Political Annoyances

As Einstein pointed out, all things are relative. The fact that you see mostly conservatives that falsely claim to be moderates probably means you are fairly liberal in your perspectives. The real question is how many comments by liberals make you cringe or how many time have you voted for someone of the other party with a more moderate political bent.

yeah but we love our assholes more than most

I’ve told this story before but in the election cycle prior to this, Obama’s second run, I shared a lunch table with man at Costco here in Central Oregon. A GOP debate had occurred the night before. This guy was pure Central Oregon cowboy, late 60s or early 70s. We got talking about the debate and GOP presidential hopefuls. He said to me that he was seriously conflicted. He had voted Republican his entire life and was devoted to the conservative causes in regards to government. But what really bothered him was the GOP mantle from the Religious Right. He went on to form his issue, that Republicans are all about individual rights, but somehow they’ve got in their head that its okay to get into folks bedrooms with legislation. He flatly stated, in one example, that he could not in good conscience tell a women what she could do with her body. And after perusing the fistful of GOP candidates, he found all of them willing to do just that.

On health care, this issue must be solved in the open with public dialog and feedback by both parties as full participants. I’ve been under the impression for the last seven years that the GOP had a better way, to solve some of the niggly issues in the current bill. But alas, they had no solution, just rhetoric.

The US is the only first world country where healthcare is a for profit business. By that I mean hand over fist profit at the expense of affordability. Furthermore, there is no real competition for hospitals, many of which were begun by churches. The GOP made sure that the government was not allowed to negotiate lower drug rates or lower procedure rates, as is the case elsewhere. There is no real competition among insurance providers. Nor have we allowed enough time for competition to develop as providers find ways to cut their high overhead costs.

I know how costly it is to become a doctor. I understand the social costs of malpractice. I understand the unrealistic expectations of patient groups. I get how much research is involved in drug development. Since I worked in the energy (oil and gas exploration and development) business, I understand risk. 

But healthcare has become a serious economic strain on our society, the major cause of personal bankruptcy and small business failure. I posted a handful of links of research on this a week or so back. Folks by the late 1970s who had no care where crashing the emergency rooms across this country such that hospitals began to refuse them help. President Ronald Reagan had legislation drafted and passed in a bipartisan manner to force hospitals to take patients even if they could not pay. Full compensation by the USG to the hospital for said patients was not part of the bill. The can got kicked down the road.

The ACA is flawed. Fix it. Find a way to incentivize younger folks to buy health insurance in the same way they paid rent or a mortgage and buy gas and groceries.

The attack on healthcare and next social security will have consequences. I participate in a men’s group once a week here, in conjunction with the church I attend. The group has guys who are decided liberal and conservative. Part of what we do as a group is discuss ideas, how we can shine God’s love into the eyes of everyone we meet. Our church has what we call the Backdoor Cafe. It began as morning breakfast on Wednesday, now we offer showers, medical care light, counseling, clothes washing, etc. to the homeless population here.

So I’m talking to my conservative friend about both HC and SSN, asking him what to do. At some point I said, I think the idea of self determination and reliance is great and I wish everyone did that. Everyone needs the freedom to do that and to make something of themselves. However, for that to be effective, would you agree that equal opportunities are required? He said yes. Do you think all Americans have equal opportunities to a good education, early childhood education including nutrition. He said, probably not. I offered, then how does that play out over one’s life, for those handicapped at an early age? Does our system for all intents and purposes pick winners and losers at an early age, where a few do escape because they are particularly bright or clever or good athletes. He said, I see your point. 

We got into SS, and I told him that if the amount of money put into social security (and Medicare) for me by me and my employers were put instead into 30-year treasury bonds, my monthly payout would be 30% higher, assuming in my calculations I lived for a decade beyond my expected lifespan. But SS has insurance provisions for loss of the breadwinner for dependents and/or disability. So its not just like for me, if you get my sense.

But here is the kicker. I said, okay, let’s assume we had no SS. Let’s assume that we had choice, freedom in a Libertarian perspective, to take care of ourselves in this regard. We “should” begin to save and save religiously from the get go for our eventual retirement. Do you believe given what you know about people, that all working folks would do that? And if not, what would this country in these times, with our current economic system, be like for a huge swath of folks. He said, I agree, folks would not save as they should.

My view is one of barbarians at the gates. Finding ways to get folks some basic needs met, HC and SS, is one crucial bulwark to keep people who have fewer opportunities, who are about destitute, from crashing the gates. While we may not believe it, criminality has a cost to all. I want to trade the prospect of greater criminality by desperate folks for some cake.

If anyone is truly familiar with the thought and ideas of the founding fathers of this country. They will see folks who feared dynastic economic power. For that reason, inheritance taxes were severe back then. We want it all. Our money, our freedom, our independence from poor folks. Having lived in SE Asia for a decade, among some of the poorest people in the world, surrounded by unbelievable wealth, literally forced by my company to live in a guarded, wall community. My greatest fear are the masses.

Instead, I’ll be a libtard. How we can shine God’s love into the eyes of everyone we meet. Failing the people on HC fails.

Agree and disagree. There are clearly cases where one side is in the right, at least from a constitutional perspective. There should be no kowtowing in these instances, and the group that has the constitutional stance should dig their heels in and fight.

Yup, and both sides do it and it is what is cutting this country in half. We are the UNITED States. 

The problem is that most Americans want compromise, but most Americans are so busy trying to make ends meet, save for retirement and pay for healthcare, that we have let this country be over run by the rich. 

This isn’t a left or right problem. 

I think another part of this, is we don’t listen to experts anymore. We can read headlines, so we think we know what is going on. Tom Nichols, a Republican, writes about this a lot. Just because we have google, doesn’t mean we need to get rid of, or stop trusting our experts. They are there for a reason, and it is because they know better than we do. 

When I feel one way, but someone who has researched this much, much, much more than I says opposite, I listen. They are smarter than I. I’d be dumb not to. Anyways, here is a condensed version of his ideas and a great read:

http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/17/the-death-of-expertise/

I get what he’s saying though. For example, I can’t remember how many times I heard people call others racist, based on nothing else than the fact that they were voting for Trump. They might be ill-informed, or just fed up with the current state of politics. The latter was not a viable reason, in my mind, to vote for Trump, but it certainly doesn’t mean the person is racist. That’s a huge problem in general on the left; painting the right as bigots. It really is a bad look.

I think you have a few different types of Trump supporters. First, there are the ill-informed. They get all of their information from Limbaugh and Fox News. I know many of these folks (Arizona is awesome), and they will literally start arguments with “have you listened to Rush”. Second, there are the bigots. I think they get way more attention than deserved, and make up a relatively small portion of Trumpists, but there are definitely groups of people who believe Trump is the only guy who can deliver on at least some of their stances. Third, you have the guys who are otherwise rational, but have dug their heels in. I strongly suspect a few posters here fall in this category. They are smart dudes who have to see that Trump has no idea what he’s doing or where he’s going, but they’re far too invested to back off now. Just my take.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/devin-nunes-trump-communications/ the claim might have some truth behind them. 

I think most people are pretty close on the majority of beliefs, actually. I think most people can see both sides. The trouble comes when a person starts to lean slightly on one issue and they make their thoughts know publicly. A hoard of people jump the person who then has to defend their stance and attack the opposing view. People begin talking in absolutes, when truthfully, they probably agree on a lot of issues. There are many variables in politics, many moving parts in politics. 

I read foxnews, CNN and MSNBC online each morning. In this way, I see the arguments from both sides, CNN is more towards the middle, with a left lean IMO. The problem is so much reporting is just like what Trump did to Hillary Clinton “She is the worst person that I have ever met in my life.” Go to MSNBC “Tump is the worst.” Go to Fox “Obama is the worst.” So we start talking in absolutes. So and so is Hitler. Now, I think there are good lessons to learn from Hitler and his party, things to watch out for, but equating everyone that we disagree with as a liar, or the worst person ever is toxic IMO. 

I voted for Donald Trump. My #1 issue was to have a more conservative judge picked to potentially protect issues that are important to me. My next issue was that republicans were’nt doing what they say they are going to do – so they can get elected. Another issue was the trump appeared to be an Anti-Politician, saying his opinion on things and not sugar coating it. Better to know what he’s thinking, even if it’s crass, than for him to say what you want to hear, with no intention of following through. One of the last issues was that I didn’t trust Hillary.