If there is one thing that the american public education system teaches and teaches well, it's how to fake your way through a book report.

Yours

The ignorance wouldn't be so bad, if the arrogance weren't appalling.

It is one thing to not be familiar with the details of something, I try to follow national politics as much as possible, but I'm happy to admit I'm not that familiar with the details of say... fisheries subsidies in the Pacific Northwest. I'd never dare to start pretending I had an opinion on some legislation that I had no knowledge of.

But, isn't the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, just about the most-discussed legislation of our lifetimes, aside from perhaps the Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.

At this point, shouldn't just about everyone with internet access have done some elementary research at least as to what it says and does? It was challenged in the Supreme Court for fucks' sake. The Republicans have attempted to repeal it in whole, or in part, dozens of times.

This is reason, of many, that I no longer vote. There are just too many walking dead.

These documentaries of American stupidity must be preserved, so that one day historians and cultural anthropologists might come to the rightful conclusion that the American Empire fell to diabetes and shear stupidity endemic in the electorate.

Fuck these people. They deserve what they get.

You hate their ignorance so much that you want them to make decisions impacting your life for you. Good God, man, that's not a very sound plan.

"I'm reminded of the video of Howard Stern reading off all McCain's policies, but lying saying they're Obama's, and all the Obama supporters gleefully stating how they agree with them 100% and that's why they're voting for him."

I have to believe those responses were very heavily cherry-picked, though. People on the left don't tend to line up passionately behind someone unless they pass two tests: being basically sane, and being ideologically pure. (If they pass the former test but not the latter, the left will only begrudgingly back them.) McCain policies wouldn't pass either test, so I can't imagine many Obama supporters being into them.

There's a third test, about practicality, that the left doesn't pay enough attention to. Like single payer: to this day there are people who think that it could somehow have been made law if only Obama wanted it badly enough. That model works fine in Green Lantern comics, but in politics, where there is this whole "Congress" thing that has to pass bills, single payer was just out there enough that even proponents such as Barney Frank said there simply weren't enough votes for it.

"This two party cult system has become a fucking poison and I wish there was a way to get rid of it."

The Republicans are a cult all right. The Democrats are too disorganized to qualify as a cult; their only uniting principle these days is horror over the Republicans.

Forming your political identity off of Howard Stern bits.

Knew there had to be something behind the "both parties are the same" mentality.

I can explain that even more easily: "both parties are the same" lets you remain lazy and uninformed while also feeling smarter than the people around you.

"lazy and uninformed while also feeling smarter than the people around you"

the matt stone/trey parker creed.

how is this thread not an irony black hole by now

Says the guy who has never dared an opinion other than how unworthy of his attention everyone else is.

your opinion is that most liberals will only strongly support sane, ideologically pure leaders. my opinion is that you and sol ro just shared a universally comic moment and you don't even know it

So you've got nothing. Come on, man, this may be the only time in human history that anyone is asking your opinion on anything, give it a shot.

clearly my derisive reference to your earlier opinion on liberal voting trends indicated a differing opinion on my behalf, so what exactly are you asking for? you are hella naive and unsophisticated and real lucky glad jimmy here found some people whose political knowledge you can look down on

So show us what a smart man knows, CJH. You're looking like you're too dumb to have any well-formed opinions, and I bet it's because you ARE too dumb to have any well-formed opinions.

That's the best thing ever.

This isn't what you asked for, but I think it goes a long way to summarizing American politics over the past 60 years:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112365/why-republicans-are- party-white-people

I like this article because it agrees with my belief: you can't understand American politics at all without factoring in race. I say the core of Republican Party appeal is denying "privilege" to minorities, which would appeal to you if you're a flat-out racist or if you're just a white dude who feels like the world is against you and you think it's because the government is bending over backwards for the descendants of slaves but not for you.

With that in mind, you ("you" = GOP voter) are going to be opposed to Obama because you suspect he got into office as an entitlement on some level, you assume Obamacare is about robbing you to fund some lazy minority's health care, and so on.

I found this to be a wonderfully concise bit about the shutdown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTJubcZFA78