I have to say that after last night's RNC, I can't even JOKE about being a republican.
I like!
No thanks!
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25 commentsReplies
MisterDarcy said, (78 days ago)
I'm curious what part? What lines?
I havnt seen everything, but I really felt strongly about Huckabee's speech, esp. the line "I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me."
I'm not keen on the conservative social values and I don't like Guiliani's speech at all.
ReamworksSKG said, (78 days ago)
Three things:
1. They like to say these little "coded references" to keep the religious right happy. What was Mitt Romney talking about when he said there was "pornography in our public schools?"
2. Mike Huckabee described John McCain as someone who wants to "perserve traditional marriage." (Over looking the VP who thinks that traditional marriage is getting knocked up and then being forced into it.)
3. There's really no reason for poor people to vote republican. So they try to buy their votes by trying to "do something" about high gas prices (which is really the sinking dollar).
I'm all the way to the right when it comes to economic policy. But the Republicans don't represent a true conservative economic view. They won't get enough votes this way. That's why they, too, support stimulus packages and bailouts for irresponsible borrowers.
More moderate republicans like Linda Lingle or Rudy Guiliani don't have the balls to stand up to the nonsense in their party.
Don't get me wrong: I think a Obama presidency will be an economic disaster. But at least he's not mean-spirited!
Matt Potato said, (78 days ago)
I get the feeling that the left/right liberal/conservative axis' are becoming increasingly meaningless in the context of a political party's fiscal policy. A lot of center-left parties around the world are fiscally conservative (in my admittedly limited understanding of these things i.e. low taxing low spending).
Political parties are even taking different lines toward different social issues. They might be left leaning on social welfare but right leaning on censorship/privacy issues.
Makes things hard to keep track of really.
CocktailsMalIntent said, (78 days ago)
@ream: that's relatively close to my opinion (though i dont think obama will be a disaster outright), but if neither party is going to be fiscally responsible then voting for a republican party that will disgust and offend me socially and hurt me economically is....not possible.
soulcamp said, (78 days ago)
You'd have thought they be getting less batshit after the last 8 years, but no...
lay oale said, (78 days ago)
But you are seriously wrong. Any presidency will be an economic disaster unless we start bleeding diamonds out of our asses. None of the tax packages proposed by either candidate can evin begin to bail us out of debt.
soulcamp said, (78 days ago)
@Lady O: Look, her first few months in office as mayor, she BLATANTLY fired the police chief because he supported her opponent, and she fired the head of the library for refusing to ban books. Even Bush, on his wildest of days, wouldn't sink that low (he'd have had somebody else do). Her Christian conservatism (which really seems to be her ONLY political issues, as her claim as a fiscal conservative and a reformist are utter bullshit) is so transparently extreme that it makes Romney's magic underwear look liberal.
soulcamp said, (78 days ago)
Re: taxes - @Lady O is right. The only way this country is going to recover economically is if someone starts ponying up the taxes that we've not been paying for the past 20-30 years. And the only ones who are economically sound enough to start doing that are those at the top. Otherwise, the value of the dollar is going to continue to decline, and things are going to continue to get worse for everyone across the board (though, the lower you are on the economic ladder, the worse it will be).
soulcamp said, (78 days ago)
Also - @Lady O, I don't know why that first comment is directed at you. I suck at prufreeding.
Centropomus said, (77 days ago)
If Obama can keep our trillion dollar war from becoming a three trillion dollar war, the economic benefit of that will dwarf just about anything else he could do to the economy.
lay oale said, (77 days ago)
Or we can create a new industry in Solar, create thousands of jobs, not have to pay foreign oil a single cent ever again...but wait you would probably need to vote Obama for that..
soulcamp said, (77 days ago)
@Lady O: Alternative energy will only create lots of jobs if we abandon the current corporate greed mentality of generating the maximum profits for the shareholders, no matter the cost. Otherwise, we'll end up outsourcing most of the jobs overseas, just like we've done with the rest of our manufacturing industry over the last 10 years.
Centropomus said, (77 days ago)
@soulcamp: Solar will generate a lot of jobs in the US, because they're semiconductors, and there's a large, well-trained workforce here already. It'll generate a lot of jobs in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea as well, for the same reasons, but those workers aren't much cheaper (if at all) than American workers.
soulcamp said, (77 days ago)
@Centro: But most corporations don't give a shit about a "well-trained" workforce anymore. They care about cheap. That's why we've been outsourcing things like software development and drug manufacturing overseas. The resulting products are crap, but the CEOs don't care - they increased revenues and profit margins and therefore will get their bonuses.
soulcamp said, (77 days ago)
I'd really love to think that this country could rebuild its manufacturing industry around something again, but I just don't think the corporate culture will allow it. Like my friend @Reamworks says, the economy of this country for the last several years has been based on buying and selling each other's condos.
Centropomus said, (77 days ago)
@soulcamp: With semiconductors, you need a well-trained workforce, or the product never works to begin with. It's not like most manufacturing where the shoddy workmanship shows up after a little wear and tear. With computer chips, if you screw up, the thing most likely will fail horribly the first time you try to use it. With solar cells you can actually quantify precisely how good the manufacturing is simply by measuring how much power they produce.
MisterDarcy said, (77 days ago)
@soulcamp: "The resulting products are crap, but the CEOs don't care "
It's not up to the CEO, it's up to the shareholders. If say the CEO cared but at the cost of stock dividends or stock price, shareholders would kick the CEO out.
It's a democracy. And voters are short-term thinkers. I want it now! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
What specifically made you feel this way?