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Conservatives and Republicans - What do you want?

This article about his upcoming biography is actually a pretty good read: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazin...omney-retiring-senate-trump-mcconnell/675306/

“A very large portion of my party,” he told me one day, “really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.” He’d realized this only recently, he said. We were a few months removed from an attempted coup instigated by Republican leaders, and he was wrestling with some difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of the GOP a product of President Trump, or had it always been there, just waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue? And what role had the members of the mainstream establishment—people like him, the reasonable Republicans—played in allowing the rot on the right to fester?

I had never encountered a politician so openly reckoning with what his pursuit of power had cost, much less one doing so while still in office. Candid introspection and crises of conscience are much less expensive in retirement. But Romney was thinking beyond his own political future.

Earlier this year, he confided to me that he would not seek reelection to the Senate in 2024. He planned to make this announcement in the fall. The decision was part political, part actuarial. The men in his family had a history of sudden heart failure, and none had lived longer than his father, who died at 88. “Do I want to spend eight of the 12 years I have left sitting here and not getting anything done?” he mused. But there was something else. His time in the Senate had left Romney worried—not just about the decomposition of his own political party, but about the fate of the American project itself.


Well **** him, shouldn't he be spearheading the fight for his party? The central theme of conservatism is denying 'other' people (poorer people, minorities ect) agency and an opportunity to improve their lives. It seeks to conserve the status quo and where possible roll back any advances made by the 'others'. they're a pack of miserable *****.
 
I see them both as craptastic. I have never actually had a candidate. Never once in my life voted for someone i liked.
I really liked and supported Obama the first time he ran. I think he really wanted to make a difference and had a good platform. Unfortunately he got next to nothing done, which is completely his fault. But other than that I feel pretty much the same for the rest including local elections.
 
Andrew Yang has a new political party Forward party. Personally I like the idea but the reality is if it gains traction it most likely just puts Trump back in office assuming he can run by taking votes away from democrats. That's always been the problem with 3rd parties. We need to jump to 4 or more for them to be viable and not just taking votes from one side.

 
I found the perfect article to answer the OP question.

Hello, I am a House Republican. As America hurtles toward a government shutdown, I and my fellow GOP colleagues would like to say that, in our defense, we really didn’t know “governing” would be one of our job requirements.

It sounds like an un-fun activity and, as we’ve made abundantly clear via myriad tweets and Fox News appearances, we think government is bad and we want nothing do with it, except for the parts where we get to yell into TV cameras and share devastating Hunter Biden memes. Those parts are great!

On Thursday, we made it impossible for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – who we voted into power but also hate and now want to remove – to advance a military funding bill that usually passes with bipartisan support. It’s the second time in a row we did that! Why? Mainly for the lulz, but also because we kind of want the government to shut down so former President Donald Trump will like us and so we can look tougher when we’re yelling into the TV cameras.

McCarthy responded to our unwillingness to behave like a sane governing body and engage even remotely with the opposing party by saying: “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down.”

A new concept?!? Has he been asleep for the last few years?

We are ALL about burning the whole place down. We’re pretty sure Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Andy Biggs of Arizona recently got matching “BURN THE WHOLE PLACE DOWN” tattoos on their necks.

Hang on, we just got a sick new Hunter Biden meme we have to post. It says, “Who’s your daddy? Oh, never mind, he’s out to lunch!” Classic. This is why the people elected us.

Anyhoo, we used to be pretty pro-military and stuff – and we’ll still say we are if there’s a TV camera around – but the truth is we aren’t doing jack on the military funding or any other funding until the DEMONcrats agree to cut all the spending we don’t like, defund the FBI and the DOJ, stop all Trump investigations and give us everything we want.

And what is it we want? Hah! Nice try. Answering that question sounds a lot like governing, and we didn’t get into this business to dirty our hands with that kind of nonsense.

We have until the end of next week to pretend we’re going to do something before eventually failing in the most clownish and embarrassing way possible, and we feel certain we’re up to the task.

Will hundreds of thousands of federal workers be sent home without paychecks? Sure! Did the last government shutdown in 2019 cost the country $3 billion in economic activity? Heck yeah! Could national parks shut down and research at the National Institutes of Health come to a halt? You betcha!

And do we care one iota about any of that? Nah. As long as Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida can go on “Hannity” and flex his forehead muscles while yelling something that doesn’t mean anything, we’re right where we want to be – in government, but not governing.

Enjoy the shutdown, suckers. We’ve got memes to post.
 
And do we care one iota about any of that? Nah. As long as Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida can go on “Hannity” and flex his forehead muscles while yelling something that doesn’t mean anything, we’re right where we want to be – in government, but not governing.

Enjoy the shutdown, suckers. We’ve got memes to post.
And yet, despite that:

“Such is down-on-Biden sentiment that if a government shutdown occurs at month's end, 40% say they'd chiefly blame him and the Democrats in Congress, versus 33% who'd pin it on the Republicans in Congress -- even given the GOP infighting behind the budget impasse.”

 
And yet, despite that:

“Such is down-on-Biden sentiment that if a government shutdown occurs at month's end, 40% say they'd chiefly blame him and the Democrats in Congress, versus 33% who'd pin it on the Republicans in Congress -- even given the GOP infighting behind the budget impasse.”

That's frustrating.
 
I really liked and supported Obama the first time he ran. I think he really wanted to make a difference and had a good platform. Unfortunately he got next to nothing done, which is completely his fault. But other than that I feel pretty much the same for the rest including local elections.
No single politician can enact much of any change. Nearly 100% of DC is corrupt. You have to remove money from politics to see any actual change.
 
Also it's hilarious to me why we have any reason to be scared of AI. If the workforce is being replaced by better cheaper labor, then we should have more money to actively take care of people. We should look forward to AI making our lives better, but we are so conditioned to be ****ed by capitalism we are terrified of it.
This, any profit from efficiency gains produced by AI and automation will go straight to the top without some structural adjustment.
 
Also it's hilarious to me why we have any reason to be scared of AI. If the workforce is being replaced by better cheaper labor, then we should have more money to actively take care of people. We should look forward to AI making our lives better, but we are so conditioned to be ****ed by capitalism we are terrified of it.

Define taking care of people.
 
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