SO confused by today's politics... explain?
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Anonymous
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Sorry if my post is ignorant. Not originally from this country but have lived her many years. I try to follow the debates etc but end up feeling so confused and blanking out. In a nutshell... can you explain the major points of the Romney/ Santorum/ Obama debate? And can you explain/ expand on the following?:
- budgets... fiscally conservative vs ...? - which media is generally conservative and which are going to be liberal? - what is the status of the health care reform? what works and what does not? - what is obama have to do with gas prices? - what is the GOP exactly? What do they do and how to the effect money? anything else basic I should know? Thanks. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
Nobody is fiscally conservative. Each party has its pet causes. The Republicans, AKA Grand ol' Party or GOP, say they are, but they aren't. Most American media are bad - very shallow with lazy reporting. CNN is fairly balanced. FOX is conservative op/Ed. MSNBC is liberal op/Ed. Obama care has had a couple of provisions become effective, like keeping your kids covered until age 26. The rest goes into effect in 2014. No president, including Obama, has any impact on gas prices. It's market driven and caused mostly by huge growth in China. |
jsteele
Site Admin Online
Site Admin Online
Don't worry, most of this stuff is confusing for Americans as well. There are two issue that really make things confusing: 1) Obama is routinely called a socialist although he is governing in the manner of a moderate Republican. 2) You have to differentiate between campaign rhetoric and the likely policies a candidate would actually implement. Because the Republican base fully believes that Obama is a socialist, the Republican candidates have had to assume that position. This has been very bad for Mitt Romney, because in the past his positions have been very similar to Obama's. So, he has to criticize Obama while simultaneously defend his own past policies. The most obvious of these is health care. Romney implemented plan almost exactly like Obama's when he was the governor of Massachusetts. Now, Romney calls Obama's plan socialist. Originally, the Republican plan was to attack Obama on the state of the economy and blame it on his socialist policies. Now that the economy seems to be improving, that plan is collapsing. This created an opening for Santorum who is basing his campaign on social issues such as opposing abortion. So, basically, you have Obama who is a Democrat governing like a Republican, Romney who has been a moderate Republican who is now campaigning as a conservative Republican, and Santorum who has generally been a conservative Republican is not emphasizing the conservative social values. Regarding the media, I'll stick to television. Fox is conservative, Current TV is liberal. MSNBC has some liberal programming and some conservative programming. The so-called "mainstream media" such as CBS, NBC, and ABC are considered to be conservative by liberals and liberal by conservatives. This might make you think that they are in the middle, but its more complicated than that. They are very pro-establishment in the larger sense of that word (meaning financial, business, and political establishments). On foreign policy issues, the mainstream media will normally be fully aligned with the government, whether a Democrat or Republican is in power. Of course, there are always specific exceptions, but I'm generalizing. The healthcare reform law -- so-called Obamacare, is being implemented over a period of years (I believe 7 years). So far, very few parts of it are in force. One aspect that has been implemented is the ability for children to stay on their parent's insurance longer. It would take pages to explain all that is covered by the reforms. But a few basic facts are that it is similar to Romney's plan and it is also similar to a plan proposed by Bob Dole (former Republican leader of the Senate and Republican Presidential candidate). It is clearly a Republican plan and the left of the Democratic part opposed it. The most controversial part is the "individual mandate" that requires individuals to buy health insurance or else be assessed a fine. The reason for this mandate is to prevent people from avoiding insurance, but then signing up once they become sick. That would not be a sustainable business model for the insurance companies. As always seems to be the case, critics call this socialism although it actually forces us to become customers of private companies. So, it is really the opposite of socialism. Obama has little to do with short and medium term gas prices. However, whoever is president when gas prices rise always gets the blame. Republicans will say prices are going up because Obama has not allowed more drilling, but drilling it actually at a longtime high. Obama can release fuel from the strategic reserve which should lower prices a bit. Also, Obama's foreign policy decisions can affect gas prices. For instance, the embargo against Iran has reduced the world petroleum supply which impacts the price we pay even though the US doesn't important Iranian oil. A war with Iran would cause gas prices to hit record levels. The GOP is the Grand Old Party which is a nickname for the Republicans. Republicans traditionally came in several sizes and shapes including libertarians who believe in very limited government, conservatives who are nearly isolationist in their foreign policies, neo-conservatives who are very aggressive in foreign policy, social conservatives who are generally very religious and emphasize social issues, and moderates which generally don't exist anymore. Just about the only thing Republicans can agree on is that if Obama likes it, they oppose it. They support limited government when it comes to business or their own wallets, but support big government when it comes to your bedroom. They oppose government involvement in healthcare, except women's reproductive healthcare in which case they support more government involvement. The only thing you really have to know is that regardless of party, corporate interests generally dominate. So, no matter who wins, it will be good for Wall Street. |
Anonymous
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Jeff, this is a brilliant summary.
The only thing I would add is that Republicans support limited government when it comes to regulations, but love big government subsidies for large and powerful business interests, especially those that sell to the military (hence their desire to always beef up military spending). |
Anonymous
Make that business regulations. |
Anonymous
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Democrat party = blacks, feminists, gays and their activists, plus some superelite whites who get favors.
Republican party = everyone else. |
Anonymous
| Great summary Jeff and 23:39 ITA with your additional point. |
Anonymous
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ignore 00:17. ignorant, post-midnight posting.
Moderate Republicans are now independents, as the ultra-right wing takeover of the Republican party has squeezed out anyone who is NOT socially conservative, yet is fiscally conservative, and believes in smaller government. The Tea Party is a fringe group that for some incomprehensible reason has been given an inordinate amount of power to speak for the Republican party. Rick Santorum has risen because the Republicans have a terrible leading candidate that no one likes -- Mitt Romney. Santorum represents a protest vote by socially conservative Republicans, but Romney will be the candidate. Ultimately, unless something dreadful happens with the European economy or gas prices spike, it's likely Obama is going to win. Romney is hated by the right-wing of the Republican party because he's seen as too moderate, and he's hated by just about everyone else because he has a stiff, unlikeable personality and is completely out of touch with the trials and tribulations of the average American. As my mother told me, "Don't believe everything you read in the newspaper." Apply that to all media. There are no clear liberal and conservative newspapers/media as there are in the U.K. and perhaps other European countries. Here, it's all a mish-mosh because TV news is entertainment, mostly. View every news outlet with skepticism, and try to get news from a variety of sources. |
Anonymous
As the above message implies, the GOP battle plan includes targeting any available minority and using these attacks to energize their "base" (the impressionable, jealous group that remains). They have a problem with Hispanic voters, because they can't quite figure out whether they are a minority to target, or a group susceptible to being recruited. I'm not sure whether their problem is that the Republicans themselves can't agree on where to put them or that they think they can do both at different times and places. |
Anonymous
Don't forget Hispanics, young people, anyone pro-choice, most other minorities, immigrants, Jews, 2/3 of Asians, half of Catholics. THEN you split the remainder and THEN you get everyone else. |
Anonymous
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OP you also need to be mindful of the role of religion in politics. Generally, the Republican party is a Christian party and aligns with Christian "values" and the Christian leanings of their supporters. Unfortunately there is (IMHO) a disconnect between what Jesus Christ actually espoused (love thy neighbor, feed the hungry, heal the sick, ya know, all that liberal clap trap) and the interpretation of Christianity by today's conservatives. Today's Christians seem less worried about what Christ did and said and are more obsessed with sex - who should be doing it and how and under what conditions, and who should not. So they don't like homosexuals, oppose gay marriage, oppose abortion, oppose birth control, and equate women who have sex outside of their narrow rules with "sluts" and "prostitutes". Meanwhile they are just as naughty in real life when it comes to illicit sex as anybody else....
The other thing today's conservatives are obsessed about is money. Their money. Specifically, whether they pay too much in taxes compared to other Americans. They feel outraged that they have to pay say, $100,000.00!!! in taxes!!! and are left to have to find a way to make ends meet on only the reamining $400k they keep. Why isn't that recent immigrant who does not speak much English and is making minimum wage at McDonalds paying (income) taxes???? That sort of thing. Never mind what Jesus said about the rich man getting into heaven.... Also Republicans don't like Jews. But they like Arabs and Muslims even less. So they are pro-Israel because it gives us a friend in the middle of Oil Central. Liberals try to like Jews AND muslims AND Arabs so it's more difficult for us to be black and white about the Arab-Israeli conflict. We see that there has been bad behavior on all sides. Israel is not just some innocent victim or acting solely in self defense. Conservatives are very pro "freedom of religion". But ask them to tell you how they feel when they see a woman in a hijab. The revulsion, disgust, and anger are astonishing. Conservatives would love to outlaw it. I'm a feminist and I don't much care for patriarchal religions that make women behave differently from males in any way, including veiling. But as a liberal, my personal feelings are irrelevant. In my world, we don't tell women what to wear, or not wear. Bikini today, burgua tomorrow - it is MY choice and screw you if you don't like it. What a conservative really means by freedom of religion is freedom to continue to have Christianity as a pseudo-official state religion. Cuz that, they say, is how the founding fathers wanted it. If you do some reading about the founding fathers, however, you will find many of them distrusted organized religion. To summarize, conservatives to me represent the soul of American hypocrisy. A nation founded on the marriage of liberty and slavery. Conservativism finds ways to justify, explain and even codify why some people are less. Less deserving of rights, of money, of self determination, of citizenship, even of the right to vote, and other people - usually WASPS - are the Real Americans. |
Anonymous
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OP, watch this and then let us know if you have any questions.
http://wonkette.com/467470/santorum-accepts-blessing-after-pastor-tells-all-buddhists-muslims-to-git-outta-us#more-467470 |
Anonymous
I'm amazed that anyone can stand up in public -- and be cheered -- for such ignorance. The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was named Jesus Christ?? Does he not know the difference between the Old and New Testaments? Does he not know enough about other religions to realize that people do not think Mohammed and Buddha were gods? Does he not know that "Allah" is Arabic for "The One God", the God of Abraham, whom they call Ibrahim? And does he not know that everyone IS free to pray in public space, in churches and even stadiums, or sitting silently in their classrooms for that matter? I suppose his ignorance of religion is none of my business, but when he shreds the First Amendment and calls for the installation of Christ as God of our Nation, and a candidate for President stands before him and acquiesces, I think this goes beyond Barack Obama continuing (for a while) to be a member of a Church whose pastor has some questionable political views. This is about Santorum's understanding of the establishment clause of our Bill of Rights. |