McCroskey

Fair. Where I disagree is this continued notion that republicans suck and there's nothing Biden (or any president, for that matter), can do about it. I don't readily accept defeatism. Big surprise.

I don't think I'm smarter than everyone else, in fact engaging like this reminds me how poorly I sometimes get my opinions across in message board world. Disagree that not committing to a side is lazy...at present both parties are abject disasters. There is a reason nearly half of the population now identifies as independent.

Not at all. See my post above about Thasunda Brown Duckett. It's been ignored thus far, I guess either people disagree with her qualities or it's just part of my apparent troll act. We are fortunate to have a lot of those types of people amongst us, and they are hestitant to get involved. We'd be better off if they did.

If that makes you feel better, so be it.

Dishonesty...that's interesting and I'm sorry you feel that way. Lincoln led the defense of the Union and helped abolish slavery. Yes, he was president during our most divisive years but his actions undoubtedly made things better for the nation and for our people in the end, and he paid for it with his life.

Agree to disagree. Sorry my takes piss you off so much.

Happy to share names but please don't ignore the context, which is the longer term need to expand the pool and refine the process from which we attract, vet, and select political candidates. I understand pulling someone out of the private sector is an unlikely/unrealistic expectation at present, but perhaps there are ways to introduce more of the notable people I'm speaking about to the public at large. Let's start with someone like Thasunda Brown Duckett. I love her views on various financial topics and she gets into some specifics in this clip that resonate with what I'm "poorly" trying to say in this thread. She's clearly hesitant to get involved in our political spectrum and that's a real shame, I think we'd all benefit if she did.

Thank you for your meaningful contribution.

He managed to garner a 2/3 majority on a constitutional amendment when doing so seemed impossible. You can think he was the most divisive, but I disagree.

You seem to have difficulty grasping the macro element of things. No person is going to garner 100% support. Every president will have enemies, and people that vehemently disagree with anything and everything they do. Our country and its leaders are fraught with issues but if you think Lincoln, for example, divided more people than he brought together, and the country was worse off when he died than before he took office, then I would say you are wrong.

Well said. While possible I’m not suggesting the best fix for now is to pluck a man or woman running a large business and put them in the Oval Office, I was simply saying our brightest minds are not turning to public service at the rates we need. We definitely have a pool of talent in our existing political circles, but I also think we have a much larger pool of talent outside those circles, as well. The world is rapidly changing and we need more effective problem solvers in positions of leadership. As you say, the mob will try to hold us back.

If you think Lincoln being assassinated was symbolic of a nation’s broad opinion on him, well, I can’t help you. Hell, Garfield won an election and a mentally ill man shot him four months in, does that mean he was divisive too? Many of our past presidents made flawed decisions, but they and the country were products of their time. Look at how Biden himself has changed in a number of key social areas. We’ve obviously evolved, thankfully.

Are you that ignorant on the matter? Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Jefferson, Wilson. It’s easy to go on. Some had success for various periods over their terms, others managed to enact change with meaningful long term benefits to the country and the people.

Fucking awful!! Goes back to my point, things have gotten so toxic we’re down to career politicians and blowhards like Trump who enjoy slinging shit and feeding off the worst in people.

MANY of them have done a great job of managing it and/or making it better.

Thinking he has to perform miracles is a cop out. He’s not even trying to address these things. But, I’m sure simply “trying” something better is also an absurd notion.

The only way to compromise with them is to outsmart them…so for our sake I hope to hell you are wrong.

Well said, I only disagree in that I think there are many capable “ready now” leaders out there, they just happen to run businesses or are in otherwise non-political roles.

Thank you for proving one of my points.

He’s 80. If he had any ability to help us reform education, reduce the divisiveness in our society, improve our fiscal/monetary system, more responsibly manage government spending, etc…we’d have seen it by now. Not knowing how to do something = incompetent.

That’s a tremendous question, one I’d much rather discuss over a coffee or beer. It’s not so much what he’s doing in his first term, but rather what he’s not doing. I don’t think Biden is capable of addressing the largest issues that need addressing in our society, and quite frankly, very few of our current politicians seem interested and/or capable of addressing them. As a society, our finest minds are no longer gravitating to the political spectrum at the rates we need them to be. Serving the public shouldn’t be viewed as toxic, yet it is, and that doesn’t bode well for us long term. Regardless of where you fall on the policy spectrum, we’ve gotten to a point in this country where politics drives far more emotion and hatred than it should, which coupled with the meteoric rise of technology, social media, etc…over the last 20+ years, and I think we’re in a situation that’s going to require different forms of leadership to start pulling us back on a more long term, sustainable path. Biden is a career public servant, and has obviously had a very successful, noble career in serving the people of Delaware, but in my view he’s incapable of unifying disparate groups of people around the rest of the country. Many of his policies are popular with larger segments of the population, but they aren’t effective. And whether he likes it or not and no matter how badly you or anyone else hate republicans, they aren’t going away so you might as well figure out how to deal with them and their bullshit policies. We’ve seen the parties flip ideals over time so clearly it can be done. We need leaders who can start tackling issues and garnering things such as 2/3 majorities again. Think about how normal that used to be and how impossible that seems at present.

Are you saying Joe is a good option? Or just that Joe is a better option than Trump. I agree with the latter, but, that alone doesn’t really help anyone. At the end of the day he’s completely incompetent for the job that needs to be done. Super nice guy though.

You talk shit like Trump. Is that on purpose?

I would sure hope so. But, I might just stick around…my opinions may not be popular with everyone but seeing people like you get bent out of shape is worth a little bit of neg rep every now and then.

LOL. CR always delivers.