(Part 2) Top products from r/progressive

Oh, and to the OP or anyone else interested interested in what's really going on here, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book on moral psychology, or if that's too much checking out any of these other resources about politics and moral psychology first: The video in the top right is as good a place as any.

Learning about terror management theory or one of its analogs (René Girard's scapegoat model or TMT through this book if you are religious) is also highly recommended in learning about why the other side always seems to us to be full of assholes. This award winning documentary is a great introduction, streams for free, and is one of my favorite movies ever.

We all need to demonize the other less and work together more on our common goals more, including being able to listen to what the other side has to say.

The first step IMHO is to learn the psychology of what separates us and why. Unfortunately, as research in cognitive science has demonstrated time and time again:
> "Our mental limitations prevent us from accepting our mental limitations."

-Dr. Robert Burton

You should read "the Candidate" by Samuel Popkin. The Gore campaign was such a clusterfuck, it's really a surprise that the election was as close as it was.

You can get extra credit for also reading Crash!ng the Party by Ralph Nader. He explains why he ran for president, and how Gore could have easily won Florida.

Nader did nothing except expose democrats for trying to look like republicans.

> The usual argument of these psycho-­pundits is that conservative politicians manipulate voters’ neural roots — playing on our craving for authority, for example — to trick people into voting against their interests. But Haidt treats electoral success as a kind of evolutionary fitness test. He figures that if voters like Republican messages, there’s something in Republican messages worth liking. He chides psychologists who try to “explain away” conservatism, treating it as a pathology. Conservatism thrives because it fits how people think, and that’s what validates it. Workers who vote Republican aren’t fools. In Haidt’s words, they’re “voting for their moral interests.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt.html?pagewanted=all

For the book being reviewed: http://www.amazon.com/The-Righteous-Mind-Politics-Religion/dp/0307377903

This guy wrote a great book about the journalism of social justice movements called People's Movements, People's Press

Exactly, Rove is a ruthless and fucking brilliant political strategist. It's like he is out of a novel.

ding ding ding

Michael Sean Winters actually just wrote a book about this very topic.

God's Right Hand: How Jerry Falwell Made God a Republican and Baptized the American Right

He also just did an interview on Book TV

The book bringing this point to light is Dark Money according to the article. The Koch family is not providing sources for the author and they are critical of the book. Let's all keep in mind that whatever you may think of the Koch family it is completely possibly that this book twists truth and stretches evidence beyond reason. Take that mindset to heart with any such book.

>It's more like LargeCorp demands deregulation

Someone needs to learn their history.

I suggest:
http://www.amazon.com/Triumph-Conservatism-Gabriel-Kolko/dp/0029166500/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2W9M32WBET3KD&colid=3DQ5SJT7U6S2T

by:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Kolko

http://www.amazon.com/Gifted-Hands-Ben-Carson-Story/dp/0310214696/ref=la_B001IGOK4M_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419302742&sr=1-1

read that and then tell me how much of a joke he is

Sonia Nazario, the reporter talked about in that story, wrote a book on illegal immigration called Enrique's Journey, which follows an immigrant as he tries to reach America. It's well worth reading if you're interested on the subject.

He's famous for writing "What's the matter with Kansas?"

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Market-Environmentalism-Terry-Anderson/dp/0312235038

The Shape of the River by William G. Bowen, Derek Bok, Princeton University Press,
1998.

http://www.amazon.com/Shape-River-Consequences-Considering-University/dp/0691002746/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1393788490

Giant Meteor 2016

You're arguing against a massive corpus of historical and biological evidence as well as evolutionary theory. If you don't find this argument convincing, can I suggest you first read a very important book: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. In my view, the transformation of an electoral system into a tool of private interests is as inevitable and predictable as the return trajectory of a falling apple. To call the apple "flying" before it lands is as disingenuous as calling the electoral system "democratic" before it fails.

Worse yet, have you seen Glenn Beck's new book "Broke"? If that isn't the biggest insult to intelligence I'm not sure what is. He profits from people's misery and wants to suggest that what he earned from his book shouldn't be taxes accordingly, so its a double slap for those who cling to his words out of the fear he instills.

Now, as far as your comment on "raising taxes on everyone" I would add one thing. Some people are so down and out, there is nothing left to tax. Should we ask for a section of the cardboard box they live in? I agree that in hard times perhaps everyone across the board should pitch in, but don't forget in terms of discretionary income I would suggest that people at certain levels may pay more just to tread water which is the subject of "Nickeled and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich. Now some people can argue with her methodology, but how about Elizabeth Warren? She can cite how the inequality across the spectrum grew.

I would rather take a page out of Warren Buffet's book that suggests that people of his level should pay at least the same percentage as their secretaries. I don't think he is making that up. And I think those who are well enough off are whistling past the graveyard knowing that he's right, and hoping no critical mass will ever put 2+2 together to swing the tide. (Edit: typo)

>Second, you're full of shit. I'm asking for proof of the US Federal government taking on projects that are central to the Red Cross' mission that Red Cross will not.

FEMA and similar actions large grew out of the failure of the Red Cross duing the 1927 Mississippi flooding.

It's part of it, yes, but the scaring factor is big as mentioned earlier. Here in the US, we have an ideological obsession with markets stemming back to the cold war. We were so anti communist we went to the total polar opposite extreme, and now the right wing parties use the spectre of the USSR to scare people out of voting for liberal. Which is why most conservatives make such ridiculous strawmen against liberal policies.

This is literally what millions of americans believe:

http://www.amazon.com/Americas-March-Socialism-missile-parades/dp/0743598547