Ten oz

I would say the goal is to live your life honestly and do the least damage to others in the process.

"House Speaker Paul Ryan says he has no interest in working with Democrats on getting health care legislation passed, disputing a suggestion by the White House to reach across the aisle and bypass conservative House Republicans." https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/03/30/politics/paul-ryan-democrats-health-care/index.html#ampshare=http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/paul-ryan-democrats-health-care/index.html Republicans make no bones about. They are not interested in bipartisanship. They blocked Obama's SCOTUS nominee for a year demanding a super majority then changed the rules and seated Trump's pick with a simple majority. In my opinion the reason for such divisive partisanship rests at the feet of Republicans who have adopted a scorched-earth combative approach towards power which punishes compromise and views Political victory as a more important goal than the health and well being of the nation.

It seems to me that the Democratic party is an amalgamation of what both the Democratic and Republican parties use to be. There are conservatives and liberals within the democratic party. Compromise and teamwork is taken seriously. The current brand of Republican is a far right ,almost anarchist like, cesspool of seemingly every type of ism. Those who voted Republican appear to do so out of anger.

I don't believe this is the beginning of a recession. I think it is a long over due correction. I only posted it because it is a learning opportunity with regards to how different force in the economy work.

That was my point. States need more than single industries. West VA needs to diversify.

"Investors' main concern is the selloff in the bond market. The 10-year Treasury yield, which moves opposite price, spiked to a four-year high of 2.85% on Friday. It's a dramatic swing from 2.4% at the start of 2018. Higher yields could make normally boring bonds look more attractive when compared with risky stocks. The U.S. economy looks very healthy right now. Friday's jobs report showed that wages grew at the fastest pace since 2009. That's a welcome shift by workers who have been dealing with anemic raises for years. However, Wall Street is starting to get worried that the "goldilocks" environment of slow growth and mysteriously low inflation may be ending. Stronger inflation would force the Federal Reserve to raise rates more aggressively than investors may be comfortable with. And more robust wage gains could eat into record-high corporate profits." http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/05/investing/stock-market-today-dow-jones/index.html For some it might seem counterintuitive but one of the reasons the market is currently selling off is because of the strength of the economy. It is important to understand this when buying into the sales pitches presented by those who insist tax cuts will boost wages and GDP. The forces which boost wage growth are different than the ones that boost productive and industry growth. Moderate growth over time with slow wage growth is the most stabilizing model over time. Fast growth in wages or industry leads to boom and bust which weakens the economy over time.

West VA does have it own leadership. They have a Governor, state legislators, city counsels, Mayors, and etc.When we look at economically thriving states it isn't the Federal Govt that brought industry to them. California's wine industry alone makes 10 times the revenue West VA's Coal industry and I have never heard a National candidate talk about the importance of wineries. Moreover alcohol has many federal restrictions and additional taxes placed on it. which are exactly the type of things many claim hurt industry. Within California itself they built up their own industries and as a result have wildly healthy tourism, media, tech, entertainment, real estate/construction, agriculture, and education industries. Democrats running for national office mostly ignore California because they know they will win there. Republicans criticize California because they know they won't win there. Neither party on the national level is promising or helping California with much of anything. California, New York, and Texas account for 34% of the entire GDP of the United States. Those 3 states. During National elections those 3 states are seldom even visited by politicians. Instead Politicians focus on smaller "battle ground" states where simple singularly focused narratives are most successful. It isn't national political figures making the top economies what they are. It is local govts and leaders. Look at Texas. Despite having some of the nations ugliest Coastline and 2 thirds the state being an arid desert Texas has the 5th highest tourism revenue in the Country. Cities like San Antonio and Austin have found ways to tap into fine dining, bar scenes, live music, and mix it all with Spanish infused architecture and create places people want to visit. Rather than embracing new industries internally West VA has allowed the discussion to focus on old ones. They need a visionary Governor, a visionary Mayor in Charleston, and not a President that promises them coal mining jumps. They also have to be more inclusive and open to change. States like CA, TX, and NY are diverse and also changing.

Largest, yes, but certainly not the "most".

I didn't imply West VA should be ignored but rather there is more in West VA than to give attention Coal miners. Why not speak to groups which employee more individual people and focus on there growth. California use to have a lot of gold miners once upon a time but today they have technology, entertainment, farming, and etc. Times change. You are in PA. There is a lot more in PA than steel workers there now days. PA has a terrific healthcare and education industry. Focusing on the future is better than focusing on the past. The coal mining industry in West VA has been on the decline for nearly 80yrs running and not just the last 20yrs. West VA has other industries. For West VA to improve its overall economy they need to expand those industries which are going and create new ones.

Detroit has made incredible gains over the years. It is just a used up talking point in 2018 to complain about Detroit. It isn't perfect but neither is any number of cities.

DOD got a 15 Billion dollar boost back in may and then their overall budget increased by another 100 billion back in November. Custom Board Protect spending is up. The Secret Service spent their whole years budget in months protecting Trump and his family and Congress had to allocate more money. Additionally changes to the ACA, emergency funding for disasters without offsets (demanded by Republicans in previous year), and other miscellaneous mismanagement issues. Moving forward Trump wants money for his wall, even more money for Custom Boarder protection, hundreds of billions for an infrastructure bill, and has promised money to combat the Opioid crisis. While it is normal for Presidents to propose spending for they agendas the spending normally comes with a means to afford it. With Trump he just demands the money.

West Virginia didn't turn to Trump. West VA voted for Romney, McCain, and Bush overwhelming as well. West VA has been very red for a couple decades now. West VA GDP is over 55 billion per year. The Coal industry contributes 3 billion of that or 5%. 740,000 people are employed in West VA and Coal accounts for 30,000 people or 4%. Coal matters but how much is grossly exaggerated. We do not restore faith in Govt by selling them a fake bill of goods or lying to ourselves about why people in West VA vote the way they do. If anything I believe Democrats have spoke to and about the coal industry too much. Democrats need to do a better job speaking to the Healthcare and Advance Tech industries in West VA because each of those industries employ more West Virginians than does the coal mining industry. The problem in West VA is that they have been pigeonholed in political conversations as the land of Coal miners and no one speaks the overwhelming majority of West Virginians that have no association to coal mining. Imagine if whenever any politician spoke about Canada all they ever spoke about was Maple as if Canada had nothing else.

More in line; which point was Clinton's campaign not in line with?

In the Democratic Primary Clinton receive 3.6 million more votes than Sanders ( I voted for Sanders in the Primary). Additionally Sanders and Clinton agreed on nearly every single issue. To say it would have been Sanders over Clinton doesn't make any sense. Not only did Clinton receive more votes than Sanders she received more votes than Trump and her individual policies were well regarded by all. Those who refused to vote for her did so for reason unrelated to policy. Creating new industries is critical to moving economies forward. Not protecting old ones. Companies like Apple, Amazon, FaceBook, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, and etc have created incredible amounts of money for the U.S. economy. None of those companies even existed a few decades about. Lowering wages in North America to better compete with Bangladesh labor isn't a good idea in my opinion. The U.S. has been trend setters and need to continue to be trend setters. New companies producing new products that create new markets is the way forward.

Yep, Trump is both spending more and reducing revenue.

True, though I'd argue Democrats include how things should be paid for (taxes) into the discuss when they borrow. The ACA was paid for by mandating people have insurance and penalties. The Tax Cuts however were passed with the complete understand they will increase the national debt. It is one reason, of many, why electing business people to run a country isn't a good idea. Many companies leverage all revenue to support more credit/debt to cover operating costs. There are billion dollar companies out there like Twitter, Netflix, and etc that have yet to actually make more money than they spend. It works because if push comes to shove they can sell off assists, lay off employees, move overseas, merge, or restructure as needed when times are rough. The Govt cannot or at least should not follow that blue print. In the event of a national disaster the federal govt can't just sell off the Grand Canyon to raise money for relief. If next years hurricane season is bad the Govt can't just move half of all federal employees to India to reduce costs. Taxes simply need to go up. Cutting spending is an option but paradoxically those who advocate the loudest for spending cuts are unwilling to address Defense spending which alone is half of all discretionary spending. We can eliminate entry non-defense related agencies and it would only pennies of the dollar compared to what we spend on defense. In my pipe dream scenario Congress would pass a law requiring taxes automatically rise across the board to cover the cost of all foreign military operations. What we are spending in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the DMZ, and etc would be directly applied to a equal percentage increase in capital gains, income, corporate, inheritance, and etc taxes. That would both reduce annual deficits and discourage those who hate taxes from support foreign endeavors that cost trillions of dollars.

In my opinion it is useless to label oneself philosophically liberal or conservative. Every person is a little more or a little less conservative or liberal towards any given individual issue within their political environment. In the the western world, I think we can all agree labels apply extremely differently elsewhere, it is the people we elect that represent us in office. If one donates money to the Labour Party and votes for Labour Party candidates than it is the Labour Party's philosophy they are supporting though action. Action speaks louder than words. The insistence by some, not you, to filter everything through broad philosophical lenses rather than focused review of policy is bad. It is how we end in with people who agree seemingly 100% with the policies of a candidate yet won't vote for them. We saw that on display in 2016 here in the States with Clinton. On any individual issue the overwhelming majority of people agreed with Clinton yet many still voted against her. It isn't healthy for any form of democracy for people to vote identity over policy.

"Treasury Department: The federal government is on track to borrow nearly $1 trillion this fiscal year — Trump's first full year in charge of the budget. That's almost double what the government borrowed in fiscal year 2017. Here are the exact figures: The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It's the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year." "Trump's Treasury forecasts borrowing over $1 trillion in 2019 and over $1.1 trillion in 2020. Before taking office, Trump described himself as the “king of debt,” although he campaigned on reducing the national debt. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget predicts the U.S. deficit will hit $1 trillion by 2019 and stay there for a while. The latest borrowing figure — $955 billion — released this week was determined from a survey of bond market participants, who tend to be even faster to react to the changing policy landscape and change their forecasts." https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/03/the-u-s-government-is-set-to-borrow-nearly-1-trillion-this-year/?utm_term=.40a7bbe29e23 Trump's Treasury forecasts see trillion dollar deficits for the foreseeable future. It is fair to say their forecast are a best case scenario. I put this article here because taxes are where the govt get money. At a time when spending is up 84% Congress and Trump have cut taxes. It is fiscally irresponsible.

Those who identify as Conservative alienate every fair minded person who believes in equality when they excuse, defend, and or support groups like the Neo-Nazis White Nationalist groups. You can shoot back that ALL Conservatives (Western World) are not Neo-Nazis but it does appear that all Neo-Nazis are Conservatives. I am all for Olive Branches but those who identify as Conservative need to do a much better job distinguishing themselves from the hate groups among them. Describing stern speech against bigotry as "antagonizing" is a deal breaker for working together. This isn't merely a U.S. problem either. Faith Goldy is a Canadian self identifying conservative and she was there in Charlottesville supporting Nazis. In Canada groups like Proud Boys in Halifax, the Aryan Guard in Alberta, Blood and Honour Canada, Nationalist Party Canada, and the Heritage Front all identify themselves with Conservatives. Some serious house cleaning is in order among Conservatives. Please feel free the list the current liberal identifying organizations you feel are terrible as Neo-Nazis and as prevalent within liberalism as Neo-Nazis are within conservatism; they don't exist.

I recall towards the end of Bush's time in office many Republicans started calling themselves Libertarians. It is all just branding. No one wants to be a Sheep. Bush was terrible and rather than acknowledge they had back a bad horse people just changed their label as a way to distance themselves. They were no longer Republicans but rather: Right leaning independents, Conservatives, Tea Party members, Libertarians, Value Voters, Fiscal Conservatives, and etc. I view all the titles as useless. Politics is about governance and not labeling. Which elected officials we vote for define our ideology in that who we vote literally is our Govt Representative. I can call myself anything but who I choose to represents me in office is what actually counts. In 2016 those who identify as Conservative went 81% Trump. In previous elections 82% for Romney, 78% for McCain, and 82% & 84% for Bush, and so on (link below). Whatever the issues are facing the country, whatever the economy is like, Conservatives vote Republican. https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/polls/us-elections/how-groups-voted/ I understand that this uniquely applies to the United States but the OP referenced uniquely American points citing Detroit, the 2nd amendment, Abortion, and so on which are very different issues in other nations than they are here. I am not able to do the mental gymnastics required to apply the stated failures in Detroit to Conservatism in the United Kingdom. This is a good example of the way Conservatives move the goal posts. Now that it is 2018 on things like Jim Crow and understood to be indefensible Conservatives just say that stuff was a long time ago and had nothing to do with Conservatives. Meanwhile in real time it was Conservatives claiming states rights and all that to combat equality.

Political discussions which aren't about specific policies tend to be difficult. If Raider5678 had express the way his idea of conservatism influenced his support for various policies the nature of this thread would be different. The only issue Raider5678 did that with was Abortion.

Different countries have different fences.

Which is why I have previously posted, a few times, that conservative and liberal mean different things within the specific political environment for which they are being used.

I don't believe Conservatism even exists in the manner many self described conservatism express. Times change and as they do Conservatives march around the field with the goal posts. To me conservatism is less about any specific ideology and more about protectionism for specific sub groups within society. Just as the OP included the long stand trope about loving immigrants but just wanting them to immigrate legally so too did conservatives argue back during civil rights that they loved all people but blacks in the south needed to follow the law. Fast forward and goal posts are on the move. Conservatives in office now favor limiting legal immigration and are thoroughly disgusted by NFL players who silently/legally protest be taking a knee. It is all about things needing to be done legally until it isn't and the posts move. I just mean we do not need liberals or conservatives as type. We need people interested it doing what's best for the most. In my opinion anyone who beliefs any of the self described conservatives in public office (in the U.S.) today are interested in the best for the most are willful idiots. Meanwhile liberalism doesn't really even exist in U.S. public office. If we are going to break it down by labels the political scene in the U.S. is dominated by Capitalists, Conservatives, and Moderates.

We need good governance directly focused on what's best for the most amount of people.