Dr Exiled wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 2:41 pm
honorentheos wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 1:51 pm
Johnson is similar to Mike Pence in that his strong Christian identity doesn't just bleed into his politics, they share a heart.
Legislation such as the nation-wide abortion ban, discriminatory legislation especially targeted at same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights, reducing or removing the separation between church and state, and anti-pluralism legislation are categories I suspect are now more likely to make it through the House than before.
I also suspect we will see the House reject sending more money to support Ukraine even as we bend over backwards for Israel. Other budget bills will be deeply motivated by far right views seeking to reduce or remove governmental regulation of industries. Reduced support for organized labor. Reduced support for climate action. Less support for science-based programs and education. Things like that.
1. The democrats should have passed a nationwide law allowing abortion when it had the chance, but instead wanted the election issue to survive.
When did democrats control 2/3 of the Senate? This is typical CT nonsense.
Dr. Exiled wrote:2. The LGBTQ question seems like a good way to paint the conservatives with the bigot brush and probably won't go far. However, leaving this to parents and not the state seems the better approach when concerning children under 18.
Conservatives paint themselves with the bigotry brush. Here's the Heritage Foundation's "Mandate" for its Project 2025:
conservative bigots wrote:The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensi- tive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.
Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.
"Transgender ideology" = pornography. Trans people = child molesters. This is pure, unadulterated bigotry. Trivializing this bigotry as a "brush" feeds the bigotry.
Dr. Exiled wrote:3. Obviously, the first amendment should be respected.
One would think. Watching Republican demagogues criminalize speech makes me wonder.
Dr. Exiled wrote:4. I think the belly aching over populism comes from the oligarchy that runs the country and funds both political parties and the think tanks that support them.
Trivializing legitimate concerns about the authoritarian nature of populist movements as "belly aching" from the oligarchy is just more CT. All one has to do is study the nature of past and present populist movements.
Dr, Exiled wrote:5. How about we use the funds to fix problems here? At least audit the funds. Foreign aid has circled back into campaign coffers too often.
Are we not spending funds to fix problems in the U.S.? Are you saying it's never in the interest of the United States to spend money on other countries? What additional "auditing" are you proposing. How long would it take and what would be the cost? Campaign donations by foreigners is illegal. If it's happening too often, how about beefing up the enforcement of those laws.
Dr. Exiled wrote:6. How about break up the monopolies? There are only 5 or 6 media companies. Google controls almost 100% of the search engine traffic. Amazon has too much power, etc.
No quarrel there.
Dr. Exiled wrote:7. Labor should be in partnership with capital. Clinton did a big disservice to the democrats when he did his "third way" nonsense. Bring back the old democrats that would at least pay a little more attention to labor.
Or there.
Dr. Exiled wrote:8. We need to have a debate on climate action, allowing the detractors to state their case publicly without censorship. The truth should easily prevail here.
This is straight out of the climate change denier conspiracy theory playbook. The anti-science climate contrarians have had a loud voice with an outsized effect on climate policy for decades. They haven't been censored -- they've regularly testified in front of Congressional committees and lobbied representatives, senators, and presidents. They're funded by the same oligarchs you were just complaining about upthread. Climate is one of those issues where the BS asymmetry principle is present in spades, and so the "truth" will simply be buried by crap in a public debate.
Dr. Exiled wrote:9. The attack on science by the right is overblown. Let the isolated counties in the south do whatever and suffer the consequences of being left behind.
The attack on science by the right isn't limited to isolated southern countries. Attacking climate science has been a mainstream part of the Republican party for decades. Anti-vaxx, which used to be more of a left thing, has also become part of Republican ideology. Anti-masking -- same thing. It was pathetic yesterday watching the unmasked lawyers for Trump demanding "uncontaminated" microphones. The Republican Party simply trashes any scientific evidence that contradicts its ideology. The Republican denial of expertise, including scientific expertise, has been one of the most damaging tactics of the last 50 years.