World is Falling Apart Thread (Locked forever)

[Tanooki]

Yes everyone is, but the left plays the pawn fear game far better but for once that fear mongering crap failed at a pretty decent margin. Even in this state the county just east of here has a large spanish population, majority mexican which are a mix of legal citizens and illegals. By word of mouth out here a good chunk of them were voting Trump because they felt wronged both by the left, but also because they felt since they earned their way in that others siding with the left were wrong and needed to do so too or beat it.

[CRTGAMER]

California passes two dollar Tax on a pack of cigarettes, the ads pushed health risks and "protect the kids" from starting the nicotine habit. I voted no on it since I don't care for any tax increase, let alone one so high for a consumer product.

The irony is Recreational Marijuana also was passed! Vape and Weed, cigarette companies did win!


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As a comparison, Ross Perot was also extreme decades ago attempting for a shakeup in policies. Now we will finally see what an outsider does as President. I voted for Trump and was surprised that he won, I think many thought Clinton would win. On top of that, Republican control in both Senate and House means there will be changes. Yeah Trump is arrogant and at times maybe too nuts, but we will have change. Stay the course, bring the jobs back to the U.S., get rid of government funded crap especially "Non Profit"; the label is a joke. Remove Obama Care which was started by the Clintons - if you don't register for Health Care you get fined! Nato and the United Nations both will stay; Trump is just pushing for other countries to pay their fair share as the world's policeman.

As a businessman Trump said it right for the end of the Iraq war, we should have taken the oil. That statement to me emphasizes he will take care of America first over catering to other countries.

[Ack]

Yes everyone is, but the left plays the pawn fear game far better but for once that fear mongering crap failed at a pretty decent margin.

Fear mongering is not a tool that the Democrats solely dominate in. The Republicans often use it just as effectively, particularly in the last 15 years regarding national security and intelligence gathering capabilities. The "Democrats are coming for our guns" adage is also extremely well documented. Don't knock the Republicans willingness or capability to play that card when they feel the need. It's a useful political tool that both parties are very adept with.

That said, yes, fear mongering regarding Trump evidently failed. The new question is why. Is it just people feeling wronged by the nebulous left or specifically the Democratic Party and its surrogates(such as Bernie Sanders backers who rejected Clinton in favor of Trump)? Or was it people specifically turned away by Hillary Clinton, such as the coal industry in states like West Virginia? What caused Wisconsin to flip the way it did? Do people really prefer an isolationist and protectionist foreign policy that Trump seemed to be proposing, is it immigration reform or social policies such as healthcare, or does it come down to something else?

African American voter turnout was down from the last election, and college-educated middle class women didn't support Clinton at the expected rates. Why?

Also what does this mean for both parties moving forward? What lessons with Republicans and Democrats draw? Is this the last hurrah of the white working class voter, or will there be a resurgence in their political influence and importance(they're certainly hoping for one)? CNN has declared the "Blue Dog Democrats" to have vanished. What does this mean for the changing demographics of our society, in terms of race, immigration, age, education, rural/urban environment, etc.?

Finally, is this it for Hillary Clinton's political career?

[Exhuminator]

I think a significant portion of Trump voters did so not because they like him, but rather out of spite, after so many media outlets declared if you vote for Trump you must be an uneducated bigot. It's obvious now many American voters do not like to be told what they are, or who they must vote for, else they are "deplorable".

[Tanooki]

Hillary might try and unseat him in 4 years even at her age, but other than that, I think finally we're done with the horrors of the machine. She may just say screw it as she has been so changing over time and run her foundation or go back to making serious bank on the book and speech circuit where she wouldn't have to worry about taking crap from people anymore.


Ack I agree with your post, I just was singling out the left in the present but yes the right their guns and bible do it too. I think both parties are fucked. And more bluntly so -- NO parties won. Trump is no republican, the GOP didn't win -- pissed off people who hate being name called, labeled, ignored, stepped on and crapped all over by either side used Trump as the big ass bus to run both parties under it. It easily if clinton and trump ran on the opposite parties would have been another D in office.

[Sarge]

Sec. Clinton was pretty clear about her desire to overturn the Heller decision on the individual right to bear arms, so I don't know if that's the best example.

[Ack]

Trump is just pushing for other countries to pay their fair share as world's policeman.

As a businessman Trump said it right for the end of the Iraq war, we should have taken the oil. That statement to me emphasizes he will take care of America first over catering to other countries.

I have an issue with this. Being the world's policeman grants you unprecedented levels of access and influence. Nations and world governments spend far more time looking to you if you provide for their defense. Extricating ourselves means a loss of influence, a weakening of their defense, and a power vacuum for other players to move in. Depending on what happens, we may end up ceding dominance in certain regions of the world to Russia or China.

As for Iraq, did he mean taking it as in paying for it or simply taking it? Paying for it and ensuring we were Iraq's #1 trade partner would have been fine(we're #4 currently), though truth be told the oil and gas production trade here took off around that time in such a way that we were outproducing them. Also, Iraq's oil exports account for 84% of their global exports. Simply taking it would have reduced them to poverty, greater willingness to rely on neighbors such as Iran, and open extremism.

Sec. Clinton was pretty clear about her desire to overturn the Heller decision on the individual right to bear arms, so I don't know if that's the best example.

Considering that argument has been in use since before the Heller case ever went to court, I'd say it's a fine example. As far as I know, we've been seeing it since the days of the assault weapons ban in the 1990s, though likely it's been around in some form since the National Firearms Act of 1934.

[Sarge]

The only reason it hasn't happened is that there is organized opposition to it. Without principled opposition, I believe we would have lost our individual right to bear arms a long, long time ago.

[Ack]

The only reason it hasn't happened is that there is organized opposition to it. Without principled opposition, I believe we would have lost our individual right to bear arms a long, long time ago.

Perhaps, though I doubt it would ever be 100%. Even in nations where there is a heavy opposition to the ownership of firearms, there is usually some amount of individuals owning them. Even Japan has rifle ownership, albeit heavily regulated.

I also believe the way Republicans use the issue to drum up support is through fear mongering such as declarations that the Democrats solely want to take away all of our firearms so that they can then control us through a massive security state.

Is that likely? I doubt it. Do I still want to keep my firearms? Yes, and you can't have them.

[prfsnl_gmr]

All fed by (a now proven) librul media.

Is this the same media that gave him nearly $4 billion in free publicity? Or, is it the media that harped on Hillary Clinton's e-mail "scandal" as if it were even remotely comparable to something like Trump University (not to mention the Trump Foundation, the sexual assault allegations leveled at Donald Trump, etc.)? Maybe its the media that consistently portrayed Hillary Clinton as "untrustworthy" while treating every one of Donald Trump's equivocations as worthy of a well-reasoned response?

Say what you want about the media's (and most statistician's) undoubtedly terrible ability to predict election results, but please do not accuse it of a liberal bias when it did nearly everything in its power to assist Donald Trump's election.

All fed by manipulators to serve their own agendas and using minorities as pawns in their own game. Pathetic

Who are these manipulators? (Is it the illuminati?!) What is their agenda? (Is it a new world order enforced by liberal storm troopers?!) How do they use minorities as pawns? (How did they brainwash them?!) What is their game?

Please think critically and stop regurgitating alt-right conspiracy theories you read on social media. (Enthusiastic BLM and Trump supporters are more alike than they often realize...) People vote for the person that they feel best represents their interest. (See Occam's razor.) Although it looks like she will win the popular vote, Hillary Clinton's economic policy proposals did not hold much appeal in the rust belt and it deep-sixed her campaign. Donald Trump's policy proposals had tremendous appeal to white, working class voters, and they elevated him to the presidency. (I've said it once, and I will say it again: There is no conspiracy.)

You're a cool dude, mjmjr25, but you really need to lay off the conspiracy stuff!

There is a reason Trump only took 27% of the hispanic vote;

FTFY. George W. Bush took 35% in 2000 and 40% in 2004. In the last 36 years, only George H.W. Bush (1992; 25%) and Bob Dole (1996; 21%) performed worse with this demographic. Mitt Romney - who actually took shockingly similar positions to Donald Trump on immigration issues - took the same percentage.

despite EVERY mainstream media declaring him racist, jingoist, and mysoginist.

This is accurate reporting. Playing recordings of his statements reveal that he is all of those things, and the fact that he won the presidential election does not change his nature. (It just dims my view of humanity's inherent goodness substantially. )

They also want to be protected, both in security and trade policy that accurately reacts to things other governments do.

Bingo. IMO, this is what won the election for him. He made bold defense and economic policy proposals that held a lot of appeal to a lot of voters in states that Hillary Clinton needed to win the election and which she completely neglected during her campaign. (I challenged myself this morning to come up with some of Hillary Clinton's policy proposals, and I could not think of any off the top of my head. I don't agree with any of them, but it was easy for me to come up with six or seven of Donald Trump's policy proposals.)

I voted for Hillary Clinton, and I think that she would have been a fine president. Just like all of his challengers in the Republican primary, however, she was a horrible candidate, and her devastating loss to Donald Trump proves that. I hope that her devastating loss causes the DNC to take a very hard look at itself (i.e., to clean house), and I am happy that in 2020 - and for the first time since 2004 - the Democratic Party will not have a "presumptive" nominee. (I always thought her nomination felt more like a coronation, and as an American, I can't stand anything approaching a dynasty.) I am hopeful that they will nominate a truly progressive candidate who, in my opinion, will appeal to many of the voters wooed by Donald Trump's economic policy proposals.

I am sad that Hillary Clinton lost, and I am sad that so many of my fellow Americans voted for someone supported by hate groups and someone who has peddled so much misogyny. My view of humanity's inherent goodness has been diminished, but I still retain it. Life goes on, and the sun will rise again tomorrow morning. Platformers and JRPGs will still be awesome. It will probably still be a few years before I invest in a gaming PC. In the meantime, I will keep living in America and loving my country, and for its benefit and the benefit of my fellow citizens, I hope that Donald Trump turns out - against all of my instincts - to be a good president. (While I hope that a lot of his policy proposals do not pan out, I don't think I could wish "failure" upon anyone elected to lead our nation.)