Quote (PlasmaSnake101 @ 20 Nov 2018 10:31)
It only matters for the political know nothings who are more interested in team sports and what the idiots fill the time in on cable news than policy results. I'd gladly vote for an absolute hypocrite or generally bad human being if he or she was going to advance the policies I want to see put in place. Someone's personal hypocrisy doesn't (can but not necessarily) alter their policy positions, which is what I'm voting on.
People attacking Trump for dodging the draft is the most retarded shit ever. First off, he didn't dodge it. The deferments were legal and we don't consider people who got legitimate deferments to be draft dodgers until such a position is politically expedient. Secondly, President Carter's move to pardon all draft dodgers (of which Trump was not) is generally seen as the correct approach.
It is difficult to fault a guy for following his own passions instead of going to Vietnam to pointlessly gun down Vietnamese peasants, bomb farm lands, set fire to cities. Vietnam is still a big, black mark in American history. In any case, I'm not sure if Trump would have made a good soldier. To be honest, I see Trump as more dovish than most neo-con Republicans, despite fiery rhetoric. He seems rather uninterested in actually starting a war and more interested in shit talking his way to the negotiating table (North Korea).
Ultimately, it doesn't matter. I know Robert Mueller was a Vietnam "hero", probably means he just gunned down some yellow people attacking unlawful invaders without mercy or thought. Or maybe he's a hero for saying Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. John McCain is an asshole. We can admit that. Everyone who has been jerking their dicks over McCain's capture called him a racist senile fuck back in 2008. Hence the timeless jsp post "Damn fucking shit eating republican shit scum trash sucker ass banger mcsame motha fucka."
As for the guy who got Bin Laden, what do you want? Congrats? I'm so glad we were able to organize wetworks to assassinate a man to end the wars in the middle east...oh wait. Well at least for delivering a crushing blow to Al-Qaeda, oh gee I guess that doesn't work either. Taking out leadership of a terrorist organization doesn't really deliver here and now tangible results. You'd think we'd realize this after having a war on terror for near two decades. Bin Laden's death was headhunting, just a therapeutic slaying. He plotted a scheme that resulted in the death of over 3,000 Americans in a single day and we spent 10 years and billions of dollars to track him down and kill him.
The reason Trump goes after military is because he goes after everyone who shit talks him, and he goes after people by calling them dumb, corrupt, and/or incompetent (don't knock his approach, it's the same strat everyone uses against him). We live in strange times where Vets and the military is beyond reproach and criticism, especially according to the Left. We should just let Gold Star families, POWs and military leaders run the nation since it is a cardinal sin to ever say one is full of shit and can fuck off.
I stand by my point. McRaven's criticism is retarded. Calling out a biased press (turn on CNN and MSNBC and Shepard Smith on Fox, I listen to them daily on XM in my car) is not a threat to "democracy". The press is biased, it should be called out. The press writes false and misleading stories that go viral that stick in the mind of the public only to quietly retract statements that no one ever hears because they've all moved on to the next story. We've all seen the original tweet that savages the President get 100k likes and 25k retweets, and then the retraction/clarification that completely alters the scenario only get 100 likes and 15 retweets. That is fake news, that is misleading the public, intentionally or not it doesn't matter. The press inserts opinions into news reporting, which is always annoying, and they do it in their fucking headlines.
Anyone who claims criticizing the press is a threat to democracy is a fucking moron. Maybe McRaven should have stuck to what he knows, shooting people and helping other people shoot people. For decades people have essentially referred to Fox News or talk radio as fake news in one fashion or another. Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, other news anchors, celebrities. Everyone is in too much of a rush to slob all over a "war hero's" nob. Unless they're veterans who support Trump. They don't get on television in that case.
Everything people accuse Trump supporters as being "cult members" for goes both ways. It's politics, it's tiresome. In any case, Trump is losing his Right wing populist base due to his failure to deliver on his largest campaign promises. It'll most likely be politics as usual by 2020. And once a reactive, pro-immigration Dem gets in, we'll see demographics is destiny.
I don't think we should view lieing and otherwise condemnable behavior in most socieities as simply a means to an end in politics. I think being a good person still does matter, and I also think having bad leaders who only care about advancing their own ideology and policy will slowly erode our country over time. Policy over everything is short-sighted.
Fair point about draft dodging.
On your last point about cults, I think that's a false equivalence. It doesn't go both ways. Americans are certainly more loyal to their party than they have almost ever been before, but being a Trump supporter and a Trump critic aren't the same in terms of blind devotion. Sure, most Republicans approve of Trump and most Democrats disapprove of Trump, but members of Trump's base rarely, if ever, will criticize the President or (publicly) disagree with something he does. Meanwhile, his critics will indeed often reflexively go into an orange man bad routine, but will also more readily admit when he does something they like. Democrats were way more willing to criticize Obama. CNN/MSNBC ran way more shit against Obama than Fox News ever has done against Trump.
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