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Forums - General - Is a Civil War brewing in the US?

txrattlesnake on 23 April 2009
TheRealMafoo said:
txrattlesnake said:
TheRealMafoo said:

I said this in another thread, but I will say it again for those that never read it.

  • I live on 14 acres of land, with 1,200 feet of lake shore.
  • My house is 2,300 square feet, with 4 bedrooms, two and a half baths.
  • I drive a 2000 Porsche 911 convertible, and a 2001 fully loaded 4x4 Chevy Pickup
  • I have a boat
  • I have all three gaming systems, 5 computers (2 Mac’s, 30” Dell display, and high end gaming rig), a 50” 1080p HDTV, and a fairly high end sound system (Denon receiver and Polk speakers).
  • I have a fully decked out workout room, with free weights, heavy bag, spin bike, flat panel TV and DVD player, the works.
  • I go on a nice vacation a year (cruise though the Caribbean, or a week in Mexico usually)

I could go on, but that should be enough to put a good reference around my standard of living. I bought everything I own. I am 39 years old and have never made more than 80K a year.

What does 80K a year buy in your country?

I hate what my country is becoming, but do I sound like someone willing to start a civil war over it? No, if I get too pissed, I will just go fishing ;)

 

 Maybe you're not rich enough to worry about pennies and yet rich enough to not be in a circumstance where the health insurance that one buys from the company they work for won't even pay for a simple operation and where paying $10.00 a day for gas to drive to work each day five days a week takes a significant amount out of the $175.00 a week your bosses pay you in a company where the only ones that get any real promotions are family members of the bosses.

 

When I was 21, I was poor enough to not own a car, have health insurance, own a home (I rented a small apartment with a roommate), or feed myself properly (one month I ate nothing but waffles). Gas was not $10.00 a day, I rode a bike 15 miles to work and home.

I was lucky enough to live in a country where I could take the opportunities available, and do more then bitch about what the next guy gets.

There are millions of people in this country who put forth a lot less effort then me, and have a lot more. If I looked at my life, and all that I have, and felt sorry for myself because someone else has more, I would be on pathetic individual.

If you want more out of life, and live in the US, start working towards a better life. No one is responsible for your well being, other then you. If you want people to feel sorry for where you are, or where other people in low income positions are, look elsewhere. I lived it, and I know why people still live it.

Get off your ass and do something for yourself, and stop looking for someone else to do it for you.

(speaking to those that live in the US, not sure if other countries have governments that allow them to excel.)

 

     It's a bit hard to get off your ass and do something when you have a nagging pain in your left side that you can't do anything about and no money or insurance to see a doctor about it.

     Also, I never learned to ride a bicycle.

    And it's a bit hard to look for a job when the only jobs in the town where you live are controlled by a local political system and local bigwigs that control the situation where you live so much that you can't even get food stamps although you haven't made a dollar in over a year.  Also if said area is fifty miles in any direction from cities that might have jobs but where for various reasons you still can't get one of them.  Ie.  You worked harder than anybody else at your last job, but your former bosses get their jollies by telling others that you were a poor worker even though you put in more effort than anybody else at what you did and they knew before they gave you your last job that you weren't really qualified for it.

 



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highwaystar101 on 23 April 2009

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Republicans are being sore losers playing the underdog card. And we liberals can't complain because we would be doing the exact same thing.

Nothing changed except the players positions.

--edit--

So to answer the question, there will be no civil war, Republicans are just enjoying the chance to complain, it has been 8 years of us moaning at them. It will calm down.



TheRealMafoo on 23 April 2009
highwaystar101 said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Republicans are being sore losers playing the underdog card. And we liberals can't complain because we would be doing the exact same thing.

Nothing changed except the players positions.

--edit--

So to answer the question, there will be no civil war, Republicans are just enjoying the chance to complain, it has been 8 years of us moaning at them. It will calm down.

 

Being a libertarian, I was arguing for the last 8 years, and going to argue for at least the next 4.


The only thing that has changed, is what I am arguing about. I hope that one day a party will enter office that doesn't try to take my rights away.

The Republican and Democrat parties are definitely not that party.

 



highwaystar101 on 23 April 2009
TheRealMafoo said:
highwaystar101 said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Republicans are being sore losers playing the underdog card. And we liberals can't complain because we would be doing the exact same thing.

Nothing changed except the players positions.

--edit--

So to answer the question, there will be no civil war, Republicans are just enjoying the chance to complain, it has been 8 years of us moaning at them. It will calm down.

 

Being a libertarian, I was arguing for the last 8 years, and going to argue for at least the next 4.


The only thing that has changed, is what I am arguing about. I hope that one day a party will enter office that doesn't try to take my rights away.

The Republican and Democrat parties are definitely not that party.

 

I know what you mean. It's a shame it's a two party system because people like you (who don't support either) don't have as influential a vote as those with mainstream parties do, for what it's worth you may as well pick the lesser of two evils. It's a shame really, I've heard it once or twice before.

 



akuma587 on 23 April 2009

Threatening to secede from the Union is about the dumbest idea I have ever heard.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

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TheRealMafoo on 23 April 2009
highwaystar101 said:

I know what you mean. It's a shame it's a two party system because people like you (who don't support either) don't have as influential a vote as those with mainstream parties do, for what it's worth you may as well pick the lesser of two evils. It's a shame really, I've heard it once or twice before.

 

 

Yea, for me the lesser of two evils has always been the Republican Party. To generalize, the Republicans want to give you your finical freedoms, and take your personal ones. The Democrats want to give you your personal freedoms, and take your finical ones. I say they all belong to me, and government doesn’t have a right to take any of them.

The government is very good at enforcing laws around finances. Cheat on your taxes, and they will find out. They suck however, as taking your personal freedoms. If I wanted to do drugs, it would be easy, and probably a low risk of getting caught. So I vote the way that reduces government control.

The problem is Republicans have gotten just as bad as Democrats in the last 8 years at spending. Well, that was until Obama.

In retrospect, I would have been happier with Clinton as our president for 5 terms, instead of the bullshit we ended up with, and I was not a Clinton supporter.



TheRealMafoo on 23 April 2009
akuma587 said:
Threatening to secede from the Union is about the dumbest idea I have ever heard.

 

Why?

If the Union is far more of a burden then they are worth, why should a state stay? (Other than the fact that the US would attack them).

The problem is the only states that can afford to leave; the US cannot afford to lose.



Slimebeast on 23 April 2009

I never thought the polarization was so huge in the US. It's been very apparent on VGC too lately (although I fink half of the liberals debating are from the UK).

Or rather, I didnt think there was so many liberals as there seem to be. I though 'liberal' was a foul word in the US.



txrattlesnake on 23 April 2009

But couldn't the two part system itself result in a civil war as the strife between them continues to grow?

On one side you have a party that wants to protect the rights of the wealthy over average citizens and that bases most of its decisions on a religion that was proven to be bunk in the mid 19th century.

And on the other hand you have a progressive thinking party that wants to help all people equally and that favors raising the rights and opportunities of the poor and disenfranchised to a point where they are equitable to those of everyone else in the society.



highwaystar101 on 23 April 2009
TheRealMafoo said:
akuma587 said:
Threatening to secede from the Union is about the dumbest idea I have ever heard.

 

Why?

If the Union is far more of a burden then they are worth, why should a state stay? (Other than the fact that the US would attack them).

The problem is the only states that can afford to leave; the US cannot afford to lose.

Could any state survive to current standards by themselves though. I would almost bet that California would be the only one that would thrive without the USA and that's only because of the amount of industry there.