(02-11-2021, 09:17 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: [ -> ] (02-11-2021, 03:56 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: [ -> ] (02-10-2021, 03:56 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: [ -> ]The primary crisis issues that America cares about at this point are COVID and the economic related issues caused by COVID and getting Americas kids back to school on a regular basis. The others are mainly Democratic issues that really don't matter to most Americans these days. As far as violence, there's an issue with red and blue violence that if not properly addressed will continue to grow and get worse as partisan hacks like you and others continue prancing around patting each other on the back blowing smoke up each others asses on a regular basis.
I’m glad you consider COVID to be a problem, but the red culture does not consider it so. Thus, we have 4% of the world’s population and 25% of the deaths. We have a culture of disregarding the precautions that lingers.
The economic failure is to a great degree following from the medical failure. You can’t recover the economy without first addressing the virus.
Racial oppression does not go away just because it doesn’t effect you personally. Thankfully, you are in the minority.
Saving the environment effects everybody, but some do not care. Thankfully, you are in the minority.
There is a problem with violence. At first it was very much tied to racism. Later, it swung more to keeping the racist president and structure in power. The struggle is about whether the people responsible can be enough a focus of law and order to be held responsible. It is less a political problem than a law and order problem. Some consider the white supremacy more important than their commitment to law and democracy. Many Republican senators would rather win the primary than lose in the general election. Their choice. It is a choice that could doom their party.
The key is that the red are on the wrong side of all these problems, and most of the population realizes it. The triggers have past, the regeneracy is happening, the crisis is here. The majority want these problem solved and is seeing them attacked vigorously. Those committed to the old patterns, the old values, will be swept aside by the generally accepted consensus that the problems ought to be solved. This includes diminishing you and your imaginary ‘Americans’.
How many countries have 325 million people plus several million undocumented and several thousand more undocumented entering each day? So, how is Biden going to get a handle on COVID when his policies are so much more favorable to illegal immigration and illegal immigrants here? I mean the old dude with dementia stopped the construction of a border wall in high traffic area during a pandemic for Christ sake. Does that make any sense to you at all during a national/global pandemic with new strains? Biden was elected to end COVID not to something stupid that adds more problems to the mix and make the situation worse.
What Trump did to stanch illegal immigration was both excessive in cruelty and inadequate as a numerical solution. I could make the case that many of the illegal immigrants don't come through the US-Mexican border but instead through our airports and overstay a visa. No border wall will stop that. As corrupt as Trump is, I would not be surprised that contractors were paying him a piece of the action through campaign contributions from which President Trump took a take.
Quote:Biden was also elected to bring the country together not to do something stupid that further alienate and further divide the country. I doubt that he was elected to add more unemployed to the already unemployed either. Can/Do you see why the Democrats are going to find themselves in serious hot water and may find themselves without a country left to govern or find themselves in the shoes of the British Aristocracy facing a large scale American revolt or in the shoes of the Southern Confederacy/slave owners facing a war with America that it cannot win by itself.
If Trump was unifying America, then it was by turning a big chunk of America against him. After January 6, that is even more. We Democrats took the high moral road, inconvenient as it might be at times, and Trump invariably choose the path of intellectual and moral sloth. The high level of unemployment relates heavily to COVID-19, which makes many economic activities dangerous.
Watch the polling. Joe Biden is way ahead of Donald Trump at an analogous time. That is not to say that that will stick. The comparisons have started, and Biden starts at 57% approval according to Gallup, which is higher than the approval was for Trump at any time. Gallup is no longer my favored pollster, but it is the only one that has polling for Presidents back to Truman, so it has comparisons over 75 years. That is a long stretch of American history.
Here's the data from Gallup as graphs:
https://news.gallup.com/interactives/185...enter.aspx
OK, several Presidents started with high approvals and saw their approval ratings end up lower at the ends of their allotted time in office than they started. The exceptions to these rules are Reagan, Clinton, and Biden -- the latter because we have only one data point after four days. At least Biden starts at 57%. Yes, I expect Biden to slip from 57% approval.
So how did it go for Presidents after World War II?
Truman 87-32
Eisenhower 67-59
Kennedy 72-58
LBJ 72-49
Nixon 60-24
Ford 71-53
Carter 70-31
Reagan 51-57
G H W Bush 51-49
Clinton 58-66
G W Bush 53-29
Obama 63-56
Trump 41-34
Biden starts at 57
It is better to start at a modest level of approval with lowered expectations and build trust over time so that at the end one gets recognition as an above-average President than to start with high approval ratings that go into the sewage tank. The problem is that no President since FDR has ever been able to have a steady stream of popular legislation that strengthens his perception over time. About everyone seems to disappoint at some time, as something typically goes wrong at some point. The highest "low" for a President was 48% for Eisenhower, probably after the Soviet launch of Sputnik.
Many Trump supporters can't understand how Trump approval ratings didn't go into the 80's after Donald Trump supposedly proved himself such a great leader that only a traitor could vote against him in a re-election bid. By that standard I am Vidkun Quisling. By my standard, Donald Trump is a horrible person and an even worse leader. I am in the mainstream of American politics. Gallup polls of Donald Trump are about the opposite of what Trump's bloated ego suggests. I need not go into my abhorrence of Trump's lack of a moral compass and my interpretation of the
Putsch of January 6, the sort of behavior contrary to what political leaders from our Founding Fathers to Obama have considered abominable. Ask yourself what any Republican President no longer living from Lincoln to the elder Bush would think of that
Putsch.
If you still believe in Trump, then you are part of his cult of personality. There are still people who believe in Mussolini, Mao, Franco, Pinochet, and Satan Hussein. What is in it for you? I could see what would follow: the continuation of a leadership defeated in a lawful and fair election (well, as fair as it could be in view of COVID-19 stalking everything from churches of stupidity to beach parties to drunken debauches complete with karaoke performances to what seemed likely on November 3: election sites), a purge of all opposition (including backsliders in your Party as well as people normally Democrats), and the usual other attributes of a despotic regime. America would have an "Idi A-murderin' " as its leader. Knowing what would await me I would likely commit suicide because I am too old to start over elsewhere in which I have no connections.
Quote:As I've mentioned before, the reds aren't afraid of dying from COVID 19 and do not view it as being as deadly or as scary as the blue voters these days.
COVID-19 is statistically about as deadly as a rattlesnake bite. There are reliable treatments for rattlesnake bite, and how quickly one gets treatment and has no underlying problems with health one has an excellent chance of survival. Most rattlesnake bites come from people confronting them. They typically back off when they hear your heavy tread or detect your pooch. I lived for seventeen years in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, supposedly Rattler Central, and never saw a live rattler even though I took frequent hikes. People who tease rattlers get bitten. I have a deal with rattlers: I back off, and expect them to do likewise.
I don't juggle open switch-knives, glasses of sulfuric acid, nitroglycerine, hypodermic needles with infectious agents, or lighted candles, either.
Courage has its place. Recklessness does not. Underestimating real dangers is one way to get hurt.
Quote:But, it's very obvious that it's a major problem and it's obvious that it's causing lots of problems other than the obvious problems related to treating the sick, the hospitalized and the deaths associated with it.
No, people getting deathly ill because of COVID-19 and ending up on a ventilator and possibly dying is the problem. Hospital stays on ventilators are budget-busters for hospitals, and when people on government aid (which people end up on quickly if they get a bad case of COVID-19) they drain government revenues. COVID-19 costs much like a war.
Quote:Obviously, we cannot redo the election at this point. We are stuck with Bumbling Biden and Harris and a bunch of arrogant Democratic (sexist language excised, but congratulating both genders!) who think they're all that and then some making decisions based on their own interests instead of national interests.
Well, I am delighted that you recognize that the election is a done deal. Now make your adjustments. It's nice to not see lots of Biden banners around. Give him a chance. At the least he is a devout Christian, something that Donald Trump was not.