But I also know when I see pie in the sky plans.

Until we gat some control of the budget Trump is blowing up I expect little.

Clinton balanced the budget, began to pay down our crippling debt. trump beoke the bank with his lie of a war.

First things,first in this economic Liberal mind. Put people to work, slash billionaire tax cuts, then let us talk.

climate change and equality and civil rights, whether they want those issues addressed by the private sector or government, do not want to align themselves at all with a party dominated by white supremacists, science deniers, homophobes, misogynists and religious fanatics. The GOP doesn't want a big tent.

The dumbing down of the public - of the electorate — is the saddest trend I’ve seen in the course of 50 years.

I agree. I am also sad.
How do you reason with unreasonable people? How do you compromise when they are uncompromising?
I saw this on a show, HBO. Yes it's a show. The actor Jeff Daniels went on a rant as a Newscaster. This was about the tea party and the reaction by the Republicans to the election of Barrack OBama.

In this installment, anchor Will McAvoy – played by actor Jeff Daniels – tears into the conservative group in a lengthy on-air rant:

“Ideological purity, compromise as weakness, a fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism, denying science, unmoved by facts, undeterred by new information, a hostile fear of progress…They can call themselves the Tea Party. They can call themselves conservatives and they can even call themselves Republicans, though Republicans certainly shouldn’t. But we should call them what they are. The American Taliban.”

And anyone else who says they ALSO want that, they're willing to let in, no matter how otherwise crazy they might be, because they want those seats full.

He speaks about economic fairness, educational assistance, medicare for all, sane natonal defense etc.

He gets attacked from both parties on these ideas. "They can't be done, they are too expensive", etc. We hear rumours of party leaders assuring insurance companies not to worry about Medicare for all, "it's too expensive".
.
Well many of us believe that they can be done and that the country collectively would be much stronger if they were. We can always afford things like a $2.3 trillion dollar tax cut to the corporations and wealthy, unecsssary wars with costs in the trillion etc.

We would rather see a guy like Bernie Sanders get elected who would fight for the people rather then submit to the will of monied interests, fear of the right, or capitulation on policies that are bad for the middle znd poor classes.

Even though I want a system that provides universal healthcare, because I think Medicare for is a horrible political and policy idea my ideas area ‘appropriate for a traditional conservative’.

But I somehow have to be careful of my tone and choice of words when talking about people like, well, you?

If you do not insinuate that liberals who disagree with you are in someway ‘traditional conservatives’ the words and tone you hear from them might not be so bothersome.

Last edited Fri Mar 29, 2019, 12:03 AM - Edit history (2)

That’s my only point. The GOP fell off the edge of the sane political spectrum. It’s a shame. We should have at least two sane parties in America.

I’ve had my share of debates with lefties that wanted bigger social programs. I used to warn one of them that every time the government gives something away, the rightwing gets in and turns it into a type of threat or leverage against people. Intrusions into a person’s love life based on their receiving a welfare check, for example.

And I had a history teacher that counseled us that the force of law was essentially like, a gun to one’s head. I’m not unsympathetic to moderate / centrist ideas.

and that includes paying for the programs the support people. Ant that means progressive taxation. Yes, the wealthy should pay more because they got more from our open system that allowed them to accumulate that wealthy.

MFA is only one solution to our Medical system problems. Whatever we do, we need to turn back the clock somewhat and turn the current medical industry back into a coherent system that gets people the medical care they need.

I've always been "socially liberal" and "fiscally conservative." But like I said above, that doesn't mean I'm a Republican. That means I don't support social policies that are based on outdated religious doctrines and I don't support bullshit tax breaks for rich folks and corporations who don't need them.