OT: Talk me out of my anti-partisian views.

[SK in CV]

[quote=pri_dk][quote]Flat tax is not a simple solution. It is a simple idea put forward by simpletons.[/quote]

Harsh but true.

The challenge with income tax is defining exactly “income” is.[/quote]

I think I said almost those exact words earlier in this thread. The tax rate schedules for both individuals and corporations have about 5 or 6 different rates. There were some years in the past, when I was preparing hundreds of returns, I practically had them memorized. It’s a calculation that takes literally a few seconds with a calculator. It is less than 1% of the complexity of the tax code. There are plenty of ways to make the tax code simpler. (And most all of those would have economic and political ramifications.) A flat tax isn’t one of them.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Brian: You’ll note that I said Rove was selling this ideal to Americans, not that it actually existed. I do agree that the period from 1945 (end of WWII) to about 1972 was unique and won’t happen again in our history. Combined with popular mythology, many folks (especially the middle-class white ones) have a prelapsarian view of the 1950s, thinking about President Eisenhower, leafy suburbia, and America at the height of her power. From a sales perspective, this is powerful imagery, and I think you’ll begin seeing a move away from the more strident rhetoric and towards a more controlled message that promises a return to those type values. Whether its true or not isn’t the issue. That was a period when America had its shit together (in the minds of a lot of people) and things were easy to understand. We’re in a period of wrenching societal change and people are scared to death. Selling an image of Mom, apple pie and playing Little League baseball under a waving American flag is going to resonate deeply with many, especially those longing for simpler, more prosperous times.

Also, Beck and Limbaugh aren’t conservatives, the way that Maddow and Olbermann aren’t liberals. All of them are entertainers, and represent the worst strains of the American political personality.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Brian: You’ll note that I said Rove was selling this ideal to Americans, not that it actually existed. I do agree that the period from 1945 (end of WWII) to about 1972 was unique and won’t happen again in our history. Combined with popular mythology, many folks (especially the middle-class white ones) have a prelapsarian view of the 1950s, thinking about President Eisenhower, leafy suburbia, and America at the height of her power. From a sales perspective, this is powerful imagery, and I think you’ll begin seeing a move away from the more strident rhetoric and towards a more controlled message that promises a return to those type values. Whether its true or not isn’t the issue. That was a period when America had its shit together (in the minds of a lot of people) and things were easy to understand. We’re in a period of wrenching societal change and people are scared to death. Selling an image of Mom, apple pie and playing Little League baseball under a waving American flag is going to resonate deeply with many, especially those longing for simpler, more prosperous times.

Also, Beck and Limbaugh aren’t conservatives, the way that Maddow and Olbermann aren’t liberals. All of them are entertainers, and represent the worst strains of the American political personality.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Brian: You’ll note that I said Rove was selling this ideal to Americans, not that it actually existed. I do agree that the period from 1945 (end of WWII) to about 1972 was unique and won’t happen again in our history. Combined with popular mythology, many folks (especially the middle-class white ones) have a prelapsarian view of the 1950s, thinking about President Eisenhower, leafy suburbia, and America at the height of her power. From a sales perspective, this is powerful imagery, and I think you’ll begin seeing a move away from the more strident rhetoric and towards a more controlled message that promises a return to those type values. Whether its true or not isn’t the issue. That was a period when America had its shit together (in the minds of a lot of people) and things were easy to understand. We’re in a period of wrenching societal change and people are scared to death. Selling an image of Mom, apple pie and playing Little League baseball under a waving American flag is going to resonate deeply with many, especially those longing for simpler, more prosperous times.

Also, Beck and Limbaugh aren’t conservatives, the way that Maddow and Olbermann aren’t liberals. All of them are entertainers, and represent the worst strains of the American political personality.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Brian: You’ll note that I said Rove was selling this ideal to Americans, not that it actually existed. I do agree that the period from 1945 (end of WWII) to about 1972 was unique and won’t happen again in our history. Combined with popular mythology, many folks (especially the middle-class white ones) have a prelapsarian view of the 1950s, thinking about President Eisenhower, leafy suburbia, and America at the height of her power. From a sales perspective, this is powerful imagery, and I think you’ll begin seeing a move away from the more strident rhetoric and towards a more controlled message that promises a return to those type values. Whether its true or not isn’t the issue. That was a period when America had its shit together (in the minds of a lot of people) and things were easy to understand. We’re in a period of wrenching societal change and people are scared to death. Selling an image of Mom, apple pie and playing Little League baseball under a waving American flag is going to resonate deeply with many, especially those longing for simpler, more prosperous times.

Also, Beck and Limbaugh aren’t conservatives, the way that Maddow and Olbermann aren’t liberals. All of them are entertainers, and represent the worst strains of the American political personality.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Brian: You’ll note that I said Rove was selling this ideal to Americans, not that it actually existed. I do agree that the period from 1945 (end of WWII) to about 1972 was unique and won’t happen again in our history. Combined with popular mythology, many folks (especially the middle-class white ones) have a prelapsarian view of the 1950s, thinking about President Eisenhower, leafy suburbia, and America at the height of her power. From a sales perspective, this is powerful imagery, and I think you’ll begin seeing a move away from the more strident rhetoric and towards a more controlled message that promises a return to those type values. Whether its true or not isn’t the issue. That was a period when America had its shit together (in the minds of a lot of people) and things were easy to understand. We’re in a period of wrenching societal change and people are scared to death. Selling an image of Mom, apple pie and playing Little League baseball under a waving American flag is going to resonate deeply with many, especially those longing for simpler, more prosperous times.

Also, Beck and Limbaugh aren’t conservatives, the way that Maddow and Olbermann aren’t liberals. All of them are entertainers, and represent the worst strains of the American political personality.

[Arraya]

People identify with what they have been immersed in from infancy to adulthood, and essentially the communications within that environment. Unfortunately religion, ethnicity, race, nationalism, political affiliation are not only used as points of affinity but developed as walls and division and are grounds of exploitation. Those within a household to the political offices of a nation learn well and communicate these “differences” to their own advantage.

The collective mind (if I can use this term), our synchronicity that creates culture and civilization, unfortunately unbeknown to many, is influenced and terribly enslaved from the cradle to the grave. What is it that makes us march forward to our own collective detriment? Who wields this power of influence – why is it exerted – and what can we do to stop this exploitation? It is imperative that we grasp what is going on that influences us to think and act in predictable ways – to the benefit of the few.

We are subject to use and knowledge of science in an experimental petri dish called society, where all the tools of human knowledge are being used to mold us to a conformity – by those “who know what’s best for us.” It is an artificial construction of “reality.” We spend most of our time not as individual’s, but communicating with each other – we are the subjects of mass communication. This is turn effects what we “see” and “hear” in a collective sense.

Social experience and environment shapes both details of brain psychology and chemistry, the infants brain is made to fit into the culture in which it was born. Six month old’s can hear and make every sound in virtually every human language, the very physical existence of neurons to the tune of 50% are naturally forced to commit pre-programmed cell suicide to fit into the larger framework of the cultural pattern. Babies, one or two years old that see another infant hurt, or hear it crying, do not merely ape the child’s distress, they share it empathetically.

Children cram their powers of perception into a conformist mold, connecting their attention to what others see. Perceptions become the slaves of social commands – it has been proven that children will come to accept and like food that they have disliked previously by putting them into a situation of peer pressure with other children for a period of time, as an example.

Words are the ultimate repository of the herd influence. What we perceive with words is influenced through generations of men, women, families, tribes, and nations – insights, value judgments, ignorance and beliefs are communicated through words. Word’s literally carry the impact of either life or death in many instances.

So what am I saying with all of this? Actually this discussion on the post only goes so deep, we are not merely dealing with some set of personal political preferences that are innocuously dangled before us as some objective choice. Now, there are both harmless manifestations of of cultural inculcation and those which are collectively influenced in order to drive a mass of humanity under the direction and control of the few. People need to make these distinctions, rather than thinking they are at some smorgasbord where they objectively make their own “choices.”

[Arraya]

People identify with what they have been immersed in from infancy to adulthood, and essentially the communications within that environment. Unfortunately religion, ethnicity, race, nationalism, political affiliation are not only used as points of affinity but developed as walls and division and are grounds of exploitation. Those within a household to the political offices of a nation learn well and communicate these “differences” to their own advantage.

The collective mind (if I can use this term), our synchronicity that creates culture and civilization, unfortunately unbeknown to many, is influenced and terribly enslaved from the cradle to the grave. What is it that makes us march forward to our own collective detriment? Who wields this power of influence – why is it exerted – and what can we do to stop this exploitation? It is imperative that we grasp what is going on that influences us to think and act in predictable ways – to the benefit of the few.

We are subject to use and knowledge of science in an experimental petri dish called society, where all the tools of human knowledge are being used to mold us to a conformity – by those “who know what’s best for us.” It is an artificial construction of “reality.” We spend most of our time not as individual’s, but communicating with each other – we are the subjects of mass communication. This is turn effects what we “see” and “hear” in a collective sense.

Social experience and environment shapes both details of brain psychology and chemistry, the infants brain is made to fit into the culture in which it was born. Six month old’s can hear and make every sound in virtually every human language, the very physical existence of neurons to the tune of 50% are naturally forced to commit pre-programmed cell suicide to fit into the larger framework of the cultural pattern. Babies, one or two years old that see another infant hurt, or hear it crying, do not merely ape the child’s distress, they share it empathetically.

Children cram their powers of perception into a conformist mold, connecting their attention to what others see. Perceptions become the slaves of social commands – it has been proven that children will come to accept and like food that they have disliked previously by putting them into a situation of peer pressure with other children for a period of time, as an example.

Words are the ultimate repository of the herd influence. What we perceive with words is influenced through generations of men, women, families, tribes, and nations – insights, value judgments, ignorance and beliefs are communicated through words. Word’s literally carry the impact of either life or death in many instances.

So what am I saying with all of this? Actually this discussion on the post only goes so deep, we are not merely dealing with some set of personal political preferences that are innocuously dangled before us as some objective choice. Now, there are both harmless manifestations of of cultural inculcation and those which are collectively influenced in order to drive a mass of humanity under the direction and control of the few. People need to make these distinctions, rather than thinking they are at some smorgasbord where they objectively make their own “choices.”

[Arraya]

People identify with what they have been immersed in from infancy to adulthood, and essentially the communications within that environment. Unfortunately religion, ethnicity, race, nationalism, political affiliation are not only used as points of affinity but developed as walls and division and are grounds of exploitation. Those within a household to the political offices of a nation learn well and communicate these “differences” to their own advantage.

The collective mind (if I can use this term), our synchronicity that creates culture and civilization, unfortunately unbeknown to many, is influenced and terribly enslaved from the cradle to the grave. What is it that makes us march forward to our own collective detriment? Who wields this power of influence – why is it exerted – and what can we do to stop this exploitation? It is imperative that we grasp what is going on that influences us to think and act in predictable ways – to the benefit of the few.

We are subject to use and knowledge of science in an experimental petri dish called society, where all the tools of human knowledge are being used to mold us to a conformity – by those “who know what’s best for us.” It is an artificial construction of “reality.” We spend most of our time not as individual’s, but communicating with each other – we are the subjects of mass communication. This is turn effects what we “see” and “hear” in a collective sense.

Social experience and environment shapes both details of brain psychology and chemistry, the infants brain is made to fit into the culture in which it was born. Six month old’s can hear and make every sound in virtually every human language, the very physical existence of neurons to the tune of 50% are naturally forced to commit pre-programmed cell suicide to fit into the larger framework of the cultural pattern. Babies, one or two years old that see another infant hurt, or hear it crying, do not merely ape the child’s distress, they share it empathetically.

Children cram their powers of perception into a conformist mold, connecting their attention to what others see. Perceptions become the slaves of social commands – it has been proven that children will come to accept and like food that they have disliked previously by putting them into a situation of peer pressure with other children for a period of time, as an example.

Words are the ultimate repository of the herd influence. What we perceive with words is influenced through generations of men, women, families, tribes, and nations – insights, value judgments, ignorance and beliefs are communicated through words. Word’s literally carry the impact of either life or death in many instances.

So what am I saying with all of this? Actually this discussion on the post only goes so deep, we are not merely dealing with some set of personal political preferences that are innocuously dangled before us as some objective choice. Now, there are both harmless manifestations of of cultural inculcation and those which are collectively influenced in order to drive a mass of humanity under the direction and control of the few. People need to make these distinctions, rather than thinking they are at some smorgasbord where they objectively make their own “choices.”

[Arraya]

People identify with what they have been immersed in from infancy to adulthood, and essentially the communications within that environment. Unfortunately religion, ethnicity, race, nationalism, political affiliation are not only used as points of affinity but developed as walls and division and are grounds of exploitation. Those within a household to the political offices of a nation learn well and communicate these “differences” to their own advantage.

The collective mind (if I can use this term), our synchronicity that creates culture and civilization, unfortunately unbeknown to many, is influenced and terribly enslaved from the cradle to the grave. What is it that makes us march forward to our own collective detriment? Who wields this power of influence – why is it exerted – and what can we do to stop this exploitation? It is imperative that we grasp what is going on that influences us to think and act in predictable ways – to the benefit of the few.

We are subject to use and knowledge of science in an experimental petri dish called society, where all the tools of human knowledge are being used to mold us to a conformity – by those “who know what’s best for us.” It is an artificial construction of “reality.” We spend most of our time not as individual’s, but communicating with each other – we are the subjects of mass communication. This is turn effects what we “see” and “hear” in a collective sense.

Social experience and environment shapes both details of brain psychology and chemistry, the infants brain is made to fit into the culture in which it was born. Six month old’s can hear and make every sound in virtually every human language, the very physical existence of neurons to the tune of 50% are naturally forced to commit pre-programmed cell suicide to fit into the larger framework of the cultural pattern. Babies, one or two years old that see another infant hurt, or hear it crying, do not merely ape the child’s distress, they share it empathetically.

Children cram their powers of perception into a conformist mold, connecting their attention to what others see. Perceptions become the slaves of social commands – it has been proven that children will come to accept and like food that they have disliked previously by putting them into a situation of peer pressure with other children for a period of time, as an example.

Words are the ultimate repository of the herd influence. What we perceive with words is influenced through generations of men, women, families, tribes, and nations – insights, value judgments, ignorance and beliefs are communicated through words. Word’s literally carry the impact of either life or death in many instances.

So what am I saying with all of this? Actually this discussion on the post only goes so deep, we are not merely dealing with some set of personal political preferences that are innocuously dangled before us as some objective choice. Now, there are both harmless manifestations of of cultural inculcation and those which are collectively influenced in order to drive a mass of humanity under the direction and control of the few. People need to make these distinctions, rather than thinking they are at some smorgasbord where they objectively make their own “choices.”

[Arraya]

People identify with what they have been immersed in from infancy to adulthood, and essentially the communications within that environment. Unfortunately religion, ethnicity, race, nationalism, political affiliation are not only used as points of affinity but developed as walls and division and are grounds of exploitation. Those within a household to the political offices of a nation learn well and communicate these “differences” to their own advantage.

The collective mind (if I can use this term), our synchronicity that creates culture and civilization, unfortunately unbeknown to many, is influenced and terribly enslaved from the cradle to the grave. What is it that makes us march forward to our own collective detriment? Who wields this power of influence – why is it exerted – and what can we do to stop this exploitation? It is imperative that we grasp what is going on that influences us to think and act in predictable ways – to the benefit of the few.

We are subject to use and knowledge of science in an experimental petri dish called society, where all the tools of human knowledge are being used to mold us to a conformity – by those “who know what’s best for us.” It is an artificial construction of “reality.” We spend most of our time not as individual’s, but communicating with each other – we are the subjects of mass communication. This is turn effects what we “see” and “hear” in a collective sense.

Social experience and environment shapes both details of brain psychology and chemistry, the infants brain is made to fit into the culture in which it was born. Six month old’s can hear and make every sound in virtually every human language, the very physical existence of neurons to the tune of 50% are naturally forced to commit pre-programmed cell suicide to fit into the larger framework of the cultural pattern. Babies, one or two years old that see another infant hurt, or hear it crying, do not merely ape the child’s distress, they share it empathetically.

Children cram their powers of perception into a conformist mold, connecting their attention to what others see. Perceptions become the slaves of social commands – it has been proven that children will come to accept and like food that they have disliked previously by putting them into a situation of peer pressure with other children for a period of time, as an example.

Words are the ultimate repository of the herd influence. What we perceive with words is influenced through generations of men, women, families, tribes, and nations – insights, value judgments, ignorance and beliefs are communicated through words. Word’s literally carry the impact of either life or death in many instances.

So what am I saying with all of this? Actually this discussion on the post only goes so deep, we are not merely dealing with some set of personal political preferences that are innocuously dangled before us as some objective choice. Now, there are both harmless manifestations of of cultural inculcation and those which are collectively influenced in order to drive a mass of humanity under the direction and control of the few. People need to make these distinctions, rather than thinking they are at some smorgasbord where they objectively make their own “choices.”

[Anonymous]

[quote]guys like Rove are selling the idea of a return to 1950s America[/quote]

This pretty-much sums it up.

Not exactly 1950s America, but the America portrayed in the 1950/60s by television and cinema at the time.

Because that’s what they remember.

Who would have guessed that “Father Knows Best” and “Andy Griffith” would have doomed us all?

[Anonymous]

[quote]guys like Rove are selling the idea of a return to 1950s America[/quote]

This pretty-much sums it up.

Not exactly 1950s America, but the America portrayed in the 1950/60s by television and cinema at the time.

Because that’s what they remember.

Who would have guessed that “Father Knows Best” and “Andy Griffith” would have doomed us all?

[Anonymous]

[quote]guys like Rove are selling the idea of a return to 1950s America[/quote]

This pretty-much sums it up.

Not exactly 1950s America, but the America portrayed in the 1950/60s by television and cinema at the time.

Because that’s what they remember.

Who would have guessed that “Father Knows Best” and “Andy Griffith” would have doomed us all?

[Anonymous]

[quote]guys like Rove are selling the idea of a return to 1950s America[/quote]

This pretty-much sums it up.

Not exactly 1950s America, but the America portrayed in the 1950/60s by television and cinema at the time.

Because that’s what they remember.

Who would have guessed that “Father Knows Best” and “Andy Griffith” would have doomed us all?

[Author]

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