Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Adder

Instead we get the tyranny of the Hank, Sebby and godforsaken cheeseheads. Is a system that prioritizes a handful of "swing" states really any different?

Of course not. But the fact is the dozens of tiny states ain't going to agree to giving it up.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The critique is far more expansive than that, but you'll frame it as you like, as that's your favorite form of response.

You quoted two paragraphs. The first was about liberal hypocrisy. If you think there was something better in the rest of what he wrote, quote it and I can respond. But the idea that liberal hypocrisy impels people to vote for Trump is stupid. As you said below, conservatives are hypocrites too.

People really, really dislike a lot of the preachiness and know-it-all-ism of Democrats, particularly given it's matched almost always with incompetent policies and is later discovered to have been based on bad data analyses. Democrats never leave anything alone. There's always an urge to tell everyone what their analysis of an issue is, and then insist on a policy prescription to react to it. Later, they admit they tackled a problem that didn't need to be tackled and in doing so caused another worse problem. From Clinton-era silliness about everyone needing to own a house (followed by the feckless W administration) to Covid over-reaction, they think they're the smart set, with the answers... and they fuck it up. Over and over and over. The law of unintended consequences bites Ds in the ass every time and their response? "Let's pass another law!"

If you want preachy and know-it-all combined with incompetent policies and bad analysis, Trump.

There is so little in this paragraph that differentiates Democrats from Republicans in any way. The more interesting question is the one you won't touch, which is why these things bother you (and Stephens) when they come from Democrats but not Republicans.

On the second question, Liberalism doesn't turn off anyone. And I don't think liberals turn off anyone. Liberals are open minded. Classical liberals don't want to tell anyone what to do. They venerate tolerance and live and let live attitudes.

It's MAGA and Progressives that want to tell everyone what to do. Stephens' question should have been, "How do both parties rid themselves of extreme right wingers and progressives?"

We classical liberals and conservatives can get along just fine, horse trading our way to sane compromises. But these right wingers, these MAGA people? And these wingnut progressives? You can't deal with these groups. They're cancers - founts of dysfunction.

YMMV, but IMO, moderate Ds hate progressives. They think they're nuts. And moderate Rs hate MAGA and right-wingers. They think they're nuts and ruining the party. There's a whole lot of overlap for the sane of us in the middle to cut deals. We just have to eliminate the extremists from the conversations.

Uh, hello? It's 2024 and this is your wake-up call. There are no moderate Republicans left. The party is ruined. It's is a fully-owned subsidiary of MAGA.

Conservative hypocrisy is so overt, there's nothing revelatory in a column calling it out. They're openly full of shit. It's like Trump. Try keeping a list of all his lies and contradictions. You'll run out of space in the spreadsheet by noon.

Indeed. But just pointing that kinda undercuts the point of the Stephens piece you quoted. Are you going to notice that at some point? I guess not.

If we want to talk about why people are choosing to vote for Republicans, let's talk about why they choose Republicans. It's a choice, not an allergic reaction to Democrats.

If you ask me, inflation is pretty important.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Of course not. But the fact is the dozens of tiny states ain't going to agree to giving it up.

Yes. This.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Of course not. But the fact is the dozens of tiny states ain't going to agree to giving it up.

The Dems just lost their Electoral College argument. The ridiculous Grifter-in-Chief is going to win the popular vote. Every asshat who wailed about the attack on democracy may turn out to be correct, but the populace voted for the wannabe dictator. Isn't that democracy? The right to vote your rights away? The people have spoken, and may they get what they deserve.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

The Dems just lost their Electoral College argument. The ridiculous Grifter-in-Chief is going to win the popular vote. Every asshat who wailed about the attack on democracy may turn out to be correct, but the populace voted for the wannabe dictator. Isn't that democracy? The right to vote your rights away? The people have spoken, and may they get what they deserve.

But we went high.

Fun fact Cuomo would have wiped the floors with Trump but no, Dems had to go high.

However Harris can do the right thing and refuse to certify.

[Icky Thump]

Next hurricane NC you can suck my dick.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

Black woman. Sexism and racism in one nice package.

Dammit.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

The Dems just lost their Electoral College argument. The ridiculous Grifter-in-Chief is going to win the popular vote. Every asshat who wailed about the attack on democracy may turn out to be correct, but the populace voted for the wannabe dictator. Isn't that democracy? The right to vote your rights away? The people have spoken, and may they get what they deserve.

I saw some of the most devastating political ads I have even seen. The trans stuff probably moved a ton of people to either vote Trump, or not vote (I'm not saying me, I'm saying others). Biden should have agreed to step down a year ago so there could have been a primary.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Replaced_Texan

Dammit.

We asked white people to care a at least a little about people who are not them. They said fuck off.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally Posted by Adder

We asked white people to care a at least a little about people who are not them. They said fuck off.

Plenty of non-white people also said fuck off.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?

Plenty of non-white people also said fuck off.

Plenty of non-white people have internalized bigotries too.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Adder

Plenty of non-white people have internalized bigotries too.

https://www.france24.com/en/americas...pen-door-trump

This doesn't explain the Country but if certainly hurt in Michigan. About 5 o'clock last night I was watching TV and some ads that I had never seen came on. "If Trump wins he will drop Israel. Harris supports our ally 100%." They had not played before. It seemed stupid. I cannot imagine too many Jews were on the fence. But plenty of Arabs may have been.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by LessinSF

The Dems just lost their Electoral College argument. The ridiculous Grifter-in-Chief is going to win the popular vote. Every asshat who wailed about the attack on democracy may turn out to be correct, but the populace voted for the wannabe dictator. Isn't that democracy? The right to vote your rights away? The people have spoken, and may they get what they deserve.

H. L. Mencken: 'Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.'

It may be as simple as this:

1. Telling people "The economy is great and you're dumb if you think otherwise" (based on GDP) while ignoring the way it impacting different populations and areas differently, isn't wise.

2. Telling people they're racists if they don't disagree with you isn't wise.

3. Taking the votes of minority communities for granted isn't wise.

4. Figuring you can scare people into voting for your candidate isn't wise.

5. Figuring you can shame people into voting for your candidate isn't wise.

6. Running on a platform of nothing more than, "I'm not Trump" works during Covid, but perhaps not otherwise.

This is a dark event. But its causes stem from a whole lot of arrogance and incompetence.

Remember this when your first inclination is to blame this all exclusively on racism and sexism. While those are of course partial causes, they are small fractions of a much more significant whole.

And while this Divider in Chief does his dividing, recall, what brought us here in significant part is grievance and identity politics. If both parties continue to practice those strategies, the country is fucked in a manner far worse than what Trump might cause. Right now, the media and political pundits on both sides are talking about the new divide and conquer angle to acquire eyeballs and support - Men vs. Women. Don't let them do it. Don't be the sucker at the table.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Adder

We asked white people to care a at least a little about people who are not them. They said fuck off.

We’ve asked white people to care about women. They said fuck off.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

https://www.france24.com/en/americas...pen-door-trump

This doesn't explain the Country but if certainly hurt in Michigan. About 5 o'clock last night I was watching TV and some ads that I had never seen came on. "If Trump wins he will drop Israel. Harris supports our ally 100%." They had not played before. It seemed stupid. I cannot imagine too many Jews were on the fence. But plenty of Arabs may have been.

Idiots. The Trump plan is to let Bibby glass Gaza and then turn it into condos.