Tilden was robbed!
My bold.
Those days are gone. Huntley, Brinkley, and Cronkite are spinning in their graves.
Because of the 24-hour news cycle and instant outlets like Twitter, every thought, reaction, sneeze, and fart is just Out There instantly and the great, hungry, public maw turns to wherever the smell of the current reeking tidbit is coming from. Constantly. Day and night.
Oh…it ain’t a dumpster fire anymore. It’s engulfed the building. If it gets any worse, it’ll be the the political equivalent of Chicago 1871.
This is precisely why I think Trump could win this. Not that he necessarily will win it, but there is no question that with the way that information is being manipulated and presented to the public, Trump could win. I am hoping that people will wake up and realize how utterly fucking stupid it would be to basically throw away the past 8 years of relative progress for…an absolute nothing of a candidate (and frankly a nothing of a human). I want to believe that the math isn’t possible – but the math is absolutely possible. Mathematically, Trump absolutely could win this race. That’s why I tend to be a bit of a panicky blowhard because I know that the Nate Silver math right now means nothing. The real race started on Labor Day, and the math is there for Trump if he can somehow turn the fundamentals in his favor, and even more so if Hillary fumbles the football so to speak.
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Those days are gone because more of the viewers/readers are not holding the media outlets accountable for what they produce/print/claim/manufacture.
That’s actually true for both parties.
Speaking as a Democrat, if Trump ran as a Dem this year in a general election against Jeb! or Kasich or (God help me) even Rubio, I’d be pulling the lever for the Pub. If the Republican nominee were someone like Cruz or Santorum, the Greens would be getting my vote. But no way no how would Trump get my vote simply because his party affiliation matches mine. I can’t help but think I’m not alone in this.
You wouldn’t be alone. But tribal loyalty is strong.
In some ways I think Trump is a necessary wake up call. If he wins people will take 2020 more seriously. Plus a Trump presidency would probably cripple the GOP long term and strengthen the Democrats long term.
This is an extremely lazy way to think. You don’t have to actually evaluate the merits of any position, you can simply declare “all sides are equal, and I’m so clever to see that because I’m above the fray!” and it’s much easier than actually understanding the issue.
The vast majority of people are tribal, but not everyone is equally tribal. A Trump-like candidate, and who would that even be? The closest you could get is something like Kucinich and he’s not nearly the disaster Trump would be would not get traction among democrats. Democrats are much less prone to absolute “party above all else” sort of thinking, and you can see this in action with the various factions in the democratic party refusing to support each other blindly.
A leftist as repugnant and vastly unqualified as Trump would not enjoy widespread support amongst the democratic party.
That’s a matter of opinion. You also hold a very high opinion of Democratic voters when I could list literal crackheads who got elected on the left.
The country doesn’t need or deserve an aluminum baseball bat slammed up alongside its head as a “wake up call”. Fucking over others, bringing this country down, “just to prove a point!” is fucking juvenile.
Name one that we are not ashamed of, one that we will excuse with anything close to “Well, they do it too, so it’s all right!”
Better yet give a good reason, a sane reason, why Trump should be elected that doesn’t involve a petty jockeying for a later political position.
No, it’s really not. The reality is that Trump would not ever get the dem nomination. Not even close. His message doesn’t resonate at all with the democratic base which on the fringe is not racist and awful. They may be idealistic, crazy, and ignorant, but they aren’t gonna buy what a guy like Trump is selling.
Yes, tribalism is strong, but the dems generally don’t elect transparently repugnant people. We have elected idiots, liars, etc. But not people like Trump if for no other reason than the democratic establishment has much more power to prevent obviously unelectable candidates from getting nominated or funded. It’s not just the use of super delegates, it’s the fact that there are not clear fractures that prevent the establishment from having power in the way coalitions of bigots, religious people, tea-partiers, etc. do in the GOP. Yes, similar coalitions exist on the left (eg. dem socialists, social progressives, etc), but they don’t have the power to set the agenda.
Just consider that both Trump and Sanders were both the faces of populism for their respective parties for a while there. Compare Sanders, a guy I think would have been a pretty awful president, to Trump. He is a decent person with experience, and general competency. Trump is a conman fraud of the highest order. Sanders won hearts by floating free college and tougher baking regulations. Trump got votes by calling Mexicans rapists and vowing to ban Muslims. They are NOT the same men, and their messages are not interchangeable regardless of what you might argue.
I judge this true and incredibly sad. I fear for our republic.
To the presidency?
Do you think that there is some scientific principle that states that if there are two or more political parties, they will be equal in morals, standards and deeds? Do you think there are supersekrit meetings held by the leaders of both parties where they “balance the sheets”(so to speak) and make sure that each party is equally corrupt?
I’m starting to think that it’s the clearest evidence that Democracy is a bad idea.
Tell ya what. You get to play the hypothetical liberal hypocrisy card after the liberals nominate and rally around a racist, sexist bigot with the temperament of a five-year-old and a frickin’ mausoleum in their closet. And puts a whole bunch more complete fucking nutters in congress; the kind of nutters who would use the full faith and credit of the country as a hostage. :mad: Until that happens, this is at best wishful thinking.
Trump is funny and deeply alarming.
He’s one of the graver threats the nation has ever been exposed to in our lifetime – and he’s comedy gold. He’s putting food on the table for thousands of comedians, bloggers, and pundits. He’s the core material for a whole industry, and a hell of a lot of the results are truly hilarious.
He is vast. He contains multitudes. The statues that popped up in various cities: brilliant! Donald Trump has no balls! I want one of those preserved in the Smithsonian!
Can this be made into a Facebook meme? Unfortunately, you are correct; there’s a contingent of people who will vote for anyone as long as they’re Republican. :rolleyes:
p.s. It looks like Newsweek is going to drop a bombshell in its next issue. Won’t make any difference either.