Sam Lowry said:
Mothra said:
Sam Lowry said:
Mothra said:
Sam Lowry said:
Mothra said:
Sam Lowry said:
Mothra said:
Sam Lowry said:
Mothra said:
And of course, we are the bad guys killing the Ukrainians, not the Russians. When Russians do it, it's "just."
And when we decide to deport people that are here illegally, it's "ethnic cleansing."
See a pattern here?
Old Sam is a hoot. Total nutjob who hates America, but a hoot nonetheless.
You've chosen to remain ignorant of your own country's flaws, as most people do. It's human nature. But I have to give you credit...I've seen very few who worked so hard at it. From Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib, Gaza, Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela, etc., you've turned a blind eye to every kind of lawlessness and brutality almost without exception. Truly a moral giant among men.
I would submit that understanding that our country has made mistakes in the past, and believing that we are a force for evil are two very different things. For you, America is a force for evil. Nothing it does is right, moral or just. In that sense, you remind me of the far left progressives that take to the streets to protest how evil we are.
But what makes it so much worse in your case is your ability to turn a blind eye to the actions of desperate and dictators. I've heard you defend Iran, Venezuela, and Russia more than your own country.
You are the poster child of the dangers of sending your kids to college. You've been indoctrinated to loathe your country.
You've claimed to admire Pat Buchanan. Have you ever read any of his books? Does he loathe his country?
Indeed, there are many things about Buchanan that I liked. He was a very strong critic of abortion, gay rights, and the removal of prayer from public schools - so he got an A+ on cultural issues. I also came to appreciate his quasi-isolationist mindset, which for the most part saw him argue against foreign interventions and believing that the U.S. should focus on its own interests rather than acting as a global policeman or promoting democracy abroad.
Did I agree with all of his views? Nope. I think his position on Israel was off-base. But I don't recall Buchanan feigning over dictators and despots. I don't recall one-sided critiques of US foreign policy. I don't believe Buchanan would have supported the Ayatollah's quest for nuclear weapons. I don't believe he would have voiced support for evil men like Putin and Maduro, or attempted to argue that their wars of aggression were somehow morally just.
In that sense, you are nothing like Buchanan. You more closely resemble the obnoxious leftist protestors we see across college campuses, who blame America for the world's ills, while praising islamic and despotic regimes. That is much closer to your beliefs than Buchanan.
You're obviously not very familiar with his work. My critique of the war with Japan, which has caused you such enduring outrage over the years, was largely based on Buchanan's. As you can see from this commentary, his opinion on Ukraine is much the same as mine. The same goes for Iran. I support what most people claim to support, i.e. a deal that would prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Republicans don't want such a deal, as evidenced by the fact that they scrapped it at the first opportunity.
As for voting, it's surreal to be lectured on civic responsibilities by people who helped put an insurrectionist in power. I don't think I'm making the perfect the enemy of the good just because I want a candidate with some semblance of loyalty to the United States and the Constitution.
To the contrary, I read Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War many years ago, and I think he gets that badly wrong. Terribly. In fact, I'd submit his positions on appeasing Germany (which is essentially what he argued in the book) are one of the reasons he isn't president. He has some very fringe and unpopular views on some issues.
As for his commentary on Ukraine, he's not wrong. As I've said for years, Biden provoked that war with his rhetoric, no question. But you will notice in his commentary, he doesn't go nearly as far as you do in saying Putin was justified in invading, nor does he attempt to argue that the war falls within the just war theory. He also doesn't make excuses for Putin. Saying he's not as bad as Stalin is a fact, but doesn't make him the decent guy you've tried to make him.
As stated above, your positions go far beyond Buchanan's into the fringe, leftist elements that believe America is evil, and the evil men are good dudes. Yours is the kind that is protesting the capture of Maduro, arguing he's a good dude.
As I said, you're no Buchanan.
As for voting, let's not pretend your sitting out election cycles started in 2024. You've been doing this crap since 2000.
No doubt Buchanan has some unpopular views. The question I asked, which you still haven't answered, is whether you believe he loathes his country.
I've never argued that Putin or Maduro were good dudes. I have tried to counter some of the overheated propaganda about "dictators and despots" that you mindlessly regurgitate every time the war drums start beating. As if the US didn't have a long history of supporting regimes that were as bad or worse whenever we thought it suited our interests.
Whether Russia's war in Ukraine is technically justified is immaterial. I initially assumed it wasn't, but it's a complex question, as I came to understand after you began harping on it and I studied it a little more closely. But you're not really interested in the details of Just War Theory any more than you're interested in the welfare of Ukraine.
I cast my vote or not depending on what I think is in the best interest of my country. You're a culture warrior who wants to impose your values on everyone else, by any means necessary, no matter the cost to the republic. Don't ever imagine that makes you any kind of patriot.
I thought my answer was pretty obvious, but no, I don't believe Buchanan loathes his country. While I don't agree with him on everything, he still seemed to understand the culture war issues, and the battle that must be won there. And he wasn't against all foreign involvement, and didn't cozy up or praise dictators and despots. Also, despite having a different philosophy than Trump on a number of issues, Buchanan was a pragmatist and understood the importance of Republicans winning elections, given the alternative, which is why he endorsed Trump in 2016 and 2024.
So, again, he was a LOT different than you.
As for the dictators you regularly support on these boards, kind of difficult to walk that back my dude. You're been a staunch defender of Putin in particular despite his attacks on civilian centers, his assassinations of political opponents, etc. The idea that you did those things to counter my positions, while touching, is too absurd to believe, even for as odd a duck as yourself.
As for me being a culture warrior who wants to impose my values, that's an interesting position. What values do you believe I want imposed on others, exactly? And what is your position on abortion and homosexuality again? Some clarification is definitely in order.
My position is the same as yours. You haven't shown a dime's worth of substantive difference between my views and Buchanan's. He understands the difference between loathing your country (what he calls cultural pessimism) and loathing its degradation from republic to empire. He has books on both topics, if you ever want to broaden your mind.
Putin's alleged crimes are another red herring. It's not my fault you were lied to about Navalny or that you buy into every wartime cliche about the evils of our enemies. Besides, if you really cared about civilians, you wouldn't utter Orwellian absurdities like "the IDF is the most moral army on the planet."
You didn't answer my questions. What values do you believe I want imposed on others, exactly? And what is your position on abortion and homosexuality? Do you believe it's wrong to support govt. positions that support a pro-life, anti-sexual immorality position? Is that "imposing one's values" on others?
As for there being no separation between you and Buchanan, so you voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024, and believe he is the best person to run this country of the two candidates, like Buchanan? You believe, like Buchanan, that we should vote for the pro-life pro-Christian values candidates, and not sit out elections?
LOL. Look, I get you want to downplay your praise of dictators and your idea that most of the things American does is evil, but you've been praising Iran, Venezuela and Russia for years. You've been blaming the West for WWII for years. In short, nobody is buying what you're selling, given your long history on these boards.
As for Buchanan, as I said, I don't agree with him on everything. His position on Churchill and the US provoking Pearl Harbor are bullsh. His argument for appeasement of those two aggressors is cowardly and disgusting, which is why I don't include his books on my reading lists. The idea that we should have continued to provide a cruel Japan the materials to build its war machine is just incredible. So Buchanan gets lots of things wrong.
Do I like his more isolationist bent? Very much so. Do I agree we shouldn't be in the business of building an empire? Absolutely. Do I like his position on cultural issues? You bet. But he's also got those out of left field views that would make it difficult to vote for him. kind of like Ron Paul many years ago.
As for your boy Putin, we've been over this. As you know, it's not just Navalny which dies under mysterious circumstances (which, BTW, the article you cited merely said anonymous sources don't believe Putin ordered his murder - not that he wasn't murdered). It's numerous other political opponents that Putin has imprisoned and/or political opponents who somehow die under mysterious circumstances (planes falling out of the sky, falling out of tall buildings, etc.). It's poisoning expats who flee Russia. It's squelching any political dissent. You're perfectly fine with it, of course, and very defensive of the short little dictator. You believe his war is just, morally. So, again, those positions are quite different from most reasonable, decent and Christian Americans.