Don't Believe GOP Will Pay Price For Cutting Everything. Too Many Americans Support Their Agenda

[TheMastersNemesis]

I just believe that the public does not really care about all the cuts because so many think it does not effect them personally. When I look at what happened with our Colorado recalls I saw an America I no longer care about. Most people are just too self absorbed to really give a shit about their neighbor in so many ways.

I looked at the people signing the recall and they are of the same ilk that says let them starve. And they had a lot of supporters. The vast majority of voters passing by the recall sites had no idea what was going on an did not really care. And the recall supporters were a bunch of hateful, nasty, snarky and mean bigots who called the police every time they thought someone even sneezed that might even be illegal. Yet they violated every rule possible to get their signatures.

We have become a very ugly nation and there is nothing left to be proud of. When even vets support people who cut their own benefits they something is terribly wrong somewhere.

I am hardly optimistic for the the future. And I am thoroughly disgusted.

The GOP will still win elections and gain support no matter how many people they actually kill with their policies.

[kelliekat44]

1. I think you are a wise and thoughtful person. Positive action is our only solution.

The GOP base is a delusional, ill-informed, bigoted...and where possible...fascist mob of festering rage, blinded by their own hate of others. And not understanding that most of them are included in the "others."

[Laelth]

2. Along those lines ...

I read this in my local paper last week:

Military retirement

I am severely ticked. I am a military retired enlisted man, and the budget deal that will cut my retirement is the reason. Several years ago, the Department of Defense determined that it was unfair that all cost-of-living increases went into our base pay and none into our housing and subsistence allowances. So Congress in its finite wisdom determined to spread the cost of living increases over all three categories. The result was to cut military retirement as it is based solely on base pay. Now, does that sound fair?

By the way, all military who retired prior to Jan. 1, 1984, are paid from the Treasury Department, not the Department of Defense. When that action occurred, the amount needed to fund those retirements was $530 billion to $540 billion short of necessary funds to pay the retirements. Sound familiar? Think Social Security. Also, another item where military retirees are singled out for special treatment is the fact that a retiree cannot draw unemployment. Does that sound fair?

Those of us who have served years away from our families and/or in combat zones deserve a heck of a lot better than the treatment we receive from Congress and the commander-in-chief.

Of course, Congress could try the same budget gimmick on Civil Service Retirement System beneficiaries but won’t because they have a union and we know the White House loves unions.

-- David E Wittenberg, MSGT, USAF (ret.)

http://www.macon.com/2013/12/23/2846532/this-is-viewpoints-for-monday.html#storylink=cpy (no more at link)

This person blames the Democratic Party for budget cuts demanded by the party he actually supports--the one that thinks the deficit and the national debt are the most serious concerns facing our nation at the moment. With this level of ignorance, what can be done?



-Laelth

[loudsue]

7. And the blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of right wing media propaganda

We have to do something about laws that allow the kind of free speech that is tearing this country apart with the propaganda. Now the supreme court has ruled that media don't have to air ads they don't like. So any hard-hitting dem ads are probably going to get nixed.

[Laelth]

9. Our 1st Amendment is both a blessing and a curse.

The success of right-wing radio is directly attributable to our tolerance of lying. What to do about this is another question.



-Laelth

[12AngryBorneoWildmen]

14. Completely agree.

There no longer is shame or consequence to lying.

[loudsue]

29. We don't tolerate lying, Laelth...the supreme court ruled in favor of it

Fox news was taken to court for lying, and the supreme court said they could lie with impunity because they are AN ENTERTAINMENT company. So NOWHERE are their listeners being told this on a regular basis, so they continue to BELIEVE this is real news.

That simple ruling has gone further to destroy our democracy than all the Citizens United cases combined, imho.

[Laelth]

33. Um ... I'm confused.

When I say "we," I mean "We the People of the United States," i.e. the Federal Government of the United States, of which the Supreme Court is a co-equal branch. So, when I say "we" tolerate lying, and "we" do, I am saying that the SCOTUS has ruled that, because of our 1st Amendment, most lying is O.K.

On that we do not disagree, do we?



-Laelth

[loudsue]

34. No. No disagreement there. And lying should certainly be tolerated.

It also needs to be labeled as such when it is under the heading of "news".

[Laelth]

38. I fully agree that some truth in advertising is in order re. Faux News. n/t

-Laelth

[tritsofme]

21. I don't want the government to "do" anything about free speech

It is a scary way of thinking.

[SCVDem]

25. You have free speech

It just can't be anti government lies and other treasonous propaganda meant to overthrow society any longer.

The lack of balance means changes for the betterment of society is needed.

Anti establishment diatribes must still be allowed.

They just can't be full of shit! Fox, Beck, Limbaugh and their ilk live by the lie and distortion.

Is America better off for it?

[tritsofme]

28. Who shall you have serve as arbirter of good speech and illegal speech?

And what will be the punishment for such a talkcrime?

Perhaps in the next GOP administration, they will let Rush Limbaugh decide.

This authoritarian impulse to ban speech as opposed to countering it, is very scary. Authoritarians are cowards.

[loudsue]

30. Allowing a "news" station to deliberately tell lies is a type of free speech that needs to be

labeled for what it is. Otherwise it is government approved deception and propaganda.

[tritsofme]

31. Since it is not banned, it is "government approved"?

Strange way to look at it.

You cannot approve what the First Amendment forbids you to ban. The First Amendment has and will continue to frustrate authoritarians, for all of our better.

[loudsue]

32. Labeling is not authoritarianism....it's common sense and educational.

And for our language, the word "news" carries certain definitions, and it carries the weight of truth in our society. When it is NOT truth, it needs to be labeled as such.

[tritsofme]

35. Labeled by whom?

The government doesn't keep a list of approved news organizations.

[loudsue]

37. Labeled .... you mean like food, drugs, and other stuff that is labeled?

Yes. Labeled by law as to what it contains. If it is "art" or "entertainment", it needs to be labeled as such, whenever it is to be "consumed" by the public.

[tritsofme]

39. The idea that the press must submit to government approval is very foreign and scary to me.

I hope you enjoy life under the "labeling" regime of the next GOP administration

[loudsue]

42. That is alarmist bullshit. A careful twist of concepts does not negate the point I have made.

Where did I, or anyone else, say that the press should submit to government "approval"??? You're making shit up whole cloth.

[tritsofme]

43. I'm not sure which point that was.

There would obviously be a chilling effect on press freedom if the government is official arbiter of legitimate news.

[loudsue]

36. I don't think so. I think labeling the lies when they come under the heading of "news" is

very similar in restricting "free speech" when you label food as "organic" and it isn't. The public should be entitled to make honest decisions, and under the current media monopoly environment, they cannot do that. When the supreme court ruled fox news could lie because they are an entertainment company, they legalized deception and false advertising of their network as "news". The public should have the right to know.

[tiredtoo]

3. Get over your disgust

This country has been going to the greedy right for 40 years. we have stopped the drift, we must turn it around. Working together we can do this. We have a mighty task with the msm and the big money fighting daily against us. But we can do it by joining groups, going to meetings and working with our friends and neighbors to get out the vote. vote and support progressive candidates everywhere. It can and will be done.

[SunSeeker]

24. Exactly. If everyone had that defeatist attitude, we would not have won the White House.

Throwing in the towel is exactly what Republicans and the 1% would like progressives to do. Time and numbers are on our side. We should not despair. We should mobilize.

[BlueCaliDem]

4. Well-funded propaganda via expertly executed psy-ops on the American people, works.

Have you noticed that the only demographics unaffected by Corporate Media's propaganda, paid for by the likes of the Koch Bros' to always promote the GOP, are Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and 18-29 year olds? And those are the demographics that always, by a huge margin, vote Democratic Party?

Why is that?

Well, my theory is, they aren't consumers of American "news" and therefore aren't influenced by carefully crafted propaganda posing as news. These demographics have their own cable and broadcast channels, bloggers, and print news sources and are immunized against Libertarian billionaires' bought and paid for b.s. that the rest of the country is being inundated with.

[Savannahmann]

5. The problem is that the Repukes are running on something

While our re-election/election campaigns are based upon the idea that we aren't them.

I mentioned in another thread, the idea of core beliefs. So the Repukes who fight to shut the government down appear to the people who get their news on the top of the hour as they are driving to work, or from the normal news networks, and don't bother to read the Huff Post or Daily Kos or any other alternative site, takes what from the story? The Repukes are fighting for what they believe in. The Repukes are fighting for something.

Then the Repukes fold, we celebrate, and announce that the Repukes are dead. NBC/CBS/ABC and the local affiliates all run the pieces that the Repukes folded and this is a big win for President Obama.

Then the budget goes through. Remember, the last the average blue collar guy heard about it was that the Repukes folded like a house of cards. So this must be a Democratic Party Budget. One the Repukes just signed off on as part of their abject defeat a few months ago.

So the Democrats who are rumored to hate the Military, are cutting the retirement of the Military. The Repukes win, and we lose. Because nobody thinks that the Repukes had anything to do with the budget, because we won. The news said it, it must be true. How can the Republicans be in any way responsible? They were utterly defeated, gave up and just gave President Obama what he wanted.

Take any issue the Repukes have fought for, and lost the battle on. Democrats own the issue from then on. Many here and now in Washington keep trying to point out that many of the problems with the ACA is the states that are not participating. But those states are run by Republicans, and Republicans fought, and lost the effort to stop it. So the Democrats have what they want, and this is what they want. That is the perception by the average individual out there. This is what the Democrats wanted.

Now, I mentioned Core Beliefs above. Democrats should be coming out in January with a set of core beliefs that the party endorses. Publicize them, mention them with every issue that comes up to a question. But it will never happen, because the only core belief that the Democrats are publicly united on is that they're in favor of Democrats winning, and opposed to the Democrats losing. That isn't something the American People, the average voter, can get behind. So instead, go with the people who are at least in favor of something, even if it isn't perfect.

[Nay]

41. What a lucid way to put it, Savannahman. This is indeed a huge part of the

problem. Democrats in power (except for Warren, Sanders, etc.) do not emphasize Dems' historical core beliefs, either because 1) they no longer believe them and want to hide that fact, or 2) they feel those beliefs would make them unelectable. Now, if people rally behind leaders like Warren and Sanders, but the Dems in power do not follow, we will know that #1 is true. What we do after that is anyone's guess.

Shit like this used to end with beheadings. There's no telling what will happen next time.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. Such a vivid -- and poisonous -- imagination

[raging moderate]

8. We need to marshall our facts. And print them and deliver them.

I have briefly visited a few of those yahoo-type letters threads. I noticed that some writers were hawking Mitt Romney's lie that gasoline was below $2.00 per gallon during the Bush presidency but was raised to $4.00 by Obama's policies. I noticed something about myself: I do not have a clear memory of gas prices for the past 20 years, or for the past 10 years, or even for the past 6 years. I need to find an accurate chart. Also for statistics related to health insurance. And ditto for the unemployment rate, the union/nonunion job rate compared to the US job losses, the poverty rate, and the rate of people on genuine welfare. I vaguely remember that welfare eligibility was given a five-year lifetime limit. Or something. Lies are being spread, and we need to counter these lies. And do a better job of implementing the laws we have been able to enact. And, yes, a better job of articulating our vision.

[SCVDem]

26. Thinking Of Ross Perot and his charts. nm

[lostincalifornia]

10. hhmm.have you been listening to the MSM? it is the same mantra they preach

Day in day out

Perhaps you are correct, however, our illustrious analysts told us we would lose the last election, the ACA would be ruled unconstitutional, and so many other things that have failed to come to pass, I have become quite skeptical of their prognostic abilities

Very few of them predicted the stock market crash and economic implosion, and after it happened, very few of them predicted the market would be at record highs and the economy very slowly improving

They have quite a record

Following their advice we will lose the Senate in the midterm

I wouldn't bet on that advice

[Coyotl]

11. I, for one, am not championing the GOP. n/t

[SoapBox]

12. Absolutely agree.

A LOT of America has become selfish and stupid.

Thanks to the PukeBaggers, radical religious types, hate radio, FuksNews, etc.

[world wide wally]

13. Unfortunately, the OP is absolutely right. I live in Colorado and saw the same thing.

I have been shopping for a new country, and so far New Zealand seems to be gaining the edge.

[mountain grammy]

22. I'm still liking Nova Scotia. Really don't mind the cold

since we're now living above 8000 feet and it's plenty cold.

[KG]

15. contextually, americans are the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet.

[valerief]

17. Praise the Lord!

[valerief]

16. It used to be: You are what you eat. Now, it's: You are what your media purveys. nt

[billh58]

18. +100

The GOP is a master at manipulating single-issue voters, as evidenced by the Colorado recalls.

[edhopper]

20. The Colorado recalls won

because people stayed home. Very, very low turn out. Too lazy to stop Democracy from being yanked from them.

But that supports the OPs point.

America is full of dumb fucks.

[hatrack]

19. As long as the GOP can clearly point to who "Real Americans" should hate . . .

. . . they'll always have some supporters. The only question is how many.

[mountain grammy]

23. While I know you're correct, I still think more people are paying attention.

Even the pope is talking about income inequality and making waves doing it.

[Teamster Jeff]

27. K&R

This country needs an opposition party to counter RW policies and ideas.

[napkinz]

40. voting against one's own interests ...

[Cha]

44. So pathetically sad, napkinz

I ain't giving up though!