Congressmen may bring back airline regulation

jynxyjoe said:
Hey, from what I've been reading of your posts, can I safely assume that you agree with the following:
-The dismantling of unions happened because of President Reagan and President Bush (II). Not, at all, because Americans were already running away from unions in the 80's and continuing to all the way up to now, and those two politicians views reflected a majority of Americans?
-Deregulation is occuring because a minority of loud "conservative" (what you would call) voters are so powerful that even the majority party (executive and legislative branch) are still bending to their whims? This minority of voters steered, not the elections for all 20 years, but the agenda of both parties.

If I'm correct in the above, that those are your views, then corporations or some nameless entity is steering the course of the US.

/side note
It might be more likely, that most American's did and still do blame unions for all the economic woes. Rightly or wrongly, we as Americans got ourselves in this mess and that the majority, not the minority, are continuing to drive the agenda of this country and the politicians are just happy to cash the checks and let us drive over a cliff. Perhaps the conservative tendency of this nation are what drive us to be anti labor and anti worker.
/end side note
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Nah, I think the answer is far simpler: the Republicans are simply better at PR. They know that the average American is a dolt that doesn't pay attention to much of anything of importance in the country, and they can brainwash them into believing that "socialist" is an evil word, and then calling their opponents "socialists," and the ignorant masses will fall for it.

Sadly, Democrats haven't learned from this yet, so we're still arguing nuanced issues and expecting the dimwitted public to think it through rationally rather than falling for the emotional nonsense shouted by the likes of Coulter, Beck, and Limbaugh.

I always hate to reference anything from Adolf Hitler, but there are a few things to learn from his demented mind. In Mein Kampf, Hitler talks about when he was a young man living in the city after he left home. After watching the reactions of the people in the city during an election year, he said that he figured out that parties that won elections didn't do so because they had the best arguments or the firmest grasp of the issues. No, the parties that won were the ones that could appeal to the emotions of the people and get them to follow, regardless of whether their parties had any answers at all. Sadly, his perceptions were right, and that's exactly what we see in this country. The Republicans win elections not because they have good ideas, but because they've learned how to appeal to the basic emotions of Americans by calling their opponents "commies," and vaguely referring to the "American dream" and "American exceptionalism." Ronald Reagan was the king of this trickery. Talk about the "shining city on a hill" and tug at the people's heart strings, even though you have no intention of doing anything to make their lives better.

The Republicans are good at winning elections. I'll give them that.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Nah, I think the answer is far simpler: the Republicans are simply better at PR. They know that the average American is a dolt that doesn't pay attention to much of anything of importance in the country, and they can brainwash them into believing that "socialist" is an evil word, and then calling their opponents "socialists," and the ignorant masses will fall for it.

Sadly, Democrats haven't learned from this yet, so we're still arguing nuanced issues and expecting the dimwitted public to think it through rationally rather than falling for the emotional nonsense shouted by the likes of Coulter, Beck, and Limbaugh.

I always hate to reference anything from Adolf Hitler, but there are a few things to learn from his demented mind. In Mein Kampf, Hitler talks about when he was a young man living in the city after he left home. After watching the reactions of the people in the city during an election year, he said that he figured out that parties that won elections didn't do so because they had the best arguments or the firmest grasp of the issues. No, the parties that won were the ones that could appeal to the emotions of the people and get them to follow, regardless of whether their parties had any answers at all. Sadly, his perceptions were right, and that's exactly what we see in this country. The Republicans win elections not because they have good ideas, but because they've learned how to appeal to the basic emotions of Americans by calling their opponents "commies," and vaguely referring to the "American dream" and "American exceptionalism." Ronald Reagan was the king of this trickery. Talk about the "shining city on a hill" and tug at the people's heart strings, even though you have no intention of doing anything to make their lives better.

The Republicans are good at winning elections. I'll give them that.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, this is spot on.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Absolutely not. They should stand up and demand greater regulation. Instead, they are scared of people like you calling them "socialist," so in the interest of smart politics, they soft peddle it. And as a result, the American people suffer.
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So...let me see if I have this straight. All evil is the cause of Republican's. Even though there are tons of regulations on the book that are enforced poorly, either because of government incompetence or because the regulations are so stupid and misplaced that they can't be enforced well...we need MORE regulation (notice you didn't say "overhaul regulation and make it better" you said "more regulation" which implies more of the same crap we have...that isn't enforced correctly by administrations on either side). You also fail to justify the Department of Energy, Obama's windfall from BP, or any other issue that could concievably shine a negative light on your party of choice. Wow - people think I'm blindly partisan.
 
If you want to know where "evil" is, then you need look no further than the person who is trying to exert some control over another person's life. Government comes from the word "govern" which means to exercise continuous sovereign authority over. The first question out of someone's mouth should be "why does that person want to control my actions?"

I am not talking about basic rights here. Our basic values acknowledge that no one has the right to deprive another person of their life, their property, or their freedom without due process of law. Any laws that support these basic premises I am all for.

So now here is Oberstar who wants to control how airlines do business. I ask "Why? Why does he want to be able to tell airlines what they can or can't do in the pursuit of business. I'm not talking about basic safety and health concerns; I'm talking about business. He wants to be able to tell airlines where they can fly, how much they can charge, and what they can charge for. Why is that? Why does he care? As long as the airlines aren't killing people, it should be none of his concern as to how an airline's business model operates. Yet he wants that control. This should scare the bejeezus out of everyone, and yet it seems hardly an eyebrow is raised. In fact, most people seem to be in favor of it. Scary stuff!

BTW it's not a "red herring" arguement to wonder what will happen next. There are evil people in the world who want that power and control. History is rife with examples of abuse and tyranny because someone let them take that first step.

I guess that's a soapbox. I'd better step down for now.
 
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