To the bed-wetting Hillary Clinton "supporters" in the Elections Forum... a moment of your time, pls

[SlackerInc]

I’m surprised see you get so many conservative expats there. The right wing types I have known through extended family and work and so on are generally from the “never had a passport” crowd, and in particular those who love their guns are not fond of having to give them up.

[septimus]

@SlackerInc

I’m surprised see you get so many conservative expats there. The right wing types I have known through extended family and work and so on are generally from the “never had a passport” crowd, and in particular those who love their guns are not fond of having to give them up.

Good point. But what I neglected to mention is that many expats living in rural Thailand are retirees, some never visiting Thailand until they married a Thai woman living abroad. Most of these are Brits, Germans or Danes. Even Swedes and Aussies are about as common as American retirees where I live. (Many of the English teachers are American, usually much younger than the retirees, but my comments didn’t apply to them.)

(Will Spoiler be an obstacle to Google making chance encounter less likely?)The Texan I mentioned is actually the 3rd (4th?) American husband of a Thai woman from our village, and visits here only a few times, each visit a month or so. There are interesting stories I could tell about some of the Farungs; for example that Texan’s estranged son was coerced to marry the Thai wife’s niece, even though she spoke no English and they’d met only via Skype. (She is a charming girl and I hear from the proud father-in-law the newlyweds are doing fine.)

[JKellyMap]

septimus, you just made a fascinating (to me) and undoubtedly true (for many) observation: that you often have to go (ideally, live) far away from your home/place of of origin, to get to know people from home that you wouldn’t have gotten to know otherwise, and who don’t share much of your upbringing or values.

[John_Mace]

@jsgoddess

Between the people who proclaim game changing events every three seconds and the people who breathlessly rush in to post headline after headline after inaccurate headline from some lousy news aggregator, our election threads are nearly useless.

Ain’t it the truth! There’s even a thread devoted to when Trump doesn’t do anything.

@septimus

I’ll guess many Dopers are in similar situation. It’s probably very hard to believe that almost half of Americans support the buffoon.

In my previous life most of my acquaintances were professionals in Northern California and had mostly reasonable ideas. Then I retired to rural Thailand where the tendency is to become friends with almost any Westerner who shows up. (In a strange way, therefore, I’ve had an exposure to Western culture I didn’t have in my sheltered NoCal life!) Most of the Europeans I met were anti-Semitic. One American’s contribution to any political debate was to brag that he lived in Texas where he could legally shoot a stranger in the back with only meager cause. There is one rather intelligent American who lives a half-hour away — he’s a Hyperlibertarian nut. :smack:

If these folks are retirees, then they’re probably of an age when anti-Semitism was what you grew up with, not just in Europe, but in the US, too. My parents would think nothing of throwing out anti-Semitic comments at the drop of a yarmulke. Not to mention that older folks skew more conservative than younger folks like us here!

[watchwolf49]

@SlackerInc

It’s boastful, and that rankles a bit, but not as much as the defeatist handwringing he is complaining about.

And it also bothers me BTW that I am the only Hillary supporter I know IRL who sports a campaign sticker (that I got free from the website) on my vehicle. FFS, people: social proof matters. I’m sorry if Hillary isn’t as hip as Obama. Or if it’s because you’re afraid of Republicans saying shit to you or keying your car, maybe you need to grow a pair (of testes or ovaries, as the case may be).

I never covering up my “Alfred E. Neuman for President” bumper sticker

[BrotherCadfael]

@watchwolf49

I never covering up my “Alfred E. Neuman for President” bumper sticker

He’s barred by the 22nd Amendment. He served two terms (2001-2009) and can’t serve again.

[ElvisL1ves]

I’m gonna get an “I Go Pogo” button, I promise.

[Vicsage]

You should never put a sticker on your car. Only hurts your candidate, because at times you will cut someone off, not let them into line , drive to slow , drive too fast or whatever. Creates bad feelings for the person you’re advertising. As a matter of fact, if you don’t like someone, put tons of their stickers on your car and drive around pissing people off.

[John_Mace]

@Vicsage

You should never put a sticker on your car. Only hurts your candidate, because at times you will cut someone off, not let them into line , drive to slow , drive too fast or whatever. Creates bad feelings for the person you’re advertising. As a matter of fact, if you don’t like someone, put tons of their stickers on your car and drive around pissing people off.

“I’m not tailgating. I Bump for Trump!”

[JohnT]

I apologize for “abandoning” this thread. It has literally been one fucked up week.

I’ll try to get back to this one before too long. Again, my apologies for ranting and running.