If this is how ordinary people really think maybe things aren't as bad as they seem

I saw a ordinary black chick wearing a shirt that said "Ban Idiots NOT Guns".

RACIST!!!

a reply to: DanDanDat

The country is 42 percent independent vs 27 percent Republican and about the same for Democrats registered.


I would say the minority are political nuts who believe their party is more important than creating a society for everybody in America.

originally posted by: luthier
a reply to: DanDanDat

The country is 42 percent independent vs 27 percent Republican and about the same for Democrats registered.


I would say the minority are political nuts who believe their party is more important than creating a society for everybody in America.

You saw the recent study conducted by Harvard that showed that only about 8% actually care about PC and the rest of the country view it as a significant problem, right? But that 8% tended to be concentrated in places where they had outsize influence -- academics and the media, for example.

That's just one example of what you are talking about. Those 8% tend to be activists with an outsize voice that can make it seem like there are far more of them than there are.

There are other groups like this one, and, of course, politicians have an interest in cultivating this kind of unrest because it gives them something to campaign on -- problems they can't solve even though they can always promise to make changes, and those changes always involve making power grabs.

a reply to: ketsuko

This is true. PC was supposed to be for public speakers and as the formal version (vs familiar) not a movement to control thoughts and free speech.

Like don't drop f bombs in front of grandma. Not I force you to use gender pronouns or you will be arrested.

Hell I am even liberal on personal liberty and transfolk. I just don't think forcing language is anything but authoritarian garbage.

Wonder where you are on the trump blaming Democrats for the crime of illegals.

I put it on par with Bernie Sanders saying Republicans are murdering Americans by not giving healthcare.

a reply to: luthier

It's rhetoric. Trump is the first Republican pol to sound like Democrats regularly get away with. People don't like it; the press sure doesn't like it. My hope is that maybe things tone down after this because it's finally being highlighted and not playing well.

You have to be aware that Democrat politicians have been sounding like this for awhile but most people haven't been aware of it because the press doesn't play on it. If you know about it, it's because the alt-press notices and you're a political junkie. Freedom through social platforms made it widely available and I think more people were aware of it than some quarters realized and that's part of why Trump is where he is now.

However, the recent moves to try to lock down social media platforms by trying to censor and control the message don't make me hopeful. I think they're drawing the wrong conclusion. They liked having their one-sided message, and they're trying to make it that way again.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: luthier

It's rhetoric. Trump is the first Republican pol to sound like Democrats regularly get away with. People don't like it; the press sure doesn't like it. My hope is that maybe things tone down after this because it's finally being highlighted and not playing well.

You have to be aware that Democrat politicians have been sounding like this for awhile but most people haven't been aware of it because the press doesn't play on it. If you know about it, it's because the alt-press notices and you're a political junkie. Freedom through social platforms made it widely available and I think more people were aware of it than some quarters realized and that's part of why Trump is where he is now.

However, the recent moves to try to lock down social media platforms by trying to censor and control the message don't make me hopeful. I think they're drawing the wrong conclusion. They liked having their one-sided message, and they're trying to make it that way again.

Oh I am aware of the Democrats acting this way since at least Slick willy. Republicans have dabbled but never fully sunk so low.

Democrats never got away with it for me. Even many years ago as a young hippie in high school and college I made the switch to the green party and then libertarianism in college.

So my education throughout my life has mainly been, the parties are a big problem. I didnt choose one I found lesser of two evils. I found evil is evil slow death fast death all the same end for future generations.


What disgusts me is I can't get away from the rhetoric it's now emboldened on both sides and the issues even further from being justly debated and solved based on the American people input to representation.

a reply to: DanDanDat

This is what happened to my wife's cousin (who, coincidentally, just moved to MN from OH)--she was married to a man who was an uber-liberal, probably better described as an obsessive-progressive, and it cause her to get a bit brainwashed by hearing such an emphatical person defend only one side and constantly demonize the other.

Her friends were the same way--militant-esque in their beliefs, some of them.

She even worked in a campaign office for Obama in 2012, making calls on his behalf and being very active in endorsing him and pushing people to vote for him.

Then, somewhere along the lines between the 2014 mid-term elections and the 2016 elections, something clicked in her like with this lady, and she began actually researching and listening and applying critical thinking to political issues. She and I would debate (very civily, actually) via Facebook quite often, with me arguing my views that align much more with libertarianism than anything else (although, for a while, she tried to staunchly argue that I was a conservative). We would discuss things, but they would always get interrupted by her extremist liberal friends chiming in and destroying the civility.

Then out of the blue, she contacts me privately to tell me that she voted for Trump. I didn't know if it was a joke or not, but she was serious. She then told me that she wasn't a liberal anymore and that she had realized out "brainwashed" she had been by her husband and friends, and that she didn't subscribe to many of the Democrats' ideals or actions. While her realization was that she was more of a libertarian-minded person (which warmed my heart), she just couldn't bring herself to vote for Hilary Clinton at all, and Trump was the second-best option in her opinion.

She also said that she was afraid to tell some of her friends how she voted because they would turn on her and probably become very uncivil and nasty. We discussed how sad that reality is, and I really felt bad for her.

Now that she has moved, though, I think that she can be more open with her beliefs and who she is--and again, it's sad that it takes a move away from people to feel that way.

In reality, though, I think that many people like her and the woman in the OP exist, and that this is why Trump got elected, and why he will probably get re-elected. People are moving away from the Dems, if not publicly, they are doing it privately and in the voting booth, at least for POTUS.

This midterm election should be interesting, regardless.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
a reply to: DanDanDat

This is what happened to my wife's cousin (who, coincidentally, just moved to MN from OH)--she was married to a man who was an uber-liberal, probably better described as an obsessive-progressive, and it cause her to get a bit brainwashed by hearing such an emphatical person defend only one side and constantly demonize the other.

Her friends were the same way--militant-esque in their beliefs, some of them.

She even worked in a campaign office for Obama in 2012, making calls on his behalf and being very active in endorsing him and pushing people to vote for him.

Then, somewhere along the lines between the 2014 mid-term elections and the 2016 elections, something clicked in her like with this lady, and she began actually researching and listening and applying critical thinking to political issues. She and I would debate (very civily, actually) via Facebook quite often, with me arguing my views that align much more with libertarianism than anything else (although, for a while, she tried to staunchly argue that I was a conservative). We would discuss things, but they would always get interrupted by her extremist liberal friends chiming in and destroying the civility.

Then out of the blue, she contacts me privately to tell me that she voted for Trump. I didn't know if it was a joke or not, but she was serious. She then told me that she wasn't a liberal anymore and that she had realized out "brainwashed" she had been by her husband and friends, and that she didn't subscribe to many of the Democrats' ideals or actions. While her realization was that she was more of a libertarian-minded person (which warmed my heart), she just couldn't bring herself to vote for Hilary Clinton at all, and Trump was the second-best option in her opinion.

She also said that she was afraid to tell some of her friends how she voted because they would turn on her and probably become very uncivil and nasty. We discussed how sad that reality is, and I really felt bad for her.

Now that she has moved, though, I think that she can be more open with her beliefs and who she is--and again, it's sad that it takes a move away from people to feel that way.

In reality, though, I think that many people like her and the woman in the OP exist, and that this is why Trump got elected, and why he will probably get re-elected. People are moving away from the Dems, if not publicly, they are doing it privately and in the voting booth, at least for POTUS.

This midterm election should be interesting, regardless.

I don't know man it was an awfully close election and the dems put up a terrible character.

I think many people hoped trump would grow up and not act like the Democrats.

I personally just talked to a staunch conservative who said if dems don't win to neutralize the hate he won't vote for trump in 2020.

Nobody with the rhetoric of these parties today should hold absolute power over policy.

If trump gets re elected it probably won't be enthusistically it would be because the Democrats don't care about independents any longer.

Independents still lose imo.

If the libs put Tulsi up I sure wouldn't be voting for trump.

a reply to: luthier

Trump was a pretty terrible character, too, to put up against a woman with the last name "Clinton." But I disagree--I don't think that people hoped that Trump would "grow up," I think that they hoped that he would take his unpolished, non-politician approach all the way through his first term and up through the election.

It's hard to deny that he's getting things done, even if I tend (rather often) disagree with how he communicates in order to get things done--and even if you disagree with what he's doing.

I do agree that it's not good for one side to hold majority in everything, but even with that being how it is now (and was during Obama's first two years), that still doesn't guarantee that only one side's politics get accomplished. And then the remainder of Obama's tenure was relegated to gridlock and EOs, for the most part. But I guess nothing getting done is often better than only one side's ideology having a say.

I would like to see Gabbard as a VP ticket with maybe a Rand Paul POUTS candidacy. I think that, if nothing else, would set us on the right track for a fiscal clean-up and reduction in the abuse of our military (and, by extension, the abuse that our military leaders inflict on other nations).

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
a reply to: luthier

Trump was a pretty terrible character, too, to put up against a woman with the last name "Clinton." But I disagree--I don't think that people hoped that Trump would "grow up," I think that they hoped that he would take his unpolished, non-politician approach all the way through his first term and up through the election.

It's hard to deny that he's getting things done, even if I tend (rather often) disagree with how he communicates in order to get things done--and even if you disagree with what he's doing.

I do agree that it's not good for one side to hold majority in everything, but even with that being how it is now (and was during Obama's first two years), that still doesn't guarantee that only one side's politics get accomplished. And then the remainder of Obama's tenure was relegated to gridlock and EOs, for the most part. But I guess nothing getting done is often better than only one side's ideology having a say.

I would like to see Gabbard as a VP ticket with maybe a Rand Paul POUTS candidacy. I think that, if nothing else, would set us on the right track for a fiscal clean-up and reduction in the abuse of our military (and, by extension, the abuse that our military leaders inflict on other nations).

As a person who follows economics pretty closely I have been saying the getting done part is vastly over estimated.

I think Gorsuch was certainly a good choice but I don't have much love for the president s actual policies and how he goes about enacting them.

I am also no fan of patriot act framer Kavanaugh either.

The irony of having to borrow 800 billion for our deficit from the same people we have been threatening with tariffs is a bit strange.

Maybe they increase their rates next time we need the loan.

As it is we pay about 60 mil a day to the Chinese in interest.