Well, maybe. The more rational observer will still note that Trump drew 40% (or whatever) of the popular vote (Mondale won 40.6%).
How close did you want him to get to it before last night?
Quoted for truth.
I am truly sorry you feel this way at all and I wish I knew better what to do to curb the rising anti-immigrant, anti-muslim, anti-ethnicity tide in this country.
Every election there are people threatening to leave the country and after every election they’re still living here. Empty threats are empty.
Trump’s latest nonsensical claim - tens of thousands of terrorist sympathizers are sneaking across the Mexican border with "cell phones with ISIS flags on them".
What kinda coverage do they get? Data caps?
I do not think that RNATB is like Alec Baldwin in this regard, but I appreciate your input.
As I pointed out in my original post, I wouldn’t be leaving in protest. I didn’t leave when Bush was reelected (nor threaten to do so), and I won’t leave if Rubio, Cruz, or any other Republican candidate wins the election. I would be leaving because of a genuine fear of violence because of Trump’s - and only Trump’s - anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Cross your fingers and hope it’s a fad, I guess. There was a wave of anti-Muslim (though mostly anti-Sikh because racists are stupid) violence after 9/11 but it blew over relatively quickly. Hopefully this too shall pass.
The funny thing is I’m not even Muslim (or Sikh); I just look enough like one to get stopped at airports. I can only imagine how worried they are.
I’m with those who view the rise of Trump as a terrifying demonstration of ugliness in the American psyche. It isn’t a repudiation if he loses. He’s already here. He’s already shown it, and gotten a following. He is the white supremacists’ candidate and he has not been sent packing in shame and defeat.
I used to think it was just kind of funny, because he’s such a buffoon. Now I see that when the buffoon says “That minority group is evil. Hurt them,” a whole group of people says yes.
This is not refreshing honesty. This is not harmless goofiness. This is an outlet for the worst, most xenophobic and racist tendencies in the American public. Even if he is not ultimately elected, or the candidate, he has increased the level of fear, hatred, and despair in this country. There’s no repudiation for that.
Its not him, as such, he didn’t make the wave, he’s riding it. Somewhere roughly in the ten percent to twenty percent of America is full 'tard, knuckle walking maroons. We have met the enemy, and he is us.
On the other hand, what better candidate to light a fire under the asses of the modestly liberal but unmotivated voter?
This.
There just aren’t that many rational observers out there, in politics or in appreciating percentages and probabilities (take, for instance, the widespread belief that if it rains on a day when only 10% chance of precipitation was predicted, the forecast was “wrong”).
Getting back to politics, who remembers Dukakis’s 46% as a strong showing? McCain’s similar numbers in 2008? Even Kerry tends to be remembered as a pathetic loser who blew the Democrats’ chances to retake the WH, despite the fact that he came within less than 100,000 votes in Ohio of winning in the Electoral College (and I personally believe he came close to maxxing out the bell curve of possibilities for a Democratic nominee that year).
I have serious doubts that Trump would crack 40%, and I don’t think very many people would be impressed (or horrified) by that showing. This would be a case where the average person’s innumeracy would be a good thing.
I thought both Jeb and Trump got some good shots in on each other.
I do think the “you can’t insult your way to the presidency” line sounded weak, whiny, butthurt. It was some other contradictions Jeb caught Trump in that seemed to score points IMO. Here is that section of the debate, three minutes starting at 3:48. You might call it a draw, as Jeb scored early but Trump wriggled around, changed the subject to the Mexican border, and Jeb faded by the end. However, I felt like Trump was hurt more by the exchange, maybe in part because Jeb was already pretty far down on most of the things Trump dinged him on.
And this clip starts off on a topic I can’t believe hasn’t gotten more attention. I follow politics pretty closely, and I had never heard about Trump’s proposal to kill ISIS bombers’ families, something I consider far more extreme than any of his immigration proposals (even the one barring Muslims from entry). When it was brought up at the debate, I was shocked that he didn’t bat it down as a misunderstanding or something. Here is another clip I found about it, with Rand Paul circling back to the issue. It should be queued to the correct time (2:44), and then watch for 34 seconds, until 3:18.
What. The. Actual. Fuck. Rand Paul accuses you of favoring a Nazi-like policy, and your response is to shrug and say “the terrorists do it, why can’t we?”?!? And in that exchange with Jeb, he defended it by saying something like “they don’t care about their own lives, but they do care about their families’ lives, believe it or not”. Okay, this is a trope from “24”: but Jack Bauer was faking it! Even Jack Bauer wouldn’t actually do something that heinous. Jesus.
I did think Trump was masterful in dealing with Cruz. However, I think the media are misunderestimating even that. Trump didn’t just “make nice” with Cruz. He absolutely kneecapped him with a smile, or maybe emasculated him is a better way to put it, and Cruz had to take it with a smile as well, all the while (I assume, because Cruz is a very intelligent guy) cringing and seething on the inside. The first part of it is here, from 2:34 to the end of the clip at 3:10. Then watch the imagery after that, while Cruz is talking: Trump is standing there like a daddy, an overseer, nodding and acting superior. The nonverbal message seems clear: Cruz is his bitch, and Trump has magnanimously granted him a reprieve from the doghouse, so long as Cruz “heels” and genuflects appropriately. This is so, so far from a Trump apology to Cruz. Again: it’s a reprieve, not an apology. Important distinction I think the media missed but I think the GOP voters got. Trump is the dom, Cruz is the sub.
I also think Trump’s “pledge” to be committed to the GOP (which comes later in the same clip as the Cruz stuff just above) is a great political ploy, and another thing the media are taking way too seriously. If he continues to win, he’s committed. If he loses, there must have been sabotage, and all bets are off.
Agree with both. But …
We’re not unique in that. The UK has the UKIP, France has the National Front, etc. Even civilized 21st century countries contain a lot of 19th century thinking in the darker nooks and crannies.
I agree wholeheartedly that the wrong thing to do is to glory in that, or to encourage it. But it’s equally foolish to pretend it doesn’t exist.
As demonstrated by the backlash we’ve seen in other rapidly modernizing countries, regardless of government system or of culture, the limitations of the backward-most citizens does set a speed limit on how fast the forward-most citizens can move things forward.
If that nebulous speed limit is exceeded big enough for long enough, the backward-most simply stop playing along. And they’re usually numerous enough to knock the whole system for a loop.
The strong socio-economic stratification in this country makes matters worse. Darn near every rural white supremacist lives surrounded by only like minded people. As does nearly every urban progressive. The rich associate only with the rich, and the poor only with the poor.
The presidential selection process, all 24 months of it, is the only time we have a coherent national-scale conversation that embraces everybody and crosses all the geographical and socio-economic boundaries.
It’s kinda like going to the DMV to renew your driver’s license. It’s one of the few times you really get to see a fair cross-section of your fellow citizens. And it’s often a chastening experience.
Nonsense. He is certainly talking in a bullshit way. The Mexico fence and mass deportations aren’t going to happen. There is more chance that Bernie’s free college and single-payer will occur.
Never mind the bigoted nonsense he blubbers.
Why not take a moment to see if your position is in any way reflective of the universe where we live before posting it?
Well, both sides do it. That’s the important thing here, that both sides do it.
That might make people hate muslims more but it would reduce Trumps chances of winning.
How so? The final bin Laden video helped to swing the 2004 election.
A real threat wouldn’t drive people to vote for a joke candidate.
… they voted for Bush.
A real threat will certainly make a lot of the stay-at-home haters and fearfuls get out and vote. Turnout is everything; ideology is nothing.