vote, violates the Voting Rights Act.

 

As for the media, she said: "What I have learned from the corporate media is that they are there to protect the status quo. [weren't you running for your SEVENTH Congressional term?] They are there to protect the powers that be, and anyone who becomes a threat in any kind of way by providing information that will go directly to the survival of the community, to the uplifting of the people, will become an enemy."

 

Black churches, she said, need to act as an alternative source of information.

 

She refused to answer reporters' questions after her speech. A woman in McKinney's entourage got between the representative and a reporter. A male bodyguard said McKinney would not take questions.

[owl]

I don't think that what you put in bold is untrue, for the most part.

 

However, I won't say that I was terribly disappointed to see that she's done.

[cryptique]

Cynthia McKinney is out of her fucking mind, but she's absolutely right about electronic voting machines -- at least the ones with no paper trail.

[Atticus]

I don't think that what you put in bold is untrue, for the most part.

 

That may be. My point was the irony of the fact that McKinney was running for her seventh term in Congress (i.e. she IS the status quo) and complaining that the media operates to maintain status quo.

[owl]

That's a valid point. In the words of Billy Bragg:

 

When one voice rules the nation

Just because they're top of the pile

Doesn't mean their vision is the clearest

The voices of the people

Are falling on deaf ears

Our politicians all become careerists

They must declare their interests

But not their company cars

Is there more to a seat in parliament

Than sitting on your arse

And the best of all this bad bunch

Is shouting to be heard

Above the sound of ideologies clashing

Outside the patient millions

Who put them into power

Expect a little more back for their taxes

Like school books, beds in hospitals

And peace in our bloody time

All they get is old men grinding axes

Who've built their private fortunes

On the things they can rely

The courts, the secret handshake

The Stock Exchange and the old school tie

For God and Queen and Country

All things they justify

Above the sound of ideologies clashing

God bless the civil service

The nations saving grace

While we expect democracy

They're laughing in our face

And although our cries get louder

The laughter gets louder still

Above the sound of ideologies clashing

Above the sound of ideologies,

Above the sound of ideologies,

Above the sound of ideologies clashing

[viatroy]

no, I was sarcastically addressing the doomsday atmosphere of the selected quotes, as well as the rise in this country of self-loathing.

 

 

HL Mencken A reporter, columnist and editor for Baltimore's Sun papers (1906-48), H.L. Mencken was one of America's foremost men of letters during the first part of the 20th century. A sharp critic of hypocrisy in religion and politics, he was especially well-known in the 1920s for his witty and insightful commentaries on the wretchedness of humanity.

 

 

As one of the loathers, I'd point out that it's not self-loathing, or loathing of America, it's loathing of damage that has been done by the current admin.

[bjorn_skurj]

well I guess we should all just pack it in, then, and get some rope.

 

Mencken wrote all of that back in the 1920s. He was against optimists and optimism, which came in the form of a school of thought and practice called "Christian Science" in those days, in general.

I'm not saying I agree with Mencken much of the time - after he wrote a book about how misguided democracy was, he got a signed picture from the deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II - but that motherfucker had a way with words.

[Atticus]

HL Mencken A reporter, columnist and editor for Baltimore's Sun papers (1906-48), H.L. Mencken was one of America's foremost men of letters during the first part of the 20th century. A sharp critic of hypocrisy in religion and politics, he was especially well-known in the 1920s for his witty and insightful commentaries on the wretchedness of humanity.

 

 

WHATDISAY. A guy with an opinion, American, and editor of his own thoughts (1971 - present), was simply making a point about the ease with which one may spew eternal the negative outlooks and pessimisms of learned men and women, and the difficulty involved in getting off one's ass and making a postive contribution to the world in which one lives.

[viatroy]

ok Tex!

[owl]

WHATDISAY. A guy with an opinion, American, and editor of his own thoughts (1971 - present), was simply making a point about the ease with which one may spew eternal the negative outlooks and pessimisms of learned men and women, and the difficulty involved in getting off one's ass and making a postive contribution to the world in which one lives.

 

This, coming from a lawyer?

 

[owl]

Another quote from a learned man:

 

Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.

Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832)