I try to see both sides of the political parties in the U.S. I wanted to watch the RNC but didn't have the time unfortunately. I will try and watch some fox news. I look to CNN for most of my world news

Neither the RNC or the DNC impressed me. I'm sure the website of the opposite party can tell you exactly what I mean.

It angers me that the RNC didn't mention the war and that Romney flip flops. I was really impressed by the DNC. I am probably permenantly biased but if there weren't people like the tea party I would probably respect republicans more.

If the republicans could get enough of the popular vote without bending their policies to the extreme right wing I would be proud to vote for someone like McCain without a palin vp...

Not to mention Romney dodged the vietnam draft multiple times and went on vacation in France to avoid the draft :D

Sorry for the extreme bias fellas! Also off topic. Again sorry.

This thread is having trouble sticking to its original topic so what the hell…

I am, if you want to put me in a category, probably very mildly conservative. To me, there are a lot of fundamental aspects to both parties that seem suitable for just about everyone. Like I said before, I come from a well off family; I've never spent a night without food or a bed to sleep in with blankets on it against my will. Nonetheless, I have done so while with some guys and I can tell you that those people can use all the help they can get because that life sucks.

I'd like to call myself a liberal Republican. I personally don't want to associate myself with anything Mitt Romney though. He's a dick; his policies would probably cause the poorest of the poor to be even poorer, and that's pathetic. A lot of those people are smarter than he is yet they have no money.

I wish wealth didn't make up the aristocracy. Sometimes I wonder whether we should go back to the 1700s and have more of a bloodline hierarchy and just say when a baby is born what it will become. It sounds radical, but hey, the American Revolution was radical too, and 200 years later we all think they were right ;)

When I agree with everything you say how am I supposed to argue on this thread? Lol

If youre in college and you dont vote for the dems you must like paying through the nose for education.

^

I'll just say this to entice people to comment that I can argue with... Trickle down economics doesn't work and I don't need a rich man who's never wanted in life telling me his friends need tax breaks to help me become better off!

+1 Putin

Seriously people need to look up financial aid reform.

I'd just like to get back to something: 'america is evil'

No country is either good or evil, they're not capabpe of it, the people of a country are generally pretty good, they kight be selfish or bigotted, but that will rarely make it's way into international policy (domestic policy may mean that a country of biggots is not one which you would like to migrate to)

Japan for example is rather xenophobic, it is one of the few 'developed' countries which isn't making up for low indigenous birth rates by external migration.

But when i talk about the US does this thing and i don't like it; that is not a reflection of the people or their intentions. Politically what the US (or other democracies) CAN do is limited by what the people think, so 'the powers that be' are limited to doing things quietly or justifying them with propoganda.

Individuals are able to make a difference - look a Bill Clinton as an example, he has talked about the difference between being an individual leading a crusade to make a difference on some specific issue and being president - where he did many things at once but never to the same degree; something else always needed to be done... Sure he could make sweeping long lasting policy changes; but they would always but limited by how they were implemented - whereas an individual can focus their entire career on the implementation of a specific thing.

So i might generalise, all individuals are capable of good/evil; all nations are amoral.

If you see a news piece talking about Iran, Russia, Venezuala or China; remember the nation may actually be corrupt, it may be acting against US interests (or whoever the propoganda you are watching is biased toward) it may be the they've done something actually 'wrong' by any legal definition - but laws are subject to change, international conventions are just vague agreements which are determined more or less on a might makes right basis - i would say that a country is right to do something which benefits it's citizens. That view would be one where countries exist to protect some subset of human population and that you consider this to be a good thing... The alternative view is that this is a bad thing. And both views are rather limited, there are really no absolutes, generally countires do both good and bad things to people.

As for the white terrorists; i'm not talling about white muslim extremeists in prison. I'm talking about anti-muslim, anti-jewish, anti-black/latino supremacists who use fear and terror for political ends - to 'keep america american' - this is terrorism by definition. They are essentially Nazis, and likely also filled with hate.

"Illinois Nazis. I hate Illinois Nazis." - Jake and Elwood Blues

Tyran - is that short for Tyranny? We know Putin is a communist and you seem to like his form of Tyranny.

Draug, arguing against closed mindedness is the point of this thread. Try not to discriminate people discussing the downsides of discrimination.

I didn't discriminate. I quoted a movie line (well mashed two together, one from Elwood and one from Jake) and asked a arcastic question. You really need to udnerstand what discrimination is. I didn't deny them the right to post their opinion. I didn't deny them access to anything. I simply stated, as is my right, my opinion through sarcasm that communism sucks and that Tyran nor Putin know what the fuck they are talking about. We all know Putin lost his grant and never finished his PhD because he is so fucking opinionated that he pissed someone at OSU off, but he'll never admit it. Now he has Tyran as his little follower, licking Putin's asshole clean after every verbal shit from him. But it is their right to do that just as it is my right to call them out.

And closemindedness =/= discrimination. One is a state of mind the other actions realting to trying to enforce that state of mind on others. I'm closeminded when it comes to the idea that the Earth si flat and only 6000 years old, but I don't try to make the conservative evangelical literalists believe my point of view. They can have their belief and I would never considering trying to change them so long as they don't force those beliefs upon others. Likewise I believe that the real solution to our finacial woes requires a combined effort that hasn't been tried before as each side wants to take it to their extreme rather than finding the balance that could bring about recovery, but I don't think Putty and Tyranosaurus have to believe that. I just poke fun at them because they insistg on trying to force their wills upon others (well Putty does, Tyranosaurus just licks his boot heels).

So Draugnar, care to comment on the 'White Supremacists as Terrorists' question, or the implication that terrorists must be brown, and hate America...

Oh, terrorism has no color or creed requirements. Illinois Nazis are terrorists just as much as Muslim Extremists. The KKK are terrorists as are the skinheads. For that matter, the various Palestinian factions and even some of the Israeli groups who also strive to undermine the peace process. Anyone who commits a violent act (even if no one dies) with the intent to inspire others to follow or to instill terror that it will be repeated again in the future is a terrorist.

Terrorism is a form of war not comminted by a nation state. War can be a form of terrorism *committed* by a nation state. (Nazi Germany was a terroristic nation state by its acts of genocide and the USA could be argued as commiting an attack of terrorism when it dropped the first A-bomb and then proved it when it followed through with a second one.)

P.S. WebDip used to have its own little terrorist who believed in vandalizing police stations and burning cars on streets, but we haven't seen him in a while.

Damn it, why does it still surprise me when we agree 100% on things?