I’m always willing to try to be optimistic, but this is a lot like letting a bull loose in a china shop and hoping that he will improve business. We already know what kinds of people Trump surrounds himself with because we can look at this campaign staff. They are liars and con artists just like himself, and some of them are bat-shit crazy.
An unfortunate attribute of the real world is not just that it requires complex solutions to complex problems, but that the interpretation of success is often very subjective. A poor economy, for instance, can be blamed on any number of external factors, and the president credited with helping to make it not as bad as it otherwise might have been. And packing the Supreme Court with ideological equivalents of Scalia who roll back a century of social progress can be regarded as a good thing by the kinds of dumbfucks who voted for Trump in the first place.
Scylla, I hope your assessment is right, that Trump won in spite of those things an not because of them. But, my own assessment is a bit darker. No, a lot darker.
If you could have negated the misogyny factor, Clinton might have squeaked out a narrow win.
People rightly perceived her as being a terrible candidate, and wrongly perceived her opponent as the better of two bad choices.
Obama overcame what people thought were insurmountable disadvantages (being black with an Arab-sounding name!) because he was viewed as fundamentally decent as well as competent.
If Bernie Sanders had been the nominee and carrying the same sort of baggage as Clinton he would’ve lost too. And in that case it would’ve been dumb to blame his defeat on anti-Semitism.
Agreed. There’s a black cloud of hatred and scandal about her that dates back to Bill’s presidency. I won’t comment on the legitimacy of said cloud, but the Republicans created it, Trump weaponized it, Democrats ignored it, and it worked.
Give it a break. Bill Clinton sexually assaulted women by the busload while he was governor of Arkansas and I don’t see you complaining about him having been unqualified to be President because of it.
OLD WHITE women are the biggest racist misogynist assholes.
There are several reasons for this.
Many white women of an older generation led almost cloistered lives in their homes in their lily white neighborhoods while their husbands had more interaction with the world at large. This is fertile ground for bigotry, prejudice and ignorance.
There is a reaction for the second group on the socioeconomic totem pole to guard its status jealously and support the status quo. White women occupied this distant second place position for a long time.
They are protective of their children while at the same time being fearful of minorities. I have seen old white women basically accuse Asians of stealing the educational resources of the community by doing well on tests and taking all the spots in the gifted and talented program. I have seen old white women basically accuse blacks of being dangerous just because they are black.
Personally, I blame this result on stupidity and masochism.
I also blame those for religion, but that’s another topic with only some overlap to this one.
Also, this entire “compare apples to apples” flapdoodle about adjusting the scales so that there IS only a 5 percent gap is pure blaming the victim sexism.
“The reason for the gender wage gap is because women don’t negotiate for top dollar when they accept employment.” Never mind that our misogynistic society pounds it into women’s heads to be submissive and accepting of our lot. Never mind that to be considered aggressive in matters is to be perceived as a bitch. Do you wonder that women don’t make more effort to demand top wages after a lifetime of conditioning to be conciliatory about everything? Especially if they are competing against men who are perceived as assertive and bold in these same exchanges?
Couple of days ago, I would bet good money that Trump was gonna trounced. Pretty sure a lot of folks here would have too. We had good reasoning behind us.
That pretty much shoots a hole in the theory our collective predictive powers.
What a Trump Administration is going to look like is a big old question mark. Lots of stuff could happen. He might surprise us. He might live up to our low opinion of his ability. He might die of an overdose in a legendary Inauguration booze-coke-whore Party. We do not know.
Right now I have two options, and only two options. Pessimism and optimism. Around 5 AM this morning, pessimism was ruling the day. Can’t say I liked the way it felt. So I decided to give optimism a try, and it helped me get dressed and get on with my day.
So for now, I’m gonna stick with it.
I agree with a fair amount of that, but I don’t think anybody can point to just one cause for Trump’s victory. It was people who felt neglected and wanted to upset the status quo. It was people who like to tear things down; the ones who cheer for the wrecks at car races (and don’t have to help fix them). It was the people who think that making their opponents feel bad (“Sweet, sweet <insert group here> tears.”) is reason enough to do something.
And it was misogyny, but even that is complicated. I saw posts on Facebook from people saying how happy they were to get to vote for a woman. I think she got a few votes for that, but they were vastly outnumbered by people who wouldn’t vote for a woman. Misogyny alone didn’t elect Trump, but it helped.
120 million Americans, 80 million of whom were registered to vote, did not vote. It was not misogyny that elected Trump, it was apathy. It is pathetic that when faced with a man who was an obvious misoginist and bigot those in that number who would be negatively impacted by a Trump presidency couldn’t be bothered to get off their ass and vote. Let’s put the blame where it belongs.
I do not understand this bizarre need to find someone to blame for Trump other than Trump, and those who voted for him. When a person, or a group, does something asinine, the fault lies with those who did the asinine thing, not with those who failed to stop them. Where are the Republicans stepping up to accept the blame for Obamacare? If they had just nominated someone better than McCain in 2008 it never would have happened.
In this case those who did the asinine thing don’t see it as such. Those who failed to stop them are now angry and blaming misogyny or white men. I see the responsibility in this case involving those who should have wanted to stop the asinie thing from happening but were too apathetic to be bothered. The numbers were there. Droves of them. Of the 120 million who didn’t vote how many see the election results as a travesty? Easily enough to have tipped the balance.
I assume that comment is intended to cause pain, but you know what? It really doesn’t. Gloating is unbecoming, but totally human and all ends of the political spectrum are prone to it after a winning a particularly bruising battle.
Of course I’m terrified about what the future might hold now that Trump is president. However, I actually take some temporary solace from the fact that some people are happy right now - good for them!
Now, I don’t think they are going to be quite so happy when the deficit balloons, health care becomes even more of a mess than it is now, unemployment goes up, terrorism continues, mass shootings continue, and race/religious relations get progressively worse, with unrest and possibly violence.
However, I would so, so, so DEARLY love to be wrong. If Trump brings down the deficit, reduces unemployment, improves harmony and inclusiveness etc. etc. etc., no one will be happier than me. I’ll take a giant mug of that “I told you so” beer, and I’ll swallow. With pleasure.
And that apathy means they didn’t care enough about being anti-racist, anti-misogynistic, etc. to vote.
I have always said you are either anti-bigotry, or you are a bigot. There is no middle ground. I may not use that language with those who are just light bigots (so as not to scare them away), but I can’t hold back the truth.
One consolation in all this is that we can actually see which people come in and directly try to hurt others with their responses. Those people can safely be put on ignore. And, for once, it won’t mean silencing a viewpoint, since the conservatives didn’t like Trump either.