Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Campaign 2016

So my suggestion to all who are certain that democratic socialism cannot possibly work in America is, tell us all how you intend to fix capitalism then, fix it to account for an age in which employment and paychecks from the private sector are not always a reality for half the global workforce.

That is some pretty significant demand destruction and it doesn't stop there.
In TWENTY YEARS almost NINETY percent of all human labor will cease to exist.
But by then we most certainly will have made the adjustments to the economy or the adjustments will be made for us whether we like it or not.

Jeb Bush Has A Plan To Replace Obamacare; Here's What's In It

A velvet-covered sledgehammer. And this is what passes for "policy" amongst Republicans. What a joke. A sad, sick joke.

Jeff, I think America might be ready for "democratic socialism" but not for a jewish 74 year old lefty from Brooklyn (the accent brings back such memories, as I was born in Brooklyn). I know that Obama's election may have done a little to change that, but it is much easier to vote for a half-black christian with a Harvard tie.
Another point that may be relevant is:
I don't think "democratic socialism" solves the problems you and I both think need to be solved. It does little or nothing to change capitalism, and therein lies the rub. The capitalist economic system is based on the exploitation of the working (or middle) class. Yes, the proletariat has changed a lot since Marx's day, but the system he sought to replace has only gotten worse.
I don't think the European examples are a good comparison. The U.S. is far too controlled by right wing forces and the republican (as opposed to parliamentary) system is made for gridlock, as we can see.
Change in North America will have to be a lot deeper and rely on much better education than what currently exists.
Electing a progressive President, while better than letting the Tea Party have its way, is not going to change much. It may help future generations to understand that there are REAL alternatives to the savage brand of capitalism that we live under. That would be a great accomplishment - if it were to happen.

Maybe an indicator of a trend - our local TEA Party just officially disbanded - they ran out of enthusiasm for the "cause"...

The reality is that both Clinton and Obama are capitalist-driven democrats, and little will be accomplished along that line. Sanders cannot manage much in the way of change because a) he is too old, and b) he is too impatient. Elizabeth Warren could be a real force for change, even though she, too, is not "young" - and may yet be, if the Dems retake the Senate. She is the right kind of innovator because she understands both the power and corruption of capitalism. I thought that Obama was going to be that kind of an agent for change, and the ACA is a good example of how it can be done - work within the system to show the benefits of a change in paradigm. His education initiative is also working to affect that - as the discussion has already turned on how far to go rather than should education be cheaper? A similar debate is occurring over the minimum wage. In Tacoma the debate is whether to go to $12 in 2 years, or $15 in one. But no one is really arguing against raising the minimum wage (on the local level - in Congress it is quite different, where the Chamber of Commerce is in charge).

That is one of the things that too many people miss about how Obama has managed change in his administration. People now take health care as a given, and now we are just dickering over the price. The same with sexual orientation and same sex marriage. Education is the the next big hurdle. Imagine how much the real-world economy will improve with those three issues resolved: education will be less of a drag on incomes, more multi-income families will be created, and fewer medically-induced bankruptcies will take place.

The TEA-infused Republican party is fighting a rear-guard action and are losing miserably. The population has abandoned them nearly entirely, but we'll just have to see if the electorate has too. It will take both of those to change the political system which is far, far more conservative (in every sense of the word) than either. Sadly, the judiciary will be the last institution to change, as the damage to it has been even greater than to the Congress.

I think that Bernie Sanders would run into a lot of opposition from the Republicans in both houses, but not as much as President Obama has. I agree with NWP[b][/b] about Elizabeth warren. In fact, if it was a Warren/Sanders ticket, I would be on Heaven!

The technological forces I described above don't give a damn because they are poised to lay waste to the economic output of the middle class, thus creating the kind of demand destruction only seen in catastrophic natural disasters or nuclear winter.
The owners of capital do not seem to realize that they have unleashed the Kraken, and they might as well be running outside and yelling at a tornado.

Huckabee Suggests Poor People Should Be Sold Into Slavery For Stealing


Slavery? What pathetic louses these two people are. And prisons taken over by Progressives??? More like prisons for profit by corporations.

Jails are a Pagan invention? I wonder what sort of documentation they have to back up that claim? Everything that occurred in the Bible took place in a very small region of the Middle East. Detention facilities were probably somewhat rudimentary at that time and so crucifixion, stoning, the cutting off of hands, and selling one's daughters into slavery for canoodling behind the camel pens were far more common punishments. Roughly the same handling of ne'er do wells as is found in the Torah and the Quoran. I suspect that the jailing of prisoners became more popular when Christian kings built castles and fortresses with dungeons and such.
Is this what republicans mean when they say they want to take our country back? Back to the Dark Ages? At least we Pagans have evolved somewhat since those times. Christians seem to be unable to cope with modernity.

Probably the same documentation they had to prove that Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim. Morons.
This brand of christianity has so little to do with Yeshua that it is a "sin" to call it christianity.