H-m-m-m. Statistically, those teachers you hate are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats, conservatives than liberals, and disaffected than any of them. Most coke addicts don't give a rat's ass about anyone or anything other than themselves. The same applies to narcissists.Originally Posted by Classic-X'er
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.
If poor whites vote Democratic, then if the Democrats win, they get politicians who look out for them. That's pretty simple to understand. Democrats aren't asking them to hand over their guns, unless they are criminals or insane. Confiscation is not in the cards or the stars during a Democratic Party government. This is again just pandering to prejudice and fear. The Bible again is just another prejudice that is being appealed to to fool them. The Bible isn't going anywhere. The liberal welfare state, such as it is, looks after poor people and protects them as needed. Again, that's pretty easy to understand. It provides the infrastructure, the environment, the education, the opportunity people need to get out of poverty.
The poor whites who "vote their valyas" are just being hoodwinked by prejudice and fear to hurt their own interests.
How many years is it going to take for Muslim allies to form and organize themselves and begin fighting ISIS? How many lives will be destroyed and cultures will be removed while liberals are waiting or hoping for it to happen?
That seems more than a little ironic, considering the reason they are in the GOP camp today. The Southern Strategy was, and is, a GOP vote-centric strategy, that brings the dog whistles out in election year, adds a bit fear baiting (the guns thing for instance) and immediately forgets these folks on the Wednesday following election day. If you hate politicians and their supporters who do that, why not throw stones at Republicans? They've been at it non-stop since 1968.
Marx: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Lennon: You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.
If that's what they believe about progressives, associate with progressives, how do progressives change those beliefs? How many people do you know take promises and assurances from strangers for granted?
Last edited by Classic-X'er; 02-04-2016 at 05:36 PM.
I'm just a short stone throw away from the Republicans. I'm within throwing range of most working class Democrats and those who truly represent them.
Again ....
In NH:
1st - Trump (but by less of a margin than pundits currently comprehend)
2nd - Rubio
3rd - Cruz
In SC:
1st - Rubio
2nd - Cruz
3rd - Trump
NV is a tough call. There are lots of Trump-bots here out West (lots of them are former Paul-bots). However there are many LDS in NV. I somehow don't see Trump resonating with LDS. Cruz and Rubio will probably split the LDS vote.
Super Tuesday is what I'm waiting for. I think the current top three will all stay in the race through Super Tuesday. Then it will be come to Jesus time and we will probably see only two continuing through the remaining primaries.
Most of the people fighting the Infernal State on the ground are Muslims!
You can trust that any Kurdish victory has lots of shouts of Allah Akbar! in the celebration.
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
I see lots of struggling Millie teachers in our neck of the woods. There is even talk of building some sort of 21st Century version of tenements to house them. May be a local phenomenon or may be something more universal.
A recent poll of Utah (December) showed Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton 37-26, which is unusually tepid support of a Republican in Utah.
56-24 Carson/Clinton
48-21 Rubio/Clinton
48-23 Bush/Clinton
37-26 Trump/Clinton
http://utahpolicy.com/index.php/feat...idates-in-utah
Utah is typically one of the most conservative states in the United States thanks to the Mormon vote. But Trump has multiple divorces and heavy involvement in gambling casinos, both contrary to Mormon values. Trump will do badly in any primaries in which Mormons are a big part of the conservative vote in any state (Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and California). Add to this the religious bigotry that Mormons believe can be turned against Mormons without warning, and does not serve Mormon missionary efforts.
In the general election, any Republican nominee will do well among Mormon voters -- except Donald Trump. But tepid support of Mormons for Trump ensure that Democrats win Arizona (whose conservative component is heavily Mormon); should the Latter Day Saints' hierarchy endorse a Democrat for President while endorsing just about every Republican running for any office, then the Democratic nominee will win everything west of the Black Hills except perhaps Alaska.
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Teaching is one of the lowest-paid professions requiring a college degree. Clergy seemingly alone do worse.
Persons living on a teacher's salary typically have obsolete electronics. live in less-than-upscale housing, and drive used cars. Two teachers can do sort of OK, but so can two adults who have factory jobs.
Teachers are toward the bottom in consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. They just can't afford them, and they could never get away with alcohol or drugs on the job.
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
That's a good question, actually. Some say that if the USA wants to defeat the IS, they should invade on the ground and just do it. But others say (and I think I agree) that invading that area would make us into the target of opposition, and that we can't restore sane governance to the area without the cooperation of the Muslims there who want and fight for their freedom. Most candidates of both parties seem to agree with this. The Republicans complain about Obama's policy, and then just offer the same policy he's already doing.
So I don't know how long it will take. There is some progress in Iraq, but regaining Syria is impossible as long as Assad is in power/the civil war & proxy war continues.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...40587630366691
Faith is playing an important role on the campaign trail, especially among politicians trying to appeal to evangelical Christian voters.
But some of the things the candidates have said aren't exactly biblical.
To show just how those words might sound coming from the leader of the faith the candidates profess to follow, Jimmy Kimmel had an actor dressed as Jesus Christ read actual quotes from Republican presidential candidates on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Tuesday night.
Check it out in the clip (in the link).
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Poor whites who vote Republican just need to be willing to look at facts instead of prejudices. That may be hard, but that's not "taking promises and assurances for granted." No Democrat has ever passed a law to confiscate guns from law-abiding and sane people. No Democrat has ever passed any law restricting Christians from practicing their religion. It's true, they do pass some laws which Christian fundamentalist preachers say go against the Bible (gay marriage, abortion), and Democrats may oppose those who want to impose their interpretation of the Bible on all people. So conservatives who vote their values can be more concerned about those things if they wish. Or they can persist in their fear that liberals will come to take away their guns. But then they get screwed in other ways if they do, and in the bargain they very likely get NO action on their desire to outlaw abortion or gay marriage. It's their choice.
Progressives need to convince poor white people that progressive solutions can improve their lives. That requires convincing poor white people that what helps poor blacks and Hispanics can also help poor whites. Why should white people feel the sting of poverty and lack of opportunity any less than blacks and Hispanics feel it? Poor whites are not going to get benefits from policies that $crew poor blacks and Hispanics.
So we show that the white poor have gotten nothing for voting for right-wingers who see poor people of any kind as vermin.
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Sanders is the only hope for comprehensive security for worker's and students rights. Trump seems to be the best available in terms of creating a new nationalist worldview and securing national cohesiveness. Hillary represents everything that is wrong with the current American body politic; she is the personification of the extreme selfishness of the boomers and their deranged hostility to hierarchy of any kind.
Thanks for proving my point.
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.
-Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism
Worse, they are likely disappointments to their parents. I figure that such teachers were pegged to become members of better-compensated professions but flunked out of a rigorous college and ended up at a non-selective college. Encouraged by school officials to take "education" they could still "party" while attending college at "Kegger State" as they could not get away with at a more rigorous college. The 'Vette could be a graduation present. (Surprisingly it is one of the better cars to buy because it holds its value very well). If a woman, she reads Vogue Magazine, an awful periodical dedicated to the most superficial people who have or fantasize about the Good Life that includes such brand names as Gucci, Estee Lauder, Prada, and Louis Vuitton.
My idea of the Good Life is to not need such overpriced stuff as stuff by Gucci, Estee Lauder, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. I describe myself as a "blue collar" teacher who prefers giving attention to students to sitting behind a desk -- or even worse, sitting on a desk! Even in good times, I don't shop upscale. Upscale purchases show only that one is willing to waste money -- certainly not wisdom or desirability.
Last edited by pbrower2a; 02-05-2016 at 03:01 PM.
The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" (or) even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered... in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by (those) who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Pretty hard to claim that your looking out for them while a policy like Affirmative Action is still in place.
I'm pretty sure that whites feel the sting of poverty and lack of opportunity the same as blacks and Hispanics.
When it comes to guns, Progressives have a history of walking right into the Republican narrative. We need to decode guns. Guns as a political issue have always been about selling fear of those who the issue makes of having guns. In the 1900s, when New York's Sullivan Act was passed, the fear was about European immigrants (anarchists!) having access to guns. In the 1960s, the fear (and dog whistle) was of African Americans (militants!) having access to guns--with spin-offs ranging from a ban on mail order guns in the mid 60s to the massacre of Black Panthers in the early 1970s in Chicago. Today, it is poor whites who are being dog whistled by the educated classes as the threat when guns are mentioned--via mass shootings, which though spectacular are a mimiscule fraction of the number of gun deaths. Which is why Bernie Sanders has been leery of identifying too much with the anti-gun moral panic, which is directed at poor white voters he wants to attract.
Real concern about guns and a real campaign against gun deaths would start by centering on gun suicides, which would be compassionate, and on taking guns from people whose danger to self and others increases if they possess guns. Which is not happening, obviously. Poor whites "get" from this that they are being attacked by Democrats the same way that African Americans "got" that they were being attacked by conservatives over guns in the 1960s. The gun issue in this country has always been in this country about identifying specific groups in the population who are "too dangerous" to be allowed to bear arms. Now it's poor whites turn.
That is what Jim Webb was trying to show. But Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump hogged the attention of poor people and Webb was not able to be heard and had to end his campaign. It's become so obvious to poor whites that they are in the same boat as African Americans that this time around they may actually help African Americans row and bail instead of trying to throw them overboard.
I think Utah Republicans will likely endorse Cruz. And Utah Dems, Bernie. Hillary has too much sleaze associated with her for Mormons to tolerate her. If Hillary is the nominee, Utahans will find even Trump preferable to Hillary. Trump may not be terribly religious, but balanced against his divorces is the fact that his success in business is something Mormons can respect. (Which, by the way, will help Trump in Nevada and Arizona, too). Utah has not voted Democratic for President since, I believe, 1964. And I don't think Trump is sleazy enough for that to change. Mormons were heavily involved in the growth of the Las Vegas gambling industry too. Just because Mormons are against gambling themselves, dosen't mean that they aren't happy to see Gentiles gamble.
Affirmative action can be changed to affirmative action for children from poor families, not by race. Jim Webb was pushing this approach. We won't see this argument come up much in the Primaries. But in the General campaign, if Bernie gets the nomination, Bernie could tack in this direction (maybe even making Jim Webb his Veep). Hillary, though is old school political patronage all the way.
[QUOTE]In the South, Democrats most certainly DID pass laws confiscating guns from African-Americans, free as well as slave, post-bellum Jim Crow as well as antebellum. We ignore the Dixiecrat heritage of the Dems . at our peril--the latest instance of it being the Clinton's pandering to fears of black crime during Bill's Administration.
And even in the North in liberal Democratic jurisdictions, the combination of laws and policies that embroil African-American males in the criminal justice system for most of their lives makes it illegal for them to possess firearms while under (lengthy) parole. Of course that dosen't stop African Americans from getting firearms anyway since they DO feel a need to be able to defend themselves.
Both the New York and New Jersey state legislatures passed laws authorising 30 day guardianships to exit-counsel young people who joined cults in the 1980s. Though in both cases, the governors of those states vetoed the legislation after concerted lobbying by the Orthodox Jewish Chabad Lubavitch sect.No Democrat has ever passed any law restricting Christians from practicing their religion.
