what's your political 'attitude' nowadays?

[mchookem 16225]

was just thinking about this a few days ago b/c my own attitude has changed in the past couple of years...how are you feeling?

Edited April 19, 2022 by mchookem

[tigol 2383]

was just thinking about this a few days ago b/c my own attitude has changed in the past couple of years...how are you feeling?

Angry. I’d like to go back to not knowing that 40% of the country is stupid as hell, batshit crazy, and unpatriotic selfish bastards.

[tigol 2383]

was just thinking about this a few days ago b/c my own attitude has changed in the past couple of years...how are you feeling?

Angry. I’d like to go back to not knowing that 40% of the country is stupid as hell, batshit crazy, and unpatriotic selfish bastards.

[tigol 2383]

was just thinking about this a few days ago b/c my own attitude has changed in the past couple of years...how are you feeling?

Angry. I’d like to go back to not knowing that 40% of the country is stupid as hell, batshit crazy, and unpatriotic selfish bastards.

[tigol 2383]

was just thinking about this a few days ago b/c my own attitude has changed in the past couple of years...how are you feeling?

Angry. I’d like to go back to not knowing that 40% of the country is stupid as hell, batshit crazy, and unpatriotic selfish bastards.

[SimonBolivar 10932]

There needs to be something between

 

TFG was an anomaly...overall we're headed in the right direction.

 

and

 

TFG broke us. we're done.

 

 

Also I had to use context clues on what "TFG" meant.

Edited April 19, 2022 by SimonBolivar

[lemonlime 5503]

Some combo of I'm exhausted and I give up, TFG broke us we're done, and I'm mad as hell.   Really just depressed, because it's become obvious we're done regardless of what anyone does, and we're just a nation of zombies who only give a fuck about me me me, guns, monster trucks, and destroying the planet.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33843]

I feel like she sums it up for me pretty well. except for the christian and mom parts. but minor details

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Longhorn_Fan68

[Underdog 28457]

That.  Was.  Awesome.

[Bullneck 18987]

The Repubs will impeach and convict Biden if they get a majority.  They will get a majority because Republican state legislatures will nullify the will of the people in any (but only) race won by Democrats.  

In 2024 Trump will be appointed president, unless he defers and picks Don, Jr.

 

The only way back is if at every state level Democrats can win seats to win majorities.  I'm not hopeful, though.

[Biff Tannen 45499]

Well I think we all know what Tigol thinks.

[F250 28691]

26 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I feel like she sums it up for me pretty well. except for the christian and mom parts. but minor details

 

That was a great speech.

She nailed it by saying accusing people of being groomers and pedos is just a way to dehumanize parents that oppose MAGA culture in the schools.

 

[956 Worldwide 34444]

Leaning towards the @Bullneck scenario here. It’s important to see that one party has openly admitted that they aren’t trying to convince most of the country to vote for them anymore.  No political movement in America has been above gerrymandering and playing the system to your strength, to get your folks out and keep others at home on election day— but we’ve never had one major party admit that they want to achieve minority rule and lay out so clearly how they’re going to do it. And that’s the kiss of death for a democracy— when major players decide to stop trying to actually win elections but instead get into power by other means. 

The other party is still playing by the old rules because they believe in them. It’s as if a team not only refused to use the forward pass, but they refused to even defend against it because they liked the old way better. 

[AnTiM 1659]

My attitude is simple, fuck donald trump, all his cronies and anyone who votes for them, ever.

[gmr548 16517]

Option 1 is the appetizer, Options 4 and 6 as the main course, with a nice Option 3 sauce served on the side, and the last one for dessert.

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

Disappointing that “Doomed” isn’t an option.  

[fattyflattie 4636]

I picked both sides, but several others probably apply. I feel like I have no voice from either party.  I feel like R’s don’t have an interest in fixing many of the problems we have, and D’s blow their wad shooting for the moon on everything and end up with Lucy pulling away the ball instead of just chipping away at it.  We’ll just continue to fight, and be divided I guess. 

[HornPhD 1364]

4 hours ago, tigol said:

Angry. I’d like to go back to not knowing that 40% of the country is stupid as hell, batshit crazy, and unpatriotic selfish bastards.

You can say that again…and again…and again…

[Satchel 6908]

3 hours ago, Underdog said:

That.  Was.  Awesome.

It was indeed. Seems Republicans have copied Putin’s playbook to the letter. Check out this partial transcript from TRMS:

https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/rachel-maddow-show/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-4-18-22-n1294580

Before he became what he is now, which is basically dictator for life, in the late `90s, Vladimir Putin was head of the FSB. He was head of the FSB when Boris Yeltsin was president of Russia in the late `90s. And Yeltsin, like lots of Russian leaders, had a corruption problem. More specifically, the problem Yeltsin had in 1997 was that there was a prosecutor in Russia who was investigating corruption at the highest levels in the Kremlin, including Yeltsin and his family.

And for a time, it seemed like that corruption investigation might be the undoing of Yeltsin and his family and his cronies. Vladimir Putin as head of the FSB took care of that problem for Boris Yeltsin. Putin arranged for a video to be broadcast on television that showed the prosecutor or somebody who maybe kind of looked like the prosecutor in bed with not one but two young very young females.

The video was low enough quality and it was shot from sort of oblique enough angles that you couldn`t necessarily tell with the naked eye who this grown man was with these girls in this bed. But Putin stepped up in his authority as head of the FSB. Vladimir Putin assured the Russian public that he could guarantee that the man in the video was in fact that prosecutor.

And so that was the end of that prosecutor and that was the end of the corruption investigation into Boris Yeltsin and his family. And in gratitude, or at least in payback, Boris Yeltsin decided that he would name as the next prime minister of Russia and then the next president of Russia that FSB guy who helped him out, Vladimir Putin.

That`s how Vladimir Putin rose to power in the first place in Russia. That`s how he got control of the Russian government by generating effectively a false pedophilia claim against just the right guy at just the right moment. That`s how he got into power.

Pedophilia, of course, is the most repulsive of all human behavior. It is so repulsive it is so evil that it makes us see red, right? It is almost literally unthinkable and it therefore understandably can make us stop seeing anybody who`s even accused of it as our fellow human. Anybody abetting it or even abiding it`s basically the same thing. Your brain just instantly goes to monster, right? Understandably, as it is the most repulsive of all human evil.

And when confronted with it, we almost can`t process it. And it is a deep dark thing to recognize that about human nature, right? The capacity of some people for that behavior for that level of evil and our collective massive human revulsion and rejection of that evil.

But recognizing that to decide that you`re going to try to harness that for political gain, that you`re going to make false accusations of that kind systematically to reduce your political opponents to non-human status, that is a horrific abuse of its own, and it has become one of the hallmarks of modern authoritarianism, not only in Russia but especially in Russia under Vladimir Putin. As I said, it`s basically how Putin got his job in the late 1990s.

I`ve recently been reading about the great purge, the great terror, and specifically Putin`s efforts now to erase evidence of it, to erase evidence of past Russian and past Soviet atrocities, it is amazing to me -- it shouldn`t be -- but it is amazing to me that they used false pedophilia charges against gulag historians for that to justify bulldozing that memorial site.

[21:15:11]

But that`s what they did and they`ve done that repeatedly. It`s an -- it`s an obvious and frequent enough political tactic in Putin`s Russia that in 2016, not long after our bizarre 2016 presidential election, "The New York Times" ran a feature on how this particular tactic kept coming up increasingly in Putin`s Russia. You see the headline there, foes of Russia say child pornography is planted to ruin them. The story of a veteran Soviet dissident who had resettled in Cambridge, England, had somebody hack into his computer and put child pornography images on his computer, images he had never seen and then they called the police on him and the police came in and grabbed his computer and sure enough they found all this terrible, terrible, terrible material which again had been planted by a third party which was not him.

A French citizen living in Russia working in a civil society group in Siberia, they did the same thing to him, planted it on him, called the police. They came in. Found the planted evidence, he fled the country.

A Russian environmental activist who had been chased out of Russia for his activism was living in exile Lithuania, he was working for a group that investigated Russian government corruption. They did the same thing to him, planted false evidence, called the authorities, the authorities find the false evidence. He`s ruined.

Quote: The idea that Europeans and Russian opponents of the Kremlin are all sexual deviants with the taste for pedophilia is a strange but recurring theme in Russian propaganda.

It`s so evil. It`s so like meta-level exploitative and evil and base and cynical, but, of course, they use it, right? Because once you`ve planted that kind of false evidence, once you`ve even made that kind of a false allegation, whether or not you plant the evidence, it`s not like a normal political allegation, even a normal criminal allegation, right, when it`s about that, it activates our animal revulsion.

And if that kind of a charge is made against somebody in politics, it effectively kills that person off as somebody who can participate in the debate and the argument in the fight anymore. They`re effectively declassified as inhuman and monstrous and they`re gone.

Vladimir Putin has been in power years now in Russia, and that particularly sick hallmark of his time in power has been a constant. He has used it against all different kinds of political opponents and it always works.

[Dutchrudder 11115]

4 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I feel like she sums it up for me pretty well. except for the christian and mom parts. but minor details

 

Democrats need a lot more of this.

[mchookem 16225]

hmm i see none of our resident assholes have voted...i made it anonymous guys! 😆

[Hookah Horns 3082]

Lately I'm mostly pissed at how inept the Ds are at the combat that is modern politics and their general failure to effectively counter the Magat insanity. 

[Anastasis 23394]

2 hours ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

Disappointing that “Doomed” isn’t an option.  

"Political Death Spiral" imo. 

[fattyflattie 4636]

26 minutes ago, mchookem said:

hmm i see none of our resident assholes have voted...i made it anonymous guys! 😆

Uhh.  Post #17...

[David Dennison 18661]

7 hours ago, Bullneck said:

The Repubs will impeach and convict Biden if they get a majority.  They will get a majority because Republican state legislatures will nullify the will of the people in any (but only) race won by Democrats.  

In 2024 Trump will be appointed president, unless he defers and picks Don, Jr.

 

The only way back is if at every state level Democrats can win seats to win majorities.  I'm not hopeful, though.

They need two thirds to convict, so they won't be doing that.

[mchookem 16225]

1 hour ago, fattyflattie said:

Uhh.  Post #17...

touche' 😋

ok...i see Sack and Cement haven't voted lol

[RomaVicta 29795]

I'm a straight ticket Dem who prefers to vote for persons who are not white men. These people are our best hope for the republic no matter how pitiful and disorganized they can be.

More importantly, I'm in the pro-republic side of the fight over what we will become. It serves the GЯP if we keep thinking we're involved in and witnessing any semblance of real deliberative bodies in the Capitol Building. One side doesn't give a rat's ass about finding good policies for the US. They exist only to serve themselves.

Politics as usual is the football game in the stadium. The pro-republic/anti-republic battle is the war going on outside the stadium. I'm repeating the metaphor because I think it's apt.

I like the idea of a poll, mcHookem, but I don't think the choices are quite right. 

[staboner 4959]

2 hours ago, Anastasis said:

"Political Death Spiral" imo. 

[staboner 4959]

Death Spiral for I dunno 2 decades almost. My language to describe it has matured a bit, and thats cool, but whatever, doesn't matter. its simply inevitable. 

since the auto bailout i have shifted my disgust for the boomer generation for the most part. STOP FUCKING WITH THE MONEY PEOPLE. Rule fucking 1 of fight club. the American in me wants to respect business and the market and each party is a 2 second populist goatfuck since we invaded Iraq (or since 9/11). take your pick.  go back to Clinton if you want in terms of allowing for our economy to be completely taken over by bankers. Makes me ragey to be both the pinnacle of US running shit in the 90s to being a complete fucking disaster ever since. 

Edited April 20, 2022 by staboner

[South Austin 52148]

I swear, if we have another losing record in football this year . . . .

[TwiceHorn 31285]

Here's my deal.  I am virulently anti-Republican, currently.

And, I like what most Democrats stand for in the most general ways.  Meaning, I like where their policies "come from," without necessarily liking the policy itself or its proffered implementation.  So I can't get behind them 100%, but I have no alternative.

If we had an even semi-functional political system, where the Republicans participated in good faith, we could actually debate these policies, "hone" them, and maybe actually solve some problems and get shit done.  But we don't.

It's a very unsatisfying place to be.

I am not 100% convinced the Trumpkins are going to succeed in establishing a fascist dictatorship.  But I admit that it is going to be a near thing and I am nervous about it.

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11668]

Voted we’re done.  I was shocked trump was elected because I had no idea that so many people are fundamentally against American values. (Lock her up!, the press is the enemy of the American people, and Muslim ban are probably the clearest examples of being antiAmerican as you could get and each was discussed before the election)  They still hold those positions.  There is no way to change that with the current crop of humans.  
 

My wife runs a school.  I tell her it is all up to her.  Without just a better group of people to replace us, we are done. 

 

Coda:

As I typed the above examples it makes me re-grouse about how poorly served we were by the political pundits in 2016.  One of the debates discussed those topics above, and it was the one where trump said bad hombres.  I didn’t think two seconds over bad hombres then saw it was the major headline the next day.  Who gives a fuck? Are you not going to mention the actual crazy policies he’s advocating?! You’re going to be upset about indelicate language in the face of actual authoritarianism?! Real life “show me the person, I’ll show you the crime” happening in our country! Jesus fuck. 

[TwiceHorn 31285]

1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Here's my deal.  I am virulently anti-Republican, currently.

And, I like what most Democrats stand for in the most general ways.  Meaning, I like where their policies "come from," without necessarily liking the policy itself or its proffered implementation.  So I can't get behind them 100%, but I have no alternative.

If we had an even semi-functional political system, where the Republicans participated in good faith, we could actually debate these policies, "hone" them, and maybe actually solve some problems and get shit done.  But we don't.

It's a very unsatisfying place to be.

I am not 100% convinced the Trumpkins are going to succeed in establishing a fascist dictatorship.  But I admit that it is going to be a near thing and I am nervous about it.

Refining my thoughts on this.  I'm kind of like a Republican when it comes to "libruls": nope, nope, nope. Except I am noping Republican everything.

And I really don't like being there.  But the Republicans don't offer anything serious that merits a response other than "nope."

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11668]

1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

Refining my thoughts on this.  I'm kind of like a Republican when it comes to "libruls": nope, nope, nope. Except I am noping Republican everything.

And I really don't like being there.  But the Republicans don't offer anything serious that merits a response other than "nope."

you sound like a groomer to me

[The Original Greaser Bob 2799]

Didn't see anything that fit.

Attitude:  Good.   Obviously, the prevalence of extreme stupidity and the literal deification of idiocracy is exhausting, but you just need to put your stoic big boy pants on and try to avoid the noise.

The fact that one can vote and speak up at the very least provides some direction - get involved in the lower level races where you can.  I've decided not to give any money to politicians so all I try to do is a bit of working for individual candidates and sport a yard sign or bumper sticker now and again.

[The Original Greaser Bob 2799]

9 hours ago, Hookah Horns said:

Lately I'm mostly pissed at how inept the Ds are at the combat that is modern politics and their general failure to effectively counter the Magat insanity. 

You have amazing faith that the American people will all of a sudden respond favorably to a strong message. 

WTF gives that kind of faith? 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10145]

I'm in the meh... category based on the choices. The Republican party has just left the building. They don't even make sense to themselves.

I'm concerned that the Democrats seem to consider any and all non-Democrats as "one of those people", just a homogeneous bunch.

Without politicians willing to stand in the middle / near the middle there is no hope and both sides are to blame. Sure one side can be blamed way more than the other but that's not going to fix it, only likely to speed it up the spiral. I know people are calling for fighting nastier, but I don't see how that has any chance of working or getting us to a better place. 

[Hookah Horns 3082]

41 minutes ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

You have amazing faith that the American people will all of a sudden respond favorably to a strong message. 

WTF gives that kind of faith? 

Do you not think messaging matters at all or what? 

I'm not saying effective messaging is going to drastically shift anything. It's about the fight for the undecided people in the middle. A lot of those people have responded favorably to the Rs bullshit about culture wars and socialism, etc. They need to be made to see that the Rs are authoritarian obstructors who have no governing ideas at all. The Rs are sitting ducks for all kinds of attacks. The Lincoln Project has the right idea, but it needs to start coming from the Dem candidates.

[Wally Pryor 5244]

I hate radicalism of any political persuasion. That includes right-wing nut job conservatives and progressively liberal socialists. They all suck, exponentially. There seems to be no middle ground, no sensibility, no pragmatism. It's way, way right. Or way, way left. Either way, fuck all of those types. It's why we're so fucked. 

[RomaVicta 29795]

1 hour ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

Didn't see anything that fit.

Attitude:  Good.   Obviously, the prevalence of extreme stupidity and the literal deification of idiocracy is exhausting, but you just need to put your stoic big boy pants on and try to avoid the noise.

The fact that one can vote and speak up at the very least provides some direction - get involved in the lower level races where you can.  I've decided not to give any money to politicians so all I try to do is a bit of working for individual candidates and sport a yard sign or bumper sticker now and again.

At the welcome urging of my beloved, I show up for most elections now. On my own, I was one of the bad citizens who only votes in national elections. As I've mentioned before, locally I'm a member of the Austin Chronicle Party. They study the issues and align with my political attitude. Easy peasy. 

I recommend finding a local publication that you trust and doing the same thing if you're bored by local shit and are reluctant to vote about things you don't know about. You know the idiotbots on the other side are showing up using the same method as advocated by the anti-republic party/church.

[Mdhorn 5911]

26 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

I hate radicalism of any political persuasion. That includes right-wing nut job conservatives and progressively liberal socialists. They all suck, exponentially. There seems to be no middle ground, no sensibility, no pragmatism. It's way, way right. Or way, way left. Either way, fuck all of those types. It's why we're so fucked. 

Really, there's no middle ground?  Is Biden taking away our guns?  Is Biden trying keep our nation safe from the Corona Virus?  Is Biden stumping on making our education system free or dumping all college loans despite pressure to do so? Is Biden expanding drilling and opening petroleum reserves in an effort to reduce gas prices while our own petroleum industry fights him and Americans by artificially inflating them?  Is Biden working on affordable to free health care and building green energy for the future--that's common sense, especially when tyrants benefit from petroleum?  Is Biden trying to pass legislation to up taxes on the rich to pay their fare share which would lower taxes on the middle class?  I think these are middle of the road concerns or should be.  What far left legislation is being passed?      

Edited April 20, 2022 by Mdhorn

[wildcat09 29260]

17 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I feel like she sums it up for me pretty well. except for the christian and mom parts. but minor details

 

This is great, but it makes me so fucking mad that a fucking state senator did this before any national-level Democrat. This isn't hard. Every fucking Democrat should be saying shit like this constantly. Talk about your actual values and attack the GOP for being the cretins they fucking are instead of constantly talking about how actually you don't want to defund the police.

[RomaVicta 29795]

27 minutes ago, Hookah Horns said:

Do you not think messaging matters at all or what? 

I'm not saying effective messaging is going to drastically shift anything. It's about the fight for the undecided people in the middle. A lot of those people have responded favorably to the Rs bullshit about culture wars and socialism, etc. They need to be made to see that the Rs are authoritarian obstructors who have no governing ideas at all. The Rs are sitting ducks for all kinds of attacks. The Lincoln Project has the right idea, but it needs to start coming from the Dem candidates.

The truth about the anti-republic GOP is not hidden. Any "undecided" who has cast a vote for the GOP is not really undecided. Any undecided who can't/won't see what's going on has proven to be just about impervious to messaging.

The Jan. 6 revolutions was indeed televised. The stellar oratory of Schiff and Raskin (et alia) was broadcast live and also delivered in the news. Mitch McConnel's actions to delay Supreme  Court appointments and stifle investigations of wrong-doing are common knowledge.

I think messaging serves the purpose of keeping your own guys enthused and involved. For Dems it's Build Back Better. For GOPs it's Smear the Queer.

One side leads a political movement. The other side leads a lynch mob.

[RomaVicta 29795]

20 hours ago, mchookem said:

was just thinking about this a few days ago b/c my own attitude has changed in the past couple of years...how are you feeling?

I think your poll has triggered a reset of expressing political beliefs and fears outside of a specific topic. Pos rep.

[pyrohornIII 4809]

11 hours ago, Hookah Horns said:

Lately I'm mostly pissed at how inept the Ds are at the combat that is modern politics and their general failure to effectively counter the Magat insanity. 

There is no counter to Fox, OAN and whoever else is pushing that GOP schlock, nationally, statewide or locally.   And Trump and his crusade to discredit MSM has done its damage too. 

The D's can have the best message ever, but getting it delivered consistently is difficult.  Because years ago when the indoctrination started with Fox, Rush, etc., the Dems felt that these people were fringe and the voters would see through their schtick.  But it just grew and now it's near insurmountable.   

 

[wildcat09 29260]

6 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

There is no counter to Fox, OAN and whoever else is pushing that GOP schlock, nationally, statewide or locally.   And Trump and his crusade to discredit MSM has done its damage too. 

The D's can have the best message ever, but getting it delivered consistently is difficult.  Because years ago when the indoctrination started with Fox, Rush, etc., the Dems felt that these people were fringe and the voters would see through their schtick.  But it just grew and now it's near insurmountable.   

 

Sure, but not crafting a message at all because it's difficult to deliver is just giving up on politics entirely. If they don't want the fucking job, they shouldn't campaign for it. 

[Sbbruin 21738]

I'm adopting the @Brisketexan approach of "we're all fucked, and there's nothing we can do about it."  It's just easier that way.

[Hookah Horns 3082]

39 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

The truth about the anti-republic GOP is not hidden. Any "undecided" who has cast a vote for the GOP is not really undecided. Any undecided who can't/won't see what's going on has proven to be just about impervious to messaging.

The Jan. 6 revolutions was indeed televised. The stellar oratory of Schiff and Raskin (et alia) was broadcast live and also delivered in the news. Mitch McConnel's actions to delay Supreme  Court appointments and stifle investigations of wrong-doing are common knowledge.

I think messaging serves the purpose of keeping your own guys enthused and involved. For Dems it's Build Back Better. For GOPs it's Smear the Queer.

One side leads a political movement. The other side leads a lynch mob.

The Rs picked up a lot of votes from Hispanics by blaring socialism bs nonstop. And I'm sure there were many turned off  voting D because of "defund the police."

There are tons of extremely low information voters out there who make their decision based in large part on small soundbites or headlines they've picked up. 

The Ds should even mix in some outrageous lies about the Rs because bullshit gets more traction these days. 

[mchookem 16225]

[High Plains Drifter 10978]

18 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I feel like she sums it up for me pretty well. except for the christian and mom parts. but minor details

 

 

 

I noticed that during the speech, she kept looking up in the same direction, like she was looking at the same person. Hopefully that person was the one who called her a groomer.

She's a better person than I, because depending on the side of the bed I had woken up on that morning, I might have ended that speech by walking over to the person who called me a groomer and slapping the fuck out them Will Smith style.