thanks for the medal. As for not having a choice I totally think Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, Ben Carson or Rand Paul would be pretty good presidents.

Hmm both primary fields are pretty disappointing so far. For the Democrats, Hillary's basically a shoe-in- she's got the strongest lead a non-incumbent has ever had in a primary, and her most serious challenger (Warren) isn't even in the race. For the Republicans, you've got the exact opposite- no candidate in a clear lead, although Jeb Bush looks like he'll probably pick it up by the end. But you're starting to see fragmentation in the Christian-conservative coalition from the '90s, which is a good thing because it probably means party realignment in the near future- it'd be interesting if the Republican party picked up Hispanic-American voters beyond just Cuban-Americans, because that would make future presidential elections seriously competitive and maybe even get rid of the Republicans' need for gerrymandering and exclusionary turnout-based politics (like voting restrictions). The youth vote also doesn't look as certainly Democratic anymore, which is great.

That said, it'd be nice if we could get rid of first-past-the-post and become an actual multi-party democracy. I'd love to be able to vote for actual leftist candidates.

Since immigration policy seems to be the topic of discussion here:

We don't just have an immigration system to keep the terrorists/drug cartels out. We have it for economic reasons. For example, this year thousands of American students graduated from college with degrees in economically sought-after tech fields, like Computer Science and Electrical/Computer Engineering. These are highly-skilled workers and, as you would expect, earn high starting salaries- often something in the six figures straight out of college (since they tend to work in areas with high cost of living, like New York City and the Bay Area).

But tech companies, on the other hand, want immigrants. Facebook and Google would love to extend certain visa programs like H1-B to get more skilled foreign-born laborers. They often claim that there's a shortage of good programmers.

However, the reality is that there's a shortage of good programmers willing to work for peanuts. Then you get a man from India, China, Russia, Brazil, Colombia, etc., coming in willing to do for $40/hr what a graduate from MIT/UCSD/USC/CMU/Stanford/Berkeley/UT/etc. might end up doing for $70-$90/hr, and the problem becomes apparent. As a country, it would be a horrible lost investment for us- so much money spent on education only to graduate and end up losing your job to someone who'll work for less money (since they plan on leaving the country or are just getting screwed over by an exploitative company). Beyond that, there's also the issue of cutting corners- the Berkeley grad will almost undoubtedly churn out higher-quality work than the foreign laborer, simply because Berkeley is a kick-ass learning environment for EECS that really has no match outside the country.

Economically, there aren't just "hard-working" immigrants and "thugs." There's cheap labor, too, and we don't want cheap labor to ruin our economy. Instead, we need to be selective (although we need something more efficient) so we get more people like, say, Luis von Ahn who add unique value to the American eocnomy and need to be put in great research environments for the betterment of the country.

I feel like a lot of you have an extremely poor image of what an "immigrant" looks like- it's not just drug cartels and lawn-mowers. Economically, the question is far more complex than "what would Jesus do?"

Edited 6/18/2015 04:04:27

I'm leaning towards Marco Rubio or John Kasich myself, from what I've heard so far.

Yes. We need to destroy first past the post and the electoral college.

Quick lesson though : average Americans don't actually vote for the president.

knyte- I was arguing the stance most citizens have, and most citizens think about the morality of the situation. You are correct, though. A surplus in immigrants brings down the economy's strength, and it would take years for it to recover.

I feel like a lot of you have an extremely poor image of what an "immigrant" looks like- it's not just drug cartels...

There are more Hispanic gang members than any other race/ethnicity in the U.S.



Illegal immigrants are, in fact, a problem on the crime-scale of things, too.
But, like I said, when I say "they" or "illegal immigrants," I am not trying to group them all together.


source:

http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/survey-analysis/demographics

Genghis- Another problem I forgot to mention in my first rant on this thread.

average Americans don't actually vote for the president.

Edited 6/18/2015 04:37:13

America was supposed to be another Imperialistic European empire. It got lost around 1804.

Vote for Dill Clyntin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeHUl_xKb3Q

The U.S. was an empire for a while. There's the obtaining the mainland as it is today, there's Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam and other tiny islands.

But we have lost a lot of it. btw 38% of Americans identify as Conservative and only 24% identify as Liberal. This has been the trend since 2009.

I think that we will have anther republican president but we need a "good" one. We don't want a president that will put boots on the ground in Syria. We don't want one that will reboot parts of the Patriot act. We don't want one that will put the NSA on steroids.

What America needs is a Conservative-Libertarian president/political party. A very limited government type candidate.

Edited 6/18/2015 05:46:33

I don't think America has lost anything other than American Germany and American Austria and American Japan - please tell me if they have.

America has lost the Philippines. We have lost Vietnam. We have lost Iraq and Libya. We lost the Panama canal. Im not saying we should go about conquering these peoples (actually just the opposite). I am just pointing out that america used to be a lot worse.

Edited 6/18/2015 05:48:30

Losing wars and territories are not the same thing. Vietnam was Vietnam. Iraq was Iraq, Libya was Libya. And just because you have a big country does not mean you must be an evil empire.

Canada is a prime example

When did America own Canada?

It has significant influence today, though.

For the foreseeable future, I am supporting Bernie Sanders. :)

*UNPOPULAR OPINION AHEAD* This one also turned into a rant. Sorry.


...I believe...well, what I mean is...that is to say, the U.S....Should do everything in its power to erase ISIS from existence. Israel will be screwed. Iraq is being screwed. ISIS is a result of the U.S. f*cking everything up in the Middle East. Why aren't we cleaning up after our own mess? Why aren't we doing more?

ISIS had to cross nothing but desert for days to get into Iraq. We knew this. We could have completely destroyed them, just carpet bomb everything. Why didn't we?

And now, ISIS has killed every American hostage they had, recorded themselves killing 21 Christians because of their belief, and burned 45 Iraqi soldiers alive. And no one's stopping them. Why?

What's holding back the U.S. and other countries from wiping out these cruel and unusual disgraces to human life?

And to give George Bush a little credit, since I and pretty much everyone else bashes him as much as Obama, he told the U.S. that we, nor the Middle East, were ready for us to pull out troops. did we listen? No.

Oh, I know why the U.S. isn't doing more, it's because everyone looks at the past and says, "Us in the Middle East doesn't work out. Let's stay out." Screw these guys. The U.S. is a superpower. The U.S. created this mess. The U.S. has the power and ability to bail out Iraq right now, but we aren't because the public thinks it's a taboo to even entertain the thought that we should ever go back. People will also say "It's Iraq's fight, not ours." Are you kidding yourself? ISIS has declared war on us. They have killed our citizens brutally. Their very presence threatens our friends in the area. Their existence is a result of us pulling out too early. How is this not our fight?

tl;dr version: F*ck ISIS. F*ck the U.S., and every other capable country, for not doing enough against ISIS. Thanks Bush for forming the snowball for this sh*t. Thanks Obama for pushing it down the hill.

Edited 6/18/2015 16:07:34

Simplified version of American politics:

Democrats are centre-right.
Republicans are right wing.
The Tea party are far right.

If only congress cared about taxing the rich as much as they cared about gay people having rights.

If only congress cared about taxing the rich as much as they cared about gay people having rights.

The Republicans in congress have given up ground to the Democrats on a lot of important issues just to avoid taxing the rich. It's what I hate the most about the Republican party. They claim to stand for traditional values and morals, but in the end they're still ruled by the dollar.