USPO in 2009 - What will happen?

[jviehe]

How do you think this forum will change if Obama is elected? Many of us have only been here under GWB, so I expect that while he may continue to be blamed for everything, the partisanship will die down a bit, and USPO may even quiet down. Do you expect the conservatives to become the attackers and liberals the defenders? To see Obama called a liar, an idiot, racial slurs? Do you think conservative will, in short, act, like liberals have the last 8 years?

[partofme]

First thing is that it always gets better after the election no matter who wins. Right now people are in full partisan fighting mode which makes the traffic higher and the quality lower. However, I think things will just reverse. Obama will be attacked constantly and the other side will defend him on everything. Same old thing.

[Andrewl]

Originally Posted by jviehe

How do you think this forum will change if Obama is elected? Many of us have only been here under GWB, so I expect that while he may continue to be blamed for everything, the partisanship will die down a bit, and USPO may even quiet down. Do you expect the conservatives to become the attackers and liberals the defenders? To see Obama called a liar, an idiot, racial slurs? Do you think conservative will, in short, act, like liberals have the last 8 years?

Depends. People called Bush names because he deserved to be called names. He is the real thing.

If McCain or Obama prove to be likewise as stupid, i think you will still get people dissing them.

You act as if George Bush did not deserve the smackdown?

Andrew

[MattLarson]

I don't see much changing.

Politics in this country has become so polarized that the "my team is always right" mentality is not going to go away any time soon.
Plus, we'll still have certain neighbors to the North here to tell us how to live / think / act (often while they fail to act as they advocate).

Matt

[Steve]

Originally Posted by jviehe

Do you think conservative will, in short, act, like liberals have the last 8 years?

Certain people will...

[daddio]

The new fairness doctrine may just kill it all off. We've seen Obama's reaction to things that paint him in a negative light.

[CYDdharta]

Originally Posted by MattLarson

I don't see much changing.

Politics in this country has become so polarized that the "my team is always right" mentality is not going to go away any time soon.


Matt

Too true; and we'll still have the MSM and alternate media fanning the flames.

[Imperator]

Originally Posted by jviehe

How do you think this forum will change if Obama is elected? Many of us have only been here under GWB, so I expect that while he may continue to be blamed for everything, the partisanship will die down a bit, and USPO may even quiet down. Do you expect the conservatives to become the attackers and liberals the defenders? To see Obama called a liar, an idiot, racial slurs? Do you think conservative will, in short, act, like liberals have the last 8 years?

Good question and I think the other day I made a statement along these lines as to the country- if Obama gets elected world peace will break out, the homeless will disappear, pigs will sprout wings, US finances will miraculously take a turn for the better and the economy will be “good” to “great” as told to us by the media.


As for USPOL? ….that’s easy- To start with;

a) the here to fore “hey stop bringing Clinton into it“ crew will employ the usual Lib bait and switch, where in if the messiah is in, when he fucks up they will then reach back to tell us how “screwed up bush was.”

b) IF Obama is elected and he starts fucking up there will be a general exodus of his lapdogs…

c) IF McCain is elected when he starts fucking up there may be an exodus, but not half as bad as the other way around.

d) Someone will create to many goddman Middle East threads

e) someone will post hundreds of fucking wall st. journal links…


I personally intended to say this the night before the election but since you asked- IF Obama gets in he will have my sppt. 100% and my best wishes. I will even say a prayer as to his success.
If HE screws up I am screwed up and so is the country, only lunatics pull their own hair.

[CYDdharta]

Originally Posted by Imperator

b) IF Obama is elected and he starts fucking up there will be a general exodus of his lapdogs...

There will be a steady stream of people with a new interest in politics. If he starts fucking up, or if he's just unable to turn things around quick enough, those people will view him quite negatively. The lapdogs that leave will do so because of the sudden “negative atmosphere”.

[Imperator]

Originally Posted by CYDdharta

There will be a steady stream of people with a new interest in politics. If he starts fucking up, or if he's just unable to turn things around quick enough, those people will view him quite negatively. The lapdogs that leave will do so because of the sudden “negative atmosphere”.

no, I cannot be that charitable because thats not the history it appears....most leave because the archives exist and they don't want their words used against them....

just like some will re-appear who sppted the winner...

[jviehe]

Originally Posted by Imperator

Good question and I think the other day I made a statement along these lines as to the country- if Obama gets elected world peace will break out, the homeless will disappear, pigs will sprout wings, US finances will miraculously take a turn for the better and the economy will be “good” to “great” as told to us by the media.


As for USPOL? ….that’s easy- To start with;

a) the here to fore “hey stop bringing Clinton into it“ crew will employ the unusual Lib bait and switch, where in if the messiah is in, when he fucks up they will then reach back to tell us how “screwed up bush was.”

b) IF Obama is elected and he starts fucking up there will be a general exodus of his lapdogs…

c) IF McCain is elected when he starts fucking up there may be an exodus, but not half as bad as the other way around.

d) Someone will create to many goddman Middle East threads

e) someone will post hundreds of fucking wall st. journal links…


I personally intended to say this the night before the election but since you asked- IF Obama gets in he will have my sppt. 100% and my best wishes. I will even say a prayer as to his success.
If HE screws up I am screwed up and so is the country, only lunatics pull their own hair.

Likewise having seen how Bush was unfairly treated, I will try to give Obama a more fair treatment, especially on foreign policy.

[Tautog]

Originally Posted by jviehe

Likewise having seen how Bush was unfairly treated, I will try to give Obama a more fair treatment, especially on foreign policy.

I agree. While Obama is not my guy, I will still respect the office he holds, and try to keep the bashing to a minimum.

[Si modo]

Whoever wins will get my support. It's a respect for the office that should exist, regardless. I will criticize when I feel the need, but I will not resort to using childish names and sandbox alliteration to refer to the President of the United States of America. That does nothing but show the poster as lacking the talent required for an intellectual and reasoned criticism.

And, I don't mind if we still see a bunch of links to the WSJ at all. I am not a subscriber, so it's nice to have someone vet the pieces there and post them, IMO.

[iamwhatiseem]

You wanna know what it will be like?
Peruse post in 2005.

[TSGracchus]

Although I joined this forum in June 2005, I only made a few posts and then disappeared until a few months ago. So I'm not in a position to say much about idiosyncracies of this board itself.

But I think I can say something about the more general idea of polarization in politics. This shouldn't be seen as a completely new development. We have had times like this before in our history as a nation, and they are always followed by periods of relative peace and serenity. We are in the early stages of a crisis era. Previous crisis eras began in 1929 and in 1860. (There were also some before that, but only those two since the Constitution was ratified. Actually, the Constitution debate was the last main act of an earlier one.)

What happens in a crisis era is that the chickens come home to roost, and the need for major change in our institutions becomes glaringly obvious so that it can no longer be sidestepped or ignored. Always leading up to that is an increasingly rancorous debate between those calling for that kind of major change and those resisting it, but in the course of that debate bugger-all actually gets done. But once things get so bad that you have a state of emergency, a progressive leadership comes to power and starts implementing serious reform. When that happens, the losing side becomes very bitter, because they haven't just lost an election, they've lost a debate that's been ongoing for decades. There's a sense things are going to permanently change. If you want that, you're giddy and excited. If you don't, you're gloomy, despondent, and angry. You see the country you love disappearing, replaced by something you fear.

The election of Obama will be a very different thing than the election of Clinton in 1992, and not just because Obama is a more progressive leader than Clinton was. Clinton also didn't have the power to do very much beyond raise some taxes and balance the budget, because the consensus for change didn't exist yet -- there was no perceived urgent need. So whereas Clinton's health-care plan fizzled, Obama's will fly. And people sense that. They know in their guts that this election matters, and will result in real change.

And so you get polarization and very strong feelings one way or another. This is not really like the bad feelings directed at either Bush or Clinton. It's more like the seething rage that a minority of the country directed at FDR, who implemented socialist-leaning changes to the economy that this minority had been successfully resisting for a long time. I'm sure it seemed like the end of the world to those people. This will, too, to those who find the changes Obama will bring to be anathema.

But even so, I don't expect it to get as bad as the worst crisis era in our history. (Knock wood!) We surely will not divide up into opposing armies and fight a civil war. So let's count our blessings. And in the end, the changes will be made, the new institutional framework will operate in a changed world and will be accepted as part of the status quo, and a new era of good feeling will follow, some 15-20 years from now.