EE PatronFeb 20th 2019, 4:59:08
Originally posted by sinistril:
Originally posted by DerrickICN:
Then both sides will be unable to ignore the fact that reform is the only way to fix the problem
Always the optimist! I am not of the opinion that they will see reason. The only things Americans agree on is military spending because "defense companies" are smart enough to build their products in all 50 states -- meaning, any politician that goes against it will be telling their constituents that they deserve to be laid off. Ironically, this is about the least efficient way to do things one can think of, so it raises the cost of the process (by a metric fluff ton), and thus the defense budget must increase even more. The problem is not the people making this equipment, it's the fact that politicians are naturally self-serving and force these companies to act in a rational manner. There is a very clear problem with defense spending, and a clear way to cut it, everyone in politics knows it, and it's a problem that they theoretically cannot ignore -- yet, they ignore it. Why? Because 95% of the politicians are partisan hacks that care more about re-election than they do about solving problems that they are theoretically unable to ignore.
I'm more 'conservative' than you but I don't think either of us really agrees that the labels conservative or liberal actually capture our political opinions. I'm actually conservative on almost nothing. People would not have put me anywhere near that label even a couple years ago, but the Overton window is shifting and I personally am more critical of the left for that due to their wider influence in the media. I'm just an iconoclast that would prefer extreme pragmatism in politics (hence why I want people taken out of politics and the entire thing run by an AI). If Trump was well-received, I'd probably hate him too. As it stands, I'm less skeptical of him primarily because he has had a light shining on him for 3 years now and aside from being obnoxious (no one would ever accuse Trump of being magnanimous) he's unlikely to do anything overly terrible. Whereas, the media has just completely ignored the terrible things done by presidents in the past, and I think they will continue to do so in the future.
The liberal in me does have to cringe because I do actually believe we could have easily gone thru with the goals of the Paris climate accord whether or not we withdrew. That in combination with the destruction of the EPA by executive order was kind of like enough for me to give up my optimism. Corporations are allowed to pollute more in America than they have in my lifetime and frankly it seems like an odd time for that. If I didnt believe that climate change was a very real threat, I'd definitely feel like you 100% though. I was even heard at the end of the first trump year saying that I didnt think trump was that big of a deal because his party hates him enough that he can't pass any real big sweeping bills on anything. It would basically be 4 years of status quo that it's most toxic effect seemingly was only furthering the divide between left and right and sort of erasing the middle and pushing people further in either direction.
For more than one reason I was completely wrong (also feel like the only guy in America who reflects on their incorrect opinions); as popularity for issues like circumventing Congress for the wall and cozying with n kor dwindle to a pretty predictable value driven party, people on the streets have started coming back to the centre. It's certainly not as divided as it was at the height of trumps popularity. People are occasionally having rational discourse again with only a few Cerebus or PO types sprinkled in. Nazi group protests have slowed etc. The voice only lasted as long as the popularity seemingly and for that I am both surprised and thankful. The fringes on both ends have gotten weirder but thats at least to be expected. When people feel their fringee views losing steam, you see more of the sort of outbursts that there has been a handful of on this thread. Like the cerb message to start it or like the PO post about how he cant handle your kind. Lol.
That's the really funny thing tho. Most democrats feel validated because the media is encouraging them so much. It's very easy to identify the dem's psychotic fringe by watching who does and who does not have outbursts of insane ramblings. It's also very easy to identify the left's/right's psychotic fringe on this thread as well. As a social experiment I give everyone 5 gold stars.
I'll be sitting on my own island hoping the wall gets built, so I can laugh at the fact that building a wall increased illegal immigration because if you cant find the irony in that, you have no sense of humor.