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OT: American Politics

Jake Tapper @jaketapper
53m
In the last week on social media Americans have attacked and insulted and rooted against US Olympians because they don't like their politics and attacked and insulted teen survivors of a US school shooting for discussing policies with which they disagree.
 
Americans have never loved their politicians or thought of Washington as a repository of moral virtue. But so long as the system worked for them—so long as they were wealthier than their parents had been and could expect that their kids would be better off than them—people trusted that politicians were ultimately on their side. Not anymore.

The rise of digital media, meanwhile, has given ordinary Americans, especially younger ones, an instinctive feel for direct democracy. Whether they’re stuffing the electronic ballot boxes of The Voice and Dancing With the Stars, liking a post on Facebook, or up-voting a comment on Reddit, they are seeing what it looks like when their vote makes an immediate difference. Compared with these digital plebiscites, the work of the United States government seems sluggish, outmoded, and shockingly unresponsive.

the tech is there. we may yet make democracy work again. and maybe better than ever.

we may not even need elected representatives anymore.
 
The constitution is a pesky thing though. Very hard to amend. It may happen but not in my lifetime.
 
I don't see it as deaf. I see it as Trump possibly using this to oust Wray since he isn't the lap dog Trump may have thought him to be. Always look for the ulterior motive.

it's supersonic deaf IMO. conflating his personal discomfort wrt to the Russian investigation with a bunch of dead innocent kids
 
the tech is there. we may yet make democracy work again. and maybe better than ever.

we may not even need elected representatives anymore.

yep. I've believed this for years. congress was invented during a time when it took a representative a week of travel to hear what their constituents wanted
 
Seniors in high school are 18. Don't kid yourself, they can be a powerful voting block if cultivated properly.

Not to mention their power to influence their parents. If there's a successful march, it wont be just a bunch of kids.
 
Not to mention their power to influence their parents. If there's a successful march, it wont be just a bunch of kids.

The irony in this statement is that I'm going to a stop gun violence rally because my kid really wants to go.
 
Habsy has over a month to learn

“People are saying that it’s not time to talk about gun control, and we can respect that,” Cameron Kasky, a junior at the high school, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Here’s the time: March 24,” Kasky continued. “In every single city, we are going to be marching together as students begging for our lives. This isn’t about the GOP. This isn’t about the Democrats. This is about the adults. We feel neglected. At this point, you’re either with us or you’re against us.”
 
@NateSilver538
So far, Parkland is *not* fading from the news the way that mass shootings usually do. (The graph shows Google searches for the term "gun control".) The students speaking out makes a pretty big difference.

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Seriously? It had nothing to do with Sanders or Stein. It was all about Clinton. Putin has a seething hatred for Clinton and accused her of meddling in Russian elections in the past. This is all about payback in his mind compounded with subversion of the American political system. You can change the names of the actors but the effort would remain the same on Putin's part.

Yeah, but...it was also about ****ing the States over. Sticking a knife in Hillary was the icing...being able to manipulate the supposedly greatest country in the world would have been orgasmic for this guy.
 
There's only one way to get their attention. Massive kudos to this guy.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/18/politics/gop-donor-ban-assault-weapons/index.html

A top Republican donor vowed on Saturday to stop cutting checks for candidates and political groups that do not support a ban on assault weapons.

Real estate developer Al Hoffman Jr. told CNN's Ana Cabrera on Sunday that he would not give money to lawmakers if they did not spring into action, confirming he had sent an email to GOP leaders explaining his decision.

Hoffman's email came three days after a gunman killed 17 students and teachers at a Florida high school. The New York Times first reported about the email on Saturday.

"When the tragedy occurred, I heard it instantly on the television and I felt my heart just drop," Hoffman told Cabrera. "I felt I was holding my heart in my hands. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that what I had been doing, which was hounding elected officials to vote for better gun law control, was not going to happen. So I felt I had to do it on my own."

Hoffman told CNN he needed to reach out to every Republican donor across the country and persuade them to pass gun legislation. Hoffman emailed six GOP stalwarts, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Jeb Bush, according to the Times.

"I have heard from a couple of them already. And they are endorsing the concept totally," Hoffman said. "And I'm still waiting to hear back from the others. But I believe we can start a movement of consensus here and be successful in achieving our objective."

"All I want to do is to restore sanity and adopt this assault weapon ban so that our children can get back in school and be safe and not get shot," he added.
 
Interesting. Branding is almost everything these days.

Don't have anything myself...anybody?

The term gun control solicits a knee-jerk reaction by gun lovers. If they came up with a term that doesn't make them feel like they're after their guns then they could sell stricter laws on getting a gun. Change the tune so to speak.
 
Someone needs to pee on the graves of the founding fathers for the second amendment. I can't believe you could shoot 1 bullet in a minute over 200 years ago and that is being used so much in 2018.
 
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