# Donald Trump's 2016 General Election Campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 4, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901 "2016-05-04T02:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 30
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/581 "2016-05-21T15:01:51Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > his power comes out of his truthfulness, morals and character. Just watch his interviews to understand what he stands for. Otherwise he doesn’t stand a chance against rebels, Isis, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the US despite being frm a minority group in his country. Doesn’t it bother you that he’s allied with Hezbollah? I would have thought that would put him on your bad guy list. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/582 "2016-05-21T15:05:59Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > He survived He has barely clung on to power, partly by the pure accident of the separate rise of the DAESH in Iraq that has scared off support to opposition for fear of its expansion His survival, bare and doubtful, has come at the cost of the shattering of the Syrian society, the destruction and the impoverishment of the entire country excepting his own direct family circle of war profiteers… and millions of civilian refugees, and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. This is not the sign of a great national leader, it is the sign of the tenacious petty warlord. > [@](#): > > Except he’s back and - apparently - in control. tottering and fragile, propped up as much by the fear of the DAESH than any thing. He is not in control of most of the national territory nor is his remanant rump military the primary force, it is as much the forces of the independent militias of the local war lords and the outsiders, leaving a reduced rump state. He has seen the collapse of his central controle and the ceding of much military power to allies of convenience, like the Hezbullah, who will extract prices. Even relatie to the Alawite, the Clan Assed is a disaster as is this Assed. It is the pure failure of leadership for the Syrian nation and all the Syrian communities. The only profit goes to the Clan Assed and their war profiteerrs who accompany them. > [@](#): > > Unfortunately, **truthseeker2** is again right, No you are wrong. > [@](#): > > but not for the reasons you - or he - think. It’s all about power. One only has to look at the history of religious wars in the past 2000 years to see that it’s all about people using religion for power. The Protestant/Catholic conflicts, the Crusades, even the initial expansion of Islam itself. It’s little about religion and all about power. This is nonsense. his power is diminished and it will not return to what it was before, he now is very beholden to the outside forces whose actual ground presence are what saves him from collapse These are again not the signs of a “great leader” - there are the signs of the petty tyrant who for some historical accidents is saved from the disaster of a huge miscalculation that he would do as his father did and with impunity crush the opposition à la the massacres of 1982. However, he lost control and lost control of much of his army. What survives of his power now is a rump, propped up by the Hezbullah ground fighters, the Russian and the Iranian support and the regional war-lords militias and the severe division of the opposition who hate the DAESH as much as him. These are not the signs of a great leader, as the foolish hypocritical dishonesty would have it, but the signs of a weak and foolish leader who was saved from his lack of understanding of the modern era only by lucky circumstances. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Fantasy world nonsense. Thank Jeebus Obama kept us out of another dumb ground war that would have resulted in thousands of American deaths. > > Assad murders his own people by the thousands, and Obama keeps us from dying by the thousands for nothing. It seems pretty easy to choose who is prefer to be in charge. for this person, his analysis is if the USA is massacring muslims it is good. > [@septimus](#): > > 😕 Are we talking about the same Assad? The one who used sarin nerve gas against civilians? (I don’t know if it’s been completely proven that Assad ordered the sarin attacks, but the chemical came from his stockpiles which were already in violation of international law.) > > I’d append the ::boggle:: icon, but to do this quote justice I’d need an animated gif with eyes popping out, whacking own head with hammer. It is the double language of the genocidaire logic that wishes to wear a mask So Assed is called “progressive” in a clumsy attempt at making an excuse ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/583 "2016-05-21T15:27:29Z")
Support for Assad in Syria: video > [@CarnalK](#): > > Doesn’t it bother you that he’s allied with Hezbollah? I would have thought that would put him on your bad guy list. Maybe that’s for surviving in a very tough region? I don’t know, maybe he is at fault there. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/584 "2016-05-21T15:53:41Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > Pls do that. I think my present username is lame and I have stopped using it on internet. You need to request a name change yourself. I have suggestions, but will not make them here, because that would be inopportune. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/585 "2016-05-21T17:16:00Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I’m afraid not. You didn’t like the fact that Trump actually draws support from a significant percentage of college graduates so you’ve been flailing around to try to find some other metric to discount that fact. You have misrepresented what the poll cited actually measured, it did not show that “Trump actually draws support from a significant percentage of college graduates”. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/586 "2016-05-21T17:19:21Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > Maybe that’s for surviving in a very tough region? I don’t know, maybe he is at fault there. The ignorance in this is astounding. The Asseds have been allied with the Hezbullah and the Iran for some decades, fort the purposes of having control and power in the neighboring Lebanon. It is not something invented to save his tyrannical and corrupt clique in the face of their failure of leadership in 2011. It was a choice. Your prejudiced demarches truly are bankrupt in morality and analysis. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/587 "2016-05-21T17:30:11Z")
OK Ramira bro! ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/588 "2016-05-21T17:33:19Z")
This thread is about Trump. I declare the Assad hijack over. Start a new thread if you wish to continue. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/589 "2016-05-21T17:37:47Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > his power comes out of his truthfulness, morals and character. Yes of course, the great morals of the Clan Assed, who freely have used torture and even heavy weaponry against purely civilian dissent and the regime knows for its torture and it gross corruption. As the wiki summary highlights > [@](#): > > Major unrest began on 15 March in Damascus and Aleppo, yet in the southern city of Daraa, sometimes called the “Cradle of the Revolution”,[22] [protests had been triggered on 6 March by the incarceration and torture of 15 young students from prominent families who were arrested for writing anti-government graffiti in the city,[23][24][25] reading: “الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام” – (“The people want the fall of the regime”) – a trademark slogan of the Arab Spring.[26]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_uprising_phase_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War#Civil_uprising_.28January.E2.80.93July_2011.29) > Demonstrators clashed with local police, and confrontations escalated on 18 March after Friday prayers. Security forces attacked protesters gathered at the Omari Mosque using water cannons and tear gas, followed by live fire, killing four.[27][28] > On 20 March, a mob burned down the Ba’ath Party headquarters and other public buildings. Security forces quickly responded, firing live ammunition at crowds, and attacking the focal points of the demonstrations. The two-day assault resulted in the deaths of fifteen protesters.[29] > Meanwhile, minor protests occurred elsewhere in the country. Protesters demanded the release of political prisoners, the abolition of Syria’s 48-year emergency law, more freedoms, and an end to pervasive government corruption.[30] The events led to a “Friday of Dignity” on 18 March, when large-scale protests broke out in several cities, including Banias, Damascus, al-Hasakah, Daraa, Deir az-Zor, and Hama. Police responded to the protests with tear gas, water cannons, and beatings. At least 6 people were killed and many others injured.[31] Well know signs of truthfullness and morality, the torture of high school students for anti regime graffiti and the use of live ammunition against civilian protests. Of course it was his morality and truthfulness that saw the censorship and actions like the imprisoning of [teenagers for political poetry prior](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/syria-revolution-revolt-against-bashar-al--assads-regime/2011/03/15/ABrwNEX_blog.html) even the Arab spring > [@](#): > > The Syrian people say they are protesting against the repressive measures of Assad’s regime, including a tightening of Internet censorship, expanded use of travel bans, and the arrest of political prisoners. > > Two hundred Web sites are inaccessible in Syria and a law was put into place in 2007 that forces Internet cafes to record all the comments users post on chat forums, Reporters Without Borders reported. Assad has permitted the existence of radio stations playing Western pop music, but Web sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, were banned, the Economist reported in 2008. In February 2010, Syria lifted the ban on Facebook and YouTube but convicted a teenage girl of espionage and sentenced her to five years in prison for political poetry she wrote on her blog, AFP reported. But you like him because he kills people of a religious faith you hate. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/590 "2016-05-21T17:38:48Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > This thread is about Trump. I declare the Assad hijack over. Start a new thread if you wish to continue. okay ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/591 "2016-05-21T20:44:47Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I’m afraid not. You didn’t like the fact that Trump actually draws support from a significant percentage of college graduates so you’ve been flailing around to try to find some other metric to discount that fact. You brought up the question of ‘wisdom’, I didn’t. And now you’re claiming college degrees don’t necessarily indicate intelligence. To that I say, “So what?”. The point is that Trump draws a significant percentage of support from people with college degrees and my cite backs that up. End of story. And speaking of “So what?”… I’m not flailing around for anything. You draw all kinds of unsupported assumptions from data. “Clearly more intelligent” is code for “I don’t have a cite.” Even if you did, claiming a sweeping, generalized point and applying it to specific cases is a fallacy. Intelligence level says absolutely nothing about motivation. For instance, let’s take a conservative of high intelligence and with a college degree who hasn’t been able to get a job. He’s unhappy with the GOP establishment because he feels he’s been poorly served, and so decides to vote for Trump based on that. Btw, please refrain from judging me on what you _clearly_ don’t know about me. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/592 "2016-05-22T03:56:52Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > He survived > > Except he’s back and - apparently - in control. > > Unfortunately, **truthseeker2** is again right, but not for the reasons you - or he - think. It’s all about power. One only has to look at the history of religious wars in the past 2000 years to see that it’s all about people using religion for power. The Protestant/Catholic conflicts, the Crusades, even the initial expansion of Islam itself. It’s little about religion and all about power. > > Which brings us back to Trump: he wants the power. As practically everyone in the political class does. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/593 "2016-05-22T05:23:25Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > And speaking of “So what?”… > > I’m not flailing around for anything. Au contraire. I merely posted a cite to show that that 35% of Trump’s supporters have college degrees. You immediately responded by saying in effect that this doesn’t prove they’re wise, which is an allegation I never made or alluded to. Then you started twisting off about some college grad you know that you think is dumb, apparently in the belief that this anecdote somehow disproves the presumption that college grads are smarter than the average bear, and you began demanding that I satisfy you with more substantive proof of something that everyone not dancing on the head of a pin to deny Trump any sort of substantive support already knows, and I, as is my wont, simply refused to play along. So let me say it once again. The assertion that Trump draws all his support from white guys with high school or lesser levels of education is wrong. Period. > [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > You draw all kinds of unsupported assumptions from data. “Clearly more intelligent” is code for “I don’t have a cite.” No, actually it’s code for “clearly more intelligent”. It never even occurred to me that someone would attempt to deny that college degrees are indicative of above average intelligence. > [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Even if you did, claiming a sweeping, generalized point and applying it to specific cases is a fallacy. Do you really think the observation that college degrees speak to a person’s level of intelligence, discipline and determination is a fallacy? Then may I suggest you try to get hired by any _Fortune 500_ company for anything but grunt work without one. > [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Intelligence level says absolutely nothing about motivation. So? I never said it did. > [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > For instance, let’s take a conservative of high intelligence and with a college degree who hasn’t been able to get a job. He’s unhappy with the GOP establishment because he feels he’s been poorly served, and so decides to vote for Trump based on that. I’d be surprised if this is the case. Unlike our more liberal brethren, conservatives aren’t much inclined to believe it’s the responsibility of our political party to make sure we have the work we want available whenever we want it. I’d say it’s much more likely that this intelligent conservative who can’t find work will believe it to be due to such things as a glut in the labor market for his particular skills, or he chose to major in an area where work isn’t as readily available as he’d presumed. or that economic conditions in his particular field (let’s say natural gas, as an example) have taken a downturn, resulting not only in no work for him but layoffs for those who’ve already been employed in his desired field. I’d expect that the last thing he’d do would be to shake his fist at the Republican establishment and cry out in anguish _“You let me down, you bastards, and now I can’t find work!! It’s all your fault! Wah wah, wah!”_ This just isn’t how conservatives function. > [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > , please refrain from judging me on what you _clearly_ don’t know about me. Actually I’ve been judging you on what I do know about you, which is that you’re desperate to find some way to discount the fact that Trump enjoys significant support from college graduates. Not a majority to be sure, but a hell of a lot more than zero, which is what many of Trump’s detractors try to claim. He enjoys significant support from women too, which is something else you never hear from those who want to believe his support lies almost exclusively with angry old white guys with substandard levels of education. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/594 "2016-05-22T05:41:15Z")
Really? Wall of text alert. ^ Let me answer just a few of these, or I’ll start expounding on the urge to prove oneself right at any cost and any length. Please show a _specific quote_ where I denied your original contention that a significant portion of Trump’s supporters have college degrees. (The only one which you supported with actual evidence, btw.) Then, you might, just might want to support that by showing some kind of evidence for their rationales for supporting them. The only ones I can see are a) that they were ill-served by their party, b) that they just want to burn down the political system, or c) that they think somehow that monetary success = ability to govern 310 million people well. I’ve known a number of people without degrees who were far more intelligent than many people with them. Claiming that degrees = greater commitment or discipline is even less convincing than your claim regarding intelligence. Until or unless you show me actual cites, I’ll just think you’re trying to take the data from one very particular point and generalize it to a whole lot of other things, which, as I have already stated, is fallacious. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/595 "2016-05-22T05:45:19Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I merely posted a cite to show that that 35% of Trump’s supporters have college degrees…It never even occurred to me that someone would attempt to deny that college degrees are indicative of above average intelligence…Do you really think the observation that college degrees speak to a person’s level of intelligence, discipline and determination is a fallacy? If it’s such an admirable quality, don’t you think that Trump’s 35% is kind of low? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/596 "2016-05-22T05:53:32Z")
Oh, I forgot about the fourth motivation: Because Hillary. None of the four seem particularly wise to me. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/597 "2016-05-22T06:00:30Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > So let me say it once again. The assertion that Trump draws all his support from white guys with high school or lesser levels of education is wrong. Period. Who made that assertion? AFAIK, you made the assertion that someone made that assertion; can you show otherwise? > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Do you really think the observation that college degrees speak to a person’s level of intelligence, discipline and determination is a fallacy? Then may I suggest you try to get hired by any _Fortune 500_ company for anything but grunt work without one. Getting hired by a Fortune 500 company is no metric to judge a person’s intelligence, discipline and determination by; your conclusion does not “prove” your assertion at all. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/598 "2016-05-22T06:31:40Z")
I thought in modern Republicanland, egghead intellectuals churned out by liberal biased colleges weren’t to be trusted? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/599 "2016-05-22T07:01:21Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Who made that assertion? AFAIK, you made the assertion that someone made that assertion; can you show otherwise? If I were going to stick around and engage in this silly argument any further I’d suggest you might want to rephrase your question. As it is, you appear to want me to assert that no one made that assertion. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Getting hired by a Fortune 500 company is no metric to judge a person’s intelligence. Neither is a college degree, if we’re to believe **Johnny Ace**. Look, my primary point was that Trump is drawing 35% support from college graduates and that this puts the lie to the belief that Trump’s only drawing support from angry old white guys with poor educational levels. That’s it. Period. I’m not going to get drawn into a silly cite contest about every sidebar comment I made about that. Believe what you want, I don’t care. Draw whatever conclusions you like. But don’t think for a minute that the silly jiggery-pokery you two are engaging in is persuading anyone that people with college degrees are stupid and large well-funded companies with tons of smart executives are routinely hiring dumbasses one after another. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901/600 "2016-05-22T09:34:30Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I thought in modern Republicanland, egghead intellectuals churned out by liberal biased colleges weren’t to be trusted? I don’t know about that but politicians and economists at FED backing today’s system where demographics are worsening and government debt is growing are all fraud and cowards who won’t speak the truth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trumps-2016-general-election-campaign/753901.md?page=31)