• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

UNCLE!!!

CORed said:
But Obama was a radical socialist/communist/leftist wacko. Well, if you believed all the right wing loons on talk radio. What killed me about all of that was that Obama was actually pretty damned conservative for a Democrat; not entirely a bad thing in my view, but the propaganda had a lot of people convinced that he was some kind of extreme left-wing nut.
Click to expand...
Just like people against Obama care like the Affordable Care Act.

Like I said, it's all about the marketing, and not about reality.
 
CORed said:
...Democrats think every problem can be solved with massive social spending, and Republicans always promise to cut taxes, increase defense spending, and balance the budget, but they are not remotely serious about balancing the budget, and they always ignore the fact that they can't do the first two and also do the third.....
Click to expand...
You got the second half right.

Were the Clinton and Obama administrations fiscally irresponsible?
 
Faydra said:
He wants them tampering with the election, because it helps him.
Click to expand...

And quite a few GOP legislators are of like mind including getting campaign donations from sources connected to Russia.

Darn, hopefully this won't be deemed off-topic. It's hard to color within the lines sometimes in the current USA politics threads. My apologies Fast Eddie.

Bringing it back to the OP, though, I wish more Republicans were alarmed about the Russian assault on our democracy.
 
Last edited:
Aridas said:
Fascism, in general, is associated with the far right of the spectrum. Not all iterations of it are completely far right, though. Nazism is a form of fascism that co-opted a socialist (notably left) party, and didn't shed many of the elements from the left, which makes it a poor fit for the left-right spectrum.
Click to expand...

No, what Nazism did is attempt to attract workers from the left, especially the communists. If trying to get the working class to work (if you're white, anyway) is socialist, then Trump is a socialist.

Nazism is, and ever was, on the right.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Bringing it back to the OP, though, I wish more Republicans were alarmed about the Russian assault on our democracy.
Click to expand...

Oh, they are. It's just they think it was Hillary wut dun it. As usual. Can't stir up an angry mob without someone to pitchfork, so poor 'ol Hillary is constantly having to stand in as the evil conspirator.
 
theprestige said:
Do you believe we would be better off in a communist society?
Click to expand...
Strictly speaking Communism is a Political idea, while Socialism is an economic one.

From your point of view the UK would probably be Communist, but of course it isn't since we have open elections with multiple parties and independents. A communist country wouldn't allow this. i.e. communism isn't a democracy as such.

Socialism had a very important role to play in Europe when rich land owners were exploiting workers to the point where children were dying in coal mines. The history of the UK shows a continuous struggle for equal rights and it was socialism that drove that.

The UK still has some socialist principals (government owned and run healthcare and the welfare state etc), but it is a very different socialism from the late 1800's and early 1900's and is a long long way from being Communist.

It seems that many Americans have been conditioned to think of Socialism as a dirty word. But in fact it aims to protect the working man in the street from exploitation and poverty.
 
Last edited:
BadBoy said:
Strictly speaking Communism is a Political idea, while Socialism is an economic one.

From your point of view the UK would probably be Communist, but of course it isn't since we have open elections with multiple parties and independents. A communist country wouldn't allow this. i.e. communism isn't a democracy as such.

Socialism had a very important role to play in Europe when rich land owners were exploiting workers to the point where children were dying in coal mines. The history of the UK shows a continuous struggle for equal rights and it was socialism that drove that.

The UK still has some socialist principals (government owned and run healthcare and the welfare state etc), but it is a very different socialism from the late 1800's and early 1900's and is a long long way from being Communist.

It seems that many Americans have been conditioned to think of Socialism as a dirty word. But in fact it aims to protect the working man in the street from exploitation and poverty.
Click to expand...



From egalitarian beginnings, inspired and assisted by the French revolutionaries, it's been a long road back to feudalism but the US is nearly there, as evidenced by someone believing that Democrat spending plans would be ""Massive social spending".

When the rich and powerful have moved the Overton window that far to the right* then you know you're well on the path to feudalism.




*Usual caveats apply
 
Last edited:
The current GOP is carrying on like a condemned man given his last crack at indulging his vices. No thought to a future they must see as bleak. A dysfunctional, probably criminal gang in the White House. A ballooning deficit and debt that threatens a financial collapse to dwarf that of 2008. A rising ride of mobilized progressives rolling up their sleeves to deal out a hurtin' dose of political whoop-ass. So they frantically scrabble to enact policy that will get them at least some self-rewarded lucre, boosted by an infusion of contributions from happy donors. Leaving one royal cock-up of a mess for the Dems to once again have to clean up.

God damn the filthy lot of feckless, selfish, traitorous scumbags who have the power to right the ship but instead either numbly stand mute or, worse, enable and contribute to the slide into ignominy and tears.
 
The Big Dog said:
Bye Felicia
Click to expand...

thaiboxerken said:
I wonder if we've been POE'd by Prestige, who appears to be giving us a great example of what's wrong with today's Republican party.
Click to expand...


I think TBD above better exemplifies what's really wrong with the GOP and its supporters these days. When confronted with a well-written, thoughtful piece on why a long-term Republican supporter has turned away from the party, instead of taking it seriously, and considering if maybe the party has gone too far, he responds with condescending snark which implies the GOP doesn't need his support anyways.

I've seen this myself, since I fell away from the Canadian conservative parties in much the same way over the last decade or so, for similar reasons. But whenever I try to discuss this with the current supporters of the conservative party, more often then not, all I get is accusations of "loving Justin Trudeau" and being a "leftist" or "libtard".
 
I left the Republican party after W came to power. I had always had mixed D and R positions and once I retired from the military I couldn't support the R anymore. Socially progressive fiscally conservative, non-religious. Ended up voting for useless-never-get-elected-Libertarians and people like Ralph Nader just because I didn't like either side. Last Republican I voted for was Bush Senior.

I'm aghast at the present holder of the office. Obama was a gentleman but too inexperienced to hold the office - his weakness led to the problem in Syria. etc. I cannot even think of anyone sane I would vote for in 2020.
 
When the Progressive Conservatives morphed into the Conservative Party I started to look at the other Cdn parties.

Steve Harper completed my move away from them with the constant cries for the Public Service to do more with less and to stop complaining while we take away your previously negotiated benefits, increase your workload along with giving you a new pay system that only works if you stay in a single position and never change jobs or advance.

That and the rhetoric not matching the actions when it came to CAF lead me to supporting the NDP last go-round.
 
Hans said:
I'm aghast at the present holder of the office. Obama was a gentleman but too inexperienced to hold the office - his weakness led to the problem in Syria. etc. I cannot even think of anyone sane I would vote for in 2020.
Click to expand...

I am confused as to what we were supposed to do to help the situation.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Are there any communist societies? I know some claim to be, but the big one is China and they have a lot of billionaires for a purportedly communist country.
Click to expand...

((Communists don't mind billionaires, it is socialism that can see billionaires as societal crony leeches, corralling through legalistic and economic shenanigans the people's resources for individual gratification, waste and generally corrupt decadence))
 
theprestige said:
The GOP is the worst thing ever. Except for Communism. The Left's implicit support of communism, along with their support of any policy that might advance communism, is the only thing keeping me from switching sides. That and all the leftist douchebags I've met on this board.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, which American President (more than any other) currently enjoys a very cozy relationship with the man who not only is ex-KGB but also reinstated the Soviet National anthem?
 
Trebuchet said:
Welcome to the club. Of course, it happened a good deal earlier for me.

My natural inclination was, and still is, what used to be called a "liberal Republican", or maybe "progressive Republican." Social (mostly) liberal, strongly fiscal conservative. Fiscal conservatism went out the window with Reagan. All decrying "tax-and-spend" Democrats, while running up massive deficits to give money back to those who needed it least. And around the same time, they brought the racist southern Democrats over en-masse. No fiscal conservatism, no social progressivism. Screw them.

<snip>
Click to expand...


Speaking of "a good deal earlier".

The exodus to the GOP of Dem politicians who catered to the racist, bigot, hater demographic began in the South in the early 60's (late 50's) with the events leading up to the Civil Rights Act, because they knew their base wasn't going to take well to things like integrated schools and businesses, much less minorities as management. :jaw-dropp. The The GOP in in what were considered "Southern" states was toothless and ripe for a coup. This was the foundation of Goldwater's Southern Strategy. Nixon quickly climbed onto that bandwagon.

Politicians of similar mindset in other regions followed suit with varying degrees of alacrity. By the time of Reagan's Presidency the party jumping of opportunist Dems to the GOP had pretty much slowed to a trickle, because there were few Dems left who could stomach what the GOP had already become, and most who saw clearly the disgusting travesty it was heading towards.


Fiscal conservatism by the GOP, such as it ever was, became little more than lip service probably around the time of Eisenhower, whose more than prescient parting warning about the dangers of the military-industrial complex were quickly and thoroughly ignored by the GOP politicians who inherited his party but not his ethics.

The GOP has been sliding down this razor blade for over half a century, since I was in elementary school. They've just been picking up speed. I fervently hope that they are sliced into the cesspit it ends in before any of them can do much more damage.

In my opinion few if any of them are salvageable. None are to be trusted after the crap they have tolerated so far.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom