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 : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (482159)	5/19/2009 9:28:02 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573908

The US military budget is the largest in the world. And has been most years, maybe even every year since the middle of WWII. That's not moving more to the right. Since the defense budget is a smaller part of GDP and a smaller part of government spending in the past it is rather the opposite. Since WW II, our military budget has grown INTO being the largest.......it didn't start out that way. Hell before WWII we hardly had a dept of defense. Its after WWII that the military defense complex that employs you and others grew by leaps and bounds. All that growing spawned a lot of vested righties who are bound and determined to keep that budget the largest in the world. We are the only first world country without universal health care. Depends on how you define universal care, but ignoring the complexities and assuming arguendo that your statement is correct - Again it doesn't represent a move to the right. Not having one suggests a rightwing slant. Every effort to get universal health care has been thwarted by the right. CAFE standards are the lowest in the West. I notice a trend here. You seem to be confusing "is less socialist/liberal/progressive" than Europe" with "has moved to the right". But really they are two entirely different concepts. No they are not. A progressive society has higher CAFE standards because its good for the community on a lot of different levels. that lead to rollbacks when Republican administrations take over. Finally you make a relevant argument. False, but at least its relevant. Such a rollback could arguably be considered a move to the right. The problem with your argument is that there is almost never such a rollback, and there has not been one in recent years. The Bush administration rolled back a number of environmental laws while in office. For an example, drilling and mining in national parks are now allowed. Snow mobiles are now allowed in national parks. There is a long list. We are behind in stem cell research. We are behind in the development of alternative fuel development. We have the weakest gun control laws among first world countries. True or not, they are completely irrelevant to the assertion that we have moved to the right. They are indication of where this country sits on the the political spectrum. I'll do you a favor and make one true and relevant argument for you, since you failed to do so. Our gun control laws being less draconian than in other countries is irrelevant to the "moved to the right" issue, but overall our gun control laws have probably gotten a bit more liberal (in the sense of being less restrictive, not in the sense of more along the lines of what "progressive" Democrats want) in recent years. That could be considered a move to the right (at least in the US, in other countries with a history of authoritarian right wing gun control not so much). Look.....you can play semantics all you want but you know damn well what I am saying.