Topic: Are you a Republican or Democrat?

Are we forgetting about the millions of bitter Hillary supporters? I still see quite a few "I'm in to win!" bumper stickers around here. Both dems on the primary ticket were riding on a wave of race/gender hype, to varying extents.

IMO, people make their first mistake in politics by assuming. Some assume that all Republicans love war, worship Ronald Reagan, and vacation at the Bush ranch on holidays. Some assume that all Democrats love raising taxes, hate American businesses, and murder unborn babies in their spare time. The fact is, in a country with over 300 million people, a two party system leaves room for many shades of red and blue. Even the thought that every political idea must be either red or blue is a construct of our media's political hype machine. If it's not partisan, it's not news.

Anyway.... I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. If they support abortion, they'd better have a "good" argument. (and most people don't) If they support [insert country] War, then they'd better have a "good" argument. (and most don't) It goes both ways.

Ummmm... seconded.

LOL. Yeah I thought you might agree.

I'm very confused. You quote me and address me for a short paragraph, but is the rest addressed at me? Because I assume none of that, but I don't know who else you'd be responding to. I'm just saying that a race / gender flag is not a golden ticket as it was implied (or seemed to be). Some people -- for some reason -- genuinely like Hilary Clinton and did so before she ever ran for anything. But what's-her-name who was running for vice president was not well liked despite being a woman. So while it certainly plays a part, it takes more than that.

A lot changes in 150 years...

Yeah - Only the first part was directed at you. The second came about by seeing the "mother taught me well / to be close [sic] minded" bit above. The discussion here is comparatively tame to what these threads usually devolve into. I brought up the topics of abortion and war because our typical American excuse of "I want to, therefore I should be able to" won't cut it with those. Also, because they're huge issues on both "sides." I'll stop there on those topics though, in hopes of avoiding thread derailment.

I would say that women face a double standard in American politics. Even before we heard or saw much about 'that certain VP candidate,' I saw people unleashing on her. They assumed things about her based on being pro-life, as if that somehow made her less of a woman. Things like that, and again, they're mostly about assuming. Now that we've seen her public speaking, uh, prowess, some of the criticism is deserved. I still think that she was put into an awkward position though, and that you can only expect people to perform in relation to their experience. (which we also see in our current commander-in-chief) It was a gamble for McCain, and one that initially seemed worthwhile. It's just that there were better choices for VP for those thinking long-term.

Not aiming this at anyone in particular, but I'll throw it out there: People tend to vote for the idea that is marketed as the candidate, rather than the candidate themselves. Sometimes it's out of necessity, sometimes willful ignorance. We can't expect to agree with someone on 100% of the issues, but we many times ignore certain facts in favor of others. (which, again, is multiplied by the two party system encompassing 300+ million individuals)

Oh, I think Obama will do fine. Actually, he hasn't done anything to foreshadow his term ending the way you seem to hope. Besides, any potential stain Obama might leave will still make him seem like a master statesman next to the dump Bush took on American history..

P.S: I was wondering when you were going to pop in. I knew you were going to go after Obama, so I've been saving my slam on Bush for some time now.

When you brought up the stain, I thought you were going to mention Clinton...

Something tells me that most people who trash Bush would have had no issues with him had he possessed the so-called "statesmanship" of Obama.

And easy with the implications that I "hope" for a sour ending to his administration. Quite the contrary. I hope he surrounds himself with patriots and by-definitition-conservative thinkers on whom he could rely for alternative viewpoints as he forges that promised more centrist path. Instead what we get is tired old Chicago-style cronyism and the worlds most powerful office becoming the world's most powerful echo chamber. It's disgraceful. So no, I do not hope for anything bad to befall my country, its President, or his legacy. But to my eyes, he seems to be taking meaningful steps in that direction.

@Vendetta
"When you brought up the stain, I thought you were going to mention Clinton..."
Hey, I don't want to go putting comedians out of work. They still work these bits into their sets.

"I hope he surrounds himself with patriots"
Aren't those around him already so?

" Instead what we get is tired old Chicago-style cronyism"
Meh. I guess him coming from Chicago is likely to bring a certain level of these claims with him. Be honest, it's the whole Blagojevich thing, isn't it? Now THERE's a stain on politics. At least watching him slowly go Alan Keyes-style crazy is fun. Really, cronyism is a charge you should level against Bush more than Obama. I do actually hope he brings in some more good conservatives (gasp!) to help work with him, though. Of course, the relationship would have to symbiotic.

Some may be, but other are most certainly not.

And why harp on the Bush administration? That ship has sailed. If people had problems with what he did, they should object when Obama does the same thing. Enough with this double standard crap.

Questioning their patriotism kind of drags down the discourse, V-Man. And why harp on Bush? Because he still pisses me off. Trust me, if Obama does something as bad as the problems I had with W, I'll voice them loudly. Why else would I still have a love-hate relationship with Slick Willy?

Fox, we can respectfully disagree, but I believe that anyone who opposes the fine men and women of our Armed Services stepping foot on high school or college campuses for the purpose of providing information to young adults is the furthest thing from patriotic. That is just one example, and I feel that it qualifies the discourse rather than drag it down. But I don't want to hijack the thread with this particular vein, so... that's all for now.

There are more options that just Democrat and Republican. My political views are best described as Libertarian.

Bold emphasis mine. Anyone who really pursues this much power, over this many people ... should really be denied the position on that alone.

Well, if one thing the discussions we had on the other topics has taught me is that I doubt we're going to change wach other's mind. I'd also rather not see this thread get locked like what happened to the recession one (I think the NL mods are losing patience with these threads anyway), so we'll both just drop the topic.

Until another political thread pops up, that is.

I rather like these threads, even though I'm not very political. Come on Nintendo Life, show a little backbone! I've never seen one of these get too out of hand.

My two cents: there will never be another celebrated president again because there is too much news coverage in present day america. And everyone knows how that goes, only the bad is shown whilst the good is ignored. So why do people think Obama is so much better than Bush? Because there is less negative press about him, the African-Americans celebrate him, some without the slightest idea of his policies, and the remaining newscasters and hosts are too afraid to say anything negative about him because of the backlash. Everyone looks good when you hear hardly nothing bad about them. Anyone who thinks Obama is the best thing since sliced bread really need to look below the surface and look at what is taking place. America won't pay for this presidency while Obama is in office, but years down the road we will be paying for some of his decisions, possibly along with some of Bush's as well. This isn't meant to offend anyone or propose a racial issue here, I am just saying my take on what I have noticed.

Also, Obama's apparent lack of patriotism and professionalism bug the crap out of me.

You betcha.
Have a good night buddy.

@Strofan7, on the whole, what you're saying is true, but I have seen a lot of negativity about Obama lately. However, it's still MUCH less than what I saw with Bush. Okay, so I'm prepared to be lambasted for this, but I didn't think Bush Jr. was a bad president. He wasn't the best, but he wasn't NEARLY so bad as people made it out to be.

For what it's worth, I've got your back, grenworths. And in the coming years, as more people appreciate that skin-deep style is insufficient qualification to hold the highest office in the land, more will come to appreciate that George W. Bush was actually one of our better recent presidents, given the challenges the States endured concurrent with his term. Not to mention a gracious, class act while in office.