2026 Congressional Elections

[Motown Bombers]

Just now, romad1 said:

One of my biggest triggers politically are bullies.  Obviously, dictators and oligarchs fit into this category.   Run your country as a way to avoid prison and drag the US into a disastrous war that wrecks the global economy.  I dislike you. 

Hate to break it to you but these extremist on the left are wannabe dictators but leftishly. 

[gehringer_2]

Just now, Motown Bombers said:

Times have changed I guess. 

well, they've gotten a lot more anxious for a lot of people, and happy people always make better decisions than unhappy ones. I think that is one of the take aways from the American 'revolution' that Americans always misunderstand. The colonies were fat and happy and they wanted to keep their good thing going - they really didn't want change at all, they 'rebelled' to keep Britain from changing things they wanted left alone (their previous relative autonomy and tax structures). Sad, poor, destitute people tend to make very bad revolutions - e.g. France, Russia, China.

[Motown Bombers]

I feel like in the radicalization of the Democratic Party we are at the point in the timeline where Eric Cantor lost his primary. 

[Motown Bombers]

Just now, gehringer_2 said:

well, they've gotten a lot more anxious for a lot of people, and happy people always make better decisions than unhappy ones. I think that is one of the take aways from the American 'revolution' that Americans always misunderstand. The colonies were fat and happy and they wanted to keep their good thing going - they really didn't want change at all, they 'rebelled' to keep Britain from changing things they wanted left alone (their previous relative autonomy and tax structures). Sad, poor, destitute people tend to make very bad revolutions - e.g. France, Russia, China.

I reject this. My coming of age was at the beginning of the Iraq war and then into the Great Recession. Young people weren't happy. The major difference was a lack of foreign influence on media consumption. 

[romad1]

3 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Hate to break it to you but these extremist on the left are wannabe dictators but leftishly. 

You ain't breaking anything to me.  I read "Homage to Catalonia" "Animal Farm" and the rest of George Orwell's works.  Thats the central theme.   That guy lost his party, btw.  He got shot through the throat for his beliefs and barely made it out of Spain on the hoof from Stalin's goons.  She spent the rest of his life decrying the fallacy of his own side.   He was still a humanist and believed that man would be better off with the right blend of transparently applied reforms he fought for. 

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

I feel like in the radicalization of the Democratic Party we are at the point in the timeline where Eric Cantor lost his primary. 

I don't particularly disagree with that - the question is where it goes. I don't like a lot of what is coming out of NY either but I'm not panicking over it because that's a small and unique piece of the US as a whole. but you won't beat that by bemoaning that people didn't vote for the e-mail Lady. You have to meet it with something better.

[Motown Bombers]

5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I don't particularly disagree with that - the question is where it goes. I don't like a lot of what is coming out of NY either but I'm not panicking over it because that's a small and unique piece of the US as a whole. but you won't beat that by bemoaning that people didn't vote for the e-mail Lady. You have to meet it with something better.

It isn’t just New York. It’s also Maine and Pennsylvania with Fetterman. 

[gehringer_2]

21 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

I reject this. My coming of age was at the beginning of the Iraq war and then into the Great Recession. Young people weren't happy. The major difference was a lack of foreign influence on media consumption. 

its a lot more than young people unhappy today don't you think? Heck I'm old and I think where we are totally sucks.

But another difference is that something like the 'Great Recession' was a single thing - it was a big screw up and basically from the day it happened it started being fixed, and while unemployment hit terrible levels, the fixes began to work and people could see it was a bad time but it was going to pass. Today people don't see any way out. The rich keep getting richer, education gets worse, good jobs keep disappearing, retirements are coming under risk, medical care is still a demoralizing gauntlet to run assuming you even have it, inflation is back, people can't afford a house or a wedding. Conservatives think the culture is corrosive and polluted and liberals think the conservatives yearn for fascist dictatorship; and it's all out there with no clear end or solution in sight for any of it. So there's why I argue we are where we are more than 20 years ago.

Edited June 24 by gehringer_2

[Tigerbomb13]

33 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Trying to use a charge of anti-semitism as a club against anyone who opposes the current Israeli government is a losing argument with most of the US public anymore, particularly when so many American Jews don't agree with Netanyahu either. Israel's conduct is not a matter of tropes and shadow signals, it's a matter of a lot dead bodies.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/07/negative-views-of-israel-netanyahu-continue-to-rise-among-americans-especially-young-people/

 

This 100%. I know MB likes to tie everything into antisemitism, but it is possible to be critical of Netanyahu and Israeli policy and not be antisemitic. Are there some yahoos out there that are? Sure. But I can promise you that I know plenty of people who are anti-AIPAC and I can absolutely promise you it has nothing to do with having an issue with the Jewish faith. To think so is simplistic and offensive. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

 

BRUTAL! We simply can’t do things like pass the most popular program in our country’s history with the largest voting block in the country. Instead, we should opt for small to medium sized policy goals. This is not good messaging. We cannot fix what's broken is even worse messaging.

[pfife]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

Is that what you did to stop MAGA from taking over your party? 

Says the guy posting material from Republicans Against Trump about how the dems should win the house.

Serious question: do you think before posting or are you chosing dishonesty?

Edited June 24 by pfife

[gehringer_2]

13 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

 

BRUTAL! We simply can’t do things like pass the most popular program in our country’s history with the largest voting block in the country. Instead, we should opt for small to medium sized policy goals. This is not good messaging. We cannot fix what's broken is even worse messaging.

well that would have been inapt to say, but I'm not taking anything in a political tweet without context posted by a guy supporting a different candidate as any kind of verified truth either. She's been on the bus with ACA, which was a pretty big deal.

Edited June 24 by gehringer_2

[pfife]

57 minutes ago, romad1 said:

My decade in the wilderness is well documented here.

I'm still here and I'm still espousing a set of policies i agree with.  I don't have a party RN but I hope my policies remain foundation for a stable democracy, and I can see when change is necessary and I can support those changes I agree with. 

 Gimme free trade, collective security, freedom of ideas, the rule of law and the Atlantic Charter.  Screw dictatorships. Screw oligarchs.  

F that dude.   He pulls this **** on you like 2 hours after posting advice from Republicans against Trump X account because it supported his argument.

Must be nice to have it both ways.

Its pretty bad dishonesty. 

[gehringer_2]

47 minutes ago, romad1 said:

You ain't breaking anything to me.  I read "Homage to Catalonia" "Animal Farm" and the rest of George Orwell's works.  Thats the central theme.   That guy lost his party, btw.  He got shot through the throat for his beliefs and barely made it out of Spain on the hoof from Stalin's goons.  She spent the rest of his life decrying the fallacy of his own side.   He was still a humanist and believed that man would be better off with the right blend of transparently applied reforms he fought for. 

Yes.. The "Left-right" political axis is pretty much orthogonal to the "Statist/Libertarian" axis. The two make up a 4 quadrant system. Not sure the "left/libertarian" quadrant is particularly well represented anywhere though..... The other three are well enough.

Edited June 24 by gehringer_2

[romad1]

Trump kneecapping the housing bill in favor of the SAVE act is really all about helping the PE friends he has who don't like the Housing Bill restricting them from buying up all the housing stock. 

[oblong]

Whenever I hear people try to make distinctions between anti zionism and antisemitism I feel it's dancing dangerously close to "I don't hate black people, I just hate ni*****"

Yeah... maybe... perhaps... but I wouldn't be surprised if the tone changes behind closed doors for many who say that.

 

 

[Motown Bombers]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

well that would have been inapt to say, but I'm not taking anything in a political tweet without context posted by a guy supporting a different candidate as any kind of verified truth either. She's been on the bus with ACA, which was a pretty big deal.

It’s what she allegedly said to Mike Lux in private who happens to be president of a PAC who supports progressive. PAC is good as long as it doesn’t come from Jews but I digress. 

[Motown Bombers]

1 hour ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

This 100%. I know MB likes to tie everything into antisemitism, but it is possible to be critical of Netanyahu and Israeli policy and not be antisemitic. Are there some yahoos out there that are? Sure. But I can promise you that I know plenty of people who are anti-AIPAC and I can absolutely promise you it has nothing to do with having an issue with the Jewish faith. To think so is simplistic and offensive. 

Celebrating Hamas murdering Jews is not criticism of Israel. 

[gehringer_2]

9 minutes ago, oblong said:

Whenever I hear people try to make distinctions between anti zionism and antisemitism I feel it's dancing dangerously close to "I don't hate black people, I just hate ni*****"

Yeah... maybe... perhaps... but I wouldn't be surprised if the tone changes behind closed doors for many who say that.

 

 

heck -  tell me what "Zionism" even means today? It's sure not what it did in Golda Meir's day. A good number of the people I know personally whose support for Israel has faded are people who went there and had their sights adjusted by what they saw on the West Bank. These aren't people who think about Zionism as a construct at all.

[gehringer_2]

25 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Celebrating Hamas murdering Jews is not criticism of Israel. 

OK - to cut to the heart of the matter, the real question here is what constitutes innocence and guilt at the community level? Has an Arab who cheers for his side doing something horrible but otherwise is just sitting in his coffee house fairly put himself under a death sentence from the IDF? That is the core question that everyone ultimately has to wrestle with. The Israeli population was itself radicalized enough by October that it has accepted a 'kill 'em all' stance by its government. Does that mean we should too? I'm not telling you I have an answer, I'm just telling you that you can't dismiss that people are going to disagree on both sides of this stuff and NOBODY is right or has enough moral high ground left to pat themselves on the back. This is all gradations of bad. Sure if you oppose the policy of the Netanyahu government you are going to find yourself in bed with HAMAS - on that issue. That doesn't make you wrong and it doesn't make HAMAS an acceptable organization. And yes, there are people in the Dem party we don't want to agree with because they would just as soon be killers on the other side.

So life is complex. We all need to get used to it.

Edited June 24 by gehringer_2

[Motown Bombers]

5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

OK - to cut to the heart of the matter, the real question here is what constitutes innocence and guilt at the community level? Has an Arab who cheers for his side doing something horrible but otherwise is just sitting in his coffee house fairly put himself under a death sentence from the IDF? That is the core question that everyone ultimately has to wrestle with. The Israeli population was itself radicalized enough by October that it has accepted a 'kill 'em all' stance by its government. Does that mean we should too? I'm not telling you I have an answer, I'm just telling you that you can't dismiss that people are going to disagree on both sides of this stuff and NOBODY is right or has enough moral high ground left to pat themselves on the back. This is all gradations of bad. Sure if you oppose the policy of the Netanyahu government you are going to find yourself in bed with HAMAS - on that issue. That doesn't make you wrong and it doesn't make HAMAS an acceptable organization. And yes, there are people in the Dem party we don't want to agree with.

So life is complex. We all need to get used to it.

They were celebrating Hamas the day it happened before Israel responded and while they had just taken 200 hostages. That is what will be in congress representing Democrats. 

[gehringer_2]

1 minute ago, Motown Bombers said:

They were celebrating Hamas the day it happened before Israel responded and while they had just taken 200 hostages. That is what will be in congress representing Democrats. 

so all that can be done is elect other people who don't go there. That people who do that get elected has to be a wake up call to the people who don't like it to do better. That's all I got.

[Motown Bombers]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

so all that can be done is elect other people who don't go there. That people who do that get elected has to be a wake up call to the people who don't like it to do better. That's all I got.

You could just not try to defend it and call it what is it. You would if it was a Republican. 

[oblong]

Put another way…. Speaking about Oct 7 then someone brings up Gaza or the West Bank is the same as “All lives matter”

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, oblong said:

Put another way…. Speaking about Oct 7 then someone brings up Gaza or the West Bank is the same as “All lives matter”

But that's disingenuous. You can as easily turn the formulation around exactly 180 and say whenever mentions Genocide in Gaza someone brings up Oct 7 and it's the same as all lives matter. Don't all lives matter? Does Israel kill 5 for 1, 10 for 1, 20 for one? When is enough, enough? When is Israel going take responsibility for a generation of policies that help produce and empower the most radical Arabs and try something else?

Just because Hamas is outrageous and blood thirsty doesn't make the people Israel kills neatly any less dead.

They've been at this for my entire life time now and still hate each other.  Evolution of our species apparently fell a step or two short of where it needed to get.