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Hint: since Goldwater, the GOP has been a covert white nationalist party, on top of their already patriarchal leanings.
Yesterday, at a rally for Hillary held in Phoenix, Goldwater's granddaughter (an Independent) introduced Michelle Obama. Wild applause, when she said her name, from the crowd in a town where the Goldwater name represents state, not just national, history.
You don't know liberal then, because compared to FDR for instance or LBJ he's downright conservative. His other problem is that he aligned with the party elites.
I don't think Obama would have gotten the Voting Rights Act through in the early 60s, he'd have been too busy with half-measures and intellectual arguments in its favor and with placating the elites who didn't want the boat rocked too much, too soon. LBJ actually benefitted from having the invective "horsesh_t" in his vocabulary. Obama is too dignified, erudite and professorial and aloof to take on the role of reformer or to take up risky leadership positions.
Unfortunately you have little to worry about because Clinton is only marginally better. She'll be better at consensus building (in the backroom dickering / deal-cutting sense of the word) and will likely make spotty progress where Obama stalled, but she doesn't represent the sort of progressive change that progressives like myself see the need for. The most we can hope for is that Sanders and the increasing number of his allies in the progressive wing of the party will hold her feet to the fire, lest Clinton's platform be essentially window dressing.
Of course if the dems win the Senate and especially if they win the House, you have quite a bit more to worry about. If they do either, it will be because of wounds self-inflicted by the GOP on itself. They set the stage for Trumpism, the Tea Party and all the rest.
Where this relates to Christian conservatism is this: the kind of conservatism that Christians favor (authoritarian, quasi-theocratic social control) is associated with the GOP elites and the status quo. It is those very elites who used up political capital such that many conservatives see them as ineffective and bungling. It is they who lost control of the party and became out of step with the party base, which then went with the even more authoritarian Tea Party and then when forced to nominate Trump, imagined they would control or "gentle" him.
Conservative Christian politics is dying in its own right and their alignment with the white nationalist-oriented GOP elites amplifies the problem. In desperation they have thrown their support behind Trump in the wan hope that he will (1) nominate what they consider better, strict constructionist SCOTUS justices and that (2) this will result in the reversal of Roe v Wade, the maintenance of Citizens United, etc. This is a real hail-Mary pass and would have a high odds of failing even if Trump were elected.
At the end of the day Christian conservatives reveal their desperation and the actual malleability of their supposedly immutable morals, by supporting the likes of Trump. It will hasten their demise, but I am under no illusion that it will "destroy" them outright. Each new generation of Christian conservatives moves further and further left with the rest of the world however, so at some point the fear and loathing and "ick factor" over things like marriage equality fades away and the problem is self-limiting.
I didn't vote for Trump in the primaries, but I will in the general. Hillary's stance has on partial-birth abortion is enough to turn me off. It's pure evil!
Yeah the claim that Obama would win because he was black is a pure "politics of resentment" claim and racist at its core. Obama didn't run on the platform of "I'm black so elect me". His race was, if anything, a disadvantage to be overcome.
It is true of course that 40% of Democrats are black these days, but only 31% of Americans identify as Democrats, and 40% of 31% is less than 13% of all US voters. Most Americans identify as Independents. Obama won with the so-called "Obama coalition" of Dems and Independents and even some Republicans. He did it the old fashioned way, by arguing his case. He deserved to win because he got by far the most votes.
The GOP did an analysis of why it lost, which was reasonably accurate. They ignored the urgently needed reforms that should have been implemented posthaste after their 2012 trouncing, and so now they are headed for a still bigger trouncing. I leave it to the reader to figure out why they couldn't bring themselves to appeal more to blacks and latinos and women, or to soften their anti-gay rhetoric, or in any other way be more inclusive. Hint: since Goldwater, the GOP has been a covert white nationalist party, on top of their already patriarchal leanings.
Still, some voted for him purely because he's (half) black.
I didn't vote for Trump in the primaries, but I will in the general. Hillary's stance has on partial-birth abortion is enough to turn me off. It's pure evil!
It's a shame that most Republicans don't actually know Hillary's stance.
I have said many times that I can support a ban on late-term abortions, including partial-birth abortions, so long as the health and life of the mother is protected. I’ve met women who faced this heart-wrenching decision toward the end of a pregnancy. Of course it’s a horrible procedure. No one would argue with that. But if your life is at stake, if your health is at stake, if the potential for having any more children is at stake, this must be a woman’s choice.
I didn't vote for Trump in the primaries, but I will in the general. Hillary's stance has on partial-birth abortion is enough to turn me off. It's pure evil!
Here's what's evil: A woman's stance on choice being perverted by her political enemies.
It's a shame that most Republicans don't actually know Hillary's stance.
I have said many times that I can support a ban on late-term abortions, including partial-birth abortions, so long as the health and life of the mother is protected. I’ve met women who faced this heart-wrenching decision toward the end of a pregnancy. Of course it’s a horrible procedure. No one would argue with that. But if your life is at stake, if your health is at stake, if the potential for having any more children is at stake, this must be a woman’s choice.
October 8, 2000
Well worth repeating. Lies and misrepresentation seem to be modus opoerandi of the desperate "Christian Right."
Yesterday, at a rally for Hillary held in Phoenix, Goldwater's granddaughter (an Independent) introduced Michelle Obama. Wild applause, when she said her name, from the crowd in a town where the Goldwater name represents state, not just national, history.
I hope that reflects that Arizona has moved on from Goldwater then. Goldwater's granddaughter appears to have done so.
I didn't vote for Trump in the primaries, but I will in the general. Hillary's stance has on partial-birth abortion is enough to turn me off. It's pure evil!
As others have pointed out, it's principled and defensible. It is not up to you or me to decide on behalf of a woman between her life, and the life of her child she's carrying, and the life of future children she might bear or adopt, the welfare of children already born, of her spouse and extended family, etc etc etc.
In addition, hard cases make bad law. The vast, vast majority of abortions happen in the first two trimesters. No one really wants them in the third; they are strictly to save the life of the mother or to end the existence of a child that can't survive outside the womb, or can only suffer terribly outside it, anyway.
Still, some voted for him purely because he's (half) black.
In significant numbers? Sources please?
Is it equally wrong to vote for Trump because he's white? Or is it better to vote for a white person? Or for a man?
I would stipulate that a minority of people likely voted for Obama partly because he identifies as black, and most of those may well be dark-skinned races themselves. What of it? I would imagine that some people voted for Carson because he's a doctor, or for Cruz because he's a smarmy arse. That's human nature to vote for people you can easily identify with, or at least to form better opinions of people that you have something in common with.
I voted for Obama and I'm white, so ... how is any of this relevant? Forgive me for thinking you point this out to try to delegitimize any votes Obama received. I'm sorry, but I don't think a vote for a black man, even from another black man, is any different than a vote for a white woman, even from another white woman.
I mean, seriously. How are you not embarrassed to say such a thing openly? Do you actually not realize what you are inadvertently revealing about yourself?
Well worth repeating. Lies and misrepresentation seem to be modus opoerandi of the desperate "Christian Right."
It's all they got.
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