In need of a giant shift in direction, but I’m not sure if we will get one anytime soon. Republicans actually lead by someone completely unhinged and terrified to speak against him because of the fear of turning his or his supporters ire against them.
Democrats shaking against some that claim to represent them that are completely unhinged and terrified to speak against them because of the fear of turning those people against them.
“Moderation and middle ground” long ideals we talked about are hardly mentioned. Most often they are attacks on people. As in you can’t trust them if they found middle ground. That’s a RINO. Or not
Progressive enough (not sure what Dems used)
I do think politics and things are cyclical and that pendulums swing back and forth and all that. But in America it’s a binary choice for some reason because we are fucking idiots and because we are fucking idiots both the binary choices tend to be awful.
This whole internet thing at times hasn’t worked the way we might have originally thought. You’d think with more information we would be more careful, informed, and able to laugh at the crazies on both sides who have always existed. Instead we’re electing them or cowering to them because they control the news cycle or narratives or god knows what.
It was @doogie! (Yep…the Forum is a little buggy right now).
Thanks, @doogie , for calling me out. I started this thread asking “Why?”…and it could have been no more than his (Trump’s) staff seeing a Red State opening to the Pandemic; with a strong Trump following (including the Governor) and an open, 19,000-plus seat facility. It seemed odd that they would not know what the date and town meant, but so what? And if they DID, so what? My “mind-reading” (and emotion) can sometimes have me over-thinking things.
You’re welcome. I don’t believe you have anything to apologize for. Aside from some insinuations of racism and the like, which are an expected part of the “arguing on the internet playbook”, we’re just written word sparring partners. I’ve thrown some barbs too.
Let me put my perspective another way to you… I’d categorize my feelings as 2004’ish liberal as roughly 75 percent as unhinged as your worst-case modern TDS sufferer. If it had been Trump instead of GWB for me at the time, I would have latched on to all of the worst things he’d ever said, done, implied or so much as vaguely motioned at with hand gestures.
I even listened to Air America and read Al Franken books. I ate it right up. Thank goodness I wasn’t on whatever passed for social media at the time.
If we ever reached a point where we somehow became too conservative OR if the republican party was legitimately hijacked by extremists like actual white supremacists, I’d be switching lanes again. I’m just observing the absolute total opposite of that, which is why I’m finding myself advocating so hard for conservatism now. There are known sets of principles for good governance with good overall outcomes that we’ve deviated very far from and we have very bad outcomes in hand because of it.
If we somehow shaped up in to the Christian Theocracy I was concerned with as a 90’s liberal, I’d still be a liberal.
Government is like a fire to me. It must be tended. Right now it is much too hot, in my opinion.
Whether or not those principles work is irrelevant because the conservatives themselves don’t believe in them. In other words, voting for Trump thinking that those principles will follow, is wishful thinking. I would argue that Biden is more likely to adhere to non wacko liberal principles than Trump is to conservative ones. Trump has posed with a Bible while Biden has said he does not agree with defunding the police. Which one is appealing to the fringe?
I never understood this. Do you think conservatives treated Clinton any better? Did liberals treat GWB the same way they did Obama? Hell, if Obama had increased funding to HBCUs, had the lowest Black unemployment in history, set up opportunity zones, and instituted criminal reform you think it would be covered/reacted to the same way it is with Trump? We are all hypocrites.
I brought that up a while back. Trump having zero principles should actually scare conservatives more than anything. He has total control of the party and has essentially got the vast majority to either change how they feel about stuff or at least be quiet.
Trump could turn into “far” lefty overnight as it’s not like he hasn’t ran on some of that himself. Then you’re going to watch Republicans who have ran against universal health care (but who voted for Trump advocating for it) push for it because they are stuck. Hell if I was hell bent on pushing far left ideas I would say Dems should try hard to praise Trump and work with him because if he’s getting praise he’s going to like it and want more. Could probably talk him into whatever they wanted and Republicans would be in a pickle.
If that’s the case and Republicans have had control why aren’t they doing them? Or am I confused on the principles still?
What are these known sets of principles and is it really that easy? I mean my state had an ultra “conservative” wet dream and it was a bonafide massive disaster. Same with other places.
Advocating hard for conservatism like it has an undeniable record of success simply isn’t true unless we’re changing the definition to our will. In fact we’ve got a pretty strong body of evidence that taken to extremes it’s not even remotely successful.
Advocating for it while at the same time advocating for someone who isn’t a conservative is even more head scratching.
I still maintain the “experiment” wasn’t designed well at all. You simply can’t cut everything to zero all at once. Both businesses and administrations need predictability in the future for planning purposes. It would be no more an accurate experiment with minimum wage raises if a state were to jack it from 7.25 to 20 within a year.
If politicians accepted the fact that they are rarely the smartest people in the room and allowed a team of experts in the various fields in question to come up with a plan together and then put that plan in action, maybe things would be better. But this would require some things that politicians don’t like doing: keeping their mouths shut, listening to people who are smarter, and thinking ahead. They are like used car salesmen who think that because they can sell a piece of junk to the average person, they can run an auto company.
Holy cow this forum is bugging out so crazy I tried to like your post and someone else’s name came up than mine when I did and now it’s not letting me quote or reply to you. Issues are seeming to get worse.
I think this was starting before the riot type issues but could be wrong. Either way a “hack” intended to disrupt a website would in all likelihood behave in a much different way. It would be odd for someone to decide to hack the site and make it still be completely useable with the exception of some likes or replies going to the wrong people. I’d say this is a glitch no doubt. From Chris in a different thread.
“Sorry for the troubles, all. The forum system software stuff has been doing a few more updates than usual for the last 6 weeks or so and there’ve been some hiccups as everything gets caught up.
I’ve seen the double-posting ghost-thing and the weird post-liking issue myself, but it’s been sporadic. I’ll double-check to make sure the tech people are aware of what’s up.”
Yeah, I’ve noticed it more and more. A lot of times a simple refresh on the window helps me. I view it on my phone most often. I hope they get it fixed, it’s only been a month or so lol.
Can’t argue with any of that. Unfortunately that means that politicians might have to be supporting actors instead of stars…
