General Politics Discussion [ARCHIVED] • Page 1234

i hope paul ryan lives with this guilt forever and we remind him of it every day

 

I am attempting to have surgery at the beginning of 2017 - guess I need to schedule it before inauguration day. I am actually scared about this.

 

"Those are your family and friends, but you won't talk to them" assumes a whole hell of a lot.

 

Why in the fuck are these shitty liberals legitimizing Trump? There was a mention of liberal shaming earlier. This is the exact reason why it occurs. For all of the allusions to giving a shit about us, they quickly fall in line and defer to hollow gestures when are lives are at stake. What, do they think that this earns them points? If anything, the next time a black woman, someone from the trans community or any other minority steps into the booth, they will remember that the moment their lives were served up by white people, democrats were there to congratulate Trump. Fuck them. And, of course, they will learn the wrong lessons from this. They will say we needed to be more racist, more nativist, more like the Reagan democrats, rather than understanding that an actual left alternative would have won and has more legitimacy that the politics they've been holding on to for the past few decades. Moreover, we will see a number of folks saying that this is why we need elites, this is why democracy is bad and flawed, and all of this bullshit, all of which amounts to pinning their failures to articulate intersectional politics beyond a motherfucking tweet. I hope this party collapses. We need a Podemos or some alternative in this country, because democrats are going to sell us all out. There is no dignity, there is no principle there, only an empty vessel of a once important party that failed on every level. Remember "super predator"? I've no doubt some variation on this sort of rhetoric will emerge in the upcoming days. Fuck them, fuck Hillary and Obama and all of the rest of the DNC.

 

One thing that I'm so tired of around here is the notion that voting for Trump made sense because "I want to keep my guns!!!!! Hillary wants to take em' away and not let me buy 20 assault rifles to play with!!!!". I'm seeing all these posts of people hugging their automatic weapons saying "It's gonna be okay"... It's such a juvenile and childish notion to stake your claim on who you support based on this. It's so foolish. makes me squirm just thinking about it. I'm glad that NV voted to pass the stricter background checks at least... But what an immature reason to participate in political supporting/voting/anything.

 

Really not interested in getting to the argument of tearing down the system and rebuilding it a communist system because it's not going to happen, so not gonna respond to any conversations that go down that road.....But let me ask all the people saying they want to organize...what are you organizing to do? Protesting obviously is a good step...but then what? How do you obtain the policy goals you want? I'm asking because as someone who is getting super close to actually working within the system, I get a sense of "we're just not going to vote", and from the politicians and staffers I've talked to, there's just not much incentive for them to engage an outside group if said group isn't going to vote if you support their position.

I said it before the election and it's super apparent now---the current iteration of the GOP is not going to be one swayed into leftist policies by protest, or even violent protest. There's just no reason to believe they will cave to those pressures right now or even 5 years from now.

My involvement in local level politics is still relatively new so there may be somebody here with more insight...but make sure that you're not completely ignoring the system while you work from without it. The system is still going to be there, and you will need allies in it to vote for what you want done. You don't even have to make sure your ally is a Democrat, at least in local elections. Stuff like city council seats and the like are usually decided by very small amounts of voters--perfect openings for independent or 3rd party candidates.

 

This is like revenge of the nerds except the nerds never get revenge, not that we are nerds..

 

The justification from some of the people I know for voting Trump I can't even wrap my head around.

Alot of morons condescending to people more knowledgeable than them saying things like "well congress has most of the power, so Trump won't even be able to pass most of the things he's been saying! Nothing will change but it's better than Shillary! Grow up and learn how government works!"

It's like these people don't know how SCOTUS works and the longterm ramifications of Trump's potential two picks.

 

It really depresses me that my girlfriend and father are for Trump >_>. Girlfriend lost her cousin in the Marines and believes in her right for her conceal to carry, which I guess I can kind of get. But, my father, a homosexual man.. that baffles me.

 

Wish Obama at least chose one justice, fuck man

 

I don't think they are legitimizing him. I think that they are trying to indicate that they want to do the opposite of what the GOP did to Obama for 8 years.

 

You are an extremely forgiving person, she is lucky to have you

 

Also not sure what everyone is so upset about with most of what Dems have said so far. Warren's especially smacks of generic "yeah yeah gotta work together blah blah" that she's never going to actually adhere to in the senate. Like, she's not suddenly going to shut up, stop agitating, and vote for the border wall in the spirit of "working together". She'll still be out there calling Donald Trump out for being a shithead when the policy is on the table.

 

So they're gonna pass all of Trump's legislation and work with him to do it? Sounds just awesome

 

Luckily I didn't see this much in Cleveland. You would really have to go out to the rural areas to hear something like that. Most of the Trump supporters I saw here were the well educated middle to upper class.

 

Electoral politics is one of the things people are working on, as well as the things within the BLM platform, advocacy groups, unionization, boycotts, and so on and so on. But, I digress.

 

Glad someone else sees the downside of the "Affordable" Healthcare Act. My aunt and uncle's insurance shot up to $2,400 a month(combined), when it used to be $800 a month for both of them. They are able to afford it, but yeesh, it's totally insane.

 

someone told me

"at least he's not a criminal"

he's accused of mass sexual assault

you think one of the richest men in the world didn't hide money? in the 80s and 90s when everyone had Swiss bank accounts? you fucking hypocrites

 

A left alternative wouldn't have won, looking at these numbers it's just not there in this election. And Hillary's platform *was* left for most. And it was rejected. It's that very belief why I think the next decade is lost, you hate the democrats and want to burn it all down but it won't happen. The party "collapsing" will instead probably create a system of republican rule. A string of third party candidates. A string of election night catastrophe.

 

In particular, Unite Here is a very important union. There is a chapter here in Baltimore, as well as other states. I'd recommend checking them out.

 

Something that bothers me is why doesn't anyone care about the "how" aspect of all of Trumps proposed policies/plans? Why is this ignored? I just asked a colleague recently "how is Trump going to get Mexico to pay for the proposed wall" and he literally said "he just will..." he just will? That might as well have been part of his slogan haha.

But honestly, the lack of interest in the how side to all of his claims is startling.

 

I was directing it more at the people who are saying they want to organize now, I know you're kind of old hat at it lol. Boycotts I get, they don't really require much intermingling with state/local/federal government, but advocacy groups have to advocate to someone for the group they're advocating for, unionization efforts often involve govenrment officials and/or government policies, etc.

 

The republican alternatives aren't gonna lower the cost for most Americans. I'm almost positive of that.

 

The reasons for this cost increase are so incredibly misunderstood though. The insurance they used to get for $800 month almost undoubtedly didn't cover certain, very expensive procedures, came with the caveat that the insurance company could kick them off at any time if they got sick (some states regulated this, some didn't), and---and this is the biggest part---they ALL had either yearly or lifetime caps on coverage (and probably both). So said insurance plan would stop covering you after 100K, or 500K, or etc, whatever the amount was. Sounds like a lot until you realize anything major, like cancer treatment or heart surgery, costs literally hundred of thousands of dollars. So basically one bout of that and your insurance is useless, so you have to try and shop for another plan---BUT insurance companies pre-ACA would deny people with pre existing conditions like cancer and heart failure.

Seriously, these costs and what they mean need to be put into the correct context.

 

There were a number of factors that harmed Clinton, of which the perceived insincerity of her positions were a part, given her establishment credentials. Many of these areas that Trump won were won by Obama. What happened? Even if we understand it as a backlash that is derived primarily from white people, there was a triggering event that lead us to this point. I tend to think it lies in the liberal-center. But, whatever.