My usual response to this question is that the average Democrat is better than the average Republican, but the very best Republicans are better than the very best Democrats. However, given that my model of the “average Democrat” is the average person in the Bay Area, and my model of the “average Republican” is some mix of Fox news wacko and George W. Bush, I’m not sure I should trust this. Does anyone have any anecdotes about Democrats out side of the Bay Area? Republicans?
Have you witnessed any actual discourse in person, or are you relying on the news media to obtain information on this topic? If so, you should expect that if the news media is biased, your view will be biased as well (if you haven’t already corrected for this).
By “public discourse” I did mean things like talking points and media interviews. I’m sure many republicans have extremely intelligent private conversations over policy, e.g. Hank Paulson.
I imagine most of Hank Paulson’s private policy conversations revolved around devious new schemes to funnel more billion dollar backdoor bailouts to Goldman Sachs.
Was this downvoted for conspiracy theory-ing or because an actual majority of Hank Paulson’s private discussions weren’t really about how to steal money? I agree that Paulson couldn’t have spent a majority of the time discussing how to funnel money to his friends and comrades, but it seems reasonably well established that some of the financial meltdown conspiracy theories are true.
Thoughts on Democrats and Republicans?
My impression is that Democrats have much more intellectually honest, serious public discourse, although that’s not saying much.
My usual response to this question is that the average Democrat is better than the average Republican, but the very best Republicans are better than the very best Democrats. However, given that my model of the “average Democrat” is the average person in the Bay Area, and my model of the “average Republican” is some mix of Fox news wacko and George W. Bush, I’m not sure I should trust this. Does anyone have any anecdotes about Democrats out side of the Bay Area? Republicans?
Have you witnessed any actual discourse in person, or are you relying on the news media to obtain information on this topic? If so, you should expect that if the news media is biased, your view will be biased as well (if you haven’t already corrected for this).
By “public discourse” I did mean things like talking points and media interviews. I’m sure many republicans have extremely intelligent private conversations over policy, e.g. Hank Paulson.
I imagine most of Hank Paulson’s private policy conversations revolved around devious new schemes to funnel more billion dollar backdoor bailouts to Goldman Sachs.
Was this downvoted for conspiracy theory-ing or because an actual majority of Hank Paulson’s private discussions weren’t really about how to steal money? I agree that Paulson couldn’t have spent a majority of the time discussing how to funnel money to his friends and comrades, but it seems reasonably well established that some of the financial meltdown conspiracy theories are true.