Politics

[wombat_socho]

Aside from the occasional snide comment and/or link here and there, I've been avoiding any discussion of politics here. Part of the reason is that while I have my own opinions about matters political at the local, state and national levels, I've been having a very hard time finding any intelligent opposition with which to have a reasoned discussion

Comments

[tokenfanboy]

I do feel awkward trying to discuss politics with my friends because I'm definitely in the minority, but that doesn't necessarily make me wrong. This "anybody but Bush" attitude that the Dems/DFL have is dangerous. People aren't taking a critical look at Kerry's positions and statements. His views on outsourcing jobs are unrealistic. Even if that supposed tax break for outsourcing goes away, what company would turn down cutting their payroll by 75%. Heck, they probably don't have to provide those workers health care benefits either. I'd also like to know which leaders of the "International Community" are going to knowingly send their troops into the line of fire of Iraqi suicide bombers and snipers. The radicals that want a civil war in Iraq aren't going to stop just because the UN gets involved. They've already bombed UN targets in Iraq.

After voting for Jessie, I vowed to never enter a polling place thinking, "What the hell, what harm could he do?" I'm at least one light-rail track wiser now. I don't know about the rest of

[wombat_socho]

Yeah, if you're anywhere to the right of Joel Rosenberg and part of the SF/fantasy/media fan community, you're definitely in the minority, though there are subgenre fandoms (combat SF) where conservatives and libertarians are in the majority.

With respect to the Presidential campaign, I'm afraid you're right about Kerry - people don't want to vote *for* him so much as they want to vote *against* President Bush. It all reminds me of the way some Republicans reacted to FDR and the Democratic majority he forged during the Depression - apoplectic to the point of spluttering insanity. Now the shoe's on the other foot, and some Democrats are just as rabidly crazed now as the FDR-hating Republicans were in the 1940s and 50s.

[tokenfanboy]

Democrats both nationally and locally are grasping for any power they have left. That's part of why Bush's judical nominees are being fillabustered and why the MN Senate DFL commitee members have been delaying Pawlenty's comissioner confrimation hearings for almost 2 full sessions and are now denying committee approvals for several people. I think that's an issue the state Republicans need to latch onto and use it to win the MN Senate. Who knows, that issue could help Bush either win MN or at least make Kerry waste a lot of time and money campaigning here instead of other battleground states.

[wombat_socho]

There seems to be a lot of confidence in the ranks that Minnesota is very much in play and possibly leaning to Bush. I guess we'll see how that cookie crumbles in November. As for the State Senate, they won't be up for reelection until 2006, and it'll be interesting to see what the fallout from this year's election will be on 2006, if any.