Worse political debate you've been a part of?

[writeacliche]

What debate have you gotten into, revolving around politics, that literally left you speechless? For me, barring all of those idiotic facebook statements, it just happened.

I mentioned that religion shouldn't be a deciding factor in your vote and that religion as a whole does not decide how good of a President ____ can be.

Their response? "Well if you want to separate Church and State should prostitution and polygamy be legalized?"

[concernedparent]

My roommate telling me that it wasn't racist to think that every black person should vote for obama. When a black republican came on t.v., he yelled "you black traitor!" Ridic

[writeacliche]

Good lord.

"lol, what? No way. If a homosexuals have a right to get married then why can't a bunch of people get married? We can drop the prostitution for now, though I still think it's a valid argument. I think what we loose sight of is that homosexuality and other perversities are really in the same boat. We've just been so brain washed by shows and news and movies and images and everything we see around us that we've started putting homosexuality in it's own little box."

[open mind]

it wasn't really a debate but our heater repairman said something like "if obama is elected it'll be a tragedy, he'll be dead within six months, and biden will usher in the new dark ages"......when asked about the race between don young and ethan berkowitz he said "we don't need another jew in washington".

he's an old family friend of sorts and he was fixing our boiler for free.....otherwise i would have laughed him out of the house.

[anamericangod]

I've had a lot, but this was a fun exchange the other day in my Middle East Politics class: We were talking about how in the Middle East, a lot of countries have leaders who exaggerate or pretty much bullshit their military credentials. The people of these countries either 1. Are ignorant, 2. Don't care, 3. Are too busy living in poverty to do anything about it.

One kid says something like "Well Obama doesn't have any military qualifications either." To which I said "Yeah...our country obviously doesn't require that to be a leader." He then made some other comment which I didn't totally catch, and I replied "So which of those 2/3 are you in, do you not care, or are you really just that ignorant?"

He stopped talking.

[anamericangod]

Also:

dumbass: what is a presidential candidate doing at a mans house
dumbass: that has openly admitted to bombing places in the 70s which is a big deal
dumbass: thats terroristic acts regardless of religion
dumbass: you dont just walk around blowing shit up
dumbass: he will not swear on a bible
dumbass: he also will not wear the american flag pin on his suit coat
dumbass: for undisclosed reasons
dumbass: i mean what the fuck joe
dumbass: shady much
dumbass: not saying mccain is a safe alternative
dumbass: just saying we are doomed no matter which lucky door we pick

me: he actually did swear on the Bible

[nfgrocker16]

My one friend argued that his ideas might sound great but won't work or are too radical. And that we shouldn't just pull our troops out of Iraq, even though we all want them home. I basically said his economic plan has been proven to work while McCain's has been proven not to work. I said he doesn't want to just "take all our troops out of Iraq." He wants to decline the numbers and focus them elsewhere and the Iraqi government would like us gone by 2011. I said that he wants there to be stability and a self sustainable situation in which we don't need to be there. She said she was busy picking out clothes to wear that night and she'd talk to me in a second when she wasn't distracted. 30 minutes later I said "that outfit must be epic."

Then she said she had to go.

Not the worst, just the most recent.

[Lueda Alia]

Where do I even begin?

[anamericangod]

dumbass: mayor equals executive branch
dumbass: governor equals executive branch
me: that's a title
me: it doesn't mean they did a good job or did anything significant
me: not sure why you can't see that

dumbass: community organizer equals i have never held a real job until i was elected to the senate to which i truly served my country about a year to run for president

me: what's wrong with helping people?
dumbass: and in that time i voted present over 130 times cause i couldnt make up my mind
me: lol he was president of the Harvard Law Review
dumbass: thats a leadership quality we need in the white house
dumbass: an indecisive socialist

me: most presitigious college in the world
dumbass: so what
me: lol okay i'm done with this conversation
dumbass: lol go read OBAMANATION
dumbass: based on facts

me: no thanks, i have plenty of those already

[Siren Silently]

Any of the numerous facebook debates over the last few days.

[nfgrocker16]

This one was a gem because the guy didn't even vote for McCain or support Bush.

He said: "if the people who are still defending john mccain are ignorant what did that make the people who defended al gore for pretty much all of bush's first term, or the people who did pretty much the same for his second, what policies of george bush is causing america to fall apart, the war in iraq i dont believe is causing it to crumble that im guessing... Read More (http://www.absolutepunk.net/) we disagree on, but id like to know what policy of george bush's caused banks to give out bad mortgages? mccain also is not bush, im not really defending mccain i did not vote for him, but im tired people saying we cant be unhappy with our new president when all ive heard for 8 years is people being unhappy with the current one"

My response: "Economic policies and deregulation and a war that costs 120billion dollars a year are parts of the reason he's made the country worse.

Instilling fear in people is also a bad way to get the country on the right track IMO"

His response: "what economic policies? economic stimulus package? not sure how this relates to banks giving out bad loans which is the main reason the economy crashed when it did, and where id mccain install fear into people, while ill give you he wasnt all sunshine and rainbows like obama was, he had real substance which is something i have trouble seeing in obama"

My response: "I was commenting on the policies of George Bush, which McCain supports and would continue, that have been bad for the country. Trickle down economics doesnt' work. hasn't worked for the past 8 years. Deregulation of the banks and insurance companies has a huuuuuuuuge impact in the failure of these companies because it neglected to take into ... Read More (http://www.absolutepunk.net/)account inherent greed in human nature. The war is a big part of our current debt and the money could have been put to a much better use. McCain using phrases that connect Obama with the word Terrorist is one example of instilling fear. Word association has a huge effect on people's emotions, as we've seen with President bush"

His response: "Do you really believe that most mainstream people believed obama was a terrorist? I would put more faith into the intelligence of the american people, and as far as his economic policies not working, our economy grew for the majority of bush's presidency which included him coming into office during the beginning of a recession, a major terrorist ... Read More (http://www.absolutepunk.net/)attack, and the start of a war. I will clear the air by saying I am in no means a supporter of Bush, but the current state of the economy should be put on him, this might be too crazy for a liberal to even imagine but how about we put the blame on the individuals who gave out these loans and mortgages instead of the government just a thought for once that people take responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming someone, youre saying bush's deregulation of banks caused this problem how about you look at the carter administration's community reservation act which requires by law bank and savings and loans give out loans to people that"

Guys totally putting words in my mouth.

My response: "Bush entered office with a budget surplus and 20 million new jobs. He is leaving office with over a trillion dollar deficit and less than 8 million new jobs. Who's economic policy was better? Never said it was only the deregulation of banks. Its everyone's fault, but its an inherent flaw in the system that assumes deregulation is good because ... Read More (http://www.absolutepunk.net/)people will do the right thing. They dont. Everyone's to blame. However, the fact still remains true that trickle down economics do not work. They never have and at best, under Reagan worked to contain status quo. Under Bush it has led to the largest focus of wealth in the top 1% of earners since 1929, the year of the Great Depression. Never said it was all Bush's fault but his policies played a big part."

Not the worst but annoying seeing as he didn't support McCain. And he put words in my mouth.

[Brianfarg]

Dumb girl in my group "No, we can't give homosexuals the same rights because they're predisposed to being child molesters!"
Me: "Where did you hear that fox news or church?"
Girl "No it's a fact!"
Me "Really? Prove it."
Girl "I just know, okay."
Me: "That's a really lofty assumption you're making about a group of people you clearly know nothing about. And by the way, most child molesters have been proven to be straight."
Girl: (silence).

I hate people.

[writeacliche]

Her finally reply before I got a nosebleed from the trauma her logic was inflicting on me:

"Nathans right. We've been literally brain washed to so that when two men walk down the streets, its not a big deal. Infact its pretty normal. Theres not much diffrant between gay marriage and prostituion and polygomy. There is all somthing in them that is against moral standards as you put it, or like to call it sin. Everyone has a right to do what they want....But Marriage was once thought of as a covenant....Something between a man and a woman. Thats the orriginal contexts.....I cant remember where I was taking this. ...plus I'm late for school!!!!!"
- Show quoted text -"

[Circa1628]

a lot of arguements here. The people who wanted McCain would come up with these ridiculous statements and when asked to source it, they didn't. So annoying.

[mattybobviously]

I think I've talked about it here before, but at the huge Champlain Valley Fair, the three major parties all have their own booth. My girlfriend and I were on are way out, but as a joke we decided we'd stop by the Vermont GOP tent. We go to school with Republican Lt. Governor Brian Dubie's daughter, and so I thought it'd be funny if I came into class with a big sticker slapped across my textbook.

We walk over, I sign the sticker request sheet, say thanks, and start to leave. The lady standing there see the small Obama button on my sweatshirt, and asks me why I'm supporting him. I tell her I like Lt. Governor Dubie is a good guy (he's a terrible Lt. Governor, never shows up to work), but Obama is the direction I want the country to head.

She then asks patronizing questions such as "Do you believe in freedom?" or "Do you believe in the Constitution?", all of which I respond yes to, and highlight why that would make Obama my choice for president. I calmly just state that in terms of our economy and foreign policy, Sen. Obama is by far the best choice. She doesn't listen.

She then tells me that Barack Obama is responsible for the murder of thousands of babies, and that it is a personal issue to her because she has a child with Down syndrome and, I quote "most abortions are babies with Down syndrome". At this point, not only did I realize this women was insane, but likewise, the other people from the VT GOP started getting very uncomfortable and were trying to get her to calm down and stop talking to me.

Keep in mind that this woman is a CANDIDATE for state representative, yelling in front of a very busy conference building, in the face of a 16-year-old kid who was just calmly debating the entire time. I can only imagine how crazy she looked to everyone else.

On my way out, a guy from the party complimented me for having a respectful discussion, and asked repeatedly that I not talk about it. I wrote a long letter to her local newspaper, and she ended up losing embarassingly on election day, finishing fourth in a two-seat district. To make matters even funnier, about a week before the election, my dad saw her profiled in the paper as they do with every state house race, and proceeded to tell me that she had worked at IBM with him in the 80's, and that she was crazy, randomly showing up at his house once after he moved from New York to Virginia, because she wanted to go out to dinner.

Such a great time.

[Machu505]

Somebody told me that Barack Obama has stocks in oil and that's why he doesn't want offshore drilling. Don't know what that's all about.

[blindrider529]

"Assuming that Barack Obama didn't intend to call Sarah Palin a pig in lipstick, shouldn't he be classy and apologize for it anyway since some people took it the wrong way and it looked bad."

Essentially, isn't Barack Obama the bad guy NO MATTER WHAT. He also was blamed for the lipstick on a pig thing becoming such a big deal...as if he was the one who made the first ad about it and all that.

What a frustrating argument that was. It didn't go anywhere, either.

[KidRobot]

Had this nice conversation:

Idiot: I'm packing for Canada
Me: I'll give you $100 to move. Canada is more liberal and socialist then Obama ever will be.
Idiot: You're an asshole. Who asked for your opinion?
Me: Please explain why you're moving to Canada then.
Idiot: I'm done with this conversation.


Rightttttttt

[KidRobot]

Somebody told me that Barack Obama has stocks in oil and that's why he doesn't want offshore drilling. Don't know what that's all about.

That's why big oil gave McCain 2 million and McCain wanted to give them billions in tax cuts.

[Machu505]

Had this nice conversation:

Idiot: I'm packing for Canada
Me: I'll give you $100 to move. Canada is more liberal and socialist then Obama ever will be.
Idiot: You're an asshole. Who asked for your opinion?
Me: Please explain why you're moving to Canada then.
Idiot: I'm done with this conversation.


Rightttttttt

Haha

[GuitarR0cker1]

I have some gems:

I am in a Speech and Debate class and me and 2 of my friends went out of class to work on making our cases. Because it was the day before the election, it was inevitable we were going to have a political argument because almost everyone at my school, including my friends, are hardcore fundie Republicans. At first they just started making a few Obama jokes and I just laughed a little but then one of them brought up Obama being a "socialist".

Here is a rough script:
Me: Obama obviously isn't a socialist, what are you smoking?
Friend 1: He wants to redistribute the wealth around, that is socialism.
Me: He wants to raise taxes on the rich by around 3%, it isn't socialism.
Friend 1: So he wants to take away more money from the hardest working to give it to some bums. So would you like to pay for the healthcare of some poor lazy bum with your own money?
Me: That makes no sense, the rich are not the hardest working by any means and the people who would get healthcare from Obama's plan are not "bums", they are hardworking Americans.
Friend 2: Then why do the rich make the most money then, it is obviously stealing to tax them more than any other American.
Me: No it isn't, every tax system taxes the rich more than the poor in order to redistribute wealth, it is part of economics. We definitley need to redistribute wealth more in America because the production rates of the bottom 90% of Americans have gone up 20% from technological advances and yet when adjusted for inflation their income has gone down while the top 5%'s income has quadrupled. Don't you think there is a problem with that?
Friend 2: No the rich deserve that money because they made all the right choices in life, while the poor are just lazy and not very smart. The rich worked all through college, saving lots of money to earn the wealth they did. It is the middle class fault for declining.
(this is where I blew up on him but with facts)
Me: Are you fucking stupid!? That is not how life works dumbass! The top quartile of kids in test scores who are rich go to college 98% of time while the poor go to college 29% of the time. Meanwhile the bottom quartile of kids in test scores who are rich go to school 30% of the time. That means dumb rich kids go to college more than smart poor kids.
Friend 2: But how do you know that the rich kids are dumb?
Me: Because of their test scores...
Friend 1: But still how do you know?
Me: Because of their fucking test scores, is there any other way to measure knowledge!?
Friend 2: So what you are saying is that you want to take my hard working Dad's money to give it to the poor?
Me: That is not how it works, it is a tax cut, not "giving" money besides my Dad works hard too.

This is pretty much where the argument really goes downhill, into an extreme shouting match. I have other fun ones if anybody wants to see how stupid Idaho Republicans are.

[Machu505]

LOL, under the Obama Tax Plan, the rich will be taxed roughly the same as the middle class.

[GuitarR0cker1]

LOL, under the Obama Tax Plan, the rich will be taxed roughly the same as the middle class.
I know, which makes it all the more depressing that people are this fucking stupid. I should post this article in my school's newspaper which is depressing/lol-worthy.

[KidRobot]

Congratulations most of you act like just as big an asshole as the people you are arguing with.

I've been an asshole to most people that either say they're moving to Canada to escape teh socialismzzzz or people commenting how he's black.

I think they deserve it.

[Broken Parachute]

An anarchist kid on my floor was arguing with me that Anarchism can work and that cops should have no authority over people. "Nobody has authority over me just because they went to school for it" was his quote.

My response: "Oh, so just ignore doctors, teachers, accountants, etc. They don't know anything."

[Mitch]

The other night.

[viva la cymche!]

"He only won because he's black."

[SgtFumunda]

Both polygomy and prostitution, especially the latter should be legal.
Agreed.

[apoemtothedead]

Exaggerated but not completely off base.
Hillary Clinton would have handily beat McCain as well. Or is that because she's a woman?

[apoemtothedead]

It's impossible to really know what would have happened but Obama received a massive boost from new voters most of whom were young and/or black and on CNN they claimed 10% of all voters said race was an issue in their vote of which 55% voted Obama and 45% McCain. Naturally the real figures are a lot higher cause people don't normally admit to being racists. Would all those new voters have voted for Hilary or voted at all? Perhaps Hilary would have won by more perhaps less or perhaps she would have lost. Obama might look way ahead in the electoral college but he wasn't in the popular vote and only a few million would have needed to switch sides or not vote in order for McCain to win.

You are kidding yourself if you think race wasn't an issue in the result of this election.
It was far more an issue in democratic primary than it was in the general election, but it went both ways in the primary.

Hillary would have won the general election handily as well. The map would have looked the same besides a few states. Hillary would have lost Indiana and North Carolina, but she would have won Arkansas and likely Missouri and West Virginia.

[xshady121]

ArtfullyAborted tried defending Woodrow Wilson and his racist, fascist policies.

That was a lost cause.

[xshady121]

I think it's impossible to say. What if McCain had picked a competant running mate?

Would have lost. Change or the image of the last 8 years. Romney and McCain may not have continued Bush's policies, but they looked out of touch with voters.

[apoemtothedead]

I think it's impossible to say. What if McCain had picked a competant running mate?
The economy still collapses which heavily favored the Democrats.

[xshady121]

Again, only a few million voters needed to switch for the Republicans to scrape through. Had he picked someone like Bloomberg I think he have done it.

Bloomberg may have been the ONLY pick he could have won with. Maybe lieberman too, but I don't know if that would have gotten enough votes. Certainly more than any other republican could have recieved.

[apoemtothedead]

Because Palin has no experience and McCain has no economic experience. Romney could legitimitely claim to know economics as could Bloomberg.
Honestly, I think you overestimate the American people. When something bad happens they blame the people in charge, regardless of who would provide the best future policies.

[apoemtothedead]

Bloomberg may have been the ONLY pick he could have won with. Maybe lieberman too, but I don't know if that would have gotten enough votes. Certainly more than any other republican could have recieved.
He would have had no benefit with Lieberman, and if anything, a possible backlash.

[xshady121]

He would have had no benefit with Lieberman, and if anything, a possible backlash.

I don't know if a backlash, but the ceiling would have been low. He won connecticut as an independent, running against a candidate who Hillary Clinton had gone around actively campaigning for. He can reach across and grab many of the moderates and moderatly liberal, and ceratainly convinced them to give McCain a try. The experience angle would have paid big dividends for McCain had he not picked Palin, and had he been able to better handle the economy (his response was lame, he had a weak VP, etc...)

[apoemtothedead]

The thing is neither Obama nor Biden are economic experts but Bloomberg obviously is. I think the GOP spin machine could have really worked this issue well and as the economy decided the election had the convinced people that the Republicans were the best bet economically (with the expert Bloomberg on the ticket) they could have won.
That's why they have economic advisers. The McCain economic policies would be the same with or without Bloomberg on the ticket, and the Obama campaign would still be able to spin the "more of the same" tactic that worked well for them.

[xshady121]

Plus with Bloomberg on the ticket they would surely sweep the Jewish vote and mount a serious challenge in New York.

If you ever look how NY voted by county, it is alot like the US as a whole. Around the city, Westchester, Long Island was solid democrat. The majority of the state went McCain. Bloomberg would have taken the Westchester/NYC vote no problem, and the state would have went red easily

[apoemtothedead]

If you ever look how NY voted by county, it is alot like the US as a whole. Around the city, Westchester, Long Island was solid democrat. The majority of the state went McCain. Bloomberg would have taken the Westchester/NYC vote no problem, and the state would have went red easily
Obama won the state by 20+ points. I don't think you can say McCain wins NY easily with Bloomberg on the ticket. The race in NY would have been much closer, but by no means would it be an easy McCain victory.

[xshady121]

Obama won the state by 20+ points. I don't think you can say McCain wins NY easily with Bloomberg on the ticket. The race in NY would have been much closer, but by no means would it be an easy McCain victory.

I don't know. He certainly would take Long Island all the way up to Dutchess and Ulster. I think he could have swung alot more up north as well. Bloomberg is WELL liked in NY state. Whatever, it's up to debate right?