And America Continues to Show it's True Colors. . .

[Old Thunder]

"Mr. Franklin, have you produced a republic or a monarchy?"
"A republic... if you can keep it!"

 

[fuzzygobo]

One thing I miss from years past (back when Reagan was President, before
your time for most of you) was this feeling (so neatly summed up in the final episode of Fraggle Rock) of "We're all in this together". Despite differences in color, religion, sexual orientation, political loyalty, etc., there was still the possibility we could put our differences aside LONG ENOUGH for the common good of coming together as one.

Today? Any difference is enough to keep people apart. "You support Trump so you must be racist". "I hate you because you don't agree with me". "How DARE you hurt my feelings?!"

What would it take for us all to feel "We're all in this together" again? Something that exceeds any differences we're battling now. Like an invasion from Mars.

btw, Dwayne, we did have a country hillbilly in the White House before. Back when I was in grade school, Jimmy Carter called the shots. He was a lousy president, the economy was in the toilet, his foreign policy was a disaster (We had this little botched job with Iran, when they were Public Enemy #1 where Americans were held hostage for 444 days). Once he left office, he has done incredibly well in various humanitarian causes.
And his redneck brother Billy was a hoot. Had his own brand of beer for a while.

 

[Oscarfan]

I guess the thing about Trump is that he's said/done so many deplorable things that should've discredited him. People were willing to denounce Hillary because of the email thing, but didn't let any of Trump's much worse behavior deter them.

A lot of people on my feeds posted things along the lines of this: "You're not racist/sexist for supporting Trump. But at no point did his sexism, racism, etc. stop you from supporting him."

 

[D'Snowth]

One thing I miss from years past (back when Reagan was President, before
your time for most of you) was this feeling (so neatly summed up in the final episode of Fraggle Rock) of "We're all in this together". Despite differences in color, religion, sexual orientation, political loyalty, etc., there was still the possibility we could put our differences aside LONG ENOUGH for the common good of coming together as one.

Today? Any difference is enough to keep people apart. "You support Trump so you must be racist". "I hate you because you don't agree with me". "How DARE you hurt my feelings?!"

That's what I've been saying for a while now. Well, more specifically, is that America should be as you had previously described . . . or, at the very least, that's the America I learned about and was instructed to love and respect when I was growing up. But within the last year or so (well, like MuppetsRule has pointed out, probably years longer, but only more evident now than it has been), America has pretty much become as you describe it now: my way or the high way. There is no unity in the United States, and the United States are anything but. There's no sense of coming together for a common good, it seems to be all about looking out for number one in America now.

What would it take for us all to feel "We're all in this together" again?

Like I've said before, I really feel the rest of the country needs to experience exactly what we did in the old Trump thread a few weeks ago: having our eyes open at how ridiculous we were fighting amongst ourselves over our differences, when it's clear that if there's one thing we do agree on is that we want what's best for ourselves and our country - whether we like or support Trump or not; everything else, we learned to agree to disagree on. This is exactly what the rest of the country needs to experience, only on a much grander scale. Will it ever happen? Doubtful. But we can hope.

 

[D'Snowth]

I guess the thing about Trump is that he's said/done so many deplorable things that should've discredited him. People were willing to denounce Hillary because of the email thing, but didn't let any of Trump's much worse behavior deter them.

Interestingly, I was speaking with a preacher the other night, who pretty much had the same mentality, in that, "Yeah, Trump may have said these things about women and such, but, look at what Bill Clinton did by having all those affairs!"

 

[dwayne1115]

Looks like the Trump addministation is trying to place a ban on trans gender bathrooms. I ask my self Why?

 

[MuppetsRule]

There's a simple explanation as to why some Trump supporters, the ones who are racist, feel emboldened. While Trump will tweet about every silly perceived slight, from Saturday Night Live to the media, ad nauseum, he's mostly remained quiet on the the subject of antisemitism. It took him weeks to disavow KKK leader David Duke and only did so begrudgingly because he didn't want to turn down *anyone's* support during the campaign - not even from racists. He also neglected to mention Jews in his Holocaust remembrance speech and has made a habit of retweeting antisemitic material from antisemitic people. He plays dumb about it, but these are all things that happened. No wonder people who hate Jews have felt emboldened. It's as if Trump has given a wink and nod to them. Now that they've defaced tombstones in Jewish cemeteries, he finally had to say something. His main defense is that his son in law is Jewish. But that's not transferable and it doesn't account for his behavior so far. So, anyway, that's the skinny on why some racists feel emboldened by the Trump administration. What's required now from Trump is not just a tweet or a statement, but a full-fledged press conference condemning these practices and a call to prosecute these crimes to the fullest extent of the law. I doubt he'll go that far because it would mean alienating some of his most vigilant supporters. But anything less is weak and not presidential. We'll see what happens, but I won't hold my breath.

We do need to keep in mind that there is not one shred of evidence that I am aware of that the vandalism to the Jewish cemetery in St. Louis or the bomb threats called in to Jewish Community Centers across America were done by Trump supporters. Before we condemn President Trump or his supporters we should wait for some evidence to support those claims. The accusations otherwise are just baseless.

In fact, many of Trump's friends, colleagues, business partners, etc. have said there is not a shred of racism or anti-semitism in Donald Trump. Even the Prime Minister of Israel has said the same. He has praised President Trump in the past and continues to show his support for him.

http://ktla.com/2017/02/15/president-trump-welcomes-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu-to-the-white-house/


From the article:

Trump also answered a question about connections between a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the US since his election and support his campaign received from bigoted groups by first touting his electoral victory before pledging he will “do everything in our power to stop long-simmering racism and other things going on.”

Netanyahu backed Trump on the issue, saying, “There is no greater supporter for the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump. We should put that to rest.”​

And another article:

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Po...king-strong-stand-against-antisemitism-482286
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Po...king-strong-stand-against-antisemitism-482286
What I found even more interesting in the second article was the last couple of paragraph's and quotes from the leader of Australia:

Regarding the phone call with Trump, Turnbull chuckled when asked whether Netanyahu might help repair the relationship between the US and Australia after that call.

“You really shouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspapers,” he said of the infamous call, about which it was reported that Trump allegedly hung up on Turnbull.

“That is absolutely not true,” he said, adding that the call was courteous, “frank and forthright,” and ended with Turnbull thanking Trump for “his commitment to the arrangements [regarding taking in refugees} that had been entered into by his predecessor."​

Yeah, so I guess we should keep that in mind when reading anti-Trump stuff on the internet and in newspapers. Don't believe everything you read on the internet or in the newspapers.

 

[Oscarfan]

Looks like the Trump addministation is trying to place a ban on trans gender bathrooms. I ask my self Why?

I don't think that's the plan. They're removing the federal laws implemented by the Obama administration and letting the schools/districts make their own calls.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ender-bathroom-guidelines-20170222-story.html

Why do this? I dunno. Like I said before, how is stuff like this making America great again? Where's the job or economic growth in doing this type of thing?

 

[D'Snowth]

Like I said before, how is stuff like this making America great again? Where's the job or economic growth in doing this type of thing?

I don't know about the bathroom debacle, but apparently cutting off the lifeblood to PBS, saving us all of 0.0625% of the national budget will help build up a stronger military.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I don't think that's the plan. They're removing the federal laws implemented by the Obama administration and letting the schools/districts make their own calls.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ender-bathroom-guidelines-20170222-story.html

Why do this? I dunno. Like I said before, how is stuff like this making America great again? Where's the job or economic growth in doing this type of thing?

Kind of like how they want to cut funding for PBS, NPR and the arts to "save the government's money" even though those things account for less than one percent of the government's budget.