tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2904940198922843174.post386406166707870442..comments2024-01-03T08:31:24.554+00:00Comments on the_last_blog_left: Tories reveal six election themes to contest general election - BBCthe_last_name_lefthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12276770064991215910noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2904940198922843174.post-90255433781608783962010-03-04T23:33:49.582+00:002010-03-04T23:33:49.582+00:00Look, of course we have both taken an interest in ...Look, of course we have both taken an interest in figuring out right woos left. That is to our credit. Unfortunately, as we see with Dees and now the anonymous fool showing up here is that direct dialogue with such people goes nowhere.<br /><br />I'm not saying that there is a leftward movement in the US or your side of the pond. I can actually only speak for my own country, and even then, it's a fairly big, diverse place, hard to make absolute statements.<br /><br />Here, anti-intellectualism and the power of the individual takes precedence. People are not taught how to use critical thinking skills. Most of us can remember on one hand of fingers how many teachers we had who helped us develop as thinkers. <br /><br />I think if the country went left, not fake left like Mugabe in Zimbabwe, but housing, education, health care, jobs for all, and it worked, which I think it would, the country would trend left. <br /> <br />Most people don't know better. They are being prodded into discontent, but they are not given the reasons for feeling that way. So they end up thinking in cut-and-dried, black and white ways. That's how corrupt populists like Huey Long emerged. That's the ultimate danger of where we are politically. It's how Obama got elected. He said all the right things. And even when he didn't, such as with illegal spying on American citizens, few noticed. In hindsight, Hillary would have made the better President. As would have Cuapano over Brown for the Massachusetts Senate seat. Protest voting as a protest in itself is not going to make things better. It could get even worse, if that's where the political trends are headed.Tokyo Shemphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01764134901412321022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2904940198922843174.post-5940489683838906812010-03-02T22:50:01.061+00:002010-03-02T22:50:01.061+00:00I think a dominant factor (theme? - lol) is going ...I think a dominant factor (theme? - lol) is going to be the public's cynicism towards politics.<br /><br />This worries me.<br /><br />Anyone gets up to say anything, it seems, and people just sneer, and blather soundbite criticisms.<br /><br />Yes - great, people aren't prepared to doff their cap, and meekly say "Thank you sir, whatever you say, sir!"<br /><br />But......there doesn't seem anything coherent towards which people are actually moving to: the grounds of my scepticicicicicicsm about the notion the US Dems lost support for being insufficiently "left". Is that what people want? Yes, they're cynical about the status quo.....but that doesn't necessarily mean there's a frustrated leftwards trend. There might be....but I really struggle to believe it. I find it hard to identify.....whereas I see anti-enlightenment stuff all over the place. Creationism, Islam, global warming and holocaust denial, 911 Troof.....<br /><br />Mind you, the scope of my interests (right wing loons atm - lol) kinda shapes my perspective, no doubt. lolthe_last_name_lefthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12276770064991215910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2904940198922843174.post-35926107027673337742010-03-01T21:01:39.365+00:002010-03-01T21:01:39.365+00:00Tony Blair was a real disappointment. Labour final...Tony Blair was a real disappointment. Labour finally won the big office, and unfortunately he was the one elected. Ouch.Tokyo Shemphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01764134901412321022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2904940198922843174.post-58780462502665653112010-03-01T20:58:37.575+00:002010-03-01T20:58:37.575+00:00Our fake news personality Stephen Colbert refers t...Our fake news personality Stephen Colbert refers to this as truthiness.<br /><br />Bill Clinton, for all his negatives, actually was the first President in a long time to balance the budget. He might not have taken care of the poor as much as he could have, but he did set the table for a somewhat stable economy. He was more fiscally conservative than any Republican the last three decades. In other words, talk is cheap. You allude to that with Obama's Hope dogma. <br /><br />The conservatives are always talking trash they can never back up. They have some mystical belief in a trickle down theory, that cutting taxes will result in more jobs, blah, blah, blah.<br /><br />Cutting taxes doesn't mean squat. What the unwashed masses tend not to realise is that an extra couple hundred quid [/European lingo] in their pocket doesn't mean much if a couple hundred thousand or whatever is going to be taken out of the value of their homes. And that's just one aspect of failed Republican economic strategies. <br /><br />By the way, I figured out who Lord Monckton is. He actually appears to be a real titled bloke, unlike the Earl of Stirling. I think he was the Science Advisor for Thatcher. When the AIDS epidemic was starting to emerge, he called for all with it or carrying it to be quarantined. Anyway, I can see how the conspiracy theory freaks appreciate his take on global warming.Tokyo Shemphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01764134901412321022noreply@blogger.com