News Article: WSJ: Why the left is so consumed with hate

If an idea is antithetical to American principles, the people who are speaking out against those ideas aren't the intolerant. They are people who are willing to stand up for principles, that are now being replaced with patriotic pageantry by the right. I've seen a whole lot of "the party of Lincoln" references as of late, as an attempt to try and distance the right from the white supremacists that have been so excellently courted since 2016. It is funny that the idea that it was the Republican Party that released the slaves, is the same party that elected Trump is even gaining any traction. However, it is a popular soundbite because when people forget that most issues are nuanced, its easy to attempt to drop such soundbites as an end to the conversation.

I am tired of being expected to not call a spade a spade when it comes to bad ideas. Just because someone is willing to fact check you or doesn't agree with your position, doesn't mean they are being intolerant. It means that either come up with a better argument in favor of your ideas or figure out how to package them in a more appealing format. The right has been doing the latter for years.


All this coupled with the right decrying their oppression at the hands of the "hateful, intolerant" left is absolutely laughable. Last I checked, any measure of progress is attained through compromise. I will give you one guess as to the party that has systematically attempted to restrict rights of minorities time and again. Now many may attempt to bring up the so called oppression of the right, and even more particularly the christian conservative right. Last I checked there was no other "oppressed" group that had their slogans on the US currency, enjoyed tax benefits for Sunday club houses, and national holidays that are celebrated/pushed in the public mind 24/7 for the two months leading up to them.

we need to drain the swamp so that georgetown prep kids can attain their rightful places in society without being questioned by the riff raff.
 
I've seen a whole lot of "the party of Lincoln" references as of late, as an attempt to try and distance the right from the white supremacists that have been so excellently courted since 2016. It is funny that the idea that it was the Republican Party that released the slaves, is the same party that elected Trump is even gaining any traction. However, it is a popular soundbite because when people forget that most issues are nuanced, its easy to attempt to drop such soundbites as an end to the conversation.

2016? Most of this started in 1964 as a reaction to Lyndon's Civil Rights initiatives.

Couple that with Nixon's "Southern Strategy", dog whistles and code words. Reagan announced his 1980 presidential campaign at the Neshoba Co fair in Philadelphia, MS....not far from where 3 civil rights workers were killed and buried in an earthen dam during the 1960s. Reagan, and then the infamous Lee Atwater, who worked for both Reagan and Bush 41 campaigns:

Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry S. Dent, Sr. and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now you don't have to do that. All that you need to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues that he's campaigned on since 1964, and that's fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster.

Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?

Atwater: Y'all don't quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, "......, ......, ......". By 1968 you can't say "......"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "......, ......".[SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP]


 
2016? Most of this started in 1964 as a reaction to Lyndon's Civil Rights initiatives.

Couple that with Nixon's "Southern Strategy", dog whistles and code words. Reagan announced his 1980 presidential campaign at the Neshoba Co fair in Philadelphia, MS....not far from where 3 civil rights workers were killed and buried in an earthen dam during the 1960s. Reagan, and then the infamous Lee Atwater, who worked for both Reagan and Bush 41 campaigns:

Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry S. Dent, Sr. and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now you don't have to do that. All that you need to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues that he's campaigned on since 1964, and that's fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster.

Questioner: But the fact is, isn't it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?

Atwater: Y'all don't quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, "......, ......, ......". By 1968 you can't say "......"—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this", is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "......, ......".[SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP]



and it always involves the clutching of pearls when it is pointed out.
 
If an idea is antithetical to American principles, the people who are speaking out against those ideas aren't the intolerant. They are people who are willing to stand up for principles, that are now being replaced with patriotic pageantry by the right. I've seen a whole lot of "the party of Lincoln" references as of late, as an attempt to try and distance the right from the white supremacists that have been so excellently courted since 2016. It is funny that the idea that it was the Republican Party that released the slaves, is the same party that elected Trump is even gaining any traction. However, it is a popular soundbite because when people forget that most issues are nuanced, its easy to attempt to drop such soundbites as an end to the conversation.

I am tired of being expected to not call a spade a spade when it comes to bad ideas. Just because someone is willing to fact check you or doesn't agree with your position, doesn't mean they are being intolerant. It means that either come up with a better argument in favor of your ideas or figure out how to package them in a more appealing format. The right has been doing the latter for years.


All this coupled with the right decrying their oppression at the hands of the "hateful, intolerant" left is absolutely laughable. Last I checked, any measure of progress is attained through compromise. I will give you one guess as to the party that has systematically attempted to restrict rights of minorities time and again. Now many may attempt to bring up the so called oppression of the right, and even more particularly the christian conservative right. Last I checked there was no other "oppressed" group that had their slogans on the US currency, enjoyed tax benefits for Sunday club houses, and national holidays that are celebrated/pushed in the public mind 24/7 for the two months leading up to them.

help-were-being-oppressed-christian-jewish-non-religious-other-true-8056984.png
 
Those guys are the media.

Not the people. Doesn't matter if they are right, left, middle....they do not represent me or anyone else. They are what's wrong with the political climate in our country.

If you want to make the point that the far right media is a problem, I'm OK with that.

Leave the people out of it. They are who we should be embracing and supporting.
I said represent the worst - in other words, not everyone shares those attributes, just the worst.

That said, if you fully support the worst then I'm not going to leave you out (the royal ubiquitous you, not you in particular)
 
Although I believe it to be wrong and serve no purpose, hate, bigotry, discrimination, sexism and racism exists in every walk of life, in every country, in every city and every facet of society and will continue to do so, it will never go away. In America, both political parties have used it to divide and drive ethnicities and classes of the electorate to their cause, that will never change. America must find middle ground candidates who are willing to reject both extremes and restore some faith in our government. It will take people of courage to correct our course and right now I am not sure we have those people.
 
Although I believe it to be wrong and serve no purpose, hate, bigotry, discrimination, sexism and racism exists in every walk of life, in every country, in every city and every facet of society and will continue to do so, it will never go away. In America, both political parties have used it to divide and drive ethnicities and classes of the electorate to their cause, that will never change. America must find middle ground candidates who are willing to reject both extremes and restore some faith in our government. It will take people of courage to correct our course and right now I am not sure we have those people.

I think there are some on the left that are willing to compromise. On the right it is considered a weakness and those who do it are considered RINOs. None of this works without compromise and I have no idea how to fix that when 1 party absolutely refuses to
 
Although I believe it to be wrong and serve no purpose, hate, bigotry, discrimination, sexism and racism exists in every walk of life, in every country, in every city and every facet of society and will continue to do so, it will never go away. In America, both political parties have used it to divide and drive ethnicities and classes of the electorate to their cause, that will never change. America must find middle ground candidates who are willing to reject both extremes and restore some faith in our government. It will take people of courage to correct our course and right now I am not sure we have those people.

We do have those people; when they manage to get elected, they get bought off.
It’s all about the money.


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I don't like these generalizations, that one side or another is the problem. Both sides are filled with problem, because people are imperfect everywhere. This constant blaming of "them" or "they" for America's perceived ills is nauseating to me. We all suck.
 
I support the ideas in quotes, I just happen to think the guy behind them, Trump, is a liar and a cheat.
Trump speaks to people that haven't been political in any way. Things that transcend politics like "making America great again". Both sides of the aisle should be able to get behind that. "Draining the swamp", all sides of the political aisle are against that.
 
Bazza, I think my experience is different than yours. I do see friends and acquaintances of mine share what I consider to be hateful views on a variety of social issues. No doubt it gets fanned greatly by the media outlets, particularly social media, but I see and hear people buying into and parroting this crap - on both sides. I have unfollowed dozens of my friends on social media not because of their views being different, but because of the absolute lack of civility, their namecalling and their inability to see the world in nuanced terms.
Now see......this post is about the "people" - not the media.

There is a difference.
 
I think there are some on the left that are willing to compromise. On the right it is considered a weakness and those who do it are considered RINOs. None of this works without compromise and I have no idea how to fix that when 1 party absolutely refuses to
I do.

Get rid of those two parties and start five new ones.

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I support the ideas in quotes, I just happen to think the guy behind them, Trump, is a liar and a cheat.
Perhaps more problematic than that is the fact that he understands practically nothing about history and global relationships and doesn't have the willingness to learn. He makes so many strategic mistakes in pursuit of his policies that he literally is a destabilizing influence in the US and around the world. He is such a notoriously poor and incapable President as to make Richard Nixon appear great in comparison!
 
One thing we have all heard for years is that the government needs to be run like a business, by a successful business man and not a career politician. I understand where this desire comes from and in principle I would be willing to give it a try. The problem we are now faced with is we are trying this with a self proclaimed real estate mogul whose business success, business ethics and real worth are all highly questionable. Trump is a narcissistic, sociopath, pathological liar, whose real business acumen has shown to be at best elementary. I am not saying the government cannot be run in a business manner by the right person, but Trump is absolutely not the right person.
 
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One thing we have all heard for years is that the government needs to be run like a business, by a successful business man and not a career politician. I understand where this desire comes from and in principle I would be willing to give it a try. The problem we are now faced with is we are trying this with a self proclaimed real estate mogul whose business success, business ethics and real worth are highly questionable. Trump is a narcissistic, sociopath whose real business acumen has shown to be at best elementary. I am not saying the government cannot be run in a business manner by the right person, but Trump is not the right person.

i don't think it is a good idea to run government like a business. businesses are designed to make a profit/maximize shareholder return. governments are not (and should not be).
 
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