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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#155176: Nov 14th 2016 at 11:30:59 PM

Overcompensating for previous optimism isn't necessarily the wisest thing you can do, though. And you missed the last parts of what I said; he hadn't managed to piss people off quite this much. If this sort of thing keeps up, who knows what will happen come 2018.

Because really, we need to seriously get people voting in the mid term elections.

Superdark33 The dark Mage of the playground from Playgrounds and Adventures Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
The dark Mage of the playground
#155177: Nov 14th 2016 at 11:32:49 PM

You cant have compulsery voting in a country where Voter Suppression is a legit and accepted tactic.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#155178: Nov 14th 2016 at 11:57:33 PM

[up][up] I wonder if I'm speaking from a position of privilege when I express frustration towards voter apathy, since I'm registered in California. Voter registration is pretty convenient in that state, and we even get early voting, mail voting, etc.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Irene (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Crazy Cat Lady
#155179: Nov 15th 2016 at 12:00:11 AM

To be fair, voter apathy is pretty justified since they have little say thanks to the Electoral Vote being around. All they can do is vote for stuff solely affected their state and a tiny other few things. It does suck that some don't bother to vote for the state stuff either. :/

Can't blame 'em. However, they'd have a reason to care when their vote actually and properly affects something.

Shadow?
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#155180: Nov 15th 2016 at 12:01:31 AM

Unfortunately with the Republicans set to nominate a replacement to the Supreme Court it looks like the Voting Rights Act will continue to stay dead for a good long while.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#155181: Nov 15th 2016 at 12:55:52 AM

I saw an article a while ago suggesting Obama may be able to argue that Congress has derelicted its duty and forfeited its right to vet his Supreme Court nominee. If it's possible, that would go a ways toward alleviating the damage that Trump will do.

It's been fun.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#155182: Nov 15th 2016 at 1:11:00 AM

You vastly overestimate the voting public. America re-elected Dubya remember? I'm sure that when things go horribly wrong in the Trump administration, they'll simply go "blame Obama", and his supporters will eat it right up.

Sure, the white nationalists will eat it up, because the only thing they really give a shit about is sticking it to minorities. It's a Single-Issue Wonk and they don't care if everything else goes to hell because that's the depth of their hatred.

Everyone else? Everything always gets blamed on the most visible figure in charge regardless of the complexities of the situation and who's actually responsible, which in this case is the POTUS. They're not gonna bother researching issues to get a nuanced understanding, they're just going to apply a simple cause and effect. "We voted for this guy, and ever since he's been in charge, things have been shitty." Likewise, if things going are doing well, they'll say "well things were pretty good when THAT GUY was in charge". Most people in any political system are guaranteed to not even have a particularly great understanding of how their government actually works, they just know the president is an important guy who does important things.

I've no doubt a lot of people would eat it up if Trump blamed everything on the Obama administration, especially with the dreaded Breitbart poised to become even more influential, but just as many if not more people are just going to get disillusioned because they're not getting their old jobs back, they're not getting new opportunities, their health care got fucked over and their lives are overall getting worse at the same rate they were before or even faster. And who are they gonna blame for that? The people in charge at that time, aka Trump and the GOP. The only people who will be placated is those who don't care about anything else but their own all-consuming and bottomless hatred, everyone else who is just indifferent and self-serving is not gonna give a shit for their excuses.

Many people voted for Trump not because they particularly like him, but because they're desperate, and when he fails to provide what he promised they're gonna realize they were duped by a snake oil salesman and that he isn't any different from the "elites" they claim to hate so much.

There's also the fact that Trump admitting he can't do shit makes him look impotent. His entire campaign has been run on the premise of being a political outsider and "draining the swamp", how stupid does he look when he can't do that?

edited 15th Nov '16 1:14:40 AM by Draghinazzo

Soopor Agent Peacock from Talon IV (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Agent Peacock
#155183: Nov 15th 2016 at 3:03:50 AM

@Louisiana Senate Race

Foster Campbell is the Deomcratic candidate. He's got a clean record of public office without scandal and he strikes me as very loyal to the party, though I don't think he is incredibly liberal. Definitely more moderate, but this is Louisiana we're talking about, so that is to be expected.

I voted for him, as I liked his record and the way he carries himself, and I had a feeling he was going to be the most popular of the democratic candidates, to which I was right. And I will definitely be voting for him again in the run-offs on Dec. 10th.

The republican candidate that got through the Senate primaries, John Kennedy (no relation to The Kennedy family) had way more votes than Campbell, but there were also like 20 candidates on the ballot instead of two. Luckily, Campbell is now being openly endorsed by our Democratic governor, Bel Edwards, who so far has a good reputation among the citizenry for how he's handled The Great Flood of 2016 and the holes left by Jindal. Bel Edwards is more of a blue dog than a straight-up liberal, but compared to former governor Jindal, he might as well be a verified saint of governance. And he is very loyal to the democractic party, certainly. John Kennedy, meanwhile, is being endorsed by David Vitter, the Senator who's seat is up for grabs, and also the guy who failed in the last gubernatorial election against Bel Edwards.The long and short of it is that Vitter had a well-known prostitute scandal, and that, along with Jindal putting our state two billion dollars in the hole through gross mismanagement of funds over his eight years as governor, is why Louisiana has a blue governor now.

Campbell and Bel Edwards are both trying to take advantage of the fact that Vitter is endorsing Kennedy, because Vitter's scandals are repulsive enough to the local Moral Guardians that it might rub off negatively on Kennedy by association. There are already some attack ads popping up to that affect. But this state is very red, so I'm not sure who will pull through in the end.

edited 15th Nov '16 3:07:35 AM by Soopor

Proglottid Since: Mar, 2010
#155184: Nov 15th 2016 at 3:52:02 AM

I think the one cold comfort we have right now is how every passing day it's more glaringly obvious Trump didn't really want to win, didn't even expect it would happen, and now he's stuck in a position he can't walk out of and he's wholly, absolutely unprepared for

Sure, we're all still fucking doomed, but at least these coming four years are going to be utter hell for him too

nervmeister Since: Oct, 2010
#155185: Nov 15th 2016 at 4:08:11 AM

[up]As tempting as it unfortunately is, dont let spite and pessimism guide your political opinions.

edited 15th Nov '16 4:09:51 AM by nervmeister

LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#155186: Nov 15th 2016 at 4:18:55 AM

Screw that, as an impoverished leftist spite is like, my primary reason for existing half the time.

Oh really when?
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#155187: Nov 15th 2016 at 5:12:46 AM

Meanwhile in the Late Show:

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#155188: Nov 15th 2016 at 5:14:19 AM

Re: Breitbart as propaganda.

The problem with converting a bona-fide conservative rage-making machine into a propaganda tool is that you have to switch gears from "everything is awful" to "everything is fine" at the drop of a hat, which doesn't reflect the readership. A more mainstream org like Fox News was able to make the switch, but will it work for Breitbart, or just cripple them?

The alternative is that they work as a perpetual pressure group for the deplorables, constantly telling Trump to fulfill his campaign promises, but if they cross him too much he'll just fire Bannon.

IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#155189: Nov 15th 2016 at 5:21:41 AM

The problem with converting a bona-fide conservative rage-making machine into a propaganda tool is that you have to switch gears from "everything is awful" to "everything is fine" at the drop of a hat, which doesn't reflect the readership.

Far easier than you could imagine.

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#155190: Nov 15th 2016 at 5:45:10 AM

Really for someone like Breitbart, though? We're not talking about an organization that's tried to maintain a veneer of respectability, here. We're talking about a site that's a few tweaks a way from being Stormfront.

IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#155191: Nov 15th 2016 at 6:17:46 AM

Yes, it can happen. Here in Argentina, while we had nothing on the level of racism that Breitbart has, the Kirchner government (both the husband and the widow) started a war against the mainstream media around 2007 or so, and by the end of last year everything had descended into an propaganda apparatus by state-controlled and Kirchner sympathizing media spinning the news more or less say "everything is perfect, the government is great" going against an anti-Kirchner media conglomerate (which the K-government accused of trying to manipulate the minds of the people and of being an hegemonic group bent of givin control of the nation to big business) with one or two somewhat independent newspapers who said the opposite "everything is shitty, the government is filled with corruption".

Now, with the recent change of government, the state media seems to be the closest to neutral, the private K-sympathizing media switched to the "everything is shitty, the government is filled with corruption" message the day the new president was sworn in (and a lot of it concentrated into three or four channels and newspapers because it was artificially maintained with subsidies even though very few people read their propaganda, so many of the media groups collapsed), and the anti-k media went "everything is great" during the honeymoon period and is slowly getting more critical of the government (not without reason, there have been some mistakes and some corruption cases, but saying that a twit by the foreign affairs minister congratulating Hillary and lamenting she lost is ZHE WORST POLITICAL MISTAKE EVER! HOW DARES SHE DO THAT? may be a bit to much).

So yes, it's extremely easy for propaganda machines to go from "everything's perfect" to "this is the apocalypse" at the drop of a hat.

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#155192: Nov 15th 2016 at 6:22:25 AM

Daily Stormer and Breibart live and thrive on outrage. The only positive news they have is something like this: Tumblertard and SJW cucks commits suicide over Trump victory or Look at all these SJW cucks being scared by the KKK march.

Nearly everything else in their main page is either outrage over some bullshit about black people, LGBT+ or SJW and the rest is a bunch of conspiracy theories or bullshit articles made to validate their bigotry.

Inter arma enim silent leges
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#155193: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:17:18 AM

Electoral College: Are Idaho’s 4 electors being pressured to dump Trump, or harassed?

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/election/article114786018.html

While perhaps not uncommon in other places, either, even the Electors in a red state like Idaho are feeling the pressure to go the faithless route and not vote for Trump in December.

LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#155194: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:18:35 AM

Good

Oh really when?
Demongodofchaos2 Face me now, bitch! from In a Cultivation World (Ancient one) Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Face me now, bitch!
#155195: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:19:55 AM

This Vox article piqued my interest.

edited 15th Nov '16 7:20:04 AM by Demongodofchaos2

Watch Symphogear
nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#155196: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:20:18 AM

I'm thinking that it's not too difficult to switch from outrage against the shadowy conspiracy that controls the government to outrage against the shadowy conspiracy that has lost the government and is plotting to get it back...

edited 15th Nov '16 7:21:53 AM by nightwyrm_zero

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#155197: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:34:07 AM

Question: Had there ever been pressure like this on the Electoral College's electors to overturn an election? I never paid much attention to elections prior to this outside voting so I probably wouldn't have heard of there was, and I'm sure it's happened on a small scale out of "my guy didn't win" anger, but on the level we're seeing now?

edited 15th Nov '16 7:34:25 AM by sgamer82

blkwhtrbbt The Dragon of the Eastern Sea from Doesn't take orders from Vladimir Putin Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
The Dragon of the Eastern Sea
#155198: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:35:21 AM

I don't think the popular vote winner has outstripped the popular runner-up by the current margins in cases where the popular and electoral votes don't match.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#155199: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:35:32 AM

Speaking of Louisiana what are people's thoughts on the current Louisiana governor as a Democrat candidate come 2020? I don't know much about him beyond being a Democrat governor in the South but I stuck him on my list of possibles, has he got the charisma?

As for which way to swing in 2020, remember Clintong to out flanked by Trump this election, he won the Rust Belt by being more Left Wing ecneomically then Clinton was while winning the racists nutjob and religious right by being more Ring Wing then Clinton, so a shift left wing economically could pick back up the Rust Belt.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#155200: Nov 15th 2016 at 7:35:58 AM

I really hope the Electoral College doesn't revolt. I don't want President Trump but at this point making Hillary look illegitimate is going to be even worse.


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