With the upcoming US Congressional elections in the news, I decided to give one of the political sims a visit. So I hopped over to the GOP Cafe, and stumbled upon a meeting just as people were arriving. It was a somewhat small meeting with just several people showing up, but no shortage of opinion.
Among the first subjects was the Republican candidate for governor of New York state,
Carl Paladino, talking about his TV commercial campaign, and the incident with a newspaper columnist. Someone brought up that the election was even more important because with the recent census, the voting districts would be redrawn, and “redistricting is influenced by governors.” Although catching up, Paladino was still behind in the polls.
A few felt the Republicans were being a little soft on the Democrat Party, “In peewee football there is a running-up-the-score sort of rule. Don't hurt the losers feelings too much. This isn't peewee football. We need to be hungry until it's over.” “The R's have often played by
Marquis of Queensbury rules (strict set of boxing rules).” “Well said ....., we are dumb that way. ... better to stay a gentleman and lose than get down and win. American Politics is a one-sided bar fight. Repubs don't get it.”
They talked some about discussing politics with others, “For the average person, the best thing you can do is expose people to other views, and just help people understand that not everybody's a big lefty. It's amazing how many people hold contrary views but are afraid to share them.”
The “Tea Party” movement got it’s share of discussion, “Frankly we are already slacking off. Except the Tea Party folks.” “The main thing is, (we) need to keep the Tea Party alive past the election. This needs to be not just about getting people elected, but steering the culture.” “That's because for once, it's a big group that's not a political party, but a semi-philosophical party. They're finally treating the gross activities on the left as a moral problem, not a tactical election problem.”
Former President Bush got quite a few swipes, “ ... I sort of gave up on Bush.” “Bush went all squishy, but then he always was a 'progressive' Repub.” “Bush ran on a pretty far left social agenda. He was never going to be a Reagan.” “Look at the increased medical spending. Or the push for the ‘ ownership society,’ or yeah - the refusal to cut back on any kind of social program.” “Bush never vetoed anything for years.”
Bush’s handling of military affairs was also attacked, “A big one, he thought war was a moral issue. ‘ If you choose to make war, you must do it with everything you have’ : Sun Tsu.” “We need to cut our losses and get out.” “Should have canned Rumsfeld after six months, same mistakes MacNamarra made.” “I think war is a moral issue, but you also need moral certainty. You need to be willing to name the enemy - militant theocracy. Instead, he tried to fight a war against a tactic. The War on Terror was like A War on Bullets.” “The essential book, to understand how a war should be fought, is Nothing Less Than Victory, by John Lewis. He's a historian, shows the consistent historic outcomes of wars that have been fought partially, and wars that have been fought relentlessly. In each case, where a war was fought as a half effort, the war lasted longer, more lives were lost, and less change was effected.” “We lost the war.” “Time to pull out. We had our chance but without total war, you can’t win." “ You can, but it's damn difficult and damned expensive.”
But as much heat Bush was given, Clinton was hit harder, “He sold missiles tech to China, and reactors to North Korea.” “We keep forgetting the oath of Office. To protect and defend to Constitution... Clinton and Obama both have violated their oath.”
“Question: Impressions of Christine O'Donnel?” “I can't get excited about Christine.” “I am against anyone who thinks they should run my bedroom.” “Do you really think she'd invade your bedroom?” “No, but she has opinions about my bedroom that she would enforce if she could.” “Nobody gets it right 100% of the time. Tea Party messed up with her.” “She's one of a handful that gives people a useful handle for casting Tea Partiers as crazies or religious zealots.”
Someone thought, “Did everyone hear the Fed is going to undermine the dollar?” “They've already been monetizing the debt for a while. Bernanke said he'd absolutely never do it - and not a month after that, the first run of it.” “Actually, my business is 100% export so I really like the weak dollar.” “When we're so far screwed that we need a million dollar bill, I hope they put Greenspan and Bernanke on it so we can use it for darts.“ “Right now, companies are just doing stock buybacks instead of growing because they're scared pantless about inflation, but have nowhere to put the money.” “Even gold's a worsening bet. Too many buyers, and don't be at all surprised if we see special gold sale taxes start to appear, if not outright controlling ownership as happened under FDR.”
Of adversary countries, “It’s time to realize our enemy isn’t in Afghanistan, it’s China.” “Funny how China is literally colonizing the world, and the Third World applauds.” There was also tough talk about Hugo Chavez, “Chavez is playing out ‘Atlas Shrugged’ in slow motion. They actually had legislation preventing people from changing jobs a few years back!” “And all the middle class has already fled - the don't even have people left who know how to run the oil wells, which are that country's only resource. That's how Iran got involved in the first place. They had to bring in Iranian engineers, under Iranian government control, to run the wells.”
Of Iran’s nuclear plants, someone suggested infecting their computers, “infiltrators can be bribed to deliver comp viruses.” Of North Korea, “The big problem has been all these missiles they have along the southern border, buried in the line of mountains. It's not practical to bomb those out all at once. And they're pretty much all aimed at the South Korean population centers. So any attack starts with the destruction of South Korea.”
The chat lasted a little more than an hour. After that, everyone bid each other well and went their separate ways.
The GOP Cafe is in the Grand Old Party sim, north of the main entrance at Grand Old Party (
166, 130, 23). The Cafe chats are every Thursday at 5PM SL time.
Bixyl Shuftan
Although
there is a Republican group in Second Life, the location listed in it's
profile was closed. But there was a Trump Pub. It was a two-story brick
building with red white and blue lights forming a flag over the
entrance. There was a huge sign next to the place. On the inside were
banners both mocking the opposition and displays of bravado, "Caution:
Armed and Deplorable." The second floor was more about fun with various
games.
