Head-Spinning Political Shit!

[Rockinonahigh]

The other day I was getting gas at the store,while I was paying for it I got ina convo with some folks about the election.The thing I ge about Romney is corp greed,plan and simple and more of it if he is elected.But the romney side is saying Obama has riased the deficite to many times what Bush did,My anser was it was going to take money to clear up the mess Bush made and lots of it..Fact is I live in a repuplican state wuch use to be a big democrat state.Since that happened we have lost jobs anmd contrats to bring in jobs a ten fold,our education has had big set backs,medical services to the needy as well as rehab serveices is at a half stance at best,it will only get worse if we change boats in the midle of the river both for my state and country.I feel a great fear for whats to be had if Romney wins.I will hold my corse for as stronger economy,health system as well as educational system as I firmly still beleave in Obamas reason and corse to follow.Stand firm in the next election for us all.

[Corkey]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/r...-politics.html

I think he is insulting a vast majority of people who Do understand the math.

[Toughy]

I was watching the local news this am. The story was about folks who voted Obama in 2008 and are considering voting Romney this time around. One of the guys interviewed said: Romney has business experience and knows how to make money. We need our government to start making money.

So how many folks out there actually think the government is supposed to make money like business makes money?

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by Toughy

I was watching the local news this am. The story was about folks who voted Obama in 2008 and are considering voting Romney this time around. One of the guys interviewed said: Romney has business experience and knows how to make money. We need our government to start making money.

So how many folks out there actually think the government is supposed to make money like business makes money?

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
H. L. Mencken

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Toughy

I was watching the local news this am. The story was about folks who voted Obama in 2008 and are considering voting Romney this time around. One of the guys interviewed said: Romney has business experience and knows how to make money. We need our government to start making money.

So how many folks out there actually think the government is supposed to make money like business makes money?

I blame part of that on the twinned memes that government is either like a family or like a business and the resiliency of those memes is connected to a lack of what, for lack of any better term, I call citizenship education. We treat citizenship very casually in this country, as if it is either something akin to a biblical curse visiting upon the offspring of Americans the fruits of the iniquities of their parent and their parents before them *or* as a confection which primarily involves shouting USA! USA! because the sun happens to throw light onto the Eastern seaboard at first light. We don't actually give much thought (and even less thought) as to the nature of citizenship in a republic or of the role of government. So lacking any other, more accurate model people fall back on what they think they know which is that businesses make money, businesses can be huge and impersonal like the government, so government should make money.

Americans seem to have forgotten, despite our mouthing words to the contrary, that there's more to life than making money and that turning a profit *isn't* what governments are for.

Cheers
Aj

[Corkey]

Government is here to do for it's citizens what it's citizens can't do for themselves. It isn't a business.

[Allison W]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

I blame part of that on the twinned memes that government is either like a family or like a business and the resiliency of those memes is connected to a lack of what, for lack of any better term, I call citizenship education. We treat citizenship very casually in this country, as if it is either something akin to a biblical curse visiting upon the offspring of Americans the fruits of the iniquities of their parent and their parents before them *or* as a confection which primarily involves shouting USA! USA! because the sun happens to throw light onto the Eastern seaboard at first light. We don't actually give much thought (and even less thought) as to the nature of citizenship in a republic or of the role of government. So lacking any other, more accurate model people fall back on what they think they know which is that businesses make money, businesses can be huge and impersonal like the government, so government should make money.

Americans seem to have forgotten, despite our mouthing words to the contrary, that there's more to life than making money and that turning a profit *isn't* what governments are for.

Cheers
Aj

You know I've long thought this. Particularly with regards to, well, education. There's a lot of talk thrown around about whether school prepares young people for jobs, but the original purpose of free public education is almost never mentioned at all--namely, that free public education was not originally provided to prepare young people for jobs, but to prepare them for participation in a democracy. But it's not profitable to prepare the common people to participate in democracy, as that might lead them to vote their own interests and not those of their corporate masters, and so it's no longer a priority. (And this is why government should never, ever be a business.)

[Corkey]

The PA voter suppression law has been tossed by the PASC. One does not need a photo ID to vote in this years election. Do not fall for the intimidation tactics of the far right, and vote!

[Toughy]

Originally Posted by Corkey

The PA voter suppression law has been tossed by the PASC. One does not need a photo ID to vote in this years election. Do not fall for the intimidation tactics of the far right, and vote!

Actually it kinda fucked what they did. The law is not thrown out. It will not go into effect until the next election cycle. In this coming election next month, you can/will still be asked for a valid ID card, however they cannot refuse to give you a regular ballot to vote with and your vote will be counted. You should not receive a provisional ballot. The state can also continue with it's voter education campaigns about what is needed for voter identification in order to vote..

It's going to confuse the hell out of folks....