Quote:
Originally Posted by mynameisjim
(Post 17450564)
25% of Americans are flat out insane. They will believe anything no matter what it is. If you give them a little bit of encouragement, they will almost kill for their insane beliefs.
If you play to them, you'll have the most loyal following you could ever dream of.
Politicians are starting to figure this out as well. With voter turn out of around 45%, if you capture the "insane" voters, you will win.
Our Democracy is starting to be controlled by the insane 25% of the population because media outlets and politicians are finding that pandering to them is the most successful business model. It's not really a Republican or Democrat thing anymore. It's the insane versus the rational. Rational people don't sit and listen to radio hosts for hours a day to get fired up and email propaganda videos back and forth all day long, so they are less passionate.
Nobody will show up to a "common sense" rally that promotes rational, pragmatic solutions....lol.
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The way I see it, most of the population doesn't care one way or the other. Only about 60% of those eligible to vote actually do. Of them, most of them are not very politically active and are what I call 1-2 issue voters. For example, I saw people interviewed who thought Obama was a better choice and that McCain would not be a very good president, but they were voting for McCain because he was pro-life. These aren't people who sit and listen to Beck and Limbaugh all day, these are people who choose the pro-life candidate and vote for him/her. The same can be said for the other side. There are people who vote for someone because they are pro-choice. There were plenty of people who didn't vote for Obama because he is a "socialist" and because he was bailing out the banks. They didn't stop to think that it was a republican who started the bail outs. They also didn't want to "share the wealth" yet they had no trouble cashing the stimulus checks that Bush sent them.
Most people look around at their lives and see how they feel. If they have a decent job, a decent house and a decent life, then they tend to end up being 1-2 issue voters and pick a guy because of his stance on guns or abortion or religion or whatever. They don't really want change.
This type of attitude is what allows the radical edges of a party to control things. The evangelical Christians have basically controlled the republican party and helped them control the white house for 20 of the last 30 years. They also helped them control the senate for 12 of the last 15.5 years. They have the power because they organize and vote so they control which candidates end up on the tickets which gives them a very good chance of having someone that favors them in power.
That has changed. The evangelicals are turning away from the republicans. They feel like the republican party sold them out during Bush's terms because they promised a lot and delivered very little so they have stated they are no longer voting for people based on party affiliation alone. Around 18% of evangelicals voted for Obama. Right now we are seeing the republicans scramble to put together a new base. This time it seems they are going to go with the angry white people, the extremists and the misinformed. |
