UNLIMITED GOP 2012 PRIMARY CANDIDATE THREAD

[Cain]

American's ruling class has an unhealthy fixation on belief, resolve and willpower as substitues for plans based in reality, it must be said.  "Hope" is not a strategy, and neither is "belief".

[AFK]

It is when you are one of God's sentinels.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

American's ruling class has an unhealthy fixation on belief, resolve and willpower as substitues for plans based in reality, it must be said.  "Hope" is not a strategy, and neither is "belief".

"The fighting spirit of our men will carry the day."

[Cain]

I personally blame it on Ayn Rand's derptastic rereading of Nietzsche, which committed the kind of literary and philosophical crimes Frau Forster could not even manage and then introduced them in an American-friendly package.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

"Believe in America" is about as good as our Idiocracy can muster at this point. Even our high-minded rhetoric these days is just a dim echo of actual speech, devoid of any statement, engineered by focus groups and social psychology. Obama's "Yes We Can" is the same thing, of course. Our politics are government in the same way that pop music is art. But this is Democracy, and in a Democracy, the People Get What They Want.™

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I personally blame it on Ayn Rand's derptastic rereading of Nietzsche, which committed the kind of literary and philosophical crimes Frau Forster could not even manage and then introduced them in an American-friendly package.

I'm thinking of a few things Gary Brecher said about generals who had no plan.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

2012 is like Deja Vu. I've seen these Republicans before, somewhere...

[LMNO]

Yes, I know the election is a stage show designed to distract the masses from the important issues.

Yes, I know, I'm a sucker for paying attention and asking questions about what is essential a propaganda exercise.


But still...


The echo chambers I normally use were full of the lies in the RNC speeches; and it sure seemed like there were a lot of them.  Anyone know if the DNC speeches had anything similar?  The rightwing blogs, et al, are still arguing on ideological terms, not factual.

[Luna]

Yes, I know the election is a stage show designed to distract the masses from the important issues.

Yes, I know, I'm a sucker for paying attention and asking questions about what is essential a propaganda exercise.


But still...


The echo chambers I normally use were full of the lies in the RNC speeches; and it sure seemed like there were a lot of them.  Anyone know if the DNC speeches had anything similar?  The rightwing blogs, et al, are still arguing on ideological terms, not factual.

http://factcheck.org/2012/09/democratic-disinformation-from-charlotte/

[Cain]

Speeches are boring.  But here are three lies I noted from the morning papers:

This is the president who brought Osama bin Laden to justice, who ended the war in Iraq and is ending the war in Afghanistan.

President Bush ended the war in the Iraq with the 2008 SOFA treaty with Iraq.  Obama has done nothing but follow the treaty provisions as laid down by the previous government.

Obama didn't bring "Bin Laden to justice".  He sent a death squad out to cap him.  "Bringing someone to justice" actually derives from literally bringing someone to a court of law and trying them, which did not happen in this case.  You can argue whether or not it was a good idea or deserved, but it certainly wasn't justice, it was revenge.

Obama isn't ending the war in Afghanistan.  He is withdrawing a sizeable amount of troops and transferring responsibility for security to the Afghan government.  However, 68,000 troops will remain in the country, and they will be involved in "support" roles, training and "counterterrorism" operations.

[LMNO]

Thanks, Cain.  That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for.  I'm better at noticing it than I was, but I still need some assistance every so often.

[Cain]

I personally blame it on Ayn Rand's derptastic rereading of Nietzsche, which committed the kind of literary and philosophical crimes Frau Forster could not even manage and then introduced them in an American-friendly package.

I'm thinking of a few things Gary Brecher said about generals who had no plan.

Yup.  And this is even worse.  America has no grand strategy.  The closest it got was with the "Pacific Pivot", which was a) pants and b) didn't even begin to address America's structural issues. 

[Cain]

Thanks, Cain.  That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for.  I'm better at noticing it than I was, but I still need some assistance every so often.

The whole DNC is going to be filled with stuff like this.  Look at the on-message discipline the Democrats are displaying.  The entire event is going to be stage-managed, down to every last off the cuff statement.

Democrat partisans are practically orgasming right now.  They're comparing this performance to the 2004 RNC, which should tell you pretty much everything you need to know.  It is, quite frankly, embarrassing and more than a little bit sordid.

[Luna]

Video of Paul Ryan at a Labor Day parade, last year, already practicing ducking questions from actual constituents. 

http://samuel-warde.com/2012/09/video-paul-ryan-meets-angry-protests-at-labor-day-parade/

[LMNO]

Another thing to look out for with the 2004 tactics is going over the top and implicitly calling Romney a traitor because of offshore investments made by a blind trust.