Yes, you should definitely arrange for your intervention. Tell them that you're hopelessly addicted to right wing media, to the point that you find it impossible to think for yourself.
Society's most irresponsible are choosing our leaders and unqualified individuals such as Obama are elected as a result. Is it any surprise that our foreign policy is in tatters and the country has no honest, upstanding leadership? Deceit is all they have left... What the 2012 Election would have looked like if ONLY law-abiding, tax-paying citizens voted
What an idiotic, classist post. Don't forget the first 140 years where no-one paid income taxes in this country, or the near 100% of adults now who pay sales taxes every damn day.
What's odd is that you are saying only payers of the Federal income tax are qualified. I don't think that's what makes someone qualified at all. Mitt Romney is has had years where he didn't pay any income tax is probably qualified to vote even though I disagree with him on a lot. Also our foreign policy is far from being in tatters.
While I agree with rimrocker that the partisan divide nationally is worse than I've ever seen it, including during Vietnam, I don't "hate" anyone here. I don't hate Trader_J (who's lurking), or his twin brother, bigtexxx. I don't hate a couple of far-right folks I now have on ignore, like basso and treeman. They're on ignore due to treating this forum like a joke and a playground (basso), and using inexcusable language directed at many of us here simply because we disagree with him (treeman), although in treeman's case, that isn't why he's on ignore. He's on ignore because of his bigotry towards the LGBT community. Treeman can say whatever crap he wishes to me and I recognize the crap for what it is, crap. Display your bigotry for all to see, and you are going on my ignore list, whoever you are. There are people here I like who aren't liked by a lot of others (you know who you are). Nationally? It's a whole different story. The GOP has been taken over by extremists, much to the dismay of almost every Republican I know personally. The Democratic Party, my party, has the usual weak leadership in Congress, and the President hasn't bowled me over on a lot of issues, and I voted for him twice. Why? Because he was, and remains, far better than the Republican alternatives. The radical Roberts Court has opened the floodgates for the 1% to essentially buy this country, an abomination. That's why it matters who gets elected president, folks. When some of you whine here about the two parties "...being the same. It doesn't matter who's in charge, they both suck. That's why I don't vote for the assholes!" You also know who you are, and with all due respect, you are idiots. Have a nice day, people.
Why is it that, in your reality, the only people who would be allowed to vote would be income tax payers? You do realize that every single person in America is a "taxpayer," right?
There's a federal payroll tax, every single person who works legitimately (and many illegals, too) pays those taxes. Why don't they count as "taxpayers" in your mind?
People aren't "political" because they are interested and invested in this country's future, they use politics as an excuse to help balance their "shortcommings" and their indoctrinated hate and fear. Example: D&D - all of the acting out, aggressiveness (only over internet, NOT in person), hyper one-sided opinions, trolling - all 100% from being just so incomprehensibly scared/frightened of the world around them. Education is the key but they hate that too.
And look what they accomplished when they were working together. We'd be in better shape today if Congress had been in a 30 year gridlock. Maybe if that had occurred, you'd see state governments picking up the slack, or you'd actually see grand political movements. The irony of the entire thing is that its just the appearance of gridlock. You should watch CSpan and see how much crap gets pushed through Congress without debate and with bi-partisan support.
When Obama ran, he was perceived to be the lefter leaning candidate over Hillary. We were all fooled by that. Makes me wonder what would happen if there were similar radical sentiments on the Dem side by attacking the primaries rather than the general. Would Obama be a better liberal than other Democrat candidates? He's probably in the middle (at least is isn't right of center...) among the stack of legitimate national contenders.
If Democrats had a stronger hold on Congress, with control of both houses by comfortable margins, it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see something of a "revolt" within the Democratic Party from the Left. As things stand now, everyone with any sense is stepping back from rocking the boat. We need a united front, as united as Democrats ever get, anyway. Let the Republican Party rip itself apart. The "tea party" is busy doing just that. Oh, and I love you too, KC! :-D-
Gerrymandering is a science for both sides of the aisle. I doubt the Dems get the house back any time soon, especially if we're headed for another slump in the next 2-3 years from economic troubles abroad.
The two-party system is doomed to failure IMO. Honestly, a pluralist government and parliament is my preferred form of government. You have a congress composed of multiple parties and seats are given out based on what percentage of the vote that party obtained. This "winner-take-all" general election divide is designed to split the country..it's sickening.
Or it could be that parliaments actually end up splitting the country, because now everyone can form their own tiny party which doesn't need to answer to the majority of the country and just needs to appeal to a small faction. When was this? When Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich were trying to kill each other? Or perhaps it was during the Reagan years, when Reagan was held as something short of the Antichrist with his warmongering and new economic plans? Or perhaps it was under Tricky Dick, who as we know was a fair and honest man who was beloved by the Left? Oh, there's no denying that partisanship has been worse than ever. I blame a great deal of things, particularly the Internet and as one of my preferred columnists noted, the decline of social clubs. But there's a lot of nostalgia for the good old days which wasn't as good as people think it was.
