American Politics Discussion Thread

[superdeath]

Im a postal worker, and i vote straight down the line. (both are corrupt/ect) D is too radical in its changes, R just doesnt want to change with the times/help out anyone but the ultra wealthy.

[Jowy]

Im a postal worker, and i vote straight down the line. (both are corrupt/ect) D is too radical in its changes, R just doesnt want to change with the times/help out anyone but the ultra wealthy.

How are democrats radical? Genuinely curious at your point of view.

[Bobchillingworth]

There's plenty of people with university educations who voted for Trump, too. MJW is correct that at least Federal employees tend to skew Democratic, presumably due in large part to Republicans regularly characterizing civil servants as lazy, overpaid, "unelected bureaucrats", and constantly threatening to reduce their workforce and slash their benefits.

Disagree though that people necessarily equate "bigger government" with more contractor jobs though; while it's true that more government functions will mean more work being inevitably and ultimately outsourced to private entities, generally speaking businesses would fewer people actually be employed by the government to provide those services in the first place.

[superdeath]

Im a postal worker, and i vote straight down the line. (both are corrupt/ect) D is too radical in its changes, R just doesnt want to change with the times/help out anyone but the ultra wealthy.

How are democrats radical? Genuinely curious at your point of view.

For me, its mostly the over abundance of everyone getting offended about everything. If i mis-pronoun someone im suddenly the worst person ever, stuff like that really. Im not against any of that, just the offended-ness i guess. Its hard to explain.

[Amicalola]

Im a postal worker, and i vote straight down the line. (both are corrupt/ect) D is too radical in its changes, R just doesnt want to change with the times/help out anyone but the ultra wealthy.

How are democrats radical? Genuinely curious at your point of view.

For me, its mostly the over abundance of everyone getting offended about everything. If i mis-pronoun someone im suddenly the worst person ever, stuff like that really. Im not against any of that, just the offended-ness i guess. Its hard to explain.

I think you'd find that a lot of the time, extreme people/viewpoints like that will be the exception rather than the norm. Unfortunately, the Right is really good at isolating and jumping on those exceptions, and presenting them as the norm anyway. In my experience, progressives are generally quite understanding of mistakes as long as some effort is being made.

[Mr. Cairo]

It boggles my mind to hear that the Dems are "too radical" when, policy-wise, they're most similar to the centrist Liberal Party here in Canada.

For me, its mostly the over abundance of everyone getting offended about everything. If i mis-pronoun someone im suddenly the worst person ever, stuff like that really. Im not against any of that, just the offended-ness i guess. Its hard to explain.

Remember Jordan Peterson? Guy who got "famous" saying that adding gender identify to protected characteristics in Canada's hate speech laws would lead to pronoun police? Well, it didn't, no-one in real life actually cares if you accidentally midgender someone, and maliciously doing so was always objectionable.

People getting "offended" on twitter should in no way determine your voting choice imo.

[Jowy]

From what I've talked to trans people, they just want to be treated as normal people. Misgendering people on accident is no problem. But when you misgender people on purpose, it's not about the pronoun, it's about the hate behind that action. If you've got nothing against trans people, you don't go around intentionally misgendering them. Kind of like someone calling a black person the n-word tells you exactly what their view on black people is.

Anyway thanks for answering SD. I agree with Cairo that it's something so minor that it shouldn't affect voting choices, but it does, especially among uninformed voters. It's from the conservative playbook to make a big fuss about these things to create something their voters can rally behind. You're not gonna have normal working people marching for you with slogans like "less rights for us! less money for us!" so you gotta make something up about trans people or gays or illegal immigrants ruining the country.

[superdeath]

I guess the other end of it, is i believe in gun rights (not 500 guns per person of course...) And the Left side of the aisle doesnt always want to do the normal "good" way of doing it which would be preventing certain people from obtaining it in the first place, better background checks ect. Im not strickly center i suppose, as i do lean left, but Gun rights and a small irritation about anytime we go back and tear apart anything in history because now it doesnt fit social norms. Im a history major, and anytime that happens it hurts my soul. Like, Christopher Columbus WAS a douchebag, but we should still teach about him/ect/ect. Stuff like that.

I typically dont vote period as my viewpoint is everyone is corrupt and politics is just a play-thing for the ultra rich to kinda run our country while we joke that we have a choice/vote in the matter.

[Mr. Cairo]

... a small irritation about anytime we go back and tear apart anything in history because now it doesnt fit social norms. Im a history major, and anytime that happens it hurts my soul. Like, Christopher Columbus WAS a douchebag, but we should still teach about him/ect/ect. Stuff like that.

Funny, because as far as I can tell it's usually the right in America trying to rewrite history, changing curriculum to avoid "offending" parents by teaching about slavery for example. Calling any education on the history or racism in America "Critical Race Theory" (which it isn't). And of course a most egregious rewriting of history: "The Civil War wasn't about slavery".

Specifically about Columbus, it actually seems to be the opposite of what you're suggesting. Progressives objecting to celebrating Columbus Day are the ones who want more to be taught about him, instead of just blindly celebrating a mass-murderer. It is the right who'd rather not be taught about what Columbus actually did.

[superdeath]

From what ive seen/read its generally both sides wanting to more-or-less re-write history each with their own goals. Im fine with giving more detail about people like CColumbus, More detail is always fine. Any talk of "lets take down statues" doesnt sit right.