I am an American combat veteran of the Global War on Terror. I suffer from moral injuries, and I have trouble not seeing any issue through the lens of American imperialism.
Fuck everyone who is willing to sacrifice Ukrainian men and boys in order to weaken Russia for the benefit of the Western powers.
I’m the last person anyone would invite to a party.
If the guy who sends me to war has gone on record calling people who go to war suckers and losers, I can’t be upset when he downplays my death or injury, right?
I feel bad for those in the military whose brains have not yet fully formed, but anyone over 25 should be able to see that the US has been the bad guy since at least Korea. But in this case, when the commander in chief has such public disdain for those who sacrifice, I don’t really feel bad for any of them.
Please give me some examples of good policies passed by the DNC. All I can think of are the right-of-center policies that have been forced upon us all, like Obamacare. There may be a few good ones, but they are few and far between, in my opinion. Why hasn’t one democrat highlighted how far back the W Bush administration retarted stem cell therapies, which, once Obama’s executive order reversed W’s policies, have helped millions of Americans with their health? It’s like, even when they actually do something right, they pivot to unwinnable talking points.
Where did I describe a world where Republicans cared about guardrails? I’m confused by this paragraph. They don’t like them and will tear them down if they can. In instances where they have been successful in tearing them down, it is because Democrats have stood by and let them, in some cases actually helped them. Democrats, after the W Bush administration, should have made a point out of creating guardrails that are hard to destroy. Imagine if Obama’s “we tortured some folks” speech had ended in warrants for the arrests of the officials who wrote the memos and those who followed them? Those people, at the very least, would not be available to join the Trump administration. Imagine if Obama’s solution to indefinite detention was ending the GWoT instead of using signature drone strikes to kill instead of capture targets? There is no path for Trump to operate his “narco terror” illegal boat strikes. However you believe about Republicans, they could not have done it without the Democrats.
Republican policies poll very low, but since most voters vote by color, those unpopular policies get passed. Progressive policies poll very highly, even among Republicans, but are stifled by the DNC. Instead of trying to win over the unwinnable, Dems should target the eligible voter who stays home, instead of trying to suppress those votes because they might go third party, as AOC did. Popular or not, gay marriage is next to be overturned, just like abortion, and the republicans who have gay friends and family will support the reversal. A democrat who is a sharp contrast to the republican agenda will be able to frame these issues the way pollsters do. Let’s talk about DACA and how immigration is the only reason why the country grows. Let’s stop addressing bad faith arguments like the one you mentioned about aborting a 9-month-old fetus as a form of birth control, which doesn’t happen. Even your general examples of the things Democrats do that you like are highly flawed. Biden’s enviornemtal polices were GOP circa 2000, where they pretend to have to balance the needs of an energy company with the need of all humans to live in a climate that isn’t actively trying to kill human life. A vast majority of climate scientists agree we are past the point of compromising on this shit, and the blue team is pretending like it isn’t urgent.
Had Obama governed as he campaigned, ICE would not have existed for Trump to use for his “the pain is the point” style of immigration policy. Had Biden governed as he campaigned, Trump would have been prosecuted immediately upon Biden taking office, and the MAGA movement would have shrunk. The continued support from people who know better but refuse to vote as if they have more than two choices means we are going to be stuck in the ratchet effect, which is the best analogy I can think of for US policy since at least JFK.
As for your “evil” world leaders comment, that smacks of American propaganda. Show me an evil world leader, and I will show you someone who has stood up to an American business agenda that would have made their country worse off, or a leader from a country that we committed gross crimes against humanity.
You mention Schumer being a Dem who acts like a Pub, as if he is a fringe member of the party and not a DNC leader. How can you view Democrats as “sometimes good policy, sometimes very bad policy” when someone like Schumer has been in leadership for decades? The fish rots from the head, so to speak.
I think your framing of Obama (and then Biden)‘s immigration policies is generous to the point of dishonesty. Let’s assume you are right and Obama’s second term was gentler and wiser and only went after bad guys; and we both agree on the definition of a bad guy. Biden’s term, after seeing what Trump did with ICE, made no effort to put in guardrails while continuing Obama’s second-term enlightened immigration actions (again, for the sake of argument, I’m agreeing with your point; in fact, ICE under Biden illegally deported an American citizen right before the midterms, but I digress). At what point do you fault blue presidents for not lifting a finger to stop future red presidents from being able to do so much damage from the executive branch? Obama was the constitutional professor who was going to fix the Bush administration’s power grab. Instead, he ruled as if he had adopted the Unified Executive theory when he swore the oath at the inauguration. Coming back to reality, how do you square the Democrats’ push for a Biden immigration bill just as draconian as any Republican proposal, particularly throwing DACA recipients under the bus, with your claim that Dems are better on policy?
Codifying Roe would have made reversing it much harder. You mentioned gay marriage. Do you see how much further SCOTUS has to go to knock down that law than it did with Roe? They literally would still be trying to move in that direction instead of being years into the decision. Any thoughts on Biden not doing anything to counter Dobbs, even though the ruling was leaked before the decision was announced? The old bastard failed to respond; instead, as I said, he spoke to a room full of donors about not supporting “abortion on demand”. Like, when the fuck are they supposed to happen, when the mom doesn’t want one? Any thoughts on how having a Democratic president at that moment was any better than having a Republican?
You didn’t address Obama’s flip-flop on gay marriage in your paragraph on gay marriage. Not sure what you are trying to say there other than Obama was a reactionary president, something I fully agree with and hold against him. That is exactly how W was.
Again, we end where we have been landing. We both think Republicans are ‘demons’. I think Democrats are demons with better PR. You think they are good-faith actors, ineffective at preventing demons from being demonic. So my last question is, why support them if they are not good at battling the demons?
PS: I appreciate the time you have taken to debate an anonymous malcontent on the internet.
Taiwan? The military dictatorship until the mid-1990s, founded by a warlord who slaughtered thousands of civilians? Do you mean that Taiwan? We have to protect that at all costs; in no way is it just a way to expand our military footprint next to a superpower. No, not Ukraine. Taiwan!
Not sure what Comey has to do with Democrats being more similar to Republicans than they are different, but there is no question that Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information, as have literally every Secretary of State since Colin Powell. I know people personally who have been punished for less than what they did when it comes to classified materials, and it would have cost the DNC nothing to not shove her down our throats in 2016. On the contrary, her enabling a known sex pest for decades would have made it the perfect time to publicly and loudly throw her under the bus like they did Al Franken.
Stop including immigration. It does not help your argument. Obama was called the “deporter-in-chief” because he broke records for the number of people removed from the country. He separated kids from guardians like Trump, but he didn’t advertise it as a way of trying to deter those fleeing places we helped make unsafe. If you think this is a measurable difference in policy, you might be a mainstream Dem.
The only reason gay marriage is legal is that Republicans pressed their luck with the Defense of Marriage Act, and Biden managed to guafe his way into making Obama reverse the position he held when he was elected the first time. How brave!!! There is no doubt that there will be more than a few prominant democrats who join the Republicans to strip that right away when the time comes.
Democrats had literal decades to codify Roe, but instead they used it as an evergreen issue to fundraise on. When the inevitable finally happened, Biden could have directed the military bases in states that outlawed abortion to set up places on federal land to provide health care to women in those states and restore their rights. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he gave a speech to a roomful of donors and regurgitated anti-choice talking points he learned from the Pope.
Tell me again what Democrats did to counter the Republicans stealing the SCOTUS seat that Obama appointed a lifelong Republican to, but instead went to a lifelong republican appointed by Trump? That’s right, they put together a committee that failed to recommend anything.
I don’t understand how anyone can be so upset with Republicans, but not mind Democrats.
And we will still see articles claiming that China is our adversary. If that were the case, this would be a great time to start shit. But what will happen is that China will still be a boogeyman, allowing the US to spend even more money to “protect” ourselves and expedite munition manufacturing.
“We should start a domestic education program allowing the working class to learn how to clean the gears for free if they spend 4 years rounding up kids to throw in there”.
It’s been like that since the start of the war on terror. The US can label anyone (including US citizens) they want as a terrorist and kill them and their family despite no due process.
Garland dragged his feet on Jan 6 charges, prompting Republicans who had previously voiced support for prosecuting him to regroup and change tactics, allowing the process to drag out until the election. Why did Biden appoint a GOP AG that was never going to be aggressive? It could be classified as a mistake, but it was completely foreseeable.
As for Biden’s immigration push, the bill Trump killed by telling the GOP not to support it in order to deny Biden a “win” was awful. It was everything the Republicans wanted, and Dems didn’t even include DACA protections, sacrificing immigrants once again to try to “own” the other party by demonstrating they are not interested in passing laws, something that everyone who is paying attention already understands. Biden also gave away a bunch of basic things in his environmental decisions. I mean, why allow drilling in ANWR? Who was that for? Even the things people are pointing to as a reason to have supported Biden are filled with poison.
You see a larger distinction between the parties than I do. I see republicans boiling puppies alive while Democrats stab them. Yeah, there is a difference, but not a demonstrable one.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/largest-mass-execution-us-history-150-years-ago-today/
Perhaps this is the largest mass execution of Indians, whereas the Trail of Tears killed more in total?
If someone claims to have assassinated McConnell, would they have to roll his rotting carcass out?
He certainly is the type to have owned slaves and ordered the largest massacre of Native Americans in history, so I can sort of understand what his dementia is trying to get at.
Biden’s failure to prosecute Trump is a Republican position. His AG was a Republican who followed a Republican agenda. Biden’s failure to even address the SCOTUS stacking issue is a Republican position. Biden’s foreign policy deference to Israel’s interests is a Republican position, and DNC proxies from Schumer to AOC attacking progressive demands to stop arming an ongoing genocide as anti-Semitic and anti-American is Republican as fuck. Biden’s pardoning of his dip shit, openly corrupt son is so Trump-coded that I do not blame normal Americans for being fed up with both parties.
I will continue to vote 3rd party until the DNC is reformed.
This is because no one responsible for GWoT international law violations was ever held to account, and many who carried out their crimes have had successful careers in movies, TV, podcasts, and politics based on exploiting their illegal actions.
These strikes are just an extension of signature drone strikes from the Obama era. Perhaps if people didn’t get all verklempt at Fox News doing Fox News shit about a tan suit, we might have prosecuted and put an end to it, but instead we let an obvious low-class criminal take control of our human suffering machine two separate times! Can’t imagine what the next iteration of this will be…
Maybe if the Democrats were demonstrably different from the Republicans, our memories would improve.
He is losing his rubes one by one. Who cares? These morons will support the next criminal they are told to support until they realize it personally affects them negatively.
They were too busy helping the British systematically starve millions of Indians.
PS: There were no good guys in WW2.
Thank god there hasn’t been a US “pivot to Asia” in foreign policy promised since before Obama got sidetracked by ramping up the GWoT, or this would have been interfered with for sure.
I love seeing people cry about carts not being “put away” in parking lots. Put that energy toward pressuring the multinational conglomerate that is undoubtedly mispricing items and stealing from employees’ paychecks to hire more people to patrol the lot for carts.