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Liberal/Conservative Divide Only Grows Uglier
It would be easy for me to dismiss Obama supporters as mentally defective but for one inconvenient fact: my mother, sharp as a tack at 92, is voting for him. And so is my sister, a San Francisco attorney who is no slouch in the brains department. I’m not sure where my brother, a municipal employee, stands, but neither am I eager to find out. There is no bridging the political gap between us, and so we simply avoid discussing politics. The same goes for old friends, although newer ones are another matter. One of them walked out on our dinner together in a huff when an innocuous remark I’d made about Abe Lincoln evidently bruised his self-righteously liberal, morally perfect heart . Good riddance. It is far better friends than he that I am worried about. Will they draw the line when I let slip my support for the right to bear arms, even concealed? A few of my wife’s closest friends are unmitigated liberals, and it’s unclear how much longer we’ll be able to tiptoe around the political rough edges when we get together socially.
The truce with my siblings and mother has held, but not without strain. When the latter referred to the eminently decent Mitt Romney as “a jerk,” I returned fire with an over-the-top fusillade of anti-Obama invective. That was a month ago, and we haven’t talked about the election since. Nor do I plan to rub it in after Romney wins on Tuesday — an outcome I believe is inevitable because the nation has been wallowing for nearly five years in an officially undeclared, if not to say brazenly-lied-about, state of recession. Romney voters will have to stifle the hubris, though, since there is no way he will be able to reverse the country’s inexorable slide into economic darkness. To be fair, I should state that Obama is no more culpable for the abysmal state of the economy than Bill Clinton was praiseworthy for its resurgence during his presidency. He got lucky, is all, while Obama inherited a disaster two generations in the making. Economic cycles are far bigger than the presidency, and this one is going to take its ruinous course no matter who is in the White House.
Dating Game’s Top ‘No-No’
In the meantime, the political gap between liberals and conservatives can only continue to widen. And to grow uglier. This unfortunate trend was underscored by a recent Wall Street Journal story that focused on dating services. It seems the matchmaking business has declined in recent years because clients seeking mates are increasingly putting political compatibility at the top of their lists. “In this neck-and-neck, ideologically fraught election season, politically active singles won’t cross party lines,” the Journal noted. “The result is a dating desert populated by reds and blues who refuse to make purple.” So much for romance these days. Time was when smoking, drinking, religion, education level and physical attractiveness were the main concerns of men and women looking for love; now, apparently, a date-seeker’s political views trumps them all.
Until a crisis equal to the Great Depression arrives, liberals and conservatives are unlikely to bury the hatchet. For voters on either side of the divide, the stakes in this election will not seem to have been exaggerated; for they involve nothing less than a fight for the nation’s economic well-being – nay, for its very soul. Over the next four years, and probably long thereafter, moral and financial jeopardy will confront each of us in ways that seem likely to widen political divisions. Putting aside the wild card of Iran, one of the most difficult issues we face will entail putting public employees’ pension and health care benefits on a sound financial basis. The unions will claim, correctly, that there is no legal precedent for denying workers benefits that were promised them when they were hired. Their employers will claim, also correctly, that the money simply isn’t there. But anyone who thinks the Federal Government will be able to “solve” this problem simply by printing money is in for a rude awakening.
The financial liability is in fact so large that attempting to monetize it would be tantamount to hyperinflating. If, say, the Government were to offer lump-sum settlements averaging $150,000, the money could conceivably be worthless on delivery, since the actual disbursement of digital cash would be taken as a sign by the rest of us that Uncle Sam was on the hook for everyone’s financial needs. If the Government were instead to assume responsibility for years of scheduled payments in “real” dollars, taxpayers would eventually riot in the streets. No matter how you work the numbers, there is no easy way out, at least not using monetary shenanigans. The very clear implication is that the “solution” will come in the form of a dramatically lowered standard of living for most Americans.
Pensions Too Big to Bail Out
What is the dollar amount of the unfunded liability? Many hundreds of trillions of dollars, according to some published estimates. Consider that a bankrupt Flint, Michigan, under the direction of a conservator, has cut its budget to the bone to effect annual savings of around $10 million. But the long-term structural shortfall imposed by Flint’s retirement promises is on the order of $600 million dollars over the next 25 years. Of course, Detroit’s long-term problems are orders of magnitude larger, and New York City’s vastly larger still — too big, in the aggregate, for even the U.S. Government to fix. Or rather, pretend to fix, since that’s all that the would-be fixers have been doing all along. Yes, the bailout has been a fraud – a con-game made easier by the fact that most of the bailout “money” has gone to sustain the illusion that the assets of our biggest banks net out to a positive number. But there can be no such shell game when it comes time to send out pension and healthcare checks after the coffers of states and cities have gone empty. Paying for the lives of retired workers will require coughing up real dollars each and every month, not virtual ones such as are posted as “reserves” by the banks. And that’s why it will be impossible for the Federal Government to pretend, as it has with the banks, that the bailout is other than a charade.
Under the circumstances, hostility can only grow between liberals and conservatives, haves and have-nots, public and private workers, taxpayers and recipients. We wish Mr. Romney luck, but he’ll have his hands full merely trying to keep blood from running in the streets, never mind returning America to prosperity.
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I sure hopes this happens then we can get back to the government we should have
Wait a minute...
Are you guys saying that jackasses and elephants really don't shit rainbow colored skittles?
I find this news deeply disturbing.
Yep, not skittles, they actually shit ordnance aimed at "terrorists".
Wow Divide and Conquor seems to be working perfect at ZH tonight!
Heads/Tails: we lose.
Barack The Asshole ran for Potus, telling us idiots he would end the wars, close Shitmo, stop all torture,spend responsibly, and be Presidential.
This MOTHERFUCKER lied to me and all the other chumps, through his fucking teeth.
This Piece of SHIT has further eroded my civil liberties; he is a bitch to the banking industry; he is a bitch to the special interest groups; and he has no business running for re-election.
And the entire media industry, except for one organization, allows this bullshitter and his handlers to LIE to each and every one of us with no repurcussion.
Cancel all subscriptions-sheep!
I'd like to wipe my ass with his fucking afro.
Now....... Let's see what Romney's got!!!
I'll get back to you.
I can sure feel the loooove
Did you vote for Obama?
Current statistical breakdown of americans:
-----
01% - awake predators
06% - clueless predators (government/corporate thugs)
03% - awake producers in big trouble who mostly know the score
90% - clueless, braindead sheeple (mix of producers and parasites)
The voting isn't very idiological any more. Most people automatically vote for government (because they work for government), or for freebees like foodstamps, healthcare and welfare (figuring there's no downside), or because they're simply authoritarians (conservatives).
I have a different viewpoint:
99% - hardcore meatpuppets
1% - trying not to be meatpuppets
Mother Nature is a control freak, we wouldn't be here if that were not so.
However, it's time to move on.
If you imagine human beings WILL be here for another thousand (or maybe even hundred) years while being as insane, stupid, corrupt and dishonest as they currently are, then you are very wrong.
Human beings shall vanish from the universe if they keep up the current insanity much longer. And good riddens.
It's the Welfare & Warfare modern form of enslavement by KronyKomradeKapitalism.
This isn't what "guns or butter" used to mean.
Rick Hackerman, people like you, whether on the left or right side of the Kool Aid aisle, are the useful idiots who keep the false left-right paradigm atwitter.
Bring it on, BABIEZ!
- Ned
I can't vote for the lesser of two evils
You are being tricked into voting for evil.
I plan to WRITE IN RON PAUL
That's exactly what I plan to do. I say to those who complain that my vote is a vote for Obama, "That's your fault, not mine!"
Your vote wont even be counted in most states -I love Paul-but I will vote for gary Johnson -its important that he get 5% so the Libertartian candiate can get federal matching funds in 2016.
A vote for a libertarian is a vote for Obummer right now....
federal funds for a libertarian? how ironic.
just proves most libertarians are not really libertarians
not counting them is just fine, it beats voting for evil.
In his book Complicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age, Christopher Kutz suggests that marginally effective participants in a collective harm are accountable for the victim's suffering, "not because of the individual differences they make, but because their intentional participation in a collective endeavour directly links them to the consequences of that endeavour."
Well said ... and well repeated
The eminently decent Mitt Romney?
Wow and Wow.
Would you rub in Tuesday's would be victory by addressing him as His Decent Eminence?
You're lucky your guest didn't puke on your floor.
He's about as decent as the turd my dog just dropped in the back yard a few minutes ago. If you like turd sandwiches, youll love Romney. Gary Johnson is the choice of those who are not brain dead this year.
gary johnson's nonexistent campaign is in debt.
it was stupid for johnson, as an unknown, to wait until right before the election to try and mount a 3rd party movement. he should have thought ahead, and started a long time ago.
to me, throwing away your vote is brain dead.
The fact that the guy refers to Romney as "decent" shows that this article isn't worth reading.
The OP doesn't know what he is talkng about--there are only a few liberals left and conservatives are almost non-existent. Historically how many liberals have there been whose top priority was to keep banksters rich? Historically how many conservatives believed in running massive deficits? Up until Reagan no one who called himself a conservative believed in mortgaging the next generation. Instead almost all politicians today believe in crony capitalism.
I don't know that conservatives or liberals believe in massive debt. I don't think it is as much a product of careful planning as it is a by product of a system which only gets people elected if they promise people stuff. So conservatives and liberals alike continue to deficit spend because it's easier than telling people they will have to do without.
Crony capitalism is a byproduct of dismanteling constitutional protections for the individual. Once you decide it's OK to vote to take other people's money and do whatever you like with it, it is only a matter of time before power concentrates around those who are most successful in convincing poiticians that it is in the publics best interests to give them voters money.
What a lackluster post.
Guess what moron? Those who know there is real value in their labor, do not fear a collapse.
This author stinks of fear.
So when it comes time for the "genius's of genuinely valuable labor" to sell their labor it will be within a seriously depressed and eventually
collapsing economy. Your shit is going to stink too, Superman. A rising tide lifts all boats? True. But a sinking tide lowers all boats also.
Try not to be such a coward. Your life might actually get a bit better.
"Law of Physics" ... what you stated is the truth at 100%. I'm guessing that when the Government collapses (when the currency - fiat / tanks), fewer then 75%-85% of these Government parasites are worth employing in the Private sector. It is likely that they will "starve". There is little doubt in my mind that these "leaches" will try to reinstate their "authority". Good luck with that!
Weird blog post. Those still fixated on the false liberal / conservative divide are missing the picture. Ackerman sees the picture but still chooses to frame the discussion in terms of political right and left. Kinda asinine if you ask me.
Hey the guys gotta make his money somewhere, shrilling for romney on ZH pays the bills i guess.
Makes you think he never read the site before posting his reacharound for romney.
But his conclusion is the most important ... 100+ trillion unfunded liabilities. The gov has to either print into a hyperinflationary holocaust or default on payments and descend into a Mad Max world.
Anyone else with a good answer?
Yep. His mother and sister, not to mention his brother, wouldn't put up with his babbling either.
Correct. There is only one party for the banks and financial houses by the banks and financial houses
Fuck the motherfucking paper-pushers.
Shit, what we need is a second party.
"Shit, what we need is a second party."
We already do, and more, but since money buys public office in our totally corrupted system, without billions to spend, most of the sheeple will never even hear of them.
Removed
Started with a better idea and it gave life. http://scriptureinsights.com/Divide.html
Why is never easy see.
so this is all Jesus' fault! Jesus caused the Great Divide. I am so glad they crucified him before he could do more harm!
It's pretty simple. If you are a decent white person, Michelle and Barry will murder you in your sleep, if they can.
Mittens might try to marry a couple of your daughters.
The perfect is the enemy of the good, (or at least survivable).
The election is theatre. It gives the corporate media a steady topic so they don't have to do any real journalism.
US officials are owned by corporate elites and the pentagon. It is socialism for the rich in the manner of subsidies, free technologies invented by the defense department, paid for by taxpayers and turned over freely to private enterprise.
The masses are nothing more than labor slaves doing the bidding of the elites.
Eventually the rich will squeeze too many too hard. Then they will find out what the slaves have...numbers.
If you want to vote, vote third party...any third party. That will be a protest vote.
I think it works better than a stimulus ... 2 billion for bread spent and provided at least a year of circuses ... sheeple are content
Obviously, lots of sheeple, including the author and many commenters, continue to watch reruns of the Elephant 'n Jackass puppet show, insanely expecting different results.
Understand that the political spectrum is from 100% or totalitarian gubmint to 0% gubmint or anarchy. The elephant/jackass sock puppets are on the far/extreme left totalitarian end of the political spectrum. This ruling party is effectively a political oligarchy (rule by the elite few), the most common form of government throughout history, and today. Nobody is on the right, advocating anarchy. The Libertarian and Constitution Parties are pulling toward the center, or government limited to protecting individual rights from the force, fraud and injury by others, but are blacked out and ridiculed by the cheerleading puppets in the corporate media cartel, as they repeat the mantra that "If you don't vote for the elephant/jackass the jackass/elephant will win."
Understand that the free enterprise capitalist economic system only operates under a republican form of government. The fascist, socialist and communist capitalist economic systems, under which the state has various degrees of the four elements of control (title, possession, use & disposition) of the capital, all operate under a political oligarchy.
OBAMNEY won't change anything, since their political oligarchy and crony capitalist economic system depend on maintaining the welfare/warfare-state status quo. Any vote for these establishment sock puppets is a wasted, sucker's vote.
For this reason, we may as well vote for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, who advocates that we shed the Fed, abolish the IRS, end our perpetual wars, balance the budget and shut down the surveillance police state...for starters! If in doubt, go to FreeAndEqual.com to watch their first third party debate and find out where to watch the runoff debate next Monday November 5.
"A truly democratic society has never existed and so far as we can see, never will exist. Society is of its nature oligarchical, and the power of the oligarchy always rests upon force and fraud. James Burnham does not deny that ‘good’ motives may operate in private life, but he maintains that politics consists of the struggle for power, and nothing else. All historical changes finally boil down to the replacement of one ruling class by another. All talk about democracy, liberty, equality, fraternity, all revolutionary movements, all visions of Utopia, or ‘the classless society’, or ‘the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth’, are humbug (not necessarily conscious humbug) covering the ambitions of some new class which is elbowing its way into power. The English Puritans, the Jacobins, the Bolsheviks, were in each case simply power seekers using the hopes of the masses in order to win a privileged position for themselves. Power can sometimes be won or maintained without violence, but never without fraud, because it is necessary to make use of the masses, and the masses would not co-operate if they knew that they were simply serving the purposes of a minority. In each great revolutionary struggle the masses are led on by vague dreams of human brotherhood, and then, when the new ruling class is well established in power, they are thrust back into servitude. This is practically the whole of political history, as Burnham sees it."
-- Description of the beliefs of James Burnham (1905–1987), American philosopher, political theorist, and author of the book "The Machiavellians"
I approach the acrimony in a totally different manner.
As an unabashed supporter of folks who hold ideals of the ilk of Ron Paul and in the UK where I came of age, Nigel Farage, I refuse to become entwined in any political debate, derision or consideration preferring to suggest to both sides that while they may be fine individuals, they are seemingly deeply flawed displaying judgements best described as hypocritical and in cognitive denial when dealing with the "landed parties"
I note that I choose to spend what little time I have on this earth with people who I consider of good character, without regard to trivialities such as political preferences, which I find distasteful given the state of the world and complicity of said parties in its arrival.
I further suggest that subsequent to politically charged discussions, which I find a terrible waste of time, the need to wash my hands..
Next topic?
"I note that I choose to spend what little time I have on this earth with people who I consider of good character, without regard to trivialities such as political preferences."
Those liberal golf buddies of yours? This Tuesday they'll be voting themselves even more of your money. With friends like that...
One can't simultaneously be politically affiliated AND of good character, this is a mutual exclusion condition. Letting people get away with crimes only encourages criminal behavior, that is what we do when we don't censure these dangerous idiots.
Voting makes every (taking) man the enemy of every (producing) man (and taking man too, less competition for handouts!).
I find most of my friends barely know what is going on and as such it is pointless to try to have a productive discussion with them if it has to start with me explaining the story and the facts behind it. If a friend throws out something like "the !% need to pay their fare share" it's not going to end well if I have to first explain what the top tax bracket is, how capital gains on corporate dividends is double taxation, what percentage of the total tax burden is paid by the top 1%, how income disparity is more a result of monitary policy than tax policy, how S-corporations work, why our company would have to lay off people if the top individual rate gets rasied, how consumers end up paying the tax in the end anyway so they are advocating raising their indirect taxes, etc, etc.
its only the facade that hides that other divide : 99.9% vs the 0.1%; the latter now left to survive on their own; while the other segment lives on Necker Island. This election is not in the image of the social fabric's reality, its a mirage.
Ignore the enemies and parasites among us?