The 2016 US Election (Part IV)

[K. A. Pital]

The disconnect between the majority of the media and the outcome is extreme. For the last six months there have been a constant stream of 'Republican party is finnished, Democrats are the future' opinion pieces in most major newspapers/politics blogs. Yet reality stubbornly refuses to conform to that perception. We shall now see if said pundits double down and claim that reality must be wrong, not them.

Problem is, globalist oligarchs seem to be disconnected from reality and they order their mouthpieces to post opinions that would be comfortable for them. Opinions they support.

So expect pundits to double down inside the echo chamber. Their free trade sponsors would stop paying otherwise.

[His Divine Shadow]

I will admit that I was wrong to think it was what it was. I don't think I thought it was okay, but it is significantly worse than I had believed.

It is significantly worse because the establishment politicians had totally forgotten the need to appeal to the people who elect them. You can't do banker buddy parties with Goldman Sachs and push for bullshit deals like TTIP and TTP and still get elected by a huge majority of people who suffer as a result of this poisonous free market cool aid, on which Hillary was sitting big time.

I will further note that "the US workers voted Trump" is true only if you are careful about how you define "worker." Precisely how do you go about doing that?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-collar ... for-trump/
This defining moment when Trump crushingly wins Pennsylvania with the aid of the miners. Remember him being ridiculed for this just a while ago in this thread?

"i don't think the Us has many miners left" was the saying, or something. i just want to see those idiots who left these comments back then in this thread, right now.

I honestly doubt that Sanders would have done a better job. Sanders never succeeded in mobilizing, say, a groundswell of the lower and lower-middle classes to support him.

Your view of the worker class, lower class, blinds you. Sanders was extremely good at mobilizing the worker class. In fact, so good he was that he could mount a challenge to Big Money candidate, Clinton.

And guess what? Middle class fucking yuppie don't decide elections. All that hipster crap, all that celeb bullshit and Beyonce and Jay fucking Z rapping for Hillary meant nothing.

Hope the "globalized" yuppies learned their fucking lesson.

In a country that actually had a real, labor-embracing, mid-left to far-left political movement, Sanders or someone like him might have been a better choice. But the United States has not been such a country since, oh, the 1930s.

Sanders might not have been a better choice outright, but he had potential to appeal to the working class. Hillary? Fuck no. Not after her private talks xwith the ultra rich.

And Trump made every possible effort to capitalize on this and steal the worker vote, appealing to the rust belt, the miners, those affected badly by shit like NAFtA which we had assholes defending even in this thread.

Fuck the freetraders. And fuck the yuppies. They had their candidate - Hillary. And she lost. To a monster. Hope they all go fucking die in hell.

Yeah

[Elfdart]

It turns out that were it not for Johnson, Trump would have also won Minnesota, Colorado, Maine, Nevada and New Mexico.

[Joun_Lord]

Its also possible that Trump managed to mobilize a higher percentage of the working class white racist vote in key states.

Working class, probably. Racist, maybe. Idiots, definitely. But idiots with good reasons.

I'm only speaking for my area but alot of people were not really voting for tRump but voting against Clinton a bit like Starglider was alluding to. Clinton.....Clinton goofed hard with some of her comments. Her comment about putting coal workers and companies out of business really scared the dungarees off of a people already scared shitless about job loss, already reeling from the effects of the supposed "War on Coal" and feeling like nobody gives a shit about poor white people in Appalachia.

Presumably those same sentiments propelled Trump in the lead in other economically fucked up areas. Trump said sweet nothings into their ears while Clinton inserted her foot in mouth. Right or wrong people believed Trump was a candidate for workers while Clinton was not.

I'm sure racism had some to do with his winning even among workers but just saying "they be racist" completely ignores why people were scared enough to vote for Pumpkin Head.

It really sucks too so many people were scared and desperate enough to get suckered by Trump, that Clinton practically handed the worker nomination to that fucking moronic clown when it should have been really fucking easy to show some rich ass silver spoon in his ass blowhard outsourcing shitstain ain't workers best interests in mind.

And I'm totally sure now that the fuck is our President we're totally going to get a deluge of mining, manufacturing, and tech jobs, totally.

Fuck this election.

[K. A. Pital]

Right or wrong people believed Trump was a candidate for workers while Clinton was not.

This.

Also it is not as much as Trump actually is a candidate for workers. It is the perception that Clinton is against the working class.

Which is true, and her claims about people's jobs and that bankers were not to blame for the crisis and that she has a "public" appearance and a private opinion totally destroyed her credibility among the workers.

Hell I am a god damn left wing straight worker class voting person. Not in America, but had I been there, I would have voted for Sanders. Or maybe some other Dem candidate.

But not for Clinton, hell no. Even if I would not vote for someone like Trump, I'd not vote for Clinton eiter. Cannot.

[FireNexus]

I can't shake the feeling that this is the worst thing that's happened in my life. I'm hoping for something to mitigate the damage. Freak heart attack. FIND A LEGAL OPTION OR DEAL WITH IT - K. A. Pital Meteor strike. But no, come January we're swearing in President Trump. And nobody is going to stop him.

I never thought I'd be the person to feel outright despair, a sense that shit is going to hit the fan and there's no stopping it, from a Presidential election. Tonight, and maybe for a while, I most certainly am.

[The Romulan Republic]

As much as I hate Trump, hoping for/advocating his assassination crosses a line.

Their is a very, very high bar before political violence becomes acceptable- their has to be for any sort of society or democracy to function. I don't think anything less than genocidal mass murder, or maybe the reintroduction of slavery, would meet that bar for me.

And their are still legal means by which to oppose Trump, in any case.

[K. A. Pital]

I can't shake the feeling that this is the worst thing that's happened in my life.

You must have a good and trouble free life then. Have some consolation in that your life was and is pretty much a paradise if the election of an unsavory presidential candidate is the worst that has happened in it so far.

[FireNexus]

I can't shake the feeling that this is the worst thing that's happened in my life.

You must have a good and trouble free life then. Have some consolation in that your life was and is pretty much a paradise if the election of an unsavory presidential candidate is the worst that has happened in it so far.

No question about that. My larger concern, my only real concern, is that he'LL go from unsavory to actively dangerous for the only person I'm truly responsible for. If that fear didn't exist, I'd just be annoyed.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

All I can say is that Comey should take a long look in the mirror and congratulate himself. What a good fucking job he did.

It's mission accomplished. From seeing some interviews last week when they said there was nothing to it some insiders flat out said that elements within the FBI were chugging Trump dick like like it was Gatorade and purposely torpedoed Clinton.

I will admit, that's the first thought that came to mind when I heard that the FBI was getting involved. Good luck with finding proof.

It's Brexit times fifty.

My thoughts exactly. The only person in the UK who is actually happy about this is one Nigel Farage. Go figure.

Remind me, why is a candidate who has never held public office eligible to run for president in the first place?

At least the news about Kamala Harris is something more positive. I will admit, when I saw a picture of her, I thought she was hot

Apparently protests are already springing up in California saying Trump isn't their president...

[ray245]

How bad must the US economy become before the voters for Trump realised they might have made a mistake?

[Broomstick]

This isn't like something out of a fucking nightmare.

Not yet.

Trump has promised to role back the ACA. That could well leave both my spouse and I entirely without health insurance and we simply do not have the money we would need to keep him going. I expect he wouldn't last long after that.

[Broomstick]

Well, my optimism has been raped and murdered.

You have optimism?

:::duck and run:::

This is going to suck.

[Edi]

If Trump enacts his policy platform as it is written down, and with a fully Republican controlled Congress he can, it won't take long at all for a lot of things to go completely to the shitter and some of teh folks that will be hardest hit are those who voted for him because they wanted to stick it to the establishment. Eliminating ACA, rolling back other public programs such as Medicare, privatizing Social Security, massive tax cuts for the rich and appointing a bunch of theocrats to the SCOTUS will make life miserable for a whole host of people for a long time to come.

The SCOTUS is the worst of that and you people had better hope that the liberal justices live to the ripe old age of 100 or you will have an entrenched theocracy there soon enough.

[Broomstick]

The US workers voted Trump. Horrible but true.

Going by my co-workers, it's not so much they voted for Trump but all too many of them have drunk the Kool-Aid that their vote doesn't matter and there's no point to voting. They've been convinced not to speak on their own behalf.

[His Divine Shadow]

Zinger of the moment

I think you guys are forgetting that Bernie was a literal crazy person that no self respecting, commie hating American would vote for.

I mean, can you imagine a candidate winning on a platform that would seek to dismantle America's free trade agreements and wind back the effects of globalisation?

He also had a silly hair cut and didn't look presidential at all.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Zinger of the moment

I think you guys are forgetting that Bernie was a literal crazy person that no self respecting, commie hating American would vote for.

I mean, can you imagine a candidate winning on a platform that would seek to dismantle America's free trade agreements and wind back the effects of globalisation?

He also had a silly hair cut and didn't look presidential at all.

So, how long before Trump starts building the wall along the Mexican border (and contracting the Chinese to do it)?

[General Zod]

Remind me, why is a candidate who has never held public office eligible to run for president in the first place?

Because he's a straight white male and not a woman.

[Elfdart]

This isn't like something out of a fucking nightmare.

Not yet.

Trump has promised to role back the ACA. That could well leave both my spouse and I entirely without health insurance and we simply do not have the money we would need to keep him going. I expect he wouldn't last long after that.

Here's the crux of the matter:

When Obama won much bigger and had bigger majorities in Congress, he was kneecapped from the get-go because the GOP minority stuck together as a group and used every method (filibusters, holds, general dickishness) to gum up the works. Mitch McConnell stated in their caucus that the Republicans' only mission was to block Obama at every turn and try to make him a one-term President. They made sure to show that they did NOT accept the results of the election, with all kinds of drama queen theatrics ("You LIE!").

Democrats need to do likewise, only turning it up to 11. If Charles Schumer, Nancy Pelosi or any other Democrat leaders in Congress can't lead that kind of effort, then they are of no use to anyone.

So when the GOP comes after the ACA, the Dems need to block them. They have the power if only they'd use it.

[His Divine Shadow]

They will snaft defeat from the jaws of victory

[Thanas]

This comment sums it up:

how can the people of the US vote against a president who wanted more accessible college education, better health care coverage, an increase in minimum pay and aims to represent women all over the world? How can they, instead, vote for two angry little men who are abnormally obsessed with women’s vaginas?!

Yeah.

I guess becuse one appealed to whites and minorities had lower turnout rates.

[Broomstick]

So when the GOP comes after the ACA, the Dems need to block them. They have the power if only they'd use it.

No, they don't.

With the Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and the White House ACA is dead. The Democrats will not be able to prevent a roll back.

My husband and I are so fucked it's not funny. Well, I'll survive without regular doctor visits (barring accident or something new cropping up) but he won't.

[Tsyroc]

So, how long before Trump starts building the wall along the Mexican border (and contracting the Chinese to do it)?

Apparently the Mexican Peso took a dive this morning so he might have trouble making Mexico pay for the wall between Mexico and the US.


It should be interesting to see what, out of all the bullshit he said, Trump actually tries to do.

[Simon_Jester]

Because they gave the electorate misleading data, and it may have lead to lower turnout because people believed Clinton had it in the bag.

So what were they supposed to do, lie? Were they supposed to not report the poll results? Were they not supposed to publish the results of their models? On election day they were projecting that Clinton had a 70% chance of winning, does every 70% probable thing in your life happen?

It turns out that were it not for Johnson, Trump would have also won Minnesota, Colorado, Maine, Nevada and New Mexico.

I assume they did exit polls checking that X% of the Johnson voters would have gone Trump? Could you link to any of them?

Has similar work been done for Jill Stein, by the way? My brother was wondering about that and I'd like to have something to tell him.

I can't shake the feeling that this is the worst thing that's happened in my life.

You must have a good and trouble free life then. Have some consolation in that your life was and is pretty much a paradise if the election of an unsavory presidential candidate is the worst that has happened in it so far.

To be fair, by first world country standards this guy is really bad and it is reasonable to be concerned that he's going to manage to break paradise for hundreds of millions of people.

[Thanas]

Not many occasions to be proud of Merkel but this is one of them.