Politics over Religion at MD&D

[_Kishkumen]

Ed, you’re defending Trump. How smart do you imagine that looks? If you’re afraid someone else thinks that reflects poorly on your intelligence, you only have yourself to blame. I don’t see any good defense for voting for Trump or for continuing to support and defend him. Greed, ignorance, gullibility, despair, desperation, racism, these are all reasons, but they aren’t good or laudable reasons.

[_Kishkumen]

The pretense was called in the last election. Trump's base is watching what he does very closely. So far he has not violated their trust. One year in, his base is still with him. Meanwhile, the GOP fulminates in relative silence: they value their political careers and fear saying the wrong things, or acting prematurely against him.

Oligarchy is hardly on one side only. The political machines, both "halves" of it, would love nothing more than a return to the status quo that they shared, that The Donald upset.

Trump is signing off on raising taxes on the poor and lower middle class. If they continue to support him, then they are fools.

Oligarchy may not be a one-sided thing, but it is also a lopsided thing, with conservatives suppressing the vote, expanding the political power of the donor class, and fueling steep economic inequality. The GOP is the oligarch’s best and most dependable ally.

[_beastie]

[b]I do not know of this novelist that you reference; and therefore I doubt that most Repubs and Indies know of this author who has had such an impact on their beliefs and agenda. Perhaps you've pointed out an ingredient responsible for radicalizing the GOP into clones of the DEM.

LOL

I guess Paul Ryan doesn't mind that you are blissfully ignorant of his muse as long as you bow your head and say "yes".

(See, sometimes quotation marks are justified. Sometimes.)

[_canpakes]

Over what other issue was Obama holding your neck under his heal?

Gun control.

Interesting. Perhaps you should explain what the Obama Administration did as regards ‘gun control’ that lead you to just blurt that out.

I didn't even know who Donald Trump was until he ran.

A telling remark. It illustrates some part of the problem with the folks that support him.

[_moksha]

Trump's base is watching what he does very closely.

One eye on the AM radio dial and the other on the shotgun.

[_Choyo Chagas]

Trump's base is watching what he does very closely.

One eye on the AM radio dial and the other on the shotgun.

as the well known maffioso investigated by police:
q: where were you at 21:00 pm on 17th last month?
a: i was sitting between twelve of my fellow workers; all of us watched the clock with one eye, and the calendar with the other...

[_Uncle Ed]

Ed, you’re defending Trump. How smart do you imagine that looks? If you’re afraid someone else thinks that reflects poorly on your intelligence, you only have yourself to blame. I don’t see any good defense for voting for Trump or for continuing to support and defend him. Greed, ignorance, gullibility, despair, desperation, racism, these are all reasons, but they aren’t good or laudable reasons.

Most or even all of your list of negatives about the President are creations of the Medía, who largely still reel over "their" loss last year: their polls were crap as indicators of what the people who elected him were thinking. Trump's flaws are in the public domain. They don't require exaggeration or distortion. I am as nervous as anyone else about his less than stellar personality getting in the way of doing his job.

I didn't see any good reason to vote for him either, as long as I didn't have to vote for "that woman".

Here is one good reason to at least keep quiet, if you can't support the President. I forget which Hollywood peep it was who said (shortly into this year) that , although he intensely disliked Trump he didn't want him to fail, since he is the President: "If you want Trump to fail just so you can be right, you can go "F" yourselves."

I am confident in my own intelligence, and not since grade school have I been concerned about what others think about me.

[_Uncle Ed]

...
Oligarchy may not be a one-sided thing, but it is also a lopsided thing, with conservatives suppressing the vote, expanding the political power of the donor class, and fueling steep economic inequality. The GOP is the oligarch’s best and most dependable ally.

"Lopsided" only means which major party is dominant at the time. I guess this next year will be a nail-biter.

One of the problems with the GOP's push for tax cuts is that they never last long enough to have the theoretical beneficial effect on the economy. It is a hitch in our system's gitalong that the DEM and GOP keep swapping majorities, tugging our economy back and forth from one paradigm to the other. Over time this produces stalemate if not stagnation. The Market seems not to care all that much, over time.

"Economic inequality" is the warcry of the LLS demographic, the world over. They also holler "economic equality!" as their purported agenda. But the real world isn't ready for that. Economic equal opportunity needs to be built on the back of individual liberty a la the "American Experiment". Forcing economic equality by hauling the US down while siphoning off our wealth to attempt to build them up, will only result in a vacuum of power which will be filled by tyrannies (created by sending wealth to them).

[_Uncle Ed]

...
I guess Paul Ryan doesn't mind that you are blissfully ignorant of his muse as long as you bow your head and say "yes".

(See, sometimes quotation marks are justified. Sometimes.)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3lgx8l3uau8uytw/Mitt%20and%20Paul.jpg?dl=0

That is the most attention I have paid to Paul Ryan. So I tend to miss anything that he says.

[_Uncle Ed]

Perhaps you should explain what the Obama Administration did as regards ‘gun control’ that lead you to just blurt that out.

Obama could not push any of his desired "sensible" gun legislation because the pro 2nd Amendment lobby (largely the NRA led pro gun lobby) blocked him every way he turned. Thank goodness. The constant threat of His Oness and Company on 2nd Amendment issues was only held off by dint of constant fighting back. His heel could not crush my neck, not even with Bloomberg's and Soros's millions spent on duping the public. But they keep trying.

I didn't even know who Donald Trump was until he ran.

A telling remark. It illustrates some part of the problem with the folks that support him.

I was compelled to find out about Donald J. Trump. I didn't like anything I learned. Politics annoy me. But last year formed a singular exception to my usual "wait and see" attitude. And I am still engaged, as all Americans should be. Whatever it takes!