The General US Politics Thread

so my dad apparently believes that trump's "that makes me smart" comment doesn't actually mean he has committed tax evasion

this election, man.

also transcript for those who didn't watch it. no idea if this was posted before so whoops if it was.

edited 27th Sep '16 4:12:44 PM by golgothasArisen

Oh, my mistake. I still think paying no taxes is nothing to brag about both from a personal and from a political aspect. Ignoring the fact that it makes him look like an ass it brings up an obvious question. If taxes are really so onerous then how is he able to conduct business without paying any of them?

So what does it mean?

edited 27th Sep '16 4:13:22 PM by Kostya

@Tactical Fox. At least I was told such a thing was impossible because ether the Supreme Court or Congress would move to block any Presidential tyrant. Failing that ether the Military would overthrow him, or the people would, it was assumed that after 230 years of democracy we would react violently to it's end.

That it'd be smart of him to commit tax evasion, cause it'd mean he knows good loopholes.

which isn't much better tbh

And those things do make it harder. The checks and balances have worked so far, for the most part. Lately we've been stretching them pretty darn hard though, and has been pointed out at other times in this thread, they forgot to put in a check on a Congress that's gone off the rails..

edited 27th Sep '16 4:23:07 PM by Elle

How is that different from an admission of guilt? I get that it might not strictly be illegal but that doesn't mean it's a good or admirable thing.

They didn't forget, they just didn't consider this situation happening. The checks and balances were to make sure the different branches didn't overstep their bounds. What we have now isn't a congress overstepping its authority, but one that isn't using the authority it has to actually do it's job.

Yeah, I don't think the Founders could have planned for a situation where the other two branches are openly colluding with the president to impose a totalitarian rule. Even if they did I don't think there's a whole lot they could have done about it. Ultimately it's on us to not vote for people that pull this shit.

The problem with Congress right now is not that they are colluding with the President, but that they basically aren't working with the President and doing their job. The Founders for all their foresight assumed that each branch would try to get as much power as they could... They did not assume that the branches would refuse to do their jobs or that the people would be okay with said branches not doing their respective jobs.

edited 27th Sep '16 4:46:40 PM by GameGuruGG

I'm talking about how things would go if Trump wins. I don't expect the Republicans to have the balls to oppose him no matter what they say now.

Maybe the moderate conservatives on the Supreme Court (Kennedy and Roberts) would act to check him, if only to maintain the legitimacy of the SC.

Most Trump fans I know are itching for him to pull an Andrew Jackson on the supreme court if he doesn't somehow eliminate it entirely (another disturbing fantasy of theirs).

The Supreme Court has way more influence now than it did back in Jackson's time. Flagrantly disobeying the Court would have all but Trump's, or any president for that matter, most loyal followers outraged and that truly would set off a constitutional crisis.

FDR tried to take on the court once and it cost him nearly all the goodwill he had enjoyed with non-Democrats up till that point. No president since then would try or get away with it even if they did try.

edited 27th Sep '16 5:13:09 PM by Parable

edited 11th Dec '16 8:46:10 PM by randomdude4

Has anyone on here heard of Newsmax TV? It seems to have been taken off off the schedule. My father used to watch it every day. Ugh.

Newsmax was veering dangerously into alt-right territory. They even had that Milo guy on after he was kicked off of Twitter.

I don't miss Newsmax at all, I have to say.

Maybe it's a cultural thing. Many people are voting Trump purely to voice distaste with the radical direction of the American left, and their fear that America as they know it is being destroyed. I've met my fair share of people who have had it with political correctness and the tendency to analyze the social and racial implications of every little act. Most of these people tend to be straight white and male, but their are exceptions.

I think minorities supporting Trump and voting for him are desperately trying to get Darwin Awards.

@ randomdude Simple - you don't.

If he's supposedly that smart and yet still hates what Hillary stands for enough to the point of wanting to support Trump, it means he essentially wants Trump to act like a wrecking ball to the political system. It's the one common thread I see amongst his more intellectual supporters: they realize the man is a complete moron and a poor choice for the candidacy, but also realize that he'll force all the government branches into a panic as they desperately try to re-organize themselves to resist whatever he's planning.

I might suggest asking him as to what he thinks congress and the other branches will do to compensate for Trump's shenanigans once he's in power, and what he's expecting out of them in turn as a positive result. There's a million different ways he could answer, but I'll say this: if he sincerely thinks Trump's gonna be an effective strongman on the international stage, especially after how cozy he's been with Putin, then your buddy's nowhere near as smart as you credit him for.

Or here's another suggestion. Point out that if Trump is literally only interested in getting the Presidency for the sake of his legacy, that means there's a real chance Mike Pence may end up becoming the de-facto "true" president by virtue of him being the only politically competent one of the duo. And Pence is essentially a VERY conservative fellow who's both against gay marriage and a whole lot of other women's reproductive rights and whatnot.

edited 27th Sep '16 5:47:38 PM by SgtRicko

Pence has, like, no charisma. Low energy.

edited 27th Sep '16 5:55:58 PM by BearyScary

Frankly, even though I hate him and will definitely vote for Hillary, I think the worries about Trump are exaggerated. Even if he does believe all the hateful and ignorant stuff he says, I doubt he actually knows enough about politics to get anything changed with the rather limited authority of the President. He represents a lot of bad things about the country, but he won't be able to single-handedly implement any of them. More worrying is the idea of his followers consistently winning lower federal and state offices.

Trump himself isn't scary to me. The fact that's he's backed by ~50% of the nation is.

edited 27th Sep '16 6:14:56 PM by Clarste

Just having him and Pence in the white house is enough to scare me. Even if Trump himself doesn't make any decisions, he'd likely give Pence that control. Plus, he'd nominate new SCOTUS justices, and that'd let congress get away with anyhing they want.

Yeah, I understand that Trump could potentially do a lot of horrible shit, but the way people are going on makes it seem like he'd have absolute power to do, to any horrible thing, from the second he took office.

Honestly, going off his record, I wouldn't be surprised if he backed off with a lot of the stuff he's said and then tried to play it off as never having said he'd do it. Of course, anything he would get done would be terrible, but I'm not sure how much that would actually be.

Edit: None of this is meant to imply he should even be given the chance, though.

edited 27th Sep '16 6:29:56 PM by LSBK

The tax cuts are something that would absolutely happen, given he would personally benefit from them. In fact, as far as Trump's policy agenda as President would be, I'd tend to assume he'd largely focus on further enriching himself. Four years of kleptocracy would be an absolute disaster though.

True. Trump is the one to benefit the most from that "trickle down" bullshit.

edited 27th Sep '16 6:34:08 PM by flameboy21th

But, seriously tho ya'll. Trump not only was stomped in front of 100 million people, he was dragged by the media, and they DIDN'T grade him on a curve.

Like...this is like best timeline type of events happening.