8th September 2023, 10:24 AM
(This post was last modified: 8th September 2023, 2:35 PM by Weltall.)
It's important to remember that we don't just vote for a president, we vote for his cabinet, his advisors, and ultimately, his appointments. Biden himself is ok. Compared to the other presidents we've had in the last 70 years, he's pretty good (which just goes to show how many awful presidents we've had in that time period), and it may even merely reflect how terrible Trump's administration was, that a functional and competent administration feels almost revelatory afterwards.
I think FDR was a liberal patrician who understood that the only way that the foundational problems of the 1930s didn't take American down the path of either Germany or the USSR was to choose the third way: capitalism with regulations and (very, very importantly) a strong social safety net. If you can't eliminate poverty altogether, eliminating the desperation of poverty is the next best thing to do. Poor, desperate people are the easiest to radicalize in either direction. Which is just one of many reasons why conservatives have been hell-bent on eliminating safety nets, even for their own people; if you can make everyone's situation worse, you can convince some portion of them that the rest are to blame for it, and then harness that energy towards your own ends.
It's very clear to me that there will be no progress while the Republican Party exists as a major force in our politics, and that the most progressive thing to do is to vote for whichever Democrat will keep a Republican out of office, regardless of the office, regardless of whether the Democrat sucks. GOP delenda est.
Sometimes, I wonder what 2003 Weltall would think of 2023 Weltall. I've always enjoyed getting into vicious, venomous arguments about politics on the internet, and I enjoy seeking out conservatives in online comment sections (especially in their safe spaces), and just straight up eviscerating them without mercy. I don't debate their policies, I don't debate their issues. To engage in debate regarding their beliefs is to pretend that I believe they have beliefs worthy of debate, and I do not believe that. When it comes to engaging with online conservatives, all I seek to do is to hopefully make them feel bad about themselves as people for having the beliefs they do, because I don't think anything short of serious introspection has a hope of inspiring positive change within themselves. I don't feel bad about it at all.
Quote:FDR was a democratic socialist
I think FDR was a liberal patrician who understood that the only way that the foundational problems of the 1930s didn't take American down the path of either Germany or the USSR was to choose the third way: capitalism with regulations and (very, very importantly) a strong social safety net. If you can't eliminate poverty altogether, eliminating the desperation of poverty is the next best thing to do. Poor, desperate people are the easiest to radicalize in either direction. Which is just one of many reasons why conservatives have been hell-bent on eliminating safety nets, even for their own people; if you can make everyone's situation worse, you can convince some portion of them that the rest are to blame for it, and then harness that energy towards your own ends.
It's very clear to me that there will be no progress while the Republican Party exists as a major force in our politics, and that the most progressive thing to do is to vote for whichever Democrat will keep a Republican out of office, regardless of the office, regardless of whether the Democrat sucks. GOP delenda est.
Sometimes, I wonder what 2003 Weltall would think of 2023 Weltall. I've always enjoyed getting into vicious, venomous arguments about politics on the internet, and I enjoy seeking out conservatives in online comment sections (especially in their safe spaces), and just straight up eviscerating them without mercy. I don't debate their policies, I don't debate their issues. To engage in debate regarding their beliefs is to pretend that I believe they have beliefs worthy of debate, and I do not believe that. When it comes to engaging with online conservatives, all I seek to do is to hopefully make them feel bad about themselves as people for having the beliefs they do, because I don't think anything short of serious introspection has a hope of inspiring positive change within themselves. I don't feel bad about it at all.
YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER
WE STAND AT THE DOOR
WE STAND AT THE DOOR