Presidential election, 2016

[Classic-Xer]

(11-27-2016, 11:36 PM)dpbrower2a Wrote:

(11-27-2016, 03:22 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(11-27-2016, 01:50 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: 2. The Pyrrhic victory for the Republicans is in having control of the Presidency, both Houses of Congress, and the vast majority of State legislators at an inauspicious time for holding them -- the most dangerous time of a Crisis Era -- while being ill-prepared for a Crisis.  An economic downturn is always possible after a seven-hear recovery when the leadership casts off the leadership that  made it possible. A rise of demagogues in other countries ensures that the steady hand that one might associate with a Sarkozy or an Obama will no longer be the norm, which means that international relations will be much shakier. 

The Republican victory wasn't achieved by accepting staggering losses. You made a bad choice and underestimated my intelligence. Are you sure you want to continue mess with a heating and air guy who has no reservations or moral qualms about making a teacher like you look like an idiot who has never taught? Wise up!

You are extremely wise, I assume, about heating and cooling units, including their installation and maintenance. I am not sure that you are as brilliant at making a cogent argument. You make logical errors that would get bad marks in Freshman Composition. I see those often in your writing.

You have your political and cultural values and I have mine. Neither of us can prove ours. Like it or not, Marxists like Lukacs, Gramsci, and Marcuse have made some convincing arguments on issues of their day when the Marxist component is subdued. See Bertrand Russell (he is one of the easiest philosophers to read) to get an idea of someone with much the same assumptions as I have. No, I am not Bertrand Russell, but he has surely influenced me.

The ideological 'truth' that you have as the core of your political thinking can neither be proved or disproved. For most people their ideological biases come from upbringing and experiences, including the time in which they live, ethnicity, religion, class, educational level, and political environment. Just imagine how different one's idea of the optimum of social order is if one is Japanese or American, whether one grew up in a shtetl or a few yards away as an Ukrainian peasant (see Fiddler on the Roof  to get a good idea of the difference), or if one is a poor or rich Brazilian. Or for that matter, whether your parents neglected and abused you (Charles Manson) or gave you all the security possible in a warm and loving household (Martin Luther King). Charles Manson did have his cranky philosophy, one must admit.

By Pyrrhic victory  in the literal, military sense I mean a victory that allows the winner to achieve an objective only to have the cost so severe that the winner can never win again. Think of some desperate late offensives that the Nazis had in Belgium and Hungary that won back some territory but cost troops that Nazi Germany could not afford to expend at the stage.

In a less literal sense, a Pyrrhic victory is one that puts the winner in a position for a catastrophic series of events. In business it would be like winning the bidding war for a desired acquisition only to find that what one got has hidden toxic waste sites. The Republican Party could be in big trouble with Donald Trump as President, especially if the economy tanks on his watch or he inspires domestic discord. By a Pyrrhic victory I imply the situation in which the winner discovers too late that the prize is toxic.

Within four years the model of a good President will be Barack Obama, someone cautious, coachable, scandal-free, without conflicts of interest, able to keep quiet when he must, and who can generally make wise decisions. You know well how I assess Donald Trump. He is about as unlike Barack Obama as he can be. Ronald Reagan? Many people voting in 2020 will know him only from news footage, being born as late as 2002 -- after Reagan died.

I'm a heating and air business guy. I'm not a writer or an academic or a book worm. If you don't use it, you don't need it, you don't value it and retain it. I'm sorry dude, I gradually lost the bulk of my writing skills some time during the 90's. I  assure you that if we were actually speaking, I would have a significant advantage over you. My verbal communication skills are used every day and are very important job wise.

I thought you made a bad choice. I know what it is and what it entails and what it could result in as well. I read and comprehend meanings and most of what's written here just fine. I'm just not much of a writer as you've stated and I've agreed with many times. A Pyrrhic victory requires a victory achieved with staggering/horrific losses. Clinton didn't achieve victory therefore it doesn't even apply her at all.  The Republican party committed very little and suffered no losses and made substantial gains from their victory therefore it doesn't apply to them either. I don't get you dude. I don't how you can proudly/ prominently proclaim that you're a teacher. BTW, the Battle of The Bulge or Midway wouldn't work as examples either. We won the Battle of The Bulge and Midway. The Battle of Bastogne, maybe.