The Politics Thread

[JaneAusten]

I think it's a bit disingenuous pushing aside voter suppression. It's no coincidence minority voting was down this election, the first major election since the court gutted the Voting Rights act. Simply because things happened before doesn't make even more blatant suppression acceptable. Interstate cross check which deleted millions of minorities from voter roles, voter ID law requirements, were all legislation that came after the decision by the supreme court to gut VRA and 18 states already had legislation ready to go to take advantage of that once the ruling came through. And it's not just the south. Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio were all part of that. Thousands of voters in the Milwaukee area were unable to vote because they didn't have the proper ID, one a 90 year old black woman who lived there for 50 years and was born at home so no birth certificate accessible who voted in every election up to that point. Wisconsin was ordered by a federal judge these people had to be given ID's within a 6 day time frame so they could vote, but not all the DMV's in Wisconsin followed this. What happened? Nothing. The state got away with disenfranchising those voters, mostly minority.

 

And I appreciate you sharing your experience. And I think some of us recognize these things. We've been hearing about the rural white voters for months now. Sadly nothing that this administration will do will help any of them unless poisoning streams with coal debris, cutting student free lunches, school voucher programs, will be considered beneficial to these communities.

 

Gerrymandering is an issue. It was when the dems were doing it and is still wrong and has been going on since the country was founded to varying degrees. The motives behind the dems doing it during Jim Crow are exactly the same as the motives today. And when the  VRA happened,  the Southern dems realigned themselves with the GOP ie; the southern strategy.

[Ponds]

Dubya's esteem has risen BIGLY in my eyes!

[ReddFoxx]

There is certainly doubling down, but there is also plenty of anger out there. Republicans skipping town halls is proof of that.

 

There will be enough backlash to overcome that.

[rhinohide]

Not disingenuous in the least. Entirely candid. I wasn't pushing voter suppression aside as you characterized it. 

 

[dragonflies]

LMAO

 

 

[Wendy]

 

Awesome.  :-)

[JaneAusten]

My apologies. Sometimes I come across sanctimonious and it was not my intention.

[Juliajms]

I agree Trump doesn't care. I think it's Bannon who cares about people being the right kind of white. Like I've said if you really look at the Syrian refugees a lot of them are white (some with light hair and eyes even), but they aren't Christian, so this administration doesn't care if they die. 

 

I also agree with @rhinohide that we can't just hope the Trump administrations total failure will automatically result in a resurgence for the Democrats. It's tempting, but I think it's critical to have a great candidate and solid ideas.  

Edited February 27, 2017 by Juliajms

[Wales2004]

Trump doesn't care but way too many people have convinced themselves that he cares about them and their flag and some of them seem ready to fight or even kill over that. 

 

Bannon supposedly has this deep-seated fear that Muslims are going to overrun the world and to that end he means to eliminate them.  While Miller has this deep-seated hatred of Hispanics and he means to get them all out of the country.  There is no such thing as the "right kind" of Hispanic immigrant in his eyes.  Then of course, he hates everyone that's not white and every white person that doesn't share his views. 

 

I don't think Trump's failure will result in an automatic resurgence for the Democrats, but it will benefit them.  It will just temporarily restore the cycle in which party changes are predicated upon the disillusionment of a segment of the voting population who just switch to pursue hope.  Since things seem to be be shifting politically because of generational attitudes, Democrats are going to have to do more than just wait for the fall if they want to remain viable.  Right now they just seem to want to applaud the people who are expressing their frustration instead of trying to offer something beyond talk.

[DRW50]

If the last year has taught me anything it's why I don't look at most celebrity Twitters. 

[Juliajms]

Same. For the most part I don't care what they think. I suppose I side eye the few that are Trump supporters. I certainly think celebrities have the same right to express their views as anyone, but I'm pretty turned off by celebrity culture overall. Fame and talent has allowed some people to get away with far too much for me not to be sickened by it on some level.

[DRW50]

 

I realized after I wrote it that it made me sound like an even bigger [!@#$%^&*] than I usually do. I know many people here do enjoy them and they're a source of entertainment and comfort, which I get. It's just most of them end up reading like patronizing silliness. 

[DramatistDreamer]

With all those folks screaming about Benghazi, the silence is deafening in regards to this disastrous raid.  A thorough investigation needs to be done on this.

 

[marceline]

 

I agree for the most part with a few exceptions. One exception is Patton Oswalt. He's excellent at Twitter snark but he's also very well informed. I've found his political to be one of post-Trump coping mechanisms. He also wrote some really amazing things after the death of his wife. Even some of his more "trivial" tweets showed what it was like for him to try and emerge from grief and find a new normal.

[Wales2004]

@DramatistDreamer I was just about to post a link to that.  The silence will continue because Spicer says it was a success and no one is Trumptopians believe everything they are told by the Trumpsters.  Some of them had nasty comments about the father for having the "nerve" to turn down Trump's attempt at a photo op.

 

I hope Devin Nunes ultimately gets burned on his defense of Trump regarding Russia.

 

His proposed budget is already getting some push back from former generals who are against State Dept. cuts and see foreign aid as vital.