@SQUEEKY2: “Will politics ever get back to what is good for the country”

When was this, and what does “country” mean in this context?

“Good for the country” generally assumes that there is a common interest among the people in a country. This is obviously not true. So, the “good for the country” line is generally a way to persuade people to go along with things that will bring harm to them and their families.

There is also the concern that “good for the country” is meant to be a nationalistic cry to exploit those who are not part of the country. It can be a rallying cry for imperialism.

Fighting against the idea of “for the good of the country” is a good thing.

The latter.

@rebbel It does seem that partisan politics is the player ,regardless of what good an idea or policy would be for the country if the other side came up with it we must put it down.

I think we’ll get our shit together eventually.

As a board certified centrist everybody hates me. So I’m not a good person to answer (you asked me to answer)

@product there are many common needs here in the US. Universal health care for one. Affordable childcare for another. Living wages.

Exactly @Dutchess_III and the right claim all those are too expensive and unsustainable but huge tax cuts for the wealthy are a good thing.

@Dutchess_III – There isn’t a “country” with interests. There are class interests, and they are incompatible.

@Dutchess_III: “there are many common needs here in the US. Universal health care for one. Affordable childcare for another.”

These are things fought against by the two parties because it’s against their class interest. Guaranteed single-payer or a national healthcare system is not “good for the country”. It directly threatens the profits of the wealthy.

To talk about “the country” as though we all share interests is disingenuous and allows the wealthy to give lip service to these things while simultaneously talking about “paying for it” and “budgets” and what is best for the “country”.

Class conflict is universal and perpetual.

It’s also worth noting that “good for the country” led to some pretty horrible stuff in Germany in the 1940s. You might have heard about it.

@product Don’t forget the ‘good of the country’ that was spoon fed by Thatcher and Reagan.

^ yep. “Good for the country” is a propaganda tool that works on multiple levels.

^I think the mantra in Germany in the 40’s was, ‘let’s go collect ANOTHER country.’ The ‘horrible stuff’ in Germany started in the early 1920’s. or you could go back to the first world war, for that matter.

So what is the answer then?
Let the poor keep working for wages they can’t live off from, just so the wealthy keep their profit margins up.
The US is one of the two or three countries that doesn’t have universal health care for it’s own citizens, again that might hurt the wealthy?

There are times when I seriously doubt the possibility of some return to anything resembling sanity. That is until I think back to when I was 10. As far as I’m concerned those days in the 50s were the midst of the best days this country ever saw. And I can remember my father endlessly telling us “the country’s going to hell”. I wonder what he would have to say now.

^The ‘50’s were GREAT in America. as long as you weren’t a woman of a person of colour or going to fight in Korea or Cuba, or a liberal accused of being a commie by Joe McCarthy

Yeah, now it just sucks for everyone unless your wealthy.

I could be all wet, but it is my view that the Right in general, and Republicans in particular, are swimming against the tides of history. Changes are coming, for the better. But these things take time. As the proverbial wise guy said, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Someone above mentioned the 50s Era, Look how far we have come already! Change has been slow, but it has happened. In my lifetime, we’ve made tremendous progress away from the “Hi honey, I’m home. Bring me my slippers and get supper on” mentality. Lol If I put a line like that on my wife, she’d clobber me. And she would be justified.

@SQUEEKY2: “So what is the answer then?”

Fuck the wealthy, acknowledge that there is no such thing as “good for the country”, and engage in class war. Adopting right-wing framing isn’t going to help anyone.

Class war against who?
The working poor?
The wealthy?

I think the French had the right idea, during their Revolution. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

Don’t look now, but the class war has always been with us. Which class would YOU say is winning?

@product: “Fuck the wealthy”

@SQUEEKY2: “Class war against who?”

See how confused people become when we adopt right-wing framing like “good for the country”?

Can’t as a nation everyone prospers?
Or does the the poor have to be squashed so the wealthy get more ahead?
Is that the class war you talk about?

^ The rich don’t want to have to give up their second yacht so people can actually afford to eat, have a roof over their head, and have healthcare. They will not give up anything. Workers have to take it.

A nation’s population can’t prosper under capitalism, which requires inequality and suffering. Additionally, looking at this through the lens of a nation results in the exploitation of the workers (and resources) in other nations.

@Nomore_lockout The French had more than one revolution. Every time the pendulum swung too far to one side, the masses fought back. They’ve had three proper revolutions and several near ones. You can say what you like about the French, but they aren’t apathetic, fat and lazy. It’s not ‘Give me Convenience or Give me Death’. They used to take that equality thing pretty seriously. (But they still don’t know what to do with religious minorities.)

@sorry I am pretty much in agreement. Just saying that the French philosophy of 1789 is more to my liking than our 1776 philosophy of “All white men are crated equal, but people of color, women, and all others, meh”.

I don’t think politics will get back to what it used to be. Thanks to social media and the internet, people are now fed what they want to believe. The right is fed right wing stuff. The left is fed liberal stuff. Special interest groups are fed stuff that’s in alignment with what they believe in. In the “old days” there was The New York Times, and other local papers, tne radio, and everyone read the same stuff. Now it’s giving people what they want to believe, and that’s not changing any time soon.