main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Senate The US Politics discussion

Discussion in 'Community' started by Ghost, Dec 6, 2012.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. KnightWriter

    KnightWriter Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2001
    Many of those same rich people complain about the poor getting handouts. Certainly it's a popular sentiment among many (rich and otherwise) that the poor get the handouts while the rich earned everything they have.

    It's socialism for the rich and capitalism for everyone else.
     
  2. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    Why would Senators or Congresspersons who are themselves wealthy look into offshore tax havens? Didn't Rangel get into trouble with the IRS over something similar? Those are people who are RLM(Rich-Like-Me). They have no incentive to look into people who have the financial being to run a opponent or donate to an opposition's campaign. They have every incentive to court favor with those people and seek their financial backing.

    They have a voice. The "poor"(homeless, working poor, even lower middle class) have little voice and leverage.
     
    Jedi Merkurian likes this.
  3. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Yet another damned good reason to vote out the GOP.
     
  4. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    "Voting out" and replacing them with what? The demand for those types of legislators will still remain because there are monied interests in the public who will regroup and reconstitute a party or movement to serve their interests regardless of one party or another being "voted out".

    Have you looked at a list of the wealthiest U.S. Senators? It's across the aisle.
     
    Jedi Merkurian and Rogue_Ten like this.
  5. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    I am not dumb enough to think that all of our problems would vanish. But the current GOP is horrifically blatant about about supporting the rich and crapping on the poor. You place the GOP with the Dems. This will not happen 100%.
     
  6. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    Actually, I think you are mistaken VLM, this isn't a party-line issue you are grappling with here, this is an endemic social problem that goes across both sides of the aisle. Give the Democrats more control and they might curb some of the wanton excess a little bit (mainly taking care of some of the egregious stuff that denies them certain revenues, like that whole Apple "this money doesn't belong to anybody" stuff) but they'll continue to prop up the basic structure of the thing, and its the basic structure that's the problem.
     
  7. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    I would agree that science and scientific endeavors could prosper more. But, you need an opposition. The problem is, there's not true opposition in the U.S. There's some but not enough IMHO to support getting rid of one whole party. There's no real third party or third movement beyond the dual-GOP/Dems.
     
  8. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    Yeah, to be honest, anyone that's hoping for the fracture or wholesale destruction of the GOP kind of needs to be in favor of a similar splintering of the Dems in order to be intellectually honest. It's been a good long while since this country had a wholesale political realignment.
     
  9. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    I don't think that's true or sensible. The collapse of one party and the emergence of a replacement will cause an overall realignment through its ripple effects, regardless of whether the other party is then suffering a crisis or not. Which is sort of why every previous party ascendancy or collapse in US history has happened on at a time, rather than in paired fashion.
     
  10. DarthLowBudget

    DarthLowBudget Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 17, 2004
    Well Wocky, in the Era of Good Feelings there was little in the way of party alignment, so even if there was one nominal party (the Democratic-Republicans) there was effectively no party apparatus at all, and in fact the 1824 election featured four candidates with no major party organization (again all were technically Democratic-Republicans). That said, you'd be correct to point out that the situation was only possible because of the widespread collapse of the Federalist Party years before.

    At any rate, I was more needling VLM that many of the reasons he wants the GOP to collapse could also be applied as criticisms to the Democrats as well. If what he's mostly concerned about is growing corruption between big business and politics, both sides are guilty. I think the most desirable (though not necessarily realistic) outcome would be the eventual collapse of the GOP, resulting in the far right elements receding to the fringe and local politics, the more moderate elements glomming onto the Democrats, who would probably finally firmly realign into the center-right group they always seem to want to be, with the liberals, progressives and whatever else setting up shop in a new party further to the left of where the Democrats are now.

    I'd also like to note that writing out this post put my head into a little bit of a tizzy about how frustrating American two-party politics are.
     
  11. heels1785

    heels1785 Skywalker Saga + JCC Manager / Finally Won A Draft star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2003
    Glenn Beck thinks Teresa Heinz-Kerry being rushed to the hospital was an act to protect the State Department. What.

     
  12. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Well we've already established by now that Beck is crazy-pants.
     
  13. heels1785

    heels1785 Skywalker Saga + JCC Manager / Finally Won A Draft star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2003
    For someone so overtly emotional, to call a cancer patient currently in a hospital bed "Miss Ketchup" and imply that she is faking it is subhuman, and he should be held accountable for it.
     
  14. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    glean beak
     
    DarthLowBudget likes this.
  15. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
  16. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    Looks like Rand Paul has a rebel yell problem. His social media director was part of a neo-confederate group pushing for southern secession. But that was a long time ago......2012.
     
  17. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Leaving behind zero troops after the war ends in Afghanistan in December 2014 is now being considered as one of the main options:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/w...l-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan.html?_r=1&

    I really hope this happens. Leaving behind any troops won't enforce stability, it will just make them a target.

    That'll probably earn him points in today's GOP.
     
  18. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    Yea, and kill his presidential chances, which were admittedly low anyway. This would put it at "solid no chance".

    edit: I do hope we fully withdraw from Afghanistan. I'm sure we will still leave advisors over there, but just not combat troops under that proposal.
     
  19. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
  20. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Don't worry, it's not decline, it's the GOP overreaching. It's only a matter of time before a better government is elected. North Carolina will continue to trend Democratic.

    But yeah, those education cuts especially I find difficult to justify.
     
    Jedi Merkurian likes this.
  21. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Juliet316 likes this.
  22. kingthlayer

    kingthlayer Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 7, 2003

    That and the efforts to restrict voting. Just disgusting.
     
  23. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
  24. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    He won't, because the legislative branch is controlled by the GOP too. And Cucinelli's the Attorney General.
     
  25. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.