Don't let perfect become the enemy of the good. 2024 is still a long way away, and if this election taught me anything, it's that this nation as a whole is trending blue. Not necessarily D blue, but people like their safety nets. They push for 'more laws' to solve problems vs pushing personal responsibility. Embracing 'diversity' holds …
Don't let perfect become the enemy of the good. 2024 is still a long way away, and if this election taught me anything, it's that this nation as a whole is trending blue. Not necessarily D blue, but people like their safety nets. They push for 'more laws' to solve problems vs pushing personal responsibility. Embracing 'diversity' holds sway over promoting the nuclear family. People are told 'their truths' must be respected, at the expense of universal truths. 'Work' is now oppressive - see the labor force participation rate and all the articles about 'people in a post covid world want jobs with meaning'. We still need factory workers, janitors, and warehouse workers. Sometimes meaning comes from what you do outside of work. See Jeff's comment about the Beto voters. The national R party has done an abysmal job of selling conservative values, and instead spent the entire election season bashing D's - telling us what they were NOT vs what they stood FOR.
No one gets to the highest office in the land without some baggage. To me, and feel free to disagree, we have to migrate towards a candidate that the low information voter will find palatable, or risk a loss to another demagogue who is packaged well and has the media, popular culture (as odious as it is) and the press in their camp. I despair of the fraud prone regions being fixed in the next 2 years, so it will have to be overwhelming support to overcome the fraud. No way the overwhelming support is going to DJT in 2024.
Donna - you state the situation perfectly when you say "people like their safety nets." That is it. We really are addicted to our comforts and we have lost any appetite for hard work or temporary sacrifice or even intellectual challenge.
When we moved back to Oklahoma from Seattle in 2020, it was shocking to see the changes brought about by so-called "medical marijuana." I simply could not believe my ruby red Oklahoma was *FLOODED* with marijuana dispensaries on every corner.
The funny thing was, when we left OK for Seattle in 2017, I was a complete libertarian when it came to drug usage. I didn't partake myself, but I thought others should have that right.
3 years in Seattle cured me of that mistake. It ends in human degradation, with hundreds of thousands addicts living on piles of human feces and garbage under overpasses, in public parks, etc.
I left OK a drug libertarian and returned as a proponent of making it illegal. As i like to say, the two great questions of history are "What could it hurt?" which is inevitably followed by "How could we have known?"
While I've never been thrilled with the idea of legalizing marijuana, I was certainly sympathetic to the arguments favoring it. Now I am completely against it. I know way too many families dealing with kids who have been completely lost to it. And as you said, Fred, it ends in human degradation - not human flourishing.
With McConnell, that useless piece of 💩, Paul Ryan, Ronna McDaniels, the Koch brothers, etc. you get controlled opposition like McCain, Romney and the Bush’s. They don’t represent the America first, constitution following, conservative values I’m looking for. They’re easily bought and then have to toe the line to their big donors. I like DeSantis a lot but am very disappointed he’s now indebted to a corrupt group who will own him.
That makes two of us. The time for kicking the can down the road, while the Uniparty enriches themselves and gets their jollies by torturing us in ever increasingly brutal fashion is over. The big ugly cometh.
I would hope there is a middle ground. I too want America first, constitutional following conservative value candidates. That plays well in places like rural MO but I am just being practical. Unless there is a huge sea change in the mindset of the broader electorate, those candidates cannot win nationally. Another sad fact is that unless you have Trump level money you have to raise funds. A LOT of funds. Especially in a national race. R's don't donate like D's do. I see it even here in local races. D's have twice as many donors as R's, which doesn't guarantee a W, but it certainly helps. Valentine had $7 M to Schmitt's $3.2 M a week before the election. But you can't bootstrap an election on a national or even statewide race. I will be watching DeSantis very closely the next 2 years for sure, I don't like it either. But we need to do a better job of selling conservative values, as an awful lot of people are not buying. A radical leftist got 44% of the vote in my fairly red state senate district and he did not even campaign. I suppose the pro-pot/Amendment 3 voters voted for him.
Part of the problem of selling conservative values is one of them is personal responsibility, and too many people don’t want to take responsibility for their lives or choices. They prefer to have others tell them what to do so they don’t have to make hard choices and can always blame someone else for what happens.
Don't let perfect become the enemy of the good. 2024 is still a long way away, and if this election taught me anything, it's that this nation as a whole is trending blue. Not necessarily D blue, but people like their safety nets. They push for 'more laws' to solve problems vs pushing personal responsibility. Embracing 'diversity' holds sway over promoting the nuclear family. People are told 'their truths' must be respected, at the expense of universal truths. 'Work' is now oppressive - see the labor force participation rate and all the articles about 'people in a post covid world want jobs with meaning'. We still need factory workers, janitors, and warehouse workers. Sometimes meaning comes from what you do outside of work. See Jeff's comment about the Beto voters. The national R party has done an abysmal job of selling conservative values, and instead spent the entire election season bashing D's - telling us what they were NOT vs what they stood FOR.
No one gets to the highest office in the land without some baggage. To me, and feel free to disagree, we have to migrate towards a candidate that the low information voter will find palatable, or risk a loss to another demagogue who is packaged well and has the media, popular culture (as odious as it is) and the press in their camp. I despair of the fraud prone regions being fixed in the next 2 years, so it will have to be overwhelming support to overcome the fraud. No way the overwhelming support is going to DJT in 2024.
Donna - you state the situation perfectly when you say "people like their safety nets." That is it. We really are addicted to our comforts and we have lost any appetite for hard work or temporary sacrifice or even intellectual challenge.
And our state just passed legal pot. So don't see any improvement in that on the horizon.
So sorry to hear that, Donna. More terrible news.
When we moved back to Oklahoma from Seattle in 2020, it was shocking to see the changes brought about by so-called "medical marijuana." I simply could not believe my ruby red Oklahoma was *FLOODED* with marijuana dispensaries on every corner.
The funny thing was, when we left OK for Seattle in 2017, I was a complete libertarian when it came to drug usage. I didn't partake myself, but I thought others should have that right.
3 years in Seattle cured me of that mistake. It ends in human degradation, with hundreds of thousands addicts living on piles of human feces and garbage under overpasses, in public parks, etc.
I left OK a drug libertarian and returned as a proponent of making it illegal. As i like to say, the two great questions of history are "What could it hurt?" which is inevitably followed by "How could we have known?"
While I've never been thrilled with the idea of legalizing marijuana, I was certainly sympathetic to the arguments favoring it. Now I am completely against it. I know way too many families dealing with kids who have been completely lost to it. And as you said, Fred, it ends in human degradation - not human flourishing.
With McConnell, that useless piece of 💩, Paul Ryan, Ronna McDaniels, the Koch brothers, etc. you get controlled opposition like McCain, Romney and the Bush’s. They don’t represent the America first, constitution following, conservative values I’m looking for. They’re easily bought and then have to toe the line to their big donors. I like DeSantis a lot but am very disappointed he’s now indebted to a corrupt group who will own him.
That makes two of us. The time for kicking the can down the road, while the Uniparty enriches themselves and gets their jollies by torturing us in ever increasingly brutal fashion is over. The big ugly cometh.
I would hope there is a middle ground. I too want America first, constitutional following conservative value candidates. That plays well in places like rural MO but I am just being practical. Unless there is a huge sea change in the mindset of the broader electorate, those candidates cannot win nationally. Another sad fact is that unless you have Trump level money you have to raise funds. A LOT of funds. Especially in a national race. R's don't donate like D's do. I see it even here in local races. D's have twice as many donors as R's, which doesn't guarantee a W, but it certainly helps. Valentine had $7 M to Schmitt's $3.2 M a week before the election. But you can't bootstrap an election on a national or even statewide race. I will be watching DeSantis very closely the next 2 years for sure, I don't like it either. But we need to do a better job of selling conservative values, as an awful lot of people are not buying. A radical leftist got 44% of the vote in my fairly red state senate district and he did not even campaign. I suppose the pro-pot/Amendment 3 voters voted for him.
Part of the problem of selling conservative values is one of them is personal responsibility, and too many people don’t want to take responsibility for their lives or choices. They prefer to have others tell them what to do so they don’t have to make hard choices and can always blame someone else for what happens.
Underestimate Trump at your own peril.