A thread for Democrats Only
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
VIEWED: 755368
PAGE 685 of 725
If someone at your Thanksgiving table wants an administration that will ban abortions
and cut rich people’s taxes, it absolutely is true that Trump wants to do those
things and Biden doesn’t. But if the big concern you’re hearing from your more
conservative family members is that radical leftists want to curb American energy
production without regard to the economic consequences, that doesn’t reflect the
actual existing policy stakes.
So for those of you sitting down this Thanksgiving with moderately conservative
relatives who are not professional Republicans, but who do get most of their
information from right-leaning sources, here are a few points about America in 2023
that they might actually be open to hearing.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/17-points-to-raise-with-center-right?utm_
source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share
1. The United States has had the strongest inflation-adjusted recovery from the pandemic
of any major global economy and has the lowest inflation rate in the G7 this year.
Since the pandemic, wages have risen faster than prices.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/7-reasons-the-u-s-economy-is-
among-the-strongest-in-the-g7/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20the%20U.S.%20economy,are%20still%20performing%20below%20trend.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1374823/inflation-g7-forecast/
https://x.com/JustinWolfers/status/1724440766255145354?s=20
2. The price of a Thanksgiving dinner is lower this fall than it was in 2022.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/15/thanksgiving-dinner-turkey-is-cheaper-
this-year.html
3. American crude oil and natural gas production are both at all time highs,
as are American energy exports.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-natgas-output-demand-hit-re
cord-highs-2023-eia-2023-10-11/#:~:text=EIA%20projected%20dry%20gas%20production,to%2088.38%20bcfd%20in%202024.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-natgas-output-demand-hit-re
cord-highs-2023-eia-2023-10-11/#:~:text=EIA%20projected%20dry%20gas%20production,to%2088.38%20bcfd%20in%202024.
4. After a huge increase during Donald Trump’s administration,
murder has fallen since Biden’s inauguration.
We are on track to have about 15 percent fewer murders this year than
during the final year of the Trump administration.
https://www.ahdatalytics.com/dashboards/ytd-murder-comparison/
5. The Trump administration proposed cuts to state and local law enforcement in
every budget submission, while the Biden administration has invested in local law
enforcement.
https://pascrell.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4444
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/0
9/fact-sheet-president-bidens-budget-makes-our-communities-safer-and-combats-crime/
6. The budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2023 is $1.4 trillion lower than it was
in Fiscal Year 2020.
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-defici
t/#:~:text=In%20FY%202023%2C%20the%20federal,referred%20to%20as%20deficit%20spending.
https://www.gao.gov/blog/larger-federal-deficits-higher-interests-rate
s-point-need-urgent-action#:~:text=At%20%242.8%20trillion%2C%20the%20FY,2020%20deficit%20of%20%243.1%20trillion.
7. Donald Trump ran and won in 2016 promising to have Medicare negotiate
the price of prescription drugs with pharmaceutical companies,
only to flip-flip and abandon this in office.
Democrats passed a law to do this, and it’s now actually happening.
https://ashpublications.org/ashclinicalnews/news/4842/Trump-Backs-Off-
Medicare-Drug-Price-Negotiations
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-administration-names-10-prescrip
tion-drugs-medicare-price/story?id=102643930#:~:text=%22Today%20is%20the%20start%20of,said%20at%20the%20White%20House.&text=The%20Biden%20administration%20on%20Tuesday,lower%20rising%20health%20care%20costs.
8. Beyond price negotiation and its well-known climate provisions,
the Inflation Reduction Act also finally closes the “donut hole” on
Medicare pharmaceutical coverage.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I don't share Thanksgiving day with cunts that talk politics.
Everybody hates you already, Second. If you actually are invited anywhere tonight, don't be that guy.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:In the real world, I never talk politics or religion because I am a Democrat who is surrounded by Republicans and I am an atheist surrounded by Christians. But I do listen to other people's beliefs and correlate that with what happens to them. The faux Christians thank me for my "Christian" virtues and tell me I am blessed by God. Meanwhile, God (or the Devil) is testing the faux Christians' faith by sending them wave after wave of troubles. I never correct them by truthfully telling them trouble follows them because they don't act in any way like authentic Christians. I know how real Christians act because there are some in the family. Their lives run very smoothly, lacking the drama of the faux Christians who don't know how to behave. The funny thing is the real Christians detest Trump and faux Christians love him.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I don't share Thanksgiving day with cunts that talk politics.
Everybody hates you already, Second. If you actually are invited anywhere tonight, don't be that guy.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
You should just stay at home, you miserable piece of shit.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Why America Abandoned the Greatest Economy in History
Was the country’s turn toward free-market fundamentalism driven by race, class, or something else? Yes.
By Rogé Karma | November 25, 2023, 6:30 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/new-deal-us-economy-
american-dream/676051/
If there is one statistic that best captures the transformation of the American economy over the past half century, it may be this: Of Americans born in 1940, 92 percent went on to earn more than their parents; among those born in 1980, just 50 percent did. Over the course of a few decades, the chances of achieving the American dream went from a near-guarantee to a coin flip.
What happened?
One answer is that American voters abandoned the system that worked for their grandparents. From the 1940s through the ’70s, sometimes called the New Deal era, U.S. law and policy were engineered to ensure strong unions, high taxes on the rich, huge public investments, and an expanding social safety net. Inequality shrank as the economy boomed. But by the end of that period, the economy was faltering, and voters turned against the postwar consensus. Ronald Reagan took office promising to restore growth by paring back government, slashing taxes on the rich and corporations, and gutting business regulations and antitrust enforcement. The idea, famously, was that a rising tide would lift all boats. Instead, inequality soared while living standards stagnated and life expectancy fell behind that of peer countries. No other advanced economy pivoted quite as sharply to free-market economics as the United States, and none experienced as sharp a reversal in income, mobility, and public-health trends as America did. Today, a child born in Norway or the United Kingdom has a far better chance of outearning their parents than one born in the U.S.
This story has been extensively documented. But a nagging puzzle remains. Why did America abandon the New Deal so decisively? And why did so many voters and politicians embrace the free-market consensus that replaced it?
Since 2016, policy makers, scholars, and journalists have been scrambling to answer those questions as they seek to make sense of the rise of Donald Trump — who declared, in 2015, “The American dream is dead” — and the seething discontent in American life. Three main theories have emerged, each with its own account of how we got here and what it might take to change course. One theory holds that the story is fundamentally about the white backlash to civil-rights legislation. Another pins more blame on the Democratic Party’s cultural elitism. And the third focuses on the role of global crises beyond any political party’s control. Each theory is incomplete on its own. Taken together, they go a long way toward making sense of the political and economic uncertainty we’re living through.
“The American landscape was once graced with resplendent public swimming pools, some big enough to hold thousands of swimmers at a time,” writes Heather McGee, the former president of the think tank Demos, in her 2021 book, The Sum of Us. In many places, however, the pools were also whites-only. Then came desegregation. Rather than open up the pools to their Black neighbors, white communities decided to simply close them for everyone. For McGhee, that is a microcosm of the changes to America’s political economy over the past half century: White Americans were willing to make their own lives materially worse rather than share public goods with Black Americans.
From the 1930s until the late ’60s, Democrats dominated national politics. They used their power to pass sweeping progressive legislation that transformed the American economy. But their coalition, which included southern Dixiecrats as well as northern liberals, fractured after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy” exploited that rift and changed the electoral map. Since then, no Democratic presidential candidate has won a majority of
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
GOP Senators wish to keep Federal judgeships vacant until 2025 to cause malfunctions in the Federal Court System. There are only 890 Federal judges, which is not enough for 50 states. 2,500 judges (50 per state) are needed, but Congress won't pay for them.
https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies
https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/current-
judicial-vacancies
GOP Melts Down As Dick Durbin Uses Its Tactics For Advancing Biden Judges
"It's called precedent," the Senate Judiciary Committee chair said of violating the same rule that Republicans ignored to move forward with judicial nominees.
By Jennifer Bendery | Nov 30, 2023, 09:18 PM EST
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dick-durbin-judiciary-committee-biden-j
udges_n_6568fef4e4b066e398b6fb64
Durbin was giving Republicans a taste of their own medicine.
“The two preceding chairs of this committee violated the letter and spirit of Committee Rule IV,” he said, referring to a committee rule that requires at least one member of the minority to vote with the majority to end debate on a matter before moving to vote on it.
Durbin said one former chair, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), violated this rule with a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, and Graham was chair when he broke the rule to advance a partisan immigration bill without Democratic input.
“In doing so, Republicans established a new precedent that I followed on one occasion last Congress and will follow again today,” said the Illinois Democrat. “I’ve said time and again there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and a different set for Democrats.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) suggested it was petty for Durbin to break rules just because previous chairmen did it, too.
“So Mr. Chairman, you’re saying because you think Sen. Grassley violated the rule, you’re going to violate the rule?” he asked.
“It’s called precedent, senator,” replied Durbin.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
GOP Senators wish to keep Federal judgeships vacant until 2025 to cause malfunctions in the Federal Court System. There are only 890 Federal judges, which is not enough for 50 states. 2,500 judges (50 per state) are needed, but Congress won't pay for them.
https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies
https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/current-
judicial-vacancies
GOP Melts Down As Dick Durbin Uses Its Tactics For Advancing Biden Judges
"It's called precedent," the Senate Judiciary Committee chair said of violating the same rule that Republicans ignored to move forward with judicial nominees.
By Jennifer Bendery | Nov 30, 2023, 09:18 PM EST
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dick-durbin-judiciary-committee-biden-j
udges_n_6568fef4e4b066e398b6fb64
Durbin was giving Republicans a taste of their own medicine.
“The two preceding chairs of this committee violated the letter and spirit of Committee Rule IV,” he said, referring to a committee rule that requires at least one member of the minority to vote with the majority to end debate on a matter before moving to vote on it.
Durbin said one former chair, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), violated this rule with a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, and Graham was chair when he broke the rule to advance a partisan immigration bill without Democratic input.
“In doing so, Republicans established a new precedent that I followed on one occasion last Congress and will follow again today,” said the Illinois Democrat. “I’ve said time and again there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and a different set for Democrats.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) suggested it was petty for Durbin to break rules just because previous chairmen did it, too.
“So Mr. Chairman, you’re saying because you think Sen. Grassley violated the rule, you’re going to violate the rule?” he asked.
“It’s called precedent, senator,” replied Durbin.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Oh. We're going to pretend that this never happened before Kavanaugh was on SCOTUS and this was the first time this rule was violated by Democrats now, huh?
OK
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
America’s White Evangelical Problem
Sarah Jones reviews the book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory | Dec 6. 2023
When the journalist Tim Alberta’s father unexpectedly died, another ordeal awaited Tim. His father had pastored the Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian church in Michigan, where the Alberta family now gathered to honor his life alongside the congregation the father had nurtured.
In his eulogy, Alberta urged the Christians before him to seek out “discipleship and spiritual formation.” They could listen to his father’s old sermons, perhaps, or the pastors of the church could help them. “Why are you listening to Rush Limbaugh?” he asked them. “Garbage in, garbage out.” Hours later, a woman handed him a note from a church elder. In it, the elder expressed his disappointment. “I was part of an evil plot,” Alberta recalls, “to undermine God’s ordained leader of the United States.” He was guilty of something “tantamount to treason” against both God and country. If he investigated “the deep state” instead, he “would be restored.”
How did his father’s congregation get to this point? In Alberta’s new book, he tries to answer that very question. His journey spans the United States, taking him from Cornerstone to the sprawling campus of Liberty University with various stops at other churches.
What distinguishes The Kingdom from other entries in the genre is Alberta’s dual role as a person of faith and a political journalist. He is a product of the church who became a critic from within. That’s fraught territory, and there’s much to explore.
Nationalism always had a grip on the white Evangelical church. When I attended a conservative Evangelical college, I realized just how deeply those hatreds ran. Barack Obama’s election disturbed my classmates, maybe even frightened them. Here was a Black liberal with a suspicious name, and here was the loss of power they abhorred. In The Kingdom, Alberta reflects on the Obama years after speaking with Robert Jeffress, a megachurch pastor and prominent Trump supporter. White Evangelicals “had spent Obama’s presidency marinating in a message of end-times agitation. Something they loved was soon to be lost. Time was running out to reclaim it. The old rules no longer applied. Desperate times called for desperate — even disgraceful — measures,” he writes. Jeffress, he adds, “was inviting an obvious question: Once a person becomes convinced that they are under siege — that enemies are coming for them and want to destroy their way of life — what is to stop that person from becoming radicalized?”
You will know them by their fruits, the Bible says. Behold: conspiracy theories, prejudice, and fear; eventually, Donald Trump.
To his credit, for all the time Alberta spends with the radical Evangelical right, he is not desensitized to what he uncovers. Instead, he is scandalized. “Would a serious Christian see fit, I wondered, to condone this brutish behavior in any other area of life?” he writes of the Road to Majority conference where Trump had spoken to an enthralled audience. “Would they condone vicious ad hominem attacks if they were launched at the office? Would they condone the use of vulgarities and violent innuendo inside their home? Would they condone blatant abuses of power at their local school or nonprofit or church?” A “serious Christian” might not, as Alberta defines the term. He goes on to ask why these Christians accept a certain brutality in politics that they may not accept in other areas of their lives. “This compartmentalization of standards is toxic to the credibility of the Christian witness,” he writes.
More at https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/12/tim-alberta-book-review-americ
as-white-evangelical-problem.html
Download Tim Alberta’s free book The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?&req=Tim+Alberta
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
They try to hide what they are deep down inside but then they blurt it out to surveyors:
The Republican Worldview
Recent survey results
Watched Fox News this month
Voting machines hacked in 2020
Barack Obama not born in US
Lots of discrimination against white people
No human-caused climate change
Will not get future COVID shot
Abortion should almost always be illegal
We are in a recession
Christians face a lot of discrimination
Inflation had big impact
Trump cannot get a fair trial
Education worse than ten years ago
Government lying about UFOs
Trump treated harshly by justice system
Biden didn’t win legitimately
See fake news frequently
Should send troops to the border
China is a serious military threat
COVID originated in Chinese lab
Biden is dishonest
Country is out of control
Illegal immigration is a serious problem
https://jabberwocking.com/the-republican-worldview-in-one-chart/
To me, all this explains why Trumptards struggle, suffer, and die early, never knowing how crazy and stupid they are. I sure wish American politics was truly about Republicans having different values than Democrats because political compromises would be possible, but it comes down to Republicans aren't capable people and that makes them angry at the complete unfairness of being a dullard. Trumptards lament, "Why doesn't America treat us (the retarded) to the easy life that normal people have?" Since Trumptards think of themselves as smart, the apparent unfairness of their lives infuriates them, driving them crazy.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
They try to hide what they are deep down inside but then they blurt it out to surveyors:
The Republican Worldview
Recent survey results
No citations whatsoever in idiot Kevin Drum's article, as per usual.
Quote:
Watched Fox News this month
Haven't watched Fox News unironically in my life, EVER.
Quote:
Voting machines hacked in 2020
Voting machines were not hacked. Democrats stole the 2020 election via en masse unsolicited mail-in-fraud ballots, ballot harvesting and drop boxes in several swing states.
Quote:
Barack Obama not born in US
Who's to say? Birth Certificates were a lot different back when he was born. I could reproduce his BC in a free program named Paint.NET, and I'm not even a graphic artist.
Quote:
Lots of discrimination against white people
Everything under the sun in America is discriminatory against white people in the 2020s.
Quote:
No human-caused climate change
I've never argued this. Your solutions are stupid and untenable.
Quote:
Will not get future COVID shot
Never got an original COVID shot, mudblood.
Quote:
Abortion should almost always be illegal
Anything past the 3rd month, barring inscest, rape or the mother possibly dying by giving birth.
Quote:
We are in a recession
We've been in a recession for years now.
Quote:
Christians face a lot of discrimination
Everything under the sun in America is discriminatory against Christians in the 2020s.
Quote:
Inflation had big impact
Yes. It did. On everything. Up to and including Joe Biden*'s future loss next November.
Quote:
Trump cannot get a fair trial
Not when all the judges are Obama and Clinton appointees in pure blue jurisdictions he can't. Particularly when judges won't even allow a trial by jury.
It's alright. He will appeal any wrong decisions and win.
Quote:
Education worse than ten years ago
The fucking kids can't read or do math anymore. The fact that you're in denial of this says everything anybody needs to know about you and Kevin Drum.
Quote:
Government lying about UFOs
Who gives a single shit about UFOs?
Quote:
Trump treated harshly by justice system
Harshly? The Democrats don't even hide the fact that they've weaponized the entire apparatus against anybody who doesn't toe the line. Just ask Democrat NYC mayor Eric Adams.
Quote:
Biden didn’t win legitimately
Democrats stole the 2020 election via en masse unsolicited mail-in-fraud ballots, ballot harvesting and drop boxes in several swing states.
Trump and Republicans will now use these rules in 2024 to destroy Democrats.
Quote:
See fake news frequently
I only partake in fake news to show the constant hypocrisy of the Media. Which I guess is rather frequently.
Quote:
Should send troops to the border
Should pull all troops out of foreign nations and put them on the border. Line up the aircraft carriers along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and put one by Hawaii and Alaska while you're at it.
Quote:
China is a serious military threat
China is not a serious military threat. They've got all your data from your smartphone though, particularly if you use TikTok. They've stolen every trade secret that they can get their hands on. 90% of the world's pollution is generated in China which has unfair business advantages to any country with "Green" laws in place, and they're polluting the fuck out of the planet to make all that shit you constantly buy that you don't need.
Quote:
COVID originated in Chinese lab
It did.
Quote:
Biden is dishonest
Biden* and his entire administration is full of nothing but serial liars.
Quote:
Country is out of control
Crime? Check. Inflation? Check. Quality of life for the average American?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME