Why Would Anyone Want To Be A Conservative?

[eberg15101]

Originally Posted by Truckin One thing I can say now that I could say 40 years ago.... we still don't have a damn championship sports team in Cleveland! Watching the Cavs last night was painful.

Pittsburgh doesn't even have a basketball team.....so....

The Pirates aren't doing so well though, Penguins lost, and Steelers didn't go to the Superbowl.. The Burgh's back to normal

[TheFeldster]

Originally Posted by Truckin One thing I can say now that I could say 40 years ago.... we still don't have a damn championship sports team in Cleveland! Watching the Cavs last night was painful.

I feel for ya man (even though I was rooting for the Celtics - Ray Allen is a legend)

But anyway, politics have never been so much about fixing problems as getting the current leader re-elected next time round.

The most inefficient system in the world, if you ask me.

[R. Evans]

Originally Posted by TheFeldster I feel for ya man (even though I was rooting for the Celtics - Ray Allen is a legend) But anyway, politics have never been so much about fixing problems as getting the current leader re-elected next time round. The most inefficient system in the world, if you ask me.

What would be the alternative?

[TheFeldster]

Originally Posted by R. Evans What would be the alternative?

I don't know, that's the reason I'm not in charge of this planet.

What I do know is the current system ain't working.

[R. Evans]

^^

Honest enough.

I'm just glad you didn't answer with royalty or aristocracy, dictatorship or theocracy. Because those have been tried and they really don't work.

[taha]

Hey Man, take a look at Greece and the Euro.
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woof

[Slip'nn2Darkness]

Originally Posted by Sunny All the different political parties promise you the moon with their different policies and promises and they all end up much of a muchness in the end. I haven't any faith in politicians and politics.

I'm with Sunny on this.. Over the years just watching the way any politician uses his powers has me convinced that they are just puppets..
Hate me for this but I've never voted so I'm one of those...

[annie]

I think we have gone off the mark here. The question was not about politicians but rather what is your way of thinking? Do you favor liberal policies or conservative policies? I still wish someone would list the differences.

[runtfan]

Originally Posted by TheFeldster I'm very much a middle man personally. Moving forward is all well and good, but you need a balance, you can't just charge forward into unmarked territory without sitting down and working out the consequences first. I've never 100% agreed with any political party in any country, ever.

Pretty much the same here. I think that both the far left and the far right are seriosly deluded and frankly a littlle scary. Neither the very liberal or the very conservative, for the most part, have any sensible answer to anything.

[Lord Grendel]

There are some good bits and pieces from many different kinds of government, same as right, center and left political parties. What has gone wrong since the end of WWII is the outright takeover of the system by big money, banks corporations etc., that have fouled and corrupted the present system of government in almost the entire world.

We will invent another way of doing things within 100 years, is my opinion, this system is totally broken and offers no future for mankind.

I am neither Liberal, nor Conservative, but I have to say the enormous influence wielded by the far right in the U.S. scares me as much or more than Stalin's communist dictatorship did, considering the U.S. is supposed to be a democracy, which means like it or not you follow the majority and don't preach sedition against the president or your government.

[runtfan]

Originally Posted by Truckin I can only say one thing for sure. I grew up in the 50's and 60's and it was awesome for me as a child. My Dad was only out of work for 6 months during his 40 year career and that was due to an on the job injury. I had a very loving Mom who was at home with me all the time. That doesn't mean there weren't problems then that needed to be addressed. But I have to say I never felt so carefree as I was growing up then. As an adult living in the 21st century, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel stressed about what is happening to our country. And I especially feel for the children today. It is so hard growing up now.

I grew up in the 60's and 70's and had pretty much the same experience - great home, great parents, carefree and innocent, but you know what?...I think most kids have that experience and if they don't I don't think it has anything whatsoever to do with whatever political winds happen to be blowing at that time. If your dad happens to be an unemployed, physically abusive, child molesting drunk you ain't having a good childhood no matter what the overall political or economic condition of the country or the world happens to be at the time. I had a great childhood throughout the civil rights upheaval, Vietnam, the cold war, corporate migration form the rust belt to the sun belt, Roe V. Wade, etc. etc...I played baseball, watched cartoons, had my lemonade stands, played cowboys and Indians, rode my bike like I didn't have a care in the world...because I didn't.
Pining away for the "good old days" is a fallacy, especially in America, because there hasn't been any. Just to use one example - Truckin', you had a wonderful childhood in the 50's and 60's while blacks were being treated as less than human by the government, the religious establishment, and society in general and still being lynched for no good reason...while the fear of nuclear annihilation was institutionalized...while young men were dying on the other side of the globe and nobody was sure , even at that time, why?...the war and changing cultural influences were ripping families apart...American political leaders were being assassinated...good times, huh?

[runtfan]

Originally Posted by annie I still wish someone would list the differences.

The very existence of "Liberals" or "Conservatives" depends on those differences being ill-defined. Once it's in black and white there can't be any compromise or waffling, and hypocrisies are exposed. These political labels are alot like sports teams - it's made up of whoever it happens to be made up of at the time and means whatever it's most expedient to mean.

[Lord Grendel]

^^I don't pine for the "Good Old Days" so much Runtfan, but I do miss the genuine "Nice" era of the 60's and 70's where I grew up. The smaller world was more pleasant back then, we did more with less, and treated each other better. I am speaking from my own experience of course, and no it was not perfect the shameful way we have treated our native aboriginal people has only been addressed over the last 20 years or so.

Back on topic, after watching with genuine "Horror" the reaction of the right wing fanatics after the diluted "Health Care Reform Bill" finally passed through the Congress and Senate, I feel the only hope we have now is if all Democracies protest against any influence brought by mega-corporations to affect the laws that govern us all. The Swiss have an excellent system, they don't Allow any sitting governing party to pass Big Ticket items, they have a "Referendum" on those questions, the parties try and convince them to support their Bill or legislation, and then the People vote to decide what is done next.

They also have a huge turn-out for these votes, well over 90% of the people vote, I feel our democracies are on the verge of becoming thinly veiled Commercial Dictatorships, and if we want to govern ourselves, we must make changes now or future generations will tear down this system and rebuild a new way of doing things, by revolution if necessary.

[runtfan]

Originally Posted by Lord Grendel ^^I don't pine for the "Good Old Days" so much Runtfan, but I do miss the genuine "Nice" era of the 60's and 70's where I grew up. The smaller world was more pleasant back then, we did more with less, and treated each other better. I am speaking from my own experience of course, and no it was not perfect the shameful way we have treated our native aboriginal people has only been addressed over the last 20 years or so.

Well, my point was that there's never been a genuinely "Nice" era at any point in American history ( or world history for that matter. Every single day of our carefree, innocent childhood somebody was being discriminated against, being beaten and raped, losing their jobs or homes, being killed by a drunk driver, being ripped off by someone they trust, being stabbed in the back by a friend or loved one...these things happen every day in every era.
I could pine away for the carefree days of my youth but wait...which of those days was there nobody at war? which of those days was some corporate giant not ruining countless lives through some money grab or land grab? which of those days was a black man not beaten or killed for not knowing "their place"? which of those days did my girlfriend's deadbeat, mean drunk dad randomly show up at home to beat one or more of his kids???
My point is that "good old days" or "carefree childhoods" or "nice eras" are completely, individually subjective and are complete myths to any society or government...and the U.S. is as guilty as anybody. I think the U.S. is better in most respects than anybody else but has never in its' history been above almost any injustice or atrocity imaginable.
But it has always been an big advantage to be a middle class ( or better) white ( preferably male)

[Lord Grendel]

I think you are being a little cynical myself, in the Big picture you are right, but when you are a kid growing up you only Know what is around you, awareness of things in the bigger world don't affect you at all. So we are bound to attach some sentimental feelings to those periods of our lives that did seem carefree. And our experiences as children shape our philosophies of our adult lives as well, you can't separate the two.

I like and respect many things about the U.S., however the last ten years I see as the beginning of the end of the U.S. as the world's greatest superpower. The Supreme Court ruling a few weeks ago "Permanently" entrenching the ability of the Mega Rich to buy and sell(It's called Lobbying) any amount of influence they need to get what they want regardless of the wishes of the people...that is not democracy. FDR knew it and changed the banking laws after the depression, they have been rolled back to just like before the great crash. Eisenhower knew it and alienated his Republican base when he warned about the danger to the Republic if the industrial/military complex ever became the dominant voice in America's government. Sadly this has happened in my lifetime.

We are not much better here, although having a minority government helps slow down the insanity of our own Conservative party, they want to adopt the same rules as the U.S. and allow Lobbying on a grand scale, which will make us a mockery of a democracy.

We are losing the ability to govern ourselves, whether that was always an illusion or not is for another topic, whether you are Conservative, Liberal, Communist, Socialist or Green doesn't matter anymore. Those with the gold have won in this present system of government, I do take some comfort from the fact that it will be utterly destroyed and rebuilt in the future, just like it has countless times before, hopefully "Compassionate Government" for the people by the people will eventually be created, they sure have a great example of how not to govern from us in this era.