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

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#109326: Jan 23rd 2016 at 6:12:39 AM

RE: Sanders' ill-advised article

It was back when he was a college student, but he wrote an article that partially discussed the rape fantasy back in 1972, but segued into a pretty feminist bent pretty swiftly.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#109327: Jan 23rd 2016 at 6:51:41 AM

We've got at least four inches here in Central PA and it's still coming down. We're pretty far from the worst hit regions too. I can't imagine what it's like down south of us.

[up]I haven't heard of this. Were people accusing him of having rape fantasies or something?

edited 23rd Jan '16 6:56:57 AM by Kostya

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#109328: Jan 23rd 2016 at 6:56:16 AM

[up]

I just love how we're hearing "historic event!" when Nov. 2014 had Buffalo NY get hit with 8 feet of snow over a 3-day period, followed up by 70 degree temperatures.

And mostly contrarian smarks online - the NPR article linked to has a writer from the National Review dismiss it out-of-hand, due both to age and the fact that it basically has no bearing on Sanders' current politics.

edited 23rd Jan '16 6:57:47 AM by ironballs16

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#109329: Jan 23rd 2016 at 7:39:46 AM

[up][up]I'm in southeast PA, and we've got a foot already.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#109330: Jan 23rd 2016 at 10:44:40 AM

Cruz tries to act like a normal human. I have nothing but pity for those poor kids of his.

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#109331: Jan 23rd 2016 at 10:49:40 AM

Paul Ryan is live streaming the blizzard from the Speaker's balcony. Here's the stream if you want to watch.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#109332: Jan 23rd 2016 at 10:55:38 AM

[up][up]Jeez, he's like a loud version of Stephen Harper. Even people who agree him with can't stand the guy; and unlike Harper Cruz isn't cunning or subtle enough (and the GOP is too decentralized) to worm himself into power before he pisses off everyone he's ever worked with.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#109335: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:21:28 AM

So I guess the GOP really has decided to go all in for Trump.

Now that's a shame.

Oh really when?
Shawnsummer7 Since: Jan, 2016 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
#109337: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:32:16 AM

How passive aggressive of him. These people are dying there and Cruz is basing his support on who agrees with him?

Ugh, I actually prefer Trump over him.

FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#109339: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:33:31 AM

The RNC just wants to win, and now that they've accepted that Trump's more or less going to be their guy, they have to start getting in the tank for him, which means defending him from his detractors.

Despite the National Review harboring some real scum over the years, though, the Review is also a standard bearer of the concept of "enlightened" or intellectual conservatism, and throwing the Review under the bus is just another sign of the GOP shedding its mantle of the party of "serious" government, when they'll happily let loonies like Breitbart have access.

Know-age Since: May, 2010
#109340: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:34:21 AM

Same, I prefer open egomania and power seeking to Cruz's brand of self righteousness.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#109341: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:38:38 AM

I think Trump would honestly be less of a disaster if he ever made it into the Oval Office. Despite what he says in public, he would have to negotiate with Congress and would probably be slightly capable of doing so; he has some skills in the field as he was a passable businessman with some ability to make pragmatic choices. Cruz is incapable of compromise and alienates almost everyone who he works with, inside and outside of politics.

I'll let C.S. Louis highlight the difference between the two, and why Cruz is worse.

"I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant, a robber baron is far better than an Inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the Inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.

And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future. To attach to a party programme — whose highest claim is to reasonable prudence — the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxication."

edited 23rd Jan '16 11:39:49 AM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#109342: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:40:52 AM

No, the Republicans control Congress and the Republicans, including the establishment now back Trump.

He'd have a free pass, there's nothing to negotiate with them.

If they tried to obstruct him once he's in the office after supporting his campaign they'd completely destroy the party.

Oh really when?
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#109343: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:45:46 AM

I'm still not entirely sure that Trump is a true believer, the guy was a moderate less than ten years ago; like most bigwigs he donated to both parties while holding some pretty liberal views on abortion and such. Trump is an intelligent egomaniac, he wants attention and power and knows what he has to say to get it. The guy is an insincere demagogue, not the fanatic that Cruz is.

Trump's worst excesses (deportation force, economic voodoo, etc), if he believe that, would be checked by logistical issues, local governments pushing back, the bureaucracy (either unwilling or unable to implement his orders), the GOP (who might push back in desperate attempt to not lose Congress in the 2018 midterms/keep the party alive for the future) and maybe the courts.

That's not to say that he isn't dangerous; most of his supporters do believe his crap and he is giving them a platform of relative legitimacy and encouraging them to organize and lash out. If Trump were to win the nomination and then lose the general to Clinton/Sanders/O'Malley/a dirty sock, I'd be worried about the reaction of the die hards in his camp.

edited 23rd Jan '16 11:48:07 AM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#109344: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:47:15 AM

His father is a proud Klan member, he's ordered his supporters to attack protesters at his rallies, when questioned he's doubled down on all his bigotry.

He's very sincere. And he's got the full backing of the Republican party now.

Oh really when?
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#109345: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:50:25 AM

Oh, he's a bigot for sure. But I think he's smart enough to realize that his platform would be impossible to implement. His supporters are not though.

If Obama can't close down Gitmo and had to fight tooth and nail for watered down healthcare reform; there is no way Trump is getting his worst stuff through. He'd be awful, but he couldn't remake America in his own vision.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Greenmantle V from Greater Wessex, Britannia Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Hiding
V
#109346: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:51:39 AM

[up] Not unless...

[up][up] Garcon, do you think that Trump might suspend the Constitution?

Keep Rolling On
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#109347: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:52:19 AM

[up][up]Trump thinks he can. He's a genuine fascist. When asked he says he'll just make it work.

Like I said, he's been nothing but sincere.

[up]I think he'll end up dead before his first month in office.

edited 23rd Jan '16 11:54:58 AM by LeGarcon

Oh really when?
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#109348: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:55:31 AM

He's certainly self aware, if nothing else.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/23/politics/donald-trump-shoot-somebody-support/index.html

[up]If anything could get a politically neutral military like America's to break with that tradition; it would be that.

edited 23rd Jan '16 11:56:18 AM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#109349: Jan 23rd 2016 at 11:58:03 AM

I just love how we're hearing "historic event!" when Nov. 2014 had Buffalo NY get hit with 8 feet of snow over a 3-day period, followed up by 70 degree temperatures.
Buffalo is a rather different part of the country than what's getting hit by this storm. Buffalo is on the shores of Lake Erie and gets large quantities of lake-effect snow not-infrequently. Admittedly, the storm you reference (and the warm weather immediately thereafter) was pretty impressive even by their standards, but it wasn't unprecedented.

Meanwhile, this storm is both larger and more severe than people are used to. It's causing issues as far south as Georgia to as far north as New York, and a total of ten states (plus Washington DC) have declared a state of emergency. This isn't a case of the media talking something up because it's a slow news day, this is a legitimately enormous and powerful storm.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#109350: Jan 23rd 2016 at 12:04:54 PM

My area is up to 2 feet or so. This is an order of magnitude larger than our average winter storm.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Total posts: 417,856
Top