George Will: The Original White Guy
George Will has things figured out.
This country HAS to have voter ID because of, well, you know … Hitler.
George Will: Have White, Will Opine
No, I am not kidding you.
Will begins by arguing that national registration will lead to mandatory voting. He doesn’t explain how that will happen except to note that Democrats love government. Democrats also love fried okra but that hasn’t led to mandatory okra consumption. Well, at least outside the south.
Then he claims that people don’t vote because they are content. Happy. Comfortable. He doesn’t explain how that happened in a bad economy. Maybe that hasn’t trickled up to Will’s income level.
Next Will gives his second batcrap crazy point.
Second, the stakes of politics are agreeably low because constitutional rights and other essential elements of happiness are not menaced by elections. Those who think high voter turnout indicates civic health should note that in three German elections, 1932-33, turnout averaged more than 86 percent, reflecting the terrible stakes: The elections decided which mobs would rule the streets and who would inhabit concentration camps.
Yeah, Hitler. You just let anybody vote and then that just encourages them and they elect Hitler.
Will doesn’t opine on whether that would be an improvement over who we did elect, but I’d be willing to bet one set of golf clubs and pleated khaki pants that he probably does.
Look, I know all white guys aren’t bad. Hell, I married one and gave birth to three of them. But I still think they should have to pass a reality tests before they can vote.
Thanks to Aggieland Liz for the heads up.
They don’t have that problem in Australia which is, as far as I can tell, even more of a democracy than the USA but everyone is required to vote or they have to pay a small fine (15 dollars but I don’t remember if that’s USD or AUD). They also have the option to vote for “None of the above” which negates George Dubya-I-L-L’s argument that not voting is also a choice because it represents dissatisfaction with the candidates.
1Them fascists just loves them some Hitler.
2This is the epitome of ant-logic. If p then q, if not p then not q.
3It is the irrational musing of an unhinged mind which, unfortunately, seems to be the rule rather than the exception, of Republican apologists like Will. I’d nominate him for wacko of the year, but he’s got so much competition.
and him so smart and all.
4You know how I know he’s smart? He’s got on a bowtie which is what my husband always wore before he gave up on ties altogether, but you know, that proves Will is smart: my husband is smart and wears a bow tie and Will wears a bowtie and thus….
5Hitler must have relocated to Australia because voting is mandatory there (a fine if you don’t vote) but turnout is still low.
6Uhm, isn’t that why we have the Electoral College, to be a bulwark against the “mob”. Isn’t that why our government is set up with its “checks and balances” to protect us from the “tyranny of the majority”?
But Mr. Will, where was your condemnation of voting when the marriage equality bans were voted on around the nation in 2004 and in other election years. You didn’t seem to have an issue then.
7George likes to come across as this erudite, verbose thinker for the rest of us. If his verbosity doesn’t make any sense, that’s all it is.
8Bow tie.
9No more needs to be said.
George doesn’t get out much it appears.
10Well, Karl Mark wore a bow tie and he was a socialist so let’s go with Georgie’s reasoning – ruh roh George – you little socialist you!
11I figured out years ago that this particular “emperor” has no clothes. His hypocrisy is breath-taking, but he figures he is so much smarter than the rest of us, that we won’t notice.
The real reason I stopped reading his drivel, other than his consistent Krauthammer-like spewing of whatever wingnut dreck is on the table at the moment, was on the subject of Down Syndrome. He has a son born with it. That he loves the boy without exception isn’t in dispute. What IS in dispute is his lack of recognition that others with such children (or finding out that they are carrying one in utero), are mostly not in his enviable financial condition. There’s a really good reason that siblings of those with Down Syndrome abort their own such fetuses 90% (that is not a typo) of the time–such children suck up every extra dollar and all the time of their parents.
Twenty years ago, Will wrote a column about his son’s graduation from High School (at the ripe old age of 20) and talked about his job in some mailroom. Last year, his son turned 40 and wrote about him again. How he “helps” out in the training room of the Nationals and sees all the home games. Gee, I wonder how that came about?
Further, to my knowledge, Will has never mentioned the new studies that have come out in recent years showing that those with Down Syndrome have a 50% (no, that is not a typo) chance of developing early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. This is because medical advances have allowed people with the syndrome, which includes a whole host of physical problems, the chance to live much longer. They use to die in their 20s or so.
I’m sure Doctor Will has made whatever financial arrangements needed for the continuing care of his son. Would that everybody else be able to do that. A lot of not-so-wealthy people are worried about what will happen to their children when they are gone. So are the siblings.
But, to further my argument that Will shouldn’t have a public voice at all–at least, not a well-paid one–is his public humiliation of his first wife (the mother of said son) when he brazenly escorted Katharine Graham’s daughter, Lally Weymouth, around town while they were having an affair. His then-wife was a high official in the Department of Education during the Reagan Administration. Rumor has it that she packed up his clothes and left them on the front porch–after she changed the locks. He bought the house next door and has ensconed wife No. 2 and their child in it.
That this POS thinks he can lecture to the rest of us about anything just torches my socks.
12I quit reading Will after he distorted some climatology data and said that it meant the opposite of what it did– trying to show that climate change isn’t happening– and refused to retract his statements even when the lies were pointed out. Also when he said some other things I don’t recall but which gave me the impression he was getting senile. I have sympathy for people with that condition but I don’t need to read what they think is true (and get paid big bucks for writing).
13OK, there’s at least one Democrt -me- that doesn’t like Okra.
14Well, for what it is worth, a lot of OLD men (of the white persuasion) have been having the good grace to die off recently. We can only hope it is a trend in light of their not being able to gain attention any other way. I have to admit I will miss only a few of them.
15I believe George Will is considered one of the intellectuals of the Republican party, along with Newt Gingrich.
That pretty much says it all.
16George needs to read a little history on the elections in Germany of 32-33. I suggest Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, as a start.
There was only one mob, the Brown Shirts, and they only got Hitler about 1/3 of the vote. The other ‘mob’ were the authorities trying to contain the violence of the Nazis.
The National Socialists formed a government with the Nationals (a different party) and pretty soon only National Socialists were allowed to run at all.
17@BarbinDC thanks for the heads up on George Will. He has always been on my pompous ass list. Now, he is nearer the top with his buddy Newt.
18One small point. Hitler and the Nazi party did not win a majority of the vote, just a plurality.
19What @crone said regarding @BarbinDC’s revelations.
20Will is a first class POS.
This silver-tongued fool ran off the rails years ago. He has tried so desperately hard to be the new William Buckley, but….well, he’s an idiot.
21George has been out of sorts ever since we started ELECTING senators. Oh, the riff-raff we’ve let in. And err uh NAZIS!!!
22What @san fraser said..only I have narrowed my grief down to none.
23There are several others whose obit I will read with a supreme sense of..satisfaction!
Interesting background on Will, which only validated my overwhelming need to throw up everytime I heard his whiney voice on TV. I could never get past the first couple of sentences in any column he wrote, no matter how hard I tried, due to similar pangs in my stomach. To call someone like that a pompous POS is a compliment in my book…. then you get around to his politics.
Yeah, this Emperor has no clothes… thanks for the background, Barb… and now my socks are torched, too.
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