Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

yeah, but we'll always have Trump giving a speech in front of a pile of literal garbage

I don't know if anything will ever top Palin being interviewed while a turkey is killed in the background.

If I hadn't read those links that o.nate shared in the wrong order, I wouldn't have read them at all. The setup is that there are only two kinds of people in the world and Trump voters are one them. Gross.

I guess I can see some of the reasoning behind supporting a candidate like Trump but then you realise that candidate actually is Trump and that's just unforgivable.

xp it's cool, all you have to do is wait 24 hours and you'll get to read something even dumber! And here it is!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-hate-donald-trump-but-he-might-get-my-vote/2016/06/28/ddeee5f8-398d-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html

xxpost It's an oversimplification but in a larger sense it isn't inaccurate, at least inasmuch as there's a broad array of people with differing belief systems but who ultimately agree on the importance of maintaining a civil society with some sort of order and there are those who won't be content until the external world matches the morass of illogical chaos that exists inside their minds.

I think I got like fifteen words into that WaPo op ed before I vomited all over my keyboard. Almost worse than the stereotypical Trump voter is the dickhole who tries to sound smart about supporting Trump and betrays his fourth grade-level understanding of how the world works.

You don't have to be a complete idiot to support Trump, but you'd have to be a complete idiot to support Trump with no serious reservations. And if you have serious reservations, why would you support him? You'd have to be an idiot. It'd be like Brexit redux. "What? Yeah, I voted for him, but I didn't think it would count! Don't we get another vote? As a low income blue collar worker of Mexican descent and a recent convert to Islam, I had no idea he would try to deport me and my family!" As a member of the 1% I had no idea his election would destroy our economy, or that we would bomb Iran thinking they were hosting Isis, if I knew all that I never would have voted for him!"

Many Trump supporters are, I'm sure, undereducated and underinformed and straight-up misinformed by various 'news' outlets. But if you pay the slightest attention to politics or have the slightest understanding of history or foreign policy or economics (and I mean the slightest) and you still support Trump, I feel completely comfortable calling you an idiot.

Or a nihilist. There's probably some overlap there.

And please don’t try to stereotype us. We’re not uneducated, uninformed, unemployed or low-income zealots. We’re affluent, well-educated, gainfully employed and successfully retired.

I found this part particularly galling, since the pervasive reverse stereotype is that Democratic voters do so because they are unemployed and want free stuff.

So the op-Ed writer rejects stereotyping except for that which they do themselves and find worthwhile or self-congratulatory?

If I hadn't read those links that o.nate shared in the wrong order, I wouldn't have read them at all. The setup is that there are only two kinds of people in the world and Trump voters are one them. Gross.

eh, not really. the idea is that there are people who want things to change and people who want things to stay the same. the people who want change aren't necessarily Trump voters but they may be making a calculated gambit, knowing that positive or negative, Trump is the most likely to bring real change into their lives. so it's Hillary's job to convince that segment that any change Trump brings about is almost certainly not going to benefit them.

I'm sure we would get some serious change by just picking any random American citizen to be our new president but I fail to see how that would be a responsible decision. I could get me some change by jamming my fist into a running garbage disposal, as well.

well, that seems like a nonsense argument. there is no "i like things fine just the way they are" vote in this election. the past eight years have been a time of some pretty massive changes. the only choice is what sort of change you want, so the "calculated gambit" trump voters are making is that the sort of change trump represents will be more favorable to them than the current sort of change. except it's not a calculated gambit, because they're ignoring all of the actual data involved in the gambit.

The problem might seriously be more about people's demand for immediate gratification. Things are changing/have changed plenty but it's often gradual. Catastrophic political change isn't usually a positive, and it often has all sorts of unforeseen consequences.

"A growing body of literature has linked the ability to delay gratification to a host of other positive outcomes, including academic success, physical health, psychological health, and social competence."

that wapo op-ed is fucking ridiculous since he makes no clear justification that Hillary represents the things he claims to dislike: 'safe spaces', "turn the United States into a politically correct, free-milk-and-cookies, European-style social democracy where every kid (and adult, too) gets a trophy just for showing up", etc... why in the world is he under the impression that she represents this? (I mean, I know why he does; because she's a 'librul woman'; but why doesn't he just fucking say that?

Yeah that's the part that drives me mad. There have been more guns sold and more illegals deported under the Obama administration than in any administration in history. And yet there is a pretty-fucking-large swath of the population convinced that Obama/Hillary would love to repeal the 2nd amendment and open up the border. And now they've got a candidate who LITERALLY SAYS EXACTLY THAT during campaign speeches.

So you've got one side which realizes that we are dealing with complex issues where moving the knob too far in one direction could cause unintended consequences down the road, and another that just shouts "The solution is easy, but I can't say it because of political correctness!! You're being cheated, people, plain and simple!!"

Obama could have spent eight years fulfilling every republican's wishes point-by-point and a sizeable percentage of them would still think he was a secret Muslim and the worst president ever.

haters gonna..

isn't that what happened in the summer of '11?

neat little magic trick how Obama turned Heritage/90s moderate GOP/Romney's health care plan and GOP-favored market based emissions trading into the diabolical scheme of a communist dictatorship on Jan 19, 2009.

It's a pretty simple trick, really. Just add melanin.

A variation on the 'just add estrogen' trick we're likely to see over the next 4-8 years.

yep this fresh new take on the Destruction of Our Republic will do nicely to fill a lot of air time & create content $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

(not to mention stymie p much any practical legislation)

Nate Silver's back.

what, Utah isn't blue yet?

GOP convention clown shoes

this is going to be the most entertaining/frightening GOP convention since... the last one

fingers crossed for Vince McMahon appearance

the nuge skipping the convention for the state fair circuit, i see

Intensities in Ten Other Cities

lol xp

lol xp

so so so bummed this in cleveland

my favorite part:

Trump has called for a glitzier affair, telling The Washington Post in April that “it’s very important to put some showbiz into a convention, otherwise people are going to fall asleep. We don’t have the people who know how to put showbiz into a convention.”

https://twitter.com/derekwillis/status/748214041894617088

This was on deadspin yesterday, guessing these are the "unconfirmed sports stars"

http://deadspin.com/report-donald-trump-cobbles-together-a-cast-of-sports-1782784149?rev=1467168171724&utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

breathing a sigh of relief that Tom Brady isn't on the list

Has Mike Tyson's reputation been rehabilitated to the point where he's considered an acceptable spokesperson for the GOP? Not that the bar's particularly high...

that adult swim cartoon is pretty funny, i have to admit

There have been more guns sold and more illegals deported under the Obama administration than in any administration in history.

Says you. Personally, I woke up the other day with all my guns missing and swimming in more illegals than ever before. Thanks, Obama. Or should I say, O-Hitler.

weird I just read that gun ownership is at a 30-year low

but hey who cares about facts

The percentage of Americans who own guns has dropped. But the Americans who do own guns own more of them, on average, than ever before. So rather than a gun in every home, it's a bunch of gun-less people and some redneck fuckstain two blocks over with a goddamn arsenal in his basement.

I think its just each gun owner has like 10 each now instead of 1 measly ass lil bitch gun

right

I myself have replaced all of my limbs with guns. In fact, right now I am typing with an AR-15.

Just one? What are gonna do when 14 bears invade your home to eat your children and steal your blurays?