Results of Iowa

[Napoleon the Clown]

Am I the only one who thinks this Santorum stuff is going too far?
Don't get me wrong, I don't support Santorum and I disagree with his politics but this namecalling thing is just childish.

Also it is funny that Romney has a steady small support and the rest of the Republicans go from one candidate to the other "We just want to vote someone who ISN'T Romney!!!"

I guess equating the substance with the man is pretty insulting. Anal sex gets a bad enough rap as it is, why should we be connecting it to such a deplorable sack of shit?

Oh, wait. You think Rick Santorum deserves any respect. Adorable.

This is not about whether or not he deserves respect. My problem is that instead of attacking his politics Dan Savage and others decided to mock Santorum by name. I simply looked at Santorum's Wikipedia page and discovered that he supported waterboarding (he defended it claiming it helped find Osama), he is against GLBT rights, he wanted to include intellegent design in No Child Left Behind bill. There are so many things he has done/supported that could have been attacked.

This is just childish.

He is a childish man and the term that was named after him is a reference to his homophobia. It wouldn't be workable to associate his name with all the nasty shit he supports so instead they make a joke out of him. Instead he just is getting made fun of for being a douche canoe.

[Askold]

Am I the only one who thinks this Santorum stuff is going too far?
Don't get me wrong, I don't support Santorum and I disagree with his politics but this namecalling thing is just childish.

Also it is funny that Romney has a steady small support and the rest of the Republicans go from one candidate to the other "We just want to vote someone who ISN'T Romney!!!"

I guess equating the substance with the man is pretty insulting. Anal sex gets a bad enough rap as it is, why should we be connecting it to such a deplorable sack of shit?

Oh, wait. You think Rick Santorum deserves any respect. Adorable.

This is not about whether or not he deserves respect. My problem is that instead of attacking his politics Dan Savage and others decided to mock Santorum by name. I simply looked at Santorum's Wikipedia page and discovered that he supported waterboarding (he defended it claiming it helped find Osama), he is against GLBT rights, he wanted to include intellegent design in No Child Left Behind bill. There are so many things he has done/supported that could have been attacked.

This is just childish.

He is a childish man and the term that was named after him is a reference to his homophobia. It wouldn't be workable to associate his name with all the nasty shit he supports so instead they make a joke out of him. Instead he just is getting made fun of for being a douche canoe.

Yeah I still have to disagree with you guys. There are so many things that he could have been attacked with but Dan Savage chose the one thing he did not do, he didn't choose his own name.

I mean if you do some research on Santorum you will find out that he was in the board of directors of an hospital where the staff was guilty of: child abuse, fraud, pedophilia and many other crimes, you could find out that he defended catholic priests who were suspected of pedophilia (hmm sensing a pattern) you could hang this man by his own statements and acts.

These are the things you could find by doing a Google search of his name -except that you have to skip the first two pages untill you find any articles about him.

Maybe I'm just weird but all this namecalling made me sympathise with him, that changed after I did a bit of research on him.

I guess my point is that when the other side acts like complete assholes it is not an invitation to compete who is the bigger asshole. You have Rebublicans who want USA to be a corporate paradise, with laws based on fundamentalistic interpretation of bible, a country where natural resources are exploited and workers are exploited freely and anyone who dissents (or has a wrong skin colour) can be locked away without a trial. They want to start pre-emptive wars and some would actively spread christianity by wars.

When faced with this (and lets face it USA is alreade far on that path) the liberal left decides to resort to namecalling. Not the politicians though I have to admit that. They on the other hand either do nothing or actively assist the Rebublicans.

[Vene]

Yeah I still have to disagree with you guys. There are so many things that he could have been attacked with but Dan Savage chose the one thing he did not do, he didn't choose his own name.

I'm puzzled by this comment. Do you think Santorum's name had the frothy definition before Savage popularized it? Because that's the only way for this statement to make sense. Santorum decided to make anti-gay and anti-sex comments, so he's now associated with something people don't want when they're fucking. The frothy definition is quite appropriate because that is how vile the man actually is.

Maybe I'm just weird but all this namecalling made me sympathise with him, that changed after I did a bit of research on him.

Here is where I point out that you are not in the US, so his antics are less known to you. People here know that he's a terrible person (it's just that being a terrible person is a selling point for the GOP).

I guess my point is that when the other side acts like complete assholes it is not an invitation to compete who is the bigger asshole. You have Rebublicans who want USA to be a corporate paradise, with laws based on fundamentalistic interpretation of bible, a country where natural resources are exploited and workers are exploited freely and anyone who dissents (or has a wrong skin colour) can be locked away without a trial. They want to start pre-emptive wars and some would actively spread christianity by wars.

And you know what? Mockery is a far more effective tactic than talking about the issues. I've already posted a link to the effectiveness of mockery and humor. I'm also going to link to this which points out that simply correcting misinformation is not a viable strategy. It's hard to make people give a fuck about issues with statistics and data and charts (Al Gore actually lost the debates to George Bush by doing this). Politics is no academia, it can't be held to the same standards.

[Canadian Mojo]

Yeah I still have to disagree with you guys. There are so many things that he could have been attacked with but Dan Savage chose the one thing he did not do, he didn't choose his own name.

People don't choose to be gay, dark skinned, poor, or not believe in the right god* yet he has attacked all those groups. You can attack him on these points but far to many people think that he right to make it truly effective and get under his skin. This is just a little bit of asymetrical warfare waged against a man who wants to be crowned king and is trying to do it by demonizing every marginal group he can in order to drum up support.

Fuck him, politics is a full contact sport.



*You don't choose to believe, you either do or you don't . You can pretend in order to fit in just like a homosexual can, but it doesn't change the fact that who you really are is being attacked.

[SCarpelan]

Askold, the American political culture is way different from ours. Personal insults that would backfire badly here are just a part of the political discussion over there specially among the pundits.

[Askold]

OK. Maybe it really is because I'm from Finland and our politics are so different. Like I said before, I agree that Santorum is an asshole I never tried to actually defend him.

Yeah I still have to disagree with you guys. There are so many things that he could have been attacked with but Dan Savage chose the one thing he did not do, he didn't choose his own name.

I'm puzzled by this comment. Do you think Santorum's name had the frothy definition before Savage popularized it? Because that's the only way for this statement to make sense. Santorum decided to make anti-gay and anti-sex comments, so he's now associated with something people don't want when they're fucking. The frothy definition is quite appropriate because that is how vile the man actually is.

Maybe I just express myself poorly in english. I did know that the new meaning for santorum was made up just to insult him. Maybe it is just that our politics/cultures are so different and it just seems weird to me.

[Canadian Mojo]

That shit doesn't really fly here either, and I live right next door to the U.S.

[TheL]

OK. Maybe it really is because I'm from Finland and our politics are so different. Like I said before, I agree that Santorum is an asshole I never tried to actually defend him.

Yeah I still have to disagree with you guys. There are so many things that he could have been attacked with but Dan Savage chose the one thing he did not do, he didn't choose his own name.

I'm puzzled by this comment. Do you think Santorum's name had the frothy definition before Savage popularized it? Because that's the only way for this statement to make sense. Santorum decided to make anti-gay and anti-sex comments, so he's now associated with something people don't want when they're fucking. The frothy definition is quite appropriate because that is how vile the man actually is.

Maybe I just express myself poorly in english. I did know that the new meaning for santorum was made up just to insult him. Maybe it is just that our politics/cultures are so different and it just seems weird to me.

It's an American thing.  Basically, we are extremely immature when it comes to political discourse and have no problem with namecalling and other juvenile stunts.  It's considered normal here.

[sandman]

LOL. An American thing? You obviously have never witnessed a session of Parliament in the UK.

[Osama bin Bambi]

LOL. An American thing? You obviously have never witnessed a session of Parliament in the UK.

It sounds like fun. Any cases stick out to you?

[Old Viking]

Geez, people. If we eliminate name-calling from political discussions my entire arsenal is wiped out.

[clockworkgirl21]

On a class trip to Washington DC we got to sit in on a Senate/House session. There was a sign by our seats that told us to keep quiet, don't boo or even clap. As I sat there, I was thinking, "Who would clap or boo? This is so boring I can't even pay attention." Then I saw a clip of Parliament where one representative flat out called the other a liar and they started shouting. I thought, "I wouldn't have minded sitting in on that one!"

[Vypernight]

The main problem with attacking one republican's views/actions over another is that whatever he/she/it is guilty of, they've all done it.  You can't just say Santorum has made homophobic remarks as if he's the only one who's done this.  Name-calling's really all you have left.

I don't even think we can pick a LEAST homophobic, ultra-conservative, Christ-loving, money-grubbing piece of **** anymore.  Might as well go for the one who'll provide the most-entertaining debates.

[Shane for Wax]

There was all out fist-fighting in China I think it was.

[armandtanzarian]

There was all out fist-fighting in China I think it was.

Taiwan actually. Happens every few years, which is not surprising considering their parties really, truly hate each other's guts, and their media makes even the British tabloid culture or the American political feeding frenzy look like polite amateurs.