A month from now, 50 million Americans will vote for Trump

[JayJayH 546]

Unless Ivanka Trump manages to change the password to her father's Twitter account very soon, Hillary Clinton will probably win the election. A lot of people will be relieved, both on the right and the left, but the fact that 50 million Americans (give or take) will vote for Donald Trump on November 8th should be a wake-up call.

To Republicans, it should be a reminder that there a far more important issues to front than gay wedding cakes and privatizing social security.

To Democrats, it should be a reminder that you can't throw words like "racist", "misogynist", "islamophobe" and "transphobe" around in hopes of burying important discussions to be had.

May we in 2017 learn to recognize the good intentions of others, listen to those with whom we disagree and stop resorting to name-calling.

Edited October 4, 2016 by JayJayH

[Dakine10 5,452]

Unless Ivanka Trump manages to change the password to her father's Twitter account very soon, Hillary Clinton will probably win the election. A lot of people will be relieved, both on the right and the left, but the fact that 50 million Americans (give or take) will vote for Donald Trump on November 8th should be a wake-up call.

To Republicans, it should be a reminder that there a far more important issues to front than gay wedding cakes and privatizing social security.

To Democrats, it should be a reminder that you can't throw words like "racist", "misogynist", "islamophobe" and "transphobe" around in hopes of burying important discussions to be had.

May we in 2017 learn to recognize the good intentions of others, listen to those with whom we disagree and stop resorting to name-calling.

The Republicans also still need to learn the lesson they should have learned last time around. The entire party has to get on board and stop marginalizing minorities. They know they have to do this and yet they ended up going in the opposite direction with Trump. Democrats will stop throwing those words around when the Republicans stop giving them a reason to.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Sobering indeed. But Donald Trump is a bigot, and racist, and saying so is not name calling. The Republicans want to paint it as rudeness and you agreeing diminishes the seriousness of what Trump is. People would not say this about Jeb Bush, for instance.

[smilesammich 10,727]

May we in 2017 learn to recognize the good intentions of others, listen to those with whom we disagree and stop resorting to name-calling.

may we also start a search party and begin earnestly looking for the line between entertainment and news, investigative journalists and talk show hosts.

may we also drop the pointless search for all those sent jobs overseas and accept the sad truth that they are never coming back,

and may all your heroes forever avoid federal taxes due and all your billion dollar losses truly for your own personal gain.

cheers!

[Rob L 3,811]

The Republican party has sown division and hatred going back to the "Southern Strategy" that had its genesis with Johnson turning his back on the Dixiecrats with Civil rights legislation ( passed it should be noticed with brave leadership in the Republican party.

Since that time they have flirted with promoting policies and strategies that alienate people who are not white and not "normal". Culture wars, Voter registration restriction, gerrymandering were all designed suppress the "others". Now the "others" are exceeding 50 %.

As we sow so shall we reap.

[JayJayH 546]

The Republicans also still need to learn the lesson they should have learned last time around. The entire party has to get on board and stop marginalizing minorities. They know they have to do this and yet they ended up going in the opposite direction with Trump. Democrats will stop throwing those words around when the Republicans stop giving them a reason to.

Agreed to an extent. I think it has to be possible to realistically discuss immigration policy without somehow ending up at "you don't like brown people." I also think it has to be possible to realistically discuss police shootings without concluding the other side thinks "black lives don't matter." I don't agree that the GOP has been marginalizing minorities. Bush received 40% of the Latino vote and an even bigger portion of the Asian vote. But yes, they should have learned from 2012.

Which sadly, they tried this year. Marco Rubio on stage in South Carolina along with Nikki Haley and senator Tim Scott in front of thousands of (largely) white southern Republicans was a testament to that. Unfortunately, the GOP primaries are designed to give the nomination to whomever wins the plurality in early states, not the majority of voters.

Sobering indeed. But Donald Trump is a bigot, and racist, and saying so is not name calling. The Republicans want to paint it as rudeness and you agreeing diminishes the seriousness of what Trump is. People would not say this about Jeb Bush, for instance.

I respectfully disagree.

In context, I think you can point to plenty of Trump remarks and call it textbook definitions of racism, as Paul Ryan would put it. But I really do think part of the reason it hasn't really caught on is that parts of the left have been crying wolf for a very long time.

You don't have to go further back than 2012 to find Joe Biden accusing Mitt Romney of wanting to put black people "back in chains." Or to 2008 to find media on the left trying to paint John McCain as somehow racist. So when Trump comes along and everyone from MSNBC to Salon to Vox jumps on the "Why [abc] is racist" train, excuse me for being skeptical.

There are plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons to be against illegal immigration that have nothing to do with racism. There are plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons to not support the BLM movement that have very little to do with racism. There were plenty of very real reasons to question judge Curiel's impartiality. Trump just happens to talk like my Norwegian uncle after three shots of cognac over a game of poker.

Edited October 5, 2016 by JayJayH

[Teddy B 17,252]

After last night's debate I have to wonder why Mike Pence isn't on the top of the Republican ticket.

[Jacque67 7,328]

After last night's debate I have to wonder why Mike Pence isn't on the top of the Republican ticket.

Pence is thinking of 2020 I bet.

[Dashinka 24,494]

The Republican party has sown division and hatred going back to the "Southern Strategy" that had its genesis with Johnson turning his back on the Dixiecrats with Civil rights legislation ( passed it should be noticed with brave leadership in the Republican party.

Since that time they have flirted with promoting policies and strategies that alienate people who are not white and not "normal". Culture wars, Voter registration restriction, gerrymandering were all designed suppress the "others". Now the "others" are exceeding 50 %.

As we sow so shall we reap.

Yep, and the Democrats are the most devisive party in history going back to the Andrew Jackson administration and the Indian Removal Act just to name one. To identify one party as as the most devisive is disengenuous if you ignore that both parties have had their devisive members throughout history.

[Rob L 3,811]

The Republican party has sown division and hatred going back to the "Southern Strategy" that had its genesis with Johnson turning his back on the Dixiecrats with Civil rights legislation ( passed it should be noticed with brave leadership in the Republican party.

Since that time they have flirted with promoting policies and strategies that alienate people who are not white and not "normal". Culture wars, Voter registration restriction, gerrymandering were all designed suppress the "others". Now the "others" are exceeding 50 %.

As we sow so shall we reap.

Yep, and the Democrats are the most devisive party in history going back to the Andrew Jackson administration and the Indian Removal Act just to name one. To identify one party as as the most devisive is disengenuous if you ignore that both parties have had their devisive members throughout history.

Totally fair and accurate, and it would be unfair to single out all Republicans as having these views, but in the context of "how did Donald Trump become the head of the Republican party?", the answer lies with the strategies employed by party operatives. He is the logical extention of those tactics.

[Rob L 3,811]

After last night's debate I have to wonder why Mike Pence isn't on the top of the Republican ticket.

The Republicans had 17 people with campaigns, they voters wanted Donald Trump.

[Teddy B 17,252]

The Republicans had 17 people with campaigns, they voters wanted Donald Trump.

From what I've seen so far, Pence appears better than any of them. I'm still scratching my head on how Trump came out of that pool of 17 as the winner.

[Dashinka 24,494]

From what I've seen so far, Pence appears better than any of them. I'm still scratching my head on how Trump came out of that pool of 17 as the winner.

Agreed. There were definitely better political candidates in the mix, but it seems that Trump won running as an anti-establishment candidate which is pretty big among many voters out there. Maybe the Republicans should have hired Debbie W-S to find out how to fix a primary.

[JayJayH 546]

Totally fair and accurate, and it would be unfair to single out all Republicans as having these views, but in the context of "how did Donald Trump become the head of the Republican party?", the answer lies with the strategies employed by party operatives. He is the logical extention of those tactics.

I agree. And you can extend those tactics to include people like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh who have made fortunes by scaring people into believing in some pretty obscene conspiracy theories, ranging from birtherism to Jade Helm.

But let's be honest, if Fox News was the only problem, we wouldn't be as divided. Echo chambers on the left like MSNBC, Vox, Salon etc. etc. are just as conspiratorial and divisive, and the intellectual depravity we see on the left has been fueling Trump's just as much as the far right has.

If you truly don't understand the damage being done by the far left, please read the following article:

http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/23/how-anti-white-rhetoric-is-fueling-white-nationalism/

I normally wouldn't use The Federalist as a source for anything, but this is the most accurate assessment I've read of why the "white working class" is becoming more and more populist and tribal - A phenomenon that should scare everyone.

The problem today is that no one is willing to clean up their own backyard. Yet, we like to point out the mess in our neighbor's backyards. So we argue about who has the bigger mess rather than cleaning up our own mess.

[JayJayH 546]

From what I've seen so far, Pence appears better than any of them. I'm still scratching my head on how Trump came out of that pool of 17 as the winner.

Because you don't need to win over a majority of primary voters. You need to win a plurality of voters in early states. Trump won New Hampshire even though 67% of GOP voters there didn't vote for him. He won South Carolina even though 65% of voters there didn't vote for him. He won Nevada even though 62% of GOP primary voters there didn't vote for him. He won most of the early voting states even though 70% of voters there voted for Rubio, Kasich, Cruz, Carson etc.

By the time 25 states had voted, the only real options left were Cruz and Trump.

Edited October 9, 2016 by JayJayH