Trump

[Vertigo 7]

@Grim Lock

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/us/p ... tions.html

Virginia's state legislature just flipped blue after 2 decades (minus one term for the state senate) of being under republican charge. This and many other state elections that were pretty well guaranteed to go to the republicans are no longer guaranteed for them. Trump wrecked the GOP and it's only a matter of time before they're scrambling to do damage control.

edit
AND this just happened:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... dy-beshear

Kentucky just elected a democrat governor. Mitch's home state.

[Bishop149]

I'm very sorry, but as i said, Trump is your current chosen representative and does so for the entire country whether you like him or agree with him or not, so no i won't refrain from insulting America as a whole as you say. I prefer that better than to make it personal

Agreed. Very nearly half the country voted for him, tempting as it is Trump can't be dismissed as a project of the lunatic fringe.
The counter point that Vertigo is making of course is that just over half the country DIDN'T vote for him . . . but even so the most generous possible interpretation is that the US is deeply divided over Trump.
Given Mr Trump is the intersection of almost every bigotry going made manifest, this paints a picture of a country very much at war with itself on almost every possible front . . . . and it ain't pretty

[Vertigo 7]

The figures aren't quite accurate. It's estimated there were 250 million eligible voters in 2016 with just under 139 million votes cast. Trump received just under 63 million, and Clinton got just under 66 million votes. Based on those figures, Trump was voted for by ~25% of eligible voters. Point being, half of the country did not vote for him, or Clinton for that matter, but he received less votes than she did.

[RegisterMe]

Jim Jordan going on the Senate Intelligence Committee is the best oxymoron ever.

[Vertigo 7]

I thought he was in the house. But yeah, like anything is going to change... If you guys looked at the full transcripts that have been released, he's been present at all of the depositions thus far.

[felter]

So what happened last night, it looks like Trump once again endorsed a republican, namely Matt Bevin at a rally on Monday night just for the said Matt Bevin to lose to Democrat Andy Beshear. I don't know why any of them want to be endorsed by Trump as the majority of the times they then go on to loose whatever election they are in. I think one of the problems when Trump does go to these rallies to give his endorsements, he ends up making it all about himself rather than the other guy who it is supposed to be about. Take Monday night, he warned the audience at the rally that a Bevin loss could bolster the forces pushing for his impeachment. The thing is that is by doing that, he probably made it harder for the guy to win as currently the majority of Americans want Trump to be impeached, But all in all it was not a good night for republicans.

Just to add more fuel to the fire the women Juli Briskman who was fired for given the bird to Trump motorcade 2 years ago, was also elected to office last night.

[Bishop149]

Point being, half of the country did not vote for him, or Clinton for that matter, but he received less votes than she did.

Ok, to rephrase in light of that.
- "Nearly half of the voters that cared enough to vote at all, voted for Trump."
This is not better.

To anticipate the counter argument of: People just didn't want to vote for either!
1) That is a stinging indictment of your entire political system.
2) If all (or even just most of) those non voters had voted for a third party, they would have won.
3) It's DONALD TRUMP!!! . . . . don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Hilary, shes awful, but Goddamn I would have held my nose and voted for her anyway if the alternative was DONALD TRUMP!!

[RegisterMe]

I thought he was in the house.

Yeah you're right. I still get my House and Senate etc mixed up on occasion.

[Vertigo 7]

Point being, half of the country did not vote for him, or Clinton for that matter, but he received less votes than she did.

Ok, to rephrase in light of that.
- "Nearly half of the voters that cared enough to vote at all, voted for Trump."
This is not better.

To anticipate the counter argument of: People just didn't want to vote for either!
1) That is a stinging indictment of your entire political system.
2) If all (or even just most of) those non voters had voted for a third party, they would have won.
3) It's DONALD TRUMP!!! . . . . don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Hilary, shes awful, but Goddamn I would have held my nose and voted for her anyway if the alternative was DONALD TRUMP!!

I'll be honest, prior to his campaign, I didn't know much about Trump. I've never cared to watch The Apprentice or other "reality TV shows". I never gave a rats ass about the Miss Universe pageants. Other than hearing his name mentioned here and there, I just didn't give a damn enough to look into the ding bat. In the early, early days of his campaign, I had an open mind and was willing to give him a chance. That evaporated pretty quickly.

I mentioned before I have no party loyalty; I don't care what party a candidate is in. What I care about is their character. So, for 2016, I didn't vote for either one of them. I cast a protest vote for a giant meteor. I will always vote my conscience. Regardless, voter turnout has been a problem here for quite some time. A couple of posts back I pointed out it's been in the 50 percent range for quite a while now.

There's a multitude of reasons why some people don't vote. Some feel that their vote doesn't matter. I don't really blame them for that. Too many politicians are in it for themselves and the average Joe isn't adequately represented in government. I don't think that's ever going to change until corporate lobbying is outlawed. Some hate the entire process, IE standing in line for hours - Rules for early voting or absentee ballots vary from state to state, where the more typical republican states make it difficult to do either in efforts to suppress minority voters and more democrat states happily allow you to vote through the mail. And then there's the big reason that voting takes place on a ****** Tuesday instead of over the weekend when most people aren't working . Not everyone is afforded time off work to go vote, and after putting in a full day, I wouldn't be thrilled to go stand in line waiting to vote. I really don't know why this is still a thing.

There's a lot of things that need to change with our electorate for people to be truly engaged and feel that they are part of the process. For starters, this 2 party system we have is just the worst. We really need 1 or more additional parties equal in popularity to the DNC or RNC. More importantly, the electoral college needs to be abolished. It's an ancient system put in place where educated adults were few and far between and the general public was not informed enough to be trusted with choosing a president. Clearly, that is no longer the case. I could go on but I think you get the idea.

[Vertigo 7]

Roger Stone's trial started today. This guy, yet another Trump stooge, is so freaking classy. Only the best people!

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... s-campaign

Months ago, the judge placed a gag order on Stone, banning him from using social media to talk about the case. He violated her order, including by posting a picture of the judge with crosshairs next to her on Instagram.

Toss this tool under the jail, please.

[Masterbagger]

3) It's DONALD TRUMP!!! . . . . don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Hilary, shes awful, but Goddamn I would have held my nose and voted for her anyway if the alternative was DONALD TRUMP!!

If you swap the names around then that is the closest you and I have probably ever come to thinking alike. I'm going to do it again in 2020 for the same reasons. I'm being offered a choice between Trump and socialism and you already know what I will pick.

[Vertigo 7]

3) It's DONALD TRUMP!!! . . . . don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Hilary, shes awful, but Goddamn I would have held my nose and voted for her anyway if the alternative was DONALD TRUMP!!

If you swap the names around then that is the closest you and I have probably ever come to thinking alike. I'm going to do it again in 2020 for the same reasons. I'm being offered a choice between Trump and socialism and you already know what I will pick.

You just have the one crooked arrow in your quiver, don't ya? Socialism, socialism, socialism. Do you have anything meaningful to offer or just more copy/paste of Trump opinions?

[Masterbagger]

You just have the one crooked arrow in your quiver, don't ya? Socialism, socialism, socialism. Do you have anything meaningful to offer or just more copy/paste of Trump opinions?

You would probably try to ban a high capacity quiver anyway. You toy with ideas I think are dangerous. I don't think you respect my right to dissent with your views. We need to be able to disagree without it being personal again. It already isn't for me.

[Vertigo 7]

You just have the one crooked arrow in your quiver, don't ya? Socialism, socialism, socialism. Do you have anything meaningful to offer or just more copy/paste of Trump opinions?

You would probably try to ban a high capacity quiver anyway. You toy with ideas I think are dangerous. I don't think you respect my right to dissent with your views. We need to be able to disagree without it being personal again. It already isn't for me.

mmhmm right... well, when you stop supporting racism, misogyny, sexual assault, and the rest of the cocktail that makes up your orange overlord, then we can talk. Until then, you're nothing more than a bacteria to be eradicated as far as I'm concerned.

[Olterin]

@Masterbagger

I get that you're utterly opposed to anything Democrat (*Soviet* Socialism is something they're very far off indeed), but that doesn't mean you have to support Donald Trump. If you were given the choice, would you out him from office in favor of another, better, Republican candidate?

[RegisterMe]

You toy with ideas I think are dangerous.

I get the dislike of Hilary, and I even get the concerns around "socialism". What I don't get is the extent of that dislike and those concerns (which I think are largely unfounded, or at least grossly exaggerated). When you combine that with the costs of "preventing both Hilary and "socialism"", which seems to require at least a tacit support of Trump, and that results in a massive attack on and undermining of every institution that has helped make the US what it is, I end up pretty bewildered.

[Grim Lock]

I just don't get why Trumpians seem so incapable of beeing critical of Trump, i'm pretty sure that most Obama got criticized by his base too for plenty of things, as he should be. Why are there not even one or two things Trumpians can say about, "Well he didn't handle that situation as well as i hoped he would" or "I wished he would have done that by now". It's just scary indeed, and makes the whole "cult of Trump" thing not seem so far-fetched, the way Trumpians behave concerning Trump would set of alarm bells for me whoever the object of worship is. (that's including whatever god one believes in).

[BugMeister]

Trump's BS about the wall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQo79GHq4T0

[Bishop149]

Trump's BS about the wall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQo79GHq4T0

There was a guy I used to go drinking with who was pretty in to climbing.
His drunken party piece was climbing lamp posts. Depending on exactly how drunk he was he could get up one in between about 10s and a minute.
That wall section looks roughly a tall as a lamp post. . . and a lot less cylindrical.

[Vertigo 7]

I just don't get why Trumpians seem so incapable of beeing critical of Trump, i'm pretty sure that most Obama got criticized by his base too for plenty of things, as he should be. Why are there not even one or two things Trumpians can say about, "Well he didn't handle that situation as well as i hoped he would" or "I wished he would have done that by now". It's just scary indeed, and makes the whole "cult of Trump" thing not seem so far-fetched, behaving the way Trumpians behave concerning Trump would set of alarm bells for me whoever the object of worship is. (that's including whatever god one believes in).

Oh I can answer that. When he says "Make America Great Again", that message is meant directly for the straight "christian" white male population. Trump has given legitimacy to the white nationalist/neo-fascist/KKK groups and their sympathizers. They've been terrified for decades that sooner or later, white males will no longer be in control. Even worse, they will no longer be in the majority.

Trump has played ignorant when it comes to the KKK. Let's not forget, publicly, Trump has also said the neo-Nazi groups protesting in Charlottesville were "very fine people" as well. Yes, he did later come walk these instances back. But the very fact that he didn't immediately denounce these groups at the first given opportunity provides them the voice they've been long denied in government.

Look at the majority of his policies. They have disproportionately impacted Hispanic, Arabic, Asian, and African immigration, legal or otherwise. His stance on immigration have favored whites above all.

I know his racism is not news by now. But to answer the question directly, a good chunk of white people in the US are terrified of becoming a minority race. After Obama and his policies that favored equality, Trump has been their answer to that and they want nothing more than for him to succeed in keeping America white.