Today's GOP

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by JJIII

That sounds like a call for personal responsibility.

We all depend on others fulfilling their part of the bargain. I depend on Bell providing my pension and fully funding it. I depend on the government fulfilling their part of the SS and Medicare bargain.

Where else would anyone suggest that we must break a contract because some people would prefer to not fulfill a contract? That sort of behaviour usually winds up with someone going to jail. Plus we none of us were given a choice FICA and Medicare were deducted at source. Even now they deduct Medicare Part B from my SS at source.

We depend on other drivers obeying the traffic rules, etc. There is so much inter-dependency in society that all the self-reliance talk borders on mythology.

[icenine]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

That's far too neutral an analysis. Where's the boogeyman?

Regards,

D-Ray

In the closet of course, where else?

[icenine]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

Excellent post.

Thanks!

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by icenine

In the closet of course, where else?

Hiding in the woodpile with the evil labor unionists and the godless Marxists? Sorry but I think it is an integral part of the answer as to how the far right views their opponents.

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by icenine

What I really think has happened is this
The recession was(is) structural not cyclical....the economy was overstretched like a rubber band. Because of the information revolution jobs have slipped away...outsourcing,etc...blame who you will. The economy is forever changed.

The traditional blue collar base that each party has shared since maybe the Nixon years (and consolidated by Reagan) is cast adrift. Perhaps neither party will be able to answer to their needs like the old days. So in this vacuum the Republican Party has lost the center it needs. The Democrats still cling to the minority voters, the "dispossessed" among us, and of course the traditional sort of educated "elite" but it is a bit better shape because of demographic changes. The Party that can adapt to these changes will last. Appears the party of Jefferson has a head start, for the time being.

That was an astute analysis Icenine. Now, how do we get more choices than big government or big government?

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

Sure, but collective solidarity works better.

But then what do you so with those outside of the collective? Collective solidarity only exists if all its members agree.

[icenine]

Originally Posted by bhunter

That was an astute analysis Icenine. Now, how do we get more choices than big government or big government?

Well if big business cannot lift the pond....since maybe the manufacturing class may be disappearing, along with white color jobs being made redundant or outsourced, what other choice will we have? You cannot expect government to go away completely, and the private industry will do what it does the best, make profits.

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by bhunter

But then what do you so with those outside of the collective? Collective solidarity only exists if all its members agree.

Collective solidarity does not necessarily mean a hive mind. People can agree on the purposes of a collective without surrendering their personality. That is rather unlike some political orgaqnizations.

[JJIII]

Originally Posted by merrylander

We all depend on others fulfilling their part of the bargain. I depend on Bell providing my pension and fully funding it. I depend on the government fulfilling their part of the SS and Medicare bargain.

Where else would anyone suggest that we must break a contract because some people would prefer to not fulfill a contract? That sort of behaviour usually winds up with someone going to jail. Plus we none of us were given a choice FICA and Medicare were deducted at source. Even now they deduct Medicare Part B from my SS at source.

We depend on other drivers obeying the traffic rules, etc. There is so much inter-dependency in society that all the self-reliance talk borders on mythology.

Rob, from what I have read of your posts here, it seems to me that all through your life you have made decisions based on what you thought was best for you, tempered by how the decision would affect others. You chose how to educate yourself, you chose who you would work for, the assignments and tasks laid before you that you would accept, compromises you would have to make so you could continue to reach your goals. You have balanced the pros and cons of the situations as they arose and made your decisions. Things appear to have worked out very well for you. that is the kind of personal responsibility I was speaking of. You knew full well that if you lived and worked here in this country that you would have to go along with income taxes, FICA taxes, Medicare taxes, traffic laws,ad nauseam. You have made the best of an imperfect situation, not by wanting or asking for help from Big Brother, but by hitting the problems head on. Again, that is the personal responsibility I wish everyone would exercise.

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by bhunter

But then what do you so with those outside of the collective? Collective solidarity only exists if all its members agree.

Agree with each choice, or agree to bond together for a common interest?

Regards,

D-Ray