I’m faintly offended by the suggestion that Evil!Skald would run for president. E!S would have ignored the primary elections as irrelevant, quietly subverted the Secret Service details of the candidates, and then, once the nominees were in place, replaced both of them (and their families) with robot doubles.
(It’s failing to replace the spouses that always causes the trouble.)
“You do your best, you try to serve the people, and then they just fuck you over.
And you know why? Because they’re ignorant, and they’re dumb as shit. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is democracy.”
President Selina Meyer, VEEP
I don’t know if he even believes it himself. And I’m not 100% convinced he’s doing some sort of nefarious Pied-Piper act either.
Every time I see a news story where they ask him something, and he replies with something that is some combination of inflammatory, racist, ignorant, or that flat out contradicts something he already said, I think back to a scene in “The Blues Brothers” when Elwood is talking to Jake, and says “It wasn’t lies… it was just bullshit”
Meaning that I don’t think Trump has anything even remotely resembling a coherent plan; he’s making whatever he says up almost completely off the cuff, with the goal of keeping himself in the public eye. If ever there was an example of “no press is bad press”, Donald Trump is it.
For example, his crazy-assed statements about building a wall on the Mexican border and having Mexico pay for it is idiotic and untenable, and would hurt US/Mexican relations far out of proportion to any actual benefits. But Trump the candidate has got way more mileage out of that verbal shart than any other comment that I can think of. Months later, people STILL make jokes about it and reference it. Mission accomplished, if his goal is to stay in the public eye.
Let’s face it; the guy likes being famous and prominent. If he just wanted to be rich, he could be fabulously, insanely rich and be totally out of the public eye. Instead, we’ve been hearing about him for some 30 years now, about how rich and awesome he is, and he eats that shit up like plants and sunlight.
The big worry for me is that his supporters don’t see this and think he has a plan that stretches beyond stirring up disaffected, white blue collar voters with promises to make America great AGAIN, and blaming the country’s problems on external forces.
Don’t get me wrong- he’s tapped into something powerful in the American electorate, but more as a means to fuel the public adulation that he craves, not in a spirit of public service, or even in your typical politician’s service-as-a-means-to-personal-power style.
That’s what worries me- his motivations are alien. If elected, what’s he going to do in 2019, when the mid-term elections are done, and there’s not much going on for him to be in the public eye about? One can fervently hope that he’ll try to get himself back in the public eye by doing good works and trying to change the country for the better, but I fear he’ll do something stupid, sensationalistic and adversarial, because that gets him on TV better than doing the political arm-twisting that could effect serious change in ANY other endeavor, be it social programs, space programs, farm subsidies, etc…
Hey, I have some land in Florida to sell you. You’ll love it! It’s the most amazing property ever, believe me!
But if that happens – then what?
I never said he would run, just that I would prefer him to be in power over Trump.
I have done so a couple of times when neither major-party candidate appealed to me.
(Sorry I haven’t been around here; I’ve been on vacation for the past few days.)
And it’s a damn good thing too, because I disagree with that ! 
Purely anecdotal, but it’s all I’ve got:
I am socially acquainted with 2 rabid Trump supporters.
I used to be fairly close to one, but I honestly think he has impaired his own mental function via alcohol abuse. (Really. I talked to his adult daughter to make sure he hadn’t had a stroke or something. Her blunt assessment was “a stroke too much beer.” Apparently, a case a day!) At any rate, just out of the blue the other day? He attacked me on social media, because my youngest daughter’s name is Michelle. I was rather taken aback - my daughter is named after my late sister, who died much too young. But he took umbrage at the notion that I would name a child after the FLOTUS. Used all sorts of inappropriate language. After a private discussion with his daughter, I sadly and quietly struck his methods of contact with me. If anything should happen and he needs me, his daughter knows how to get in touch.
The other Trumpster is a former co-worker. During the years we worked together, I tried desperately to avoid any discussion about anything controversial, because (a) good manners and (b) she was nuts. True story: around 2010, she was talking about The Colbert Report, and singing the praises of Stephen Colbert’s political opinions. I was flabbergasted. Nonplussed. Bumfuzzled, even. She honestly refused to accept that it was satire. Even when I gently pointed out that the show was carried by Comedy Central.
So, tl&dr: my experience with Trump voters supports the theory that they lack the capacity to vote.
You know, someday, when you leave your mommy’s basement and do your own shopping, like an actual fucking adult, people might take you seriously.
Well . . . it’s not so stupid or evil to be suspicious of neoliberal trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP.
That Trump is allegedly so popular and yet his supporters are unwilling to publicly admit it speaks volumes.
Well - as long as we’re posting anecdotes. I know several Trump supporters who are neither stupid or evil. They are however racist (which could equate to evil I suppose). But it’s one of the worst kinds of racist - from an educated upper middle class southern background where they learn to whisper when they’re about to say something racist - they know enough to hide it but not enough to change their beliefs. Also - they’re blindly, rabidly partisan. So it makes no difference who the candidates are - they will always vote R over D. Even, og forbid, if R was Trump.
No—they’re just gullible dupes for believing that he’s going to do anything to make things better.