You think he’ll want to give up that power after only 1 term? Don’t underestimate him like people still seem to be doing. And Bannon, who seems to be the power behind Trump pushing the populist message, will likely do his level best to get Trump to run for a 2nd term if Trump wavers
Here’s a list of reasons from various pundits about why the Democrats got whipped. Agree / Disagree?
I never underestimated him: I thought he would win from the first.
But he’s an elderly man, and power may not be all it’s cracked up to be — particularly for a multi-billionaire — he has won the ultimate game in American politics: and he has no deep agenda; unlike, say, Sanders or Cheney. The game itself was the point of the game.
Did you feel this way when voters elected BHO twice?
Two things that weren’t mentioned but played some part; Wikileaks/Russia propaganda and voter suppression.
My feelings at least;
Hillary campaigned in both 2008 and 2016 on “Inevitability”. It was arrogant and lazy, both times. She lost to an better organized man the first time, and failed to inspire the masses to get out and vote for her this time. Hell, this time it drove voter turnout to record lows, allowing the election of a very dangerous man.
To the last, Hillary spent the campaign not on the stump, not giving inspiring speeches or at least making the news, but rather giving speeches to rooms full of donors.
And yeah, I am still waiting for a shoe to drop on Russian influence and hacking. Won’t change anything, hell, probably wouldn’t even result in the Republicans changing any laws, because it worked in their favor. Only thing you can do is be better prepared for it next time.
Unless someone hacks some fantasy land Russian server which is amazingly holding all the exact information about how votes were actually changed in Trump’s favor. Even then all we’d have is a Constitutional Crisis.
Did you read your link?
“I’m the majority leader; I set the agenda,” McCarthy, the House majority leader, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The agenda is going to be about job creation; it’s going to be about reforming and repealing ObamaCare. It’s going to be on infrastructure. That’s the focus that this election was about.”
As for Clinton, “I leave that portion to law enforcement,” McCarthy said. “That’s just the way I do it. Keep politics out of it.”
Part of the answer is that a lot republicans/conservatives looked at the slate of candidates for the republican party and saw more of the same establishment players that (to their perception) were merely puppets of a republican party that was more a wing of a liberal/leftist democrat party than anything else. The republican candidates (mostly) were people they felt were not truly conservative. Trump wasn’t the establishment republican, and given the distrust among the rank and file for the establishment wing of the party, he was able to motivate a lot of people who would have otherwise stayed home.
The numerous Republican candidates split the vote among themselves and enabled a Trump victory.
too late for the edit window,
dammit this was supposed to go in a different thread
I’d mean it as a conclusion. It is my memory of the common opinion at the time. That is, there wasn’t any argument about what her problem was with policy, or what her problem was with “White Men” or the “Rust Belt”. The question was if she could get enough people to vote for her, given that a big section of the electorate had already decided they didn’t like her.
And yes, she might have won preselection if she hadn’t been up against a good candidate, but I’m thinking particularly of what was said about Clinton then, not what was said about the others. Do you remember differently?
It’s back in the news. Because it’s not being pursued. Because it was never a big deal, and no one ever actually cared about it.
All of the above except 2 and 3.
There are certainly men (and women) who won’t vote for a woman but its not the majority of men and the anti-woman women out there are probably outnumbered by the anti-Hillary women out there. A lot of women took offense to the notion that they owed their vote to Hillary because they both have vaginas.
They should also add that the last 3 democratic presidents won because they were young and had great charisma and young families with cute kids. I’m talking Carter, Bill, and Obama.
And the losers were old, not exciting, and considered old establishment. I’m talking Gore, Kerry, and now Hillary.
I do have to admit that my primary issue with the Democrats right now is the age of their leadership - being all in their 70’s. We need new blood.
Ok, maybe tied with the fact that only one of them has a damned spine.
"The terrible pizza that Obama has been shoving down your throat for the past eight years has been a total disaster. It’s the worst pizza in history. I’m gonna make the greatest pizza you ever tasted. Such a big league pizza. And you know what else? I’m gonna have it reclassified as a health food. I’m gonna fire all those lying doctors who say it’s bad for you, and then I’m gonna sue them. I know more about healthy eating than any of them. I eat a whole pizza every day at my restaurant in Trump tower - best pizza in the world, by the way - and look at me. I’m the healthiest candidate to ever run for anything, ever. You’re gonna be eating pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and let me tell you, you’re all gonna be so happy with it folks, so happy.
And we’ll make Italy pay for it."
[quote=“astro, post:1, topic:772562”]
First, as others have said, they didn’t get whipped, they made gains in the House and Senate and their Presidential candidate won a plurality of votes. Also, as others have said, in such a close election you could identify hundreds of variables which might have affected the result. But:
Yeah, I don’t think this made a big difference, but again, super close election, maybe…
No, I think this was a rejection of Hillary Clinton, not a rejection of Women. And as a man, I am certainly not going to accuse any women of “internalized misogyny”, I’ll leave that for them to sort out!
I guess these are tied together…obviously in retrospect their strategy failed. I don’t remember anyone outside the Clinton campaign saying that at the time, though. Hindsight is always 20/20.
Yep. Terrible candidate. There’s your #1 problem right there.
Well, yeah, that’s pretty obvious, but the question is why?
Not buying it. Trump got fewer votes than Romney. This election was more about turnout of the bases than people switching parties.
There’s a lot to this. It’s historically very hard to win three Presidential elections in a row. I would have thought the change in demographics and the horrible GOP candidate would have made it happen this time, but apparently not.
Ah, yes. White racism is a reaction to minority anti-racism, not the other way around. :smack:
Yeah. The functioning of Obamacare varies wildly from State to State, but some people are certainly getting screwed. I think this was big.
Didn’t we cover this above? Besides, the polls weren’t inaccurate, the result was within a reasonable margin of error. And although Clinton’s campaign may have allocated their resources poorly, I don’t know that they were “complacent”. It’s not like she took the last couple weeks of the campaign off or anything.
Doesn’t seem to be any evidence for this one.
And I would add:
- Faced with the choice between a highly qualified Democrat and a grossly unqualified Republican, almost all Republicans will, after due hemming and hawing, put party above country. Faced with the choice between an uninspiring Democrat and a grossly unqualified Republican, too many Democrats will stay home. Shame on them both.
The OP regurgitates more of the same bubble enclosed pundits’ opinions. The pundits have yet to hit upon the points that dominated the conversation at the water cooler, happy hour, sidewalk chats, and bible study breaks that I participated in. Quick bio, I live in one of the three “safe” states that flipped to Trump. The place I worked at for thirty years shut its doors 3 days after the election. Almost 700 $50-70k / year jobs gone. 20 miles away, different employer, similar wages for 400+ will be gone next month. Week before the election brought news another 250+ jobs 30 miles away, company is moving to Mexico. All 3 the largest employers in towns of 3-10,000. Which brings me to point one: the TPP
Point two: immigration (not illegals)
which is all fine except when partnered with stories like this: (I didn’t fact check this)
In this corner of the world abortion on demand and transgender issues are far from settled.
I do not personally know any one in my daily life that said they voted for Clinton. I know several that most likely did but I rarely discuss politics with them. Yes it is my own bubble, which is part of why I am here. To seek other viewpoints and contribute when I can.
Hillary lost because her closet is bursting with skeletons and her campaign was completely deaf and unaware of what people outside of liberal urban centers are dealing with, or at least failed to address their concerns.
Are you people serious with this?
Don’t believe a word of it.
It is really quite hilarious to say that Clinton lost because her closet is bursting with skeletons when the alternative was Trump. Trump doesn’t even have a closet. He displays his skeletons like trophies to show what an A-Grade Baller he is. There is no way any Trump supporter can suggest they had an objective view that Clinton’s “skeletons” were a concern. Clinton lost because people didn’t like her. Their claims not to like her due to skeletons in closets were just after the fact justification for their dislike.
Then the suggestion that Clinton was deaf and unaware of what people outside liberal urban centers are dealing with is just false; her view espoused during her campaign were full of sympathy for such people. The difference is just that she didn’t create convenient scapegoats or make extravagant promises to make everything great.
Realtors know the best way to get appointed is to tell the seller they can get an unrealistic price for their property.
It’s only after they have signed the seller up that they start to tell the seller they need to drop the price significantly in order to sell.