Welcome to the one party America

[hater]

dat meltdown

[z0sa]

As I've said, I'm leftist on most issues, but also recognize that conservative thought has a lot value in many areas of social and economic policy.

The Left has an advertising problem, which has grown much, much worse since the advent of blogs, forums and social media. Engaging in dialog with someone who has opposing views was an exercise that had to be done in person, where you couldn't as easily dehumanize a person as you can online. Now that the political debate has largely shifted online, the "person" you're debating with is nameless and faceless, meaning it's easier than ever before to just cut a debate short with an insult. Instead of sincerely listening to a real human being explain why they don't believe in evolution, you can just call them an ignorant caveman who stupidly worships an invisible "sky daddy." The Right is similarly knee-jerky, but I think the Left has a bigger advertising problem, mainly due to the fact liberals tend to be younger and more active online.

So what's this "advertising problem?" The modern image of the Left, per your average Joe American in the Bible Belt or Midwest, is that of a smug, elitist, Coastal or even European "intellectual" who holds their traditions and way of life in contempt; who thinks of them as uneducated, obsolete rednecks pathetically clinging to an outdated ethos. The Left continually fails to understand or under-appreciate just how important religion and other traditions are to that region. Most of those communities are tight knit, going back generations, and religion and the church played a central part in the growth and flourishing of those communities. The modern Left just expects them to instantly shove their cultural iden y into the dustbin because "science." The rise of New Atheism was also a disaster for the Left's hope of building a bridge to those communities. Per Dawkins, Hitchens, and the rest of those blowhards, you'd think the people in the Bible Belt are scheming 24/7 on ways to blow up abortion clinics. Yeah, try reaching out to them with "science" after ling your books "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."

"Well, those in the Bible Belt probably don't even know about Hitchens, et al."

Indeed they do. Sean Hannity and the rest of the Fox News cabal love using New Atheists as polemic talking points.

And the ironic thing is, conservative aren't science illiterate. Here's a study showing how the scientific literacy of conservatives increase if you phrase the wording differently:

http://www.motherjones.com/environme...fic-illiteracy



And this is not a conservative phenomenon either. The Left is similarly intractable being open minded on issues that attack their cultural iden y.

Great post.

[boutons_deux]

left/right philosophy isn't how most voters vote. They vote their bank account

BigDonor money has totally corrupted both parties. Congress is swamp of bribery that Trash will not even try to drain (another of his limitles LIES).

In fact, Trash bribes property tax appraisal officials, one of which in NY ended up in prison.

[boutons_deux]

The only ONE PARTY in America is the BigDonor party.

"money is speech" "corporations are people"

The BigDonor Party's autocratic coup d'etat is complete and unassailable.

[midnightpulp]

"conservative thought has a lot value in many areas of social and economic policy"

like what? be specific

Deregulation.

I totally agree with regulation in some business sectors, but disagree with it in others. Drug companies, energy companies, and multinational corporations do need to be intelligently regulated, but at the local level, over regulation often harms small business, upstart entrepreneurs, etc. Example: I'm acquainted with the film industry. Shooting in Los Angeles is ridiculously expensive and difficult because of all the fees you have to pay and the red tape you have to navigate. This only serves to empower the big studios who can afford and have the connections to shoot there. This is why so many smaller television shows and movies are shot in Canada, Eastern Europe, or states like Arizona and New Mexico now, because of tax breaks and other incentives.

Non-interventionism in foreign affairs.

This is a traditional conservative concept.

A reasonable immigration policy.

Total open borders simply open up the proverbial flood gate, the resulting mass of people overwhelming infrastructure and services. I'm in favor of immigration, but it needs to be done slowly and carefully.

Anti-Political correctness.

The 1st amendment is a hallmark of our cons ution. No one should feel threatened if they hold contrary or offensive opinions.

[boutons_deux]

You've Been Conned.

Conservatives talk about deregulation, but it's primarily about deregulating BigCorp (which finances conservative Stink Tanks)

Conservatives are always for a strong military ready and willing to invade other countries (and the imperial miliatry does, with conservatives cheering all the way).

Conservatives were all for St Ronnie intervening in, ing up Central/South America, and were all for NAFTA, both of which have caused many Ms of economic and political refugees to flee north. What kind of non-intervention / immigration policy is that?

Political correctness is a code word for supporting verbal (leading to physical) aggression, discrimination against non-conservatives. What really is the point of conservatives supporting incivility, disrespect? It's to be able to persecute, insult, denigrate non-conservatives, minorities.

Conservatism is a "philosophy" to justify, defend Euro-white male financial, political dominance.

[z0sa]

You've Been Conned.

Conservatives talk about deregulation, but it's primarily about deregulating BigCorp (which finances conservative Stink Tanks)

Conservatives are always for a strong military ready and willing to invade other countries (and the imperial miliatry does, with conservatives cheering all the way).

Conservatives were all for St Ronnie intervening in, ing up Central/South America, and were all for NAFTA, both of which have caused many Ms of economic and political refugees to flee north. What kind of non-intervention / immigration policy is that?

Political correctness is a code word for supporting verbal (leading to physical) aggression, discrimination against non-conservatives. What really is the point of conservatives supporting incivility, disrespect? It's to be able to persecute, insult, denigrate non-conservatives, minorities.

Conservatism is a "philosophy" to justify, defend Euro-white male financial, political dominance.

Republicans /=/ conservative, dummy.

[boutons_deux]

Republicans /=/ conservative, dummy.

Republicanism is the political implementation of conservatism.

Which saintly, venerated PURE conservatives are ing about Republican/VRWC policies over the last 50 years?

[midnightpulp]

[QUOTE=boutons_deux;8791267]You've Been Conned.

Conservatives talk about deregulation, but it's primarily about deregulating BigCorp (which finances conservative Stink Tanks)

I agree, which I touched upon in my example about filmmaking. The current deregulation only empowers the larger and wealthier corporations.

Conservatives are always for a strong military ready and willing to invade other countries (and the imperial miliatry does, with conservatives cheering all the way).

Neocon idea.

Conservatives were all for St Ronnie intervening in, ing up Central/South America, and were all for NAFTA, both of which have caused many Ms of economic and political refugees to flee north. What kind of non-intervention / immigration policy is that?

Conservatives were against NAFTA. One of the reasons Trump got so much support in the Rust Belt was because of Clinton's association with NAFTA.

Political correctness is a code word for supporting verbal (leading to physical) aggression, discrimination against non-conservatives. What really is the point of conservatives supporting incivility, disrespect? It's to be able to persecute, insult, denigrate non-conservatives, minorities.

You have the right to be verbally uncivil in this country. Do you also want black comedians to stop making fun of whites in their routines?

As Zosa said, traditional conservatism=/=the modern Republican party/Reagan Neocons.

[tlongII]

RG is a bit salty I see.

[Cry Havoc]

As of 2016 there are 31 Republicans and 18 Democrats, and 1 Independent holding the office of governor in the states.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li...ates_governors

The party composition of the legislatures (and party summary of the individual legislative chambers), as of January 2015, is:
33 Republican-controlled legislatures
14Democratic-controlled legislatures
3 Split legislatures

The GOP controls both houses of congress and the executive branch of the Federal government. The GOP won the gamble by not holding any hearings on the supreme court justice.

Thoughts:

No more ing about "the direction of the country" from conservatives. They have the keys, and it is all up to them, good or ill.
We now have one of the least qualified presidents ever, who simply does not have the intellectual firepower to think for himself. He will be overwhelmed and at the mercy of the people who feed him information. He does not have the critical thinking skills to recognize bull when he sees it. Given the incompetence and asshattery that appears to have been the modus operendi of his campaign, we will get a fine spectacle of this playing out under a microscope of hostile media attention.
Trump can only put two coherent sentences together when he is in front of a teleprompter, and will give almost no press conferences, because he simply does not have the intellectual firepower to do the prep work, or if he does, will fill them with incoherent babble that I will find painfully embarrassing as a citizen.
I look forward to Democrats in congress doing everything in their power to obstruct and impede his agenda. The GOP will get a nasty taste of its own medicine.
We will also have the pleasure of watching a sitting president try to explain himself at his fraud trial.
I don't see a guy like this getting a second term, but , anybody in the prediction game counting this guy out should think twice. Sokay, I'm a big boy. The mid-term elections in a couple of years will be a good barometer.

Welcome folks, to the Adams administration!

[vy65]

No more ing about "the direction of the country" from conservatives. They have the keys, and it is all up to them.

We now have one of the least qualified presidents ever, who simply does not have the intellectual firepower to think for himself.

So "conservatives" (whatever that means these days) have to tow the party line/can't criticize the GOP -- but -- thinking for yourself is a good trait that we especially want in our leaders?

[vy65]

As I've said, I'm leftist on most issues, but also recognize that conservative thought has a lot value in many areas of social and economic policy.

The Left has an advertising problem, which has grown much, much worse since the advent of blogs, forums and social media. Engaging in dialog with someone who has opposing views was an exercise that had to be done in person, where you couldn't as easily dehumanize a person as you can online. Now that the political debate has largely shifted online, the "person" you're debating with is nameless and faceless, meaning it's easier than ever before to just cut a debate short with an insult. Instead of sincerely listening to a real human being explain why they don't believe in evolution, you can just call them an ignorant caveman who stupidly worships an invisible "sky daddy." The Right is similarly knee-jerky, but I think the Left has a bigger advertising problem, mainly due to the fact liberals tend to be younger and more active online.

So what's this "advertising problem?" The modern image of the Left, per your average Joe American in the Bible Belt or Midwest, is that of a smug, elitist, Coastal or even European "intellectual" who holds their traditions and way of life in contempt; who thinks of them as uneducated, obsolete rednecks pathetically clinging to an outdated ethos. The Left continually fails to understand or under-appreciate just how important religion and other traditions are to that region. Most of those communities are tight knit, going back generations, and religion and the church played a central part in the growth and flourishing of those communities. The modern Left just expects them to instantly shove their cultural iden y into the dustbin because "science." The rise of New Atheism was also a disaster for the Left's hope of building a bridge to those communities. Per Dawkins, Hitchens, and the rest of those blowhards, you'd think the people in the Bible Belt are scheming 24/7 on ways to blow up abortion clinics. Yeah, try reaching out to them with "science" after ling your books "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."

"Well, those in the Bible Belt probably don't even know about Hitchens, et al."

Indeed they do. Sean Hannity and the rest of the Fox News cabal love using New Atheists as polemic talking points.

And the ironic thing is, conservative aren't science illiterate. Here's a study showing how the scientific literacy of conservatives increase if you phrase the wording differently:

http://www.motherjones.com/environme...fic-illiteracy

And this is not a conservative phenomenon either. The Left is similarly intractable being open minded on issues that attack their cultural iden y.

+1

Which is all the more ironic because the "Left" (as a gross generalization) is committed to engaging the Other (the muslim, the lesbian, the tranny, etc...). Yet that commitment doesn't extend to Bubba in Lexington, KY. Seems that commitment to engagement, inclusiveness, tolerance, etc... only extends to those in the cause celebre margins of the Left's arbitrary choosing.

[johnsmith]

I personally think it's fun to watch people make fun of the presidents intelligence. Yeah, they're idiots for only becoming the President of the free world and you're super smart because you're posting on the Internet.

[boutons_deux]

So "conservatives" (whatever that means these days) have to tow the party line/can't criticize the GOP -- but -- thinking for yourself is a good trait that we especially want in our leaders?

Moderate Repugs have been intimidated into compliant silence or, if they dare speak up, get primaried and purged for a more extreme right wing asshole.

Even Trash's staff couldn't get him to study up for the debates, he simply couldn't concentrate, focus.

Along with his clinically disordered psychology, he perhaps also has attention deficit disorder. I wonder what kind of drugs he takes daily.

His fellow partiers said he used to party on cocaine while ing a bunch young ladies.

[Clipper Nation]

Holy . OP's meltdown puts FuzzyLabia and bou 's to shame.

[johnsmith]

W was so dumb the way he made a bunch of money in his life and then became Governor and then President....what an idiot.

And Trump...man that guy is so stupid all he could do is pull off the biggest upset in American political history....total moron eh?

[johnsmith]

Holy . OP's meltdown puts FuzzyLabia and bou 's to shame.

Lol....I'm curious the percentage of people that actually read all these posts.

[johnsmith]

Moderate Repugs have been intimidated into compliant silence or, if they dare speak up, get primaried and purged for a more extreme right wing asshole.

Even Trash's staff couldn't get him to study up for the debates, he simply couldn't concentrate, focus.

Along with his clinically disordered psychology, he perhaps also has attention deficit disorder. I wonder what kind of drugs he takes daily.

His fellow partiers said he used to party on cocaine while ing a bunch young ladies.

What an idiot he must be eh?

[boutons_deux]

W was so dumb the way he made a bunch of money in his life and then became Governor and then President....what an idiot.

And Trump...man that guy is so stupid all he could do is pull off the biggest upset in American political history....total moron eh?

dubya was a business failure rescued by his daddy's friends. They included him in the investor group while fleecing the taxpayers to build Texas Stadium, then the taxpayers gave it the investors, who sold it, netting dubya $17M for doing nothing.

Trash's wealth from the 1970s has underperformed both the stock market and the real estate market by $10Bs. He's worth about $4B, not $10B.

but that will certainly increase as the grifter exploits his Presidency, insider trading, self-dealing, to enrich himself. Crooked Hillary?

His campaign was all xenophobia, bigotry, hate, misogyny, religious/ethnic persecution, divisiveness, polarization, and above all LIES. He and the Repugs "won" so that ok with johnsmith and other ed up rightwingnutjobs.

[johnsmith]

dubya was a business failure rescued by his daddy's friends. They included him in the investor group while fleecing the taxpayers to build Texas Stadium, then the taxpayers gave it the investors, who sold it, netting dubya $17M for doing nothing.

Trash's wealth from the 1970s has underperformed both the stock market and the real estate market by $10Bs. He's worth about $4B, not $10B.

but that will certainly increase as the grifter exploits his Presidency, insider trading, self-dealing, to enrich himself. Crooked Hillary?

His campaign was all xenophobia, bigotry, hate, misogyny, religious/ethnic persecution, divisiveness, polarization, and above all LIES. He and the Repugs "won" so that ok with johnsmith and other ed up rightwingnutjobs.

That's what I'm saying man. I mean it's obvious that you're way smarter what with the way you've been posing here non stop for over a decade. Those guys are clearly the idiots compared to you.

[boutons_deux]

That's what I'm saying man. I mean it's obvious that you're way smarter what with the way you've been posing here non stop for over a decade. Those guys are clearly the idiots compared to you.

Those are the facts, my little , or refute them.

[johnsmith]

Those are the facts, my little , or refute them.

I'm not arguing with you pal....I'm saying that it's so clear that you're way smarter than them and it's super evident because you've been posting about 30 times a day or more on this site for 12 years and all they've done is win the presidency. They're total idiots and you're super smart....obviously.

You're clearly of a higher intelligence the way you've impacted the spurstalk political forum. I mean, they haven't posted here at all!

[spurraider21]

I personally think it's fun to watch people make fun of the presidents intelligence. Yeah, they're idiots for only becoming the President of the free world and you're super smart because you're posting on the Internet.

well, i dont think trump is very intelligence because i hear him speak. he struggles to put together strings of coherent sentences without repeating himself 4 times over

[RandomGuy]

So "conservatives" (whatever that means these days) have to tow the party line/can't criticize the GOP -- but -- thinking for yourself is a good trait that we especially want in our leaders?

Dude, you try waaay too hard. In this case though, your strawman doesn't really work, and simply gives the impression of sputtering incoherence. Game up, I've seen you do better.