Academics Are Really, Really Worried About Their Freedom

[crazy canuck]

Pretty sure everybody who does not support Donald Trump is a radical socialist, at least that is what the RNC taught me.

You can believe them, or you can believe CC, whose single metric for leftism is to "fully support single payer health care."  Apparently Germany's Die Linke ("The Left") is a far-right party.

I was pointing out to a fellow Canadian that the Democrats are to the right of the CPC. 

I am not sure why you think that has anything to do with a German political party.  But please go on to attribute things to me that I did not say.

[Valmy]

Well in that one respect at least.

[crazy canuck]

Well in that one respect at least.

Are we going to pretend that health care is not a major issue now?

But that aside, in what respect is the Democratic platform to the left of the CPC?  Renewal energy - CPC says they are for.  Abortion? - CPC says they will not legislate and the current leader is pro choice.

So let me know.  Is it just that one has "Conservative" in their name and the US is used to thinking that the Dems are left wing when in reality you have a two party state with both parties being to the right?

[Eddie Teach]

Well in that one respect at least.

Really, not even that. Supporting the status quo doesn't make Conservatives "left of" anyone.

[Barrister]

An odd remark for a Canadian to make.  The Democratic Party is further right than the Conservative Party of Canada.  Let me know when the Democrats fully support single payer health care.  Then they might start approaching not being too far to the right.

if your sole point of reference is support for single payer health care I guess that's true (although many in the Democratic Party support single payer health care).

But otherwise this is a rather silly comparison.

[viper37]

An odd remark for a Canadian to make.  The Democratic Party is further right than the Conservative Party of Canada.  Let me know when the Democrats fully support single payer health care.  Then they might start approaching not being too far to the right.

Everything has to be analyzed in context.
Single payer health care is a non issue in the US right now.  There's no point in bringing it up, nobody wants it. There are only two parties.  If you come up with a proposal that rebuffs 50% of your electorate, you will lose the election.

Unlike Canada, you can't win points by promising the tough line on a particular State.

[Valmy]

Well...except California.

[grumbler]

Pretty sure everybody who does not support Donald Trump is a radical socialist, at least that is what the RNC taught me.

You can believe them, or you can believe CC, whose single metric for leftism is to "fully support single payer health care."  Apparently Germany's Die Linke ("The Left") is a far-right party.

I was pointing out to a fellow Canadian that the Democrats are to the right of the CPC. 

I am not sure why you think that has anything to do with a German political party.  But please go on to attribute things to me that I did not say.

When I am directly quoting you, you cannot whine that I am attributing things to you that you did not say! 

[crazy canuck]

Pretty sure everybody who does not support Donald Trump is a radical socialist, at least that is what the RNC taught me.

You can believe them, or you can believe CC, whose single metric for leftism is to "fully support single payer health care."  Apparently Germany's Die Linke ("The Left") is a far-right party.

I was pointing out to a fellow Canadian that the Democrats are to the right of the CPC. 

I am not sure why you think that has anything to do with a German political party.  But please go on to attribute things to me that I did not say.

When I am directly quoting you, you cannot whine that I am attributing things to you that you did not say! 

Correct, for do it and I will get off your back.

[crazy canuck]

An odd remark for a Canadian to make.  The Democratic Party is further right than the Conservative Party of Canada.  Let me know when the Democrats fully support single payer health care.  Then they might start approaching not being too far to the right.

if your sole point of reference is support for single payer health care I guess that's true (although many in the Democratic Party support single payer health care).

But otherwise this is a rather silly comparison.

I recognize you feel uncomfortable with the comparison.  But tell me, what exactly differentiates O'Toole from Harris?

[Barrister]

I recognize you feel uncomfortable with the comparison.  But tell me, what exactly differentiates O'Toole from Harris?

Okay, so I'm comparing Kamala Harris' positions from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Kamala_Harris

and Erin O'Toole's from https://erinotoole.ca/platform/

Harris supports greater gun control, O'Toole does not.

O'Toole wants to reduce and simplify taxes.  Harris wants to cancel tax cuts for the wealthy and increase taxes on corporations.

O'Toole wants to cut funding to public broadcasting with an eye to privatizing it - Harris has no similar policy and likely supports public broadcasting.

Harris has supported efforts to cut police funding, O'Toole does not.

O'Toole opposes carbon taxes, Harris supports the Green New Deal - which includes carbon taxes.

I could go on, but I think that gives you a pretty good idea...

[Valmy]

Yeah but greater gun control in the US could still be far less gun control than currently exists in Canada.

I don't really understand the whole police funding thing. I think the idea is to transfer money to other organizations who can take over parts of the police departments duties rather than just expect the cops to be seriously underfunded (and they are already in many jurisdictions) as that would mostly just make them more corrupt. But I don't know, I don't understand that issue at all. But she is running for VP so she can easily advance those kinds of policies since she will not be in a position to actually do them.

Also we need serious austerity measures in the US right now. We need to raise taxes and cut spending. Canada is in no such crisis regarding budget deficits, at least not near our scale.

[Barrister]

Also we need serious austerity measures in the US right now. We need to raise taxes and cut spending. Canada is in no such crisis regarding budget deficits, at least not near our scale.

Canadian budget deficit for 2020-2021 projected to be $343 billion dollars (before Covid it was supposed to be $34 billion).

US budget deficit projected at $3.3 trillion.  Adjucted for population size we're both in about equal trouble.

[The Brain]

But Canada is nicer about it.

[Valmy]

Yeah but we have been running huge deficits for nearly 20 years. Plus your taxes are probably significantly higher than ours currently.