Do you think that applies to you as well? That you deserve bad things to happen to you because of your consumer choices?

People don’t deserve to be mistreated but it is surprising that folks haven’t abandoned it if they’re so actively anti consumer.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and right wing lunatics.

No. They should change it to CIA.

That was my first thought. Describing him as being in trouble would be wildly exaggerating, let alone going down in flames. Holy wishful thinking, Batman. It’s not impossible, but we’re nowhere near there.

I would be willing to join any D as well as D group that would have me. The only caveat is that I would describe the players accurately.

It’s called “right wing stupidity” and we should be calling out these worthless dumbfucks wherever we can. Although we should be clear that it does not seem like those particular brainless fools made enough of a difference.

That’s about her specifically. I’m just talking about age and fitness for office. There’s no question that Pelosi needs to go away.

This is why I hate it when people say stuff like “Do you support [state]’s right to exist?” No, no I don’t. I don’t think any state has a “right” to exist. People have a right to exist. A state is something different entirely.

There are examples of non states working, but it is unclear if it would be possible to maintain large societies.

I don’t give a fuck about your war…or your president!

These women are both under 40.

First of all, I appreciate you ignoring my obviously stupid facetious insult. So I will give you a straight response in return.

Age does not matter in this case whatsoever. If you want to make an argument for health or mental acuity or something, I think that’s reasonable. I have no problem with the criticism of staying in office while old age deteriorates you, but plenty of people remain sharp well into their 90s and even 100s.

If you want to make the argument that we need to make more room for younger folks, I agree with that. I think we need to fix employment in general when it comes to age related discrimination, which applies to young and old alike. A formal system of apprenticeship and training in all fields is warranted, I think, and something similar can work in politics—but it is not a true vocation.

The whole workaholic culture you’re talking about doesn’t really apply to politics. It’s simply not the same as in other professions. These folks aren’t fetishizing work, they’re doing public service, and I mean as a concept; obviously right wingers aren’t doing any kind of “public service” by any reasonable definition.

Preventing people from taking office at 60 years old just because they might run for a different office later is authoritarian lunacy. This is truly ageist nonsense. The only thing that should matter is an ability to faithfully execute the duties of the office. If they are enfeebled, they need to retire. None of this Diane Feinstein nonsense where her staff was operating in her stead.

One of the things to keep in mind is that there’s a reason people have a “second life” as a politician. Sometimes as you get older, you gain a sense of duty to the community that raised you; sometimes it’s naked ambition. I’m not trying to make it sound noble, just that it’s not a career as such, and there’s a reason people come to politics late and stay late. I don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s part of an obsessive focus on identity. Nobody cares about Bernie Sanders because he’s a decent person.

Ok so we agree, you just don’t like my shit talking. Totally acceptable.

Because it’s not worth arguing about. If someone thinks that being 60 in elected office is worse than being right wing, that doesn’t even rise to the level of ridiculous.

Edit: switched words around by accident

Removed by mod

59? That seems extremely young to retire. I’d be more concerned about her being too right wing.

I meant from the point of view of someone who knows history and isn’t a right wing lunatic.

I’m so sorry about that.

This is slightly misleading. The issue isn’t voting for the two parties, it’s that we only have the two parties. Adding a third party never works. We need to figure something else out.