Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Michael Hopcroft]

Portland is getting ready for some massive protests today -- the city is blue-state as blue-state can be and about 30,000 people are planning to take to the streets. It'll do horrible things to traffic, but that's rather the point of a protest. The Mayor has said he wants the marchers to stay off the freeways and light-rail tracks, and the local public transit has a plan to stop buses from going downtown at all if things get out of hand.

 

Part of me wants to join them.

[DasBroot]

I was joking with my wife (a very religious black Baptist from a long, long line of such) about how the oath of office would go:

 

Me: "I'm waiting for him to burst into flames when he places his hand on the bible."

Her (as Trump): "Can I just hover over it? I'm a hoverer, ok? I like to hover."

Me: "Repeat after me: I, Donald J Trump, do solemnly swear...."

Her: "Hold on, hold on: Before we begin ... I have this legal document that states our definition of the term 'solemnly swear' in the context of this contract..."

[Pariah]

This is the first of two rather verbose posts today. Sorry.

--

 

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is performing at today's Presidential inauguration. There are people who have criticized the Choir for accepting the invitation to perform. I can understand the sentiment, but I feel perhaps these people don't understand what the Choir does or what its mission is.

 

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform between the Vice Presidential and Presidential oaths of office. They will perform one number, "America the Beautiful". The performance will, of course, be beautiful, powerful, and executed with technical brilliance, because that's the only way the Choir does it. Many people will be moved by the Tabernacle Choir's performance today. For some people, this song will be the only happy or hopeful memory they'll have of this day.

 

That is why the Choir is performing today: not to endorse President Trump or the Republican Party, but to endorse America. To remind the President and the American people that this nation is, in fact, good and great and beautiful. To honor those who more than self their country love, and to encourage us all to a greater love of mercy. To recall to our minds that American dream yet undimmed by human tears. And to encourage us all to beat a thoroughfare of freedom across our contemporary wilderness.

 

What better message could this administration--and this nation--hear right now? And who is better suited to the delivery of this message than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

 

So if you feel the need to demean, disparage, or boycott the Mormon Tabernacle Choir today, do your thing. But as for me, I'll be playing their music loud and proud all day long.

[Old Man]

I have never bothered to watch a presidential inauguration and I sure as hell won't start with this one.

[Pariah]

I celebrated today’s inauguration of President Donald Trump by changing my voter registration from Republican to Libertarian.

 

I first registered to vote when I turned 18, back in the Reagan administration. I've been a registered (if not always enthusiastic) Republican my entire adult life. I haven't always agreed with the policies and positions of the Party, but I always felt that the Republican Presidents (or Presidential nominees) and other Party leaders were basically good people who genuinely wanted what was best for the nation.

 

But I don't feel that way about the current Republican leadership. In the last few weeks, Republican leaders in Congress and elsewhere have demonstrated an astounding recklessness in their actions. Their first act in Congress was to try to abolish the independent ethics panel that oversees them.  Who decided that was a good idea? They want to tear down the Affordable Care Act--which, almost without exception, they refer to derisively as ‘Obamacare’--and replace it, eventually, it with something else. But nobody seems to know what that is.  Oh, sure, I’ve heard people talk about about ‘Health Savings Accounts’.  I suppose they’re okay, if you’ve got so much money that you don’t need insurance anyway. At this point, even I am starting to think Canada’s single-payer system looks pretty good.

 

And as for President Trump?  He’s even more disturbing. He has no background and no experiences to prepare him for this job--no legal, military, government, or public service experience whatsoever. Worse, his temperament and personality make him entirely unsuited to the position. He’s erratic, combative, and unprincipled. He gets in Twitter fights with people who criticize him. He can’t be told ‘No’, because as far as I can tell, he doesn’t consider himself answerable or accountable to anybody.  His lack of concern for possible Russian interference in our country’s affairs is astonishing. Didn’t Republicans used to want to fight the Russians? And his choices for Cabinet? Incomprehensible. He says he wants to ‘drain the swamp’--but he keeps nominating tycoons and insiders. And not even tycoons and insiders that make sense. He wants a brain surgeon in charge of Housing and Urban Development, an enemy of public education in charge of the Education Department, and a Wall Street executive as Secretary of State. To be fair, I suppose it’s fitting that his nominees are as inexperienced and unqualified as he is.

 

So no, I don’t feel like the Republican Party is where I belong at this point in time.

 

But fear not, my friends. My decision to change my registration to Libertarian doesn't indicate a seismic personality shift on my part. I haven’t become a soulless Objectivist automaton or dope-smoking hippie. In reality, my political party membership is less important to me on a daily basis than, say, making sure I leave the house in the morning with socks that match--something I do worry about (and accomplish) pretty much every day. Labels don't mean that much to me, and political party affiliation isn't even in the top ten of how I self-identify.

 

Changing my voter registration to Libertarian means mostly that I've grown tired of the two-party chicanery our nation has endured for the last twenty years or so. Looking back, I don't feel that my political positions have changed that much. Perhaps the years have made me more moderate in those positions (and likely more cynical), but I have pretty much the same ideas about government that I've always had: that government exists solely to protect the rights, safety, and freedom of its citizens; that government must represent the interests of all its citizens, not just those belonging to the Party currently in power; and most importantly, that government operates by consent of the governed. 

 

I don't think either major political party, Democratic or Republican, operates that way any more (if either or both ever did). Both Parties are more like mega-corporations now, completely amoral and bereft of any genuine concern for the common people in their power-driven chase for ever-increasing market share. We're no longer people that they represent; we're consumers, targets of their greedy and self-promulgating marketing schemes. “Blind men [and women] in the market,” as Rush says, “buying what we're sold.”

 

Well, I'm not buying any more. Not now, anyway.

 

I already know that I won't remain a registered Libertarian indefinitely. When the next round of caucuses and primary elections rolls around, I'll change my registration back to Republican in order to participate. Utah is so heavily Republican that the primaries are where most elections are really decided, and the G.O.P. holds closed primaries. So I'll hold my nose and switch back, because it's what I'll have to do to have a voice. And then, in all likelihood, I'll switch back to Libertarian again. Or maybe, two years from now, there will be another option. I doubt it, but maybe. No need to worry about that just now, I suppose.

 

But for now, I'm no longer a Republican. The G.O.P. won't miss me (and my one vote) or even notice that I'm gone.  And that's okay. The Libertarians will likely be excited to have another name on their roster. If the helps the get more third-party involvement in future elections, then I’m glad to do it. 

 

But mostly, I just can't be a Republican right now.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Thank God people can stop using that lame PEOTUS acronym.

[death tribble]

I would have thought that POETUS would be the same in America as Poet Laureate is in Britain

[Lord Liaden]

Now I can't get "POTUS Interruptus" out of my mind.

[death tribble]

One thing I did not understand from Trump's speech. What exactly does 

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them  mean ?

[megaplayboy]

I was impressed by the rhetoric about God being with us and wanting one people, one country, one leader.*

 

 

 

 

 

--*Technically it's not Godwin's law if the poster is invoking it for himself.

[Starlord]

One thing I did not understand from Trump's speech. What exactly does 

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them  mean ?

 

Just keep listening, precious.

[Iuz the Evil]

I was impressed by the rhetoric about God being with us and wanting one people, one country, one leader.*

 

 

 

 

 

--*Technically it's not Godwin's law if the poster is invoking it for himself.

So, national youth movement to unify us? Maybe with a monochrome colored shirt so they can be readily identified?

 

Gott mit uns.

[Badger]

Apart from the MSNBC hysterics in invoking a certain WW2 movement (I am calling them out that they knew better, and knew exactly that wasn't what was intended) I really don't understand why putting your own country first is evil.  Wanna bet every other country on the face of the Earth does the same thing in one form or another.  (We can argue about certain dictators put themselves first, which in their own minds, they are the country.  But, I will trust everyone here can follow my point)

[Lord Liaden]

I think it's the specifics of how Trump has suggested that will manifest that are particularly alarming: trade relations, military alliances, economic vs environmental concerns. In our interconnected world, for a country as impactful as the United States these things have profound global implications. What Trump is signaling would be a major shift from decades of American policy, which will cause much international turmoil. And of course, protectionism and isolationism cuts both ways. If the United States increasingly goes its own way regarding other countries, you can expect other countries to go their own way in relation to the United States.

[Tom]

If Trump (and supporters) want us to step away from the international table, I'm sure there are at least two countries that would be more than happy to take our seat.

 

That should work out well for us...

[death tribble]

With Trump now in charge is ths how other people around the world feel ?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Apart from the MSNBC hysterics in invoking a certain WW2 movement (I am calling them out that they knew better, and knew exactly that wasn't what was intended) I really don't understand why putting your own country first is evil.  Wanna bet every other country on the face of the Earth does the same thing in one form or another.  (We can argue about certain dictators put themselves first, which in their own minds, they are the country.  But, I will trust everyone here can follow my point)

Putting your country first is not in itself evil. After all, you have the most control of what goes on in your own country. What is evil, in this day and age, is to put your country first,  last, and only. Which Americans are seemingly trained to do since birth.

 

Americans ever since the Cold War have had the alarming tendency to want other countries to act against their own interests if it benefits us. Which is why we spend so much time propping up dictatorships and kleptocracies in much of the rest of the world. When America's "strategic interests" are at stake, the opinion of those who actually live in those countries becomes irrelevant to us.

 

Which is why we continually find ourselves in disasters like Vietnam and Iraq. Despite them, Americans cling to the illusion that we are both right in enforcing our wishes and capable of doing so. As it turns out, neither is especially true.

[Iuz the Evil]

The problem is, in my opinion, that we have as a nation moved to the "America First" position espoused in our current POTUS inaugural address from the position of every single POTUS since WW2.

 

JFK in his inaugural address stated "we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty." That's a far cry from where we appear to be standing right now.

[megaplayboy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFtBs4XiC6s

 

 

Captain America would approve.

[Ranxerox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFtBs4XiC6s

 

 

Captain America would approve.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't.

[Iuz the Evil]

Yeah, I don't like that. Punching folks in the head who are just scumbags isn't in my estimation an appropriate action. One of those folks in the video is a criminal, and it's not the nazi. He's just distasteful.

[megaplayboy]

 

 

Incidentally, an estimated 2.5 million protesters marched across the US today. Thousands more marched on every continent...including Antarctica. You really have to piss someone off to get them to go outside to protest at the South Pole.

[L. Marcus]

They have summer now.

[Old Man]

And yet I don't think they're protesting in g-strings like I do.

[BoloOfEarth]

And yet I don't think they're protesting in g-strings like I do.

 

Now, where did I put that brain bleach...?