08-24-2018, 12:33 PM
(08-24-2018, 11:55 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(08-23-2018, 03:59 PM)David Horn Wrote:(08-23-2018, 02:44 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(08-23-2018, 12:06 PM)David Horn Wrote:(08-22-2018, 10:05 PM)Bad Dog Wrote: Pence makes me want Dan Quayle back.
Trump isn't going anywhere, and neither is his base. In Britain, the PM would have been ousted in a week.
Maybe the Brits could loan us a Royal or three?
True demagogues create their own politics, as Trump certainly has. If it fails in 2020, then no permanent damage will have been done. If it continues into another Presidential term, then we're faced with the real question: can a cult of personality rule an advanced country without breaking it beyond repair? I honestly can't say yes, as much as I would like to, which should be scary enough to give us pause.
Dude, the country is already broken beyond repair at this point. All that's needed is a 4T level crisis to get the ball moving on the idea of separating blue America from the rest of America. I'd say blue America has ten years before America lets go of them and sends them adrift to fend for themselves in a changing world with small tyrants who have more money and greater military capabilities than the blue state of whatever name the blues choose, whatever left wing ideological "ism" the majority prefer at the time and whatever flag the majority of blues like the best.
Okay as far as that goes, but why would the rest of America send blue America adrift? Blue America is roughly 56% of the population and 83% of the economy. If Red America wants to keep everything and cut Blue America loose, then how does it pay the interest on the debt or anything else? Red America hates taxes and the interest alone will take every dime of the current taxes raised on the 17% of the economy and still come up short.
It might be better in reverse.
Why wouldn't we? How much of the debt is related to blues and blue policies? How many issues that we have are directly related to blues and blue policies? It might be better in reverse. I wish there was a way you and the blues could find out in advance how devastating its going to be for blues when big government can no longer dish out the way its able to dish out today. Red America hates blues and hates paying for their policies and hates the idea of fascism, socialism and communism. Red America views welfare as a bad thing. Red America views illegal immigration as a bad thing. We are just scratching the surface at this point. What you see now ain't nothing compared to what the blues will be seeing, experiencing and dealing with as far as violence & chaos occurring WITHIN THEIR AREAS IN 10 YEARS.
We are in the same country. If we have the same income, we generally pay much the same income taxes. The payout of Social Security is the same in New York City (very blue) or Odessa, Texas (very Red). Red and Blue America send their kids to the same wars and we honor their dead just the same. Red and Blue America both collect welfare payments if broke. Hunger or welfare? I think that welfare is the humane choice for a family and for society as a whole. The biggest employers of illegal aliens include the right-wing farm and ranch interests. They usually get passes from INS.
"Blue" areas include people who have no use for any of the chaos that you ascribe to their beliefs. Jews are very strongly Democratic. They're generally nice people to be around. Asian-Americans? Although that category includes people as diverse as Pakistanis, Koreans, and Filipinos, they seem to do much well. Middle-class blacks and Hispanics? They get respect from poor ones by not abandoning their poor to the worst that Trump can do. Arab-Americans? What does Trump have to offer them?
And remember: there are "Blue" areas in "Red states" (think of most large cities in Texas, and the border area) and "Red" areas in blue states (like most of Illinois outside of Greater Chicago). The grain that grows in 'Red' rural America goes through lake and river ports in 'Blue' cities. Coal and iron ore mined in 'Red' America gets combined with limestone in 'Blue' Gary, Indiana (sure, that is a dump) to make steel that we all need.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.