American Election Discussion

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  • ;sbrew
    A merry can
    Lol
  • MrsGrey said:

    thornbury - there are (as I'm sure you know) different forms of democracy..

    If the US election had been of a referendum type (every vote counts), Clinton would have won.

    I personally wouldn't say it was 'undemocratic,' but for me the jury is out on which form of voting offers voters the fairest system.

    Only in as much that she gained more physical votes than Trump under the system employed, I understand that less than half registered voters actually voted.

    If it truly was simply most votes across the nation wins, I would expect that many more people would have voted, many states are ingrained in their party allegiance and many people do not vote as they do not feel that realistically they have chance of effecting how the electoral college votes are assigned.

    Hillary attracted 10,000,000 fewer votes than Obama got in 2008, that is an astonishing number and she was up against a widely unpopular and divisive opponent.

    I struggle to conclude that, on Tuesday, she actually won the popular vote, I get that she literally got more than Trump but under a true proportional system, it is unknown if she would have succeeded, but frankly, I am afraid to conclude that I doubt it.

    I think that the vote she actually got on Tuesday shows clearly how unpopular a candidate she turned out to be.

    It as shame as I actually consider her a competent politician, arrogant and self promoting certainly, but competent nonetheless.

    Ho hum
  • skynews.com.au/culture/showbiz/celebrity/2016/11/10/kanye-west-reaffirms-vow-to-run-for-president.html

    Well if Trump can be president, who knows?

    He's a celebrity and a businessman...same as Trump...
  • edited November 2016
    Some things don't change, this is 36 years old

  • Chicago, agree with all but the last sentence, just look to Libya, I don't trust she has ever worked in the best interests of the country if they did not match her own.
  • simonc said:

    May be stereotyping but if the shoe fits.. the Democrats already saw it work for the Obama black vote 96% then 93% so surprise surprise who is already being touted as a great candidate for 2020? Oh why not a black woman - Michele Obama - I wonder what her policies are ;hmm

    She is not being touted just because she is black. If that was the case Beyoncé would be president. She is being touted because of her views and actions in her role as the First Lady. And don't forget, she is an experienced lawyer.
  • edited November 2016
    MIAHammer said:

    simonc said:

    May be stereotyping but if the shoe fits.. the Democrats already saw it work for the Obama black vote 96% then 93% so surprise surprise who is already being touted as a great candidate for 2020? Oh why not a black woman - Michele Obama - I wonder what her policies are ;hmm

    She is not being touted just because she is black. If that was the case Beyoncé would be president. She is being touted because of her views and actions in her role as the First Lady. And don't forget, she is an experienced lawyer.
    More like Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren or Tim Kaine. Look back at simonc's posts and he obviously anti-Democrats.
  • edited November 2016
    simonc said:

    NE - I understand you were mainly exposed to biassed headlines but really!
    This statement is self explanatory, weak border controls are allowing for the influx of drugs, criminals and even rapists, at many of his rallies & at the debates he had victims of these crimes.

    Except the crime figures clearly indicated that immigrants were more law abiding than US born citizens. Just ignore reality.
  • edited November 2016
    simonc: re Michael Moore, your comment above seems to fit. Just insert 'right' for left. Have you actually read his series of articles, which underlined the strengths of the Trump campaign and the weaknesses of the Clinton campaign, predicting exactly which 4 Democratic states (worth 64 Electoral College votes) would vote Trump, and why? You also seem to be ignoring the fact that he was correct in calling out Jeb Bush for rigging the Florida vote that got his brother over the line, and his stance on gun control after the Columbine shootings would have made America a lot safer than it is today. If you think Moore is a broken clock then you need to learn to read the time more accurately.
  • Maybe Canada should build a wall ;lol

    Already on it mate
  • Maybe Canada should build a wall ;lol

    It would only need to be waist height thanks to the levels of obesity in the States........
  • Michael Moore: "Democracy is not a spectator sport, it is a participatory event. If we don`t participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy"

    Well Michael, people did participate, and they voted for Trump.

    Michael Moore: "The other side needs to be ready to roll right now to do whatever it takes to stop his appointment to the Supreme Court"

    The hypocrisy of the liberal left is quite staggering. His very presence on the street protesting at THE RESULT is quite staggering. You either support the ideal of governmental democracy and the rule of law or you don`t. Thornbury touched on the fact that normal, poor, disenfranchised, people voted for Trump, and was told that (in effect) they have done nothing but swallow his lies. If you want "the truth" you need to listen to people from the educated classes. This is what people are absolutely sick of, being told by the rich and famous "this is the way it should be, this is the way you should think". You can`t hold up the bastions of "free speech", "democracy" "the rule of law" on the one hand but throw Twitter inspired hissy fits if the results go against you. NONE of these people would have been on the streets if Hillary had won. Which I find quite bizarre, as for the absolute poorest, the absolute disenfranchised, the underclass, would ANYTHING worthwhile actually have changed? Probably not, but the liberal lefts sense of moral outrage would have been assuaged for another four years and they could have concentrated on the next "right on" project. People are sick to the back teeth of "The Bob Geldof syndrome" and the "What have you done?" elitist claptrap. If you want to take to the streets, please don`t do it because its the "wrong result", but do it because you stand against the very institutions that allow this to happen. The people now on the streets sign up to democracy, they abdicate the power they have over themselves to someone else. That`s what our peculiar democracies are all about.
    I am in no way a supporter of Trump, he`s a twit. But what makes Hillary so much better that people like Michael Moore would now be sitting smug and content and posting self congratulatory selfies on Twitter.
    What do these "anti fascists" think they look like burning effigies of Trump.
    These are the very people questioning the rights and ability of people to look at things in an objective and rational way before casting their vote, I.E. Trump voters. Do they suggest withdrawing votes from certain sections, making people pass some sort of competency test before voting?? Would they be asked about their moral standpoint on certain issues. Because these "anti fascists" are starting to look a little elitist to me, it`s only a few short steps.
  • edited November 2016
    Madcap - in certain states they already do supress voting by certain sections of the populace although that's more to do with ethnicity and favours the Republicans. The turnout was just 55%, plenty of Americans don't participate.

    There weren't mass protests after any other recent elections, Trump is the exception, his vile rhetoric had incensed people and polarised the USA to an extent that hasn't been seen since possibly the 1861 election of Lincoln.

    As for accepting Trump as POTUS there were plenty on the right that still don't accept that Obama was a legitimate president and the left are objecting because of his policies rather than some imagined Kenyan birth certificate.
  • edited November 2016
    In 1932 the Nazis won more seats in the Reichstag than any of the other parties, it didn't mean their policies were right or that people should accept them. The right to protest is essential in a democracy, even if 99% disagree those voices still need to be heard.
  • Mooj I'm confused. Are you suggesting that the opinions of say Bob Geldof, Madonna, Beyoncé etc are more valid than mine or yours or anyone else on here or that they were telling the truth. What makes you think their education was better than mine. ;hmm

    I didn't say that there education was better than yours or that mine or your opinion was less valid.
    There is also a bit of crossed views here. I wasn't talking about some celeb who comes out and parrots their opinions.

    More the fact that you have experts who spend their lives specialising in certain fields of study who then give their informed opinion on said subject at times like Brexit etc who then get slated because they are viewed as elitist because they have gone to a certain school or had a certain level of education.
  • Aslef ;ok

    I find it bizarre that there seems to be a general sense of 'well, the result was X, so now shut up and put up.' (We saw it with the UK referendum too.)

    Obviously, the election result is final (although Trump had said that if he had not won he would have contested the result).

    But that is no reason not to express your views on it, and say why you think it was a mistake, and why you will be fighting for a different result next time.

    It is also no reason why you should not protest about and strenuously oppose (by whatever legal means you have, whether as an ordinary bod or through your profession of as one of the other democratically elected representatives) any and every attempt by the government to remove your rights or enact laws which you don't agree with.

    ----

    That by way of general comment.

    Just to address a couple of points in your last post, madcap


    madcap said NONE of these people would have been on the streets if Hillary had won Well, erm, obviously. ;puzzled I don't see how that's in any way hypocrisy? It would have been the other voters out protesting.

    madcap also said This is what people are absolutely sick of, being told by the rich and famous "this is the way it should be, this is the way you should think".

    Rich and famous? Like Trump?

  • As a note, 6 November, 2012. Trump tweeted:

    "We can't let this happen, We should march on Washington and stop this Travesty. Our nation is totally divided"

    "This election is a total shame and a travesty. We are not a democracy"

    "lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice. The world is laughing at us"

    "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy"

    Yesterday he tweeted:

    "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!"

    So, does that make him a hypocrite?
  • I think most of us are in agreement that Trump is a twit. I am incensed by the hypocrisy of the glitterati. Surely if these people think they have anything legitimate to protest about it should be the system, not the outcome. Imagine the outcry on here if West Ham fans had rioted after losing a game. Trump won, Hillary lost, and yet the glitterati react like this:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/us-election-results-celebrity-reactions-as-donald-trump-becomes-president_uk_5822d759e4b020461a1e3020

    Note the Michael Moore entry.

    You can`t have it all ways.

    By a strange quirk, I tend to agree with the sentiments and general message that the glitterati espouse. What I can`t stand is the hypocrisy, the faux moral outrage, the smugness, and the poorly disguised contempt shown to "normal people".

    As I have said previously, IMO, the possibility of real change no longer exists within the current system. Rage against the government, rage against unjust laws (all), rage against inequality, rage against globalization, rage against war, but don`t rage against the legitimate winner.

    This is what bugs me, these people would have been as quiet as church mice had Hillary won. What REALLY would have been SO different except the "honesty" of the rhetoric. Under people like Hillary, the gap between rich and poor has grown.

    Katy Perry: THE REVOLUTION IS COMING

    don`t make me laugh.......................

  • Katy Perry: THE REVOLUTION IS COMING

    Brexiteers: £350M to the NHS

    It's all the same thing. Just trying to get votes.
  • Moojor said:

    As a note, 6 November, 2012. Trump tweeted:

    "We can't let this happen, We should march on Washington and stop this Travesty. Our nation is totally divided"

    "This election is a total shame and a travesty. We are not a democracy"

    "lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice. The world is laughing at us"

    "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy"

    Yesterday he tweeted:

    "Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!"

    So, does that make him a hypocrite?

    Yes, because if Hillary had won, apparently there would have been no need to protest.

    And Aslef. My point is that (this version of) democracy allows this to happen, as you say even the Nazi`s were voted in.

    Don`t blame the people who win. Blame the system. If there is a propensity for, or a likelihood that, madmen and tyrants can be legally elected within the current system. Why not (seems perfectly logical to me) look at ways of changing the system. The hypocrisy is that these people are protesting about the result, well tough, none of them (to my knowledge) have stopped and thought "hey, perhaps it`s the system that is at fault and perhaps we should take a serious look at that".

    The gap between rich and poor grows daily, despite well meaning rhetoric and right on people being "on message". This happens here and now under institutions here and now. Hillary wouldn`t have made a blind bit of difference.

    You are missing my point. Do not aim your vitriol at Trump and SimonC. Aim it at the institutions and powerbase that allow this to happen.

    Trump and Hillary are just two sides of the same coin.

    Katy Perry is inciting revolution. A big thumbs up from me. IMO, these people are doing it for the wrong reasons though. Why wasn`t she inciting revolution a week last wednesday. Oh yeah, her preferred candidate hadn`t lost then. But to my knowledge people were still starving, war was still raging, inequality was still growing.

    Do people want a parliamentary democracy or a social revolution, as I`m a little confused as to what way people are leaning. It seems to me democracy is great as long as the right candidate wins. Well they won`t always.

  • TMC,

    Personally, I think, we, as in the human race need to call out any and all "leaders" who are racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted etc. Regardless of the ways in which they are elected.

    Trump has said that he is serious about getting ALL Muslims in America on a register. That isn't a system which needs to be protested against, that is HIM, his view, his opinion.
  • Mrs G, I don`t want anyone rich and powerful telling me what to do. Whether thats Trump, Geldof, Chairman Lineker or Hillary Clinton. I have already decided that, within the confines of what is possible, I am perfectly capable of making decisions for myself.

    If people would ask themselves how they would rather live, and under what guiding principles. Would they look to emulate Donald Trump, who by any contemporary measure, I.E. Rich, famous, successful, powerful (the American dream, anyone can do it you know) or Gandhi. I would like to think that most would like to emulate and associate themselves with Gandhi.

    If you look at the basic codes that guided Gandhi they closely resemble those of classical Anarchists.

    So who is the more "frightening" The Anarchist or the democratic parliamentarian.



  • Moojor said:

    TMC,

    Personally, I think, we, as in the human race need to call out any and all "leaders" who are racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted etc. Regardless of the ways in which they are elected.

    Trump has said that he is serious about getting ALL Muslims in America on a register. That isn't a system which needs to be protested against, that is HIM, his view, his opinion.

    My point is most definitely being missed. I don`t like Trump. Trump said some nasty things, call him out on that if you like. But despite Trump saying these nasty things, despite standing for EVERYTHING that everyone on here seems to find abhorrent, HE WON THE DAMN ELECTION. To my mind, a system that allows someone like that, to reach the level of power he has, needs changing. Change Trump tomorrow for all I care, kick him out now. BUT YOU WILL STILL HAVE THE SAME SYSTEM. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NEXT TIME.
  • edited November 2016
    Madcap,
    With Kim Jong-un in the East and Trump in the West, it just got a little closer to midnight.
    There may not be a next time.
  • Moojor said:

    TMC,

    Personally, I think, we, as in the human race need to call out any and all "leaders" who are racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted etc. Regardless of the ways in which they are elected.

    Trump has said that he is serious about getting ALL Muslims in America on a register. That isn't a system which needs to be protested against, that is HIM, his view, his opinion.

    Moojor, I agree. But you could so easily have left the statement at:

    Personally, I think, we, as in the human race need to call out any and all "leaders".

    NE, a good but frightening point, it mystifies me how we can be manipulated to such an extent, that we will follow other ordinary human beings to the point where we are prepared to pay the ultimate price on their behalf.
  • edited November 2016
    NEoldiron said:

    Madcap,
    With Kim Jong-un in the East and Trump in the West, it just got a little closer to midnight.
    There may not be a next time.

    Not to mention China's expansion into the South China sea and Russia's into Eastern Europe & Irans path to Nuclear Weapons with a stockpile of ready cash to support terrorism.
  • Maybe Canada should build a wall ;lol

    I don't think anyone would complain as long as they paid for it and kept Justin on their side.

  • The threat doesn't come from China or Russia, they're not run by madmen.
  • Madcap - when Bush beat Gore people weren't out on the streets despite the voting irregularities in Florida. If Cruz, Rubio or any other Republican had won I doubt if there would have been protests, equally had Sanders or anyone else been the Democratic candidate there would be.

    It's not the democratic process or the political system that has got people angry, they are angry at Donald Trump
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