Hotter, Badder, and Unpopularer Takes

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

idk if this is a hot take but Josh Shapiro’s performance is not that impressive

[Mr. Smith]

Dems on this forum have removed any doubt that they are angry and jealous because they want to get away with the same thing Republicans can--not because they give a sh**t about America or democracy or anybody's rights.

Simping politicians is pure idiocy.

This take desperately needs to be more popular.

This is not a vice.

[Hammy]

Dems on this forum have removed any doubt that they are angry and jealous because they want to get away with the same thing Republicans can--not because they give a sh**t about America or democracy or anybody's rights.

Simping politicians is pure idiocy.

This take desperately needs to be more popular.

This is not a vice.

Then the fascists have already won and there is no point voting Democrat.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

[WD]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

A win is a win, if this was a “Republican Country” Democrats wouldn’t have a trifecta in the first place.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

Democrats are the natural majority party, Repubs only have fighting chance because of electoral college, gerrymandering, and Senate imbalance. Also fake news.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

A win is a win, if this was a “Republican Country” Democrats wouldn’t have a trifecta in the first place.

A win is a win for this cycle, not forever lol. Besides, downballot was a nightmare, gop controls most things of importance besides those three things both downballot as well as exterior courts

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

Democrats are the natural majority party, Repubs only have fighting chance because of electoral college, gerrymandering, and Senate imbalance. Also fake news.

We dont even win the npv by a large percent, and frankly the gop could make that up if that was the name of their game, but it isnt

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

Democrats are the natural majority party, Repubs only have fighting chance because of electoral college, gerrymandering, and Senate imbalance. Also fake news.

We dont even win the npv by a large percent, and frankly the gop could make that up if that was the name of their game, but it isnt

Biggest loss for an incumbent since Herbert Hoover.

[SevenEleven]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

Democrats are the natural majority party, Repubs only have fighting chance because of electoral college, gerrymandering, and Senate imbalance. Also fake news.

We dont even win the npv by a large percent, and frankly the gop could make that up if that was the name of their game, but it isnt

Biggest loss for an incumbent since Herbert Hoover.

Carter only got 41% when Reagan defeated him.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

Democrats are the natural majority party, Repubs only have fighting chance because of electoral college, gerrymandering, and Senate imbalance. Also fake news.

We dont even win the npv by a large percent, and frankly the gop could make that up if that was the name of their game, but it isnt

Biggest loss for an incumbent since Herbert Hoover.

Carter only got 41% when Reagan defeated him.

I should say biggest win for a challenger. Biden got 51%, Reagan got slightly less.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

Democrats are the natural majority party, Repubs only have fighting chance because of electoral college, gerrymandering, and Senate imbalance. Also fake news.

We dont even win the npv by a large percent, and frankly the gop could make that up if that was the name of their game, but it isnt

Biggest loss for an incumbent since Herbert Hoover.

biggest doesnt mean big lol

[Hammy]

Democrats barely even won, this is a fundamentally center right wing republican country

This is a thread for unpopular takes, not objectively false statements. Dems have won the PV in all but one election in the last quarter century. The only reason Republicans have so much power is because the House and state legislatures are so heavily gerrymandered that Dems need to win almost 60% of the vote just to break even in many states.

[KaiserDave]

idk if this is a hot take but Josh Shapiro’s performance is not that impressive

He won Luzerne County. So, no.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Here's a hot take of my own: "[Country] is fundamentally/inherently [political orientation]" is always a lazy explanation or even excuse for the opposition's failures. Parties and movements can become dominant, or be rendered moribund, for all sorts of historically contingent reasons. The Japanese right is far more dominant electorally than the South Korean or Taiwanese right, but nobody familiar with the region would claim that of those three countries Japan has the most conservative society.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

idk if this is a hot take but Josh Shapiro’s performance is not that impressive

He won Luzerne County. So, no.

He couldn't even get 51% against an absolute nobody, who hardly even ran a campaign, so I am not impressed. Tells you a lot about where the state is headed in the long term.

[TheReckoning]

Ben Shapiro isn’t that bad.

[Virginiá]

Unity in this country isn't going to happen anytime soon, and the only solution (arguably, from either side's perspective) is total political domination for a generation or more, until the opposition spends so much time in the majority's shadow that they stop bitterly contesting every single election as if their lives depended on it. I'm not saying it's possible for either side right now, just that it needs to happen for things to cool down. It feels weird to say but, American elections are too competitive. The closeness of so many elections, most importantly the presidency, means each party believes if they just "fight harder," they can win. For the GOP, a party that has been embracing anti-democratic principles for years now, that also means pulling up the ladders as they climb, making sure that their power is locked in, even if that means engaging in tactics that are tantamount to rigging elections. That shouldn't be that surprising though, considering conservatives have a long and storied history of subverting democracy to cling to power.

I get that Biden or any other sane president has to make some sort of appeal to the idea of unity and coming together, because many people believe or at least want to believe that we can just "come together." But the fact is, Republicans literally think Biden stole an election from them, and they believe this despite there not being any evidence. They literally just stormed the Capitol building to actually try and steal the election for Trump. A disturbingly large minority of conservatives also believe some or all of the Q conspiracy that Democrats and the elite are cannibal pedophiles who are eating children. Exactly what is there here that gives one even the slightest impression that "unity" is possible? Or even more, what makes anyone think "bipartisanship" is ever going to be a thing over the next decade? McConnell is already back to full-blown obstruction and we are just two days in. It's never going to happen. There is not going to be any holding hands singing Kumbaya at the end of this story.

[Hammy]

Democrats are no better than Republicans when it comes to worshipping political figures and emotionally handling criticism of them.

[Mr. Smith]

Democrats are no better than Republicans when it comes to worshipping political figures and emotionally handling criticism of them.

In some ways they're worse.

[RINO Tom]

Ben Shapiro isn’t that bad.

He's clearly a smart guy and has a lot of interesting viewpoints, but (like many in his line of work) he has leaned into his persona to the point of being somewhat cringeworthy.  Doing this makes you inflexible to act and adapt during a conversation in a way that a normal person would, and it comes across quite irritating to those who don't already adamantly agree with your points of view.  Anyway, here is mine:

It is very endearing when people buck stereotypes and don't fit preconceived personas, and it can ALSO be quite endearing when people blissfully fulfill a stereotype without being very aware of it.  However, people who very clearly TRY to lean into a stereotype - whether that is a frat bro, a woo girl, a Wall Street guy, a latte liberal, an urban hipster or whatever else - are often the cringiest people alive and insufferable to be around.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Ben Shapiro isn’t that bad.

Back when I was more conservative, I used to really dig his podcast. He used to eviscerate Trump but that went away during the Trump era.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Unity in this country isn't going to happen anytime soon, and the only solution (arguably, from either side's perspective) is total political domination for a generation or more, until the opposition spends so much time in the majority's shadow that they stop bitterly contesting every single election as if their lives depended on it. I'm not saying it's possible for either side right now, just that it needs to happen for things to cool down. It feels weird to say but, American elections are too competitive. The closeness of so many elections, most importantly the presidency, means each party believes if they just "fight harder," they can win. For the GOP, a party that has been embracing anti-democratic principles for years now, that also means pulling up the ladders as they climb, making sure that their power is locked in, even if that means engaging in tactics that are tantamount to rigging elections. That shouldn't be that surprising though, considering conservatives have a long and storied history of subverting democracy to cling to power.

I get that Biden or any other sane president has to make some sort of appeal to the idea of unity and coming together, because many people believe or at least want to believe that we can just "come together." But the fact is, Republicans literally think Biden stole an election from them, and they believe this despite there not being any evidence. They literally just stormed the Capitol building to actually try and steal the election for Trump. A disturbingly large minority of conservatives also believe some or all of the Q conspiracy that Democrats and the elite are cannibal pedophiles who are eating children. Exactly what is there here that gives one even the slightest impression that "unity" is possible? Or even more, what makes anyone think "bipartisanship" is ever going to be a thing over the next decade? McConnell is already back to full-blown obstruction and we are just two days in. It's never going to happen. There is not going to be any holding hands singing Kumbaya at the end of this story.

Biden must reach out to conservatives on some concrete policy issues otherwise he will disappoint some of his voters. I did not vote for Joe Biden for him to be the most leftwing President ever on every issue. There are some leftwing policy proposals I like, and some I do not. I don't hold some conservative policy positions because I "hate the country" or "want to rule the country" or "want to hurt people"... I hold them because I think they would genuinely make America better if they were to be implemented.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Unity in this country isn't going to happen anytime soon, and the only solution (arguably, from either side's perspective) is total political domination for a generation or more, until the opposition spends so much time in the majority's shadow that they stop bitterly contesting every single election as if their lives depended on it. I'm not saying it's possible for either side right now, just that it needs to happen for things to cool down. It feels weird to say but, American elections are too competitive. The closeness of so many elections, most importantly the presidency, means each party believes if they just "fight harder," they can win. For the GOP, a party that has been embracing anti-democratic principles for years now, that also means pulling up the ladders as they climb, making sure that their power is locked in, even if that means engaging in tactics that are tantamount to rigging elections. That shouldn't be that surprising though, considering conservatives have a long and storied history of subverting democracy to cling to power.

I get that Biden or any other sane president has to make some sort of appeal to the idea of unity and coming together, because many people believe or at least want to believe that we can just "come together." But the fact is, Republicans literally think Biden stole an election from them, and they believe this despite there not being any evidence. They literally just stormed the Capitol building to actually try and steal the election for Trump. A disturbingly large minority of conservatives also believe some or all of the Q conspiracy that Democrats and the elite are cannibal pedophiles who are eating children. Exactly what is there here that gives one even the slightest impression that "unity" is possible? Or even more, what makes anyone think "bipartisanship" is ever going to be a thing over the next decade? McConnell is already back to full-blown obstruction and we are just two days in. It's never going to happen. There is not going to be any holding hands singing Kumbaya at the end of this story.

Biden must reach out to conservatives on some concrete policy issues otherwise he will disappoint some of his voters. I did not vote for Joe Biden for him to be the most leftwing President ever on every issue. There are some leftwing policy proposals I like, and some I do not. I don't hold some conservative policy positions because I "hate the country" or "want to rule the country" or "want to hurt people"... I hold them because I think they would genuinely make America better if they were to be implemented.

What conservative policy position would make America better? Genuinely curious. America is as close to a conservative wet dream of a country as you could possibly want, and in many regards this renders it unfunctional.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Unity in this country isn't going to happen anytime soon, and the only solution (arguably, from either side's perspective) is total political domination for a generation or more, until the opposition spends so much time in the majority's shadow that they stop bitterly contesting every single election as if their lives depended on it. I'm not saying it's possible for either side right now, just that it needs to happen for things to cool down. It feels weird to say but, American elections are too competitive. The closeness of so many elections, most importantly the presidency, means each party believes if they just "fight harder," they can win. For the GOP, a party that has been embracing anti-democratic principles for years now, that also means pulling up the ladders as they climb, making sure that their power is locked in, even if that means engaging in tactics that are tantamount to rigging elections. That shouldn't be that surprising though, considering conservatives have a long and storied history of subverting democracy to cling to power.

I get that Biden or any other sane president has to make some sort of appeal to the idea of unity and coming together, because many people believe or at least want to believe that we can just "come together." But the fact is, Republicans literally think Biden stole an election from them, and they believe this despite there not being any evidence. They literally just stormed the Capitol building to actually try and steal the election for Trump. A disturbingly large minority of conservatives also believe some or all of the Q conspiracy that Democrats and the elite are cannibal pedophiles who are eating children. Exactly what is there here that gives one even the slightest impression that "unity" is possible? Or even more, what makes anyone think "bipartisanship" is ever going to be a thing over the next decade? McConnell is already back to full-blown obstruction and we are just two days in. It's never going to happen. There is not going to be any holding hands singing Kumbaya at the end of this story.

Biden must reach out to conservatives on some concrete policy issues otherwise he will disappoint some of his voters. I did not vote for Joe Biden for him to be the most leftwing President ever on every issue. There are some leftwing policy proposals I like, and some I do not. I don't hold some conservative policy positions because I "hate the country" or "want to rule the country" or "want to hurt people"... I hold them because I think they would genuinely make America better if they were to be implemented.

What conservative policy position would make America better? Genuinely curious. America is as close to a conservative wet dream of a country as you could possibly want, and in many regards this renders it unfunctional.

This is a mix of economic conservative and socially conservative policies that I think would make America better:

- Deregulate housing and zoning laws (especially in states like California)
- Change regulations for who get the vaccines; stop making it so restrictive for people to get vaccines. If people want to get a vaccine, let them get it through a lottery system. California has thrown away 55% of its vaccines because they are wasting time trying to give it to the "right people" (vulnerable populations)
- End a lot of COVID regulations that shut down businesses. Most spread happens elsewhere
- End the federal student loan program and completely privatize it, it completely sucks as a government run program
- Start to slightly reduce military spending
- Weaken police unions
- Weaken teacher unions in states like NJ/CA. End tenure
- Reduce education spending in California / New Jersey / New York until they reopen schools
- Regulate social media like a drug; it's harming society
- Protect gun rights
- Protect churches from being shut down by discriminatory measures https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-restrictions-religious-institutions-were-discriminatory-supreme-court-did-its-ncna1251492
- Additional tariffs on China
- Keeping out of the WHO until it has new leadership
- Occupational licensing reform