Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Ann Coulter

Yeah! Take that you filthy Canucks!!! USA! USA! Lol.

Snow bound buffoons? I think I have one of their albums!

Seriously though, this is where the right has taken political discourse since Rush Limbaugh and Fox news became the de facto voice of the Republican party.

I don't know where all that vitriol and anger comes from.

The saner conservatives/Republicans need to wrestle back their party from that ilk (and the religious fundamentalists as well).

They are becoming the American Taliban. Intolerant of differing views.

And I really resent that Republicans question my patriotism cause I have different views than them.

We get a decent, centrist president after 8 years of war criminals and incompetence and they freak out because he ain't a god fearing (white) Republican.

Man, we got a long way to go...

Ha ha. I actually do want to chant "USA!" now.

Now, I don't see the above statement being any different than what Will posted and these two posts highlight one of the major problems we have in politics: us vs them.

I really don't see you guys as 'them'.

The reason politicians like us/them categories is that it taps into anger and anger is a strong short term motivator. Get your base pissed at 'them' and they are much more likely to come out and vote.

Political parties don't like people who think for themselves. People who think are highly unpredictable in the voting booth.

People act like this is the first time there has ever been vitriol in politics and that it’s all the fault of one side or the other. People you don’t even have to study history just watch the History Channel once and awhile.

As for unbiased news, you all are kidding right? Historically news papers often had direct affiliation with a political party. Often being named in accordance with their political beliefs like the “such and such Democrat” or how about the “The Arizona Republican” now “The Arizona Republic.”

From the U.S. entry into WWII into the 1960 U.S. media was decidedly right of center (Hollywood too) with the changes accelerated in U.S. culture by WWII (civil rights, exposure of many American to foreign cultures, mass higher education (GI Bill), mass migration to the suburbs, the coming of age of the baby boomers) much of the media swung decidedly to the Left. For the longest time there was really only one national conservative voice William F. Buckley.

With the success of the Republican “Southern Strategy” in the later half of the last century the Republican Party became for the first time a truly national, not just regional, party.

It was inevitable that with nationalizing of the Republican Party and large conservative and “right wing” (not the same to me) segment of the population feeling voiceless at the national level that someone like Rush Limbaugh et. al. would tap into it (markets abhor a vacuum) and bring the voice of the “Right” to the national stage. However, rather than a swing back to the “Right” being the main national political view we have moved back to what has been the norm for most of U.S. history, a news media that is divided between two major political ideologies. Though I would say that the rise of the “right wing” on the national stage has pulled the rest of the mainstream media back from the Left as they try to stave off loosing market share. MSNBC being the exception.

People this is nothing new. It’s much more like the norm but everyone is biased by the times they live in to think that’s how things just are, or should be. The post WWII world is an aberration in the history of the world especially the Western World. Things are changing and it will be interesting to see how the various players in the Western world adapt to their continuing loss of dominance. Things are going to get a lot worse if we continue with policies that stop growing the pie bigger for everyone as more and more of us turn to fighting each other for our “fair share.” Much worse, methinks.

I take solace that I no matter who’s in power I’m on the side with the biggest guns.

Dean. You continue to surprise me with the depth of your knowledge in this area.

You are correct that, from a historical perspective, a very very few control all the wealth and power. The rest have always lived in near starvation and abject poverty: much worse that what passes for poverty these days in North America.

Empires and civilizations have always imploded on themselves once they exhausted the resources available to them. Communist Russia is just the most recent example and it was not a particularly bad implosion because it was more an inability to effectively use the resources available.

Hear, hear!



Interesting how the “educated, thoughtful” Left and the “ignorant, reactionary” Right seem to fall for this in equal measure. Funny thing that “human nature.”

Thomas Sowell in his book A Conflict of Visions uses the terms “constrained” and “unconstrained” visions but I think is trying to get at the same thing you are describing.

I am having trouble figuring out what led to bigwill's reaction. To the extent there was any bashing of the USA going on, and I don't think there really was, my guess is that it was actually being done more by Americans than Canadians. The fact is, when you are perceived to be (or perceive yourself to be) the "biggest and the baddest," you likely are going to get the most attention and be subject to the most criticism. There are examples throughout society--sports, business, celebrity, etc. Politics and government is no different. And frankly, in the case of politics and government, I'm not sure that it should be different. What the US does typically will have more significant global implications than, say, what Slovenia does. Discussing things on a bulletin board isn't going to change anything directly, of course, but reasoned discourse nonetheless is important, especially with people who you disagree with.

Let me add to how impressed I am by Dean's knowledge as well. (I am assuming what you are saying is factually correct!) I don't actually agree with some (many) of your conclusions, but they clearly are based on an impressive base of knowledge and experience, and thus are interesting to read.

bridgman: nice post above. Well stated, and I agree with much of what you said.

Political discussions are so much fun

BigWill seems to be suspicious of long rambling posts on any subject. It's hard to fault him for that.