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I think it's pretty telling that we're seeing all these critics the moment PJ has bowed out. They keep claiming have read or followed the thread and maybe they have but certainly not on anything more than a surface level given the nature of their arguments. The major trend in their critique is building this strawman about the thread having pathologised the entire right. Anyone who has been reading the read this long knows that PJ has been describing very small groups who have taken a disproportionate amount of power and influence when the GOP started building their really lovely big tent by adopting language etc that brought them in and riled them up. To be fair to the folks dropping by there's certainly been posters trying to do the thing they're claiming is the core of the thread, but again, had they read the thread would have noticed the pattern of that getting addressed by PJ and others repeatedly. Plus critiques and views with substance are very welcome and encouraged by both the OP and most of the posters involved, with the very explicit knowledge that these are discussions of ideas very much in the rough and PJ very much acknowledged her lack of formal education within this sphere as well as her limits in general.
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Nov 8, 2016 19:45
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Prester Jane posted:So this is a thing that is apparently happening. So what happens when this all falls apart because it's not a sustainable way to approach governing? I've been following this thread and your writings (welcome back again!) with keen interest in explaining part of what occurred in my hometown of Toronto. Most might remember our former mayor Rob Ford who was made world famous for getting caught on video smoking crack. Before that wild ride got its start he was very much a kind of mini-Trump from 2010 onward (in terms of political scale only, natch) -Railing against the elites while being a 'business man' -Stop the gravy train (His catchphrase for putting a stop to perceived wasteful spending) -Racism -Non stop lies, exaggerations and wild claims -Completely arbitrary ideological cuts across the board -Rural/Suburban appeal (his main source of disaffected voter support that he called Ford Nation) I could go on and on but I'll skip to the relevant bits. The election results came at a total surprise to pollsters and the media outlets of the city. Councilors who hitched their wagon to this perceived uprising of Ford Nation had roughly a year of amicable and 'productive' time at city hall where they were able to pass all kinds of terrible garbage like cancelling a major transit expansion (one being funded primarily by the provincial government no less), slashing budgets across the board by 10%, undermining all kinds of city services. However, things got rougher for him after a thoroughly unsuccessful series of attacks on the city library system (the largest neighborhood based library system in the world). Rob Ford and his brother Doug Ford (who was elected to replace Rob's previous city council seat) began to scream about being victims every time anything didn't go their way. The media was frequently blamed as being part of some kind of conspiracy against them. This led to the burning of many bridges (off and on council) and soon left them with few allies on council to the point where motions brought forth by the Fords were frequently voted down out of spite. Once the crack allegations came forward all hell broke loose and it was a new scandal with Ford spouting off insanity every week and then almost every other day. After exploring options of how you forcefully remove an elected official who is clearly unfit for duty (turns out in Ontario: you can't), city council sought the next best thing: stripping Rob Ford of everything but the very letter of the law in terms of mayoral powers, which isn't much beyond ceremonial purposes. All the committees, appointments etc were passed on the the deputy mayor and Ford was relegated to irrelevance a little more than the last year of his term. Everything about Trump screams at me being Rob Ford dialed up to 11, from what is at stake and constant nonstop stream of insanity. Realistically speaking, if the Senate and Congress decide not to go along with his garbage, the judiciary continues to stomp on his executive orders, what will trump and his gang do? What about the trump supporters? I saw how this played out in Toronto and it was awful but this seems like setting something up a billion times worse.
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Mar 16, 2017 04:31
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fishmech posted:Trump didn't arise "in place of alternatives". Trump is in line with the Republican mainstream of anti-democracy and racism that is the Republican party. The dude didn't even acheive plurality of votes or anything like that, he relied on longstanding abuse of the electoral system by his party. 
urf fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Oct 21, 2018 |
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Oct 21, 2018 08:13
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