In the midterms, what is the GOP going to run on?

[pecksniff]

I just hope it doesn't sink to the level it did in 2018, when I saw one Pub candidate posing in front of a pump draining a swamp. I think he was holding a rifle, too.

What made it all the more ridiculous was that it was obvious that the water, having nowhere else to go, was only going to flow back into the swamp.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

Why energy? There aren't any gas lines.

Checked gas prices lately?

 

[pecksniff]

Beliefs like that are why the Dems and a hefty chunk of the GOP are dog food this year. Even your Amazon link shows how clueless you are, since Amazon is one of the worst corporate employers in the nation. Its employees and former employees won't be persuaded by links to their overlord.

That does not mean Amazon or any corporation is going away. The corporate sector can survive anything short of a Communist revolution.

 

[The_Trouvere]

We have a low jobless rate. That's the measure of economic recovery voters care about.

Inflation is as about as high as it was forty years ago. Biden needs low unemployment and low inflation. President Clinton had it, but Biden does not, at least not yet.

 

[The_Trouvere]

I'm afraid you'll find "Control the border!" is not an issue that's going to gain traction with swing voters.

The most recent Gallup survey indicates that 31% of Americans want immigration levels to be decreased, 33% want immigration levels to increase, and 35% want immigration to remain at the present high level.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1660/immigration.aspx

Restricting immigration is an issue that will bring the alt right to the polls, but it is not an issue that appeals to most Americans.

The Republican Party is conflicted on immigration The Republican Donor Class wants more immigrants. By competing for jobs, immigrants enable employers to hold the line on pay increases. By competing for places to live immigrants enable landlords to raise rents. Native born Americans have achieved zero population growth. The ultimate reason for the rise in housing costs is the rise in the U.S. population caused by immigrants.

 

[The_Trouvere]

Black ghetto riots

If there is a long hot summer of black ghetto riots, and continued inflation I think the Republicans will do well next November.

I say that as a Democrat. I want no black ghetto riots, no inflation, and no Republican sweep next election.

 

[bellisarius]

If there is a long hot summer of black ghetto riots, and continued inflation I think the Republicans will do well next November.

I say that as a Democrat. I want no black ghetto riots, no inflation, and no Republican sweep next election.

You MAY get no riots.

 

[pecksniff]

Could we have some zoot suit riots?

 

[pecksniff]

Corporate greed would be enough to end them as the smoking ruins of capitalism are swept away, but the more immediate cause is energy consumption. Amazon is particularly up shit creek with its model of driving a big van to each house to deliver little packages of mostly imports.

What makes you think anything's about to happen to capitalism? Its death has been foretold several times over the past century, but it just keeps going.

 

[bellisarius]

What makes you think anything's about to happen to capitalism? Its death has been foretold several times over the past century, but it just keeps going.

Capitalism and socialism both need growth to work. All growth eventually stops.

Exactly what are you engaged in when you buy, sell, or trade with a neighbor? Do you consult with the dictates to the government? Report the transaction to the IRS? Do you really think that any government dictat's will change the nature of how humans engage in trade with one another?

What government can do is provide the victim of fraud (lying and cheating) a means of recovery, or at least punishment of the perpetrator. To do more than that would mean that government would criminalize the basic nature of how individuals interact with one another.

 

[pecksniff]

Capitalism and socialism both need growth to work. All growth eventually stops.

And then what? So long as the human race survives, we're going to have an economy in some form. Will we have feudalism? That system, at any rate, does not depend on growth.

 

[pecksniff]

Exactly what are you engaged in when you buy, sell, or trade with a neighbor?

Commerce, which is a very much older thing than capitalism.

 

[GothTalk]

Commerce, which is a very much older thing than capitalism.

Nope.... capitalism is just free commerce between consenting individuals or entities.

It's the freedom that upsets you and the other psycho control freaks so much about it.

 

[pecksniff]

Nope.... capitalism is just free commerce between consenting individuals or entities. it.

No, capitalism =/= commerce. Commerce can happen between primitive tribes. Capitalism requires a high enough level of development that "investment" has meaning.

 

[GothTalk]

No, capitalism =/= commerce.

Correct, it's FREE commerce.

an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism

 

[Champakian]

Midterm elections are generally a referendum on the president and the party in power. Inflation, crime, energy, and border control are among the items on the ballot this fall that the GOP will win on.

This is where sane Democrats will step up and remind us,
the party in power always loses seats in the midterms.



However, Lit Dims are sadly lacking in the sanity skills...

 

[LongDraw]

This is where sane Democrats will step up and remind us,
the party in power always loses seats in the midterms.



However, Lit Dims are sadly lacking in the sanity skills...

Ha ha ha! Sane Democrats. You're so funny. Next you'll be telling us Ole Joe isn't senile

 

[Champakian]

They used to be sane.
I remember that; my family was FDR Democrats.

Then the 60s Generation turned everything into That 70s Show
and took the party from the Joe Manchin types and
gave it over to the children of the radicals...

 

[Champakian]

PS - Yes, I think the President is senile. I think he's barely functional
and I worry about who (unelected) is actually calling the shots for him.

 

[pecksniff]

They used to be sane.
I remember that; my family was FDR Democrats.

Then the 60s Generation turned everything into That 70s Show
and took the party from the Joe Manchin types and
gave it over to the children of the radicals...

There was a time when the Republicans were sane, but that started to change with Goldwater in '64, and finally ended with Reagan in '80. In The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, by Rick Perlstein, there's an account of how the Reaganites tried to wrest the nomination from Ford at the 1976 RNC -- it was ugly.

 

[pecksniff]

There probably will be a feudal period in the dark age between civilizations. The next civilization will do something else that may not have a label yet.

So now we're looking at the fall of civilization in its present form?

The only other person I know predicting that is James Howard Kunstler -- he doesn't think industrial civilization can survive Peak Oil. That's the point at which all-time global production of petroleum peaks, and it's coming in 10-15 years.

 

[pecksniff]

The peak was roughly 2005. Oil producers are in the low margin stuff now, the fields that were left untouched until the oil price rose high enough for more expensive operations that use more energy. Deepwater Horizon drilling was a desperation move because the US can't control other nations that have more oil.

Kunstler can be amusing, but he's long past his prime as a journalist. He may want to see trends happen faster than they will because he doesn't have much time left.

Past few years, Kunstler has morphed into a real Trumptard, judging by his "Clusterfuck Nation" blog. It's depressing.

 

[The_Trouvere]

They used to be sane.
I remember that; my family was FDR Democrats.

Then the 60s Generation turned everything into That 70s Show
and took the party from the Joe Manchin types and
gave it over to the children of the radicals...

When blacks were given equal rights from the civil rights legislation passed between 1964 to 1968, and when the War in Poverty made welfare benefits more generous and easier to qualify for, white racial moderates thought they were buying racial peace.When they got instead were five years of black ghetto rioting, and more enduring increases in black social pathology, they felt betrayed, and began voting Republican.

 

[Dribble]

It just hit me....

The GOP platform:

1) it is ok to kill a black man if you feel threatened.

2) It is OK to kill a child if you feel threatened.

3) It is OK to overthrow an election if you feel threatened.

Did I miss any?

 

[butters]

It just hit me....

The GOP platform:

1) it is ok to kill a black man if you feel threatened.

2) It is OK to kill a child if you feel threatened.

3) It is OK to overthrow an election if you feel threatened.

Did I miss any?

yeah

4) But but but Hilllllllarrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'