politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
Go scroll up the chain. Connections were always a part of it. And I'd say the same to you. Now he's being raised by a business owner.
None of these people are working class. You're trying to fit at least higher middle class to a rags to riches narrative.
And yes it's that people are lazy. Congratulations. You've found the propaganda line from wealthy people everywhere. Everyone else is just lazy.
I scrolled up. The conversation went about as follows:
ME: "Did anyone stop you or anyone else from running for President?"
YOU: "Yeah actually... [the current setup] bars 99.9% of people from ever running for President."
From there I:
Proved Obama's upbringing was fragmented and middle-class at best, wich contradicts your claim they had "plenty of money" and he was not remotely "born connected."
Showed that Obama, a middle-class African American of middle-class parents of middle-class grandparents was not "in the club".
I provided direct quotes from fact-checkers and Michelle Obama herself, noting as much.
Next:
You repeatedly used this unfounded claim that his stepfather — who was largely out of his life by 10 —was an "oil executive" when he was a geologist and consultant at best — Untrue. I cannot find a modicum of evidence on this except a literal uncited reference in some editorialized article.
Now you're moving the goalpost from "middle class" to "working class" by some arbitrary definition no less... ? Come on, I call bullshit.
The main thing I see eye-to-eye on is that:
You need to be "networked" in order to be popular, which is kind of a given. There are many means by which to be networked, of course. In any realistic system you conceive of creating, that will always be inevitable.
Money influencing politics is probably the most important issue to address in order to save our Democracy.
Finally, please don't straw-man my points. Nowhere did I claim they're lazy. That is your filling in the blanks to make your response easier. I think I'm FAR more closer to reality in writing, "99.9% of people just don't want to become President because they have other interests and ambitions and life circumstances" than your claim that "99.9% CAN'T become President" (in your words, "banned").
Unanswered questions by you:
The pathway of more choice is through the Democratic party and no other viable way. Do you agree?
The better CHOICE between Biden and Trump is an obvious one, yes?
Relative to the user whom I originally responded, America has more choice than most nations of the world, yes?
Dude.
And you can't just declare you proved something. Especially something as hilarious as, "he wasn't connected, he just got the money to run a community organization and campaign by magic!" Hell a quick look at his campaign filings puts that shit to rest.
And then you completely ignore the substantive take on how to deal with the problem to instead defend Obama from being called "connected" and "well off". Even going so far a to use the refutation of your rags to riches narrative as an allegation that I'm moving the goal posts.
I'm sorry, do upper middle class/low wealthy dress in rags where you come from?
Don't answer that. It's obvious you never meant to engage in good faith. You've been derailing the main point the entire time by getting way too into the details on one guy. And even then you can't admit when your wrong. No instead we have to accept literal PR as evidence instead of publicly available information.
Let me make my position very, very clear: Saying someone lacks political ambition does not mean they're lazy. I have no idea how you misconstrued that, but I hope I made myself clear. If I wanted to call someone lazy, I would just do it. But are you denying it's easier for people to be critics than actually do better than that which they criticize?
Well when there is no substantive or sourced rebuttal and I sort of, well, did... Then yes, I am going to say that.
Reuters:
I don't know. Anyone whose parents depended on food-stamps may not fit your literal definition of "rags," but I think I made my case. But it's awfully convenient that you can continue to lie about his stepfather's fortunes and giving Obama a cushy life while -- let me check -- giving absolutely zero sources thus far while obviously distorting the "oIl eXeCuTiVe" caricature for which you've clearly deflected because you know you're full of shit on this front. Then finally just denouncing any biographical or autobiographical account of their status as being PR (without any actual evidence).
Then let's turn a different way: We've proved you can go from middle-class to President, but that's not enough for you and means 99.9% can't be president ("banned", as you explicitly wrote)? Finally: I thought I made myself clear in solving issues related to outside money influencing elections and largely agreeing with you in this respect.
Meanwhile you still dodged the questions, and now I'll add to that list:
Unanswered questions by you:
The pathway of more choice is through the Democratic party and no other viable way. Do you agree?
The better CHOICE between Biden and Trump is an obvious one, yes?
Relative to the user whom I originally responded, America has more choice than most nations of the world, yes?
Who is closer to reality: "99.9% of people just don't want to become President because they have other interests and ambitions and life circumstances" or your claim, "99.9% CAN'T become President" because they are, in your words, "banned"?
Anyways, this has been an interesting conversation and appears to have been exhausted, I'll leave it there and oblige you with the final response.