Factcheck.org is nothing but a suppository that helps relieve the liberal system when politically constipated.

__________________
___________________
A picture is worth a thousand words.

Democrats believe that it is a single sum game.. that there is only so much to go around.. and don't believe that individuals can actually CREATE wealth...

Democrats believe that ONLY the govenrment can solve the problems.. the individual is crap.

The ONLY thing factual about Factcheck.org is it is part of the Annenberg trust .. the same left wing organization that gave millions to William Ayers and Obama..

e.g., extremely biased.

Yet it seems to be a favorite for certain members here. Ignorance is bliss.

__________________
___________________
A picture is worth a thousand words.

People often have no problem with monetary "elites." In fact, they worship their every move. This is likely because most people buy into that rags to riches mythology and think they too will be super rich one day. Therefore, elite is good.

Smart people are called elite in the dirty sense if they ever contradict the idiots because deep down, the people know they can't get any smarter. They don't have the illusion of improvement as they do with wealth. That makes them defensive.

They don't like being told what to do, even if they need it.

__________________

The bitter fight between the progressives and the Clinton faction within the dem party suggests otherwise. My sister, I believe, would disagree with your view. She is a dem delegate.

Additionally, I don't see many people of 'meager means' within your party leadership positions. Where is the evidence of your claim? Most of them seem to be attorneys.

They will have to prove that to me. If they truly believed this, they would find an alternative form of taxation which rewards savings and is not predicated on indentured servitude.

I won't argue that point. I don't disagree.

And....employment numbers are dropping. They should have been focusing on stopping 'real' inflation instead. You can raise wages all you want. If inflation increases beyond this rate, you do no one any good. That is like trying to bail out 5 gallons a minute when you have a 7 gpm leak.

With the income tax....it will remain so.

One can only hope. I do not share your enthusiasm. Sound bites and slogans don't do much for me. Actions which provide measurable results are the only convincing evidence I can accept.

__________________
The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish! - Frederick Bastiat

Minimum wage increases have a negligible impact on employment figures because of the elasticity level of min wage labour.

__________________

There is plenty wrong with one's being elitist (with emphasis upon the final syllable). It suggests that one is imbued with a certain smugness and sense of superiority, even if there is no substantial foundation for it. In short, it displays an arrogant disdain for the general population, in the apparent belief that most Americans are either hopelessly ignorant or downright stupid--or both.

And yes, I find such an attitude offensive. Highly so.

This merely reinforces my point. The general population in America (a.k.a. "the masses") is treated dismissively by those who seem to view themselves, and those of like mind, as especially insightful.

This is class warfare, but of a different sort than the Marxian variety: Joe Sixpack is treated as a mental defective, whereas the local professor of political science is exalted to a position among the pantheon of Advanced Thinkers.

It would really be funny, if it were not so sad.

Let me make sure I have this straight: Those of us who call ourselves Republicans are "uneducated ignoramuses," and we are "envious of the smarter, well educated elites," otherwise known as Democrats. Is that your position?

False alternative. I do not consider elitists to be among the "best" this country has to offer. They merely flatter themselves thusly.

Elitist (the second syllable is of utmost importance; one can only suppose that it is no accident that you have altered the word I originally used) means neither "rich" nor "smarter than the average person." Rather, it means haughty and snobbish, with an unmerited sense of intellectual superiority.

Elitism is typified by the belief (widely held by those on both coasts) that the midwest, the Rocky Mountain states, and the South are mere "flyover country," the residents of which are undeserving of any respect or serious consideration.

I disagree here. Elitist is often just what the people who aren't elite call those who are as a way of attempting to insult them by transmogrification of the word into something bad. If they say it with enough disdain, often enough, something neutral becomes bad by default. Case in point, the word "Liberal."

Well, it wouldn't be far from the truth that many Americans are either hopelessly ignorant or stupid. I did a fair job of proving this statistically. 45% of the public thinks the world is less than 10,000 years old and that humans appeared on Earth sometime after the historical domestication of the dog--from mud that God sneezed into.

That takes some major brain rot. There's absolutely no way around it. It's a faerietale for adults. Except they take it seriously. This effectively means almost half of Americans are living in a completely false, personal universe with talking bushes and magical animals.

How can you not have anything less than complete disdain for such absurd beliefs? And if someone dares point out the unpleasant truth, he's branded---elitist!

Let's not bring up the fact that America finishes almost dead last, below several third world nations, in education in Math and Science--fields that typically require a high degree of both intelligence and rational thought. Americans are almost some of the most highly religious, highly opposed to scientific progress in the world.

You can't actually prove I am wrong. You can only not like what I am saying. But the facts remain. Many people are dumb as rocks.

This doesn't mean I think i am better than everyone. Of course not. There is a natural hierarchy. I am better than some, and some are better than I.

Also look at mass advertising. That's most effective on people who don't think rationally or are ignorant. If people weren't so gullible, it wouldn't be working. In fact, mass advertising in America is not just successful, it's phenomenally successful: it's the new religion. People rituallistically spend their money on made-up holidays at temples of capitalism, like tithing to the church, for products they neither need nor really want, but are told they do.

"elitist" is a populistic rhetorical ploy to appeal to the lowest common denominator to make them seem as if you are "similar" to them while demonizing the opponent--by attacking the notion that he is smarter. That really does sum up American Politics in general.

1. We don't have elections, we have races! It's like a game you play.
2. We don't have arguments, we have debates! And debates centre around repetitive flashy ploys, not logic or evidence. We live in a country where tactics like McCain's (implying Obama is a pedophile) work. Because people are ignorant.

It would be funny if it weren't so sad that you are defending people classified as "joe sixpack." The comedy literally writes itself. Although, the people at the top of my sociopolitical pyramid of utility wouldn't be political scientists, because they aren't really scientists, and politics is usually bullsht. Engineers, actual scientists are much more deserving of respect.

In America, being ignorant and/or stupid is not something unfortunate; it's lauded, praised as more than just okay. People vote dumb people into office expressly because they are the same. Instead, the American people ought to be elected the most intelligent, distinguished candidates available who actually have strong credentials.

Quite frankly, Joe Sixpack is not as good as the scientist. His opinions on technical issues are largely worthless in comparison. A genius IS more worthy of intellectual consideration than your average bum.

__________________