Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Things most Americans want from politics but mostly don't get

When one looks at poll data from over recent years, a number of things most Americans claim to want come up. By and large, they get these things either partially or somewhat, just a little, or not at all. Some things Americans want and have to some extent are subject to being taken away by some or all of the federal government (courts, president, executive agencies, or congress) or by state governments. Abortion and reasonable gun safety laws are two examples of fading rights most Americans want but don't universally have. 




Dems vs Trump & MAGA
On the 23-item list, Democrats are usually much closer to majority public preferences than Trump/MAGA policy. Of course, the Dems don't have enough power to enact any of the favored policies most Americans say they want. As long as Dems stay out of power, average Americans much have less chance of getting more of what they want. 

The matter of what many Americans believe they are getting or not getting is a different issue. Millions of Americans sincerely believe they are getting various things they want from politics, while in fact that is false. Often the opposite is true. That is a well-documented phenomenon in modern American politics.

Between the two big parties, the differences are greatest on voting access, guns, abortion, immigration, citizenship, and due-process, paid leave/child care, health coverage, cannabis, global warming, and anti-corruption rules. For all of those issues, Trump and MAGA are bitterly opposed to what most Americans say they want. 

Now that is not to say that Trump and MAGA openly claim to be opposed to those things. For the most part, their demagoguery, lies, crackpottery, and irrational emotional manipulation indicate that they support those things. That is a major source of beliefs that tens of millions of Americans sincerely but falsely believe to be true.

That's just part of the human condition. In politics, many people can be terribly deceived, manipulated and betrayed. But, there's no law against it.

Q: What convincing evidence is there, if any, that the Dem Party is generally more opposed to what most Americans say they want than Trump and MAGA elite politics and policy have delivered since 2017? 


Info sources: 











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