authoritarianism is another word that can mean different things to different people. It can be used to mean the government enforcing any rule that isn’t liked. civil rights protection? authoritarianism. job protections? authoritarianism. minimum wage? authoritarianism. etc…

Also related is “small government”. I think people who use it mean (at least when not in control) “small federal government”, the state however should control everything about peoples lives.

I almost think its the laws they support are black and white and unchanging. If something is wrong with a law, it doesn’t matter, that’s the law. The solution to an issue isn’t to change the law, its to enforce it harder, or make it more restrictive. The “rule of law” also applies to individuals and actions. Money crimes, fraud, “the state” are not subject to the same “rule of law” because those laws “don’t make sense” and if we look above are a result of “authoritarianism”.

Is there a solution to get people to use language that can be agreed upon? who knows, but it would certainly help clear things up. I hate trying to guess what someone thinks a word means to attempt to refute their points.

I don’t know I’ve though about “rule of law” quite that way before. I’ll have to add it to my list for when it comes up. There are several other terms that mean different things to different people (I wish I remembered a specific one to demonstrate). Its one of the reasons its hard to have political discussion online. You have to determine what the words your using mean, before you can start arguing the points.

Assuming he believes his words (as opposed to using rhetoric to get what he or someone around him wants, in either case unfortunately, I think he’s serious). I think he sees anything purchased from another country as “subsidizing” that country. To him, its money the US had that Canada now has. I sometimes think he somehow thinks the US should be given things, because…??? Every transaction has to have a “winner” and a “looser” and whoever has a + on the balance sheet is the winner, it doesn’t matter what that + really means. (I can only bend my logic so far to try to figure these things out)