Quote (DocPhil @ Oct 24 2025 05:20am)

There's a huge middle, but it's just being ignored because normal hard working americans that just try to take care of themselves and their neighbours don't get news time, they're boring. So they're ignored. I think though that Israel is a perfect example of a 'middle' point where both republicans and democrats agree that they have gone way too far. Media doesn't help ofc they're super biased on both fronts so a third and fourth viable political party would likely open up for more media companies and then the remaining ones would liekly not just pick sides but just report the news more fairly and let people again make up their own damn minds.

Quote (TeenyUncle8 @ 24 Oct 2025 15:58)

I don’t think that’s true, at least mostly, anymore. There is a middle, but it’s increasingly shrinking. We’re becoming hardened in our partisanship.

I do agree with your more viable candidates take though. We need jungle primaries, ranked choice voting and non-partisan redistricting commissions. But convincing political parties to weaken their own power is going to be a challenge (probably an extreme understatement).

Quote (DocPhil @ Oct 24 2025 05:18am)

Then perhaps it's worse than i thought. I must say though politics aside. I did a road trip back in 2010 (11k miles) and honestly it didn't matter what state we visited everyone we talked to or stayed with (we did a fair share of couch surfing in those days) everyone were always super accommodating and friendly.

Quote (DocPhil @ Oct 24 2025 12:20pm)

There's a huge middle, but it's just being ignored because normal hard working americans that just try to take care of themselves and their neighbours don't get news time, they're boring. So they're ignored. I think though that Israel is a perfect example of a 'middle' point where both republicans and democrats agree that they have gone way too far. Media doesn't help ofc they're super biased on both fronts so a third and fourth viable political party would likely open up for more media companies and then the remaining ones would liekly not just pick sides but just report the news more fairly and let people again make up their own damn minds.

Quote (SBD @ Oct 24 2025 03:42pm)

Ill die on the hill that both sides are a bunch of corrupt corporate puppets and your life will not be better at this point under democrat or republican as long as they all continue to sell out.

I don't think I've held that stance through my earlier years, guess I tin-foiled hatted as I aged.

That is not to say there are not politicians out there with the general interest of the average American in mind. it's just they are the minority.

Quote (T3XBOT @ Oct 24 2025 01:23pm)

This ^

It never ceases to amaze me how people who know absolutely nothing about how the government works seem to have such big opinions on it.

Quote (Pyrotechx @ Oct 23 2025 10:25pm)

Anyone else think that the way republicans blatantly lie and get their base to believe it wholeheartedly, is going to be studied for years to come?

Republican lies in the last couple of weeks that I can think of off the top of my head:

- Dem CR contains health insurance funding for undocumented immigrants (besides Reagan era law that requires hospitals to provide life saving ER visits). This is a blatant lie and not a single person who has claimed it has been able to point to the statute in the publicly available CR. Also, undoc immigrants pay somewhere between $30bn and $100bn a year into Medicaid, SS, and Medicare and they do not get access that at all. So even if they were getting health insurance, they are funding it themselves, but they aren't.

- $50bn rural hospital assistance being blocked by dems in CR. Repubs SLASHED $150bn in their July bill for rural hospitals and realized it would impact them in midterms so they try to add back $50bn and then claim dems are blocking it, even though they removed it in the first place.

- Trump won't touch the East Wing to build his ballsack room. Trump is even is on video saying this and so is the press sec. He demolished the east wing, but repubs are literally claiming it is still there even though imagery shows it is gone.

- Dems want to add $1.5 Trillion to the CR. This is false, as dems are just requesting a continuation of tax credits that are already there, but repubs have slashed that 1.5T to fund their $4 trillion deficit bill that is a tax break for billionaires.

- Trump is able to demolish the east wing, because former presidents did construction (and then give a historical list)... All congressionally approved... Trump was not. IT IS LITERALLY PUBLIC INFO THAT HE WAS NOT CONGRESSIONALLY APPROVED because the gov't is shut down and the National Parks Service did not permit it. PUBLIC INFO.

- This is a democrat shutdown. False. Repubs control house, senate, presidency (and some would say supreme court). Trump has said in the past multiple time that shutdowns fall on the president. Repubs could vote to change the rules to force a passing of the CR if they really cared. House repubs refuse to meet for negotiations. They claim the dirty bill was bipartisan and it literally wasn't... All repubs and 1 dem voted to pass it.

These are just a few examples and I will continue to add more examples of the blatant denials of reality and facts.