The damage done by the New Partisans

[gipper]

Raygun? Where did you learn that? FoxNews?

You just blew your whole point. Thanks.

Joan Baez at Woodstock. In the 60's. Yes, us hippies have been calling him Ronnie Raygun (ZAPPPP!!!!) since the 60's.

Thanks, so Democrats started this all in the 60's. It just didn't start happening because of FoxNews like some dim-bulbs are implying.

No.

LBJ's Great Society programs were enacted with many R votes.

 

[Mac1958]

.

We're far more concerned with what Kim Kardashian™ is wearing, and who's still alive on Survivor™.

.

 

[gipper]

.

We're far more concerned with what Kim Kardashian™ is wearing, and who's still alive on Survivor™.

.

Yes. Just as Rome decayed and fell, so will the American empire.

Its all about bread and circuses now.

 

[Papageorgio]

Raygun? Where did you learn that? FoxNews?

You just blew your whole point. Thanks.

Joan Baez at Woodstock. In the 60's. Yes, us hippies have been calling him Ronnie Raygun (ZAPPPP!!!!) since the 60's.

Thanks, so Democrats started this all in the 60's. It just didn't start happening because of FoxNews like some dim-bulbs are implying.

No.

LBJ's Great Society programs were enacted with many R votes.

Can't follow conversations can you?

 

[Unkotare]

the War of Northern Aggression ...

No such thing. It was the American Civil War.

Deflection...

Correction.

 

[Unkotare]

.

We're far more concerned with what Kim Kardashian™ is wearing, and who's still alive on Survivor™.

.

Yes. Just as Rome decayed and fell, so will the American empire.

Its all about bread and circuses now.

America is not an empire. False comparison.

 

[gipper]

Raygun? Where did you learn that? FoxNews?

You just blew your whole point. Thanks.

Joan Baez at Woodstock. In the 60's. Yes, us hippies have been calling him Ronnie Raygun (ZAPPPP!!!!) since the 60's.

Thanks, so Democrats started this all in the 60's. It just didn't start happening because of FoxNews like some dim-bulbs are implying.

No.

LBJ's Great Society programs were enacted with many R votes.

Can't follow conversations can you?

Sorry...I misconstrued your posts.

 

[gipper]

.

We're far more concerned with what Kim Kardashian™ is wearing, and who's still alive on Survivor™.

.

Yes. Just as Rome decayed and fell, so will the American empire.

Its all about bread and circuses now.

America is not an empire. False comparison.

Proof you are uninformed.

 

[Unkotare]

.

We're far more concerned with what Kim Kardashian™ is wearing, and who's still alive on Survivor™.

.

Yes. Just as Rome decayed and fell, so will the American empire.

Its all about bread and circuses now.

America is not an empire. False comparison.

Proof you are uninformed.

Proof I know what the word means and you don't.

 

[FA_Q2]

Sadly you are right, but as it applies to our political leadership. They are the ones responsible.

I think it's our system.

Politicians are completely controlled by money, they can leverage their office to obtain more power, influence and votes, and they are not constrained by the requirement of a balanced budget. Their top priorities are fundraising and re-election.

Worse, We the People clearly don't care, or we'd do something about it.

.

I think we care but accept the problem isn't who's in office, but the system itself. When the system is the problem, who's in office is moot.

You have to go deeper than that. It is in the electorate. The system is irrelevant as well when the people no longer tend to it.

You do have a point there. Millions of Americans pay no attention, but this has always been the case.

It could be that since the power elite are invested in dividing those of us willing to pay attention, they could be the true culprit. If we did not allow them to divide us, things would be much improved.

Yeah, it's both, guys.

The system is the problem, and we could change it if we cared enough.

Chicken or the egg.

.

Fair enough.
I just think that no matter how perfect a system might be it will fail if people do not maintain it but if the people care any system will work.

That might be the very problem with democratic societies – it assumes incorrectly that people will watch and control their government. It is people’s nature to be lazy about a system that is working.

 

[Mac1958]

I think it's our system.

Politicians are completely controlled by money, they can leverage their office to obtain more power, influence and votes, and they are not constrained by the requirement of a balanced budget. Their top priorities are fundraising and re-election.

Worse, We the People clearly don't care, or we'd do something about it.

.

I think we care but accept the problem isn't who's in office, but the system itself. When the system is the problem, who's in office is moot.

You have to go deeper than that. It is in the electorate. The system is irrelevant as well when the people no longer tend to it.

You do have a point there. Millions of Americans pay no attention, but this has always been the case.

It could be that since the power elite are invested in dividing those of us willing to pay attention, they could be the true culprit. If we did not allow them to divide us, things would be much improved.

Yeah, it's both, guys.

The system is the problem, and we could change it if we cared enough.

Chicken or the egg.

.

Fair enough.
I just think that no matter how perfect a system might be it will fail if people do not maintain it but if the people care any system will work.

That might be the very problem with democratic societies – it assumes incorrectly that people will watch and control their government. It is people’s nature to be lazy about a system that is working.

Sure. A system has two large potential fatal flaws: The fact that it was created by humans and the fact that humans must implement it.

Personally, I think the American system worked too well. Its various successes ultimately created a society of people who are too bored and soft to give a shit.

That environment then opens the door to those who will say, "well, okay, if you don't give a shit, I'll take care of stuff for you. Just relax, feel good about yourselves, don't worry about me".

.

 

[BlackSand]

Increasingly I'm forced to conceed when a system like our's is so flawed, perverted, and corrupted from what it began as, and beyond all hope of repair and redemption, isn't starting over better? Founders started over but had a country to leave for. We don't have anywhere to go but desperately need to start over.

America today bears no resemblance to what it began as. And remains the greatest single threat to the rest of the world. Sucky realization when you begin to realize everything our supposed enemies say about us is actually true.

We are not the good guys.

Quit holding your breath and waiting for someone else to do something.
That is not what our Founding Fathers did ... And that is where we separate today.

If you honestly think the rest of the world hates us ... You really need to go visit somewhere else for a little while and get the real scoop.

.

 

[bripat9643]

This began with Democrats, of course. I could tick off examples of Democrats demonizing Republicans for the last 10 years and exhaust the server space on this forum. We have never seen the level of lying and vitriol against Democrats by the GOP that we saw in, say, Alan Grayson's "Republicans want you to die quickly" speech on healthcare.
And Dems arent trustworthy in the least. Bush wanted the No Child Left Behind act passed. He left it up to Ted Kennedy to write. Kennedy wrote it and then denounced it on the floor of the Senate as being not generous enough.
You cannot work with people like that. You can only destroy them in every possible way. Democrats are the ISIS of the political scene.

You can actually go all the way back to the Goldwater election campaign where LBJ implied he wanted to start a nuclear holocaust. Democrats are scum, and they always have been.

 

[The Rabbi]

This began with Democrats, of course. I could tick off examples of Democrats demonizing Republicans for the last 10 years and exhaust the server space on this forum. We have never seen the level of lying and vitriol against Democrats by the GOP that we saw in, say, Alan Grayson's "Republicans want you to die quickly" speech on healthcare.
And Dems arent trustworthy in the least. Bush wanted the No Child Left Behind act passed. He left it up to Ted Kennedy to write. Kennedy wrote it and then denounced it on the floor of the Senate as being not generous enough.
You cannot work with people like that. You can only destroy them in every possible way. Democrats are the ISIS of the political scene.

You can actually go all the way back to the Goldwater election campaign where LBJ implied he wanted to start a nuclear holocaust. Democrats are scum, and they always have been.

Its actually before that.
I'm reading one volume of Caro's huge biography of LBJ. Apparently for the 1960 primaries (might have been '56) Hubert Humphrey was running against JFK. JFK had FDR, jr go around and say that Humphrey had applied for an exemption to the draft during WW2.
It wasnt true. Humphrey tried to enlist several times and was turned away because of some medical condition. JFK knew that. But the lie was good enough to stick and Humphrey was knocked out of the race.

 

[OnePercenter]

You can actually go all the way back to the Goldwater election campaign where LBJ implied he wanted to start a nuclear holocaust. Democrats are scum, and they always have been.

Because you're Canadian you don't understand the sociological change between Republicans and Democrats in the 60's. The most prosperous year for the middle class in the United States was 1956, helped by the pro-Union Republicans.

 

[The Rabbi]

You can actually go all the way back to the Goldwater election campaign where LBJ implied he wanted to start a nuclear holocaust. Democrats are scum, and they always have been.

Because you're Canadian you don't understand the sociological change between Republicans and Democrats in the 60's. The most prosperous year for the middle class in the United States was 1956, helped by the pro-Union Republicans.

What you dont know is astounding.

 

[bripat9643]

You can actually go all the way back to the Goldwater election campaign where LBJ implied he wanted to start a nuclear holocaust. Democrats are scum, and they always have been.

Because you're Canadian you don't understand the sociological change between Republicans and Democrats in the 60's. The most prosperous year for the middle class in the United States was 1956, helped by the pro-Union Republicans.

Unions didn't make the middle class prosperous. Corporations did. Unions make some people more prosperous at the expense of others. They don't contribute the slightest bit to increasing the amount of goods and services produced. In fact, with their strikes, work slowdowns and onerous work rules, the decrease the sum total of goods produces.

 

[OnePercenter]

[
Unions didn't make the middle class prosperous. Corporations did. Unions make some people more prosperous at the expense of others. They don't contribute the slightest bit to increasing the amount of goods and services produced. In fact, with their strikes, work slowdowns and onerous work rules, the decrease the sum total of goods produces.

Pro-Union Republicans did, as well as the effort of business and the people that made them all of their money, their employees.

Another difference between today and 1956 is that corporations then were more concerned about building a better widget than record corporate profits.

 

[bripat9643]

[
Unions didn't make the middle class prosperous. Corporations did. Unions make some people more prosperous at the expense of others. They don't contribute the slightest bit to increasing the amount of goods and services produced. In fact, with their strikes, work slowdowns and onerous work rules, the decrease the sum total of goods produces.

Pro-Union Republicans did, as well as the effort of business and the people that made them all of their money, their employees.

Another difference between today and 1956 is that corporations then were more concerned about building a better widget than record corporate profits.

Nope. There's no shortage of dumb brute labor in every country in the world. The question you have to answer is why do some get rich while others remain poor? No country ever got rich by forcing corporations to pay their employees more.

 

[Bfgrn]

1956 Republican platform was pretty liberal


What the 1956 platform said

We located a copy of the official party platform from 1956, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was running (successfully, as it turned out) for his second term as president.


On federal assistance to low-income communities, the 1956 platform said the party would "promote fully the Republican-sponsored Rural Development Program to broaden the operation and increase the income of low income farm families and help tenant farmers."

On protecting Social Security, the platform touted the Eisenhower administration’s extension of Social Security to 10 million more workers and benefits hikes for 6.5 million Americans.

On refugees, the platform spotlighted the administration’s work in sponsoring the Refugee Relief Act "to provide asylum for thousands of refugees, expellees and displaced persons," promising its "wholehearted support" for additional efforts. M. Christine Anderson, a Xavier University historian, noted that many refugees were coming from communist countries in Eastern Europe, so this wasn't an especially controversial issue during the Cold War era.

On the minimum wage, the platform notes that the Eisenhower administration raised the minimum wage for more than 2 million workers. It urged extending minimum-wage protections "to as many more workers as is possible and practicable."

On improving the unemployment benefit system, the 1956 platform touted the administration’s actions to bring unemployment insurance to 4 million additional workers, and backed efforts to "improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system."

On strengthening unions, the platform says the "protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration."