Headlines “Politics” [read the OP before posting]

[RaikouLover]

Because they vote against sweeping government policy at a federal level. They prefer individual states to make those decisions. Many Republicans don't directly oppose a livable wage and will vote for it locally, just not nationwide.

At least that's the argument. In reality the actual GOP is currently a pro Trump circle jerk who's entire political platform is literally just "the opposite of what the Libs want".

Yep, that argument is bullshit. Didn’t hear a peep from Republicans about Federal government over reach when they rewrote the entire tax code in 2017.

This is why leftists like myself get annoyed at liberals for complaining about Trump's concentration camps at the border while acting like Biden is putting those same people in hotels.

faint I do not understand the both sides are equal logic due to the Democrat not cleaning up Republican trash quickly enough.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Based Biden Based.

^Probably needs more verification/qualifying b/c Trump got rid of reporting requirements, but whatever. Drones greatly decreased very likely.

 

[myowngamertag]

It's significantly gone down from Trump days for sure, we're still participating in some insane nonsense like the Yemen blockade and the AUKUS nuclear subs.

 

[faint]

faint I do not understand the both sides are equal logic due to the Democrat not cleaning up Republican trash quickly enough.

Na, don't get me wrong I do not think they're equal. If anything, my stance is that Republicans actively try to move as backwards as a society while the majority of Democrats are perfectly content with where we are. I have no reason to believe Manchin and Sinema are specifically unique in their blow to actual reform. Democrats are always going to be willing to cave to Republicans because they want and need a Republican party. The opposite cannot be said.

 

[RaikouLover]

Welcome to 2022, folks.

It is midterm year. Republicans are favored to be swept back into power. They are officially running on… nothing. The 2022 platform is Democrats = bad. None of this is surprising, as the GOP has given up even pretending to be a governing party. That… … and American voters simply don’t give a damn.

 

[Luck O' the Irish]

The problem Democrats have is they have nothing for their base because too many of them either depend on or are actively bathing in corporate money. They are a house during trick or treating that has no candy but at least they’re not handing out toothpaste.

Republicans don’t really have anything either outside of culture war slop but that shit gets enough of its base horny as hell. That’s how you end up with characters like josh mandel, whose campaign more or less boils down to “I’m going to run hunter biden over with a semi”, currently leading by 25 points

 

[RaikouLover]

The problem Democrats have is they have nothing for their base because too many of them either depend on or are actively bathing in corporate money. They are a house during trick or treating that has no candy but at least they’re not handing out toothpaste.

I think the corporate money argument on the Democrats is way overblown. The Democratic representatives in Congress are virtually unanimous in most issues. The problem with this Congress is math (and the damned filibuster).

A lot of structural factors are at work in both the House and the Senate. Those batshit Republicans represent extremely gerrymandered districts that are serviced exclusively by right-wing media conglomerates. The Senate itself is skewed ~7-8% more Republican than the nation as a whole and will only get worse as the exodus from rural states continues.

 

[Magcargo]

Welcome to 2022, folks.

It is midterm year. Republicans are favored to be swept back into power. They are officially running on… nothing. The 2022 platform is Democrats = bad. None of this is surprising, as the GOP has given up even pretending to be a governing party. That… … and American voters simply don’t give a damn.

I may be incorrect, but I think the main reason Republicans would come back to power is because we are in pretty bad times right now. COVID has been screwing everything up for the last 2 years. I believe the stimulus checks led to a massive spike in inflation, there are shortages due to various supply chain issues, new COVID variants are still popping up, travel restrictions are being reapplied, etc. I don't think any of this is the democrats (or republicans) fault, but the democrats were in charge during these times so they likely would get more of the blame for the current state of everything.

 

[RaikouLover]

I may be incorrect, but I think the main reason Republicans would come back to power is because we are in pretty bad times right now. COVID has been screwing everything up for the last 2 years. I believe the stimulus checks led to a massive spike in inflation, there are shortages due to various supply chain issues, new COVID variants are still popping up, travel restrictions are being reapplied, etc. I don't think any of this is the democrats (or republicans) fault, but the democrats were in charge during these times so they likely would get more of the blame for the current state of everything.

You are correct. The electorate as a whole (minus the extreme partisans) doesn’t really care whose “fault” it is… the party in power gets the blame. The Presidents party also suffers a midterm “penalty” because voters of the out-party are more likely to vote (against him).

The Republicans will likely sweep Congress in 2022, declare their mandate, refuse to govern, then overreach in their persecution of Biden.

 

[koista12]

You are correct. The electorate as a whole (minus the extreme partisans) doesn’t really care whose “fault” it is… the party in power gets the blame. The Presidents party also suffers a midterm “penalty” because voters of the out-party are more likely to vote (against him).

The Republicans will likely sweep Congress in 2022, declare their mandate, refuse to govern, then overreach in their persecution of Biden.

Coming from a conservative perspective, one could say the exact same about the Democrats in 2020. Biden came in, crowed that he would end COVID, half-heartedly talked about extremism for a few months, botched Aghanistan, fought and failed to pass Build Back Better, and now we're seeing supply chain shortages and high inflation. The single achievement of the Biden presidency is the bi partisan infrastructure bill.

But I obviously have a pretty biased perspective given that I'm a conservative. And pretending that the party we oppose literally has no plans to do anything when in government seems obtuse to me. Biden had plans that didn't fall through, for whatever reasons. Mistaking ineffective governance for a malign refusal to govern seems pretty partisan.

What I expect would come from a red wave, and what I'm most excited for, is an end to the lockdown lunacy and continued overreaction to COVID and its variants. Obviously that will be much more apparent in red states and likely, not as many changes will occur in blue states. Hopefully we'll see courts strike down executive mandates that reach too far in perpetuating the lockdown and assume legislative powers. Republicans will also likely have economic initiatives they wish to pass, but honestly idk much about economics so I wont guess at specifics. Worth noting that ending more lockdown measures will likely boost the economy though.

 

[RaikouLover]

Coming from a conservative perspective, one could say the exact same about the Democrats in 2020. Biden came in, crowed that he would end COVID, half-heartedly talked about extremism for a few months, botched Aghanistan, fought and failed to pass Build Back Better, and now we're seeing supply chain shortages and high inflation. The single achievement of the Biden presidency is the bi partisan infrastructure bill.

I appreciate the thoughtful response. However, I think the conservative perspective is to simply ignore the achievements of any Democrats because "achievement" has a positive connotation. Perhaps a way to diffuse partisanship is to call them facts. In his first year, Biden and the Democratic Congress has done the following:

-Pass the largest "rescue" / COVID-19 relief package in history
-Make COVID-19 vaccine available to all Americans 5 years and older.
-Appoint 40 Federal judges (most ever in the first year of a modern Presidency)
-Bipartisan infrastructure bill

It's fair to argue agreement or disagreement with the intent or result of these policies, but don't say that nothing happened because that simply isn't true.

What is unfair- is that those blaming Biden and the Democrats for not bringing us closer to ending the COVID-19 pandemic are almost perfectly correlated with the same people refusing vaccination, vaccine mandates, and mask mandates. It is not Biden's fault that ~1/3 of the population flat out refuses the public health tools available to every American.

But I obviously have a pretty biased perspective given that I'm a conservative. And pretending that the party we oppose literally has no plans to do anything when in government seems obtuse to me. Biden had plans that didn't fall through, for whatever reasons. Mistaking ineffective governance for a malign refusal to govern seems pretty partisan.

Let's make the distinction clear: Republican elites do have a governing agenda. However, the public will not be made aware of this governing agenda.

The Republican Party did not have an policy platform in 2020, and according to Mitch McConnell will likely not have one in 2022. The lack of platform is not a biased left-leaning partisan opinion; it is just a fact.

 

[koista12]

I appreciate the thoughtful response. However, I think the conservative perspective is to simply ignore the achievements of any Democrats because "achievement" has a positive connotation. Perhaps a way to diffuse partisanship is to call them facts. In his first year, Biden and the Democratic Congress has done the following:

-Pass the largest "rescue" / COVID-19 relief package in history
-Make COVID-19 vaccine available to all Americans 5 years and older.
-Appoint 40 Federal judges (most ever in the first year of a modern Presidency)
-Bipartisan infrastructure bill

It's fair to argue agreement or disagreement with the intent or result of these policies, but don't say that nothing happened because that simply isn't true.

What is unfair- is that those blaming Biden and the Democrats for not bringing us closer to ending the COVID-19 pandemic are almost perfectly correlated with the same people refusing vaccination, vaccine mandates, and mask mandates. It is not Biden's fault that ~1/3 of the population flat out refuses the public health tools available to every American.



Let's make the distinction clear: Republican elites do have a governing agenda. However, the public will not be made aware of this governing agenda.

The Republican Party did not have an policy platform in 2020, and according to Mitch McConnell will likely not have one in 2022. The lack of platform is not a biased left-leaning partisan opinion; it is just a fact.

There's a huge difference between your claim that the Republicans will refuse to govern and the fact that they likely won't put out a platform. The former is just straight hyperbole, and makes the GOP sound straight up malicious. The latter - well, maybe it's a bad thing. It could conceivably lead to less effectiveness governance by the GOP come 2022. But I don't think the average citizen is or should be worried that the GOP doesn't want to put forward a platform.

If they didn't have a platform 4 years ago, and Trump of all people was president, and the sky didn't fall, then why would anyone who doesn't tie their livelihood to Washington politics care? It's a matter of political strategy for the GOP and republicans hoping to be elected to worry about. Its arguably a bad strategy, which is a worthy point of debate (although I don't know nearly enough about politics to reasonably discuss that). But lack of a platform in no way equates to the GOP either purposefully or unintentionally just refusing to govern whenever they get a larger hold in the White House.

Update: Regarding Biden's accomplishments, I'll give you the COVID relief package and the bipartisan bill. The COVID bill and the vaccine rollout are hardly praiseworthy imo - every first world country has managed the same by this point, and I think even a White Hourse under Trump would have handily managed those points. Its a good thing for sure, but its not more than I would expect from the govt of one of the most prosperous counties in the world, and both are severely weakened in Biden's promises to return the country to normal in a timely manner. (Even if it was an unachievable promise, it was the biggest part of Biden's campaign beyond the whole "no more Trump factor").

 

[Bughouse]

If they didn't have a platform 4 years ago, and Trump of all people was president, and the sky didn't fall

It didn't?

 

[Chou Toshio]

There's a huge difference between your claim that the Republicans will refuse to govern and the fact that they likely won't put out a platform. The former is just straight hyperbole, and makes the GOP sound straight up malicious. The latter - well, maybe it's a bad thing. It could conceivably lead to less effectiveness governance by the GOP come 2022. But I don't think the average citizen is or should be worried that the GOP doesn't want to put forward a platform.

If they didn't have a platform 4 years ago, and Trump of all people was president, and the sky didn't fall, then why would anyone who doesn't tie their livelihood to Washington politics care? It's a matter of political strategy for the GOP and republicans hoping to be elected to worry about. Its arguably a bad strategy, which is a worthy point of debate (although I don't know nearly enough about politics to reasonably discuss that). But lack of a platform in no way equates to the GOP either purposefully or unintentionally just refusing to govern whenever they get a larger hold in the White House.

Update: Regarding Biden's accomplishments, I'll give you the COVID relief package and the bipartisan bill. The COVID bill and the vaccine rollout are hardly praiseworthy imo - every first world country has managed the same by this point, and I think even a White Hourse under Trump would have handily managed those points. Its a good thing for sure, but its not more than I would expect from the govt of one of the most prosperous counties in the world, and both are severely weakened in Biden's promises to return the country to normal in a timely manner. (Even if it was an unachievable promise, it was the biggest part of Biden's campaign beyond the whole "no more Trump factor").

There's a simple reason why Conservatives don't put up a platform. There's a simple reason why Conservatives never want to talk about economic issues or concrete policies, but only about inflammatory, partisan, highly charged social issues-- it's because they know their policies are indefensible.

 

[Magcargo]

There's a simple reason why Conservatives don't put up a platform. There's a simple reason why Conservatives never want to talk about economic issues or concrete policies, but only about inflammatory, partisan, highly charged social issues-- it's because they know their policies are indefensible.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they (meaning the Conservatives in the senate) did talk about the economic issues caused by the COVID lockdowns, as well as various other issues like high gas prices, high inflation, micro-chip shortages, etc. IIRC Trump managed to pressure TSMC to build semiconductor factories in the US.

 

[boo836]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they (meaning the Conservatives in the senate) did talk about the economic issues caused by the COVID lockdowns, as well as various other issues like high gas prices, high inflation, micro-chip shortages, etc. IIRC Trump managed to pressure TSMC to build semiconductor factories in the US.

The standard of the GOP and aligned parties abroad has been to frame inflation as a unique phenomenon to their country. I can't recall any of them saying anything about Saudi petrol cuts.

If they didn't have a platform 4 years ago, and Trump of all people was president, and the sky didn't fall

Correct, the sky didn't fall. Instead, you experienced a 9/11 every week, a collapse of American power in the Middle East, one of the most devastating infrastructure attacks in your nation's history, a shift towards selling foreign policy to the highest bidder, a complete break in trust between the United States and its allies, an attack on the Capitol that sought to overthrow the Constitution, and now a third of the country wants to overthrow the government and instate a Chinese-style one party dictatorship.

But at least the sky's still there!

 

[RaikouLover]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they (meaning the Conservatives in the senate) did talk about the economic issues caused by the COVID lockdowns, as well as various other issues like high gas prices, high inflation, micro-chip shortages, etc. IIRC Trump managed to pressure TSMC to build semiconductor factories in the US.

Talking about what the other party did or didn’t do is not a policy platform. It amounts to - “Democrats are bad.” The rebuttal is “what Republican legislation will be passed to fix those perceived problems?” We get plenty of bitching but no policy. The economic policy under Donald Trump was “jobs! I got the best jobs! Believe me!” which amounted to more tax cuts for rich.


Changing gears on another topic:
Inflation finished at 6.8% for 2021. That is only slightly above the “normal” 2-5%. Given the outlandish media coverage, I was expecting at least 10%.

 

[Magcargo]

Talking about what the other party did or didn’t do is not a policy platform. It amounts to - “Democrats are bad.” The rebuttal is “what Republican legislation will be passed to fix those perceived problems?” We get plenty of bitching but no policy. The economic policy under Donald Trump was “jobs! I got the best jobs! Believe me!” which amounted to more tax cuts for rich.


Changing gears on another topic:
Inflation finished at 6.8% for 2021. That is only slightly above the “normal” 2-5%. Given the outlandish media coverage, I was expecting at least 10%.

Eh, fair enough. Wasn't aware that the inflation wasn't that bad relative to what it was before, considering I have seen both right and very left-leaning (I believe they are socialist / communist) youtubers say otherwise. Guess this is why its important to always fact-check for yourself.

 

[boo836]

Talking about what the other party did or didn’t do is not a policy platform. It amounts to - “Democrats are bad.” The rebuttal is “what Republican legislation will be passed to fix those perceived problems?” We get plenty of bitching but no policy. The economic policy under Donald Trump was “jobs! I got the best jobs! Believe me!” which amounted to more tax cuts for rich.


Changing gears on another topic:
Inflation finished at 6.8% for 2021. That is only slightly above the “normal” 2-5%. Given the outlandish media coverage, I was expecting at least 10%.

Inflation was always being overblown for certain factions' political gain. The reality is that inflation is being spurred by sharp increases in increase aggregate demand after the market crash, and by retaliatory Saudi production cuts responding to Biden's condemnation of MBS. But you won't see or hear Republicans complain about MBS.

 

[Haruno]

Changing gears on another topic:
Inflation finished at 6.8% for 2021. That is only slightly above the “normal” 2-5%. Given the outlandish media coverage, I was expecting at least 10%.

This statement confuses the hell out of me.

We've literally never seen 4%+ inflation, so saying "normal 2-5%" is odd in itself since 3%+ is very very abnormal. Not to mention that considering how even in 08 we were at 3.8% which is substantially lower than 6.8%............. there should be some cause for concern. This is before we consider other factors such as how inflation numbers can be changed based on what you decide to poll (the highest amount of inflation is in...... energy apparently according to what they poll).

 

[RaikouLover]

This statement confuses the hell out of me.

We've literally never seen 4%+ inflation,

You are literally, completely wrong. This is the full annualized table of inflation. Modest inflation is not only healthy, but vital for an economy.

 

[Haruno]

You are literally, completely wrong. This is the full annualized table of inflation. Modest inflation is not only healthy, but vital for an economy.

Let me rephrase, since 1980 back when we used very different metrics to determine inflation. Ever since then, we haven't seen the 6%+ for inflation, not to mention that what you're showing is very misleading to say the least.

Though since you're so knowledgeable, mind telling me the difference in what metrics are measured for inflation in 1980s compared to 2021? Then use the 1980 metrics for 2021 and :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Inflation metrics are changed to make the number artificially lower, to give that false assumption that you're working with now. 1980 inflation metrics are not 2021 inflation metrics, so trying to compare the two is laughable at best unless you use the same metrics.

edit: Also on a more obvious note, how can you look at inflation going up for the past 12 months and go, "this is fine" like ?_? inflation is transitory I'm sure.

 

[Haruno]

Let me make things easier for you as well.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf this is 2021. Page 9 is what we're looking at here since it's a breakdown of how we calculated inflation in 2021.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/cpi-detailed-report-58/december-1980-19377 page12 is what we're looking at for 1980 inflation.

The weighting changed so drastically that you cannot even call them comparable.

Edit: I'm not even going to talk about the reality we've seen around the country as far as things like grocery stores, rent, and everyday product are concerned since oh boy, we don't have accurate numbers there but from a purely anecdotal evidence it's definitely far above what's actually being stated.

 

[RaikouLover]

edit: Also on a more obvious note, how can you look at inflation going up for the past 12 months and go, "this is fine" like ?_? inflation is transitory I'm sure.

Inflation in 2021 was 6.8%. “Normal” inflation is 2-5%. Modest inflation is mandatory in a healthy economy. My broader point was clear; inflation of 6.8% is slightly above normal. That is a completely different picture than what is being portrayed in the media.

Edit: I'm not even going to talk about the reality we've seen around the country as far as things like grocery stores, rent, and everyday product are concerned since oh boy, we don't have accurate numbers there but from a purely anecdotal evidence it's definitely far above what's actually being stated.

Anecdotal evidence is not credible evidence.

 

[Haruno]

>says Normal being 2-5%
>inflation being at 4% or above has literally not been seen in 40 years which was during an era called.... the great inflation
>even during the worst recession in modern times we were at 3.8% before being due for a correction

There is an issue here. I have no idea where you got the idea that normal is 2-5% since clearly it isn't where most years since 1980s we've seen 0-2% except for the periods that there was a recession or a bubble popping (dot com bubble, great recession, black Monday) which would more likely show that we're due for a correction ie crash soon.

Not to mention that you completely ignored the parts where I showed 1980s inflation rate is different than 2021s inflation rate. If you apply 1980's inflation rate to 2021 or vice versa, you'll see a drastically different story.

There's still the obvious issue that the inflation has not been stopping. Even in 2008, it "only" rose to 5.8% before quickly dropping due to the Great Recession. Whereas now, the inflation numbers are going past that level, and it's showing no signs of stopping, and it's safe to assume that sooner rather than later there will be some sort of disaster impending. Whether that be supply chain issues, real estate market going kaboom in CN, a looming endemic, student loans, etc there is cause for concern.

Something something, inflation is transitory. Billionaire's investments =/= economy just fyi.