The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(09-04-2020, 12:04 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(09-03-2020, 02:59 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: We on the blue side disagree with you about what are the important things. We think democracy, the environment, and equal opportunity for all are the important things. You think vigilantism, phony use of symbols, Reaganomics bullshit and xenophobia are the important things. I don't.

If you valued democracy, you wouldn't be placing the integrity of it at risk by purchasing and trading for votes and supporting the aristocratic/plutocratic system that you have either. You'd be leaving the state like everyone else who can see the writing on the wall who know they've been removed/excluded from the political process and know they can't stop what they see coming by voting. You don't represent equal opportunity for all.  You represent equal outcomes for most, limited opportunity based on identity and belief and mainly race driven politics. America represents equal opportunity for  all, freedom for all, blind justice and peace through strength vs weakness. Like I said, you better find a place to hide when America erupts and the majority want to see the Democrats punished. We're a couple months away from fate determining courses and history hasn't been kind to the groups on the wrong side of fate.

I remember when I was young that politics was often a matter of cutting deals -- one that I would suggest is that some Minnesota pol insists on getting an Interstate highway built from Moorehead (near Fargo) to Duluth that eventually leads into northwestern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but to get that one must deal with some politician in Texas who wants a similar highway built connecting Austin and Houston. So cut some deals. Representative Ron Dellums of Berkeley, California wanted improvements to his district to have it better prepared for an earthquake and some politician his near opposite in ideology in Louisiana wanted some improvements in levees. On the same Committee they were able to get such a deal... both the anti-earthquake and anti-flood measures got passed.  

Politics is about solving problems at best, and at worst it devolves into a contest between infantile personalities who say "$crew you!" to each other and get nothing. We have gone from cutting deals to solve problems to having opposing sides saying "$crew you!" to each other. 

In a capitalist culture most people recognize that quality for quality is the only viable deal. It is just the same in politics as in business. It is of course up to people to ensure that they can do good so that they don;t simply hemorrhage assets to survive. That explains why we have schools...

Our system has never been designed to allot opportunities based upon ethnic divides.   

Quote:I think the American flag is important. I think the American way of life is important. I think the American Constitution is important. I think American jobs are important. I think American borders are important. I think American business is important. I think American law enforcement is important. I think the American Rule Of Law is important. Now, if you want to cling to an old tree that's past its prime and is going to die anyway because nothing that lives lives forever. Nature's cruel.

The American flag represents something. But know well: if one has no viable alternatives one must use it in otherwise-disrespectful ways if necessary for something more important at the time -- like lifesaving. If I am to use a US flag as something for a struggling swimmer to grasp onto and it gets wet... well, there are other flags. If one is a firefighter, one can expect that a US flag can get burned. If one must choose between rescuing a kitten, let alone a child, over a flag then the kitten, let alone the child, takes precedence. 

"Flag" and "rag" rhyme, you know. 

I consider the American Constitution important, too. This said, the American flag that you so cherish means something because it has civil liberties to back it up. Without those civil liberties it might have some ugly connotations, especially if it has odious practices offensive to most of the world... 



Apartheid

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/General_Forrest%27s_Flag.svg/200px-General_Forrest%27s_Flag.svg.png

slavery, racism, and fascism



religious persecution, cultural suppression



genocide and military aggression



mass murder in the name of an ideology

(I will spare us all an image of the flag of the Third Reich) 

all of the above

............................

Let us make sure that the US flag considers to be an object of hope. Vote out Donald Trump, a man who violates the Constitutional principles as well as some other basic decencies in the service of nothing nobler than his sick ego, on November 3. Ideally the US flag means what it meant as it advanced into Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and even Germany in WWII and appeared heavily in Civil Rights marches in the 1960's. Let us keep it that way.