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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The irony is that this might literally be a repeat of the 2000 election, as Clinton seems to have won the Popular Vote.
However, in the wake of this fucking election, can the DNC instigate a new rule? If you're under a Federal Investigation, you can not run for a Federal office. Please make that happen.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"Perspective is key, people.
It's something that is hard to maintain in the heat of the moment. Be it the sweet sensation of victory, or the crushing despair of defeat, the fires of passion can blind people just as easily as it can fuel their efforts. One of humanity's great strengths, one of humanity's great weaknesses.
What we had last night was not a failure of the system. The system did more or less what it was supposed to do: to take the fires of those passions, and use them to lift a single person into a commanding role on behalf of the wants and needs of the majority of people and groups that compromise the nation we call the United States of America.
These people may very well have been misguided in terms of what they wanted, of what they felt would benefit them and their families the most, but do not think for an instant that the core of their beliefs - no matter how terrible those beliefs are - was the protection of those lives and their well-being. They did what they felt they must, every bit as much as the people who took a different road, followed a different candidate, felt the same.
It has been such throughout history. Great and terrible deeds have been done in the name of this, based in the idea that there are only so many slices of pie to go around. To protect ours, we must make certain that these other do not get it. Our kingdom, our nation, is Omelas, and there must always be poor souls locked away from our prosperity, doomed to suffer in their own filth.
This is not a new era, born of darkness and terror. This is simply the beginning of a new chapter, written in the vein of several chapters that have come before it. It will - as unfortunate as it is - likely not be the last such chapter. As long as human beings do not see beyond their own struggles to the long-term power of cooperation, the cycle will come around again. People will forget what has come to pass, just like many times over.
The same people who advocate that the states where people made a different choice, a misinformed choice, be ostracized from the whole - be it as simple a belief as that you would not want to walk among them - serve to prove that, sadly, you are no different. These others exist in opposition to you, and you cannot walk comfortably among them. Much the same way that they, in turn, claim truthfully there are those they would not be comfortable among. The same basic concept, be it along ideological lines or racial ones.
The perspective of seeing Trump's supporters in this light is not easy. It is not something that readily comes to everyone. But the country, like all nations, is a unified whole, woven together of many different threads of different types. Ripping large amounts of thread out just leaves a gaping hole in the fabric, leaves it tattered, ugly, and in need of repair. It is the absolute last resort, and the fact that so many people on both sides are quick to jump on it as their preferred method is not a good sign - but it is not the first time such has happened.
For me, such perspective has always been necessary, because I can trace my family back to the beginning of the country. One of my direct ancestors was the granddaughter of a man named Lawrence. Lawrence was born in the land that had yet to become the United States; his father had emigrated from England. He was an embodiment of the best and worst of his times. He was a farmer, a trained lawyer, a colonial politician...and a slave owner. He unfortunately died at the young age of 38.
Historically, Lawrence was a nobody, a footnote at best in the grand scheme of things. He accomplished nothing truly significant in his life except passing his estates - slaves included - down to his children and, through them, grandchildren. But it is another of those grandchildren, who would inherit one of those estates, who is remembered to this day. His first name was George.
Donald Trump may very well be the greatest test the system has ever faced. But to assume that this is the end, the collapse, the bane of all that the United States was founded to do, is premature. This chapter has only just begun to be written. And it is written collectively by all the people, not just the leaders, the businessmen, those who hold money and power - everyone contributes to this story. Will it be a story of reconciliation, unification, and a drive to build to a new unified high in spite of this man, or will it be a breakdown of what binds us together, the ideals that the nation was founded on? Or something else entirely?
The answer is foreshadowed in your perspectives.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)My dad is from China. He's a legal immigrant who's lived here for most of his life. I don't think that matters to a man like Trump.
So Trump won't allow legal migration then?
At least all citizens can still arm themselves while they still can. . .
I've seeing a revival of the Black Panthers. . .
Actually, he apparently have been on record saying he supports police arbitrary taking the guns of whoever they find suspicious (on the topic of stop-and-frisk, I believe). Historically, gun control have been created and used against minority groups, specially blacks. Traditionally, the "right to bear arms" the right love so much only applies to white people.
Which was only occurring because people were making the comparisons.
@unnoun
This is Godwin's Law in full effect here. Stop with these silly comparisons. I bet if you dig deep enough, you can find all sorts of connections with Stalin too.
edited 9th Nov '16 7:37:57 AM by hardcorefakes
I'm pretty sure we live in the Star Trek Mirror Universe.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.A man who talks about building a wall to keep the Mexicans out and having Muslims register on a national database is not THAT far from being Hitler. All he really needs is the warmongering on top. Fortunately, we're not squished between a bunch of small neighbors whose resources we're tempted to acquire by marching troops over to take them, so the worst he can do on the military front is screw up overseas operations even more than they already are.
Mind you, I don't think Trump's going to do any of that stuff in the first sentence, because I think he's an incompetent clown and bully who says whatever he wants at the time and just doesn't care about the consequences. I think he's more Silvio Berlusconi than military expansionist genocidal dictator, and that the real danger will come from the people around him, not the man himself.
But if you're taking him at his word, his word is murderously xenophobic.
edited 9th Nov '16 7:40:39 AM by Karkadinn
Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.![]()
You don't know much about Hitler do you? His early political career? His early days as Chancellor?
Demagoguery is exactly the same tool. Hatred for a religious minority, up to including exiling them and labeling them with physical markers? All policies he's called for.
Nationalism, white supremacy.
We've seen this before. We know where this road leads. We've tried and now failed to stop our country from walking down it.
we ARE surrounded by less militarily powerful neighbors, filled with resources we want (cheap labor, fossil fuels, etc)
edited 9th Nov '16 7:43:22 AM by blkwhtrbbt
Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for youHindsight is 20/20.
I'm not saying Trump actually is as bad as Hitler yet, but.
Like, the thing is some of Hitler's supporters were reasonable. Thought his rhetoric was just him appealing to the uneducated people in rural areas.
He had similar talk about undesirables, about conspiracies and groups rigging things.
Most of the German people didn't know about the concentration camps, mind. Thought that their Jewish neighbors were just "relocated" to "greener pastures".
And after the fact, there was the distinct sense from a lot of people that they wish they'd known what was going to happen beforehand.
So.
My point is that. Well. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
It might be too soon to tell whether he will follow through on his rhetoric, or whether it will be as bad as Hitler or whatever.
...Equally, by the time he does anything it may be too late to stop. Hitler didn't have nukes.
And. I'm Jewish, and some of my family and family friends are Holocaust survivors. And. None of them are happy right now, I'll say that.
x5 That was always a given, even before yesterday. Yesterday just proved it without a shadow of a doubt.
Us becoming the backbone of The Federation is laughable especially now.
edited 9th Nov '16 7:42:10 AM by Memers
At least there's no way that he'll be able to fulfill a lot of his promises. There are way too many immigrants and undocumented people in the US for him to throw all of them out, and Mexico's president has said on tape that he will not be paying for the wall, and I highly doubt that Congress is going to declare war on Mexico to make them do it.
Really the only thing he might be able to implement is his "Muslim vetting" law.
I didn't see any, though I only came here after he won to find some solace among like-minded people. Either way, it's a fair comparison.

My dad insists that there's no reason for him to worry about the Very Nice People showing up to deport him back to India, since he's a legally immigrated US citizen. I'm... not so convinced. Also gave a nice self-righteous speech (in other words, he opened his mouth at me for more than two seconds) about how unexpected things happen in life and you have to just do the best you can, blah-blah-fucking-blah.
edited 9th Nov '16 7:37:01 AM by Reflextion
Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.