The General US Politics Thread

Mmmm, novice at politics here (over at the Pacific area). Who is Greg Abbott?

Current Texas Attorney General who is the Republican candidate vying for governor since Rick Perry is not looking at another term.

edited 1st Oct '14 10:11:02 AM by tclittle

I've read from Rational Wiki that Abbott is a source of "general state-wide queasiness," which doesn't sound good. I read he was the Attorney General, so what exactly did he do that made him so... undesirable?

Also, what is the likelihood that the Texas Republicans will eventually implode? Their gerrymandering really skewers things to their advantage.

I ask that because I keep hearing that Kansas Republicans (really, more like Koch Brother Republicans) are in danger of being annihilated.

edited 1st Oct '14 10:23:04 AM by SarenArterius

Not "annihilated," let's not oversell it. They are in a pathetic position for a state as deep-red as Kansas, though.

Is it really that bad? Kansas growing sick of the GOP?

Is there some sorta demographic shift that will turn red states purple somehow?

In Kansas it isn't demography, but rather the fact that Republicans are actually trying everything they talk about doing, and it's going terribly.

Other red states are undergoing demographic shift, like Texas, or seeing drives to get more minorities registered, as in Georgia.

Tobias: That sounds more like sociopathy rather than a lack of critical thinking skills.

It's a bit of both really.

The major issue with Kansas is the governor keeps insisting he'll bring in jobs since he eliminated the Property or Income tax for the state, and will feed funding by Sales Taxes.

It's going very poorly.

Also Abbott was doing fairly well at 48% to 40% over Davis, so he's probably going to be Governor. Again, if memory serves, he's also from the tea party camp and the Texas tea party groups plan to Kansas up their state. Hard, once Perry leaves.

Also as to Texas Demographic shifting, it seems to be mostly in the form of Hispanic birth rate growth and flight from the Coast into the Sun Belt cities of Austin and Houston.

Now the question is how many of those people from the Coast are Democrats or Moderates.

edited 1st Oct '14 11:59:58 AM by PotatoesRock

One could imagine that the flight from the coasts is evenly representative of blue-leaning coastal populations (or could trend down to lower-middle class, since they're trying to escape high property prices)

RE: Terrorism

I can agree and get behind her overall sentiment, but by the same token other acts of terrorism should be branded as such - the most infamous one I can recall was the asshole that flew his plane into an IRS building a few years back. Very few in the media were actually referring to it as an act of terrorism, in spite of it being a clearly-deliberate act.

Of course. No one wants to admit that the biggest threats of terrorism right not are domestic, not international.

How else can they help control policy otherwise?

I'm listening to Hannity on the radio as I head home, and apart from his usual wingnut tirade, he actually said done thing rather profound.

He's a gun owner, of course, and he wants to live in Texas, but he said he had a teacher at a shooting range. After the trainer gave him instructions on gun safety, his trainer said "When you come back, and tell me everything to told you, then I'll let you use the gun."

Hannity said that stuck with him throughout his life. So, the sense I got is that Sean Hannity is for gun control.

Yeah, it's a weird mental disconnect. Everyone who publicly advocates gun ownership insists that it be "responsible" — that is, you need to be trained with proper supervision and not use a weapon unless your instructor decides you're ready to.

Then they turn around and claim the Second Amendment means there should be no restrictions on guns whatsoever.

Usually it's not the same people saying those two things, they just get stuck together because one side of the spectrum is a mix of "extreme restriction/no guns at all!", so "guns with some restrictions/all the guns!" end up one the same side.

Nah, there's a lot of Doublethink going on with Republicans. At least that's how it's been in my personal experience anyway

Don't get me wrong, there is with many issues, but on gun restrictions you're usually seeing different people with those opinions.

The main problem is that while they want responsible use of guns, they're fucking allergic to regulation mandating that responsibility and seem to expect that everyone will magically be smart on their own.

Most gun owners actually are — but they're not the ones good regulation is written to target.

edited 1st Oct '14 2:36:42 PM by Pykrete

That's the problem of trying to hold the middle ground; any party that employs the Us vs. Them mentality will lump you in with their opposing extremists.

"seem to expect that everyone will magically be smart on their own."

Again, that's not most of them. Most of the ones who want some regulation expect people to have to at least take a course. The "magical" ones are the ones that don't want regulations in general.

Can I just take a moment to appropriate the irony of you saying how two varied groups get lumped together, by blaming it on a mixed and varied side that you have gone and all lumped together?

You can but it'd be pointless? It's the same thing as politics in a country getting dragged to extremes.

If you're not with me, you're against me! And my side has guns so don't be against me.

I dunno why they all think leftists don't own guns.

How is the Glorious Worker's Revolution supposed to happen without them?

Speaking of workers, does socialism actually work? What is it supposed to be? Republicans love calling Obama socialist.