How can anyone be so into US politics today?

[Zeze]

Not quite sure if this belongs in P&N as it contains no news, and it's a general sentiment.

In my opinion, the current state of US politics is garbage. How can anyone religiously favor one candidate over other? It's all cloak and dagger. Our opinions are 95% formed by our favorite biased news of either side. Once we pick a candidate, it's human psyche to filter out what you like and discard the rest. Facts and stats? They can cherry-picked and spun in anyway to their agenda. Your candidate's image is nothing but a product of their campaign manager.

And both are corrupted without choice thanks to massive campaign contributions and they have to scratch them back in office. When I see a candidate, I don't see someone who wants to serve the nation. I see just another guy climbing their professional career, just like you and me.

Lastly, let's say you have carefully picked whom to vote after months of research, mulling over. and weighing all options. Your vote counts as much as that old lady I knew in college who voted for Bush because he's cute.

Fail, on all fronts.

Moved from OT.
admin allisolm

 

[tcG]

Seriously... I agree.

 

[clamum]

Yeah pretty much. I try to stay informed but it's all kinda fucked anyway.

 

[rivan]

Agreed.

 

[amdhunter]

How can anyone religiously favor one candidate over other?

Conservatives make it easy to hate their God-loving, ignorant, racist, money-grubbing, slave-wanting ways.
I can't stand people who are so intolerant of others.

 

[tokie]

I have to laugh when I hear all the policies and claims. Americans like to think of themselves as capitalists who don't depend on government, then they believe/complain about the "number of jobs" a President creates.

Get real people, no President directly creates private sector jobs!

 

[Capt Caveman]

You'd think you'd learn after your Hurricane Sandy is all Hype thread. If you don't think who controls the Presidency, Senate and House affects social and economic issues then I suggest you brush up on your history.

 

[KeithP]

You are right. I wish politics in the US was more like politics in other counties with no regards to political or religious groups and everyone just seeking the ultimate truth.

Also, outside the US, I hear people also post in the correct forums. It sounds like utopia!

-KeithP

 

[destrekor]

This election season is quite simply, ugly as hell. I don't care for any candidate for any position, they are all a bunch of tools with some shitty opinions and firmly-held beliefs. The Republicans are holding onto a stronger religious fervor they want to instill on all of us, and the Democrats are shifting strongly toward providing everything for everybody (and fuck the states, man! ).

What I want to see, because I don't care for either President and want a good result out of mixed bodies:
Give Obama the seat again, but ensure there is a 50/50 partisan split in both Senate and House.
Make Romney President, but ensure Democrats hold a 75% majority in both Senate and House.

Other than that, I don't care for a good half the things either President (and in general, both parties) actually stands for.

I have to laugh when I hear all the policies and claims. Americans like to think of themselves as capitalists who don't depend on government, then they believe/complain about the "number of jobs" a President creates.

Get real people, no President directly creates private sector jobs!

To be fair, Presidents can have a strong influence on this.
The fact is, either most Americans are retarded, or they are temporarily gullible under the influence of bias. A great majority of policies enacted under any sitting President have little impact on the immediately following years, especially rarely do they bring about effects during the same presidential term.
Those policies, however, can all of a sudden be felt 4, 8, maybe 12 years down the road. Depending on consequences and snow-ball effects, they may make things worse and then the sitting President feels heat for the negative impacts, or is praised for a job well done. A lot of the shit that has went south in the past decade ultimately has roots in policies enacted 15-20 years ago, if not longer.

I typically hate the fact that the law-making bodies don't commit to long-term planning, setting up for temporary setbacks in order to positively impact the country 30-50-100 years down the road. As it is, the American public is equally to blame for not even seeing such near-long-term planning for what it is, and understanding how such changes actually roll out.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

Scotus.

 

[bfdd]

People are blinded and poisoned by the hydra.

 

[clamum]

What I want to see, because I don't care for either President and want a good result out of mixed bodies:
Give Obama the seat again, but ensure there is a 50/50 partisan split in both Senate and House.
Make Romney President, but ensure Democrats hold a 75% majority in both Senate and House.

That sounds good in theory, but to me it seems it would just lead to the same partisan bullshit we have now and nothing gets done.

 

[dullard]

That sounds good in theory, but to me it seems it would just lead to the same partisan bullshit we have now and nothing gets done.

If nothing gets done, our budget problems would be solved. Bush tax cuts would end, Obama's stimulus tax cuts would end. Massive sequestration spending cuts would occur. In other the words, the deficit would disappear.

It would be painful. It would start another recession. But our government would emerge strong and without debt problems.

Sometimes less government interference is best. That usually requires gridlock. Our country did best in gridlock. Think democrats in congress with Reagan or Republicans in congress with Clinton. If you look honestly at the last two years (take off your blinders) we did well with Republicans in congress and Obama as president. Jobs are being created, GDP is griwing as the rest of the world is falling back into fiscal disaster, we are getting out of wars, etc. We need more of that gridlock.

 

[destrekor]

That sounds good in theory, but to me it seems it would just lead to the same partisan bullshit we have now and nothing gets done.

That's sort of the point. There needs to be a strong, heavy-handed balance. Too much bullshit actually gets through, when the Federal body doesn't need to push out nearly as much as they should. But I've more of the Libertarian mindset, so I like to see less out of the Federal bodies by default. Locking bullshit up in the partisan battles helps prevent much of the unneeded bills from ever seeing the light of day - and what makes it through is typically much more balanced and modest.

 

[airdata]

Anybody fervently backing either candidate has extremely questionable judgment.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

It's not about people; it's about teams. American politics is basically identical to American football, with the exception being that American football is actually fun to watch. But I'm just rooting for my team. The Cowboys want to destroy America. The Niners are our only hope to lead us out of economic recession. How do you feel about the players? I don't know, what color is his jersey?

It's all a game. And no matter who wins, we lose.

 

[yllus]

If nothing gets done, our budget problems would be solved. Bush tax cuts would end, Obama's stimulus tax cuts would end. Massive sequestration spending cuts would occur. In other the words, the deficit would disappear.

It would be painful. It would start another recession. But our government would emerge strong and without debt problems.

Sometimes less government interference is best. That usually requires gridlock. Our country did best in gridlock. Think democrats in congress with Reagan or Republicans in congress with Clinton. If you look honestly at the last two years (take off your blinders) we did well with Republicans in congress and Obama as president. Jobs are being created, GDP is griwing as the rest of the world is falling back into fiscal disaster, we are getting out of wars, etc. We need more of that gridlock.

Yeah, I look at the fiscal cliff pretty positively as well. It would have been even more ideal if they had somehow written it as, "All of the recommendations of Simpson-Bowles go into effect if the cliff occurs."

 

[werepossum]

It's not about people; it's about teams. American politics is basically identical to American football, with the exception being that American football is actually fun to watch. But I'm just rooting for my team. The Cowboys want to destroy America. The Niners are our only hope to lead us out of economic recession. How do you feel about the players? I don't know, what color is his jersey?

It's all a game. And no matter who wins, we lose.

That's the beauty of democracy - we get the leaders we deserve.

 

[Moonbeam]

It's not about people; it's about teams. American politics is basically identical to American football, with the exception being that American football is actually fun to watch. But I'm just rooting for my team. The Cowboys want to destroy America. The Niners are our only hope to lead us out of economic recession. How do you feel about the players? I don't know, what color is his jersey?

It's all a game. And no matter who wins, we lose.

This would say much if it weren't so misleading. The issue is not that politics is a team event but that one team will destroy the league to win. Neuroscience has shown that the conservative brain processes morality in 4 or 5 ways that liberals do not, including the notion of the virtue of team loyalty. All of the issues of individual rights regarding morality are shared in common between liberals and conservatives, with liberals more committed to morality in this area, but liberals have little in the way of moral principle in all the areas where the team is valued above the individual, team over member, civil order over individual freedom, deference to authority, etc.

In shout the conservative mind not only values team above all else it values winning over the good of the nation. This is why the team spirit, so useful in defending against an alien threat, has tried so hard to turn Obama into an alien because we are without any real external danger. The evolutionary value of tribalism becomes dysfunctional when the whole human race is the tribe and it is that recognition we will have to arrive at if humanity is to survive.

Please try to understand that conservative thinking, good for millions of years of evolution, is retrograde today. Conservative thinking is the road to extinction as a species.

 

[Moonbeam]

That's the beauty of democracy - we get the leaders we deserve.

We get the leaders we feel we deserve and what we feel is self hate.