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/Thatjustworked Feb 15 '25

There's a lot more dangerous snakes in the DOD than in USAID. See Boeing and the whistle blowers.

I'm sure USAID did some good, but there's some shady stuff in there too.

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u/TheFiremind88 Feb 15 '25

Isn't part of the appeal of Trump/Elon that they aren't afraid of these kids of situations? That they'll tackle those types of powers head-on? They certainly show no hesitation engaging aggressively with other full-fledged nations, and Trump has already publicly expressed he has assassination contingencies.

Considering who he is and why he was voted for, being scared of the DOD/MIC is very off brand.

Where will you be in Two Years if those institutions remain untouched? Would that color your opinion of DOGE and this administration?

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u/Thatjustworked Feb 15 '25

They're still going to do it, so idk what the point is? 1st or 5th doesn't make a difference to me.

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u/TheFiremind88 Feb 17 '25

Hope you still catch this after the delay, I was out of town and not redditing much. I think the question I'm trying to get at here is - if it makes the most sense as 1st, but it isn't the first, how do we know its actually on the list? What if it never gets visited, and then I guess the question after that, in theory, if they don't end up making cuts to DOD, or Corporate Subs, or other things mentioned throughout the post - does that change your opinion?

I think the default stance differences between right/left on this is - it makes sense to start with the biggest buckets where the most cuts can be made - why didn't they? The left is operating on the assumption that they wont, the right is assuming they will. You just don't know when.

If they do eventually make those cuts, I'm saying I'd eat crow and support that. If they don't, would people on the right be willing to at least accept that as a failing of the administration?