Originally posted by Cow Poke
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Where is the consistency in that?
Originally posted by Cow Poke
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And you think I'm going to find evidence in this? I loook to situations like a member of the Republican party calling him a liar publicly during a state of the union speech, and aside from an irritated look, Obama made no (to my knowledge) public issue of it. I consider the on going birther travesty that, while he was clearly irritated with it, he largely shrugged it off and moved on. And I consider the input of the people who worked with him most closely throughout his career.
Do I think he's never gotten testy? Of course not. Do I think he's never been irritated at things said to and about him? Of course not. But the man had public class - whatever he may have thought and/or said privately. Personally - I doubt I would have been able to be as calm/cool about most of what he dealt with.
Originally posted by Cow Poke
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Originally posted by Cow Poke
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Did Obama NEVER praise himself? Of course not. Every candidate promotes themselves. And every political person points to their achievements. Obama was no different. But he tended to cast a wider, more inclusive net. Trump is all about Trump - not 100% of the time mind you - you'll find the occasional place were he actually steps out of himself and expresses sympathy, empathy, or concern. But they are the exception to the rule. With Obama - it was the opposite.
Do you REALLY think someone who hacked up a video by extracting every "I" and "me" and "we" from a speech, divorced of context, is saying anything? Really? CP - come ON. SOME part of you must see this for the "anti-Obama echo chamber" it is designed to be. You're just too smart for that small part of you NOT to exist.
Originally posted by Cow Poke
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Originally posted by Cow Poke
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Down that path lies some pretty ugly end-games. Today's young people are increasingly rejecting these things. They are not doing it in ways I approve of (i.e., shutting down discourse on college campuses, ANTIFA, etc.), but the fact that these things are happening at a pace sufficient to raise the ire of the right is an indication of the threat this attitude fosters.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I do not admire the tactics of ANTIFA. In fact, I soundly reject them. But I understand them. And ANTIFA is a reaction. ANTIFA exists for one purpose and one purpose only: to prevent a repeat of the evolution that took the NAZI party for fewer than 50 people in the 1920s to the dominant political party in Germany by the mid 1930s. If we did not have an "alt-right" and NAZI party and KKK in the U.S., there would be no ANTIFA. So as the Republican party slips increasingly right - the Democratic party will likely slip increasingly left.
- The left is promoting inclusion - of gays, transgender, minority rights, etc.
- The right is promoting exclusion - of gays, transgender, and arguing that "white privilege" doesn't exist.
- The left is advocating for reasonable controls to the guns that are used to kill 30K+ people a year.
- The right is advocating for more guns and no controls.
- The left is advocating for a narrower divide between rich and poor, and more support for the deeply poor
- The right is pushing for "don't steal from the rich."
These are not MY words - they are the messages I hear the young people I see and work with talk about. So they are increasingly shifting to the left. We can see that in the numbers: 55 million registered Republicans - 72 million registered Democrats - and the gap keeps widening. The right is reduced, today, to Operation Red Map to gerrymander states, VoterID laws to try to suppress Democrat votes, leveraging the anger of populism/nationalism, and other "tricks" to maintain strength - and despite ALL of these efforts, the house is likely to shift back to Democratic control in 2018 - and the Senate is possibly in play (though much less likely).
If the Republican party continues to allow itself to be Trumpified and Bannonified, and continues to emphasize the message of disunity, incivility, and anger - it will render itself irrelevant. That leaves us with one dominant party in the American political system - which isn't good for anyone. A healthy republic requires opposition - requires debate - requires discourse.
The Republican party HAS to return to its roots: fiscal responsibility, fiscal accountability, a government that is "right-sized" to its responsibilities, a strong (but accountable) defense.
In all honesty - I align with MANY of the things the Republican party used to stand for. Sometimes my friends ask me, "why aren't you a registered Republican?" My answer is always the same: I cannot affiliate myself with a political party that stands for things I do not find to be moral.
No one is asking my advice - but I'm going to give it anyway. Drop the "Clinton" schtick. Drop the Obama attacks. Stop defending the "freedom of speech" rights of dispicable people and ideologies - let them defend themselves. Defend the freedom of speech rights of Colin Powell, Condalisa Rice, George Bush, and other Republicans of which you can be proud. Stop the agenda of "my way or the highway" and elect people willing to debate, and reach across the aisle to arrive at reasonable compromises.
If not - then Alabama will only be the tip of the iceberg - and our republic will not be the better for it.
Wow - I seriously got pontifical on that one...
P.S. And the left needs to do the same thing with respect to reaching across the aisle. This "stiff front opposition" is freaking pointless.
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