# "The Rotten Core of Our Political System" **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 18, 2022, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611 "2022-05-18T13:25:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/21 "2022-05-19T13:26:32Z")
It’s easier than having to read a book. Hate is the most powerful motivator, and those who tap into the most hate win. And everyone loses. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/22 "2022-05-19T13:27:16Z")
Actually socialist fascist progressive are about the same to our genius founding fathers who made all forms of stateism illegal in America by limiting the state to a few enumerated powers. They were geniuses who looked at all of human history and discovered that regardless of the rationale a particular state used to take power from the people in concentrated in government, it always failed. Now you understand the story of the American Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/23 "2022-05-19T13:30:02Z")
Norman Thomas ( Socialist presidential candidate): American people will never except Socialism but under the name of liberalism they will except it piece by piece until one day they wake up in a socialist country and not know how it happened." ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/24 "2022-05-19T13:32:51Z")
I don’t think this is about hate it is about Republicans versus Democrats or freedom versus government or socialism versus capitalism. Republicans have not changed much since Jefferson and Madison formed the party in 1792 to stand for freedom and liberty from government. If you keep it in mind you have the accurate context in which to look at everything that is playing out today. Turns out nothing has changed since Plato and Aristotle defined the issues of human history 2000 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/25 "2022-05-19T13:34:46Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Republicans have not changed much since Jefferson and Madison formed the party in 1792 to stand for freedom and liberty from government. I suppose you may have a point, as both of them were slave owners. Not much has changed in the Republican party. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/26 "2022-05-19T13:39:04Z")
Lots of them. Bernie Sanders is the rising star in the Democrat party and he has been an open socialist all his life supporting come in this causes all along the way. At one point Elizabeth Warren caught up to him in the polls and he was asked what’s the difference between them was. He said she is a capitalist to her bones I am not. And Bernie is one among many in the socialist Democrat party. Here is Maxine Waters: “Guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal would be about socializing … uh, umm. … Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies.” “We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and particularly Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Frank Raines.” ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/27 "2022-05-19T13:40:49Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Bernie Sanders is the rising star in the Democrat party What are you smoking, and where can I get some? ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/28 "2022-05-19T13:44:39Z")
78% of Democrats have said that they would vote for a socialist. It appears you do not understand the political ideology of your own party or you do understand it and are trying to hide it so that you can slip Socialism into the American culture without anybody knowing what you were doing. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/29 "2022-05-19T13:46:21Z")
If you think there is drivel from the Republican party why not give us your best example of this. You seem like someone who has made up their mind but are afraid to debate. That should give you some idea of how much danger America is in ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/30 "2022-05-19T13:49:08Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Republicans have not changed much since Jefferson and Madison formed the party in 1792 The party that Jefferson and Madison founded was the Democratic-Republican Party. While it was often called the Republican Party for short (Jefferson referred to it as such in some of his letters), it has no connection to the modern Republican Party. Rather, it was one of the direct ancestors of today’s Democratic Party. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/31 "2022-05-19T14:03:08Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Do you like the concept of big liberal socialist fascist progressive government or do you like the concept of freedom from government as our founders did when they wrote the constitution. @Smapti couldn’t have been more right. That’s nothing but a shockingly glaring and hyper-reductive black/white argument. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/32 "2022-05-19T14:06:44Z")
You say it was the Democrat Republican party yet I can pay you $10,000 if you have a primary source showing that it was called the democrat republican party in the 18 century. The reality was that in newspapers and on political ballots used at election time it was called the republican party and it was formed by Jefferson and Madison to stand for freedom and liberty from government. The republican party today goes by the same name and stands for freedom and liberty from government exactly as Jefferson and Madison did. Democrats are now openly socialist and stand openly against all the basic principles of the American revolution. Now do you understand? ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/33 "2022-05-19T14:08:58Z")
They do have it very sweet in China now under Republican capitalism as compared to under socialism when 60 million slowly starved to death and 1 billion lived in subsistence poverty. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/34 "2022-05-19T14:10:37Z")
I will agree with you that the battle between freedom and government or socialism and capitalism is hyperreductive but it is also highly accurate. If you disagree tell us the reason why you disagree. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/35 "2022-05-19T14:12:12Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Lots of them. Bernie Sanders is the rising star in the Democrat party and he has been an open socialist all his life supporting come in this causes all along the way. I suspect that Sanders – given another 30 or 40 years active in politics – could really advance his career. /s As to your casual and repeated use of loaded terminology: I think Conservatives should stop bandying about words like “Socialism,” “Marxism,” and “Communism” for the same reason that we don’t let children run around waving loaded handguns. Political systems are like continuums with multiple axes in three dimensions, each with a pretty infinite number of points on the line. If one spends any meaningful time looking at any of the various sites that offer metrics for each nation, one quickly sees that many nations do **many** things that **most** Americans would view as **highly** important … **much** better than we do. So the labels offer an easy way to avoid exploration, engagement, analysis, critical thought, objectivity, and humility, and allow one to further strengthen the grip on their preferred ideology. They offer a reflexive and meaningless tautology (or Proof by Assertion) that makes for good bumper-sticker philosophy but does nothing to improve the human condition. See: American Exceptionalism. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for me to be overly demonstrative with the ol’ Stars and Stripes. 'Murica ! ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/36 "2022-05-19T14:13:20Z")
Bernie Sanders is the rising star in the Democrat party who ran second to Joe Biden in the last presidential primary Getting more votes than he has ever gotten before. In fact 78% of Democrats now say they would vote for a socialist. Sanders did so well that Biden had to let him write the democratic party platform and pick the vice president of the United States Kamala Harris who was the only senator to have voted to the left of Bernie Sanders while she was a United States senator. ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/37 "2022-05-19T14:16:12Z")
Bernie Sanders has advanced his career to the point where he was the second finisher in the recent presidential primary and so got to write the democratic party platform and appoint the vice president of the United States Kamala Harris who was the only senator to vote to the left of Bernie Sanders while she was in the Senate. Sanders has been so successful that 78% of Democrats now say they would vote for a socialist. It seems that the times are passing you bu and you have not paid attention to revolutionary developments in your party. Of course they are not really that revolutionary. If you want a book listing all of the Democrats who spied for the Soviet union you could read “useful idiots” by Mona Sharon . ---
**Author:** ![TedBaiamonte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@TedBaiamonte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedBaiamonte)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/38 "2022-05-19T14:18:31Z")
You seem very confused by terminology. Plato and Aristotle taught us 2000 years ago that history was the battle between freedom and government. In modern terminology that means between Republicans and Democrats. If you disagree please tell us why. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/39 "2022-05-19T14:21:01Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Bernie Sanders has advanced his career to the point where he was the second finisher in the recent presidential primary and so **got to write the democratic party platform and appoint the vice president of the United States Kamala Harris** Would you mind citing your source(s) for the bolded assertions ? > [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > Sanders has been so successful that 78% of Democrats now say they would vote for a socialist. And polling had Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump rather handily. The context in which you’re using this (ostensible) polling result is basically meaningless, particularly when considering a well-known propensity for people _doing_ something other than what they _say_ they will do. > [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > It seems that the times are passing you bu and you have not paid attention to revolutionary developments in your party. I’m a registered Independent. > [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > If you want a book listing all of the Democrats who spied for the Soviet union you could read “useful idiots” by Mona Sharon . And if I want to understand what a raging anti-Semite Henry Ford was, there’s ample documentation, but that doesn’t make a buyer of the new Mustang Mach-E an anti-Semite. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611/40 "2022-05-19T14:24:30Z")
> [@TedBaiamonte](#): > > They do have it very sweet in China now under Republican capitalism Well, except for the people in the camps. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rotten-core-of-our-political-system/964611.md?page=3)