Republicans to be more selective in choosing Senate candidates in 2024

[Bigun]

Nope.

McConnell doesn't want to destroy all conservatives, but he is incredibly focused on messaging.  He thought the tea party was taking public positions that would alienate voters without producing conservative results, and he never supports that.

On the flip side, McConnell pushed through the most conservative tax bill in decades, and Machiavellied his way to the most conservative Supreme Court since the 1920's.

McConnell cares only about legislative results. He cares nothing about trying to shift the proverbial Overton window by talking symbolic positions that will end up losing.

I think he'd be a lousy Chief Executing, but he's an extremely good Congressional strategist IMHO!.

Fixed it for you! You can thank me later.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

@Right_in_Virginia

Which  kinda proves they were the most educated and thoughtful men in the Colonies.

After all,who better to be revolutionary  leaders than educated and thoughtful people?

Apparently, some folks have never read the speeches and writings of our Founders.   There isn't anyone today who can match them in terms of command of the language and depth of thought.

The guys who made up the Continental Congress were the representatives of the individual colonies - literally the colonial legislators themselves.  They weren't the Establishment back in England, but they really were most of "the Establishment" in the colonies.

The truth is that you need both hot-blooded and more thoughtful guys working together to have pulled off both the Revolution and the successful creation of a new country.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

@Maj. Bill Martin

ESAD!

I don't even remember any  of that,and I will be DAMNED if I will waste my time looking it up to please you,or justifying my actions to you.

Ah, my apologies, @sneakypete .  That was you quoting what someone else said, not what you said.  Your style of quoting other folks confused me a bit when typing on my phone.

[Bigun]

@Maj. Bill Martin I have to ask how much is McConnell paying you to post this tripe?

[sneakypete]

Ah, my apologies, @sneakypete .  That was you quoting what someone else said, not what you said.  Your style of quoting other folks confused me a bit when typing on my phone.

@Maj. Bill Martin

Not that big of a deal,but I thank you for the apology.

The truth is my style of doing anything  anymore sometimes even confuses me. Chemo and Radiation Treatment for Lymphoma pretty much fried my short-term memory. I can remember back to wearing diapers,and can't remember last week.

I even put messages to myself on my phone about things like Dr appointments,and then forget to look  at the phone. This is really  frustrating.

SEEMS to be getting a little better now,but it is a slow process. Age doesn't help,either.

[Cyber Liberty]

Nope.

McConnell doesn't want to destroy all conservatives, but he is incredibly focused on messaging.  He thought the tea party was taking public positions that would alienate voters without producing conservative results, and he never supports that.

On the flip side, McConnell pushed through the most conservative tax bill in decades, and Machiavellied his way to the most conservative Supreme Court since the 1920's.

McConnell cares only about legislative results. He cares nothing about trying to shift the proverbial Overton window by talking symbolic positions that will end up losing.

I think he'd be a lousy Chief Executing, but he's an extremely good Congressional strategist.

We disagree. Agreeably.

[Fishrrman]

The Pubbies can be as "selective" as they like.

But... in those battleground states where The Party has its election apparatus running... if the election's close... the apparatus will make the difference, not the candidates...

[roamer_1]

Nope.

McConnell doesn't want to destroy all conservatives, but he is incredibly focused on messaging.  He thought the tea party was taking public positions that would alienate voters without producing conservative results, and he never supports that.

On the flip side, McConnell pushed through the most conservative tax bill in decades, and Machiavellied his way to the most conservative Supreme Court since the 1920's.

McConnell cares only about legislative results. He cares nothing about trying to shift the proverbial Overton window by talking symbolic positions that will end up losing.

I think he'd be a lousy Chief Executing, but he's an extremely good Congressional strategist.

That's alright - credit where it's due - Except the bolded part.

MurderTurdle is most definitely against Conservatives. He has his hand in every plot to defame them, every plot to defund them.  He is NOT our friend.

[roamer_1]

Apparently, some folks have never read the speeches and writings of our Founders.   There isn't anyone today who can match them in terms of command of the language and depth of thought.

The guys who made up the Continental Congress were the representatives of the individual colonies - literally the colonial legislators themselves.  They weren't the Establishment back in England, but they really were most of "the Establishment" in the colonies.

The truth is that you need both hot-blooded and more thoughtful guys working together to have pulled off both the Revolution and the successful creation of a new country.

That's right.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Apparently, some folks have never read the speeches and writings of our Founders.   There isn't anyone today who can match them in terms of command of the language and depth of thought.

No one's arguing the Founders were educated men.  They were educated, *anti-establishment* men who took down the grandest oligarch on the planet.  I don't understand why you rage against this.

[kevindavis007]

McConnell has sworn a blood oath to destroy any candidates who are conservatives.  His boasts of killing the TEA Party are evidence of that.

The TEA Party killed itself

[Right_in_Virginia]

McConnell doesn't want to destroy all conservatives, but he is incredibly focused on messaging.

Of course he does.  His focus is on maintaining his fiefdom.

[roamer_1]

No one's arguing the Founders were educated men.  They were educated, *anti-establishment* men who took down the grandest oligarch on the planet.  I don't understand why you rage against this.

He ain't raging. He's spitting facts. Many of the founders were the colonial establishment. Many of them heads of business, as were their backers.

[Right_in_Virginia]

He ain't raging. He's spitting facts. Many of the founders were the colonial establishment..

There was no colonial establishment ----- hence, the war.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

He ain't raging. He's spitting facts. Many of the founders were the colonial establishment. Many of them heads of business, as were their backers.

They were often elected members of their colonial legislatures, and generally the most influential/well-known ones.  John Adams, for example, was a member of the Massachusetts legislature for years before the Revolution.  And they were all very well-read.

A large part of the Trump movement openly scorns anyone who is educated...except Trump himself, of course.  And while disparaging or denigrating people because they lack a higher formal education is both wrongheaded and just plain nasty, it isn't any better to disparage people just because they do have that level of education.

I know plenty of people who lack a higher formal education but are very knowledgeable on "academic" subjects because they are self-educated.  They read. Maybe it's history, politics, literature, science...whatever.

What I have absolutely no respect for is someone who purports to be a leader but doesn't know and doesn't care about the base level of understanding required to do the job properly.

[roamer_1]

They were often elected members of their colonial legislatures, and generally the most influential/well-known ones.  John Adams, for example, was a member of the Massachusetts legislature for years before the Revolution.  And they were all very well-read.

That's right - No doubt... Anyone who has read the Federalist papers (among other ancillary documents surrounding the Constitution) can back that up off the cuff.

A large part of the Trump movement openly scorns anyone who is educated...except Trump himself, of course.  And while disparaging or denigrating people because they lack a higher formal education is both wrongheaded and just plain nasty, it isn't any better to disparage people just because they do have that level of education.

I know plenty of people who lack a higher formal education but are very knowledgeable on "academic" subjects because they are self-educated.  They read. Maybe it's history, politics, literature, science...whatever.

What I have absolutely no respect for is someone who purports to be a leader but doesn't know and doesn't care about the base level of understanding required to do the job properly.

That's right too - though I admit a certain amount of scorn for higher education myself... Papered education... I have always been an autodidact, much preferring a more Newtonian approach - Going wherever my nose might lead... And man, has that been a wild ride. I think modern knowledge, as vast as it is, is far too compartmentalized, and that for controlling purposes.

But that is nothing against the knowledge itself.

[roamer_1]

There was no colonial establishment ----- hence, the war.

Nonsense. Read a book sometime.

[sneakypete]

There was no colonial establishment ----- hence, the war.

@Right_in_Virginia

Of course there was. They were the very people that declared the Revolution,and then led it. People like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were as knowledgeable as anyone alive,anywhere,at that time. Hell,they were smarter than most.

The war was over "Taxation without representation." If the Brits had let the locals become British Lords and treated them with respect instead of trying to tax them into poverty while treating them like trash,chances are America would still be a British Colony.

And it's not like the "Colonials" didn't warn the British of what would happen if they didn't start showing a little respect. The Boston Tea Party being a prime example.

[sneakypete]

They were often elected members of their colonial legislatures, and generally the most influential/well-known ones.  John Adams, for example, was a member of the Massachusetts legislature for years before the Revolution.  And they were all very well-read.

A large part of the Trump movement openly scorns anyone who is educated...except Trump himself, of course. 

@Maj. Bill Martin

I'm calling BS on that one. Our shared enemy is very educated. Not as educated as they are evil and conniving,of course,but they couldn't be THAT evil without being educated. They are not street thugs looking for a fix,they are men and women with advanced degrees and the desire to enslave everyone but themselves so THEY can live like the Royalty  of old.


 

[Right_in_Virginia]

@Right_in_Virginia

Of course there was. They were the very people that declared the Revolution,and then led it.

Okay @sneakypete   Can we agree these same men were anti-establishment rebels?

Rebel
reb·el
noun

a person who rises in opposition or armed resistance against an established government or ruler.

[sneakypete]

Okay @sneakypete   Can we agree these same men were anti-establishment rebels?

@Right_in_Virginia

ONLY in the context of rebelling against the established establishment (like that one?) due to being unfairly taxed and then being ignored when they complained.

They were VERY much "establishment fans". They just weren't fans of being forced to pay unfair taxes. If the Brits had started treating them like equals,chances are the American Revolution would have never happened.

BTW,this might have been the very first time a revolution started from the top. It is usually  the "peasant classes" at the bottom of the social ladder that revolts against unfair rule,not the merchant class.

[Right_in_Virginia]

@Right_in_Virginia

They were VERY much "establishment fans". They just weren't fans of being forced to pay unfair taxes..

No, they were not.  Read the Declaration of Independence @sneakypete   It's about a helluva lot more than taxes.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

In Congress, July 4, 1776

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION of the THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.--That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.


https://portal.ct.gov/SOTS/Register-Manual/Section-I/Declaration-of-Independence-US-Constitution

[sneakypete]

Taxes were at the root of the American Revolution,and the other stuff fell into place as it evolved.

The whole "taxation without representation" thing.

[Right_in_Virginia]

@Right_in_Virginia

BTW,this might have been the very first time a revolution started from the top. It is usually  the "peasant classes" at the bottom of the social ladder that revolts against unfair rule,not the merchant class.

The revolution didn't start from the top.  It started with citizens reaching their limits @sneakypete

In all, 56 delegates from 12 colonies came to Philadelphia for the meeting to address the Coercive or Intolerable Acts. The laws were meant as punishment for the activities of the Boston Tea Party, but they affected all colonies.

After about seven weeks of debates, the group agreed to a boycott of British goods within the colonies as a sign of protest, spelled out in the Articles of Association. In addition to the boycott, the Articles called for an end of exports to Great Britain in the following year if the Intolerable Acts weren’t repealed. The First Continental Congress also made plans to convene a second Continental Congress in May 1775 to continue the work started in Philadelphia if the Intolerable Acts remained in force.

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-first-congress-meets-in-philadelphia

The war had already begun by the time the Continental Congress met again to declare independence from the established rulers. 

Next May, when the Second Continental Congress came back to Philadelphia, it met in the Pennsylvania State House. Violence had broken out in Boston with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

That large part doesn't include you.

I was referring to reactions to polls that came out last week showing that Trump was strongest among voters without a college degree.  I saw a lot of "those are the Real Americans" kind of stuff coming from a bunch of Trump people - As if education makes you less of a "real" American.

Not saying that's every Trump supporter - just that I've seen that argument made on multiple occasions at TOS and elsewhere.