No one shoots themselves in the foot more often than GOP voters.
It’s wild to watch folks like my SIL (a teacher) and my BIL (a combat veteran with no other marketable skills) vote against their own self interests every time they select a GOP candidate.
These folks have spent decades doing everything they can to make life more difficult for teachers and veterans. Yet teachers and veterans will still line up to elect these people.
> These folks have spent decades doing everything they can to make life more difficult for teachers and veterans. Yet teachers and veterans will still line up to elect these people.
I don't know your SIL or BIL, but in general they line up to vote because the party promises to make life even more difficult for people unlike them. "I may be losing my job and health benefits, but on the bright side, some immigrant might be sent back to their country, or some blue haired lesbian might be driven to suicide!" That's the mentality we're dealing with.
See, the problem with two political parties is you get a lot of baggage for a couple of things you like. So you're basically voting for two piles of shit that may say one or two things you like. Did I like lockdowns? No, Do I like corrupt insurance, also no.
The way I see it is the Democrats are for the really poor people and the really rich people, of which I'm neither. The GOP is for the really rich people, of which I am not. Neither party has any interesting restoring any type of freedoms, they both want to ban stuff they don't like.
The middle class really has no real representation, and that's why we're dying.
In the last 4 years the Democrats expanded overtime eligibility, ramped up antitrust enforcement, got inflation under control, cracked down on junk fees, forgave billions in student loan debt, invested in domestic manufacturing, invested in infrastructure spending (unlike Trump's "infrastructure week" that was talked about for his entire term and never happened), prosecuted companies for union busting, added penalties for airlines who abuse customers, and so many other things.
Anyone who claims "both are the same" and "neither does not anything for the middle class" is being willfully ignorant.
Yea, you're right. Biden did some pretty good things for the middle class. I'm glad he got us out of Afghanistan finally, though it was pretty messy.
I'm more remembering Clinton's NAFTA and basically telling everyone to "learn to code," and Obama bailing out the banks but allowing middle class homes to be sold for pennies on the dollar to companies like Berkshire. It wasn't his mess, but the bailouts seemed one sided.
Biden also did some bad things, like the lockdowns, and threatening people's jobs if they didn't get the jab. Misrepresenting the efficacy of the vaccine, etc. I believe Pfizer made record profits off those policies, which was, for lack of a better word, "icky." The Twitter Files were pretty bad as well. I didn't like that he defended his 93 crime bill, one of our countries biggest mistakes. He also punted on legalizing pot, ensuring more of the drug war. That's kinda my point, with either party, we get a few good things and a lot of bad things. It always feels like a bad deal.
Not to mention that survey back in the day of Republican voters, "What if, instead of Obamacare, the government was to introduce an Affordable Care Act?"
Yes they were. They were also extended for multiple years under Biden. The no fly list for no jab under Biden, discharging military who refused the shot, Biden.
No they weren't. It was done, if at all in 2021, at the State level.
Vaccination requirements for travel were cross border, and there was never a "No fly list". The closest restrictions to what you may be thinking of was Hawaii's 5 day quarantine requirements for certain unvaccinated travelers, which continued until March 2022. Military have always had vaccination requirements.
Yes, you're right. It was for international flights. He also required anyone in-office to get the vaccine if they worked for a company with 100 or more people. That was shot down by the courts. People were scratching their heads why the corporate requirement existed and the airline requirement didn't.
Pretending that all the covid restrictions were only from Trump is just plain wrong.
>It was done, if at all in 2021, at the State level.
And greatly extended, sometimes for years by Democratic governors held in high regard by the party. This crushed small (middle class) businesses, but the large conglomerates (Walmart, etc) survived just fine. In fact they thrived because all their small business competition died off. Restaurants too. The ridiculous outdoor dining, what a mess, they were just winging it the whole time.
Once again you're wrong. Only non-citizens had to show proof of vaccination to enter the US.
The OSHA rule never went into effect. The NY Post is not a good representation of "people". OSHA has certain powers to regulate work safety. The Supreme Court said vaccination requirements for workplaces should be handled at the State and Local level. Limiting travel is much more fraught, plus it's limited and intermittent exposure.
You were talking about Biden, not State level decisions about how to weigh risks and handle an unprecedented health emergency.
I think the last Democrat who ran against DeSantis got caught smoking crack in a hotel room with a male hooker. Florida doesn't seem to have a lot of great choices. Pick the corrupt person, red or blue.
To be fair, a lot of Democratic politicians destroyed their economies with extended lockdowns, and also being extremely generous with prosecuting theft, among other things, so Florida isn't the only one with bad choices.
I'm not defending DeSantis, but it seems the job of US politician attracts a certain type of person, regardless of what color their flag is. The longer they stay in, the more comfortable they get with being, lets say, morally flexible.
> I think the last Democrat who ran against DeSantis got caught smoking crack in a hotel room with a male hooker. Florida doesn't seem to have a lot of great choices. Pick the corrupt person, red or blue.
Well, then it sounds like they got what they wanted. If the numbers are to be believed, they got what they really wanted.
Which is why the rest of the nation is happy for them! They have the government they want and deserve. And I'm sure that government will sort out their problems in a fashion consistent with that government's beliefs, and therefore, also consistent with the desires of the people of Florida.
So everyone is getting what they wanted here. Really there is no problem.
You've heard of Elon talk of 'the woke mind virus'? Whether or not it's a thing, there is a concept of memetic viruses like computer viruses. There's also 'psy-ops', but psy-ops are usually intentional and pushed by some group, whereas mind viruses arise unintentionally. A few others:
Anti-Vaccine, Flat Earth, Doomscrolling, Productivity etc.
Well there's another. It captures people in their late 20s and 30s. It's getting political. It's getting far to ensconced in politics. You should treat politics like you are work at HF and your job is to find base reality truth. If not you become well, one of those guys, and unless you work in Government - no one wants to hear it.
California (largest state) burning is not good. Florida (3rd largest state) having rising house costs is not good. Don't get captured by tribalism.
One of these tribes repeatedly puts too much faith in their politicians to represent their interests, and then goes to work making excuses for why their legislation always seems to end up with loopholes, resulting in an ever-accreting ball of regulatory capture embraced by big business.
The other tribe just voted to outright destroy our government, on a spectrum somewhere between straight spite and handing control over to the very consumer surveillance industry that they themselves had been complaining about. When the other tribe tried to engage about the multiple bold lines being crossed and where the path would inevitably lead, they jeered and caricatured the frustration as "tears".
I'd say that some schadenfreude about a smaller situation with quicker feedback is an understandable coping mechanism.
There are ideas. Some you like. Some you don't like. The fact that people feel a need to call ideas mind viruses is an indication of how far rational civic discourse has fallen. People have nothing of substance to offer in support or refutation, so they speak of mind viruses instead.
But here's the thing, a person not liking an idea doesn't make the idea a mind-virus. It's an idea. Ideas are good. Ideas are how we advance as a species.
Please try to appreciate that other people have ideas on how things should work. In fact, very traditional ideas on how democracy should work. You vote, you get what you voted for, good for you. Simple. Elegant. Fair.
My idea is that there is no need to be unhappy for people who get what they want through democratic means. That's not a mind virus any more than being woke, pro-vaccine, or pro-flat earth, or anti-flat earth, or anti-woke, or whatever is a mind virus. These are just ideas.
Mine just happens to be a very pro-democratic idea. You voted. You supported the guy or gal with the idea that you wanted. Good for you Florida. Not the idea I would have supported, but, hey, I respect your democratic right to self determination. Hope it works out for you.
Let's move past candidates. If we were to take a random polling of people in a median area of FL and ask them questions like "should we remove regulations on private businesses?". I would be flabbergasted if the polls showed anything other than overwhelming support for this. Likewise, I would imagine the same for a question like "Should the federal government provide home owners insurance".
And yet, if you were to ask the same people: "if you lost everything you owned in a disaster and were left penniless, should the government help you out?" I guarantee you the answer would be different.
Yes, you're right. Crist was a Republican governor before but he switched to Democrat last cycle. He was decent as far as I remember, but I was too young when he was governor and wasn't paying much attention. I wanted Crist to win last cycle; DeStantis really went off the handle starting with his second term. His first term was ok.
