The Ryan pick is good for the country overall

[tweaker2]

Maybe if the party hadn't taken a hard right turn in the past few decades. There is no WAY the Republican party of today would do anything that even remotely smelled like universal health care.

That's what perplexes me about the Repub party in general. Out of the ashes of the disasterous end of Bush's two terms in office, you'd think the party would learn a lesson or two from that failed excersize in the unrestrained use of deregulation and top down economics all while starting two wars on credit and cutting taxes mainly for the rich. Instead, the Repubs went even farther down that road that proved to them how wrong they were to begin with. I mean, how self-destructive can you get before you snap back into reality and have a moment of clarity for a change?

They swung even further to the right while claiming it was the left that went over the edge. I saw how the right progressively used what faults they were guilty of and blithely assigned them to the left as if that manuever cleansed them of their sins somehow.

Now we have a situation where the Repubs want absolute gridlock in gov't to deny Obama a second term while blaming Obama himself for the effects of the very gridlock the Repubs clamped on the Legislature.

While in the act of keeping the harmful effects of the Bush era economic trainwreck alive and well, the Repubs promise the voting public they will do a much better job of administering the very recovery they are trying their best to derail. Obviously, there is no interest in speeding the recovery along as long as the Repubs perceive this to not be in their best interests.

But herein lies the quandry that the Repubs have never satisfactorially addressed: How can they apply the same ideological principles toward fixing what their ideology broke in the first place?

There is no "apparent" logic in their reasoning. However, when stripped of all the propaganda, hollow promises and rhetoric that they've managed to paint the American political landscape with, it all amounts to an agenda that perceives government as the main obstacle toward maximizing profits for those very businesses that rely on the stability of the government they wish to defeat in order to operate the way they'd like to.

Tragic irony at its best.

 

[Rainsford]

You forget that both parties serve corporate interests and UHC would help out corporations so the republicans would support it IF they were in charge.

I didn't forget that corporations play a factor in political decisions. But I also think the real world is more complicated than college libertarians make it out to be. Obama's position on UHC may have been influenced by corporate interests, but thinking that liberal voters had nothing to do with it is ridiculous. And while Republicans may also factor in corporate donations, thinking they'll ignore their support base is equally silly.

I know some people find it clever to claim they've seen through the political charade and realized the truth that the parties are just different sides of the same coin and it doesn't make any possible difference who you vote for. But real life isn't that simple. Candidates have flaws...sometimes they are actually the same flaws on both sides. But that doesn't come close to telling the whole story, and even if the candidates are 95% the same (which I don't think they are), that doesn't mean the 5% doesn't matter.

 

[soccerballtux]

I'm in agreement with this. Obama is not a commie socialist, he's Bush III, complete with the same usual unelected powers running the puppet show behind the curtains.

The public debate (that you see here, on annoying people's FB/Twitter posts, on the news talk shows) is depressingly funny because you get :

The right-wing talking heads and zombies blasting Obama, when he's basically the exact same thing as Bush, whom they tirelessly defended and helped elect to two terms.

and ..

The left-wing talking heads and zombies defending Obama, when he's the same.

Romney and co. are the same band of liars and thieves as the rest of them. We're good and fucked, and we're really arguing over the scent on the toilet paper as we're all flushed down the fucking toilet.

interesting, didn't know you swung this way. Who are the unelected powers, in your book?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

You're mistaken. The Democrats will be bleating about abortion, gay marriage, and the War on Womyn soon enough.

They might as well. It's a huge Republican weakness and at least abortion and the war are still important issues.

They need to distract voters from realizing that O'bamma the Marxist Kenyan Post Turtle is a complete failure as a President.

The top 5% seem to be doing exquisitely well and our current semi-free market health care system is an expensive shambles, so perhaps we could use a little more Marxism in our mixed economy.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Universal health care is wrong and should be ended, I dont want to pay for this

What would you prefer? Real free market health care where tens of millions of people would be without health insurance and where perhaps hundreds of thousands of people and children would die needlessly every year from lack of health care?

Are you aware that socialized medicine in every other first world nation is putting our current semi-free market system to shame in terms of cost and coverage (17% of GDP with tens of millions uninsured and under-insured vs. 12% of GDP with 100% coverage)? The sad irony in your comment is that real socialized medicine is more efficient and costs less.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Well at least he's not an idiot like Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum, or (shudder) Sarah.

I had forgotten all about Santorum! Having Paul Ryan on the ticket is like having a great big santorum stain on a light suit.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I agree. Lets get the radical Republican agenda out in the open and discuss it.
Thats the first step in the twelve step program to bring Republicans back to reality.

:thumbsup: