The Push to 2020 Has Begun!

The fact that Joe Biden selected her as his VP and he can’t pronounce it was the funny part. Did you miss that?

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yes, yes i did then haha. I didnt watch the whole thing, just thought it was about tucker and CNN.

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Give me strength.

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This is a worthwhile article laying out the author’s reasoning for voting Trump.

It was well written, and clear that the author has considered his position. I read fully through 6 points and skimmed the rest due to length.

To me the most persuasive of his points are #4 and #6. However I, like “Zachary”, feel his character has fallen below threshold and thus cannot support him.

Additionally, I feel a significant sense of anxiety at Trump’s flakiness with geopolitics. I posted an article in this thread that mentioned how people working in the Pentagon and other areas were actively trying to avoid giving Trump military options due to this. In fact, they were going so far as to tell allies “we have no idea what he’ll do”. This is incredibly damaging to our country and allies, and in my view is likely to eventually kick us out of a central role. I already see things moving in that direction.

You can take many points the author of your piece makes about domestic policy and apply them in reverse to Trump’s unsteady foreign policy.

The key point of the next 4 years will be coronavirus economic recovery. I don’t believe Biden has any interest in any of the more extreme Democrat economic policies. However even if he did, contrary to his long-standing reputation is a centrist, the next four years will be primarily about undoing the damage this pandemic has caused to our economy and he will have no opportunity implement said destructive policies.

On the other hand, Trump has not led well at all in this pandemic and I do not trust his judgment going into the next 4 years.

Marks @Aragorn off of Christmas card list… :7)

I don’t think Biden will be in charge of any activity. He is textbook Figurehead.
That in itself would not bother me with a super majority of GOP to actual corral the President. Don’t see a super majority happening either way though.

On the other hand, l like seeing a continuation of Judicial appointments that are more conservative.

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I have a number of issues with this, but Number 3 was probably the most puzzling. He writes:

  • I firmly believe that we as Christians should never intentionally sin in order to bring about what we think to be a good result (see my book Christian Ethics , chapter 7). For example, it would be morally wrong, and displeasing to God, if I ever were to tell a lie in order to promote a political candidate.*

…but then justifies supporting a candidate who lies and sins to bring about the things he wants, and sees no issues with that.

That makes no sense. You are not absolved of the sin or approval of sin just because you outsource it to a third party to commit the sin as your proxy.

That’s the moral equivalent of saying a mobster is not committing or approving of the sin of murder even though he hires a hitman to kill someone. No one buys that.

This is exactly the kind of illogical pretzel twisting Evangelicals find themselves in to support Trump. Bigger than individual hypocrisy, they’ve undermined their ability to grow their churches for a generation because of these stances. People no longer trust them.

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Nobody is going to be perfect, but being at least “a decent human being” should be a start.

I’m looking into:

I can’t say I’d sign up that in ita entirety, but that’s a principled platform I could respect (as well as the people who opt into it).

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So, hardline pro-life, hardline anti-LGBTQ, and wants to ban porn. Sounds like the party of Rick Santorum. When i briefly read through their platform it is pretty hardcore conservative, and not a lot of centrist ideas.

I do agree that a 3rd party with a centrist platform would be a nice change though.

I was raised Methodist and went to church until I was about 20. From what I read and remember Trump is essentially the exact opposite of everything Jesus stood for and people were supposed to strive for. And yet he had overwhelming evangelical support even when far more socially and fiscally conservative options existed.

What would Jesus do has become If Trump does it Jesus likes it and so do we in their eyes it seems.

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Yep, for me, perfect on the social issues as I am hardline. But, with a distributionist economic flavor and a twist on some of the justice rehab issues.

From where I’m sitting more Christian like than either of the two big bads. Especially with the nominees they have.

Sharing my decision as a Christian having seen the article treco shared. Don’t feel trapped in either party. You don’t have to vote for a Trump. And you don’t have to accept market libertarianism/purity in loyalty to some old political alliance.

Haha truth!

I think a party with center-right economic policy, and center-left social policy would be more popular… but what do i know?

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Speaking of Santorum, I was tangentially involved in a business venture by him and one of his uber-Christian friends.

Haven’t met the man but we were on several conference calls together - the primary concern of these fine religious people was how to fuck over their potential contractors in the sleaziest possible way. Very Christian of them.

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#BusinessNotBeliefs
#DividendsNotDivinity

Screwing them through perfectly legal maneuvers?

One thing I dislike greatly is the all is fair in the market so long as it is legal attitude Christians have adopted from certain alliances on the right.

And obviously most anything should be legal as the market should be just about unregulated…

I think while the platform sounds Santorum like on the social issues, excepting some issues and nuance/approach, it deviates on the market side from typical US right wing. Anyways, it should be more of a fit for small-o orthodox Christians who do question voting for Trump. Or, in the future, question voting for any market purist types as a Christian.

Yep. Just because you can, doesnt mean you should. Just because the other person is doing bad, doesnt mean you should do bad too.

But when i bring this argument up to folks when discussing the social topics of today, i get shouted down for either victim blaming (from the left), or supporting antifa terrorist (from the right).

Basically, I just think that there are VERY few amongst us that will not sacrifice morals for personal gain (money, social capital, etc.). But i have a very dim view of people in general maybe there are more out there than i think (as they are likely the quietest).

How the heck does a centrist 3rd party come to be a power player in American politics? Will it take a self financed billionaire to gamble a billion dollars on a campaign? I dont really see any other way that the 2 big parties wont intentionally crush an up and coming party intent on splitting the vote.

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I’M not seeing how supporting a candidate that has decades of questionable racial comments, business opportunities for family members through unofficial government wrangling, or creepy touchy/sniffy episodes makes Biden different than Trump.

Is he worse or better on the spectrum of morality, when the incidents are numerous and far reaching into the past?

And I don’t understand your proxy statement. I have a friend (grew up together) that is pretty much a high functioning alcoholic, was a serial philanderer during a couple of decades, among other moral failings I assume. His remaining my friend didn’t mean he was proxying for me getting drunk or chasing other women. I didn’t approve of his choices, but he had to square that with God, not me.

@Sloth will check out your site later.

To you both, I wish the leaders would exhibit magnitudes of better morals AND there was a realistic non binary system to choose them … or at least term limits.Thanks for the replies.

No, grey area at best.

Hard nosed business practices such as haggling over prices, terms and conditions etc. are one thing, but this was a morally shitty move.

Without divulging too much, let’s just say that if you were to engage someone you’d take for granted that you’d pay him for services rendered. Price of said services and the quality /timeframe/content would have to be stipulated in a contract but you wouldn’t actively try to fuck that person over, finding legally very dubious ways to avoid payment.

Not so with these guys.

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