The General US Politics Thread

In terms of votes, absolutely, thanks in no small parts to borderline race-baiting, among other dirty tactics she used against Obama.

Regarding a candidate's charisma, it's just sort of a quality that many people expect from any leader, i.e their ability to be convincing, personable and be able to get people to listen to them. It IS a desirable quality to have as someone who goes out in public to make speeches and represents your country, but part of its value comes from the fact that it's an exceptional quality, i.e most people are not that charismatic necessarily, so you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good and all that. Plus I'm sure most of us would agree a personable candidate with bad or undesirable policies isn't someone who you want to vote for.

I don't really know why anyone would talk about Donald Trump's charisma favorably. He has about as much of it as an orange-painted turd as far as I can tell. He's the sort of person I wouldn't trust within fifty miles of any sort of business deal I was making.

I find it hard to believe that my BS filter is that much better than everyone else's.

edited 28th Jul '16 9:18:15 PM by Fighteer

The best thing I could possibly say is that there would be a comical element to him given how ridiculous and buffonish he is (Ambar's description of him as a Mussolini impersonator with a gross orangutan toupee is an apt description)...except for the part where he's a white supremacist and the frightening amount of support he's received.

I've said it before, but his strategy for this campaign seems to be to channel Rodney Dangerfield's character from Caddyshack: completely irreverant, not all that bright, and a huge jackass, but all at the expense of people the viewers think need to be taken down a peg.

So I have been checking twitter and I seem to have gauged the Bernie or Bust reaction...his less than absolutely ecstatic expressions in the audience is being used as an image meme about being forced to endorse or be "disappeared".

@Trump's Charisma: Ironically, I think his charisma comes from a lack of charisma, essentially. His supporters generally have a very low opinion of your typical politician. Your average politician is perpetually polite even when they're telling you to go die in a hole. Trump however, makes only a token attempt at hiding how much of a douche he really is, so he can clearly be trusted!

TRUMP: Hey, just so you know, I'm a big fan of Putin and Sudam Hussien, just a FYI.

VOTER BASE: At least he's honest!

edited 28th Jul '16 9:42:42 PM by kkhohoho

So there haven't been any new wikileaks revelations right? I guess they already revealed all the dirt they had on the DNC. I've never been more happy to be underwhelmed. I was worried we'd see something about Hillary asking them to rig things against Sanders.

God it sounds like 13 year old me. "I might be an asshole with no filter but at least I tell the truth!"

edited 28th Jul '16 9:43:33 PM by Kostya

The searches for the phrase "voter registration" spiked 190% on the third night of the DNC.

Not that far from the truth I imagine.

Some people place a very high degree of importance on honesty and "not being tied down by political correctness". That those views are abhorrent doesnt seem to matter to them, either because they agree with them or don't care about the damage a politician like that does to groups they're probably not a part of.

Russia to US: Sort Out Your Email Troubles Yourselves

HA!

Russia has been so over the villain role in American pop culture, even when they can take glee in the schadenfreude...

I just accidentally ended up on the Trump/Pence subreddit while looking for something else... it's like stepping into a parallel universe. I saw someone use the world "Cuckbook" like it was a legitimate term. And apparently the mainstream media is "lyING Abo UT eVERYTHING!!!" I'm so weirded out right now. ^note obviously I'm weirded out by the internet in general, but more so than usual today

It seems like people keep going on about how non-specifically evil Clinton is when pretty much anything I've seen her accused of just seems like typical political shadiness or is a ridiculous conspiracy theory; her platform is certainly better than the Republican Party's. And for the proposed "third parties" we have 'taxes and social safety nets are bad' in one corner, and 'lets give legitimacy to the anti-vaccination, anti-GMO, and pro-homeopathy crowds!' in the other. These parties are better, how?

"Muh conscience!"

Shit's overrated.

People resist change as much as they can. Those who have been Republican for a long time now are probably just holding on to their beliefs with tooth and nail, looking for any shred of "evidence" they can to remain in their present state of denial.

there was an article posted a few pages back about how conservative intellectuals had lived in a bubble for a very long time, and essentially told themselves that the people voting for the republican party were mostly with them on economic and philosophical grounds, when in reality it was mostly about white identity politics and racism. By ignoring that and refusing to steer the course with a more inclusive platform, they laid the groundwork for the rise of Trump.

This was the assessment of a prominent conservative thinker himself, who basicslly came to the conclusion that the republican party, and by extension, the conservative movement is doomed because the US is becoming increasingly black and amerindian.

edited 29th Jul '16 12:34:43 AM by wehrmacht

And now someone is trying to convince me that Trump in the White House will be funny.

And we're not allowed to complain about the discrimination because "they're all that bad".

Khizr Khan really laid out just what an asshole Trump (and his support base) are, as well as baiting Trump into being forced to attack dead soldiers (which will not fly with anyone but his most rabid followers).

Hey, so... if people you know are voting third party (let's say your parents)... how would someone talk them out of it?

I've been seeing this a lot on my Facebook; one of my friends keeps posting things about how Clinton/the DNC rigged the election and the email leaks prove it, etc. I keep trying to say how almost all of this stuff is fairly standard political maneuvering, nothing illegal or involving actually rigging an election, and the thing is he mostly agrees with me but it doesn't actually change his opinion.

Are you in a swing state? Actually to be more specific, what state are you in? If you live in California or New York (or conversely in solid red states like Alabama or Idaho) third party votes are perfectly fine if you want to try and help the party grow to a point where it might be able to take out one of the majors.

edited 29th Jul '16 5:18:20 AM by CaptainCapsase

Are there recordings of the speeches on the DNC website? I kind of want to go back and watch them. I've heard they're pretty amazing.

They're all over Youtube, though the website probably has transcripts too.