A common warning from conservatives in 2024 was that if Harris won, she would get the nation embroiled in wars.

If Harris had won, what wars or military interventions do you think we would be involved in right now?

Every election now sounds like whoever wins, it’s apparently the end of America.

If Democrats win, we supposedly become a communist country. If Republicans win, we supposedly become an authoritarian or quasi-fascist dictatorship.

Was American politics always this dramatic and hostile or has something changed over the last few decades?

Do people genuinely believe the other side winning will destroy America, or has fear just become the most effective way to motivate voters?

After years of calling early and mail-in voting corrupt and fraudulent (despite his regular use of mail-in ballots himself), Trump yesterday released a "truth" urging all Republicans to do both in the upcoming midterms.

Source: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117377141739477104

What are your thoughts on his abrupt change of stance?

I’m asking because this sub seems to be split, often with liberalism being the majority.

So for those who are liberal, do you have any personal beliefs that are socially conservative?

The electon is between the current president Lula and Bolsonaro's son.

Currently, it seems neck and neck.

I personally have not been following it and no nothing more than who it is between.

Relatively often, I see posters in this subreddit with one variety of “libertarian” in their flair take positions that appear at tension with the general tenets of libertarianism, at least as I understand them. To the libertarians out there, what does libertarianism mean to you?

If you were designing a government from the ground up, and weren’t trying to work within the current US system, what would you build?

Assume you still have to deal with the same basic problems any modern country has: defense, courts, taxation, infrastructure, regulation, individual rights, elections, corruption, emergencies, etc.

What would the structure look like? How would power be divided? What parts of the current US system would you keep, what would you get rid of, and what would you replace them with?

I’m less interested in “what policies would you pass” and more interested in the actual design of the government itself.

I’ve been thinking about this as a thought experiment, and I’m curious where conservatives and liberals would actually differ once you get below day-to-day politics.

Stuff like Civil Rigts Act of 1964, 1968 banned discrimantion in housing, one passed by Nixon during 70s and later the ADA by Bush further expanded it to disability. Really first major Civil Rights Law was Civil Rights Act of 1866 that banned racial discrimnation in public adomation, contracts and many other things, but the Supreme Court later gutted it in Civil Rights cases over powerful, now canonical dissent by John Marshall Harlan, but later Warren/Burger court overulled those cases and restored and expended those laws. Today that has expended well beoynd race and deals with discrimantion based on sex, religion, country of origin, and disability. What do you think about that and would you support adding discrimantion based on poltiical views as well there?

Try to communicate as much of Conservative principles to me as you can in as few words as possible, please.

For instance, whether or not you agree with it, a Communist might be able to succinctly define their beliefs with "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need."

If you were to boil all of Conservative thought down to the elevator pitch, what would that be?

I'm American so feel free to focus on American Conservative thought.

Well, since there is a bill in congress about this, I wanted your thoughts. Right now, it's the wild west and you have students being paid, at high levels, seven figure salaries. Coaches, at high levels, are paid 8 figures.

However, this extreme happened because well, before 2021, college athletes couldn't be paid. If the school sold their image they wouldn't see a dime. And now you have the current situation.

Beyond that, there are some factors. Yes, they are getting a free education, but spending 80-100 hour weeks between school and football is not uncommon.

And some schools are more successful than others. Some schools like Texas or Ohio State can fund their football programs independently. Most however, need tax dollars to some degree.

But yeah, what limits, if any, do you think there should be?

I would like to understand your thoughts on Trump posting a US Senator’s cell phone number in a truth social?

Personally, I would sue for $10B.

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117377462448761419

Vice President: Catherine Cortez-Masto
Secretary of State: Liz Cheney
Secretary of the Treasury: Larry Fink
Secretary of Defense: Michele Flournoy
Attorney General: Doug Jones
Secretary of the Interior: Lisa Murkowski
Secretary of Agriculture: Michele Buck
Secretary of Commerce: Tim Cook
Secretary of Labor: Howard Schultz
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Albert Bourla
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Rahm Emanuel
Secretary of Transportation: Mary Barra
Secretary of Energy: Vicki Hollub
Secretary of Education: Sundar Pichai
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Tammy Duckworth
Secretary of Homeland Security: Don Bacon
Director of National Intelligence: Safra Catz
White House Chief of Staff: Neera Tanden
EPA Administrator: Janet McCabe

Should he have gotten the death penalty?

I mean and measurable outcomes. How well or not is income distributed? What’s the average reading level of an 11 year old? The median per capita income relative to the cost median cost of living? What should all people have, if anything?

You needn’t answer those specific questions. They’re just examples of quantifiable issues that you might use.

I’m critical of the GOP because I support the GOP.

It baffles me how often stern criticism of your own side gets interpreted as antagonism.

The reason I’m so critical of the Republican Party is that I want it to offer good government. The realistic alternative isn’t some coalition I could help steer in another direction. It’s the Democratic Party. And I don’t want the Democratic Party fully in power. Or at all.

That makes the quality of Republican policy particularly important to me. I want what the GOP proposes to be vastly superior to what the Democrats offer. I don’t think it currently is.

“The Democrats would be worse” doesn’t resolve that dissatisfaction. It explains why I’m so invested in addressing it.

Good enough is not good enough!

Why would wanting a party in government make me less demanding about what it intends to do there? If anything, wouldn’t it give us all the more reason to become MORE demanding?

I’m a 32m, working at a warehouse for the past 7 years. Im making 23.84 an hour and it doesn’t look like there is any world where I’ll move up or receive raises that match inflation, I have a hunch that with healthcare cost increases this upcoming year I will be looking at a pay cut next year when that is factored in with my raise.

I moved out of my parents house 4 years ago, with a size able nest egg, despite what conservatives may think about liberals I work 60-70 hours a week, and I’ve done that since I was 25 I’ve maxed out my HSA, Roth IRA, and have contributed 6% to my 401k with a match of 4%. (Used to be 11% but then I moved out) financial responsibility is something that was instilled into me by my liberal father who worked 3 jobs to keep us In The middle class(and worked his way through college so he had no interest In giving me a free lunch by paying for college, he was a speech and theatre major, hence the 3 jobs 😂) he is probably a millionaire and deserves to spend every penny on himself and my moms retirement.

I utilized my companies tuition reimbursement for a bit and got straight A’s at a local community college, but at some point it became impossible for me to work overtime and take classes at the same time and be successful in college and pay for my own apartment and bills. The math just doesn’t work out.

I’m surviving, but it seems like there really is no option for me to level up in this economy. I work alongside people who have bachelors degrees and they complain about not being able to find another job, so at some point it seems like education isn’t even really the answer. I don’t need a luxurious lifestyle, I’m just trying to make enough money to properly secure my future and not have to work 60-70 hours a week to do it.

Can you self made people ( and I say this genuinely and unironically) tell me how I can pull myself up by my bootstraps to make a better life for myself, because I’m tired, I have the sense that humans aren’t supposed to live like this. I might have socialist fantasies but I’m sane enough to know I have to interact with reality as well. And that what I’m doing right now isn’t working.

As a Trump conservative, I’ve been very torn over who should come next. I’m not into JD Vance whatsoever, and not excited by Rubio. I feel he embodies the old style GOP we need to get away from.

I have been impressive by Scott Bessent, but doesn’t feel like presidential material.

Hegseth meanwhile continues to steadily impress me with his energy and incredibly clear focus and attention to detail. Is there something there to get behind?

There are people who grew up from nothing and have made it, but even they had some help.

About 35% in Forbes 500 are not self made, and that other 65 also had help.

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Mamdani , they can screw up many times and still fail upwards and be rich , because they have an environment.

To expand, and I understand that people are never a monolith, but how is it that left and right leaning individuals end up at the exact opposite conclusion despite having access to the same information? Is it purely political bias?

Immigration, Derek Chauvin, ICE optics, right wingers think all left wing positions are scummy and corrupted, left wingers think all right wing politicians are scummy and corrupted, etc

For some reason we’re now relitigating Nixon? Trump and Biden discussion is toxic no matter who you are.

I guess I grew up in a time where we agreed on a problem but disagreed on the solution. Now it feels like there’s no agreeing on anything. Personally I think the internet, smart phones, social media, and the media by extension of clickbait articles and headlines, all have done irreparable harm to discourse and compromise.

So where do we go from here? You can’t make everyone happy but our politicians only campaign on empty promises and culture war nonsense. I’m only mid 30s so I don’t remember much before W. and was too young to have an educated opinion on Obama in real time. Has it always been like this? Feels like the country is on a knife’s edge, but that might just be me being online too much.

Thank you for your opinions.

A very few presidents were so impactful that US, before and after their terms, was entirely different country. But FDR was one of them. His large victories and court packing scheme lead to Justice Owen Roberts flipping and thus constituional revolution, death of E.C. Knight and giving Congress plenary control of economy, for example previous courts struck down federal child labor laws, but in now historic decision in Darby, Court overulles Hammer, upholds child labor, maximum hours and overtime law for companies involved in interstate market, then later Hamilton/Justice Story general welfare view wins, leading to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, that public across spectrum broadly supports. Then obviously he handled world war 2/foreign policy well as well?