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The Atlantic is a joke

Aruka

Aruka

Tom Curren status
Feb 23, 2010
12,100
22,911
113
PNW
Okay I'm finished. Shockingly I didn't care for it.

In the first few paragraphs Mitt Romney, who in 2012 said, "My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet" now laments the melting ice caps at the same time he equates the severity of human caused global climate change to the problem of brown people crossing our Southern border. One might be inclined to give him credit for finally coming around on the climate issue, "grading on a curve" and all that, however you only have to look at his recent objections to the climate portions of Biden's legislation to see that it's only meek lip service.

"What clears the scales from the eyes of a nation? Pearl Harbor did. 9/11 did. A crisis can shake the public consciousness. "

Ah yes, 9/11 was so clarifying that we decided a couple wasteful, pointless, multi decade wars was a great idea. I must have missed all the times that budget hawk Mitt complained about the deficit implications of pissing away trillions of dollars on those foreign misadventures. These are the good old days that these "reasonable" Republicans are longing for.

I think this "never Trump" Republican take that MAGA is a great anomoly rather than a continuation of the decades long GOP project is basically false. Make America Great Again was a Ronald Reagan slogan, after all. Trump is a bit too crude for Romney's Mormon sensibilities but his actual policies of deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy to me seem very well aligned with the basic GOP ideology of the past 40+ years.
 
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sirfun

sirfun

Duke status
Apr 26, 2008
17,759
7,016
113
U.S.A.
hammies said:
Say what you want about Romney - I am not particularly a fan - but he 100% nails it right there.
Click to expand...
"equates" !! :) )

I hope for a president who can rise above the din to unite us behind the truth. Several contenders with experience and smarts stand in the wings; we intently watch to see if they also possess the requisite character and ability to bring the nation together in confronting our common reality. While we wait, leadership must come from fathers and mothers, teachers and nurses, priests and rabbis, businessmen and businesswomen, journalists and pundits. That will require us all to rise above ourselves—above our grievances and resentments—and grasp the mantle of leadership our country so badly needs.
 
hal9000

hal9000

Duke status
Jan 30, 2016
56,139
16,655
113
Urbana, Illinois
sirfun said:
"equates" !! :) )

I hope for a president who can rise above the din to unite us behind the truth. Several contenders with experience and smarts stand in the wings; we intently watch to see if they also possess the requisite character and ability to bring the nation together in confronting our common reality. While we wait, leadership must come from fathers and mothers, teachers and nurses, priests and rabbis, businessmen and businesswomen, journalists and pundits. That will require us all to rise above ourselves—above our grievances and resentments—and grasp the mantle of leadership our country so badly needs.
Click to expand...
I'd like to see this list of contenders
 
afoaf

afoaf

Duke status
Jun 25, 2008
49,540
23,117
113
Aruka said:
Okay I'm finished. Shockingly I didn't care for it.

In the first few paragraphs Mitt Romney, who in 2012 said, "My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet" now laments the melting ice caps at the same time he equates the severity of human caused global climate change to the problem of brown people crossing our Southern border. One might be inclined to give him credit for finally coming around on the climate issue, "grading on a curve" and all that, however you only have to look at his recent objections to the climate portions of Biden's legislation to see that it's only meek lip service.

"What clears the scales from the eyes of a nation? Pearl Harbor did. 9/11 did. A crisis can shake the public consciousness. "

Ah yes, 9/11 was so clarifying that we decided a couple wasteful, pointless, multi decade wars was a great idea. I must have missed all the times that budget hawk Mitt complained about the deficit implications of pissing away trillions of dollars on those foreign misadventures. These are the good old days that these "reasonable" Republicans are longing for.

I think this "never Trump" Republican take that MAGA is a great anomoly rather than a continuation of the decades long GOP project is basically false. Make America Great Again was a Ronald Reagan slogan, after all. Trump is a bit too crude for Romney's Mormon sensibilities but his actual policies of deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy to me seem very well aligned with the basic GOP ideology of the past 40+ years.
Click to expand...
this guy gets it

that was a pile of horseshit
 
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sirfun

sirfun

Duke status
Apr 26, 2008
17,759
7,016
113
U.S.A.
Ifallalot said:
Man, I am so happy I created this thread
Click to expand...
Last week, I asked readers to discuss how they’re thinking about the upcoming midterm elections in the United States. I am disappointed that I didn’t hear from many current Republican voters, something that I’ve found informative in the past and that I’ll return to in future installments. I did get lots of responses from former Republicans, independents, and Democrats, and listening to them, Donald Trump seems like an albatross for the Republican Party.

Steve cast his first presidential vote for Ronald Reagan. “Until President Trump, I was a lifelong Republican,” he wrote. “My major issue is whether a candidate supports Trump. He has crushed my vision of America. If a candidate even remotely supports Trump, they will never get my vote.”

For correspondents alienated by the latest incarnation of the GOP, one issue loomed largest. “I’m an independent who was once a Republican,” Michael writes. “I left the party due to the January 6 insurrection and the GOP refusal to investigate it. The issue driving me is to defeat Trumpism.”

Barbara has different ideological priors but the same focus:

I will vote for democracy. That means I will vote for those who uphold the rule of law, meaning that no one is above the law. I will vote for those who uphold our constitutional right to choose our representatives, and vote against those who are trying to restrict voting rights, or trying to give legislators the ability to throw out votes and choose their own winners. I will vote for those who support the peaceful transfer of power and against those who reject an election because they don’t like the outcome. I will vote for legislators who work for their constituents and against those who work for their personal benefit. I will vote for legislators who uphold their oath of office.
Click to expand...
Additionally, Barbara alluded to abortion, the issue that loomed next-largest among my correspondents, writing, “I will vote for those who support a justice system where settled precedent and established rights are not overturned based on judges’ personal and political beliefs.”

The same two issues stood out for Mark, though in a somewhat different manner. He writes:

1) I am pro-life to the core. To me, elective abortion is homicide and a loathsome evil. It can be justified only to save the life of the mother, or—as a compromise—in cases of rape or incest.
2) To me, the integrity of our Constitution, the institutions it mandates, and even our federal union is at risk. All of this has come to be because of Donald Trump, who never should have been voted in as president. This man is a criminal and for all I know either an ally or a dupe of Vladimir Putin. I will never vote for Mr. Trump. I will not knowingly vote for anyone who endorses him or his take on many positions on items such as election results.
From when I was first able to vote, in 1972, to 2016, I voted Republican nearly 100 percent. I did vote for a few (fewer than five) Democrats and regretted it every time. The issue was that of abortion, that monstrous machinery of death that Justice Harry Blackmun built on the infamous day of January 20, 1973. In particular, it was most discouraging to see Democrats proclaiming themselves to be pro-choice, including some who once were pro-life. Pro-life people were not welcome in the Democratic Party. So be it. So I voted Republican.
Things started to change when Donald Trump ran for president as a Republican. Knowing his unsavory character, I took the position that I MIGHT vote for him but if I did, it would be like eating a turd sandwich. In the spring of 2016, I moved to the position of not voting for Trump under any circumstances. I considered voting for Hillary Clinton until I saw her at the DNC pumping fists with Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood. So I didn’t vote for her or Trump in 2016. I voted for Evan McMullin. After seeing Trump’s COVID response and, worse, seeing his starting to whine about the election being stolen even before votes were cast, I made up my mind to vote for Joe Biden, which I did. I would have sat it out if ANY OTHER Democrat ran for president.
We come to the here and now.
The attempted coup of January 6, 2021, and the revelations of Trump’s involvement and, worse, the Republicans continuing to excuse Trump have made it so I will not vote for any Republican unless (like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney), he or she denounces and renounces Trump and his positions on things like our elections, race, Putin, and other “strong leaders.” However, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the Democrats are apparently running EXCLUSIVELY on protecting the right to choose death before birth for babies. The Republicans have handed them so many issues on which they could run, and maybe even secure my vote: issues like protecting our elections; our republican institutions; and our foreign policy, especially concerning Russia and Ukraine. But are Democrats running on those issues? No, of course not. Rather, they are running to protect a monstrous evil of abortion. On that, I will NOT vote.
So in 2022, I might consider it my patriotic duty to stay home. I may vote for some Democrats, but there are no guarantees. I even might vote for some Republicans if I see them dropping Trump.
Click to expand...
CG, another voter who objects to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, is torn about whether his fellow Democrats should talk about abortion when they talk about democracy.

He writes:

The most important issue to me is stopping the MAGA candidates who still promote lies about election fraud. I’m torn by how the Democratic Party has approached this election. I think abortion is a much more complex issue than a right being stripped away, and dislike that it’s such a focus this year. I think that collapsing critiques of authoritarian tendencies within Republican/conservative leaders and voters with critiques of anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-climate science positions cloud the issue. I also dislike spending money in Republican primaries to elevate the crazy people because they’re easier to beat. It’s so dangerous; these crazy Republican candidates might win!
On the other hand, winning in November is really important. Even normal conservatives like Senator Sasse refused to impeach Trump. Normal conservatives supported McCarthy’s submission to Trump and punished Cheney for refusing to ignore that Trump tried to use deceit, fraud, and violence to stay in power. So I’m not sure there’s much of a difference between a normal conservative in Congress and a MAGA conservative. In which case, generating turnout by focusing on the Dobbs decision makes sense. Spending money to support repugnant, but weaker general-election candidates is justified. It might also have been necessary to highlight extreme positions earlier so that these candidates could not pretend to be normal now during the general election.
Click to expand...
read more !! :) )

www.theatlantic.com

The Weight of Trump

Across the ideological spectrum, midterm voters lament a shared albatross.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com
 
grapedrink

grapedrink

Duke status
May 21, 2011
26,130
14,924
113
A Beach
sirfun said:
Last week, I asked readers to discuss how they’re thinking about the upcoming midterm elections in the United States. I am disappointed that I didn’t hear from many current Republican voters, something that I’ve found informative in the past and that I’ll return to in future installments. I did get lots of responses from former Republicans, independents, and Democrats, and listening to them, Donald Trump seems like an albatross for the Republican Party.

Steve cast his first presidential vote for Ronald Reagan. “Until President Trump, I was a lifelong Republican,” he wrote. “My major issue is whether a candidate supports Trump. He has crushed my vision of America. If a candidate even remotely supports Trump, they will never get my vote.”

For correspondents alienated by the latest incarnation of the GOP, one issue loomed largest. “I’m an independent who was once a Republican,” Michael writes. “I left the party due to the January 6 insurrection and the GOP refusal to investigate it. The issue driving me is to defeat Trumpism.”

Barbara has different ideological priors but the same focus:


Additionally, Barbara alluded to abortion, the issue that loomed next-largest among my correspondents, writing, “I will vote for those who support a justice system where settled precedent and established rights are not overturned based on judges’ personal and political beliefs.”

The same two issues stood out for Mark, though in a somewhat different manner. He writes:


CG, another voter who objects to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, is torn about whether his fellow Democrats should talk about abortion when they talk about democracy.

He writes:



read more !! :) )

www.theatlantic.com

The Weight of Trump

Across the ideological spectrum, midterm voters lament a shared albatross.
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com
Click to expand...
BUH TRUMP :roflmao:
 
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