Election 2016 Thread

[pErvinalia]

What are the long term costs of inequality and lack of education? We just got one lesson with more to come.
Dan Ariely

That's quite an indictment of the 160 to 180 other countries in the world who have higher "inequality" and worse (or approximately the same level of) education systems as the US.

And what do you think the quality of their leaders are on average?

Probably much better than in the US. Everything is worse here.

Well you did just elect a lunatic.

[laklak]

He's NOT a lunatic! He's a narcissistic sociopath. There's a difference.

[pErvinalia]

True.

[Forty Two]

The butthurt is palpable. Meaning you could palpate it. You know, like feel it up. Like a pussy.

The common thread seems to be Hillary supporters unable to grasp how this could happen, and how so many people could vote the way they did.

I think the main thing is that the media and the Hillary supporters successfully drove a good chunk of Trump support underground. The Hillary supporters were constantly bleating about hate, racism, misogyny and Islamophobia, tossing away friends who supported Trump, blocking them, telling them to "unfriend me on facebook if you support Trump," and that sort of thing. Trump supporters saw other Trump supporters getting assaulted, riots where people were beating up Trump supporters -- college campuses had people claiming "Make America Great Again" and "I support Trump" were "hate speech" and needed to be banned.

That drove a lot of people to just be quiet, and go to the polls.

The reality was, people just were not listening to the groundswell of support for Trump. The media wasn't listening to them. It was all about defining them as hateful, uneducated rednecks, who want to hurt people. You don't want to be one of THOSE hateful people, right? So, all the good people vote for Hillary, right? Right. They wouldn't listen to the arguments about Obamacare being a failure, and costing too much, and really socking it too the middle class. They didn't listen to the arguments about trade and the loss of the US manufacturing base. That was just a dog-whistle for racism. They didn't listen to the arguments about "illegal" immigration. That was just a dog-whistle for racism and anti-Mexican bias -- it was opposition to ALL immigration, not just illegal immigration. They wouldn't listen to the arguments about taxes and how the middle class is being stepped on by the policies of the last 8 years. That's just privilege talking. And, the media would not take seriously the corruption of the Hillary campaign -- they swept things like "cheating during debates by being fed the questions in advance" right under the rug, when if that were happening on the other side you know it would be front and center for weeks. they swept all the email and server scandal stuff under the rug - trying their best to portray it as a big nothing, when it is not a big nothing. It's a serious problem. The things discovered in those podesta emails and in Hillary's own emails, and her handling of the server issue, and her repeated lies right to our faces, those are serious issues. And, the media and hillary supporters wouldn't listen.

Disagree about those issues all you want. That's fine. What Trump supporters got was, however, not disagreement or counterargument, but finger pointing and accusations. People did not present an argument for how good Obamacare was -- rather, fingers were pointed and Trump supporters were racists and privileged white folks who just wanted to make sure the poor black people didn't have insurance. People didn't make an immigration counterargument, they just accused Trump supporters of being racist.

So, people see that kind of stuff, and more, and they say -- fuck off -- I'm not a racist. I have serious issues, and if you're not going to address them seriously - if you're just going to finger point and call me a racist, then fuck off. That's the thing where "political correctness" came to head this past year. Trump was willing to say - enough - enough -- we're not going to worry about whether you're "offended" or whether you think x, y or z means something else and is a "dog whistle" for racism. We're not racist. We have a position on specific issues and we're not going to put up with your shit.

So, The Hillary camp and supporters ignored them. You stuck them in a "basket" and called them deplorable. They labeled them bad names, and insisted they don't have a legitimate position to advance. Now, after years of not listening to what they were saying, of not trying to understand where they were coming from, all the pundits and hillary supporters wonder how they did not see this coming?

Why did this happen? How did this happen?

Isn't it obvious?

[Animavore]

Trump supporters were taking about a 2nd civil war or an "American Spring" (like an Arab Spring) if Trump lost. Trump probably would've exploded in a paranoid rant and flinging accusations of rigging if he had've lost. So it's probably better that all you've gotten are a few whiny Facebook posts and the odd protest.

[pErvinalia]

Good point.

[Forty Two]

Trump supporters were taking about a 2nd civil war or an "American Spring" (like an Arab Spring) if Trump lost. Trump probably would've exploded in a paranoid rant and flinging accusations of rigging if he had've lost. So it's probably better that all you've gotten are a few whiny Facebook posts and the odd protest.

Oh, nonsense. The pro-Hillary and anti-Trump demonstrations have been the more violent and intrusive protests. Hillary was paying folks to go cause trouble at Trump events, because they knew how the media would cover it. That was exposed in the leaked emails.

The left in the US is violent - we saw that with the riots this past year, cop cars getting turned over, Trump supporters physically assaulted - it was endless, even with the media trying hard not to cover it, and blaming Trump for it all along the way.

[pErvinalia]

Tu quoque.

[Animavore]

Trump supporters were taking about a 2nd civil war or an "American Spring" (like an Arab Spring) if Trump lost. Trump probably would've exploded in a paranoid rant and flinging accusations of rigging if he had've lost. So it's probably better that all you've gotten are a few whiny Facebook posts and the odd protest.

Oh, nonsense. The pro-Hillary and anti-Trump demonstrations have been the more violent and intrusive protests. Hillary was paying folks to go cause trouble at Trump events, because they knew how the media would cover it. That was exposed in the leaked emails.

The left in the US is violent - we saw that with the riots this past year, cop cars getting turned over, Trump supporters physically assaulted - it was endless, even with the media trying hard not to cover it, and blaming Trump for it all along the way.

It's not nonsense at all. This is what Trump supporters were actually saying. And Trump accused the election of rigging before it even started. I didn't just make it up.

[Forty Two]

You're blowing it out of all proportion. What some, few, Trump supporters were reported as commenting was that we were ALREADY on the verge of a civil war. Nobody stood up and said "if Trump loses, we need a civil war."

And, Trump said - like Obama and Hillary have said themselves in previous years, that the system is rigged. Now it's so horrible to say it, because Trump says it. But Obama said it was rigged too. And, in the Bush days, half the Democrats I talked to said the fucking Republicans had the Diebold voting machines rigged so Bush wouldn't lose. It's only now that it's a problem to say it.

And, the system was shown to actually be rigged. the fact that Trump won is amazing The media was in the tank for Hillary and rigging the news. They helped her cheat in the debates by feeding her advance debate questions. They sent her stories from CNN and Politico to let her campaign vet them before they were published. They were handed questions from the Hillary campaign to ask her so that the "right questons" were asked during interviews. Hillary campaign officials were fired for disclosing that cheating DOES occur, and that they pay people to go to polls and they even "bus"them to the polling places. The DNC lied to the people by saying they were neutral as between Hillary and Bernie, and they were not - they had it rigged against Bernie the whole time and the Bernie supporters saw it and everyone knows it.

[Animavore]

I never said it was a horrible thing to say. You are the one blowing things out of proportion. Not me. And so defensive too.

[Forty Two]

I never said it was a horrible thing to say. You are the one blowing things out of proportion. Not me. And so defensive too.

So, it's a fine thing to say the system is rigged before the election even started?

Why did you mention it?

[pErvinalia]

Stop being so defensive and just think for a change.

[Svartalf]

He's NOT a lunatic! He's a narcissistic sociopath. There's a difference.

the two are not mutually exclusive... he's still a complete loose cannon.

[Forty Two]

Stop being so defensive and just think for a change.