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We differ. I want people who have no knowledge of current events or issues to stay at home and let the people with information and informed opinions vote.
Democracy - and I am saying pure Democracy - has proved itself to be a bad idea. Our Republic was designed, remember, to prevent the uninformed masses from having too much input.
The young vote is courted not because the country is in need of "new fresh ideas", but because young people are easily manipulated.
We - you and I - agree that we want young people to pay attention to politics. But it ain't happening.
And let's be clear about one thing. "You seem to imply that they are so stupid they will vote for anyone who promises them a ride."...........I'm not implying that at all. I'm saying it is a fact.* I am saying that is how Obama was elected in the first place. Now, with promises unfulfilled, the low information, disengaged voters have withdrawn from the stage. Good. I hope they never come back.
*The Democratic leadership understand this. It was recently revealed that Jonathan Gruber, the man who authored Obamacare, counted on as he says, "the stupidity of the American voter". He wrote the legislature in a circuitous, obfuscating manner so that it could not be understood by the casual voter. Gruber was paid $400,000 for his work and this year has made $1.5M consulting for various states.
One more time - your opinion is not fact. Who ARE the uninformed masses?The American people? It seems you would prefer a Dictatorship or Monarchy over democracy.
Lastly, the truly *uninformed voters* did show up for mid-terms and hence the results.
I am happy to see what they accomplish in the next two years.
I wouldn't underestimate HRC. With republicans in control of congress she can now blame everything that goes wrong between now and her election day on them. But, I am not certain she will run, she doesn't appear to be in good health since her stroke. But rest assured she'll be behind whoever does run for the dems, pulling the strings.
*The Democratic leadership understand this. It was recently revealed that Jonathan Gruber, the man who authored Obamacare, counted on as he says, "the stupidity of the American voter". He wrote the legislature in a circuitous, obfuscating manner so that it could not be understood by the casual voter. Gruber was paid $400,000 for his work and this year has made $1.5M consulting for various states.
The ACA was probably the only way universal health care could have been implemented in the USA. The sensible solution - a single payer plan and a dedicated tax to fund it - would have wiped out the health insurance industry. It's unlikely any such plan would ever make it through congress no matter who was in charge. We are left with the butcher scrap of a plan we have now, where health insurance companies still get their cut, though the law limits how big their cut gets to be.
The hope was that the plan would be better than nothing, and congress could make incremental improvements. Sadly, I don't see the Republicans making any contributions. All they want to do is throw a tantrum and repeal it, which would just dump us back into the mess we had before, where hospitals and doctors were not getting paid for their work and people were losing everything in medical bankruptcies, insurance companies were raking off 40% of premiums as profit instead of paying claims, and putting the squeeze on anyone who actually used their health insurance.
Health care is only one of the challenges facing America. Our foreign policy is in disarray. Our ill-advised adventurism in the Middle East has left us in a much worse diplomatic position in the area than ever before. Economically, the last decade has been very difficult for many Americans. Socially, there have been major changes in areas like gay marriage. Demagogues have dominated the right wing political stage, though that wave seems to be subsiding a bit. There are literally dozens of other problems that need to be dealt with: runaway deficit spending, illegal aliens, political manipulation of the judiciary, conflicting business regulations, gerrymandering, etc. The list goes on and on. It's too complex for most people to even be aware of, much less understand.
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
8,297 posts, read 14,164,711 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by runswithscissors
.......NO, he has not been stymied by a recalcitrant Congress. He has been stymied by his INCORRECT ARROGANT WRONG HEADED DOGMATIC INSISTENCE on Progressivism - which will NEVER WORK as proven by the past 60-100 years.....
Really? Pretty much every wealthy industrialized first world country including the US is progressive by your standards - regulated capitalism, strong labor laws, free education through high school, more or less universal health care for the "lazy poor" who are suffering from some illness or disability ...... in general good safety nets. All that in conjunction with strong capitalist economies!
There are some "libertarian" nations where only a few rich people can afford a decent life and normal lifespan. These are generally poor third world countries.
It seems like society pulling together for the common welfare, works better than a bunch of individual selfish tightwads who only care about themselves.
Really? Pretty much every wealthy industrialized first world country including the US is progressive by your standards - regulated capitalism, strong labor laws, free education through high school, more or less universal health care for the "lazy poor" who are suffering from some illness or disability ...... in general good safety nets. All that in conjunction with strong capitalist economies!
There are some "libertarian" nations where only a few rich people can afford a decent life and normal lifespan. These are generally poor third world countries.
It seems like society pulling together for the common welfare, works better than a bunch of individual selfish tightwads who only care about themselves.
The irony here, Woof.
When you want to point to progressive values working, you claim the US as a progressive country, but most of the time, leftists cry about how we are an elitist oligarchy controlled by a few, etc, and hold up Europe as a model that we have to emulate.
As for Europe, you do know that it is collapsing back into yet another recession which might just be a depression? And no, it is not because of austerity or evil right wingers. It is because their social model is unsustainable. Their policies have destroyed the industrial base which them possible in the first place. They have strangled the goose that lays the golden egg. And the longer they refuse to admit it, the harder they are going to fall. Will the American left still hold them up as a paragon when the EU is gone and the fascists take over because of the abject failure of the left to create a sustainable system?
In any event, nothing against you. We see things differently, is all. Next election will tell us which way America is going to go, and in the meantime, we can watch the collapse of Europe in real time.
I have long had the impression that none of the two parties is not trying to do something good for the country. The more so they do not do it "holding hands". Our bipartisan and opposite polar system is far from perfect
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Hum, I cannot make ANY sense of the above post.....maybe I am just too dense?????
If John McCain were ten years younger and had he picked a more conventional running mate, he would have beat Obama easily. Oh it probably wouldn't have been a landslide, but a definitive win.
What hurt him was a perception that he was erratic and losing his grip. The odd choice of Sarah Palin made people question his judgment. Palin's own erratic behavior, e.g. her resignation, just added fuel to the fire.
Romney 2012 was also a poor choice; he simply failed to make a case for why he should be president. He lacked the passion and rhetorical energy of Reagan or Bill Clinton both of whom blew an incumbent president out of the water. His unfortunate gaffes played right into the hands of the Democrats who portrayed him as an out of touch elite. Even so, he came remarkably close to knocking Obama out of office.
Obama is therefore an accident of history, a blip. The next person the Democrats nominate needs to be a reasonable moderate with a chance of winning over swathes of the conservative and moderate population who constitute at least 50% of the electorate, or risk another four years of irrelevance.
Basically, Bill Clinton Part II.
The reality is that the Bubba vote that MIGHT vote for a Bill Clinton, would never vote for Obama, no matter his qualifications, performance or presence. Obama's advantage was in engaging a younger and more diverse slice of the electorate; a slice that the G.O.P. hasn't been able to reach. Until they engage non-whites, they will always be forced to over perform amongst whites. Engaging non-whites doesn't just mean Latino's that essentially become white after two or three generations. If they could ever figure out how to engage middle class blacks, the W.H. would be theirs.
Both the G.O.P. and the Dems need a moderate candidate. Republican candidates get pigeonholed because they have to move so far to the right, just to win the party's nomination. Once they get to the general election, all of the ultra-conservative rhetoric gets thrown in their faces by a Democratic challenger that can frame themselves as more moderate....even if it's not true.
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I hope they never come back.
