Comments on They Like Mike

You suppose this crowd is familiar with "cognitive dissonance?"

Yeah, me neither.

Hillary vs. Huckabee? I keep playing that out in my head and keep finding Huckabee winning. Why? America is just that stupid.

Why don't they all enlist their kids and move to Iraq? I hear they need more Christians there, since most have been run out of the country ...

hmmm, more toms need to meet more dans

Hmmm. Dan Savage runs into Jake Tapper. That's HOT.

I suppose they're all fiercely pro-life, pro-war and pro-death penalty. That’ll all work out nicely with their Human Life Amendment; it makes perfect sense if you're completely insane.

Seriously, is this level of cognitive dissonance recognized as a mental disorder?

Why do I feel like I'm on the loosing end of a culture war?

@2.. I am scared that you might be right. That is the worst case scenario. My mentally disordered family back in SC would probably vote for Obama or Edwards, but NEVER Hillary. And of all the stinking GOPs they love Huckabee. Cognitive Dissonance reigns.

I believe Repblican culture is this romantic ideology more than a philosophy for a system of government. It's this belief that all humans can live in this homogenous world where all things tabboo really just don't exist. They don't understand population density, and really the true dynamics of how people behave ... especially when they don't have a lot of space. They also believe in a world where we live and die in a small town and marry our high school sweethearts.

@6

The way they rationalize it (or at least the way I did back when I was a stupid kid) is that you shouldn't kill someone until they prove that they deserve it.

Mr. Peabody, set the Wayback Machine to 1952....

As far as the death penalty goes I have no strong opinions for it or against it ... at least in principle. Does that make me unamerican?

How it is actually applied I do take issue with it ... it's more of a senseless beaurocracy in persuit of some archaic ideal than form of punishment. Especially when you can pretty much pay your way out of it.

@10 - so how does that explain why Dick Cheney is still around?

How can you not have moral outrage about killing by the state in the name of Justice?

Funny, how most of the western world, incl.Canada and Mexico have outlawed the death penalty - some now for decades.

Get outraged, it is moral corruption to kill in the name of the state and Justice.

(not to mention the many, so sorry too late, "mistakes")

Now I've got your pro-life song stuck in my head...

I can not have moral outrage because ... my mind isn't geared toward criminal justice. Justice MUST be served somehow, someway, some shape and some form, but in my mind I feel that the system or life or whatever fails the criminal long before he commits the act. I'm more morally outraged at the rates of incarceration in this country. The fact that 1 in 20 Americans is or has been incarcerated in our overcrowded prison system has created an underclass of disenfranchized Americans. Who can't vote OR CAN'T GET JOBS. I find moral outrage in the fact these fuckers preach about being able to provide and take care of yourself, get off welfare ... bash the "welfare state" welfare bad this and that and do NOTHING to give people jobs other than adhere to some mystical philosophy of trickle down economics. IF people don't have decent jobs, then we live in a welfare state ... period. At least when it comes to this Mike Huckabee talks the talk .... but he still doesn't have my vote.

Awesome, Dan. Awesome. I LOVE this stuff. Oh, and wacky Christianist Republicans scare teh SHIT out o' me.

Wiccan priestess. The heartiest laugh I had all day. Thanks, Dan!

Dan

You were on Maher's show with Huckabee a couple years back. And this couldn't get you a backstage pass? For shame.

@8 - Totally agree. My wacky, evangelical aunt and uncle in Des Moines caucused for Huckabee (and not only voted for Bush II twice, but had bumper stickers on their car that proclaimed it loud and clear -- my dad wouldn't let them park in front of our house when they came to visit a couple of years ago).

There is no way they'd vote for Hillary. "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" and all.

As a side note, I can't help but be angry that they have a bigger say in who gets to be the next President than I do (since their only criteria is how often a candidate says the word "God").

OK, I'm iniebriated and depressed after a night out in Ballard and at the Google/Fremont open house. This election is gonna be Hillary v McCain. Which McCain will win. Please, where can I vomit?

mmmmm Jake Tapper. Just the name alone could get me divorced.

I don't know. I like Christians who can do their own time: they think I'm going to hell and they're going to heaven, and that's sad, but they're more than happy to have me over to dinner and meet my damned (literally) family. In a way -- and that qualification is not just rhetorical -- it's a good illustration of the difference between "faith" which is comfortably abstract, and the moral surety of a zealot.

Aw, Dan, you could've come by Clemson University tomorrow evening to see Huck trot out his Chuck Norris/Ric Flair dog and pony show.