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

KBSL Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: Forming Voltron
#54751: May 18th 2013 at 11:08:19 AM

Speaking of Arizona and Texas going blue in the future that might not happen as soon as many people think. Immigration from Mexico has dropped to net zero and birth rates has significantly dropped for Hispanics. For example, 2003 was the first year Hispanics had more births than NH (non-Hispanic) whites in the state, that continued for the next seven years but seems to have started reversing since in 201ll NH whites were again recorded as giving birth to most babies 45.5% to Hispanics 38.9%. Obviously Arizona is still going to become majority minority but it'll take longer than expected and even after that won't make it automatically blue, because Texas isn't. What are the chances of either state going blue without becoming majority-minority?

RadicalTaoist scratching at .8, just hopin' from the #GUniverse Since: Jan, 2001
scratching at .8, just hopin'
#54752: May 18th 2013 at 11:34:23 AM

Texas flipping isn't likely to happen before 2024, I suspect.

Dems would split between a normal, intelligent right and an actual left.
Idealistic. The reactionary antidemocratic bigot demographic isn't going to disappear just because no one is willing to advance their agenda on the national stage, and they will never forget how the rest of the country betrayed them by not agreeing to fold for everything they demanded. They will form a lunatic right fringe, the Democrats will likely shift into the right, jettisoning their progressive wing for the extreme centrists and corporate Republicans. The next time someone like Romney runs, he'll likely be running as a Democrat.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.
terlwyth Since: Oct, 2010
#54753: May 18th 2013 at 11:42:26 AM

Or maybe a different party will do the Republican thing and take over,..while the Dems flee to the North rather than the South

As for Texas going blue,...all they have to do is stop nominating Obama like guys,and more Clinton's,after all Bubba lost by less than 5% both times,Humphrey,Johnson,and Carter all won the place,...meaning that until 2008 it was a 6:5 lead.

And until 2003,Texas was mostly Dem on a Congressional level.

One things for sure,there's more hope for Texas than the Goldwater, "We've voted Democrat exactly once since Truman" state of Arizona.

RadicalTaoist scratching at .8, just hopin' from the #GUniverse Since: Jan, 2001
scratching at .8, just hopin'
#54754: May 18th 2013 at 11:49:24 AM

I got mis primos working on it. Same timeframe. By 2024 we have another generation of Latino voters and a lot fewer boomers.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#54755: May 18th 2013 at 12:31:32 PM

they will never forget how the rest of the country betrayed them by not agreeing to fold for everything they demanded

... This isn't how betrayal works...

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
RadicalTaoist scratching at .8, just hopin' from the #GUniverse Since: Jan, 2001
scratching at .8, just hopin'
#54756: May 18th 2013 at 12:33:38 PM

No, you forget, they are True Americans and the rest of us should have shut up and let them run the country properly years ago.

Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.
GlennMagusHarvey Since: Jan, 2001
#54757: May 18th 2013 at 12:34:33 PM

They already feel betrayed by the rest of the country and pride themselves on a sense of desperation that they are the only true "keepers of the faith" for their notion of the one true ideal fantasy version of America.

TheShopSoldier THE DISGRACE STILL LINGERS UPON ME from Messin' with Neo Arcadia... Just Because Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
THE DISGRACE STILL LINGERS UPON ME
#54758: May 18th 2013 at 12:41:58 PM

[up]Forget them - They're in the way of real progress that we all need and desperately seek that they aren't capable of giving us - unless we fight accordingly, anyway...

It's going to take more than a few red states going blue for these idealistic changes to come to pass anyway, IMHO.

edited 18th May '13 12:42:43 PM by TheShopSoldier

Even if I had different face, I AM STILL DISGRACED.
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#54759: May 18th 2013 at 12:55:37 PM

There's nothing idealistic about them. Maybe "improbable" or, time will tell, "inaccurate", but not "idealistic". Idealistic would be to suggest that the USA become one State, with a Scandinavia-style model of wealth distribution, and a public sector in which people trust, and which is held by all to very hard standards, and given the budget to achieve them. What we're suggesting is rather pragmatic and unambitious; just that the insane be marginalized from politics. There's always about twenty-thrity percent of them in every country at most, but there's no need for the rest to allow them to hinder everyone and everything.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
TheShopSoldier THE DISGRACE STILL LINGERS UPON ME from Messin' with Neo Arcadia... Just Because Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
THE DISGRACE STILL LINGERS UPON ME
#54760: May 18th 2013 at 1:13:56 PM

[up]No... there simply isn't - agreed on all accounts and apologies for not completely understanding where you're coming from... I just can't stand stupidity ruining my nation any further, whereas everywhere else seems to be getting better and better, despite austerity hindering them for awhile.

Even if I had different face, I AM STILL DISGRACED.
Pykrete NOT THE BEES from Viridian Forest Since: Sep, 2009
NOT THE BEES
#54761: May 18th 2013 at 1:22:02 PM

whereas everywhere else seems to be getting better and better

Extremely subjective. As much shit as the US is going through right now, Canada's about the only country I'd actually prefer to live in at the moment. Cultural differences aside (many of which would be fine for a visit but I wouldn't be able to reconcile in the long term), Europe has some really, really unnerving Big Brother stuff going on, and Greece is financially fucking over the entire Eurozone because apparently the Golden Dawn fiasco isn't enough.

Hate to break it to you but the rest of the first world isn't some kind of Elysium.

edited 18th May '13 1:23:32 PM by Pykrete

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#54762: May 18th 2013 at 1:23:49 PM

What Big Brother stuff? There is a surveillance state only in the UK, last I checked.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Pykrete NOT THE BEES from Viridian Forest Since: Sep, 2009
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#54764: May 18th 2013 at 1:26:49 PM

So only in France?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Pykrete NOT THE BEES from Viridian Forest Since: Sep, 2009
NOT THE BEES
#54765: May 18th 2013 at 1:27:33 PM

The US just got done bullying Spain into even scarier internet laws than we could get passed.

If you want me to go on, I can.

edited 18th May '13 1:27:47 PM by Pykrete

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#54766: May 18th 2013 at 1:30:30 PM

Are they trying to do that to my country too?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
DeviantBraeburn Wandering Jew from Dysfunctional California Since: Aug, 2012
Wandering Jew
#54767: May 18th 2013 at 1:35:59 PM

Romney: Benghazi talking points had no bearing on presidential election

Representative Bachmann Excoriates ‘Death-Like’ IRS With Eric Bolling, Warns Your ‘Life And Death’ May Be In Their Hands

A bipartisan group of senators want to largely eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of an overhaul of the mortgage finance market.

Ben Bernanke: 'Humanity's capacity to innovate' has never been greater

The Pentagon wants Congress to shift $9.6 billion of this year’s Defense Department budget toward expenses for the Afghanistan war, transportation and other items.

[up][up][up][up][up] China's economy is stagnating, the Korean peninsula is heating up, the Middles East is in chaos, Iran is going nuclear, Africa is still Africa, and I predict the EU will have fallen apart by 2015.

I expect this decade to be known as the decade were everything went to shit.

edited 18th May '13 1:37:25 PM by DeviantBraeburn

Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016
Pykrete NOT THE BEES from Viridian Forest Since: Sep, 2009
NOT THE BEES
#54768: May 18th 2013 at 1:51:12 PM

As far as I can tell, Switzerland has been doing okay on that front — there was a wave in the early 2000's to monitor emails but it didn't go very far. Good on you guys.

Switzerland has been slowly adopting CCTV, but so far it's still pretty decentralized and has mostly been used in the right ways. While the trend is worrying, it'd be up there in places I'd at least be willing to move to.

lordnyx Since: Aug, 2009
#54769: May 18th 2013 at 1:52:31 PM

Korea is always heating up, same for the middle east, Iran has been going Nuclear in ~2 years since the century started/revolution and if the EU can't weather a finical crisis then yeah it should break up but it will probably will survive.

edited 18th May '13 1:52:48 PM by lordnyx

Midgetsnowman Since: Jan, 2010
#54770: May 18th 2013 at 1:57:17 PM

Bachmann really does live in a very gloomy delusion, doesnt she?

OhNoABear I'm back, baby. from Exiting, pursued by a... Since: Jan, 2011
I'm back, baby.
#54771: May 18th 2013 at 4:11:24 PM

I have a bit of a general question. Do ya'll think that the primary issue that our generation has is what government has failed to do rather than what it has done? Do you think our parents' generation had/has the opposite view?

This is of course assuming most of ya'll are post-Cold War adults like me.

"The marvel is not that the Bear posts well, but that the Bear posts at all."
Midgetsnowman Since: Jan, 2010
#54772: May 18th 2013 at 4:12:59 PM

I think our generation is less about what government does and more about weeding out the lies from the half-truths and lies of omissions of a no longer even slightly unbiased media.

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#54773: May 18th 2013 at 4:13:52 PM

The answer to that question is mu.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
DeviantBraeburn Wandering Jew from Dysfunctional California Since: Aug, 2012
Wandering Jew
#54774: May 18th 2013 at 4:39:01 PM

Bobby Jindal: IRS officials deserve prison time

Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016
Belian In honor of my 50lb pup from 42 Since: Jan, 2001
In honor of my 50lb pup
#54775: May 18th 2013 at 4:56:03 PM

There are multiple problems with "our" generation—just like every generation. The primary ones that I think are affecting the US Government are that we "take our voting rights for granted (and are thus not important)" and "my opinion/vote doesn't matter". Also high on the list is "I only vote every 4 (2) years for the President (and my Congresspeople)" when a lot of local laws that effect a person directly are voted on at other times (of course, the Media not advertising/reporting on those other votes plays a huge part in that).

Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!

Total posts: 417,856
Top