You're the one who thinks the conservative platform comes down to personal responsibility. I'm not convinced of that. But that's beside the point. The point I'm trying to make is that the conservative agenda (no matter what that actually is) is very often backed by fearful rhetoric.
Contrast: They're gonna take our guns!
They're gonna make me pay for health care that I don't want!
They're gonna kill more babies!
It's all in the delivery. We need to make sure bad guys don't get guns!
We need to make sure everyone has access to health care!
We need to make sure women aren't criminalized for making choices about their bodies!
Liberals DID try to take our guns. They didn't just go after AR-15s, they went after any gun that holds more than 9 rounds in a magazine, which essentially bans everything except bolt action rifles, shotguns, and revolvers. They even passed that locally in several areas of the country. Health care premiums are at an all time high. Abortion is a nonissue with me, but it isn't about fear, its about the definition of when life is started. Nothing you stated sounds fearful, it is just the opposite of what you personally agree with. On the opposite democrats say shit like: WHITE PEOPLE ARE RACISTS GUNS KILL EVERYONE REPUBLICANS ARE AT WAR WITH WOMEN THE GOP WANTS TO STEAL FOOD FROM YOUR CHILDREN REPUBLICANS WANT TO KILL OLD PEOPLE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE WANT TO BURN ATHEISTS AT THE STAKE So there's that.
Welcome to Hubski. Since we work hard to be more polite here than the usual sewage farm of commentary, I will inform you why I've added you to my mute ignore list even though you have no idea who I am. Please note that none of these have to do with your political leanings, but with your approach: 1) You are screaming. When you type in ALL CAPS and reel off a list of slogans (that almost look like they came from a mutant Burma-Shave campaign), you build a wall. You are not interested in discussion: you are lecturing. 2) You are not finishing your thoughts. You present an assumption and fail to back it up. 3) You are impolite. I have enough inelegant signal in my world. I come here to lower my blood pressure and find interesting things to read. Thus I shall mute you. I will know that you replied and expect to skip the entire thread. Why you should care: you will soon find no one replying to you. We're a small enough place that you'll find yourself shunned. You can leave, but that won't teach you anything. We're here to learn, so I hope you'll learn not to spew first. For now, good day. Update: I can be such a newb. I don't want to prevent you from commenting, which is what mute does -- I support your right to speak. I switched you to the ignore list. I just want a warning that I may not want to hear it. By the way, does anyone know how to strike out a word rather than block it?
I think you're totally missing my point, and I'm probably doing a bad job at making it. This is all about tone and for me, having been all over the map politically, I've found that the rhetoric on the conservative side has been somewhat more fear-based than on the liberal side. That's not to say that the liberal side doesn't use fear as well. Anyway, I have no real interest in debating any of these issues (gun control, health care, etc.) and only meant to use them as examples.
If you go to FOX for your "news" you are going to get the impression that liberals want to take your guns, your liberty and piss on the constitution. When you go to MSNBC for your "news" you are going to get the impression that the conservatives are racists that would rather see you bleed to death than allocate tax dollars towards healthcare etc. The truth is, when you sit down and have a civilized conversation with an intelligent conservative or liberal you tend to find that you have far more in common politically than you would think. Our differences are isolated, packaged and marketed to us via a media establishment the likes of which humanity has never seen. They're all pervasive, they're hugely influential and they have lots of money and vessels by which to influence us. Humans need to "belong". This is what drives fans of sports teams, country club memberships, tribalism, nationalism, religious affiliation and yes... political party affiliation. Saying "I'm a democrat" or "I'm a republican" add's to ones identity. They "belong" to a group and will fight hard for that which this group mandates they should believe in. Republicans didn't bat an eye when GWB spent money like it was going out of style and now we see Democrats shrugging off the fact that their boy "O" hasn't closed Guantanamo and uses drones to fight covert CIA wars. -but he won the nobel peace prize.. so it's cool. They're just labels "R" and "D" and there's really not that huge of a difference when they're actually in office. This is why I am increasingly convinced that I will vote for capability before party. In this sense, I regret not voting for Romney. I digress. My point is, if you don't want to hear/read vitriolic crap in politics, consider where you are viewing and listening. I get most of my politics here on Hubski and I've not come across much of this.