Politics and Stuff

[cletus1]

Did you get your letter from Congressman Walden yet? I did, and parts of it read like SFLiberal wrote it. Sorry SF, but it does.

Here ya go. ...Thats why I get so upset when I see tax dollars wasted on websites that don't work; criminals sitting in jail getting checks they aren't entitled to;or welfare cheats, such as the woman in Illinois living in a $300,000 paid-for-home with a Mercedes in the driveway getting food stamps..... blah blah and more blah.

Save the paper Greg; I am not one of your base and I will not vote for you no matter what.

[Larry]

. We have always had the vitriolic radicals of both sides ranting and raving and saying little. While they are still with us and vocal, It seems to me that they are not posting as often.

Still with us? Scar was banned, Ponder was banned.

I'm hoping our political discussions start to become more respectful and contain more information and less rancor

Hope in one hand and crap in the other then see which hand is warmer. I think that's how the saying goes.
Anyway when you start getting lots of threads closed and and people banned you don't get more respectful and less rancor.
You get quiet time.

Ponder is gone? I might participate more.

But probably not.

[cletus1]

I have come to the conclusion that too many Americans are politically ignorant. Personally I can't understand why mid term elections always favor the party that is not in the White House? It makes no sense and obviously this time it bugs me because I vote Democrat, but that is not the point. I see mid term elections favor Democrats as well, when Republicans are in the White House.

I know quite a few people who vote that can't tell their ass from a crack in the wall. Yet these extremely opinionated folks sometimes vote Democrat and sometimes Republican. I have talked to a few of them and they know nothing about current affairs, how the government works, or much of anything that is going on in Washington DC and they vote. When I listen to their know nothing ramblings, I want to slap their damn faces. Really

I was born a Democrat.

Unpopular parties can still prevail
02/27/14 04:20 PM

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll offers Democrats some good news and some bad news. It’s worth pausing to appreciate how the former affects the latter.

First, consider the news Dems will be eager to hear. The public generally agrees with Democrats on the major issues of the day – immigration, minimum wage, health care, and marriage equality – and on more general topics such as compromise, economic inequality, how best to reduce the deficit, and the value of social-insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security. The same poll found Democrats are more popular than Republicans and more in line with voters’ priorities.

Then consider the news Democrats won’t like at all.
Those stances among voters have not translated into support for the president’s party, as 42 percent say they will back Republicans in November, and 39 percent indicate that they will back Democrats, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

I imagine Democratic officials would find this quite frustrating. They enjoy the edge on pretty much every possible question, right up until poll respondents were asked who they intend to vote for – and the answer is, the more unpopular party, which the mainstream disagrees with on nearly everything, is the one with more support.

Of course, it leads to a fairly obvious question: if Republicans are more unpopular; voters disagree with them on nearly everything; the GOP has no accomplishments or agenda to speak of; and they’re responsible for the ridiculous government shutdown just a few months ago, how is it that they have the edge over Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections?

The obvious answer is that voting isn’t always rational – trying to make sense of folks’ political decision-making process can be an incredibly frustrating experience, regardless of party or ideology.

But more substantively, looking at this new poll in particular, there’s also reason to believe voters are unsatisfied with the status quo and they’re blaming President Obama – even if they agree with him on the issues that matter most; even if it’s congressional Republicans blocking the policy agenda the American mainstream wants to see implemented.

This has long been part of the GOP calculus. Many voters have no real sense of how federal policymaking works and have no use for things like filibusters or discharge petitions. Much of the country has no idea who’s in the majority of which chamber and/or whether there’s a division of power on Capitol Hill.

What they do know is that Washington is a dysfunctional mess in which nothing is getting done. The American mainstream may not know who, exactly, to blame and why, but they seem inclined to blame the president because, well, he’s the president.

This has come up plenty of times before. The public wants something; Obama agrees with them; congressional Republicans kill the idea; and the president gets blamed. It’s driven by mistaken institutional assumptions – many like to think a president is ultimately responsible for all political progress or the lack thereof. Americans like to think of their president – any president – as the most powerful person on the planet. POTUS is the Leader of the Free World and the Commander in Chief. He’s the Top Dog, the Big Cheese, the Head Honcho, the One in Charge, and the one with whom the buck stops.

Why would voters be prepared to vote for the party they don’t like and don’t agree with? Because as plenty of presidents in their sixth year can attest, sometimes not being the party in the White House is all it takes.

[oregon 67]

I have come to the conclusion that too many Americans are politically ignorant. Personally I can't understand why mid term elections always favor the party that is not in the White House? It makes no sense and obviously this time it bugs me because I vote Democrat, but that is not the point. I see mid term elections favor Democrats as well, when Republicans are in the White House.

I know quite a few people who vote that can't tell their ass from a crack in the wall. Yet these extremely opinionated folks sometimes vote Democrat and sometimes Republican. I have talked to a few of them and they know nothing about current affairs, how the government works, or much of anything that is going on in Washington DC and they vote. When I listen to their know nothing ramblings, I want to slap their damn faces. Really

I was born a Democrat.

Unpopular parties can still prevail
02/27/14 04:20 PM

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll offers Democrats some good news and some bad news. It’s worth pausing to appreciate how the former affects the latter.

First, consider the news Dems will be eager to hear. The public generally agrees with Democrats on the major issues of the day – immigration, minimum wage, health care, and marriage equality – and on more general topics such as compromise, economic inequality, how best to reduce the deficit, and the value of social-insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security. The same poll found Democrats are more popular than Republicans and more in line with voters’ priorities.

Then consider the news Democrats won’t like at all.
Those stances among voters have not translated into support for the president’s party, as 42 percent say they will back Republicans in November, and 39 percent indicate that they will back Democrats, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

I imagine Democratic officials would find this quite frustrating. They enjoy the edge on pretty much every possible question, right up until poll respondents were asked who they intend to vote for – and the answer is, the more unpopular party, which the mainstream disagrees with on nearly everything, is the one with more support.

Of course, it leads to a fairly obvious question: if Republicans are more unpopular; voters disagree with them on nearly everything; the GOP has no accomplishments or agenda to speak of; and they’re responsible for the ridiculous government shutdown just a few months ago, how is it that they have the edge over Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections?

The obvious answer is that voting isn’t always rational – trying to make sense of folks’ political decision-making process can be an incredibly frustrating experience, regardless of party or ideology.

But more substantively, looking at this new poll in particular, there’s also reason to believe voters are unsatisfied with the status quo and they’re blaming President Obama – even if they agree with him on the issues that matter most; even if it’s congressional Republicans blocking the policy agenda the American mainstream wants to see implemented.

This has long been part of the GOP calculus. Many voters have no real sense of how federal policymaking works and have no use for things like filibusters or discharge petitions. Much of the country has no idea who’s in the majority of which chamber and/or whether there’s a division of power on Capitol Hill.

What they do know is that Washington is a dysfunctional mess in which nothing is getting done. The American mainstream may not know who, exactly, to blame and why, but they seem inclined to blame the president because, well, he’s the president.

This has come up plenty of times before. The public wants something; Obama agrees with them; congressional Republicans kill the idea; and the president gets blamed. It’s driven by mistaken institutional assumptions – many like to think a president is ultimately responsible for all political progress or the lack thereof. Americans like to think of their president – any president – as the most powerful person on the planet. POTUS is the Leader of the Free World and the Commander in Chief. He’s the Top Dog, the Big Cheese, the Head Honcho, the One in Charge, and the one with whom the buck stops.

Why would voters be prepared to vote for the party they don’t like and don’t agree with? Because as plenty of presidents in their sixth year can attest, sometimes not being the party in the White House is all it takes.

And you won't stop voting after you die either

[Wonky]

I have come to the conclusion that too many Americans are politically ignorant. Personally I can't understand why mid term elections always favor the party that is not in the White House? It makes no sense and obviously this time it bugs me because I vote Democrat, but that is not the point. I see mid term elections favor Democrats as well, when Republicans are in the White House.

I know quite a few people who vote that can't tell their ass from a crack in the wall. Yet these extremely opinionated folks sometimes vote Democrat and sometimes Republican. I have talked to a few of them and they know nothing about current affairs, how the government works, or much of anything that is going on in Washington DC and they vote. When I listen to their know nothing ramblings, I want to slap their damn faces. Really

I was born a Democrat.

Unpopular parties can still prevail
02/27/14 04:20 PM

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll offers Democrats some good news and some bad news. It’s worth pausing to appreciate how the former affects the latter.

First, consider the news Dems will be eager to hear. The public generally agrees with Democrats on the major issues of the day – immigration, minimum wage, health care, and marriage equality – and on more general topics such as compromise, economic inequality, how best to reduce the deficit, and the value of social-insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security. The same poll found Democrats are more popular than Republicans and more in line with voters’ priorities.

Then consider the news Democrats won’t like at all.
Those stances among voters have not translated into support for the president’s party, as 42 percent say they will back Republicans in November, and 39 percent indicate that they will back Democrats, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

I imagine Democratic officials would find this quite frustrating. They enjoy the edge on pretty much every possible question, right up until poll respondents were asked who they intend to vote for – and the answer is, the more unpopular party, which the mainstream disagrees with on nearly everything, is the one with more support.

Of course, it leads to a fairly obvious question: if Republicans are more unpopular; voters disagree with them on nearly everything; the GOP has no accomplishments or agenda to speak of; and they’re responsible for the ridiculous government shutdown just a few months ago, how is it that they have the edge over Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections?

The obvious answer is that voting isn’t always rational – trying to make sense of folks’ political decision-making process can be an incredibly frustrating experience, regardless of party or ideology.

But more substantively, looking at this new poll in particular, there’s also reason to believe voters are unsatisfied with the status quo and they’re blaming President Obama – even if they agree with him on the issues that matter most; even if it’s congressional Republicans blocking the policy agenda the American mainstream wants to see implemented.

This has long been part of the GOP calculus. Many voters have no real sense of how federal policymaking works and have no use for things like filibusters or discharge petitions. Much of the country has no idea who’s in the majority of which chamber and/or whether there’s a division of power on Capitol Hill.

What they do know is that Washington is a dysfunctional mess in which nothing is getting done. The American mainstream may not know who, exactly, to blame and why, but they seem inclined to blame the president because, well, he’s the president.

This has come up plenty of times before. The public wants something; Obama agrees with them; congressional Republicans kill the idea; and the president gets blamed. It’s driven by mistaken institutional assumptions – many like to think a president is ultimately responsible for all political progress or the lack thereof. Americans like to think of their president – any president – as the most powerful person on the planet. POTUS is the Leader of the Free World and the Commander in Chief. He’s the Top Dog, the Big Cheese, the Head Honcho, the One in Charge, and the one with whom the buck stops.

Why would voters be prepared to vote for the party they don’t like and don’t agree with? Because as plenty of presidents in their sixth year can attest, sometimes not being the party in the White House is all it takes.

This post has more than 13 words.
Even has mutipile paragraphs.
Are your surprised at the lack of response?
We, here at the RVF, thrive on HEADLINES and abhor the drudgery of details.
GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE.
Now that, is the kind of issue we can respond to. Or mean dogs.

Now, you know (if you didn't already) why FOX News is highly rated.

[cletus1]

And you won't stop voting after you die either

This is Oregon; you don't have to stop voting when you die.

[Prospero]

Of course, it leads to a fairly obvious question: if Republicans are more unpopular; voters disagree with them on nearly everything; the GOP has no accomplishments or agenda to speak of; and they’re responsible for the ridiculous government shutdown just a few months ago, how is it that they have the edge over Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections?

The obvious answer is that voting isn’t always rational – trying to make sense of folks’ political decision-making process can be an incredibly frustrating experience, regardless of party or ideology.

In other words, the democratic process itself is a form of mental illness.

One option that never seems to occur to the Republicans is to modify their own goals to give people what they want. That's why campaigns need to spend so much money on attack ads.

But this has been going on forever. The key line from the 1947 musical "Finian's Rainbow" was "Forward to yesterday," in satire of reactionary politics. And the Republican party has been trying to get back to 1920 since -- well, since 1920, but more vigorously since 1932, after the big economic bubble burst.

Here's a political parable:

A Liberal and a Conservative are marooned for years on a desert island. Something that looks like land is occasionally faintly visible in the distance. The Liberal keeps jumping in the sea and trying to swim for it, but every time he does, the Conservative swims after him and drags him back to the shore, saying "I've saved your life for the umpteenth time!" The Liberal says "If you'd just let me go, I might have been able to rescue both of us!"

[orygunluvr]

Of course, it leads to a fairly obvious question: if Republicans are more unpopular; voters disagree with them on nearly everything; the GOP has no accomplishments or agenda to speak of; and they’re responsible for the ridiculous government shutdown just a few months ago, how is it that they have the edge over Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections?

The obvious answer is that voting isn’t always rational – trying to make sense of folks’ political decision-making process can be an incredibly frustrating experience, regardless of party or ideology.

In other words, the democratic process itself is a form of mental illness.

One option that never seems to occur to the Republicans is to modify their own goals to give people what they want. That's why campaigns need to spend so much money on attack ads.

But this has been going on forever. The key line from the 1947 musical "Finian's Rainbow" was "Forward to yesterday," in satire of reactionary politics. And the Republican party has been trying to get back to 1920 since -- well, since 1920, but more vigorously since 1932, after the big economic bubble burst.

Here's a political parable:

A Liberal and a Conservative are marooned for years on a desert island. Something that looks like land is occasionally faintly visible in the distance. The Liberal keeps jumping in the sea and trying to swim for it, but every time he does, the Conservative swims after him and drags him back to the shore, saying "I've saved your life for the umpteenth time!" The Liberal says "If you'd just let me go, I might have been able to rescue both of us!"

No, the liberal would drown, then blame the conservative for not saving him, again.

[Wonky]

Of course, it leads to a fairly obvious question: if Republicans are more unpopular; voters disagree with them on nearly everything; the GOP has no accomplishments or agenda to speak of; and they’re responsible for the ridiculous government shutdown just a few months ago, how is it that they have the edge over Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections?

The obvious answer is that voting isn’t always rational – trying to make sense of folks’ political decision-making process can be an incredibly frustrating experience, regardless of party or ideology.

In other words, the democratic process itself is a form of mental illness.

One option that never seems to occur to the Republicans is to modify their own goals to give people what they want. That's why campaigns need to spend so much money on attack ads.

But this has been going on forever. The key line from the 1947 musical "Finian's Rainbow" was "Forward to yesterday," in satire of reactionary politics. And the Republican party has been trying to get back to 1920 since -- well, since 1920, but more vigorously since 1932, after the big economic bubble burst.

Here's a political parable:

A Liberal and a Conservative are marooned for years on a desert island. Something that looks like land is occasionally faintly visible in the distance. The Liberal keeps jumping in the sea and trying to swim for it, but every time he does, the Conservative swims after him and drags him back to the shore, saying "I've saved your life for the umpteenth time!" The Liberal says "If you'd just let me go, I might have been able to rescue both of us!"

No, the liberal would drown, then blame the conservative for not saving him, again.

Odds are, a boat of moderates would happen by and save them.
Then keep them apart so they won't hurt one another.
God help us from the extremes of our politics.

[MarkM]

I have come to the conclusion that too many Americans are politically ignorant. Personally I can't understand why mid term elections always favor the party that is not in the White House? It makes no sense and obviously this time it bugs me because I vote Democrat, but that is not the point. I see mid term elections favor Democrats as well, when Republicans are in the White House.

I know quite a few people who vote that can't tell their ass from a crack in the wall. Yet these extremely opinionated folks sometimes vote Democrat and sometimes Republican. I have talked to a few of them and they know nothing about current affairs, how the government works, or much of anything that is going on in Washington DC and they vote. When I listen to their know nothing ramblings, I want to slap their damn faces. Really

I was born a Democrat.

Unpopular parties can still prevail
02/27/14 04:20 PM

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll offers Democrats some good news and some bad news. It’s worth pausing to appreciate how the former affects the latter.

First, consider the news Dems will be eager to hear. The public generally agrees with Democrats on the major issues of the day – immigration, minimum wage, health care, and marriage equality – and on more general topics such as compromise, economic inequality, how best to reduce the deficit, and the value of social-insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security. The same poll found Democrats are more popular than Republicans and more in line with voters’ priorities.

Then consider the news Democrats won’t like at all.
Those stances among voters have not translated into support for the president’s party, as 42 percent say they will back Republicans in November, and 39 percent indicate that they will back Democrats, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

I imagine Democratic officials would find this quite frustrating. They enjoy the edge on pretty much every possible question, right up until poll respondents were asked who they intend to vote for – and the answer is, the more unpopular party, which the mainstream disagrees with on nearly everything, is the one with more support.

Of course, it leads to a fairly obvious question: if Republicans are more unpopular; voters disagree with them on nearly everything; the GOP has no accomplishments or agenda to speak of; and they’re responsible for the ridiculous government shutdown just a few months ago, how is it that they have the edge over Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections?

The obvious answer is that voting isn’t always rational – trying to make sense of folks’ political decision-making process can be an incredibly frustrating experience, regardless of party or ideology.

But more substantively, looking at this new poll in particular, there’s also reason to believe voters are unsatisfied with the status quo and they’re blaming President Obama – even if they agree with him on the issues that matter most; even if it’s congressional Republicans blocking the policy agenda the American mainstream wants to see implemented.

This has long been part of the GOP calculus. Many voters have no real sense of how federal policymaking works and have no use for things like filibusters or discharge petitions. Much of the country has no idea who’s in the majority of which chamber and/or whether there’s a division of power on Capitol Hill.

What they do know is that Washington is a dysfunctional mess in which nothing is getting done. The American mainstream may not know who, exactly, to blame and why, but they seem inclined to blame the president because, well, he’s the president.

This has come up plenty of times before. The public wants something; Obama agrees with them; congressional Republicans kill the idea; and the president gets blamed. It’s driven by mistaken institutional assumptions – many like to think a president is ultimately responsible for all political progress or the lack thereof. Americans like to think of their president – any president – as the most powerful person on the planet. POTUS is the Leader of the Free World and the Commander in Chief. He’s the Top Dog, the Big Cheese, the Head Honcho, the One in Charge, and the one with whom the buck stops.

Why would voters be prepared to vote for the party they don’t like and don’t agree with? Because as plenty of presidents in their sixth year can attest, sometimes not being the party in the White House is all it takes.

This has been true for a while. Democrats won the popular vote for the House in 2012, yet Reps retained control. Democrats have won the popular vote for the presidency five of the last six times, yet lost the WH one of those times because they didn't control the SCOTUS. While the issue polling cited in the article is 100% accurate (Dems lead on EVERY issue) it is also true that more people self identify as conservatives. Even though most Americans are pretty darn liberal in most regards, liberal has become a bad word. Only the diehard embrace it. It's cooler to consider yourself a conservative. (Conservatively speaking, it's safer!) But that's not what Americans want at all when it comes to policy. Americans can get enough liberalism! They just can seem to bring themselves to vote for it.

So they end up with conservatives. Republicans are great at politics, terrible at governing. Just listen to JBoehner: "Judge us by how many laws we repeal, not how many we pass." What? That is not anywhere near a majority view, yet it's safe. And it wins elections.

To extend the metaphor, everyone knows the move is to swim off the island. It's easier and safer not to try. That's what conservatives do. That and talk about how great things were when they were kids.

Founding Fathers. Abraham Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt. All civil rights and women's rights activists. Those who won the space race. Those who settled the West. Those who defeated the Axis. Those who ended slavery. Liberals. Every last one of them.

Conservatives will often bemoan how stupid the electorate is. Truth be told, if the electorate were smarter, Republicans wouldn't stand a chance. In the meantime, the rest of us are left wondering, "What's the Matter with Kansas?"