Donald Trump for President Thread

[RaleighBlue]

There's a huge number of ordinary people who are, perhaps not as articulate, but nevertheless have similar values - the pity is that as in the UK, few with those values are attracted to politics or are able to succeed in politics, because of the "system" that is party politics.

Also though...politics is gross.

It just is. To get anything done you have to grease wheels. You have to be watched at all times. You have to be on guard every moment of every day. You have to put up with constant abuse and lies. You have to engage with people that hate you for your beliefs.

And that's before you even have to deal with lobbyists.

I legitimately do not see how you can be a successful national politician without being at least a tiny bit of a psychopath.

 

[longers]

What a wonderful speaker Michelle Obama is....

even if you dislike them and their politics is impossible to deny that both Obama's are amazing public speakers

 

[mezzrow]

I legitimately do not see how you can be a successful national politician without being at least a tiny bit of a psychopath.

The obvious answer is that you can't. We are all led by narcissists and sociopaths.

 

[The Esk]

Also though...politics is gross.

It just is. To get anything done you have to grease wheels. You have to be watched at all times. You have to be on guard every moment of every day. You have to put up with constant abuse and lies. You have to engage with people that hate you for your beliefs.

And that's before you even have to deal with lobbyists.

I legitimately do not see how you can be a successful national politician without being at least a tiny bit of a psychopath.

Interesting observations mate, for me it is the franchise system of party politics that stops most (not all) good people from succeeding in politics. I was heavily involved in student politics many years ago and accepted the Labour party brand for a time (although I've always been a member). The moment I articulated my own beliefs that happened to be "off message" I was penalised or criticised and was told to advance I had to promote the party line. Clearly some people do advance but do not promote the party line, often considered to be mavericks, but for me it was too great a battle to have to espouse views I did not agree with in order to advance within a party.

 

[Groucho]

Billy Connolly used to have an interesting point - those who actively want to be politicians should be life-banned from being one.

If it's simply power they're after, that is.

 

[McBain]

Billy Connolly used to have an interesting point - those who actively want to be politicians should be life-banned from being one.

If it's simply power they're after, that is.

Easily one of the funniest routines of all time that one.

 

[RaleighBlue]

Interesting observations mate, for me it is the franchise system of party politics that stops most (not all) good people from succeeding in politics. I was heavily involved in student politics many years ago and accepted the Labour party brand for a time (although I've always been a member). The moment I articulated my own beliefs that happened to be "off message" I was penalised or criticised and was told to advance I had to promote the party line. Clearly some people do advance but do not promote the party line, often considered to be mavericks, but for me it was too great a battle to have to espouse views I did not agree with in order to advance within a party.

Party politics is certainly a turn off. I don't really identify with either major American political party. I'm too far to the left regarding the economy to match the democrats and I'm a bit more radical than that party regarding services and the place of government (it's there to work for the people, for christ's sake it's not a business and shouldn't be run like one).

However, I think with the media coverage of politics, you have to have a very specific personality to not be turned off by the mechanism. I can't imagine living under a microscope and handling the politics of the whole game.

Basically, I agree with you, but feel that the ubiquity of the media has simply made the people that want to 'serve' the nation back away and has left the entire system to the people that want the nation to serve them (to be melodramatic, it's obviously a generalisation and not clear cut). But what is the media to do? People want to hear about this stuff. And the media does have an obligation to report on it. But that obligation is tending more and more towards party propaganda rather than independent editorials and coverage.

Basically big business has shafted us again by having purely profit-driven news.

 

[mezzrow]

Party politics is certainly a turn off. I don't really identify with either major American political party. I'm too far to the left regarding the economy to match the democrats and I'm a bit more radical than that party regarding services and the place of government (it's there to work for the people, for christ's sake it's not a business and shouldn't be run like one).

However, I think with the media coverage of politics, you have to have a very specific personality to not be turned off by the mechanism. I can't imagine living under a microscope and handling the politics of the whole game.

Basically, I agree with you, but feel that the ubiquity of the media has simply made the people that want to 'serve' the nation back away and has left the entire system to the people that want the nation to serve them (to be melodramatic, it's obviously a generalisation and not clear cut). But what is the media to do? People want to hear about this stuff. And the media does have an obligation to report on it. But that obligation is tending more and more towards party propaganda rather than independent editorials and coverage.

Basically big business has shafted us again by having purely profit-driven news.

Couple this with the current nexus of government and media with its layers of old boy/girl networks, intermarriage between media/govt figures, shifting in/out of of govt/media/lobbying and its self-licking ice cream cone of bonuses and payoffs. Add another layer of narrative driven utopian theatre that is so at odds with the daily lived lives of the deplorable masses in their little towns and hamlets, and we have a guaranteed future of an America with a president (either would qualify for this) that is as roundly and deeply hated in half the nation as Thatcher is in L4.

For four long years.

A govt with Clinton at the heart of this would be lifted and accelerated by this pantomime act in DC, while Trump would be treated with a more emetic response by those within the beltway. Anyone asking me to accept Trump as POTUS twelve months ago got a look of bemused disbelief from yours truly.

Reason enough then for many to vote for the serial groper, rather than the harried spouse of the other serial philanderer. I'm still waiting for a leak of on board footage from the Lolita Express, just to see if we can make this campaign into the political equivalent of the mohole project.

It was often said in the nineteenth century that "God takes care of children, drunkards, and the United States of America." Let us pray that this is still true. If I can vote for anything, I can vote for that.

 

[Spocks-a-Blue]

lol what a costume

Wicked funny that, especially noticing that the sign she's holding has the wrong date on it!

 

[verreauxi]

Also though...politics is gross.

It just is. To get anything done you have to grease wheels. You have to be watched at all times. You have to be on guard every moment of every day. You have to put up with constant abuse and lies. You have to engage with people that hate you for your beliefs.

And that's before you even have to deal with lobbyists.

I legitimately do not see how you can be a successful national politician without being at least a tiny bit of a psychopath.

So true.

 

[kithnou]

Cute.

 

[N.S.N.O.]

One thing about this election.....the media are now releasing all this stuff on Trump with a few weeks to go to the election....videos and audio tapes dating back 15-20 years ago......so are we to assume they didn't have these tapes until now?!!.....surely all these stories could have been released over a year ago when he first started running for the Republican nomination, and killed him off straight away...

So why didn't they?.....were they all happy to bury the story & make money off the back of this horrible man (Trump is good for ratings and newspaper articles whether you like him or not).....

 

[TheFinnFan]

Newt is great person. I like him.

 

[orly]

Also though...politics is gross.

It just is. To get anything done you have to grease wheels. You have to be watched at all times. You have to be on guard every moment of every day. You have to put up with constant abuse and lies. You have to engage with people that hate you for your beliefs.

And that's before you even have to deal with lobbyists.

I legitimately do not see how you can be a successful national politician without being at least a tiny bit of a psychopath.

Psychopath no, sociopath yes.

Same for Trust CEOs in the UK.

 

[kithnou]

Newt is great person. I like him.

You can post that in here mate. Hillary is honest....