I similarly understand that there is a different and legitimate argument to be made, but I disagree because -
IMO Gaetz is emblematic of what is wrong in our government. Politics is a team sport - he is all about himself. He doesn't like centralized power unless it is centralized in him.
Not sure but believe it was Daniel Webster who described politics as the art of compromise. I look at our history and fully understand that it has been libertarian conservatives who have consistently compromised over the last 100 years, and I don't like it. And I believe that we have long since lost the ideal of the citizen servant legislator. With the professional legislative class, the people have (at best) as very limited voice. But the divisiveness - this exists on both sides ("Squad", Progressive Caucus, Mad Max and her ilk from the other side) - that comes from hyperbolic absolutism is killing us. Gaetz is part of that absolutist class.
Depending on your assessment of when this mess started - Roosevelt, Wilson, Lincoln - it has taken us 100 to 160 years to get here. We will not, and I believe we cannot and should not, turn this around in one Presidential term or with the work of one person. It will take several generations to wean the American people and the world off of the USG gravy train. That means that the same incrementalism that got us here will be what gets us out. It need not take 160 years, but cannot be overly abrupt without risk to the social fabric. Gaetz and his ilk are not part of that resolution.
Thank you for your thorough response. I agree with many of your points and see real value in them.
Personally, the way I see things today is almost unrecognizable to how I used to see them. One basic, but meteoric paradigm shift is how I view our party system.
I used to believe we had two major parties. I used to believe that while the two parties had their differences, by working together we could find common ground and that location in the middle would serve the majority of citizens the best. I used to believe I had to pick a side, the one I mostly identified with, and then go out and vote for that party to get the job done.
I don't believe any of those things anymore. I do not believe we have a two-party system of R's vs D's. We have a two-party system, but it is US vs Them.
My definition of "Them" is (s)elected politicians who are bought and paid for by the globalists, lobbyists, cabalists, uni-party apparatchiks. I put the s in parentheses because I no longer believe we even have free and fair elections where the citizens decide who is elected based on majority vote. We don't. Every single person with a brain knows we have widespread, massive voting fraud in our country.
How many republican (RINO) controlled state houses in battleground states pursued investigating the election fraud of 2020? None to the end. I can think of WI hiring a former State Supreme Court Justice, Michael Gableman, to investigate the voter fraud, but when he found it and planned to release his report on it, the republican speaker of the the assembly, Robin Vos, fired Gableman to quash the report.
This type of behavior occured in all of the battleground states, especially Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona.
The uni-party combination of Democrats and Republicans In Name Only runs the election selections, not the little lowly people who vote. That is not how it is supposed to be.
Anyone proclaiming that the Dems and Republicans need to work together, has missed the point that they already are. They are working hand in glove to control our elections, control our country, and for everyone paying attention, control our demise as the leading nation of the world.
The Dems and Rinos are "working together" on the following:
Millions of invaders are crossing our border.
Billions of US tax payer dollars are being sent over seas to Ukraine, and next Israel.
This is in fact a giant DC money laundering operation.
Billions of dollars of military equipment is being left behind or sent all over the world, arming our enemies, to ensure much more brutal future conflcts.
Medical tyranny is running rampant and murdering millions of people.
Food supplies are being destroyed, gas supplies cut off, and inflation spiking forward.
The US Dollar is being destroyed.
Our school systems no longer teach, but rather focus on pure cultural indoctrination of marxist, communist programming.
I really could go on and on. This is what we are getting from the "two parties" working together.
If you think Matt Gaetz is the problem, then I think it's time to consider a new paradigm.
Here is an oldie but a goodie. It played a role in my seeing reality with new eyes.
I wish I could offer a credible argument to disagree about our environment, but I can't.
As a military brat and retired Army officer, I was raised on Horatio Alger/Norman Rockwell values and images of America and have been truly cut to the core with the decline of our once great country. Perhaps I was sheltered and America never was that way, but lost dreams are always painful. And so, although not a strident Trumpist, I am MAGA.
I infer from your argument that we could agree that the fault does not lie with one party.
Economically, I believe the decline began with Lincoln but recognize others may reasonably choose another start point. We really set the stage for our current big government dependency under the socialist and populist influences of Roosevelt and Huey Long.
Socially, I believe the decline began with Dewey's education reforms that changed education from providing what some have termed "the furniture of the mind" intended to equip an informed citizenry to an assembly line process designed to produce industrial workers.
Politically, I believe the decline, and the energy that amplified and built (or destroyed as you may describe it) on the others, was the advancement of the Frankfort School, integrating socialist/communists into our intellectual environment. Socialism and identity division are destroying us. In my observation, we used to recite the Pledge and really aspire to be One Nation. We no longer even pretend to that aspiration. That identity separation and segregation stem from the Marxist philosophies.
Finally I will say that as a (somewhat fundamentalist) Christian, I abhor the decline of moral values. We were founded on Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian values. As we have thrown those away, those we have lost our national soul.
The weight of all this has pushed us down the slippery slope of ruination. This has happened over a long time, under leadership from both parties. The one place I might modify your view of the political landscape is to say that I believe there are three political parties - hard left, hard right and confused middle trying to hang on. The hard left and right can - usually don't, but can - play a long game. The middle is constrained to a short term focus just to survive and consequently, if they are even paying attention, get tossed to and fro.
So where does that lead me wrt Gaetz? Bomb throwers like him - and again, the left has their own set - do nothing to unite us. Self servedness and preening for a camera shot and sound bite do nothing to advance any agenda but his own. Please do not mistake this as a call to capitulate - strong conservative leaders are necessary to attack each of the pillars of our destruction and reclaim our country. But conservatism in the service of our people requires accomplishments, positive movement. Gaetz has never been on that side of the ledger. A petulant child demanding immediate gratification is merely distracting the adults in the room - if there are any.
Idk these people personally so I will restrain from judging but seems to me as if a few white hat actors are causing a circus and distraction for a greater good.
Gaetz is only and all about himself....he is a power whore. Scalise will be easier for him to manipulate than Jordan would be.
I respect your opinion and couldn't disagree more.
From what I understand, Gaetz is supported by small dollar donors and not lobbyists.
Also, it appears to me that Gaetz actually did what he said he would do, unlike McCarthy.
When McCarthy went back to his uniparty ways, Gaetz called him out on it.
McCarthy said bring it on.
Gaetz brought it.
I will always applaud the members of congress that do what they say they will do.
Thank you for your courtesy
I similarly understand that there is a different and legitimate argument to be made, but I disagree because -
IMO Gaetz is emblematic of what is wrong in our government. Politics is a team sport - he is all about himself. He doesn't like centralized power unless it is centralized in him.
Not sure but believe it was Daniel Webster who described politics as the art of compromise. I look at our history and fully understand that it has been libertarian conservatives who have consistently compromised over the last 100 years, and I don't like it. And I believe that we have long since lost the ideal of the citizen servant legislator. With the professional legislative class, the people have (at best) as very limited voice. But the divisiveness - this exists on both sides ("Squad", Progressive Caucus, Mad Max and her ilk from the other side) - that comes from hyperbolic absolutism is killing us. Gaetz is part of that absolutist class.
Depending on your assessment of when this mess started - Roosevelt, Wilson, Lincoln - it has taken us 100 to 160 years to get here. We will not, and I believe we cannot and should not, turn this around in one Presidential term or with the work of one person. It will take several generations to wean the American people and the world off of the USG gravy train. That means that the same incrementalism that got us here will be what gets us out. It need not take 160 years, but cannot be overly abrupt without risk to the social fabric. Gaetz and his ilk are not part of that resolution.
Thanks for the opportunity for dialog!
Thank you for your thorough response. I agree with many of your points and see real value in them.
Personally, the way I see things today is almost unrecognizable to how I used to see them. One basic, but meteoric paradigm shift is how I view our party system.
I used to believe we had two major parties. I used to believe that while the two parties had their differences, by working together we could find common ground and that location in the middle would serve the majority of citizens the best. I used to believe I had to pick a side, the one I mostly identified with, and then go out and vote for that party to get the job done.
I don't believe any of those things anymore. I do not believe we have a two-party system of R's vs D's. We have a two-party system, but it is US vs Them.
My definition of "Them" is (s)elected politicians who are bought and paid for by the globalists, lobbyists, cabalists, uni-party apparatchiks. I put the s in parentheses because I no longer believe we even have free and fair elections where the citizens decide who is elected based on majority vote. We don't. Every single person with a brain knows we have widespread, massive voting fraud in our country.
How many republican (RINO) controlled state houses in battleground states pursued investigating the election fraud of 2020? None to the end. I can think of WI hiring a former State Supreme Court Justice, Michael Gableman, to investigate the voter fraud, but when he found it and planned to release his report on it, the republican speaker of the the assembly, Robin Vos, fired Gableman to quash the report.
This type of behavior occured in all of the battleground states, especially Georgia, Michigan, and Arizona.
The uni-party combination of Democrats and Republicans In Name Only runs the election selections, not the little lowly people who vote. That is not how it is supposed to be.
Anyone proclaiming that the Dems and Republicans need to work together, has missed the point that they already are. They are working hand in glove to control our elections, control our country, and for everyone paying attention, control our demise as the leading nation of the world.
The Dems and Rinos are "working together" on the following:
I really could go on and on. This is what we are getting from the "two parties" working together.
If you think Matt Gaetz is the problem, then I think it's time to consider a new paradigm.
Here is an oldie but a goodie. It played a role in my seeing reality with new eyes.
The Big Club, You Ain't In It!
I wish I could offer a credible argument to disagree about our environment, but I can't.
As a military brat and retired Army officer, I was raised on Horatio Alger/Norman Rockwell values and images of America and have been truly cut to the core with the decline of our once great country. Perhaps I was sheltered and America never was that way, but lost dreams are always painful. And so, although not a strident Trumpist, I am MAGA.
I infer from your argument that we could agree that the fault does not lie with one party.
The weight of all this has pushed us down the slippery slope of ruination. This has happened over a long time, under leadership from both parties. The one place I might modify your view of the political landscape is to say that I believe there are three political parties - hard left, hard right and confused middle trying to hang on. The hard left and right can - usually don't, but can - play a long game. The middle is constrained to a short term focus just to survive and consequently, if they are even paying attention, get tossed to and fro.
So where does that lead me wrt Gaetz? Bomb throwers like him - and again, the left has their own set - do nothing to unite us. Self servedness and preening for a camera shot and sound bite do nothing to advance any agenda but his own. Please do not mistake this as a call to capitulate - strong conservative leaders are necessary to attack each of the pillars of our destruction and reclaim our country. But conservatism in the service of our people requires accomplishments, positive movement. Gaetz has never been on that side of the ledger. A petulant child demanding immediate gratification is merely distracting the adults in the room - if there are any.
Look forward to any thoughts you might have.
Idk these people personally so I will restrain from judging but seems to me as if a few white hat actors are causing a circus and distraction for a greater good.
Funny you bitch when they talk and do nothing and you bitch when they do what theu say and call them power whore.
Some people on here will never be pleased.
Anyone not looking out for #1 is dumb.