Trump Trainwreck - Ongoing diary of betrayal and evil

[Bob Butler 54]

(11-27-2016, 07:16 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(11-27-2016, 05:53 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(11-27-2016, 03:55 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Indeed, at just the time when there was talk about the need for someone other than the police to be social workers in poor communities, the people of Galen's persuasion are back in power and able to cut off social services and education even more. What the right-wing wants is for the poor and people of color to suffer, apparently. They want them to rise up, and get themselves shot and jailed by racist police. They are not satisfied with 40 years of national decline; they want more and more.

There are racists and bad cops out there.  The entire Republican party, however, is not made up of racists and bad cops.  They just don't see as much of the problems we see in urban areas and don't want to spend a ton of money solving problems that they don't tend to see.

Thus, the above would be in some respects a vile stereotype, a slanderous negative image of those you disagree with.  To the degree you indulge yourself in such thinking and tell other people what they think, you aren't listening or growing.

The last election had both factions talking to their own bases in a "we're the good guys, they're the bad guys" partisan angle.  The degree to which the Democrats couldn't understand or didn't care about large parts of the country became a disaster for progressives.  I'd like to see one party or the other try to govern the whole country, not just the parts that have bought into their particular scheme.

Policies have results, and the results of the policies followed in the red states are generally not good for them. So I don't think it's a matter of telling people what they think, or pretending that I'm inherently better because of what I think. The best policies generally work best for everyone. There are different needs in different places too, so when people seek the proper balance, it can be achieved. Right now, no, the Republicans are not seeking it. What would be helpful, is if they would take the time to understand what the people need. It's quite possible for people to do that; it's just not being done right now in those states. To depend on the police for social work, is not helpful, according to many witnesses I've heard who live and work in those areas. 

If the people can't vote correctly, they bring the disaster upon themselves, and to a large degree, upon all of us.

When you say the entire right wing wants people of color to suffer, that they favor racist police shooting them, I believe you are unjustly smearing the right wing.  There are racists out there, sure, but few go to that extreme.  You have a vile hateful stereotype of the right and push it on us regularly.  Your telling the people of the right how hatefully they think is not going to do anything to improve communication.  As a contributor to this board, pushing hate and stereotypes really only messes up the board, poisoning the conversation.  Professional Democratic politicians seldom get as blatant as you.  They need to be even more careful to avoid painting with too broad and too ugly a brush.

I certainly agree there are different needs in different places, but don't see the Republicans as being the only party that focuses on their base and familiar territory to the point of disregarding the opposites.  The Democrats might want to brush up on farm policy as a start, and lighten up on forcing urban solutions on rural areas.  In general, living in a suburban environment, I'm sympathetic with many Democratic solutions.  I remain more open, however, to how others want to spend less, be less coerced, and not have to endure the government doing stuff 'for' them or to them they don't want or need.

Gore might have lost the presidency due to his strong position on guns.  Quite a few Democrats learned from that, are doing fewer calls for prohibition of this gun or that feature, pushing more to close loopholes that allow criminals and mentally deficient to obtain weapons.  An awful lot on the right may not have noticed.  Trump would repeat that Hillary would 'gut' the Second Amendment, while she repeated she is a loophole closer, and it seems an awful lot of Trump supporters were ready to believe Trump's lies.

Still, taking the other guy's needs and wants seriously might still get one more support from the other guys.  Not insulting and stereotyping the other guys might get one more support from the other guys.  Telling this to an extreme partisan might be quite futile.  Repeating the blatantly obvious shouldn't be necessary.  Still, here we are.