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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
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I don't think Sanders is ideal either in the same way as Corbyn isn't and wasn't ideal for Labor in the UK, and I really hope someone steps up who is better able to temper a progressive vision with practical realities in the next few years who can take up that mantle, but for now he's what we've got.
edited 20th Jan '17 10:50:36 AM by CaptainCapsase
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Well yes, obviously to confront China with. Apparently terrorists don't make a big "great enemy" to use as a boogeyman, since they tend to actually carry out visible and highly demoralizing attacks against your people rather than glaring at you menacingly like the Soviets did and occasionally carrying out military interventions halfway across the world.
edited 20th Jan '17 10:55:41 AM by CaptainCapsase
Honestly I always assumed his plan to save the coal industry amounts to "eliminate environmental regulations" and absolutely nothing else.
While that might slow (or even reverse) the slide in coal production for a time, ultimately automation and competition from natural gas and wind/solar will ensure that coal jobs never return to where they were in the past.
Re: the Democratic Party's shift leftward.
It'll probably happen, but it won't matter. They will still lose. They will lose the Presidency. They will lose more senators, more congressmen, more state seats, more town councilmen, what have you. If they move left, they will lose. If they stay in the center, they will lose. If they move to the right, they will lose as well, because why elect an imitator when you can get the real deal? The zeitgeist in America is fascist, reactionary, and anti-intellectual — that's something that can't be overcome by anything except the passage of time.
edited 20th Jan '17 11:05:38 AM by CrimsonZephyr
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."![]()
Partially, and it's also something that likely would've happened under any Republican, but Trump's extremely Hawkish stance on China and apparent willingness to lead us until a new cold war.
Trump won because of apathy, disillusionment, and distrust of the center rather than because of a genuine popular appeal to his movement. Right before the great depression, the left and particularly the labor movement was thoroughly beaten down, dismantled, and neutered. While it took the worst economic crisis in history, it made a major comeback in a matter of years, and Trump just so happens to be fairly likely to repeat that particular economic feat.
edited 20th Jan '17 11:10:59 AM by CaptainCapsase
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But do we really have to wait for something that negatively affects white people as well in order for the country to go "Shit, maybe hippie, bra burning lady has a point"
Especially when there's just a good chance for the country to conclude "KKK was right. It's the colored/Muslim/gay/whoever people's fault. Get em!"
edited 20th Jan '17 11:13:13 AM by NoName999
Until such a time as power is no longer concentrated into the hands of white Americans (who, if history repeats will reluctantly go along with such a leftwards shift due to a realization that they'll be the first ones against the wall if a revolution happens), that unfortunately seems quite likely.
edited 20th Jan '17 11:15:46 AM by CaptainCapsase
It's because it will be hard that the Democrats will fail. When have they ever be able to fight a hard fight? Our position is honestly untenable. We lost, Trump is president, the GOP has a stranglehold on every level of American government, voter suppression is law and unassailable as such, and the achievements of the Obama presidency, the likes of which we will never see again, are going to be destroyed one by one. And against a populace that is powerless to unseat Trump unwilling to rid us of his ilk, the Democrats have pretty much no chance of capturing enough seats to reclaim any portion of the government, and even if they do, it will never be enough.
The Democrats will fail because they appeal to a better nature in Americans that doesn't exist and never existed. You can't promote compassion to a nation of violent barbarians.
edited 20th Jan '17 11:39:18 AM by CrimsonZephyr
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

If a leftward shift in the Democratic Party is inevitable, I still don't have much confidence in Sanders' ability to make it work. I mean, so far he's been a textbook example of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! The movement might end up co-opted by people with far worse intentions, such as Tulsi Gabbard.
edited 20th Jan '17 10:50:01 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised