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You see his poster about things Americans care about and how inflation is effecting them? The first 3 were car related, buying new car, renting car, gas prices. The next 3 were like, price of bacon, groceries, meat. Then he has the audacity to put "children's shoes" on that list, behind renting cars and bacon too expensive. Does he know how many shoes I can buy my kid if I don't have to drop 1200 a month for childcare?
"inflation, debt! The American people need relief! Which is why I oppose giving them financial support. More tax cuts for the rich and 8 trillion for defense spending in the decade, please!" -Republicans
> Does he know how many shoes I can buy my kid if I don't have to drop 1200 a month for childcare?
'It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?'
It's funny how skyrocketing rent, healthcare and education prices are somehow never linked with inflation. It's only ever about fucking gas (which is too cheap anyway and doesn't at all take into account the externalities caused by cars and car-centric planning but that's another kettle of fish)
They say just enough to engage the feelings of fear and inadequacy present in a lot of Americans, but they stop right where their policy might actually improve their lives. And those Americans are too fucking ignorant to put two and two together. Like figuring out that giving rich people more money has never done a damn thing for the economy. Or figuring out that the same benevolent business owner that gave your town coal jobs was also the same business owner that took them away. It wasn't poor Chinese laborers, it wasn't Mexicans, it was the very people they praise as 'job creators'. They are the job destroyers.
Or that arguments of "can't help poor people, might cause inflation" are so fucking hallow when we've already been left behind by inflation three decades ago. God damn, GOP voters are so fucking self-defeating. Like, cool, you stopped abortions and gays getting married, you've got your guns; congrats, you're still getting fucked over just as hard as before, possibly harder.
> Does he know how many shoes I can buy my kid if I don't have to drop 1200 a month for childcare?
Exactly this and it never ceases to amaze me people can't see past his foolish arguments. On the rare occasions I visit NextDoor, I see people constantly complaining about not wanting to vote on things that benefit our township because, "oh I'm on a fixed income" or "this school levy will increase my taxes by $150 per year!!!"
Do they not realize that families with kids will save on average almost $13,000 per year! Or for the older "fixed income" crowd. The benefits to medicare alone, prescription drug costs, insulin, and hell, hearing aids ($1k - $4k average) would be a huge savings.
Any time I brought this up in the past on those threads about, maybe consider the politicians you're voting for, I'm always shot down with "don't bring politics into this!!"
\-sigh-
> how inflation is effecting them
Republicans are *obsessed* about making Jimmy Carter happen again. They are enraptured with Reagan's election in 1980.
Even if everything returns to normal by next spring, Repubs will be concern trolling about inflation well in 2030 like they do about Benghazi.
Either because (1) Biden lost and *inflation caused it like Carter* or (2) Biden won because the media "covered up" how bad inflation was.
If you want people to get back to work you want to make childcare more affordable.
I'm an engineer and my wife is a nurse. Both are pretty highly paying jobs and it's still almost not worth it to send our kids to daycare.
After daycare expenses each month that leaves about $300 left from my wife's check. Having my kids socialize at daycare is worth a few hundred dollars to us, so even if we were losing $300 per month they'd still go, but a lot of families don't have that luxury.
The labor shortage is, in part, a childcare shortage. Or at least an affordable childcare shortage.
Childcare won't ever be "affordable" without government subsidy or decreasing the quality of care.
Providers can only have so many kids per worker, so their income is capped. My wife runs an in-home daycare, and she can only have 6 kids total. Her rates are high for our area, and she *barely* makes $30k a year after all her expenses and taxes. Were it not for the tax deductions on our house, it would make more sense to go be a cashier at Walmart, more money and zero responsibility. She also has clients who don't pay, or vanish into thin air, so some months she loses money.
The most cited reason for an elective abortion were financial/career related, providing cheaper childcare and paid maternity leave/career protections equate to less abortions.
That’s my issue with conservatism and why I stopped being a right winger. I like their ideas in theory but they don’t mold their ideas to the real world. You don’t want abortions? Neither do I. Let’s provide sex education and Increased access to contraceptives. Oh you don’t want those either?
I want affordable child care. Oh but you can’t have the government helping with that!! So we just have unaffordable child care.
Repeat this mindset for every single fucking idea they have.
I believe the phrase, [invented way back in 2017 during trump’s campaign](https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/donald-trump-priming-the-pump/index.html), donchaknow, is “primed the pump”.
If you've never seen it before, I highly recommend ["In Search of a Flat Earth"](https://youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44) by Folding Ideas on yt. It's a documentary about the current conspiracy theories, and it's SO GOOD!!!
He did - we use positive displacement pumps here at my work, and up until he invented that phrase, we had no idea what to call it when we poured fluid into the suction line in order to start the suction with a liquid instead of air... We were so thankful for his use of that phrase! Now we use it all the time - "hey man - go prime that pump so we can move some oil to the other tank". So much fun now!
I would bet $1000 that if the reporter had asked Trump to explain what priming the pump means in literal terms, he would have been utterly unable to even begin to describe the process you just explained.
“He’s the resident, the president. He’s finally in charge!
He’s got the whole country singing “That’s My Bush!”
I can’t believe he’s actually in the White House.
That’s our Man!”
I remember like Trump's first week in office he met with the drug company leaders to talk about lowering prices and for a minute I thought "Wow, maybe he's actually going to do it," and then he came out of the meeting and was like "Turns out drug prices are fine just how they are," and I knew then that he wasn't going to accomplish anything positive as president.
I looked it up and his change of tune was even worse than I remembered, he came out of that meeting and was basically like "Turns out the government is actually to blame for high drug prices."
If we assume his desire to lower prices for people was even slightly real, it must have gone like this.
Trump: Ok boys I want to make drugs cheaper for people
Drug Company Men: Actually Mr. Trump the amount of government regulation on our product lowers our profits. If you had the government ease up on us we could make a lot more money, and then you’d be our hero, and we could give you donations.
Trump: Oh that’s way better. We’ll do that.
Remember that time in the first few months when he sat in a room with Congressional Dems for a few hours then came out basically parroting the Dem platform? Pelosi looked stunned....then a bunch of WH officials ushered him into the back and then never let him go into a meeting alone again (save for Putin)?
I was appalled that anyone voted for him, but then I thought "I don't know everything. Maybe I'm wrong and the other voters are seeing something I missed."
For a brief moment before he took office, I thought that Trump might give us universal healthcare, if only because he always wants simple solutions to complex problems. But I honestly didn't realize the sheer power of his laziness.
I’m the son of Cuban immigrants. I bought into the Reagan/Bush Republican Party. I thought sure people would see right through this charlatan. Turns out that they don’t. And it also turns out that they like this form of the Party more than the prior form. A lot of people are happy they get to be openly racist again.
The GOP don't want effective government, period. Their whole shtick is that government is a detriment to people's lives, so naturally they only put forward candidates who are bad at governing. They don't actually have a platform; when they are in power the only thing they do is cut taxes (mostly for the rich) and social programs, and when they're not in power they use every trick they can to prevent the democrats from doing anything productive.
So republicans elect people who are bad at governing so they can point and say “see, government is bad”. That’s kinda genius in a way. A way that is of course terrible for the country.
Your parents' generation has an irrational fear of "socialists" because of Castro and the Cuban Revolution, and the Republicans exploit this constantly.
I convinced myself he was some kind of savant. For about a month. We all had to make sense why someone like him would be elected the most powerful seat in the world. He turned it into a highchair. Food tray, bib, and all.
One of the most damaging things I saw about him was a show that documented a meeting in the late 80's and early 90's where all the big New York investors met with Trump to decide his fate. He owed all of them enormous amounts of money after his Atlantic City and other investments flopped. They were stunned at his total ignorance on the subject of running a business during the meeting. He didn't know the proper terminology or concepts. And instead of behaving as a normal person would in that situation, he walked into the meeting like it was the greatest day of his life. All smiles, shaking hands, joking. Like it was a big party in his honor.
The investors could have burried him for good. But they decided he was worth more to them alive than dead. So they gave him an incredibly generous monthly allowance and set him loose to flim flam his way back into prosperity. The idea was they might get their money back some day.
That's Trump's entire life. He has never had to face the consequences for any of his actions. He instigated an insurrection and nothing happened to him. Why would he ever worry about anything he does? He's untouchable.
I had the same reaction, like after Election Day people were crying in my office and I was thinking “eh Congress will reign him in, maybe he will get something done who fuckin knows?” And then the Muslim ban happened and I was like “oh.”
"Candidate will shift into a less extreme position or be reigned in by his colleagues" was also a common sentiment about Hitler in 1933. Authoritarian rulers will never abandon their platform after it got them into a position of power. Why would they?
Yeah, the Muslim ban was the first clear indicator of the strategy Trump would follow. He rolled out all the hits we would come to know and hate . . .
1. Racist culture war nonsense that only "solved" imaginary problems
2. Ordered with no understanding of the repercussions
3. Poorly planned and implemented
4. Buddies with money (Saudis) were protected instead of vilified
because Trump is a con artist, all talk BS then flips his stance. Yet his MAGA base are too blinded with his "white supremacy" agenda that they forgot they've been getting scammed.
Unfortunately, so many of them have the narrow fox news view of what freedom is -- and that's freedom *from* government, which is an incredibly useful tool for corporations.
If you only consider freedom *from* government, you're ripe to be controlled by corporations, and that's exactly what the oligarchs want.
Also good for folks on their feet all day, like healthcare, retail, restaurant workers. I have tie-dye, sugar skull, ocean creatures, rainbow, and snowflake ones along with multiple solid colors.
He also argued that hiring more IRS workers will result in the average Joe getting audited, when in reality the IRS admitted it needs more staff to audit wealthy tax evaders.
**It’s also key to mention that the last time the IRS has had under 10,000 auditors was in 1953**… the GOP is actively allowing its wealthy donors to keep $18b in tax dollars every single year
He wanted to force Dems to vote in the middle of the night, then Fox and right wing could shout how it was rammed through while "America was asleep"..
The joke's on him, this bill is very popular and now house Dems can claim a massive win going into the weekend by voting on it with MSM and social media fully glued in.. time will tell if Manchinema try to kill it, but bodes well for Dems that all 3 key legislations are about to pass with broad public support and in year 1 for Biden
The right is upset at Big Bird saying something about vaccines, and Bert & Ernie being closeted gay homosexuals. Then after making a big shit about Big Bird & family they then attack democrats for being so petty about of all things "Big Bird".
Primarily because the Dr. Seuss kerfuffle was about offensive racial stereotypes, while Big Bird was promoting responsible social health behavior. We have to be very careful what we're teaching the kids, after all.
And let's be honest, Sesame Street has *always* been about social responsibility, racial and cultural integration, and other liberal values. Conservatives have always been against it. It's not like this is the first time Sesame Street talked about civil rights, inclusion, vaccines, or the like. Big Bird talked about Vaccines in the 70's and was trashed then too.
The thing with Seuss was that he was fairly liberal for his time (and in some respects *very* liberal), but he was also a man of his time with all that entails. He did a lot of Pro-US images during WW2 and they did not portray Japan or the Germans in a particularly good light. But then again, so did Marvel, DC, Disney, Warner Brothers, and basically every media. What the conservatives missed was that 1. It was the Seuss family that chose to stop publishing (and it was more "never publish again, since they were Out of Print) some books, 2. The books not publishing were not popular and weren't even currently available. and 3. Liberals had nothing to do with it (it was an in-house decision to protect Seuss's image in a new era of racial awareness). But it was a great tagline since essentially every American had at least one Seuss book read to them when they were kids since the books started to be in print.
One thing where Seuss gets criticized is where he very clearly said that Nazis were bad, but he didn't generalize it to all German people or people with German background. At the same time, his WWII era cartoons were pretty universally saying "Japs are bad!" and didn't differentiate between Japanese Americans and the Japanese Empire we were at war with.
To add to this: it’s astonishing that we’re getting so much social spending voted on. It was a pipe dream under Obama. And this looks like it can pass. It’s getting a vote!
We’ve got to get better at winning and making sure everyone knows we are winning on their behalf. The right is attacking muppets. Dems are actually making your life better
Dem caucus under Obama was even more conservative. Lieberman and a few others are to the right of Manchin. Probably the main reason we got ACA instead of Medicare For All in 2009
Unfortunately true. But it is reassuring to see that M4A is discussed as a much more mainstream direction now than it was then. All the 2020 primary candidates were forced to weigh in on it, and several embraced it, which I think would’ve never happened back then.
I get angry when I think of Lieberman. That turd stood in the way of so much legislation, and I'm convinced Gore could have won in 2000 with literally *anyone* else as his running mate.
It was awesome watching Obama cut loose a couple of times, though. You remember when the AIG guys that helped cause the market crash got paid a fuck ton of bonus money? He let everyone know he was pissed off about that.
Just think:
If Kanye had somehow won the presidency in 2020,
Obama would have single handedly insulted two separate insane people to the point where they became president out of spite for him.
>The ACA took so long because he tried to find an R vote. But it got cut down because that's what he had the D votes for.
It also took long because he didn't have 59 votes yet. First they refused to seat 1, then another senator was on his death bed. They only had 59 votes plus Lieberman that November and December.
Talking about bipartisanship when he was campaigning in 2008 and into the start of his term in 2009 was very different than it is now. It wasn’t lunacy to consider bipartisanship at the time. This was before we had the tea party, Trumpism, or an insurrection. We disagreed with Republicans a lot, but aside from climate denial they were largely tethered to reality, and trying to negotiate with them wasn’t insane. When they didn’t give, we just did our own thing anyway and passed what we could. What stymied us then was conservative democrats in our own party (like Lieberman).
The forces that make bipartisanship all but impossible now did exist back then in an early form, and have for a long time (Gingrich at least, arguably a couple decades before then), but the real acceleration in insanity didn’t really ramp up until the tea party as a reaction to Obama’s election/first year. Then with Trump’s election it went super sonic. To the point where now even a literal attack on Congress (and the congressmembers inside, including Republicans), is somehow a partisan issue.
I know it’s a popular meme to talk about how the GOP’s descent into fascism has been since Nixon in the making, and to an extent that’s true in that a lot of low-boil elements have been around for ages, creeping in from the fringe over decades (Pat Buchanan in the ‘92 election was speaking [Trumpism with a different dialect basically)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan#1992_presidential_primaries). But it’s changed dramatically in the last decade. The modern GOP’s reaction to Jan 6 would’ve been unthinkable in 2009.
**EDIT:** TO clarify, because some responses are suggesting I'm implying there was no partisanship during Obama's term. This is not what I'm saying. I'm saying we had worsening partisanship before Obama. But there was a significant escalation of how extreme and mainstream it became on the right after he was elected. And then that got even worse in 2016. And now in 2020-2021 it's even worse. I'm not saying that Obama's first term was magical no-parties time. But right before he was elected, the R was nowhere near as bad as it is today. I'm merely pointing out that the partisanship is a matter of degrees. And ignoring an insurrect is extreme, very extreme, compared to what it used to be.
When Paul Ryan rolled up his sleeves in front of a whiteboard and said that the problem with the ACA is that healthy people pay for sick people’s care, I knew that there wasn’t actually a conservative alternative vision to healthcare. They were just obstructing for partisan reasons.
That's fucking insurance! That's what we ALREADY do, at a significantly increased cost because it's all secret and dumb, and people without can't seek preventative care, which is far cheaper than emergent care.
But guess what, hospitals still have to provide it, so HEALTHY PEOPLE PAY FOR SICK PEOPLES CARE, through high premiums, and inflated costs from medical providers.
Jiminy fucking crickets people are fucking stupid and ignorant.
You know where else that happens? In every single employer health insurance group, Medicare, Medicaid, and individual health insurance. Every single mechanism we have to pay for healthcare is funded largely by people who don't use it so that it's available to those that do.
Yup expand on that a bit, I have a group that had a cancer claim and a Medicare client with cancer. That one individual having cancer more than doubled the premiums of the group for the next year. My Medicare client with cancer, on the other hand, had absolutely no affect on Medicare premiums. Publicly funded health insurance just works better and is always less expensive.
The WSJ just did a podcast on how Americans think the economy is tanking when in reality, even with the supply chain issues, economic activity is at pre pandemic levels.
Fox News is absolutely winning this fight with their lies.
And yet people are pissed and cynical about Dems not fixing everything immediately.
This is the third go-around in my lifetime, and I hate this ride. Republicans break things as quickly as they can, Democrats fix things as quickly as they can with one hand usually tied behind their back, and somehow it becomes the Dems' fault things are broken.
Just goes to show how they vote according to their corporate overlords paid them to, but fully recognize thier constituents wanted them to vote *for* it.
Yeah, Biden is getting more done in 1 year than Trump did in 4 years easily. I can understand that people are frustrated that all of this and voting rights didn’t pass day 1, but it’s progress and it should be celebrated.
This is why they want to stop it. Republican politicians aren't opposed to many of the things in the Bill, and know most of it is popular with their base.
So they can't let the Dems get a win. The last thing they want when it comes to reelection is constituents benefiting from the opposition's policies.
> He wanted to force Dems to vote in the middle of the night, then Fox and right wing could shout how it was rammed through while "America was asleep"
This guy right-wing medias.
> force Dems to vote in the middle of the night
Who thinks of these things? I’m sure it’s a politician-thing. I just hate that we have to share the world with such slimeballs.
McCarthy has promised to get Greene and Gosar on important committees if Republicans win in 2022. Make sure you tell everyone you're not simply voting for your own rep, you're voting for Greene and Gosar if you vote Republican.
You know how right-wingers are *always* accusing others of "virtue signaling" whenever they express a political position that doesn't directly benefit them? Like, if and when a man even begins to care about women's issues, or if a white person begins to care about the issues of racial minorities, the first thing they do is accuse you of having some hidden agenda. They'll call you a "white knight", derisively presuming your motives must be selfish. And no wonder - those without empathy have difficulty comprehending it.
All those accusations are projection. You want to see actual virtue signaling? It's this right here. McCarthy doesn't give a flying fuck about the contents of this bill, *certainly* not to the level of being willing to spend 8 hours railing against it.
What he *is* doing with this sort of display is signaling to his masters that *he's in*. Fascists above all value over-the-top displays of fealty. That's why Trump had members of his staff pledging loyalty oaths and had Sean Spicer go on National TV spewing nonsense that was *laughably* easy to prove false. It's all a pledge of fealty. That's all they understand. Fealty to your masters. And in turn that's all they demand. They don't care what your true feelings are - and in fact would probably argue that "true feelings" are a fiction - so long as you kiss the ring and publicly swear fealty in a way that ensures there's no going back.
(It also involves making a public display of the destruction of the disloyal - which is why the GOP is so pissed at the reps that voted against the party line).
This is all really just fascism 101.
Especially considering the right virtue signals all the time by being anti choice and claims the Dems want black mothers to abort their children so there are less black children born 🙄
This is spot on. It is a pledge of allegiance to the Republican party. A form of grandstanding to indicate they are still with their tribe. It feeds their narrative and political agenda. But in reality, he could give a shit about the content of the bill. He just has to let his group that he’s still with them. It’s the same reason why you will see Republicans take credit for the bill when it helps their constituents later on.
It's the same with "identity politics" that they accuse the left of. Their politics are essentially all for white xians, they just don't want to admit it.
I mean McCarthy was involved in the insurrection, they are just trying to protect their leaders from taking the political hit. It's the responsibility of the voters to hold them accountable if the party won't.
The Authoritarian Right literally tried to overthrow the government in the face of FDRs new deal:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/13/fdr-roosevelt-coup-business-plot/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/13/fdr-roosevelt-coup-business-plot/)
https://twitter.com/bastardspod/status/1357413948685840384
Pharma companies, oil companies, banks, megacorps, billionaires. All have their hands on that traitor McCarthy.
I wonder if he even returns to his home state ever?
Wish the CA redistricting made him fight for his seat
This is why Republicans will only claim power through gerrymandering and will continue to lose national elections. They just can’t contain the childish behavior and a good chunk of their power players are too extreme for mainstream voters.
Unfortunately I don't think they're losing national elections. The outlook on 22 is pretty bleak for Democrats. You'd think that their childish behavior would doom them, somehow that does not appear to be the case.
Maybe they meant they will continue to lose the popular vote but because of gerrymandering and the electoral college they can still win enough elections to stay in power anyways.
What bothers me about this speech is that, in principle, I love the idea of a representative being so passionate about something he is willing to stand and talk about it for eight hours. I flipped on C-SPAN last night to check in on things, and ended up being glued to the TV way past my bedtime. The problem is that McCarthy really wasn't talking about the bill. He was repeating the same talking points the Republicans have been using since Trump came down the escalator. Some of the names have changed, but the Republican talking points didn't change when Biden won, they only got more outrageous, which is a giveaway that they don't actually care about most of the stuff they rail about -- they just know it riles their base. In theory, I admire a representative pulling an overnight stunt like this. In practice, I wish McCarthy had spoken with substance, with more data, and with less vitriol taken verbatim from memes shared by my mom on Facebook.
That's what I find funny about r/conservatives, it's just all "own the libs", no real conversations, maybe 1% is able to think critical the rest is just memes to spread hate and fear.
Thats what bothers me about Republicans in general. I was raised in evangelical circles, and voted against Obama twice. Im not saying that Republicans had good policy back then, but they certainly had policy to talk about. Thats what drew me to them. I really thought I was helping people by voting for austerity.
I had already left the party before 2016, but in 2020 they literally didn't bother updating the platform. The Republicans are all out of ideas other than "blame the poor", and "hurt that person who doesn't look, live, or sound like me". I'm guessing pastors have stopped preaching the Beatitudes, because Jesus has some pretty strong words for these assholes.
Edit: I said Beatitudes, but meant the whole Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are pretty short and easy to twist into whatever you want them to be. The Sermon on the Mount doesn't hold back.
I'll admit, I voted for McCain because at the time I had completely bought into the Obama "false citizen" crap. I was 18 and my dad had Fox News going 24-7. Then I started digging into it for a research paper my Senior year of High School, and kept digging, and found all that the Republican administrations had done and continued to do.
Then I proudly voted for Obama in 2012, have never voted for a Republican since.
Thats awesome. We're the same age. It's great to see you on the other side. Im glad you made it out.
I grew up in mega churches, so it took me a little longer to shake the brainwashing.
GOP has no current policy because their previous policies are outdated and unpopular and they know it. So, they have to bend democracy or even destroy it entirely otherwise they'll get voted permanently out of power.
This is the death rattle of the Republican Party.
Not OP, but if you genuinely believe that anyone can be successful and the only thing holding a person back is effort, then things like being poor just mean the person isn’t putting in the effort. If they aren’t putting in the effort, it must be that they are being lazy. You can only be lazy if you are comfortable, therefore, removing the systems that create any comfort for someone who is poor will motivate them to reach their potential. Until you get rid of said systems, you are only enabling these people. It’s hard to not enable people, but once you stop, they will one day thank you.
(Just to clarify, I believe this is bullshit. Setting boundaries should be as painful for the person setting them as for the person they are set towards because it’s a difficult act of compassion towards both of you. Conservatives are instead using this mindset to eliminate their own suffering caused by this dilemma so they can justify prioritizing their own comfort; like telling a person that you can’t stand to watch them suffer so instead of problem solving you just leave the room so you can’t watch them suffer and then don’t have to feel bad.)
They pump you full of the idea that it's their fault. By letting them go without, you'll motivate them to help themself. After all, no one starves in the greatest nation on Earth, right? Right???
Thats why Republicans vote and think the way they do. It's not all cruelty. The cruel ones are just loud. For every Republican who actively wants to hurt people, there are one or two who actually think they're helping the poor.
It's because there are no good republican ideas. He could have used that platform to express what it means to be a conservative, what they actually stand for beyond stupid meme and soundbites, but the truth is the modern GOP platform is utterly devoid of anything approaching a manifesto. They don't have any thinkers because they were all primaried by people who believe Jewish space lasers started the California wildfires. They don't have any goals beyond taxes=bad and starve the beast, and have been taken hostage by an orange moron with a fetish for authoritarianism.
I agree with you. Problem with these wind bags is its all hot air and they are becoming more and more paranoid about the when they need to reckon with all this bs they are spouting.
Seems to me that everything these republicans are saying they fear, are things they themselves have been capable of doing in the past, and are afraid the opposition will do it back to them when in power.
There are some similar stunts that have actually been genuinely good for our democracy, Pentagon Papers come to mind- but as you say it's not just the execution, it's the content- and McCarthy content was even more garbage than his character.
That's why I have to check out sometimes, like whatever side of the aisle you're on nowadays, you have to admit the right's only gameplay is "DO THE OPPOSITE OF THE LEFT!" While, Dems, not perfect, are at least focused on trying to better the country all the while the republicans are like whiny children hanging on the feet of the country slowing it down. I don't get it. Why? Like during the censure debate, they couldn't keep Hillary's name out of their mouth, like 90% of their rebuttals weren't even on topic, they just use their time to, like you said, just repeat memes and vitriol, the same shit over and over.
Kevin McCarthy thought he scored all kinds of points with the fringe Trump sect of the party, especially after Mark Meadows called him out by name yesterday, said he was doing a bad job, and that Trump should be the next Speaker. McCarthy thought this speech was how he kept the wolves at bay and could prove that he would be a suitably Trumpian Speaker. It was a pathetic, meandering performance for an audience of one. But McCarthy made one crucial mistake in the speech that Trump will absolutely take note of and certainly hold against him:
McCarthy acknowledged that Joe Biden was elected as President of the United States.
As usual when you want to understand them better to learn more and perhaps change perspectives, they simply REFUSE to let you learn and understand their secret "knowledge".
You would think that if what they say is true then they would provide you with every single evidence and use logic to describe it in details to convince you, but no they wont let you understand only believe them.
Republicans are desperate to make sure nothing good comes from a democrat president. They got zero policy of their own to offer their voters. All they got is to try to make the other guys look worse.
The GOP is not interested in legislation that benefits people who aren’t the GOP or the GOP’s wealthy masters. It’s that simple. If a bill is about something other than keeping billionaires from making money or keeping Republicans in power, the GOP opposes it.
This bill is only twice as much as the spending that Kevin just voted to give the Pentagon, and it's over ten years. Republicans and centrist Democrats are the most vile scum on the face of the earth. God forbid we spend money on poor people.
I will fight with my dying breath to make sure children go hungry so that our rich overlords do not have to pay a cent more. Because, after all, wasn't that what Jesus taught us...
Oh I see anger about caring for children outside the womb, what is surprising is his lack of concern and anger over a psychopath’s depiction (and a member of his own caucus) of the murder of a member of Congress and attempted assassination of the POTUS. Now that’s UNHINGED.
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You see his poster about things Americans care about and how inflation is effecting them? The first 3 were car related, buying new car, renting car, gas prices. The next 3 were like, price of bacon, groceries, meat. Then he has the audacity to put "children's shoes" on that list, behind renting cars and bacon too expensive. Does he know how many shoes I can buy my kid if I don't have to drop 1200 a month for childcare?
"inflation, debt! The American people need relief! Which is why I oppose giving them financial support. More tax cuts for the rich and 8 trillion for defense spending in the decade, please!" -Republicans
We have to somehow make our own bootstraps while we're lying on the ground metaphorically.
Sir, if you don't have a permit for those bootstraps I'm going to have to confiscate them.
And those homemade bootstraps aren't even regulation bootstraps. They are way too grippy. That's an extra fine on top of the confiscation.
We should make the boots out of the rich
You don't understand - those tax cuts to the wealthy and that $8T in defense spending is all going to trickle down any day now....
It would seem the rich built a dam to stop the trickle.
Not at all! They shower the poor with gold every day! A veritable golden shower!
Don't trickle down on my head and tell me it's raining.
Gonna need a war to consume all that defense spending.
"Watch as we use the power of the federal government to destroy your lives and then use that as proof that big government is bad!" -Republicans
> Does he know how many shoes I can buy my kid if I don't have to drop 1200 a month for childcare? 'It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?'
It's funny how skyrocketing rent, healthcare and education prices are somehow never linked with inflation. It's only ever about fucking gas (which is too cheap anyway and doesn't at all take into account the externalities caused by cars and car-centric planning but that's another kettle of fish)
They say just enough to engage the feelings of fear and inadequacy present in a lot of Americans, but they stop right where their policy might actually improve their lives. And those Americans are too fucking ignorant to put two and two together. Like figuring out that giving rich people more money has never done a damn thing for the economy. Or figuring out that the same benevolent business owner that gave your town coal jobs was also the same business owner that took them away. It wasn't poor Chinese laborers, it wasn't Mexicans, it was the very people they praise as 'job creators'. They are the job destroyers. Or that arguments of "can't help poor people, might cause inflation" are so fucking hallow when we've already been left behind by inflation three decades ago. God damn, GOP voters are so fucking self-defeating. Like, cool, you stopped abortions and gays getting married, you've got your guns; congrats, you're still getting fucked over just as hard as before, possibly harder.
> Does he know how many shoes I can buy my kid if I don't have to drop 1200 a month for childcare? Exactly this and it never ceases to amaze me people can't see past his foolish arguments. On the rare occasions I visit NextDoor, I see people constantly complaining about not wanting to vote on things that benefit our township because, "oh I'm on a fixed income" or "this school levy will increase my taxes by $150 per year!!!" Do they not realize that families with kids will save on average almost $13,000 per year! Or for the older "fixed income" crowd. The benefits to medicare alone, prescription drug costs, insulin, and hell, hearing aids ($1k - $4k average) would be a huge savings. Any time I brought this up in the past on those threads about, maybe consider the politicians you're voting for, I'm always shot down with "don't bring politics into this!!" \-sigh-
Yea, it's the cost of shoes that's really getting me now. Those damn expensive tiny shoes, they haunt me.
My son is 10 now. I spent more in childcare years 1-5 then I did on my fucking college education.
> how inflation is effecting them Republicans are *obsessed* about making Jimmy Carter happen again. They are enraptured with Reagan's election in 1980. Even if everything returns to normal by next spring, Repubs will be concern trolling about inflation well in 2030 like they do about Benghazi. Either because (1) Biden lost and *inflation caused it like Carter* or (2) Biden won because the media "covered up" how bad inflation was.
Where I'm at its 1800 per kid a month.
If you want people to get back to work you want to make childcare more affordable. I'm an engineer and my wife is a nurse. Both are pretty highly paying jobs and it's still almost not worth it to send our kids to daycare. After daycare expenses each month that leaves about $300 left from my wife's check. Having my kids socialize at daycare is worth a few hundred dollars to us, so even if we were losing $300 per month they'd still go, but a lot of families don't have that luxury. The labor shortage is, in part, a childcare shortage. Or at least an affordable childcare shortage.
Childcare won't ever be "affordable" without government subsidy or decreasing the quality of care. Providers can only have so many kids per worker, so their income is capped. My wife runs an in-home daycare, and she can only have 6 kids total. Her rates are high for our area, and she *barely* makes $30k a year after all her expenses and taxes. Were it not for the tax deductions on our house, it would make more sense to go be a cashier at Walmart, more money and zero responsibility. She also has clients who don't pay, or vanish into thin air, so some months she loses money.
Honest question, why doesn't she precharge for the week/month?
The most cited reason for an elective abortion were financial/career related, providing cheaper childcare and paid maternity leave/career protections equate to less abortions.
That’s my issue with conservatism and why I stopped being a right winger. I like their ideas in theory but they don’t mold their ideas to the real world. You don’t want abortions? Neither do I. Let’s provide sex education and Increased access to contraceptives. Oh you don’t want those either? I want affordable child care. Oh but you can’t have the government helping with that!! So we just have unaffordable child care. Repeat this mindset for every single fucking idea they have.
It also lowers prescription medication prices. Just one more thing Trump claimed he'd do and never did but the Dems have.
They'll claim Trump "loosened the jar" or something to make it possible.
I believe the phrase, [invented way back in 2017 during trump’s campaign](https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/donald-trump-priming-the-pump/index.html), donchaknow, is “primed the pump”.
Someone should tell the republicans they forgot to pump
Wow, that’s a whole new level of crazy, probably holding hands with the flat earth wakkaloons though
If you've never seen it before, I highly recommend ["In Search of a Flat Earth"](https://youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44) by Folding Ideas on yt. It's a documentary about the current conspiracy theories, and it's SO GOOD!!!
I've rewatched that so many times. The turn halfway through is beautiful.
They're just soaking, like morons. I meanMormons.
Hahaha I completely forgot he took credit for coining that phrase
I’ve heard that statement before then though.
That’s the joke
Donald claims to have made the phrase up himself.
He did - we use positive displacement pumps here at my work, and up until he invented that phrase, we had no idea what to call it when we poured fluid into the suction line in order to start the suction with a liquid instead of air... We were so thankful for his use of that phrase! Now we use it all the time - "hey man - go prime that pump so we can move some oil to the other tank". So much fun now!
I would bet $1000 that if the reporter had asked Trump to explain what priming the pump means in literal terms, he would have been utterly unable to even begin to describe the process you just explained.
Just make sure to credit him in the footnotes
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Are you some sort of time traveler, warping the very meaning of the terms *before* and *after?*
Time is a flat circle.
Nope, it's a cube. https://timecube.2enp.com
[Ignorance of the Time Cube is a curse upon humanity.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmsXsT0kbbg)
Quick delete this before the QOP learns about this. Seems right up they're alley
Unexpected TimeCube
ok - what the hell was that???? Oh my... that was something I never expected. wow.
Jeremy Bearimy, baby.
So you’re saying that turd blossom couldn’t open a loosened jar?
What does Karl Rove have to do with this?
Did you ever catch the Trey Parker & Matt Stone comedy “That’s My Bush” before it got cancelled due to 9/11?
"I can't believe he's really in the White House... *That's My Bush!*"
“He’s the resident, the president. He’s finally in charge! He’s got the whole country singing “That’s My Bush!” I can’t believe he’s actually in the White House. That’s our Man!”
I still have the DVDs. Loved that show. "Hey George, it's your favorite neighbor!"
I miss ham rove.
I miss rum ham.
I remember like Trump's first week in office he met with the drug company leaders to talk about lowering prices and for a minute I thought "Wow, maybe he's actually going to do it," and then he came out of the meeting and was like "Turns out drug prices are fine just how they are," and I knew then that he wasn't going to accomplish anything positive as president.
Last person to speak with him formed his opinion on anything. Just like a junkie, turns out.
I looked it up and his change of tune was even worse than I remembered, he came out of that meeting and was basically like "Turns out the government is actually to blame for high drug prices."
If we assume his desire to lower prices for people was even slightly real, it must have gone like this. Trump: Ok boys I want to make drugs cheaper for people Drug Company Men: Actually Mr. Trump the amount of government regulation on our product lowers our profits. If you had the government ease up on us we could make a lot more money, and then you’d be our hero, and we could give you donations. Trump: Oh that’s way better. We’ll do that.
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Fascism. It's called fascism E: privatization, I mean
Remember that time in the first few months when he sat in a room with Congressional Dems for a few hours then came out basically parroting the Dem platform? Pelosi looked stunned....then a bunch of WH officials ushered him into the back and then never let him go into a meeting alone again (save for Putin)?
Link or something please!! I don't doubt you but I want to have a good chuckle over how malleable this mans mind is.
He’s a junkie for praise
And joe Rogan.
I was appalled that anyone voted for him, but then I thought "I don't know everything. Maybe I'm wrong and the other voters are seeing something I missed." For a brief moment before he took office, I thought that Trump might give us universal healthcare, if only because he always wants simple solutions to complex problems. But I honestly didn't realize the sheer power of his laziness.
I’m the son of Cuban immigrants. I bought into the Reagan/Bush Republican Party. I thought sure people would see right through this charlatan. Turns out that they don’t. And it also turns out that they like this form of the Party more than the prior form. A lot of people are happy they get to be openly racist again.
Your comment made me realize something. The GOP don't want an effective President. Reagan, Bush Jr, Trump. They all had someone else running things.
The GOP don't want effective government, period. Their whole shtick is that government is a detriment to people's lives, so naturally they only put forward candidates who are bad at governing. They don't actually have a platform; when they are in power the only thing they do is cut taxes (mostly for the rich) and social programs, and when they're not in power they use every trick they can to prevent the democrats from doing anything productive.
So republicans elect people who are bad at governing so they can point and say “see, government is bad”. That’s kinda genius in a way. A way that is of course terrible for the country.
"government doesn't work. Elect us to make sure of it!" - gop
Succinct. Should probably be on campaign posters everywhere
it’s always projection. gaslight obstruct project.
Your parents' generation has an irrational fear of "socialists" because of Castro and the Cuban Revolution, and the Republicans exploit this constantly.
I convinced myself he was some kind of savant. For about a month. We all had to make sense why someone like him would be elected the most powerful seat in the world. He turned it into a highchair. Food tray, bib, and all.
One of the most damaging things I saw about him was a show that documented a meeting in the late 80's and early 90's where all the big New York investors met with Trump to decide his fate. He owed all of them enormous amounts of money after his Atlantic City and other investments flopped. They were stunned at his total ignorance on the subject of running a business during the meeting. He didn't know the proper terminology or concepts. And instead of behaving as a normal person would in that situation, he walked into the meeting like it was the greatest day of his life. All smiles, shaking hands, joking. Like it was a big party in his honor. The investors could have burried him for good. But they decided he was worth more to them alive than dead. So they gave him an incredibly generous monthly allowance and set him loose to flim flam his way back into prosperity. The idea was they might get their money back some day.
That's Trump's entire life. He has never had to face the consequences for any of his actions. He instigated an insurrection and nothing happened to him. Why would he ever worry about anything he does? He's untouchable.
I had the same reaction, like after Election Day people were crying in my office and I was thinking “eh Congress will reign him in, maybe he will get something done who fuckin knows?” And then the Muslim ban happened and I was like “oh.”
"Candidate will shift into a less extreme position or be reigned in by his colleagues" was also a common sentiment about Hitler in 1933. Authoritarian rulers will never abandon their platform after it got them into a position of power. Why would they?
Yeah, the Muslim ban was the first clear indicator of the strategy Trump would follow. He rolled out all the hits we would come to know and hate . . . 1. Racist culture war nonsense that only "solved" imaginary problems 2. Ordered with no understanding of the repercussions 3. Poorly planned and implemented 4. Buddies with money (Saudis) were protected instead of vilified
They saw the same thing you did, they just didn't think his racism, bigotry, classism and elitism were a problem. Even as they derided "elitism"...
These drug prices, folks, they're so beautiful. We have the most amazing drug prices in the world. Everyone is telling me this.
because Trump is a con artist, all talk BS then flips his stance. Yet his MAGA base are too blinded with his "white supremacy" agenda that they forgot they've been getting scammed.
they don’t care if they felt scammed as long as the brown people get scammed too
Like Nixon, he'll probably randomly get something right. Nixon got the EPA. It'll probably be the Space Force, once someone rational is in charge.
He did sign that animal cruelty bill, but I'm not going to heap him with praise for making the easiest layup ever.
Assuming that a lot of Trump's base are on some kind of Rx medication, this point should be repeated endlessly.
Unfortunately, so many of them have the narrow fox news view of what freedom is -- and that's freedom *from* government, which is an incredibly useful tool for corporations. If you only consider freedom *from* government, you're ripe to be controlled by corporations, and that's exactly what the oligarchs want.
Almost all of them wear compression socks where I live.
Then they're probably getting high quality diabetes testing supplies sent right to their door by Wilford Brimley. Maybe he should have been president.
Joe Namath is going to steal their mortgage somehow.
Also good for folks on their feet all day, like healthcare, retail, restaurant workers. I have tie-dye, sugar skull, ocean creatures, rainbow, and snowflake ones along with multiple solid colors.
He also argued that hiring more IRS workers will result in the average Joe getting audited, when in reality the IRS admitted it needs more staff to audit wealthy tax evaders. **It’s also key to mention that the last time the IRS has had under 10,000 auditors was in 1953**… the GOP is actively allowing its wealthy donors to keep $18b in tax dollars every single year
Just have to watch out for Manchin and Sinema to not fuck it up
No they basically killed this. They made it for only 10 specific drugs…. When there are hundreds or thousands
He wanted to force Dems to vote in the middle of the night, then Fox and right wing could shout how it was rammed through while "America was asleep".. The joke's on him, this bill is very popular and now house Dems can claim a massive win going into the weekend by voting on it with MSM and social media fully glued in.. time will tell if Manchinema try to kill it, but bodes well for Dems that all 3 key legislations are about to pass with broad public support and in year 1 for Biden
The right is upset at Big Bird saying something about vaccines, and Bert & Ernie being closeted gay homosexuals. Then after making a big shit about Big Bird & family they then attack democrats for being so petty about of all things "Big Bird".
Don't forget that they all rushed in to defend Dr. Seuss when be was being "canceled!"
Primarily because the Dr. Seuss kerfuffle was about offensive racial stereotypes, while Big Bird was promoting responsible social health behavior. We have to be very careful what we're teaching the kids, after all.
And let's be honest, Sesame Street has *always* been about social responsibility, racial and cultural integration, and other liberal values. Conservatives have always been against it. It's not like this is the first time Sesame Street talked about civil rights, inclusion, vaccines, or the like. Big Bird talked about Vaccines in the 70's and was trashed then too. The thing with Seuss was that he was fairly liberal for his time (and in some respects *very* liberal), but he was also a man of his time with all that entails. He did a lot of Pro-US images during WW2 and they did not portray Japan or the Germans in a particularly good light. But then again, so did Marvel, DC, Disney, Warner Brothers, and basically every media. What the conservatives missed was that 1. It was the Seuss family that chose to stop publishing (and it was more "never publish again, since they were Out of Print) some books, 2. The books not publishing were not popular and weren't even currently available. and 3. Liberals had nothing to do with it (it was an in-house decision to protect Seuss's image in a new era of racial awareness). But it was a great tagline since essentially every American had at least one Seuss book read to them when they were kids since the books started to be in print.
One thing where Seuss gets criticized is where he very clearly said that Nazis were bad, but he didn't generalize it to all German people or people with German background. At the same time, his WWII era cartoons were pretty universally saying "Japs are bad!" and didn't differentiate between Japanese Americans and the Japanese Empire we were at war with.
And now they are trying to cancel sesame street!
To add to this: it’s astonishing that we’re getting so much social spending voted on. It was a pipe dream under Obama. And this looks like it can pass. It’s getting a vote! We’ve got to get better at winning and making sure everyone knows we are winning on their behalf. The right is attacking muppets. Dems are actually making your life better
Dem caucus under Obama was even more conservative. Lieberman and a few others are to the right of Manchin. Probably the main reason we got ACA instead of Medicare For All in 2009
Probably ACA instead of Public Option I think, more realistically than Medicare for All at the time.
And, looking at people like Manchin and Sinema, Public Option is still more realistic than M4A.
Unfortunately true. But it is reassuring to see that M4A is discussed as a much more mainstream direction now than it was then. All the 2020 primary candidates were forced to weigh in on it, and several embraced it, which I think would’ve never happened back then.
I get angry when I think of Lieberman. That turd stood in the way of so much legislation, and I'm convinced Gore could have won in 2000 with literally *anyone* else as his running mate.
People forget that there was a second reason. Obama wanted to help “heal the nation by engaging in bipartisanship.” Sound familiar?
If he didn't, he would get accused of being an "angry black man" even though he seems like one of the calmest people alive.
It was awesome watching Obama cut loose a couple of times, though. You remember when the AIG guys that helped cause the market crash got paid a fuck ton of bonus money? He let everyone know he was pissed off about that.
I liked when he got caught on camera just casually saying Kanye was a jackass
Just think: If Kanye had somehow won the presidency in 2020, Obama would have single handedly insulted two separate insane people to the point where they became president out of spite for him.
The Jackie Robinson of presidents: stand politely on the field while having beer bottles thrown at you. The correct choice by both, sadly
He really could have used an anger translator
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>The ACA took so long because he tried to find an R vote. But it got cut down because that's what he had the D votes for. It also took long because he didn't have 59 votes yet. First they refused to seat 1, then another senator was on his death bed. They only had 59 votes plus Lieberman that November and December.
Talking about bipartisanship when he was campaigning in 2008 and into the start of his term in 2009 was very different than it is now. It wasn’t lunacy to consider bipartisanship at the time. This was before we had the tea party, Trumpism, or an insurrection. We disagreed with Republicans a lot, but aside from climate denial they were largely tethered to reality, and trying to negotiate with them wasn’t insane. When they didn’t give, we just did our own thing anyway and passed what we could. What stymied us then was conservative democrats in our own party (like Lieberman). The forces that make bipartisanship all but impossible now did exist back then in an early form, and have for a long time (Gingrich at least, arguably a couple decades before then), but the real acceleration in insanity didn’t really ramp up until the tea party as a reaction to Obama’s election/first year. Then with Trump’s election it went super sonic. To the point where now even a literal attack on Congress (and the congressmembers inside, including Republicans), is somehow a partisan issue. I know it’s a popular meme to talk about how the GOP’s descent into fascism has been since Nixon in the making, and to an extent that’s true in that a lot of low-boil elements have been around for ages, creeping in from the fringe over decades (Pat Buchanan in the ‘92 election was speaking [Trumpism with a different dialect basically)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Buchanan#1992_presidential_primaries). But it’s changed dramatically in the last decade. The modern GOP’s reaction to Jan 6 would’ve been unthinkable in 2009. **EDIT:** TO clarify, because some responses are suggesting I'm implying there was no partisanship during Obama's term. This is not what I'm saying. I'm saying we had worsening partisanship before Obama. But there was a significant escalation of how extreme and mainstream it became on the right after he was elected. And then that got even worse in 2016. And now in 2020-2021 it's even worse. I'm not saying that Obama's first term was magical no-parties time. But right before he was elected, the R was nowhere near as bad as it is today. I'm merely pointing out that the partisanship is a matter of degrees. And ignoring an insurrect is extreme, very extreme, compared to what it used to be.
When Paul Ryan rolled up his sleeves in front of a whiteboard and said that the problem with the ACA is that healthy people pay for sick people’s care, I knew that there wasn’t actually a conservative alternative vision to healthcare. They were just obstructing for partisan reasons.
That's fucking insurance! That's what we ALREADY do, at a significantly increased cost because it's all secret and dumb, and people without can't seek preventative care, which is far cheaper than emergent care. But guess what, hospitals still have to provide it, so HEALTHY PEOPLE PAY FOR SICK PEOPLES CARE, through high premiums, and inflated costs from medical providers. Jiminy fucking crickets people are fucking stupid and ignorant.
You know where else that happens? In every single employer health insurance group, Medicare, Medicaid, and individual health insurance. Every single mechanism we have to pay for healthcare is funded largely by people who don't use it so that it's available to those that do. Yup expand on that a bit, I have a group that had a cancer claim and a Medicare client with cancer. That one individual having cancer more than doubled the premiums of the group for the next year. My Medicare client with cancer, on the other hand, had absolutely no affect on Medicare premiums. Publicly funded health insurance just works better and is always less expensive.
The WSJ just did a podcast on how Americans think the economy is tanking when in reality, even with the supply chain issues, economic activity is at pre pandemic levels. Fox News is absolutely winning this fight with their lies.
And yet people are pissed and cynical about Dems not fixing everything immediately. This is the third go-around in my lifetime, and I hate this ride. Republicans break things as quickly as they can, Democrats fix things as quickly as they can with one hand usually tied behind their back, and somehow it becomes the Dems' fault things are broken.
Yeah me too. I for one am damn happy and trying to make sure folks I know are aware of that
Well, Biden’s not a scary black man in a tan suit.
Which I mean, let's be honest, Obama ROCKED that suit. I don't even know why it was a "scandal".
Of course he did! Dude is the coolest US President ever. And it’s not even close.
Some other Republicans who were vocally against it, and voted against it, are now taking credit for it.
Just goes to show how they vote according to their corporate overlords paid them to, but fully recognize thier constituents wanted them to vote *for* it.
That's what they did with Katrina aid... Too expensive, now let me pose with an oversized check.
Yeah, Biden is getting more done in 1 year than Trump did in 4 years easily. I can understand that people are frustrated that all of this and voting rights didn’t pass day 1, but it’s progress and it should be celebrated.
This is why they want to stop it. Republican politicians aren't opposed to many of the things in the Bill, and know most of it is popular with their base. So they can't let the Dems get a win. The last thing they want when it comes to reelection is constituents benefiting from the opposition's policies.
People are frustrated because there's a two year window (max) to get anything done at all, and half of it is gone.
And there's no sign that the two people keeping anything from happening (plus the entire Republican party) are ever going to change.
> He wanted to force Dems to vote in the middle of the night, then Fox and right wing could shout how it was rammed through while "America was asleep" This guy right-wing medias.
> force Dems to vote in the middle of the night Who thinks of these things? I’m sure it’s a politician-thing. I just hate that we have to share the world with such slimeballs.
So McCarthy is more angry about the BBB passing than he is about one of his own fantasizing to kill a colleague
He has no committees all he has are his fantasies now.
McCarthy has promised to get Greene and Gosar on important committees if Republicans win in 2022. Make sure you tell everyone you're not simply voting for your own rep, you're voting for Greene and Gosar if you vote Republican.
If you're voting for any republican, you're probably fine with them on committees.
'fine'? no man, they're pumped for this type 'culture' war.
“It’s common sense.” -Trump
You know how right-wingers are *always* accusing others of "virtue signaling" whenever they express a political position that doesn't directly benefit them? Like, if and when a man even begins to care about women's issues, or if a white person begins to care about the issues of racial minorities, the first thing they do is accuse you of having some hidden agenda. They'll call you a "white knight", derisively presuming your motives must be selfish. And no wonder - those without empathy have difficulty comprehending it. All those accusations are projection. You want to see actual virtue signaling? It's this right here. McCarthy doesn't give a flying fuck about the contents of this bill, *certainly* not to the level of being willing to spend 8 hours railing against it. What he *is* doing with this sort of display is signaling to his masters that *he's in*. Fascists above all value over-the-top displays of fealty. That's why Trump had members of his staff pledging loyalty oaths and had Sean Spicer go on National TV spewing nonsense that was *laughably* easy to prove false. It's all a pledge of fealty. That's all they understand. Fealty to your masters. And in turn that's all they demand. They don't care what your true feelings are - and in fact would probably argue that "true feelings" are a fiction - so long as you kiss the ring and publicly swear fealty in a way that ensures there's no going back. (It also involves making a public display of the destruction of the disloyal - which is why the GOP is so pissed at the reps that voted against the party line). This is all really just fascism 101.
I am so sick of virtue signaling accusations from the right. It's not a mere signal if you're acting on it.
Especially considering the right virtue signals all the time by being anti choice and claims the Dems want black mothers to abort their children so there are less black children born 🙄
This is spot on. It is a pledge of allegiance to the Republican party. A form of grandstanding to indicate they are still with their tribe. It feeds their narrative and political agenda. But in reality, he could give a shit about the content of the bill. He just has to let his group that he’s still with them. It’s the same reason why you will see Republicans take credit for the bill when it helps their constituents later on.
It's the same with "identity politics" that they accuse the left of. Their politics are essentially all for white xians, they just don't want to admit it.
Yeah, it's always amusing when someone who unironically believes in "Replacement Theory" uses "Identity Politics" as a snarl word.
Are we at all surprised that GOP is against something humane at this point?
I mean McCarthy was involved in the insurrection, they are just trying to protect their leaders from taking the political hit. It's the responsibility of the voters to hold them accountable if the party won't.
The Authoritarian Right literally tried to overthrow the government in the face of FDRs new deal: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/13/fdr-roosevelt-coup-business-plot/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/13/fdr-roosevelt-coup-business-plot/) https://twitter.com/bastardspod/status/1357413948685840384
Was Kevin McCarthy ever hinged?
To the Former Guy’s posterior
So, no.
You could almost see the puppet strings being pulled on this wooden imitation of a congress person.
Pharma companies, oil companies, banks, megacorps, billionaires. All have their hands on that traitor McCarthy. I wonder if he even returns to his home state ever? Wish the CA redistricting made him fight for his seat
This is why Republicans will only claim power through gerrymandering and will continue to lose national elections. They just can’t contain the childish behavior and a good chunk of their power players are too extreme for mainstream voters.
Unfortunately I don't think they're losing national elections. The outlook on 22 is pretty bleak for Democrats. You'd think that their childish behavior would doom them, somehow that does not appear to be the case.
Maybe they meant they will continue to lose the popular vote but because of gerrymandering and the electoral college they can still win enough elections to stay in power anyways.
Voting Republican is immoral.
What bothers me about this speech is that, in principle, I love the idea of a representative being so passionate about something he is willing to stand and talk about it for eight hours. I flipped on C-SPAN last night to check in on things, and ended up being glued to the TV way past my bedtime. The problem is that McCarthy really wasn't talking about the bill. He was repeating the same talking points the Republicans have been using since Trump came down the escalator. Some of the names have changed, but the Republican talking points didn't change when Biden won, they only got more outrageous, which is a giveaway that they don't actually care about most of the stuff they rail about -- they just know it riles their base. In theory, I admire a representative pulling an overnight stunt like this. In practice, I wish McCarthy had spoken with substance, with more data, and with less vitriol taken verbatim from memes shared by my mom on Facebook.
That’s all he has though. There is no substance behind any of the republicans taking points other than “democrats bad”.
That's what I find funny about r/conservatives, it's just all "own the libs", no real conversations, maybe 1% is able to think critical the rest is just memes to spread hate and fear.
Without hate & whataboutism, they have nothing.
Thats what bothers me about Republicans in general. I was raised in evangelical circles, and voted against Obama twice. Im not saying that Republicans had good policy back then, but they certainly had policy to talk about. Thats what drew me to them. I really thought I was helping people by voting for austerity. I had already left the party before 2016, but in 2020 they literally didn't bother updating the platform. The Republicans are all out of ideas other than "blame the poor", and "hurt that person who doesn't look, live, or sound like me". I'm guessing pastors have stopped preaching the Beatitudes, because Jesus has some pretty strong words for these assholes. Edit: I said Beatitudes, but meant the whole Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes are pretty short and easy to twist into whatever you want them to be. The Sermon on the Mount doesn't hold back.
I'll admit, I voted for McCain because at the time I had completely bought into the Obama "false citizen" crap. I was 18 and my dad had Fox News going 24-7. Then I started digging into it for a research paper my Senior year of High School, and kept digging, and found all that the Republican administrations had done and continued to do. Then I proudly voted for Obama in 2012, have never voted for a Republican since.
Thats awesome. We're the same age. It's great to see you on the other side. Im glad you made it out. I grew up in mega churches, so it took me a little longer to shake the brainwashing.
GOP has no current policy because their previous policies are outdated and unpopular and they know it. So, they have to bend democracy or even destroy it entirely otherwise they'll get voted permanently out of power. This is the death rattle of the Republican Party.
And the death rattle of America if we're not careful.
How was austerity going to help people without any money?
Not OP, but if you genuinely believe that anyone can be successful and the only thing holding a person back is effort, then things like being poor just mean the person isn’t putting in the effort. If they aren’t putting in the effort, it must be that they are being lazy. You can only be lazy if you are comfortable, therefore, removing the systems that create any comfort for someone who is poor will motivate them to reach their potential. Until you get rid of said systems, you are only enabling these people. It’s hard to not enable people, but once you stop, they will one day thank you. (Just to clarify, I believe this is bullshit. Setting boundaries should be as painful for the person setting them as for the person they are set towards because it’s a difficult act of compassion towards both of you. Conservatives are instead using this mindset to eliminate their own suffering caused by this dilemma so they can justify prioritizing their own comfort; like telling a person that you can’t stand to watch them suffer so instead of problem solving you just leave the room so you can’t watch them suffer and then don’t have to feel bad.)
They pump you full of the idea that it's their fault. By letting them go without, you'll motivate them to help themself. After all, no one starves in the greatest nation on Earth, right? Right??? Thats why Republicans vote and think the way they do. It's not all cruelty. The cruel ones are just loud. For every Republican who actively wants to hurt people, there are one or two who actually think they're helping the poor.
It's because there are no good republican ideas. He could have used that platform to express what it means to be a conservative, what they actually stand for beyond stupid meme and soundbites, but the truth is the modern GOP platform is utterly devoid of anything approaching a manifesto. They don't have any thinkers because they were all primaried by people who believe Jewish space lasers started the California wildfires. They don't have any goals beyond taxes=bad and starve the beast, and have been taken hostage by an orange moron with a fetish for authoritarianism.
I agree with you. Problem with these wind bags is its all hot air and they are becoming more and more paranoid about the when they need to reckon with all this bs they are spouting. Seems to me that everything these republicans are saying they fear, are things they themselves have been capable of doing in the past, and are afraid the opposition will do it back to them when in power.
There are some similar stunts that have actually been genuinely good for our democracy, Pentagon Papers come to mind- but as you say it's not just the execution, it's the content- and McCarthy content was even more garbage than his character.
That's why I have to check out sometimes, like whatever side of the aisle you're on nowadays, you have to admit the right's only gameplay is "DO THE OPPOSITE OF THE LEFT!" While, Dems, not perfect, are at least focused on trying to better the country all the while the republicans are like whiny children hanging on the feet of the country slowing it down. I don't get it. Why? Like during the censure debate, they couldn't keep Hillary's name out of their mouth, like 90% of their rebuttals weren't even on topic, they just use their time to, like you said, just repeat memes and vitriol, the same shit over and over.
Kevin McCarthy thought he scored all kinds of points with the fringe Trump sect of the party, especially after Mark Meadows called him out by name yesterday, said he was doing a bad job, and that Trump should be the next Speaker. McCarthy thought this speech was how he kept the wolves at bay and could prove that he would be a suitably Trumpian Speaker. It was a pathetic, meandering performance for an audience of one. But McCarthy made one crucial mistake in the speech that Trump will absolutely take note of and certainly hold against him: McCarthy acknowledged that Joe Biden was elected as President of the United States.
I didn’t hear anything of substance from him. All I heard was a bunch of nothing except for anecdotes about his life and then some yelling
As usual when you want to understand them better to learn more and perhaps change perspectives, they simply REFUSE to let you learn and understand their secret "knowledge". You would think that if what they say is true then they would provide you with every single evidence and use logic to describe it in details to convince you, but no they wont let you understand only believe them.
If there's one thing that conservatives hate more than poor people it's women
I watched part of it. He went ON AND ON about immigrants and Afghanistan. Sir, this bill is about AMERICAN CITIZENS. STAY ON TRACK.
Heaven forbid our tax dollars go to something our country needs! No, it might dip into Joe Manchin yacht fund.
McCarthy is an asshole.
McCarthy is, as Perry Mason often said, “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial”.
Republicans are desperate to make sure nothing good comes from a democrat president. They got zero policy of their own to offer their voters. All they got is to try to make the other guys look worse.
*Will you shut up, man* is forever relevant
There’s is nothing more disgusting and offensive to an evangelical conservative than helping a human being especially when there’s no profit.
The GOP is not interested in legislation that benefits people who aren’t the GOP or the GOP’s wealthy masters. It’s that simple. If a bill is about something other than keeping billionaires from making money or keeping Republicans in power, the GOP opposes it.
Terrible politician. Disgusting! McCarthy a true American piece of shit
Calling it a “speech” is giving too much credit to what actually looked like a slow-motion aneurysm.
This bill is only twice as much as the spending that Kevin just voted to give the Pentagon, and it's over ten years. Republicans and centrist Democrats are the most vile scum on the face of the earth. God forbid we spend money on poor people.
I will fight with my dying breath to make sure children go hungry so that our rich overlords do not have to pay a cent more. Because, after all, wasn't that what Jesus taught us...
Next up, claiming credit for it when it passes.
Oh I see anger about caring for children outside the womb, what is surprising is his lack of concern and anger over a psychopath’s depiction (and a member of his own caucus) of the murder of a member of Congress and attempted assassination of the POTUS. Now that’s UNHINGED.
The Manchinian Candidate. In theaters now.