Red, Blue Or What?

Avatar photoby
2016 Presidential Election

2020 is here, a year divisible by four, which usually means a presidential election (and a leap year). Red vs. Blue seems so simplistic. This isn’t so much a partisan divide as it is multi-ideological, a splintering of expectations and beliefs confounding consensus.

Ronald Reagan’s lasting legacy was to turn many Americans against their government, forcing an era of doubt about self governance that confuses us today. Is liberalism dead? Liberals fear the word, call themselves ‘progressives’. Have conservatives become fascists? Executive branch authoritarianism seems unbridled. A pluralistic range of ideologies now swirls beneath the veneer of Republicans vs. Democrats.

What are you: red, blue or something else?

Some choices (others?) :

  • Liberal
  • Conservative
  • Independent
  • Moderate
  • Progressive
  • Yellow Dog Democrat
  • Radical Right
  • Raging Pragmatist
  • Social Democrat 6
  • Progressive Republican
  • Conservative Democrat
  • Libertarian
  • Populist
  • Socialist
  • ???
2012 Presidential Election
Happy New Year Trailmixers!

💬 Add your voice: Comment on today’s post
Share

34 thoughts on “Red, Blue Or What?”

  1. hard to put a label on “who any of us are” when those labels listed have morphed overtime.  there are too many subcategories and continuums to consider.  comes down to that age old waffle “it depends”

     

    complexity, confusion and chaos reign

  2. over heard a wag mutter the other day how he was looking forward to the “boring” instead of the roaring 20s.

    reminds me of an old science saw and this quote:

    The human mind inherently seeks intelligible order. Thus the conviction that such an order exists to be found is a crucial assumption.

     

    Nancy Pearcey

     

  4. I’m not sure I could even arrange that list of political positions along a continuum. I’d like to think I would be described as a practical progressive but I’m probably as much a liberal leaning moderate as anything. It’s probably easier to say what I’m not than what I am. I’m not a conservative & I’m not Republican.I’m certainly not a libertarian and definitely not a populist. Who knows, I could be a raging pragmatist. I Suspect my wife may call me a contrarian, and she would probably be right. 

  5. pogo, I share your wishy-washy pain and have a theory that the problem stems from having one’s youthful clear and chiseled-in-granite view of things crushed and ground to dust in law school —  forever  sentenced to a lifetime of seeing too many sides to too many issues.

  7. Well in a world where Conservatives aren’t conservative and Liberals disappeared. Where Progressivies spout ideas 50  years out of date, Where being a Conservative or a Progressive isn’t about a political philosophy  but  a  list of  policy statements that let you identify your tribe…………..
    What was the question?
    Jack

  8. As I grow older in this crazy neighborhood I live in, I’m a real fan of civilization, despite its problems it has served us well. So that would, by old definitions make me a conservative. However, it does have those problems and they cause unneeded pain.  We need to fix those problems, so I guess that makes me a liberal. 
    Then again I told my 20 something  kinfolk gathered around the Christmas table. “Hey, I’m old, got money in the bank, They aren’t my problems. They are your job get busy.”   Hey, I’m tired of worrying about all the idiots in the world been doing for too long and they just keep breeding more idiots.
    So put me on the “screw it” side of what ever continuum it fits on.   That is my basic political position, at least this morning.
    And yes the idiots were busy shooting off their guns until 2 am in the morning, why did you ask?
    Jack

  9. What I’m seeing is we have 2 parties that take positions not so much from political philosophies as to where they are based. The Republicans increasingly are based in rural America, where as Democrats are urban.  so the political fight is going to be in the suburbs and right now they are trending Democrat. It is why Democrats should be pushing suburban friendly ideas instead of college professor urban positions.  But being Democrats…..
    Jack

  10. Yes, jack, focusing on suburban issues has to be a key part of any successful democratic election strategy. I’m a suburban dweller with an East Bumfuck mailing address but live outside the “city” in what is actually a shithole community of ramshackle and in many cases collapsing houses and trailers that provides only a VFD as services. We’re at the mercy of East Bumfuck for water and the county for road maintenance. We had 5 major potholes in front of our house with the largest at 2’across and 8” deep, and the others were close behind. I threatened to put a Swim at Your Own Risk sign next to it – you know, to Reduce my risk.
     
    patd, I was deeply cynical before law school and had shed any youthful idealism years before. I went to law school when I was 38, having lived through the Nixon, Reagan and Bush 41 admins by the time I graduated.  Law school paled in comparison. 

  11. I say fuck the labels….  I am me.  In some areas I’m ragingly liberal and others ragingly conservative.  It all depends on my life experiences.  And as my life experiences change…  so can my mind.  I do identify myself for voting purposes as a Democrat (whatever the hell that means nowadays).  
     
    Rick and I had a great night watching the annual 3 Stooges marathon on a Boston station.  Turned to some other channel to watch the ball drop about 2 minutes to midnight.
     
    BBronc…  OMG…  you’re gonna need some Advil and then some.  Take care.

  13. e pluribus unum
    I have had several co-workers explain to me that I was hired because I checked off many boxes in one hire.  Veteran, disabled veteran, Vietnam era veteran, woman, LGBT, transgender, old, etc.  I was not hired for my brain.  When it turned out I was a hard worker, smart and able to do many things, in many fields, people were shocked.  I was supposed to be a stereotype of many different labels.  That I was not in a way destroyed myths. 

    I was not a guy in drag.  I was not a gay guy.  I was not a butch woman. I was not Barbie.  I was experienced in many fields, and accomplished at a high level in several  I was not going to kill anyone.  I do have severe PTS though, but even that exhibited itself in a different way than expected.  A large sharp noise had me dive to the floor, curl up in a ball shaking and crying.

      We need to focus less on labels than being able to talk to a flaming Progressive Liberal like me and a dumb as rocks “give me my Medicare, down with government” log cabin dweller.  With an outcome which overall may not be perfect for one, but good for two. 

    Often when I am talking to people in the deep agriculture areas about their lives they frequently sound just like a solid Dem, but then they spout some horse apples about some “regulation” which is hurting them.  They cannot name any regulation, but it is the fall back to justify hating Dems and voting for SFB.  Sigh.

  14. Well one final binge, fresh baked warm ginger bread strong on the ginger, Then the traditional potato soup with ham and a bunch of sea food and what is left of the cream I didn’t use to make the gingerbread.
    Oh and corn bread can’t forget the corn bread
    back to work
    Jack
     

  15. Poobah, you’re joining then. 
    BTW yesterday in response to an article on Imus, while I expressed my reservations about his less open opinions I mentioned that I became aware of you (I didn’t mention names) on his show plus your appearances on cable news, met you by chance on a book tour and became friends and have remained so since so I felt there was at least one thing about him I couldn’t criticize. 

  18. Ok, that’s better, I’ve got a tummy full of tater soup and cornbread, Life is good and thank God we get days like this, it is 50 degrees out, everything is peaceful and quiet, I have good music playing in the background. 
    Hope you all are having a good new years day.
    I’m going to take Brewster for a cemetery walk (his favorite)
    We will probably stop and say hello to Charlie Brown and his wife Lucy, they are buried out there. They had a long life together. 

  22. made the usual black eyed peas, collard greens and cornbread for out of town visitors who were still trying to get over a party the night before elsewhere.   now am stuck with a lot left of it over.  guess what’s on the menu for the next few days.

    oh well, their being the bringers of good luck and prosperity for the new year, looks like I’ll be rolling in riches.

  25. KING sized goofs: “Ronald Reagan’s clumsy handling of the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages affair, keeping it on the front pages longer than it warranted.”  And his handling of the air traffic controllers strike.  And deinstitutionalizimng hospitals for the mentally ill and mentally retarded (now called ID – intellectual disability) and contributing to inhumane treatment of those groups and countless   homelessness and making jails the new institutions for them. And cutting school lunch budgets and allowing ketchup and other condiments to count as vegetables. 
     
    Wadda a prince of a guy!
     
     

  28. Well…
    Something is going on.  SFB has not Tweeted anything for almost twenty-four hours.  Is he really dead? Or just comatose? This is a very rare occurrence.  Where is Pence?

  30. Glad the glasses get proper use poobah. While my bent is toward Scotch, a great bourbon is a great fit, too.
     
    BB, perhaps someone reminded him that he’s been impeached and for a while he should shut the fuck up. 

    And oh, and I guess he did not get that vase from Li’l Kim. Idiot. 

  31. Just watched a great film on CNN about Linda Ronstadt. Incredible voice compromised by Parkinson’s. If you get the chance and are a Ronstadt fan, make the time to watch it. 

Comments are closed.