H, it's amazing how we only have few small amount of right leaning media network or agencies and they catches mounds and mounds of misbehaviors at every direction at leftist protest or riots and the majority of the lefty networks that are sleazy and will make up crap if they can't find anything doesn't catch anything on film about the tea party. It's laughable when you try to compare the two. I just don't remember the Tea Party stopping a major highway to protest. I don't ever remember the tea party looting store, bashing police windows, starting fires. I don't remember the Tea Party bunch going around and punching or spraying pepper spray in the faces of people that disagree with them.
I never said the tea party did any of these things. I voted for Cruz and was in with his tea party revolution against Dewhurst in 2012. I just said when the Tea Party was really protesting in 2010-2011 at the Texas State Capitol it was not an old lady garden party. There were angry douches like with any other group (Deez and I discussed various different groups). The party also did have some crazy nuts in it, just like the occupy movement did. Not everyone in either movement was a crazy nut, but you better believe both had crazy nuts! There certainly was not anything like violence at Berkeley with the Tea Party I saw in 2010-11. I never said there was. I certainly do not support violence at Berkeley or anywhere. Hell, one of the things I do agree with Trump on is defunding Berkeley, because I am mad they beat us at football twice and I am very anti-Bill Powers and Greg Fenves, but being for defunding Berkeley is probably not a reasonable or fair position on my part. There are violent loons on the right though. Look at the people that occupied the federal refuge in Oregon. I would note that I, Seattle and others have condemned violence at BLM protests and at Oregon because we do not support nuts no matter their views.
LOL! H is not a Democrat.
I am a conservative. I have an economics degree and certainly am for less government. However, I do not want to return to the no regulation 1800s either. I do think the federal government has gotten out of hand, but I also think many programs are vital in the 21st century. I agree with Bill Maher, for example, that we should get rid of the Federal Department of Education. Education really is not what the federal government was meant to do and as Maher said "has it done anything good? Our education system is worse now than it was in 1980 when that department was founded." I am very much against Obamacare. Like the GOP, I do not know exactly what I would replace it with, but it has definitely made healthcare worse. On the other hand, I am absolutely for Social Security and Medicare. I do not think a modern, first world country should be without those things.
I jumped off the Cruz train after he supported Trump, but I have generally been a Cruz person. In the primaries I liked Cruz, Rand Paul and Huckabee, who I have met when he was Governor of Arkansas. He was very friendly, personable and amiable. Maybe he is not, history has shown over and over you really never know, but Huckabee is one of the few politicians I have met that seemed genuine.
I do not really have a party. I have voted in both the democratic and republican primaries in different presidential election years. I usually vote 30% GOP 30% Dem and 40% Libertarian since I vote on the person not the party. I am probably best described as a conservative independent. This last election i voted far more republican (or any one party) than I ever have before. It was the first time ever I did not vote for any libertarians since I could not go with Gary Johnson like I did not in 2012 after his various 2016 gaffes. I went 65% GOP, 30% Dem and 5% other. I did not vote for Trump or Hillary and wrote in someone as a protest.
Let's cut the BS! You can't get away with well both sides have their bad so let's call it even. 99.99% of the loonies are in your party. You lose all credibility when you try to claim both parties are the same. Maybe in some ways but not when it comes to civility.
What is it with the "you're with us or against us mentality"? I wish the world was as simple as that.
Both parties are not the same in general. However, I do agree both parties have a problem with "us against them" and looniness right now from some of their supporters. It is especially bad with hardcore pro Trumpers and hardcore anti Trump liberals. I find myself day-to-day arguing with both. It depends on the forum. On Trumpican Hornfans, I am more likely to criticize Trump. Around my Bernie friends, I am more likely to defend some (certainly not all) of his policies. I am certainly not pro-Trump, but I do not like the hardcore anti-Trump protesters either. I think I really do not like Trump because he is so damn polarizing and it is hard to have reasonable discussions about his pros and cons. Excluding a liberal TA I had at UT in a government class (who was from england and wasn't even an American), I never had problems discussing pros and cons about W or Obama with liberals or conservatives like I have with discussing Trump with hardcore Trumpicans or hardcore anti-Trump liberals. I do think a lot of people on both sides look uncivil and both have turned me off. I am not alone.
Just taking some names from this page and not a complete list so no one feel left out, but I tend to think, correct me if I am wrong, despite all of us having different viewpoints and big disagreements on various issues, Deez, NJ, Seattle and I all are turned off by the hardcore pro and hardcore anti Trump people and the polarization. I think all of us would like to see (and again this is not meant to be a complete list of hornfans posters that think this way) reasonable discussion of issues and reasonable compromise from our government even if we passionately disagree on the issues. As passionate as we might be about various issues, I think all of us would like to see all americans working together to reasonable compromise over "us against them" and "winner take all". Posters like Seattle and I who often disagree on the issues themselves are coming together and agreeing on the unreasonableness we are seeing. I agree with NJ above that the hardcore are not the majority in either party, but the hardcore on both sides right now are tending to push out people on both sides who may otherwise agree with them, possibly more moderately, on many of the issues.
No, I do not like the anti-free speech and anti-america stances I see from college campus extremists. I have gotten a lot of laughs out of this thread, especially from that bowling green lab equipment that girl thought was in the Klan. However, I do not like the extreme "us against them" and unreasonableness from the Trump people either. I strongly prefer reasonable discourse with someone I disagree with over unreasonableness like "if it was not on tape and does not fit with my worldview, it never happened."
Also, sometimes I am restricted on how much I can say about certain things if I use an example from personal experience. I have worked in the private and public sector in my life and am currently an attorney. In my experience there are good people in government and bad people in government. There are good businessmen and bad businessmen. I would not place my faith in the government and do not want to give it unchecked power like the left does, but I would not place my faith in businessmen and do not want to give them unchecked power like the right does either. Rant complete.
