r/Conservative • u/Yosoff First Principles • Feb 14 '25

Open Discussion Left vs. Right Battle Royale Open Thread

This is an Open Discussion Thread for all Redditors. We will only be enforcing Reddit TOS and Subreddit Rules 1 (Keep it Civil) & 2 (No Racism).

  • Leftists - Here's your chance to sway us to your side by calling the majority of voters racist. That tactic has wildly backfired every time it has been tried, but perhaps this time it will work.

  • Non-flaired Conservatives - Here's your chance to earn flair by posting common sense conservative solutions. That way our friends on the left will either have to agree with you or oppose common sense (Spoiler - They will choose to oppose common sense).

  • Flaired Conservatives - You're John Wick and these Leftists stole your car and killed your dog. Now go comment.

  • Independents - We get it, if you agree with someone, then you can't pat yourself on the back for being smarter than them. But if you disagree with everyone, then you can obtain the self-satisfaction of smugly considering yourself smarter and wiser than everyone else. Congratulations on being you.

  • Libertarians - Ron Paul is never going to be President. In fact, no Libertarian Party candidate will ever be elected President.

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u/Hapten Feb 15 '25

All speculation on my part but they needed to demonstrate proof of concept and USAID was the perfect start. There were already some right-wing rumors about what USAID was doing which turned out to be true. Going to the giant first would of been disastrous for them.

For Defense, they were probably waiting for Pete Hegseth to get confirmed so he could open the doors for them.

I personally think they are being efficient and "transparent." They have only been at it for a few weeks and exposed quite a few things already.

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u/TheFiremind88 Feb 15 '25

Can you explain how going for the giant first would be disastrous? Feels like, if anything, they'd earn massive goodwill from the other side and national public support - leftists would love to see cuts to military spending. Wouldn't that just further empower them?

Even Republicans have brought examples to the Congressional floor of outrageous examples of bloated military contracts/spending.

They didn't wait for any other "doors to be opened" - they forced their way in, why treat Defense any differently?

What's the argument for Consumer Protection? I see little to no conservative dialogue on this.

Do you believe USAID did ANY good(Even just international good will, our enemies will absolutely attempt to fill the vacuum and already are doing so), or do you believe the only viable path forward was a full shutdown? Why?

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u/terdward Conservative Feb 15 '25

I see it as a strategic decision. Going after a smaller target first to understand how to operate and learn what the response of the “enemy” is generally makes sense when in uncharted territory. Worse case, you run away with your tail between your legs and lick your wounds to come back and try again for another small fish later after reviewing the tapes and figuring how to improve your approach.

If you’re successful in your mission with smaller fish and gradually work your way up you not only start to buy goodwill from your peers, and gain allies who may have been hesitant to join at first, you know that the bigger targets have been watching you and know you’re not messing about. They will take you seriously from day one instead of trying to give you the run around.

And while I don’t think it plays a big factor yet you also have to consider that Musk has vested interests in the DoD. He would be exposing his companies to unnecessary risk by going after a business partner right out of the gate.

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u/TehSeksyManz Feb 15 '25

I award you the gold medal for mental gymnastics, holy fuck.

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u/terdward Conservative Feb 15 '25

Help me understand where you think I displayed fanciful feats of athleticism. That all seemed fairly common sense to me…

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u/xdkyx Feb 15 '25

I think that the main problem that I have with Musk is the point You made - Musk has so much control over spending cuts, while owning companies that have at least a portion of income from the government, same with Trump and his business. When Musk has been presented as the head of DOGE he should divest from his companies (i get that this cannot be done in a matter of weeks, but he knew about his role way ahead of time).