January 25
The moon is almost full, and it was very pretty this morning.
It's strange to look at it, so similar to our own, but not the same. When I catch it out of the corner of my eye, it looks familiar, like an old friend, but then I look closer and it's smaller and the shadows are different.
It also doesn't keep a good schedule. It ought to come up right at sunset, and settle over the horizon at sunrise, but it doesn't do that. We learned that's because instead of having the sun and moon controlled by Princesses, on Earth it's a spinning system like a carousel, with the moon and the Earth held in place by gravity. It boggles my mind that the whole system doesn't just fly apart, sending the Earth and Moon flying off into the void, but as far as I know there aren't any human mages who are keeping the system together.
One of the strange things about Earth is the houses. They're a little bit bigger than pony homes, but that's not surprising; humans are almost twice as tall as a pony.
Most of them look more like bunkers, though, squatting down on the land they own. The humans seem to pride themselves on boring, regular lines on the outside of the house, and they paint them all dull pastel colors. If it hadn't been for the brightness of some of their cars, I would have thought that maybe they didn't have bright paints, but they did.
And many of the stores are brightly colored. McDonald's are a vibrant red and yellow, the giant store next to Bilbo's has a blue awning, and other stores and signs are bright colors as well. But not the houses.
Especially in the winter, it would brighten things up, and it would free them from the sense of sameness that their houses have. They even have to number all their homes so that mail can be delivered to the right place. I guess that sort of makes sense in a big city like Kalamazoo, but it's my understanding that the same thing applies in small towns.
And speaking of numbers, even their cities have numbers. Kalamazoo is 49006. Does that mean that there are at least that many different Kalamazoos? Why wouldn't they think of another name for the city, if they'd used Kalamazoo so often? I have to put 48823 on letters to Aquamarine.
There isn't any of this foolishness on Equestrian mail. A pony's name, a neighborhood name, a city name and that's it. Some of the smaller towns don't have neighborhood names, either. That's only for the bigger places, like Canterlot. And you can send mail to farms or sailors on boats . . . do boats have numbers, too, so that people can send mail to them?
I felt a bit nervous when I went into climate class this morning. Sort of skittish. I was kind of looking at the windows and thinking about how they might open . . . all because of the angry man.
It was kind of stupid, I know. Dumb Silver Glow. But while I'd made a lot of friends already, they weren't in the same classes as me, and if something were to happen, I could be all alone, and it would be safer if I had more friends.
Not that I was thinking of it that way when I went to class, of course. I only thought about it later, when I had time to reflect on my slight discomfort and my urge to get close to some more people.
So rather than sit in the front row, I moved back a bit, to a seat which I knew was usually vacant that was between Crystal Dawn and a boy named Luke (and if I don't look too closely, he kind of looks like Luke Skywalker, which makes his name easy to remember). The professor seemed a bit taken aback by this new seating arrangement, but didn't say anything. There weren't rules about where you had to sit but after the second day everybody had kept to the same seats.
They didn't give any outright signs of rejection, although I suppose I could have missed some. Human body language is a lot different than pony body language. If somepony moved in on me and I didn't want them there, I'd put my ears back and maybe stretch out my wings just a little bit. Usually that's enough. Humans couldn't really move their ears too much and they didn't have any wings to signal with.
Well, I didn't exactly make fast friends, but of course it takes a little bit. Humans are sometimes a lot frostier than ponies, and some of the nuances of their behavior still go over my head. Crystal Dawn is interesting; besides having a very pony-like name, when she talked I could see a gap between her molars and incisors. A lot of unicorn mares who have them have them filed off for vanity; I wondered if she had too, or if she'd just been born without them, like some ponies. My mom always said not having fangs was a sign of unicorn blood in the past, but I wasn't so sure that she was right about that, 'cause even the spa would take them down if you wanted.
Philosophy was a tougher cloud to break. Oddly, there wasn't anypony in the class who I felt any particular attraction towards, although there were a few who I was sure I would not particularly like.
It didn't help that the class quite honestly baffled me. We started in on Thomas Aquinas, who wrote several important treatises (which are like essays) on Aristotle. That was well enough; it makes sense that if you're trying to refine philosophy you'd want to illustrate the shortcomings of your predecessor’s work. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all built upon each other's work, after all.
But then I kind of got lost when he started talking about God's laws. I'm not sure who God is, or why the Greek philosophers didn't bring up what He thought in their discussions.
The best I could figure is that He was around for a while, which is probably why there's such a long gap between Aristotle and Aquinas. Then once He left, humans had to work out how to deal with things on their own.
I was kind of embarrassed to show my ignorance in class, so I didn't raise a hoof and ask for clarification. But I did think about what might happen to us if Princess Celestia were to somehow disappear—what would we do? How would we live without her guidance? Who would raise the sun?
I didn't have a good answer for any of those questions. I think it would be very bad for us, and we'd spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we should do in her absence, and that was probably how Thomas Aquinas felt.
When I got to Equestrian class, the teacher wanted us to sit in small groups and talk about our weekends. She suggested that I should pick a trio of people to talk to (there are only twelve people in the class, counting me), so I sat with Becky and Lisa and Meghan—who I pulled along after the ice storm—and that was a lot of fun. All three of the girls really liked me, and it turns out all three of them play bells with Aric as well. They like him, too.
We continued our conversation after class, and they invited me to come over and talk some more with them. They had a lot of questions about cloud cities, and I was just the pony to answer their questions, 'cause I knew about them.
Then I wrapped up the day playing Durak. Aric came by and gave me a ride again. I didn't lose any times, which was nice.
He offered me a ride back, but I thought I would rather walk with everyone else, and I think he was a little disappointed by that, but it gave me the chance to talk more with all of Keith's friends who are also now my friends.
The quality I like the most about this fic is that it embodies the term slice of life literally.
Poor filly is traumatized. I want to hug her again and whisper that everything will be alright.
Sigh. I can see the upcoming conversation.
"Hello, have you found Jesus?"
"I didn't know he was lost. Is he your dog?"
Does Aric have a crush on Silver Glow? Or are these shipping goggles making it hard for me to see?
7052341 Apology accepted.
Knew Aquinas would show up. I'm a believer and he still puts me to sleep
This was actually pretty nuanced and in many ways is a wonderful bite sized reaction to Aquinas and even others.
Wasn't sure before but getting there. Going to say Aric has a crush on Silver.
Great chapter and can't wait to see her bring a cloud to class. Interesting to see her try to gain more friends as a defense mechanism. Rather nice instinct there.
7052376 That's what I'm thinking. He's plenty eager to take her where she wants to go. Silver's gonna have a really hard time picking up on it though.
7052433 That, and it could open a whole other societal can of worms.
Interesting chapter! One thing I wonder about, though, is that if she doesn't have a concept of God, then how does she know to capitalize the H in "He." That's a nuance I wouldn't think she'd get.
7052418
Startin' to wonder about that too. Hmm...
7052455 Maybe she's just copying what her edition of Aquinas does?
7052359 Well that clears that up! Obviously G4 looks good to me.
7052455 Going to guess that while she has no concept of the Christian God, that Gods in general is not foreign to her and knows that when referring to a deity that one must use capitals. Deities are funny like that.
7052453
Yes, if by "can of worms" you mean "million gallon reservoir full of dragons." In which case you misspelled "wyrms."
7052376 It does seem that way doesn't it? If Silver Glow does go into a relationship with any of the characters, I do hope it is Aric. He seems like a nice guy and has Silver's well being in his best interest. He also has a truck.
7052624 TWO trucks, doesn't he?
7052341
Have spoken to actual real life White Supremacy believers and some of the more out there left-wingers that make BLM look inclusive to other races and not the straw-men that their opponents make them out to be on both sides I can say that a lot of this kind of thought processes boil down to "why I deserve this thing/should be in a higher class". On the White Supremacy side they believe that the whites won the "Race race" and deserve to rule over the others because they have/had the strength to do so pre WW2 and were more "evolved" as a race. To them that means they as whites should have first pick in whatever over the others but comes with the expectation that they act like they really are better. You can see that in the treatment of Nazi Germany to Imperial Japan post war for the same shit. Germany was a white country that massacred mostly white Jews where as Japan was a Asian country that massacred mostly Chinese. With Japan the thought was "well what can you expect? they're a bunch of dirty yellow barbarians, you can't hold them to the standards of a white man." so things were brushed over with a resounding "Meh". The Germans were whites doing it to other whites so "Should have known better" and got the hammer dropped on them. Now that the whole "Whites are better because x, y, and z" is disgraced as a political/sociological school of thought their common base support has been cut off at the legs and are reduced to small echo chambers of fellow White Supremacy believers bitching about how "everything has gone wrong since the blacks were let in" who attract new members by giving them someone to blame for all their problems.
On the Left side we have what is known as SJW's and assorted "activists" that don't take the stance that "they are better" but come the other direction that "the only reason I'm poor/a drop out/in jail/a druggie is because of the whites privilege, ableism, and the patriarchy and none of my fault at all". They also have a unhealthy dash of "mainstream bad, nonconformist good" thing going and a refusal to tolerate anyone different than them unless different in the "right" ways. They use the exact same tactics and attract the same kind of people that the white supremacist do they just differ on who gets the blame. To them they think that those who are "haves" have it unfairly and should "share" it with the "have not's" to "even the playing field" and want to sit with their hand out demanding things be given to them (money, scholarships, jobs it doesn't matter) for just existing and don't want to put any work into bettering themselves, they "deserve" it. Anyone who says different is obviously someone with "privilege" who doesn't know "what it's like" to be a X.
Now for both sides on the ponies? For the most part each "group" is going to be in the "Oh shit, ALIENS man!" camp till the ponies open their mouths and start sharing their views on the world. Then things get weird. On the Right I can see a Human Supremacy group get off the ground were as most of the right will focus on the meritocracy and how each pony knows what they're good at. The Left will exhort the peace and harmony but the stupid on their side of the fence are going to jump on the whole "ruled by a Princess" thing at some point and how the "common pony" must be oppressed then once they start offering "suggestions" or talking about "how hard they have it as a x" if the ponies don't jump on their side they will slap a "privilege" tag on them and ignore anything the pony says as coming from a privilege stance because how can they be wrong.
Ah, Christianity.
A good way of putting it. Now for Silver to encounter the disconnect between the ancient words and the modern actions of those who proclaim to live by them. How would Celestia be interpreted and her ideals mangled? There's a fic prompt here. A good one.
Hope her herding instinct is well received and she didn't find a Silver Spoon equivalent.
7052703 Except it inverts the "loss of God" problem in philosophy and letters. God and heaven and divinity was a matter of course throughout the Medieval era, it was the early Modern crisis of authority that fed the middle Modern sense of abandonment that gets you Romantic angst and eventually Existentialism.
7052590 Interestingly enough (well, interestingly to me anyway), this is even less true than I thought it was when your comment prompted me to look into it. I'd never seen any polytheistic gods use capitalized pronouns, just the Abrahamic one. When I tried to verify that, it turned out that even that's pretty rare - I turned up some Christian sects that had FAQs indicating they don't use it, and that many historical bibles including the King James don't. The cursory Google search couldn't pinpoint the exact origin of the practice, but people generally seemed to agree it's a modern and mostly American practice.
So in this case I suspect it's just that Silver Glow copied the stylistic convention of the text used in the class.
7052863 To be perfectly honest, I didn't understand anything of what you wrote here. It does sound interesting though and I have no problem with complexity... could you elaborate just a little bit in a few more sentences?
There is something about this chapter that is hard to define but just make it much enjoyable. It is very well done!
7052463 Oh, that's an idea! All right, I'm instantly okay with this now.
7052131
7052530
I feel sad for you, and also do in equal parts pity you, despite your attempts at trying to invalidate my opinions with spurious "video dissections" and personal attacks instead of discussing the issue. Leftist tactics 101 sadly, "Don't fight the argument, invalidate the person/source, preferably by the racist card".
I can not really dislike someone that has been tricked and lied to his/her whole life into believing the way you do. Who am I do judge?
I was one of you until quite recently. A persons own bloated ego stands readily in the way in admitting they have been deceived for so long. It is a big hurdle. I sympathize.
Here is a tip if you ever want to break out from your mental prison;
Don't bury your head in the ideological sand of news that only reinforces what you already believe or been led to believe. Its unhealthy.
Turning off videos just because you don't "like" the message does not mean parts of it are not true. Grow some fortitude and expose yourself to alternative views, even if it sickens you. Because if other normal peoples views makes you ill, you are not well and need to work through it to get better.
I get my news/blogs/opinions from the entire political spectrum (left to right, many whom I do not agree with), and after weighing them against each other, can reach a relative state of "truthiness".
The trick is not going in with the attitude of "this is going to be terrible because he does not reinforce my already established views", and instead try to achieve a state of calm listening. I recommend it.
Especially if you wish to fight said opinion. Then being informed about it never hurts, quite the opposite. Sun Tzu and all that.
So far the truth (so far in my personal experience) is that you are being lied to. Daily.
Oh sure, all news sources distort to some extent, especially if it serves their political purpose. My sampling of the entire spectrum has shown it time and again.
But the sheer delusion and outright reality fabrication that nowadays goes on on the left/mass media outstrips anything the few real conservative news sources do.
No, I do not consider Fox real conservative news.
Oh, and I made several references to what I consider unhinged leftist behavior in my very first post here. Here are some of the more glaring examples I mentioned (again) of leftist craziness with only a sample size of a US college;
"Safe Spaces".
"Trigger Warnings".
Fabricated rapes.
No-platforming and other severe freedom of speech violations against students, professors and speakers.
The Black Lives Matter organization.
"Micro-Agressions".
Third Wave Feminism (mansplaing, manspreading, "kill all white men", etc etc).
Violence and violent protests.
Bomb threats and Intimidation tactics.
Actual illegal speech such as Fighting words and Criminal speech.
"Gender neutral" bathrooms.
After this the list goes into minutiae, but you get my drift.
Personally, I think the left is unhinging so hard today because it has run out of real causes and victims to rally behind and make themselves feel good about over.
Its floundering and scraping ever deeper into a barrel of easy "injustices" and all that is coming up are dregs. Because fighting real injustices out in the world would require actual personal risk, they are off the table. So fabricating your own and making mountains out of anthills is a much easier (and safer) option.
In my opinion most leftists are "feel good" junkies. Screw human nature and reality, as long as I can just get high on "being good" (and enable myself to look down my nose at others). And the new causes are not giving them the high they are used to and the old ones are won.
7052940 Sorry, that's my shorthand for what late modernity calls "the death of God", which I think is a description that begs the question. Basically, there is a case to be made that atheism was vanishing rare prior to the modern era, at least in the West. (Buddhist anti-theism is so theologically distinct from atheism that they might as well be orthogonal to each other, but we're getting off track there.)
Something changed in the course of the modern era wherein we went from a situation where the more education a person had, the more religious and theistic they were, to the High Modern period, where higher education began to become a marker for loss of faith, and religiosity began to become a marker for limited education.
Now, one case is that this was caused by the crisis of authority of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, where the religious institutions ceased to be universal and self-reinforcing, but rather became the center of conflict, controversy, and vicious dispute. Claims of certainty drifted out of the realm of divines, and fell into other hands. This is the suicide hypothesis. The Enlightenment centric hypothesis is sickness and disease - that the old religious beliefs were just inferior and Science! is triumphant. This school of thought has a nasty tendency to treat Science as a substitute religion and make priests of men in lab coats, and more than incidentally produced a lot of bad science and worse ideology.
There's a third hypothesis, associated with the Straussians which holds that many if not most of the old Christian philosophers and divines were damn liars, hiding secret philosophical atheism in their cultish hearts and never writing anything down except in code to hide their heresies from the Church. I find this risible and a little depressing as an idea, but then I don't tend to believe in millennia-old conspiracies.
7053023
7053038 Thanks! I love stuff like this (well, when presented in a format I can comprehend, obviously).
So thanks for spelling this out for me. Now I want to read a fic that derives its premise from equinified conflicting hypotheses like these.
Have a follow.
The Earth and Moon are flying off into the void. They just keep flying in circles because of how space is warped. And even then, the Moon's making a gradual break for it.
Poor Silver. Nestling in with the herd while she feels exposed and insecure. At least it's allowing her to meet other people.
There is that bit in the Hearth's Warming legend that says the unicorns were in charge of celestial mechanics. I guess Silver doesn't think much of it.
Also, while I kind of want to see Silver casually ask a friend about God, I'm worried about what could erupt from that, both in the story and in the comments.
7052680 That's right there were two trucks in his drive way. I guess when I first read it half of me thought it was his dad's truck. Well I think we will find out sooner or later.
Another great entry. It's always refreshing to see a bit of the impact of a painful\harsh event being more than a five second long moan followed by a "But I'm too strong for that to stop me!" Comment. Also great to see her taking a bad situation and making a positive choice rather than brooding. Well done.
7053099
Ah, you are trying to equate my sense of sadness and pity for deceived people coming from a place of "I art better then thou"ness. Swing and a miss my friend.
If you cant attack the argument, attack the person, eh?
First off, can we please stop the political mudslinging for a bit, if only to make room for the inevitable religious mudslinging that's probably coming soon? You know who you are.
I've gotta be honest, I've seen very few stories here that handle religion well. They usually either have the ponies worship the princesses, which still leaves the question of where the world came from since according to their journal they are a good deal younger than the world, or they treat the human religions as silly, which happens in sci-fi a lot but only works if you yourself are atheistic. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of fan fics in other franchises and published works that go too far the other way, and are as heavy handed if not worse than the anti-religion stories. They come off as lectures rather than as part of the story.
The best way I've ever seen it treated was in MyHobby's "Scootaloo will Fly". In that story, while the characters are religious, but since they're not trying to convert anyone it gets to be just part of the setting, with everyone treating it as mundane. For instance, there's a scene that takes place in their equivalent of church, but other than a little bit of the sermon that is used for world building the focus is on things like Scootaloo asking her father to talk later or Diamond Tiara sitting far away from her father.
I understand that you're going for the view that to the ponies Celestia is the highest there is (unless you count Igneous Rock Pie's mention of providence), not to mention that if they did have a concept, or knew of other species that did, they might call Him by a different name, but it's still a little disappointing for me. Perhaps once it's explained to her she can mention similarities to the views of other species?
7053427
I would have guessed instead that Silver hasn't yet made any connection between what she's learning and religion, and is simply assuming that the "God" she's seeing mentioned is an actual historical figure who led a nation or similar.
She's thinking of the mentions of "God's Laws" as something like the Hammurabi Code of Laws - an early set of laws laid down by a great philosopher and leader. She's comparing Celestia in that sense (and it's probably a fair comparison), but I don't think she's really implying she thinks of Celestia as necessarily divine or anything.
7053195 Think I saw Admiral Biscuit comment on one of these chapters that both trucks are Aric's.
7053023
first, I'm just going to say that I'm french and Swedish, also it's been almost 4 years since I stopped watching TV and started looking at different sources when searching about current events.
fox isn't news period, it's a show making money on trying to make as much peoples look bad as possible (the fact that I first heard about fox news was with their "brony documentary" is, I think, proof enough)
how is that bad ? some people don't define themselves as "man " or "women", and it would save space. the only way it may be a problem to put in application is because of urinals.
that is a lot of words for "you don't have arguments against my opinion so you're just throwing insults at me, so sad" ( please teach me how to write so much senpai!)
as for the videos, they were clearly too long, the fact is, I haven't had the time yet to watch them both (but I did watch the fist one in it's entirety at least).
also I just noticed you didn't respond to my last comment ( 7048561 ) even when you clearly try to answer everyone against you to help them see why they are wrong, I would really like to know why.
and before I forget (again), how can trump be so surprised at his success when he clearly knew what he was doing all along ?
7053023
Something to notice about your post is that you haven't actually addressed any of the points MLai brought up in response to your posts. One would think that if your position was so clearly correct that you'd be easily able to counter points brought up against it.
7053546 I hadn't considered that. I hope that's the case.
Hmm... Silver Glow's perspective on God is badly wrong...
7052872 That is interesting. Thank you for looking into that, I hadn't realized that the capitalization tended to be more due to modern American culture.
7053878 Man, re-reading my reply I sounded a lot more correction-y than I intended, so glad you didn't take offense. But yeah I also had no idea and found it interesting.
7053836
have you heard about our lord and savior celestia ?
7053711
Thats odd.
I made a response to that comment, and it was something to the effect that; I was unsure on the statement you were trying to make with a clip of just another democrat comedian, under marching orders to ridicule the only credible threat to Hillary in the election.
Please elucidate for me a bit more on what you meant.
Maybe it has been deleted. Could not find my very initial post in this thread either. If it is being deleted by the author, all you have to do is kindly ask me to stop posting and I will comply.
Addendum: The gender neutral bathroom was more illustrating the "bottom of the barrel" lack of real causes point (mountains of ant-hills). And the problem would be in forcing Colleges to spend money on non-issues like this instead of a better educational environment.
7053716
What points?
The point of specific problems leftists cause in colleges today I already addressed previous (twice).
The point were he tries to invalidate my opinions with mockery?
Or his exemplary open minded and totally unbiased dissection of the video?
Or the absurd claim of USA was sliding to the far right, that was so flabbergasting I sort of went cross-eyed just reading it.
So addressing this single point I skipped due to sheer incredulity.
Is the USA sliding towards Corporatism, Big Government, and Big Banks?
Yes.
But hate to break it to you, that is sliding left, not right.
7053427
I prefer to think they worship Harmony itself, a bit like the equivalent to the Force.
7052345 Special.. and oddly over-powered for an archery contest... I'm surprised they didn't go with a 'Patriot Arrow'...
fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/034/5/3/robin_hood__patriot_arrow_2_by_emperormossy-d6wgirz.jpg
That was a bit of a stretch to me, that the arrows which only froze a tiny section of target at a time turned a huge cloud into a giant block of solid ice.
They could have added a few frames of desperate cheaters swapping an official arrow for a doctored one. That would've made the event instantly plausible.
Or... for foreshadowing... a cloaked taur-like figure making the switch in the shadows.... you know, like Tirek should have been foreshadowed the whole season considering he was loose the entire time.
7053963
None of your "problems leftists cause in colleges today" are particularly widespread or severe.
The "mockery" you object to raises valid points.
His dissection of your video is perfectly fair on every point.
The US has slid far, far to the right in recent decades. Obamacare used to be a Republican position - Democrats preferred full single-payer. The EPA that some of today's Republicans are trying to defend was started by a Republican. You claim that the left is who favors big businesses, but last I checked the people calling for deregulation are generally pretty far to the right.
7054001
<chuckles> I blame the "Pony of Shadows" on Tirek... at the moment. That, or gnomes... gnomes get into everything.
7053023
In regards to whoever is discussing politics, including Thadius and digif: at least do this, perhaps?
imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png
http://xkcd.com/285/
Politics is fascinating and all that, and I've just glanced over some of this conversation, but I've only seen what, like 3 videos as citations and at least 8 posts, each several paragraphs long?
For example,
How do you know that they are baseless assertions? Name some.
How do you know that the narrator is too in love with his own voice? What lines did he say that prove, and not hint, this conclusively?
How do you know that those are Leftist tactics 101? What source are you citing for this?
How do you know that the other person is burying their head in the sand?
Can you quantify that "Black Lives Matter," "All Lives Matter," or any topic, really, is crazy?
If person X cannot prove/disprove the statement P, then by definition X cannot assert that P is true or P is false.
In other words, the old proverb:
What do you think you know, and how do you think you know it?
I can relate to what Silver's feeling--I'm an introvert but still have deep emotional reactions to others. If I have to deal with someone coming off the handle at work and yelling at me because they failed to do something properly, it can take up to three days before I start to feel normal again.
7053963
they may try to discredit him but what is really funny is the fact that they use the exact same tactics he said he was going to use against them
what I don't understand is why is the educational environnement not already the best if as of today they aren't paying for these thing (and having to pay to remove a sign at the entrance of the toilets seems kind of weird too)
i.imgur.com/BFQXlqm.png
looking at this chart, it can be understood why from a french point of view america seems to be sliding in the far right
7054106
"Not wide spread or severe" you say. Tell me, who told you this?
Are you perhaps going by ear of how often you have heard about this issue mentioned in the mainstream media?
Then the reason why you are not hearing (of the quite fascist) methods the left uses on Colleges is because it does not suit the mass medias "progressive" narrative.
Now I am not saying EVERY college is like this, but try talking to some conservatives at colleges like Rutgers and you will find out for yourself by first hand accounts.
And your other point, I did not not say Big Business. Nothing wrong with big businesses.
However, Corporatism is not the same thing. Corporatism is a vile cancer, killing the life giving arteries of free enterprise and healthy capitalism that powers the advancements of the western world.
And if Hillary Clinton is anything, its a Corporate Crony, bought and paid for.
Sorry to tell you, but your leftist movement has been hijacked by Banks, Corporations and Big Government, for at least a decade now. You now serve their authoritarian goals much better then the Republicans now a days. The GoP have been cast aside for the new useful tools.
I think I have to declare my position better. When I say conservative, I do not mean Republican.
The Republican Establishment is just as bought as the Democrat one. So I do not care two whits who did what with Obama Care. They are basically the same party now a days, putting on a show for the galleries.
Thats why I want Trump. Just going by the sheer panicked vitriol being spewed at him by media and party establishment, it must mean he is not bough. Not controlled. A rogue agent. And that is why I will vote Trump (yes, I have a US citizenship despite living in Sweden).
Its a small hope that he will become a Reagan, but anything is better then Hillary.