OK, I admit it. I am starting to freak a little bit.
I really believe that Trump would be a disaster for this country. Domestically the damage he can do it limited. But internationally, he really could hurt us. Best case scenario is that we have 4 years of looking like buffoons, worst case is much worse than that. Really, this isn’t about policy for me- Trump probably isn’t much worse than a plain vanilla Republican that way (and in some respects, like LGBTQ, better). It’s about us electing a grade A douche.
But… What I have seen with the eroding lead by Hillary is really worrying me that somehow he’s going to pull it off…
I’m in this place too and I will surely be glad when the interminable run-up is over and the voting is done and then we’ll know. “The waiting is the hardest part.”
I live in NC and I don’t think it will go to Trump, mainly due to how disgusted a lot of residents are with local Republicans and HB2 - it’s motivating a lot of folks on the other side to vote. It’ll be close, though, in part due to early voting locations being limited here by the very forces that brought us the national embarrassment that is HB2.
I’m too depressed and terrified to even pay attention to the news. I’ve mostly disengaged from it over the past few days. I know Clinton is favored, but any non-zero chance of President Trump is fucking frightening. That this guy is anywhere near the presidency is deeply disturbing to me. I’ve been walking around the past few weeks thinking, “what kind of people are we?” I guess I’m not as cynical as I always thought I was. I thought we were better than this. It pains me to have to admit we’re not. Even if Trump loses (please, dear God that I don’t believe in), I still have to live in a country where almost half of us thought voting for him was a good idea.
All of the polls still put Clinton in the lead, and even if that lead is eroding, it’s not going to disappear by election day. The only way Trump wins if some November surprise abruptly turns millions of voters against Clinton, or if the polls are systematically understating Trump’s support. Now, an honest statistical model like Nate Silver’s doesn’t have any way of ruling out either of these possibilities, and includes a certain degree of uncertainty (in both directions) to account for this (equally likely in either direction).
But ask yourself, is it actually equally likely? A lot more skeletons have turned up in Trump’s closet than in Clinton’s, and they’re a lot more concrete. And there is evidence of actual mechanisms by which the polls might understate Clinton’s support, but not so for Trump’s. So no, I’m not particularly worried yet.
The terrible thing is, even [del]if[/del] when Hillary wins, it won’t be a victory for her or the country. We’ll have at least four more years of governmental gridlock and obstructionism, including investigating every minute of her life beginning when she got an A in fingerpainting in kindergarten (I hear she bribed the teacher).
Not to mention, in the likely event that another couple of Supreme Court Justices go to that Big Bench in the Sky, the court may be down to six or fewer members by the end of her (first) term with no chance of filling the seats. I heard on the radio the other day that the Republicans have not confirmed even ONE of Obama’s nominees to the various federal benches around the country. There are something like 98 (or is it 93?) vacancies. That’s just irresponsible.
Reading over Hillary’s plans for how to fix the ACA, they sound pretty darned sensible. But “being sensible” won’t be on the table.
There aren’t words for how bad this election sucks.
Yeah, it sounds weird but look, I was on the ledge when Obama got elected and guess what, it wasn’t what I wanted but I survived and a few good things happened too.
Seriously, the President really can’t make the oceans recede or control the price of oil, etc., etc. It’s a big old world and no one can snap their fingers and change it over night.
I still think it’s Hillary’s to lose but even if she does, you will be OK. And if Trump wins I want a loyal opposition to be there as a watchdog. I have a general distrust of government and no one person or party should have unlimited power with no checks, and that goes for the ones I vote for as much as any.
While I do not doubt that you heard that, it is not true. See Wikipedia List of federal judges appointed by Obama. While I cannot vouch for the entire list, I have personally appeared before at least one of the judges on that list.
As for the ledge thing…Dude…relax. Hillary Clinton will be the next POTUS. Og save us all.
I think a lot of liberals, including myself, aren’t entirely confident that this will apply to Trump. It’s very hard to really honestly say how much of that is just unfounded alarmism, but certainly if I were asked to construct a fictional future scenario in which the US changes into an authoritarian police state, the first step would be someone like Trump winning the presidency.
I would have been really sad and upset if McCain or Romney had won, or if Kasich or Rubio had won, and I understand why people really hate Clinton. But all of them, and even Ted Cruz, are within the spectrum of normalcy for politicians. Trump isn’t.
Will the checks and balances be enough to keep him from bringing the whole system down, or at least altering it so much that it ends up unrecognizable? I pray to my nonexistant atheist God that we’ll never have to find out.
I’m from Indiana, where Trump performed so well in the primary that Ted Cruz dropped out. But I know a number of Hoosier Democrats who crossed party lines to vote in the primary because of a down-ticket election, and then many of them voted for Trump, but are actually Clinton supporters. It’s probably why Sanders took Indiana in the primary.
Now, I’m not saying a thoroughly red state like Indiana is going Clinton (even though it surprisingly went Obama in 2008), I’m just saying that I think Clinton is going to have more people turn out for her in the general who didn’t turn out for her in the primary, because the primary seemed sewn up. The opposite will probably be true for Trump, because I think a lot of people voted for him in the primary 1) as a joke; 2) as a protest vote of some sort; 3) as the easiest person for Clinton to beat; 4) without realizing how truly awful he was, and are now thinking “My gawd, what did I do?”
We haven’t exactly had a “loyal opposition” the last eight years. They’ve often fought tooth and nail against Obama having the power the President is supposed to have. No loyalty to Obama, and no loyalty to the country, given their shutdowns of government, refusing to vote on SC replacement, etc.
I’m liberal, but I don’t see that with Trump. I think he’s way too uninterested in governing, in the alliances and coalition he’d have to make to ever put himself in a position where he could do away with all the opposition, etc. Much more concerned with his mouthing off and causing even oodles international relations issues due to his childishness and immaturity and so on.
