Politics

[Crazed_Insanity]

No, I never said trump base is acting rationally and defending their decision to support trump. Just saying trump swindled their votes and I understand why that happened. Sure, there are most likely nutcase racists in that base, but not all of them are racists.

If average Americans are well off enough, racists and trump would not be able to win. Even in 2016, Hillary did win most of the votes, just not enough to win the WH.

Lastly, average Americans are not highly educated. Most are gullible like me.

[Tom Servo]

But you're saying that if the democrats focused on living wages, they'd win over these voters. That's expecting rationality from them, isn't it?

Look at people like Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn -- the list goes on. They got elected on an "own the libs" platform, nothing more than that. Most of them seemed to campaign on very little more than "I'll stop those dirty democrat commies, and also here's a picture of me with a gun!"

[Crazed_Insanity]

When people are more well fed and happy with their lives, my assumption is that they will definitely become more rational and more capable of showing grace and mercy to others. Some natural born crazies and racists might never change, but I’m talking about ‘average Americans’ here.

The extremists are usually not the majority.

[Tom Servo]

Yes, this is true. The point is is that right now the extremists are a way larger proportion than they normally are, and as much as some outlets like the NY Times have tried to make this about "economic anxiety", the actual votes have not lined up along those lines. In fact, at least according to exit polling, poorer people voted for Hillary more than Trump.

Everything you're saying is normally the case, but the problem is that right now it's no longer the case. These are not normal times, which is what the article was trying to say.

[Crazed_Insanity]

The fact that Biden won proves that most Americans still are normal or at least yearning for normal. Even Hillary won more than 50% of the popular vote! So I think we ought to still have faith in majority of the Americans.

GQP are just better at playing the game. With attractive sounding speeches and personalities… and fully utilizing political BS rules to their advantage. Dems really need to learn to catch up in this area. How do you have majority of the votes, yet do not have majority of the congress?

Anyway, even when it comes to dealing with extremists, how do you fight them?

Whether it’s rational sense or superior fire power, it has proven to be not very effective in Middle East. We just cannot win by fighting them. No threats, bombs big enough to shock and awe them into submission. I cannot shove the gospel down your throat and people can beat the crap out of Jesus and Christianity can still spread…

Such are the quirks with human psychology I guess.

All I know is that if you truly have a vision to lead people to a better place, eventually people will follow.

Spending billions in resources fighting terrorists and trump is futile. Have a vision attractive enough, eventually you might be able to assimilate some people to your side.

Once the dems have a clear vision of who they are and where they want to go, GOP will be left in the dust.

[SportWagon]

Where I live, elections happen:

- At federal level they occur at a maximum of every three years, but the incumbent prime minister can call it sooner depending on how they feel their chances might go

- At state level it depends on the laws of the state, but they happen every four years in my state of Queensland - a law which changed after a referendum in 2016 with the first fixed term in effect now after the 2020 election in October

- At local council level they have fixed terms across the state where EVERY local government election happens every four years on the same day in March

Federal senate terms are six years (or every 2nd election) with half the senators being voted in on one election, and the other half being voted in on the next election. Recently there was a 'double dissolution' election where both chambers (upper and lower house) were fully dissolved and all members had to stand again. It's a gambit played where the government of the day seeks to achieve a majority in both houses in order to pass laws that have been stopped at senate level.

Do you ever have minority governments? Does the loss of a vote on a bill proposed by the party-in-power trigger an election in that case? (with, I thought, a non-confidence vote being a sort of "null bill" triggering this).

That would have been one expected scenario to have happened to Trudeau. It was strange that he simply called an election. To tell you the truth, the past year-and-a-half have been so stressful that it felt like the last federal elextion was longer ago than it was (2019). I guess the fact Trudeau has been Prime Minister since 2015 combined to create that feeling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion...ence#Australia

[neanderthal]

Spoiler:

The fact that Biden won proves that most Americans still are normal or at least yearning for normal. Even Hillary won more than 50% of the popular vote! So I think we ought to still have faith in majority of the Americans.

GQP are just better at playing the game. With attractive sounding speeches and personalities… and fully utilizing political BS rules to their advantage. Dems really need to learn to catch up in this area. How do you have majority of the votes, yet do not have majority of the congress?

Anyway, even when it comes to dealing with extremists, how do you fight them?

Whether it’s rational sense or superior fire power, it has proven to be not very effective in Middle East. We just cannot win by fighting them. No threats, bombs big enough to shock and awe them into submission. I cannot shove the gospel down your throat and people can beat the crap out of Jesus and Christianity can still spread…

Such are the quirks with human psychology I guess.

All I know is that if you truly have a vision to lead people to a better place, eventually people will follow.

Spending billions in resources fighting terrorists and trump is futile. Have a vision attractive enough, eventually you might be able to assimilate some people to your side.

Once the dems have a clear vision of who they are and where they want to go, GOP will be left in the dust.

Congratulations on making my point; the GOP is a fucking disaster, a real time walking talking trainwreck happening right before our eyes, ... and here comes billi to the rescue saying how confused and in disarray the, <checks notes> democrats are.

No introspection like i've said over and over. You and people like you are the problem; letting perfect get in the way of good. That's how the GOP stays in power; gullible fucking clowns like you busy criticising Democrats as corporate sellouts, propagating that everywhere, voting 3rd party, supporting fringe candidates (Tulsi, really?!?!?) and getting completely in the way of what Democrats are trying to do, gain enough power to govern with a liberal agenda.

Then you go strutting around, puffing your chest talmabout "Democrats are in power but can't do shit" when you and your ilk are literally the reason they can't.


If you leftists voted for Democrats we wouldn't have to kowtow to the Manchins and Sinemas of this world because we'd have a surplus of votes in the house and senate.

Bet you come back with a reply that shows just how little introspection you exercise.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I consider myself a liberal, so any political introspections would be to look within the liberal party. There are definitely a lot to blame on the right, I suppose we could just vent here because pretty much all conservative gtxfers have left the forum or left the party. We won’t be able to have any meaningful dialogue with the other side here. We’re simply each whining within our own bubbles…

If you’re expecting me to repent for the sin of not voting for Hillary, sorry, I don’t believe I need to apologize for not playing the lesser evil game. I don’t expect perfection, I just expect some body equal or better than Obama , not somebody who has already lost out to Obama. As for Sanders loses, I still kinda feel he lost unfairly both times… why does the dnc feel the need to interfere in the primary like that?

Anyway, I’m sufficiently happy with Biden. It took guts to tell big pharma to not profit off of Covid vaccines and to end forever wars.

Back to bitching at dems…

Obama’s audacity to hope and trumps MAGA sounded visionary and likely the catch phrases helped them get elected. However, I just don’t think the best we could hope for is to be able to retain the right for abortion or right for gay marriages, or hope they won’t repeal Obamacare… surely we can hope for something even bigger and more bipartisan?

I think even roofer knows how lame GQP politicians are, but he’s also into the lesser evil thing. Surely these lame ass GQP politicians are better than the commie socialists dems have to offer?

Just like forever wars. Terrorizing each other won’t ever work. Need to try to open more channels of proper communications thru the bubbles. Stop allowing politicians to play the I’m the lesser evil game. Dems have more popular votes, dems should be more powerful than they currently are. Dems and progressives are actually on the same team, we really don’t need to try to win Republican votes. Stop compromising and allowing this nation the drift right in the name of pragmatism.

[Yw-slayer]

Lol at the fact that Billi and the brainwashed hardcore "own the libs" Republicans get to vote. Lolllllllllll

[Crazed_Insanity]

That’s how democracy works. You don’t get to devalue somebody just because they’re different from you. Yes, I can understand living under a dictatorship can be less funny I suppose, so enjoy a good laugh while you can!