A Toon for Sunday
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, October 11, 2015
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10 comments
Yep, there is quite a bit of this going on.
(And I will confess to being guilty of it from time to time).
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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I’m not sure that’s true. Is there really a Silent Majority? Or is there a disinterested and/or despairing majority?
I wish it were true but I’m becoming increasingly convinced that with very few exceptions it’s the angriest who are the only ones who are engaged.
@Dave Schuler: My interpretation was that one side tends to act as if all opponents on the other side are part of the crazy segment.
You may be right about the numbers.
Steve, it’s certainly apparent in the comments section here at OTB and other sites.
What’s missing from the cartoon is the majority of both the square and the circle that are made up of people who don’t really understand the issues, don’t know the current law, don’t understand the relationships among Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, don’t know much history, and believe in some flavor of magic, be it god-bothering or philosophical or just wishful thinking.
The long-term success of democracy rests on the education of the populace. After many decades of progress in that regard, we are now (as best I can tell) regressing. This does not bode well.
@DrDaveT:
One of the differences between today and the world of, say, a century ago is that nearly anybody in developed countries can have all of the education that they want (not the degrees, mind, but the education). That they do not have it is prima facie evidence that they don’t want it.
Which is why I characterized those who, as you put it, “don’t really understand the issue” as “disengaged and/or despairing”.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2939
More both sides do it crap.
The percentage of nut-jobs on the right is not equal to the number of nut-jobs on the left.
On the Right the nut-jobs are running the asylum.
Trump
Carson
Fiorina
Cruz
Jindal
Rubio
The so-called House Freedom Caucus
So try re-doing that “toon” with the proportions properly aligned, and get back to us.
@C. Clavin:
And then show the little teenie-tiny slice of Republican moderation having a discussion with the huge loud crazy asshole slice of Republicans.
@Dave Schuler:
And then there are those who have a job and want a life to go with it.
Or maybe it is just a sign that there are still only 24 hours in the day?
@Dave Schuler:
I perhaps put more weight on deliberate disinformation than you do. Fox News has been spending gazillions of dollars to make sure that a large fraction of Americans remain ignorant or actively disinformed about many specific facts. At some point, you have to blame them, and not their audience, for their success.
To quote Yeats, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity”