RebelliousRenee says (posted in Winning the Culture War):
Methinks the left has always been winning the culture war. Just look at one issue…. rights for gays and lesbians.
Craig… you and David don’t have the right to get married because of the “epiphany” Obama recently had… that fight has been going on for years.
This country has been striving to be a more perfect union since it’s inception. Progress always takes time.
The Reagan Revolution had more to do, IMO, with Reagan’s sunny disposition as opposed to Carter’s seriousness and glumness. Americans have always loved the “can do” attitude.
Now it’s the exact opposite… the Democrats slogan is yes we can… while the Republicans say no we can’t, we are broke.
IMO… most voters don’t vote because of the culture war… no matter how loud and noisy it gets. Americans (at least in my lifetime) back the party with the most positive attitude… they want morning in America and will back whichever party points in that direction.
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70 Responses to Trail Mixers Say: Positivity Wins
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“Methinks the left has always been winning the culture war. Just look at one issue…. rights for gays and lesbians.”
RR, I always figured that would eventually happen because we’ve always loved gay people and have for a long time. We just didn’t know it. They were our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, our children and friends. They are a significant percentage of our population. We always loved them very much but we didn’t know it. They were stuck in this damn closet.
It took some very brave souls that had the courage to come out of those closets, and just the right opportunity, to open our eyes to the fact that we’ve always loved gay people and to realize that they are not weird, icky people, lurking in some alley. They are beautiful, kind, intelligent, and rich. They are big consumers, spend lots of money. That’s always a big plus.
America does have a majority of beautiful people who are good people but don’t underestimate the power of evil. We can and should visualize good things for our country but keep one eye open for the enemies.
“What The 2012 Election Would Look Like Under The Republicans’ Vote-Rigging Plan”
http://http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/republican-vote-rigging-electoral-college_n_2546010.html
Journalists in the service of Pete Peterson
We can fix the economy, we can fix global warming.
We can create a sustainable, equitable society on Earth.
It won’t be easy, but FINALLY the majority of Americans have rejected the ignorance, racism, and elitism of the GOP.
The people have restored my faith in democracy.
Positivity does win.
It won four times in a row for FDR.
Republicans have never gotten over it.
They’ve been negative ever since.
a good look in the mirror
Re: Women in Combat
Has anyone noticed that the SAME arguments that used to be made about why women couldn’t be police officers, are being made about why women shouldn’t be in combat?
I heard Joe Scarborough going on and on about that yesterday on MSNBC. I always like to hear guys who have never served in the military arguing about what it takes to be a good soldier, sailor, or marine.
It’s got nothing to do with physical strength. That can be acquired by training. It’s all about character and, in my experience, men don’t have any advantage in that department.
In dangerous situations, some people freeze up. They can’t move, they can’t think. Others control their fear and get the job done. It’s got nothing to do with gender.
Boy, Harry Reid dodged a bullet yesterday.
For a while it looked as though he was going to have his entire wardrobe re- tailored in order to accommodate his newly found balls.
It appears however, no alterations will be necessary.
Carol… yup… they do spend lots of money. As it was explained to me… it’s the results of couples who have dual income, no kids (with the humorous acronym of “dinks”).
Jack… you might like this article…
The Failure of Peterson-ism.
The main thing Nash is that women are in combat anyway they just don’t get the credit for it, which hurts their chances of promotion to leadership ranks.
Jack
Craig… one of the common threads you hear from old time established Republicans in their criticisms of this GOP is that one has to be “for” something… you can’t win elections by just being against stuff.
The Democrats have done good by reversing the GOP playbook of making certain labels stick… the best 2, IMO, are labeling the Repubs as “the party of NO” or calling them “Republicants”.
Bill Woerlee: 1 thumbs up in praise of coherent writing.
RR, the spending lots of money is mainly important to the Right. They are partial to people with money, who like to spend it. The Left doesn’t care.
I was hoping that Bill was just on holiday with his “indoors”. I can’t see Bill as being someone who would let anyone run him off.
ct…I have always thought the famous Peter Finch line in “Network”, “…we’re mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it anymore!” was the exact mindset the patrons of the Stonewall Inn during that fateful summer of 1969. Those folks were sick and tired of the cops beating the pulp out of them, and finally it exploded, and 43 years later a US President finally mentions it.
Bill is an excellent writer. Unfortunately he has a practice of insulting the United States by misstating the historical record.
His falsely accusing the United States Government and our military of paying ransom to help one of our soldiers evade justice in the Philippine courts is completely untrue. The individual he named was a European pedophile with no connection with anything American.
His characterization of expected behavior of US service members, should they be assigned to Australian soil, is most unfortunate. The historical record shows that they were shy young men when they were there during WW2.
But, he excuses himself by calling us “seppos”. And points out that people over 70 are difficult.
I don’t agree with Bill on a number of issues, but that’s neither here nor there. But, I would never go into another GI’s mess hall and shit in his mess kit.
Can any group ever really riot their way to acceptance? I really don’t know the answer to that. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that when a lot of cool people came out and said..I’m gay, that it became kinda cool to be gay. And also when we learned that people we already loved were gay.
I see many gay people as overachievers. One reason I think, is they often they didn’t have spouses and children to distract and another is they may have felt the need to overachieve to make up for what they considered others have judged as a big flaw in them.
flatus, if so then he has a lot of company with some of our friends here on the trail at times who succumb to the allure of extremists’ talking point “facts”, from the left and the right.
this bbc article makes me wonder why weren’t the valerie plame leakers likewise treated?
excellent job linking, Patd — comments look so much neater linking text instead of long ugly urls
It is hard work but Craig may get us all trained, then he will add some new feature and have to start all over again. }
Jack
Pat, this goes far beyond the normal practice of grabbing a talking point, etc.:
Accusation of United States and its Military in helping a service member evade trial for rape and murder of a child.
Abstract reflecting Dr Ritter’s actual status:
Yippy ki yo, ridem cowboy
[image=cat herding.png]
Jack…
well looky at the great job those cowboys are doing herdin’ them there cats…
YEEHAAW!
Geez… BillW’s ears must be burning…
Maybe Jamie will email him and let us know if he’ll be back… I miss him too.
Although… Flatus does have a right to his point of view… and,IMO, there’s nothing wrong with correcting someone posting false stuff.
i emailed him RR, haven’t heard back
Bill’s prolly in bed sleeping.
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2012/12/05
While I appreciate, applaud, and concur with the Renee Doctrine, I reserve the right to a) gripe, and b) snarl.
thanks, boss. herding cats is mighty hard to do but you do it as best as any catpoke can.
tom brokaw is all for the greatest generation, except that they are living way too long, and their Social Security and Medicare payments are oppressing brokaw’s investments. That damned bloodsucking greatest generation is going to bankrupt poor brokaw, who only made $10,000,000.00/yr after taxes.
snarl.
Catpoke. HAHAHAHAHA
Craig,
I’m not crazy about the “Like Asian Women?” advert.
It looks like a pimp to me.
haven’t seen that ad, xrepub, will look into it
xrepub, i see what you mean. i banned that ad. thanks for flagging it. might take a little time for it to go away. let me know if you see it again after a few hours. help@craigcrawford.com
Greetings from the desert. Nice post, RR. I was so hoping that the Searchlight Kid would keep the string of Demo wins going with a rewrite of Rule 22 of the Senate. But, no, he caved. As Sen. Harkin said, Obama might just as well take a four year vacation with the Party of No dug in with their filibusters. Now, it’s another two year wait on any changes. If RR’s theory is correct, the negativity of the Repugs will only get worse and the positive politics of Dems might win back the Senate with a 60 vote majority in 2014. Let’s hope!
It looks like Larry Sabato agrees with me…
Republicans face a choice that can best be characterized by personalizing it. A healthy, optimistic party is Reaganesque, convinced that it can win the future by embracing it, and by making a positive case for its philosophy and candidates to all Americans. A party in decline is Nixonian and fears the future; it sees enemies everywhere, feels overwhelmed by electoral trends, and thinks it can win only by cheating, by subverting the system and stacking the deck in its favor. Whose presidency was more successful, Reagan’s or Nixon’s? Which man made the Republican brand more appealing?
– Larry J. Sabato, for the editors of The Crystal Ball
amen, eProf. now it’s all about 2014. now is the time for all us to pay attention in our communities, particularly those of us with GOP nutjobs in Congress. My Orlando district, sadly, is represented by Daniel Webster, a dedicated social conservative I unsuccessfully ran against for legislature in 1982. Talking to friends there now about finding someone who might beat him. Grab your pitchforks Trail Mixers. Get to work!
good nyr article by klein on filibuster this week. hope you can read the entire piece…the cite is only an abstract
am kinda surprised by that 250 filibuster attempts… didn’t think they were on the job that many days whatwith all the adjournments for junkets and vacations and holidays and don’t forget the extra extra short workweeks when they are there.
mcconnell: filibastar’d
RR,
S.E. Cupp cited the Larry Sabato article today in making a plea to her Republican friends to come up with a positive message like that other RR, who lived in the White House in the ’80s.
Shame on S.E. for missing the chance to also quote Rebellious Renee.
yep EdVB, our own RR should be quoted widely. And her weaved scarves are nifty too!
I tended to not read Bill W’s post cuz they got so long, ironic, I know, for a blabbermouth. I get so tired, also, of
other nation’s assumption of superiority
being flung, especially when that nation
has such real problems. A good discussion
shouldn’t belittle; it should add to understanding. What I read of his posts
just informed me that he, like so many,
enjoys telling off bigshots.
Altho, I agree that he should keep on posting if he wants. Obviously some here
enjoyed him. That being said, I suspect he’s probably tending to some crisis and will return.
Craig,
a. Thanks for banning the pimp.
b. There must be something Orlando voters find so attractive about webster that it trumps his narrow-mindedness and negativity. What is it ?
The pugs can put on happy face, and willard did, but even he radiated a dislike of America and Americans.
Happy Face doesn’t work when they call most of us takers, slackers, and dead beats.
Bethy, I always love reading your posts, no matter how long they are. When they are longer, I have more to enjoy.
To Combat Clinton, Fox News Channel Turns to Lies
by Taylor Marsh VIDEO
Carol,
I very much agree with your 7:57, Bethy is a pleasure to read..
http://craigcrawford.com/2013/01/25/trail-mixers-say-positivity-wins/#comment-310011
Renee,
Excellent post.. Yep, Flatus certainly has a right to his opinion and he definitely should call out what he perceives to be falsehoods..
I like reading Bill as well.. I don’t have to agree with every point of a post to learn something new..
Bill, I hope you return.
You are a fascinating person with a remarkable intellect, as are the other Trail Mixers. I enjoy learning about Australia and miss the updates.
Pungent debates are good; challenging views expand the mind. I certainly don’t have all the answers; no one does. But maybe as part of a community, an idea here and an idea there can join together to make life better for everyone. And part of this is knowing that what you say will be respected. We may not agree with what the other says; it would be an exceedingly boring place if we did. But agree or disagree, there is never any doubt that good people stand behind those words, willing to learn from each other.
Tony, I saw what O’Reilly did. Didn’t surprise me, that’s their style. I’d have bet good money he/they would do it. That’s why many in the south, who get their news from Fox, are in the dark as to what’s really going on.
I try not to miss Jon or Stephen. Best way to get my news. We can laugh at the most horrible things and they try to be tasteful when covering the really horrible stuff. I’m glad that many young people also watch both of them. That makes me feel hopeful.
I like the links to your Taylor Marsh Tony. Most of the time I agree with her.
I’d love to stay positive RR but politics and positive aren’t often, if ever, compatible.
I enjoy bethy’s posts, too! Keep ‘em coming, bethy…as long or as short as you like!
On this matter of Bill’s contributions, factual disputes aside, I simply disagree with any notion that someone from another country should not be welcome to come on this site and criticize the USA. I want to hear what they’ve got to say, might learn something.
Craig, does that mean that we can criticize the countries they purport to be from, or at the very least accuse the critics of being xenophobic? None of which has happened so far.
I threw 2 parties , only an ex-girl friend attended.
I was out with my ‘arty’ friends. We agree. Only , “Positivity Wins”.
Just in general, if a person can’t handle the rather mild discourse that happens on this blog…….
We really don’t do rough and tumble here but we do disagree, all of us have strong held opinions and we express them.
Several of us also tend to call Bullshit when we see it, even as others of us are too polite to do so.
BTW, every one of us at one time or another has peddled a little bullshit around here and most times get called on it by someone.
Those are a rather disjointed collection of thoughts but they are about all I have to say about the subject right now.
Catch me tomorrow and I will be more eloquent. }
Jack
Flatus, all the above. You know I’m not much for rules around here, make them up as we go along. So long as we get along.
that’s a fine mission statement for us jack. i’ll confess to my own bull shit now and then, and more to come
dang, i just shoveled two inches of snow off my sidewalk. sure hope the neighbors appreciate it tomorrow when out for their weekend walks. cause i am tuckered out. off to florida tomorrow and mid 70s, thank God Almighty
Here, we can even it up for Bill’s having been a little critical of our country home here….
Did you know Australia has more venomous snakes than any other country in the world. It also has the unenviable distinction of being home to no fewer than 9 of the top 10 most venomous snakes in the world. Interestingly, it is the only continent with a higher proportion of venomous snakes to non-venomous ones.http://wellsking.tripod.com/Worldrec23.htm
But then again..even with all those dang deadly snakes, they have less people die from them than other countries with less deadly snakes. Go figure.
Craig, my friends who live year round in Fort Myers have been having a ball motorcycling and beach-going these past two weeks or so, enjoying the perfect Florida weather. I suppose Orlando is just as nice. Good timing! We’re still in the super-deep freeze here in Ohio, with a fresh coating of a few inches of powdery snow as well. The thing is, nobody I know complains more about the weather than my friends in Fort Myers in July. That’s the month they flee to relatives’ homes in upstate New York.
http://craigcrawford.com/2013/01/25/trail-mixers-say-positivity-wins/#comment-310038
Carol,
Oh yah, we didn’t need a crystal ball to know what Bill O and his cohorts at FOX were going to do regarding Hillary’s testimony.. Lie’s and half truths that’s what FOX does daily.. News nope, right wing propaganda is what they do..
Craig,
I agree, i want to hear it all and from any citizen of the world.. Mid 70′s here yes. Oh and mid 80′s next week..
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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
Burke died in July of 1797 .
Wiki -
“Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals in the 19th century.[5] Since the 20th century, he has generally been viewed as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism,[6][7] as well as a representative of classical liberalism.[8]“
And I have 2 more banana trees coming Monday. Can’t wait to plant them. So excited.
I’ll second that CBob. Burke was a true friend of our Revolution, tho I remain confused why he got so wiggly when the French revolted. Anyway, he was a darn good writer.
They had much bigger scores to settle.
Edmund knew it would be bloody. And it was closer to him . He thought outside the box , but not that far outside the box.
Edmund knew the French like the back of his hand, ‘America’ , was 3 months away.
More romance in what you don’t know.
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