Fascism is on the ballot

[pbrower2a]

(10-12-2020, 01:27 PM)Isoko (to Classic X\er) Wrote: Look, I'm no fan of political correctness as much as the next guy but Trump has been caught making racist remarks. This just makes people think "he is a racist."

It is best that people speak as clearly and plainly as possible unless they seek some dramatic, poetic, or comic effect. Political correctness is loaded language that pretends that revolution comes from word choice. Words can express any ideas, for better or worse, and if anyone twists words into fraudulent misrepresentations of their meanings, then such is linguistic fraud. Orwell calls that Newspeak. Nazis and Stalinists were equally adept at such. Thus Sonderbehandlung , which literally translates as "special treatment", became a euphemism for summary execution instead of privileged exemption within Nazi murder units. Whitewashing a bad idea, let alone a crime, makes something no less objectionable once it is exposed.   

It is impossible to sanitize racist remarks. Among people accustomed to racist remarks are people who well catch on to any distortion of language. 

Quote:As for Biden and a run on the banks, first of all I come from the UK and I live in Russia. Britain has its own strong independent banking system (a reason for not joining the Eurozone in the first place) so I doubt the UK would falter as much as other countries. As for Russia, Putin has been busy paying off all the debts and buying lots of gold for a rainy day and to become more independent from the dollar. So I doubt Russia would be too badly affected either. 

More troublesome would be a failure of a government to bail out large, failing organizations more adept at playing politics than at turning a profit
In 2008 and 2009 the US government bailed out entities "too big to fail". The next meltdown may result in the inability of the system to bail out entities that instead of being "too big to fail" will instead be "too big to save". This is especially true with firms that have reputations for bad behavior such as corruption or that have too many connections with political figures disgraced after a huge partisan switch.  

Quote:Secondly, there isn't going to be a run on the banks. There should have been a run on the banks in 2008. Or when Trump was elected. Or whatever. It never happened and it won't happen because its 2020 and not 1929 anymore. Different regulations, different methods, plus the magic printing press.

 
The bank runs that went from sporadic in 1930 to commonplace from the spring of 1931 to the autumn of 1932 did the real damage. The sesqui-year meltdown from the autumn of 2007 to the spring of 2009 was analogous to the first half of the three-year meltdown starting with the Gteat Stock Market Crash of 1929:




Any question? Bad economic behavior gets wiped out; people start exercising good habits even when the rewards for such are slight. People start looking at the long term as an objective instead of disparaging it. Focus goes from quick bucks from speculation to long-term, low-yield investments such as investing in mom-and-pop businesses. People accept that real work pays the bills as hustles and bureaucracy fail. 

Quote:Do I think America could have an economic collapse? No, but a mighty depression. However they would have to default on the debt which I think will come decades later and not anytime soon. Biden won't cause it. If anything, the stock markets will probably calm if Biden wins. I'll be honest, I see no major economic calamity happening when Biden wins (its not even an if at this point). In fact I fully expect nothing major to happen economics wise and things to return to a more "business as usual before Trump took over" mindset.

...perhaps after Trump causes them to crash. I don't trust that b@stard to avoid taking revenge upon people that he considers as having betrayed him. This said, Biden is not going to push any speculative boom that typically ends in a financial panic like those of 1929 and 2008.  

Quote:As for Republicans having minorities, they do. I agree. But it's such a small fragment of the population that the GOP is basically the white party. Everyone knows that. That said, there is a future for the party but it does need to include minorities into its Conservative message otherwise the GOP is relegated to the dustbin. Which is why some sort of multiracial "Trump" party could actually do quite well there. The America First message plays strong with a lot of people. 

The GOP will have to go from fascistic demagoguery to a more sober conservatism. If it fails at that it will become a minor party . The Democratic party has been an unwieldy Big Tent after the demise of the Federalists in the 1820's and the Whigs in the 1850's only for the Democratic party to split into two mutual opposition parties.  

Quote:Honestly, when it comes to America, I'm politically neutral. Its your country, you guys figure it out. I think Trump though has been an absolute moron. I'd he was actually intelligent, he could have won quite easily. As for Biden, he is naturally not a strong candidate but even I have to confess, he has been more of a sane voice and did quite well in the debate.

 
It's best that we get some insight from people who have little or no stake in the partisan debate and contest.  Objectivity is a rarity in American  politics, especially when polarization approaches that of Spain in the 1930's. 

Quote:Considering Trump stated he'd like to sign an executive order banning Biden from running, I think that itself should qualify Biden to win. You don't say things like you'd like to ban the other guy from running in a democracy. You just don't.

He'd like to sign such an order, but who would enforce it? If Trump were able to execute such an order, then "you cheat and you lose" as applies to such contests as the Olympic Games would dictate that Trump loses.  There is no analogue in American politics, but there is one in the Philippines, where Ferdinand Marcos ordered that votes favoring his challenger Corazon Aquino be destroyed and not counted. Eventually the Philippine Armed Forces declared Corazon Aquino the winner.