2016 US Presidential Elections | Trump Wins

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It would mean she has to drink from the same poison.

Victory for ordinary people is not just about winning an election.

Ordinary people need to have a voice. Warren cannot speak with any sense of justice and integrity once she has 'made the deal'.

That sort of "all or nothing" approach will usually get you nothing. Good governance is all about compromise and cooperation and progressives need to get with the program or else be marginalized in the next administration.
 
Found this about Trump on another board:

There was an article from either his 2008 or his 2012 presidential run where some reporter was embedded into his campaign. It was absolutely hilarious, wish I could track down a link.

Anyway, apparently it was completely and transparently a bid for attention, mostly to the benefit of Trump's resorts and hotels. Like, he knew there was no chance at all of being taken seriously and he was just saying outlandish things so the press would cover him. It was essentially free advertising for the Trump "brand." And everyone knew it and the reporter just sort of gradually pieced it together over the time he was there.

I think this campaign started out the same, Donald probably assumed he would be a non-factor by June of last year so he entered and started saying even more outlandish things than ever before, as he needed to in order to get attention. And lo and behold, it turns out that about a quarter of the Republican party are straight-up fascists, which everyone pretty much knew already but no one wanted to talk about, ESPECIALLY the non-fascist Republicans.

So this time, when he went really left field to try to promote his brand, and started saying things about all Mexicans being rapists and mocking a handicapped reporter and the like, those people rallied around him for the first time. And I think what's happened now is that he's gradually started to believe his own shtick, like "Yeah, the people really DO want me to 'make America great' so I should be president for real!" Like, before it was just a publicity stunt and a fantasy, but he really thinks he'd make a good president and so somewhere around August or so he started taking it seriously.

The article mentioned is here:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppin...e-campaign-trail-with-donald-trump#.dgWKPkPmz
 
That sort of "all or nothing" approach will usually get you nothing. Good governance is all about compromise and cooperation and progressives need to get with the program or else be marginalized in the next administration.
I agree. This is why I'm still skeptical of Sanders and would have probably voted for Clinton, if I was an American. I really like the guy, I don't like her at all. He'll get nothing done though. Which is still far better than anything that would be done from the right, but still. An idealist doesn't belong in American politics. I generally dislike highly dysfunctional politics and leaders who think they are capable of swinging a giant polity like a country very rapidly in one direction. Especially in a large, pluralistic nation like the US.
 
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Conspicuous lack of the word 'religion' when discussing diversity. For a country with America's (supposed) founding tenet of religious freedom, that's a telling influence from Trump's campaign.

Er, no. Because Trump has been just as much if not more rabid in his opposition to immigration, and that video specifically mentions immigrants.
 
That sort of "all or nothing" approach will usually get you nothing. Good governance is all about compromise and cooperation and progressives need to get with the program or else be marginalized in the next administration.

We are at a point in time after decades of dishonesty where compromise really equals surrender. We have two people in government who are willing to stand for the disenfranchised. Whether progressives are marginalised or not will depend on teh voters.
 
@SteveJ Seems about right to me, given this is far from the 1st time he's done this. I think Fox News became a self-reinforcing bubble over the years, spilled over into other mediums and all of a sudden this quarter to a third of especially low education Republicans are downright authoritarian, bigoted and completely deluded about the internal workings of their country and also how it interacts with the rest of the world.

Its bizarre for me watching something like the Tea Party, which has economic policy positions that I might agree with, and yet the rest is so bizarre that I question whether they actually understand the economic policy they support. My overall positions probably line up with moderate Republicans than any other other group (Republicans from NY or CA and Democrats from TX are my preferred recipe), but I must say the current state of the Republican party is downright dangerous.
 
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Sanders has demonstrated his ability to work with both sides of the aisle and to compromise. I'm not sure what this all-or-nothing talk is coming from. It's not as if he's changed his rhetoric.
 
Sanders has demonstrated his ability to work with both sides of the aisle and to compromise. I'm not sure what this all-or-nothing talk is coming from. It's not as if he's changed his rhetoric.

It's one thing to claim such a thing when he is a largely ignored socialist Senator and another to think it would work as President, where his policies would threaten the existing power structure of governance. If you think gridlock under Obama has been bad, then it would be several times worse if Sanders got anywhere near the White House ( which he won't ).
 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christo...ama-gets-it-fracking-is-awesome/#5d9b11733bf1

Since then he's tried to establish regulations to make it safer, though I find conflicting info on how effective those measures have been, but to me fracking seems like a desperate and dangerous attempt to ensure new energy resources.

Let's face it, people like yourself will oppose, sight unseen, all new energy technologies unless they're 'green'. And if they do qualify for the green stamp, you'll don your ideological blinkers and ignore all problems.

The world needs energy and, considering the weakened state of the nuclear industry, the only way to meet demand is the burning of fossil fuels. It makes sense for America, and indeed Europe, to have the capacity to meet their own future energy needs, rather than continue dependence on a region which could go up in flames at any moment.
 
Wasn't the popular opinion like 50-50 on the war?


A lot of folks believed Bush when he said Iraq had WMS's.
Colon Powell made the presentation to the UN and he seemed convinced as well. That had alot to do with the rush to war.

Now we know it was all lies.
 
I agree. This is why I'm still skeptical of Sanders and would have probably voted for Clinton, if I was an American. I really like the guy, I don't like her at all. He'll get nothing done though. Which is still far better than anything that would be done from the right, but still. An idealist doesn't belong in American politics. I generally dislike highly dysfunctional politics and leaders who think they are capable of swinging a giant polity like a country very rapidly in one direction. Especially in a large, pluralistic nation like the US.


Sanders isn´t following an "all-or-nothing" approach.
If you are running an election campaign, you want to spread your ideas and your message. You don´t promote a potential compromise. No candidate will ever be able to implement all his promises. There are only very few topics – e.g. campaign finance reform – where Sanders can´t make compromises. He can easily compromise on all his welfare-state ideas, because everything that strengthens the social welfare legislation will be okay for him.
Furthermore Obama made the mistake (intentionally or not) to disband his grass-roots campaign after his election. Sanders would probably not make the same mistake. Using such a movement after the election could be a powerful tool to get some stuff done.
 
A lot of folks believed Bush when he said Iraq had WMS's.
Colon Powell made the presentation to the UN and he seemed convinced as well. That had alot to do with the rush to war.

Now we know it was all lies.
Exactly. Why demonize any politician for voting in favor of it then? How much does one assume they knew?
 
A lot of folks believed Bush when he said Iraq had WMS's.
Colon Powell made the presentation to the UN and he seemed convinced as well. That had alot to do with the rush to war.

Now we know it was all lies.
Looking back, the MS Paint-like images of the mobile WMD facilities should have been a clue.
 
Exactly. Why demonize any politician for voting in favor of it then? How much does one assume they knew?


I am going to assume they were privy to a bit more intel that we were.
Also, shouldnt they know better?
 
It's one thing to claim such a thing when he is a largely ignored socialist Senator and another to think it would work as President, where his policies would threaten the existing power structure of governance. If you think gridlock underObama has been bad, then it would be several times worse if Sanders got anywhere near the White House(which he won't).

Ok Raoul :)
 
Let's face it, people like yourself will oppose, sight unseen, all new energy technologies unless they're 'green'. And if they do qualify for the green stamp, you'll don your ideological blinkers and ignore all problems.

The world needs energy and, considering the weakened state of the nuclear industry, the only way to meet demand is the burning of fossil fuels. It makes sense for America, and indeed Europe, to have the capacity to meet their own future energy needs, rather than continue dependence on a region which could go up in flames at any moment.

People like myself? When did we last have tea and biscuits together? I'm not sure you can make statements like that. And I'm not some foolhardy, naive hippy who reckons we should have stopped pumping oil yesterday, I know we need to be weened. Fracking has been linked with earthquakes and requires you to pump dangerous chemicals into the geology, which is why I think it's something best left alone.
 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christo...ama-gets-it-fracking-is-awesome/#5d9b11733bf1

Since then he's tried to establish regulations to make it safer, though I find conflicting info on how effective those measures have been, but to me fracking seems like a desperate and dangerous attempt to ensure new energy resources.
Nothing desperate about it; we've been fracking for 50+ years, and it is a much safer process now. Which is why Sanders' notions of banning it carry about as much weight as Obama's proposed $10/bbl tax on oil.
 
Nothing desperate about it; we've been fracking for 50+ years, and it is a much safer process now. Which is why Sanders' notions of banning it carry about as much weight as Obama's proposed $10/bbl tax on oil.

It's been opened up to the commercial market during Obama's second term, and the increase in use carries an increased risk to the environment and public health.

I don't want to come off as if I believe myself to be an authority on this in any way, so if you can point to anything to show my fears to be unfounded hysteria, I'd welcome it.
 

He won't , and if by some miracle he does, literally none of his policies will ever see the light of day. The same unicorn fantasists who supported Ron Paul the past few cycles seem to now have taken to Sanders this cycle. They will learn the hard way.
 
He won't , and if by some miracle he does, literally none of his policies will ever see the light of day. The same unicorn fantasists who supported Ron Paul the past few cycles seem to now have taken to Sanders this cycle. They will learn the hard way.


You very well may be correct, however Sanders has connected with the people in a way that Ron Paul could never do.
His message has real resonance. Looking forward to the debate tonight!
 
He won't , and if by some miracle he does, literally none of his policies will ever see the light of day. The same unicorn fantasists who supported Ron Paul the past few cycles seem to now have taken to Sanders this cycle. They will learn the hard way.

Doubling and tripling down on this so much... If he makes it to the White House, you'll be wanting a tagline calling you politically blinkered :)
 
Doubling and tripling down on this so much... If he makes it to the White House, you'll be wanting a tagline calling you politically blinkered :)

You can literally take every policy he has proposed and rationally assume they will never see the light of day. The GOP Congress will never send such legislation to him for consideration, which would leave no other route to passing things like "Wall Street reform", "Medicare for all", free University for all etc
 
You can literally take every policy he has proposed and rationally assume they will never see the light of day. The GOP Congress will never send such legislation to him for consideration, which would leave no other route to passing things like "Wall Street reform", "Medicare for all", free University for all etc

The GOP Congress won't be much help, no. Come on, this has been said time and time again by me, others in this thread, and Sanders himself since the very outset of his campaign; the change he talks about is predicated on a popular movement shaking up Congress, and other down ticket seats.

What I'm more perplexed by is your utter repeated insistence that he has no chance getting past Hillary, and that he'd be sure to fail in the general should he somehow do that. You are backing the right horse in terms of history and the polling done so far, but Hillary is starting to look as shaky as in '08, Sanders' trend is positive, and Sanders and Trump's popularity are indicating that we may be seeing a different election than usual.

All I'm saying is that I wouldn't be so damn sure if I were you. I'd leave some room for doubt.
 
We are at a point in time after decades of dishonesty where compromise really equals surrender. We have two people in government who are willing to stand for the disenfranchised. Whether progressives are marginalised or not will depend on teh voters.

Well said. I'm really bored of cynics saying you can't fix things. Well feck off then if you can't be bothered.
 
The GOP Congress won't be much help, no. Come on, this has been said time and time again by me, others in this thread, and Sanders himself since the very outset of his campaign; the change he talks about is predicated on a popular movement shaking up Congress, and other down ticket seats.

What I'm more perplexed by is your utter repeated insistence that he has no chance getting past Hillary, and that he'd be sure to fail in the general should he somehow do that. You are backing the right horse in terms of history and the polling done so far, but Hillary is starting to look as shaky as in '08, Sanders' trend is positive, and Sanders and Trump's popularity are indicating that we may be seeing a different election than usual.

All I'm saying is that I wouldn't be so damn sure if I were you. I'd leave some room for doubt.

I just don't think he can win a general election, much less beat Hillary. The primary roadmap ahead contains mostly states where she is currently massacring him in the polls. The only chance for his ideas will be if Hillary moves a bit closer to his positions due to his popularity or takes on Elizabeth Warren to get the Sanders progressive wing on board for the gen.
 
I just don't think he can win a general election, much less beat Hillary. The primary roadmap ahead contains mostly states where she is currently massacring him in the polls. The only chance for his ideas will be if Hillary moves a bit closer to his positions due to his popularity or takes on Elizabeth Warren to get the Sanders progressive wing on board for the gen.

how can she take on Warren abord if she is not the nominee yet? or are you talking of an endorsement? will never happen imo.
 
Whats the situation supposed to be re the democrats in Nevada ?

Cannot find any real poll from this year even.
 
Whats the situation supposed to be re the democrats in Nevada ?

Cannot find any real poll from this year even.
Nope, last one was from the 27th December (Hillary up by 23). I'd say it's an unlikely state for him to do well in based on what we know so far (high number of minorities living there, and a closed caucus so you have to be a Democrat to get involved). But who knows, he might improve a lot with those groups before then. Nevada is a state he needs to be winning.
 
I just don't think he can win a general election, much less beat Hillary. The primary roadmap ahead contains mostly states where she is currently massacring him in the polls. The only chance for his ideas will be if Hillary moves a bit closer to his positions due to his popularity or takes on Elizabeth Warren to get the Sanders progressive wing on board for the gen.

See, that paragraph doesn't irk me as much as talk about Hillary being a dead cert, the defacto winner, only two primaries deep.

Anyway, we'll see. Like I said earlier, there's been no polling in NV and SC since December, let alone since the past two primaries where Bernie's looked more viable than most would expect (yes, despite the whiteness of both states, and the adjacency of his home state to NH). If that happens to have sparked his momentum further, perhaps he's poised to seize NV too. Hillary's downplaying expectations there, and Bernie has just raised more money in 24 hrs than Hillary had managed in this campaign (and that's with the likes of Soris writing a check for 6 mill), and he is the most googled candidate in both primaries.

Anyway, I'll stop harping and end on this note: I have no clue what's going to happen. I feel hopeful, but am braced to find that that cynics are in fact just realists.
 
Whats the situation supposed to be re the democrats in Nevada ?

Cannot find any real poll from this year even.

Nevada is a cacus state. very difficult to poll. But it sounds like Hillary was the first there to be organised. Bernie went down there later. The estmate is it will be close.

Hillary definitely has the edge in SC. Bernie is trying to make inroads. Endorsements or not. The key though is delegates. If he does not lose in a blowout, he should be able to move on.

Having said that many young black voters it seems do like his ideas.
 
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It's been opened up to the commercial market during Obama's second term, and the increase in use carries an increased risk to the environment and public health.

I don't want to come off as if I believe myself to be an authority on this in any way, so if you can point to anything to show my fears to be unfounded hysteria, I'd welcome it.
It was always open to the commercial market, so I'm not sure what you mean there. I know this because I've been a Petroleum Engineer for 8 years. Fracking is just a buzzword, it's actually other aspects of the oilfield like production and disposal that pose dangers and need to be cleaned up. But it would take too long to get into all that.

Back on topic, Bernie's stance on this issue is the primary reason I won't vote for him. Changing our leverage in the Middle East due to decreased reliance on the Saudi's is one of the only positive things we have going in geopolitics currently.
 
Warren basically said Hillary should go to jail not that long ago, I very much doubt she'll be high on Hillary's wanted list for the ticket..
 
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