WHY WE LOST!

[Frederick L Neff]

I have heard many out there, from pundits to the average Joe asking "Why We Lost". I have heard this from Democrats of all parts of the spectrum as well as many so called Republicans, so I will effort to answer this question.

I have heard all kinds of explanations, from misreading polling data, to angry white men, and they're all wrong. The question now is where to begin. There are a plethora of places to start so lets begin with the Democratic Party.

First lets dispel a little misconception, it is the Democratic party that supported slavery, while the republicans supported civil rights, the Democratic party supported segregation, it was a Democrat Colonel that started the KKK as a Military wing of the Democratic party in the south, targeting not just any random black individual but aspiring black political figures and the Republicans that supported them,this is Historical fact, not supposition, look it up in any history book. What does this have to do with today? The secret to understanding this question is understanding the Democrat party never abandoned slavery, they merely molded it into a 21 century version based on economics instead of race, you see the economics based slavery is so much less messy than slavery based on race, creed or sex. This is where it gets messy, because many of what we call "establishment" Republicans have followed the lead of their left side counterparts and joined the ranks of what are now called the "elites". These elites are both Democrat and Republicans now that feel their "high education" allows them the privilege of telling others how to live their lives, "We know better better because were educated" is often the explanation. Ironically this could not be farther from the truth, education does not denote intelligence, just ask anyone who live in a college town, they will explain. Is this not the same position as the slave master directing the slave? They take from the fruits of your labor to distribute what they decide is equitable, don't pay what they decide is a fair portion and they hunt you down and take what they feel is  theirs, and they now tell you what you must spend your money on, because they know better. Set aside ownership documentation and this explanation fits the everyday lives of every working american, and none suffer worse than the working poor, who merely sit in wait for the day when then their small gains toward financial independence are taxed away from them. The Democrats pander to minority's, promising them hope, the establishment republicans pander to the independent business owner promising them hope, all the while both figuring how to take as much as they can of what you have to feed their own greed and keep you slaving to provide them with more.

Why did Trump win? College educated or not, hes a brawling street kid, like most of the working poor in America, and those middle Americans are tired of being told to shut up and take it. Will he deliver?Only time will tell.        

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

History teaches one a sense of time and perspective

* For many moderns, schooled in bullshit, our time is the greatest because of all our "progress". Why of course!

* So too, these schmucks insist that industrial capitalism which aggregates less than 4% of the time since Man developed organized culture/society in the Fertile Crescent; is an unsurpassed blessing showering us w/untold stuff.

* Democracy, another of their canards, is the prerequisite for all reason and righteousness; despite the reality that the Greeks and Romans utterly rejected the idiocy of egalitarianism, namely that all men are equal; the foundation of the democratic impulse.

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[Rhodes]

History taught well teaches this, taught poorly as it is in almost all cases teaches a dislike of history.
There is a reason for this.

It is a field of study that has a couple of unique requirements, empathy and imagination. One has to mentally place oneself in that situation and time to understand the lesson it has to give. Of course it also needs curiosity a reason to study other than a grade on paper.

Any wonder it not taught well in that statist indoctrination factory center of a school system?
I know very few people that ever had the pleasure of attending a well taught course of history.
This is by design. The lack of historical studies is required to feed the people massive doses of bullshit.

As for industrial capitalism well it is easily a very mixed blessing, one only has to study history to understand that much, oops thats right... no history... just bullshit.

To gain liberty one must abandon democracy, the majority must be constrained.
All men are equal, eventually death takes us all and no one survives, but the Creator holds no bias.
I know what you mean though I do reason it to be a goal that will always be just out of reach just due to the corrupt nature of men. To abandon it though is to invite catastrophe as we learn from ... err... history.

[kevin kiernan]

History is the 2nd best teaching tool we have IMO. .Let me add that the devil injects greed and selfishness via the teacher in many cases. If the teacher has an agenda then the teachings are usually tainted..But if the teacher has a relationship with God, then the lessons are usually pure of evilness...We all have our little swamps to drain and clean up. We need to call out evil were ever you see .it...Trump will attack from the top. And we need to engage from the bottom. Top down bottom up. Thanks Van Jones , that`s a good strategy. LOL

[Rhodes]

Really all the bible truly does is teach us history, very important history if a bit unclear at times.
One has to understand how things came to be as they are to know where things lead.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

Indeed, Rhodes and much better articulated

[Rhodes]

Well thank you for the kind word.
The older I get the more verbose I tend to become when the listener is not a total waste of time. ;)

[M]

Gentlemen,

I still prefer Capitalism over the Greco-Roman ideology of using slaves for everything from Sex slaves/body servants,to circus maximus gladiatorial exhibitions. Besides I believe in a Republic not a Democracy,Autocracy,Theocracy,Oligarchy,Satrapy, or plain old dictatorship.My point in bringing them up is those systems never used anything akin to Capitalism. The systems cited used all of those in one form or another, even combined. 

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

To each his own assertions and opinions

My core point was direct and simple.

Organized culture/society commenced  w/the creation of cities in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia around 3500 BC, which is some 5,500 years past.

In contrast, industrial capitalism as defined by Adam smith, commenced around 1760 AD; some 250 years ago, or 4% of the time.

Mankind's greatest achievers in every single aspect of the Arts & Sciences, occurred in the earlier 96% of the timeline;  an unassailable and undisputable fact!

Consider a moment, two of the allegedly greatest breakthroughs of modern science, namely Evolution and Relatively. Despite all the ballyhoo, both remain unproven Theories which pale in contrast to the scientific Laws discovered by the Greeks, Copernicus and Newton; to name but a few.

Repeating my earlier assertion, modern industrial capitalism's singular contribution to Mankind has been to provide him w/ piles and piles of stuff. Period!

[marrand]

Thomas:
I am smiling. From the little topic of why Hillary lost the election, we have advanced (strayed? got lost in? evolved?) to philosophy, the basic understanding of humankind.  Your last post is rich, rich enough to demand a full book to answer and rebut. You will hear from me; but in a thread of "why we lost?"?? LOLOL

You write "to each his own assertions and opinions". That's good only for starters. Heck, that's how our Founding fathers started, each having their own assertions and opinions, but they slowly and often painfully coalesced and produced our Constitution. They didn't just say to each other: "eh…to each his own ….", and went out for a beer. 

marrand

(PS: I am not poking fun at Fred Neff; I loved this topic. But I feel sure he will admit it is small in comparison to the evolution of human thought).

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

Again, fair enough Marrand.

As for Hillary, I assert that character is destiny.

Consider. Slick Willie (aka Elmer Gantry) was a voracious womanizer since puberty, a reality known to all. Yet she married and tolerated his behavior for decades while raising a child.

What spouse w/an iota of self respect tolerates and therefore encourages such behavior from their other half for decades?????

She lost because of who she is and who she is not; a person of core principle!

[marrand]

Thomas:

Agreed about Hillary. The key point for me on this matter is that somehow, perhaps by divine will, our country was saved from her.

But the rest of your previous post is much more interesting and important.

[M]

Thomas,

What about Einstein, Dirac, Jung, Sagan, Kant,Hawking, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger. All contemporary with the 20th Century and all somewhat Philosophers too. They owe their inspiration from Democritus and his atomic theory of the Universe. Agreed, Society builds on itself and goes through cycles of advancement and devolution. The point is Hillary lost because she did not speak to the people nor did she hold the general Value system of the public in her Speeches. Trump did speak to the public and it will be proven out or denied in what he actually does when in office.

My Opinion and it's only an opinion, about Trump's philosophy is this; To survive Capitalism requires a strong and large Middle Class to support it through consumerism. To survive, a Middle Class needs to be Independent and free to choose the direction their lives will take with minimal input from a Government. In other words, Self Governed and in control of their representatives. This in turn would not work unless there was a document of general laws that could not be transgressed by the public nor the public's elected representatives, to put a curb on the public and their representatives voting themselves bread and circuses.. This has only been marginally happening over the last hundred years and the people are tired of the false promises and over control of their lives. The Representatives have figured out ways to circumvent the strictures of the Constitution and have worked for themselves instead of for the people.

Trump seemed to project a penchant to correct this situation, and Hillary projected the opposite.