The Political & Philosophy Thread

[Dak]

I am not a contributor to any media outlet.

 

[no country for old wainds]

why would you need one, you have your own personal blog

 

[CiG]

I am not a contributor to any media outlet.

Oh I forgot that Stormfront isn't a media outlet. YOU'RE A WHITE MALE!

 

[rms]

At the beginning of this interview, Warren admits that American opposition to Trump's health care reform was more effective than all the opposition in Congress.

So why do we have you guys again? LOL

edit : oh man this shit is great, Warren trying to construct this idea of the good Democrat is just hilarious

 

[Dak]

I love how everything is "the worst" or "the best" .."in the history of America/of this country!"

I also love how Warren completely misses that "what happened" between 1935-1980 was that the US won a war that allowed them to control the monetary system, which allowed them to inflate while supposedly on a gold standard, until other countries called their bluff. Then came the Nixon shock, and then came terrible stagflation and the oil crisis.

But no, we had significant prosperity through taxation and anti-trust laws, and it all ended in 1980.

 

[rms]

let alone the fact that US prosperity is largely based on interest and we funded every damn country after hahaha

 

[arg]

another lefty wrecked by the Tuck

 

[CiG]

Tucker is way overrated. Watch his debate with Mark Cubin, he's actually a bit of a retard.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The struggling average American is largely a myth regardless. If you cherry-pick the very best year of median income in America in all of our history (which seems like an unrealistic standard for any metric), and factor in benefits (e.g. those paid for with payroll taxes or by employers), we only make about 10% less than we used to, meanwhile much of the developing world has seen its income increase by an order of magnitude over the same time period. Americans are only struggling if you believe we have a birthright to all the best jobs and external competition should fuck off.

 

[Dak]

https://fee.org/articles/democracys-road-to-tyranny/

A politicized Saint Nicholas is a grim taskmaster.

#micdrop

 

[EspaDa]

Franz Kafka - 'Life is merely terrible; I doubt I'm a human being'.

 

[Draehl]

Just went on an un-following spree on Facebook. The hordes of frothing at the mouth liberals and conservatives is getting tiresome. Not that either view is specifically wrong, but these idiots lap up whatever (actual) fake news they see people post without even considering the truth of it. I just had to tell my great uncle how full of shit he was for posting some 'Sharia Law' sign that was blatantly photoshopped from a church sign only to have one of his bitch friends tell me it didn't matter if it was true or it, it's the sentiment that matters....? WHAT?!? Truth doesn't matter? Truth is far more important than either of the ideologies combined. If all these folks would unite a fraction of their willpower behind a simple transparency/anti-corruption banner regardless the political spectrum the country would be in a significantly better place. Morons.

 

[CiG]

I do that daily.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

So I'm thinking about voting Republican this year, for the first time ever. I fear the budget deficit is leading the US (and maybe the world) toward a catastrophe far worse than 2008, and while neither party is particularly serious about dealing with it, there seem to be far more Republicans than Democrats with balancing the budget on their agenda:

• https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-joint-resolution/2
• https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-concurrent-resolution/36
• https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2 (this is the most recent bill to undermine PAYGO as I understand it - very bipartisan, but the nays were almost all Republican)

I really hate most of what the Republican Party stands for, and I'm still not a Trump supporter by any stretch, but above all I'm just sick of the vote-buying on both sides (tax cuts one term, spending increases the next term), and appalled at how many people think it's acceptable to let this go on without any thought of compromise.

I feel like this is some kind of "coming out" for me. Most of my friends are pretty far left, and I'm going to lose a lot of respect from those friends by taking this position. I'm not the type to push people away over political disagreements, but I feel a need to speak my mind and at least let people know where I stand.

I'd love for someone to convince me I'm wrong here, and I welcome any left-leaning UMers to try (though I won't reply till tomorrow as it's my bedtime). I want help bullet-proofing a position like this, because I'll inevitably have people in my life calling me out on it over and over for the foreseeable future.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Of all the reasons to vote Republican, that's the worst. Republicans grew the budget by almost 20% in 2017 over 2016. Full Republican control is what led to the extreme spending under W as well. They propose balanced budget bills all the time but they never pass them. The few Republicans that genuinely do support cutting spending are marginalized libertarians-light, e.g. Rand Paul. The 90s were so nice in part because Clinton and Gingrich kept cock-blocking each other.

Funny thing is that I voted for Johnson in a blue state in 2016 and wished Clinton won when Republicans took back Congress as well, for similar concerns, but at this point I believe one of two possibilities are real. One, deficit spending truly doesn't matter and the Keynesians and neoliberals are right about everything and there's no point worrying. Two, we're already long past the point of no return and things are going to get fucked at some indeterminate point in the future and there's no point worrying. As a result I'm going to vote Republican in 2018 and 2020.

 

[CiG]

I feel like this is some kind of "coming out" for me. Most of my friends are pretty far left, and I'm going to lose a lot of respect from those friends by taking this position.

Imagine my shock. You're practically a Nazi now.

 

[rms]

not sure any candidate is going to actually want lower spending for their term(s) so that's just a pipe dream. NYS is doing this weird thing where we are losing tax revenue every year but keep adding more and more spending in social programs while cutting nothing. i don't get it

 

[viewerfromnihil]

Republicans are and always have been all bark when it comes to the deficit. Their base likes it and a few of the Austrian School knuckle-draggers sincerely believe it. But they never follow through with it when they're in power, and, more often than not, they choose to explode the deficit instead. You're better off voting progressive and hoping they find compromise with the moderates, because there are rather simple ways to reduce health care costs in the country and reduce the deficit, and they're things the Republicans would never enact--the most they might do is cut public services and throw the money in the war tank instead at the bank.

I rooted for Republicans to take the Senate in 2014 over the same concerns you're raising here. Look at how that worked out.

 

[The Ozzman]

I feel like this is some kind of "coming out" for me. Most of my friends are pretty far left, and I'm going to lose a lot of respect from those friends by taking this position. I'm not the type to push people away over political disagreements, but I feel a need to speak my mind and at least let people know where I stand.

However will you recover? If they can't respect your political views, they were never really your friends imo.

Welcome to the best side. I've voted Republican in every election except one since I was able to vote.

 

[tagradh]

Republicans are and always have been all bark when it comes to the deficit. Their base likes it and a few of the Austrian School knuckle-draggers sincerely believe it. But they never follow through with it when they're in power, and, more often than not, they choose to explode the deficit instead.

Pretty much the same here where the Conservatives make a massive noise about the deficit and their being the more fiscally responsible of the two main parties whilst Labour have, over the past 70 odd years, been the more fiscally conservative party. The Conservatives managed to convince enough people with their bullshit, anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

And now both parties are a fucking mess and don't seem to have much of a clue about anything. Huzzah.