Question to Americans about the GOP

[Berkut]

To answer Martim, the United States is a little different from Europe electorally.

For example, we don't have fascist parties that get 20%+ of the vote.  We don't have communist and "Trotskyite" parties that get 20%+ of the vote.  We don't have "Green" parties that advocate dismantling large swaths of modern industrial infrastructure.  We don't have viable national parties that just represent a single ethnic group (Scots, Flemish, Basques, etc).  We don't have parties that are just wings of large Italian media companies, and we don't have parties that have platforms items like confiscating private pensions and eliminating freedom of the press.

Once all those commonplaces of European political life are removed, there isn't a lot of places for some of our confused or eccentric citizens to go.  So some clever people invented the GOP, which channels those people into mostly harmless sorts of things like tax cuts for dead rich people, prayers at high school football games, and protecting the legal status of gun shows.  It's not ideal, but it would be a lot worse, as European politics always helpfully reminds us.

Best
Counter
Troll
Ever.

+1

[The Brain]

The US is a country and Europe is a continent. Not many Americans know this.

[Admiral Yi]

In that regards, Yi did shed some light to the general idea, though that would imply a strong cultural rift between Europeans and Americans in that particular area.

Of course.  The US has no experience with feudalism for one.

Fun fact: the 250K + tax bracket was created by Bill Clinton.  Before that the top rate started at 89k.

[The Minsky Moment]

The US is a country and Europe is a continent. Not many Americans know this.

Europeans can't agree amongst themselves exactly what Europe is or should be or even where it begins and ends.  The only thing that can be said with some certainty is that it was named after a Middle Eastern rape victim.

[MadImmortalMan]

Martim is just dismayed that we don't have any parties crazy enough for him to want to vote for them.

[The Brain]

The US is a country and Europe is a continent. Not many Americans know this.

Europeans can't agree amongst themselves exactly what Europe is or should be or even where it begins and ends.  The only thing that can be said with some certainty is that it was named after a Middle Eastern rape victim.

Only the North Germanic parts matter.

[alfred russel]

The top federal individual tax rate is 35%. Obama thinks it should be 39.5%. Bush ran on a 33% platform. These aren't dramatic differences.

[Valmy]

Only the North Germanic parts matter.

Slargos tells me they will soon be the Somalian parts.  I look forward to the pirates infesting the Baltic Sea.

[Admiral Yi]

The top federal individual tax rate is 35%. Obama thinks it should be 39.5%. Bush ran on a 33% platform. These aren't dramatic differences.

I read somewhere that he wants to raise it to 44.5.

[DGuller]

Why not 44.99%?

[Habbaku]

Why not 44.99%?

Capitalist dog.

[frunk]

Because 44.5 is pretty close to 44, which is really just 40, which is most of the way to 25.  44.99 is awfully close to 45, which is really 50 in disguise.  So you can see there's almost 25% difference between the two.

[Agelastus]

Why not 44.99%?

Presumably the math is too hard.

[alfred russel]

The top federal individual tax rate is 35%. Obama thinks it should be 39.5%. Bush ran on a 33% platform. These aren't dramatic differences.

I read somewhere that he wants to raise it to 44.5.

I thought he ran on going back to the pre Bush tax cut rates which were just under 40%, and google searches seem to confirm this. Could the 44.5% somehow relate to eliminating the cap for social security taxes?

[Admiral Yi]

I thought he ran on going back to the pre Bush tax cut rates which were just under 40%, and google searches seem to confirm this. Could the 44.5% somehow relate to eliminating the cap for social security taxes?

Could be. 

To clarify, are you talking about the additional Medicare tax on filthy rich billionares to help finance Obamacare, or some new proposal?