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dragon wench wrote:This is something I have often contemplated. While there are occasional exceptions, the majority of people who seek public office are self-serving, ruthlessly ambitious power-hungry whores with a tendency toward megalomania.
Decent individuals with a conscience and a desire to improve the human condition are generally turned off by the thought of becoming politically involved, at least at that level.

My sense is that in order for this to change, the entire political structure has to be placed upon its head and turned into something genuinely dedicated to achieving the greater good. This means completely transforming human society as a whole.... I'm doubtful this can occur. *sigh*
And of course, another problem is that individual definitions of "the greater good" will vary tremendously from person to person.

the problem is that there is a vast difference between being a good politician and being a good administrator. All too often people mistake politics with the actual running of things.

Politics is nothing more or less than the social manuvering(sp) done to gain power over others in society. Just because you are good at getting the public vote, look good on TV and can effectively smear your opponent, does not mean you have the capability of running the affairs of the country.

Real experts are either trained seals who work in the background and do what they are told regardless of how idiotic it is. Or they are in the private sector. In Canada micheal Ignatief would likely be a better leader than Stephen Harper. But Harper is a far better politician(As a politician Harper is borderline incompetent so to me Ignatief seems a pretty good fellow) and is likely to eat Ignatief alive unless he becomes a far better liar.

Lets get the game players out and find some folks who will actually do the work.

What amazes and delights me about Palin is that she never seems to realize that she's way over her head. She tackles complex subjects involving economics, or health care, or the US constitution--and makes elementary mistakes that are corrected by others, and corrected again, and again. And she keeps making the same mistakes; and also newer, bigger, better ones.

Such as here, on the subject of the US Export-Import Bank. The reliable Steve Benen nails her idiocy with ease.

Possibly the most entertaining politician of my lifetime. That includes Canada's Jean Cretien too. The man who spoke neither official language...

Sarah Palin is an idiot!!

I would not have voted for her if she continued her run this last time, And I will NOT vote for her this time!!! SHE IS AN IDIOT, PERIOD!!!

Palin's Facebook entries are apparently the gift that keeps on giving. She's now turned her attention to tort reform, and you can read what an intelligent, kindly lawyer has to think of her mendacious comments right here. But do check out the Facebook entry itself after reading the above, because the tone, the lack of logic, the impatience with thinking things through, are all vintage Palin. You can practically see her rambling on, only without any interviewer to act as a convenient fall guy when her act dies.

Once again fable, thank you for bringing us the latest on America's Republican Scapegoat.

America's Republican Scapegoat

I'd hardly refer to Palin as a scapegoat..

A scapegoat is generally somebody who is blamed for something not of their own doing. For example, Hitler made the Jews into scapegoats and found them a convenient target to blame for Germany's woes of the time.

Palin is more than responsible for putting herself in the limelight... Honestly, she just about single-handedly turned the US election campaign into several months worth of comedy. This is the same woman who thought she had foreign policy experience because she can see Russia from her home in the Alaska..
Gee... I can see Washington State across the water from my home on the Canadian west coast.. It doesn't even need to be a clear day. I wonder if that qualifies me for a diplomatic position.

Sain wrote:Once again fable, thank you for bringing us the latest on America's Republican Scapegoat.

Wow, how long have American Republicans been using her as a scapegoat?

dragon wench wrote:A scapegoat is generally somebody who is blamed for something not of their own doing. For example, Hitler made the Jews into scapegoats and found them a convenient target to blame for Germany's woes of the time.

How about Mrs. Bean? Kinda suits her better.

As no one's blaming her for either the GOP's actions, nor any other member of it, I'm really not aware how Palin can be called a scapegoat. Any of the links I've provided will simply go back to either her own words and thoughts, or an analysis of exactly these--neither more, nor less.

She's being shot down for being power-mad but incompetent, a great rabblerouser who can instill fear in a small but sizable minority, and who can't pay attention to any problem she's been handed. A person who literally gave up a plum position because she couldn't figure out how to get whatever she wanted out of her own state party, announced she wasn't giving up when she gave up the governorship, and is now making wild and irresponsible statements in her Facebook account for all to read.

If anybody can find logically sound reasons to believe she's a scapegoat from any of this, I'd love to hear them.

The continuing presence of Palin on Facebook is not evidently drawing the kind of mass support or outrage--at any rate, attention--she'd hoped for. Politicians, after all, require attention. They exist for it. They transmute it into elections, and subsequently into soft money once they win. This explains why some major losers in the US political process such as Newt Gingrich are still making the talking head show rounds (though not why the media gives them such frequent platforms in lieu of actual practitioners).

But Palin? She's just not drumming up the hoopla she evidently hoped would catapult her to the national stage, though why she's getting a platform at all continues to amaze many of us who watch politicians with the same fascination others pay to four alarm fires. The reliable Steve Benen discusses her latest in the broader context of seeking debate from someone with ideas in their head.

Palin and supporters still scare me, so personally - I'm happy if shes unsuccessful with what ever she attempts to do.

Xandax wrote:Palin and supporters still scare me, so personally - I'm happy if shes unsuccessful with what ever she attempts to do.

The problem for Palin is that she's now a demagogue without a power base, and doesn't belong to the "old pal" network that would let her overcome that. She seemed to think the instant stardom afforded by McCain's bizarre choice of her as vice presidential candidate last year was an instant key to everything, and she's arrogantly tried to shove her way around as though she had seniority and contacts. She has neither, except for a few neo-con spokespeople like William Kristol who think she's a great hand puppet, and her bully pulpit isn't doing much for her.

And like you, I'm just as happy if she fails. Of course, that doesn't mean we lack for other demagogues willing to take her place. In a nation our size, it only stands to reason that we have many fools, as well, and they're lining up to accede to the most ridiculous policies corporate money can buy.

fable wrote:And again Palin comes through. Oh, the joy.

I'm increasing beginning to wonder if she's all there..
Seriously..

fable wrote:<snip>And like you, I'm just as happy if she fails. Of course, that doesn't mean we lack for other demagogues willing to take her place. In a nation our size, it only stands to reason that we have many fools, as well, and they're lining up to accede to the most ridiculous policies corporate money can buy.

Unfortunately not no. The little I've followed of the political climate in the US since Obama, it seems - for an outsider like me - to have become so increasingly hypocritical and hollow. For example, I read the other day the "reactions" to Obama talking to school kids and parents keeping their kids at home because it was "socialist" and I was .... *shudder*.
I keep loosing faith in humanity when people like that are allowed to have kids :speech:

Luckily - we have our own nutjobs to deal with in this country on either side of the spectrum

Xandax wrote:Unfortunately not no. The little I've followed of the political climate in the US since Obama, it seems - for an outsider like me - to have become so increasingly hypocritical and hollow. For example, I read the other day the "reactions" to Obama talking to school kids and parents keeping their kids at home because it was "socialist" and I was .... *shudder*.
I keep loosing faith in humanity when people like that are allowed to have kids :speech:

Bear in mind, Reagan made a far more politicized address to schoolkids to support issues he believed in, and both Clinton and Dubya gave Obama-style addresses to schoolkids urging them to study harder. Nobody protested those--but then, nobody had provided a lot of cash to mobilize and focus a movement of ignorant people to do so before, either.

The whole thing, like the bizarre birther movement and the nutjobs screaming at August townhalls held by politicians, has been repeatedly shown to be funded and orchestrated by large corporate health insurance providers and major conservative "think tanks." New organizations set up to manage these events were quickly traced back by a some very good investigative reporting to their sources.

So what we have is the wingnuts suddenly being thrust into the spotlight on very well corporate-funded wings, with the blessing of a mainstream media that loves drama even when it's engineered. Sadly, true debate on health care from various points on the political spectrum simply can't occur in an artificially frenzied environment like this.

And Palin is just another demagogue trying to feed off the frenzy, and build a national career.

fable wrote:<snip>
The whole thing, like the bizarre birther movement and the nutjobs screaming at August townhalls held by politicians, has been repeatedly shown to be funded and orchestrated by large corporate health insurance providers and major conservative "think tanks." New organizations set up to manage these events were quickly traced back by a some very good investigative reporting to their sources.
<snip>

Just 'cause I'm curious ... but this linking (I wasn't aware that it had been made myself), is it sinking into the general public, or just those who actually care? Aka it's being spun by some, ignored by others, and reported on by those who already "knew".
Because given what I've seen, it seems most who're ... how to say it politely of the ignorant masses whom are easy to manipulate D) would properly not really get the link even if made somewhat public?

Xandax wrote:Just 'cause I'm curious ... but this linking (I wasn't aware that it had been made myself), is it sinking into the general public, or just those who actually care? Aka it's being spun by some, ignored by others, and reported on by those who already "knew".
Because given what I've seen, it seems most who're ... how to say it politely of the ignorant masses whom are easy to manipulate D) would properly not really get the link even if made somewhat public?

It's definitely sinking in to the public at large, based on various polls. The research first showed up on some of the more reputable blogger sites from professionals (lawyers, economists, etc) used to tracking content. From there, some of the network teams began to pursue it. Rachel Maddow did a fine piece about a month ago tracing back all the funding and organizing bodies behind one particular we-are-the-Ordinary-People-let's-storm-the-townhalls nutjob site, going from group to person to group, finding the wealthiest conservative Republicans in a few states, health care interests, and think tanks, whom she all named--and none of whom came within a league of the education or income level of their manipulated teabagger audience. Whether one agrees with Maddow's political choices or not, her evidence in this piece was compelling and damning. And her show is mainstream.

The problem is that much elsewhere in the mainstream US media is interested less in genuine news than in drama, even if the latter is faked. One news anchor even went so far as to tell a Missouri congressman recently when he offered to allow his townhall to be covered like several others that if it didn't include loud protests, it had nothing to offer. This is a carnival sideshow mentality, and the result unfortunately gives the impression that Americans are crazed loons screaming over their government.

It should be remembered that the US is an extremely large series of smaller countries, stuck together, and that much of the population is as well informed as the urban voters in any other European nation. At the same time, some of those more rural mini-nations are as ill-informed as the far-right parties and their supporters in Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, France, Denmark, Austria, or Italy. Just remember, our networks are giving far more airtime to our crazies than your networks do. Which is why many of us get our news from a variety of reputable Web sources.

Palin's attempts to become the leader of a US populist movement (and ultimately president) from the outside, without responsibility, got a boost this past week when she gave a speech in Hong Kong before roughly 1000 US big name investors. (Estimated fee: $250,000 US.) She wouldn't let the press in, but someone on the inside taped and smuggled the content out. Apparently, even some of that particular crowd were disgusted, judging from remarks made to the microphone after they left. Driftglass catches the essential hypocrisy of the Republicans who screamed when anybody dared to cough at Bush, but sit quietly while Palin slams Obama for 90 minutes at a time--or join her in attacking an acting US president while she's overseas.