Can I get a Trump Thread?
DOR
Two Ron Toe 9,905 Posts
How does a dude that once pushed to bring back the death penalty (Including for children) get this far in US politics.
I wish Rich would chime in and explain to me this whole chapter in American politics.
I personally think he's scared as shit that he's going to win the damn thing.
I wish Rich would chime in and explain to me this whole chapter in American politics.
I personally think he's scared as shit that he's going to win the damn thing.
Comments
To me, Trump represents represents backlash to the Obama presidency (partly racism mixed with some general xenophobia) and the scapegoating that has come with it (e.g., economics, terrorism, etc.). The irony is that the problems that Trump is using to fan flames existed during the Bush presidency. Oh well, Americans have short memories and even less political savvy or knowledge. Plus, the egregious Republican behavior and posturing (e.g., nearly shutting down the government as a political ploy) has totally backfired on and fucked up the Republican party's image. Their fractured agenda has paved the way for an idiot like Trump to emerge. Owing to the GOP's awful behavior, they deserve Trump's ass, yet the rest of us have to endure his empty and dangerous rhetoric as well. I'm so embarrassed with our politics right now, and I'm far from wild about Hilary as well. The Clinton vs. Trump ticket is like a choice between the gas chamber and the electric chair.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Speaking of which, he'll win Texas:
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/white-boys-put-rope-around-black-girls-neck-and-dragged-her-while-school-looked-other-way-lawsuit/comments/#disqus
Because when I see a headline like that, well, I'm usually right about where it originates.
Stacks makes a gas chamber/electric chair comparison between Clinton and Trump which is way off base. Hillary will run the country in a way much closer to Obama than to her husband. She's not my ideal candidate but then I'd give Obama another 8 years in a heartbeat. Best president of my lifetime, and much better than this country actually deserves. The Fantasyland POTUS who never makes a wrong move and who too many left-wingers crave has never/will never exist.
Anyway, we're looking at a landslide of LBJ/Goldwater or Reagan/Mondale proportions. It should be even worse, because Trump is total shit on every conceivable level, but the litter box is big and has been around a long time.
Hey ManItsAHighCastle,
Touche on your gas chamber/electric chair comparison. I think Hilary Clinton will be a competent president relative to Trump, it's just that I don't find her very likable or trustworthy. So, in making a choice between the two, it's relatively easy. There is no way we can let a wingnut like Donald Trump become president of our great land.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
I'm okay with Clinton (as a Canadian) as I think the kind of changes that need to happen in the U.S. (in the name of social justice) can only come from having people out in the streets/outside of the electoral system. Sooner or later, those changes will come. But people shouldn't expect ANYONE inside of the government to just give it to them (unfortunately). Same thing here in Canadaland.
I know all politicians lie. But Hilary is next level.
Is she better than Trump of course. But its kind of a depressing choice.
But really, my more serious view has been that there is definitely a level of unrest we haven't seen in several generations. I'm not talking about the '60s either but the '30s. I'm American, so I've been following Trump's rise, but for example, here in the UK the "Leave the EU" campaign is winning polls based on literally zero positive offerings. What they are campaigning on is "excessive" immigration in this 92+% native-born white country, xenophobia against Turks and Ukranians joining the EU (because it was so bad when Poles, Romanians and whoever else already came, sigh), taking back the ability of the UK government to abolish the Human Rights Act, and other totally odious, dim, narrow-minded nationalism that hasn't taken hold in the western world since the 1930s. Austria nearly elected basically a '30s style fascist a couple weeks ago in an election almost too close to call, Greece has a rising Nazi party (not even Neo-Nazi), Hungary's third largest party is an irredentist ultranationalist racist party, France is coming close to a X vs. National Front runoff next election...
While it all manifests slightly differently in the US, I feel it must come from the same root causes. Trump offers national pride to people who have nothing else to be proud of. Much like other hard-right movements (men's rights advocates, white supremacists, etc.) I think it's people whose sole source of self-worth now derives from clinging to irrational superiority through racism, sexism, or in Trump's case, mostly nationalism (with some of everything else in there too), because every other more concrete source of self-worth has been taken from them: economic self-determination, social mobility, community support and involvement, stability, health.
So, ironically, capitalism and neoliberalism has won so soundly in these countries that they've actually progressed backwards in time and destabilized again. If I was a hard core fan of capitalism, I'd be looking for ways to moderate it, reduce inequality, etc. very quickly because it is going to eat itself with this shit. That's why you see the IMF putting out research saying "jesus, we really screwed up with this austerity stuff, it's actually made things worse just like the leftists said it would". They see they've misbehaved so freely that they've created the conditions for another rise of fascism, nationalism, maybe even world wars.
So while Trump is a clown we can all hope will lose - and will, if enough people turn out to vote - maybe next week the UK is going to vote to leave the EU and destabilize the fuck out of that situation, maybe hard-right governments are going to be elected in quite a few European countries, including parties who want to invade neighboring countries because of lingering ethnic reasons... maybe next time a version of Trump who isn't a total clown will run and win. There's a lot to fight for and not just sit back and watch now, at any rate.
Anyone have any thoughts on what happens if he one day just dropped out? Not that I think he will. But I'm guessing he's really shitting his pants right now.