Maybe the secret ingredient is human empathy. Not that crazies are unique to the right by any means, but the organized effort to dehumanize and attack segments of the population has gone disproportionately mainstream on that side of the spectrum. So many talking points involve a vaguely-defined “enemy” of some kind. It’s unfortunate that people get sucked into it, but you can’t really blame the individuals when the leaders they look up to are actively working to mobilize them in that way as a political strategy.

I guess the ideological space the left fills at the moment just isn’t one that requires that type of anger to support. There are certainly issues to get angry about, but in general it’s just taking that low-hanging fruit of giving your fellow humans the same respect you would want for yourself and your loved ones, even if they seem different or weird to you.

I seriously appreciate all of the points you’re making, but the idea of men and women as cohesive social units here might not be realistic or helpful, especially for issues affecting sub-groups. Sometimes the people actively working to improve something are fighting an uphill battle against societal expectations and/or larger portions of their own group who don’t recognize it as an issue. I’m sure you know that doesn’t make it any less valid.

There’s that and the fact that most people who sell a house will still need new housing afterward. The value can be kind of moot unless you’re in a position to majorly downsize or relocate to a lower cost-of-living area.

Yeah, this is kind of the issue with walling the workers off from the success of their product and converting it all into poker chips for other people to play with. Imagine how different things could be if everyone’s pay grew with the success of the company.

While I’m fully uncomfortable with the influence donors have over these institutions, I also feel like the handling of some of those hearing questions was catastrophic. Lady got maneuvered into giving them exactly the weak non-answer they were fishing for. It’s bad all around.

While I’m fully uncomfortable with the influence donors can wield against these institutions, I also feel like the handling of some of those hearing questions was catastrophic. Lady got maneuvered into giving them exactly the sort of weak non-answer they were fishing for. It’s bad all around.

Not that we had much choice along the way, but you’re right, we were almost completely in the dark about how much anything was going to cost as it happened. Various groups were mailing us bills for the full amounts even before insurance had settled their portion. Nobody in the entire insurance and billing game is on your side.

Absolutely. Taking healthcare costs off our backs would go a long way. The birth of my first kid absolutely wiped out the savings I had built up since getting out of school, and that was WITH insurance coverage. Six years of careful planning and saving just flushed down the toilet in an instant. There’s just no financially-responsible way to manage the risk of a hospital bill that could range from hundreds to hundreds of thousands depending on what does or doesn’t go according to plan, not to mention the following 18+ years of unknowns. It’s kind of a wonder that people are still having as many kids as they are these days.

It should be interesting to hear how they plan to make this determination. I just know from the rural side that the burden to serving poorer communities usually is both technical and financial, like building out a few miles of fresh fiber to serve a handful of residences. That’s why they have programs in place to push expansion into those areas, and the telecoms involved there are already bound by progress and reporting requirements. I guess it could be a different situation in areas where the population density is pretty consistent across the board.

It’s frustrating because so many of the older city and town centers actually have decent walkability, even if growth made things a little more complicated. It’s mostly the later development surrounding the cities where the only thought during planning was how the cars get from point A to point B and then park, and now the barriers to fix that situation are enormous. Some of them will update their ordinances to require sidewalk construction during new development, but it’s not all that helpful when you end up with sidewalk stubs connected to nothing. It also doesn’t fix the existing arrangement of buildings and drives that makes everything so hostile to pedestrians.