Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[CGVT]

That happened below the Mason/Dixon line? Shocker!

There are ignorant rednecks everywhere. The only thing that changes is the geography and accents.

[froot loops]

It's not a shocker that it happened at a Trump rally.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/abraham-lincoln-shouldnt-have-freed-slaves-according-to-almost-a-fifth-of-trump-supporters

[CGVT]

Damn

[froot loops]

The last line of the article tops it off, 17 percent weren't sure.

[Wild Hoss]

America is getting a good look in the mirror with this campaign season.

[lineygoblue]

Yikes

[Mike]

America is getting a good look in the mirror with this campaign season.

It's embarrassing.

[WM Wolverine]

Trump has brought all the other candidates down to his level.

[lineygoblue]

I think there's a lot of truth to that. Rubio was trending up when he decided to go "low blow" with Trump. He's been trailing off since.

[Jeff Buchanan]

A life long conservative, the Republican Party is no longer for me. What the party espouses is not consistent with my political views. I'd love to see the two party system present in our country get blown up. This presidential election cycle and the embarrassment it is, may start a glacially slow movement towards that.

So, I'm faced with either writing in a candidate as a protest vote, or trying to facilitate change. I am not a huge fan of all of Bernie Sander's ideology, nor do I think he has much chance of having those ideologies shape meaningful legislation capable of realigning some of the social and economic disparities present in America.

I do think a controversial President, like Sander's will be, who is capable of shaking the foundations of establishment politics, banking, the Fed, including aspects of both fiscal and monetary policy, is appealing. I think he is more FDR, a social democrat, than he is a classic socialist, economically and politically. I believe he has been miscast in all the negative aspects of Socialism, politically and economically, and unfairly so. I could be wrong but I don't think I am.

Is the status quo comfortable? It is. My retirement investments will take a hit if Sander's is elected and until he demonstrates his presidency can improve the economy and investment environment. But I'm a proud American first and what American politics have become, right along with the management of the American dream, regulation of the banking industry and Wall Street is nothing more than a joke around the rest of the world, looking to America for leadership and guidance in these areas. That is a major change for me who grew up with a Dad who served in WWII and the believe that America was #1. It's not anymore and for many quantifiable reasons.

I'm also not convinced the Fed should have the independence it has in managing the economy although I'm not an expert here. But I see the results of Fed monetary and fiscal policy. It has produced a stagnant economy. Does it need a different type of stimulus to promote more lending, spending and by extension more economic growth? My sense is that it does and I'm feeling Sanders is more likely to advocate for change in these areas than Trump who, along with Hillary, has vested interests financially in the status quo.

International trade? Until I started reading some economist's writing about this, I really didn't understand how harmful to the US economy and personal income and by extension personal spending these free trade arrangements are. They've also been destructive to wage growth and middle class employment in the US. I do like both Trump's and Sander's platforms on this. I don't like the potential for a Trump Presidency, the wall and the Zenophobia. So, that's a dilemma and I think that is true for many voters who care to be informed.

If it's not obvious, Hillary Clinton is as much of a Neocon as the Bush1,2/Dick Chenny crowd. I'm opposed to a continuation of the confrontational startegies that marked the period when those strategies were under the influence of the neocons. Hillary will bring that back. She is very much a Hawk. My view is that despite the criticisms of his soft international policies, Obama has had better success preserving US strategic interests with a collaborative foreign policy than the neocons ever achieved with their confrontational one. Their approach was destructive and we are still dealing with the aftermath of it. It will get worse under a Hillary Clinton presidency.

If anything, this presidential campaign has made the US look silly. The other thing it's done is make voters who are willing to look closely at the issues and candidates, fact check and ignore the sound bites that are nothing short of awful and deceptive, pay attention to the value of their vote.

[hodgkal]

"If it's not obvious, Hillary Clinton is as much of a Neocon as the Bush1,2/Dick Chenny crowd. I'm opposed to a continuation of the confrontational startegies that marked the period when those strategies were under the influence of the neocons. Hillary will bring that back. She is very much a Hawk. My view is that despite the criticisms of his soft international policies, Obama has had better success preserving US strategic interests with a collaborative foreign policy than the neocons ever achieved with their confrontational one. Their approach was destructive and we are still dealing with the aftermath of it. It will get worse under a Hillary Clinton presidency."

AMEN!! Excellent post Jeff. It seems to me you have travelled quite a distance in your views over the past decade. I agree with your assessment of the current political climate.

The more I think about it I believe Obama deserves more credit than he has gotten for keeping us out of even more destructive global conflicts. There is a long but exceedingly worthwhile article at the Atlantic website of a series of interviews Obama has submitted to with Jeffrey Goldberg. It is an in depth discussion of his views of foreign policy. I had to read it carefully and slowly but it brings into focus where we are now compared to where we would be if we had pursued the course being promulgated by all the Republicans, as well as Hillary Clinton. see:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/

The landscape ahead is indeed bleak. Whereas I agree with some of Trump's positions (trade issues, jobs), he scares the crap out of me with his racism and his infantile views on global issues. In fact, his views on most key issues are na?ve and dangerous.

Tough times we're in.

[UMStan White]

"It seems to me you have travelled quite a distance in your views over the past decade. I agree with your assessment of the current political climate."

Exactly what I was thinking. Jeff is what my mother was--a true conservative Republican that has been pushed out of his party and has nowhere else to turn. I've always believed that true conservatives want the same things in society as do I but we just have a difference of opinion as to what is the best path to follow to achieve those goals.

[edindetroit]

Exactly what I was thinking. Jeff is what my mother was--a true conservative Republican that has been pushed out of his party and has nowhere else to turn.

Me too.

[entropy]

Me three.... I'm going to spend time looking at non dem or republican candidates.


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[Ghengis Jon]

I know what you mean. It won't be the lesser of two evils. It'll be more evil vs more evil.

Is it too late for a Draft Hodgeman movement?