My sister is a MAGA and nothing will change her mind, not even facts. The other day she told me that trump and the republicans passed laws that stopped illegal immigration. I asked her which law? I then told her that no, no change to our existing laws has been made since Reagan. I also let her know that trump made an executive order that was overturned by the courts.
I also pointed out that for his first 2 years trump had the Senate and House and they made no laws to improve the borders. In fact, they did not even fund his wall, that trump had to take funds from military housing to get the 500 or so miles that either reinforced or built.
She told me I was wrong and I said fine, then prove me wrong, I would be happy to be proven wrong and could she send me the name of the bill they passed. She said she would look for it and get back to me. I am still waiting and its almost a week. I know that I will be waiting forever because its just not out there. She ended the call really, really angry.
On that same phone call she said that the school that she works in is over run with kids and their families that can’t speak English and only speak Spanish. I said how could that be possible since the town is only 1.67% hispanic and 64% white.
I don’t have an issue with listening to anyone’s point of view, I even disagree with other democrats on issues. It’s not that I don’t want to hear anyone else’s point of view, I just want to have a discussion based on facts and not talking points that fox entertainment spews.
I have disabled comments because I’m tired of the name calling and feelings over facts.
I have a neighbor who is a Republican. I always welcome his point of view. He is a smart fellow and one of the most informed people on public issues I’ve ever known. Hearing his points of view enriches my own understanding of things and I often learn something, even if I decide not to change my mind.
With that said, there are others, let’s call them “Republicans in Name Only” (RINOs), who are not smart like my neighbor and who are embarrassingly uninformed on public issues. Their viewpoints are essentially slogans, they repeat proven lies, they make unfounded accusations, they engage in motivated reasoning, their logic is fallacious and they are oblivious to facts and evidence.
After the first or the second lie, experience (and trust me, I have a lot) tells me that listening to such Republicans is a waste of time. I called them RINOs, but most people would call them MAGA.
I am fiercely center (if that’s even a thing anymore). I have worked on both sides of the aisle. Basically, I’m all about good ideas.
I, as a result give both sides more rope than most would. When Trump announced he was running I was acutely aware he would win and had hoped he was a Trojan Horse of sorts.
Fast forward to today. He lacks the ability to do anything that doesn’t serve him and the Republican party lack the ability to do anything without him. Just look at the border control bill that a Republican co-authored and a bipartisan group was trying to pass. It gave a lot of what they wanted, but Trump said no because he didn’t want Biden to have the win, and the party folded like laundry. I know there were other issues with the bill but it was a stepping stone towards getting more done. Also the number of people crossing was inflated as it didn’t account for the many different statuses. So it still stands that there is a great deal of evidence that it would have passed had Trump not killed it.
Republicans ask liberals for proof and when they provide it, they say that it’s a conspiracy or they point to an article on some obscure website as a balance for a white paper and attempting to do damage. If they are called out on anything, it’s lies and conspiracy, but then they will continually call out the left with absolutely no proof.
I’m sorry, but I can’t back ideas with no proof or logic. It’s just not how my brain works. I’m stubborn like that.
The problem with Republican’s opinion these days is that it isn’t backed by much at all. When I look at a subject, I spend a considerable amount of time researching it before I’ll even have an opinion. I need to follow the scientific pyramid of evidence, or I will not accept something as real.
in the case of an emergency like COVID-19, I will defer to the experts who provided the scientific pyramid of evidence in the past. They won’t always get it right but the margin for error is lower.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the reason I generally don’t listen to Republicans anymore is because they’ve been caught in too many lies, do not provide enough evidence for most of their talking points, and it just feels like the party is full of hypocrites and greedy little bastards. Again, I’m not saying that Democrats or the left don’t have undesirable characteristics, but with the Republicans, undesirable characteristics are the rule and not the exception.
As many have stated here we’re all waiting for the proof to hundreds, if not thousands, of questions we’ve asked Republicans over the years and have never been provided because it doesn’t exist.
At some point, a person has to admit that in general black people running faster than white people, women should be in more positions of power because of their ability to be more diplomatic, the position of President should not be held by anyone over 70, the mere existence of lobbyists proves both sides have degrees of corruption, and that Republicans don’t have much to bring to any conversation because very few of their points hold up to this illustration (which is truly the only logical way to prove something).
