111–120 of 137 posts
America's number one problem: Lobbyists. They corrupt the political system more than anything else. Solution: Make ALL politicians wear a "Nascar jersey" to work. Every politician should wear clothing with corporate logo decals. The bigger the payoff amount, the bigger the decal.
Great political ideas come, not from committees or from random samplings of the uninformed or semi-informed masses, but from intelligent and forceful leaders who can think them through thoughtfully, who can articulate them in a way that resonates with people, and who can set out an agenda to carry them into effective action. None of this is easy to do and it takes exceptional people even to make a credible stab at it…
Great political ideas come, not from committees or from random samplings of the uninformed or semi-informed masses, but from intelligent and forceful leaders who can think them through thoughtfully, who can articulate them in a way that resonates with people, and who can set out an agenda to carry them into effective action. Great leaders? Resonating with the masses? That sounds more like a primer on how completely a…
I think it's important to point out that there is, in fact, very few similarities between the U.K. government, especially at the time, and the U.S. government.
The U.K. uses a parliamentary system of government without a written constitution. There is a single, essentially all-powerful, legislative body with no separate executive. They can literal change the structure of government by passing a law due to the lack of a constitution. The government is structured as it is due to tradition.
The only real similarity is that they also use the "Winner Takes All" voting system, in which the person that receives the most votes wins, as opposed to a proportional system used in other countries.
Other than that similarity, they're basically entirely different.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this was a government or public institution website you'd be correct. But it's a website specifically for the GOP to garner ideas.
Yes, but in the example we're talking about elected officials. It's their duty to represent everyone in their constituency, not just the ones that are members of their political party. I was of the understanding that this thread had branched to discuss communication at the ground level with your elected representative, not a forum to discuss the direction of an entire political party as a whole. The discussion was ju…
I'm not sure that's true. In that case, there would be a moral argument against voting for third parties, since they definitely don't represent the views of a majority of people. And there'd be a moral argument against voting Republican in Manhattan, or Democrat in Utah.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point that was trying to be made is that it seems like the majority of Republicans (or at least the majority of the vocal ones) hold views that border on self-satire to the point where you almost can't be sure if someone is trolling or serious. I think that you were be hard-pressed to find someone that believes that the majority Democrats believe that God put their leaders into power. Especially since (at…
Sorry, I totally feel that way about, say, the economic theories favored by Democrats, or the things that boil down to conspiracy theories in which Wall Street is 110% responsible for every bad thing that ever happened economically (and a good deal of non-economic things) while the pure-as-the-driven-snow government is blameless in all ways, which by the way is pretty much the official platform of the Democratic Part…
Also, unless you were outraged for the entire Bush term of office, and I mean really outraged to the point of voting for Kerry in 2004, you're not a libertarian, you're a Republican. Sorry.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quit linking to insane blog posts and pretending it comes from an official DNC website. Anyone can create a blog at my.barackobama.com. It's like blogspot. Unfortunately, there is no mandatory mental health screening required to purchase an Internet connection or a computer.
I'm not pretending the content I cited was generated by the DNC. I'm pointing out that a site similar to the one currently under discussion, but with the opposite political affiliation, also has nutjobs posting on it. That's not a very surprising fact, but considering the number of people here acting like it's a republican only problem, it's worth pointing out explicitly.
It appears that the republican website is 99% populated by nutcases, split pretty evenly between republican nutcases and liberal/moderate trolls. That's the point of the original article, along with the insinuation that these sentiments represent the republican base and tea party movement.
The existence of 1 (even hundreds!) of nutcases on my.barackobama.com doesn't invalidate the original point or insinuation, even if they're wrong.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anyone doubts it would be different if the Dems made such a site: "We must not stop until the American people win the war on Health-Care [...] Our leaders today are nothing short of Angels. “Gods Elect” put in power by God for his people and his world." http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/dalecourtney?p...
I think the point that was trying to be made is that it seems like the majority of Republicans (or at least the majority of the vocal ones) hold views that border on self-satire to the point where you almost can't be sure if someone is trolling or serious. I think that you were be hard-pressed to find someone that believes that the majority Democrats believe that God put their leaders into power. Especially since (at…
This is a perfectly well formed sentence, and I can see how it fits into the present discussion, but I have a bit of a poor reaction to it; it seems that I shouldn't have to discuss what I, or anyone else, believe that someone believes.
Some Republican politicans have said that God puts their leaders in power (and I wouldn't be surprised if Democratic ones have, too); why does it matter whether or not they believe it, if their constituents do?
Great political ideas come, not from committees or from random samplings of the uninformed or semi-informed masses, but from intelligent and forceful leaders who can think them through thoughtfully, who can articulate them in a way that resonates with people, and who can set out an agenda to carry them into effective action. None of this is easy to do and it takes exceptional people even to make a credible stab at it…
Great political ideas come, not from committees or from random samplings of the uninformed or semi-informed masses, but from intelligent and forceful leaders who can think them through thoughtfully, who can articulate them in a way that resonates with people, and who can set out an agenda to carry them into effective action. Great leaders? Resonating with the masses? That sounds more like a primer on how completely a…
No, it's how all large-scale political ideas come about. It's just that 90% of them are crap, just like everything else.
Cut them some slack. Managing user generated content is a difficult task. I hope they resolve these issues and bring us one step closer to using the internet to improve democracy.
Moderating comments to handpick what are 'acceptable' views is not democracy. The popular masses trolling a joke of a party to its disintegration, is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, I totally feel that way about, say, the economic theories favored by Democrats, or the things that boil down to conspiracy theories in which Wall Street is 110% responsible for every bad thing that ever happened economically (and a good deal of non-economic things) while the pure-as-the-driven-snow government is blameless in all ways, which by the way is pretty much the official platform of the Democratic Part…
Uh, pretty sure most democrats are much more nuanced than the description in your first graf there. Also, unless you were outraged for the entire Bush term of office, and I mean really outraged to the point of voting for Kerry in 2004, you're not a libertarian, you're a Republican. Sorry.
I know it's convenient to believe that your political enemies are all stupid and evil, while your allies are mostly pure, good and smart. Go ahead and feel that way if it makes you happier.