Republicans show their true selves

So yes you think some white supremecists are Obama supporters? Or maybe they support Clinton or Pelosi? Or the old Jewish guy? Or Kamala Harris or Corey Booker?

 

Because symbolic gestures like this accomplish nothing. They only waste time and resources needlessly. Would you really feel any different about this if they had voted and "approved" it? Of course not, you'd eventually find some other reason to doubt them.

 

I would feel different. I would feel like they took a public stand against bigotry. Instead they took a public stand in favor of it

 

So no, I don't. However, the supremacists were more than happy to see him elected. As far as they are concerned Obama was exactly what the US deserved. Which is why I don't worry much about them, they're just disgruntled losers who hate the government.

 

Accomplish nothing? These gestures show the voters your values. Voters should know these types of things.

 

.... that now feel empowered because the president and party in power has condoned their actions. This is is the whole point. Not condemning them condones them

 

Ah, so we can just keep issuing bills and eventually everything will be just peachy! Who knew?

 

I’m not suggesting the bill changes the facts but the bill does provide information the nation needs.

 

It's uselessly redundant, we know supremacists suck and we know that nobody is supporting them in Washington or the private sector. Think about it, if they had any support to speak of, wouldn't we be in a very different country right now? But they don't.

The only play they get at all comes from people introducing bills like this to remind us they're still around, pitiful as their numbers happen to be. There are more non-white gang members in Chicago than white supremacists in the whole nation. They're a flea on a dog, nothing more. This bill being proposed elevates their status when they should be ignored.

 

Yeah, well, so what else is new?

 

I think we should round up all the republicans and burn them with hot starbucks coffee.. maybe shoot them all between the eyes with some creamer ..

 

As someone who values freedom of speech, I'll weigh in on this.

Way i see it: If you give the government the power to take free speech from a vile group you don't like (like white supremacists, for example), you give that government the same power to take those rights away from you just the same. And don't come at me with "that won't happen to me" bullshit. We've seen it happen before when the police and military used violence to shut down left leaning hippie war protests.

As much as I'm grossed out by the opinions and talking points of hate groups, they deserve their freedoms of speech just as much as the rest of us without having the government and police shut them down with rubber bullets.

Hateful people having freedom of speech is just a negative side affect of having freedom of speech. I'd rather let these assholes talk, then have to be worried about being jailed for having the wrong opinions that don't fall in line with the government.

Also, if you don't allow the hate groups to speak. You push them deeper into the dark, making them more taboo, counter-cultural, and rebellious. Thereby making these ugly ideologies more appealing to people who wanna break the rules of polite society. Making hate seem cool is the last thing you wanna do.

 

That's a nice theory. Sadly stuff don't work that way.

 

I agree that it’s usually redundant but right now it’s relevant. We *are* in a very different country. Hate crimes are at unprecedented levels. Executive orders have been struck down for being racist. The president has lost a discrimination law suit. There are alleged Nazis (Gorka is a Nazi but is part of the 35% turnover) and confederates in the White House and administration. Trump called Mexicans rapists and the Charlottesville bigots good people. I don’t think this is a bill you need all the time but I think it’s one we need now

 

We just have to wait this radical group out. What they don’t know is they’re major battles are long since lost. There is no stopping globalization and the social changes that go with it

 

But wait. I think the resolution was to condemn white supremacist and Nazi views, not to ban them. Big difference. Banning the speech would be unconstitutional.

 

Since our friend Scratcho failed to provide a link or even the briefest of brief descriptions of what the bill he is championing is, I had to do a little research.

In a nutshell, it's all about labeling neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and the alt-right as terrorist organizations.

That's right, the left wants the alt right in the same category as Al-Queda.

Nazi white nationalists are pieces of shit. I think we can all agree there. But until their groups' existence is primarily to carry out acts of terrorism, persecuting as terrorists is, well, something the Nazis might have done.

 

Those groups are terrorists - and shouldn't the bill have come to a vote?

 

How are they terrorists?

 

They are hate groups that threaten, promote and commit acts of domestic terrorism.