Which type of Republican are you? How to self-identify.

There are two types of Republicans: Billionaires and suckers. 

Open your wallet to find out which one you are.

yeah, that works.

Brillant. 

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

There are two types of Republicans: Billionaires and suckers. 




Open your wallet to find out which one you are.

Mitt Romney disagrees.  

Libertarians are more progressive on war and peace and civil liberties than most progressives, including most Democrats. Ron Paul won about 20% of the Republican Presidential primary in 2012. They play an important role on these issues, despite their reactionary opposition to any collective efforts to improve lives and protect the earth.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

There are two types of Republicans: Billionaires and suckers. 




Open your wallet to find out which one you are.

And that right there is why Trump got elected. Go on. Keep thinking you've got a monopoly on goodness and wisdom. See what it gets you.

I keep reading this over and over.  Is it really true that millions of people voted for an unqualified, lying narcissistic reality TV star for president because they had their feelings hurt?

Millionaires and billionaires interested only in accumulating more wealth for sure (as distinguished from those who make it their task to work for the common good).

Average Joes and Janes who see their lives as disappointing because of lack of good jobs; and who blame other people rather than technology, union loss, their own lack of skills, nostalgia for the past, etc. and fail to make the transition to  jobs in services, medical care and other burgeoning fields. 

Those who equate the loss of good jobs with influx of immigrants, affirmative action (is that still a thing?), and corps going overseas.

Those who fear the browning of the population because they see it as an us vs. them competition and ignore the fact that all immigrants - even Germans and Swedes, much less southern Euros and others - were once "inferior."

Read an interesting article recently about how whites are now accepting white Hispanics and Chinese (but not south asians and east asians like Vietnamese, Laotians) as "white."

As far as working-class whites and poor, if you eliminate the GOP propaganda, hate radio, and Fox, they would logically be Bernie fans.

But clearly, there is a substantial strain of white racism in the GOP

Our new Miss America believes healthcare is a privilege for those with jobs rather than a right.

ml1 said:

I keep reading this over and over.  Is it really true that millions of people voted for an unqualified, lying narcissistic reality TV star for president because they had their feelings hurt?

Don't think that's too far off but i'd put it differently. Donald Trump was elected by people who hate liberals, because he hates liberals. Why do they hate liberals? Because we think we are better and smarter. You call it hurt feelings, I call it human nature. Either way, we are sure doing a good job making ourselves hateable.

GL2 said:

Our new Miss America believes healthcare is a privilege for those with jobs rather than a right.

(Ahem, it's Miss USA.) “I’m definitely going to say it’s a privilege. As a government employee, I’m granted health care. And I see firsthand that for one to have health care, you need to have jobs — so therefore, we need to continue to cultivate this environment so that we’re given the opportunities to have health care as well as jobs for all Americans worldwide.”

I'm still trying to parse her statement. It's true, getting health insurance through a job is a privilege. Does she think that's a good thing or a bad thing? Cultivate what environment? Of creating more jobs so more people can have insurance? She probably doesn't realize how unusual the American system is, where health insurance is linked to employment. And "all Americans worldwide"? Her statement really doesn't make any sense.

I think they hate us because we wanted same sex marriages to be legal, we think it's rude to distribute racist email jokes, and abortion shouldn't be made illegal. And because we say "Happy Holidays."

RobinHood said:

ml1 said:

I keep reading this over and over.  Is it really true that millions of people voted for an unqualified, lying narcissistic reality TV star for president because they had their feelings hurt?

Don't think that's too far off but i'd put it differently. Donald Trump was elected by people who hate liberals, because he hates liberals. Why do they hate liberals? Because we think we are better and smarter. You call it hurt feelings, I call it human nature. Either way, we are sure doing a good job making ourselves hateable.

Nope, they hate us because we are glib, sarcastic, condescending and project a narrow sense moral and intellectual superiority in how we think and talk about their world view.

and because they think we think they're stupid, their response was to do something monumentally stupid so they could stick it to us. 

So far it doesn't seem to be working out so well for many of them. 

We're talking about a minority of the population, many of whom are older, white, and undereducated. In the past, those qualities didn't preclude a decent middle-class life. Now they do. 

And I'm the first to admit that we (Northeast, West Coast) look down our noses at these folks. All free media and basic cable except Fox has this same attitude.  

So yeah, we ridicule this demo. But they need to see themselves in the same light they used to see downtrodden minorities. They can't rely on  "the good jobs are overseas" or "there's an opiate epidemic." No excuses here in America. Pull your *** up by the bootstraps.

When did we ever give a fcuk about decent jobs for urban poor? When did we ever have sympathy for drug addicts in the city?

RobinHood said:

Nope, they hate us because we are glib, sarcastic, condescending and project a narrow sense moral and intellectual superiority in how we think and talk about their world view.

And many of them are racists.

GL2 said:

Millionaires and billionaires interested only in accumulating more wealth for sure (as distinguished from those who make it their task to work for the common good).

Average Joes and Janes who see their lives as disappointing because of lack of good jobs; and who blame other people rather than technology, union loss, their own lack of skills, nostalgia for the past, etc. and fail to make the transition to  jobs in services, medical care and other burgeoning fields. 

Those who equate the loss of good jobs with influx of immigrants, affirmative action (is that still a thing?), and corps going overseas.

Those who fear the browning of the population because they see it as an us vs. them competition and ignore the fact that all immigrants - even Germans and Swedes, much less southern Euros and others - were once "inferior."

Read an interesting article recently about how whites are now accepting white Hispanics and Chinese (but not south asians and east asians like Vietnamese, Laotians) as "white."

As far as working-class whites and poor, if you eliminate the GOP propaganda, hate radio, and Fox, they would logically be Bernie fans.

But clearly, there is a substantial strain of white racism in the GOP

Agreed. Scapegoating is key to Trump's support.

And she's absolutely right.  You have no right to make someone else do work for you.  

GL2 said:

Our new Miss America believes healthcare is a privilege for those with jobs rather than a right.

terp said:

And she's absolutely right.  You have no right to make someone else do work for you.  

GL2 said:

Our new Miss America believes healthcare is a privilege for those with jobs rather than a right.

Depends where you live. 

Somehow. 

Because services are provided in some places does not mean its a right.  You can even call it a right, but it doesn't make it a right.  Right?

terp said:

And she's absolutely right.  You have no right to make someone else do work for you.  

GL2 said:

Our new Miss America believes healthcare is a privilege for those with jobs rather than a right.

Health insurance shouldn't be tied to employment in the first place. That's where we started going off the rails, because Congress realized that something needed to be done to provide for healthcare so they took an easy way out with tax breaks for employers.

terp said:

Because services are provided in some places does not mean its a right.  You can even call it a right, but it doesn't make it a right.  Right?

Wrong. 

These are just, like, words man. 

Canadians have a right to healthcare. If you want to get into a fight about which rights are from Jesus and which aren't, well, you know what the Bible says about watching little kids die in the gutter from totally curable diseases (against it).

I agree that healthcare shouldn't be tied to employment.  This startes qith wage controls in WWII.  Congress just made these popular benefits more so with the tax benefits. 

They don't have a right to healthcare.  They simply have it provided by the government.  I suggest you go to venezuela and try their free healthcare.  Its a right after all.

RobB said:

terp said:

Because services are provided in some places does not mean its a right.  You can even call it a right, but it doesn't make it a right.  Right?

Wrong. 

These are just, like, words man. 

Canadians have a right to healthcare. If you want to get into a fight about which rights are from Jesus and which aren't, well, you know what the Bible says about watching little kids die in the gutter from totally curable diseases (against it).

we don't have a right to the fire department showing up if our house is on fire.  And we don't have a right to cops showing up if someone is beating us up.  Or a right to roads to get from here to there.  Somewhere along the way we decided that we all have to pay for the fire department to show up at someone else's burning house, or for the police to show up to stop someone from assaulting someone else, or for road crews to come out and build roads we'll never drive on.  But we decided that if you can't afford health insurance and you get sick, you have to pay for it on your own.

Its funny to see people on the same thread call those they disagree with suckers and don't even understand the fundamental concept of a right.   

Yeah.  You guys are way to saavy to be manipulated.  

We also decided to use the police to systematically harass segments of society.  We've decided to spend large sums of $$ to bomb the poor globally...all in the name of safety.  Yet, I'm pretty sure those things aren't rights.

ml1 said:

we don't have a right to the fire department showing up if our house is on fire.  And we don't have a right to cops showing up if someone is beating us up.  Or a right to roads to get from here to there.  Somewhere along the way we decided that we all have to pay for the fire department to show up at someone else's burning house, or for the police to show up to stop someone from assaulting someone else, or for road crews to come out and build roads we'll never drive on.  But we decided that if you can't afford health insurance and you get sick, you have to pay for it on your own.

terp said:

They don't have a right to healthcare.  They simply have it provided by the government.  I suggest you go to venezuela and try their free healthcare.  Its a right after all.

RobB said:

terp said:

Because services are provided in some places does not mean its a right.  You can even call it a right, but it doesn't make it a right.  Right?

Wrong. 

These are just, like, words man. 

Canadians have a right to healthcare. If you want to get into a fight about which rights are from Jesus and which aren't, well, you know what the Bible says about watching little kids die in the gutter from totally curable diseases (against it).

Well now you're just being lazy. Which is great. Because I'm lazy too.

I suggest YOU go to (insert lawless shithole) and enjoy your libertarian paradise. You know, for like five seconds. 

we're in agreement that none of those things are rights.

as others have already said, we can get bogged down in the semantics of "rights" versus "privileges." Is it a privilege to be able to afford prenatal care?  Or emergency care if you get hit by a car?  Maybe it is.  If it is, then as a country we need to be honest about it.  We need to bluntly tell people that if they can't afford treatment, they're not getting it.  Or they need to make an appeal to charity and hope someone feels sympathy and comes to their aid. Nobody should expect that there's any guarantee they'll get health care if they can't afford it.

terp said:

We also decided to use the police to systematically harass segments of society.  We've decided to spend large sums of $$ to bomb the poor globally...all in the name of safety.  Yet, I'm pretty sure those things aren't rights.

ml1 said:

we don't have a right to the fire department showing up if our house is on fire.  And we don't have a right to cops showing up if someone is beating us up.  Or a right to roads to get from here to there.  Somewhere along the way we decided that we all have to pay for the fire department to show up at someone else's burning house, or for the police to show up to stop someone from assaulting someone else, or for road crews to come out and build roads we'll never drive on.  But we decided that if you can't afford health insurance and you get sick, you have to pay for it on your own.