Carter asked officials in Panama regarding elections: "Are you honest officials or thieves?" We need to ask that question of our own leaders, and those who supported the 1/6 rioters.
"Republicans have chosen to oppose Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Mike Pence than to drop their support for Donald Trump. This is the one fact that’s keeping Republicans in office scared. They don’t want to tap into that root of Trumpism and lose their own elections."
Let's be a bit clearer here: They don’t want to tap into that root of Trumpism and lose their own PRIMARY elections.
Perhaps the path out of this thicket is for principled Republicans to run against Trumpism, anticipate the primary loss, and let the Trumpist candidate get shellacked in the general election, so that the principled loser can return next cycle with a message to the Party that they tried it Trump's way last time and lost, so maybe it's time again to start fielding competitive candidates for general elections again. Fortunately for the Republicans, Democrats haven't internalized this message as quickly as they should have either, so we're left picking between sets of two crazy people.
Bingo ... polarization is the enemy, but the cure is a difficult and elusive medicine. Feels like we have been drifting towards the polarization iceberg for 60 years at least.
"34 percent of Americans now believe that violence against the government can be justified under certain circumstances"
You're correct. The percentage should be close to zero. There are always a few radical dissidents and anarchists to contend with. If one component of that 34% is 40% of Republicans, there are a lot of independents and various leftist organizations who believe that political violence might be justified.
I think the problem is distrust of the government. There is no consistency of policy. Executive actions, agency regulation, prosecutorial discretion and other governance factors experience wild swings every two or three election cycles. Strictly adhere to the Constitution. Consistency and trust will return.
I'm going to second your position. In order for the Law to be Just, it must also be Predictable. There should be ZERO question what the Law means and there should be ZERO surprise for what will happen for violating it.
Thanks. I'm thinking of consistency in all the machinations of government. Congress seems unable to pass meaningful statutes. Changing or adding laws should generally be very difficult. What we have now is the various factions in Congress occasionally sense their uselessness is showing and they agree to pass some half-ass legislation. We are lucky if it is merely idiotic and not harmful.
If necessary, Congress should spend the entire year creating a balanced budget before they tackle anything else for succeeding years.
"Republicans have chosen to oppose Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Vice President Mike Pence than to drop their support for Donald Trump. This is the one fact that’s keeping Republicans in office scared. They don’t want to tap into that root of Trumpism and lose their own elections."
Let's be a bit clearer here: They don’t want to tap into that root of Trumpism and lose their own PRIMARY elections.
Perhaps the path out of this thicket is for principled Republicans to run against Trumpism, anticipate the primary loss, and let the Trumpist candidate get shellacked in the general election, so that the principled loser can return next cycle with a message to the Party that they tried it Trump's way last time and lost, so maybe it's time again to start fielding competitive candidates for general elections again. Fortunately for the Republicans, Democrats haven't internalized this message as quickly as they should have either, so we're left picking between sets of two crazy people.
Good point. Primaries matter. A lot.
Bingo ... polarization is the enemy, but the cure is a difficult and elusive medicine. Feels like we have been drifting towards the polarization iceberg for 60 years at least.
"34 percent of Americans now believe that violence against the government can be justified under certain circumstances"
You're correct. The percentage should be close to zero. There are always a few radical dissidents and anarchists to contend with. If one component of that 34% is 40% of Republicans, there are a lot of independents and various leftist organizations who believe that political violence might be justified.
I think the problem is distrust of the government. There is no consistency of policy. Executive actions, agency regulation, prosecutorial discretion and other governance factors experience wild swings every two or three election cycles. Strictly adhere to the Constitution. Consistency and trust will return.
I'm going to second your position. In order for the Law to be Just, it must also be Predictable. There should be ZERO question what the Law means and there should be ZERO surprise for what will happen for violating it.
Thanks. I'm thinking of consistency in all the machinations of government. Congress seems unable to pass meaningful statutes. Changing or adding laws should generally be very difficult. What we have now is the various factions in Congress occasionally sense their uselessness is showing and they agree to pass some half-ass legislation. We are lucky if it is merely idiotic and not harmful.
If necessary, Congress should spend the entire year creating a balanced budget before they tackle anything else for succeeding years.