What are your 'feelings' about politics today?

1. 83

   tsmogposted 7 years ago

   What are your 'feelings' about politics today?
   
   I realize we all have opinions about politics with its many directions and controversies. But, what are your 'feelings'? Maybe that can be expanded with the interactions one has today with what are the feelings of the circles traveled in your life?

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2. 49

   bradmasterOCcalposted 7 years ago

   Politics today is really a form of sales and marketing techniques developed over the last few decades. Politics use polls not for their monitoring of people's opinions, but to replace their opinions with the results of the polls. This backfired in the last election cycle, it showed how the real opinions are not in the polls.
   
   Normally polls would have duplicated the actions, as in the election results. But, Donald Trump created a reality port in the election. He drew out the people that wanted change from the cycle of several decades. They were tired of failed promises&rhetoric instead of action, they didn't want to go in the same directions as both parties had done before & would continue to do, if the old line was allowed to take the presidency. It also overflowed into their congressional picks as they realized a president Trump need the support of his party to make his goals into accomplishments.
   
   Politics, especially from the left was based on social reengineering & stirring up emotions of hate & distrust against Trump because he was not a professional politician like themselves. It is the fact that Trump is not a politician & he broke the political succession because an outsider that didn't cause the decline of the country wouldn't have to cover up any of the causes of the failures. These failures were caused by both parties since the 70s.
   
   Until Trump appeared in politics running for the presidency, politics was based on a core of loyal party voters. Both parties knew for a reasonable certainty how many of their registered voters would vote for anyone and everyone in their party. They also knew those numbers for the other party. Then it was a simple matter of determining how many of the independents they would need in every state to win the election.
   
   This is where, I tie in the sales & marketing techniques used today to sell any product. Politics=Sales+Marketing+Candidate. The candidate is the product, the party is the branding.
   
   Polls are part of the political sales & marketing. How many people really understand the statistics involved in polls. Statistics work great when determining the defect rate for mfg products because the materials&processes involved are uniform. But human beings are unique, even when they possess similar or even identical attributes. The phrasing and nuances used in giving polls has a hand on the scale.
   4 of 5 doctors like brand X. What do you really know about that poll?
   For ex, how many doctors, what kind of doctors, etc
   Del if u wish

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3. 77

   Kathleen Cochranposted 7 years ago

   I'd venture that most of what is written on HP about politics is based on the hubber's "feelings" more than their knowledge, resources, or available evidence.  And this site has been lousy with them.

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      Ericdierkerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It struck me while writing yesterday that sometimes we say he "got angry" and we really should be saying "he is an angry person".  There are a lot of angry people today. Politics is just a vent. And of course they will say "angry because ...."

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4. 87

   tamarawilhiteposted 7 years ago

   The antifa crowd are fascists claiming to be anti-fascists. Calling everyone they disagree with a name before justifying violence against those they've labeled with said name IS fascism.
   That they could beat up innocent people at Berkley with fists and flag poles while proclaiming themselves peaceful protestors, threatening murder and burning stuff down to counter a SPEECH, proves the authoritarian left is a threat to civil society that true liberals must renounce to retain any credibility. Otherwise they are equal to Muslims whose default reaction to a fundamentalist terrorist attack is to defend Islam as perfect and blame Islamophobia instead of the violent fundamentalists they refuse to keep in check.

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5. 93

   Nathanvilleposted 7 years ago

   Being in Britain, I guess at this moment in time I’m probably more optimistic about politics than a lot of Americans seem to be.  The British political system, which has its roots in the Magna Carta of 1215, is one of the oldest democracies in the world. 
   
   The system may not be perfect, but it mostly works, most of the time.  One of the great things about British politics is that it’s not just a two party system e.g. it’s not just ‘us and them’.  It is a multi-party system with 11 different political parties currently holding seats in Parliament, giving a wide political spectrum to give a voice from all sections of society.
   
   For example, although the Green Party may currently only have just one seat in Parliament (out of a total of 650 seats) their voice is a loud voice and does influences public opinion which in turns has influenced policy making for both the Conservative and Labour governments in the past.
   
   Albeit, as a Socialist I’m not thrilled with having a right wing Conservative Government in power at this time; but I can take solace in the fact that thanks to Labour (left wing socialist party) we do have (since 1948) a comprehensive ‘Welfare State’, most notably the NHS (which the Brits love), its founding principle being:-
   
   •    Comprehensive healthcare free to all at the point of use.
   
   The NHS is funded from taxes and all doctors and nurses are public employees, so it cuts out the fat profits for the CEO and shareholder of health insurance companies, and therefore the costs paid by the British Government is only $3,000 per year per person; which is cheap compared to the medical costs in America.
   
   Therefore, my feelings about politics today, although not ecstatic, are on balance, quite positive; with an element of some optimism for the future e.g. Labour’s current policy is to renationalise the railways when they get back in power.

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6. 79

   dashingscorpioposted 7 years ago

   
   
   There does not appear to be a place for "moderate Republicans" or "conservative Democrats" to strike "bipartisan agreements" to benefit the country overall.
   The emphasis today is all about (party) loyalty.
   Voters also feel like they have to blindly defend (every decision) their candidate makes or run the risk of not being a supporter.
   Compromise is viewed as "weakness" or "treason" within both parties. The "opposition party" goal is to cause Gridlock.
   Neither side wants to do anything that makes the other look good.

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