Show of Hands

“It’s really difficult to stop the flow of money, so we should just let our politicians be bought out by foreign governments without any repercussions whatsoever. Yay for giving up!” - Daniel

I’m not a defeatist and unlike you, I think our government should be beholden to no one but the American people.

I’m glad that most people in this world don’t share your “If it’s hard, just give up” mentality because if they did, nothing would ever get done and we would still be a bunch of cave-dwelling barbarians.

It has nothing to do with giving up or being defeated. It has to do with what is possible and what is not, and it has to do with how the world works. You can have as many regulations on lobbying that you want. It won’t stop corruption. We have a $4 trillion government. That attracts a lot of corruption. The libertarian viewpoint is to shrink the government and thus shrink corruption as the two are directly correlated.

“It has nothing to do with giving up or being defeated. It has to do with what is possible and what is not.”
A lot of people thought America’s war for independence against the most powerful empire on the planet was impossible too. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Your defeatism goes against the very spirit that built this country.

“You can have as many regulations on lobbying that you want. It won’t stop corruption.”
Stop it? No. But it will curtail a great deal of it.

"The libertarian viewpoint is to shrink the government and thus shrink corruption as the two are directly correlated."
And it's a stupid and flawed viewpoint, just like the libertarian defense of open borders. Shrinking the size of government doesn't curtail human nature. The government will be corrupt no matter what size it is because humans are naturally greedy and power-hungry. Your solution for stopping corruption is just as frivolous as those who believe drastically expanding the size of government is the cure for all societal ills.

....

Glux, it’s a pretty simple concept. If you reduce the size of government, you reduce corruption. Pretty simple.

Reducing the size of government is not the magic cure-all for corruption. That’s a pipe dream.

Libertarians don’t believe in “magic cure all,” as they don’t exist. As long as there are people, here will be problems. But there is a correlation between the size of government and corruption, and reducing the size of government will do more to limit (not end) corruption.

No, it won’t.

Ok, then we disagree.

Fair enough. ✌🏻

Israel is our greatest ally. Won the Revolutionary war

Israel did not exist at the time of the Revolutionary War. Our only allies in that war were the French and a handful of Indian tribes.

Pof, you misspelled “France.”

Glux, I believe the Spanish did assist in a *very* limited role.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Putnam

Gluxford1 does not know his own country's history.

We are talking about the nation of Israel, smart ass.

Depressing, but true.

Roger Waters?

I wish.

Sounds good to me!

Amen! 🇺🇸

🙄

Lol.

Agreed.

There aren’t that many strict laws against foreign lobbying and the few laws that we do have on the books are only loosely enforced. This is unfortunate because this practice should be banned outright.

No. Just because they are our ally does not mean they should have a voice in our national policies. They should not get a say in how we run and operate our country. That say belongs to Americans and Americans only.

With the rise of antisemitism, Jews need a voice. ✡

Hell no. I don't care if they're our ally, our vassal state, or our neighbor, we have no logical reason to agree with any nation 100% of the time on every issue. It is illogical to say that our wellbeing will always align with theirs. The only reason people say that we should always allow Israel but no others is due to religious bias.

Also American Jews already have a voice. They're over represented in the upper class, whether it be banking or media. They have a right to that. So be it. This just proves they have a voice though.
Foreign Jews don't have a right to a voice in our politics, just as foreign Arabs, Europeans, Africans, and Asians don't have that right.

This isn’t about anti-Semitism or the Jewish faith. Foreign countries are not entitled to a say, and that includes Israel. Nice try though.

Well said, ScenarioNations! I agree with everything you just said in those two responses! Wish I could like them about 1 million times over!

Nice conspiracy theory you got there.

Nice ad hominem. To actually debunk something you actually have to explain why it's wrong. Why is what I said a "conspiracy theory"?

Since when do concrete facts qualify as a “conspiracy”?

Attacks on Jews are going up. Israel needs to have a voice. Maybe it's nice not to live in fear not as a white man.

Oh I agree that Israel needs a voice. That's why the UN exists. That's why they have their own nations.

American Jews have a right to a voice in our country. Foreign Jews don't have a right to our country, just as we don't have a right to decide the policy of Israel.

1. Israel does not deserve a voice in our national policy.
2. This is not about anti-Semitism. This is about undue and unjust foreign influence in our government, so quit trying to change the subject.
3. Race has nothing to do with this subject, so quit trying to inject it into conversations where it isn’t relevant.


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Okay then I guess we should just keep on letting the antisemetic attacks keep going on good thinking guys

Are you going to start debating honestly or are you going to keep straw manning?

Your argument is synonymous to:
Black people are being oppressed by hate crimes, therefore we should let Nigerian princes donate money to candidates.

We already let a Kenyan be president so...

Nigeria isn't Kenya and there's no evidence of that so try again.

Kenya is in Africa. Blacks are called African-American. 🙄

Okay? And Jews in Israel are called Jews and Jews in America are called American Jews or Jewish Americans. Why should we let foreign nationals influence our policies?

Jews in America are still Jews. Stop trolling. Go ask a question about if we support the Jewish American Party in the year 2300

Hey moron, I support allowing American Jews donate to campaigns, I don't support allowing NON AMERICAN CITIZENS, CITIZENS OF ISRAEL to donate to our elections.

Go read a basic book on basic political philosophy as it seems you don't understand what a citizen is lmfao.

Ah yes, go directly to insults when you know you're losing. The true sign of an idiot, it matches you well.

See you around kid, if the stress of real life hasn't made you off yourself yet. Personally, I'm not holding my breath.

Hey moron, you called us antisemitic conspiracy theorists. I guess you lost first according to your own words! Sad! You're not even consistent lmao

Retard, your babbling is too much. Some people are born without tongues, fingers, or brains, they have no hope of communicating with the world, and you use your gift of communication to call someone names because they want to protect Jews in the US. Go to a children's hospital and understand how lucky you are.

You want to protect foreign Jews by allowing them to donate to domestic elections?

And obviously other people understand me since people are actually liking my comments you dolt.

I want to protect Jews in America. Antisemitic attacks are coming. We have a lot to learn.

I have already stated this so I'll state this again, I'm fine with American Jews donating to campaigns. As long as you're an American citizen, I think it's perfectly fine to donate to campaigns.

What's wrong with Israelis fighting antisemitism?

They don't have a right to buy our politicians.

Foreign interference in American public policy doesn’t equate to fighting anti-Semitism.

They're not. They're stopping antisemitism.

No, they are interfering and influencing national policy.

Donating to candidates isn't the same thing as owning them. There's that conspiratorial thinking again. 🙄

These foreign agents donate to politicians specifically to influence them to steer American public policy in a way that benefits their foreign country and its interests, so yeah, they are buying our politicians.

Yeah, keep going on about how Israeli Jews donating to politicians to stop antisemitism is some conspiracy. Might want to put your tinfoil hat on, aluminium isn't strong enough for nuts like you.

It is well known that a disproportionate amount of Jews are in the media sector of the private sector and even most Jews will fully admit that Jews historically have been forced into banking. In Europe this occurred due to Catholics not being allowed to lend money, and due to various restrictive laws this forced the oppressed Jewish poor class into banking in the middle ages. This is well known history 101.

I never once stated that Jews control the Media or the Banks because I don't think American Jews think "how can I help my people today?" No group really thinks like that! The difference is that when Jewish non American people living in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv donate to a campaign, they are doing it to help out the government, likely due to them holding an actual position in that government.

This isn't a conspiracy theory, just as it isn't a conspiracy theory to state that Black Americans are disproportionately in the NBA. Jews tend to be disproportionate in those areas since they..

..they have a small percentage yet make up a disproportionate amount.

I also love how you're conflating Israeli Jews and American Jews. What difference is there? Well one has a right to influence our elections as they're citizens, and one doesn't as they're not.

Hi David Duke, say hi to Big Don to me! 🙄

Pof the Jews do not deserve special privileges in our political process. And they don’t deserve the tag line “greatest ally” either what have they really done that benefits us? Nothing... they just keep meddling in our political system so all the politicians parrot the old lines. “Israel is our greatest ally!” As they stuff their wallets with aipac money

So we support Iran then?

Who said anything about supporting Iran? I also never said anything untrue so if you wish to actually argue a point, do it. Instead of that you're shouting "wwacist!!"

You support one or the other. Learn how international relations works.

No you adolescent man child. I can say this: both suck in different ways and must deal with their issues as grown ups would as we don't support either of them bullying either of them.

How dare you. How dare you pull a George Bush and say "either we slaughter innocent people or you hate the Jews". How immoral is that!

Give me a break

How about you give me an actual argument for why I'm wrong. Then you'll have that break.

How about we leave the Middle East the fuck alone instead?

And we support Saudia Arabia lol there worse then Iran. The only reason the media shits on Iran is because there not in the American sphere of influence, they are in a reemerging Russian sphere of influence

@pof

😂😂 this is too good.. the sarcasm flew over everyone’s head

I caught onto it eventually

Yeah, when Domino told you

See I would've caught on but I know people who would unironically agree with absolutely everything you said lmao

Pof it was obvious sarcasm yet it still angered me.

Question for iPad users: Foreign lobbyists spend millions to try & influence U.S. policy in a way serves the interests of nations like Mexico, Israel, & Saudi Arabia, just to name a few. Many of our politicians accept money from these groups. Should we ban foreign lobbying?

Answer 1-Yes
Answer 2- No

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I like the way you think!

Love it!

Yes!