The Politics Thread

[JaneAusten]

Totally agree with that. He annoys me to the nth degree because all these never trumpers love to sit back and lecture democrats when they still can't answer how THEIR so called successful party nominated a complete psychopath for president. Their denials are frankly infuriating as if the GOP is still something salvageable as long as Trump is gone. But remember these same never trumpers love McConnell who IMO is the worst of the worst and someone who can be labeled a real traitor. And yes these are PEOPLE not numbers, something our former congressman here Gutierrez was saying for over a year while he was still serving in congress to an audience of no one.

 

Maybe he ought to worry about why when Floridians in EVERY COUNTY including red voted in favor of re-establishing voting rights to former felons and the GOP led legislature is trying to institute a poll tax to further prevent them from voting.

[Vee]

 

It will. The right wing capitalizes on these kind of frauds and laps them up, stores them away and trots them out any time any disadvantaged person or persons even remotely aligned to the left or liberal cases is attacked or wronged. It's been this way for decades and it doesn't matter if there's a direct or logical correlation or not. So the next time a gay kid is bashed by bigots or a person of color is shot by police or accosted by white supremacists, the first name on the MAGA cult's lips will be Smollett's. And more apolitical people in the middle (and there are too many of those) will give their baseless claims credence next time, because of Jussie's dumbass stunt.

 

I haven't watched Empire in years either but I've seen this movie before and it's unforgivable to me.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Vee

[DramatistDreamer]

 

What Smollett did was unconscionable.  POC have already been catching hell, being beaten, shot and it has been escalating year over year. 

I don't believe a B- celebrity changes anything in the real lives of black people, or people of color (I cannot speak from the LGBTQ perspective) who continually face peril every day of our lives with very little regard from media. 

[Juliajms]

What stunned me is when people said JS damaged race relations. I'm not the self hating white person type, but what? In the age of Trump, how is that reality? The millions of white people who voted for Trump damaged race relations for a generation. JS is barely a blip on that radar screen.  Sure, he gives the nutty racists at Fox something to point at, but they always find something, even if they have to manufacture it.

Making an organized effort to recruit voters and listening to their concerns is not treating them like chattel or telling them how to vote. It's politics 101. When you ignore people and their concerns they look to the candidates who at least pretend they matter.  That's a lesson Democrats should have learned, but it sounds like some in Florida didn't. If it's true, I don't care who sounds the call or where they do it, as long as someone listens and fixes it before 2020.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Thank you.  

Also, I kept wondering, what in the world goes on at the Chicago PD that he was able to get off scott-free without even having to make financial restitution?  Was I the only one wondering about this?  Nobody seems to be asking that question in the media.

 

In terms of Puerto Ricans residing in Florida, I don't know if this was truly the case but around mid-terms last year, I read accounts of people saying that they were too busy trying to get settled in their lives after so much post-hurricane upheaval to vote.  I'd really like to know if that was the case. 

Does anyone know what the voting tallies were for Puerto Ricans who migrated to Florida specifically after the hurricane Maria?  I know there had been a slow trickle migration of teachers and doctors and other professionals from the island in previous years because of the worsening economic situation but I'd love to see the data on just how many Puerto Ricans residing in FL voted and have it deconstructed into the various groups who migrated during different periods, those who migrated due to economic reasons vs. those who migrated post hurricane Maria, etc. 

[DRW50]

 

Trump is HANDING you Puerto Rican voters in Florida. On a platter.
 

Blanket statements like this have nothing to do with organized efforts. They are grandstanding for Twitter likes, and yes, I do think they treat Puerto Ricans like chattel. 

[marceline]

I can't testify about Florida but I know there's been plenty of outreach here in Ohio. At least in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties which have sizeable Puerto Rican communities. It started with just basic services like job fairs and help with housing but the political outreach is happening through those local groups.

 

The issue with Never Trumpers like Wilson (who I should add I respect as a writer.) is that they are still at the end of the day Republicans. These are the people who sat by while their party turned into a doomsday cult of Nazis, pedophiles and Evangelicals waiting for the rapture and they still can't take responsibility for that. They need Democrats to save this country from what they've unleashed and they resent it. They also think that the Democratic base is motivated the same way as Republicans: by fear and hate.

 

Don't get me wrong I'm seeing a lot stupid stuff I don't like happening in the Dem primary but advice from Never Trumpers isn't going to take because - to paraphrase an old 12 step saying - their best thinking got us here.

[GMac]

Honestly, I was fixin to come in here and vent (it's been awhile since I've posted anywhere on this site).  But...

 

I'm feeling pretty defeated these days, politically.  I suppose I've never really gotten over the fact that somehow people elected that thing into the white house.  And after everything he's done over the last 2 years, he still has over 40% of people supporting him!  What in the fresh fvck is that?!?!?

 

Don't get me wrong.  I'll be dragging my liberal ass to the polls in 2020 but I've run out of energy for debating what shouldn't be debated in the first place.

 

[marceline]

 

I'm with you. It's not just depressing it's EXHAUSTING. I'm so tired of government by tweet and I don't care if that tweet comes from Trump or AOC. I'm tired of stunt queens and nihilists. I'm tired of the bigotry, including the bigotry I'm seeing from my own side. (Screaming "no more white men" only drives away potential allies.) At the same time, seeing the constant failures of the media to adjust to this new reality - as evidenced by the reaction to the Barr memo - leaves me despairing.

[Vee]

 

He didn't, though. He forfeited his bond and quietly did community service.

 

As for how it sets things back in terms of hate crimes we'll agree to disagree. IMO every case like this is more ammo which emboldens the right and pacifies the middle into 'hearing their side'.

 

 

I'm just tuning most of it tbh. The Omar mess deeply upset me as a Jewish person on the left being lectured about antisemitism by leftists - most of whom weren't Jewish or even in the country. I'm taking a break for at least a few months til things settle a bit.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Vee

[DramatistDreamer]

Meanwhile in North Carolina.

 

[DRW50]

 

The irony is that the "no more white men" stuff is in the long run most likely to benefit Bernie Sanders, the candidate I'd say may be the least interested in advancing anything that will help those who are saying this.

[Juliajms]

He did do that!  If that truth is offensive I'm missing it. Look how he treated these folks, with throwing them paper towels. When you disrespect people on that level, you have given your opponent those votes to lose. 

 

Of course, that isn't always true given how Trump has treated women and yet he got way too many of our votes.

[DRW50]

 

That means he behaved like the subhuman creature he is. It doesn't guarantee anyone's vote, any more than the idea that all Hispanics would vote for Democrats because of immigration. Many voters don't work that way (and many voters are self-defeating). Talking about how all these voters are being served up on a plate assumes everyone is the same and all you have to do is crack the code. It's the same cynical view that all Republican strategists have. Going on Twitter and lecturing people, instead of actually doing anything to help, shows how little Wilson is able to see these voters as worth actually caring about. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Nothing to see here, everything's perfectly fine.

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