I'm choosing to highlight what won't be mentioned much outside of the MSM. I'm assuming that everyone here is able to find the numerous sources that cover issues accusing Trump of corruption on their own as they're blasted all over the entirety of the internet, and TV Broadcasts.
There are a couple possible reasons you don't hear a lot about Biden being corrupt. One could be a massive worldwide conspiracy to keep a lid on it. The other could be, maybe it's not really quite so much a thing as it's advertised to be.
That's a step. Thank you.
Both candidates are corrupt. One represents more individual corruption and the other is nepotistic and systematic corruption. Both are bad.
I'd love to rebut that, because it feels like we're headed right into reversing that whole "corruption is bad" statement, but I genuinely sat here for a good five minutes staring at that statement and trying to puzzle out, in the mind of Mike R, which candidate you think is which. I give up. Which is which?
Now I'd like to ask, is it so hard to have a civil conversation
Yes.
It's not in my nature to be abrasive. I'm a peacemaker. I'm a fixer. I like things that work, and I don't like things that don't work. I try to see things from other perspectives. To make allowances when things are broken but people are actually trying, making an effort, doing the right things. It works well for me, with other parties that argue and deal in good faith. I don't really find such qualities in Republicans these days.
In 2016, I could sort of understand wanting an outsider, someone who wouldn't be business as usual. I didn't agree, mainly because Trump obviously wasn't the right guy for the job, but I got the sentiment. I remember back when Trump was totally going to turn Presidential, any day now. When he was going to learn from experience. When he was going to hire "the best people" and listen to them. When this much famed deal-making expertise was going to start paying off. When "Make America Great Again" was still a Rorschach blot.
In 2020, the man is perfectly open about being President of 40% of America. We have to keep indexed databases of ridiculously transparent lies the man has told. He's the very definition of snowflake, a man who can dish it out all day long but can't take it for a single moment. He's using the Presidency to hold countless civil and criminal proceedings at bay. It's astonishing how many in his campaign and administration have been arrested and prosecuted, and that's
with Barr and the DOJ running interference. The enemies of our country laugh at us and do whatever the hell they want. China is ascendant and isn't waiting around for us to get our shit together. Our allies pity us and move on without us. Our debt is massively up; our credit and credibility is shot. We have 200,000 people dead of preventable illness. We started and lost some trade wars. We started some race wars and we're losing those too. It'll be the work of
generations to make good all of these shenanigans, and that's if we can get started right away.
So when people openly talk about making common cause with this guy, when in the year 2020 there's no longer any doubt about who he is and what he stands for, a guy that never grew out of being a grade-school bully, abusing both systems and people over and over and over again to get his way, only to cry and whine to Teacher when someone finally pushes back, yes, it's the very definition of bad faith, and quite a severe test for civil discourse. But I try anyway.
You sure didn't hesitate to try berating me before reading what is contained within. If you would like to highlight some corruption and have a healthy conversation about it, then sure. I'd wager you'd probably even done so on this forum here previously. I know most people here (with a few notable exceptions) would more than happily engage in healthy debate as to whether or not there's merit to the claims.
Perhaps I've misjudged your state of mind. If so, I certainly apologize.
I'll go claim-by-claim on that report later. I looked at just the table of contents and some reporting about it, and it's more of the six-degrees-of-Joe-Biden crap they were trying before, but exposing one's ideas and conceptions to public test is the core of civil discourse and I'm always more than happy to go down that road. Because I believe if someone can take one of my ideas and tear it apart in moments with a few citations, then I think they're doing me a favor, and that's something I want to happen before I vote for it.
P.S. I've never used the phrase "libtard" or any such synonyms in my entire life. I have my biases, but such petty namecalling only proports and perpetuates moronic political tribalism. "I attack ideas. I don't attack people." ~ Antonin Scalia ... I try to live by this M.O., perhaps not always effectively, but hopefully more and more as I grow older.
Your Dad can verify I use that word, from time to time, in jest or in self-deprecating humor. Call it a coping strategy since I'm deeply outnumbered here. If nothing else, like certain other slurs in our country's history, as a member of the maligned group I get to take that word back and make it my own.