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I'll be 30 in April and the world has changed incredibly even since I was in high school and college.
When I went to college, I was liberal and taught by mostly liberal professors, but they weren't the hypersensitive crowd you have today. One of them was a chain smoker and fought all the anti-smoking ordinances on campus. Widespread abortion on demand, nationalized gay marriage, and many of the things we've seen the last few years were pretty much the fantasy of the far left a decade ago.
I don't recognize the Democrat Party at all. It's changed dramatically from say, the first John Edwards campaign. Lots of things have changed considerably and not for the better.
when I was a little kid in a small Oklahoma town in the late 50s, my youngest aunt played clarinet for the Booker T Washington High School marching band.
One particular year--I was still quite young--my mother took me to watch the annual town parade. As the bands marched by, I strained to see my aunt, but did not see her.
I wasn't really old enough to realize that there was more than one high school in town...or that black kids like my aunt were required to go to Booker T Washington and not the main town school. Nor was I really aware that everyone in the parade was white.
But I asked my mother why Aunt Faith was not in the parade, and she answered, "We can't be in their parade." The next year, when my mother took me to enroll in the elementary school two blocks from our house, I'd hear that principal say, "No, he can't attend this school. He has to attend the colored elementary school, George Washington Carver," which was about a mile and a half away from our house (no school buses back in those days--that would be a daily walk for me).
What was the question? Do I feel like a stranger in my own country?
No more than I ever did. Less than I have in the past.
Last edited by Ralph_Kirk; 11-23-2015 at 08:41 AM..
Before I retired last year, I worked with people that were born in France, Bahamas, Jamaica, China, Morocco, Australia, England, Qatar, India and Belarus. Like anyone born in Florida, they were just people. I didn't feel like they didn't belong here or that I didn't belong working with them.
Maybe it's because my grandparents came from Poland and I had relatives that spoke Polish a lot so I have more tolerance for people who don't fit the exact picture that some people have of "Americans".
So, No I don't feel like a stranger in my country.
Nope, I feel like my house has been invaded by 3rd cousin Roy and his deadbeat children; who eat all my food, and don't have jobs. They ask to stay for a day and end up never leaving... while my neighbors are telling me I'm a racist and bigot when I try to do anything about it.
My country is just fine; the people running it have become bleeding heart wack-a-moles, who care more about strangers than they do their own family.
I'll be 30 in April and the world has changed incredibly even since I was in high school and college.
When I went to college, I was liberal and taught by mostly liberal professors, but they weren't the hypersensitive crowd you have today. One of them was a chain smoker and fought all the anti-smoking ordinances on campus. Widespread abortion on demand, nationalized gay marriage, and many of the things we've seen the last few years were pretty much the fantasy of the far left a decade ago.
I don't recognize the Democrat Party at all. It's changed dramatically from say, the first John Edwards campaign. Lots of things have changed considerably and not for the better.
Uh, how have abortion laws changed appreciably from 10 years ago?
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,512,979 times
Reputation: 12187
The problem is the executive branch, supreme court, and national media are forcing things against the will of the majority (who are the true rulers in a democracy?) and then demonize anyone who disagrees with them. It's a form of tyranny. The majority have a right to decide who / how many immigrants they want to come in, and how they define marriage. Right now people with mainstream views feel under attack and it's fueling the extremism of the far Right
The problem is the executive branch, supreme court, and national media are forcing things against the will of the majority (who are the true rulers in a democracy?) and then demonize anyone who disagrees with them. It's a form of tyranny. The majority have a right to decide who / how many immigrants they want to come in, and how they define marriage. Right now people with mainstream views feel under attack and it's fueling the extremism of the far Right
You would have a point if this was a true democracy.
We're not, we're a democratic Republic. Sorry, no "tyranny of the majority" here.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner." --Benjamin Franklin
The problem is the executive branch, supreme court, and national media are forcing things against the will of the majority (who are the true rulers in a democracy?) and then demonize anyone who disagrees with them. It's a form of tyranny. The majority have a right to decide who / how many immigrants they want to come in, and how they define marriage. Right now people with mainstream views feel under attack and it's fueling the extremism of the far Right
In this country - the US - we practice the rule of law and the parameters of that law are set in the constitution. That's because the founders feared mob rule. If the majority disagrees with the law and/or the constitution, there is a process for changing them. It's a difficult process, and meant to be difficult, but it's definitely possible.
Do we always get it right? No. But that's no reason to stop thinking through the implications of what is being proposed.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,512,979 times
Reputation: 12187
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacqueg
In this country - the US - we practice the rule of law and the parameters of that law are set in the constitution. That's because the founders feared mob rule. If the majority disagrees with the law and/or the constitution, there is a process for changing them. It's a difficult process, and meant to be difficult, but it's definitely possible.
Do we always get it right? No. But that's no reason to stop thinking through the implications of what is being proposed.
But the elite must understand that when you push people too far there will be a backlash and you can loose everything you gained in the next election cycle. Obama's ideologically driven presidency has decimated the Democrats at all levels of govt, and it's not Dubya type Republicans in power, it's Ted Cruz types. That didn't happen during Clinton's poll driven presidency. When a Republican wins the presidency (which now seems likely even if Trump or Carson is the nominee) you could see America taken back in time 200 years in terms of worker's rights simply because the Liberal Elites couldn't tone down their rhetoric.
Demographically, Americans holding these views tend to be white, older, live in the South and have less than a college education.
Shocker.
This is the demographic whose solutions typically compound the country's problems. Globalization's big losers, pissed off at the entire world.
You know, cut their taxes, but raise everyone else's. Cut everyone else's SS and Medicare, but don't touch theirs. Fight tooth and nail to ensure healthcare reform fails, and then complain when healthcare reform fails. Deregulate the financial sector and then blame the government when its regulations are ineffective.
You won't ever make these people happy. They don't want solutions, they want revenge. So for christsake, just let them die already.
Last edited by le roi; 11-23-2015 at 10:01 AM..
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