Current Affairs Donald Trump POS: Judgement cometh and that right soon

[wm02]

It resonated despite having about as much chance of being implemented as Trump's harebrained schemes. Really this boils down to a vote for fantasy over reality.

It's part of an overall trend in recent Presidential elections in that the candidate with less established policy positions (voting records) have won (ignoring reelection campaigns which have a different dynamic). Bush defeated Gore who had a long voting history in Congress compared to Bush's limited experience as Governor. Similarly, Obama beat long-time Senator McCain, in part, by using previous votes in the Senate against him. In this case again Trump could shift positions easily since he has no voting record. He killed the likes of Rubio and Paul in the primaries by attacking votes on immigration for example.
It will be interesting to see what happens next. Does this process continue (e.g. The Rock in 2020) or does political experience begin to be highly valued again?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

With all due respect, I disagree.
Sanders wanted to end tuition fees in public colleges. He would pay for this with a speculation tax on wall street.
He wanted to increase the tax intake from the super wealthy.
He wanted family leave.
He wanted a path to citizenship
He wanted to end TPP
He wanted a single payer healthcare system.
He wanted a more inclusive approach to the middle east.
Other than these things he planned to continue the path Obama had taken.
All of this was achievable with a blue Senate. And all far more thought out and achievable than Trumps empty rhetoric.
Make Mexico pay for a $35bn border wall, come on...

The thing is, it's a bit like a beauty queen saying she'll be striving for world peace. They're things that sound great and are hard to argue against, but are much easier on paper than they are in reality. Syreza ran on a very similar platform, and reality bit when they had to actually try and implement things.

 

[neil999]

The thing is, it's a bit like a beauty queen saying she'll be striving for world peace. They're things that sound great and are hard to argue against, but are much easier on paper than they are in reality. Syreza ran on a very similar platform, and reality bit when they had to actually try and implement things.

so much easier to protest against things than to actually implement them...

 

[AndyC]

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Written by a chap called H.L.Mencken... in 1920 !!

Just saying like...

 

[wm02]

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Written by a chap called H.L.Mencken... in 1920 !!

Just saying like...

Somewhat off-topic but is Mencken well-known in the UK?
Living here in Maryland he's a big deal as he was from Baltimore...as an aside, the founder of our local parish was very close friends with him

 

[Ruairi77]

The thing is, it's a bit like a beauty queen saying she'll be striving for world peace. They're things that sound great and are hard to argue against, but are much easier on paper than they are in reality. Syreza ran on a very similar platform, and reality bit when they had to actually try and implement things.

true, I only took exception to you drawing a comparison between the campaign pledges of Trump and Sanders. Sanders pledges were difficult to achieve, Trumps were ridiculous nonsense!
It's worth noting that Sanders built his campaign on promising the social structures pretty much every other modern democracy enjoy, not fairytale stuff. All achievable with the backing of congress. Which he continuously pointed out.

 

[AndyC]

Somewhat off-topic but is Mencken well-known in the UK?
Living here in Maryland he's a big deal as he was from Baltimore...as an aside, the founder of our local parish was very close friends with him

Doubt he's widely known in the UK, bet this quote is getting some airing your side of the pond at present?

 

[wm02]

Doubt he's widely known in the UK, bet this quote is getting some airing your side of the pond at present?

Never seen it before tbh. Several of his other quotes are quite ingrained

 

[tsubaki]

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Does this process continue (e.g. The Rock in 2020) or does political experience begin to be highly valued again?

Political experience has always counted - the problem with this election specifically is that the political experience of Clinton was almost all bad.

From her attempt to fix healthcare during her husbands administration, to managing to be wrong twice on Iraq as a Senator (to vote to go in and then to vote against the surge that briefly looked like it had solved the chaos over there*), and ending up with her four years of being Secretary of State being an almost unmitigated disaster (Libya, the mishandling of the Arab Spring and the complete insanity that was training and arming "our" anti-Assad rebels), there isn't much good experience. The notion that she was the most qualified person ever to run for that office would have been laughable if only it hadn't been loudly and often repeated from every news-orifice.

* and in fairness may well have done, had Maliki and his ilk not wrecked it

 

[tsubaki]

The thing is, it's a bit like a beauty queen saying she'll be striving for world peace. They're things that sound great and are hard to argue against, but are much easier on paper than they are in reality. Syreza ran on a very similar platform, and reality bit when they had to actually try and implement things.

Some of it certainly, but there are bits of that policy platform (ending TPP for instance) that could be done easily (indeed that one is so easy the Donald will be able to do it), and others (single-payer healthcare being the best example) only appear difficult because of the loudness of the bark that will result from the people who have been raking it in for years - once you get past all the self-interested noise people will quickly realize how much money they will save, how much better their lives will be, and how immoral the current system actually is.

 

[Clint Planet]

The thing is, it's a bit like a beauty queen saying she'll be striving for world peace. They're things that sound great and are hard to argue against, but are much easier on paper than they are in reality. Syreza ran on a very similar platform, and reality bit when they had to actually try and implement things.

Maybe so, but that's no reason to strive for a better, more just society. Otherwise you're just saying "Oh well, mierda happens - no point in aiming to make things better, just try to manage the way in which they're getting worse."

And yet, there was a time when people worked six days a week, 52 weeks a year in Europe and they had no employment rights, no paid holidays, no sick pay or maternity leave and if they were ill they had no right to free treatment. All of that changed not because of people like you saying "What's the point in grumbling - just get on with your lot or else be some sort of entrepreneur to escape the poverty trap" but by the idealists and activists of the world campaigning, fighting and - yes - voting for people with similar principles. None of those things were handed down by a benevolent ruling class by way of reward for not complaining - they were hard-earned and heroically fought for, often at great personal cost.

 

[Dylan]

Clinton News Network reporting that tech group recommends Hillary to demand recount in Blue Wall states
"No evidence of wrongdoings but we still feel it should be done"

You couldnt make this up. Poor snowflakes.

You need to get it right.

It is the Communist News Network

You can tell you are a part-timer in American politics.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Maybe so, but that's no reason to strive for a better, more just society. Otherwise you're just saying "Oh well, mierda happens - no point in aiming to make things better, just try to manage the way in which they're getting worse."

And yet, there was a time when people worked six days a week, 52 weeks a year in Europe and they had no employment rights, no paid holidays, no sick pay or maternity leave and if they were ill they had no right to free treatment. All of that changed not because of people like you saying "What's the point in grumbling - just get on with your lot or else be some sort of entrepreneur to escape the poverty trap" but by the idealists and activists of the world campaigning, fighting and - yes - voting for people with similar principles. None of those things were handed down by a benevolent ruling class by way of reward for not complaining - they were hard-earned and heroically fought for, often at great personal cost.

The thing is, I don't see it as revolution or bust, but more that these things very seldom happen, and when you try and change things in any kind of major way, you nearly always end up with compromises that mean your initial vision is but a pale imitation of what's left. That's just the reality of these kind of things, and I sense Clinton got that through years of experience, whereas both Trump and Sanders don't get that and think they can change ala revolution rather than evolution.

 

[peteblue]

so much easier to protest against things than to actually implement them...

That's the motto of the Labour Party.......

 

[peteblue]

The thing is, I don't see it as revolution or bust, but more that these things very seldom happen, and when you try and change things in any kind of major way, you nearly always end up with compromises that mean your initial vision is but a pale imitation of what's left. That's just the reality of these kind of things, and I sense Clinton got that through years of experience, whereas both Trump and Sanders don't get that and think they can change ala revolution rather than evolution.

Yeah, Clinton had 8 years of her husband in charge, god knows how many years that she was Secretary of State or whatever, and yet still didn't manage to sort anything out.......