198 Comments

I would have said "subjunctive" but nobody would know what I was talking about, so I wasn't in a subjunctive mood. Still, if I were ...

I am at least sympathetic to the perspective that a fetus, as a developing human life, has at least some value and human-ness. But I am also keenly aware of the damage a child can do to a woman -- the sheer psychological and economic stress may well not be something a given woman isn't ready for -- to say nothing of how a child would suffer under those circumstances. If a woman isn't ready for a child, we spare everyone a hell of a lot of suffering by going through with an abortion.

And of course, the "pro-life" side does not see the human-ness in a child. If I'm being maximally charitable, I will say that most "pro-life" people just want a moral high horse since Lord knows they fail at every actual test of character. Slightly less charitably, they don't like that these harlots women are sinning and getting away with it, and what could be better than an 18-year sentence of their own making? Oh, and no help from a compassionate social safety net either. To them, a child's value is as a mere punishment device.

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Drink the last beer without buying another sixer-scorn and derisionuse the last TP leaving none for the Lady of the House-www.foreignlegionrecr...

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I don’t think she thought through quite how much turd-polishing she was gonna have to do when she took that job.

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It feels like we’ve learned nothing from the past two elections (three, counting Obama twice). People are tired of the same old career politicians who they feel are not going to see that real change happens. Obama FELT different. Trump certainly did. Trump being elected proved more than ever than we do not need a career elected official to stand behind. I truly believe if Ellen Degeneres or Oprah Winfrey ran for president, they would both have a very good chance of winning. They are capable, intelligent people who are able to make us FEEL inspired and hopeful. Does Joe Biden do that? It’s gonna be an ugly 2020 with Trump and his pack of retards tweeting and screaming about how we don’t need another 4 years of the same old tired crap, or more of Obama’s policies. I thought we Dems would see this as a chance to put forward someone less conventional. Kamala Harris is better. Beto is better. Ellen would be a tremendous president because she’s a decent person who I doubt would embrace the Hyde Amendment for reasons.

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I would vote for a can of mixed vegetables if the other option was Trump.

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"We should not reward unprotected sex." Heavens, no--so how are we going to punish the many, many men who can't be bothered with condoms, vasectomies and/or abstinence?

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Riley--consider that my posting was in response to elviouslyqueer's "Fuck him, he's just doing the politically expedient." That 2012 position was both (1) very helpful to the gay community if not society as whole, and (2) hardly politically expedient, and merits consideration.

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Symone Sanders is on MSNBC right now defending Biden and NOT doing a very good job of it. Oi. She is melting down on camera.

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That is true and a valid observation. I agree the age gap is a huge factor. I also think there are genuine anti-abortionists who truly and passionately feel strongly about the morality of their position without them being rampant abusive hypocrites. For a red hot little minute, I start to believe that it’s worth consideration if I were to attempt to educate and change their opinions, or at least their fervor for enforcing them upon myself and others. Then I remember I have a uterus, and that I make less money than my male counterparts, and that there’s never been a female president, despite that we are 50% of the populace. Then I stop empathizing and trying to make sense of it, cuz the end result of people trying to educate and negotiate women’s β€˜rights’ has not made the progress needed to retain them. Then I stop caring and start preparing for war.

I think we all, as humans, are prone to a little confirmation bias from time to time. I know there are disadvantages at play for prior generations having been raised in a transitional state of social progress. I wish more of our elders were better equipped to offer wisdom rather than placebos. Dinosaurs need to pass the reigns and watch the show. They don’t have to like change, just have to move out of the way. My parents, who are Dems, also exhibit that confusion in one form or another. My father has an oversimplified understanding of the world and an acceptance of the status quo that wreaks of marginalization of his own misery. My mother is extremely involved in politics and feminism, and doesn’t grasp the need to let go of the reigns and just offer guidance, because she likes feeling important. God forbid they’d learn better than their parents and embrace change and new ideas from younger people.

That being said, I am absolutely going to rebel if a Millennial tries to convince me the value of PokΓ©mon Go. It’s not. It’s empirical fact.

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That's probably true. But as a professional politician, he's going to triangulate between "OK, since it's a controversial issue, we're going say OK fine, no federal dollars allocated, just to get these noisy cons to STFU" and the more rational stance, from our point of view, "Geez, it's basic healthcare!" If you think this is easy, ask Pelosi about the impeachment issue again. :)

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Where "slut" is defined as "anyone who won't let me fuck her", regardless of any actual promiscuity. Virgins and monogamous women are "sluts" too.

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Obama (PBUH) always let Biden have the last final say amongst his advisors, but he was the one calling the shots.

This gets back to the fact that "politician" covers both "person who makes policy" and "person who runs for office", even though those are drastically different skill-sets.

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I have a hard time picturing him not being a bit entitled white guy resentful if she (or any other woman) wins. I didn’t think Biden was a bad guy, but the idea is gaining ground in my head. Maybe it’s all the latent patriarchy poisoning my small lady-brain?

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Give up on old white men, Symone. They're not worth it.

... Steve Rogers would be, I suppose, but neither Joe nor Bernie is Captain America.

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... Biden's been running for the presidency off and on since 1984. If you're under 35, he's been running for president your entire life.

If Hillary was "ambitious", what the hell does that make Biden?

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Nothing wrong with compromise for survival’s sake. We need to be WELL DONE with simple survival and moving on to actual LIVING. Respect for the steps gained, obviously. But I don’t associate those gains with β€œthird Way” Dems. I think it came to pass because of people who were hardcore supporters and proponents of those things pushing moderate Dems to nut up and make it happen.

No offense. I hope you understand I respect your view, as I’m aware it’s prevalent amongst our party. It’s just that, to me, saying that we should be more grateful for stopgap measures because the shit would have hit the fan a lot sooner if we hadn’t done them, while we sit currently being sprayed with said shit (all of which seems to have occurred pretty quickly) is just redundant. Some how, some way, the moderate approach to liberal thinking and Dem strategy for compromise has led us here. All Republican cheating aside, the slippery slope of losing our ground with 1 step forward, 2 steps back, then compromise again... well, it didn’t add up to achieving the original goals. We have need of better strategy, and ambition. It’s also just a bit smug to think that what survived a disillusioned Dem party was the only salvation of its reconstruction. New people, new ideas. That has always been the Dem advantage.

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