POTUS 2016

[DualityNSNO]

Wish Americans would watch this and try and switch on their brains for a bit.

This is a fantastic video with loads of truths delivered in a very understandable and actually funny way.

 

[abelard]

Wish Americans would watch this and try and switch on their brains for a bit.

the trouble is that this sort of thing only reinforces the Trumpster Divers' perception of being persecuted by a distant and contemptuous cosmopolitan elite. they feel watching this that they too are being sneered at. it is cultural as much as economic. they are accustomed to feeling humiliated and foolish, and the more Trump is exposed as a barely-competent con man, the more they double-down on supporting him, to avoid having to admit yet again that they've been outsmarted.

American nationalism is patently ridiculous in a lot of ways, but you can't expect marginalized people to support a party (the democrats) that implies that they're ridiculous for eating at applebees, or playing with guns, or gathering to watch cars drive around in circles under the reassuring cover of fighter jets (i can't even stop myself from doing it). this is why they'll never vote democrat no matter how much the republicans come to resemble a pyramid scheme.

But since racism and xenophobia are at critical to so-called "real" America's vision of itself, the democrats can only go so far to signal to it without alienating their much more diverse core. they can't exactly go around with "black lives DON'T matter" signs to win back the south. the best they can do is to wheel out Jim Webb from time to time to ramble on about how he's sacrificed his body to satiate america's lust for foreign blood, and even then most democratic observers can barely keep a straight face.

 

[Rook]

Interesting times.

Spurs are going to win the league. I don't know what to believe in anymore.

 

[rascal]

My word, Trump is quoting Gandhi.

 

[SerenityNigh]

Interesting times.

Has @chicoazul yet campaigned for your Mod powers to return for one night to set this thread to rights?

I'll punch that ticket.

 

[mezzrow]

Has @chicoazul yet campaigned for your Mod powers to return for one night to set this thread to rights?

I'll punch that ticket.

Twice.

 

[mezzrow]

John Oliver makes loads of terrific points, BUT

they feel watching this that they too are being sneered at.

Is that because they are being sneered at, perhaps? Maybe they're very tired of being treated as if they are too stupid to insult. We all know lots of very very sharp people who are not particularly well educated, particularly if you happen to be my age. There are a lot of folks who don't know the people they grew up with any more because they moved up in class or out of the area, but I have the same friends I have always had, just more of them as I go through life. I have lifelong friends who have never not voted for a Democrat tell me they are voting for Trump when they get a chance to do so. It is both about the pain they feel economically, mostly watching children struggle to get a foothold in this economy, but more about the contempt. I started out being gobsmacked, but now I just nod and say, "we'll see, things are crazy aren't they..."

People believe what they believe, even creepy Godbothering and such. It's not hard for people to detect when they're being held in contempt, you know. That's never on a final exam. People claim they vote guided by issues and reason, but they're just kidding themselves.

 

[abelard]

John Oliver makes loads of terrific points, BUT Is that because they are being sneered at, perhaps?

Totally agree,

We all know lots of very very sharp people who are not particularly well educated

and on this too, but

I have lifelong friends who have never not voted for a Democrat tell me they are voting for Trump when they get a chance to do so

This won't help

 

[mezzrow]

Totally agree, but



This won't help

Of course it won't. It is what it is.

 

[TX Bill]

Has @chicoazul yet campaigned for your Mod powers to return for one night to set this thread to rights?

I'll punch that ticket.

I relinquished my mod powers voluntarily. Not on enough and more going on in other areas of life. Couldn't do the job justice.

 

[SerenityNigh]

I relinquished my mod powers voluntarily. Not on enough and more going on in other areas of life. Couldn't do the job justice.

Definitely busy if you didn't see the takeover news until Sunday. Take care Tex.

 

[TX Bill]

...and to be perfectly honest, not on here near as much anymore for a variety of reasons. You could guess a few of those reasons and a few, perhaps not.

 

[tsubaki]

Like Hitler.

Trump is a bit more though, with Trump they are not only turning their back on the political elite but any aptitude at doing the job, nothing about his background provides any hint of competency or clarity of long term vision.The guy is great at gaining backers/money but screws it up every time due to terrible decision making and everyone turning against him. The really terrifying thing is that a lot of Americans don't see Trump as a protest vote, but a legit Presidential hopeful.

Chomsky has been saying in the last while it's just the the way the Republican party works. Every Election the Party put forward the political candidates it feels will do the best job, and every time there is a nut job outsider who is massively popular with the actual voters that they have to defeat. Every Election up to now the Party has managed with horrendous amounts of money and media influence to somehow get their candidate selected over the nutjob. This time they are struggling though and could actually fail.

Hitler was relatively mainstream though, at least in terms of post-war Germany - there were loads of extreme right-wing groups on the German right, many with deep links to the German state (don't forget that he himself was put into the early NSDAP by the Army to bring it under control).

Chomsky is wrong about the nature of Trump's candidacy, though. The previous examples of the loon (Huckabee in 2008, Santorum in 2012) being an early front-runner were largely down to evangelicals deliberately pushing for an early primary victory in order to boost their already excessive influence. They didn't win because they didn't have the wider appeal / support of the more reasonable candidate (McCain, Romney etc) who in the end didn't have to work that hard to beat them.

If that is a valid theory, then surely the candidate who most fits that profile is Cruz (who after all won an early primary after being boosted by evangelicals, and who doesn't have that much support elsewhere), and not Trump who has been on top in most polls (nationwide and in individual states) for ages.

 

[SpurtingLesbian]

Hitler was relatively mainstream though, at least in terms of post-war Germany - there were loads of extreme right-wing groups on the German right, many with deep links to the German state (don't forget that he himself was put into the early NSDAP by the Army to bring it under control).

Chomsky is wrong about the nature of Trump's candidacy, though. The previous examples of the loon (Huckabee in 2008, Santorum in 2012) being an early front-runner were largely down to evangelicals deliberately pushing for an early primary victory in order to boost their already excessive influence. They didn't win because they didn't have the wider appeal / support of the more reasonable candidate (McCain, Romney etc) who in the end didn't have to work that hard to beat them.

If that is a valid theory, then surely the candidate who most fits that profile is Cruz (who after all won an early primary after being boosted by evangelicals, and who doesn't have that much support elsewhere), and not Trump who has been on top in most polls (nationwide and in individual states) for ages.

Pah!

You can prove anything with facts and well-reasoned argument...

*flips whispy blonde wig over and threatens to sue any member of the press that reports anything vaguely negative about me*

 

[abelard]

Hitler was relatively mainstream though, at least in terms of post-war Germany - there were loads of extreme right-wing groups on the German right, many with deep links to the German state (don't forget that he himself was put into the early NSDAP by the Army to bring it under control)

The other difference is that Hitler had a clear "policy agenda" so to speak, whereas Trump seems to be in this mostly to enjoy himself, and, more recently, to troll republicans and the media. I'm not sure he would even really want to be President, assuming he manages to demonstrate that he can win it. He would probably just appoint a 'consiglierie (Christie's angle?) to run day-to-day affairs, do whatever the equally politically-formidable and similarly-branded military asked, and implement a generic K-Street-Republican-Think-Tank-Du-Jour economic agenda. His tax plan is indistinguishable from all the others, except for Cruz.

More realistically, he will lose to Hilary, but use his notoriety to continue to part fools from their money. But it would have to be a different, lower class of fool - his brand will be less "gullible small town suburban country club car dealership owners' idea of being super posh" and more "desperate vindictive amateur conspiracy theorist." I imagine he will instead sell things like "this one weird social security trick," or "pay me to confide where the Fort Knox gold is hidden," or a Trump-brand complete post-zombie apocalypse survival kit, or even a gold-plated actual bald eagle, to appreciate in value after the federal reserve gets "audited." that sort of thing.