Sam, I think your thoughts on the perils of bubble-lock are quite valid, and appreciated (by me, at least). What terrifies me about our current political climate is that both bubbles are locked. There are few opportunities to “engage” conservatives and bring them to the light through the power of logic and reason. The election just boils down to hoping that our bubble is bigger than theirs, and turning out the vote.
Though I generally agree with the post from which this bit was taken, I don’t agree that a female person can’t be criticized for what she decides to wear for a public speech. If a male person speaking to a purportedly democratic and republican nation* chose to wear a military-looking getup, then it would be perfectly legitimate to point that out and ask whether it’s appropriate.
The exact same thing is true of a female speaker.
Melania deliberately chose an outfit strongly reminiscent of military garb. It’s reasonable to point that out.
Is it reasonable to joke about her outfit reflecting possible ambitions in some sort of pro-monarchist revolution? That’s a matter of taste, I suppose. But I’d come down on the side of ‘sure, it’s fine.’ Automatic deference to the relatives of a leader sounds a lot like the way things happen in dictatorships.
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*Lest we forget, the USA has a Constitution that establishes not only that we have no monarch (i.e. a republic), but that our government shall be based on the consent of the governed (i.e. a democracy).
Come on, you should know better than this, Happy.
Warning issued. Never do anything like this again.
Jonathan Chance
Moderator
GD and PE
Pence just said some thing that has to be the most creative way of turning a positive into a negative that I think I’ve ever heard.
He said that Biden presided over “the slowest economic recovery in history”. Not that the economy didn’t recover; not that the economy crashed… The economy recovered, but too slowly for his liking. Kudos, Mike Pence’s speechwriter.
Well Pence is clearly wrong; Larry Kudlow just said the other night that Trump took office “inheriting a stagnant economy on the front end of recession.”
By that logic, Pence has presided over one of, if not the fastest, decline in history.
This is definitely false. Velocity started a thread about how big will Biden’s victory be and everyone was all over him about over-confidence, etc. This is so obviously false with all the hand-wringing here that I’m amazed you believe this about this board.
It’s possible he’s auditioning to be the first Canadian to speak at the RNC.
Ha! That must be it – they’ve had so many cancellations (whoops! Didn’t realize she was a rabid anti-semite!) that there must be some room. Ted Cruz probably already has the honor, though.
re: “This is how you get Trump”
How fortunate that it’s not meant to be a reasoned argument, because it’s no more a reasoned argument than it is a half-caf latte with soy milk.
Unfortunately, as a wake-up call, it’s on par with your neighbor’s car alarm going off because they hit the button on their fob accidentally and don’t realize it. It’s loud, sure, but it’s off-mark, doesn’t signal anything real, and good God but we’ve heard it before.
For the supposed Party of Personal Responsibility, the GOP (and, to be fair, its Canadian boosters) sure loves to avoid responsibility. Trump isn’t the responsibility of conservatives, who spent decades building a media empire and fundraising network predicated on xenophobia, racism, and conspiracy theory. Trump isn’t the responsibility of wealthy donors who made the deliberate epistemiological decision to prioritize truthiness over facts, because truthiness is easier to manipulate to conform to whatever will be more profitable. Trump isn’t the responsibility of evangelical leaders who saw earthly power in aligning themselves with the basest worshippers of Mammon and who convinced white evangelicals to deprioritize missions to the poor and instead prioritize policing sexual behaviors, in clear contravention of Jesus’s example.
Nope. No responsibility for Trump lies with conservatives.
“we got Trump” because a handful of liberals made fun of a former fashion model’s fashion statement during a speech.
Sam, is this really how you best represent and uphold your values?
Submissions for analogy of the year are now closed.
I read something years ago about how often political debates focus only on the choices available to one side. The actions of one group are taken as predictable and automatic, and the other side is asked “what can we do to get the response that we want?” It’s a bullshit argument, though. People aren’t machines and those on both sides are responsible for the choices they make.
In this case, the argument is that protests will cause more people to vote for Trump, and the protesters should rethink their actions because of it. Let’s hold the right to the same standard as the left. The killing of African-Americans by police, and the failure to hold the police accountable, is how we get the protests, and Trump supporters should rethink their votes because of it.
The problem is, they are in a bit of a no-lose situation currently.
They don’t care about (or are in favor of) the police abuse itself, and they also sense that there is “protest fatigue” that accrues in their favor. There’s no incentive for them to curb either.
If someone votes for Trump and uses that as his rationale, that’s one thing; but I wasn’t trying to explain Trump’s support or even speculate on the motives for that support. My point was just that it’s unfair to cast all the responsibility on one side of the political divide, and to ask only them to be self-critical and to evaluate the consequences of their choices.
Sam Stone’s comment about how protests would cause more people to vote for Trump seemed to fall in to that category. Trump voters have a choice, and they should consider the consequences just as much as any protesters should.
Looks like they weren’t offered any of those spiffy White House masks, either.
Even that’s not true.
Wouldn’t it be fun if one or more of them were asymptomatic for COVID-19?
“I have never wished anyone dead, but I have read some obituaries with a great deal of satisfaction.” - Clarence Darrow (attrib.)
Slightly OT, but I just discovered that Kimberly is (slightly) older than Melania. Hilarious.
This is convention…I’m just feeling like this whole election is one big drug trip. It sure feels like it I can’t wait til election night, God only knows what will happen. I love how somewhere reported that the day before the election, an asteroid is coming close.