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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
You could argue that in the cases of revolutions gone nuts (French, the majority of communist revolutions, etc) , social conservatives are (comparatively) better because they generally aren't out to torch the place. But only until the moderates/reformers get their act together.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.The point (as I read it) was moreso that the GOP is lagging pretty far behind in terms of the social mores it espouses; in this age of societal critique, far bigger variety of sexual and gender identities, conscientization of racial issues of all sorts, it's been pushing back for way too long and looks like a dinosaur that reflects a smaller and smaller segment of society. And then Trump took over and basically forced the general populace and conservative intellectuals to confront the Awful Truth: that he was a monster of their own making, and that a disturbing amount of the GOP voterbase didn't care that much about the government helping them, they just didn't want it helping them colored folk.
edited 2nd Aug '16 9:42:16 PM by wehrmacht
So...Trump has been the nominee for 12 days. In that time he's:
1) Managed to attack a 4 Star General
2) Managed to attack a Muslim American solider who gave his life for this country.
3) Managed to attack a Gold Star Family, specifically the mother of a dead solider.
4) Managed to say that women who are sexually harassed should get a new career.
5) Managed to refuse to support the Republican Speaker of the House and Mc Cain.
6) Managed to insult a baby.
7) Called Hillary the devil.
8) Released fundraising numbers that were abysmal, proving (again) that he has no resources to run the campaign.
9) Managed to say the entire election system is rigged if he loses.
10) Managed to anger the VFW and 26 Gold Star Families.
11) Said today that he hopes the economy crashes soon so that Obama will get blamed for it and it will help him win.
12) His campaign is literally falling apart around him.
13) Said that Pennsylvania (a state he has to win) looked like a war zone.
14) Took a Purple Heart from a Veteran and said "I always wanted one of these. And this was way easier"
Dumpster fire isn't even appropriate here
edited 2nd Aug '16 9:44:56 PM by TacticalFox88
New Survey coming this weekend!Maybe someone already commented on this, but I wanted to say it if they hadn't—there have been a lot of jokes comparing Trump to Hitler, to Putin, to Mussolini (that last one I tend to think is fair), and they're not wrong. That said, when you get right down to it, if you're looking for an American precedent for this rather than a foreign comparison, does anyone else think it would be legit to say that the Trump campaign is effectively "Joe McCarthy for President?" Just substitute immigrants for Communists.
The worst part is that I get the impression other countries elsewhere in the world are breeding their own Trumps around the same time.
In Brazil we have a politician who's just as bad if not worse
, and he's getting the same amount of frighteningly large support Trump is.
Trump's own words are damning enough by themselves (to anyone who cares). And it illustrates Khan's point about sacrifice so perfectly, much like the comments about his wife illustrated his point about the smearing of the character of Muslims. We'll see if that vet responds, though I suppose Trump wants to be the one doing most of the talking.
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Hey, even if he does win, you can claim this election has really opened your eyes and made you realize Trump is the kind of person you should aspire to be.
And then don't pay up.
edited 2nd Aug '16 11:03:57 PM by Eschaton
Also, @FF Shinra way back about state and federal parties: Parties in the US are loose associations and candidates determined mainly by the primaries and elections, local or state level politicians are not bound to agree or follow federal party platforms and it often happens that they vote against parts of it. Breaking with a presidential candidate is a big step and they can lose a re-election (primary, generally) over this, but it ain't guaranteed.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
x7 Over here in Australia, we have two Trumps, one for big business and one for the outrageous racists: the first being mining mogul Clive Palmer, who got a lower house seat and four senate seats for his own party, only to use his power mainly to capitulate to the government after brief spats every now and again and his senators proceeded desert him. The Palmer United Party is no more.
The second is Pauline Hanson of One Nation, who was doing Trump's thing in politics long before everyone else, and came back with a vengeance in the recent election with at least three senators, comprising one of the two main crossbench senate blocs alongside the Nick Xenophon Team, who aren't exactly keen on One Nation, and the government needs both of them to get anything passed. Fun.
Entities, living or dead, that are polling better than Jill Stein
: Harambe.
Just a reminder that we in Australia actually have a sensible Greens party with a sensible leader (Richard DiNatale) that actually has the third-largest senate voting bloc and has a lot of power over which legislation gets passed or shot down. Unfortunately, it seems like other Greens parties aren't very good at following their example.
edited 3rd Aug '16 2:00:12 AM by Cronosonic
What came first, a green party not being popular because its radical and dumb, or a green party being radical and dumb to get attention because its unpopular?
On my way to the train station today i listened to a short morning interview with the GOP's representative in Israel. He pretty much only used the stock phrases to support his mighty ruler and dodged questions that criticise trump's legitimacy, and attempted to distract with "muslim dad says mean stuff to Donald :(".
I cant but laugh.
AFAIK the German Greens have been influential in the past. One of the main figures in the French Greens is German by birth. He could also have gotten some significant results had he ever been a presidential candidate...except that, being deeply German, he despises the French presidential system, and only ever was a candidate to become a member of the European parliament.
I mean, the guy is principled.
Sadly, I don't think you can call Marine Le Pen a "Trump". She is much more savvy about what she can and cannot say, and might sadly be among the smartest politicians in the country (although when everyone else does your job for you by refusing to use their brains, it helps). Dupont-Aignan is indeed our local Trump, and he polls at about 1.5 or 2%.
Thoroughly entertaining man. The campaign wouldn't be the same without his regular mediatic failures. Think about Trump, but where people react sensibly to what he says (by laughing and dismissing him).
edited 3rd Aug '16 3:10:19 AM by Julep
Donald Trump thinks that women who were sexually harassed as the workplace should find another job
Now we have classic victim blaming.
And we're only halfway through the week, who knows what dumb thing the Donald will say next.
I feel bad for his daughter though. Sucks enough that his father wants to fuck her but to not have her back if she was harassed?
I liked some comments on the Boston Globe website (yes, I watched Spotlight, now I check both the Globe and the NYT when I want Freedom News).
"Trump is running out of Republican Senators and congressmen to disrespect. I'd suggest he pick on the clergy next but he already went after the Pope."
"I guess he could move on to offending Budhists and Hindus - they seem to be overlooked in his daily diatribes."
https://twitter.com/Morning_Joe/status/760790261370753025
Donald Trump asked Three times "If we have Nuclear Weapons why can't we use them?"
Holy fucking shit.
This guy is literally, LITERALLY an existential threat to the entire world.
New Survey coming this weekend!Hmmm, I'm not sure if my Trump administration contingency plan should involve prepping for Fall Out or Home Front. But seriously America, I'd rather not spend the prime of my life digging through the ashes of civilization, so can we just say the joke is over? Can we have Jeb or Rubio back?
edited 3rd Aug '16 4:43:46 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

The Republicans are not the voice of conservatism anymore - I'd argue that conservatism, in America, is currently as dead as libertarianism, being outside of both parties' coalitions. The Democrats, right now, are the party of centrists, progressives and big business, while the Republicans have been taken over by the fascists and everyone else is jumping ship.
I imagine that part of the reason for this is that social conservatism is currently so far on the wrong side of history that conservatives have nothing that they can stand for without coming across as loons or joining the fascists.