2017: Whither Democrats?

Still relevant:


Heehee. “Always do communist revolutions all the time.”

Here’s a hot take from Joe Cunningham, editor at RedState.com. No idea why CNN runs his editorials, but he’s got some great advice for Democrats: Don’t be Democrats.

It’s smart thinking. We should heed his warning and make sure we don’t try to do things like “be true to our values” and instead try to figure out how to win over Republicans by being more right leaning centrists.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/27/opinions/democrats-should-not-tack-left-cunningham/index.html

Oh and he goes out with a note very much on message:

Like it or not, the American public as a whole is going to want more civility from their politics, not less. To not understand that is to invite disaster in November.

Ugh so many words. That’s not a comic it’s an essay.

This whole “civility” debate is so weird, like, just on it’s face. As though unflitered id hasn’t been cited as one of the top reasons people supported Trump. It’s just so absurd on it’s face.

Although I guess that “shit things up and make Democrats fix it” is pretty on-brand for Republicans.

Fair enough. Maybe you would prefer Camus and Sartre play Candyland.

I dunno man, still not doing it for me. IMO, this is the pinnacle of comic achievements

The only thing surprising about this is that it’s identified as coming from a Republican. This trope has been endemic to American political discourse since at least Clinton and the rise of the DLC.

The Vichy Left bring nothing of value to the table and should be barely tolerated at best.

Communist philosophy was used as the justification for a whole bunch of totalitarian regimes, but the totalitarianism that lead to horrible abuses of the population is not an inherent feature of Socialist thought. I mean, if you believe that any form of Trump is essentially a totalitarian regime capable of atrocities on the scale of history’s greatest monsters, then I suppose a Democratic Trump would also be that kind of monster. What I object to is the reflexive identification of ideas like “College should be free” with the killing fields of Cambodia or in general the idea that Socialism = evil oppressive governments.

Being uncivil means refusing to nod politely when people say horrible things like, “illegal immigrants are rapists”, “muslims are the poisoned m&m in a bowl good ones”, or “if we lower corporate taxes, we will have more jobs”. It doesn’t mean murdering your political enemies.

Chavez didn’t say he was gonna totally destroy Venezuela’s economy. He said that he was gonna give free stuff to the people.

But it didn’t work out too well.

I agree though that free community college isn’t that. But there have been weird trends among younger folks in recent polls where they don’t seem to think communism is bad.

But it is bad.

Which Communism? The whole concept or the particular political ideology put into practice by the Russia and its satellites? Because the latter was Communism in name only.

Quick, someone make a thread about the communism debate so we don’t get into it for the next 40 posts. This is the Democrats thread and I don’t think even the most radical liberals are calling for a turn to communism.

I apologize in that this makes me sound like a jerk. I mean only the best.

*coughs politely*

Communism is bad and too easy to be corrupted by those in power.

Socialism is where it is at.

Karl Marx in 20-fucking-18

https://i.imgur.com/aks7kxV.png

I’m gonna have to refuse to nod politely to your “but it wasn’t real communism!!!”. We’re around 50 million victims too late for that. And maybe if your heart bleeds so much for Muslims, try finding an ideology where they’re allowed to, you know, exist?

We don’t have a thread for the “race realism debate”. Why would we need a thread for another terrible idea from the 1800s that’s been proven wrong time and again?

I get that most of you guys are probably more to the left than I am, and that’s okay, but maybe don’t be evil? Is that too much to ask?

As you can see by the fact that you are already disagreeing with people in this very thread, as you post your own disagreement, there is debate on this board now. You’ve just created it, in fact, with your post.

I’m asking that we just put it in another thread. It’s got very little to do with Democrats (Armando excepted).

The point wasn’t that Communism was ok, it was that redistribution of wealth wasn’t the reason for the mass killings. I mean, if you want to point to a revolution where that was the case, the French come to mind. But they predated Marx, so I guess you can’t use him as a bugaboo there.

In fairness to you, I’m a Democrat in exclusive, 100% voting record only.

There was this guy in college named Esme who I didn’t know very well but in casual conversation he once dropped the line, “I’m a communist.” I remember thinking, “Whoah. This guy’s a communist and he doesn’t care who knows it! What’s up with that? What books has he read? Maybe I’ve got this whole thing wrong. Wow.” Of course, that’s kind of what college is about. HAVING YOUR MIND BLOWN, DUDE.

I’ve never actually read Marx beyond the Communist Manifesto (which I gather was as much an Engels joint anyway). Those countries in the 20th century which self-identified as Communist don’t in the main seem to have made a great advertisement for it, but you can always no-true-scotsman them away I suppose. Maybe a functioning non-murderous Communist society is possible. I heard some good things about the anarcho-collectivist society in Civil War-era Spain. Is that like Communism? Orwell seemed fond of them.

Meanwhile, like it or not, I am a capitalist by training, indoctrination, instinct, and inclination, yet the problems with the untrammeled variety seem pretty obvious to me. I will be very boring and say post-WWII-European-style social democracy seems the best solution we’ve yet come up with for figuring out how to get millions to live together in peace. Happy to have my mind changed by new info.

Ok, I’ll stop contributing to the derail now.

This interview with Colbert is not helping me get over my crush.