Has anyone ever changed their mind on politics from what they have read on a message board like this?

I doubt it. Most changes in an adult's values on come as the result of a significant emotional event S.E.E. (Dr. Morris Massey) such as a death, birth, marriage, divorce etc. When the person is in the loosend stage, they may change depending on what they see, hear, experience etc.

I believe these boards are a nice way to relieve the powerless feelings many have in todays environment. We really can't change them, so we focus on posting our views and or attacking those who disagree with us.


I would much rather find out why people who think differently than I do think the way they do. I believe in enough liberal and conservative values that I have a hard time understanding anyone who actually hates the other side and wants them destroyed.

If either the far right or far left ever ruled completely, this would be hell. The first 6 years of Bush's rule have proven that to me. Fortunately, both sides are dumb enough that when they get power, they fuckitupcompletely unitil the people see this and shift back.

You may agree with me or not, it doesn't matter. No one in politics has all the right answers. If you think you do, you are living a real delusion.

Screw it for the rest of this election. I will do my work at work with those who are afraid of Obama, don't know him or have been sucked in by the lies on the blogs about his Muslimness and hate for the white race.

Have a great life.

see ya

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"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

I agree. I bolded your comments about not hating the "other" side. I like reading other people's opinions, as long as they state them in a semi-rational manner, without flaming. Most on here are reasonable people, and the rest I just ignore!

That's great you are going to help with the Obama campaign, me too, here in my little place in America.

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Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
~Voltaire

After reading all the weak arguements on a lot of different forums about why Obama shouldn't be POTUS, I can say that was one of the factors that made me take a better look at the Obama/Biden ticket.

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"The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it."
P. J. O'Rourke

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
Thomas Paine

I don't come here to change anyone's opinion. I come here to share mine, hear others, and discuss the differences.

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An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. -Mahatma Gandhi

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. -Lewis Carroll

I thought Hillary had all the right answers.

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I am the way into the city of woe.
I am the way to forsaken people.
Dante's Inferno
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Robert Oppenheimer
My God, what have we done?" - Robert Lewis co-pilot of the Enola Gay

I really hate that Hillary is not in this historic election. That's okay, she'll run in 2012.

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An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. -Mahatma Gandhi

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. -Lewis Carroll

I think that boards like this contributed a tiny bit to my way of thinking and led, in a very small degree to changing my views. I used to be an ultra laze fair conservative. I thought that there should be no government safety net. People should be forced to make it on their own. Then I became very socialistic. I thought that the rich became rich by luck and corruption fraud and cruel practices against the gullible "little people". Wealth should be evenly distributed. Finally, after rocking back and forth like a pendulum. I consider myself to be a practical moderate - a little bit extreme on a few key issues - but not an absolutist. After debating conservatives and liberals on boards such as this and getting different perspectives from individuals, I think that my perspective has been changed. Then again, age an experience may explain it all

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"Extremes to the right and left of any political dispute are always wrong."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

It is probably true that few people change their views based on message boards, but I always look to see if anyone can really challenge the basic liberalism that is at the heart of American democracy.

Obama's candidacy was a nice surprise. He moves politics to another level and at the same time he takes care of those less fortunate, something the so called Christian right has abandoned for single topics and power. But something America has always stood for. Should he lose to the same old ideas and the sheer stupidness of much of Palin's beliefs, America loses.

I do also think posting can affect others who may not even comment. A URL or the mention of a good book can lead others away from dog eat dog republicanism, back to an America where people cared and corporations cared and news wasn't just spin.

I am reading this now which is a refreshing look at the principles of liberalism.

Amazon.com: Freedom's Power: The History and Promise of Liberalism: Paul Starr: Books

Personally, message boards give me a sense of what everyone else is thinking, which I kind of like, because it helps me feel more in touch with other people's views. It doesn't necessarily ever change anyone's mind, on the other hand message boards are way more meaty than, say, bumper stickers.

Oh, and about those in absolute power fucking up completely - I have wondered if they become corrupt through power, OR if crooks gravitate towards whichever party is gaining power because that's where a crook would want to be. Are most of the crooked politicians ones that were relatively recently elected to their party while their party was in power? It would be interesting to see.

Scott MCClellan has convinced me that he really thought the Bush team was going to reform Washington (and did they ever). He (or maybe I am confusing him with one of the federal judges that was doing the circuit) said on one of the chat shows that he had viewed Bush etc as the Jedi's sent to Washington to overcome corruption. Well, that worked out real well.

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"It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory." -Barack Obama, November 4th 2008

You would be that deluded individual rayboy referred to.

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke

Interesting that someone remembers Morris Massey, his tapes were a great resource for me when I was beginning to teach adults back in the early 1980s. And you're right. In my domestic situation there is no way I would change my vote, except to move further left (Greens). Since I'm only moderately left of centre and the Greens aren't too far left that's not a big move. What I do enjoy about forums is to read other points of view and to have a bit of fun in exchanging views about issues. And at times I've seen my own views in a very different light and have had to re-think a few ideas but change my vote, probably not.

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Blowhards-R-Us

If Obama wins and does just a so so job will Hillary run in the primaries against him? I wonder iof she would in a last ditch effort at the White House.

__________________
I am the way into the city of woe.
I am the way to forsaken people.
Dante's Inferno
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Robert Oppenheimer
My God, what have we done?" - Robert Lewis co-pilot of the Enola Gay

Writing on these boards has improved my writing skills rather considerably.

I believe that occassionally one or the other writes something that might effect people's thinking.

I know I've learned quite a bit writing on boards. Just understanding people's attitudes, which are often so different than mine, is worth the time.

He is right about part of his exit speech. I hope the door didn't hit him in the a$$ when he left. But .........

There are a lot of catagories on this message board. It just so happens that right now "the electon" is the hot topic. I just happened to stumble across this place - at this time of history. This particular election has been talked about more than any election has been discussed in years! Think about it ...

President George H.W. Bush was elected in 1989. Bill Clinton was elected in 1993. George W. Bush was elected in 2001. In 1984 there were estimated to be 6,980 households with computers. It was pretty new to most of us. Some of you were not even born yet.
http://www.census.gov/population/soc...3/compusea.txt

I did not even bother to see if there is an estimate of how many home computers there are in 2008. It would be pointless ... what the point is .... we have been given a way to sit and talk with people from all over this country, (and the world) via our very own home computer, in our fuzzy pink slippers or in the nude if we wanted to! Thanks to Gunny We have come to meet, discuss, argue, agree, whatever ..... with people we will most likely never meet in our lifetime. But it is sure better than trying to get 1,000 people together at the local high school football field to talk about the election .... where actual fist fights might break out. It is human nature. We will never agree on everything. If we do ..... God Bless us all!

After the election? Bring on the arguments over football, and how to make stuffing for your Thanksgiving turkey. That's what "message boards" are all about"!