Tag: Political Attitudes

A Few Words About Political Parties

The roster is set we have our GOP candidate and that for the Dems so the duel begins.

Let’s look at the system we have today and try to assess its validity.

Do political parties truly have a place in our system?  Do we really them them?

Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.

From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

The deliberate betrayal of its trust by the Republican party, the fatal incapacity of the Democratic party to deal with the new issues of the new time, have compelled the people to forge a new instrument of government through which to give effect to their will in laws and institutions.

Unhampered by tradition, uncorrupted by power, undismayed by the magnitude of the task, the new party offers itself as the instrument of the people to sweep away old abuses, to build a new and nobler commonwealth.

Those words were from the 1912 Progressive Party platform of Teddy Roosevelt……as accurate today as they were over a hundred years ago (some things seldom change).

I have been preaching of the uselessness of political parties for over a decade….

Are Political Parties Really Necessary?

As the long awaited 2024 election approached I gave another thought on the 2 party system….

The Two Parties Are What Is Wrong

I still hold to the idea that these parties are unnecessary if people would choose their support through knowledge and not some popular social media star.

Political parties are killing our beloved country and our break the mold system that started us down the road of world admiration.

So sports fans….do we really need these parties?

Any thoughts to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Democrat Vs Republican

This is an age old debate….do we follow the ideas of the GOP or the Dems…..one makes you a ‘fascist’ and the other makes you a ‘socialist’…..and all that division is just the media ramping up the animosities to sell content.

I have been saying for years that there is not much difference between the two….different sides of the same coin type of thing.

Actually the voter when asked no matter the party had similar concerns….

A new study suggests that perceived political polarization in the USA is influenced by a focus on difference, rather than similarities.

In just over three months, US voters will be asked to choose their new President. For most, the question is binary: Democrat or Republican? At the time of writing only 20 percent of independent voters are reportedly still undecided about who they will vote for. It’s a choice that has come to polarize the American population. In 2019, eight in ten US adults saw the divisions between the parties increasing and expressed concern over this trend. The lines have been drawn, or so it seems. 

This is a story about how different ways of presenting the same data can strongly influence people’s opinions.

“There’s a general perception that Republican and Democratic voters are deeply divided but our new study suggests these differences of opinion between the two groups are greatly exaggerated and that the groups are actually very similar in the values they hold as important,” said author Dr Lukas Wolf from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath in a statement.

In their study the team set out to investigate how presentation of similarity in values impacts voters’ perception of their differences. Dr Wolf believes that “Generally, the media and social scientists compare groups by describing differences, for example by using barplots, which ignore overlap and show exaggerated divisions in US society.”

The researchers used data from a previous study polling Democrats and Republicans on their values, and presented it to the participants in one of two ways. One group was shown the results as overlapping distributions, thereby highlighting the similarities. The other group was shown bar plots of the mean of the distributions, with the y-axis truncated to strongly emphasize the differences. 

The participants who were shown distributions felt that Democrats and Republicans were more similar, and had more similar values. Importantly, this “increased their sense of hope about the future and inspired trust in people they have seen as fundamentally different to them,” said Dr Wolf. Perceived similarities also increased their perceived potential for compromise.

https://www.iflscience.com/democrats-vs-republicans-not-so-different-after-all-75359

Truthfully the voters have similar concerns the problem with solving problems is rhetoric gets in the way of solutions.

Instead of looking at the similarities they, the voter, allows the rhetoric to rule the conversation and the election.  At this rate there will never be any solutions for the creeping problems of our society…..and compromise is a dirty word.

Way to go you dullards!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“…If I Quacks Like A Duck….”

This is just another re-post from one of my many blogs…..this time it is the Daily Agitator…..

There are so many labels thrown around today that it gets mind numbing…..socialist is a popular one to use in describing Dems…..but it is made by people that have no idea what a socialist is about….there is NOTHING socialist about Dems….if you doubt me then look up socialism do yourself a favor it will prevent you from looking stupid.

Now the popular word to describe the hard Right is fascist….but is that fair?

This post explains why I use the term….it is up to you to make your own mind up.

Is It American Fascism?

There is a crossroad approaching and now is the time to dig in and learn what you can about the candidates stop listening to the noise….make up your mind.

Take some time and challenge your biases.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“cognito ergo me agitare”

Indifference Could Carry The 2024 Election

The election is just a few months away and we already know who the combatants are……I have stated many times that I find nothing admirable in either candidate…..I believe I said something like ‘I would not hit a pig in the ass with either candidate’…..but it looks like I am not alone in my dislike….

One-fourth Americans have unfavorable views of both President Biden and Donald Trump, Pew Research data show—the highest level of any of the past 10 presidential elections. The share has almost doubled since the 2020 election, making this fall’s contest “the most dreaded election in modern political history,” Axios says. On the other hand, Pew’s survey found that 39% of Americans view Trump favorably and 37% feel that way about Biden. The survey was conducted before Trump was convicted in his New York criminal trial. This is a shift: At least one candidate had a favorable rating of at least 50% around this point in every campaign between 1988 and 2012. Through 2004, both nominees had favorability ratings of at least 50%, Pew reports.

  • Trump’s weekend: The Republican candidate campaigned in the battleground state of Michigan. In Detroit, Trump attacked immigrants in the US illegally in speeches at a Black church and to a group known to attract white supremacists, the AP reports. “The people coming across the border—all those millions of people—they’re inflicting tremendous harm to our Black population and to our Hispanic population,” Trump told the Turning Point Action convention on Saturday night. He also challenged Biden to a cognitive test and brought up his “Person, woman, man, camera, TV” success. Trump praised Rep. Ronny Jackson, a White House physician during his presidency, per the AP, but called him “Johnson.”
  • Biden’s weekend: The Democratic incumbent spent Saturday night raising more than $30 million in fundraiser in Los Angeles after skipping the Ukraine summit in Switzerland. Barack Obama costarred at the Peacock Theater event supported by Hollywood stars such as George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Barbra Streisand, the AP reports. Jimmy Kimmel interviewed the former running mates. When he asked Biden what his proudest accomplishment is, Biden said, “We have the strongest economy in the world today,” adding “we try to give ordinary people an even chance.” When Kimmel asked what the president can do about a TV host who makes fun of him nightly, Biden asked, “Ever hear of Delta Force?”

WE have had some unimpressive candidates before but this time it boils down to a hold your nose vote…..it has been a long time since we have had one of those.

Or is this possibly open the field up for an independent candidate to make some small in-road into this rigged system?

I shall be writing about the hold you nose thing at a later date.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Just What Makes Trump’s Policies Attractive?

I have asked myself that question many times….I cannot see where a normal rational person could find anything Trump has to offer appealing in the least.

But that is just me…..and I do not fall for fear mongering and race baiting.

Now I read an article that could explain this phenom somewhat…..

Today I want to suggest why so many working-class Americans are attracted to a sociopathic liar who advocates neofascism.

IN 2010, A MAJORITY OF THE SUPREME COURT decided in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission that corporations are people under the First Amendment, entitled to freedom of speech. Therefore, said the court, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (commonly referred to as the McCain-Feingold Act), which had limited spending by corporations on political advertisements, violated the Constitution and was no longer the law of the land.

Yet as a practical matter, freedom of speech is the freedom to be heard, and most citizens’ freedom to be heard has been reduced as big corporations with deep pockets get the loudest political voice.

Nowhere did the five members in the majority acknowledge the imbalance of power between ordinary citizens and big corporations able to bribe politicians with campaign donations. In practice, the “freedom of speech” granted by the Supreme Court to big corporations has drowned out the speech of ordinary people — especially those without college degrees who had been losing economic ground for decades.

Nowhere did the five members in the majority acknowledge the imbalance of power between ordinary citizens and big corporations able to bribe politicians with campaign donations. In practice, the “freedom of speech” granted by the Supreme Court to big corporations has drowned out the speech of ordinary people — especially those without college degrees who had been losing economic ground for decades.

There is no countervailing power. By the 2016 campaign cycle, corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 to political campaigns for every $1 donated by labor unions and all public interest organizations combined. (And the richest one-hundredth of 1 percent of Americans accounted for 40 percent of all personal donations.)

Citizens United opened the floodgates to big money, but big money was already polluting American politics. The flow really began in 1971, when future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell wrote a memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urging corporate America to finance a massive lobbying operation in Washington,

WHAT HAVE BIG CORPORATIONS and the ultra-wealthy received for all their money? Among other things:

https://www.rawstory.com/why-so-many-americans-feel-powerless-and-some-are-turning-to-trump-s-neofascism/

Whatcha think?  Is this characterization accurate?

But before you answer….a little something to think about….read it and be amazed.

Donald Trump believes in eugenics. He really does. Of course, his understanding of it is purely based upon his own belief in his superior genes and good “German blood.” He’s said it many times in public:

…

Trump’s out campaigning in earnest now as the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary are just weeks away. And if anyone thought he was going to soft-peddle the “Hitleresque” rhetoric, they were way off base. His basic stump speech is all about banning immigration by those who don’t “share our ideology” (whatever he means by that), and rounding people up here in the U.S. and putting them in camps. He’s not being subtle about who he’s talking about.

…

Trump is always looking for a way to thrill his followers with a new outrage so it’s easy to say he’s just putting on a show. But I think he means it. He’s very bitter and angry at half of America for not loving him unconditionally and his thirst for revenge is overwhelming. It’s not about ideology, it’s personal. But the program that he’s contemplating as his instrument to pay back all those who’ve refused to bow and scrape before him is a full-on fascist agenda. And he knows it (the man watches a lot of TV.) He just believes it will work for him.

https://www.salon.com/2023/12/18/echoes-hitler–and-maga-hears-it-loud-and-clear/

This is a person that has about a 40% approval rating among GOPers.

Are amazed yet?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

America The Beautiful

The other day Sue and I went grocery shopping and parked next to us was a white Jeep (Junk Each and Every Part)….behind the wheel was an old fat white dude and on the bumper were an American flag and a Trump flag…..I thought how disgusting that was for in my mind that is like spitting on the symbol of our country.

That experience got me to thinking about our country and our government…..and yes our democracy.

Democracy is in trouble in the U.S. “Illiberal democracies” exist in Hungary, Poland and elsewhere. Why is democracy dying? How to save it? Harvard Professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that democracies don’t die from outside forces such as coup d’états. “We must prevent it [democracy] from dying within,” they write at the conclusion of How Democracies Die, their comparative analysis of how democracies have died and how to save them. “Since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves,” they warn, with obvious reference to Donald J. Trump and his past and potential future presidency. But what they miss is that “elected governments” were chosen by citizens. Despite all the brouhaha about Trump’s legal difficulties and his attacks on democratic institutions, Trump remains extremely popular among Republicans; he is neck-and-neck with President Biden in a potential 2024 contest.

So while a Democracy can die as a formal political system, democracies die because of a failing civic culture. In that sense, Levitsky and Ziblatt are wrong. Democracies don’t die because of elected governments; it is citizens who choose the elected governments. It is citizens who cause democracies to live or die.

75 million American citizens voted for Trump in 2020, and his popularity continues. Despite indictments – Trump faces 91 criminal charges across four cases – Trump dominates all Republican challengers by widening margins in national polls. A Quinnipiac University poll — conducted after Trump’s Aug. 1 federal indictment but before his indictment in Georgia — had Trump with a 39-point lead over Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis for the Republican nomination. Trump got support from 57% of Republican registered voters, DeSantis 18%. No other Republican candidate got more than 3% in the Quinnipiac poll.

In terms of a 2024 rematch of the 2020 presidential election between Trump and Biden, Trump trailed Biden by one percentage point in the latest Quinnipiac poll, 47 to 46 percent. A one percentage point difference is a small number between a sitting president and someone historically twice impeached and currently facing four major indictments.

As the indictments continue, Trump’s fundraising improves as well. He raised about $12 million in the first three months of this year. Seven days after the first indictment, he raised $13 million. As he quipped after one of his indictments: “I need one more indictment to ensure my election!” he joked.

Democracy, “democracy,” and Trump’s Faithful Followers

I wish I could be optimistic but all I see and read tends to the pessimistic side.

The divisions are looking insurmountable at this time….I know things can change but I think the biases, hatred and no concern for the rule of law will be our undoing.

But that is just me….if you have a different perspective then please share.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Paralysis Of American Politics

This poor country is in the death grip of political paralysis….one side offers ideas for moving the country forward and the other side is pulling the country into the past.

Nothing gets accomplished by our government other words and promises and lies….and it is both sides that play this hideous game….the more we try to move on the more we become stuck in the mud of political paralysis.

There’s an old saying, the more things change, the more they stay the same. But perhaps a more apt description of the modern-day United States might be the more things don’t change, the worse it gets.

That’s certainly true for wealth inequality. The average net worth of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans was 15 times greater in 2022 than it was in 1982, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. Indeed, the richest one percent of Americans now owns more than half of all stock and mutual fund investments.

Meanwhile, the top five executives at the largest S&P 500 U.S. corporations held $8.9 billion in tax-deferred retirement accounts as of 2021. Hyatt Corporation’s chief executive held $91 million in his 401(k), while 36 percent of Hyatt employees had nothing in their accounts. Walmart’s CEO held more than $169 million in his retirement plan. Walmart employees? Nearly half had nothing in their 401(k)s.

That’s the American Dream in digest form, a paradise of wealth for the corporate elite but elusive prosperity for the many millions of working Americans who actually create that wealth. Welcome to the “rich” nation where nearly 25 percent of the population regularly experiences food insecurity, the ranks of reported homeless persons is over half a million, and close to 38 million people live in official poverty.

Along with the growth of poverty, since 2019 life expectancy in the United States has also been on the decline, registering the largest two-year drop in a century. The United States now fares worse in maternal, infant, and youth mortality rates compared to many other high-income nations. The poor public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic, lack of universal health care coverage, and a fragmented health system infrastructure are key factors driving this decline.

The Paralysis of Modern Politics: A Socialist Perspective

We have an election on the horizon and we have a chance to change the backward slide in the past.

Political ignorance will prevent any progress this time around (yet again).

Keep in mind that democracies die because of a failing civic culture.

And do we have a major failure going on!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Is A Conservative?

College of Political Knowledge

Election series

Since we are entering into the 2024 election cycle and so many people are floundering around politically I thought it would be a good idea for people to understand terms that they are throwing about….words like ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’….and that is where I want to pick this up.

Let’s start with those aggravating conservatives….

Let’s dispense with one popular answer to this question, asserted by many American conservatives and liberals alike: that proper conservatives are devoted to “small government” or engaged in protecting “individual liberties” from a big government. These are slogans of today’s Republican Party, but there’s no good argument to believe that the party behind the War on Drugs (Richard Nixon, and later Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and every Republican since), the PATRIOT Act (George W. Bush), the first and second Iraq War (Both Bushes), massive police funding, eliminating the right to abortion, Don’t Say Gay laws, and school book bans is, in any way that makes sense, devoted to “limiting” the power of the government. To make sense of the word “conservative” we have to dig deeper than headlines and slogans.

Like a lot of our political vocabulary — see also: “left” and “right,” — the political meaning of “conservative” came as a result of the French Revolution of 1789, when democratic radicals deposed the monarchy and the aristocracy. Soon after, in 1818, defenders of the French Old Regime founded a pro-monarchy journal, Le Conservateur, that first used “conservative” in the modern, political sense. The magazine listed what it stood for in its first issue: “religion, the King, liberty…and upstanding people.” These were the things under threat from the new society formed after the Revolution.

Modern-day conservatives don’t necessarily want to protect or “conserve” the same things as their 19th-century brethren. (Not too many Americans will admit to being monarchists.) But they do share a fundamental dilemma with their French forebears: Defining yourself in terms of an old order and its enemies makes it difficult to explain the sort of future you want to build. On one hand, conservatives defend tradition and duty; on the other, the definitions of these things shift with every generation. And what good is a tradition if it changes all the time?

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-a-conservative

In short a conservative is a hypocritical slug that uses misinformation and lies to function in government….they champion small government but expand it whenever in power….they spend like a drunken sailor and go to battle over spending…..

Not to worry I will be critiquing ‘liberals’ soon (hint they are not what they seem)….no more Left than your right foot.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Coming Civil War

This may be my only post today for my best friend died yesterday and I need some time to process the loss.

You may think this is a dead topic…..but look around there is still plenty of life left in the old girl.

We all have heard it before that the US is heading for a new civil war thanx to the Orange Man from Florida….actually that is a bit of a bullsh*t piece of rhetoric.

In reality this ‘civil war’ has been brewing for many decades….it got a little closer with the rise of the Tea Party in 2010 and then the shots were fired with the rise of Trump and his minions of sickos.

And now it is here and here to stay for many years until the hatred for others is diminished….and when we start acting like the country we all know we deserve.

This civil war will be fought over political ideology.

There remains an argument that the United States is tragically headed for a second civil war – this one fought over political ideology.

It is seen literally as a war that could be fought between the left and right in this country.  (This is manure!  There is no Left in this country only in the minds of idiots.  All there is is a Right and a moldy old Center.)

“American politics turned hyper toxic several years ago, and ever since commentators have raised the specter of a second civil war. No other historical parallel, it seems, captures so viscerally today’s national division into two hostile camps, each convinced the other poses a mortal threat to the republic,” the Council on Foreign Relations noted in a piece looking at how today is not like the 1850s – the years leading up to the Civil War.

It argued that we are not all that close to the same type of open conflict we witnessed 160 years ago. There are several factors at play that need to be considered.

…

America simply isn’t headed for Civil War because we’re 21st-century Americans. A few hotheads will continue to make trouble – and they should be punished accordingly if they go too far, as they did on January 6, 2021. But an actual American Civil War 2.0 won’t happen because we like our conveniences just too much, while the checks and balances are in place. 

Instead, we are likely to remain in an uncivil war where we just do not like each other all that much. 

A Second American Civil War?

I agree that there will be nothing like our first Civil War….but that does not mean that this one will not be bloody, not in the sense of gunshot wounds but rather in the sense of the loss of rights.

Will you be a spectator or will you be on the front lines to protect and preserve all Americans rights?

Will you sit idly by while group after group loses its way and its privileges?

Will you be a true American can  stand-up for what is right and just?

Will you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Poverty A Political Choice?

I decided to changes things up for today and what better place to start than my state of Mississippi.

An interesting question that made me think about stuff….while the article focused on governmental programs during the pandemic….but the question is still an interesting one.

In case you want to see what made this post possible….

The data is in: Poverty is a political choice

Although this post is not so much about governmental programs but rather about the voter, especially in my state of Mississippi…..

Mississippi is less than a week away from its primaries and most of the GOP candidates are running ahead….but why?

Before I go any further let me share a bit of info about my state….

  • March 2022 unemployment rate: 4.2%
  • Year-over-year change in unemployment Feb. 2021: 2.5%
  • Q4 2021 GDP per capita: $57,769
  • GDP growth Q3 2021-Q4 2021: 5.7%
  • Average weekly wages Sept. 2020: $1,021
  • Percent change in average weekly wages Sept. 2020-Sept. 2021: 5.4%
  • Percent of population below the poverty line in 2020: 16.7%

Economic prosperity and hardship often coincide, even within state borders. For Mississippi, that couldn’t be more true. For instance, the state has seen $1.3 billion of corporate investments in 2022, helping the state add 4,149 new jobs in 2021…..Also, consider that more than one-fifth of the state has no access to broadband internet. Mississippi also has a nearly 17% poverty rate, the highest in the nation.

Mississippi is the least economically healthy state in the Union….its ranking is 100….let me explain that for you non-economically inclined….Index of state economic conditions based on crowded housing, dependency, education, income, poverty and unemployment; normalized values are 1 to 100, with a higher value indicating worse economic conditions.

In 2022, the state of Mississippi has a population of 2,940,184, having declined an annualized -0.3% over the five years to 2022, which ranks it 49th out of all 50 US states by growth rate. Mississippi’s gross state product (GSP) in 2022 reached $104.7b, with growth of 0.6% over the 5 years to 2022. Businesses in Mississippi employed a total of 1,098,569 people in 2022, with average annual employment growth over the past five years of 0.1%.

Then there is the education in the state…there are about 30+ institutions of higher learning but only about 8.5% of the population has a degree in higher learning.  To say the education is of low priority is a gross understatement.

This brings us to my thought…Is poverty a political decision?

My thought is that it is.

2023 is a major voting year for the state of Mississippi and as listed above there are many issues that need to be corrected to move the state forward.

But as usual the major issues for candidates are such non-productive issues as bathrooms, book banning, educational confusion, etc.

The candidates promise that to make the state a better place to live if their visions are put into action….and for 50 years it has been the same and for 50 years the state of Mississippi remains backwards and uneducated.

In less than a week the voter will once again vote of issues that nothing to do with their ascent into poverty….they pretend that banning books will save the state or that a fixation on bathrooms will somehow equate to better pay and they will vote for the loudest mouth and in doing so will remain at the bottom of an economic success.

What will it take to wake up the voter?  Apparently poverty will not do for they vote for it on every occasion.

Sad for the state has great potential but no one wants it to succeed.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”