Britney Spears is an Idiot: SHOCKER!

I think the point is that she wasn't really thinking anything. She's letting that genius George W Bush do her thinking for her.

That said, surely you hope she's right in her adherence, though at $87 million and no international support, it's looking pretty f'n precarious.

vs.

"I think Americans have the right to expect that our elected officials can handle situations and are more equipped to do the right things. Second-guessing is entirely an American thing, I understand. But we're also a republic, not an egalitarian society, and Britney at least understands that."

?????

ro otm

"Honestly, I think we should just trust our President in every decision that he makes, and we should just support that."

I don't see why this statement is idiotic. Bush was democratically elected, Florida chads or no Florida chads. That implies that for the period of his tenure in office the electorate have no alternative other than to trust him; otherwise they would not have elected him. If they do not trust him they have the opportunity to elect somebody else in next year's election. That's how democracy works. What problem does anyone have with this, exactly? What do any of you suggest should be done instead?

And I would incidentally point out that the virulent opinions expressed here about women, pop music and ordinary people in general are very much in keeping with extremist Republican thinking.

"it is more intelligent to distrust the machineries of democracy as they currently function"

(sorry, i wrote my question in the most contorted order possible, i haven't had enough coffee yet)

That's bullshit. Any elected official needs to get feedback from the public. We don't just elect them and forget about it until the next election.

the mechanism of feedback is the threat of not being re-elected
the sanction (should they break the rules) is not being re-elected

it's up to them whether they slavishly chase public opinion or ignore it

marcello is quite correct in stating that absolute trust in the elected official is no more ridiculous than absolute trust in the system: the alternative — this is probably actually happening on a widespread scale in the US and actually has done on and off since it was founded — is a practice of "i only have to obey the laws set in place by the officials *i* have voted for"

once this practice reaches a certain critical mass, the result will be civil war => britney's statement *in itself* is no more absurd than the statement "i prefer the system as it stands to civil war"

i. "i trust [x]" meaning "i believe [x] has no anti-democratic hidden agenda"
ii. "i trust [x]" meaning "whatever [x]'s hidden agenda, i trust that the checks and balances within the system will either neutralise them , or exploit/detourne them to the benefit of the polity"

the problem with i. is that for a democracy to operate, it requires that all participants be angels at all time
ii. is certainly a lot closer to the beliefs held by those who set the US system running

(=> britney = pro-lincoln here)

OK - I'll agree with that .. I certainly don't mean that the President MUST listen to feedback from the public .. But only if he wants to be successful. That doesn't need to be "slavishly chasing public opinion" - it means listening to what the public has to say. It doesn't mean changing your principles or not doing what you think is right - it means considering other points of view and being open-minded enough to accept that you may not have thought of everything.

Fucking Republican absolutists.

(off topic a bit possibly: isn't what's happening in iraq a continuation of the principle of sherman's drive to the sea?)

Just to bring it back to Earth... Even GWB seems to have admitted that we need UN support in the postwar. If he had listened to what his critics (i.e. some of Congress) were saying 6 months ago, the decision would have been made earlier. So - not to say that GWB is an ass for not listening to them .. but just that there was merit in their opinion. And if everyone just sits back and "lets the president do his job" - he's going to get burned repeatedly.

ts: "actually discussing politics" vs "exploitation of quasi-radical stances to provide us with an excuse for sneering at people thereby excusing ourselves from ever having to engage with the actual discussion of politics"

Ha!

.. and yeah - this is kind of out of hand - the point was, what does Britney Spears know about politics and why was she on Crossfire?

"....accumulation of her own experience? "

..She's a 22 year old pop star? It's possible that she's far more intelligent than I give her credit for - but she has yet to convince me of it.

why should she convince you or anybody?

keith- go outside, have a smoke and listen to some whitehouse on yr walkman.