The 2022/2024 Narratives

03 November 2021, 04:10 PM

So what do the Dems do to prepare for the midterms and the next presidential election?

We need to send them our suggestions...here are a few I came up with...

1) The Great Dealmaker didn't seem to make Great Deals.

quote:
Records show Trump’s border wall is costing taxpayers billions more than initial contracts

As the presidential election nears, a review of federal spending data found modifications to contracts have increased the price of the border wall by billions, costing about five times more per mile than it did under previous administrations.

https://www.texastribune.org/2...s-cost-rising-trump/

2) "Selective budget hawks". I like that one:

quote:
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott won’t budge from his belief in tax cuts passed under the previous presidential administration before he got to the Senate.

“First off, I’m not going to raise anybody’s taxes,” Scott said when asked about repealing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a sweeping corporate tax relief measure passed while Donald Trump was President and as deficits surged.

Scott said he wanted to “lower taxes,” condemning a “staggering” amount of waste in the federal government.

Those comments on Fox News Sunday came moments after he defended his vote against federal infrastructure spending he said was not “real infrastructure” and “was not paid for.” The package includes $13.1 billion of repairs for 3,564 miles of bad Florida roadway, rural broadband expansion, and electric vehicle charging stations.

Even when host Chris Wallace noted that the tax cuts would, per the Congressional Budget Office, add $2 trillion to the debt, Scott was unmoved.

Scott noted he cut taxes and fees as Governor, dodging the question entirely for well-worn anecdote, and urging line-item vetoes, a prerogative President Joe Biden doesn’t enjoy, of budget excesses.

Wallace asked the Senator the same question again: “When Donald Trump was President, you had the tax cut, which added $2 trillion to the deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And you didn’t have the commensurate spending cuts. So, the question is, if you’re not going to have the spending cuts, should you repeal the tax cuts — if the debt and deficit are so vital?”

“I am not raising anybody’s taxes, I want lower taxes,” Scott responded. “I want to watch how we spend our money. I’ve been in the Senate for two years and nine months. The waste is staggering. Americans should be furious with the way money is spent in the Senate and in Congress.”

The Biden administration has invoked Republicans backing the tax cuts in the Trump administration as exemplifying the selective nature of the GOP’s budget hawk stance.

https://floridapolitics.com/ar...ts-to-stay-in-place/

Got any to add??

03 November 2021, 05:32 PM

rontuner

Logic doesn't matter.

Don't expect consistent actions from Republicans - comparing their past choices on something they want vs something that they don't want can induce mental whiplash.

Messaging matters. Dems still haven't learned this one.

That should be a start...

03 November 2021, 08:37 PM

Nina

I am incredibly disappointed in the Dems. Not enough to make me turn into a Republican (or at least, the current version of a Republican), but they appear to be following their same pattern of the circular firing squad. I'm annoyed at Manchin, at Sinema, and at the cadre of 'progressives' who are willing to take nothing rather than something. I had hoped for more from Biden, though what specifically I can't say. I agree with his first moves, but he's been bogged down for a good six months. I had hoped for someone who could take some of these people to the woodshed, so to speak, and get them to fall in line. The fact that he's been unsuccessful is truly scary when you consider the alternative.

And that's coming from me, who pretty much despises the current GOP as it's being reframed by the existing members. I think we're doomed. I'm pretty depressed, actually.

03 November 2021, 10:08 PM

markj

quote:
Originally posted by Nina:
I think we're doomed. I'm pretty depressed, actually.

I hear the exact same thing from the right.

The powers that be, want us divided like this. It makes it easy for them to do what they want vs. what the people need.

03 November 2021, 10:32 PM

pianojuggler

quote:
Originally posted by markj:
quote:
Originally posted by Nina:
I think we're doomed. I'm pretty depressed, actually.

I hear the exact same thing from the right.

The powers that be, want us divided like this. It makes it easy for them to do what they want vs. what the people need.

Those powers are not necessarily in the US. There are other countries that want to weaken the US and Europe. Putting us in a jar and shaking it to watch us fight is much cheaper and easier than dropping a few nukes.

It’s working.

03 November 2021, 10:57 PM

Amanda

quote:
Originally posted by markj:
quote:
Originally posted by Nina:
I think we're doomed. I'm pretty depressed, actually.

I hear the exact same thing from the right.

The powers that be, want us divided like this. It makes it easy for them to do what they want vs. what the people need.

Who do you think are "the powers that be?"

03 November 2021, 11:11 PM

Amanda

quote:
Originally posted by pianojuggler:
quote:
Originally posted by Nina:
I think we're doomed. I'm pretty depressed, actually.

Those powers are not necessarily in the US. There are other countries that want to weaken the US and Europe. Putting us in a jar and shaking it to watch us fight is much cheaper and easier than dropping a few nukes.

It’s working.

It became most evident with the first Trump election, when the expert Russian bots and bot-makers perfected the art of programming all the anti-infra-American propaganda (so fine-tuned it was even capable of targeting by individuals).

All infinitely helped by Mark Zuckerberg (under the pretext of protecting free-speech) raking in the profits - innocent blue eyes wide open - and somehow never noticing when they were being paid in rubles.

04 November 2021, 12:27 PM

markj

quote:
Originally posted by pianojuggler:
quote:
Originally posted by markj:
quote:
Originally posted by Nina:
I think we're doomed. I'm pretty depressed, actually.

I hear the exact same thing from the right.

The powers that be, want us divided like this. It makes it easy for them to do what they want vs. what the people need.
Those powers are not necessarily in the US. There are other countries that want to weaken the US and Europe. Putting us in a jar and shaking it to watch us fight is much cheaper and easier than dropping a few nukes.

It’s working.

This. Divide and Conquer.

08 November 2021, 08:00 AM

Mikhailoh

Exactly. They have us pointing at each other and shouting 'ENEMY!'. The truth is none of us, save the very fringes, are all that far apart in what we want.

08 November 2021, 09:07 AM

wtg

quote:
Originally posted by markj:
quote:
Originally posted by pianojuggler:
quote:
Originally posted by markj:
quote:
Originally posted by Nina:
I think we're doomed. I'm pretty depressed, actually.

I hear the exact same thing from the right.

The powers that be, want us divided like this. It makes it easy for them to do what they want vs. what the people need.
Those powers are not necessarily in the US. There are other countries that want to weaken the US and Europe. Putting us in a jar and shaking it to watch us fight is much cheaper and easier than dropping a few nukes.

It’s working.

This. Divide and Conquer.

We are *all* participants in this.

Country borders are a construct of our imaginations. A "country" is just another tribe. Pointing to other countries as being to blame is just another version of crying 'ENEMY!'

Individual humans have banded together in groups to achieve their desired common goals since time immemorial. The easiest way to amass support is to accuse the other tribe of taking something we value away from us, or preventing us from getting it in the first place. It stirs up emotions and gets people to act.

We are interacting with people from all over the world on a daily basis, either through direct contact because we can travel just about anywhere, or via the magic of the internet. It also means we are much more likely to bump into people whose goals run counter to ours.

We have to keep trying to find the things that unite us, but we're fighting our inherent human nature.

It's gonna be a long slog.