The 2024 General Election mega-thread. Please contain comments to this thread for the duration of the election.

Introduction

Welcome to the r/tuesday book club and Revolutions podcast thread!

Upcoming

Week 146: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 4 Section 3 & Pt. 5 and Jihad Chapter 10-11

As follows is the scheduled reading a few weeks out:

Week 147: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 6 and Jihad Chapter 12

Week 148: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 7 Sections 1&2 and Jihad Chapter 13

Week 149: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 7 Section 3 & Conclusion and Jihad Chapter 14

Week 150: Jihad Chapter 15 & Conclusion

More Information

The Full list of books are as follows:

Year 1:

• Classical Liberalism: A Primer
• The Road To Serfdom
• World Order
• Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Capitalism and Freedom
• Slightly To The Right
• Suicide of the West
• Conscience of a Conservative
• The Fractured Republic
• The Constitution of Liberty
• Empire​
• The Coddling of the American Mind

Year 2:

• Revolutions Podcast **(**the following readings will also have a small selection of episodes from the Revolutions podcast as well)
• The English Constitution
• The US Constitution
• The Federalist Papers
• A selection of The Anti-Federalist Papers
• The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution
• The Australian Constitution
• Democracy in America
• The July 4th special: Revisiting the Constitution and reading The Declaration of Independence
• Democracy in America (cont.)
• The Origins of Totalitarianism

Year 3:

• Colossus
• On China
• The Long Hangover
• No More Vietnams
• Republic - Plato
• On Obligations - Cicero
• Closing of the American Mind
• The Theory of Moral Sentiments< - We are here
• Extra Reading: The Shah
• Extra Reading: The Real North Korea
• Extra Reading: Jihad

Explanation of the 2024 readings and the authors: Tuesday Book Club 2024

Participation is open to anyone that would like to do so, the standard automod enforced rules around flair and top level comments have been turned off for threads with the "Book Club" flair.

The previous week's thread can be found here: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 2 Section 3 & Pt. 3 Chapters 1-3 and Jihad Chapter 8

The full book club discussion archive is located here: Book Club Archive

If Kamala loses:

It's funny to see stuff about how the question, if Trump wins (I think it's probably 55/45 at this point), will be "should the democrats have replaced Biden" when they were screwed before this point. They were screwed at the point when Joe Biden incepted the idea of running again for a second term even though he is over 80, looking and acting absolutely ancient. The public, even though they gave him the presidency, were concerned about this in 2020. The polling showed Americans believed this regardless of party and that Biden shouldn't run again, but then he did. He ran into June, and then held on for a month after the disaster on stage.

This caused the party to lock in Harris as the new candidate, even though there were some thoughts of having an open primary, because of the affects it would have since there was a good risk it would be ugly and the fact that we campaign finance reformed our way into possibly having locked the resources that Biden-Harris had raised to one of the two on the ticket. It was a lot of resources too.

If we are being honest with ourselves, Harris would not have made it through a primary had Joe Biden not run which would be better for the Democrats because she is intimately tied to the Administration and its policies and incumbents are currently unpopular (fortunately for them someone else is also unpopular). She is in a position where she has to be mostly a team player and defend what came before (I give a lot of leeway to VPs on being a team player, did for Pence too. It's why I don't care all that much about whether or not she knew, or when she started to know, that Biden was having problems). She also would not have backtracked anywhere near as much on the Progressive nonsense had she had to run in a primary, not that she has answered for the fact she did backtrack and why we should believe anything she says about policy position (those that we know of not being any good anyway). She is an absolutely terrible public speaker and campaigner.

Specifically, if Harris loses Pennsylvania because Josh Shapiro is a Jew "had a bad interview" its going to be viewed as a major mistake. She needs Pennsylvania to win and the margins are tiny there. She was winning Minnesota regardless.

Which goes back to why is Kamala VP anyway if she isn't very good? Progressive identity politics severely narrowed the field of possible picks. Not a whole lot of other options there based on what we know about her selection. Also, VPs don't really matter, right?

At least we won't have the terrible policy proposals that were laid out, the continued fluffing of Iran, and whatever sideshow circus the 250th anniversary celebrations of America would be.

If Trump loses:

Should have been obvious from a mile away. Everyone capable is gone and Trump surrounded himself with crackpots, grifters, Democrats, and literally anyone that excessively flatters him. Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek, the looniest Kenedy, Laura Loomer, and Tucker Carlson. Endorsing Dr Oz, Hershel Walker, and Kari Lake amongst others should have been a flashing warning sign. These were the picks he made either on his own or with advice from the type of people that surrounded him after January 6th, which is probably why his picks weren't quite as bad before 2021. Speaking of picks, JD Vance was a major blunder. He believed that Joe Biden and he were alike, he simply could not imagine that Biden might put some conception of the greater good before himself because to Trump there is no greater good than Trump. So, he picked Vance because he didn't need to quell the concerns of conservatives or moderate Republicans. Vance will do whatever Trump wants him to do from how embarrassing himself to ignoring constitutional provisions, the latter of which was something conservatives and moderate Republicans wouldn't do as we saw with Pence. Vance is popular with the online twitter and reddit right, but that has had the consequence of a whole lot of baggage and saying some really stupid things. How much of what he says he actually believes (something that can be said of a lot of the types surrounding Trump) is very much in question.

Who knows what Trump believes, if anything at all. There are only really 3 things that seem relatively consistent: 1) that he isn't constrained by law or the constitution, 2) a usually hardline on immigration, and 3) that tariffs are a magical silver bullet that can do anything and everything (even though the only economists that agree are the fringe nut cases similar to the ones the Dems pull out when they want to do something stupid like wealth taxes).

Actual policy wise, as far as can be made out, is to crater revenue while vastly increasing deficit spending, weakening the country on the world stage (possibly attempting to return the country to some form of isolationism. I'm not sure Vance or Trump see or understand any interest beyond our shores. Dems are bad on foreign policy but at least it's usually just folly and not complete suicide), and massive tariffs which will vastly increase prices on everything. We shouldn't underestimate the chance that there are shoddy "investigations" to "prove" this or that conspiracy theory, especially around the 2020 election. He may try to use government power against his personal enemies (which are all across the political spectrum at this point), which crosses into the type of tyranny that the founders were concerned about.

But there isn't really any policy other than that, its just whatever nonsense he thinks is popular or is throwing at the wall at any moment in time because Trump doesn't really have any beliefs, certainly vanishingly few conservative ones, and everything will be left to whoever he delegates to or whoever is the last person to talk to him. None if it will have much continuity with historical conservatism because Trump isn't a conservative, he's basically a Progressive.

At least the right-wing Progressivism he represents may see its popularity wane or die (essentially loosing since 2016 will wake some people up), the suicidal foreign policy, the rough price increases caused by the tariffs, the deficits that possibly could potentially be larger than what Kamala would have, and whatever loony nonsense he would try to pull as president would be. While it has been forgotten amongst his most fervent supporters, he was an incompetent moron from 2016 (when I did vote for him, it was his incompetence that soured me on him initially) to 2020 and I don't see any indication this would be better from 2024 to 2028, especially with who is going to staff his administration (I wrote almost all of this about 2 weeks ago and in that time it seems like he may give RFK jr public health, a further reiteration of the point).

America loses:

We are absolutely hosed if this is the candidates we produce as a country for president. Insolvency of major government programs aren't getting further away and there is no real plan to fix them because they can be demagogued right up until the insolvency happens because there are only 2 options to fix them: 1) Reduce benefits or 2) vastly increase taxes on everyone. Probably a combination of both. Neither of which are popular.

Our foreign policy has gone in the trash and we aren't taking seriously the military threats that we are about to encounter, especially in Asia, and I don't think anyone has a real plan on winning any such conflict nor do I trust either of the two candidates to be able to. America, and the west in general, have become extremely weak willed and I'm not sure public opinion would survive the loss of an Aircraft carrier with most of its compliment going with her based on how much whining there was about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or with the wars currently in Ukraine and Israel. Any war we fight will be far deadlier and more costly than any since at least Vietnam.

Economically we have pulled greatly ahead of basically everyone, especially Europe which used to be closer to us, but it seems like all the plans around the economy are designed to destroy our advantage. Left wing economic talk is basically a variety of conspiracy theories with the ideal end to punish anyone that is successful, and regulation designed to quash innovation. The Progressive right's economics is vast meddling and picking winers and losers, wrecking up both imports and exports in the process, and it also is getting somewhat conspiratorial in its thinking. All so the rust belt doesn't get any, or very few manufacturing jobs anyway. Why put a factory in Ohio or Michigan when you can put it in the South where no one is beholden to the leaches that are the unions? It's all going to be very automated either way.

##INTRODUCTION

/r/tuesday is a political discussion sub for the right side of the political spectrum - from the center to the traditional/standard right (but not alt-right!) However, we're going for a big tent approach and welcome anyone with nuanced and non-standard views. We encourage dissents and discourse as long as it is accompanied with facts and evidence and is done in good faith and in a polite and respectful manner.

##PURPOSE OF THE DISCUSSION THREAD

Like in r/neoliberal and r/neoconnwo, you can talk about anything you want in the Discussion Thread. So, socialize with other people, talk about politics and conservatism, tell us about your day, shitpost or literally anything under the sun. In the DT, rules such as "stay on topic" and "no Shitposting/Memes/Politician-focused comments" don't apply.

It is my hope that we can foster a sense of community through the Discussion Thread.

##IMAGE FLAIRS

r/Tuesday will reward image flairs to people who write an effort post or an OC text post on certain subjects. It could be about philosophy, politics, economics, etc... Available image flairs can be seen here. If you have any special requests for specific flairs, please message the mods!

The list of previous effort posts can be found here

Previous Discussion Thread

Introduction

Welcome to the r/tuesday book club and Revolutions podcast thread!

Upcoming

Week 145: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 3 chapters 4-6 and Jihad Chapter 9

As follows is the scheduled reading a few weeks out:

Week 146: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 4 Section 3 & Pt. 5 and Jihad Chapter 10-11

More Information

The Full list of books are as follows:

Year 1:

• Classical Liberalism: A Primer
• The Road To Serfdom
• World Order
• Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Capitalism and Freedom
• Slightly To The Right
• Suicide of the West
• Conscience of a Conservative
• The Fractured Republic
• The Constitution of Liberty
• Empire​
• The Coddling of the American Mind

Year 2:

• Revolutions Podcast **(**the following readings will also have a small selection of episodes from the Revolutions podcast as well)
• The English Constitution
• The US Constitution
• The Federalist Papers
• A selection of The Anti-Federalist Papers
• The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution
• The Australian Constitution
• Democracy in America
• The July 4th special: Revisiting the Constitution and reading The Declaration of Independence
• Democracy in America (cont.)
• The Origins of Totalitarianism

Year 3:

• Colossus
• On China
• The Long Hangover
• No More Vietnams
• Republic - Plato
• On Obligations - Cicero
• Closing of the American Mind
• The Theory of Moral Sentiments< - We are here
• Extra Reading: The Shah
• Extra Reading: The Real North Korea
• Extra Reading: Jihad

Explanation of the 2024 readings and the authors: Tuesday Book Club 2024

Participation is open to anyone that would like to do so, the standard automod enforced rules around flair and top level comments have been turned off for threads with the "Book Club" flair.

The previous week's thread can be found here: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 1 Section 3 & Pt. 2 Sections 1&2 and Jihad Chapter 7

The full book club discussion archive is located here: Book Club Archive

##INTRODUCTION

/r/tuesday is a political discussion sub for the right side of the political spectrum - from the center to the traditional/standard right (but not alt-right!) However, we're going for a big tent approach and welcome anyone with nuanced and non-standard views. We encourage dissents and discourse as long as it is accompanied with facts and evidence and is done in good faith and in a polite and respectful manner.

##PURPOSE OF THE DISCUSSION THREAD

Like in r/neoliberal and r/neoconnwo, you can talk about anything you want in the Discussion Thread. So, socialize with other people, talk about politics and conservatism, tell us about your day, shitpost or literally anything under the sun. In the DT, rules such as "stay on topic" and "no Shitposting/Memes/Politician-focused comments" don't apply.

It is my hope that we can foster a sense of community through the Discussion Thread.

##IMAGE FLAIRS

r/Tuesday will reward image flairs to people who write an effort post or an OC text post on certain subjects. It could be about philosophy, politics, economics, etc... Available image flairs can be seen here. If you have any special requests for specific flairs, please message the mods!

The list of previous effort posts can be found here

Previous Discussion Thread

Introduction

Welcome to the r/tuesday book club and Revolutions podcast thread!

Upcoming

Week 144: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 2 Section 3 & Pt. 3 Chapters 1-3 and Jihad Chapter 8

As follows is the scheduled reading a few weeks out:

Week 145: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 3 chapters 4-6 and Jihad Chapter 9

Week 146: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt 4 Section 3 & Pt. 5 and Jihad Chapter 10-11

More Information

The Full list of books are as follows:

Year 1:

• Classical Liberalism: A Primer
• The Road To Serfdom
• World Order
• Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Capitalism and Freedom
• Slightly To The Right
• Suicide of the West
• Conscience of a Conservative
• The Fractured Republic
• The Constitution of Liberty
• Empire​
• The Coddling of the American Mind

Year 2:

• Revolutions Podcast **(**the following readings will also have a small selection of episodes from the Revolutions podcast as well)
• The English Constitution
• The US Constitution
• The Federalist Papers
• A selection of The Anti-Federalist Papers
• The American Revolution as a Successful Revolution
• The Australian Constitution
• Democracy in America
• The July 4th special: Revisiting the Constitution and reading The Declaration of Independence
• Democracy in America (cont.)
• The Origins of Totalitarianism

Year 3:

• Colossus
• On China
• The Long Hangover
• No More Vietnams
• Republic - Plato
• On Obligations - Cicero
• Closing of the American Mind
• The Theory of Moral Sentiments< - We are here
• Extra Reading: The Shah
• Extra Reading: The Real North Korea
• Extra Reading: Jihad

Explanation of the 2024 readings and the authors: Tuesday Book Club 2024

Participation is open to anyone that would like to do so, the standard automod enforced rules around flair and top level comments have been turned off for threads with the "Book Club" flair.

The previous week's thread can be found here: Theory of Moral Sentiments Pt. 1 Sections 1&2 and Jihad Chapter 6

The full book club discussion archive is located here: Book Club Archive

##INTRODUCTION

/r/tuesday is a political discussion sub for the right side of the political spectrum - from the center to the traditional/standard right (but not alt-right!) However, we're going for a big tent approach and welcome anyone with nuanced and non-standard views. We encourage dissents and discourse as long as it is accompanied with facts and evidence and is done in good faith and in a polite and respectful manner.

##PURPOSE OF THE DISCUSSION THREAD

Like in r/neoliberal and r/neoconnwo, you can talk about anything you want in the Discussion Thread. So, socialize with other people, talk about politics and conservatism, tell us about your day, shitpost or literally anything under the sun. In the DT, rules such as "stay on topic" and "no Shitposting/Memes/Politician-focused comments" don't apply.

It is my hope that we can foster a sense of community through the Discussion Thread.

##IMAGE FLAIRS

r/Tuesday will reward image flairs to people who write an effort post or an OC text post on certain subjects. It could be about philosophy, politics, economics, etc... Available image flairs can be seen here. If you have any special requests for specific flairs, please message the mods!

The list of previous effort posts can be found here

Previous Discussion Thread