Mudboss
Hell no. I’m not “far left” but I -am- left, and I’m going to say that I was born HERE, just like you. I’m not from Europe and I’m not moving there anytime soon. What you people don’t realize is that this country does not belong to the right or the left. It has always been a centrist, zigzagging path and it always should be. That doesn’t mean we’re not each going to stake our place and argue for our side.
The philosophy of the right taken to extremes would have huge gaps between rich and poor, no medical care for the poor, no public libraries, no public education – because “government is the problem, not the solution”. The left taken to an extreme would have taxes through the roof, cigarettes and fast food would be illegal, and labor unions would cripple every industry. The point is you take your stand and argue it like an adult – you don’t applaud when Chuck Norris says he wants to run for president of Texas, you don’t keep dipshits like Glenn Beck on the air equating a 3% tax increase on millionares with setting someone on fire.
There’s positive and negative liberty and always has been. This country was founded on individualism as well as civic pride. We empowered the individual and we also collectively put a man on the moon, built the Hoover Dam, and got Social Security for seniors who worked hard all their lives. “Democrat” does not mean someone who wants to just sit on their ass and collect handouts, a common characterization I see here. It means someone who recognizes that I can’t built a bridge by myself, or a school, or a power line. There’s a place and a necessity for everyone to pool their resources, and that means government spending. The right goes off the rails when you get so goddamn absolutist about it – saying the government is always the problem – with that mindset how well do you expect to run it?
I won’t even say I haven’t taken part in the polemics here. But the last thing to remember is that everyone needs to take a deep breath and chill. Talk to a Democrat for once in your life (I’m talking to you right now). Stop with the cartoonish caricatures of your political opponents – they’re just as smart as you are even when they don’t agree. That you can’t handle 100 days of a competing political philosophy to be holding the reins of power without stockpiling guns and generally flipping out says you’re losing perspective. And say what you want about the Bush years, I can’t think of a single Democratic governor who openly talked about secession, the lefty blogs weren’t near-unanimously talking about stockpiling weapons, it wasn’t so bloody apocalyptic. Bush’s failures were deep and numerous and deserving of scorn. And Bush himself did more than Obama has managed in 100 days to commit every evil you are now freaking over. Whether it’s size of the federal government or intrusion of the feds into the public sphere. That you can’t acknowledge that shows you’re all being led like calves through the nose.
That’s all I’m gonna say, if I don’t reply to anything else it’s not because I don’t have an answer. It’s because having a conversation on internet blogs is 100% impossible and a fool’s game to even try. Cheers.
