Meta physician Marianne Williamson now a candidate for President

I'm sure he thought that up when he told his granddaughter to sleep naked with him.

Sure you want to use him as an example?

 

Your question is a good one, but difficult to answer with any certainty. First, it IS conceivable such a scenario could repeat itself. History often does. But right now, we don't face that kind of scenario, and Marianne's approach DOES have potential for success. The thing about Marianne's approach is that it resembles Gandhi's in India against the British, which NO ONE felt could succeed at the time. Gandhi proved them wrong. Martin Luther King used many of Gandhi's techniques in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s & 1960s, again, with success. To those accustomed to violence, confrontation & conflict as a working system, something like Marianne's focus on love, respect & cooperation seems weak, silly & doomed to failure. But Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mendoza in S. Africa all prove those people wrong. Love is the most powerful force in the universe. We need to give it a chance to prove itself here, now. The benefits will serve us all.

 

She is impressive with a refreshingly different perspective on how to approach governance. Not sure she's presidential material but she'd make a helluva a cabinet member.

cheers.

 

I find it interesting that with all the examples of incredible accomplishment in Gandhi's life, you single out the one example of his behavior that appears to conflict with your values. Gandhi was on a rigorous spiritual path that he felt demanded celibacy. He loved his wife deeply, but at one point on this path, he told her he was ending all sexual contact with her BECAUSE of his spiritual quest. After his wife died, and he was an older man, he slept with his naked granddaughter to assure himself he was incapable of becoming aroused, which was a spiritual nightmare for him, & the ultimate test. You must also consider Gandhi lived in a society with different views on spirituality than we have here in America. While I disagree with Gandhi's idea of a self-imposed test, I honor the path he was on, and his life had thousands of times more impact for good than it had toward any evil you might seek to connect it with. It is sad your vision was so narrow, judgmental, prejudiced, and solely focused on the negative.

 

So if your dad asked to sleep with your daughter naked you would be ok with that because he is on a spiritual path?

 

XploreR:

 

XploreR: I wrote a long reply to you above, but the stupid Forum software deleted it, since apparently you have only 15 minutes to edit something. Brilliant.

 

They relished the idea to use as a political sledgehammer and then did exactly that.

It's the DEMOCRATS plan where has their fix been? Democrats have no intention of working with Republicans and even Democrats are running on scrapping Obamacare totally and going to a single payer government run system.

 

XploreR: and the software is reformatting my reply and will not save the edit to try and correct

 

That's an invitation sent to the No True Scotsman if I ever saw one.

 

Thinking about war, and peace, and freedom ... listen to this, and read the comments below it:
Two bad extremes: belligerent super-nationalism, and soupy pacifism.
Our species is almost out of the woods, historically speaking ... if we can just get through the next hundred years or so.

 

If anyone is puzzled by the reference to the 'No True Scotsman', look here.

 

Yeah, the progressives always run to the Scotsman when it's pointed out that throwing piles of money at inner city educational problems rarely accomplishes anything.

"We need more spending on schools!"

"We poured 100s of millions of dollars into the education budget last year, and the test scores stayed the same."

"Yeah! But you didn't spend the money on EFFECTIVE EDUCATION!" *puts on a kilt, starts playing bagpipes*

 

As I said in my post, I am uncomfortable with that particular behavior of Gandhi's, and no, I wouldn't be comfortable with the situation you pose, but I don't dismiss Gandhi & his incredible life over one discomforting incident. No one should be judged for one single malfeasance, when there's whole lifetime of actions that should count.

 

1. I don't believe Schumer or Pelosi would want the country to go thru the pain it experienced under the shutdown just to gain a few political points. I disagree with you on this. I could believe Trump would do it. He proved that to all of us by actually doing it.
2. Democrats have been out of power in the Congress since 2010. Even now, after regaining control of the House, McConnell REFUSES to allow discussion or a vote on anything the House passes & sends to him. What makes you think Democrats had ANY OPPORTUNITY to fix Obamacare with Congress controlled by the party seeking to destroy it? That's a good example of the total lack of logical thinking on the part of today's "conservative" Trump base. They just want to blame Democrats & leftists & liberals, without really understanding what's going on.

 

If he was given the title mahatma by those he defended and struggled for within his community and nation, and who had years before become celibate in order to strengthen that spiritual commitment, then I would without any qualms.

 

Some of us lived through the Obama admin, so we know that's nonsense. The Democrats compromised, the Republicans stonewalled.

Examples? Obamacare. Over and over, the Democrats offered compromises, and the Republicans said okay, and then pulled out at the last second. Finally, the Democrats had to do it without the Republicans.

And you got pasted in 2018, and that has consequences. Republicans have to negotiate with Democrats, instead of just throwing tantrums. When you do throw tantrums, Pelosi sends you to your room.

Like I said, Trump's tantrum didn't work. He was forced to compromise, something alien to Republicans, and Republicans are still pouting about it.

 

What about his extreme racism towards blacks?

How about that he considered Hitler and friend and heaped praise on Mussolini?

He condemned lawyers yet he was one, he condemned trains yet rode them constantly.

Do you overlook all those also for his peaceful activism, which he suspended three times by the way when it was no longer convenient?

In fact, Britain leaving India had nothing to do with him, it was because it was simply too expensive to keep hold of it any longer.

He was known as a vicious man, often telling his workers he wouldn't mind if they died.

 

I agree with Sre Yukteswar (Indian spiritual guru) who said: "The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames." I've learned how accurate that statement is. We're all human, and we all do things we're not forever proud of. We all make mistakes. No one should be judged solely on the mistakes they make, but rather on how well they learn from those mistakes to improve themselves.

 

But Gandhi never learned.

The man is not deserving of his legend in any way whatsoever.

He was a fraud.

Many places are even removing his statues now because more and more people are realizing the truth about him.

You seem to be one of the last hanging on to a myth.

 

Obamacare, they sat down to talk and the Republicans started to talk about some of their ideas and Obama looked at them and said "elections have consequences and we won", told them to move to the back of the bus your ideas were not welcome.

Well the only tantrums I've seen on are the Democrat side anytime Trump tries to work with them and they refuse to even negotiate and instead engage in the invective and ad hominems. Just look at their hearings the last two weeks, their treatment of Barr. Waters treatment of the bank executives and her STUPID attempt to harass them and no having learned her lesson tried to do so with the Secretary of the Treasury and got her clock cleaned twice in one day.

And that is a good example of why things don't get done. The invective and attacks and it's better to win politically instead of actually getting anything done.

 

They RELISH in it because they know with a compliant MSM they can always blame it on the Republicans.

I have not heard him say he will not bring ANY bill from the House to committee or to the floor. I've heard him say he will not waste the time of the Senate on the stupid they only seem capable of. But what bill have they sent over that has not been considered? And the Democrats have to 2015 to fix THEIR program, they had every opportunity to present proposals since then. They can do so NOW. What do they admit needs to be fixed and what is their solution to do so, why do the Republicans have to fix THEIR program?

 

1. Republicans simply wanted to protect the massive profits of the insurance companies, not make healthcare available to more American families. Obama & the Democrats were willing to use insurance companies, but wanted them to widen coverage to more Americans. Republicans called Obamacare socialized medicine & refused to cooperate. The TRUTH is that the Obamacare system was adapted directly from the Republican healthcare system introduced in Massachusetts a few years before, by governor Mitt Romney. But even though they knew it was a Republican plan introduced by a Republican governor, they rejected it outright, & refused to work with Democrats to make it bipartisan. I think that obstructionism was due racism, and to Mitch McConnell's promise to oppose every action of Obama & make him a one term President.
2. Trump doesn't work with ANYBODY--EVER. Trump doesn't even work with his own Cabinet members, or the myriad of government workers totally dedicated to being of assistance to the President, whomever that might be. Trump works for Trump. How many times--even recently--has he betrayed the hard work of his closest advisers by ignoring their efforts & accomplishments by announcing some major change of policy suddenly & totally out of the blue? Even those closest to him can't depend on him. He's unpredictable & undependable. He's a wild card that can't work with anyone else in a trusting way. He's a VERY POOR example for a leader of this formerly great nation. America can do better, & I strongly urge voters to make that happen.
3. The worst practitioner of invective & unwarranted attacks is our current President himself. While his wife publicly opposes media bullying, her husband provides the best example of what she's fighting against. He fights dirty, hitting beneath the belt--calling anyone who disagrees derogatory names, & refers to them in demeaning ways. He's an extremely poor choice to be the President & preeminent symbol of America & its values. He doesn't live those values, & he doesn't represent them to the world either. ANY Democrat running right now would be preferable to him a hundred times over.

 

1. In a highly unusual move, in Dec 2018, both Houses of Congress passed an appropriations bill--approved unanimously in the Senate--to the President, who had agreed beforehand to sign it. But after the bill passed, ultra-right wing conservative commentator Ann Coulter launched a vicious attack against it & the President, wounding Trump's ego. So, Trump decided at the last minute, on his own, to veto all the work done by all of Congress, including his own Republicans, and force a government closure. That closure was unexpected, even by Republicans, and is just another of many examples of Trump's inability to work with anyone or to be trusted by anyone--even those closest to him.
2. I've heard Democratic Congressmen & women interviewed saying the House has passed a multitude of bills, but McConnell simply ignores them when they are sent to the Senate for action. McConnell refuses to allow them to even be discussed, and NEVER allows a vote unless it's a bill he has no control over--which are few & far between.

 

No teleprompter.