Not much really, although there are some on here who would argue for days about it. This VENN diagram says it all:
View attachment 101213
What we really have is an
illusion of choice. The idiots in power need it. Without it, the citizens would stop bickering of the stupid stuff and concentrate on holding our "leaders" accountable.
Were I a politician, I would live in fear of smart people like Doc, Pat, SteveR, Isaac, AB (one side) and Frothingslosh, Moke123 (the other side) to quit arguing amongst themselves and turn their attention on me...
To the folks I mentioned, I do not presume to know any of you enough to speak to your political beliefs and do not mean to paint you with a broad brush. I am just going off your responses to the political posts and using you as a demonstration of the power of unity. If I misspoke, I ask for some patience and leniency...
You make good points, very little of which I don't agree with.
But there is all the "unseen" stuff - the stuff conservatives/believers like me & family believe in which may or may not be (usually isn't) an explicitly "platformed" political issue, but all of which tends to be made possible by the general Republican leaning toward limited government power and a strictly meritocracy system where personal responsibility and the power of personal choice is paramount.
Many people are saying these days "Oh, the Republicans don't even stand for that any more". Well to that I say, you can only operate within the confines of the current time. I think most of them would if there was the slightest snowball's chance in hell that they could, but you can't go around writing legislation that eliminates the Dept of Education before you've even won the fight about people expecting free college tuition and forgiven loans. You can only push back at the point you are currently in. So they may come across as doing too little, so little that it begs the question what their conservative credentials really are, but that's only something that sounds reasonable to conclude if you've lost all sight of the perspective of actual reality, current-day Washington.
If I went to Washington, I would go with these principles in-tow, but I wouldn't be able to accomplish more than a tiny percentage of them at any given time - it wil be a long, gradual move back to common sense fiscal and national policy if it ever even happens. You can't paddle a place in the river that you aren't in yet.
Now then. About Trump. As I've said before I think the vast majority of his policies and ideas were very much spot-on.
The only question is could he 1) win an election, and 2) effectively govern to any degree, given the baggage that he has--whether justified or not--baggage I mean including what the Dem's have either legitimately or trumped up against him.
I say no. Trump needs to fade away. Someone like De Santis needs to run in 2024. Hopefully they run against Biden, if the Dems are that stupid (which I highly doubt they are, they won't make that mistake again - they were terrified how close they came to losing in 2020, and shocked, for some odd reason).
@NauticalGent I don't pretend to be doing any good in arguing amongst ourselves, really. It just gives me a chance to vent and probably does me some amount of good by honestly reading and honestly "taking in" other people's viewpoints, even the ones I don't like; sometimes they have a point that makes me learn something and occasionally I say so. Whether anyone who reads my stuff ever does the same (concede a point to their inner most self in humility), who knows. Probably, as there are many people better than I in this world !
As for taking this passion to our representatives, I'm not sure what else can be done.
Despite all the talk about both parties being equally useless, Rhino's etc., I don't really agree with that. I think it's a symptom of having to compromise too much..
having to. It is my opinion that if there were a Republican president and a Republican Senate and House for 4 years straight, the country would do so well that people may never elect a D president again, until a R screws up badly enough to deserve it.
If Republicans can find a way to overcome the Democrats' race-crazed mania that gets them votes, (which their #1 shining hope is Hispanics, by a LONG shot, that's why Soros just bought all of FL radio), we might get back to a normal, decent, hard working stable population. Which I think most people would be if not for modern public and radical leftwing grievance ideology creeping in that makes them earnestly search for (and find) grievances galore.