I am waiting until they finally concede. I wonder if some of them ever will. Simply put, it seems like there is a large section of the Republican Party that refuses to believe a Democratic politician especially President could win an election.
They are not budging on Ohio even though the votes are almost certainly in a county that is going to go for Obama.
Whatever the result, I will do the same as I always do and hope for the day that everyone heeds these words from Walt Whitman:
This is what you shall do:
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labors to others,
Hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
Have patience and indulgence toward the people,
Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
Or to any man or number of men,
Go freely with powerful uneducated persons,
And with the young and with the mothers of families,
Read these leaves in the open air,
Every season of every year of your life,
Reexamine all you have been told,
At school at church or in any book,
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
And your very flesh shall be a great poem,
And have the richest fluency not only in its words,
But in the silent lines of its lips and face,
And between the lashes of your eyes,
And in every motion and joint of your body.
See my response below. I think that Conservatives have responded to liberal Hollywood by basically creating a shadow culture industry of their own. There is nothing wrong with this as a tactic but it prevents anyone outside the group from appreciating it.
It is possible to create great art that is also largely conservative in outview. But too much of the modern American right is interested in comfort food/propaganda too much.
I agree with Jaybird, people are very good at compartmentalization.
Hence you can have a lot of Republican folks who consume a lot of non-Conservative culture. Didn't Paul Ryan say his favorite band was the very left-wing Rage Against the Machine?
Though I also think that most people really don't pay attention to the lyrics of songs but that it is another issue entirely. The best example of this is when Sting gets mad at couples using Every Breath You Take as their wedding song. From what I hear his reaction is to ask sarcastically "Don't you realize that song is about a stalker? It is not a romantic song!"
The problem is that a lot of conservatives are not very good at producing culture to reach a broader audience. They tend to be too heavy on the propaganda first or producing for a narrow cast audience. It seems to be all the Kirk Cameron stuff which is not going to appeal to non-Evangelicals and non-Fundamentalists. Or it always feels jeering.
Yasujiro Ozu movies have largely conservative/traditional values in many ways. At the very least, they are about how modernity can tear apart the family. Tokyo Story is a good example where adult children with modern and busy lives do not have time to take care of their parents until it is too late. Late Spring is another good example. Frank Capra movies are largely conservative in their outlook on life. For more recent cinema, Kore-eda Hirokazu's Still Walking is largely about familial obligation and responsibility. It is not conservative in the American-Republican sense of the word but there is a lot about the importance of family. His most recent movie I Wish is a good example of how divorce can have serious negative psychological effects on children.
The problem is that very few modern American conservatives can make movies like Ozu or Capra. They play the heavy hand too much and focus more on the message than the story. Or they go into their most junvenille mood where nothing is more important than being "anti-PC" and pissing on liberals. There are plenty of liberals with a heavy hand as well but all in all, liberal artists seem to have a lighter touch most of the time.
There were plenty of conservative/Republican artists in old Hollywood. Spencer Tracey was a Republican, so was Barbara Stanwyck.
This is the one area where I often get in trouble with fellow liberals around my age. I am likely to defend high culture as being better more often and they tend to be of the relatvist mind set.
I don't have a problem with popular art. I like a decent amount of it but I get very snobby/unrepentant grad student when it comes to a lot of art.
"and haven’t had middle class teenage dropouts panhandle me for money"
To be fair, this seems to be exclusive to the San Francisco-Bay Area. I have never seen this be considered acceptable teenage behavior in New York, Boston/Cambridge, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Portland, Washington D.C. Philadelphia, or any other city I have been to or visited.
Of course when I go back to New York, I seen teenagers eating at restaurants with their friends and these are restaurant I could not afford on my own until fairly recently in my life.
I've never lived in a small-town. Only inner-ring suburbs and large cities. If I ever have kids/family, I would probably want to raise my kids in an inner-ring suburb. That way they can have a yard/park but the city is close enough for museums, theatre, orchestra, dance, and art activities. My parents took me to Young People and the Orchestra every weekend at Lincoln Center for a few years and I will probably do an equivalent activity with mine.
For engineers, it probably matters what kind of engineer they are:
Almost all the engineers I know are either civil engineers or work in computers/internet/Silicon Valley stuff. These are two of the least conservative industries out there. Silicon Valley might be the most Democratic leaning business outside of Trial Lawyers.
I imagine doctors politics deals with geography. Doctors in blue areas are going to be Democratic. Doctors in red areas are going to be Republican.
Though as far as I can tell, we inhabit two polarized sides of the Continental Divide. I grew up and have only lived in areas that can be described as the bluest of the blue. The only exception being that my undergrad was in a conservativeish area but my alma mater itself was very left. There were a few nearby towns with left-wing vibes as well.
As far as I can tell, you grew up and have lived in areas that are the reddest of the red.
We both seem to have grown up in upper-middle class professional areas and this shades our view. My hometown was Democratic no matter the profession even if it was a traditionally conservative profession. You seem to have grown up in an area where a plaintiff's lawyer might be Republican even though plaintiff's lawyers almost always swing Democratic.
Doctors in the NYC-Metro and San Francisco-Bay Area are going to be Democratic even if the profession tends to swing right.
And I still believe in the demographic trends of the Republicans scaring away professionals and people with higher ed degrees because of their constant pushing against climate change and evolution.
Well the Koch brothers are MIT educated engineers!
Seriously, a lot of the original modern conservative movement was done by engineers. Orange County in CA was a big home to the Goldwater-right movement and many of the core supporters were engineers. At least according to the histories on the modern conservative movement that I have read.
Out of all the professional groups, I think engineers are the most likely to split between strong-left and strong-right. I've known many liberal engineers and many super-conservative engineers.
My guess would be that engineers swing more liberal now because of the Christian Fundamentalist War on Science. I imagine most of them believe in evolution and other scientific theories that conservatives oppose. If they are in computers, they are probably against the rampant xenophobia of the modern conservative movement.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “It appears that the big loser of the evening is Karl Rove…”
My preferred form of apology is take-out Chinese.
"
I am waiting until they finally concede. I wonder if some of them ever will. Simply put, it seems like there is a large section of the Republican Party that refuses to believe a Democratic politician especially President could win an election.
They are not budging on Ohio even though the votes are almost certainly in a county that is going to go for Obama.
"
Probably zero.
On “I’m Smart”
I'm basically expecting my MacArthur Grant any year now.
On “Vote Your Conscience”
Alpha plus!
On “Sometimes Politics Feels Like This”
I was going to say it feels like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpaS2v-r7cE
On “What If It’s the OTHER Reality?”
Semi-serious question as a native of the Northeast and proud of my home region:
Does the rest of America have a thing against the Northeast on principal? What's wrong with the Northeast?
"
That would be the half that votes for Romney that is below average intelligence, right?
"
Clearly he has a TARDIS and is not telling any of us.
Barack Obama, not a Kenyan, just a Time Lord from Galafrey.
"
This would be bad. Very bad.
"
How I love this old pagan goat.
"
Whatever the result, I will do the same as I always do and hope for the day that everyone heeds these words from Walt Whitman:
This is what you shall do:
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labors to others,
Hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
Have patience and indulgence toward the people,
Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
Or to any man or number of men,
Go freely with powerful uneducated persons,
And with the young and with the mothers of families,
Read these leaves in the open air,
Every season of every year of your life,
Reexamine all you have been told,
At school at church or in any book,
Dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
And your very flesh shall be a great poem,
And have the richest fluency not only in its words,
But in the silent lines of its lips and face,
And between the lashes of your eyes,
And in every motion and joint of your body.
"
What do you think of the idea that all this stuff is being done to establish the idea that Obama's second term will be illegitimate?
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/the-pre-delegitimization-watch-it-begins/264493/
On “Why has Conservatism inexplicably become our generation’s Hollywood Squares?”
Kiss his twin sister it seems.
"
See my response below. I think that Conservatives have responded to liberal Hollywood by basically creating a shadow culture industry of their own. There is nothing wrong with this as a tactic but it prevents anyone outside the group from appreciating it.
It is possible to create great art that is also largely conservative in outview. But too much of the modern American right is interested in comfort food/propaganda too much.
"
Not to forget the great Western filmmaker John Ford.
Hollywood always had a lot of liberals like Humphry Bogart, Lauren Becall, Katherine Hepburn, William Wellman, etc.
"
I agree with Jaybird, people are very good at compartmentalization.
Hence you can have a lot of Republican folks who consume a lot of non-Conservative culture. Didn't Paul Ryan say his favorite band was the very left-wing Rage Against the Machine?
Though I also think that most people really don't pay attention to the lyrics of songs but that it is another issue entirely. The best example of this is when Sting gets mad at couples using Every Breath You Take as their wedding song. From what I hear his reaction is to ask sarcastically "Don't you realize that song is about a stalker? It is not a romantic song!"
The problem is that a lot of conservatives are not very good at producing culture to reach a broader audience. They tend to be too heavy on the propaganda first or producing for a narrow cast audience. It seems to be all the Kirk Cameron stuff which is not going to appeal to non-Evangelicals and non-Fundamentalists. Or it always feels jeering.
Yasujiro Ozu movies have largely conservative/traditional values in many ways. At the very least, they are about how modernity can tear apart the family. Tokyo Story is a good example where adult children with modern and busy lives do not have time to take care of their parents until it is too late. Late Spring is another good example. Frank Capra movies are largely conservative in their outlook on life. For more recent cinema, Kore-eda Hirokazu's Still Walking is largely about familial obligation and responsibility. It is not conservative in the American-Republican sense of the word but there is a lot about the importance of family. His most recent movie I Wish is a good example of how divorce can have serious negative psychological effects on children.
The problem is that very few modern American conservatives can make movies like Ozu or Capra. They play the heavy hand too much and focus more on the message than the story. Or they go into their most junvenille mood where nothing is more important than being "anti-PC" and pissing on liberals. There are plenty of liberals with a heavy hand as well but all in all, liberal artists seem to have a lighter touch most of the time.
There were plenty of conservative/Republican artists in old Hollywood. Spencer Tracey was a Republican, so was Barbara Stanwyck.
"
Santa Cruz is another area where time stopped at roughly 1967.
"
California still hasn't managed to take the New York out of me!
Largely because I don't want it to.
"
I wouldn't call Eugene, Oregon a city.
Though I do agree it is one of the last remaining pockets of 1967 in the United States.
"
This is the one area where I often get in trouble with fellow liberals around my age. I am likely to defend high culture as being better more often and they tend to be of the relatvist mind set.
I don't have a problem with popular art. I like a decent amount of it but I get very snobby/unrepentant grad student when it comes to a lot of art.
"
"and haven’t had middle class teenage dropouts panhandle me for money"
To be fair, this seems to be exclusive to the San Francisco-Bay Area. I have never seen this be considered acceptable teenage behavior in New York, Boston/Cambridge, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Portland, Washington D.C. Philadelphia, or any other city I have been to or visited.
Of course when I go back to New York, I seen teenagers eating at restaurants with their friends and these are restaurant I could not afford on my own until fairly recently in my life.
I've never lived in a small-town. Only inner-ring suburbs and large cities. If I ever have kids/family, I would probably want to raise my kids in an inner-ring suburb. That way they can have a yard/park but the city is close enough for museums, theatre, orchestra, dance, and art activities. My parents took me to Young People and the Orchestra every weekend at Lincoln Center for a few years and I will probably do an equivalent activity with mine.
"
For engineers, it probably matters what kind of engineer they are:
Almost all the engineers I know are either civil engineers or work in computers/internet/Silicon Valley stuff. These are two of the least conservative industries out there. Silicon Valley might be the most Democratic leaning business outside of Trial Lawyers.
I imagine doctors politics deals with geography. Doctors in blue areas are going to be Democratic. Doctors in red areas are going to be Republican.
Though as far as I can tell, we inhabit two polarized sides of the Continental Divide. I grew up and have only lived in areas that can be described as the bluest of the blue. The only exception being that my undergrad was in a conservativeish area but my alma mater itself was very left. There were a few nearby towns with left-wing vibes as well.
As far as I can tell, you grew up and have lived in areas that are the reddest of the red.
We both seem to have grown up in upper-middle class professional areas and this shades our view. My hometown was Democratic no matter the profession even if it was a traditionally conservative profession. You seem to have grown up in an area where a plaintiff's lawyer might be Republican even though plaintiff's lawyers almost always swing Democratic.
Doctors in the NYC-Metro and San Francisco-Bay Area are going to be Democratic even if the profession tends to swing right.
And I still believe in the demographic trends of the Republicans scaring away professionals and people with higher ed degrees because of their constant pushing against climate change and evolution.
On “Four More Years, With Head Held High”
@ James,
Not if you live in the right school districts*
*Largely ones filled with Jews and Asians. This describes my school district growing up. Or in really blue areas which might be the same thing.
On “Why has Conservatism inexplicably become our generation’s Hollywood Squares?”
Well the Koch brothers are MIT educated engineers!
Seriously, a lot of the original modern conservative movement was done by engineers. Orange County in CA was a big home to the Goldwater-right movement and many of the core supporters were engineers. At least according to the histories on the modern conservative movement that I have read.
Out of all the professional groups, I think engineers are the most likely to split between strong-left and strong-right. I've known many liberal engineers and many super-conservative engineers.
My guess would be that engineers swing more liberal now because of the Christian Fundamentalist War on Science. I imagine most of them believe in evolution and other scientific theories that conservatives oppose. If they are in computers, they are probably against the rampant xenophobia of the modern conservative movement.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.