BF2S Forums 2012 U.S. election presidential, Mitt Romney vs Barack Obama

Jay wrote:

KEN-JENNINGS wrote:

Being fiscally conservative is running a surplus. Taking in more than you spend.  Having modest debt. Saving for a rainy day.  Having a small government isn't a necessary conditon.

So your view of fiscal conservatives is that they're there to ride to the rescue when little Sally maxes out her credit card because of stupid purchases? They shouldn't have any say in how that money was spent, merely find a way to pay for it? Sorry, that's not how it works.

Jay wrote:

Fiscal conservatism and social welfare spending can never work together

No of course not, fiscal conservatives can only ever spend taxes on the military.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2012-10-19 04:43:02)

Obama Leads Romney, If Kids Could Vote

I'm not exactly a Romney supporter, but this is hardly surprising considering the massive amount of political indoctrination that goes on in schools, both subtle and unsubtle. I remember them painting a very black and white image of American politics, in general painting Republicans as pointy-toothed monsters who want to take away your stuff and Democrats as forward-thinking heroes who want to give you ALL THE STUFF.

Cool story time:

This extends all the way through high school. During the last civics class I took there, my support of gun rights during one class discussion inadvertently outed me as a Republican or an individual with at least some right-leaning tendencies, and it haunted me for the remainder of the class. The teacher tried to use me as the focal point for everything he thought was wrong with the country ("so, what does our conservative have to say about this?"). Too bad he never really backed his accusations or viewpoints with even good liberal logic. After a discussion with school administration, I'm sure I got a much better grade than the one he wanted to apply.

This was a common theme throughout most history/political oriented classes in public school. However, "counter-culture" public school like AFJROTC didn't really have the opposite effect like you'd think. Generally, they were more professional about things and preferred to guide discussions away from the morass of political opinion and back to history. I wish it was a model more teachers had followed, or even been allowed to.

AussieReaper wrote:

Haha right-wingers. Always playing the victim card.

Left-wingers do it all the time just as much if not more.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

I'm not exactly a Romney supporter, but this is hardly surprising considering the massive amount of political indoctrination that goes on in schools, both subtle and unsubtle. I remember them painting a very black and white image of American politics, in general painting Republicans as pointy-toothed monsters who want to take away your stuff and Democrats as forward-thinking heroes who want to give you ALL THE STUFF.

It's true.  It was mandatory my senior year that the teachers read Obama's memoir to us.  As if we were 5 year olds.  Absolutely pathetic.

You guys must have had shitty teachers, or maybe mine were exceptional. I remember having mock elections in school where ross perot won. I also remember the teacher that got me interested in politics in high school making a concerted effort not to show bias one way or another. To this day I couldn't tell you where he was on the political spectrum.

I'd suggest that parents would have more influence on a child's political outlook than any education system.

I don't mirror my parent's political views either but I would definitely say they had an impact on my political outlook more than any teacher or lecturer.

War Man wrote:

AussieReaper wrote:

Haha right-wingers. Always playing the victim card.

Left-wingers do it all the time just as much if not more.

Victim card? Whatever aussie, it's just a cool story. It would go against my own set of professional ethics to slam or try to humiliate kid for his political opinion in a classroom.

Funnily, political compass doesn't really think I'm right-wing anymore. If you count my support of conditional abortion, gay marriage, support of social welfare systems that are currently being invested in by tax payers, (e: support of industrial regulation, especially since I work in construction and know just how "good" a lot of businesses are at self-regulation), and the likelyhood that I will vote for Obama long before I fill the dot next to Romney in the upcoming Tweedle Dee/Dum contest, I don't think my advocacy of gun rights provides much of a counterweight.

FEOS wrote:

Spearhead wrote:

It's true.  It was mandatory my senior year that the teachers read Obama's memoir to us.  As if we were 5 year olds.  Absolutely pathetic.

YGBFSM

I don't think he is. While laughably awful, it doesn't sound that far-fetched to me.

/teachers unions, district policies, etc.

KEN-JENNINGS wrote:

You guys must have had shitty teachers, or maybe mine were exceptional. I remember having mock elections in school where ross perot won. I also remember the teacher that got me interested in politics in high school making a concerted effort not to show bias one way or another. To this day I couldn't tell you where he was on the political spectrum.

Looks like you rolled a 20 on some of those teachers. But to be fair, I did have two history classes that weren't politically-tainted.

Ty wrote:

I'd suggest that parents would have more influence on a child's political outlook than any education system.

Kids spend almost half of their weekdays at schools listening to their teachers. I guarantee any outward political bias shown by teachers is going to rub off if left unchecked.

Jay wrote:

Ty wrote:

I don't mirror my parent's political views either but I would definitely say they had an impact on my political outlook more than any teacher or lecturer.

I think college profs have a huge impact on political beliefs. You're at the point where you can actually vote and start paying attention.

If anything, college has a worse reputation for this than lower schools.

It is, but I am a lot left of where I was ten years ago. So in a way, it is right.

Flicked over to the debate briefly a while back. Romney actually looked pretty strong when he was defending his statements about Russia being an enemy. One of the rare times he's explained one of the statements he is criticised over without either denying it or simply claiming it was misrepresented and leaving it at that. He backed himself and explained why he said what he said and it made sense.

Romney has went through most of this debate countering his own statements. Airtime seems to be favoring him, for whatever reason. He's also been going through this debate with an OJ smirk permanently affixed to his face.

e: "I care about getting our 9 million jobs back, but I don't care about poor people."

e2: Romney - "Our navy is smaller than it's ever been since 1917!"
Obama - "...and we have fewer horses and bayonets."

lol

Romney is desperately trying to make the debate about anything but foreign policy.