Sad to hear, I used to listen to him daily back when I was a Republican in my bubble. He changed over the years and got a bit more extreme for me. I generally liked the guy back then and hope he beats it. I do think in his own way he did nothing but care for our country, I think he got caught up in what we are all caught up in. He also struggled with substance abuse which I have dealt with in my family, it can happen to anyone. My grandfather died of Lung cancer, and its a rough road. Probably one of the most painful ways to go. Wishing him the best You know you guys don't have to hate Americans that just want to govern a different way. This goes both ways, we need to stop attacking someone for their political beliefs. Its ok to disagree, we don't have to kill each other over these things. And talking the way some of you talk towards people across the aisle just kills the discussion and further creates your bubble of bias. You do get if we don't have 2 parties we have a dictatorship pretty much, I don't get why anyone wants to just have their way of governing, you need the balance.
Yes, we need balance but the left has gotten so far out of the mainstream that the only middle ground is thousands of miles to the left of Moscow.. There are some issues that are absolute for some people. I, for one will never vote for any candidate who is anti gun. I will never vote for any candidate whose proposals would stifle creativity and entrepreneurship, ruin the economy and raise the tax burden on the middle class. Lots of people would never vote for a pro abortion candidate no matter what.
Rolan ... with all due respect, it is usually the “revolutionaries” who create the divide. The reactionaries are just reacting to a first cause. This divide we have today was, is and will continue to be created by the left due to a rejection of their ideas. The right need only reject the idea to be labeled a racists, sexist, homophone bigot. The main reason that it is the LEFT causing the problems is that it is the LEFT who control the media narrative. That is what Limbaugh was all about exposing.
Don't really want to start a big debate in this thread, but re-read your post. This is the exact issue, no one can take part in a discussion with that sort of mind-set. You guys see it as the left is the only issue, and we are crazy and we must change. Progressive policies are enacted with great success and failure all over the world, and so are conservative policies. No one is the devil you make in your head and in your news. The solution is we stop consuming the news on both sides in separate realities.
Rolan .... I said nothing about the merit of the policies. My specific beef is with the Media, who set the narrative of the discourse. The Media that controls the narrative has the power to unite or divide. The Media with the power IS the LEFT wing Media. Thus, it is the Left that has fostered the divide. Even Foxnews, the so called Right wing media, totes the narrative created by the Left wing media. The perception that Trump is some sort of idiot exist because the Left wing Media promulgated it. Even Trumps Tweets, are a response to what the Media says first. Russiagate .... only exists in the minds of the Left wing media and those who support it. Ukrainegate, only exist in the minds of the Left wing media and those who support it. If there was a shred of evidence to support either false claim, Trump would be gone. But there is not, and as such, the entirety of the whole exercise has done nothing but cause more divide, and a destruction of the once moderate Democrat Party. I mean ... dude ... AOC? Bernie Sanders? ... fricken Iam Omar?? .... socialism? .... no politician dared openly declare as a socialist in the US thinking they would be taken seriously. If Lefties want to win in the arena of ideas, let them. But all of this corrupt legal b.s. does nothing but create animosity on both sides. One the one side, you have the deceived who actually believe the false crap, and attack the opposite side, (Think Antifa, the multiple reports of Conservative students attacked on campus, and the guy who killed his boss for being a Trump supporter, or the dude who just drove a van into a campaign booth) ...... and in the other side, a growing hate of supporters of the Left, because the LEFT WING MEDIA continues to run interference and justify the actions of the guilty.
I promised myself I wouldn't come to free speech to waste time... oh well I enjoy politics too much. I agree we are pretty fucked and we will end up in a pretty bad way if we don't fix things soon, the media on ALL sides is an issue. I don't think all NEWS and the people in it are bad or wrong, I just think the industry is getting caught up in bad actors on both sides. Plus we also need to remove the entertainment and profit out of NEWs. However it seems you think its just the LEFT wing media only problem and I think its ALL media problem. This is a huge complex issue that is driven by so many factors, and the powers that be (Politicians\MONEY\Corporations\Lobbies) love it right where it is. Because they can put their finger on the scales and get any of us to believe whatever they want that they need. Deep fakes scare the shit out of me, literally no one will be able to tell the truth going forward. I get it, I was taught and believed in the whole socialism is bad from a very early age. And stand alone any political system will eventually get corrupted and become obsolete. I don't think democracy is holding up well to modern media. Democratic socialism is not socialism however, just because we tackle some problems as a society doesn't mean we throw out the democracy. Let's not get into the details of this too much, but calling them socialist is simply wrong and propaganda. I get it, its WAAAAY out left, but man we need to try something. Just saying no to everything the democrats come up with because NO you damn liberal and then turn around and give corporations and the wealthy another Tax break isn't really going to magically fix these issues. And eventually they will come for us, I am part of the wealthy, been a great few years on the effective taxes. But man it sucks that a bunch of things cost twice as much as it used too if not more. Having worked in corporate america for a long time, I have truly seen the wonders of how diversity work in solving problems. I have seen some of the most complicated issues solved by the lowest paid and usually least educated person in the room. All the engineers and managers are arguing over some complex system to solve the problem and boom Susan the secretary in the back taking notes comes up with a perfect cheap solution that none of agreed with or thought of. But sure as shit did it work, and win all of us over after a few years of working with it. None of us engineers would of even listened to her, but the manager saw the cost benefit and we were very glad we didn't have to keep up with what we were coming up with. But for some reason when we get to politics and solving the problems as a society only what you believe is allowed to work or be considered. Everyone else needs to leave the room and keep their ideas to themselves... I just don't get that point of view anymore, to me any solution should be on the table to get it fixed. Not just my solution. I am wrong literally all the time, and I get it right a bunch too. But I am smart enough to know that and work with that. And that is how I try to go about figuring out who to vote for too. If you are telling me you know how to do something so perfectly, I know you are full of shit. And Trump.... He is an idiot because I actually listen to him speak, I am sure some of that is biased. Got to go.
I’ll sum up much of what I feel toward the Democratic Party: under Obamacare citizens could be fined for not paying insurance premiums while actively promoting and endorsing free healthcare to non citizens
Well ... Rolan, I’d prefer you stick around. Intelligent reply, though I am all about debate. Socialism is not “bad” because it’s socialism ..... it’s bad because it is short sighted, has never worked, ... and most of all, is even more prone to corruption by the human element than capitalism. That said, I agree, solutions come from unlikely places. Parallel your example to healthcare. AOC and the Bern et al ... as well as a bunch of other uninformed people think that Single Payer is the answer to our healthcare problems, and the high cost (those are your engineers who don’t have a clue). Their mistake is they are focusing on the payment mechanism, when the reality is the delivery of healthcare services is the problem. Changing the insurance scheme will not fix the delivery problem. Changing the insurance system will also NOT address the overuse of healthcare services, and in fact, will make it even worse. I don’t base this strictly on what “I believe” as you contend in your post, I base this on the entirety of the FACTS associated with the issue (I work in this sector). There are tons of facts on this issue that are never mentioned by the pro single payer crowd, such as the increase in overall cost resulting from managed care approaches that restrict and destroy markets. The incentive to over treat as a result of managed care policies restricting appropriate treatments. The consolidation of healthcare services in urban centers, leaving rural areas with no healthcare at all. .... the list goes on and on, and Single Payer (ie., managed care on steroids) will not address any of it. And Yet ..... there are people who get caught up in anti-corporatism, begrudging this or that sector a profit, and thinking they will get free quality healthcare via a single payer system. My favorite .... the evil Pharma Industry ... makes up a whopping 10% of healthcare cost. At an average profit margin of 15%, that means a whopping 1.5% of healthcare cost is due to those waskuly greedy Pharma companies. OK .... eliminate them! Do you really think a 1.5% decrease in cost is going to make a huge difference. NOPE! .... meanwhile Hospitals make up 60% of healthcare cost, but ya never hear any politicians railing on hospitals now do ya! What about that Neurosurgeon who make 1.5 Million a year, or the Cardiologist making 500K per year? Ask any person on Medicare how it compared to their private insurance before they retired, and they will tell you it sucks. .... and yet, some people want Medicare for All. Socialism sounds good .... but after you’ve been hoodwinked, you find out it wasn’t what was promised. And, when you try to eliminate it, you end up with a Venezuela. (Because socialist systems always end up with a dictator).
Because if you listen to any media (almost all of them) they are all pushing this agenda. They have convinced a great many people that Trump is a racist and thus fostering a divide without a shred of proof. They did the same to the fruitcake community and again, no proof. That he is a Russian operative and again...no proof. It just never ends with them. When they come back to the middle, if ever, and start reporting news instead of narrative driven theories it might get better. Someone HAS to be on the other side saying "This just isn't true"
