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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
What my foolish idealism wants me to believe is that Harris's status as a woman of color would infuse her genuinely progressive supporters with the kind of passion that's needed to defeat the GOP right now. The kind of "holy shit, this is something new" fervor that could really mobilize the base.
But that, again, is probably wishful thinking on my part. By 2020 (assuming we still have anything resembling free and fair elections at that point), racism and misogyny may have been mainstreamed to the point where she really just doesn't have a chance. Self-proclaimed liberals may take one look at her and go "Blasian? I don't even know what that is. I'm going to vote for another four years of Fuhrer Trump. Just give him a chance."
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."Nah, at most I think the democrat base might be a little (or very) demotivated by then but I don't expect progressives are going to like Trump any better 4 years from now. Even in the best case scenario where he's just a mediocre crony capitalist president, a lot of people could probably be swayed to vote against him.
I'm more worried about the voter suppression.
edited 23rd Dec '16 5:18:04 PM by Draghinazzo
Fingers crossed. The way I see it, there are basically two possibilities for the decent people in America going forward. Either they get so demoralized and beaten down by all the horrible shit that they essentially give up (which has already been happening to all too many people, and he's not even president yet), or we muster our resolve like never before and rise up like a tidal wave.
I still have just enough faith in humanity left that I think the latter is more likely, at least on the grand scale. But this is all operating on the assumption that the nation still exists in a recognizable form in four years. Which is what that passion is needed for - preserving our systems of democracy and making sure he can't turn us completely into an autocratic vassal state to Mother Russia.
Also, agreed. I'm going to keep on saying it - if we don't retake some serious lost ground against voter suppression over the next 2-4 years, we're basically screwed. And Jeff Sessions does not bode well for that.
edited 23rd Dec '16 5:21:18 PM by RBluefish
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."Similar to his request for names related to gender issue work, Trump is demanding a list of names of those assigned to work on things related to extremism internally and abroad from State Department and Homeland Security. Link
edited 23rd Dec '16 5:35:54 PM by carbon-mantis
Re: #163974
Just to ask the obvious, possibly dumb question, is it at all unusual for the Trump administration to be asking for this stuff? I know the energy department flat out refused so that's a sign the answer is yes, but I'm thinking best to ask even if it's unnecessary.
edited 23rd Dec '16 5:37:50 PM by sgamer82
The fact that he's asking for this type of information isn't inherently bad. A reasonable president might want to know exactly how many people NASA has working on climate change to gauge how important climate change is to NASA.
But the specific things Trump is asking about are...alarming to say the least.
... Say, what would happen if between now and January 20, Trump tripped over his own feet and fell down a flight of stairs in Trump Tower, and ended up having a fatal head/neck injury, with nobody but his cronies and other Republicans in the vicinity? I don't see how that could be twisted into him becoming a martyr for the Republican cause.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.Pence is a repugnant person and would be a nightmare for civil rights, but here's the thing - that's going to be the case either way. He's already shaping up to be one of Trump's viziers - the power behind the throne.note
But Pence is at least somewhat stable. Under Fuhrer Pence, I wouldn't be as afraid of a nuclear war being started with a tweet, or Europe being destabilized overnight because of an infantile grudge. Would we rather have two bigots, one stable, one terrifyingly unpredictable - or just the one, stable, bigot?
It's bad either way, no question about that. But getting rid of Trump can only be an improvement.
edited 24th Dec '16 3:57:34 AM by RBluefish
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."Pence at least has a measure of maturity. Compare his reaction to the whole Hamilton thing with Trump's tweet.
OTOH, isn't Pence a TPP supporter? If he were POTUS, he'd be signing that thing in a heartbeat.
edited 24th Dec '16 4:00:53 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedTrump has gone on record saying he's against TPP. Then again, he's said a lot of things which he didn't mean in the end.
I'm not sure if it's better or worse that Pence is better at maintaining a Mask of Sanity. Still, at least he's less likely to start a nuclear war.
...When the best thing you can say about someone is that they probably won't get us all nuked to kingdom come...
Geebus, how did we get to this point?
Yeah, I brought that up myself a while back. With Pence as POTUS though, TPP would go from "probably going to happen" to "definitey going to happen".
If Trump's serious about playing hardball with China, he may very well sign the TPP.
edited 24th Dec '16 4:19:54 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedOh, look who's crawled out of a Cold War bunker to cozy up to Trump
.
Henry Kissinger
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

edited 23rd Dec '16 5:05:18 PM by ViperMagnum357