Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Smith who wrote (112931)	5/8/2005 4:37:03 AM
From: kumar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793903

This country would be better served by the Democrats if every thought wasn't about winning or losing and instead was about what they believed needed to be done (core beliefs! actual real ideas!) and why. The statement above implies that Republicans dont ever think in terms of "winning or losing". Is that what you intended to convey, albiet implicitly ?

To: Paul Smith who wrote (112931)	5/8/2005 8:37:18 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793903

The Democrats need to stop thinking in terms of their own power grab and return to thinking about and communicating actual ideas. There are two different components of that point. One is the idea thing and the other is the power thing. I think it's more useful to look at them separately. As for the idea thing, best I can tell is that they don't have any, at least not any new ones. In the idea department, they're stuck with their old ideas, which were attractive to a point and largely implemented. The Dems are, in part, suffering from their own success. So where do they go from there? The old ideas, carried further, have become attenuated and distorted past the point where they are acceptable to the majority but are still near and dear to the progressive base. If the Dems run on those ideas, they can't get a majority. But what new ideas might there be? I can't imagine. So they're left with trying to defend the accomplishments of their old ideas against the incursion of the Rep's ideas. And flying the flag of the attenuated and distorted ideas out of habit or to keep the support of their base. As for the power thing, both sides are into power. I don't think it's fair to dump on the Dems for it. Whether you want that power to advance your ideas or to fight off the other guys' ideas, I don't see that that matters ethically. The Reps for decades gathered power in order to fight off new ideas. (That's a lot of what being "conservative" is about.) And their "ideas" now are in large part the undoing of the ideas that the Dems implemented over the decades. This country would be better served by the Democrats if every thought wasn't about winning or losing I think this country would be better served if there were less extreme partisanship. Part of destructive partisanship is thinking that the other guys are evil while one's guys are good. That includes thinking that the other guys are the only ones focused on power. SS is a case in point. The undoing of SS has been on the Rep agenda for ages. So now they're trying to make it happen. But are they billing it that way? Of course not, because if they did they would sacrifice power given that SS is a popular program. So they frame it in other ways, ways that let them both hold power and meet their objective. For those of us who support the undoing of SS, and I am one, it's best to not make too much of an issue of Bush's power machinations, but I'd be blind not to recognize them for what they are.