19 replies to this topic

[Jill]

Nicely said, Jill.

I agree with much of that, but have so many problems with so many things the Democratic Party does. As much as I find many GOP efforts to either regulate morals or deregulate economics to be genuinely harmful or hateful, I similarly find myself constantly rolling my eyes at some of the nonsense that comes from the Democrats. If they stuck to the things you said above and made a consistent pitch to that end, I think they'd be tough to beat. But, instead, I see two things repeatedly that just kill their brand. First, is hypocrisy. As bad as it is for the GOP to be in the pockets of the rich, it's much worse for the Democrats to claim to work for normal people and then hamstring them. This can be tied directly to the role of special interests in politics (i.e. money), but for this to change it HAS to be driven by Democrats...God knows Republicans won't try to fix this problem. The second problem I have is that they DO overlegislate. I find efforts to address major societal problems, such as 15% of our population being without health insurance, to be laudable goals. I find efforts to address EVERY problem of society with some sort of regulation to be laughable. Every time I hear about some town trying to ban the Happy Meal because we have fat kids, I think to myself "Yup...and that's why you lose".

Agreed that we could use a real, SMART, conservative party. Conservatism has some good things to say, but those things are drowned out by nonsense like death panels, xenophobia, and the verbal fellating of Reagan. Of course, it would ALL be better with something OTHER than a two party system.

Holy Crap, Freedom, you hit the nail on the head with that over-legislating thing! But the most critical thing that you said, which must be considered by voters in this particular economic circumstance, is "God knows Republicans won't try to fix this problem."

And when our only choices are a party who is at least willing to acknowledge the problem exists in the first place and, as you said, DO something - anything - to try to fix it, and a party who continues to proclaim there is no problem, the choice should be clear to anyone who cares about the future of this country.

The first thing we have to do is get the legislators in there who want to fix things, get rid of the ones who are actively preventing change from happening, and then hold their feet to the fire to do the right thing. That's why I have my blog with my "Action Center." http://reelectdemocr...ion-center.html It is our job as citizens to tell our representatives how we expect them to legislate. That's the entire purpose of a Representative Democracy. We now see clearly what happens when we abdicate that responsibility to the paid lobbyists. It ain't pretty.

Good points. That piece reminded me of the Frum piece so I thought I would post it and see what you guys thought about it. I also agree that neither party is perfect and both have flaws and areas for improvement.

My darling friend artcinco, that piece was nothing like the Frum piece. The Frum piece was self-reflection; an acknowledgment that his own party that he has supported for decades has become unrecognizable to him. This was a hatchet job against the opposing party of the author. I hope you can see the difference?

Frankly, I think we could use a genuinely fiscally conservative party in this country. It's a damn shame we don't have one.

I agree. I've said for a while now that I'd consider voting for a conservative...if I actually saw one.

I can honestly say I will never in my lifetime vote for a conservative. Not when their social views are so completely opposite of what I stand for. I'd be ashamed of myself if I ever did.

Note that I qualified it as "fiscally" conservative. Social conservatism can fuck off and die.

[freedom78]

Nicely said, Jill.

I agree with much of that, but have so many problems with so many things the Democratic Party does. As much as I find many GOP efforts to either regulate morals or deregulate economics to be genuinely harmful or hateful, I similarly find myself constantly rolling my eyes at some of the nonsense that comes from the Democrats. If they stuck to the things you said above and made a consistent pitch to that end, I think they'd be tough to beat. But, instead, I see two things repeatedly that just kill their brand. First, is hypocrisy. As bad as it is for the GOP to be in the pockets of the rich, it's much worse for the Democrats to claim to work for normal people and then hamstring them. This can be tied directly to the role of special interests in politics (i.e. money), but for this to change it HAS to be driven by Democrats...God knows Republicans won't try to fix this problem. The second problem I have is that they DO overlegislate. I find efforts to address major societal problems, such as 15% of our population being without health insurance, to be laudable goals. I find efforts to address EVERY problem of society with some sort of regulation to be laughable. Every time I hear about some town trying to ban the Happy Meal because we have fat kids, I think to myself "Yup...and that's why you lose".

Agreed that we could use a real, SMART, conservative party. Conservatism has some good things to say, but those things are drowned out by nonsense like death panels, xenophobia, and the verbal fellating of Reagan. Of course, it would ALL be better with something OTHER than a two party system.

Holy Crap, Freedom, you hit the nail on the head with that over-legislating thing! But the most critical thing that you said, which must be considered by voters in this particular economic circumstance, is "God knows Republicans won't try to fix this problem."

And when our only choices are a party who is at least willing to acknowledge the problem exists in the first place and, as you said, DO something - anything - to try to fix it, and a party who continues to proclaim there is no problem, the choice should be clear to anyone who cares about the future of this country.

The first thing we have to do is get the legislators in there who want to fix things, get rid of the ones who are actively preventing change from happening, and then hold their feet to the fire to do the right thing. That's why I have my blog with my "Action Center." http://reelectdemocr...ion-center.html It is our job as citizens to tell our representatives how we expect them to legislate. That's the entire purpose of a Representative Democracy. We now see clearly what happens when we abdicate that responsibility to the paid lobbyists. It ain't pretty.

Nice blog and I agree with the principle of directing them on how to legislate.

I do, however, see two problems.

The first is that we live in a society where volume matters. The loud will win. And the stupid are very loud. This country supports universal healthcare. They elected a President whose main goal was universal healthcare. And then the right yelled. Repeatedly and falsely, but they yelled and people said "oh...this seems like a bad idea". And then the GOP said "see...people don't want this socialism".

The second is that this is hard to do for the left. I say that because of the contrast of left and right. Look at the GOP...their goal in many issues of complexity is to tear down, remove, or simplify to the harm of us all (think "999"). That's easy. It's simpler to say "I don't like that, take it down" than to adequately and effectively describe what you DO like and show how to build it. I'd go so far as to say that, while people may support something in principle, they usually have no idea how to create it themselves. In other words, the GOP solution to most areas of complexity is to deregulate, take down laws, etc. This is very easy to express, relative to the complexity of creating something designed to address or fix some issue. Take healthcare again. The majority can be for it, but they may not be for the same vision of it. In that sense, we'd never have a mandate to do anything. In contrast, areas where the GOP DOES want to add laws are very simple: "Ban gay marriage", "Outlaw abortion", "Put up a border fence". In other words, the left is unlucky in that the area of policy where they would add laws are very complex, whereas areas they would largely deregulate or minimize government's role are pretty simple.

[Mr. Roboto]

That's the thing. I'm looking for a true fiscal conservative. Not some religious nut who wants to regulate morality and use fear at every chance they get. There is nothing conservative about this bunch of weirdos, they're totally full of shit.

[PERM BANNED]

Ron Paul!

[Mr. Roboto]

I liked 2007 Ron Paul more than the 2011 Ron Paul. Although not nearly as bad as comparing 1991 RuPaul to 2011 RuPaul...which is much much worse.