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Yep, that's what I hear from both ends of the political spectrum. I also hear that from wild-eyed screamers in the streets of the Middle East.
How in the world have so many people become so radicalized?
.
remember in cartoons when you saw this:
you usually saw someone crawling away?
In today's world, they're political bag men. Follow the money - what profits from making us give each other the stink eye?
Also, notice how often they're sitting comfortably in the 'middle' posing as moderates.
The left is welcome to move to Cuba? Might be more comfortable.
The left is welcome to move to Cuba? Might be more comfortable.
It isn't the left that depends on authoritarianism to guide our lives.
The left is welcome to move to Cuba? Might be more comfortable.
It isn't the left that depends on authoritarianism to guide our lives.
There are plenty of authoritarians on either "side" - which is why the left/right artifice is so misleading. Neither end of that spectrum rejects authoritarian government.
Still hanging onto that lie that you are a republican.That first part is right on the money. The second part is probably the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Push him off of the fiscal clif? I do not want to see him get his way, but if we fall of the fiscal clif we will find oursleves without the proverbial river. This is the debt ceiling all over.. just a bunch of people who know nothing about economies telling our politicians to do something that will have devastating long term effects.
Blah...Blah...Blah...Devistating? Being a republican "the dumbest thing you have ever heard" is a meaningless statement. In my lifetime..(I am not a YOUNG republican) I am an old one. "dumbest" is their mana and stock in trade. How can anyone filter through the vast catalog of republican dumbness to find THE dumbest..Impossible. You have signed on to be a deck hand on the Titanic. Good luck. I hope you can swim.
LMAO....you have never said anything on this board that shows you to be anything but left of center.
For example.....what are your thoughts on deficit spending? A true republican would want to see legislation IMMEDIATELY that reduces government spending....increasing revenue by 100 billion will mean our deficit spending will still be 1 trillion a year.
What republican would agree to that?
I am neither blithering nor am I an idiot and it's beyond rude of you to say that. ..
Then attempt to reply topically and refrain from the obvious straw-men.
Who the fuck made you the social director around here, Samson? Nice how you cut the quoted material out that refuted your claim that she was off topic. Perhaps it is you who needs to look at the thread title.
Fighting for freedom of liberty = yeah sure. You assert your patriotism but as Samuel Johnson said "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel", meaning that just saying you're fighting of freedom and liberty is no proof of same. Here is another quote from Johnson on patriotism:
All of these accusationsthat Democrats are destroying the country, that Obama is a communist are opinions which are not propogated by reason, but caught by contagion.
I see of lot of posters here parrotting the lines from Fox News, Romney and the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh: That those who voted for the Democrats are only interested in free stuff, that they don't pay taxes, that they're irresponsible. All reasonable evidence says these are lies, and yet so many here parrot the lies.
That's YOUR opinion.
The fact is, people voted for Obama based on the availability and continued funding of entitlements.
Your side is unhappy over the blow back. You are programmed to ignore the unintended consequences due to the expansion of government.
that is your opinion. People voted for Obama for a variety of reasons that you really don't know about. The reality is Obama just happened to get more people to like him over the lump of shit named Romney.
Blowback? what blowback? the hardcore righties who are doing nothing but whining because they lost?
The fact is, people voted for Obama based on the availability and continued funding of entitlements.
40% of the people receiving government assistance, including Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security, voted for Romney.
ElectoralVote
Although he didn't say it literally, Romney's audience of wealthy donors surely understood that "takers" were typically ethnic minorities on welfare and food stamps living in large cities in blue states in the North. It turns out that is not true, either. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation, which Romney has cited in the past as an objective source of information, wrote an article listing the percentage of people who paid federal income tax (the "makers") and who paid no federal income tax ("the takers"). It also produced a map (below) showing the top 10 "maker" states in blue and the top 10 "taker" states in red. Here is the map.
As can be easily seen, with a few exceptions, the "takers" form the base of the Republican Party and the "makers" are Democratic states. The reason is straightforward: the (Republican) South is poorer than the (Democratic) North and has many more people whose income is so low that they owe no federal income tax on it.
Your side is unhappy over the blow back. You are programmed to ignore the unintended consequences due to the expansion of government.
Blowback? Government is currently contracting, not expanding. I know you believe otherwise, but just turn off Fox and started reading websites that aren't based on conservative fictions.
You're talking like Romney won the election and the Republicans aren't about to commit political suicide by going over the fiscal cliff.
Still hanging onto that lie that you are a republican.
LMAO....you have never said anything on this board that shows you to be anything but left of center.
This is the biggest problem for Republicans right now. Everyone has to pass some sort of "purity" test. Republicans are so busy labelling everyone and threatening to punish Republicans at the polls if they get out of line. How dumb is that?
As long as Republicans are fighting amongst themselves and punishing each other, the Democrats having nothing to fear.
For example.....what are your thoughts on deficit spending? A true republican would want to see legislation IMMEDIATELY that reduces government spending....increasing revenue by 100 billion will mean our deficit spending will still be 1 trillion a year.
What republican would agree to that?
A smart one. ANY significant cuts to government spending will stall the recovery right in its tracks. Cuts do need to be made but they need to be made with a scappel not a hachet.
The easiest and most bloated area to be cut is military spending. The US currently spends more than the next 10 biggest military powers in the world combined. China is No. 2 on the list and they spend a little over half of what the US spends. Certainly military spending is coming down because the wars are ending/over, but that also means the the private corporations manufacturing weapons, vehicles and other equipment supplying those wars, are seeing those contracts end and they will be cutting employment. Cutting the numbers of those serving in the military puts those men and women out of work, further adding to the unemployment rolls.
It would be wiser for this year, at least, to wind down the wars which will result in a big cut in defense spending and let the military industrial complex adjust to peacetime levels of defense spending, and let the economy absorb the downturns in employment that result.
The private sector is currently creating jobs but the public sector is shedding them, which is why the overall unemployment rate has been so slow to come down. You would think that this is what conservatives would want, but they continue to believe the fiction that Obama is increasing the size of government.
If the government drastically cuts spending, the short term effect will be to plunge more people out of work which would force the government to INCREASE spending on social programs. Increased spending on social programs is not the CAUSE of poor economic policies, it's the EFFECT of poor economic policies.
Every time the Republicans have shifted wealth upward to the highest income earners, the size of government and spending on social programs for the poorest people in the US, has exploded. Expecting the working poor to continue to bear the brunt of these policies is not only morally wrong, but economically short-sighted.
I loathe deficit spending. Every time I think of what W did with a balanced budget and a strong economy, I weep. The economy has been through some brutal and devasting shocks. It doesn't need more of them, it needs to continue to have some stability for this year, especially.
In what way can government spend the country into prosperity?
You should have stopped at " a country cannot spend it's way to prosperity"..In what way can government spend the country into prosperity?
A country can't spend a country into prosperity but they can keep the recession from deepening. There are also ways of stimulating the economy such as infrastructure spending, which are very beneficial to the local economies: All of the $$$ are paid to local/state governments who are know the needs in their jurisdictions; The contracts are tendered locally and involve local workers and local material suppliers; The public gets a permanent benefit for the dollars expended. I can't emphasize this last point too strongly.
The contractors, the suppliers and their respective workers all receive benefit from the monies they're paid for doing the work, and they all pay taxes on those monies so a portion of the federal government's expenditure on the contract will come back to the feds in the form of income and payroll taxes. But then those workers will take their net pay out into their communities to provide for their families, and the stores and service providers where they spend their $$ will also benefit, as will their workers. And some of those dollars will flow into state coffers as valued added taxes.
The government can also help young entrepreneurs launch new technologies (priming the pump, so to speak). I've seen the numbers on some of these programs and they're returning $1.50 in future revenues for every $1 they expend. I know of one young entrepreneur (under 25), who invented and patented a new technology which is now in use in big box stores nationwide. He received a $50,000 grant to move his technology into production once he had secured his patents, and now has over 200 employees in two manufacturing facilities.
The economy overall benefits enormously from the Defence Department: A large standing army reduces domestic unemployment, although in conservative parlance, all those soldiers and military personnel are "takers" because they receive free medical care, and other entitlements, and they pay no income tax. In addition, there is the entire military-industrial complex which provides the US with all of those wonderful and horribly expensive weapons they use, as well as the more mundane military necessities such as uniforms, office supplies, toilet paper, meals, computers, and on and on.
Additionally, there are the costs of maintaining the bases, both in the US and abroad. I can remember communities mounting huge campaigns to keep bases open when the Pentagon has suggested closing bases. They cite the number of local civilians the base employs and who would be unemployed, (electricians, maintenance staff, teachers, etc.), the losses to local businesses supplying the bases with goods and services, and the loss of business from military personnel living on the base. Military families buy food, clothing, send their kids to school, and again all of those value added taxes go to state and local governments.
The government gets pretty good bang for it's buck from the food stamps program too. All of that money gets spent locally, providing income for local grocery stores and their workers, and local farmers as well as other suppliers to the grocery stores. This affects truckers who deliver goods to the grocery stores as well. All of these people are getting some of that food stamp money and they're all paying taxes on that income so a portion goes back to the feds, and they're spending it to support their families and paying state taxes on their purchases and so on and so on.
53% of Americans Think Republicans are Too Extreme
Is the current position of Republican/Tea Party members of the House to allow the entire nation to go over the "fiscal cliff" rather than increase taxes for the wealthiest 1% going to change this perception?
That's YOUR opinion.
The fact is, people voted for Obama based on the availability and continued funding of entitlements.
Your side is unhappy over the blow back. You are programmed to ignore the unintended consequences due to the expansion of government.
that is your opinion. People voted for Obama for a variety of reasons that you really don't know about. The reality is Obama just happened to get more people to like him over the lump of shit named Romney.
Blowback? what blowback? the hardcore righties who are doing nothing but whining because they lost?
My opinion? OK, if it's my opinion, then why are Obama voters pissed off about businesses who are trying to stay afloat by making adjustments to their staffing? If it were simply opinion, then there would be no discussion of the issue, now would there?
ANd what variety of reasons might those be. And no making up stuff either.
"They lost"?...Are you implying that Obama governs not for the entire country, just those who agree with his ideology? Is that your view of politics?
BTW, since you stupidly decided to open the door, just exactly what was "lost". The way I see it, the democrats lost because their pundits and supporters were betting all in that the Senate would be a democrat super majority and the US House would go to the democrats.
Lost? I will tell you what lost. The United States of America lost.
Obama is systematically destroying small business and the middle class.
He claims his tax proposals will reduce the debt. BULLSHIT. The tax hikes are merely symbolic gestures of payback to those who supported him during his first term and at the polls this past November.
Obama is the guy who when informed that the Capital Gains tax rate of the current 15% resulted in MORE revenue for the federal government, Obama said, "I just don't think 15% is fair".
Obama is not interested in reducing deficit spending. He's not going to allow a single item of his precious entitlements to be reduced in any way. He has to keep the takers on the democrat reservation. So he uses class warfare to accomplish this.
SO you low information people voted for Obama because you want your freebies. Plain and simple. You were told Obama was going to give you shit. You believed it. Now that things are not quite working out the way Obama wanted, you're pissed off.
There is a movement afoot by the GOP to simply allow the democrats to have what they want by voting "present".
This way the democrats will have to own whatever happens.
The public gets a permanent benefit for the dollars expended. I can't emphasize this last point too strongly.In what way can government spend the country into prosperity?
I thought we benefitted from keeping the money we are paid for working.
I thought we benefitted from keeping the money we are paid for working.
There are lots of ways that the quality of life in a society benefits from investments in our communities, schools, and infrastructure.
All that matters is what "I" have, yet everything around me is in decay. But quality of life is more than about just what "I" have, it's about the quality of what is around me and what others are experiencing too. Gordon Gekko didn't appear to care about that, he was just an angry, cynical, lonely island. Apparently there are Gordon Gekkos in real life as well, huh?
