Issues where 'your side' frustrates you

[Antonio the Sixth]

On many "social" issues of the day, even when I agree with the conclusions progressives reach, I find a lot of the rhetoric around it pretty ridiculous.

I've long held that if you are a remotely decent person Israel/Palestine is the objective answer to this. And it doesn't even matter which side you take, it's true either way.

That doesn't apply to me because I don't have a "side" on Israel/Palestine and think both sides are acting awfully.

[Antonio the Sixth]

In general, just the idea that grown adults are too stupid to know what's good for them and should be treated like helpless and ignorant toddlers. Some examples:

- Proposing a year or two in a Norwegian spa resort as "punishment" (oops, I mean "rehabilitation"!) for mass murderers, terrorists, child rapists, etc.

- Banning lottery tickets or Big Gulps.

- Thinking racists and other horrible people are only that way because the government doesn't spend enough money transitioning them from coal miners to Starbucks baristas, rather than just accepting some people are just inherently vile and won't change.

The sort of bullsh*t you're spewing is exactly what frustrates me about Democrats.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Obsession with symbolic issues like flags, names, statues, boycotts and semantics. Who cares? At best it's a waste of time, at worst outright embarrassing for the movement.

Symbols are schematic representations of what a society stands for and what it stands against. As such, how we regard certain symbols (say, the Confederate flag) says a lot about what kind of society we are.

[Antonio the Sixth]

My side doesn't really exist as an organized political or ideological structure in the United States, even as a notable third party, so that's a bit frustrating.

Considering "your side" includes insane right-wing paranoia about SJWs killing White people, that's definitely for the best.

[Antonio the Sixth]

My side doesn't really exist as an organized political or ideological structure in the United States, even as a notable third party, so that's a bit frustrating.

Thank God for that.

Yes, we're so much better off with Trumpism and the alt-right being represented but not any form of communitarianism.

I'd rather have neither represented.

Genuine communitarianism - that is, an ideology somewhere between Nathan's, Intell's, and DC or TJ's - is great and I wish there was more of it in US political discourse.

What RI claims to be "communitarianism" is utterly awful and just another flavor of the horror that is the modern American right.

[Antonio the Sixth]

My biggest complaint is that Democrats don't take the work of government seriously enough. As the party that wants to make government work for the people, there is no excuse for how government often performs. The disastrous debut of Obamacare and the backlog with the VA is inexcusable. As the party that believes in government, there is no excuse at all. I have no tolerance for it and neither should anyone else that calls themself a Democrat.

I wouldn't be too harsh on that. Making any complex structure that involves multiple actors with competing interests work effectively is a massive challenge. As Pressman and Wildavsky said, it's amazing that government programs work at all.