Why Are There No Intelligent Liberals In the Political Forum?

It's not because "intelligent liberal" is an oxymoron...

We almost never see in this forum a thread or a post with a liberal viewpoint that is well-written, articulate and/or supported by facts and figures. True conservatives love to debate. Yet there is no one in this forum who can argue the liberal side smartly or adeptly. We're stuck with morons like Assup, Sissy Chap and Ekim the Chimp. They chime in constantly and never tire of wasting our time (and eccie's bandwidth) as they run up their post counts. In reading some of the liberal comments here, I am often exasperated by the realization that I could argue their side much better than they can!

Outside this forum, I encounter well-written, articulate and data-supported liberal columns all the time. Here's just one example. Notice how the author provides useful numbers to back up his arguments. This makes his arguments stronger, although not beyond refuting (read the link comments too). He challenges the reader and advances the debate - instead of just going around in circles, repeating unsubstantiated talking points or denigrating into homophobic insults the way the childish libtards in this forum do each time they post.



Hard Truths for Trump’s America

Washington didn’t kill coal, but disaffected voters are being sold a story of victimhood.

By WILLIAM A. GALSTON
Sept. 13, 2016 7:22 p.m. ET


If there is a “war on coal,” as Donald Trump and Sen. Mitch McConnell allege, it has been under way for a very long time. In Mr. McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, coal mine employment peaked at 75,633 in 1948. It fell by two-thirds to about 25,000 in the late 1960s, before doubling to more than 50,000 in the late 1970s. It has since fallen virtually without interruption and now stands at 6,465.

Much the same is true for West Virginia, the epicenter of Appalachian angst. The state’s coal industry employed close to 120,000 workers in 1950. By the time John F. Kennedy campaigned against Hubert Humphrey in the state’s 1960 primary, the total stood at less than 50,000. After a temporary recovery in the 1970s and another in the first decade of the current century, about 15,000 remain.

Many forces have combined to decimate coal jobs since their mid-20th century peak. According to a 2014 official report from the state government of Kentucky, the principal culprit has been the “automation and mechanization of mining processes, which have improved mining productivity.” Another factor is “diminishing reserves of thick and easily accessible coal seams.” What remains is “more difficult, labor-intensive, and costly to mine.” A 2012 report from the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, a think tank in Charleston, W.Va., offers much the same account.

As a result, coal faces intensified competitive pressure from natural gas produced through hydraulic fracturing. The U.S. Energy and Information Administration expects this to persist over the next decade.

Both state reports also cite an additional factor: recent federal regulations of greenhouse gases and mercury. But neither regards these policies as a primary cause of coal’s decline. That argument would be absurd on its face, because nearly all the reduction in mining employment occurred before the federal government even began trying to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels.

It is irresponsible for politicians to suggest that these mining jobs will return; they can’t and won’t. And even if mining recovered modestly, it would make at best a small contribution to coal states’ economies. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mining and logging now account for only 3% of West Virginia’s total employment and less than 1% of Kentucky’s. Coal is less an economic development issue than a potent symbol in the partisan culture war. The future lies elsewhere.

Real economic recovery in Appalachia—the heart of Red America—requires facing some hard truths. As of 2015, according to the Census Bureau, West Virginia had the fourth-lowest median household income in the country, and Kentucky the second-lowest. Although neither state is a hub for high-wage jobs, the real problem is that so few of their denizens do any work at all. West Virginia has the lowest labor-force participation rate of any state in the country, 53%, and Kentucky the seventh-lowest, 58.5%. Although older than average populations are a contributing factor, that isn’t the big story: Among prime working-age adults, age 25 to 54, West Virginia ranks dead last, Kentucky next to last.

Here again, we are dealing with longstanding, deeply entrenched forces. The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy reports that the state’s labor-force participation has ranked last every year since 1976, consistently lagging the national average by at least 9 percentage points. Low levels of educational attainment help explain this gap, as does poor health. West Virginians are twice as likely as the average American to receive federal disability payments. Indeed, the share of the state’s adult population dependent on Social Security Disability Insurance is the highest in the country. (Kentucky ranks fourth.)

J.D. Vance, the author of the surprise best-seller “Hillbilly Elegy,” writes about running into a hometown acquaintance who said he had quit his job because he was “sick of waking up early.” Mr. Vance subsequently saw him complaining on Facebook about the “Obama economy.” This man, he comments, is not a victim: His situation is “directly attributable to the choices he’s made.” But nothing in his environment forces him to look in the mirror and ask tough questions about himself. On the contrary, Mr. Vance insists: “There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government, and that movement gains adherents by the day.”

The author of “Hillbilly Elegy” is a self-described conservative, but he criticizes his fellow conservatives for failing to tell their constituents the truth. Instead, the message of the right, Mr. Vance says, is: “It’s not your fault that you’re a loser; it’s the government’s fault.”

For decades conservatives have castigated liberals for abandoning the language of personal responsibility and turning their constituents into helpless victims. Now, led by Donald Trump, populist conservatives are doing just that.


http://www.wsj.com/articles/hard-tru...ica-1473808938

PT Barnum said "There is a sucker born every minute" . For a con man like Trump it was easy to sway the weak minded.

And he has definitely succeeded.

PT Barnum said "There is a sucker born every minute" . For a con man like Trump it was easy to sway the weak minded. Originally Posted by i'va biggen

Geez Lenny, you used that same sentence twice today. Very good.

Intelligent liberals is an oxymoron.

PT Barnum said "There is a sucker born every minute". For a con man like Trump it was easy to sway the weak minded. Originally Posted by i'va biggen

Case in point - another limp post from one of our unintelligent resident liberals adding nothing to this thread.


Here are some of the better WSJ comments:


"What a lame argument is presented here. No one on Trump's side has been claiming that all the jobs lost since the early 1900s can be brought back. They are saying that the government is affecting those that remain--and that is the government's fault.

The point is that Obama and Clinton do not give a rip if the miners and their families are hurt, because they do not vote for donkeys. If they did, these political lowlifes would have a reason to back off--and would.

If the government targeted the jobs held by columnists like Mr. Galston, we might be hearing him squeal that he's a helpless victim of the government. When it is not your ox being gored, you often lack any caring for the other guy in his trouble, and that is the case here."


Or this one:


"It is understandable that coal miners would believe that there is a war on coal. Here are the facts from their perspective.

1. The highest US coal production ever was in 2008, the year before President Obama took office.
2. The EPA has made it impossible to build new coal power plants.
3. The Army Corps of Engineers has retroactively yanked permits for coal mines that had been approved in the Appalachians.
4. President Obama's allies have blocked the construction of terminals for exporting coal to other countries."

PT Barnum said "There is a sucker born every minute" . For a con man like Trump it was easy to sway the weak minded. Originally Posted by i'va biggen

I think you're mistaken, the weak mindes have already come out for Hillary just like they did Obama.

Look at Assmuncher and Asswipes meltdowns today. Asswipe is starting threads like a pig in heat today. Assmuncher was reduced to a babbling faggot. Pathetic

That's why I started this thread... we deserve better than asswipe, ekim, dickmuncher, sissy chap, and their ilk.

I even gave them an example of how one might argue the liberal side cogently and intelligently.

Nothing works.

It's like trying to teach quasimodo how to be attractive.

That's why I started this thread... we deserve better than asswipe, ekim, dickmuncher, sissy chap, and their ilk.

I even gave them an example of how one might argue the liberal side cogently and intelligently.

Nothing works.

It's like trying to teach quasimodo how to be attractive. Originally Posted by lustylad

I propose we call the Rat Bastards "illiberals" from now on!

"Why Are There No Intelligent Liberals In the Political Forum?"

When Gruber was laughing at people, he wasn't laughing at the conservatives.

They all knew that Obamacare was a bunch of shit!

They are correct. So was Gruber.

Geez Lenny, you used that same sentence twice today. Very good. Originally Posted by bambino

Take it to heart bimbo, as you are one of the weak minded.

That's why I started this thread... we deserve better than asswipe, ekim, dickmuncher, sissy chap, and their ilk.

I even gave them an example of how one might argue the liberal side cogently and intelligently.

Nothing works.

It's like trying to teach quasimodo how to be attractive. Originally Posted by lustylad

Another of the weak minded.

Another of the weak minded. Originally Posted by i'va biggen

That you are, ekim....


"A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things, but cannot receive great ones."

- Lord Chesterfield

When Gruber was laughing at people, he wasn't laughing at the conservatives. Originally Posted by LexusLover

Hildebeest is targeting weak-minded gruberites like assup and the chimp...