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2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

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Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Just saw the first ad by these sweethearts running in MD yesterday. The ad itself was just the usual empty pablum (think of the ADM ads that used to run on the McLaughlin Group) but it was interesting that it was running at all. It ran back-to-back with a BP ad, a double header of badly damaged brands trying to recover with slick marketing.
 
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Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

St. Clown said:
Having not read the piece, isn't that called the Green Party?
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The Green Party is about as un-populist as you can get: no more icky agricultural, industrial and manufacturing jobs so that Aspen millionaires and their grad school children can feel ethically clean.

Actually, that sounds pretty attractive. Sod the proles. But it aint a grassroots, populist party.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Kepler said:
The Green Party is about as un-populist as you can get: no more icky agricultural, industrial and manufacturing jobs so that Aspen millionaires and their grad school children can feel ethically clean.

Actually, that sounds pretty attractive. Sod the proles. But it aint a grassroots, populist party.
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It's funny you describe them that way because back in my campus days they were all the new age hippies who hung out in the Green Party booths on the campus mall, such as it was at SCSU back in the 90's.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Kepler said:
I'm pretty sure Rover wrote this piece. :)
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Good article. ;) It gets a lot right, but misses something critical. Conservatism isn't a political ideology anymore. Its a state of mind. Progressivism is not. Conservatives tend to be 1) angry at something, and 2) looking for instant gratification as opposed to long term progress. Republican politicians merely reflect their base. In a nut shell, they want to stick it to somebody, NOW, not two or four or six years from now.

Liberalism on the other hand doesn't know what to do with itself. It doesn't have that killer instinct, especially amongst the older "peace and love" set, to bury the GOP like it rightly deserves. Its also won so many major victories in recent years (healthcare, re-regulating banks, gay marriage, defense spending cuts, tax hikes on the rich) that I'm not sure it knows what the next great cause is.

This is why I'm fine with a center-lefty for Prez while also being happy Lizzy Warren is one of my senators (the other one is a stiff). Democrats need not nominate people from the Little Ralphie Nader wing of the party. The trick now is to consolidate your gains, not revamp the entire system. 8 more years of Dems in the WH, be it Clinton, Cuomo, or Warren and you'll see a more progressive country. Given that notion, I'll pick the person most likely to win, and that's Hillary at this point.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

St. Clown said:
It's funny you describe them that way because back in my campus days they were all the new age hippies who hung out in the Green Party booths on the campus mall, such as it was at SCSU back in the 90's.
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Same people. New Age hippies are smoking their way through college because their parents (a) can afford it and (b) condone it. The average Green Party member has two MAs, a PhD, and no money, and his parents have $5M and three houses in the mountains, which is why their kids love the Great Outdoors so much.

Go to Taos and Sedona and you'll trip over these people every fifteen feet.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Rover said:
Good article. ;) It gets a lot right, but misses something critical. Conservatism isn't a political ideology anymore. Its a state of mind. Progressivism is not. Conservatives tend to be 1) angry at something, and 2) looking for instant gratification as opposed to long term progress. Republican politicians merely reflect their base. In a nut shell, they want to stick it to somebody, NOW, not two or four or six years from now.

Liberalism on the other hand doesn't know what to do with itself. It doesn't have that killer instinct, especially amongst the older "peace and love" set, to bury the GOP like it rightly deserves. Its also won so many major victories in recent years (healthcare, re-regulating banks, gay marriage, defense spending cuts, tax hikes on the rich) that I'm not sure it knows what the next great cause is.

This is why I'm fine with a center-lefty for Prez while also being happy Lizzy Warren is one of my senators (the other one is a stiff). Democrats need not nominate people from the Little Ralphie Nader wing of the party. The trick now is to consolidate your gains, not revamp the entire system. 8 more years of Dems in the WH, be it Clinton, Cuomo, or Warren and you'll see a more progressive country. Given that notion, I'll pick the person most likely to win, and that's Hillary at this point.
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There's a limit, though, to how much I'm willing to accept in the Dem nominee. Hillary would make an awful president on economic justice issues and a good president on social justice issues. I can't figure out whether she'd be good on foreign policy and militarism. On the one hand her rhetoric is right out of the Likud Handbook for Justifying Holy War; on the other hand, she might have the hawk chops to be able to say no to intervention: only Nixon could not drone China.

Because I'm personally far more concerned with economic opportunity and building the middle class than I am with identity politics issues (which could be more easily phrased as "because I'm a straight white male"), Hillary is loathsome to me -- she gives me very little of what I want and absolutely none of what I want most highly -- so she'll simply be a "bar the door from the monsters" vote. If my main concern was reproductive rights, immigration reform, or gay marriage I'd be a lot more likely to see her as tolerable.

At the end of the day: the next president will get 2-4 SCOTUS nominees, so you are correct that before we split hairs about the Dem nominee we have to be certain the GOP doesn't sneak across the finish line.
 
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Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Do you think your Congress is just sitting around waiting for the election recess with its thumb jammed in its posterior, doing nothing? Not so!
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Kepler said:
There's a limit, though, to how much I'm willing to accept in the Dem nominee. Hillary would make an awful president on economic justice issues and a good president on social justice issues. I can't figure out whether she'd be good on foreign policy and militarism. On the one hand her rhetoric is right out of the Likud Handbook for Justifying Holy War; on the other hand, she might have the hawk chops to be able to say no to intervention: only Nixon could not drone China.

Because I'm personally far more concerned with economic opportunity and building the middle class than I am with identity politics issues (which could be more easily phrased as "because I'm a straight white male"), Hillary is loathsome to me -- she gives me very little of what I want and absolutely none of what I want most highly -- so she'll simply be a "bar the door from the monsters" vote. If my main concern was reproductive rights, immigration reform, or gay marriage I'd be a lot more likely to see her as tolerable.

At the end of the day: the next president will get 2-4 SCOTUS nominees, so you are correct that before we split hairs about the Dem nominee we have to be certain the GOP doesn't sneak across the finish line.
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I'm guessing you and I have different views of economic justice issues. For me, I have no need to jail bankers, tax the rich back into the Stone Age (or at least the 1950's) and force Donald Trump to get rid of that raccoon he wears on his head. Frankly, we just re-regulated so there's no need for another huge effort. Furthermore, the fiscal crisis was caused first and foremost by the American people, not the gubmit or the banks, as I'm not aware of anybody forcing people to borrow more than they could afford. You could always do as I did, which is say "thanks for qualifying me for that obscene amount, but I'm not shopping in that neighborhood". But I digress...

What Dems need to focus on, for the sake of income inequality and middle class jobs, is reversing the hollowing out of the manufacturing base of this country over the last 30-40 years. I'd expect Hillary to focus more on that than someone in the "JAIL WALL STREET" crowd. Given that the costs of manufacturing in China are expected to equal that in the US in a few years, its time to make a concerted effort to get those jobs back. Laissez Faire economics, french for "sit around with you thumb up your @ ss while other countries steal your job" has been religion amongst conservatives since Reagan's day as it benefits their corporate donors, and its a total failure. Much like supply side economics is now a laughingstock, this theory needs to go the same way. Do that and not only do you shrink the income gap as more people won't be subsiding on low wage service jobs, but you get back the time honored link of Dems and working class voters that's ebbed as these people have given up hope of being upwardly mobile and now gravitate to social issues which are easier to wrap your mind around.
 
Kepler said:
Just saw the first ad by these sweethearts running in MD yesterday. The ad itself was just the usual empty pablum (think of the ADM ads that used to run on the McLaughlin Group) but it was interesting that it was running at all. It ran back-to-back with a BP ad, a double header of badly damaged brands trying to recover with slick marketing.
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Cripes Kepler

It's Maryland. A Dem could be caught embezzling $1 million from Mother Theresa (but not Planned Parenthood) and still get elected in a landslide. Nothing is going to change it. I'm resigned to another 8 years of shenanigans from Annapolis.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

joecct said:
Cripes Kepler

It's Maryland. A Dem could be caught embezzling $1 million from Mother Theresa (but not Planned Parenthood) and still get elected in a landslide. Nothing is going to change it. I'm resigned to another 8 years of shenanigans from Annapolis.
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That's related to the topic ... how?

BTW, I had to look up what the next governor is going to be. It's something called Brown, and its going to beat something called Hogan. Both somethings appear to be zero-dimensional hypothetical constructs.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

A brown hogan? I left one of those in the toilet this morning. Corn was involved.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Is anybody around here following the Scottish independence vote that's happening next week? This could have huge ramifications should they vote to split from Great Britain.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

St. Clown said:
Is anybody around here following the Scottish independence vote that's happening next week? This could have huge ramifications should they vote to split from Great Britain.
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The Beeb has been running some great stories on both sides. It's fascinating to see it unfold. I'd thought it was a guaranteed "No" but then there was a sudden push for "Yes" and then the UK government was so ham-fisted it may have made it worse.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Kepler said:
The Beeb has been running some great stories on both sides. It's fascinating to see it unfold. I'd thought it was a guaranteed "No" but then there was a sudden push for "Yes" and then the UK government was so ham-fisted it may have made it worse.
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I don't get the BBC, it's not coming to my cable system until next month.

I understand that there's centuries' worth of frustrations from the Scots, but I think they're biting off much more than they can chew should they vote to split. Splitting a first world nation involves so much more than simply drawing boundaries and deciding who governs what. Their insistance that they can rely largely upon their oil reserves to finance the country is just too dependent upon a single resource for financing a national government. Sure, they have other industry, but when they call out a single resource like that it's making me think that they're setting themselves up for a fool's dream.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

St. Clown said:
I don't get the BBC, it's not coming to my cable system until next month.
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I only get the World Service on XM; it's outstanding. The BBC on cable is BBCA, which sucks almost as bad as AJA. Get ready for a lot of stories on the royal baby -- that's all the English think the average American cares about in Britain.

BBCA's one saving grace is their inexplicable carrying of Battlestar Galactica.
 
Re: 2nd Term Part VIII - The Thin Red Line

Kepler said:
I only get the World Service on XM; it's outstanding. The BBC on cable is BBCA, which sucks almost as bad as AJA. Get ready for a lot of stories on the royal baby -- that's all the English think American care about in Britain.
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Kepler

Get TuneIn Radio for the phone. BBC 1 - 5. Last Night of the Proms is Saturday on BBC3.
 
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