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Populism is Dangerous: Taco Bell Voted Best Mexican Restaurant in the Country

Populism is Dangerous: Taco Bell Voted Best Mexican Restaurant in the Country

This is why we have the Electoral College

From taco bells media kit

After Trump was elected, there was an entire movement to abolish the Electoral College for no other reason than Trump won and Hillary did not, popular vote, yada yada yada. Thank the good Lord we are not a pure democracy.

The Electoral College was designed to protect the country from populist uprisings and democratic mob rule. Simply because historically, democracies tend to disintegrate into chaos before destroying themselves.

There are many reasons why the Electoral College is amazing, wonderful, and should never be abolished on a political whim. Think pieces, original intent exposes…they all make important points, but none so enlightening as this — the same people that vote for president also voted Taco Bell the best Mexican restaurant in the country.

So, if ever you wondered, THIS, THIS IS WHY WE HAVE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

KMOV with the disturbing poll results:

The Harris Poll, a nationwide customer survey of their favorite brands, has released its 2018 results.

The poll surveyed more than 77,000 customers in the U.S. on more than 3,000 brands to find which companies are the favorites among consumers.

Respondents weighed in on everything from printers to pizza, and the results are surprising. Here are some of consumers’ top choices.

Best Mexican Restaurant: Taco Bell

The after-hours crowd is still probably Taco Bell’s biggest customer base, but the company has grown its popularity through creative ads like the Nacho Fries conspiracy theory movie trailers starring Josh Duhamel and a strong social media presence.

The company has 7,000 locations and does nearly $2 billion in revenue.

In fairness, there aren’t many choices for a nationwide Mexican Restaurant, leaving Taco Bell with a distinct advantage.

But down here in Texas we have a fairly good gauge of how good TexMex will be — the further from Texas borders you venture, the riskier your culinary endeavor.

Taco Bell provides…food, that is TexMex in…spirit? And it’s also cheap, though not as cheap as it once was. But I guess nothing is these days.

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Comments

Tacqueria Lugar! That’s the Best!

although I do admit that Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos are a guilty pleasure every now and then.

“In fairness, there aren’t many choices for a nationwide Mexican Restaurant, leaving Taco Bell with a distinct advantage.”

This is the point, though, isn’t it?

Taco Hell isn’t even “mexican food”…

it’s just expensive junk…

    Arminius in reply to redc1c4. | September 12, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    Well, that’s a bit harsh. You can survive on it. Although the Mickey D’s dollar menu is cheaper.

      MajorWood in reply to Arminius. | September 12, 2018 at 6:08 pm

      I grew up in central Ohio so it is either Wendy’s, or Portland local chain “Burgerville” for me. I do a Wendy’s 4 for $4 once a week for lunch, with a choco Frosty as the drink. Burgerville is a semi-fast food joint, with about 40 locations, and they do local specials throughout the year. They make real ice cream milkshakes at a reasonable price, with Chocolate-Hazelnut a fan favorite, also Mocha-perk with espresso beans ground up in a chocolate shake and the Oregon Strawberry in late summer. The best offering though are the Walla-Walla onion rings. It used to be a summer ritual to climb St Helens and then grab a mochaperk and a 5-pack of Rings on the way home to completely undo that days exercise. The pepperbacon cheeseburger is great, and for another $3.50 you can double the beef and bacon for a real cardiac-arresting experience. But do not combine the double-meat burger with a 24 oz shake, ever.

      For the Austin people, Little-Big Burger just opened a franchise, so the truffle-fries can now be on your bucket list.

      https://www.facebook.com/littlebigburger/

When in Austin….

— Tacodeli – best tacos
— Torchy’s – best queso in town (Hatch chilis!)
— Eldorado cafe – best migas plate, heavenly
— Fonda San Miguel – best interior Mexican and awesome happy hour on Tuesday

the further from Texas borders you venture, the riskier your culinary endeavor.

Interestingly, on the Texas border itself, there simply aren’t a lot of excellent Tex-Mex restaurants. I’m excluding El Paso because I haven’t explored food over there. But from Laredo to Brownsville (there aren’t many cities between El Paso and Laredo), you’d think they’d have killer places on every corner. Nope. The Rio Grande Valley alone has a population of about 1.5 million and the restaurant scene, on the whole, stinks. Not just Tex-Mex but anything. There are good places but not as many as you’d expect with that kind of population. Maybe because it’s because the population is relatively poor, I don’t know. In July I went to a place that I hadn’t been to before, the menu is not in English, just Spanish, and it got good reviews on all the food sites, and it was good but not as good as I can find in DFW, and DFW isn’t even good compared to what’s South. Just don’t go TOO far South.

The Electoral College was designed to protect the country from populist uprisings and democratic mob rule.

So was the Senate. Unfortunately someone rounded up enough fools in 1913 to foist the 17th Amendment on us. And in case we couldn’t already tell, the clown show at the Kavanaugh hearings made it clear just what a fine idea that was.

    Milhouse in reply to tom_swift. | September 12, 2018 at 6:40 pm

    Nonsense. The senators represent the people of their states, just as they always did. Representing them directly instead of via the state legislature doesn’t change that. I think most people who protest the 17th amendment imagine that before it was passed state legislatures could fire senators at will; that’s the only explanation I can think of for the delusion that pre-17th senators were better representatives of their states than post-17th ones are.

      iconotastic in reply to Milhouse. | September 12, 2018 at 7:15 pm

      Dishonest?? I might be wrong but FU for calling the argument dishonest.

      “States, however, are not federations of districts. ”

      States have their own constitutions. Prior to this they provided the same sort of protection against urban centers utterly dominating the political process that the US Constitution did. Counties do have their own interests that diverge from urban interests, just as less populous states have interests that diverge from the interests of states like California.

      ” Democracy means rule by the people, not by cows and sheep, let alone by acres or square miles.”

      Yet a Republic has the means so that all voices have weight. But now in many states those living outside of the urban centers are essentially disenfranchised. I suppose you think the interests of an urban apartment dweller match the interests of someone living (for example) on a remote island with no garbage, sewer, or water service and precious little police services. If so you are deeply mistaken (dishonest?).

      tom_swift in reply to Milhouse. | September 12, 2018 at 8:00 pm

      that’s the only explanation I can think of for the delusion that pre-17th senators were better representatives of their states than post-17th ones are.

      That’s nice.

      Too bad I never made such a claim.

        Milhouse in reply to tom_swift. | September 12, 2018 at 11:45 pm

        Then what exactly is your claim? In what way do you think the 17th messed things up, if not by making senators less representative of their states?

Pro tip: meat product dispensed via caulking gun bad*

unless you just happen to be a NASA astronaut.

Kemberlee, they don’t get the joke.

“Best Mexican Restaurant: Taco Bell”

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

I think too much weight is placed on the disintegration into chaos.

Put yourself in the framer’s shoes—- A BUNCH OF STATES WERE NOT CRAZY ABOUT LINKING ARMS TO BE PART OF THE USA.

The electoral college and representative republic was the only form of government that was going to bind a bunch of regions that otherwise hated each other. I know a couple of world wars and a cold war have enabled historians to put a revisionist kum-bah-ya spin on this, but that fact is… a lot of us were never too hot on there being an “us” and would have been content on there being a us and “them”

Burrito Loco didn’t make the list. So therefore I no longer want to be part of this country and cede from the union.

Provides a new imperative to “Run for the border!”

That is like being the best ballerina at West Point.

“Just don’t go TOO far South.”

Agreed. I live in the north DFW area and we have some decent places to go. Blue Mesa is not bad and Mi Dia from Scratch is fantastic. Austin and San Antonio have more quality places.

I guess Taco Bell just won the first battle in the franchise wars.

    Edward in reply to TxDan. | September 12, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    Haven’t been in a restaurant in San Antonio (or Moscow on the Colorado) in decades. When I did visit such places with a local I was the only Anglo in the place, the food was fantastic and family type food and the prices were dirt cheap. Heck, back then Blanco Road Cafe was a place to eat cheap and decent food (or was it the Dos Equis altering the “taste”?), though it looked like it might not still be standing after the next thunderstorm.

Good God, that’s just wrong. Taco Bell will do in a pinch, but it’s nowhere even close to being the “best” anything. That’s like saying the best Italian restaurant in the country is Olive Garden. Which I’m sure will be one of the next stunning revelations from The Harris Poll.

I got into a debate with mu Ethiopian taxi driver over this very thing. And we both lived.

He or she could have been my CEO. I wouldn’t have given a f***.

how dumb can people get? taco bell isnt even a restaurant, its a telephone company! LOL

Too bad the Supreme Court decided that the idea of state constitutions replicating the US constitution with upper and lower houses to moderate the influence of populous cities over rural counties was unconstitutional. I suppose that Court wasn’t comfortable with deciding that the Constitution was unconstitutional wrt the 14th Amendment but the state constitutions that reflected the federal constitution were unconstitutional.

    Milhouse in reply to iconotastic. | September 12, 2018 at 6:35 pm

    It is unconstitutional, and your comparison to the US constitution is dishonest. The United States is, as the name says, a federation of states. It is the states’ creation, not the other way around. States, however, are not federations of districts. They are unitary entities, and whatever districts they choose to create are entirely their creatures, with boundaries drawn at their will; therefore it’s blatantly unconstitutional for them to have significantly different populations. If even after concentrating the urban population into single-member districts they’re still the majority, then they should dominate the rural areas. The only alternative, which you prefer, is for the minority to dominate and dictate to the majority. Democracy means rule by the people, not by cows and sheep, let alone by acres or square miles.

      iconotastic in reply to Milhouse. | September 12, 2018 at 8:37 pm

      My answer to you was posted to the wrong comment. Read it or not. But FU for calling it dishonest. I do not assume your points are mendacious. FU for calling mine such. They may be ignorant, dumb, or worse but dishonest they never are.

      Edward in reply to Milhouse. | September 12, 2018 at 9:51 pm

      “…whatever districts they choose to create are entirely their creatures,…

      Wow, what a 19th century idea. Everyone knows that the states, and their political subdivisions (districts) are the purview of Federal District Judges and have been since the late 20th century.

“And it’s also cheap, though not as cheap as it once was.” Tell me about it. When I was growing up, tacos at Taco Bell were 5 for $1 (and McDonald’s hamburgers were 15 cents).

    healthguyfsu in reply to snopercod. | September 12, 2018 at 8:12 pm

    I”m not that old, but I do remember the 59/79/99 menu of the 80’s (each of those are in cents)

      healthguyfsu in reply to healthguyfsu. | September 12, 2018 at 8:13 pm

      the higher end of that menu (the 99) were the things with the most cheese and/or sour cream…that tells you something about meat quality.

    Ah yes, the $0.15 McDonald’s burger. And at the time we would hit the supermarket for Sirloin steak on sale for $0.75 per pound, $0.50 off the regular price. And a gallon of non-homogenized “whole” milk at the dairy at the edge of town was $0.50 and you brought your own gallon jug. Of course we didn’t make much in the way of wages back then either. IIRC we had two children, had our own house and were doing well with a gross annual income of $9k. Obviously not in NYC or LA/SF.

I’ve taken these surveys; they only present you with a selection of national chains to choose from, often without even an “other” choice. So I’m not sure whether you’re saying that compared to genuine local owner-operated Mexican restaurants Taco Bell shouldn’t even be in the running, or that it ought to rank poorly even among the big chains.

    healthguyfsu in reply to Milhouse. | September 12, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    I think what they are trying to say is this is a metaphor.

    I’d bet the farm that an overwhelming majority of people in this country can name a local or regional establishment that is better than taco bell (and probably several in many cases). However, those options aren’t even on the national ballot; they aren’t represented. Now replace restaurant representation on the ballot with political representation and the cultural conflict between urban and rural lifestyle.

Funny post, Kemberlee! If you’ve never seen the 1993 movie “Demolition Man” with Sandra Bullock and Sylvester Stallone, there’s a scene where they’re going out to a restaurant for some kind of award or celebration. Stallone is shocked when she tells him it’s a Taco Bell.

Sly: We’re eating at Taco Bell?
Bullock: Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the franchise war.
Sly: So?
Bullock: So, now all restaurants are Taco Bell.

Who’d a thunk that line was prophetic? You know, the older I get, the more real-life is starting to resemble another silly futuristic movie: “Idiocracy”.

After Trump was elected, there was still is an entire movement to abolish the Electoral College for no other reason than Trump won and Hillary did not,

Fixed it for you.

Time is the key element here. Carlos O’Kellys here is wonderful. Good service, great food, all the things I love except… it takes an hour from parking to leaving. Taco Bell is about five minutes for two items off the dollar menu and I’m headed to my destination.

I find their frito burrito entirely too good to pass up.

The comparison is dishonest. States are unitary entities. They are not federations of smaller units. On the contrary, all units and divisions within a state are creatures of the state, which it can modify or abolish as it likes. It is entirely their master. Therefore deliberately creating such units with unequal population and then giving them equal representation, for the express purpose of giving some people more of a say than others, is a blatant violation of the 14th amendment.

No, the interests of an urban apartment dweller don’t match the interests of someone living (for example) on a remote island. And democracy means if there are more apartment dwellers than island dwellers, the state’s laws should favor their interests. The island dwellers are entitled to the weight their numbers give them and no more. Giving minorities’ votes more weight because they’re minorities, so they can prevail against the majority, is the exact opposite of democracy; it’s dictatorship by the favored minority. Doing so for rural people is exactly the same as doing so for black people, or for business people, or any other minority.

Can you just stop. Not every difference of opinion is lying.

OK, don’t stop.

“The comparison is dishonest.”

#exhibitf***ingA.

Taco Smells is to Mexican food as Chief Boyardee is to Italian dining.

7-layer burrito for the win. By a landslide.

First World problem.