Thoughts

"Is our govt in general. The way it works. Or should I say the inneficient way it works."

As you realize and hint at, yeah, it's awful -- the worst way to do things, except for all the other ways.

Case in point: Medicare -- everybody slags it, but it runs with 4% overhead and works just as well as private insurance with its 30-60%.

"It's just been a wash, rinse, and repeat. Every administrative cycle."

Since 1980, it has been Republican administrations intentionally running the economy, environment, international standing, social safety net, oversight and education into the ground (while flaunting the laws), followed by a conservative Democrat mopping up the mess while being blamed for it. We're in the middle of the third go-around.

"everybody screams change"

Absolutely not. One side screams "don't change!", wanting to go back to some mythical 1955ish Pleasantville, and reliably votes for the party whose every policy is directly opposed to that. The other side screams "change" but settles for "electable" conservatives because "conventional wisdom" says to suck the dick of some mythical group of rational, informed swing voters. Direct counterproof: Mitch McConnell just got re-elected, for fuck's sake.

Trump tried his Pickett’s charge against the results of the 2020 presidential election, and he got smashed first in the courts of the battleground state of Pennsylvania, and then in each of the battleground states he lost and tried to contest.

The Confederate Army only lost 54% of its soldiers in Pickett’s charge. Trump lost 98% of his court cases over the election, gaining one very minor court case victory and losing 50+

Trump has become the most demagogic president in American history, and a bigger disgrace to the presidency in my view than Richard Nixon.

Good riddance to this Con.

We will need to continue the battle against what he has represented: racism, sexism, xenophobia, militarism and greed.

Fellow men, have you ever dealt with a woman on menopause? Try a divorce, they will cut your balls off for no reason.

Menopause, Is when a woman goes SHIT HOUSE CRAZY. Can you see the, HO COMMANDO, KUM A LOT HARRISER with her finger on the nuclear button during her MENOPAUSE melt down. You better duck.

WTF is a MANOPOSE?

Is that what the Village People did? Pose as a man?

I has a thought...

HFT, the next time you have a thought, you should walk away from the Forum until it goes away. It won't take long, and the Forum will thank you for it.

Just. Walk. Away.

Just a thought.

"Maybe we should try 200+ years of female presidents." Under MANOPOSE WITH THEIR FINGER ON THE NUCLEAR BUTTON?

lol

The USA leads the world (or is near the top in)

—GDP
—military spending
—percentage of people imprisoned
—deaths by gun
—starting unnecessary wars and military interventions

I would love to see the USA the leader or best example of:

—national (or affordable) health care
—K-12 education
—social mobility
—GHP (gross happiness index)
—the sexual happiness of women and men in relationships
—A Green economy
—affordable colleges (or better funded college education for colleges at every level of quality)

We also have by far a too high index in economic inequality (it was much lower in 1950s and 1960s)

We have a shameful level of domestic abuse of women including deaths of women by gun violence

We are too much a plutocracy: a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.

I would also love to see the USA win the World Cup soccer tournament (and have soccer along with baseball and basketball as its favorite sports)

I would love to see the USA have apolitical leader who is a woman

We have 45 males as president in a row or 200+ years of male presidents.

Maybe we should try 200+ years of female presidents.

We need to make more progress on freeing ourselves from our Puritanical heritage

Congressman Eric Shitwell, should resign for being a Chinese pussy eater and ass kisser of a spy.

We are not supposed to have an efficient government.

Our system was set up to be inefficient.

Yes tbr I likely got your meaning backwards and I apologize.

Erotic. Read a little closer or shut up.

I'm not talking repub or democrat. Never did. My understanding of the "democratic norm" as was stated by tbr. Is our govt in general. The way it works. Or should I say the inneficient way it works. I doubt there has been a single person on here or anywhere else for that matter that hasn't bitched about the way our govt works.

BTW. I can't really list anything that has been outside of the democratic norms that I like. I haven't really seen anything. It's just been a wash, rinse, and repeat. Every administrative cycle.

I'm not arguing with you or tbr. All that I was trying to say is that everybody screams change, but yet we all somehow seem to encourage a continuance of the democratic norms.

You are confusing Democratic with democratic.

And you would be wrong on either count.

Ok 2 . . .

Put up or shut up . . .

Please . . .

Tell me what the Republicans have accomplished. You can go back to 2000. Let's hear these non-norms that you are so in love with.

The change and I believe I am accurate in stating this, that most of us want is less bullshit and more production. All of us know that if in our day to day we were to do the amount of 'work' that these guys do, we'd be fired in a minute.

That statement alone fly's in the face of "democratic norms".

what tips the balance for both of these gentlemen is their trashing of our democratic norms.

Is there some cryptic meaning to this other than what I am taking as an obvious statement?

Again, where did I address any of that in my post?

The democratic norms is what everyone seems to want changed. Gridlock. Pork. Back room deals. Nothing getting done. Corrupt politicians. The list goes on.

Sometimes an effective change requires something to be turned upside down.

@2

When people scream they want change, what they are trying to say is that they don't want bottlenecks. They just want shit done.

If I were to ask you if you give a fuck if we spend $1t or 950bn on defense, you wouldn't care.

If I were to ask you if you give a fuck that we had to do this circle jerk dance to get the military paid, you would care.

The change and I believe I am accurate in stating this, that most of us want is less bullshit and more production. All of us know that if in our day to day we were to do the amount of 'work' that these guys do, we'd be fired in a minute.

This is why I am registered Green. Why? The first line in their platform is to remove money from politics. They want publicly funded campaigns, not privately funded campaigns. By having privately funded campaigns, our elected officials spend a strong majority of their time dialing for dollars to stay elected.

What has change got to do with what I posted?

what tips the balance for both of these gentlemen is their trashing of our democratic norms.

Why is it that every 4 years we always hear the same thing from both parties and millions and millions of people? (WE WANT CHANGE!) I mean really think about it. Have you not heard this during every election? From all the candidates?

Yet when someone does something that goes against some age old tradition. People freak the fuck out.

Tbmrkss,

I like your rubric of what makes for a good president.

I put a very high value on curiosity in evaluating anyone, and it’s great to see it in presidents (as is empathy).

Jefferson, Lincoln and Obama are three of the best writers we’ve ever had as presidents. They could even write their own great speeches.

(Michelle Obama and Eleanor Roosevelt are my two favorite First Ladies.)

Instead of a presidential debate, I’d like to see candidates given a choice of three topics or questions to write about for a half hour (similar to a final exam in high school or college) and see who can write the best essay—or just a coherent essay—by themselves with no assist from a speechwriter

Jefferson and Lincoln brought a poetry to political speeches as did Obama, whose domestic politics got stymied by GOP obstruction and whose foreign policy was a mixed bag, with some downsides. Obama also gave in too much to Wall Street.

He’s the best president in my lifetime, but I also love what LBJ did in domestic police to support Civil Rights legislation and some other parts of his domestic policy of his Great Society. Richard Goodwin crafted some of us best speeches

Martin Luther King Jr. remains the most transformative figure in the politics of my lifetime.

I give Reagan little credit for ending Soviet Union and Cold War.

I give that credit to Gorbachev and also to Solidarity and its uprising in Poland.

George Kennan also has my high respect for how he understood Soviet Union and post-WW 2 era and how Soviet Union was going to destroy itself from within.

My favorite stuff about Cold War remains “Dr. Strangelove” and “The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming.”

Reagan’s accomplishments in foreign policy are myths created by Cons.

He did more to bankrupt USA than Soviet Union: lowering taxes on rich, massively increasing deficit through massively wasteful military spending.

The myth of Reagan make him so dangerous. The reality of Trump makes him so dangerous and awful.

ended cold war by bankrupting the USSR....well known fact Soviet Union 10 year battle in Afghanistan virtually bankrupt them.....we are only at 7 trillion dollar mark in Afghanistan and Iraq....and they didn't do 9-11.....so why can't we spend this on covid relief...why...we are Americans and will cheat the system....weknow someone who bought a 400 thousand dollar boat instead of paying employees....the loan will be forgiven....American republican at its finedt