Our integration of immigrants is working fine, even with the existence of all those bigots. It’s the attempts to stop immigration that need to be opposed.
I’m not the Democratic party. I have plenty of disagreements with the party, though I am a member. Biden is certainly not with me on numerous policy positions, presumably because he thinks a more moderate position is more electable. My advocacy isn’t harming the chances of Trump being removed from office.
And I expect anyone who disagrees will be called a bigot themselves, so it’s impossible to disprove. (Gotta admit you did a bang up job with the Romany, though.)
True. But I’ve seen plenty of people on here say they couldn’t possibly compromise on any of their principles, and if that means the Democrats lose again, so be it. Can’t remember if you were one of them, but that shows they don’t really think Trump is such a big deal.
The bar for me calling someone a racist is pretty high. I do not use that term lightly. I have, on occasion, suggested that someone consider that their success in life contains more than a small element of luck, and that they should think about their good fortune before they judge the circumstances of someone that did not have the favorable life path that they did.
I do not say this because I think those people are racist. I say this because I think humility and self-reflection are desirable qualities that everyone should be encouraged to exercise. I say this because I believe empathy is a desirable trait. I say this because even though I am not a religious person, I believe the basic moral code underlying the religion I was raised in is sound.
But all too often, the response I get is boo hoo hoo you are saying this because you think I’m a racist I’m not going to listen to you because you’re a hater, you’re such a hater I’m going to go lynch someone right now just to spite you look what you made me do if I’m a racist you made me that way.
It doesn’t bother me much anymore. I think these folks are just misguided as individuals. But I do think these people are being manipulated by a political party that is trying to normalize cruelty.
Yes, I do see plenty hate and idiocy on both sides, but they aren’t equivalent. Because the hate and idiocy on the Democratic side is coming from a handful of private individuals that don’t hold public office or positions of influence, and the hate and idiocy on the Republican side is coming from the Oval Office and other high placed politicians and pundits.
I do think my fellow Democrats should stop engaging on this stuff, though and refrain from any discussion that uses the phrase “identity politics”, which is a right wing well poisoner used to denote policies that benefit a disenfranchised out group. It plays on the conservative conviction that no one would ever honestly support anything that doesn’t benefit them personally and directly, so therefore there is something inherently dishonest and underhanded happening whenever advantaged people supporting the disadvantaged.
“Compassion politics” is a better descriptor and if Democrats weren’t such inherently lousy politicians they would counter all the right wing language that permeates the debate instead of playing into it constantly. “Entitlements” is another such term.
If they make bigoted arguments, sure. If not, then no. Not sure what you’re talking about with the “Romany”.
My principles don’t matter for this election, whether I compromise or not. I hope Biden and co do whatever it takes (legally and within reason) to get elected, and I’m fine with some, but not all, compromises.
I’ve addressed the identity politics in my last post, but now I’ll address the other two, because I pretty fully agree with you on both.
I never owned a firearm when I lived in a large city, because I thought the risk outweighed the benefit. Now that I live in a more remote area, I do.
I think gun regulations need to be based more on behavior. I’m not 2A, because I don’t believe gun ownership is an absolute right. I think the NRA gun safety rules should be codified into law with strict penalties that include possible loss of gun privileges for violations.
While I own a gun, my bar for using it is really high. I don’t believe in brandishing and I know myself well enough to know that if I’m holding it, I’m probably going to use it. My bar for picking it up would be hearing or seeing something that indicated a family member was being seriously assaulted by a stranger that entered my home, just hearing a noise in the night doesn’t cut it.
I also feel strongly that minorities have been left out of the gun control debate even though minority neighborhoods have a greater gun problem and residents of those neighborhood may have a heightened need for home security. I’m tired of the conversation being about rural militias and suburban school shootings.
And I’m 1000% with you on governmental fiscal responsibility. This is the largest of the two biggest problems I have with the current administration, and with Republican administrations in general. I don’t see how anyone that considers themselves fiscally conservative can support the current administration.
I have a few questions for you, if you don’t respond to anything else I’ve written I’d like a response to this.
Do you think that Donald Trump’s theory that eliminating all incoming payments into the Social Security and Medicare fund will cause such wild economic growth that those programs will be safe?
Are you not concerned by his current elimination of payments into those programs and his promises to make that permanent? Because as someone that paid into those programs my whole life and has now stopped paying in and starting collecting, I find this frightening. Even though I’m a Democrat, I was actually a successful businessperson but if you took away my SS and Medicare it would throw a huge wrench into my retirement planning, I have trouble believing that the millions of Republican retirees in this country were all so fiscally successful that they don’t need these programs, but maybe I’m wrong.
Ann,
No i don’t think its a prudent plan, at all, in fact I am more aligned with increasing or removing the cap. And Yes, I am concerned as anyone in my age bracket should rightly be. I’m a 48 year old dude who has put money away for a good long while and while I may make it just fine on my own savings plan, I have paid and counted on receiving SSN as additional support funds. I can’t really say that I am Republican as I tend to vote for who I feel most strongly identifies with me and the things I care strongly about which is why I think that any party has the opportunity to be the responsible one. I’ve voted third party a few times over the past couple decades, Republican once and Democratic once because for the most party, the parties have lost me (and I assume, people like me)
In case I didn’t answer it, no, I do not support this administration in much of anything but I also fail to see the extreme damage that some people choose to report. Overall, if Trump kept his mouth and twitter accounts shut, his presidency is pretty luke-warm.
More than implicitly, in the case of the alt-right.