Government can't help, it can only hurt

[Bob Butler 54]

(01-28-2018, 11:17 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: I still get some mail. Do we need the US Postal Service to deliver our mail as much as we needed it 30 years ago? Would the liberal argument to keep funding the USPS be as strong as it was 30 years ago? I don't need it nearly as much as I did 30 years ago. Lets see, I can text or email back and forth with my brother in Tennessee any time I want without any delay in response for much less than the cost of a stamp. I can pay the bulk of my bills directly/ automatically via transfers.

I too use e-mail much more than 'snail mail' for personal use.  I too think that if companies like UPS and FedEx duplicate federal functions the federal functions can be dropped.  Alas, the private companies are stealing the most potentially profitable functions, and Congress keeps requiring the post office to handle the less profitable ones.  These services man be less profitable, but are judged necessary.

Now is not then.  Things change, such as the best ways to perform services.  Nothing should be set in stone and considered holy.

But I still use the mail.

(01-28-2018, 11:17 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: There are libertarians/ anarchists who are out of touch with reality just like there are liberals who are out of touch with reality. Hint! Don't use an argument that you could effectively use with one of them with someone like me? As smart as the liberals claim to be, the liberals use the wrong arguments with the wrong people a lot which makes them look clueless. Nebraska is an idiot who is looking for idiots who agree with his anarchist views. Nebraska and Eric are similar but connected to different crowds. Nebraska spends more time driving on ATV trails than he spends driving on the roads that most of us are accustomed to driving on. 

Some confuse 'out of touch with reality', 'is an idiot' and 'has a different world view'.  I assume the first two are rare to non existent.  Nebraska is committed to an absurd way of looking at things, but is not necessarily an idiot.  He is just an extreme partisan locked into a particular way of looking at things.  He doesn't seem to perceive real world examples of how the world view he clings to is just is not compatible with reality.  In this, he is like many people with similar but generally more benign gaps in what they can perceive.

You too are an extreme partisan.  I have to assume I am too.  I have to be ready to doubt cherished beliefs.

(01-28-2018, 11:17 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: Hint! Don't use race with a libertarian because race doesn't matter to libertarians. Liberals still use race a lot which isn't good in my opinion considering white support for liberals is dropping. Now, as I've told blues before, I don't care if a bunch of white liberals end up getting strung up by racists of all colors. Liberals deserve it based on there choice and their use of rhetoric. Hint! We aren't going to use our guns and waste our bullets to save them.

In the long term, I see the racists as losing.  Prejudice by race, gender, culture and other things is taking less and less place in our culture.  I see us as in a period of reaction.  People are flying racist beliefs close to the surface.  People are sincerely cutting off their nose to to spite their face.  This will run its course, and we will return to advancing equality.  

I see this as resulting from class conflict.  Too few have too much.  The racists are keeping some less well off down at the cost of keeping themselves down and supporting the elite.  The elite are pushing too hard, and are due for a fall.

Am I correct in my assumptions?  Both major US parties are distrusted by their base.  Eventually something new will evolve.  The problems that are becoming more and more real will result in a shift.  I happen to think this will evolve from ideas being presented by both factions.  If this site is any indication, there are a lot of folks who will have to learn to listen.

I can't say precisely what will come about, but I expect a reality based result.

(01-28-2018, 11:17 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: So, how much government do the liberals need and where do the liberals draw the line with peoples lives? Despite what you think about the liberals, I don't see very many sharp liberals. I see a lot of clueless liberals who aren't used to being challenged by sharper people.

I see selfish people, not smarter.  There is a cycle that runs between individualism and the common good.  We are now at something like a 3T-4T cusp, where those taking advantage to profit the self are usually overcome by a willingness to join together for the common good.  This cusp is showing in a bunch of places, including in the urban / rural divide, in the establishments of both major parties falling apart, and in race relations.

Being the token Whig, I have to anticipate something new overcoming the old, an increase in rights, democracy and equality, a willingness to pull together and solve the problems we are running against.  It is not surprising to see a conservative counter.  History suggests there always be some who want to live in the past.