Goodbye America

[re:dream]

So ignorance, bigotry, fear and stone stupidity win the day. What a pity

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... -democrats

I feel really sorry for any sensible person still living in the USA today. And I feel even more sorry for the rest of us. I expect we will see Jeb Bush in the white house soon. And he will be the liberal choice.

[beats me]

Meh, nothing will change. There’s a sad comfort in that.

At this point I think it’s entirely based on people’s belief that the current person in office isn’t doing anything for them so just toss somebody else in office. And repeat.

[doghouse]

The USA will continue to decline further, just like every other imperial nation has in the past.

The Republicans in charge won't change much. They will do some of what they promised and they will conveniently forget about the rest, same as all political parties do. The main strategy will be to hold off anything really major until they can get a lock on the White House again in two years.

Americans won't notice a huge change year to year. They will only realize what a mess we are in once it's too late to do anything about it.

[TomViolenz]

Yeah sorry, I have to agree: Nothing will change. Both parties enact the same policies they just give them a different spin for their respective voters. It's all just theater.
Democracy in most of the West is just a scam.

[H20nly]

these assholes are so busy trying to push their agendas through and get their friends and associates elected or put in positions of power that they won't do shit. it's just a big fucking changing of the guard type display. Rich people shuffling rich people.

the real question is how much they'll spend and how many bullets, missiles, and poor people that involves

with the second question being how fast will they go back to the doctors and insurance companies getting all the care in health care and how many patients can be shoved through that system for maximum profit

[H20nly]

the good news after yesterday is; you can now smoke weed in Oregon, Alaska, and DC without getting a mandatory minimum sentence.

[oblique strategies]

The last time the Republicans had control of both the Senate & Congress was in 2007. And we know what happened in 2008: the financial collapse & great recession.

The Republicans also picked up at least 10 more House seats, giving the party its largest majority since World War II.

Keep your wits about you, & consider preparing for the possibility of another financial collapse as they go after what’s left of of the money they don’t already have. They may even arrange it so that it occurs during Obama’s presidency so they can blame the Democrats & pose as the solution for the 2016 elections. Therefore, it may be in the next 2 years.

On the other hand, maybe they'll share a bit of the wealth as bait, pose as the saviors, & not stage a financial meltdown. Take the old 'catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar' approach. I hope this is the case & not another massive looting.

[Machinesworking]

If it's a contest in 2016 between Jeb Bush and Hilary Clinton, we will have Jeb Bush as president.
I'm sorry if this upsets any democrats here, but Hilary is remarkably unlikeable, she's not fast on her feet with comebacks and she says some pretty reprehensible stuff at times. Like people have mentioned not that it matters; democrats historically have gotten us involved in as many wars; are almost as beholden to big business; and basically only make shitty concessions to "the poor".

A great example was a local bill for public transportation that put all the funding on car owners, it barely passed, and shouldn't of. Although it's a good idea to give people reasons to take public transportation, those of us that have to drive were very very likely to vote against that.

[starving student]

the biggest like in america is that everybody feels the same way.
some people actually support equal pay for women
equal treatment of gay people and all of our citizens, raising the minimum wage etc…
the liberals just won't let us do it.

[hershel]

No matter who will win in the election still there current problem remains unresolved.

[JoshG567]

They voted, they prayed; the problems remained.

[re:dream]

I must say I don't quite buy the argument that it makes no difference.

I remember when the second Bush came in, in the 'hanging chad' election. Everyone said it made no difference. But the moment he came in, the USA turned around on all its climate change commitments, and immediately proceeded to take a much more pro-israel line in international politics. The USA walking out of the international conference on racism came only a few months later. International politics immediately started polarizing, after a much more consensual period under Clinton.

Also remember that it's not only the House and the Senate that is under Republican control. It is the President too.



So the stage is set for a drift rightward, I think. Very bad for international politics. And while Hilary is not a very nice woman, Jeb Bush is likely to be disastrous for the rest of the planet.

[Machinesworking]

Hillary will restart the cold war, and they are all pro Israel...
Actually it's quite possible that Hillary is more of a hawk than Jeb. Look at the war records of democrats and republicans and they're equally guilty of involving us in pointless wars. Viet Nam was a democrat fiasco, JFK and LBJ basically were responsible for that, and a republican pulled us out. Democrats are mostly more liberal and easy to deal with in terms of domestic policy, in terms of being nicer etc, but corporate and foreign policy? it's a lie they are any better.

What actually kind of blows me away is that europeans don't all see that? Did you know that up until JFK democrats voted against civil rights? That the KKK was a staunchly democratic organization pretty much up until Reagan? Not saying republicans are any good, just pointing out that it's not as black and white as the spin doctors would have you believe these days.

[beatz01]

What most Europeans (me included) are most surprised about is that a lot of Americans don't get where one of the major flaws in their system is rooted:

They have only 2 parties they can choose from.

That's like having a market divided between 2 monopolies.

Do you have any idea how easy it is to make under the table deals, secret agreements etc. in a scenario like that ?!

It doesn't matter who is in charge.

Really, this is no rocket science.

The system is flawed in itself (not that most democracies anywhere are much better anyway).

[TomViolenz]

I must say I don't quite buy the argument that it makes no difference.

I remember when the second Bush came in, in the 'hanging chad' election. Everyone said it made no difference. But the moment he came in, the USA turned around on all its climate change commitments, and immediately proceeded to take a much more pro-israel line in international politics.

These commitments were just words just as the less pro-isreal line was. Behind the scenes nothing changed

The USA walking out of the international conference on racism came only a few months later. International politics immediately started polarizing, after a much more consensual period under Clinton.

The US does not do international treaties. Period!
No matter if that international treaty was their idea to beginn with.

Also remember that it's not only the House and the Senate that is under Republican control. It is the President too.

Obama was the best Republican president in a long time, Hilary may even be yet a better one

Jeb Bush is likely to be disastrous for the rest of the planet.

So nothing will change then...