Common political narratives that annoy you

[All Along The Watchtower]

Here's a few off the top of my head:

-That the "Tea Party" is a coherent, unified "movement" (let alone a "spontaneous grassroots demonstration of conservative voters." )

-That the poor are more religious than the not-poor.

-That the 'middle class" is definitive or coherent.

-That American politics is "ideologically polarized."

List your own in this thread.

[Marokai Backbeat]

That Independent voters are actually all that independent, or particularly smart/informed at all relative to anyone else.

[traininthedistance]

*That having more land voting for your side means a damn thing

*That everyone who uses a bicycle to get around rather than a car is an upper-middle-class hipster (the truth is that bike commuters are poorer than average, albeit not by much)

* That inflation is in any way a danger (both in terms of it being a disaster for us, and in terms of even happening right now)

Plenty more I could think of if I tried, mostly along those sorts of lines.

[Vosem]

- That a party that controls half the legislature and most state governments, and came within 4% of controlling the executive, is somehow endangered

- The apartheid analogy; or that opposition to Israel is becoming a more popular position in the US

- That Republicans have problems attracting enough minorities/women

- That support for gun control is increasing, when in reality it's dropping remarkably precipitously

[Yank2133]

- That a party that controls half the legislature and most state governments, and came within 4% of controlling the executive, is somehow endangered

- The apartheid analogy; or that opposition to Israel is becoming a more popular position in the US

- That Republicans have problems attracting enough minorities/women

- That support for gun control is increasing, when in reality it's dropping remarkably precipitously

Denial is not just a river Egypt.........

[IceSpear]

That the Democrats are center-left and Republicans are center-right. Democrats are centrist and actually closer to center-right than Republicans are. Republicans are right wing, no center.

[Gass3268]

Repulicans care about women, minorities and poor people.

[Ban my account ffs!]

"Hard working families are cutting back, and so should government"

First of all.. wtf.  Families don't work.  People work.  Members of families work.  Families do not work.  They certainly don't work hard.

2nd... the very goal of government is not to mimic "hard working families", but to provide support and aid for them (assuming we're just accepting the idea of a hard working family at this point) in times of need.  When families struggle, it's not like they sit around thinking "we need to make this worse!"

[Cassius]

"It's the 1 percent vs the 99 percent"

"The rich should pay their 'fair share'"

"All that is needed to create a budget surplus is economic growth"

"The middle class"

"All that matters is love"

"Your on the wrong side of history"

"Marijuana is like, totally harmless guy..."

"Israel is an apartheid state"

[Indy Texas]

- That a party that controls half the legislature and most state governments, and came within 4% of controlling the executive, is somehow endangered

- The apartheid analogy; or that opposition to Israel is becoming a more popular position in the US

- That Republicans have problems attracting enough minorities/women

- That support for gun control is increasing, when in reality it's dropping remarkably precipitously

Yeah, Israel just denies citizenship to millions of people who reside on land it controls, requires them to have special permits to travel from one town to another and adheres to a national identity that effectively leaves out 30 percent of their population.

But it's totally not an apartheid state!

[Comrade Funk]

*That having more land voting for your side means a damn thing

*That everyone who uses a bicycle to get around rather than a car is an upper-middle-class hipster (the truth is that bike commuters are poorer than average, albeit not by much)

* That inflation is in any way a danger (both in terms of it being a disaster for us, and in terms of even happening right now)

Plenty more I could think of if I tried, mostly along those sorts of lines.

This is a joke, right? How is the devaluation of currency not a disaster?

[H. Ross Peron]

-That Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, Mark Kirk etc. are "moderate" Republicans by virtue of not being a Tea Partier

-That an assault weapons ban is constitutional and/or a gun control measure that will actually reduce gun violence

-That nationalism and/or being pro-Western Civilization (for the lack of a better term) is and/or ought to be the exclusive property of the right

[BaconBacon96]

That the Democrats are center-left and Republicans are center-right. Democrats are centrist and actually closer to center-right than Republicans are. Republicans are right wing, no center.

[SWE]

When an "independent" declares they hate both sides without listening to either

That the 2010 election was a "tea party wave" In 2010, most tea party candidates lost, and most of the Republican victories were by more moderate members, like Murkowski and Kirk.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

* That inflation is in any way a danger (both in terms of it being a disaster for us, and in terms of even happening right now)

Errr.... what?

Mine are:

- High gas prices are the President's fault.
- If we drilled for oil, gas prices would significantly decrease.
- Minimum wage increases will cause job loss (it's a valid point, but logically inconsistent when most apply it)

[TJ in Oregon]

Republicans, especially social conservatives, are stupid, uneducated morons who should go crawl back under whatever rock from whence we came.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

"job creators"

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

* That inflation is in any way a danger (both in terms of it being a disaster for us, and in terms of even happening right now)

This is a joke, right? How is the devaluation of currency not a disaster?

Mild expected inflation is not a disaster and can help to stimulate the economy by encouraging people to spend now instead of saving to spend later.  The current economic situation is such that wild or unexpected inflation is not a current concern.

[Comrade Funk]

* That inflation is in any way a danger (both in terms of it being a disaster for us, and in terms of even happening right now)

This is a joke, right? How is the devaluation of currency not a disaster?

Mild expected inflation is not a disaster and can help to stimulate the economy by encouraging people to spend now instead of saving to spend later.  The current economic situation is such that wild or unexpected inflation is not a current concern.

Yes, I know, but what was said was that inflation in any way wasn't a danger, which is dumb.

[traininthedistance]

* That inflation is in any way a danger (both in terms of it being a disaster for us, and in terms of even happening right now)

This is a joke, right? How is the devaluation of currency not a disaster?

Mild expected inflation is not a disaster and can help to stimulate the economy by encouraging people to spend now instead of saving to spend later.  The current economic situation is such that wild or unexpected inflation is not a current concern.

Yes, I know, but what was said was that inflation in any way wasn't a danger, which is dumb.

In the current situation, and especially when compared to...well, the common political narratives... it is certainly true that inflation is in no way a danger.  I don't claim that it is never a problem, I am saying it is not now a problem; has not been a problem for decades; and the incessant hyping of it as a problem is, itself, a problem.

There are so many worse things than the "devaluation of the currency" (lol): I would count deflation, the liquidity trap, and persistently high unemployment among them, just for starters.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

The silly idea that capitalism works.

[DC Al Fine]

Republicans, especially social conservatives, are stupid, uneducated morons who should go crawl back under whatever rock from whence we came.

This

Also "Justin Trudeau is remotely qualified for his job"

[Miles]

The phrase "school choice" as a pretext for privatizing/cutting public education.

[Peter the Lefty]

-That both Democrats and Republicans are equally unwilling to compromise, and have equally contributed to the gridlock in Washington

-That military spending should not be cut in any significant degree

-That raising the minimum wage will result in any significant number of job losses

-That the economic prosperity of the '90's was somehow attributable to Bill Clinton

-That JFK would have continued the war in Vietnam

-That Obama is a liberal

-That raising taxes on the wealthy will cause job losses

-That Israel is somehow deserving of our support

-That Hugo Chavez was classifiable as a "dictator"

-That Canada's health care system is worse than that of the U.S.

I could go on.

[Goldwater]

Each one that supports a political view that I disagree with, obviously.