Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
Common ground?

They don't believe in climate change, want zero controls on guns, are generally anti-immigrant - even the legal immigrants are lied about e.g. Haitians in Springfield, don't believe women should have certain rights concerning their own healthcare, want to keep cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations, etc.

They are impenetrable. Yes they'd claim I'm unwilling to compromise but we're talking about different starting points - I have to get them to accept certain actual real-world events and facts as true before starting a meaningful conversation.

Good faith attempt here -

* Elon Musk (known for electric vehicles) and RFK (known for suing to clean up rivers) are both on there.

* Zero control on guns, honestly yes, or at least fewer controls. It is in the constitution. Silencers protect hearing and are required in some countries.

* They see the effect of illegal immigration on low wage American workers. In my opinion it is a very pro worker stance.

* Many of the religious republicans are against abortion, agree. The supreme court change leaves it up to states or congress. I personally believe that congress should legislate these things but they are useless.

* Yes, they do want to cut taxes. 30% of our income is pretty wild. The government has grown into quite the behemoth and can be trimmed down. Before you ask no, I do not care about the roads in suburbs, cut taxes and let them fall apart. I want bicycles and mass transit.

Legal immigrants overwhelmingly voted red. "They" are minorities, white people, men and women, young and old.
I watched the victory speech. He promised three things (1) only four years of him in the White House, (2) appointing RFK to eliminate vaccines and gut the health care industry (3) end current wars, so basically give his boss military control of Eastern Europe.

I don’t believe (1). The other two would mean our kids’ life expectancies just halved.

- Eliminating vaccines is a terrible idea, but public school vaccine requirements are state law in my state. RFK won't be touching them.

- Gutting the health care industry? That's not necessarily a bad thing. Wasteful health care administration (passing the buck) was something like 30% of health care costs pre-ACA, and health care is now 17.3% of GDP. Shedding 1/3 of health care costs would bring our health care expenses to the same ratio of GDP as the UK. Of course it would also cause an unemployment crisis...

The plan is to withhold federal funding for schools that require vaccines.

One example of gutting the industry (announced today): ban fluoridated water.

The very fact he feels the need to promise (1) says it all.