Discussion for article #228280
You completely underestimate the need for partisan voters to attach themselves to a candidate who simply repeats what they already believe.
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but she is winning in a state that Obama carried twice a seat that Harkin held for years this tell me the dem canidate sucks.
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Yes, extremism is a character issue. To the uneducated masses who rely on right wing media, itâs a virtue.
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Iâm all for more females in representative positions of our government, but really, shouldnât they have a brain in their head? There are enough Marsha Blackburns and Michelle Bachmanns now, so let us not add another.
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âparticularly early in the 2014 cycle when she was looking for wingnut traction.â
Thereâs a thesis of great import buried not too deeply 'neath the words âwingnut traction.â
Students of the future will study it in wide-eyed wonder, and they will postulate a thousand theories as to its astroturf origins, its stubborn persistence in the face of repeated failure, its perniciously profound influence on Progress itself.
They may find some way to articulate that confounded conundrum and somehow explain it in retrospect. That articulation eludes us in the present day, it seems to so many of us that the vandals are now running the very culture they are vandalizing. Our do-worse-than-nothing Congress is the best example, but there are many others. Ernst is certainly one of them.
But I would guess the students of the future will never be any nearer being able to quantify and rationalize it than those of us who look on today in contemporary wonder and horror at the abiding effect and cultural stranglehold that this minority wingnut element still maintains on our political process.
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there does seem to be a pattern hereâŚ
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Braleyâs as mainstream Iowa Democrat as any of them, he has climbed the ladder in traditional style and fits the Harkin mold graciously. Ernst is the exception here, sheâs shamelessly using that extremist reactionary element to propel her into public exposure. In any normal election, she would be uncovered as the opportunist she really is. But the media is desperate for ad revenues and she generates heat, so instead of exposing her they enable her.
Donât trust Iowa polls, either, as the Presidential caucus state, Iowaâs downticket races get gamed worse than other states by a complicit and conspiring oldstream media that is desperately hungry for those political ad revenues, that now sustain that dying media.
That is the most profane part of this, that the 4th Estate sold out completely in the wake of Citizens United. But, when you consider the very essence of that diabolical judicial activism, it virtually enabled the purchase of that 4th Estate by The Corporate Personages.
It had been happening for a long time already, under the covers, but CU legitimized it and since then, our once vaunted 4th Estate has disappeared in exchange for Viagra and political ads.
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Extremism is not a great character trait but it is what motivates people who claim to be non-extremists?
If there is a conspiracy in Iowa, it is obviously in the corn. Too much shucking possibly.
Sometimes, she articulates what they believe, providing them bumpersticker epithets, with words written for her by some very Luntzian promoters.
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The right only likes women who are useful idiots.
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He made an early gaffe, and the republicans were smart in how they pounced on it. Meanwhile, trying to paint her as the Iowan Sarah Palin has failed, quite predictably. She is much smoother than Palin, even if they share similar crazy notions. And it wasnât Palinâs policy stances that people took issue with in 2008âŚit was her complete stupidity. Ernst, or at least the people running her campaign, are much more skilled.
Assuming there is a civilized future and humanity retains a vestige of sanity and security. When they look about them, at the warming climate, the species extinction, the rotting shopping malls, the ruined democracies, I suspect they will perceive crazy ideologies as symptoms of a greater disease. In our case it seems to me the ground for peopleâs willingness to accept their own dehumanization via love for extremism is helped by a toxic mixture: people âeducatedâ to be little more than consumers and generational prejudices and idiocies. Helped by a media that feeds on the money provided by the lust for bright objects at all levels.
Then again, maybe the human race is inherently insane. Rational people have a hard time with that.
Hope someday we can figure it out and find a cure.
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Well, of course extremism is a character flaw. The problem is, the GOP relabeled âextremismâ as âprincipledâ.
Propaganda - itâs what the GOP does best.
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Too much fermenting, possibly?
One of the big problems that Dems have is that they so frequently lack toughness. There are five weeks to electionâBraleyâs campaign (if not he, himself) should pound and pound and pound away at Ernstâs extremism right up until the polls close on November 4th. Iowa is a state that prides itself on being reasonable. Keep hitting her on being crazy and eventually it will penetrate. But donât back off and try a different path. Too late for that.
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I remember reading a local article (seattle), back in 2010 or something, about how much additional money tv and print media had received in the wake of CU, but without any proportional expansion of their research and reporting departments. Iâd be very keen to see a contemporary analysis of this.
Extremism is a very deep and disturbing character trait whether you are referring to Republican extremist or ISIS. It is based on intolerance and victimizing anyone who does not agree with their views on religion, role of governmentâŚ
Happy to see this issue discussed.
I wonder if there is something intrinsic to Iowa that incubates strains like Steve King and Joni Ernst, or is it just the same RWNJ disease that has infected all of the other red states?
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OK, I donât quite understand â are you saying the newspapers are somehow skewing the polls?