From Democrat to Republican to I don't know anymore...

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I voted straight-ticket Democrat all my life, even 2016, then start sympathizing with the Republicans or at least Trump over things like immigration, trade, America-first and withdrawing troops from overseas. It is ironic the Democrats have been involved in putting troops overseas and invading or maintaining invasions at high cost in lives and money.

Then I look at blue-state icon California and what a mess it is with homeless camping in the streets, forest fires out of control, power outages. The homeless problem in particular, the liberals unwilling to evict homeless camps in neighborhoods, so homeowners have to put up with feces in the doorstep and their children picking up used syringes still with heroin and speed in them, and petty thefts and nuisances, panhandling. No wonder people are leaving Ca. in droves. I used to think blue states were meccas, now I would only consider living in a red state with a solid Republican majority, because a blue state=homeless camp in your front yard, people looking in your window while you are taking a shower. You get arrested and put in jail if you confront one of the homeless, or the homeless tear up your car or beat up your kid to teach you a lesson about respecting them.

I hope voting for the Democrats in 2020 does not lead to that sort of thing, I hope the Democrats don't let power get to their head. I also hope they don't cave in to China and export what few remaining jobs we have left in this country. I also hope they don't get us in another war of some sort. It was Obama got us into Syria and kept us in Afghanistan and Iraq. We spent a couple trillion over there, I am sure the natives are super-grateful for that vast amount of treasure, meanwhile our country's in a mess.

I'm not really excited about Biden though and I resent that Democrats just anoint him by default because he was VP to Obama. At 74, he is way too old, and he was never that clever anyhow, time to retire already. But then you look over at Trump and never mind. So Biden and hold the nausea.

Well, I would start by getting some reliable sources of information. I certainly would not keep sticking to right-wing opinion sources. That won't make Biden a particularly good candidate, but at least you can start understanding what is going on.

Sorry for not addressing the points you made, but that was just too much to unpack. There is very little you wrote that is either true or grounded in context to be meaningful.

I thought this would be a topic to discuss the grave mess created by both parties. Instead the OP is just parroting the words of the Trump cult...

Biden will likely be puppeted by pro-business interests.

So, that plus the positions he has taken over his life, should make him a solid pro-business conservative (a typical Republican).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political ... _Joe_Biden

That's probably why so many Republicans endorse him over Trump.

I live in a mixed neighborhood in the bluest section of a very blue state.

People respect each other. You have the usual neighbor squabbles—but people, by and large, give you a wide enough berth, even when you seem eccentric to them.

:splutter:

You’re barely in Syria at all. You’ve launched airstrikes but troops on the ground are very limited. Under Obama, you only fought ISIS (with some additional supplies and training for moderate rebels being the closest you cane to fighting Assad). Trump has expanded the operation against Assad. Personally I think that’s to his credit.

Also strange to hold the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq against Obama rather than Bush, who actually did them! Withdrawing is much harder once you’ve gone in, and could lead to a humanitarian disaster, which is why three successive Presidents have not done it.


To be fair they tried to nominate someone really smart who was a bit younger, but Russia/the electoral college/a few thousand people in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (delete as appropriate) didn’t accept her. Biden is the second choice.

Those two things to one side: The sensible thing is probably a split ticket vote. Clearly you prefer Biden to Trump, so vote for him in the Presidential election. Then to limit his power, don’t vote Democrat in the House race (and the Senate race if you have one).

The Democrats will probably win the House again. I doubt they will win the Senate (like I hope they would).

Biden is 77, Trump is 74. Bernie is 78. Reagan was 77 when he left office. But it isn't that uncommon in politics, especially since people are living longer now anyway. Apparently it's still possible to do the job, but...how well one can do it at that age...I suppose is debatable. I don't feel it should be an old man's job, but some people beg to differ. These days, 70s is maybe not so old.

And Trump isn't pro-business? He gave tax cuts (handouts) to the super rich and big corporations, while throwing everyone else crumbs (while said tax cuts led to decline of needed social programs). Sure, Trump talked a good game during his first campaign about being solid with the working men and women of America, but none of that materialized after his election.

They cannot control Trump.

uhm... how is evicting homeless camps going to get rid of homeless people? - I really think the reason people are leaving CA and the reason why there's a lot of homeless people there can be explained with a rival theory: high cost of housing. the reason for that is because there's more people moving to CA than there are houses. the only way to fight high cost of housing is to build affordable housing. affordable housing is not the most profitable to build, particularlly in a market where the median price is high to begin with, and there's a lot of affluent buyers.
so, the only entity that could build affordable housing is the state government.
Just one problem: that means the prices of houses go down, i.e., the value of the assets of the people that own houses go down.
so, if you own a house, you have an interest in the government not building more houses. people who own houses are more likely to vote than the homeless.
housing is complicated, and "evicting the homeless camps" isn't a solution to a housing crisis.
also, the government would be interfering with the housing market, and for some inexplicable reason, americans think that markets can solve everything, even when there's plenty of mechanisms in free markets which are known to lead to certain undesirable outcomes, like a homeless crisis.

jobs aren't "exported" either, it's investors demanding high profit margins, therefore forcing the company to lower costs- and usually, the highest cost in any company is the staff. so, outsourcing to a country with lower wages is what the company needs to do to satisfy the investors - but also, to stay competitive in the market. again, markets come with mechanisms that will lead to certain outcomes.

so, if the government were allowed to interfere with the internationalisation of the job market, that would lower company profits. if it were to build affordable housing, it would lead to lowered value of property.
both things are not in the interest of people who own assets like property or stocks.
so ... as the Indians used to say, back when I worked in India and was apalled by the poverty and dirt and general dysfunction of just about everything: "what can you do?"

Western states are seeing the fallout from California. We are seeing more homeless, tent cities, needles in the gutter, etc. . While SF may be exaggerated , the fallout from California is true.

Sadly he will not be pro-small business , but pro chamber of commerce bastardized capitalism? Yep. Can't say as I disagree.

My theory on politicians is very simple: THEY’RE ALL G!DDAMNED LIARS, AND THEY’RE NOT TO BE TRUSTED!

I plan to do what I’ve done for the last 40 years. I refuse to take part in the election process. It’s been rigged since 1789.

Trump is also way too old. He is in his 70's. He is also 74.

Well for one thing, the homeless are still people and simply ejecting them from any place they end up camping out is kind of f****d up. I mean not even saying all the homeless are good people or anything...but a lot of them are really trying and they are just out of options, and cities should probably find a better way to help them. Just throwing them around from place to place is not a solution...its an attempt to sweep it under the rug. I mean my dad is homeless and well he won't even go near the city, city, he's sticking more around surrounding areas.

And ha I hope those california people aren't coming here to Colorado because we have the exact same homeless stuff going on now...also the city needs to put more public bathroom facilities, sure it would be an effort..but it would be better than leaving people no choice but to piss and poop on the streets and risk legal issues for 'indecent exposure' because there is litterally no place else they can go to the bathroom.

And did you know forest fires actually have nothing to do with whatever political party is more mainstream in the state? Like what the hell kind of nonsense claim is that, you really think fires care about political affiliation? 'yeah its them damn liberals who caused all the fires.' just nonsense.