American Mid-Term Elections Part 2

no time to celebrate, sez Republican

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/no_time_to_celebrate_PsPF42GE18iOTj6NBdyX0M

George Victor wrote:

Sven wrote:

thorin_bane wrote:

Oh I know, but what he doesn't get is it will take down the american empire with the tea party driving the bus.

If the Tea Party will help "take down the american empire," would it be a fair guess that you support the Tea Party?

 

Libertarians are not known for their social sensitivity, but this response takes the smarmy cake. What happens to so many people in the "taking down"?   What a clot.

They don't give a fuck... as long as they get a chance to bash the USA they're happy. It's just like in other message threads here: some just hate the USA so bad it makes them stupid. They'd cheer fire burning down a building full of orphans if the USA is the fire chief... they don't care about the consequences of the end result as long as the USA loses or suffers.

I see it here at work with politics as well; depending on whose president we always have one or two political nut cases here. We got a birther that rails all the time about Obama being a Muslim at the drop of a hat. Jon Stewart is right; politics drives some people crazy stupid and it reflects on to us all.  

AIPAC Lauds Re-election of Pro-Israeli Stalwarts

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-midterms-aipac-lauds-re-election...

"Pro-Israel group hails success for supporters on both sides of the political divide, as well as election of 3 new Jewish members of Congress...

'Many of the strongest friends and supporters of the US-Israel relationship were reelected on Tuesday,' the group said in a statement."

Stargazer wrote:

No religious laws should be implemented, including Sharia Law. I don't want ti here, why should anyone want it there? Sorry - I am not down with ANY religion mixed with the legal system

Sorry, it already is:

"Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of god and the rule of law.."

I take it that that portrays the thinking of the disenchanted "liberal" youth who wanted the pres. to move mountains, bdc?  "Jon Stewart is right; politics drives some people crazy stupid and it reflects on to us all.  "?

George Victor wrote:

I take it that that portrays the thinking of the disenchanted "liberal" youth who wanted the pres. to move mountains, bdc?  "Jon Stewart is right; politics drives some people crazy stupid and it reflects on to us all.  "?

Actually it portrays my attitude towards the disenchanted "liberal" youth who wanted the pres. to move mountains in less than two years. They're a bunch of naive quitters if you ask me.

As for the second part what I meant was the political extremist on both sides of the US political spectrum tend to get portrayed as typical Americans especially on the right, mostly because they tend to draw more attention to themselves and are a more interesting story... Jon Stewart covered that in his closing remarks at last weekends rally,

These people are also an embarrassment for the most part and sometimes it's just downright aggravating to have to sit there and watch it unfold.

You have my vote.  :)

And my sympathy.

Jon Stewart and the Left  -  by Bill Blum

http://www.counterpunch.org/blum11032010.html

"What does he have to teach the left? He himself would certainly not want you to entertain the thought that Jon Stewart is in any way a man of the left. Stewart in fact appears to dislike the left, perhaps strongly. He billed his rally as being 'for people who are politically unsatisfied but who are not ideological.' Really, Jon? You have no ideology?"

Why are you here?

America: Land of the Free (to be Stupid)

Quote:

For the first time in American history, then, social mobility has been replaced with class struggle. Europeans have always been mystified that poor people in this country don't rise up and throw potatoes at Donald Trump - instead, they make him a reality TV star. But that's because everyone here us sure they are going to be rich like him someday, too. Maybe tomorrow.

The American Dream, coupled with government subsidies of utilities and cheap consumer goods courtesy of slave labour somewhere else, has kept the poor huddled masses from rising up. But no more. They know better now. They are, so to speak, "tea-ed off".

Yet another example of [u]stupid[/u] people: [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/business/04delta.html][color=blue][u] The majority of voting Delta flight attendants[/u][/color][/url].

It treats non-voting members as negative votes?  I like that. Really encourages voter participation

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Actually it portrays my attitude towards the disenchanted "liberal" youth who wanted the pres. to move mountains in less than two years. They're a bunch of naive quitters if you ask me.

Actually Obama himself campaigned as if he could move mountains, then did not lift a finger to do anything. Let's take a look at some of Obama's failures since being elected:

Iraq-basically followed through on the Status of Forces Agreement signed by the Bush Administration. If the US is really withdrawing from Iraq, why are permanent military bases being constructed?

Afghanistan-Obama's prime objection to going into Iraq was that the focus should be on Afghanistan. No country in the world has a stronger history of resisting occupation than this one, and only when things really turned sour did Obama claim to want to dail down

Health care-no public option. Some of his senior staff complained that liberals wouldn't be happy unless they had "Canadian style health care." What's wrong with that? Single payer health care is on the mainstream political radar of every other industrialized country, yet Obama lumped advocates of single payer with the Tea Party Republicans who claimed that "Obamacare" would result in "death panels."

Climate change-no meaningful legislation actually made it through Congress.

And if the youth are disenchanted, so what? It thought in a democracy the leaders had to answer to the people, and that people had an inherent right to express that disenchantment. If you're unhappy with the results, instead of blaming voters, why can't you accept for a moment that your guy failed?

Sven wrote:

Last time I checked, people are free to vote in this country.

George Carlin described elections as "illusion of choice." The fact is, wealthy special interests throw huge amounts of money at both the Democratic and Republican parties, and anyone outside has a difficult time breaking in. As Bill Maher put it, you can choose from "the guy who voted for the first Wall Street bailout, or the guy who voted for the next ten."

No, American voters aren't stupid, they know the system is stacked in favour of the rich at the expense of average people. Why do you think that turnout in American elections is below the average of other industrialized countries?

Sven wrote:

Lard Tunderin Jeezus wrote:

America: Land of the Free (to be Stupid)

If the "downtrodden" in America don't rise up and destroy the existing system, many people attribute that failure to "the masses" either being under the boot of their masters (and therefore unable to rise up and destroy that system) or too stupid to know any better.

Last time I checked, people are free to vote in this country.  So, it must be that "the masses" are simply stupid.

They're only stupid if they don't vote for your side or agree with your politics.

Ralph Nader in 2012!

Thank goodness we have Sven and Bec to ridicule the deviant thoughts rampant in this forum.

Otherwise, we might get around to discussing the continuous disinformation campaign which has so many Americans convinced that Obama is a foreign-born Muslim socialist. Such ignorance does not materialize out of thin air, but rather from the public airwaves hijacked by Clear Channel, and freed to broadcast rightwing propaganda without restriction by the senile meatpuppet President, Ronald Reagan.

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Aristotleded24 wrote:

If you're unhappy with the results, instead of blaming voters, why can't you accept for a moment that your guy failed?

Obama isn't perfect, nobody is. My beef is with the voters who voted for him in 2008 and then pulled the plug after only two years... they should have supported him through his full 4 year term THEN pass judgment on him. Voting the Republicans back in was stupid.

Not sure too many Obama voters voted Republican this time.

The Democrats won moderate voters 55-42.  Independents who voted this year supported McCain over Obama 51-42.

The makeup of the electorate was much different than two years ago.  Much whiter, and much older.

Exit Polls

Sven's jab at Cuba is hilarious. Hilarious only because for someone who is so intelligent, he has absolutely no idea his country and it's political system is a fucking joke. Your country lets poor and working poor people DIE with no access to health care. It lets big lobbyists advocate from WITHIN your political system for big business. It holds no amount$$$ barred via donations to the most corrupt party's (both the Rethugs and the Dems). Your "democracy" is a fucking illusion and it scares me that you and others like you actually believe you live in one (and yes, I know you live in a Republic).

You have a mass of idiots (and NO, there is NOTHING even remotely like this on the left - nothing. So your straw man about there being two sides is pure bullshit) who voted to get rid of the minimum wage, to get rid of social security, and public education WTF and to repeal what little bit of the health care system there that takes on poor people. Your idiot citizens even want to BAN food stamps for the poor, and make their choices for them based on what others think they should buy. Your country is in massive debt, has extremely high unemployment, continues to ship jobs off to other countries and has the biggest inequality gap in the industrialized world. You have SWA to be proud of. I haven't even started in on the illegal wars, the bullshit trials, the pretence of neutrality.

Seriously, the US has become a cesspool of stupidity and rampant nationalist rage. It is beyond abhorrent.

Other than that, decent and caring Americans I know sure as fuck do not pretend they live in any sort of democracy. As if it will help the poor and homeless to vote for the Dems. What the fuck are they going to do for them besides fuck them over more as they move farther to the right to appease the vast majority of religious fucktards? Worse yet, your country is now as religious as any Islamic country. How do you like your democracy Sven?

Always Look On the Bright Side of Life (from Monty Python's Life ...And always look on the bright side of life... / Always look on the right side of life... / (Come on guys, cheer up!) / Always look on the bright side of ...

I thought that Stargazer's description of the naive American nailed it!

I love  what Stargrazer wrote, its the truth with no bullshit in between. Too bad Canada is going into the same direction. The U.S election campaign is kind of fun, its always like watching a blockbuster movie. You already kinow the ending, but you can't help but watch it anyways when nothing else is on.

My post was not a bash America post. It is "I'm frustrated as hell at the stupid fools who run shit in America". I have a hell of a lot of friends there who I care for deeply and I am fucking pissed, to say the least, that my friends who never asked for this shit are stuck with your two party horror of a democracy. I am tired of reading email after email begging people to come to fund-raiser after fund-raiser because my friends have no health care. I am tired of tea baggers and neo-cons taking away what little social safety net they need. If you can't see legitimate criticism and you aren't as mad as hell then I have no words for you.

In America today, pointing out the obvious truth makes you a leftist, so Nicolas Kristof of the NY Times just became one of us:

Quote:

Mounting evidence suggests that losing a job or a home can rock our identity and savage our self-esteem. Forced moves wrench families from their schools and support networks.

In short, inequality leaves people on the lower rungs feeling like hamsters on a wheel spinning ever faster, without hope or escape.

Economic polarization also shatters our sense of national union and common purpose, fostering political polarization as well.

So in this postelection landscape, let’s not aggravate income gaps that already would make a Latin American caudillo proud. To me, we’ve reached a banana republic point where our inequality has become both economically unhealthy and morally repugnant.

Heard a Harvard professor of American history tell Michael Enright this morning that the author of the American Pledge of Allegiance was a Christian socialist.  She has written something about the Tea Party movement based on her interviews with hundreds of them.  She said that few Americans really know sweet f. all about their beginnings, or the potential for change in their constitution.

One wanted to ask her just why Harvard was not up front and ringing the alarm bells about this, many, many years ago.  But of course, one does not risk the continuity of endowments, even for such a well-endowed place of higher learning for the establishment.