US Politics Mega-thread - Page 5742

The conservative Republican congressman who led the charge to oust former Speaker John Boehner is now agitating for the removal of his replacement.

Rep. Mark Meadows said Thursday the effort to remove Speaker Paul Ryan is "picking up some steam" because many GOP lawmakers and a stream of callers to the North Carolinian's congressional offices are incensed the Wisconsin Republican hasn't embraced fully Donald Trump's candidacy for president.

"A lot of people who believe so desperately that we need to put Donald Trump in the White House -- they question the loyalty of the speaker," Meadows told radio host Tyler Cralle of WAAV radio in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Meadows, one of the 30-plus members of the ultra-conservative and powerful House Freedom Caucus, said there "will be real discussions after November 8 on who our leadership will be and what that will look like going forward."

On October 24 2016 01:57 LemOn wrote:
Does anyone actually vote proudly for Hillary? :D

On October 24 2016 03:14 KOFgokuon wrote:
The freedom caucus will only have like 60 votes max it's enough of a block to create problems with passing laws without democratic support but it's not enough to actually force their own candidate down the throat of the rest of the house.

On October 24 2016 03:18 JW_DTLA wrote:


How many women do you talk to? How many women of color? 90s era video gamers with lingering grudges from the "ban violent videogames" era tend not to be enthusiastic HRC supporters (e.g., the teamliquid audience). Young women I talk to really like HRC.

On October 24 2016 03:26 GreenHorizons wrote:


I literally haven't seen an open Hillary supporter since the primaries here. I see more Johnson support than I do Hillary (being none around here). Political conversations have been easier than ever with just about everyone agreeing that they are both terrible candidates for their own reasons.

Honestly, even at the primaries I didn't meet anyone that was as fervent of a Hillary supporter/defender as we see here.

On October 24 2016 03:58 LegalLord wrote:
Basically the people who support Hillary are the ones who want things to stay more or less the same. Which is quite a lot of people in this thread, probably a disproportionate amount relative to the population.

On October 24 2016 03:58 LegalLord wrote:
Basically the people who support Hillary are the ones who want things to stay more or less the same. Which is quite a lot of people in this thread, probably a disproportionate amount relative to the population.

On October 24 2016 03:19 Gorsameth wrote:

They had enough power to get rid of the previous speaker.

Unless the dynamic changes after the election (possible) I don't see a reason to question their ability to oust Ryan.

On October 24 2016 04:04 JW_DTLA wrote:


I live in downtown Los Angeles, but I grew up in Acton (pop 6000) in the hills about 40 miles north. Acton exists as a white flight area for people who like guns and horses but don't mind commuting to work 1.5 hours away. I know several millennial supporters for HRC up there, but I would put married 40+ year old support for HRC in Acton at 0%.

Where is it that you live in Washington? Washington is a big state with concentrated coastal metros, but a giant, all white midwestern area.

On October 24 2016 04:29 KOFgokuon wrote:


Boehner could have stuck it out if he'd wanted to but he said fuck it and quit. Better than dealing with the pile of shit Ryan has had to. If you think they'll ever get someone they want that represents their viewpoints you're nuts. They couldn't even get Ryan to agree to their stupid list of promises they will never have enough support to get one of their caucus as speaker

On October 24 2016 04:30 GreenHorizons wrote:


I'm in southwest WA, but I travel through Tacoma reasonably frequently. We have those intersections stacked with signs like everywhere else, just never see any Hillary signs. It's not just me though, it's similar for folks all over the state, though Seattle isn't completely bare. I don't doubt they exist, it's just nothing like Obama, for example. Hell, I saw more Kerry stuff/supporters way back when+ Show Spoiler +

On October 24 2016 04:26 LegalLord wrote:

Not really. There are plenty of those too, but also quite a few people who more or less agree with the direction things are headed and support the candidate who is most closely tied to keeping things exactly as they are.

"Support" vs "reluctantly vote for" are two different groups.

The presidential election of 2016 has not involved a public policy debate as much as it has chronicled the ongoing struggle of Donald Trump to resemble a sentient and literate human being. As he continues to fail, it becomes increasingly clear that the reality television star, and his group of goblin advisors – Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, Steve Bannon – represent the last gasp of the white conservative baby boomer.

Throughout the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, the straight white male boomer’s story enjoyed cultural hegemony. To live as one of these men was to have an all-access VIP laminate around your neck, and a lifetime permission slip in your pocket. You could view and treat women as toys for your personal amusement, denigrate gay men as freaks fit for the circus, and stratify men of other races into a category of inherent inferiority. Life was good for the white male boomer, but suddenly it all started to end. Uppity blacks started to demand liberty and inclusion. “Nasty” women began to assert themselves as equals, and LGBT people demonstrated themselves to be “normal” folks as capable of achievement and decency as anyone else. Each morning the conservative white boomer wakes up realizing that his story matters a little less than it did the day before.

Faced with the erosion of their cultural power, coinciding with their own mortality, conservative white boomers could adjust and adapt to reality, keeping an open mind to new developments, while welcoming the diversification of American institutions, still cognizant of the amazing run of prosperity and influence they enjoyed. Or they could throw a temper tantrum. Most of them, already detached from the real world, opted for the latter.

The United States currently has the highest standard of living in its history, the longest life expectancy and the most extensive and expansive level of freedom, for all its people, since its foundation as an independent country. Certainly, the persistence of poverty, the draconian “war on drugs,” the garrison quality of the federal budget, and the undue influence of corporate power over political power demand aggressive actions of correction and reform. But they do not culminate in the creation of Dante’s Inferno, especially considering that the United States once enforced Jim Crow, subjugated women into secondary roles and excluded gays from mainstream society. The victories of the left have steadily made America more livable, humane and just. Conservative white boomers, unwilling to look at the totality of progressive change, see only the distance between the authority they currently exert and the authority they once enjoyed. Delusions of grandeur and illusions of the apocalypse cloud their vision.

Barack Obama (in the conservative white boomer view) is not a moderate president who, among his flaws and failures, can claim the accomplishments of presiding over 78 months of consecutive job growth and helping 20 million people acquire health insurance for the first time. He is a black militant usurper of all that is good – a Zulu warrior committed to performing unwanted abortions on every Christian woman. The willingness to address minorities with respectful language is not an enhancement of societal decency and civility; it is “political correctness” gone mad, the suffocation of free speech that will forever end education and destroy the exchange of ideas. The growth in Latino immigrants and other foreign-born citizens is not a continuation of the American tradition of hospitality and diversity; it is an invasion of exotic saboteurs who will demolish America’s economy and cultural norms.

This paranoia is all so silly that it quickly becomes boring, but the more thoughtful citizen cannot ignore it, because it has conquered significant territory in political discourse. Donald Trump, the new god of the white conservative boomer, has based his entire campaign on a forecast of Armageddon. “America is going to hell,” he claims, comparing the United States to the “Third World.” In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he likened the entire country to a “divided crime scene.” Typically, rants such as these are only heard from a megaphone held by a maniac on a street corner. Now it is the heart of the Republican pitch to voters across the country, along with allegations that the election is “rigged,” fears that ISIS will “take over this country,” and warnings that soon America will have a “one-party government.”

One of Trump’s favorite conspiracy theories is that the entire media has collaborated to make a fool out of him, as if he weren’t already succeeding beyond anyone’s wildest dreams in that capacity. Much of the mainstream media, however, has aided and abetted his campaign by repeating the whine of the white boomer as if it were legitimate.

The most compelling evidence that the United States is a “hellhole,” according to the mainstream media, is that only one-third of voters, according to various polls, believe that the country is “on the right track.” Demographic specificity exposes the real anxiety underneath the political pessimism.