A silver lining in a dark cloud of socialism

[ajax18]

Obviously I'm heartbroken by this election. I've had an end of times feeling since the Covid lockdowns but logically I don't yet think this is the apocalypse. There were many positive things for conservatives to take from this election. Republicans held the senate. This is an important firewall against people like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio Cortez who would like to pack the court, make Puerto Rico and D.C. states, and make the USA a one party country. I think they can hold the line against the Harris administration for at least a couple more years. Republicans will likely take the House in 2 years. There's no reason we can't impeach whoever the next Democrat president is based on the precedent set by the Democrats if we feel like it.

I remember when GWB barely won the state of Florida. Now Florida looks like a bastion of conservatism. How did we do it? We couldn't have done it without the support of our Latin American brethren. It turns out many of these people don't particularly like socialism and for good reason. It's a lesson that seems particularly fresh on the minds of Cubanos and Venezolanos. Most believe in God, self reliance, private property, energy independence, an America first agenda, economic nationalism, and yes even enforcing the border. I was very tempted to say that this election was our country's last chance. But I can't help but be optimistic about the great coalition of working class people of faith that is forming.

Soon there will be no more Gringos or Latinos in the Republican party just as there were no more Nephites and Lamanites.

[Gadianton]

We couldn't have done it without the support of our Latin American brethren. It turns out many of these people don't particularly like socialism and for good reason. It's a lesson that seems particularly fresh on the minds of Cubanos and Venezolanos. Most believe in God, self reliance, private property, energy independence, an America first agenda, economic nationalism, and yes even enforcing the border. I was very tempted to say that this election was our country's last chance. But I can't help but be optimistic about the great coalition of working class people of faith that is forming.

Soon there will be no more Gringos or Latinos in the Republican party just as there were no more Nephites and Lamanites.

And yet, your greatest hope is to build a wall that costs 20M a mile to keep them all out. lol.

Oh wait, you think that the vast majority of these people are the result of immigrating by the book?

[Moksha]

How did Trump fool those Latin voters so easily by claiming Biden was a socialist? It is not like they were fresh off the boat from Cuba. That socialist claim is so old school Republican. You would think they would be savvier. It is like they fell for that old pull my finger-fart routine.

Were they unaware of the Trump base Proud Boy's feeling towards them? Ajax, do you think Republicans can build further in-roads with this gullibility?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Most Hispanics and Latinos (gotta include Brazi in this) I’ve known are socially Conservative, even if they’re personally and privately Liberal. Also, economically they’re all workers, white and blue collars alike. They’re also pretty religious. This tends toward a Conservative shift as they grow older, and at ~30M Hispanics, Latinos, and Chicanos aren’t a monolith. If the GOP courts them with individual freedom plus God, Family, and Country the former will probably make significant gains.

- Doc

[Icarus]

Obviously I'm heartbroken by this election. I've had an end of times feeling since the Covid lockdowns but logically I don't yet think this is the apocalypse. There were many positive things for conservatives to take from this election. Republicans held the senate. This is an important firewall against people like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio Cortez who would like to pack the court, make Puerto Rico and D.C. states, and make the USA a one party country. I think they can hold the line against the Harris administration for at least a couple more years. Republicans will likely take the House in 2 years. There's no reason we can't impeach whoever the next Democrat president is based on the precedent set by the Democrats if we feel like it.

I remember when GWB barely won the state of Florida. Now Florida looks like a bastion of conservatism. How did we do it? We couldn't have done it without the support of our Latin American brethren. It turns out many of these people don't particularly like socialism and for good reason. It's a lesson that seems particularly fresh on the minds of Cubanos and Venezolanos. Most believe in God, self reliance, private property, energy independence, an America first agenda, economic nationalism, and yes even enforcing the border. I was very tempted to say that this election was our country's last chance. But I can't help but be optimistic about the great coalition of working class people of faith that is forming.

Soon there will be no more Gringos or Latinos in the Republican party just as there were no more Nephites and Lamanites.

Cubans are some of the most racist people I've ever met when I lived in Orlando. They absolutely detest being confused with Mexicans. If you even ask one of them if they're Mexican you can usually expect to hear a rant about how offensive that is, along with a dozen reasons why Mexicans are worthless scum.

So yeah, I can see who Ajax would find a lot in common with this group of exceptionally ignorant people who are too intellectually lazy to understand the nuances of American politicking beyond the mind-numbing references to everything being divided in binary terms, what is and what isn't "Socialism." The irony is that they don't even know what Socialism is and they don't know Trump is closer to a Fidel Castro type dictator than anything the Democrats have ever given us. They're told by the Right Wing idiots that Socialism and Communism are synonymous and Democrats are just waiting in the shadows to turn our Republican into a Soviet style tyranny. Trump's campaign of disinformation exploited their ignorance and their desire to be scared into voting. It is the Trumpublican way.

[Icarus]

Most Hispanics and Latinos (gotta include Brazi in this) I’ve known are socially Conservative, even if they’re personally and privately Liberal. Also, economically they’re all workers, white and blue collars alike. They’re also pretty religious. This tends toward a Conservative shift as they grow older, and at ~30M Hispanics, Latinos, and Chicanos aren’t a monolith. If the GOP courts them with individual freedom plus God, Family, and Country the former will probably make significant gains.

- Doc

All of this is true, but that's been true for decades. What happened differently here is the Trump campaign pounded the Cuban communities with "The Socialists are coming to get you" propaganda and it seems to have worked for the most part. That says just as much about them as it does the folks who were lying to them. A few weeks ago my mother in law called my wife to warn her than Kamala Harris was a "Communist." How the hell she got that message from Brasilian news baffled me.

[ajax18]

Cubans are some of the most racist people I've ever met when I lived in Orlando.

Yes of course, if you' don't vote Democrat/communist you're a racist. If you're black and vote conservative you're an Uncle Tom. There's a coalition of good people from all races forming and yes I am delighted to see it.

[Some Schmo]

I'd really love to know what the morons in this country like ajax think socialism really is. This country never has been or ever will be close to becoming socialist, so what the flying “F” are they talking about?

Of course, I ask that question as though these people aren't damned ignorant morons, as though they have valid concerns.

[Gadianton]

Ajax doesn't know what socialism is. A couple weeks ago he equated his high energy bill with socialism. He sees his sole energy provider as ripping him off, and calls for market competition to lower his prices. He doesn't know (and don't tell him, I smiled condescendingly behind my monitor and let his point ride at the time) that energy and utilities are examples of natural monopolies, and in a natural monopoly, costs lower as the firm gets bigger. That means that in theory, two energy providers would raise his prices. This has nothing to do with government, until of course, socialists such as Ajax demand government get involved and break up the monopoly; to find a way to introduce competition.

As Ajax educates himself on the matter (fat chance) he'll see that attempts to turn energy, which doesn't naturally follow market rules, into a marketplace are mixed. But successful or not, competition is introduced by legislation -- big government.

And what about government intervention in trade, and government building walls to block the free mobility of labor? And what about TrumpCare?

Ajax is likely the biggest socialist posting on this forum. He and his fellow right-wingers aren't against socialism, they are socialists themselves. It's just in their vision of socialism, the redistribution needs to point toward them personally in order to be a good thing.

[ajax18]

The utility bill wss due to a failed biomass plant, an example of expensive green energy. But it was also due to the covid lockdown and many people being unable to pay. And also due to the leftist policies of urban southern cities.

Smirk away. What goes around comes back around whether ypu understand the consequences of your policies or not.