This has to be Rand Paul's presidential bid op-ed....

[MDS]

That is totally mistaken IMO. What that did was ruin millions of lives since 2009 - driven out of the workforce. Families shattered. That didn't have to happen. This economy should be booming. It could be booming.

We can agree to disagree on that. There's no way to know for sure but I feel strongly that the republican nominees in the last two presidential elections would have done just as poor a job with the economy. Remember this started under W. And that's not even discussing the ways in which the gop wants to limit my day to day freedoms, which is as bad or worse than the democrats' silliness with guns.

In any case, even if a republican adminstration would have slowed this downward spiral we're on, I'd rather get it over with. A steep enough descent might wake enough people up, like turning up the heat on the boiling frog so it notices and hops out of the boiler. We've already got some bad burns but if we hop out soon we can survive.

[Tamara]

As a "millennial" or gen y ( I'm 28) I can honestly say that a lot of us are not as liberal slanted as some people think...

I don't know about other people's opinions, but I don't think there's anything special about your generation or my generation or whatever, it's not even a generation thing... It's just that typically and historically, percentage-wise, younger voters tend to swing more liberal.

[NerdAlert]

It's just that typically and historically, percentage-wise, younger voters tend to swing more liberal.

I agree completely. What I was trying to say is that even those who are not liberal have not had many options that we could really get behind. So when the media surveys young people over the last two or more presidential elections the results probably seem even more liberal than they actually are. The young conservatives are just not going to get behind as candidate for president like McCain or Romney. If young people can be stereotyped as anything it would be idealistic. Obama appeals to the idealism of the liberal demographic, but no candidate so far has done the same for the conservatives. Rand Paul could be that candidate.


Sent from my iPhone, I apologize in advance for typos.

[NerdAlert]

We can agree to disagree on that. There's no way to know for sure but I feel strongly that the republican nominees in the last two presidential elections would have done just as poor a job with the economy.

I'm with MDS. Watch the movie "inside job" for a look at why the recession happened and you will see that at worst, policies created the environment for the recession, and at best they were not removed by subsequent leaders. It actually started under Clinton in his lame duck period and Bush just let it ride. Obama did the same, and now here we are. We need to roll back some of the policies that got us here in in order to get ourselves out. The same policies that caused the financial disaster in our country are still in place. In our financial system the fox is guarding the hen house and it's only a matter of time before another rescission occurs. Sorry for the digression but to imply that Obama single handedly ruined these people's lives is just false. All he did was the same as Bush, just ignored it and hoped it would go away.


Sent from my iPhone, I apologize in advance for typos.

[JHC]

I'm with MDS. Watch the movie "inside job" for a look at why the recession happened and you will see that at worst, policies created the environment for the recession, and at best they were not removed by subsequent leaders. It actually started under Clinton in his lame duck period and Bush just let it ride. Obama did the same, and now here we are. We need to roll back some of the policies that got us here in in order to get ourselves out. The same policies that caused the financial disaster in our country are still in place. In our financial system the fox is guarding the hen house and it's only a matter of time before another rescission occurs. Sorry for the digression but to imply that Obama single handedly ruined these people's lives is just false. All he did was the same as Bush, just ignored it and hoped it would go away.


Sent from my iPhone, I apologize in advance for typos.

Thanks for being a good sport and as MDS said, we can agree to disagree on a lot of politics. But - There is ample evidence documented of the Bush Administrations attempts to reform the no standards lending situation. Didn't get it done but the warnings were raised and attempts were made.

But even if we did the basic Paul Ryan reforms of the tax code and entitlements we could have this ship up to ramming speed in not that long a time. The US energy boom on top of tax reform, some regulatory reform and some entitlement reform (along Ryan lines) would launch this rocket. And it wouldn't scare away the squishy middle.

More rad pruning would be neat but will have a heckuva time wining the independents required to win the White House. Just looking at the electorate as it is vs how I'd like it to be.

[MDS]

Thanks for being a good sport and as MDS said, we can agree to disagree on a lot of politics. But - There is ample evidence documented of the Bush Administrations attempts to reform the no standards lending situation. Didn't get it done but the warnings were raised and attempts were made.

But even if we did the basic Paul Ryan reforms of the tax code and entitlements we could have this ship up to ramming speed in not that long a time. The US energy boom on top of tax reform, some regulatory reform and some entitlement reform (along Ryan lines) would launch this rocket. And it wouldn't scare away the squishy middle.

More rad pruning would be neat but will have a heckuva time wining the independents required to win the White House. Just looking at the electorate as it is vs how I'd like it to be.

I'll vote for Paul in the primary and I'll vote for him if he gets on the ballot. (Heh, writing that out was good for a belly laugh. So, on second thought, I think I'll switch to L - I may do more good swelling the L rolls than voting in R primaries...) I don't see any other R or D candidate who would be a net win, so if there weren't a third party choice I'd abstain. The lesser evil voters can keep their "don't blame me, I voted for Kodos" bumper stickers.

I'll take my beating without sanctioning it, thanks.

[Stephen]

Here's something I've been wondering, is it possible for a non-liberal candidate to win a national election without the support of the Christian Right? I feel like its a situation where you can't win with them, nor can you win without them.

My local Republicans are firmly in the pocket of social conservatives, but its not because all that many people in my area are Evangelicals. Its just that the ones that we do have get involved far more than anyone else. If you pander to them, you can count on having them organize and attend events, stuff envelops, do the get out the vote stuff, etc. I believe they're quite good at this in many parts the country.

What needs to happen is people like us who are sick of the status quo need to get involved locally to take their place. Relatively small numbers of highly motivated people who are willing to put in the work can make a huge difference.

[RoyGBiv]

What needs to happen is people like us who are sick of the status quo need to get involved locally to take their place. Relatively small numbers of highly motivated people who are willing to put in the work can make a huge difference.

You mean like the Tea Party?

[Shellback]

Rand Paul on ISIS.

Speaking to a ballroom later, some of the loudest applause for Paul came when he quipped: "If the president has no strategy, maybe it's time for a new president."

In an emailed comment, however, Paul elaborated by saying: "If I were President, I would call a joint session of Congress. I would lay out the reasoning of why ISIS is a threat to our national security and seek congressional authorization to destroy ISIS militarily."

[Kyle Reese]

Rand Paul on ISIS.

That makes far too much sense, which is why he's unelectable. The masses don't want strategy, they want EBT.