as I waited in line to get into the republican debate......

[cleveramerican]

I was struck by how very ordinary the other folks in line with me were.
Were they opposition research like me? They couldn't all be.


Sometimes here at DU we cast republicans as two-headed monsters bent on destroying America.

Its not so, the gallery was full of thoughtful engaged Americans who just see things differently than I.They hold their carefully considered opinions as tightly as I.

I wanted to know what they were all thinking.

what do you all think that educated 20-something republicans think about while watching their guys debate?

[ingac70]

1. I don't know any.....

Educated 20-something Republicans. I do know some 20-something Republicans, though.

They think "How we gonna save our country from them Mexicans?"

[Warpy]

2. There are educated pubbies

You'll find most of them clustered in business majors, engineering, and the like--button down careers where there are generally right answers and wrong answers and little of those annoying grey areas.

I know educated and reasonable pubbies. They are disgusted with Stupid and his war. They're appalled at the kind of power Stupid's gang have grabbed. They know the economy is not in good shape. They are not religious nuts who want to force their grimfaced brand of Dispensationalist Calvinism on the rest of us.

Basically, we agree about the important stuff. We want the same things for this country. Where we disagree is how to go about getting them.

Most pubbies are not Freepers. They're people who live the same quietly boring lives we do.

[ingac70]

3. I'm in Tennessee....

A rural area, so I don't get to meet the types of people you describe.

[Warpy]

17. I'm in New Mexico, but it's an urban area

so I do meet them.

There are also far too many of the knuckle dragging, cousin marrying, snuff juice dribbling, fart lighting, tongue speaking, book dissing yahoos around here. I think most of 'em have come over from Texas.

[durrrty libby]

4. "carefully considered opinions " Sorry that's a crock

They are selfish bigots or idiots who vote against their own best interest


Don't be fooled. I've talked to plenty and after probing for less than 2 minutes,

they make me sick

I work with plenty who seem ok until I scratch the surface

[Divernan]

6. Their narrow minded self interest & selfishness is what drives their votes.

They will not hesitate to sell out their children's and grandchildren's quality of life if it means that they can get a lousy hundred dollar tax rebate THIS YEAR.

They are unfazed and unmoved by human suffering as long as they and their immediate families are comfortable. If they are not currently living in a gated community, they aspire to be.

Why do I have such a harsh view of Republicans, in contrast to the OP? Because Republicans continue to support pro-military industrial complex, anti-abortion(birth control) and anti-environment positions. This is because they are either too lazy to keep themselves informed of the realities of the world in which we live, or too stupid to understand said realities, or too selfish to care about their fellow citizens, or too greedy to think beyond this quarter's bottom line - or some combination of the foregoing. The hallmark of maturity is to understand and practise the principle of delayed gratification - for oneself and one's community. Republicans want the most luxurious possible life style, and they want it NOW - the hell with the future, and the hell with everyone else.

I forgot one thing - their arrogance in believing that their government has the right to dictate behavior to the rest of the world. And of couse such dictated behavior will always end up enhancing the profits of corporate interests, and therby further lining GOP pockets.

To those who would say that hey, a lot of Republicans are just average income, working folks, I repeat my comments on those who are too stupid and/or lazy to face their own realities, which benefit neither short nor long term from Republican policies (other than for an occasional skimpy $100 tax break).

[Perry Logan]

5. The Right are degenerate traitors

There's no point in trying to empathize or understand the Right. They are traitors and degenerates who must be driven from our country.

[bunnies]

25. substitute "left" for "right"

and this post could be on free republic.
Just saying.

[zbdent]

7. rather interesting ... this was your 666th post!

:evilgrin:

[Forkboy]

14. heh....I thought the same thing.

:)

[cleveramerican]

22. I hadn't noticed

and now that you pointed it out. I am a little twitchy.

[polichick]

8. In my experience, Reps roughly fall into these categories...

Those who don't read or think for themselves, but turn their power over to others, who "know better." This group also gets into a big man in the clouds who will take care of them, and also knows better.

Those who think of themselves as proud members of Club Success, with Rep affiliation part of the initiation. This is the educated group that is working itself up the ladder and onto the golf course.

Those who are suspicious and fearful of "the other" and vote that fear. This group is bigoted and threatened by civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, immigrants, etc.

Those who are rednecks and equate gun ownership with having a big penis ~ and the women who love them.

Those who don't have a political clue and stick with the party simply because their families do.



Don't let 'em fool ya! :)

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. well, you were in New Hampshire

Travel around the country, I'm sure you'd see more GOPers with scrape marks on their knuckles.

[Divernan]

10. They think: Which candidate will most benefit my financial position?

nt

[LBJDemocrat]

15. Not all of them. Probably not even most.

A lot of them are lower middle-class. They vote Republican as a gut reaction to a changing world. Instead of reacting against the economic policies of this changing world, it's more satisfying for them to react against gays and whatever.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Well . . . that's probably because they ARE two-headed monsters bent on destroying America.

Anyone who voted for Bewsh twice has blood on their hands, end of sentence. Not only with our military, but our environment, economy and image.

[Larry Ogg]

12. Clueless people are about as normal as one could be.

My brother in law is a very smart collage graduate that makes close to a hundred thousand dollars a year. He is hard working and well liked and spends most of his time off of work helping out his neighbors and community. He and my sister love fox news American idle and hanging out at the bar with their friends, and to watch c-span would be a depressing sin, they don’t even know what channel it is on. And like so many other normal people they don’t talk much about religion or politics. And yes he and my sister are diehard party line Republicans that always do their duty and vote and they believe Gorge Bush is great and that all Muslims want, is war. Their not particularly religious but fall hook line and sinker when it comes to Republican Party lies. They know nothing about the past except for the little bit that is not critical of and is that of which the government would want one to know and believe, and they know nothing of what the future holds but have faith in an unsustainable promises. In essence they are the perfect American lemming and sheeple ripe for the slaughter, and like ‘all conservatives’ disdainful of the truth…

[enough already]

13. What are they thinking?

"It's Clinton's fault. It's Clinton's fault. It's Clinton's fault...."

[peace frog]

18. Lather, rinse, repeat

Who needs to think? :crazy:

[w4rma]

16. Regular Republicans are, in general, brainwashed. The Republican leadership is the problem. (nt)

[ProudDad]

33. Sorry, can't let them off the hook that easily

If it weren't for the sheeple, the pukes wouldn't be in power -- EVER.

If people WERE critical thinkers and could see where their TRUE interests lie almost NO repuke and most Dems in power now could NEVER get elected.

[Mz Pip]

19. 20-something Repubs

who continue to support the party and the war anre CHICKENHAWKS. They should walk the walk to their nearest recruiter and not just talk the talk about 'supporting the troops." They might be able to give some welcome relief to someone who is on his 4 tour.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[TransitJohn]

20. Well here in Wyo

with it's 2.5 to 1 repub to dem ratio....I of course know lots of the other side. A lot of educated ones, too. They continually vote repub because they believe the goddamn talking points spewed by insannity and limpballs....infuriating they won't try to even investigate anything. Plus the whole dems wanna take yer guns schtick gets lots of play.

[BoneDaddy]

21. Agreed

The republicans I know are good people, just very uninformed and reluctant to stray from their tribal myths.

[bunnies]

23. I live in NH...

and in contrast to what some people in this thread believe... Not ALL republicans are selfish, uneducated, bigots. Some of them actually DO want what is best for the country... they just happen to hold a different view of what that means than you or I do. And frankly, I find all the politial stereotyping a little off-putting. Not to mention... completely unproductive. How the HELL do we expect our representatives to unify the country if *we* cant even attempt, for just one brief moment, to see things from another persons perspective?

One of my best friends is a Republican. And yeah, we disagree on many, many things. But I take personal offense to the general shit-slinging. Its just not cool.

[ProudDad]

34. You can read their manifesto here

They ARE evil...

http://www.gop.com/media/2004platform.pdf

Complete bullshit!!!

[baldguy]

24. The most frightening thing about Nazis was just how ordinary they were.

[alfredo]

26. What a 20 something is thinking while watching the debate

If it is a guy

That blond keep looking at me. She wants me.

If it is a gal

I wish that guy behind me would quit staring at me.

[polichick]

29. Lol...

At least in this issue, left and right agree!

[alfredo]

31. As a guy, I can say that in the twenties most of my thinking

was done with the "other" head.

[illinoisprogressive]

27. i don't think all republicans are evil. I personally know some decent ones.

But, it seems the crop of the past 20 years has been particularly odious. i think many repubs are average people and not the far right. just like not all dems are far left.

[silverback]

28. Propaganda...

The tools the modern propagandists have available to shape public opinion would make The Tyrants of history sexually aroused.

Here's the thing, in this age of partisan corporate media, managed messages, political soundbites, and so on we've reached a stage where the base of the Democratic party and the base of the Republican party are so indoctrinated into mutually exclusive worldviews that it's often difficult to understand where the other side is coming from.

We cannot agree on facts anymore, maybe we never could or should have, but we see the world as objectively different on a subjective basis.

Both Democrats and Republicans often claim the other side is suffering from a mental illness of some sort.

Both are essentially correct.

[bunnies]

Well said. n/t

[ProudDad]

36. You are building your premise

on a foundation of sand.

You are equating repuke "values" which are built on a tissue of lies with Progressive values which are based on fundamental and provable truths.

THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE. The republicans' "belief system" is not "reality based".

"In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' "

http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/sloth/2004-10-16b.html

Yes, Virginia, the deeds of the republicans ARE EVIL...

[silverback]

38. Bush...

Bush is among the propagandists, not the victims.

You'll get no arguement from me that he and the rest of the neocons, and authoritarian collectivists generally, are evil. It's just that the people who vote for him aren't voting for evil, they're voting for what they've been conditioned to believe in, and they never seem to get it, just like we didn't get our timetable.

This was recorded in 2002 also.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/archives/paul_vid.html

[ProudDad]

39. Ok, they aren't voting for "evil"

They're voting out of ignorance and lack of empathy for others. They, like bush, don't bother to critically think about what they're voting "for", the effect that their votes actually have on them, their actual friends and family. The majority of them are ignorant enough to vote the interests of the ruling class not their own.

Which is worse?


On edit: Why the Ron Paul video? He's nothing to emulate. His only beef with Iraq is that it didn't work and even worse cost a lot of money.

He is right in this:

"Now, I get motivated by this because I'm old enough to remember World War II and all the other wars, and war is not good.

And I know that since World War II we haven't won any wars. So the way we get into war is every bit as important as deciding whether or not to go to war, and it seems like when we slip into war through the back door, we're less likely to win.

And the consequences seem to get out of control, and the complications last a lot longer... Just like Persian Gulf War did, we didn't finish it. We had a humiliating defeat in Vietnam. Korea, we still occupy Korea for 50 years.

Besides, I think it's human nature to really prefer peace over war, and I think people will go to war when they know it's necessary.

But I think if it's not necessary"

I don't agree with him about the fiction called a "just war" though -- there's NO SUCH THING as a "just war" any more...maybe never... All wars are economic policy made manifest in favor of the ruling classes who force (or coerce or dupe) the lower classes into doing the preponderance of the fighting and dying.

Piss on ALL flags!

[Mr. Blonde]

30. Immediately acting superior to someone

is the quickest way to get them to never agree with you. How much does anyone on here want to listen to them if the first thing they say is "damn liberal"? That is a two way street.

I really can't muster up enough disdain for those who look at things and just came to a different conclusion on what is the best way to improve America.

The ones I can't stand are the ones who vote republican because it is what Jesus would do. For one thing it is plain to see that Jesus was a pretty progressive dude. And to be completely swayed to vote republican on two issues (abortion and gay marriage) is ridiculous to me. Especially abortion, if you don't like it whatever, but face facts republicans have been president for 22 of those years and they haven't changed it. Maybe it is time to look at other issues where Democrats are way closer to how Jesus wants you to act.

Those are the ones who piss me off.

[ProudDad]

32. They are basically out of synch with humane values.

They believe that it's dog eat dog and every man (usually man) must look out for himself.

They don't have any concept of a community of caring, supportive human beings. They're so brainwashed with greed and a desire to get as much as possible, to win in the zero sum game that they believe life is that they believe the bullshit they heard from that stage last night.

They generally present a "peaceful" facade but what they believe in is evil... Their BELIEFS are out to destroy the Earth... That's the difference.

I'm sure most Germans in the 30's and 40's were very nice people if you didn't attack any of their closely held prejudices... I'm sure that the politically engaged good Germans at the Nuremberg rallies were "thoughtful and engaged" looking too. They were just wrong...

[mitchum]

35. You should have offered to trade them magic beans for their cars

[ellisonz]

37. Thoughtful?

There is a difference between intellect and intelligence.:spray: