"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison
Collateral Damage (08-01-2022)
Isn't this a little old? We already had Bill Clinton as president and now we have Biden who sniffs the hair of all the women.Originally Posted by midcan5
It depends. What did she shout at the school principal for? Do you think children should be blindly obedient of all adults? What if the principal was talking about teaching transgender studies and pointless assertions of pronouns?Originally Posted by midcan5
Who would the autocrat be? As for oligarchy, I think many conservatives are quite concerned about too much concentration of power in a handful of corporations. You do realize that much of the enforcement of anti-trust ceased under the Clinton administration 30 years ago?Originally Posted by midcan
That's how democracy works.Originally Posted by midcan5
All political factions have a bias. That's the whole point of political plurality.Originally Posted by midcan5
Uhhummm... That's what you're doing right now.Originally Posted by midcan5
People discuss policy disagreements all the time. You may not like the labels, but that's rhetoric.Originally Posted by midcan5
Has it ever been any different? And what's eating you? Did Biden fail to unite us all?Originally Posted by midcan5
That doesn't sound like a single issue. It sounds like quite a few issues.Originally Posted by midcan5
Maybe she took a hint from Nancy Pelosi tearing up a copy of the State of the Union address while standing right behind the president...Originally Posted by midcan5
An autocracy is rule by a single person. You cannot have autocrats in plural. Isn't this precisely the labelling you were lamenting earlier?Originally Posted by midcan5
Accusing someone of rape doesn't make that someone a rapist. As for intelligent black woman, you're talking about Ketanji Brown Jackson who claims an inability to define what a woman is--rather signaling her political fealty toward the latest weirdness in identity politics, such as calling women "people with wombs."Originally Posted by midcan5
When was Trump violent toward a woman during his rallies? I must have missed that.Originally Posted by midcan5
They are recognized. However, a lot of people disagree with his political choices. For example, Trump was elected in significant degree because the oligarchs you lament want illegal immigrants, but the majority of the American people do not. Trump was one of the only elected politicians trying to stop that. Biden reversed Trump's border policy, creating a humanitarian crisis on the border, and thereby underpinning political support for Trump.Originally Posted by midcan5
Why do you hate Trump just because he's different from you? Shouldn't you be more tolerant and respectful of him?Originally Posted by midcan5
Basically, they threw the kitchen sink at Donald Trump, just as they accused Brett Kavanaugh of being a rapist. Yet, they're both still standing. Midcan would do well to learn the old school kid retort, "I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you." This is quite literally what has happened to the Democrats, the media and higher education--they lost their credibility in their crusade against Donald Trump.Originally Posted by Standing Wolf
Last edited by blackjack21; 08-01-2022 at 12:26 PM.
Peter1469 (08-01-2022)
I love how some itemize threads and give their opinion on each paragraph as if their opinion isn't simply the filter they through which they see and interpret the world. Kinda a waste of time in my opinion, and you do know what the DI said about opinions.
As I read 'Twilight of Democracy' stupidity changes, becomes more complex, more easily understood. Closed mindedness becomes simple mindedness. Is simple mindedness stupid. Karen Stenner covers this concept. Various issues, immigration, diversity, sexuality, education, more complex topics create in some people fear and fear of change creates backlash. It is backlash an authoritarian like Trump and DeSantis et al can use to prop up their otherwise issue empty politics.
https://www.karenstenner.com/
PS I realize this is complex stuff for those who are inside the bubble but try, read the book, check the links, then maybe you will start thinking.
Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire
To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss. ― Michael Joseph Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler
No real counter to my thread thesis but as I noted above the topic is complex as it involves human belief and personality on a number of levels. I am constantly giving books away and going through old reads and I recently picked up Corey Robin's 'The Reactionary Mind' and skimmed it, especially his conclusions. Another epiphany arose. 'Conservatism' requires loss, for losing brings them back to life as otherwise what are they. The democrat's win in 2020 gave them new life for they do not do, they only awake with loss, for loss becomes them. They must have their way even when their way is empty. Paradoxical huh.
Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire
bdtex (08-17-2022)
Interesting that a book called 'Reactionary Mind' leads you to a conclusion that Conservatives are the ones requiring 'loss'.
There is a difference between proactive, and reactive. It doesn't take much to figure out which is applicable to which political position. Think on that for a bit.
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison
Chris (08-12-2022)
I realize the topic is complex and the book and the ideas often appear ambiguous or even ironic. But there is order in the madness. Read the book if you genuinely want to learn. A quote below to give a sense [of loss] concerning slavery. This line of thinking continues today with immigration and woman's rights.
page 56
"That school of thought contended with a second, arguably more influential, school. American slavery was not democratic, according to this line of thinking, because it offered the opportunity for personal mastery to white men: American slavery was democratic because it made every white man, slaveholder or not, a member of the ruling class by virtue of the color of his skin. In the words of Calhoun: "With us the two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black; and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals." Or as his junior colleague James Henry Hammond put it, "In a slave country every freeman is an aristocrat."
Even without slaves or the material prerequisites for freedom, a poor white man could style himself a member of the nobility and thus be relied upon to take the necessary measures in its defense. Whether one subscribed to the first or second school of thought, the master class believed that democratic feudalism was a potent counter to the egalitarian movements then roiling Europe and Jacksonian America. European radicals, declared Dew, “wish all mankind to be brought to one common level. We believe slavery, in the United States, has accomplished this." By freeing whites from "menial and low offices," slavery had eliminated “the greatest cause of distinction and separation of the ranks of society."
As the nineteenth-century ruling classes contended with challenge after challenge to their power, the master class offered up racial domination as a way of harnessing the energy of the white masses, in support of, rather than in opposition to, the privileges and powers of established elites. This program would find its ultimate fulfillment a century later and a continent away."
https://www.academia.edu/25816471/The_Reactionary_Mind
Wanna make America great, buy American owned, made in the USA, we do. AF Veteran, INFJ-A, I am not PC.
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it." Voltaire
Nothing personal Midcan but you need to see someone. You have gone off the deep end.
What you call a thesis is random ramblings.
Conservatism is about getting government out of our lives. Winning elections is only to get rid of those interfering in our lives.
We want to spend the bare minimum to do what the Constitution requires. The obsession with winning is to stop the left who wants the opposite. They want government to control not only their life, but the lives of others.
So here is the deal. There are about 85 million of you. Pool your money together and have on big communal effort. You can even opt out of medicare and SS and we will privatize the rest so that we get a decent return and it is not used to reduce unemployment numbers by expanding disability. You can have your own non-profit insurance company and build your own non-profit pharmaceutical companies... and you don't have to relocate. We can all be friends because you will not be forcing your beliefs on others for a change.
Put it together. Leave us alone. Then we have no conflicts. It is like a union in a right to work state. Some will join you, others will not.
Let's go Brandon !!!
Another epiphany arose. 'Liberalism' requires loss, for losing brings them back to life as otherwise what are they. The Republican's win in 2016 gave them new life for they do not do, they only awake with loss, for loss becomes them. They must have their way even when their way is empty. Paradoxical huh.Another epiphany arose. 'Conservatism' requires loss, for losing brings them back to life as otherwise what are they. The democrat's win in 2020 gave them new life for they do not do, they only awake with loss, for loss becomes them. They must have their way even when their way is empty. Paradoxical huh.
Leave the epiphanies to James Joyce and the paradoxes to Zeno.
To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss. ― Michael Joseph Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler