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

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#261926: Nov 15th 2018 at 8:32:45 AM

[up][up]I still think trying to argue Trump’s win was a good thing due to the backlash is a bad idea. By that logic any horrible event that triggered a positive backlash was a good thing.

Edited by M84 on Nov 16th 2018 at 12:33:04 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#261927: Nov 15th 2018 at 8:36:13 AM

Trump winning was a wake-up call, yes. But I would still have preferred a Hillary win, because that would imply we lived in a country that didn't need a wake-up call.

The good here isn't that Trump won. The good is what we did in response to the bad, which was Trump's win. Do not credit the tyrant for the revolution.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 15th 2018 at 9:37:16 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#261928: Nov 15th 2018 at 8:41:04 AM

Some people want to see a silver lining because right now that's what they want is reassurance that despite everything there is some good news,I don't blame them when the news nothing but bad news constantly

But the silver lining is quite thin in this case,it might lead to the democrats taking the senate in 2020 making Trump's reign the shortlist in modern history,however Trump could win by the skin of his teeth,thus no silver lining and with something as uncertain as an election it's better to forgo the hope of a silver lining and be realistic

It's like how some people get annoyed by idealists

Edited by Ultimatum on Nov 15th 2018 at 8:42:37 AM

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#261929: Nov 15th 2018 at 8:48:26 AM

A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!
*cough*Salem*cough*

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Nov 15th 2018 at 5:48:43 PM

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#261931: Nov 15th 2018 at 8:51:21 AM

HUAC

"You can reply to this Message!"
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#261932: Nov 15th 2018 at 8:52:02 AM

You mean The House Un-American Activities Committee

I hate acronyms/Initialisms

Edited by Ultimatum on Nov 15th 2018 at 9:00:31 AM

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#261933: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:04:56 AM

Multiple analysts are seriously arguing that Texas COULD very well go blue in 2020. And it's Trump's fault.

Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice, described this development in an email:

Donald Trump made the most polarizing and dogmatic conservatives in Texas much more vulnerable, with a significant number of regular Republican voters strongly associating these candidates with Trump, and as a result either voting for their Democratic rival, not voting in that race, or casting a protest vote for the Libertarian.

Less polarizing and less dogmatic conservative Republicans — Governor Greg Abbott, Glenn Hegar, the comptroller and George P. Bush, the land commissioner — won by margins (on average, 11.9 percent), that, according to Jones, “double or triple that of the more polarizing and dogmatic conservative Republicans.” Those farther to the extreme right — the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, the attorney general, Ken Paxton and Sid Miller, the agricultural commissioner, won by an average of 4.9 percent.

Jones has strong views on the Trump effect in Texas: “Donald Trump is without a question a major liability for Texas Republicans.”

Trump, according to Jones, repels "key GOP constituencies such as college educated Anglo women and Anglo millennials and post-millennials, while simultaneously providing Democrats with a banner around which to mobilize turnout, especially among Latinos and younger voters."

What about the big question: is Texas becoming Democratic? Jones’s answer:

"It is premature to say that Texas is turning blue, but whereas four years ago its hue was dark red, today it is light pink. As long as President Trump is in the White House, Republicans in Texas can look forward to much tougher battles from higher quality and better funded Democratic challengers than they faced prior to 2018, as well as being required to do something that most Republican candidates have not had to do for years in Texas; actually work up a sweat in the fall."

Robert Stein, who is also a political scientist at Rice, pointed out in an email that the pro-Democratic trends in major Texas counties began well before Trump, although Trump has accelerated developments.

Stein uses graphics compiled by The Texas Tribune to make his point. In each major county, partisan voting patterns show Republicans on a steady downward path.

[...]

Richard Murray, a political scientist at the University of Houston, is bullish on Democratic prospects. The midterms demonstrated that "the metro v. rest-of-state gap widened hugely in Texas, with the big cities going overwhelmingly Democratic while suburban counties outside Austin, Houston, and Dallas/Ft Worth moved toward the Democrats. But non-metro counties stayed very Republican with very high turnout, enabling Cruz to eke out a narrow win."

That trend is likely to continue, Murray argued in an email:

"We had 8.3 million voters in 2018 (up from just 4.7 million in 2014). That should go over 10 million in 2020, giving statewide Democrats a good chance of carrying the state for president and winning the U.S. senate seat.

Not only will Democrats be competitive in 2020 but the party has, in Murray’s view, “a 50 percent-plus chance of taking the Texas House of Representatives, with major implications for the 2021 redistricting process.”"

I'm inclined to believe the GOP will still win Texas in 2020 but if I'm proven wrong, that will be absolutely devastating.

Friendperson Since: May, 2018
#261934: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:14:12 AM

The GOP got pretty boned at the midterms, but there's still a long way to go. I just hope to God the democratic presidental nominee is someone who can win.

Edited by Friendperson on Nov 15th 2018 at 9:14:42 AM

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#261935: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:21:39 AM

Trump might not even be the candidate in 2016. Remember, not his decision, if there is a challenger, the Republicans could decide to run someone else in the hope to get the stink off. After all, most REPUBLICAN voters don't approve of Trump.

Which is why it is so important to keep reminding everyone that Trump is just showing openly what the Republican party actually is.

Cris_Meyers reluctant author, willing misanthrope from Chicagoland (Fifth Year at Tropey's) Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
reluctant author, willing misanthrope
#261936: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:22:26 AM

Flipping TX is a stretch goal at best in 2020. Great if it happens, but if we're relying on it then we're already dead.

[up]He'll be the nominee. I don't think a sitting president has ever been primaried. I mean, it would be sweet justice, but the GOP just isn't that self-conscious.

Edited by Cris_Meyers on Nov 15th 2018 at 11:24:18 AM

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#261937: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:23:12 AM

[up] Yeah, I'm not really counting on it personally.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#261938: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:25:28 AM

There has also never been a sitting president who was as unpopular as Trump is in his first term.

3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#261939: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:27:21 AM

He has one quality Republicans seem to love more than anything today.

He's not a Democrat.

"You can reply to this Message!"
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#261940: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:27:29 AM

There probably has been less popular presidents then Trump though they were really early presidents who aren't really notable

[up][up]

Edited by Ultimatum on Nov 15th 2018 at 9:27:44 AM

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#261941: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:33:09 AM

[up] Possible, but that was before the time of approval ratings.

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#261942: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:34:47 AM

The thing is though, republicans are ultimately servile. If the more extreme, trump-like republicans are winning a lot of the republican primaries, then why would the same not apply to the genuine article?

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#261943: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:35:13 AM

@Swanpride: Speaking as a Republican, I'm 98.7% sure that Trump will still be the Republican candidate.

Trump is unpopular, sure. And while he's unusually controversial even in his own party the vast majority of Republicans do at least tolerate him through gritted teeth.

It also wouldn't make be very smart for them to throw Trump under the bus. If they didn't nominate him I'm pretty sure he'd still be a candidate and that would just split the vote and screw them over. Plus, Trump won last time despite the odds, so why do something different?

Leviticus 19:34
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#261944: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:35:17 AM

Trump is the Republican Party. They're not getting rid of him any time soon.

i'm tired, my friend
Cris_Meyers reluctant author, willing misanthrope from Chicagoland (Fifth Year at Tropey's) Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
reluctant author, willing misanthrope
#261945: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:36:14 AM

There has also never been a sitting president who was as unpopular as Trump is in his first term.

True. But any potential primary challenger is going to have to not only tap into all of that, but still then defeat Trump in the Republican primary. That's not including the fact that the challenger would be running against the incumbent President.

Then, if they win, they've probably just isolated not only the entire MAGA basket but probably a number of other Republicans as well. They'd be setting themselves up for failure.

And all that is assuming the Republican Party can actually summon up enough of a conscience to realize just what they've done and try to fix it by eliminating him the primaries. Probably the biggest longshot of them all, there.

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#261946: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:39:33 AM

Trump is the Republican Party. They're not getting rid of him any time soon.

Have you noticed that the only republicans who bring up Ronnie and his legacy are pretty much just the "never-trumpers" at this point? It's pretty telling.

math792d Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#261947: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:41:45 AM

I mean, Ronald Reagan was the second step on the ladder that led the Republican Party to Trump, so saying he's some kind of break with an imaginary Reagan legacy that left the Republican Party somewhere else is hogwash to begin with.

Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#261948: Nov 15th 2018 at 9:56:18 AM

Reagan was worse than Trump. His policies were just as repellent, but he had a strong understanding of PR and human weakness that meant that he normalized everything terrible about his government. Reaganism became the baseline of American political discourse for an entire generation, in a way that Trumpism isn't even close to reaching. Trump, we can fight because he embodies our worst impulses while making a huge number of Americans feel genuinely ashamed. Reagan could never be fought — he was the Invincible Villain of American politics because he encouraged Americans to be corrupt and made them feel good about their own shortsightedness and greed.

Edited by CrimsonZephyr on Nov 15th 2018 at 1:07:53 PM

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#261949: Nov 15th 2018 at 10:00:15 AM

@math972d

To be fair, Trump and Reagan actually didn't like each other back in the day.

Leviticus 19:34
math792d Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#261950: Nov 15th 2018 at 10:06:47 AM

[up] The fact that they didn't like each other is largely irrelevant when both of them represent the same thing.

It's just that one of them was an efficient, masterful liar whose bigotry got thousands of American people killed, and the other one is Donald Trump.

Edited by math792d on Nov 15th 2018 at 7:07:27 PM

Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.

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