I'm trying to figure out if I left the Republican Party or did they leave me (1 Viewer)

[FairWarning]

Yeah, but I am not talking about you specifically.  I am talking about people to who pro-life is the top or a top motivation to vote.  IMO that stance more often than not is religiously motivated.  

And are in the poorer states.

 

[FairWarning]

Hmmm, the previously Republican led Executive Branch shouted a ton of silliness, and much worse, on social media but I didn't see anyone from the GOP criticizing it. It was mostly applauded. Seems a bit hypocritical, no?

Anyway, ALL politicians should stay off of social media unless they are discussing actual policy. To do otherwise just invites unneeded criticism. A perfect example would be Ted Cruz today criticizing Mr. T on his personal choice to continue to mask up even after getting his second booster. Cruz is taking a huge beating, rightfully so. He should have just kept his mouth shut and his fingers off the keypad.

I find it a HUGE distraction

 

[Ruffrodys05]

I find it a HUGE distraction

I'm not a member of any social media site except this one so the majority of my exposure to it comes from posts here. Not really a distraction to me. The only reason I know anything about the Cruz story is that it appeared in my Google News feed and out of curiosity I clicked and read the Politico link which basically was forwarding a Huff Post piece. Neither is a source I'd particularly trust but there were screen shots of several peoples posts in response to Cruz' so the evidence of his callousness and the beating he was taking was there.

 

[FairWarning]

I'm not a member of any social media site except this one so the majority of my exposure to it comes from posts here. Not really a distraction to me. The only reason I know anything about the Cruz story is that it appeared in my Google News feed and out of curiosity I clicked and read the Politico link which basically was forwarding a Huff Post piece. Neither is a source I'd particularly trust but there were screen shots of several peoples posts in response to Cruz' so the evidence of his callousness and the beating he was taking was there.

Even if you don’t have one, it’s discussed far too long on tv.

 

[Ghost Rider]

You can’t win on policy anymore.  Most don’t understand it or care.  Left wing wokists just want to shout silliness on social media. 

No one has a monopoly on shouting silliness on social media.   Plenty of conservatives spout stupid crap on there as well. 

 

[Ruffrodys05]

Even if you don’t have one, it’s discussed far too long on tv.

Maybe I'm an oddball but, I don't watch TV. I think I'm better off for it. If any shows interest me (there are a few) I'll stream them.

 

[FairWarning]

Maybe I'm an oddball but, I don't watch TV. I think I'm better off for it. If any shows interest me (there are a few) I'll stream them.

I’m a sports and documentary guy, i read the news mainly.  

 

[The Commish]

Maybe I'm an oddball but, I don't watch TV. I think I'm better off for it. If any shows interest me (there are a few) I'll stream them.

I’m a sports and documentary guy, i read the news mainly.  

I'm telling you....if you simply cut out our MSM and grab news from local sources and places outside the US, you'll be a significantly happier person and know more about the actual issue in just the little bit they cover it than you'll ever know listening to our 24 hour echo chambers.  I started this as an experiment back in 2015 and haven't turned back.  Of course that means not going to 99% of the links posted here, but you aren't missing anything meaningful from that.

 

[lafan4ever]

In browsing this forum for the last year, this is the first post that struck a chord with me, especially this part:

"The point is, I can't vote for most Democrats because of their views on abortion and several other issues, but increasingly, the Republicans seem like just a bunch of mean spirited wackos that hate people and information and truth.  People in the Republican Party who stand up to this nonsense are labeled as RINOs or censured. "

I am not religious so traditionally non negotiable issues like abortion play little role in my voting choices.  That being said,  I have been trying to understand how anyone could support the current Republican party since it seems to me that currently its sole existence is to oppose ANY issue that a Democrat may support.  But the quote above clicked and began to help me remember one reason why.  There are good and smart people that support Republican policies and feel compelled to choose the only candidate they can, no matter what.

However, there is another smaller base of registered Republicans like myself that are being alienated.  I think my biases in choosing a candidate slant towards honest debate and fiscal responsibility, in that order.  So if I want fiscal responsibility, how can I support a democrat you ask?  Easy, because the leading Republicans refuse to engage in honest discussion any longer.  They try and dictate what I should believe, not for any good reason but because they say so, or even worse because it simply opposes a Democrat's goal.   If you want to persuade me about anything, telling me the Republicans won the election or that Jan 6th was a non event completely undermine anything else you say.   I will vote Democrat until folks like Adam Kinzinger start to come to power.  And if that means I spend a little more at the gas pump, groceries or taxes, so be it.  

 

[timschochet]

In browsing this forum for the last year, this is the first post that struck a chord with me, especially this part:

"The point is, I can't vote for most Democrats because of their views on abortion and several other issues, but increasingly, the Republicans seem like just a bunch of mean spirited wackos that hate people and information and truth.  People in the Republican Party who stand up to this nonsense are labeled as RINOs or censured. "

I am not religious so traditionally non negotiable issues like abortion play little role in my voting choices.  That being said,  I have been trying to understand how anyone could support the current Republican party since it seems to me that currently its sole existence is to oppose ANY issue that a Democrat may support.  But the quote above clicked and began to help me remember one reason why.  There are good and smart people that support Republican policies and feel compelled to choose the only candidate they can, no matter what.

However, there is another smaller base of registered Republicans like myself that are being alienated.  I think my biases in choosing a candidate slant towards honest debate and fiscal responsibility, in that order.  So if I want fiscal responsibility, how can I support a democrat you ask?  Easy, because the leading Republicans refuse to engage in honest discussion any longer.  They try and dictate what I should believe, not for any good reason but because they say so, or even worse because it simply opposes a Democrat's goal.   If you want to persuade me about anything, telling me the Republicans won the election or that Jan 6th was a non event completely undermine anything else you say.   I will vote Democrat until folks like Adam Kinzinger start to come to power.  And if that means I spend a little more at the gas pump, groceries or taxes, so be it.  

There are a small but growing number of Democrats who believe in fiscal responsibility. I started a thread recently about Rick Caruso, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles. 

 

[AAABatteries]

I am a lifelong Republican.  A Reagan Republican.  In general, I am a fiscal conservative and probably a social moderate.  

I got really into my Catholic faith about 12 years ago.  Most would think that would make me even more conservative, but I actually think those that have that experience are only cherry-picking what they want to believe. 

Pro-Life means not just being opposed to abortion for cute babies, but being against capital punishment for not-so-cute criminals. 

It means that I am a child of God with inherent human dignity, and so is the illegal immigrant.  So is the person who is attracted to the same biological sex or who thinks they are a different gender.  Sometimes I think the left goes too far on these issues, but the right forgets about human dignity and the love we are supposed to have for those different from us.  I think that God made us male and female and we should not shy away from that truth, however, those that disagree should be treated with love, not used as a political ploy.

It means that we SHOULD care about the planet that God has left us in charge for us.  I am not for crippling our economy to move away from fossil fuels, but I also don't get the hysteria over electric vehicles and I think those saying "it will never work" are like the guys selling buggy whips in the early 1900s saying cars would never work.  We need good solutions instead of the "it will never work" crowd,

It also means that I am concerned with truth and it seems to me that a good portion of the Republican Party's platform these days is a conspiracy theory or a dog whistle.  Non existent voter fraud, ingesting medicines that don't work instead of the actual vaccine which does, gas prices being a plot to get us away from oil, cancel culture being the enemy...unless it's a boycott on the NFL for supporting their players.  The list could go on and on.

The point is, I can't vote for most Democrats because of their views on abortion and several other issues, but increasingly, the Republicans seem like just a bunch of mean spirited wackos that hate people and information and truth.  People in the Republican Party who stand up to this nonsense are labeled as RINOs or censured.  

Anyway, did I leave it or as Reagan said about the Democrats, did they leave me??

I’d say the party left you.  I’ve maintained for a while now that Trump’s base is a blend of religious conservatives (who have nowhere else to go) plus a bunch of folks who were not voting or interested in politics until someone came along to push back against the things they’ve hated.  Sure, you have other folks mixed in but Trump really deserves credit for figuring out a way to be the biggest ##### in history but still getting little old ladies who teach Sunday School to vote for him.

 

[pollardsvision]

when you have to pay people to get their vote we are screwed.  57% of taxpayers pay no taxes.  everyone should have skin in the game somehow but it appears that to get votes it is okay.  lazy?  so what, we will help you out.  hard work & finding a job, any job has left this country a long time ago.  now it's what can you do for me.

lot of people that wrote our constitution are rolling in their grave right now.  it has not become what you can do for your country.  it has become what your country can do for you.  

pathetic.

I absolutely agree with this. I think it's ultimately the biggest issue facing our country. We are a notion of short-term thinking takers. Everybody wants stuff and nobody wants to do anything for it.

This is an American issue that has no political Party. 

We want stuff from the gubment and for the gubment to solve our problems. And don't want to pay for any of it. It's not the politicians that got us so far in debt. It's the people voting for them. 

Which makes sense. As a nation, we save less and borrow more than other industrialized countries. It's no shock that that level of short term thinking permeates our government. 

Again, this is for both Party's. In my mind, the 20 year old kid complaining about minimum wage on their $1000 iPhone isn't much different than the guy making $50,000 a year driving a $60,000 truck that he doesn't need for work complaining about gas prices. 

"Defund the police" is stupid. And so is opposing every local tax increase to fund the police. 

Both Party's are cut from the same cloth. Trying to get votes from people with no sense of personal responsibility or ability to delay gratification. 

I have no idea what the answers are. I have no idea how any of this changes. 

 

[MAC_32]

I absolutely agree with this. I think it's ultimately the biggest issue facing our country. We are a notion of short-term thinking takers. Everybody wants stuff and nobody wants to do anything for it.

This is an American issue that has no political Party. 

We want stuff from the gubment and for the gubment to solve our problems. And don't want to pay for any of it. It's not the politicians that got us so far in debt. It's the people voting for them. 

Which makes sense. As a nation, we save less and borrow more than other industrialized countries. It's no shock that that level of short term thinking permeates our government. 

Again, this is for both Party's. In my mind, the 20 year old kid complaining about minimum wage on their $1000 iPhone isn't much different than the guy making $50,000 a year driving a $60,000 truck that he doesn't need for work complaining about gas prices. 

"Defund the police" is stupid. And so is opposing every local tax increase to fund the police. 

Both Party's are cut from the same cloth. Trying to get votes from people with no sense of personal responsibility or ability to delay gratification. 

I have no idea what the answers are. I have no idea how any of this changes. 

You got at the source of the problem - it's us. If we want our representation to change then we must first change ourselves. We won't. So it won't. 

 

[Zow]

I disagree on this part.  I think the party took a hard u-turn under Trump.

I found myself disagreeing with the party on some issues before Trump but I didn't become embarrassed to be a member of it until Trump won the primary. 

 

[Zow]

Yeah, but I am not talking about you specifically.  I am talking about people to who pro-life is the top or a top motivation to vote.  IMO that stance more often than not is religiously motivated.  

Right. This has been a big point for decades. 

I remember a particular homily (i.e. a sermon given after a reading from the Gospel) a priest gave at my church. I think I was ~9 as it was the Bush v. Clinton but, despite the age, I recall being confused by the message being given by the priest (who was pretty well respected and moderate in his thoughts). Essentially the message was, "the democrat candidate espouses dozens of policies that are more in line with Catholicism and Jesus's teachings but the affirmative duty as a Catholic is to contest abortion at all costs so our faith required us to vote Republican in that election."

 

[GroveDiesel]

Absolutely terrifying article on polarization.

I’m not sure whether this is better here or in the thread about Twitter, but either way, what is described in that article is both believable and terrifying.

“It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families.”

“In the 10 years since then, Zuckerberg did exactly what he said he would do. He did rewire the way we spread and consume information; he did transform our institutions, and he pushed us past the tipping point. It has not worked out as he expected.”

 

[rockaction]

Absolutely terrifying article on polarization.

I’m not sure whether this is better here or in the thread about Twitter, but either way, what is described in that article is both believable and terrifying.

“It’s been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families.”

“In the 10 years since then, Zuckerberg did exactly what he said he would do. He did rewire the way we spread and consume information; he did transform our institutions, and he pushed us past the tipping point. It has not worked out as he expected.”

That's Jonathan Haidt in the Atlantic, isn't it? I read that. It wasn't terrifying. It was really an opinion piece backed by some large research conclusions. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. It was talking about what we needed to do to get back to reinforcing democratic norms at the end of the construction or destruction of Babel.