I agree that that’s part of it. The trouble is, it’s people like Trump who broke the system in the first place. Supposing you’re right that the liberal elites and the salt-of-the-earth types have different visions for America. Well, we’re all Americans, and the way “the system” is supposed to work is that both sides come together, figure out what they have to have and what they can let go, take the best of both worlds, compromise, and move on. And that system worked for a couple hundred years and made us the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth. That system broke when one side decided that the other was so wrong that even compromise was unacceptable.
Trump, win or lose, will not fix the system; he will take the broken pieces of it and break them some more. His supporters will then look for someone even worse.
Well, The Donald is a landlord so landlords ought to do pretty well under his presidency because who else is out there looking out of landlords and if there’s nobody else who the hell are landlord supposed to vote for besides all these liberal tenant-rights activist wannabes
RobotArm, that is so well put. It puts Trump in a longer perspective, as part of a trend, building gradually since around the late '90s, of “compromise” becoming a sin rather than a virtue (in governance above city-manager-or-mayor level).
I’ll be generous and say Republicans aren’t entirely to blame for this. But whatever.
And it’s not irreversible. Just there have always been some corrosive, petulant non-compromisers in government, there are today some who do value working together toward solutions. Let’s hope – and work to make sure – they gain more power in November, and beyond.
I would venture to say a lot of us are curious as to what a Trump presidency would look like. But most of us are smart enough to know this is one curiosity we don’t need satiated.
I don’t plan on voting for Trump – and, as you say, I don’t want to find out what a Trump presidency would be like. But if he is elected, my fondest hope is that his whole persona throughout this campaign has been an act, and he’d govern differently. I have no specific reason to believe that’s true, apart from (a) the general point that he’s a lying liar who lies, and (b) the fact that, if he has just been playing a role, it’s apparently been the one with the best shot at getting him elected; why figure that’s a coincidence?
(Yes, the tl;dr on that is “my fondest hope is that he’s just a lying liar who lies.”)
Unfortunately, as there has been no political background from Trump, that hope was shot when one looks at the staff Trump has chosen, and who his close advisors and associates are now.
Like women harasser Roger Allies, Pravda of the west Breitbart staffers, racial profiler and still birther Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Climate change denier energy adviser to Trump Rep. Kevin Cramer, A bridge too far Chris Christie, Baghdad Bob’s female version Katrina Pierson as her spokesperson, Ban all abortions Mike Pence, etc, etc.
Not a Trump supporter, but subtract the odious 'ist’s and those clowns in it for the kicks and my theory is there is a kernel of rational support for him.
Staunch social conservatives/reactionaries can no longer achieve their goals, no side is fiscally responsible, so somehow a deep shift in the political landscape happened and the battle is over globalism. A dynamic open global economy is better for everyone in the long term, but in the short term there are losers. I don’t believe any politician (right or left) has done a stellar job of championing it’s cause or in mitigating it’s failures. The main factory in a small town closes shop to move to Mexico and all the statistics in the world indicating it’s for the best won’t change the mind of a community that has only known manufacturing since high school.
Outside of college idealists and socialist minded ex hippies, that’s explains Bernie’s groundswell as well.
See, here’s the thing: I’d prefer any of those people over Trump. I mean, granted, I’d of course prefer Hillary Clinton over any of them – but if you tell me they’re his advisors and he’s going to listen to them, that’s actually more reassuring than the idea of him just shooting his mouth off whenever some impulse enters his head.
Do you figure Pence would launch a nuclear first strike on a whim? How about Christie? But with Trump – hey, saying he can be advised at all seems, uh, less bad.
Trump is a symptom of a much wider problem, the slow collapse of Democracy around the world.
As a system it hasn’t kept up with the times, “one person one vote” just doesn’t cut it anymore; the system relies on an informed population making, if not rational, at least somewhat non-stupid or spiteful decisions on what sort of people to put in positions of power, the problem is, the people are nothing but putty in the hands of decades of well oiled, time proven propaganda techniques. It’s easier than ever (and it’ll only become easier) to manipulate people into believing anything.
On top of that the advent of the Internet and lack of awareness of, among other things, the effects of confirmation bias on the perception of reality has slowly but surely helped people to isolate themselves into their very own happy neurotic postmodernist bubbles.
Even worse, those that go around clamoring for the sheeple to wake up and overturn the system or whatnot range from Quixotic morons to sociopaths and people that by “fixing the system” mean “rigging the system” to their own advantage.
I was watching a 20s or 30s documentary film the other day, I found it noteworthy that the narrator referred to the people in the film as citizens, no this wasn’t a flag waving piece of propaganda, just a short film about the life and work of normal people.
Not “Electorate”, not “(Insert Nationality Here)” and definitely not “Consumers”; citizens, I took notice of it because, unlike other terms it implicitly carries with it the existence of a social contract among the people, that there are rights as well as responsibilities that go with it and it’s exercise is not limited to picking a side on a popularity contest every few years… let alone making a choice just to spite the other side.
I just see the working framework of Democracy as essentially the same as it was two hundred years ago, no evolution; and it’s going the way of the Dodo at this rate.
Back then Mark Twain lamented that “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”, that’s true and bad enough, but these days the lie can become an entire political or ideological movement in the same amount of time.
Look at the candidates!
Given in our system many view voting for a third party as throwing their vote away many will vote for Clinton because she’s not-Trump and many will vote for Trump because he’s not-Clinton. I’m voting Johnson but if I absolutely had to vote major party I would vote for Trump over the Queen of the Harpies just for that reason.
First, Trump was not my first choice. But why I’m voting for him. Reason #1: I find Hillary evil, Bill was OK, but in my opinion she represents everything wrong with the political system and our culture today. Don’t ask me to go into it, not in the mood to either change this topic or argue. Reason #2: Trump pisses off people I want to piss off. Reason #3: While I believe few of the things Trump promises to do, looking back into his history for years if not decades, Trump was always complained about our lousy trade deals. So I kind of think he may be sincere on this one issue. Reason #4: To paraphrase the Joker “This country needs an enema.” Reason # 5: Despite what I’ve said in my first 4 reasons, it probably doesn’t matter in the long run who win. Destiny is kind of like an avalanche, nothing much effects it.
