Is it fun to participate in politics? Some like it. I enjoy being a blog pundit, but given how few people study the problems of governing and actually participate in party politics, I doubt many enjoy the subject at all. Still, for the sake of our family friends, and neighbors, we must keep our political system under control. Otherwise, tyrannical people, vicious busybodies, will take over our government.
We have not been doing our part. We are losing our government now. In How Democrats try to make elections obsolete, Robert Knight describes the latest effort by Democrats to undermine our elections. What is striking about this effort is how ignorant the electorate — that’s we the people — have to be for politicians to attempt such “reforms”.
H.R. 1: For the People Act (congress.gov) describes the bill and tells us the Democrat-run House has passed it. The bill is lengthy and complicated. Since the Constitution leaves the running of elections to state and local governments, we should wonder why Democrats want this law. The Constitution authorizes the Federal Government protect our rights, but this bill “fixes” things that are not broken.
Where will such reforms lead? The Facts About H.R. 1—the For the People Act of 2019 (heritage.org) also provides an analysis of the bill. They also say we risk the integrity of our elections.
What is the consequence of tyranny? The elites — the busybodies in charge — seek their own glorification. Consider Punishing Christians by Everett Piper. Why would would Democrats be intolerant of Christians? It seems Democrats have an odd way of defining tolerance. It is not enough to live and let live. Democrats define “tolerance” as affirmation. Even when they sin, the people must approve of their sins.
Anything — any person or any belief — that stands between Democrats and power is to them evil. Hence we see what seems to be flagrant hypocrisy. What’s the latest?
Here we see Congressman Jerry Nadler trying to keep Ken Starr’s report on President Bill Clinton from being made public.
Here, ‘Definition of Hypocrisy’: GOP Rep Calls Out Nadler for 1998 Effort to Suppress Starr Report, is a Fox News Piece that puts what Nadler said about the Starr Report in today’s context. Here in a CNN piece, Nadler defends himself after Trump’s hypocrisy claim.
Does Nadler change his beliefs to suit the political situation? Well, you decide, but keep in mind that such hypocrisy leads to chaos. When the people we live with don’t believe in anything, have no respect for the truth, every day becomes chaotic.
Citizen Tom 
Tangentially related to the topic:
Just learned over at Doug’s that Trump thinks Tim Cook is a piece of fruit.
He couldn’t have been referring to the company the guy runs. Wow is Trump stupid or what?!?!
Go CNN!
Expose that truth.
Hehe.. yeah.. 🙂
@Liz
CNN’s ratings don’t amount to much anymore. That kind of nonsense is why.
Yes, example of a couple of the “thousands upon thousands of Trump LIES!” (on their CNN/Wa Po “fact checker”).
Trump: The environmentalists, “We like windmills.” Oh, really? What about the thousands of birds they’re killing?
Wa Po adds the above to the “Trump’s Lies” list, states the following:
As our friends at FactCheck.org reported, birds are killed by turbines, but studies suggest the number is closer to five per year than 100s.
Later claim on same site, same subject:
“National Audubon Society, wind turbines cause about 234,000 bird deaths a year”
As with Trutherism, who checks the fact checkers? Just disregard….that’s just one example, surely at least some of the thousands and thousands of assertions are “real lies!”
If you don’t debunk each and every one you’ve proven nothing!
(This will be particularly difficult since new assertions of lies come out on a daily basis often repeated from months back, but listed as a ‘new lie’)
Now get crack-a-lackin!
The problem isn’t about fact checking birds killed by windmills, cancer scares from wind turbines, whether or not Tom Cook is a fruit or not, or the actual number of Trump lies. It’s not about the credibility or ratings between CNN, FOX, or the latest smoke signals from whatever mountaintop. I personally could care less about objecting to some Conservative agenda, promoting some Liberal agenda, or welcoming somebody’s idea of a Socialist agenda. Trump, the Incompetent getting worse and will get deeply worse (for America) as his legal and political pressures increase in the next few months. While you all are sitting around thumping your chests knowing “you” are right… this isn’t even a right vs. wrong thing. Better get a grip on reality here folks.
“Trump, the Incompetent getting worse and will get deeply worse (for America) as his legal and political pressures increase in the next few months.”
How long have you been saying this now?
Better get a grip on reality here folks.
You say, unironically, yet I’ve brought up the reality based facts many times…the economy, our foreign policy, et al. To crickets and “look at this CNN article/chart!”
“Trump is getting crazier and crazier! Look at this CNN based chart of lies!”
Me: “Well…that chart is misleading, look here and here..”
“I don’t care about charts or chest pumping, get a grip on reality you!!”
Yeah, this conversation is pretty frustrating.
.
@ scatterwisdom
It does not need to be as difficult as a tax increase would be. That can and would be a hard fight – pitting winners against losers. A much simpler solution to getting people involved — outlaw paycheck withholding.
Imagine a world where every payday or every month, each income earning citizen had to “write a check” to the Federal and State governments for their income taxes. Millions would instantly become aware of the difference between Gross and Net in their income. Millions would begin to question what and why are they actually paying this much into this system. This would be a Great Taxation Awakening.
The masses would be awake and the people would realize that the US is not rich vs poor or black vs white, and city vs rural, or man vs woman, or even D vs R —— but government vs the people. Great odds for the people if they can be awakened.
All without a change in taxes — outlaw withholding!
“Democrats define “tolerance” as affirmation. Even when they sin, the people must approve of their sins.”
I prefer the dictionary definition of tolerance: “the capacity to endure continued subjection to something…without adverse reaction.” In other words, tolerance is used when something unwanted is forced upon us, like we tolerate a toothache until we can go to the dentist, or tolerate a little brother until he grows up.
Acceptance (or affirmation as you use it) is a COMPLETELY different kettle of fish. One either tolerates or one accepts; there literally isn’t a middle ground.
Since nothing else in your post seems to have anything to do with the difference between tolerance and acceptance, I’ll offer one really good example:
Gay marriage: Acceptance is celebrating the fact that everyone can benefit from being legally married. Tolerance is not fighting against laws that make it legal while silently fuming against the death of “traditional” marriage. Intolerance is actively fighting against the expansion of marriage as though gay marriages somehow take something away from heterosexual marriages.
@Catherine
Judges literally invented the “right” of same-sex marriage. That “right” didn’t exist because same-sex marriage is an oxymoron. Your example, “gay marriage,” is exactly what I suggested in my post. Instead of just putting up with their neighbor’s right to make a fool of himself, you want the government to force everyone to affirm same-sex sex as righteous through legal marriage.
Imagine some guy thinks the sun come out at night. Just to make this guy happy, does everyone else have to pretend the sun comes out at night? That is sort of nonsense you are demanding with same-sex marriage. Just because the harm is subtle doesn’t mean it does not exist.
Note we do play with the clock. So we have just made a one-hour shift. Why stop there? If we can “save” one hour, why not two? Why not twelve?
Endorsement of behavior (via state sanction) is not mere tolerance, it is acceptance.
Where did I call someone a name?
“They just invent crises and then characterize their opponents as stupid, brainwashed, or evil.”
Ha, ha, ha! But by saying this, you are not doing what you are condemning? You are accusing everyone who has honest differences with you on difficult and complex policy issues of either being willfully stupid, brainwashed by their supposedly corrupt malicious public school teachers or of being just plain evil. Explain to me again why they’re acting different from you? I mean stop for just a minute from the self righteousnes harangue against me to read what you just wrote and you got to laugh at yourself.
In any event, pull in your claws before you break yourself or the internet. I come in peace one ignorant, brainwashed, willfull sinner to another. I’m not proclaiming superiority to anyone, even Trump, and I have no more right than you to judge anyone’s soul.
My problem with Trump is not that he isn’t perfectly virtuous, but instead that he actually, unabashedly promotes vice. That doesn’t bother you?
My problem with Trump is not that he isn’t perfectly virtuous, but instead that he actually, unabashedly promotes vice. That doesn’t bother you?
Could you cite some concrete examples, please?
Seriously Liz?
Of Trump’s continuing mendacity, at last count, it was over 8,000 verifiable lies since he took office. Pick the top 1,000 and go through them one by one if you want, but at some point you have to realize that with Trump lying is a feature, not a bug.
Of his narcissistic self promotion, just watch any speech that Trump has made. Are you seriously going to argue that Trump thinks humility is a virtue? Even by politician standards, Trump takes the cake on self aggrandizing.
Of Trump’s disloyalty, just look at his known adultery in three marriages. If you ever watched or heard Trump on the Howard Stern appearances, then you know that the philandering playboy image isn’t regretted so much as it is his brand. Numerous other examples abound, from his stiffing his contractors to his trying to cheat his family out of their inheritance. Loyalty is unabashedly a one way street with Trump.
Of Trump’s greed, do you really need me to illustrate Trump’s Gordon Gecko philosophy that he promotes greed as good?
At some point it’s res ipsa loquitor on vice promotion and examples of the thing promoting vice itself are just too legion to seriously deny.
You want to go down the whole list of vices? It might be fun….
No name calling? 🤣
Pick the top 1,000 and go through them one by one if you want, but at some point you have to realize that with Trump lying is a feature, not a bug.?
Though I would agree purposeful hyperbole is his brand (and from the looks of what has been accomplished so far in the past couple of years, the brand is an effective one). Wo Po’s “lies list” is incredibly misleading. True and factual statements are dismissed as lies. It’s a lot like the truther movement…so overwhelming and counterfactual when one point is dismissed it just keeps going….what about this one? what about this? Exhausting the opposition with squid ink.
Funny thing about Trump’s past (Howard Stern et al). Back then the media loved him. Called him “the Donald”. This was true for decades until he ran against Hillary and then he became the Nazi/racist/psychopath in their estimation. Weird.
Geez, Liz.. the man does so much; impossible to keep track. The crazy thing is.. you spend too much obvious time watching crazy FOX that you have NO concept about what the opposition to Trump opposes so much. So the idea is.. if no one can cite a single thing “bad” about Trump then obviously there is no argument, no substance to the opposition, and those in opposition obviously don’t know what they are talking about.. therefore they are biased. Wait.. isn’t being biased part of opposition?
Here’ is MY reason… written two years ago.
https://findingpoliticalsanity.com/why-i-dislike-this-guy-as-my-president-2/
The man has surely demonstrated everything I have written since then.
you spend too much obvious time watching crazy FOX that you have NO concept about what the opposition to Trump opposes so much. So the idea is.. if no one can cite a single thing “bad” about Trump then obviously there is no argument, no substance to the opposition, and those in opposition obviously don’t know what they are talking about.. therefore they are biased. Wait.. isn’t being biased part of opposition?
I”m pretty sure I’ve mentioned I don’t watch FOX before. Nor to I watch CNN.
I could use the same “lie meter” for CNN and claim there are several lies in every article, therefore CNN has told over 100000 “confirmed lies” since Trump was elected.
Trump says “father” and intended to say “grandfather” and for some reason this is big news. What is the most reasonable explanation? That he misspoke and meant grandfather.
But I didn’t ask TSalmon to point out what CNN would interpret to be lies, I asked for him to cite an example of Trump “unabashedly promoting vice”.
Remember when CNN told us Trump officials had been in “constant contact” with “Russians known to U.S. intelligence,” and the former director of the CIA, who’d helped kick-start the investigation that led to Mueller’s probe, said the President was guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” committing acts “nothing short of treasonous”? Hillary Clinton insisted Russians “could not have known how to weaponize” political ads unless they’d been “guided” by Americans. Asked if she meant Trump, she said, “It’s pretty hard not to.” Harry Reid similarly said he had “no doubt” that the Trump campaign was “in on the deal” to help Russians with the leak.Those are all lies.
Let’s take just this one article. It’s an old one so this should be fun. I could find enumerable more recent examples but sometimes it’s easier to illustrate when it’s old news and time has gone by rather than new, when emotions are hot (as article like this attempt to make them). This was after Trump had just recently been elected, and the media was trying to convince us that he was dangerous and attempting to get us into a nuclear war. These are the folks who “keep track of Trump’s lies”. I’m not really holding my breath that you’re going to read past this point, but maybe lurkers will:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/31/politics/trump-view-from-south-korea-japan/index.html
The title: “Japan and South Korea hit back at Trump’s nuclear comments”
It begins by asserting a widespread “shock” and “bewilderment” via use of the passive voice “words were said” ***by the “lie meter standard” we found our first lie: words said by whom exactly? If I state that “Italians think” something I might be citing my aunt, or I might be citing their entire government…there’s a vast difference between the two).
Let’s take a look at his shocking and horrifying statements: “Japan is better if it protects itself against this maniac of North Korea,” Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday. “We are better off frankly if South Korea is going to start protecting itself … they have to protect themselves or they have to pay us.”
Well…heck, I’ve said the same. So have lots of other people who know a great deal more than I. We’ve been in a serious draw down phase for years. And if we keep our forces in the ROK, shouldn’t they pay for it? And if we remove them, well, we’ve lost our bargaining chip to tell them how to defend themselves. He isn’t demanding that they build nukes, he’s stating realities.
More from the article: “So high was the level of concern, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe felt the need to respond publicly, saying, “whoever will become the next president of the United States, the Japan-U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of Japan’s diplomacy.”
SO HIGH WAS THE LEVEL OF CONCERN, Japan’s PM offered the above (“bewildered” “shocked” “horrified”?) statement. It sounds pretty bland and sensible (we’ve had a military alliance with Japan is a cornerstone of Japan’s policy and he expects it to remain so). I’m calling this lie number 2.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida added, “It is impossible that Japan will arm itself with nuclear weapons.”
Well, great! But if we leave, the choice will be entirely up to them.
Now, at the end the article offers an ROK perspective:
“South Korea has a small minority who think Trump may have a point and welcome the idea of nuclear weapons. Academic Cheong Seong-Chang from the non-profit think-tank the Sejong Institute said, “If we have nuclear weapons, we’ll be in a much better position to deal with North Korea.”
But his feeling is not mainstream.
I’m calling that last sentence the third lie.
How do they define “mainstream”? They don’t. I’ve lived in the ROK and kept up with politics there ever since, and I’d be very hesitant to claim this view is not mainstream.
Nutshell: Taken alone, there is nothing “shocking” nor unnerving about Trump’s statement above. There’s no evidence in the subsequent quoted statements that either Japan or the ROK were “shocked” or unnerved or “hitting back” (at what exactly?). The article built up a story around the statements to make it seem that way. at a minimum we are looking at at least three lies designed to mislead and terrify the ignorant masses.
@Liz
Unlike his predecessor, Trump doesn’t argue for what he wants by lying to us. What good would it do? If he actually told such a lie, the Liberal Democrat news media would be talking about it for weeks.
Why did Liberal Democrats get so upset about foreigners paying their share of defense costs? Since when did Liberal Democrats care about defense? Whenever Trump talks about someone paying for what they get, that offends Liberal Democrats.
Liberal Democrats don’t like having their big fantasy exposed. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Utopia is a fantasy, and the Democratic Party is the party for those who live in a dream world where everything is all about their happiness, and no one else matters.
First off, Papadopoulos spilled the idea of Russians having dirt on Hillary to an Aussie diplomat in Britain. A couple weeks later when the dirt started being released the Aussie went to the U.S feds about it possible Russian hacking. Investigation was started by the FBI in 2016.
The dossier Conservatives love to assert?
“In October 2015, Fusion GPS was contracted by conservative political website The Washington Free Beacon to provide general opposition research on Trump and other Republican presidential candidates. In April 2016, attorney Marc Elias separately hired Fusion GPS to investigate Trump on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC. The Free Beacon stopped its backing when Trump became the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee in May of 2016. In June 2016, Fusion GPS subcontracted Steele’s firm to compile the dossier. His instructions were to seek answers to why Trump would “repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state”. Clinton campaign officials were reportedly unaware that Fusion GPS had subcontracted Steele, and he was not told that the Clinton campaign was the recipient of his research. Following Trump’s election as president, funding from Clinton and the DNC ceased, but Steele continued his research and was reportedly paid directly by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn R. Simpson. The completed dossier was then handed to British and American intelligence services.”
Much of the dossier has been verified and some has yet to be verified. Trump people love to blame Hillary and secret handshake conspiracies. So be it.. that’s politics and it’s up to the individual to critical think their way into an opinion one way or the other, if they even want to bother. Right now Trump is under intense pressure because of his own making.. and his minions are circling the wagons around him (love they way they seem to all know what he’s thinking to defend him… like, “He really meant to say “grandfather”. Oh.. how many times? And you know this how? He told you?).
Regarding your example at CNN’s 100,000 lies assertion… I’m not in the least defending the media (outside of FOX) much less CNN. I am no more being “brainwashed” than Trump has “brainwashed” you and the rest of Trump World. But to be specific here, my disgust with him is from my blog theme.. the man has mental shortcomings that severely impacts his ability to be President. Everything else in the last two years has just been a “not surprising” result of that. But.. what has reared up inside the last two years is the growing crescendo of corruption that likely will reveal itself when all these investigations are completed.
I will agree with Conservatives on one thing regarding all this… the Founding Fathers were indeed wise in including into our Constitution, as written, the justice and remedy of Trump’s incompetence as President.
To the “father/grandfather” thing… he’s said “father” more than just a one time slip up.
Only more than 8,000 more to go Liz. And that is just Trump’s promotion of mendacity.
Trump’s repeatedly saying that his father was born in Germany is interesting only in that he tells lies so habitually that he appears to have lost any sense of reality concerning the truth, even about something that virtually no person with nirmal moral mental faculties would constantly confuse. And his staff doesn’t even bother to correct him. It’s like bailing out a sinking aircraft carrier with one bucket.
Remember when during the election Trump was lying about having no business in Russia while he, with his lying lawyer, were seeking a Trump tower in Moscow? Remember when he said he knew nothing about the Stormy Daniels payoff and he, as president, was still personally handing out reimbursement checks to Cohen? Remember when he drafted his son’s cover up about the Trump Tower meeting?
We’ve got 8’499 Trump lies on the wall, 8,499 Trump lies on the wall. You take one down, parse it around, and now you’ve only got 8,498 Trump lies on the wall.
If this really were a drinking song none of us would survive the alcohol poisoning.
Only more than 8,000 more to go Liz. And that is just Trump’s promotion of mendacity.
Yeah, I’ll get right on that.
Sounds like a valuable use of my time. See above about the Truther movement.
The media is creating division over imaginary problems and misrepresented events, and fighting against things that are good for America and Americans.
News which is fake constantly targets President Trump and he is not afraid to point this out. This is a correct response.
Yes, Liz Trump is just keeping the press “honest”. I don’t know whether to laugh at the obvious sarcasm in this, or clkaugh because someone as smart as you might actually believe it.
Is the main stream media mainly liberal? Sure. But, for most of the old established news franchises, actual voracity is part of their professional stock and trade too. Unlike Fox, they actually are embarrassed when they are caught lying.
You emphasize that media is selective over the facts and exaggerates the issues that make Trump look bad. However, Trump has actually declared war on the whole concept of facts and truth. Why did pure press fact checking become partisan? Instead of lamenting the generalized political bent of most reporters (nothing has changed on this in my lifetime), maybe we should be more worried about the corrosive effect on our two Party system wrought by putting a flagrant greedy con artist in charge of one Party. Plain truth and basic virtue have become partisan. With Trump as their leader, the people who claim to be the Party of Religion have become the Party of the promotion of flagrant mendacity, selfishness, greedy individualism, vice and hatred. Meanwhile, the Party that idolizes near atheistic secularism has become the Party of empathy, tolerance, service and love. One Party promotes greed, selfish individualism and mendacity in the name of God. The other Party promotes selfless virtue but eschews any religious foundation in God’s Law of Love. One Party claims a veneer of self righteousness but is morally hollow. The other Party claims a shifting compassion built on the sand of irreligious humanism. Meanwhile the virtue signaling condemnation in both camps is through the roof.
Obviously, it’s a thousand times more complex than this, but this is how my simple mind would simplify things if I claimed to know what I were talking about, and if anybody should really care what I think.
Perhaps we should start taking ourselves and each other a little less seriously, recognize that we are blessed by God and the work of our forefathers with issues far less dire than they faced. Such humble gratitude and humor in the hyperbolic time of Trump and Sanders surely is in short supply.
@tsalmon
My political platform is fairly simple. Leave me in peace, and I won’t try to punch you in the nose.
You won’t leave me and like minded people in peace, and you don’t have a good excuse for dragging us into your Utopian schemes. You just want to spend money you didn’t earn on things that don’t require our government to spend other people’s money.
When I list the “crises” you use as an excuse, what do you do? Do you debate? No. You just complain about the complexity and my self righteous and selfishness. That tells me you don’t know what you are talking about. If you had a decent argument, you would not have to resort to such nonsense. You could plainly state the necessity, but you can’t. You just think we should do all the things you have been taught to believe.
Please reexamine your assumptions. They are wrong. God gives us our rights, not government. Put it this way. YOU don’t give me my rights brother. All we can do protect each others rights or scheme to take them away. The Democratic Party does not protect anyone’s rights. It just takes them away.
Tom,
This “don’t tread on me” refrain makes for amusing sloganeering, and I’m sure you believe it. It’s like “give me liberty or give me death”, “one for all and all for one”, “if we don’t stand together, we will surely hang together”, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, “don’t ask what you your country can do for, ask what you can do for your country”, or Trump’s “I’m a very stable genius” and so, on and so on. If only jingoistic slogans substituted for actual solutions to intractable and complex policy issues rather than having actual knowledge, experience, wisdom and virtue, then you and I could single handedly solve all the problems in the world. (Well, Liz and Doug could help too).
@tsalmon
So because we supported the jingoistic clown who won the last election, us jingoistic supporters of the clown who will probably win the next election have to let you wise, kind, and wonderfully generous problem solvers stuff your Utopian solutions to all the world’s problems down our collective throats? Somehow I don’t think that makes any sense to let you do that, particularly when you have not got the foggiest idea of what you are talking about.
You run about spout propaganda calling the guy who runs the country a liar. Yet at the same time you want to give the government more power. And why? Because government has a good record of fixing problems? When left in control of their own resources, people do a much better job of fixing their own problems. What government is suppose to do is make certain powerful people don’t rob the rest of us, not rob us. Yet that is what you vote for, people who do and will rob us. Thanks a lot.
Me? Full of Utopian solutions? Weren’t you just criticizing me for being paralyzed by the complexity and ambiguity of these issues? Make up your mind brother: Are you going to strawman me as an evil schemer or an hapless idiot? 🙃
@tsalmon
Hapless idiot? You know the difference between arguing your case and just attacking Trump. You don’t argue your case. You just repeat the same nonsense you get out of a biased news media. Liz said you have been punked. That’s putting it mildly. What the news media has done is really quite evil.
I don’t need to tell you that everybody is a sinner and everybody is made in the image of God. We are all redeemable, and with a voluntary willingness for God’s grace, in a process of redemption and somehow mysteriously, at the same time, already redeemed both by Jesus’ sacrificial love and by our asking and and of God’s love.
As such, I tend to believe in slow, humble, practical incremental progress, both as individuals and necessarily also as communities of individuals acting dynamically in love. We take two steps forward and often fall four steps back, but faith and hope means that we never together stop climbing that mountain toward God. We never fool ourselves that some of us are already there or that we get there on our own without each other.
In a representative democracy, I just don’t see government as more evil or perfect a vehicle in that progress as the representatives who lead us or the electorate who chooses them. We are accountable for aspiring to virtue.
Does that religious viewpoint on politics make me punked by the evil atheistic liberal media? Don’t you wish it were only so?😉
@tsalmon
All that babble, and you never address the fact we have a constitutional republic, not a representative democracy. The Founders considered the term “democrat” an insult. It is mob rule you aspire to.
My “case” that I’m arguing is not to prosecute Trump for his many foibles, but to say that the essence of leadership and citizenship is the aspiration toward moral integrity through the promotion of selfless virtue. Instead Trump promotes the opposite – aspirations based on the fulfillment of selfish vice.
Let’s face it. We can argue about policy and probably both be wrong and sometimes both be right, and most of the time not have a clue what we are talking about. But I think our consensus on this argument about our regard to virtue and vice has to be foundational to every other argument. Whether we may or may not know about anything else, on this we, not only have a right, we have a responsibility to have an moral opinion.
@tsalmon
This coming from someone who thinks government gives us our rights. Therefore, he has the right to use government to force his opinions on others?
Tom,
So talk of God’s redemption is now considered “babbling” here? 😏
When you revert to quibbling over the semantics of whether a representative democracy is the same as a constitutional republic, I can see that you wish to deflect. That’s fine by me. I should go work out any way. Cheers brother!
@tsalmon
When we are talking about a political party that has so little respect for the Constitution, the difference between representative democracy and a constitutional republic is not a minor matter.
@Doug
You stated, OAC should start young in politics, because: “You have to start at an early age to practice and devote all toward winning the medal. Getting into politics is getting less and less about doing it at middle age.”
What you are promoting is people to spend their entire career in politics. The very thing that is causing the majority of government problems in my opinion.
For example, Schumer, Durbin, Pelosi, never worked in private industry and frankly have no idea what it means to balance a budget, produce a profit, and pay bills out of their own pocket. All they know how to do is get elected by making promises to obtain campaign funds and if they don’t do what they promise is point fingers at the opposing politicians,
What we need is more people like Donald Trump who knows how to produce and actually attempts to fulfill his campaign promises. In other words, he is not an empty suit.
Term limits are what is needed all across the board. Anyone who has tried to run against any incumbent knows how impossible it is to win someone who has people that owe him or her for their government jobs, contracts, they benefit from by having the incumbent owe them for helping him or her elected.
That is unless the incumbent is a total screw up and the press gets on his or her case.
As for OAC, she worked part-time as a bartender and listened to people complain. Then she interned for liberals where she learned the liberal ropes. “Promise me something free that will be paid for by the rich guys and they will vote for you for the rest of your life unless you really screw up.”
She probably believes she is right, mainly because she and a lot of people actually believe they deserve everything everybody else has in life regardless of how hard they or their parents worked or sacrificed to obtain, Kinda like what Carl Marx believed.
Regards and good will blogging.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez
What you are promoting is people to spend their entire career in politics. The very thing that is causing the majority of government problems in my opinion.
This.
Particularly troubling to me is the career politician who got very very rich while in office as a “public servant”. What does this tell us?
Term limits would help a lot. I understand the perspective that experience helps…I’m sure it does. But the downside is far worse. There’s a reason a great deal of our defense budget goes toward weapons systems the military does not want or need, and keeping bases open in important districts.
Liz,
Thanks for your comment. We need people to become involved in government, I have seen first hand how difficult it for anyone to run against an incumbent who both directly and indirectly has numerous people who will vote for him or her, along with their families to maintain a job or contract.
In local elections, an incumbent has an advantage of numbers over any challenger especially when there is a low turnout.
The system serves to discourage rather than involve people become involved iand active in both government and community affairr, in my opinion.
Regards and good will blogging.
Oh I dunno.. you start young and quit earlier than 70. Problem solved.
@doug,
Dunno is an admission of sorts, According to King Solomon, it might be better to just say nothing.
Proverbs 17:28 (BBE) Even the foolish man, when he keeps quiet, is taken to be wise: when his lips are shut he is credited with good sense.
I am noi implying you to be a fool,
Rather, I am wondering what you mean about starting young and quit when you are 70 has any relation to term limits.
Regards and good will blogging.
We live in scary times. Thank you for keeping us posted regarding the latest political shenanigans, Tom! God bless you!
@Lynn
What makes America possible is an ethical people. When we fail to hold each other, including our leaders, accountable, our republic cannot work. That’s one reason Democrats keep attacking Trump’s character. They want an excuse for their own behavior.
It’s really stunning how brazenly open the Democrats are being with their hypocrisy and open hand on implementing Socialist policies. Victor Davis Hansen has a good article out today that touches on this. He believes the Dems put all their eggs in the Mueller basket for impeaching Trump and so didn’t learn a thing as to why he was elected int he first place and so will probably do so again in 2020. Now that the report has been revealed to be the nothing burger it always was, Democrats will turn to fighting each other and pushing an even more radical agenda. I tend to agree.
@Tricia
The Democrats sort of look like they are flailing, but they are still preventing anything from being fixed. Look at the border. Also look at the fact Democrats have a majority in Congress. If they can steal enough votes, and they are willing to do so, I would not count on winning 2020.
Well that is certainly very true Tom. I can only hope that the majority of people in this country are not on board with their extremism. I’d feel better about this though if the media weren’t on their side.
If anyone goes into politics one has to assume they are there, at best, to compromise. If someone ventures into the political game with the idea that they are going to change the world or assert their own idea as how the country, and/or the world, should be run, they are in for a BIG surprise. Serving politics is not about YOU, but rather how you might be able to get things done for your constituents. For example, Cortez is going like gangbusters at the moment because of her idealistic cause, but I got a feeling she has no concept of compromise… yet. She’s leading a movement right now… that’s all. Movements tend to want change overnight. That’s not to say a movement is never going to work. Ideas have to start somewhere. But it will go nowhere unless she makes some compromises… many times will challenge your personal moralities. So being in politics is no way “easy street”… and to stay in it does take commitment.
The other thing is similar to wanting to comete in the Olympics. You have to start at an early age to practice and devote all toward winning the medal. Getting into politics is getting less and less about doing it at middle age. Vetting, formal or public media research, is going to reveal the garbage in your past life. Starting in politics earlier would help to “keep your house clean” from the get-go. Few are ready for that… and the public isn’t currently accepting “I was young and didn’t know any better.” even if you are in your 50’s.
It also helps is you can adapt your views (ala Nadler in your post) as long as you have an intelligent reason… because the ideals you had 20-30 years ago likely have changed by now. One needs to stay relevant.
@Doug
That was incoherent. Can you put what you are trying to say in a single sentence, a theme sentence?
Yes Doug, can you paint your face orange, adopt a clown quaffing, and scream your hatred as jingoistic slogans please? Then you will be as coherent as the dear leader of the Republican Party. 😊
@tsalmon
Fine. Since you are soooo reasonable don’t spend most of commentary explaining how hateful Trump is, you are welcome to summarize Doug’s comment into a single sentence. Just don’t make one sentence three pages long. Yeah, I know English majors and lawyers think that is a great challenge. Why prize brevity and clarity over endless babble?
Sorry Tom, but I found Doug’s comment pretty coherent.
Don’t you even get how all this conservative moralizing against the opposition leadership might amount to endless irony (if not grand hypocrisy) given the disregard for basic moral integrity proclaimed and practiced by your own leader?
Doug is just trying to say that public service by both sides means making imperfect choices that are far from black and white. Like Doug, I find curiously mesmerizing this Republican absolutism that sees as fatal every flaw of every Democrat and yet manages to willfully ignore the unabashed arrogant promotion of selfishness and mendacity by Trump.
It would be comedic except that constant moralizing seems to negate the humility needed to laugh at oneself, to see and smile when you look in the mirror to see the giant orange beam in your own eye.
I know that you Trump fans try to avoid taking him literally, but really, how do Republicans actually manage to take Trump seriously, especially when being so morally judgmental about every Democrat?
@tsalmon
Could not do it, could you?
Standard procedure for demagogic Democrats is calling Republicans names. Standard procedure for demagogic Democrats is to claim to be above name calling and in the same sentence call Republicans names. At least in his commentary Doug managed to avoid the name calling. His comment just missed the point of this post. To appear “reasonable”, politicians may wish to appear to be willing to compromise, but there is no basis for it. Because Liberal Democrats seek to destroy their opponents, there is no point in seeking compromise.
Let’s look at the great Liberal Democrat issues: open borders and open elections (including voting by the dead), Socialism (single payer health care was just the latest), ownership of children by the state (abort the ones nobody wants and take over the education of the rest), moral issues decided by the state (for the sake of “tolerance), global warming, majoratarian tyranny, 16 year-old voting,….
Where is the basis for compromise with that kind of mindless savagery? Demagogic Democrats don’t discuss issues. They just invent crises and then characterize their opponents as stupid, brainwashed, or evil. To compromise with that kind of crap is suicide.
You read me right, buddy. Did you hear today that he’s going to the border to include some ridiculous ceremony to place a plaque with his name on it? Ugh. the man hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing.
Hehehe…
@Doug
You should see him in the morning before he has his coffee.
Umm.. well, coffee aside.. if I see ANY man in the morning I’d probably have the urge to march in some parade and carrying some sign about my sexuality. 🙂 So far.. no urges like that. But.. life isn’t over………….. and the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Tom,
Interesting Post topic. How to get people involved in Government. I have come to the conclusion what is needed is an incentive for people to become involved in what their elected leaders are doing.
What are they doing other than to try to win the 2020 election?
Not much, in my opinion, other than to set the stage to incite Socialism on an uninformed and uninterested for the most part, American citizens.
In a previous post, I quoted a Washington Post statement which resulted. ““For Democrats, every waking moment……to gain control of the House in November.” As for Dreamers………. they can wait.”
Well, they won by using Health Care as their main focus. The GOP screwed up royally by trying to eliminate a government entitlement without having a solution, in other words, it is a lot easier to get votes if you promise a benefit rather than to take away a benefit.
What to do in my opinion, is to get people involved by getting their attention. The best way in America to get people involved is to make them understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
To get people involved is to make everyone pay minimum taxes, regardless of income. And if they want something more, to add surtaxes to each benefit.
I have been setting the stage with posts such as today on a minimum tax. In future posts, I will expand on the idea that we need incentives to get people involved in government to ward off the latest movement now identified as The Democrat Socialist Movement.
If interested,
https://rudymartinka.com/2019/04/04/king-solomon-congress-applauds-equal-taxes/
Regards and good will blogging.