TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

The General US Politics Thread

Go To

Nov 2023 Mod notice:


There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.

If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines before posting here.

Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.

If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules when posting here.


In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.

Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#339051: Nov 12th 2020 at 1:42:55 PM

Yeah, I think it's fair to say Mc Cain had a few redeeming moments and qualities but it isn't enough for me to look favorably upon him overall.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#339052: Nov 12th 2020 at 2:07:52 PM

Yeah, it started with Reagan. If not earlier.

John Mc Cain may have done well with the ACA but he was in no way separate from the problem.

For Republicans specifically, it started in 1964 with Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater.

For the country as a whole, it's been with us for as long as the United States of America have existed as a nation. There has never been a time in American history when we were not fighting this battle. Only the names have changed.

Well, the names and the fact that we've been making slow but steady progress in it.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 12th 2020 at 2:09:29 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#339053: Nov 12th 2020 at 2:14:40 PM

McCain was a warmonger, just like every other Neocon. Him being against bigotry doesn't make him a good person.

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#339054: Nov 12th 2020 at 2:22:38 PM

He also tried to delegitimize science by pushing for intelligent design in schools, among other things. Which is why I said that I don't look that favorably upon him.

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#339055: Nov 12th 2020 at 2:41:26 PM

Mc Cain is what I'd call A Lighter Shade of Black amidst the other archconservatives and reactionaries of the GOP.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#339056: Nov 12th 2020 at 2:56:43 PM

He also made Sarah Palin his vp candidate. In hindsight, that really accelerated the GOP’s degradation.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#339057: Nov 12th 2020 at 2:59:20 PM

Did it?

I mean, Sarah Palin didn't make idiots look more legitimate. She was a national joke that sank his campaign like a stone.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#339058: Nov 12th 2020 at 3:01:18 PM

Her becoming VP candidate helped pave the way for Trump.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#339059: Nov 12th 2020 at 3:02:17 PM

How's that?

No, I'd like to know the logic for the reason that...again...she was a complete joke. McCain never would have picked her if she'd known how unqualified she was.

The Tea Party was already a huge deal and laying the groundwork for Trump but she had nothing to do with that.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Nov 12th 2020 at 3:02:59 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#339060: Nov 12th 2020 at 3:02:34 PM

So apparently Trump's tweeting frenzy is lowering Fox's shares by 6% while he recommends the new far right wave channels, Newsmax and OANN.

I don't think Murdoch is going to take this lying down. And between the two of them, I'd be much more afraid of Murdoch than Trump, irrespective of Trump's current position.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 12th 2020 at 8:03:20 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#339061: Nov 12th 2020 at 3:03:49 PM

I am genuinely dealing with people who are certain Trump will win in my daily life.

I want this farce over.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#339062: Nov 12th 2020 at 3:05:01 PM

PBS frontline: “A Serial Liar”: How Sarah Palin Ushered in the “Post-Truth” Political Era in Which Trump Has Thrived

The rise of online misinformation, shared on social media and designed to stoke fear and inflame divisions, gained major national attention in connection with the 2016 presidential election. Continued blurring of the line between fact and fiction has helped to define the political era that has followed.

But a new FRONTLINE documentary traces the use of online misinformation at high levels of the American political conversation back years further: to Sarah Palin, a former Alaska mayor and the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.

“She is the first of a generation of politicians who live in a post-truth environment. She was, and there’s no polite way to say it, but a serial liar,” Steve Schmidt, who helped lead John Mc Cain’s 2008 presidential campaign and pushed him to choose Palin as his running mate, tells FRONTLINE in the documentary America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump.

“She would say things that are simply not true, or things that were picked up from the Internet,” the former GOP operative, who had also worked as a campaign adviser to President George W. Bush, continues. “And this obliteration of fact from fiction, of truth from lie, has become now endemic in American politics. But it started then.”

Edited by M84 on Nov 12th 2020 at 7:07:04 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#339063: Nov 12th 2020 at 3:08:54 PM

Alright, you've convinced me. I suppose I liked to think she was not as important a figure in the political sphere as she came and someone who hurt the GOP rather than changed it.

Fun fact: Mc Cain tried to get Susan Collins before Palin.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#339064: Nov 12th 2020 at 3:37:57 PM

[up] He actually wanted Joe Lieberman at one point, but Lieberman was too liberal for the Republican Party.


Some positive news out of New Mexico. From AP News and the NM Political Report

In the primary, 5 conservative Democrats in the state Senate lost primary challenges [1] (two were even supported by Sen. Martin Heinrich [2]). In the general election, Democrats lost two of those seats to Republicans, but kept three, and picked up another three across the state. On the whole, the balance of the state Senate has shifted further to the left. Democrats held the state House as well, with a comfortable majority, so hopefully they'll be able to get some good things done.

Democrats have expanded their control of the New Mexico Legislature, teeing up a progressive agenda that aims to broadly legalize marijuana, expand funding for universal prekindergarten programs and possibly enshrine abortion rights into state law.

New Mexico is also a state with one of the largest Hispanic and Native American populations (by %) in the nation. This year, all three of their House Reps. are either Native or Hispanic women, and the number of Indigenous, Black, and LGBTQ people elected to the state legislature has increased as well. [3]

Edited by nova92 on Nov 12th 2020 at 3:49:24 AM

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#339065: Nov 12th 2020 at 4:22:20 PM

Trump is lashing out at Fox News heavily and is now promoting News Max and OANN.

I surely they lost favor for bailing out of the Trump boat before it sinks completely and certainly part of their audience will be gone.

But if I were to find a violin small enough to play a sad song with, it would be in the Planck scale.

Edited by AngelusNox on Nov 12th 2020 at 9:22:50 AM

Inter arma enim silent leges
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#339066: Nov 12th 2020 at 4:25:33 PM

I don't know, depends on if they're more loyal to Fox than to Trump.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#339067: Nov 12th 2020 at 4:26:59 PM

I don't think Murdoch is going to let Trump make him irrelevant. He's much more intimidating than Trump will ever be.

clemont107 Mega Togekiss?! from Land of Missed Opportunities (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Mega Togekiss?!
#339068: Nov 12th 2020 at 4:31:44 PM

[up]Rupert is currently at the old-age of 89. Somehow, similarly with Donald, I doubt he will be around much longer.

"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - Dawn
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#339069: Nov 12th 2020 at 4:33:01 PM

Well. Murdoch, unlike Trump, actually has money and doesn't owes his pants to all those idiots who loaned him money.

[up] the good die young lady indeed.

Edited by AngelusNox on Nov 12th 2020 at 9:33:47 AM

Inter arma enim silent leges
Makir Since: Feb, 2017
#339070: Nov 12th 2020 at 4:58:15 PM

This might seem off-topic, but it's stuff like this is why I'm kind of axiomatically against the attainment of biological immortality. I don't want tyrants and manipulative rich media moguls to celebrate their 500th birthday while they cause immense suffering for the rest of the world.

Xopher001 Since: Jul, 2012
#339071: Nov 12th 2020 at 5:02:30 PM

That's all on capitalism, immortality has nothing to do with it

ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#339073: Nov 12th 2020 at 6:00:14 PM

I can't tell if this is a stealth parody: Republicans should own the Libs by abolishing the Electoral College.

Either way, I laughed.

My musician page
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#339074: Nov 12th 2020 at 6:05:49 PM

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Meet Georgia's 16 Democratic electors

They are party figures and powerbrokers, local legislators and activists, high-powered lawyers and civil rights veterans. And if President-elect Joe Biden's lead in Georgia stands, they'll be charged with casting the state's 16 electoral votes for the Democrat.

The 16 are avowed Biden supporters who have worked for years to flip Georgia, which last voted for a Democrat for president in 1992. They'll cast their ballots for the former vice president on Dec. 14 if he maintains his lead over Trump, which now hovers around 10,000 votes.

Atop the list are two of the most familiar faces in state politics: Stacey Abrams and U.S. Rep.-elect Nikema Williams, the party's chair.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#339075: Nov 12th 2020 at 6:55:58 PM

Oh no! Not the electoral college! What would we do without it?

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times

Total posts: 417,856
Top