Politics has been a lot of rules for thee but not for me.
US continues to go backward...
- Thread starter PF5
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Politics has been a lot of rules for thee but not for me.
Has the conservative party which ever one it's named at the time ever been different than this maybe they've been not as out in the open or is forward about it, but this is the same party as Nixon. This is the same party as the Confederates they have always done what's good for them and it doesn't matter what anybody that they hurt in their way that has been the conservative way in this country since the beginning so I don't know how people keep thinking that the party has changed. The only difference is they're actually open about it
I just don't agree. Of course no political party has ever had perfect behavior. But, the world of Reagan, Bush, Dole, Colin Powell, Condaleza Rice and Trump world are just not the same.
Someone saw MTG somehow become a voice of reason before leaving and realized the title of most insane person in congress is now available.
Those people yes but all at the same time those others were in politics. And you act like Reagan was clean. There were numerous big scandals during his terms. Colin Powell was not the same. I'm not saying scandals don't happen under democrats either. But the scandals that tend to be anti democracy and trying to take rights away. That's been all conservative admins.
I’m not saying anyone is clean or that there have not been scandals. But calling what happened/how conservatives acted in the past the same as what is happening now simply downplays the unbelievable things occurring now. Iran-contra if it occurred today would barely last a news cycle if it made the news at all. And about $4 million dollars went to the Contras. The whole affair was $48 million which is around $148 million in todays dollars. Trump got UAE sheiks to spend $499 million on his crypto company in exchange for guarded AI chips right when he was getting inaugurated. Crickets. Barely registers as a controversy.
It isn’t the same ol’ thing. This is a sea change.
It's blatant now yes. But just because it's out in the open now doesn't mean that things like the watergate tapes, Iran contra, hell the there's rumors that republicans held up the Iranian hostage crisis until after the election(not saying it is true but it's more believable when you look at the things the party has done), Scalias position being held then RBG pushing it through quickly and anti civil rights. You seem to be concerned that it's out in the open. I'm saying they have always been the party of anti democracy and racism. And I'm meaning American conservatives as a whole. Not every one in the Conservative Party is bad. But a lot have been complicit.
Polds4OSU
Marshall
ALEX KARP: "You need a higher purpose, and I think you often need a lower purpose...I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us.”
This man is in charge of the US military's largest surveillance and data contractor.
www.threads.com
This man is in charge of the US military's largest surveillance and data contractor.
sami sage (@sami) on Threads
ALEX KARP: "You need a higher purpose, and I think you often need a lower purpose...I love the idea of getting a drone and having light fentanyl-laced urine spraying on analysts that tried to screw us.” This man is in charge of the US military's largest surveillance and data contractor.
www.threads.com
Polds4OSU
Marshall
FBI Informant Who Lied About the Bidens Covertly Released From Jail
Alexander Smirnov pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to six years in jail.
newrepublic.com
Alexander Smirnov pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to six years in jail.
FBI Informant Who Lied About the Bidens Covertly Released From Jail
Alexander Smirnov pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to six years in jail.
newrepublic.com
It's funny, I would describe myself exactly how Colin Wright describes himself, my core beliefs and principles have not changed. The "me" in the diagram I think And yet not a single one of the liberal or progressive members of this forum call me a racist or a Nazi.
If you don't want to be called a racist or a Nazi then don't be a racist or a Nazi.
I've corrected the illustration to better corrected my own experience.
If you don't want to be called a racist or a Nazi then don't be a racist or a Nazi.
I've corrected the illustration to better corrected my own experience.
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Your comparison misses the issue of scale. When you combine decades of scandals and compare them to a single year, it can make things look equivalent when it is nowhere near the same. To me, it’s less about whether actions were public or hidden, and more about how often they occur. Historically, major controversies happened occasionally, now they are constant.
Neither party has a spotless record. There have been anti-democratic or troubling actions across the political spectrum, look at the LWV removal from the debates, look at what the Dems did to yank Bernie in 2016. None of that is democracy. Democrats in the past have been racist, look at LBJ or even early Joe Biden. It’s easy to notice faults more readily in the side we oppose.
My view is that the current situation represents a meaningful escalation rather than just “more of the same.” Framing it as equivalent risks minimizing extreme differences that matter. I have never been worried that any of those prior presidents could end our democratic republic. That is a current concern. You will not be able to frame this in a way that makes them seem the same to me.
As a thought experiment: if you could choose the current president from Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Nixon, or Trump, would you just say "Meh, all the same. No need to raise the dead, we might as well stick with Trump." I would not. I don't believe those men, despite their flaws, were authoritarian bigots like Trump. And that’s why I don’t view the present moment as typical conservative politics.
I was too young to be a Republican in any meaningful way during the Nixon years. I turned 18 in 1979 and my very first presidential vote was for Reagan. So, I can't say for sure whether or not I would have left the party because of Nixon. But right now, given the choice between Trump, Obama, Clinton or Carter, I would vote for any of the latter three in a heartbeat. I exclude Biden. I think when history books are finally written many years from now this will be remembered as the "Trump-Biden era".
Has the left really moved that far left? On some social issues (like transgender rights) I can see it but alot of it has turned into purity tests instead of acceptance.
For example I believe in body autonomy but I also think we should be promoting gender identity treatment with minors. I think that's pretty reasonable and I would assume that 20 years ago people who would have been more supportive of that with parental consent would have said we disagree but we can have a conversation about it. Now it seems like if you don't want 3 year olds to act like a different sex and receive treatment for it you are a bigot in the eyes of some. Telling someone you are a terrible person for not believing in something to the extent I believe in it doesn't seem like a progressive ideology.
I hear alot that our left is more center in Europe and they have really leftist policies. I don't have the world experience to give a valid opinion on it but wonder how true that is or if I am just reading bs about it on reddit and that is influencing what Im saying here. And to be fair Im more asking the question than trying to make a point. Because it seems like stuff like border reform on the left really hasn't moved that far left, you just have fear mongering on the right that everyone who isn't fully supportive of Trump is for open borders. I think it's ok to say what Trump is doing now is reprehensible but what Biden did the first part of his term was a massive and unnecessary overcorrection to Trump's original policies.
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