Thread: McCain frightens me!!!

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

1 is a woman
1 is black
1 is a mormon
and 1 is a Vietnam veteran.

and all 4 have a voting record that says they don't give a damn about the personal liberties of their constituency.

But all 4 want us to believe they do and we want to believe they do. Like the Romans said: mundus vult decipi ergo decipio which translates as: the world wants to be cheated so I cheat.

Originally Posted by jockeys

and all 4 have a voting record that says they don't give a damn about the personal liberties of their constituency.

Originally Posted by gugi

I think most people do - you'll notice how often 'trust' and 'scare' has been mentioned in this thread - people evaluate the candidates with their brain, but then they rely on 'gut feeling' to make up their mind before casting a vote.
I have often voted for people I don't like because I thought that they will actually be the better choice. I'm trying to make as rational decisions as possible, but I don't think I can ignore emotions.

Gugi, I think I know what you are driving at. I agree that more voters need to educate themselves and make well thought out decisions, but I do think it’s important to trust your gut. I don't mean prejudices, just that instinct that we have about people and use everyday. Things can look good on paper, but that gut feeling you get about someone tells you a lot.

Jordan

Jordan I do agree with you. I think it is very important to read people correctly and looking purely analytically goes only that far.
I think, in fact, you need a healthy mix of both and when it's obvious that somebody is saying one thing yet acting differently, I don't want their charisma to be overriding my analytic judgement.
I think the president has a symbolic role, as he/she is the face of the country and people want to like their president and sometimes vote for inferior candidate. What troubles me is that some of people's instincts are just unfounded prejudice, and superstition like "can't trust a black man/mormon/woman", or "a president who says he believes in the God I believe in and prays every morning is more likely to be supernaturally guided and make the right decision, than somebody who doesn't believe the same way as me". I like to think that most people are more rational than this and can separate the two, but often I wonder if it's true.

I certainly don't buy into the notion that the policies of candidate X are going to bring doomsday to the country, while those of candidate Y will bring heaven on earth. A policy influences things, but the system of a state is pretty inertial and self correcting. It's rare that things change abruptly. Look, even with such polarizing war costing what it costs, the lives of most people have not changed all that drastically.

As one specific example I really have hard time believing that the lowered taxes are actually having dramatic effect on most of us. In the state of the union address, the president said the average tax break is 1800. I believe he picked the largest number that could be justified somehow, so the median tax break is probably on the 600 level. But even 1800 looks quite small compared to the 50,000 median income to have great effect. The increase in gas prices from the resolution on Iran's Revolutionary's guard alone ate this money.

oh, well, rant over. i'm off to do something productive now.

I agree with some of you concerning McCain. I don't care much for him. I really wish there was a true conservative running. Ron Paul was the closest thing to that. I wish Paul had more of a knack with the BS political process. Besides the Paul's issue on the Iraq war, I have no other issues with him. There was also a comment made earlier, from a member that I respect very much, that was incorrect. There was never a deficit of $0. when Bush came into office. I'm not defending Bush, I don't like him. He's an idiot, but there was not a $0 deficit when he came into office. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this matter. I'm not trying to make this thread heated. I have just heard this from some other people before who have mistaken budgets set by presidents/congress, and national debt.

Originally Posted by Aaron S.

I really wish there was a true conservative running. Ron Paul was the closest thing to that.

actually, Paul self-identifies as a libertarian. If you are interested in learning about what defines that, check out http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

That's only funny because it seems to be true.

It saddens me that a country that thinks of itself so highly (ie the greates nation on earth, God's land etc) presents itself so poorly to others. There indeed WAS a time when America was looked up to by most of the world. At least in my surrounding that doesn't seem to be true anymore.

We've recently had a lot of grumbling in our own country because of economic measures and such. Taxes higher, cars more expensive and other such things. Thing is though....the Nationwide economic (and I'll agree it's not very big because we're a small country) has grown a lot.

But what saddens me most is that out of all the characteristics that we get about the different candidates in the Us is that:

1 is a woman
1 is black
1 is a mormon
and 1 is a Vietnam veteran.


I sure hope that's not what the american people vote like.......but I'm affraid that they do.

This is not true ---- the media is making a big deal about it. For instance, the other day on the news,a reporter mentioned that for this superbowl, the head referee would be a black person --- the first time in the history of the game. Who gives a shit? ---- every time a minority does something for the first time, it is presented as a marker when no one cares --- it's not an issue with most people.. This is just racism in different form --- "how does it feel to be the first black this?" "how does it feel to be the first Hispanic that?" Might as well be saying "You know, you're pretty good for a minority. Ain't you glad us white people allowed you to do all of this?" All this does is maintain divisions among people instead of judging them as human beings.

So no, most Americans do not think this way -- but the media does a good job of forming chaos for their own profit and benefit.

When was this and for what reasons?

Justin

Originally Posted by jockeys

actually, Paul self-identifies as a libertarian. If you are interested in learning about what defines that, check out http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

Thank you for clarifying that for me and anyone else. I wasn't stating that Ron Paul is a conservative. As stated in your quote, he is the closest thing to it. At least in comparison to
the other candidates.

Originally Posted by Aaron S.

There was also a comment made earlier, from a member that I respect very much, that was incorrect. There was never a deficit of $0. when Bush came into office. I'm not defending Bush, I don't like him. He's an idiot, but there was not a $0 deficit when he came into office. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this matter. I'm not trying to make this thread heated. I have just heard this from some other people before who have mistaken budgets set by presidents/congress, and national debt.

Are you referring to the fact that there is no such thing as a surplus or deficit since our money system no longer works like the gold standard anymore?

I don't think most people realize that absolutly none of our federal income tax goes to the goverment. Congress decides how much we are going to spend. They divy out a little here, a little there, a little to there friends, don't forget the people who got you elected. Then once they decide how many trillions of dollars they go to the federal reserve, a private bank for profit, and take a loan out on that amount. If it's not enough, for oh let's say a war, then they just take out another loan, and another, and another, etc.. Then when the loan is due, we have to take another loan to pay off the last loan. Try doing that with your credit cards and see what happens.

I got the shit beat out of me for suggesting that microwaving a steam towel is not a good thing to suggest to a newbie.

I can't imagine what kind of guts it takes to tell the whole forum your political views.



The way our system works, even if someone talented, intelligent, honest, and unbiased does get elected, they won't be able to do much.

Our biggest problem is that weapons of mass destruction are available to people who have not culturally or morally evolved beyond the stone age.

All I do is think of an atom bomb in the hands of an islamic fundamentalist, or even a Sierra Leone or Rawandan guerilla, and it doesn't seem to matter much WHO is elected president--we are all in deep doo-doo no matter what.