Why NOT to vote Republican

[frugal-one]

Yes because I don't think most people who voted for Biden care about that AT ALL. I mean he wasn't many people's first choice in the primaries (nearly my last choice though a few who went absolutely nowhere were worse). But hey lot's of dumb voters in this country and he was the Dem nominee - shrug, what can you do, this country and it's dumb voters. And the states given strategic importance in the Dem primaries mostly don't vote for Dems in the general anyway, so it gives a pretty skewed (but more electable? who knows) take.

But after he was the nominee, I and I'm sure I am far from alone figured we would rather have whatever was the Dem machine running things than Trump. Even if Biden ran little, Dem machine versus Trump. So it never was really about Biden at all. Now did I anticipate they would do a better job than they have? Well yes, in terms of basic competence (not some super high expectation), I expected the Dem machine to do better, but we definitely didn't have that with Trump either.

This. Never trump.

[frugal-one]

Yeah, but it's only real premise is for a few people to attempt to publicly justify their hatred for anyone without the correct political ideology. It got boring about 900 posts ago.

There isn't a correct political ideology. It is about decent, human beings. The premise of the current republican party has deteriorated so that they no longer meet this criteria.

[Alan]

There isn't a correct political ideology.

I think there's something to that. Our political discourse, especially on the national level, has drifted away from how best to oversee and provide security to a collection of states to a more culturally based enforcement bureau designed to reward members of whichever party is currently in power and punish members of the opposition.

I blame most of this on media, all media be it newspapers, tv news, social media, whatever, who all exist not to provide a public service but rather to inflame the emotions of its consumers in order to build a brand loyalty and keep those consumers coming back for more. You couple that with a political environment where power can only be held by appealing to those emotions by ensuring that the other side is seen as an enemy and you end up with threads like this.

You also end up with official governmental activities such as the Jan 6 Committee whose goal is not to root out and punish offenders but to establish a narrative that the other side is bad. You can see that in the fact that all hearings are staged for the media, even to the point that they hired a TV producer to oversee the events and witnesses are chosen based upon their ability to provide the proper narrative. It's especially obvious today where the regularly scheduled episode was canceled, not because they had other things to do, but because a hurricane has struck Florida and usurped their TV time. If they can't promote their 'other side is bad' narrative to millions of people on any given day, that day is not worth doing.

[JaneV2.0]

I .
...
You also end up with official governmental activities such as the Jan 6 Committee whose goal is not to root out and punish offenders but to establish a narrative that the other side is bad. You can see that in the fact that all hearings are staged for the media, even to the point that they hired a TV producer to oversee the events and witnesses are chosen based upon their ability to provide ..the proper narrative. It's especially obvious today where the regularly scheduled episode was canceled, not because they had other things to do, but because a hurricane has struck Florida and usurped their TV time. If they can't promote their 'other side is bad' narrative to millions of people on any given day, that day is not worth doing.

I'm curious as to how you might frame an investigation into an attempt--by planned disruption and violence--to overthrow an election in some more "even-handed" way. It was an ugly chapter in the nation's history, and I can't see it otherwise. I have visions of Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan yelling "Antifa! and "BLM!" though there was no evidence at all of them being there, or maybe pulling the "rowdy tourist" trope out of their bag of tricks.

[bae]

“Unruly tourists”

[JaneV2.0]

“Unruly tourists”

Yes--I added that to my post, belatedly. I don't have a problem with shades of difference; we all should have a problem with outright lies.

[frugal-one]

I think there's something to that. Our political discourse, especially on the national level, has drifted away from how best to oversee and provide security to a collection of states to a more culturally based enforcement bureau designed to reward members of whichever party is currently in power and punish members of the opposition.

I blame most of this on media, all media be it newspapers, tv news, social media, whatever, who all exist not to provide a public service but rather to inflame the emotions of its consumers in order to build a brand loyalty and keep those consumers coming back for more. You couple that with a political environment where power can only be held by appealing to those emotions by ensuring that the other side is seen as an enemy and you end up with threads like this.

You also end up with official governmental activities such as the Jan 6 Committee whose goal is not to root out and punish offenders but to establish a narrative that the other side is bad. You can see that in the fact that all hearings are staged for the media, even to the point that they hired a TV producer to oversee the events and witnesses are chosen based upon their ability to provide the proper narrative. It's especially obvious today where the regularly scheduled episode was canceled, not because they had other things to do, but because a hurricane has struck Florida and usurped their TV time. If they can't promote their 'other side is bad' narrative to millions of people on any given day, that day is not worth doing.

You twist the facts to meet your agenda OR because you don’t want to face reality. My guess is the later. And, yes they are showing the perpetrators are bad… which is an understatement. How you can infer otherwise is unconscionable…. they tried to overthrow the government and wanted to hang the VP!!!

[JaneV2.0]

I listened live to most of the Watergate hearings. There wasn't a phalanx of Republicans trying to obfuscate, excuse, or defend Nixon--who was half the crook Trump is. How times change.

[catherine]

I blame most of this on media, all media be it newspapers, tv news, social media, whatever, who all exist not to provide a public service but rather to inflame the emotions of its consumers in order to build a brand loyalty and keep those consumers coming back for more. You couple that with a political environment where power can only be held by appealing to those emotions by ensuring that the other side is seen as an enemy and you end up with threads like this.

You also end up with official governmental activities such as the Jan 6 Committee whose goal is not to root out and punish offenders but to establish a narrative that the other side is bad. You can see that in the fact that all hearings are staged for the media, even to the point that they hired a TV producer to oversee the events and witnesses are chosen based upon their ability to provide the proper narrative. It's especially obvious today where the regularly scheduled episode was canceled, not because they had other things to do, but because a hurricane has struck Florida and usurped their TV time. If they can't promote their 'other side is bad' narrative to millions of people on any given day, that day is not worth doing.

I completely agree with the first paragraph excerpted here.

As for the second--what would you call, not "bad," (which carries moralistic tones) but maybe "undesirable" in our democracy? If not an attempted coup, what? It would be better if we stop trying to create Marvel comic book heroes and villains out of our legislators and their constituents--which as you said, is totally perpetrated by the media--but let's get real. People were incited by our outgoing President to attack the Capitol building and inflict harm on people who were trying to uphold the democratic process most of us are happy to abide by. Is that a response you find to be OK? I don't blame the Republican Party for that horrific response to January 6 proceedings, but I blame them if they support the players--either by overt or tacit agreement with the behavior or by keeping quiet in order to follow the Party line and protect their own agendas.

[iris lilies]

You twist the facts to meet your agenda OR because you don’t want to face reality…!

Wait, I thought Alan’s problem was that his head was in the sand. Can he twist facts with his head in the sand? Can one do any twisting at all with one’s head stuck in sand?

Also, another question I’ve been wanting to ask you – you use a lot of !!! in your writing. Do you think if you use one or two more !’s you would convince me of anything? Is good debate technique just a matter of quantity of exclamation points?