A Question to Americans (Political)
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I like them in the sense that they represent Republicans in a positive light, unlike the other news networks, but yeah they do go pretty far out there with some of the stuff they report on and it makes me just want to slam my head into the wall when I hear it.doomspore98 said:
o im well awareharmonic said:
You just had errors with an extremely slanted view. It seemed rather silly to give Lincoln a pass when you did not give them a pass as well.
You also missed an entire war and trivialized another(assuming over 1000 US deaths).
The republicans get votes for the same reason the democrats do. Because both sides lie and cheat and steal and run us into the ground so much that there are no good options(at least, most people don't seem to realize you can choose 3rd party or even write in a non-politician) and most people here tend to latch onto one issue they feel strongly about and vote based on that. As an example, a massive majority of people in rural areas vote republican because democrats are pursuing stronger gun control. A sizable chunk of republicans are religious fanatics who want to ban abortion/gay marriage/ect. A lot of people support Democrats because they want to cut taxes to middle/lower class and raise taxes on upper class.Amaror said:
Of course, that's all bullshit because neither party actually wants to do any god damn thing other than line their own pockets and keep as tight a grip on their power as they can.
I was pointing a few mistakes(missing a rather big black mark on American history)and the arbitrary dismissing of the Civil war while pointing out WW1 and WW2 were not dismissed as easy which had better reasons for being dismissed.harmonic said:
calm down
if you want my opinion:
containment was a bad plan & it untimely lead to the political state we have today along with the strength of terrorist organisations over the past 30 years. Both party screwed the pooch when it came to wars after WW2(setup or starting as they both followed the same defense plan in the cold war).
My family is Republican, and I think I know why. Republican candidates preach of bringing back a "better (or cleaner) time in America". This time would be the 1950's, where (supposedly) the businesses were local and friendly, the people were kind, the entire country went to church on Sunday, and life was great for everyone.Amaror said:
The problem of course, is that that decade was ACTUALLY the decade of ultimate racial and sexist oppression, threat of nuclear war with Russia, and a life that was great for everyone (who was a white, Christian, male).
The brain does that though, it's the nostalgia effect. However, this effect has elected leaders who blindly and endlessly crusade for the vision above that never happened. This causes situations where we can't raise income taxes because they believe that some sort of 1984 type overtaking of the rich and middle class. Also, we can't give free healthcare because it'll cause us to pay for the "welfare abusers" who (also supposedly) live endlessly without work by pumping out babies for the sake of welfare benefits. You would think that they would know that raising children costs much more than the freaking welfare. On a side note, they are also black in this situation because everyone knows the white women is the working women (massive sarcasm).
And don't even get me started the damn No Child Left Behind Act that has screwed over any dedicated student who wants to excel past his/her current line of education.
Democrats aren't knights in shining armor, either; I generally disagree with their moral codes. However, the problem with Republicans is that they're fighting with a cause, but they're swinging blindly without a plan (or rational thought for that matter).
Also, screw Santorum. That is all.
I disagree with his ideas, but I have to say we need more people like him running for the presidency. A person with ideas, not some asshole trying to win a popularity contest. The biggest thing that strikes me about him is that he is honest and truly means what he says, he is actually able to make the debates somewhat bearable.Xanthious said:
Not everybody hates republicans, it's just most media (probably what a non-American would see) is biased against republicans.
I'm American, and while fiscally conservative, I hate the republican party because despite what people think, they're not ACTUALLY fiscally conservative. They have conservative ideals so long as it'll get them elected. Of course the same is true of the Democratic party.
I'm American, and while fiscally conservative, I hate the republican party because despite what people think, they're not ACTUALLY fiscally conservative. They have conservative ideals so long as it'll get them elected. Of course the same is true of the Democratic party.
It's rather complicated, but there are many and varied valid (and not-so-valid) reasons people vote Republican.Amaror said:
The primary reason is that Republican candidates for anything are, without fail, Christian to some degree. This is a huge part of American politics (which I personally find rather depressing). The fact of the matter is, there is a massive portion of America that is Christian to the core, and refuses to support anyone who disagrees with their religious views.
Beyond that, there's a number of factors, ranging from support for their policies (businesses, and some people even, tend to like the "less government regulation" thing) to lack of understanding of the alternatives.
There's also a big factor in American politics that's less "I'm voting for X" and more "I'm voting against Y". It's really, really stupid, but I know at least a dozen people who have told me they're voting republican, with their sole reason being to vote against Obama. The whole concept is utterly ridiculous, but there you go.
No offense, but your take on history is extremely simplified and biased from the oversimplification. And there's a difference between warmongering and fighting just wars. FDR was not a warmonger for bringing us into World War 2. McKinley was a warmonger for instigating the Spanish-American war (though actually, that was not so much his fault as it was the yellow press and warmongering members of his administration, notably Teddy Roosevelt).harmonic said:
However, you are correct that historically, Republicans have not necessarily been warmongers. Eisenhower preferred sabotaging other people's governments rather than invading them, and Nixon pursued detente while his democratic predecessors chose war with the communists. But it must be said that in the recent decade, Republicans (besides Libertarians) seem to be more into war than Democrats.
edit: I'm not the same guy as that direkiller fellow, even though he has a rather similar username.
This is pretty much the worst place to ask if you want the opinions of people who might actually vote Republican, so as a Canadian currently living in the U.S. I feel I am at least as qualified as any of the Americans here. The Republican party gets votes from a few different groups. One of the major ones is the Christian conservative groups in the South and Midwest. These people vote Republican because they feel (often rightly) that the Democratic Party has no respect for their time-honored values and wants to command them into accepting their moral code, and the Republicans will respect them (while this is not always true, the GOP is at least not actively bashing them). They feel disrespected, and the fact that the media is extremely biased towards the Democratic Party convinces them not to trust anything said on the news. While FOX News gets a lot of criticism for being stupid and biased, the only difference between them and the rest is that FOX is more obvious about it, and therefore easier to mock.
The other major group, which sometimes corresponds with the first, is the economic liberals. The U.S. is a country that was founded on the principle of social mobility and economic freedom, and the Democratic Party often takes positions that the government has the right to interfere with business and demand income redistribution from the rich to the poor. While these policies do decrease income inequality, they also universally decrease a society's total amount of wealth, and Republican-voting Americans don't like being told that they are going to be middle-class or poor forever. They believe that eventually, they will have an opportunity to make it rich, and they believe that they will have earned the money they get and don't want the government taking it away. While this group has decreased recently due to the economic climate, it always ends up returning to its regular position once the economy is in decent shape. This is why the health-care mandate is so strongly opposed by so much of the country. Americans, more so than any other nation in the world, want to be in control of their own money. Also, the law is about to be declared unconstitutional anyway, so that might not matter too much (incidentally, it's hilarious how anyone actually thought that it was constitutional in the first place. Someone must not have actually read the document).
These are pretty much the two major groups that vote Republican, so I won't really go into detail about the others. Nevertheless, the general reason that ties these groups together is the belief that the Republicans respect them and their values, and the Democrats want a technocratic society where government officials make decisions on what is best for them. Anyone who thinks that Republican voters are really just stupid idiots or cruel, uncaring racists really needs to go and read the Jonathan Haidt book "The Righteous Mind", which has a section explaining why partisan left-wingers have trouble understanding the motivations of conservatives.
The other major group, which sometimes corresponds with the first, is the economic liberals. The U.S. is a country that was founded on the principle of social mobility and economic freedom, and the Democratic Party often takes positions that the government has the right to interfere with business and demand income redistribution from the rich to the poor. While these policies do decrease income inequality, they also universally decrease a society's total amount of wealth, and Republican-voting Americans don't like being told that they are going to be middle-class or poor forever. They believe that eventually, they will have an opportunity to make it rich, and they believe that they will have earned the money they get and don't want the government taking it away. While this group has decreased recently due to the economic climate, it always ends up returning to its regular position once the economy is in decent shape. This is why the health-care mandate is so strongly opposed by so much of the country. Americans, more so than any other nation in the world, want to be in control of their own money. Also, the law is about to be declared unconstitutional anyway, so that might not matter too much (incidentally, it's hilarious how anyone actually thought that it was constitutional in the first place. Someone must not have actually read the document).
These are pretty much the two major groups that vote Republican, so I won't really go into detail about the others. Nevertheless, the general reason that ties these groups together is the belief that the Republicans respect them and their values, and the Democrats want a technocratic society where government officials make decisions on what is best for them. Anyone who thinks that Republican voters are really just stupid idiots or cruel, uncaring racists really needs to go and read the Jonathan Haidt book "The Righteous Mind", which has a section explaining why partisan left-wingers have trouble understanding the motivations of conservatives.
This is.....less than the whole story. While it's true that a lot of Americans wouldn't vote for a candidate who wasn't Christian the fact is that Republicans only have a marginally higher percentage of Christians than Democrats and neither party has ever elected a non-Christian president. The division isn't Christian/Non-Christian it is (on that half of the party) Socially Conservative vs. Socially Progressive. Many Republican's believe that certain moral positions that liberals disagree with should be made law. In some cases, like abortion, the moral/ethical line can be very hazy; in others, like marriage equality IMO, they are less so.Agayek said:
Another big division between the parties is the difference between Personal Responsibility and Social Responsibility. Conservatives, by and large, believe that individuals should be held responsible for their actions and should reap the rewards of their gains. This leads to them supporting ideas like Free Market Economy, a harsh judicial system, and the elimination of 'entitlement' programs like welfare and social security. Liberals on the other hand believe in Social Responsibility, that individual success is derived from social support and so should in part be returned to society. This leads to liberals supporting things like progressive taxes (where the rich are taxed disproportionately to the poor), educational programs, and environmentalism.
I personally and a died in the wool Democrat but I have a lot of respect for Republicans and believe that they do have the countries best interests at heart, I simply disagree with them as to how to achieve those interests. I hope that this came off as respectful to both points of view.
The notion that we Republicans want regressive change is a popular misconception. We just want small government that doesn't play Robin Hood with our tax dollars. A few social programs for those who desperately need them are ok (Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged can tell you all about why the welfare state sucks so bad), but other than that, we're more or less strict constitutionalists. We do tend to give corporations a bit of slack, but why not? Our economy is dependent on big business. The top 1% employs almost everyone else. When they pay fewer taxes, they hire more workers, who spend their wages on stuff. Everybody wins. The impression I frequently get from liberal policies is that they shoot the leaders in the foot to try to let stragglers catch up. That's no fun- everyone just finishes last.
We get votes because we make up about half of the country- We're just unpopular in the media because pretty much every Hollywood actor except Mickey Rourke is radically liberal. Plus, GW Bush was so unpopular that Obama turned into a celebrity just for being a Democrat. We are, however, popular among people who have been around long enough to have shaken off their naive idealism and seen just how much of their paycheck is sent to the government every month.
We get votes because we make up about half of the country- We're just unpopular in the media because pretty much every Hollywood actor except Mickey Rourke is radically liberal. Plus, GW Bush was so unpopular that Obama turned into a celebrity just for being a Democrat. We are, however, popular among people who have been around long enough to have shaken off their naive idealism and seen just how much of their paycheck is sent to the government every month.
Well, first as an American democrat, let me just say that the average modern republican viewpoint terrifys me. This is because average now would have been extreme a few years back.
But besides from a media split (ie, fox referring to everything else as the 'liberal media') and an inability to compromise because as some other poster said, compromise = weakness, the vast majority of Americans go blindly into the party their parents were for. People tend to grow up with a viewpoint forced onto them until it becomes theirs, and that to me is kind of sad. It's almost as if none of us get a say in our party.
But besides from a media split (ie, fox referring to everything else as the 'liberal media') and an inability to compromise because as some other poster said, compromise = weakness, the vast majority of Americans go blindly into the party their parents were for. People tend to grow up with a viewpoint forced onto them until it becomes theirs, and that to me is kind of sad. It's almost as if none of us get a say in our party.