03-12-2018, 08:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-12-2018, 08:46 PM by Eric the Green.)
(03-12-2018, 06:10 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(03-12-2018, 03:22 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:I've been hearing and reading about that from uppity liberals for many years. Does the threat of that seem to matter much to me or the conservatives in general? The millenniels are grown up and becoming adults and accepting responsibilities (marriage, home ownership, careers and raising kids) associated with adults and making their own ( adult like) decisions these days. I was pretty impressed on election day. My daughter came home from school and told me about all the Trump kids who showed with their faces painted with Trump, wearing good old American red-white-blue, without any concerns or fears about retaliation from blues because they knew that the had full support from their parents and their more traditional Democratic friends whose parents could not stomach the idea of voting for crooked Hillary and weren't sure if they could trust Trump because Trump was a Republican. Blue America has no core values that bind people together. You have shown me that time and time again during our exchanges. Yet, you don't understand what's wrong, why you're rejected, why you're not being understood, why are we loosing on all major issues and all major fronts, why people aren't buying in the way you (we) feel they should and so forth.(03-11-2018, 06:24 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(03-10-2018, 11:22 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:You and Dave and Nancy will never have the opportunity to rule the United States. I agree that adding more maturity and adding more higher quality people to your side would help your side a lot.(03-10-2018, 03:50 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: How about voting and all other adult activities? How about senior citizens like you and Dave and Nancy P? You and Dave have made a good case for excluding them (yourselves) too. Nancy doesn't seem rational or unbiased enough to be making decisions for me or making decisions that either include me or directly involve me. You don't seem rational enough, educated enough, knowledgeable enough, unbiased enough to be making those kinds of decisions for me either.
The legislature of Florida, and Dick's and other stores, have made the decision about age limits for gun purchases. I and Dave and Nancy P have not had that opportunity yet. I did get to vote for some gun control initiatives in California. I'm glad that one finally passed. And I don't think you are under 21. And I don't think any restrictions on seniors for buying guns would affect me, since I am not buying one. You can support and vote for that if you want; I would happily join you. If you want to exclude seniors you disagree with from voting, that says more about you than about me.
Come to think of it, if we did have a more-general upper age limit for voting, that would help our side a lot! Hey, how about letting those 16-17 year old students saying never again to gun violence be allowed to vote too! They and lots of other older folks are saying how much more mature they are than the "adults"
Well, the point was that if you require upper age limits for voting, so that fewer older people vote, THAT would help our side. Demographics suggest that the more-liberal and more-diverse millennials are becoming a larger share of the electorate, and that might bode well for liberals to rule the United States. Whether that will happen soon enough for the likes of me, Dave and Nancy P to be the rulers, remains to be seen. But white conservatives such as yourself may see their voting power decrease in the years ahead. That may spell the end of unfettered access to military-style weapons like the AR-15.
I can only hope that those young people, and others who voted for Trump who had voted Democratic before, learn that it was Trump who was (and is) crooked, and not Hillary. "Crooked Hillary" was nothing but one of Trump's clever slogans, and nothing more. Meanwhile, it should have been clear, since it was revealed over and over in the campaign, that Trump cheated his customers and workers, swindled people with his fake university, cheated non-profit organizations, sexually assaulted scores of women, and so on, and now it's clear that he colluded with the Russians to spread fake news and steal online information, paid off a prostitute to keep her quiet about his affair with her, fired people to obstruct justice, and so on. And Trump represents "values?"
Red American people may have values, and may care about their work and their families, but its politics has no values except making money at others' expense, blind loyalty to the government when its lies costs thousands of lives, fear of foreigners and immigrants, having military-style guns to assuage fears and the gun lobby, and fake religion that swindles, oppresses and deceives. The Red America side of today's political divide has nothing of value to offer; it's neo-liberal free-market ideology is a fraud that depends on racism and/or greed.
Blue American values are the core values of America: democracy, liberty and justice for all, respect for diversity and for immigrants who have always made up the population of this nation of immigrants, reluctance to engage in foreign wars, compassion and generosity to those in need, being involved in your community, and willingness to pay taxes to help support it.
Young people becoming adults today face the results of Red America rule for the past 40 years: lots of personal and national debt, few opportunities to advance, veteran friends or family dead or physically or psychologically maimed in meaningless wars, the danger of being shot on the street or in a building at any time for no reason, an opioid epidemic to escape the pain of Red America, an environment facing ruin, a health care system that bankrupts them, housing prices that make owning a home impossible, a government that cannot function, and an election system severely compromised.
The nation can bind together when the majority accept diversity, prefer peace, participate in and protect democracy, embrace equality and opportunity, know that the environment matters to them, and support a government that is willing to act for the people; and when those who don't accept these real values and prefer fake propaganda instead are in enough of a minority that they are not needed for this new consensus to operate.
I understand that Red America feels threatened by the new America that is becoming more racially diverse, open to gender and sexual preference, tolerant of non traditional religion, willing to reduce our armaments domestically and internationally, embracing other outdoor activities besides hunting, willing to impose taxes to pay for social needs, and so on.
But Blue America is really no threat to you. It's tax proposals are fair. Diversity has been American all along. Freedom of religion is in our founding documents. Washington counseled against foreign wars. Guns were not military style semi-automatics and were mainly only used in militias, which we have today.
A blue America will have some hippies and some folks who don't respect their country, the same as today. But it will still have many responsible adults (including some responsible hippies
), who pay taxes and work for a living, and who help those who can't. A blue America will have a health and safety net system that protects you, and not just people different than you. A blue America will be one where its citizens can advance, and not be stuck or fall into poverty. A blue America will have a restored environment where you can still relax at the beach or go for a hike in nature, and not fear that your home will flood or burn down due to climate change. A blue America will have schools, concert halls, shopping centers and offices where you don't have to lock the door, hire guards or do drills to protect yourself from crazies with semi-automatic weapons with large ammunition magazines. A blue America will have working highways you don't have to pay to drive on, and education that doesn't cost a fortune for your children to attend. A blue America will have a health care system that works and doesn't bankrupt you, and which covers preventive and holistic medicine and mental health. A blue America will have a culture that respects and supports the arts again, beautifies and humanizes its cities, restores a living and life-respecting diet, and is not solely dedicated to commerce at any cost.