Yes, I'm still alive, I've just been burnt out on politics and don't really have much to say these days I haven't said many times before. I could rail against Trump, but I find that boring and the equivalent of blogging about how water is wet. And the democrats are as clueless and hardheaded as they always are. They still don't get it, and I don't think they want to get it either.
But what is probably worth writing about is the regret people are getting for voting for Trump. I could say, see I told you so, but once again, it's something that goes without saying. Trump may have made promises to make America great again, but he has no real clue of how to do this and his first few months in office are rocky and uneventful. He couldn't get the ACA repealed because, surprise, healthcare is complicated and just repealing Obamacare would've led to all kinds of harm done. I have to say I'm pleased with that falling through.
What has gotten through though is this bill to expose peoples' internet history to the public. Now, from what I heard it's nowhere near as bad as some are saying, you can't just ask to buy X person's history, you get a bunch of anonymized data that you might be able to piece together if you really try and match with a name, but this is likely going to be difficult. It's concerning nevertheless, but it's not the end of the world from what I've seen. Regardless, a lot of republicans are having regret voting for Trump. Some people are a certain kind of special and love their ACA but hate their Obamacare, and others feel taken advantage of by having the republicans pass this bill that threatens their internet privacy.
Once again, I could say see I told you so, but it's too easy. Anyway, at this point, you shouldn't be surprised. After all, the republicans don't care about you, they don't even care about their principles. They care about the interests if the donor class. They were never gonna make America great again, that was just what they said to sell their ideas that serve the donor class to you. And because your alternative was Hillary Clinton, who also is corrupt and hypocritical, you actually believed Trump and gave him support. Way to go.
This is why I didn't go for Trump. I might have my grievances with the democrats being corrupt hypocritical scumbags, but you wanna know who the real master of being a corrupt, hypocritical scumbag is? The republican party.
If you're a republican, if you're a conservative....just support the democrats and their policies at this point. Just support people like Hillary, please. Hillary and the democrats these days are basically conservatives with brains. Sometimes that "pragmatic" crap they sell comes in handy, because their views are way more pragmatic and doable in practice than the republicans' ideas ever are. It turns out, hey, Obamacare is good for something if you're not a single payer pushing progressive like myself. It actually does do a lot of good. And it is better than literally nothing. Wanna know why that is? It was a republican plan in the first place! Obamacare is what happens when right wingers apply themselves to actually fix the problems we have. It isn't the best plan in the world, and it isn't in line with my philosophical outlook on the world, but hey, at least it's something, right? And it turns out repealing it is actually a bad idea that could do all kinds of screwed up things and hurt people. I guess politics is more complicated than abstract promises to reduce the size of government. Also, the democrats didn't want to sell your personal browsing history to corporations, so how about that?
With democrats, you basically get pro free market, "small government", American civil religion supporting incremental change. You get people trying to solve problems, without really trying to do much to fix them. As a former conservative, let me just say that even if I still had conservative principles, I would still find the democratic party to be a much more attractive option than the republican party. The republican party is run by thieving rich people and lunatics. The democratic party is run by more moderate and rational thieving rich people and policy wonks who push what used to be conservative policies but are rebranded as liberal because the republican party has gone so insane that it doesn't have a semblance of good policy any more.
So...that's what I'm encouraging. I'm encouraging the republicans to start starting more like the democrats, and then we liberals, we can move left, get actual progressive ideas in politics to counter the more moderate right wing plans pushed by the current democrats, and we are all happy. Except for the lunatics on the right who can't be trusted with a city council position, let alone high ranking positions in the federal government.
Maybe if republicans start sounding more like democrats and the democrats move to the left we can actually get crap done again. We will actually get some decent leadership and be able to debate issues like adults, and not have to deal with the travesty of people like Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan running things. I may have disagreements with the modern democratic party, but I still find their views at least substantive and worth discussing. They're not as far left as I would support, but sometimes you need a more right wing conservative party with more moderate ideas to rein in the excesses of the left and stop them from going full on communist or something. The modern republican party? No. They don't do anything good for anyone. Except maybe killing the TPP. Everything else has been a travesty so far.
