As a conservative, what do you wish liberals understood?
I wish that everyone, both liberal and conservative, was able to understand what “unintended consequences” are.10 Fascinating Examples of Unintended Consequences - Toptenz.netLiberals often think that if the INTENT of a policy is NICE, then the OUTCOME of the policy will be NICE.Liberals are NICE. Their NICE eyeballs look out onto the world a see a place where we should all be NICE.But being NICE often has negative consequences.Like letting a child molester or a rapist out of prison is NICE because we want to believe that everyone has some good in them. We want to feel that the person can be rehabilitated.But in reality, 92% of violent criminals will commit the same violent crimes when released from prison.So letting criminals out of jail after a few years is NICE and is also EVIL.Another big delusion is that a politician must have STRONG support to be elected.Sometimes politicians get elected because the opposition got bored and stayed home.America is a nation of centrists, that's why we have close elections. They shrug their shoulders and vote for whoever they sort of like better.Trump can get re-elected even if not one single person in the USA likes him. We have a binary party system, so if the voters dislike Trump less than they dislike Hillary (or whoever), then he'll be re-elected.In a binary political system, a politician is turned either on or off by the voters, like a light switch. Whether the individual voter adores him or hates him but hates Hillary more, the pro-Trump vote counts the same.In the last election, the greatest number of voters voted to stay home and watch Dancing with the Stars on TV. 42% of the eligible voters voted for Dancing With The Stars, 26% voted for Trump and Hillary each. In a pure democracy, the cast of Dancing With The Stars would be president.That's what makes Trump Derangement Syndrome so hilarious. After the election, everyone twirled about in confusion and "realized" that their neighbor Timmy who voted for Trump is a secret FASCIST.It's not that Hillary was an unlikable candidate and ran a horrible, disjointed campaign and got beaten by a blowhard. The fun and exciting version is that "Trump activated his white supremacist base." The same people that elected Obama twice are apparently white supremacists. LOL.I’m not a fan of Michael Moore, but he nailed it:
On what conditions is all legitimate government based?
The condition of "monopoly of power". All governments must have a monopoly of power irrespective if legitimacy or illegitimacy. If a government is considered illegitimate, say the Iranian gov't after the recent elections, the condition that kept the regime afloat was that it had a monopoly of power to suppress uprisings. If a government is considered legitimate, say the USA (since we are a Republic), the US federal gov't still needs power to get the job done, only this time, power is in the consensus of the people and not in military force. Regardless of the legitimacy of government. All governments need power. Power, as yo can see, is a flexible work, with meanings ranging fro military superiority to the consent of the governed.
Do Conservatives believe that all of the Federal government is incompetent and rife with waste, fraud and abuse except for the Defense dept?
Private industry is forced by competition to rationalize, rightsize, and reorganize from time to time. That means that any unnecessary branches get pruned.That never happens to the Federal government.An agency in the Federal government rarely deals with what the private sector would call a budget cut; that is, an actual cut in the dollars budgeted.A Federal "budget cut” happens when the projected budget increase of, say, 108% of last year’s budget, is cut to 106% of last year’s budget. Only in DC is this a cut, but it is enough todrive Chuck Schumer to tears on the Senate floor, wailing over the lives that be lost.The government is an out of control behemoth. Contrary to another commenter’s remarks, conservatives don't control the government, entrenched career bureaucrats control the government. Many of them have Union and/or civil service protection.It took a literal act of Congress to begin cleaning house at the Veterans Administration. This is the greatest shame in DC. Obama did nothing about it.The IRS sends hundreds of tax refund checks, totaling millions of dollars of fraudulent refunds, to the same address! Wasteful and fraudulent doesn't begin to describe it. More like criminally negligent. Private industry would hire 10 consultants on a 5% contingency and have that problem cleaned up in 6 months.I can hardly stand a trip to the Post Office these days. They do have competition, but the government mentality is so deeply ingrained they can't respond.Yes, every branch of government is wasteful. There are some important government missions, but on the whole we'd be better off with drastic surgery.Oh, and public employee unions should be outlawed. Virtually all their political donations go to Democrats in the most corrupt and unholy alliance of all.
Why are Fox News and other conservative media not overseas? On a recent overseas trip, all we could find on TV was CNN and BBC. Why is Fox not putting their side out there also?
Canada is not physically overseas although culturally it is. FOX applied for a cable channel here and the application was denied. The reason was the observation that it is not a news channel. It has too many commentators who parade as broadcasting news but are either making commentary, quoting a strange, obscure, or unverifiable source, or similar activity. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulates all communication in Canada including the spectrum for cellular and other uses. It demanded a higher level of provable information to qualify as a news channel than FOX was able to demonstrate. Fox refused to apply as an entertainment channel as the committee suggested.We can get FOX on a US channel in some cities so most Canadians can see it. Few care to because of the disinformation. Few Canadians are looking for fake news (as the gospel holler advertisement says, genuine imitation fake news) to justify an ignorant opinion. We are far too in tune with the planet for that.We also had a genuine Canadian FOX clone (would that be a kit?) channel that was backed by Canadians and carried right wing news. It too ran into some problem, lack of something, and eventually went bankrupt because they could not find enough advertisers. Advertisers count the audience so that would imply that few of us care to follow that type of “info”.Fox is on some satellites so any isolated location has the option of watching it with a satellite dish. I had the experience of living with two Americans in a remote village and FOX was on all evening. Boy it was good to go home!There is a second difference too. While in Nevada I heard two women talking about a new TV journalist that one had seen. The journalist had been interviewing someone. The woman commented "boy she could push (the interviewed person's) buttons! The other woman replied "I like that". In the US news is presented as entertainment while in other countries it is information. FOX is very much an entertainment channel.
Why do Americans distrust the government?
Because of the waste (just $50 billion in the Social Security program a year) that is inherent in any establishment that is so big it trips over itself daily. Just one example.
Why is it acceptable for your superiors such as teachers, parents, or employers to physically and verbally attack you, but not acceptable if you attack them?
It isn't ok for an employer or a teacher to verbally attack you under any circumstance. They are at work and need to keep emotions in check and not get on some power trip.Parenthood is a bit different as emotions are intertwined. A parent shouldn't loose their cool, but raising kids is not a perfect science and parents are not well oiled machines. Parents make mistakes. Some are more natural nurturers than others, or calmer than others. Emotions can run high due to finance, and other personal circumstance, that get the best of them at times. But most parents mean well. It is a fact that many a parents lie in bed at the end of the day, regretting their lost temper. They love their children and want what's best, and that means raising responsible, well mannered citizens. It can be extraordinary frustrating to have a child not complying with the rules and act like hooligans. Afterall, imagine sacrificing almost everything and dedicating your life to someone who turns around and gives you sass. That's a tough bone to chew.Of course employer's and teachers have the same emotions that come in play for those under them, but they are paid to be the “well oiled machines” that most parents strive to be. If they can't take the heat, and have reduced themselves to verbally attacking those in their charge, they should step aside and allow another to take their place.As far as, “why a child cannot verbally attack their parent?”, they brought you into this world and most are doing their best. No one is perfect. Be respectful of them.
American Christians who vote Republican, how do you reconcile things like this?
Outstanding question! I read the answers and thought the same thing you did--either people started answering before they read the whole question or they didn't understand it. You are so right: The Republican philosophy, as it is being carried out in my state as well as in many others, is working from an agenda that has at the very least these points: 1. Concentrate wealth in the hands of the few. 2. Make poor people, not rich people, pay for operating government. 3. Eliminate public education ("vouchers"; eliminating teaching jobs in the public schools) 4. Make everything--education, health-care, mental health assistance, highways, and probably other things that have not surfaced yet--a profit center for some business. 5. Make money regardless of how it hurts the environment and the people that live in the environment. For example, West Virginia's strip mining. Ohio's fracking-related earthquakes. Sarah Palin's beloved pipeline. Climate change everywhere in the world. 6. Make voting much more difficult for those who might vote against the above. 7. Locate one-issue factions and play up their emotional reaction to their one issue. (Has anyone checked the political affiliation of the management companies that run those hugely profitable abortion clinics? Doctors don't run health-care facilities anymore; huge corporations do.) Did I forget anything? What I wonder is where these Republicans think they are going to GO once they have destroyed The Kingdom of God--and do the one-issue factions think they are going to be taken along?
Sodomayer broke her ankle in the airport, can Republicans block the first crippled female hispanic judge?
the left is seeking to blame a white male for tripping her!!!