# Democrats efforts to "de-legitimize" Trump's election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 12, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987 "2017-01-12T21:17:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/101 "2017-01-14T21:20:05Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You might want to read the thread title and the first set of posts where people were denying that this was happening. To say “this is hardly worth noting” when it’s exactly what the thread is about is laughable. If that’s not worth noting, then ask the mods to close the thread because nothing is worth noting. That’s not how the SDMB works. Lots of threads get started about nothing whatever, and they can go on for a long, long time. There are a tiny handful of extremists who think that Trump isn’t “legitimately” President. There were more extremists who believed that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and a Muslim too. FAR more. And there were threads about them. They were idiots, and they guy in the link is an idiot. Today’s idiots are far less damaging than the Birthers were. They’re no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/102 "2017-01-14T21:23:51Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > That wasn’t quite the question, was it? Do you recognize the inequality our Founders built into the system, wish you could change it, but can’t? 'Cause it sounds a lot like “neener neener”. Here’s your opportunity to clarify. I recognize the compromises and “balance” the Founders built into the system. I have no desire to change it. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/103 "2017-01-14T21:31:33Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > You are there. You’ve been there for eight years. The weeping and wailing from right-wing scum who claimed President of the United States of America Barack Hussein Obama wasn’t born in the US because they couldn’t handle having a black man as President proves this. Not denying it. But do we want to stay there? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/104 "2017-01-14T21:39:30Z")
I imagine you don’t because right-wingers can’t take it but can only dish it out. I’m fine with it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/105 "2017-01-14T23:18:38Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > That’s not how the SDMB works. Lots of threads get started about nothing whatever, and they can go on for a long, long time. > > There are a tiny handful of extremists who think that Trump isn’t “legitimately” President. There were more extremists who believed that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and a Muslim too. FAR more. And there were threads about them. They were idiots, and they guy in the link is an idiot. > > Today’s idiots are far less damaging than the Birthers were. They’re no big deal. Not everyone agrees with you that it’s “no big deal”. And since we don’t have deal-o-meter to measure the size of deals, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that. For every problem you can point out, I can point a bigger one but that doesn’t mean the smaller problems are not worth talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/106 "2017-01-15T00:52:38Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > The fact remains for all the polemic that attempting to delegitimize a candidate who has won a Presidential election is very bad for democracy. Chemotherapy is very bad for the body. It can’t be helped; that’s how it works. As long as it’s more bad for the cancer cells than for the healthy cells, it’s beneficial. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/107 "2017-01-15T01:19:07Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I imagine you don’t because right-wingers can’t take it but can only dish it out. I’m fine with it. Fine with both sides attempting to undermine the public faith in the integrity of the electoral process? Honestly, you see no dangers in that at all? None so blind … ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/108 "2017-01-15T01:23:04Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Fine with both sides attempting to undermine the public faith in the integrity of the electoral process? Honestly, you see no dangers in that at all? None so blind … Trump is de-legitimizing his own presidency with his own endless disgusting behavior. At some point, you have to live up to the office that you hold. Instead, he just keeps being an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/109 "2017-01-15T01:47:19Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Fine with both sides attempting to undermine the public faith in the integrity of the electoral process? Honestly, you see no dangers in that at all? None so blind … Who do you think you’re trying to fool? You’re a vocal supporter of someone who spent years trying to cast aspersions on Obama’s legitimacy, and not because of evidence of his colluding with Russia such as exists with Trump either. Don’t even bother trying to pretend such things upset you. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/110 "2017-01-15T02:50:05Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Who do you think you’re trying to fool? You’re a vocal supporter of someone who spent years trying to cast aspersions on Obama’s legitimacy, and not because of evidence of his colluding with Russia such as exists with Trump either. Don’t even bother trying to pretend such things upset you. “He does it too!!” is growing tiresome. Especially from people who claim the moral highground. And since apparently people have to flash their party cards now to avoid ad hominems. “Far left” ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/111 "2017-01-15T02:56:09Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Trump is de-legitimizing his own presidency with his own endless disgusting behavior. At some point, you have to live up to the office that you hold. Instead, he just keeps being an asshole. Yep, even if one acknowledges that claiming that Trump is illegitimate was a foolish thing to do, Trump should not had bothered to respond, but then Trump’s response was 10 times worse than the statement he was replying to. He is the one that made sure to demonstrate the point that the congressman made. Trump is even lying about what is going on in the district the congressman represents and he even lied about what the representative did for civil rights. > **[Reactions To Trump’s Attack On John Lewis: ‘Your Ignorance Is Astounding’](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/responses-to-donald-trump-attack-john-lewis)** > > After President-elect Donald Trump attacked Georgia congressman and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and his district on Twitter Saturday morning, colleagues and admirers of Lewis responded… Trump is indeed showing all that he does not know anything about the people he claimed that he would help with his ham fisted “what do you have to lose” argument to the black community made during the election. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/112 "2017-01-15T13:55:36Z")
I happen to think that the illegitimate nature of the Trump win was not because he lost the popular vote total by a 5% margin (including third parties), nor because of perception (unfair, I truly believe) that HRC’s character was flawed…I think the cause was Republican unconstitutional efforts to suppress voters, the FBI leader’s illegal and sensational announcements about email matters that in actual fact didn’t cause any loss of confidential information, and the Russian hacking of the DNC and subsequent releases of emails, emails that were only damaging because of the sensational nature of having them revealed to the public, not because there was anything in them that should have swayed any votes. So far as the electors are concerned, I think each state has the power to decide how those votes are cast, and if they were broken down by the USRepresentative districts, such would be more in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution than having a plurality in a given state be awarded all the electors. I also think of Trump as illegitimate because he cannot possibly govern without self interest, given the complex and broad nature of his debts and interests all over the world. He refuses to reveal those debts and interests, and refuses to build a wall between him and those assets and liabilities. Even if he could disentangle himself, the process would destroy his financial empire, very likely even putting the Trump Tower up for foreclosure. I think of his as illegitimate because he is a man of low morals, unfit to be any sort of ‘good example’ to the youth (and adults) of this country and of the world. He is the ‘anti-Obama’, if not the ‘anti-Christ’. His nominees for his Cabinet are a mixed bag, but so many of them are being named to head departments for which they have previously voiced disdain and a wish to destroy or eliminate that we can’t expect any touch of ‘government making people’s lives better’ to be left over in a couple of years. All other points aside, to name an EPA head who is a climate change denier is the worst sort of evil that our grandchildren will condemn with hatred toward our generation. I don’t believe that a man who expressed, during his campaign, several seriously unconstitutional beliefs – anti Muslim, anti-immigrant, etc. – and who gratefully accepted the support of neo-Nazi, KKK, white-power, etc. people – and who led the effort to declare Obama’s birthplace into question as a springboard to connecting with the racist underbelly of our population…I don’t believe such a man could ever be ‘legimately’ President. I am physically disturbed by this man. I will not support him in any way. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/113 "2017-01-15T17:54:48Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Care to explain who is? About the economic crash? If you want to blame one politician then it would be Barney Frank who resisted Bush 2’s attempts to reform the lending policies of Fannie Mae. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/114 "2017-01-15T18:05:38Z")
Wow! All by himself? Did they arm-wrestle to decide? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/115 "2017-01-15T18:14:19Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > About the economic crash? If you want to blame one politician then it would be Barney Frank who resisted Bush 2’s attempts to reform the lending policies of Fannie Mae. Didn’t work very well. Bush still wrecked the economy. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/116 "2017-01-15T18:15:27Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > I happen to think that the illegitimate nature of the Trump win was not because he lost the popular vote total by a 5% margin (including third parties), nor because of perception (unfair, I truly believe) that HRC’s character was flawed…I think the cause was Republican unconstitutional efforts to suppress voters, the FBI leader’s illegal and sensational announcements about email matters that in actual fact didn’t cause any loss of confidential information, and the Russian hacking of the DNC and subsequent releases of emails, emails that were only damaging because of the sensational nature of having them revealed to the public, not because there was anything in them that should have swayed any votes. So far as the electors are concerned, I think each state has the power to decide how those votes are cast, and if they were broken down by the USRepresentative districts, such would be more in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution than having a plurality in a given state be awarded all the electors. > > I also think of Trump as illegitimate because he cannot possibly govern without self interest, given the complex and broad nature of his debts and interests all over the world. He refuses to reveal those debts and interests, and refuses to build a wall between him and those assets and liabilities. Even if he could disentangle himself, the process would destroy his financial empire, very likely even putting the Trump Tower up for foreclosure. > > I think of his as illegitimate because he is a man of low morals, unfit to be any sort of ‘good example’ to the youth (and adults) of this country and of the world. He is the ‘anti-Obama’, if not the ‘anti-Christ’. > > His nominees for his Cabinet are a mixed bag, but so many of them are being named to head departments for which they have previously voiced disdain and a wish to destroy or eliminate that we can’t expect any touch of ‘government making people’s lives better’ to be left over in a couple of years. All other points aside, to name an EPA head who is a climate change denier is the worst sort of evil that our grandchildren will condemn with hatred toward our generation. > > I don’t believe that a man who expressed, during his campaign, several seriously unconstitutional beliefs – anti Muslim, anti-immigrant, etc. – and who gratefully accepted the support of neo-Nazi, KKK, white-power, etc. people – and who led the effort to declare Obama’s birthplace into question as a springboard to connecting with the racist underbelly of our population…I don’t believe such a man could ever be ‘legimately’ President. > > I am physically disturbed by this man. I will not support him in any way. What s/he said. Every word. My sentiments exactly. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/117 "2017-01-15T18:24:49Z")
Well-said, \*\*crucible. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/118 "2017-01-15T19:10:31Z")
Wow. We actually have 3 posters here who think Trump might possibly be the anti-Christ. That’s… how shall we say… interesting? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/119 "2017-01-15T19:24:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Wow. We actually have 3 posters here who think Trump might possibly be the anti-Christ. > > That’s… how shall we say… interesting? Well, I’m an atheist, so I would concede the point about Trump being the anti-Christ as being a tad hyperbolic. But basically you simply ignored the main points made by **crucible** in order to gratuitously take a meaningless jab at those of us who think Trump is the worst thing ever to happen to our democratic republic. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987/120 "2017-01-15T19:35:09Z")
The anti-Christ wishes me to inform you that he resents the comparison to donald trump. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-efforts-to-de-legitimize-trumps-election/776987.md?page=7)