The Republican Utopia

[Guy Chamberlin]

21 minutes ago, Dr. Strangelove said:

While funny, it's important to remember that the American Public doesn't want any of that to happen. Compromise is seen as caving to your political enemy.

 

Politics in America play out exactly how the public wants it to. Everybody thinks their fire-breathing Congressman/Congresswoman is great, it's the other party that has the wackos holding us back! Similarly, Americans love their geriatric Senators, it's the other state's Senators who have dementia! 

 

Yeah, sure, but coalitions and bipartisan bills aren't ancient history. When there was a working model, Americans could be partisan without being pathological about it. It's hard to overstate what's happened in the past dozen years, certainly pre-dating Trump, something that feels like a fever dream and collective insanity. We look back through history and wonder why successful empires let horrible s#!t slowly and completely undermine them, and then look up and here we are. 

 

I don't think Americans really want this. It's almost like we are being shoved into the silos. I'm not sure why I just cited "the past dozen years" as it doesn't really align with any election cycle, but that might be around the time we started getting our news off social media, and social media responded with its own special currency:  outrage-driven clicks.   

[TGHusker]

3 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

I'm just so ashamed that I left the Republican party.  I would be so proud to be one of them right now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

1 hour ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

Yeah, sure, but coalitions and bipartisan bills aren't ancient history. When there was a working model, Americans could be partisan without being pathological about it. It's hard to overstate what's happened in the past dozen years, certainly pre-dating Trump, something that feels like a fever dream and collective insanity. We look back through history and wonder why successful empires let horrible s#!t slowly and completely undermine them, and then look up and here we are. 

 

I don't think Americans really want this. It's almost like we are being shoved into the silos. I'm not sure why I just cited "the past dozen years" as it doesn't really align with any election cycle, but that might be around the time we started getting our news off social media, and social media responded with its own special currency:  outrage-driven clicks.   

It's simply a function of rural decay. The insanity of our politics is a function of the deteriorating economic conditions in rural states, leading their votes to extreme voting tendencies. The disconnect these voters have with reality has certainly been turbocharged by social media, but especially on the political Right, paranoia was identified as being intertwined with their politics as far back as the 1960s.

 

As far as what Americans want, this is exactly it. Congressional leaders and our Senators behave exactly as the voting electorate wants them to. The voters in Matt Gaetz district loves him. He's rewarded for his behavior. The same is true for nearly all Congressman and Senators.

 

Voters do not want compromise with the opposition party, as it is seen as capitulation to the enemy. Without huge changes to our political institutions - ending Gerrymanding, instituting ranked choice voting, having a national popular vote determine the Presidency as examples - this is unlikely to change.

[Guy Chamberlin]

37 minutes ago, Dr. Strangelove said:

It's simply a function of rural decay.

 

There's not enough rural poor or just plain rural for the numbers to add up. They may comprise the most obvious block, but Trump doesn't win without a strong showing in the suburbs and among whites with college degrees. The largest block among the white working class are non-voters, who have historically disdained politicians of all stripes and/or believed their vote doesn't matter. I don't have the numbers, but my understanding is that both Trump and Biden converted a lot of non-voters, primarily through fear-mongering. 

 

In 2016, most Trump voters were affluent. This isn't a function of the great unwashed. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/05/its-time-to-bust-the-myth-most-trump-voters-were-not-working-class/

[teachercd]

2 hours ago, Dr. Strangelove said:

While funny, it's important to remember that the American Public doesn't want any of that to happen. Compromise is seen as caving to your political enemy.

 

Politics in America play out exactly how the public wants it to. Everybody thinks their fire-breathing Congressman/Congresswoman is great, it's the other party that has the wackos holding us back! Similarly, Americans love their geriatric Senators, it's the other state's Senators who have dementia! 

This is interesting, I read this article about "compromise" and the point of the article was that there is really no such thing as compromise there is just winning/losing.  It was an interesting read.  

 

I think if you raise kids you probably realize that compromising with them is actually losing.  Because the power of crying and a tantrum is so powerful.  Most of us outgrown that stage (not Trump) and we probably see things differently at certain points.

 

But it made me think, in every compromise I have ever done, I have either felt like I won/lost, I never really felt things ended 50/50, which is sort of the idea.  Of course, you also have to factor in if one side is lying or not.

 

Each year I have to assign a paper, it is 4-6 pages long.  The students hate it.  BUT before I assign it I tell them "So look, we HAVE to do this paper BUT, I think I can get it shortened if you promise to not complain about it and you use your class time to work on it"

 

They b!^@h a bit but of course say that sounds fair.  I come back and tell them "So, at our last department meeting I told them that 6-8 pages might be a bit much and I got them to agree to 4-6 pages, sound good?"

 

They go bonkers and think I am a freaking hero and they don't b!^@h and they work on it during class.  They feel like we compromised but clearly, it was just manipulation.  

 

Makes me think like, with kids/spouse, how often people get played.

[Dr. Strangelove]

2 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

 

There's not enough rural poor or just plain rural for the numbers to add up. They may comprise the most obvious block, but Trump doesn't win without a strong showing in the suburbs and among whites with college degrees. The largest block among the white working class are non-voters, who have historically disdained politicians of all stripes and/or believed their vote doesn't matter. I don't have the numbers, but my understanding is that both Trump and Biden converted a lot of non-voters, primarily through fear-mongering. 

 

In 2016, most Trump voters were affluent. This isn't a function of the great unwashed. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/05/its-time-to-bust-the-myth-most-trump-voters-were-not-working-class/

Oh, almost certainly. I was overall referral to long term trends regarding the Republican Party and their relationship work Rural America. 

 

Your point about Trump capitalizing on other factors is very true. But I think he tapped into anger deeply rooted in Americans as a result of the 2008 financial crisis among other factors. There's a lot to the cocktail that created Trumpism. 

[Lorewarn]

5 hours ago, Dr. Strangelove said:

While funny, it's important to remember that the American Public doesn't want any of that to happen. Compromise is seen as caving to your political enemy.

 

Politics in America play out exactly how the public wants it to. Everybody thinks their fire-breathing Congressman/Congresswoman is great, it's the other party that has the wackos holding us back! Similarly, Americans love their geriatric Senators, it's the other state's Senators who have dementia! 

 

 

This just isn't true for the majority of the american public, who identify as either independent or mixed and do not fall into any ideological extreme.

[BigRedBuster]

Great job republicans. 
 

 

[BigRedBuster]

Seems normal.  
 

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

Why don’t these people come up with a reasonable nominee?

 

 

[teachercd]

39 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

Seems normal.  
 

 

 

I would feel LESS safe sleeping with a loaded gun.

[suh_fan93]

 

 From people who are too afraid to show their faces...  When we lose/get exposed then we try to intimidate. 

 

 

 

[suh_fan93]

 

[commando]

10 minutes ago, suh_fan93 said:

 

working on the "real" issues

[teachercd]

1 hour ago, suh_fan93 said:

 

Chest feeding?

Am I the only one that has never heard that before?