Born 1961. I've been getting more liberal as I get older. I voted for Dole. I was a libertarian when I joined the forum, been a Democrat about the last eight years. I used to think there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans, but the differences have become more and more stark as I've gotten older.

(February 20, 2024 at 6:02 am)arewethereyet Wrote:

I swear, if I see a pair at work I will lose my mind.

I think it's more that whatever the majority opinions of a demographic tend to be become what it means to be "conservative", rather than people getting more conservative as some static measure of political opinions on x.

I think that it escapes alot of people how indebted maga is to the american left from about the 60's onward. In the popular imagination, the conservative or right wing has been the party of rah rah rah. The whole america first thing is a remnant of that - but what does the magat line actually say? That we're fucked. That our foreign policy is hypocritical and not in our (or our allies) best interests. That everyone is laughing at us. That our government has betrayed us. This...american....carnage - in short. If we take a deeper dive into the (more) cynical aspects of maga as a white separatist movement, we might notice that they loudly protest the suggestion that we live in a white supremacist country while demanding that we become one. A future historian might dryly explain that maga as a movement distinct from it's predecessor started with gamergate, and we'd chuckle, but they'd be right. If they suggested that the oxygen it needed to profoundly change the american political landscape came from young men, traditionally left-leaning safe spaces, and suburban mothers protecting presumed virtues and opportunities, we'd be offended, but here again they'd be right. They are people who have heard -and agree with- the lefts politics of oppression - and come to an entirely different conclusion about it than most of us here. The whole enterprise of contemporary white supremacy is to invert the power dynamics that the right has traditionally (and falsely) claimed did not exist for the last 60 years or so. To accept that there are systemically oppressed groups of people..and then claim that those people are white. They don't disagree about what the bad thing is, or that the bad thing is happening, they think it's happening/happened to them.

So pour one out for the magats who..if circumstances were different, would have been card carrying socialists. There's a reason that the only people they detest more than you guys are the deep state neocons.

(February 20, 2024 at 1:39 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: Born 1961. I've been getting more liberal as I get older. I voted for Dole. I was a libertarian when I joined the forum, been a Democrat about the last eight years. I used to think there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans, but the differences have become more and more stark as I've gotten older.

I could have written this post, except for voting for Dole. I voted Libertarian in 96, Harold Green (or Brown?)

I don't count myself a Dem, but an independent with Dem leanings.

You know, come to think of it, I've never seen Thumps and Muster Agenda in the same room at the same time.

Muster Agenda, in the library, with the candlestick.

(February 20, 2024 at 6:04 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(February 20, 2024 at 1:39 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: Born 1961. I've been getting more liberal as I get older. I voted for Dole. I was a libertarian when I joined the forum, been a Democrat about the last eight years. I used to think there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans, but the differences have become more and more stark as I've gotten older.

I could have written this post, except for voting for Dole. I voted Libertarian in 96, Harold Green (or Brown?)

I don't count myself a Dem, but an independent with Dem leanings.

I am rather of the same political stance as you, then. I am independent leaning democrat too.

(February 20, 2024 at 8:40 pm)no one Wrote: You know, come to think of it, I've never seen Thumps and Muster Agenda in the same room at the same time.

Dude is my brotha from anotha motha, serio. I agree with so much of what he writes, and he's much more polite about it, to boot. Deffo a favorite of mine here.

(February 17, 2024 at 11:11 am)TaraJo Wrote: I don't think he'll be going to prison, but at the rate he's been losing lawsuits, bankruptcy is a possibility.  Hopefully, when he's broke, nobody will pay attention to him anymore.  

Honestly?  It might be cynical to think this way, but all these corrupt, criminal things he's doing?  He probably would have been able to get away with it all if he had kept his nose out of politics.  You run for office and your life is going to be examined under a fine toothed comb by your opponent, desperately looking for some scandal, some dirt, something to use against you.  If Trump didn't get that treatment, he'd probably have a much easier time getting away with a lot of these scandals.

Problem for T****y the civil penalties he's racking up won't disappear with bankruptcy.

(February 18, 2024 at 12:33 am)TaraJo Wrote:

(February 17, 2024 at 11:47 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Tara! Long time!!

Given Judge Engoron’s comments in the judgement, Trump probably could have avoided most of that fine (and the other penalties) if he had been a little more contrite. Then again, contrition isn’t really in his wheelhouse.

Boru

Hi.  Nice that y'all remember me.

Yeah, he's not exactly contrite.  He lacks a lot of traits common in politicians and I think he's demonstrating why those traits are so common in elected officials.  Unfortunately, what he's very good at is repeating the talking points you hear if you watch Newsmax/OAN/Faux News and that keeps him popular with the GOP base.  The end result is, the republicans have a problem: the base loves Trump, but they have underperformed in EVERY election since he became president because moderate, undecided voters hate him.  His own party can only turn things around if they can get rid of him.

I think it's worse than that for the party. They were using dog-whistle to energise the base befor T****y, but with his open racism capturing most of that base they can't return to coded racism. They could be stuck with T****y clones for a generation.