The American Politics Thread

^Actually, that would be Lindsey Graham

Atavachron wrote: I miss Buckley a lot, and watching his old Firing Line show.   Goldwater not so much--  he said, "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice", and made Richard Nixon look like Mr. Rogers.

Goldwater was referring to Communist expansion which was a big deal in the mid-60s. I'm hardly a fan of Goldwater in all of his aspects, but at the time of this quote he was taking a political stance against international communist expansionism, hoping for electable political advantage. He certainly wasn't advocating something like the jan 6 riots. He would have hated that nonsense.

His resistance to the civil rights bill of the mid sixties was reprehensible.

But, compared to today's trumpateers, his understanding of government guided by constitutional restrictions and his resistance to religion based ideology is sorely missed in today's repub party.

Edited by Easy Money - November 06 2021 at 08:17

Easy Money wrote: SteveG wrote: Easy Money wrote: I don't consider trump a real republican, he's just a con artist that hijacked the party for his own purposes. He was going to run for president as a democrat in 2008 (with Jesse Ventura, who I think turned him down). In the following election he ran under some small party that I don't recall the name of. Unfortunately he has dragged the repub party down and attracted some real nut cases. Compare him to previous candidates like McCain or Romney, all the difference in the world. The problem with an non Trumper repub as president is that he will still have a brainwashed Trumpian congress. I don't know if you recall when the 60s repubs had to purge themselves of the John Birch Society that was trying to take over the party. William Buckley led the charge on that. Then a few years later Goldwater was speaking out against the growing religious right in the party such as Pat Buchanan and Oral Roberts and trying to encourage the party not to go that route. Seems the economic conservatives are always having to deal with the paranoid religious social conservatives, its an ongoing ordeal in that party.

True on all counts. It was Newt who drove me out of the party. Now I miss him. 

I don't consider trump a real republican, he's just a con artist that hijacked the party for his own purposes. He was going to run for president as a democrat in 2008 (with Jesse Ventura, who I think turned him down). In the following election he ran under some small party that I don't recall the name of.
Unfortunately he has dragged the repub party down and attracted some real nut cases. Compare him to previous candidates like McCain or Romney, all the difference in the world.

Edited by Easy Money - November 04 2021 at 15:24

Small group but this may give a little insight as to why some Democrats are either switching sides or seriously considering it.  Roughly 80% of my wife’s and my friends are Democrats, same for our relatives.  More than half of them either switched sides or are seriously considering it.  Several reasons for this…

Division is a major one.  Trump was definitely not a unifier and Biden with the current administration is even worse.  The best weapon to impart division is fear.  This tactic is constantly being reinforced by the media.

Unsympathetic and heartless were qualities usually more subscribed towards Republicans.  Not anymore… 

Censorship… Censoring those with views that don’t follow a narrative is not what a free society does. 

Advocating for science and critical thought was more predisposed in Democrats; this seems to have been lost. 

There are several coworkers that are Democrats which have similar concerns:

Coercion

Censorship

Division via fear tactic

Unsympathetic

Shoddy science

Apparently the other day there were 100s of Qanon followers waiting in the streets of Dallas for JFK Jr. to show up and become Trump's running mate in 2024. 

^ So that high ranking repub in Virginia (Amanda Chase) the other day said the election was rigged, and then they won. I wonder what she is saying now.

Edited by Easy Money - November 03 2021 at 19:44