Republicans Shocked as Nazi Wins Nomination

[Loren Pechtel]

Are people here familiar with the "dead cat" principle? It is said that some people would even vote for a dead cat if it was their party's candidate.

There is a certain portion of the electorate that will always vote for their party, no matter who it is, even if they don't know who it is. Alvin Greene is a very famous example of this. If you get two no-name imbeciles running against each other in opposite parties, each of them is going to get at least 30% of the vote.

Did the voters, seeing a name on the ballot, know they were voting for a Nazi?

Never heard of it.

On the other hand, I have heard of yellow dog Democrats--same idea. I figure there's an equivalent term for Republicans but it doesn't come to mind.

Dead cats are about swinging them and hitting some specified object.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

There has been an odd little thing about elections, sometimes somebody with a good name, but little reason to be elected, will beat somebody who is far better qualified, but has a foreign sounding name. Here in Texas some years ago, a Larouchite won as Texas Democratic chairman because his name was good while his opponent had a hard to pronounce foreign sounding name. People in the voting booth who know shit all about any of this but are faced with recording a vote, make judgments based on a mere name. Derp, derp, derp. This is how nut candidates can win elections.

 

[Politesse]

There has been an odd little thing about elections, sometimes somebody with a good name, but little reason to be elected, will beat somebody who is far better qualified, but has a foreign sounding name. Here in Texas some years ago, a Larouchite won as Texas Democratic chairman because his name was good while his opponent had a hard to pronounce foreign sounding name. People in the voting booth who know shit all about any of this but are faced with recording a vote, make judgments based on a mere name. Derp, derp, derp. This is how nut candidates can win elections.

We had a state rep named Radanovich a while back - you don't want to know how much of his campaign was dedicated to explaining his name to his (very conservative) voter base, and why they shouldn't be scared of it. He did win his second race, though. More's the pity, as he was an awful legislator. But I always felt a bit of pity (okay, mixed with a bit of schadenfreude) for his conundrum, trying to promote xenophobia and race hatred in policy while fighting it as applied to himself. And a little bit more schadenfreude when Republican-led redistricting threw him under the bus and gave him an unwinnable race for re-election.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

The dead cat principle isn't about swinging a dead cat. It is as I described - there is a certain portion of the population that will vote for the candidate of their party even if that candidate is a dead cat. They don't care, they see the D or R and cast their vote automatically.

Cheerful Charlie added another useful tidbit of information - a pronounceable name is a great benefit. It doesn't apply in this case tough. This guy ran unopposed in a primary that the Republicans had decided to run nobody in.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Which is he?

You know Ron Paul is both a conservative and libertarian, it's even in the question posed to you.

Putting your assumption in the form of a question doesn't really make the assumption what you want it to be. Example: are you a necrophile or a pedophile?

So, which one are you claiming Ron Paul is, a conservative OR a libertarian?

We've gone over this some 10-20 times over the years, to include in another thread just a couple of days ago.

Where you found a very obscure online journal that calls itself liberty republican, not libertarian republican, and that they hate Jeffrey Tucker. It was in that thread where we established that if I were to create a website called The Libertarian Democrat, the very existence of that website would convince you that the two positions are in complete accord.

So are you going to answer it or not?

I rejected your premise. Have you stopped molesting your dog yet?

 

[bilby]

Are people here familiar with the "dead cat" principle? It is said that some people would even vote for a dead cat if it was their party's candidate.

I thought "the dead cat principle" had to do with the commonness of things. Such as "You can't swing a dead cat anywhere around the White House without hitting a Russian".

Swinging a cat is about confined space - and the cat isn't dead (although it has been let out of the bag). 'Not enough room to swing a cat', derived from the Naval practice of imposing discipline with the cat o' nine tails, and from the confined quarters below decks in naval vessels.

The 'dead cat' is the protagonist of the 'dead cat bounce', wherein signs of a rally during a stock market correction are dismissed with the line 'even a dead cat will bounce if it has fallen far enough'.

The tendency of voters to blindly support their chosen party is the hatstand effect - 'they would elect a hatstand if it had a red (blue) rosette pinned to it'.

If something is ubiquitous, then you can't chuck a brick without hitting one. Cats are not involved, no matter their vital status.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There has been an odd little thing about elections, sometimes somebody with a good name, but little reason to be elected, will beat somebody who is far better qualified, but has a foreign sounding name. Here in Texas some years ago, a Larouchite won as Texas Democratic chairman because his name was good while his opponent had a hard to pronounce foreign sounding name. People in the voting booth who know shit all about any of this but are faced with recording a vote, make judgments based on a mere name. Derp, derp, derp. This is how nut candidates can win elections.

It's not just in voting. Having a familiar name helps in many situations. It's simple human nature and the reason companies run brand-recognition ads and candidates run name-recognition ads.