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Watched the Debates. We're Doomed.

Posted by $ Abaco 10 years, 4 months ago to Politics
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OK, I have avoided the debates until recently. Watched most of the Repub one last week and almost all of the Dems (on the dvr yesterday). I have come to the conclusion that we're probably doomed. With the Republicans...if you really listen closely you see this overwhelming desire to use government to fix things. There are, surprisingly, promises to "tax for this" and "tax for that". I don't remember hearing a peep about smaller government.

Then...there are the Dems. Of the three in the debate, Omally (sp?) is the only one who sounds sane. At all. Seems like a decent person, actually. Has no chance in hell. Hillary, to even my surprise, offered ZERO solutions to anything. (I don't expect any hint of a hands-off approach from this crowd, so work with me). She pointed out that the lead in the water in Flint had to do with race. I have always thought she'll be the next president and, apparently, she thinks so too. Very scary thought. Worse than the current guy in there? Anybody's guess. Then, there's Bernie. Sometimes, he actually makes a little sense. But, there is his tireless fixation with other people's money. He absolutely sees wealth as something to be taken. He's very open about it. And, just this morning I heard a clip of him talking up Fidel Castro. Anybody here ever been to Cuba? He said that the lack of an uprising is proof that the people like the Communism there. Very scary stuff. Way out of touch with reality. Yet, I check social media this morning and some people I know back Bernie.

I think things in America are going to get much worse before they get better. My little son made some interesting statements. He has a disability, but has progressed well. He'll actually sit and watch these people talk and figure out who's full of crap (all of them). After watching a while he looked up at me and said, "Dad. What will you do if Sanders gets elected?" Without hesitation I responded, "Hide our stuff." That turned into a short, fun conversation...


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  • Posted by roneida 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    freedomforall,,,I agree with your wish for a 3rd. party and feel silly hoping the republican mob competing against 2 1/2 democrats may turn out to be the first foundation stones for this miracle. We have to start somewhere. It will not happen without a huge involvement of America Firsters who "ask not what their country can do for them, but ask, what can we do for OUR country." Don't forget to vote. The discussions have changed
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  • Posted by $ 10 years, 4 months ago
    There's gotta be a Bernie remix video somewhere of him going on and on about other people's "MUNNNY!" It creeps me out to hear him...every statement starts with, "Day have plenny of munnny. We need to take it and..." I get the willies from it...
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 10 years, 4 months ago
    I listened to the recent Republican debate on my
    radio. I just think the best idea is to vote for Cruz.
    If Trump gets it, it will be very dangerous, as he
    brags about being unprincipled and is not a free-
    enterprise man. But who knows how it will turn out?
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  • Posted by $ jlc 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    evw-

    I think I agree with CircuitGuy (OMG! Was that my Outside Voice?). From one of Matt Ridley's articles:

    "Compared with 50 years ago, people now live 30 per cent longer; have 30 per cent more food to eat; spend longer in school; have better housing; bury 70 per cent fewer of their children; travel more; give more to charity as a proportion of income; are less likely to be murdered, raped or robbed; are much less likely to die in war; are less likely to die in a drought, flood or storm."

    We become obsessed by news and do not give enough weight to statistics.

    I am hoping that technological progress will make many of the government mandates irrelevant.

    Jan
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  • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 10 years, 4 months ago
    Hello Abaco,
    I have watched them too. Sad really to believe that so many are taken in by this nonsense. The last one with the Dems had me thinking the whole time, these three are just trying to outbid each other for votes with more money we don't have. Every solution offered was a statist government one... as if the problems they wanted to solve weren't originally created in the same manner....
    Respectfully,
    O.A.
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  • Posted by $ splumb 10 years, 4 months ago
    I find there's very little difference between the political parties anymore.
    It's Lenin-ites vs. Trotsky-ites.
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  • Posted by ohiocrossroads 10 years, 4 months ago
    I watched the first few Republican debates, and Carly Fiorina is the only one I definitely remember talking about reducing the size of government, but there may have been a couple of others. Jeb Bush wasn't one of them, for sure. And John Kasich might as well be a Dimocrat.

    And speaking of Dimocrats, I keep saying that they are only running old white guys. They are all socialists, but Bernie Sanders is the only one honest enough to admit it. Shrillary is only in contention because she is married to Bill, who will get his third and (maybe) fourth terms as the de-facto president. O'Malley is the only halfway qualified Dimocrat, and he is at 1% in the polls. Doesn't this speak volumes about how far left the Dimocrat party is? It wouldn't surprise me very much if Bernie Sanders is their nominee. The evening pundits on Fox News laugh at that possibility, but they also laughed at Donald Trump's chances. If Hillary gets into real legal trouble over her personal e-mail server, Bernie could very well be the nominee. The Obama Justice department will ultimately make the call to prosecute, and I think that decision turns on the political question of who Obama wants as his successor.

    It's hard for me to watch the death of freedom in America, even harder when you consider that people are just throwing away their freedom in exchange for a litany of empty promises. The policies that the Dimocrats run on would have guaranteed that they would lose a presidential election by 60 percentage points 100 years ago. Now we're sweating out if a Republican can squeak out a 2 point victory over a socialist. This does not bode well for the future.
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  • Posted by roneida 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    jbrenner...A hundred years ago when I was a kid, the flip saying was, "Save your Confederate dollars, the South will rise again." who knows?
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  • Posted by freedomforall 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "don't think we can do worse."
    The statist party has disproven this assumption for the past 50 years. They have proven that a vote for either the GOP or the Dems is a vote for the status quo: bigger, more powerful fedgov, less liberty, and a more crippled, more manipulated, less free market.
    I think the only peaceful chance that America has is for so-called conservative voters to recognize the betrayal perpetrated by the GOP, and vote for a principled third party. The only excuse they give is: 3rd parties can't win. Without rational voters, that is true. Conservatives must show they are better than liberals and vote on principles of individual liberty against the state.
    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
    Good men have been doing nothing for 50 years and its clear the same old vote for the lesser of two evils is the problem, not the solution.
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  • Posted by $ 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Interesting thought. I am mulling that over myself..."Can we do worse?" I am pretty sure we can. But, it's a legit question.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No, that's "Made In China."
    Reminds me of "Made In Japan" being laughed at back during the 50s.
    Now I drive a Honda.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That presumes that a Republican replaces President Zero. That may happen. Things will definitely get worse this year. In fact, they got worse today. Check the stock market.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 10 years, 4 months ago
    repubs and dems are different sides of the same counterfeit coin...you lose if you side with either one...
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  • Posted by strugatsky 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "I sense he's at least sincere" -- so was Hitler. Sincere and very open about his plans. Bernie seems to have had a good family teacher...
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  • Posted by tamillerwv 10 years, 4 months ago
    Not that he is the perfect candidate, but the only Republican that does talk about smaller government, less intrusion, etc, is Rand Paul and he has been ignored by the media. They have done a great job at ostracizing him. I try not to look at them as Democrats vs. Republicans... I try to look at them as Statists vs. Individualists. Watch out for leftist Republicans.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Good analysis. Definitive improvement is going to require a social change such that 'what is appealed to in order to get the votes' has altered. In the meantime, I will hope for a marginal improvement: Someone who can say, "...a Utopian chicken in each pot..." with a straight face and who has a covert intent to solve some of the real problems when he gets elected.

    Jan
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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thanks for the deft definition. What we're really seeing is ideas ("memes") contending for lebensraum. All else is window dressing.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 10 years, 4 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Aw, forget the whole thing.
    A government program (= more tax money wasted) would be controlled by politicians who'd then be enabled to sneak off their condom suits every chance they got.
    New slang phrases would crop up such as "Doing the Dirty Bill."
    Our troubled country does not need any more sleazy career politicians doing the dirty all over it.
    No wait, that's what the condom suits are supposed to prevent.
    No, double wait! They would be made in China.
    That's why I stopped buying pull over shirts with sewn on pockets.
    Holes appear where the pockets are attached.
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