# Here's my opinion on all of this... \[presidential politics\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 21, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711 "2017-01-21T13:44:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711/21 "2017-01-23T21:29:00Z")
> [@cuauhtemoc](#):
>
> I don’t think more parties would help.
>
> I’m starting to think that the “us vs. them” stuff is a feature, not a bug, of the two-party system.
Which is all fine and good for the politicians and the parties, but I hope you’ll agree that it’s extremely BAD for families to be so bitterly and angrily divided. I’ve been hearing about people who have stopped talking to members of their family, and people described as close long-time friends who have been un-friended on Facebook and that kind of thing.
> [@Grumbacher\_Red](#):
>
> Oh yes, I get that. But regardless of whatever capacity she was there fulfilling, it doesn’t change the fact that she is having to sit there and make nice to the victorious candidate that she just lost to and all the recent (and likely still very raw) feelings attached to that.
>
> And I highly doubt anyone else in attendance or watching was thinking, oh look, there’s Hillary Clinton, former First Lady. Everyone was thinking, oh look, there’s Hillary… She lost to Mr. Tiny Hands. Bless her heart.
I kind of wonder if she went also to sort of dare him to have her arrested. Remember he kept proclaiming that she should be thrown in jail.
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### Author:  [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711/22 "2017-01-23T21:46:47Z")
> [@JcWoman](#):
>
> Which is all fine and good for the politicians and the parties, but I hope you’ll agree that it’s extremely BAD for families to be so bitterly and angrily divided. I’ve been hearing about people who have stopped talking to members of their family, and people described as close long-time friends who have been un-friended on Facebook and that kind of .
Yes, it’s “bad” as in “we wish it weren’t happening,” but it may be _necessary_. It may be that this is just how it is. If we could have avoided it, we would have, but we couldn’t. The only question now is, what part are you gonna play in it?
I’m saying this because so many people are pontificating right now about the “right” way to react to the situation, but the way I see it, you can only be who you are. If you’re a marcher, then march. If you’re a sideline-sitter, then sit. If you’re a window-breaker, then… you see what I mean?
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### Author:  [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711/23 "2017-01-23T22:10:18Z")
> [@cuauhtemoc](#):
>
> Yes, it’s “bad” as in “we wish it weren’t happening,” but it may be _necessary_. It may be that this is just how it is. If we could have avoided it, we would have, but we couldn’t. The only question now is, what part are you gonna play in it?
>
> I’m saying this because so many people are pontificating right now about the “right” way to react to the situation, but the way I see it, you can only be who you are. If you’re a marcher, then march. If you’re a sideline-sitter, then sit. If you’re a window-breaker, then… you see what I mean?
I can get some people to still talk to me, because I tell them I respect their views, and I listen, but I expect them to do the same in return. I just set the tone right off the bat that this is going to be a civil discussion and we will agree to disagree and walk away still friends. But it does seem that finding people who can handle cognitive dissonance is getting scarce as hen’s teeth. If somebody can’t even entertain a differing opinion without falling all to pieces, it doesn’t say much for their intellect.
And if you are a protestor, I can respect that, but if you refuse to stay in your designated area, block traffic, and climb over barricades, it has become something else entirely. Once you start damaging property and assaulting people you are no longer a protestor, you are a criminal, and deserve to be treated as such. I can’t respect or condone that in any way.
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711/24 "2017-01-24T16:41:44Z")
> [@JcWoman](#):
>
> I don’t see how you can blame the 24 hour news cycle for this phenomenon:
>
> [ol]
> [li]Candidate says inflammatory things. Instead of being excoriated, it’s ignored.[/li][li]Candidate says more inflammatory things about different people/groups. Instead of being ejected from the party, party hems and haws and then sullenly stands behind him.[/li][li]Candidate says absolutely awful things. Instead of booing him out of the room, people cheer him. (Like, WTF?)[/li][li]Candidate says absolutely ignorant things. People love him even more.[/li][li]Candidate says even more horrible things. Gets elected to highest office in the nation.[/li][/ol]
Two comments…
First, most of his inflammatory comments were excoriated by the news cyclers …and for more than 24 hours.
Second, somewhere in that timeline, his supporters come to the conclusion that he isn’t going to get a fair shake and find the political incorrectness of it all (combined with the holier than though news cycler’s outrage) somewhat amusing.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711/25 "2017-01-24T19:07:02Z")
It’s difficult, in a first-past-the-post country like America, to \*\*\*not \*\*\*have a 2-party system. Because the side that splinters or has several different parties will almost always lose to the unified foe. The political left and right have to fall into two main parties in order for each to have a decent chance of taking the White House.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-my-opinion-on-all-of-this-presidential-politics/777711/26 "2017-01-24T19:14:55Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> I certainly had some concerns about her, and was pretty put off by her in 2008, but in this election it seemed to me that she was doing a pretty good job campaigning. In fact, I still can’t comprehend how or why she lost. Guess I’m in a bubble.
Hopefully the 2020 candidate doesn’t think like you do and learns from Hillary’s disaster. She did a simply awful job at campaigning, as shown by her loss to Donald Trump. She came into the race with a ton of baggage, lacked charisma, failed to come up with a good and consistent message, focused her campaign on getting celebrity endorsements and racking up votes in solidly blue states while ignoring swing states, and generally failed to appeal to anyone except people who would vote for her no matter who was on the R ticket. I mean, she was the first major party candidate since 1972 not to visit Wisconsin, guess what one of the swing states she lost was?
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