Put up or Shut up

[Lalakai]

All the ranting, raving, finger pointing, foaming mouths and empty promises, just reminds me that for the majority of the people, politics turns them into a group of 3rd graders.

What elections did you vote in last year? Who ran for your school board? Who are your county commissioners?? Name the local milages on the last ballot. When does your city council meet? Who are your state representatives?? What is your voting district??? How long has your mayor been office (Detroit gets a pass on that one)??? How many times did you vote in the last 2 years???

Perhaps 2% of you can answer these questions, and for those people, you have shown the determination to be involved at all levels of the political structure, and you have the intelligence to make a valid informed opinion. You are the ones the politicians are afraid of and love; you remember, you are committed.

For the rest......................................a bunch of 3rd graders.

 

[frostedflakes]

You must be new here.

 

[fskimospy]

What's interesting is that local politics has far more impact on your life than national politics does, but people pay little to no attention to local matters.

 

[BoomerD]

What election? Did we have one yet?

I thought all free elections were cancelled until further notice by order of USSC per GW Bush.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Lalakai
Perhaps 2% of you can answer these questions, and for those people, you have shown the determination to be involved at all levels of the political structure, and you have the intelligence to make a valid informed opinion. You are the ones the politicians are afraid of and love; you remember, you are committed.

For the rest......................................a bunch of 3rd graders.

Intelligent people don't get involved in politics at the citizen level, too much work for very little payoff. Intelligent and corrupt people become politicians.

 

[Lalakai]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
You must be new here.

have to dust off my login at times and check out the forums every now and then. so i guess you may be right.

 

[Ozoned]

Originally posted by: Lalakai
All the ranting, raving, finger pointing, foaming mouths and empty promises, just reminds me that for the majority of the people, politics turns them into a group of 3rd graders.

What elections did you vote in last year? Who ran for your school board? Who are your county commissioners?? Name the local milages on the last ballot. When does your city council meet? Who are your state representatives?? What is your voting district??? How long has your mayor been office (Detroit gets a pass on that one)??? How many times did you vote in the last 2 years???

Perhaps 2% of you can answer these questions, and for those people, you have shown the determination to be involved at all levels of the political structure, and you have the intelligence to make a valid informed opinion. You are the ones the politicians are afraid of and love; you remember, you are committed.

For the rest......................................a bunch of 3rd graders.

I know a lot of good people that died, defending my right to act like a 3rd grader. You can kiss my ass.

 

[Zebo]

Overall I am suspect of people who come in unabashed and tell us how stupid and immature we are and split. I'll stay tuned but expect no surprises.

 

[nageov3t]

my town is not even a square mile, I don't own property here, and very little of what goes on locally actually affects me beyond things relating to property taxes.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Lalakai
Perhaps 2% of you can answer these questions, and for those people, you have shown the determination to be involved at all levels of the political structure, and you have the intelligence to make a valid informed opinion. You are the ones the politicians are afraid of and love; you remember, you are committed.

For the rest......................................a bunch of 3rd graders.

Intelligent people don't get involved in politics at the citizen level, too much work for very little payoff. Intelligent and corrupt people become politicians.

Beautiful. I would just add befriend politicians as well.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: Ozoned

I know a lot of good people that died, defending my right to act like a 3rd grader. You can kiss my ass.

Funny, I thought they died protecting the neocon agenda for power.

I don't recall anyone who can challenge your right to act like a 3rd grader, or even who wants to but can't that we haven't messed with first.

But hey, that lie about how they threaten your freedoms while you actually threaten theirs sure does fit the bill for giving you an excuse to blindly believe in the violence you cause.

It's the blindness that that sort of ideology brings that's the problem.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: eskimospy
What's interesting is that local politics has far more impact on your life than national politics does, but people pay little to no attention to local matters.

That used to be true, and can still be, but when you continue to move towards nationalized _everything_ then Washington is where the buck stops and the decisions of how you'll live your life are made.

Example, sin taxes on things like tobacco and cigarettes. You'll do what they want you to do, and you'll never afford what they decide you shouldn't do. Sounds important to me.

Another example is the massive movement towards bank nationalization we've made in the past four months. Washington controls your bank account, not your local Mayor.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: Lalakai
Title: Put up or Shut up

All the ranting, raving, finger pointing, foaming mouths and empty promises, just reminds me that for the majority of the people, politics turns them into a group of 3rd graders.

Revolution can be peaceful, or it can be violent. This ranting and raving you oppose is the peaceful sort. So I'd think twice before deciding that P&N is terrible. Fact is I find it rather insightful to poke and prod the other side and get a feel for what's out there.

Of course there are views I cannot tolerate, mostly to do with support for terrorist groups, but other than that I'd say we remain largely civilized compared to the alternative.

 

[Lalakai]

Originally posted by: Ozoned

I know a lot of good people that died, defending my right to act like a 3rd grader. You can kiss my ass.
[/quote]

interesting way to acknowledge their sacrifice, by not utilizing the freedom they gave their lives for; that is assuming that you don't vote much, but instead opt to act like a 3rd grader, by complaining but not willing to take action and responsibility. but you are correct; they died so that you do have the ability to choose how you act, and the freedom to express your choice by participating in the process that governs your lifestyle, or the freedom to complain about the process and not participate.

I will have to back up a bit, as i've classified all 3rd graders in a demeaning fashion. there are some 3rd graders who do have the balance and intelligence to vote and exercise other freedoms, that were paid for, at such a high expense.

 

[Ozoned]

Originally posted by: Lalakai

Originally posted by: Ozoned

I know a lot of good people that died, defending my right to act like a 3rd grader. You can kiss my ass.

you are correct.


[/quote]

Thanks. That is all I needed, not all of the other bullshit.

 

[Lalakai]

Originally posted by: Ozoned

Originally posted by: Lalakai

Originally posted by: Ozoned

I know a lot of good people that died, defending my right to act like a 3rd grader. You can kiss my ass.

you are correct.

Thanks. That is all I needed, not all of the other bullshit.[/quote]

sometimes the mirror doesn't show us what we want. don't blame the mirror.

 

[wwswimming]

i think it depends a lot on the form of activism - antiwar, consumer, civil rights.

the US military is going to do what Bush & Clinton & Bush wanted, regardless
of how many people are in the streets chanting "no blood for oil" (Gulf War 1),
or emailing their elected reps.

my general observation about leftwing groups is that they tend to do things
that make them feel like they've done something, and have a wholesale
failure to be results-oriented.

Nixon did acknowledge in his memoirs that the anti-war protests in the '60's
had 'some effect', & slowed down some of his military campaigns during the
Vietnam War.

 

[networkman]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
... my general observation about leftwing groups is that they tend to do things
that make them feel like they've done something, and have a wholesale
failure to be results-oriented. ...

That's good - I rather like that!

 

[EXman]

Originally posted by: networkman

Originally posted by: wwswimming
... my general observation about leftwing groups is that they tend to do things
that make them feel like they've done something, and have a wholesale
failure to be results-oriented. ...

That's good - I rather like that!

That is why we are not energy independant and Chinese are going to get our oil from Cuba.

save this save that but screw our Economy and scew what we really need!

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: networkman

Originally posted by: wwswimming
... my general observation about leftwing groups is that they tend to do things
that make them feel like they've done something, and have a wholesale
failure to be results-oriented. ...

That's good - I rather like that!

It's right-wing delusion because they're so blinded by ideology - he has it backwards.

It's liberals who build the middle class out of the great depression, won WWII, build Social Security and Medicare, reversed elder poverty from 90% to 10%, increase home ownership greatly, saw the JFK/LBJ war on poverty cut the poverty rate by a third permanently, the last 5 democrat presidents have much better economic performance than the last five Republican presidents, liberals have done everything from creating food and product safety improvements to protecting endangered species - all real improvements.

In the meantime, the Repulicans have promised to 'protect America from enemies', while in the name of that have caused graved injustices around the world, backing right-wing dictators who use murderous violence, creating many enemies for our country we need not have, increasing our danger. They have 'talked the talk' on the economy, fiscal responsibility, 'rising all boats', increasing productivity while they have done nothing but increase government spending and redirect it from the public good to corruption, whiel bankrupting the nation, leading to crash after crash from Savings and Loan to Housing to the Financial system, as their policies consistently simply reward the powerful at the expense of the nation, shiftin gour nation onto a bed of sand where the financial sector earns 30% of all profit in the US, and led the nation to a historically high concentration of wealth - the Republicans are the real party who has done thing to make them 'feel like' they are doing something, but ignore the actual effects of the policies that not only fall short but harm the nation.

 

[wwswimming]

In the meantime, the Repulicans have promised to 'protect America from enemies', while in the name of that have caused graved injustices around the world, backing right-wing dictators who use murderous violence, creating many enemies for our country we need not have, increasing our danger.

i didn't say the neocon version of Right-wingers were any better.

but here you're talking about American foreign policy. and, as a summary, it's pretty accurate.

when confronted with the facts, e.g. about Iran contra, i find that right-wingers either support the off-balance-sheet murdering, or they invoke the linguistic term "conspiracy theory" ... as if we're supposed to believe that only bad Muslim guys in caves plan malevolent acts behind closed (cave) doors. (or deerskins or whatever they use).

i find that lefties are more willing to learn about operations such as Iran-contra, but tend to be extremely skittish about anything that involves Israel. and it's difficult to discuss world affairs accurately without including Israel.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I spent 4 hours in line to vote in the last election. I spent hours and hours forming my positions in this election, and also spent an hour in line to vote in the primary as well. I don't if I am right, but I am damn sure I did my due diligence.

I also donated to the campaign and voted for the man who is far less likely to benefit my own personal situation (We make $200,000 a year, and both work for a pharma company, but I supported Obama).

I can't name my school board, but forgive me if I don't agree with your assessment.

 

[smokeyjoe]

I can't really disagree with the OP, though he won't win any friends that way.. I suspect that is not his goal. Unfortunately, this is an International forum so is seems International issues are usually discussed. If I was to bring up the problem of copper constantly being stolen from street lights in my city, most people probably wouldn't care since it more than likely does not affect them.