"Human beings are naturally lazy, like all creatures, but will work like crazy until their basic needs are met. So before you call people lazy and irresponsible, you have to ask WHY they are not working like crazy to feed and clothe themselves? Could it be that liberal do-gooders have forced them into this dependent state? Why on Earth would they do that to these poor folks? Are they bigots with such low expectations, as in "you can't make it by yourself."" Jerry
You haven't had a Trump post for a few days. This column is popular over at the Wapo:I'll read it tomorrow. Work has me buried and I leave for China again on Sunday...
This is how fascism comes to America
it got me thinking that if I believe Trump has a chance to win in the fall I might have to volunteer at a phone bank calling voters in Ohio or something.
"The chartbook reports that 20 percent of nonelderly African-American households had no earners when the data was collected. This compares with 15 percent in the Somali community, 7 percent in the Hmong community and 3 percent in the Mexican community.
In both the African-American and Somali populations, 30 percent of households contained two or more earners — compared with 57 percent of Mexican households and 69 percent of Hmong households.
The effect of this type of disparity is notable. The chartbook reports that full-time Hmong workers, Mexican workers and African-American workers all earn substantially less in median pay than white workers do — a type of gap that gets much well-deserved attention. But it also turns out that median African-American workers earn substantially more than either their Hmong or Mexican counterparts.
Yet total median household incomes are strikingly higher in the Hmong and Mexican communities. In some significant part, that greater overall well-being results from there being more workers per household — the elementary economic benefit of family and work."Thoughts?
"Perhaps you're right that we don't have a disaster on our hands. The official unemployment rate is down, but of course the "real" unemployment rate remains over 10%, and we have the lowest labor force participation rate since the Carter years. Obama has essentially doubled the national debt and covered it up by having the Federal Reserve print trillions of dollars in new money out of thin air. GDP growth is way behind what it should be, and bears no resemblance to any real "recovery."I'll start this with the usual admonishment... Sources?
In healthcare, rather than saving $2500 per family, a recent study found that costs have gone UP by roughly $4800 per family. Whether that counts the huge increase in deductible expenses, essentially making the "insurance" part of Obamacare a moot point, or not I do not know. We do know that a federal judge has now ruled that most of the Obamacare subsidies currently being paid are unconstitutional, and we also know that insurance companies are planning increases anywhere from 10% to 40%, and that the penalties for not having insurance go up next year. All of these will combine to make the "affordable care act" a more obvious disaster than it already is – anything BUT affordable.
Foreign policy matters. ISIS strikes in Paris, Brussels, San Bernadino, and is committing genocide across Syria and Iraq. Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling to keep a viable government while Obama's great achievement in the Middle East is to guarantee that Iran gets a nuclear weapon, and gets an extra hundred billion dollars from us to help out.
Is there any doubt that race relations have deteriorated rather than gotten better?
Let us put this another way: where is there NOT a disaster? "
"If only all citizens could be as intelligent, hardworking, and moral as you and your family members, but I don't see that happening so I am going to keep voting for liberals who will fund programs to alleviate poverty at least a little." Laurie
"Alleviating their immediate suffering is okay, unless it enables / encourages them to grow the impoverished population through poorly raising many many unlucky children. If your efforts to alleviate the short term discomfort leads to millions of additional dependent poor people. Did you do good or support hopelessness?
By the way, though I do disagree with "your keep buying them fish" policies. I truly do respect your chosen profession and your good intent." G2A
"I was going to post a link regarding how much safety net programs reduce poverty, but decided it was a waste of time. You guys keep repeating that these programs don't work because they haven't eliminated poverty. It would be interesting to me if you could talk to the many families at my school that receive subsidized food, housing, and healthcare. Maybe you could explain to the kids how these programs should be eliminated because they don't work. You could reassure them that there are homeless shelters and soup kitchens available to make sure they have a place to eat and sleep (and if these places are full there is usually space available in a church basement.)Now I understand Laurie's desire to feed the needy. I mean it makes us feel less guilty, sometimes happier, it helps the recipient in the short term, etc. I mean I understand this as well as anyone... I operate a blog named "Give2Attain" and give to a dozen or so charities in our community.
From my perspective these welfare programs work quite well. I believe they even reduce the poverty rate (as well as the depth of poverty experienced by families.)" Laurie
"I think that is typical of most voters.The second to Paul's "Fact is if they were a majority, they would't have to slow the drift towards liberalism in the first place "
- LGBT folk are looking for more rights.
- Urban voters are looking for more transit.
- People paying higher taxes want lower taxes.
- People who qualify for welfare / services want more .
- Religious people want a less sinful society.
And I think it is excellent that our system supports balancing all of these personal wants." G2A
Of course our society is slowly shifting to the Left, as noted below people like to vote in their best interests. In this case it can mean:
- voting for more government benefits / programs to help me if I failed to take advantage of the free education that was given to me.
- voting to make someone else responsible for my retirement and healthcare savings.
- voting for more government benefits / programs to help me if I have kids that I can not afford to raise because I have a hard getting / keeping a spouse.
- voting for lower taxes and higher spending, because then my generation gets more and passes the burden on to someone else.
- enjoying gambling, drinking, smoking, drugs, etc
I mean being a Conservative Moral person is hard. I mean one has to ensure:
- one excels in school and at work
- one gets married, has only the number of children they can afford, and stays married
- one lives below their income, saves and invests
- limiting the intakes of enjoying gambling, drinking, smoking, drugs, etc
"First, it is worth noting that Sander’s and Trump’s appeal are about the same: promise the moon and people will believe it.
Second, Sullivan correctly noticed that “political correctness” did indeed create Trump because it breeds more resentment, more racism, and more alienation in people who are injured by the economy and insulted all the time in addition to it. It is impossible to blame Republican establishment for creating Trump by being anti-Obama; it is easy to blame Obama because he is an embodiment of political correctness.
And finally, the sky is not falling. Comparing modern day America to Weimar Republic is ridiculous. First, Germany was failing economically and America is not (yet, provided we don’t start building socialism per Bernie). Muslims and Mexicans are not new Jews because there is no historical basis for hatred towards them like there was towards Jews (2000 years of anti-Semitism).
And Trump is not that much anti-immigrant (I personally do not remember his anti-immigrant statements, just anti-illegal immigrant ones, which is very different). And of course all examples of countries sliding into dictatorships are irrelevant since not a single one of them had had any significant experience with democracy prior to those events. In fact, a transition from republic to empire in Ancient Rome would be a much better example…" Ilya
"The notion that "political correctness" created this situation is a canard. What people who are complaining about "political correctness" are complaining about is that people are noticing, disliking, and taking action against their bigotry.
You can debate illegal immigration without calling Mexicans murderers and rapists. You can debate LGBT rights without comparing it to bestiality or suggesting that LGBT folks are sexual predators. You can be opposed to President Obama without making a monkey doll out of him or suggesting he's a secret Kenyan Muslim.
For all the nonsense about whether or not Obama (the "embodiment of political correctness") calls it "radical Islamic terrorism", he sure sure doesn't have a problem raining bombs down on them (in at least six countries so far)
(And there's no historical basis for hatred against Muslims? Really? We're 1,000 years downstream from the start of the Crusades, you know.)" Sean
""Muslims and Mexicans are not new Jews because there is no historical basis for hatred towards them like there was towards Jews (2000 years of anti-Semitism)."
Was there ever a historical "basis" for hatred towards the Jews?
Are you saying it's not really hatred unless it goes on for a certain number of years?" RB
"Mr. Olsen, your assumption about bigotry of entire chunk of population is unfair and an oversimplification. I can of course say that you can complain about all those people without calling them bigots and racists or I can say that their feelings are the result of things pushed down their throats.
So yes, we can debate illegal immigration without calling Mexicans names but we can also debate it without offending those who are against it; we can debate LGBT without calling them names but let’s not call opponents of same sex marriage names either; and while there is no reason to call Obama names, there is equally no reason to call all Republicans names… And I will encourage you to look what is happening more often on college campuses…
Sure, we are a 1000 years past Crusades and about the same time past Arab’s expansion and conquering huge territories including parts of Europe; I just don’t see any relevance of these facts to our discussion. Have you heard of Muslim pogroms? Blood libel against them? How many Muslims were forced to convert under the threat of being burned alive? How many were expelled from European countries? How many Muslims were killed in genocide?
Mr. Holbrook, while there was no historical basis for hatred towards the Jews, there was history of hatred towards them. Yes, I am saying that hatred to the entire people cannot take roots in one generation – it takes centuries if not millennia. Sure there are always individual haters but it is different from what happened to Jews in Germany under Nazis. Actually, even now there are more anti-Semitic episodes than anti-Muslim ones in the world…" Ilya
"Uncompelling: The notion being offered by conservatives is that "political correctness" prevents us from addressing critical issues. What I haven't seen is a compelling explanation of how that is the case. You yourself indicated that we can discuss controversial issues without name-calling.
Can you give me more of an explanation of how this is so? (I'll stipulate that both sides engage in name-calling AND both sides at times engage in behaviors designed to stifle the speech of those opposed to them.)
Have Republicans have some changes forced upon them that they didn't like? Sure. But, that's the nature of the way things go. You think Democrats haven't suffered the same thing at various points in American history?
What it feels like to me is that this whining about "political correctness" goes back in some way to what I talked about in my original response -- the desire to express bigoted feelings without fear of criticism. Things like the "bathroom bills" are just primal lashing out, not reasoned policy responses to actual problems.
I'm not debating who has it worse between Jews or Muslims. Merely pointing out that there's a long history of anti-Muslim behavior out there." Sean
"You Have to be Taught to Hate:Yes, I am saying that hatred to the entire people cannot take roots in one generation – it takes centuries if not millennia."
I don't know about that. Hatred is hatred, and white Americans seemed to develop hatred towards the Indians pretty quickly. Slavery also seems like a pretty good example of hatred--that was popular with the white folks pretty quickly.
There is an old joke about the recent immigrant from Ireland who was asked what he thought of America. "I've gotten such an education in one week. When I came here, I knew I hated the British. Now, I learned I hate the [Italians], [Jews], and [African Americans], too!"
"[D]on’t you think that worse racial relations and a mess in the Middle East are Obama’s failure, just to name a couple?" I'm sure there's a good explanation for how he instigated the Shiite-Sunni conflict, but hat did the President do to worsen race relations, apart from being elected President while black?" RB
Then there are folks like Constance who still don't get it. And insist on pointing fingers elsewhere..."Armegeddon: I remember almost 8 years ago a bunch of Conservatives saying that Obama becoming President would lead to disaster... I remember quite a few years ago when many thought Jesse would ruin MN... Don't these doomsayers ever get tired of being wrong?I also remember Obama saying that he had to learn a whole lot from the time he was Candidate Obama to the time he sat behind the big desk. I have no doubt that Trump will have to do this also. And as always, I am thankful for gridlock... Those founding Fathers were brilliant. What are the odds that the GOP, the Democrats and Trump can agree on much of anything?So though Obama, Hilary, Romney, Bush, Trump, etc are different, they are still just one person in a huge system, I don't see Armageddon occurring anytime soon." G2A"Root Causes: I think the article is pretty excellent regarding root causes.I am sure these were important:
- illegal immigrants taking jobs and driving down wages
- SCOTUS bypassing State control and mandating LGBT marriage
- the obsession of many people for high foreign content products
- the desire to buy cheaper, cheaper, cheaper
- the public school system failing to good deliver results
- the folks complaining about Christian values
- the ever growing national debt
- the fear that SS and Medicare will fail
I personally am starting to like the idea of Trump winning. It seems we need a change agent badly. Maybe he could fill that role quite nicely. (well as long as he can avoid starting WW III) :-)" G2A
"Read the Sullivan article, folks. But read for ideology, for slant in thought. In just what Eric cites here, you can see a very worrisome and ideological slippage when Sullivan talks of Trump supporters as a white class, rather than a predominantly white MALE class (women who don't pay attention sometimes support Trump, for reasons that Sullivan's discussion of emotional unreality addresses). It's hard for women to be misogynist; less hard for them to be bigots, for instance. Generally, women see right through Donald Trump's ugly relegation of women to the sidelines.
Then, there's Sullivan's conflation of both major political parties into the government that doesn't function. That's a standard Republican and right-wing talk radio line, but we know that in actuality it's the GOP Congressional leadership that, for more than seven years, has refused to compromise on anything with Obama or the Democrats. Look at who stops the government in its tracks. It's not all of us, it's Republicans. Republicans who vote to spend money for programs they like, but then complain about having to raise money to pay for them. Please.
Sullivan's lament here is very upper-class, and quite disdainful of working-class Americans in its own right. there's some truth to his analysis, but he misses a lot that he'd just as soon avoid. He abhors mobs and basically democracy itself, like Jose Ortega y Gasset (in the Rebellion of the Masses). His article is an interesting GOP establishment attempt to understand how the mob got away from them.
But most of America sees Trump for what he is. Let's not do an Andrew Sullivan and pretend that the minority of America that identifies as Republican represents the country. The media obsession with Trump is sinfully misleading in that regard." Constance
