# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 854
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17061 "2014-09-29T04:29:39Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > So if Cecil came out as a far right Republican, you’d think he was a moron? And please, let’s be real, you’re trying to portray Carson as some kind of savant. Carson is a brilliant man whose only fault is that he hasn’t spent 40 years immersing himself in politics. If he chooses to actually do something in politics, he’ll smarten up on the issues really quick. Whereas most politicians, even the “smart” ones, will never be anything more than politicians. To a politician, moving up in the world is becoming a lobbyist. A smart asshole is still just an asshole. Carson is a science denier, which puts him down there with the anti-vax crowd, who are also assholes. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17062 "2014-09-29T04:38:59Z")
He actually had to use science in his job. Hell, Carson figured out new ways to save lives. Comparing Carson unfavorably to a politician who mouths the right words is like comparing a Medal of Honor war veteran to a Call of Duty champion. Politicians play at this stuff. Carson advanced the science of neurosurgery. All this is is prejudice against Christians. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17063 "2014-09-29T05:09:18Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > So if Cecil came out as a far right Republican, you’d think he was a moron? I would. The far right is characterized by stupid. The Earth is 6000 years old. Revenue can never be raised to meet expenses, no matter how regressive the tax scheme becomes. Corporations are people, and so are fetuses. Money doesn’t corrupt politics. America is meant to be governed as a theocracy. Straight white men are more important than any other category of human. Marijuana should remain a Schedule I drug. Invading Iraq because… terrorism!.. was a good idea. The poor don’t deserve healthcare because they’re lazy, nor do they deserve a minimum wage. Systemic unemployment is an individual problem. The mentally ill ought to roam the streets. Young black men exist to be shot if some moron “feels” threatened. Global warming is a hoax; rising CO2 levels can never be honestly addressed. Voting hours and conditions need to be restricted. White collar criminals can never be jailed. It goes on and on. Far right Republican = moron. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17064 "2014-09-29T05:16:38Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He actually had to use science in his job. Hell, Carson figured out new ways to save lives. Comparing Carson unfavorably to a politician who mouths the right words is like comparing a Medal of Honor war veteran to a Call of Duty champion. Politicians play at this stuff. Carson advanced the science of neurosurgery. > > All this is is prejudice against Christians. :dubious: Not from me. From me, it’s prejudice against Republicans. Which is entirely justified, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17065 "2014-09-29T05:26:42Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > All this is is prejudice against Christians. The lion’s share of christians (so to speak) are not biblical literalists. Most christians believe, accept or tolerate evolution, only a small minority are literalists. Most christians are rather like normal people, so much so that we often never even realize that they are christians. Carson is an edge case. As a SDA, he is of necessity a literalist. He touts a flat tax, which would make things much worse in this country. Most of his ideas about how things ought to be are shallow, naïve, short-sighted and potentially dangerous. The fact that his thinks his ideas are good ones is all the evidence we need to determine that he is a dumbfuck. He should stay in the OR where he can contribute positively to people. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17066 "2014-09-29T06:18:08Z")
He was also smart enough to realize when it was time to quit. He’s getting a bit old, hands aren’t as steady as they used to be. Since he can’t do actual things anymore, why not politics, the most unproductive profession on earth? Heck, it goes beyond unproductive, it’s actually parasitical. If he can change that, he’ll have done what few politicians can boast of: actually accomplishing something. But anyway, good luck portraying the foremost neurosurgeon in the country as a dumbass. If the Democrats have a career politician trying to say that, who will the voters believe? The neurosurgeon, or the career politician who wasn’t even a very good lawyer? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17067 "2014-09-29T06:38:19Z")
Curious how you are creaming your knickers over Carson after earlier expressing a yearning for a Gen-X president. If a 63-y/o dude is not a Boomer (of the kind that have been making a mess of the country for nigh on a quarter century), what is he? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17068 "2014-09-29T06:42:03Z")
Black ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17069 "2014-09-29T06:43:28Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > But anyway, good luck portraying the foremost neurosurgeon in the country as a dumbass. Nice appeal to authority fallacy. If the guy endorses stupid positions and ideas, he is a moron. Neuroscience is very, very rarely a matter of public policy. Far right Republican = moron, even in this case. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17070 "2014-09-29T06:43:35Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He was also smart enough to realize when it was time to quit. He’s getting a bit old, hands aren’t as steady as they used to be. Since he can’t do actual things anymore, why not politics, the most unproductive profession on earth? > > Heck, it goes beyond unproductive, it’s actually parasitical. If he can change that, he’ll have done what few politicians can boast of: actually accomplishing something. > > But anyway, good luck portraying the foremost neurosurgeon in the country as a dumbass. If the Democrats have a career politician trying to say that, who will the voters believe? The neurosurgeon, or the career politician who wasn’t even a very good lawyer? Dr Seitz was also well renown and was a former president of the National Academy of Sciences, then after that he broke bad, _ **really bad** _, and worked making research that found nothing wrong with smoking first when on the payroll of the tobacco companies; and then just put his name in support of the infamous Climate change denier Oregon Petition and really talked out of his ass in many editorials he made denouncing the vast majority of active climate experts. > **[Dr Frederick Seitz – This is Not Cool](https://thinc.blog/tag/dr-frederick-seitz/)** > > Posts about Dr Frederick Seitz written by greenman3610 So, yes, I do not need to feel lucky because I can tell you already that relying on experts outside their area of expertise is just a clear symptom that the Republicans just found a dupe on you and many other republicans that do not know logic 101 and fallacies. So the same goes with a neurosurgeon that pontificates outside their are of expertise. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17071 "2014-09-29T06:56:27Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > All this is is prejudice against Christians. This will be good. Are you willing to claim that Barry Bickmore, a Professor and a Mormon from BYU is not a Christian? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17072 "2014-09-29T06:59:04Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Curious how you are creaming your knickers over Carson after earlier expressing a yearning for a Gen-X president. If a 63-y/o dude is not a Boomer (of the kind that have been making a mess of the country for nigh on a quarter century), what is he? I also seem to remember posts saying that a president needs to have executive experience as the head of a state or other large organization, the better to learn how to delegate tasks and manage the vast hierarchy of people in the executive branch. I don’t see anything like that in Carson’s background. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17073 "2014-09-29T07:37:01Z")
And when **adaher** claims that it is the Democrats who aren’t thinking, one is then obligated now to post the weapons grade stupidity and lack of brains demonstrated by virtually all the Republicans in the latest Science Committee hearing. John Stewart has the goods on the lack of elementary school knowledge and clear pride on the ignorance that the stupid republicans are willing to show on the record. > **[John Stewart on Climate March and Clueless Deniers](https://thinc.blog/2014/09/25/john-stewart-on-climate-march-and-clueless-deniers/)** > > If you have not yet seen this, drop everything now and make time. Comedy Central seems to have learned from  John Oliver and HBO that posting bits to YouTube, instead of keeping them bottled up on … > [@](#): > > The historic People’s Climate March takes place in New York City while a House of Representatives committee struggles with the basic principles of global warming. Struggles? A Republican declared that he does not believe in science and another does not have a clue of what melting ice on land will do to the ocean level, and all the rest of the Republicans came with more whoppers like those ones! Enough to fill weeks of the quota needed for the daily stupid Republican idea of the day. ---
**Author:** ![random6x7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@random6x7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/random6x7)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17074 "2014-09-29T12:29:58Z")
As a researcher in one of the soft sciences, I have noticed a tendency by some smart people to disparage our work as easy. I question this, of course- math is a lot easier than people. Anyway, it’s no surprise to me that a surgeon could be talking out of his ass about politics without bothering to actually study it. Smarts aren’t everything. Curiousity and a willingness to learn are. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17075 "2014-09-29T12:33:12Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > But anyway, good luck portraying the foremost neurosurgeon in the country as a dumbass. Gonna need a cite that he’s the “foremost neurosurgeon in the country”. And while Carson is undoubtedly a skilled physician and an intelligent man, the fact that he rejects evolution shows that he is unable to think critically about certain topics. That alone disqualifies him from high office, in my view. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17076 "2014-09-29T14:00:42Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > But anyway, good luck portraying the foremost neurosurgeon in the country as a dumbass. 30 seconds listening to Carson talk about how he’d fix the country is enough to portray him as a dumbass. High achievement in one field does not always translate to the ability to achieve in others - or to sanity. Carson has previously called Obama both a Nazi and a communist, and he’s a biblical literalist. Say what you will about Obama but that’s more than enough to conclude Carson is an idiot. Remember how Mitt Romney was going to be good for America because all of his success in business? Do you want America to be run like a _hospital_? ETA: Carson does have some good ideas, but he’d never dare repeat most of those if he’s a Republican candidate. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17077 "2014-09-29T14:20:22Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He was also smart enough to realize when it was time to quit. He’s getting a bit old, hands aren’t as steady as they used to be. Since he can’t do actual things anymore, why not politics, the most unproductive profession on earth? For the moment, let’s leave aside your profound ignorance about the possibility of public service ever being useful, even though your party is now so extreme in its nihilism that the concept no longer merits discussion. In fact, the most useful thing a surgeon who can no longer safely operate can do is to continue to practice as a consultant and a teacher, providing the benefits of a long and distinguished professional career to others who can carry it forward over their own careers. > [@](#): > > Heck, it goes beyond unproductive, it’s actually parasitical. Know what? Never mind. Just shut up. You’re embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17078 "2014-09-29T15:25:14Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > He actually had to use science in his job. Nope. He just had to follow the checklist. This is fortunate, as he is quite obviously (as proven conclusively by his spouting of creationist nonsense) incapable of understanding the basics of science. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17079 "2014-09-29T15:57:43Z")
Um, no, he actually pioneered new procedures. A person can be good at his job without understanding how everything works. One cannot pioneer new techniques without that knowledge, however. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/17080 "2014-09-29T16:00:19Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > 30 seconds listening to Carson talk about how he’d fix the country is enough to portray him as a dumbass. High achievement in one field does not always translate to the ability to achieve in others - or to sanity. True about expertise in one field not applying to other fields. Something to remember when we ask politicians to legislate on subjects they don’t understand. Which is er, just about everything other than regulation of lawyers(which they don’t do enough of). Sanity? Now you’re marking yourself as insane. Who knew that Johns Hopkins had an insane director of neurosurgery. Does Johns Hopkins receive any federal funding? If so, shouldn’t that be revisited since they appoint insane people to operate on patients and supervise others who also operate on patients? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=853) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=855)