US elections 2021-2022

[sk9tingfan]

Well, that does sound like 3rd grade behavior...

The only problem was that multiple classmates bulled me in 3rd grade led by a pair of girls. It got so bad that they had to be separated the net year. Interestingly enough, by the time we got to high school, they were fine. Not that they were my bosom buddies, but we were all friendly. But it seems that there are a lot of people today who seem not to have evolved beyond that frame of reference.

 

[Vagabond]

My husband pondered for a few minutes whether perhaps he had written the memo while very tired (or something), but then read it and determined that he'd never have written a document with so many semi-colons (among other things)!

This would have provided ample material for Rita Moreno and Skip Hinnant on The Electric Company back in the day. 🕵️‍♀️ 🕵️‍♂️

 

[skipaway]

Fetterman’s new Ad against Dr Oz
Brilliant😂

 

[olympic]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article263068703.html

Per my earlier post, Dr. Lisa Gwynn was ousted from the state board for criticizing YKW policy in FL. This is the world of DeSantis

 

[SkateSand]

I may have mentioned that my previous county board of supervisors fired the county health officer because they thought she was too strict on Covid and didn't follow their instructions to disregard all the state mandates. They now can't get anyone to apply for the position and are raising the salary over what she was being paid even though one of their stated reasons for firing her was because her salary was too high.

 

[Dobre]

Second time one of my family members has been called by someone running against Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primary. We are two states away from Wyoming. WTH.

Someone has way too much money to burn. Plus, how is there an excuse for dialing an out-of-state area code twice?

 

[Karen-W]

Second time one of my family members has been called by someone running against Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primary. We are two states away from Wyoming. WTH.

Someone has way too much money to burn. Plus, how is there an excuse for dialing an out-of-state area code twice?

The zip code for Wyoming (307) isn't even close to ANY of the 4 Oregon zip codes (503, 541, 971, & 458). WTH? lol

 

[Susan1]

Second time one of my family members has been called by someone running against Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primary. We are two states away from Wyoming. WTH.

Someone has way too much money to burn. Plus, how is there an excuse for dialing an out-of-state area code twice?

I get emails from Democrats running or promoting something in Connecticut whenever something is coming up. I am in Ohio. I googled me + Connecticut and there are three of me there. It's not like my name is Smith or Jones. I have emailed them back. I keep unsubscribing. A week later, I'll get one from somebody else. I tried leaving a message on one of the websites in the email, but you have to give your address so they know you are registered in their district, which kind of defeats the purpose here. I'm not going to call all of these Democrat organizations. I don't know if they can delete "me" from the database and put the right "me" in anyway. Gosh, I might get purged from all Democrat rolls. It's no big deal, but the "me" in Connecticut might want to get the emails. I'm glad it's not robocalls though.

Something that just occurred to me for you. Have any of the area codes in your area changed recently? Southwest Ohio all used to be 513, now parts are 937 (us) because they are running out of phone numbers. Cincinnati is still 513. But we all have to dial the area code first even if you are calling your next door neighbor. Big Pain. Maybe someone's area code changed, but they have your family member's phone number? There is someone in the 513 area code with my phone number, which my parents had since 1952. Or someone just input it wrong.

 

[olympic]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article263068703.html

Per my earlier post, Dr. Lisa Gwynn was ousted from the state board for criticizing YKW policy in FL. This is the world of DeSantis

And in the WaPo, Civics is getting a boost in FL by DeSantis & Co., but it teaches there is no real separation of church / state:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/02/desantis-civics-separation-church-state/

This will be America under Trump acolyte, DeSantis. It won't be any better. Imagine the federal judges he will select. Vote accordingly!

 

[sk9tingfan]

More from the gift who keeps on giving, Mehmet Oz.

https://twitter.com/DrGJackBrown/status/1543401212761894912

 

[ballettmaus]

Michigan's candidate for Secretary of State believes abortions are satanic rituals and demonic possession is real. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/03/politics/kfile-kristina-karamo-abortion-child-sacrifice/index.html

This would be funny if she weren't running for a government position.

 

[Dobre]

https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1543654572467658752?cxt=HHwWgIC9_fXplOwqAAAA

"Gavin Newsom is airing an ad on Fox News in Florida this 4th of July weekend calling out Republicans for attacking freedom by banning books, restricting speech, suppressing voters, and attacking bodily autonomy."

Here's the ad:

https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1543610674873438208

Wow, Mr. Newsom. I've got to agree that it's a great idea. (Probably would be an even greater idea without him in it, as then it wouldn't sound like an outsider coming in; but on a more generic level, speaking directly to citizens in states facing these awful restrictions is a good thing). How did he get Fox to air it? Paid the local station?

(On a practical level, Newsom sounds like someone--like DeSantis--who wants to run for president. But the Democratic Party could do this in a less individual & outsider-ish way).

 

[Karen-W]

How did he get Fox to air it? Paid the local station?

Is it a local Fox affiliate? Those ad fees would be paid to the station owner. And, you can also advertise through the cable provider (Comcast, Cox, etc). That's what I figure Betsy Johnson is doing out here because I've seen her ads on both Fox News and Nickelodeon.

 

[SkateSand]

Oh, I totally think Newsom is gunning for President. Maybe the term after Biden's second (yes, I am the eternal optimist ). But it might be sooner than that if the party wants to run someone else or Biden decides one term is enough.

 

[Deleted member 221]

The New York Times shares my opinion: Moderate Democrats are going extinct. It's bad when people within the party says the brand is "toxic."

The Democrats have forgotten this:

Over images of construction workers and children and police officers, a series of bold captions touted Clinton’s first-term accomplishments: “WELFARE REFORM, WORK REQUIREMENTS”; “TAXES CUT FOR 15,000,000 FAMILIES”; “DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG KINGPINS.” His promises for a second term followed: “BAN ‘COP-KILLER’ BULLETS”; “CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT FOR HOME OWNERS”; “BALANCE THE BUDGET FOR A GROWING ECONOMY” “We are safer, we are more secure, we are more prosperous,” Clinton said.

Over the last decade, the Democratic Party has moved significantly to the left on almost every salient political issue. Some of these shifts in a more ambitiously progressive direction, especially as they pertain to economic issues, have largely tracked with public opinion: While socialism might not poll well with voters, Democratic proposals to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and lower the age of Medicare eligibility do.

But on social, cultural and religious issues, particularly those related to criminal justice, race, abortion and gender identity, the Democrats have taken up ideological stances that many of the college-educated voters who now make up a sizable portion of the party’s base cheer but the rest of the electorate does not. “The Democratic Party moved left,” says Will Marshall, the president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, a moderate Democratic think tank, “but the country as a whole hasn’t.”

The result, fair or not, is that the Democratic Party is now perceived by a growing segment of American voters as espousing the furthest left position possible on many of the country’s most fraught and most divisive issues.

As I've been saying....

In May, CNN asked 1,007 American voters for their opinions on the country’s two major political parties. After four years of Trump in the White House, an insurrection and unsuccessful attempt to overturn a presidential election and now a Republican Party that can be fairly described as a cult of personality and is moving further right on many of the same social issues, 46 percent of those surveyed considered the G.O.P. to be “too extreme.” But 48 percent of them viewed the Democratic Party the same way.

Two extremes... but more think the Democrats are extreme.

But the Democrats’ leftward trend, whether real or perceived, is resoundingly popular with, and often reinforced by, the party’s staff members and activists and especially its donors, who fund a slew of nonprofits and super PACs that relentlessly push the progressive line. In America’s very blue and very online precincts, performative positioning is often accepted as a substitute for the compromises that can be necessary to secure legislation [...]

.

Yup.

What does the data say?

Data for Progress’s polling showed that they weren’t actually popular with voters — or at least not with the working-class, non-college-educated voters Democrats need to win outside those safe blue districts.

“If you look inside the Democratic Party, there are three times more moderate or conservative nonwhite people than very liberal white people, but very liberal white people are infinitely more represented. That’s morally bad, but it also means eventually they’ll leave.”

Already gone.

Ruy Teixeira, a political scientist and co-author of the influential 2002 book “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” writes for a Substack newsletter called “The Liberal Patriot,” publishing missives on “The Democrats’ Common Sense Problem,” “The Democrats’ Working Class Voter Problem” and “The Bankruptcy of the Democratic Party Left.”

The lack of common sense is the biggest to me.

This piece was carthartic to read.

 

[Sparks]

Now do Moderate Republicans.

 

[MacMadame]

Oh, I totally think Newsom is gunning for President.

He's been running for President since he was born.

 

[olympic]

https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1543654572467658752?cxt=HHwWgIC9_fXplOwqAAAA

"Gavin Newsom is airing an ad on Fox News in Florida this 4th of July weekend calling out Republicans for attacking freedom by banning books, restricting speech, suppressing voters, and attacking bodily autonomy."

Here's the ad:

https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1543610674873438208

Wow, Mr. Newsom. I've got to agree that it's a great idea. (Probably would be an even greater idea without him in it, as then it wouldn't sound like an outsider coming in; but on a more generic level, speaking directly to citizens in states facing these awful restrictions is a good thing). How did he get Fox to air it? Paid the local station?

(On a practical level, Newsom sounds like someone--like DeSantis--who wants to run for president. But the Democratic Party could do this in a less individual & outsider-ish way).

Political parties are tribal in the USA these days, and Newsom is doing something smart by distinguishing himself early and taking the fight to DeSantis (heir apparent) in FL on issues that matter to DEMOCRATS, not fighting over issues framed by the Republicans which we always lose.

 

[jenny12]

Now do Moderate Republicans.

Indeed. Essentially "moderate" Republicans hate trans people but say they're worried about kids, hate minorities but say they're worried about not focusing enough on traditional values, and think corporations should not pay taxes but talk about small businesses.

 

[Aussie Willy]

Second time one of my family members has been called by someone running against Liz Cheney in the Wyoming primary. We are two states away from Wyoming. WTH.

Someone has way too much money to burn. Plus, how is there an excuse for dialing an out-of-state area code twice?

Did anyone else see any of the Wyoming debate with Cheney and the 4 others standing against her? What a sh*tshow. The rest all believe the election was stolen. Hal Sparks covered the first half hour of it.

 

[Sparks]

Indeed. Essentially "moderate" Republicans hate trans people but say they're worried about kids, hate minorities but say they're worried about not focusing enough on traditional values, and think corporations should not pay taxes but talk about small businesses.

I found this by a simple google search
"A faction that has become increasingly small since the 1990s, modern Republican moderates are sometimes known as "business conservatives". Moderates tend to be conservative-to-moderate on fiscal issues and moderate-to-liberal on social issues"

Watch Pat Buchannan's speech at the Republican convention in 1992. It says it all. Extremists played the long game

 

[Vagabond]

A moderate Republican is like a passenger pigeon. Discuss.

 

[BittyBug]

They exist in New England, but are becoming rarer.

 

[Aussie Willy]

A moderate Republican is like a passenger pigeon. Discuss.

They just sh*t everywhere?

 

[Karen-W]

A moderate Republican is like a passenger pigeon. Discuss.

They just sh*t everywhere?

Wow. So, now, even moderate Republicans are targets.

Even rarer, though, are centrist Democrats, and they get crapped on by progressives just as much, if not more than moderate Republicans.

 

[jenny12]

Comparing the difference between centrists and progressive Democrats and moderate and extremist Republicans is totally apples to oranges. Progressive and centrists democrats have substantive policy differences. "Moderate" republicans support voter suppression but draw the line at insurrection.

 

[Vagabond]

Wow. So, now, even moderate Republicans are targets.

You would be hard-pressed to find a single Republican in any elective office whose voting record would be aligned with truly moderate or even liberal Republicans of the second half of the twentieth century such as Charles Percy, Margaret Chase Smith, and Jacob Javits.

Indeed, you would be hard pressed to find registered Republican voters who still support the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gun control, a woman's right to abortion, broad federal environmental regulations, affirmative action, and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, all of which were supported by liberal and moderate Republicans in the past and all of which have been gutted by Republicans on the Supreme Court.

Moderate Republicans also used to support personal responsibility and the rule of law. If there were any moderate Republicans left anywhere (even here on FSU), I would expect them to speak up. The only prominent Republicans that I can think of who have spoken up against Trump on these issues, however, are ones like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Brad Raffensberger, all of whom can fairly be described as conservatives. There is one Republican that I can think of who did post his condemnation of Trump on these points here on PI, but he doesn't post here any more, and I honestly don't know what his view is on most issues. As for the other Republicans here in PI, including you, it's been 🦗🦗🦗 . [/RANT]

 

[jeffisjeff]

@Vagabond covered what moderate Republicans believe (or used to believe). I will just add something that moderate Republicans aren't - big Tucker fans.

 

[Karen-W]

Indeed, you would be hard pressed to find registered Republican voters who still support the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gun control, a woman's right to abortion, broad federal environmental regulations, affirmative action, and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, all of which were supported by liberal and moderate Republicans in the past and all of which have been gutted by Republicans on the Supreme Court.

snip

As for the other Republicans here in PI, including you, it's been 🦗🦗🦗 . [/RANT]

Honestly, I avoided PI for most of Trump's presidency - and I still try to stay out of the more contentious discussion threads because most of this forum is pretty heavily tainted and I routinely get dismissed since I openly admit that I did vote for Trump in 2016, but did not vote for him in 2020.

It's so interesting, your list of things that moderate Republicans used to, allegedly support.

Abortion - moderate Republicans have only ever believed in rare, limited abortions, so most of the state laws limiting abortions are right in line with what they have always believed.

Gun control - must be an urban/suburban/rural divide, or maybe a Northeast/rest of the country divide. But, then again, I was raised in a family of recreational hunters and learned gun safety as a small child while helping my dad clean his rifle and at the shooting range. While I don't own a gun personally, I know plenty of people who do and all of them believe in responsible gun ownership.

Voting Rights Act - pardon me, and most other Republicans (moderate or hardcore) who believe that you should be a citizen in order to vote and that you should provide a government ID when voting and that the election rolls should be routinely cleaned up to remove dead people or those who have moved to a new voting jurisdiction. That's just so unreasonable and unfair and discriminatory, apparently.

Broad environmental regulations - sure, but not when it cripples our economy, and not especially when the President isn't even willing to own that it's his policies that are causing the negative effect on the economy, but instead points the finger of blame everywhere else (pandemic, Putin, what's next?).

Affirmative action - moderate Republicans have been critical of this for at least the last 30 years. I well remember the political debates in California on the topic when I was in high school and college. There are better ways to help the disadvantaged than this misguided "Great Society" program.

Path to citizenship for illegal immigrants - Oh, please. How about people coming here legally in the first place? Let's try that. And, while we're at it - the Dems have had control of both the White House and Congress for 16 months now, so where's their grand plan for this? You want to gripe and complain about moderate Republicans opposing this, but there's nothing to oppose because the Dems don't have a plan either - or is that just something they're not willing to make noise about "ending the Senate filibuster" over proposed legislation? Freakin' talking point to end all talking points here, so let's just move right along past this topic, shall we?

@Vagabond covered what moderate Republicans believe (or used to believe). I will just add something that moderate Republicans aren't - big Tucker fans.

LOL. Tucker fans have a strong libertarian streak. And a healthy degree of cynicism toward big government. And we even are capable of disagreeing with him, even if we still like his show. Will you hate me less if I tell you I think Greg Gutfeld is hilarious?

 

[Aussie Willy]

Wow. So, now, even moderate Republicans are targets.

Even rarer, though, are centrist Democrats, and they get crapped on by progressives just as much, if not more than moderate Republicans.

Mine is a joke Joyce. Don't take it so literally. But then if you find Greg Gutfield funny .......

I do find it interesting that people who think Tucker is of some value to society think that we should not take him so seriously. But people do and that is why those who find his rhetoric dangerous take him seriously. He sends out massive dog whistles to those who religiously watch him. And if you watch him lately you can tell he knows that him and his fellow Fox cronies are being called out by the Jan 6th hearings as being complicit in lying about election fraud. His manner has become more and more fake and desperate.