[Andrew Szilvasy]

Originally Posted by Aaron Novick

To the American right, that's the definition of "far left," though.

It's times like this I wish we had a like feature here.

[Mark McDonnell]

I would hazard that most people who like animals are on the right.

That's some top-quality unsubstantiated hazarding John! Ha. What next? Most people on the left prefer cheese and onion crisps to salt and vinegar?

All the best. That shall remain the level of my input on political threads henceforth.

[Roger Slater]

Donald Trump is the first president in recent memory not to have a dog or other pet. I guess he's a secret pinko after all.

[Douglas G. Brown]

Barak Obama was the first president to knowingly eat dog meat, and then write about it in a book.

[Roger Slater]

Oh now I see. John meant to say that liberals don't like the taste of pets. And he's right. Obama didn't care for it.

[John Whitworth]

Has Barak plans to eat the Donald's dog? And then write about it in another book.

[Roger Slater]

You're not paying attention, John. Donald doesn't have a dog. Which of course means he must be a secret liberal, since we liberals can't stand animals.

[Jim Moonan]

There is a fundamental flaw in all of this. More and more (approaching the tipping point) Americans are not identifying as left/right/liberal/conservative or forming allegiance with any political party. The millennial mantra, as I understand it, is "issues not ideologies. Individuals not party" or something like that.

In this current world of tumult , throw that into the mix. It is what I think must happen to save politics from itself. Political evolution. Political reinvention. No more parties! No more clubs! Talk issues not ideologies.

I would go out on a limb and guess that John W. has some "left" blood in him. There is some "right " blood in me. I'm pretty sure all of us are a patchwork. The dangerous elements are the swath of both Left and Right that are pathetically doctrinaire.

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say there's no correlation between animal lovers and politics. But it's been proven ad infinitum that politics, money and power have some association with each other. And sex is the wild card. Watchdogs needed. Ideologues and Evangelicals. Look out.

[Douglas G. Brown]

[quote=Jim Moonan;402890]

I would go out on a limb and guess that John W. has some "left" blood in him. There is some "right " blood in me. I'm pretty sure all of us are a patchwork. The dangerous elements are the swath of both Left and Right that are pathetically doctrinaire.
QUOTE]

Well said. I'm economically rightist, but socially quite leftist. Even then, internal contradictions and conflicts frequently arise.

A liking of formal verse and a desire to compose it is basically a conservative trait.

Not to say that liberals can also do this well, as exemplified by many Spherians.

But, go to local poetry open mike, and espousers of the most leftist points of view usually can't tell a sonnet from Shinola. Which is a shame, since a good handling of classic form never fails to heighten my appreciation of the speaker. Form adds weight to words and to arguments.

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

Originally Posted by Jim Moonan

I'm gonna take a wild guess and say there's no correlation between animal lovers and politics.

Maybe if what you mean by animal loving is enjoying pictures of kittens or even the company of a companion animal. But if you mean a real concern for animals as subjects that allows that concern to actually question the murderous idea of the dominion of the human species and the legitimization of the use of all other species as the ham-fisted means of "man" then I think you are mistaken.

Unless you are just observing that the tiny spectrum of the mainstream idea that we call these days Left and Right are pretty similar in their complicity to the generalized destruction of the biomes of the world and the normalization of cruelty in agriculture. That there is a thing. But it is not a thing showing the relation of biophilia to political diversity. It is a thing showing the homogenization of the presently filtered options as seen through the non-human eyes looking in on us. It is damning. Not absolving.