Ted Cruz: The Comedy Gold that Keeps on Giving

[Namutree]

 

 

 

Are you suggesting African Americans don't care about criminal justice reforms?

 

EDIT: What do you think he would have to do to say that he cares about African American issues? 

 

If I had seen him staring down the riot cops in Ferguson, then I might think he actually cares.

 

As it is, all he cares about is libertarian issues. He just thinks he might be able to sell them to black voters. Not the same thing at all.

 

What would staring down riot cops accomplish?

 

Nothing. But it would go some way to convincing me that he cares about issues relevant to African-Americans, as opposed to merely caring about their votes. (That part I can certainly believe.)

 

Well, you're halfway there. 

 

He's done more than talk about those issues though, he's introduced legislation on it too.

[PrimeJunta]

Well, you're halfway there. 

 

He's done more than talk about those issues though, he's introduced legislation on it too.

 

A libertarian has introduced legislation on favorite libertarian issues, ergo, he cares about blacks. Gotcha.

[Guard Dog]

PrimeJunta have you ever posted here under another name? If so I think I've figured out who you are. I'm curious.

[PrimeJunta]

PrimeJunta have you ever posted here under another name? If so I think I've figured out who you are. I'm curious.

 

No, I haven't. I'm curious too, who is the comrade you're thinking of?

[Namutree]

 

PrimeJunta have you ever posted here under another name? If so I think I've figured out who you are. I'm curious.

 

No, I haven't. I'm curious too, who is the comrade you're thinking of?

 

I'm curious where this is going as well.

[Guard Dog]

No kidding? I thought it was odd you've been here for three years and 4k+ posts and I hadn't run across you until recently. Plus the sarcasm and political inclination reminded me of a couple of guys I used to battle with on a regular basis here. That's why I thought you were an old poster with a changed name. I was thinking you were a guy who used the name Pop, but you're too polite to be him. You would have insulted Namutree at least once in the last exchange if you were him.

[Namutree]

 

Well, you're halfway there. 

 

He's done more than talk about those issues though, he's introduced legislation on it too.

 

A libertarian has introduced legislation on favorite libertarian issues, ergo, he cares about blacks. Gotcha.

 

Have you ever wondered why libertarians favor criminal justice reforms? Could it be they recognize that law enforcement has been unfarily hard on people, and yes, noticed it effects black people the most? There are reasons why people are libertarians you know.

[Guard Dog]

 

 

Well, you're halfway there. 

 

He's done more than talk about those issues though, he's introduced legislation on it too.

 

A libertarian has introduced legislation on favorite libertarian issues, ergo, he cares about blacks. Gotcha.

 

Have you ever wondered why libertarians favor criminal justice reforms? Could it be they recognize that law enforcement has been unfarily hard on people, and yes, noticed it effects black people the most? There are reasons why people are libertarians you know.

 

Well said! People who favor big government should stand up and cheer ever time a cop beats or kills someone. That is government in all it's glory.

[Namutree]

 

 

 

Well, you're halfway there. 

 

He's done more than talk about those issues though, he's introduced legislation on it too.

 

A libertarian has introduced legislation on favorite libertarian issues, ergo, he cares about blacks. Gotcha.

 

Have you ever wondered why libertarians favor criminal justice reforms? Could it be they recognize that law enforcement has been unfarily hard on people, and yes, noticed it effects black people the most? There are reasons why people are libertarians you know.

 

Well said! People who favor big government should stand up and cheer ever time a cop beats or kills someone. That is government in all it's glory.

 

I don't think that's something many of them intend Guard Dog.

[PrimeJunta]

@Guard Dog and @Namutree, you would have to voice much nastier opinions before I'm tempted to start insulting you.

 

As far as I can tell you don't wish ill on anyone, you've just internalized a bunch of propaganda designed to channel your discontent into areas that in no way threaten your ruling elite. That makes you naive, and me a little sad, but certainly not angry.

[Guard Dog]

@Guard Dog and @Namutree, you would have to voice much nastier opinions before I'm tempted to start insulting you.

 

As far as I can tell you don't wish ill on anyone, you've just internalized a bunch of propaganda designed to channel your discontent into areas that in no way threaten your ruling elite. That makes you naive, and me a little sad, but certainly not angry.

  And here you said you wouldn't be insulting!

 

Kidding of course

[Guard Dog]

Actually JP my political philosophy is not internalized dissent. I am what you'd call a true believer in the concept of limited government and the sovereignty of the individual citizens. It's a radical concept I know.

 

Believe it or not I once worked in politics and I can tell you there is no one in that business, not one of them, that you would want making decisions over anything more complex that what shoes to wear.

 

Ideally you want a government with clearly defined roles and not one bit of power more that is needed to perform those roles and a watchful electorate to yank them back when they step out of line. Unfortunately we have none of those things.

[PrimeJunta]

As I said, you have internalized a bunch of propaganda explicitly crafted to direct the dissent of people like you into safe channels, where it doesn't threaten the ruling class. You've even internalized the notion that there's something 'radical' about it.

 

I really am amazed at how that actually happened. The Soviets never managed that complete thought control, not even close.

[Calax]

 

If the US survives another 10 years, things will get better. By then there will be enough blacks and Hispanics to make the Republicans a permanent minority. This will lead to a general realignment of the political field with the two major parties standing roughly where the Democrats and Republicans were 20-30 years ago. Whether the other major party will be named the Republican Party or something else depends on how it plays out.

 

Until then, though, the US will continue to provide excellent political comedy for the rest of the world, punctuated by occasional hissy fits of Tomahawking various unfortunate third-world countries.

 

I don't get it. Are Hispanics and Blacks incapable of being conservative?

 

Not incapable, but there has been no visible reason for them to vote conservatively when the GOP are the ones constantly pushing laws into place to protect their congressional seats via white majority. Voter ID laws being the most recent example I can think of. And it doesn't help that the GOP is run by a bunch of guys who held Strom Thurmond up as a paragon of their party... a man who ran for president in '48 on a ticket of "Keep it Segregated".

 

In 2002 the Senate Majority Leader (Trent Lott) declared 

 

 

 

When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either

 

which is so politically intractable that he ultimately lost his position as Majority Leader because of the outrage in general.

[Meshugger]

 

 

If the US survives another 10 years, things will get better. By then there will be enough blacks and Hispanics to make the Republicans a permanent minority. This will lead to a general realignment of the political field with the two major parties standing roughly where the Democrats and Republicans were 20-30 years ago. Whether the other major party will be named the Republican Party or something else depends on how it plays out.

 

Until then, though, the US will continue to provide excellent political comedy for the rest of the world, punctuated by occasional hissy fits of Tomahawking various unfortunate third-world countries.

 

I don't get it. Are Hispanics and Blacks incapable of being conservative?

 

Not incapable, but there has been no visible reason for them to vote conservatively when the GOP are the ones constantly pushing laws into place to protect their congressional seats via white majority. Voter ID laws being the most recent example I can think of. And it doesn't help that the GOP is run by a bunch of guys who held Strom Thurmond up as a paragon of their party... a man who ran for president in '48 on a ticket of "Keep it Segregated".

 

In 2002 the Senate Majority Leader (Trent Lott) declared 

 

 

 

When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either

 

which is so politically intractable that he ultimately lost his position as Majority Leader because of the outrage in general.

 

 

To make this more confusing, he ran as a Democrat back then. I will never understand american politics entirely.

[Calax]

He was a Democrat, but got so outraged at Truman for the race politics that he splintered the Southern members of the party, to create the Dixiecrats.

[PrimeJunta]

Yeah it's fairly amazing how the Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Nixon and beyond.

 

But then I'm amazed about a lot of stuff in American politics. It's just so unrelentingly bizarre.

[Meshugger]

Yeah it's fairly amazing how the Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Nixon and beyond.

 

But then I'm amazed about a lot of stuff in American politics. It's just so unrelentingly bizarre.

 

Since we are in the correct thread now, how do you define the ruling class and what is the correct way for the US voter to create better society?

[PrimeJunta]

(1) The ruling class is a self-perpetuating social group with long-standing hegemonic or near-hegemonic control over political, economic, and cultural power. 

 

(2) Start from the neighborhood. Make things work there. Then use the levers of power in municipal democracy to make your city work. While you're doing it, connect with like-minded people in other municipalities across the country and abroad. Share ideas, experiences, and eventually resources. Learn from each other. Once you start seeing positive results, build that up into a nationwide network with fraternal networks in other countries.  At that point you will start to have the means to fix the country, and eventually the world.

 

And be always on your guard for forces that want to co-opt or hijack the movement, and make sure any leaders you appoint are on a short leash and remember that they serve you, not the other way around. 

[Hurlshort]

Hard to argue with any of that.

[Namutree]

Yeah it's fairly amazing how the Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Nixon and beyond.

 

But then I'm amazed about a lot of stuff in American politics. It's just so unrelentingly bizarre.

It's really quite simple. A bunch of southerners left the democrats and joined the republicans. Much to our misfortune; at least in terms of policy.

[Calax]

I think that in the next 20 years there's going to be a political apocolypse, simply because the baby boomers are retiring and the Mellenials/GenX are taking their spots, which will be more polarizing... which will mean the 2 party system might die.

[PrimeJunta]

The American "winner takes all" system is only stable in a two-party system. There might be an interim where there are three, but it won't take many cycles for it to settle back to two. It could be that one or both of the two are new parties, of course. It's happened before in Britain which has the same system.

 

(Which is why it's a bad system. A two-party duopoly results in a permanent governing class which is extremely hard to dislodge. You can't do it from within since it controls the party apparatus, and you can't do it from the outside since it's so incredibly hard to get a third party off the ground.)

[Valsuelm]

The American "winner takes all" system is only stable in a two-party system. There might be an interim where there are three, but it won't take many cycles for it to settle back to two. It could be that one or both of the two are new parties, of course. It's happened before in Britain which has the same system.

 

(Which is why it's a bad system. A two-party duopoly results in a permanent governing class which is extremely hard to dislodge. You can't do it from within since it controls the party apparatus, and you can't do it from the outside since it's so incredibly hard to get a third party off the ground.)

 

World Civics 101 Nah.. this one should have been covered for you in Jr. High. Either your schooling failed you. or you failed your schooling.

 

The constitutional monarchy parliamentary governmental system in the United Kingdom and representative republic federal system in the U.S. are not the same system. In a many fundamental ways they are different.

 

The two party system and two dimensional thought conceived right-left paradigm are for the most part smoke and mirrors, bought and paid for you by the ruling class that you elude to, know exists, but don't understand. That ruling class doesn't derive it's power from the government, it runs the government. Look to the puppet masters, not the puppets, for the ruling class. Voting alone will never dislodge them.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Valsuelm

[PrimeJunta]

I was not referring to the entirety of the political system, only the "winner takes all" electoral system.

 

Edit: I agree with you about the capture of government by the ruling class. It is a built-in feature of the American system: it was never intended to allow anyone but the propertied classes much power.

Edited April 27, 2015 by PrimeJunta