I was a liberal, but then I grew up....

Relevant quote from the study: "While the surveys did not provide data for the same individuals at different stages..."

Clearly a flawed study.

Not representative of the general population, but considering politically elected representatives to have some bearing on the issue, consider the Wikipedia list of party switchers. There have been 19 Republicans who switched to Democrat from 2010-2018... There were 34 Democrats who switched to Republican in 2010 alone, never mind the remaining eight years in the decade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_switching_in_the_United_States

 

Heh, funny. Does that mean the reason I started out conservative and have only gotten worse over time is because I have no empathy? I'm a heartless conservative and proud of it. What's more, as a heartless conservative, I have the objectivity to see and understand that liberal policies make things worse for the very people they want to help. My policies are motivated by a heartless disregard for everyone else, but at the same time, I recognize that my policies will actually help those people the liberals feel for so badly much more than liberal policies will.

 

LOL. I'm not sure whether the fact that you actually believe this crap is funny or sad. But let's take it apart point by point:

Bullshit. We haven't had any free market principles incorporated into the US economy since 1989. Newt Gingrich did what he could during the Clinton 90s to save an economy that was going into the tank, but it wasn't enough to stop the disaster that was Bush II and Obama. "Government" cannot bail water out of a bathtub. Only the free market can salvage the economy. Look at China. Why is China booming now after decades of disastrous economic years? Capitalism. Why is South Korea rich and North Korea poor? Capitalism. Why was Hong Kong rich and the rest of China poor? Capitalism. Why is North America rich and South America poor? Capitalism.

Bullshit. The New Deal lengthened and deepened what would have been a short recession into the worst economy in the history of the country, now called The Great Depression. FIVE separate studies, including three by liberals, have now found that public works projects and infrastructure spending are lagging indicators. They don't grow the economy, they show how much the economy has grown. It was WWII that transformed America into the industrial powerhouse that it is today.

Having other people pay your bills is always highly popular. Medicare is flat broke and is now taking money from other parts of the budget to keep going.

False. Social Security provides money only if you were a high earner and paid a lot in the past. If you were self-employed, a low wage earner, or never worked and didn't pay a lot of SS taxes, you're **** out of luck as far as SS is concerned. Plus since the Republican Congress killed Clinton's proposal to means test SS, being rich or poor is no basis for how much you get in benefits from SS.

Actually, the EPA was created in response to the book Silent Spring, and the moves taken to counteract the effects of DDT were all taken by Congress, not the EPA. Corporations cannot profit by killing their customers. I actually consider myself an environmentalist, I asked the neighbor who is clearing the property next door to leave a dead tree standing because it houses a family of redheaded woodpeckers, but even I think the EPA has gotten out of hand. And don't get me started on the snail darter.

From Reason Foundation: "Compliance costs for this rule are estimated at $2.4 billion annually. Texas will be required to cut emissions by nearly 50 percent under the regulations, which go into effect in January 2012 — less than six months after the rules were released and Texas learned of its inclusion. Not surprisingly, a Texas utility company recently announced it would shut down plants and fire nearly 500 employees as a direct result of the regulation.

In January, President Obama ordered agencies to regulate using the “least burdensome tools” that take “into account benefits and cost” and “[promote] economic growth … and job creation.” The EPA, with 20,000 employees and a budget of $8.5 billion dollars, has simply ignored this. The President intervened in early September when he ordered the Agency to withdraw a burdensome regulation on ozone that would have cost $100 billion a year and shut down economic growth in hundreds of communities across the nation.

These are just two examples of EPA’s lack of discretion when crafting major rules that affect jobs, energy costs, and billions of dollars in diverted capital."
https://reason.org/commentary/two-examples-of-epa-overreach/

So you're 0 for 5 on the "successes" of liberal programs. Care to try for five more?

 

"I deserve what I get and others are undeserving" resentment is not uncommon.

The elite are born into wealth, power, and privilege, and contrive to perpetuate the system that benefits them and pits the unwashed masses of relative have-nots against one another, fighting over the scraps as they feast in their luxury boxes high above the fray.

Rather than falling for the ideological bifurcation that feeds off petty differences, insight is better achieved by raising one's awareness to the huge chasm between the extremely affluent, whose primary source of wealth is inheritance, and everyone else whose share of the commonweal is puny in contrast.

Rather than sitting in judgment of those who might be struggling to survive and casting one's moral superiority in terms of one's presumed relative merit, one's perspective might be enhanced by an infusion of the ethical decency that graces advanced societies by their embrace of traditional values and the timeless Golden Rule that celebrates reciprocity and altruism: The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the handicapped.

Might embracing such standards of human decency be exploited if not intelligently administered? Of course. Safeguards are essential. Blanket condemnation and self-serving generalizations of "the other", however, is not the solution. One need not wrap oneself in garish religiosity to be elevated by enlightened spiritual virtues:

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. -Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
​

Societal efforts and private philanthropic endeavors combined are insufficient to address human needs. Demonizing the many who truly need help because of the few who exploit that need doesn't accrue to one's assumed superiority.

Be grateful for what you have. Take pride in what you have done to achieve it. Recognize that there, but for the grace of God or of fortune, go you or I.

 

BINGO!

The introduction of Obamacare in 2010 was the tipping point. Dems lost the House, then lost the Senate in 2014, and then the presidency in 2016.

It's like turning around a battleship but it's going to happen that this country gets back on course as long as Trump keeps making his successful moves in the right direction. This success will change the independents to vote republican.

The media was that last vestige of liberal power and now the media has the lowest level of TRUST by the people in HISTORY. Dems are history unless they change but now they can't change because their supporters have gone too far left, so dems lose no matter what now.

Steve

 

So, are you going to off yourself when YOU become geriatric and a burden to your kids/society? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

To add to the above, here is the approximate make up of the electorate today:

Democrats = 30-percent
Republicans = 30-percent
Independents = 40-percent

The independents will be the deciding factors that change the country in the future.

Steve

 

Lol...Stop projecting.

 

You know that's the smartest post I read on here today

 

Well said. As a member of the 40-percent I have known for some time that we decide elections. Sometimes we get it wrong - Trump (terribly wrong). Hillary - not much better. 2016 sucked for the 40-percent because we had to elect somebody and the choices were nauseating.

 

The auto-rejection of any facts they find to be ideologically unpleasant is a a hallmark conservatism, as realists tend to be liberal.

Conservative democrats becoming conservative republicans has nothing to do with the fact that people tend to get more liberal as they mature.

 

Democrats had a chance to change in 2016 but rejected Sanders' bid to move outside the establishment. Trump won on his anti-establishment message. You might not like him, but if you have to like someone in order to vote for them, even when they are doing good things, then you are still stuck in the old ways of picking your candidates.

I was an independent until I watched the media try to destroy Bush in 2004.

Don't let the lying liberal media fool you.

Steve

 

Funny! Here, Mr. Realist, which economic system is better, communism or capitalism?

 

I was a Republican....then I threw up.

 

I read an article yesterday from the 2016 election arguing that Republicans should have had the Democrats' superdelegate system in place in order to avoid Trump becoming the nominee. Yes, he was serious and not joking.

 

Capitalism. That's why we support it, and we wonder why you're such a fanatically devoted acolyte of socialism. After all, you want the corporations to own all production, and for the corporations to effectively be the government. That's socialism, when the government owns the means of production.

In contrast, we liberals support true capitalism. As father of capitalism Adam Smith pointed out, true capitalism has to be regulated, or it devolves into cronyism and monopolies. You support the cronyism and monopolies, the destruction of true capitalism.

 

It's hilarious that dems don't even realize the mistakes they are making over and over again. Thank the brainwashing media for that.

Steve

 

I'm a laissez-faire capitalist. Don't make the mistake of lumping me in with the country club, big business, banker Republicans who favor high levels of immigration, globalism, and heavy regulation to keep the existing businesses in power and to keep the little businesses from growing. Liberals do not support "true" capitalism at all, they favor mercantilism, a program of only allowing those businesses to exist which get the favor and support of the government, heavily regulated. The only regulations Adam Smith favored were those blocking combinations in restraint of trade, something the left loves when they're called unions.

 

I don't really give a **** how being sent to go blow up some random foreigners and then coming home to see a significantly smaller portion of your tax money than was spent to help you blow up those foreigners be spent on people you don't like made you feel.

 

YES YES YES. Our government and people kill the unborn, the most helpless of all human beings. WE KILL EM, and the old people are already starting to be put to death.

I was poor, I was struggling, but I didn't take your money, I lived with two kids (and men did not get child support back in the 1970s), worked, raised kids and went to school, why those lazy F***s sat on their asses and cried "Help Me". I could have went that way, but it was NOT the grace of god, but getting off my Asss and doing what was required to get things better for me and my children.
I will bet you think Gambling, alcoholism, drug abuse is a DISEASE. It isn't, it is failure of a human to say NO to themselves for the long term. If private VOLUNTARY philanthropic endeavors are not enough, then some go without PERIOD. I am NOT my brothers keeper. The lord helps those who help themselves.

 

[
You make your own luck.

 

Naw, I would rather stick with the truth. It is usually true. You are the captain of your own ship. Failure or success is usually in your own hands.

 

I certainly wouldn't mind having a three generational household, but my wife and I have worked hard planning for our retirement.

That hard work and putting a bit away every month is something that democrats seem so dismissive of, and that puzzles me. No, my retirement plan isn't to off myself. It's to look at the calendar and see an endless series of sundays.

 

NO NO NO NO NO! You were LUCKY, it had nothing to do with your stamina and drive hahahahaha That is what Surfer Joe would tell you. hahahaha

 

Most Americans, as is the case in other advanced nations, do not pretend that microscopic, mindless amalgams of cells are people, but support their protection if and when the process of gestation achieves personhood. Surrendering to the State the power to seize wombs before that critical stage is opposed by the vast majority of decent, sensible folks who rather allow the girl/woman to decide in consultation with her loved ones and medical and spiritual advisers, rather than be dictated to by politicians that don't even know her or her circumstances.