Colin Powell on GOP: "They still look down on minorities"

Started by Skynet, January 14, 2013, 05:57:28 PM

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Zeitgeist

Given the tradition over the past fifteen years or so of coming out, I hope that Mr. Powell someday finds the courage and conviction. I imagine he might wonder what his family, friends and peers might say. I imagine it is with hesitancy, and he eschews putting a voice to his real feelings. Coming out is never easy and may never be easy. Others have found the courage, I am sure this robust former military man too can find the courage.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
To come out as a liberal, that is.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Zeitgeist on January 22, 2013, 11:41:26 PM
Given the tradition over the past fifteen years or so of coming out, I hope that Mr. Powell someday finds the courage and conviction. I imagine he might wonder what his family, friends and peers might say. I imagine it is with hesitancy, and he eschews putting a voice to his real feelings. Coming out is never easy and may never be easy. Others have found the courage, I am sure this robust former military man too can find the courage.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide
To come out as a liberal, that is.

Thing is.. He isn't a liberal. Just a man who has thoroughly been shat upon by the current group of people running his party. He was lied to, then used as a scapegoat when those lies came out. Most likely to ensure a socially moderate, more centrist of his stand would never make anything of himself if he every did decide to run for office. He is an honorable man who stands by his words and is rightfully angry that he was made a liar by people he trusted.


ReijiTabibito

I'm not surprised that the political machine we have today decided to screw him by leaving him holding the bag - that doesn't even belong to him.

Mark Twain said: "The truth is mighty and will prevail.  There is nothing the matter with this, except it ain't so."

The political landscape of today hates the truth, and it hates even more a man who will stand by what he says instead of doing whatever the majority wants - because amongst people, they are unpopular.

Government and politics today is rapidly becoming the minefield on steroids from Hell - you can't do almost anything without getting someone up in arms over it.  Use the Sandy Hook shootings and gun control debate.  DISCLAIMER: I make no statement about what I believe here, just about what I know.  The President asked Congress to institute universal background checks and pass restrictions on assault weapons and high-cap magazines.  The result?  Fox News sounded DEFCON Apeshit - 'Obama's coming for your guns!  He's a tyrant!  Begin active resistance!'

Rather than about service to the people, and making sure what is done benefits the nation, the politicos in DC have turned government into a perpetual reelection machine - do whatever you have to go get reelected, at any cost.  Smear your opponents.  Take massive campaign contributions from people you might not otherwise agree with because you need the money for your campaign.  Distort the truth.  Lie.  Challenge the very foundations that your opponents stand on.

A moderate, I feel, in this day and age, would have the following stances on three key issues.

Taxes - gonna have to go up for quote-unquote job creators in the personal income tax department.
Defense - Defense spending is gonna have to go down.  America has the most well-trained and well-equipped army on the planet.  Do we really need an army that is supposed to be capable of fighting two wars at once? (Callie, I know you're a miltype, so if I'm wrong here, do correct me.)
Social Security/Medicare - Benefits are going to have to be cut, because people are living longer and that simply wasn't in the initial conception of the people who made it.

But you'll never see anyone advocate for all three of these positions in the same breath.  Because they alienate too much of the voter base (and in the case of taxes, people who can make the political process hell for anyone who opposes them).

The machine needs to be dismantled, and the best way I can think of that is to enact term limits on people who are in Congress, and possibly upon the Supreme Court itself (come on, half of today's Supreme Court was installed when I was in elementary school).

Because I believe that if people no longer need to worry about being re-elected, then they might actually do something.

Serephino

Cutting term limits may not work.  Getting re elected was supposed to be a big incentive to do what your constituents want you to do.  Politicians who don't have to worry about the next election tend to do as they please, because what do they care?  They don't have to make anyone happy but themselves.  That's the way the system was originally designed.  Yes, politicians have become rather cutthroat about it, but we have apathy to thank for that.

Like Callie has been saying all along, people need to get more involved.  The sad fact is, politicians can put anything they want into a commercial, and people will sit back and believe it rather than dig for the truth.  In this day and age that should be easy, but people have gotten so lazy.  A politician only has to look at the demographic that actually voted in his/her district, and then make that demographic happy. 

Congress.org makes it very easy to see what your elected representative is doing.  I even get an email every so often that tells me what was voted on, whether or not it passed, and how my reps voted.  This way, they can't lie and tell me they support something they don't.  Now, if only everyone kept an eye on their reps...

Callie Del Noire

http://www.businessinsider.com/virginia-senate-redistricting-bill-inauguration-day-2013-1

this is part of what I mean.

The Virginia senate is split (or was) down the middle. 20/20. The lovely gentle men in the GOP waited till Democratic Sen. Henry Marsh left town to attend the inaugural (on MLK day) to push through a redistricting plan that put them ahead by 8 districts.

Then abjured in Honor of Stonewall Jackson.

Oh yeah.. no problem with minorities.

Sigh...