Il Douché and His Discontents: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 4

If Trump really is the ascent of strong-man authoritarianism, then I can't wait for him to be defeated in the general election, utterly and humiliatingly, by a flipflopping woman supported by a coalition of single women and minorities. That's going to feel so good!

they each view trump as the special instrument of their revenge against some element of society that has wronged them

I agree that this is perfect, almost to the point of being self-evident. Like, I cannot think of a more succinct way to explain why anyone would vote for Trump over literally anyone else. Again, though: Trump is aggrieved, but his aggrievement is probably not your aggrievement.

the weird thing to me that i kinda don't understand is that the US is not some Weimer Republic w/ out of control inflation and painful terms dictated by a recent surrender. unemployment is apparently at a two decade low, and no other country in the world has bounced back from the recession as strongly. there's obv still inequality and things that need to be fixed but these ppl are acting like this country is going down the toilet and needs some radical shakeout for its survival - it's insane. these americans must be experiencing some kind of psychotic break.

Precisely that.

yeah it's bizarre

they each view trump as the special instrument of their revenge against some element of society that has wronged them

Best thing said in this long long thread

there's a crisis everyday on 24 hour news

xposts Or they'll feel the way the biggest loudmouth tells them they should feel absent anything like evidence or critical thought or sensory input, but what's the difference really.

I don't think Trump is aggrieved! His voters are aggrieved. He still looks like he's doing it for fun and has watched this thing blossom since last summer until he had to take it seriously.

*still looks = looked

we should poll ilx and see how many secret trump voters we have

Morbs is, right?

#herewego

my first guess xp

Agree that goole's observation is the bee's knees.

Meanwhile I heard Jon Meacham quoted as saying that it's like an airline hijacking where the passengers are rooting for the hijackers. Funny, if not a perfect analogy.

the US is not some Weimer Republic

true, but real wages in the U.S. have been stagnant for at least 40 years, and during the same period much of the manufacturing sector has vanished ... for low-education white males of a certain age, the brutality of the economy might feel kind of Weimarish

these americans must be experiencing some kind of psychotic break.

OTM. Also it's not like the Dems have been pushing the good numbers. The R's are so much better at it

no way. i mean i don't want to downplay anyone's struggle [um] but life in the US in 2016, no matter how much real wage stagnation, is nothing like life in Germany in 1933

there are “two Trumps” – the brash character he portrays himself as, and the decent man they know behind closed doors

"I'm not a bloviating megalomaniac asshole, but I play one on TV."

of the NY Times profiles of Super Tuesday Trump supporters, this was the biggest facepalm

RICHFIELD, Minn. — When Fadumo Yusuf showed up at a Donald J. Trump rally here wearing a gold hijab, she was practically mobbed by campaign volunteers.

A Trump sticker made its way onto her hijab, and she was handed a large Trump sign and directed to the front of the group, so she could be interviewed by a local news station.

Ms. Yusuf, 34, a Muslim immigrant from Ethiopia who lives in Minneapolis, and her husband appeared to be the only nonwhites among roughly 300 people who gathered Sunday at the American Legion in this Minneapolis suburb.

One volunteer begged her to do an on-camera interview. “You are a brave, beautiful woman, and I’m proud of you,” the volunteer told Ms. Yusuf, who obliged. Chris Hupke, a Trump adviser, posed for a picture beside Ms. Yusuf, flashing a thumbs-up and then asking for her name. (Her husband was largely overlooked.)

“From the minute I came inside, everybody welcomed me,” Ms. Yusuf said. “It showed me a different thing — not hate but love.”

Ms. Yusuf is well aware that her decision to caucus tonight for Mr. Trump will surprise many people — and that the sight of a hijab-wearing Muslim holding a Trump sign can cause people to do a double take.

She does not pretend to agree with Mr. Trump’s proposal to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the country. “That was hurtful,” Ms. Yusuf said.

But she does not consider Mr. Trump a bad person, just ill-informed.

“I believe he has a heart, so I will overlook that,” she said. “He doesn’t know a lot about the Muslim community. I want to give him a chance to see who we are. We are not terrorists. We are great Muslim Americans. We are his people.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/live/super-tuesday-2016-elections/a-muslim-woman/

“I believe he has a heart, so I will overlook that,”

^^^ how I eliminate dates

He's such a good man, you don't understand. What, this? Oh, I just walked into a door, that's all.

we should poll ilx and see how many secret trump voters we have

next best thing: Which secret Trump voter most closely resembles you?

fingers crossed! http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/us/politics/anti-donald-trump-republicans-call-for-a-third-party-option.html?_r=0

please please please

Defections of any scale could prove lethal to Mr. Trump. He already trails Mrs. Clinton in general election polls, and polling already shows the possibility of mass desertions from the party. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey this week found that 48 percent of Republicans who do not already back Mr. Trump said they would probably not or definitely not support him in November.

Morbs is, right?

congrats Mordy and Sotosyn, for beating Pollitt, Steinem & Co to the lib-fascist punch

also go fuck each other

that's not a no

NO, shitbird. And when did you stop beating your wife?

hey man, i'm pleasantly surprised

lol @ shitbird

these ppl are acting like this country is going down the toilet and needs some radical shakeout for its survival - it's insane. these americans must be experiencing some kind of psychotic break.

This is something that people have been wrestling with in Poland too. Objectively Poland is in a better position than it ever has been and, despite massive inequality, quality of life has never been better. The government that has just been voted in is authoritarian, regressive and actively hostile to a lot of the Europeanisation and internationalisation that arguably brought about the positive changes.

Aside from nativism and bigotry, there seems to be a widespread lack of belief that the future is going to be anything other than stagnation followed by decline. Some of it is domestic but there is a broader fear of the decline of Europe and the west as a whole.

In an American context, I would guess that there is a widespread fear of wage stagnation and further loss of OK jobs to Asia. People might not be on the breadline but it's not easy to convince them the economy is doing well if their earnings are barely keeping pace with inflation. That is a massive shift in how the market delivers if you have been conditioned to believe in endless growth. It's not surprising that the first generation in recent history to recognise their children are probably going to be worse off than them has some weird ideas about how to fix it.

Along with that, in Poland and the US you have a huge amount of resentment about a conspiracy of elites keeping the biggest portion of the pie for themselves. The more you are told the economy is growing, the easier it is to believe a cabal is hiving off the profits if you aren't seeing direct benefits. Middle class stagnation in a growing economy is a recipe for this kind of stuff.

kind of agree that the loss of social capital for working/middle class white males in the era of increasing diversity is to them like weimar republic-equivalent systemic trauma

cf: recent articles with social scientists baffled at recent stratospheric increases in mortality among only white males as a demographic group

xp

life in the US in 2016, no matter how much real wage stagnation, is nothing like life in Germany in 1933

the ready availability of cheap fast food and Walmart goods is one enormous difference, so the comparison can't be pressed too far ... but long-term decline of worker income and social stability has lasted longer here than the inter-war period in Germany

next administration is def going to have to raise min wage, tax investments heavier, increase social net, but the point is that these are aren't reforms that require tearing down the entire state and starting over. these are fixes at the margins (that will nonetheless have a huge impact on ppl's lives)

"Era of increasing diversity" is urgent and key in this I think.

Also, I read ppl are acting like this country is going down the toilet and needs some radical shakeout for its survival as "racial" shakeout, and yeah.

sure, but this hasn't happened and we keep getting told it is because we have a do-nothing congress and government is broken. many people just don't grasp that only one side of the congress is in fact doing nothing and utterly broken.

xopst

a HS friend of mine recently came out on FB as a trump support, posting this:

"I've been pretty quiet about Trump over the course of the election. Here's why...

Nobody in politics likes him. Republicans or democrats. They will make sure he doesn't get elected. It's not like it would be the first time that politicians fixed an election. They've done it before. They'll do it again.

And even if he did get elected, it's not like he's going to be Dictator Trump. He won't build a boarder wall. Too many others have to be involved to help make the project happen.

There won't be enough people backing him in congress to help make it happen. He also won't be deporting 11,000 illegal immigrants. Again, same thing. Plus, he'll be chucked out of office by both parties pretty quickly. The bad reputation he will bring to this country from other nations will force the hand of the politicians to throw him out of office.

The guy people need to be afraid of being elected is Cruz. Cruz is a constitutional lawyer. He can actually fuck this country up. He'll make W look like Lyndon Johnson.

If it came down to Cruz and Hillary, I will reluctantly vote for Hillary. But if it comes down to Trump and Hillary, I'm voting for Trump because all of the reasons I stated earlier. He won't last and none of his plans will fly."

he is a textbook bernie bro, btw, and that weird species of liberal/"progressive" that will swear up and down that he's not a racist or misogynist, it's just that blacks really do more crime if you look at the numbers and women most of the time are gold digging bitches i'm just stating the facts man

unfriend

also he is a failed standup comedian, a veteran, and lives in texas

just tryna give a demographic snapshot since something i hear on the left is that guys like him don't actually exist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwzGMmGcJw

simpler times

Mittens being brought out as if anyone gaf what he has to say about anything is hilarious

regarding the uniquely increasing mortality for only US middle aged white people as a demographic age group: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/you-can-t-understand-american-politics-without-reading-this-study

To put these numbers in context, this reversal is contrary to the trend in France, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden. Indeed, it goes against the trend in every wealthy, industrialized democracy we know of.

I need to read up on 1964, because Goldwater is the closest recent comparison. Not in terms of their politics, but rather a frontrunner/nominee who plainly horrified his party leadership and who inspired vigorous efforts to block him. There is also some delicious historical resonance in that one of AuH20's most prominent critics was George Romney.

Maybe this is a one-off (yeah, I know, Everything is Different Now (tm)) but I don't think there's ever been a candidate who inspired so much resistance from his own side, then went on to win.

if you don't want to read an entire book on Goldwaterism, the '64 section of Nixonland is pretty good

I kinda agree with the FB bro upthread that anything Trump tries will be stymied by Congress or the Supreme Court. And about how much worse Cruz would be. Where we split is on the whole "...thus, I'm voting Trump!" part, obviously.

Also, I never thought Morbs would be a Trump voter. Actually voting for anyone at all would scuff up his purity, and make it (incrementally) more difficult for him to post again, and again, and again, and again about how hopelessly corrupt and evil they all are.

I need to read up on 1964, because Goldwater is the closest recent comparison. Not in terms of their politics, but rather a frontrunner/nominee who plainly horrified his party leadership and who inspired vigorous efforts to block him. There is also some delicious historical resonance in that one of AuH20's most prominent critics was George Romney.

Read Before the Storm, particularly as Election Day nears and Goldwater realizes the extent of his attracting nuts, mountebanks, and imbeciles from high and low.

what kind of profession do you work in, top man in the language department? I have it narrowed down to about four.

I'm so "pure" (neon flash of ASSHOLE everytime i encounter that word in such a context) I've cast ballots in the last ten years for Barack Obama and Clintonite Bill de Blasio.

<3 morbs

what kind of profession do you work in, top man in the language department?

Architecture/construction.