How Far Left? This Far...

[GodLovesCats]

You don't pay your vehicle insurance to a for profit private company

Huh? What do you think Progressive, Geico, State Farm, Nationwide, AAA, and Allstate are?

One thing they all have in common is car insurance.

 

[Tanj]

Huh? What do you think Progressive, Geico, State Farm, Nationwide, AAA, and Allstate are?

One thing they all have in common is car insurance.

I covered this already, in this thread, a few posts ago. Perhaps more reading and less button pressing, and far lless I-must-be-american-assuming. None of those things are companies where I live.

 

[GodLovesCats]

Sorry, I was watching the first half of a football game and did not see it.

 

[GodLovesCats]

I was wrong about that, apologies...although I'd argue you have the option of not buying a car, which is a viable option in a well infrastructured city like Melbourne.

Unlike many people being able to find other modes of transportation, nobody can avoid high medical bills.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

None of those things are companies where I live.

Sounds like a horrid, retched place where everything is backwards and all the wildlife is deadly.

 

[GodLovesCats]

Everything IS backwards Jay. Drivers sit on the right side of the car and drive on the left side of the road, like in England. Christmas is in the summer. It is hotter on the north side than the south side. The Pacific Ocean is on the east side. But the wildlife is not deadly if you stay far away from the animals.

 

[Tanj]

Sounds like a horrid, retched place where everything is backwards and all the wildlife is deadly.

Everything IS backwards Jay. Drivers sit on the right side of the car and drive on the left side of the road, like in England. Christmas is in the summer. It is hotter on the north side than the south side. The Pacific Ocean is on the east side. But the wildlife is not deadly if you stay far away from the animals.

So I made the mistake of visiting a friend in Brisbane. Went into his bathroom, closed the door, and there in the middle of the closed door was the largest hunstman I have ever seen.

A bit bigger than this one:

Bathroom window didn't open, so it was me locked in tiny room with spider, which was rubbing it's mandibles together in glee at the feast the was to come.

As I reached towards the spider where the door handle was opened the door and raced out, I
screamed
like
a 9 year old
girl

 

[GodLovesCats]

What is the point of posting that in a thread about the Democratic Party agenda and socilaism?

 

[Tanj]

Unlike many people being able to find other modes of transportation, nobody can avoid high medical bills.

I have avoided them numerous times here in Australia, most recently my kidney cancer treatment and surgery. They are easy to avoid in a decent country with universal coverage.

 

[GodLovesCats]

That is one of America's biggest problems: no universal health care coverage in any form. Just having the individual mandate is not good enough to solve the problem. Many people remain uninsured or lack great health insurance that covers everything they need. People who can afford to pay the fines avoid coverage by paying them. Of course, the guilty party is Republicans.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

The business of the United States is to make money. The arms trade, war, prescription drugs that have astronomical prices that cost pennies in other countries, and insurance premiums. These create massive profit that enriches our ruling class. God bless the Billionaires that rule us and show us the way.

 

[GodLovesCats]

The businesses are getting help from Republicans. Democrats know where to put tax dollars. They do the right thing; Republicans just want to make rich people richer even if poor people don't get any money. So it is all about the political party in control. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[FireDragon76]

Obama was a centrist politician who was branded a leftist or socialist by racist deplorables who believe that any black man with access to power must be a radical.

 

[FireDragon76]

Obama is a moderate Democrat, so the attempts to paint him as part of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party are really questionable. He is no socialist. (On the other hand, I know people on the far left who complain that Elizabeth Warren is a fairly conservative capitalist, so this goes both ways.)

I don't think the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left, if by left we mean economic policy. I'm not happy about the constant focus on identity politics, so I dislike that aspect of progressivism, but I think it's high time to have a real discussion on modern socialism.

The identity politics thing may have run its course. Kamala Harris recently criticized Pete Buttigieg for expressing solidarity with blacks, and it seems to have backfired.

Kamala Harris says Pete Buttigieg is ‘naive’ for linking gay rights to civil rights

Pete Buttigieg Responds to Kamala Harris's Post-Debate Remarks Calling Him 'a Bit Naive' for Comparing Struggles as a Gay Man to Those Faced by African-Americans - Towleroad Gay News

 

[GodLovesCats]

Obama was a centrist politician who was branded a leftist or socialist by racist deplorables who believe that any black man with access to power must be a radical.

FYI the word "leftist" is illegal on CF.

Republicans branded Obama as a socialist. Of course they were wrong about that.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Just because Obama was painted by his opponents as an un-American radical socialist doesn't mean he was one. Of course he was pretty middle of the road, and gobbled up independents.

Trump's base has shrunk to a hardened nut of deplorables, so this does open the opportunity for the Democrats to go left. But yes, if they go too far in that direction, the independents and disaffected Republicans won't come along for the ride. We'll see what emerges from the primaries.

There's a couple of groups that the Democrats lost in 2016...

Opinion | The Missing Obama Millions

There's a crucial 9 million people who voted for Obama....then switched to Trump.

There's another almost as crucial 4 million people who voted for Obama that just stayed home.

I'd suggest that, perhaps this isn't the time to explore far left ideological fantasies.

 

[KCfromNC]

Distributism seems very much like a trojan horse. Someone or something must control the distribution, to whom, and how much.

If one really believed this, I think the best step to demonstrate that conviction would be to stop enabling things built using "distributism". You know, things like roads, police protection and the internet.

I ask a third time: How much of my labor, in a numerical value representing the percentage, should the state own?

Depends on how big a campaign contribution you can give to the GOP.

 

[98cwitr]

If one really believed this, I think the best step to demonstrate that conviction would be to stop enabling things built using "distributism". You know, things like roads, police protection and the internet.


Depends on how big a campaign contribution you can give to the GOP.

Roads and police existed prior to the 16th amendment. How were they paid for then?

I am for voluntary means of taxation. It's the involuntary that seem to make slaves out of all of us.

 

[Speedwell]

Roads and police existed prior to the 16th amendment. How were they paid for then?

By taxes, just like they are now.

I am for voluntary means of taxation. It's the involuntary that seem to make slaves out of all of us.

You think the government should exist on charitable contributions?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Roads and police existed prior to the 16th amendment. How were they paid for then?

I am for voluntary means of taxation. It's the involuntary that seem to make slaves out of all of us.

They were paid for with involuntary taxes and, depending on which nation/empire we're talking about, some mix of plunder and government ownership of production.