Kind of defines 'smarmy', doesn't it? What beautifully written propaganda.

Democrats, as we all know, are nice guys who will stop and help you fix your flat tire and inadvertently set your car on fire.

Despite your ridiculous democrats comment, yeah Smarmy is exactly what this is. The whole show is just for fun, either enjoy it or don't.

FTFY

And lo, the "stunning inferiority complex that fears education and intellect in the 21st century" rears it's ugly head....

You really are disconnected from reality aren't you? Hell, you're not even connected with what you're currently watching/reading.

This explicitly does not say that democrats are nice guys.
It doesn't even say that republicans are bad guys.
Hell, the main character even outlines what he perceives to be the positive fundamental tenets of Republicanism, and then derides how those philosophies have been hijacked by a lunatic fringe.

Now, I don't agree with those philosophies or those who espouse them, but I can at least have a rational debate with them.

The tea party on the other hand? Put it this way... when he had that rant about how they were the "american taliban", for most of the world that wasn't controversial. Most of us just nodded and went, "yep, they're completely deranged nutters".

To me this clip just points out the absurdities of any "-ism"

The standard nonsense of "I was in X before X jumped the shark and sold out"

"Being an X means I stood for R, S, and T, thereby implying the other team doesn't stand for R, S, and T

If this doesn't demonstrate the fallacies of having a "first past the post" voting system, I don't know what does.

This demonization of "the other" has got to stop, especially when it comes to people in our own nation,

that said, not all opinions are equal, and shitty opinions do deserve, nay demand, criticism, especially when you can't back them up with any sort of basic argument without falling all over logical fallacies.

I have no interest in demonizing the other team, they're doing that all by themselves, I do however want to vote them out. I don't need to make shit up to make the argument either.

you suck......


and....

...fixed

if you call yourself a republican or a democrat you will tend to lose perspective on reality.

the mere act of attaching your identity to a particular party caters to the ego, and clouds cognition. You will tend to "think" with the party.

which is stupid.

so don't

As they refer to it a few times, his statements about the Tea Party being the American Taliban is *related=http://videosift.com/video/Tea-Party-is-the-American-Taliban

Tea Party is the American Taliban has been added as a related post - related requested by RFlagg.

Written by Republican House Majority Leader, Aaron Sorkin.

I don't see any particular need to demonize anyone, but I am fascinated by the way the Republican party is racing towards self-destruction. There's a dark part of my psyche that just can't help cheering them on...I've never seen a political organization commit suicide before.

Another Democratic utopia show. Only in their dreams they are better than all others.

I don't think the people who think the Republican party is doomed understand just how brainwashed their people are. I have to hear Fox news every day, and hear comments from conservatives every day about how everything is going to hell in a hand basket and only the Republican party can save them. It's becoming clear that all this is just galvanizing the core. They think they are being repressed, they think there is a war against Christianity (which is funny since the Republican party is perhaps the most polar opposite of the 4 larger parties, and certainly of the two majors, to the teachings of Jesus) and only Republicans will help stop that war. Their churches are telling them there is a war against Christians and how they are being repressed and to vote Republican to save them. These people, once they can no longer deny that the climate is warming and is man made, will just point how it is the end times and continue to ignore it, because Jesus is coming soon anyhow. It's like that cartoon where the rich man takes 99 of the 100 cookies, the middle class guy takes one and the poor guy has just crumbs and the rich man warns the middle class guy to watch out, that the poor guy wants his cookie, and rather than be mad at the guy who took 99 of the cookies, he actually gets mad at the poor guy for wanting one. They don't care that a rich man fires over 1000 people and keeps everyone else at minimum for 4 years without raises so he can have a jet, they see those minimum wage workers and the people he fired as the enemy.They honestly believe the big corporate media machine is the "liberal media", disregarding the fact they are very much interested in keeping the status qua going, rather than expose the truth of growing income gap in this country. By 2016 most people will have forgotten the shutdown and those that remember it won't remember it is the Republican's fault, yes, the progressives will remember, but the conservatives blame the Democrats, liberals and progressives anyhow, and the rest won't care by then. The Fox News watchers, Rush listeners are just more solidly believing now that everything is the fault of the poor and the needy and the liberals, Democrats and progressives that want to help them.

TLDR: Those seeing the end of the Republican party, must not be around the hard core enough to see how brainwashed they are by Fox, Rush and their churches. All this just solidifies their anger.

Basically @RFlagg I see it happening in one of two ways. If Republicans continue to lose elections, especially the white house, if the political fallout from the shutdown is large enough, the Republicans will lose congress as well. Republicans will either: 1) fade into history. or 2) Republicans will whip their low information voters into a frenzy, playing the tyranny card and eventually there *will* be an attempt at an armed revolt, but since it won't have any real popular support, it will fail relatively quickly but it will have the additional effect that Republicans will be blamed for any deaths caused by this revolt and there will be a huge exodus from the GOP and they will be ostracized from American society. They'll still exist of course, but they'll have the same relevance as the KKK, or the people who still think the world is flat and it's just a huge conspiracy.

2016 is going to be an important election, If Dems can still retain the white house for another 8 years, it's going to be another huge blow to the Republicans, especially when their last stated singular goal was to make Obama a 1 term president and failed.

and quite honestly, I'm not sure it will happen like I was sure Obama would get re-elected. Hilary just...shouldn't run IMO, her time is past. Elizabeth Warren would have a good shot at it. But I also think Dems need to find a new voice. Someone who, like Obama, who actually did embrace the internet and social media and used it very much to his advantage.

If you win the internet, you win the vote. They've got to keep the pressure up. Quite honestly, the 2008 and 2012 elections were easy, It was easy to get the left riled up when clueless Sarah Palin or Robot Romney were running. But I suspect the right will eventually learn from their mistake and run someone who actually is semi-relatable

I just think it's very likely Dems will get cocky and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory again. So.....don't get cocky kid.

Most people see their own propaganda as truth and the opposition as something along the lines of "smarmy". Which begs begs only the question of... why?

In the science of tactical response in a world of shadows on walls, I posit that anyone who denies one side in favor of the other, without reservation or reflection of the positive effects of the other and the negative effects of one's chosen world view, has an agenda and is doing so as a tactical mechanic.

No truth about it. Only a valid tactical response. Which works, in this world, but creates little value in the long run, where the complexity of governance requires all forms of approach.

IMHO.

I do see a fair number of echo-chamber addicts, RFlagg. But the crazier and more extreme the GOP gets, the less they appeal to the other 70% of the voters. This is the self-destruction I'm referring to. 30% of the vote won't get them very far, they'll be the newest equivalent of the Green party, i.e. unable to win any election of value.

I'd like to see a Warren/Franken ticket, in whatever order of precedence. Franken certainly seems clued in enough to capture the non-Luddite crowd's interest.

But yeah, the Democrats definitely have to avoid that defeat problem they historically have had. I'm not sure they can do it...more likely they'll balkanize and start bicker themselves into losing.

What is helping with that though is that because the right keeps moving the goalposts, so many people who were once Republicans are now RINOs according to the extremists. Just like this video suggests, Will may be a fictional character, but he's describing exactly what a lot of moderate Republicans are going through right now. The right wing extremists have decided to pursue a personal vendetta against Obama and all the moderates in the party are going "wtf?"

Sorry, but that's the most basic sign of a downfall. when you keep purging your ranks for not having enough ideological purity, you're not exactly planning for long term success.

When all the big historical Republicans heroes like Lincoln, Nixon, and Reagan, and maybe even HW Bush couldn't win a Republican primary in today's climate, you know you're losing touch

I dunno though, speaking more generally however, there's got to be some way of inducing politicians to not play games like this. The whole 10% approval yet 90% incumbancy rate should hopefully shock people into doing something. We've got a bill that passed both houses of congress, signed into law by the president AND upheld by the SCOTUS, and yet a small faction is holding gov't hostage over this.

I don't see how it's even legal to defund something that is law. If it's law, how is it legal to interfere with it like that? If you don't like it, pass a new law repealing it....that should be the only way to stop an existing law (other than Supreme Court of course)

I've heard this numerous times before from conservatives that we need to enforce the laws already on the books....well...ok. Let's do that.

"Watch this video on YouTube. Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner." *dead

This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by cricket.

Mordhaus has fixed this video's dead embed code - no Power Points awarded because Mordhaus's points are already fully charged.