SFCityBear said:
calbear93 said:
Big C said:
movielover said:
Bill Maher is spot on about 85% of the time (including on this). The Vigilant Fox should post all of Maher's opinions! He could then be batting .850 (instead of .050... way below even the Mendoza Line).
I think pandering only works for house seats, but when disingenuous identity politics are played on the national level, it makes people seek out radicals like Trump as a reaction.
What will win national elections are discussions on economy, middle class jobs, crime and safety, and global affairs. Instead we get so much damn white noise that the whole election becomes about who can pander more on irrelevant matters for most Americans.
This presidency will come down to a few states, and it won't be about reparation, gender identity, religion, etc. Those are the dreams of the tribalists who get aroused by needing to feel superior based on what they say they believe on both sides. It will come down to every day struggles of most Americans in the Rust Belt and Sun Belt and not on the coast and whether they feel better about their quality of life and the future of their children.
I agree with much of this. But isn't the massive increase in illegal entry over the last 3 years something on voters' minds this time? Where does it fit in to your brief summary of what the Presidential election will come down to? That would appear to be important to the citizens of Rust Belt and Sun Belt especially. Cities on the coasts and inland are getting stressed by all the illegals being sent there by the Administration and Red border State Governors as well. And how about free and fair democratic elections? Prior to the last election, the major effort by the lawyers on one side worked to change voting laws in most states, to expand voting rules to include many less secure ways of voting such as mail in ballots, unsupervised drop boxes, and the like. A big percentage of the people care about that. Maybe you could include that under crime and safety, except the Administration and its voters don't consider it a crime at all. Just like he isn't willing to call crossing the border a crime, unless it is a slip of the tongue.
And where are these "discussions" you speak of? I don't see a populace willing to discuss much of anything. The politicians have drifted into two camps of rigid thinking and hate for one another. Has the leader, the President, discussed anything that you can remember? We don't know what is discussed, if anything behind closed doors, but in public, he says nothing. He spouts vitriol, but won't engage in discussion. It is his way or the highway. Period. He won't answer any reporter's questions unless he is caught off guard. He did appear in one presidential debate, moderated by a Democrat, who as suspected, cut off his opponent several times to help his preferred candidate. And how can you have discussions when nearly all the media has chosen one side, and censors or ridicules the other side?
Yours was a very good post, a post I wish I could believe in. Maybe it will come to pass. I sure hope so.
Absolutely agree with you on illegal immigration. While I disagree with the rhetoric that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from American citizens, status of illegal immigration post Biden election is a dangerous situation. It is too much of a burden on American residents to add to already breaking local budgets to provide basic necessities, to lack of any meaningful control on who is coming in (not saying they are all criminals, but there is no way to determine who is coming over when they come in without any control), and to add to the violent crimes already making Americans feel unsafe (crime committed by illegal immigrants it is not zero, no matter your point of view).
I am sure Biden and Harris wish they had not tried to take political points by emphasizing to the whole world how different and more inviting to illegal immigration they will be relative to Trump - especially when they realized that it didn't even get them the expected bump from minorities who also want some control over who is coming in. You can have the most trustworthy employees, but if a public company has zero internal control over financial reporting or has numerous material weakness, you cannot trust in their financial statements. We are a nation of laws and a sovereign country, and we need to control our border and not incentivize illegal immigration.
The only issue with the Republicans is that, while I agree with them that we need more control, the Republicans are all talk and no action. What have they done? Other than complain, have they passed anything? They have the majority in the house. Have they sent anything to the Senate? Have they tried to negotiate with the Democrats, recognizing that they are not dictators and there are others with different viewpoints? No. They are all fluff. So, if we have leaders who do not know how to lead or deliver results, why should those same leaders stay in power? Any clown off the street can just complain. I want leaders who can lead a group of individuals with differing opinions and deliver results for the country. Republicans like MGT and Gaetz have embarrassingly shown to even a conservatives like me that they are better posting on twitter and trolling than being anywhere near power.
Just to be clear, I have the same disdain for the "woke", triffling extremes on the far left who don't believe in enforcing laws other than to punish corporation or to vilify those who are actually building innovations, who think shaming others excuses their shameful behavior, who just complain and complain with zero practical solutions, who think equality is about equal results (unless someone is worse off and they also have to sacrifice) irrespective of work ethic, investments, talent or sacrifices, and who think they can build more government, more regulation, and more taxes without eventually crushing the economy.
But I am way past thinking the Republicans, at least the current iteration, will ever deliver anything other than soundbites.
And I don't expect real discussions. When you have idiots like AOC, Gaetz and MTG, what is there to discuss? They are not interested in listening. They are only interested in air time and promoting themselves.
