In the unlikely event that Trump wins, how will you react?

not a yank, will hope the cia assassinates him

"What's the first question at a Trump-Clinton debate?"

"'Where's A_ Q___a when you need 'em?'"

A Trump candidacy is giving a voice to ignorance, hate, etc. I have heard more about the Klan's political positions in mainstream media this past week than I've heard in the past seven years WHILE WE'VE HAD A BLACK PRESIDENT.

otm - there was that one ugly rally in LA recently too

Might move back. Will quietly mutter "told you so" a lot. (Plan to start telling you so in about three weeks if current trends continue.)

I tend to agree that there will be an institutional sort of inertia (with maybe a few individuals within government taking principled stands) which would make President Trump pretty much impotent and unable to accomplish anything concrete in terms of policy. This is taking for granted that he will be unable to get anything through Congress, which is practically a given.

There is this as well: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/28/former-cia-director-military-may-refuse-to-follow-trumps-orders-if-he-becomes-president/

Maher kind of played up the whole coup thing, but it's not out of the question if Trump started to get too aggressive with his foreign policy.

I mean, this was August 2015, in allegedly liberal Boston, when Trump was 100% considered to be a pathetic joke: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/20/after-two-brothers-allegedly-beat-homeless-man-one-them-admiringly-quote-donald-trump-deporting-illegals/I4NXR3Dr7litLi2NB4f9TN/story.html

This is all hyperbole and I don't believe Trump will become President, and I don't believe even if he does become President that enough bigoted Americans are actually motivated enough to initiate violence that could impact me and my family, and I also believe that having a gun in my house will make my family significantly less safe, but OTOH if the dude who said during an interview "I can't disavow David Duke until I know more about him" as if he wasn't intimately involved with the Klan and couldn't be bothered to say "I disavow the Ku Klux Klan" while pretending not to know who David Duke was somehow ends up in the White House, I'll take on that risk.

Basically, I prefer not to live in a country where bigots feel that they've been given a mandate. We're already halfway there thanks to the baffling success of Trump's campaign, and it's going to unfortunately take a lot of work to delegitimize the creeps who've been coaxed out of their racist hidey holes over the past several months. A Trump win would be like Christmas for every angry white isolationist turd in the country (a group of people who are intolerable enough without a world leader to rally around).

Maher kind of played up the whole coup thing, but it's not out of the question if Trump started to get too aggressive with his foreign policy.

― Gatemouth, Monday, February 29, 2016 11:06 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought he was mostly isolationist.

I think calling him isolationist would be crediting him with a coherent foreign policy. He'd be much more likely to be generally reactive, which is the context in which he might just impuslively order an invasion or something.

his sphincter is generally reactive

Foreign policy = build a lot more golf courses.

"Putt Putt One"

Harking well back upthread:

what he's saying is that both Trump people and military people are total Nazis.

This is an interesting point. I think it is more accurate to say there is a strong contingent of southern-raised, traditionally-military-family, Confederate-sympathizing, proto-fascists in the West Point trained officer class. Thank goodness this is offset by large numbers of African-Americans and Latino-Americans in the ranks and among the NCOs who know that these officers are totally full of shit.

Sometimes in darker moments I've favored a quasi-Trotskyite position: the worse things get, the better they get. It is the nature of a pendulum to swing ... I now think this is privileged and wrongheaded

didn't work out great for trotsky either

Has anybody done an ironic "good luck USA" yet?

My grandmother was born in Canada but became a naturalized US citizen IIRC so I don't think I'd qualify to emigrate to Canada so even if I wanted to go that route I'm SOL.

I unfortunately don't have any foreign direct relations, but I've been wondering for a while if there's a way I can leverage being the direct descendant of a former SoS. Maybe I have some mysterious inherited power to veto Trump's inauguration.

Well I've heard that you can apply for French citizenship if the place you were born was ever French territory. I happen to have been born in Missouri (formerly part of La Louisiane / Nouvelle France / French America). Not sure if this is true - never cared enough to look into it further. I think it's probably intended more for people whose destinies are tied up with the immediate colonial and post-colonial chaos in Africa and the Caribbean, rather than white-bread-fed American Midwesterners.

My father notes that he's possibly eligible for Irish citizenship because his grandfather was born in Ireland. Again, it's possibly out there but it would seem that there are people way more in need of escape from their current circumstances than USian Democrats who don't much like Trump or Cruz or whatever.

Pursuing these dreamy thoughts seems a bit insulting when compared to, say, my Syrian co-workers (who have family and friends desperately trying to cross the water to the EU, against thirst and tides and skinhead anger).

I have been able to trace my ancestry back to the first relative to arrive here from Sweden (my great-great-grandfather, in the late 1800s) but I don't think that'll jump me to the head of the line as an immigrant.

I'll see if they need community school directors in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and hope my Scottish-ish-ness is enough to tip the scales.

no other option than 'not moving anywhere.' throwing a hissy fit online not an option

I really want to go to ireland now that darragh has put the idea in my head. I liked it when I visited in 2010.

but treesh, if you go to live in a pleasant small country like Ireland you'll never hit the big time!

This desire isn't really related to Trump. Just seems like chill times, chilling at pubs, maybe buying a sweater or two

Lol xp

I'd prob drink some cof if trump got in, would def get a cof with trís in dub if it came up

what about a milk stout

Props to ciderpress for the message of "stick around and help."

If there's a real shitstorm of consequences, having all the good people say "see ya! wouldn't want to be ya!" and head for the border will make things suck all the harder. Just because you're chillin in Vancouver or whatever doesn't mean turning a blind eye to whatever is going on here.

― rock me, I'm a deist (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, February 29, 2016 7:45 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm otm otm otm otm

Pursuing these dreamy thoughts seems a bit insulting when compared to, say, my Syrian co-workers (who have family and friends desperately trying to cross the water to the EU, against thirst and tides and skinhead anger).

― carry me a laser down the road that i must travel (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, February 29, 2016 11:24 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

again, otm otm otm otm otm

gah sorry, that was like substanceless reddit-style upvoting on my part. but those were good posts.

Thanks brim - I realize this line of argument is a bit of a cheap shot, and if taken ad absurdum you get to a point where no one can complain about anything if they're not currently dying of cholera while covered with blowflies on an African plain.

But still I do imagine a theoretical conversation between an American Democrat and a Syrian refugee in which the Syrian is saying, "Yes, please, tell me again about how you want to leave your country because you don't like the president."

My father and both paternal grandparents are Jewish, so Israel here I come! That seems like a pretty safe places to live in the event of a Trump presidency.

i think the ppl planning on leaving the country are underestimating the likely global consequences of an unpredictable hothead becoming the most powerful man on earth

global warming?

Dont bother coming here, we just lock people up who emigrate, on remote islands with no medical care and leave you to die. Trump got nothin on our government :/

Sweeney made it out ok I guess

"I realize this line of argument is a bit of a cheap shot, and if taken ad absurdum you get to a point where no one can complain about anything if they're not currently dying of cholera while covered with blowflies on an African plain."

otm

"i think the ppl planning on leaving the country are underestimating the likely global consequences of an unpredictable hothead becoming the most powerful man on earth"

notm

look, i'll grant you he's not a very _good_ fascist, but i just don't find that to be particularly comforting.

Plus he probably facts a lot

Farts

If you move to Montreal and President Trump decides to bomb the shit out of Quebec for some reason, those of us who stayed put will laugh and laugh. Just sayin.

I think it is a bit early to be scouting out places to escape the USA in case Trump becomes President. There is a whole lot of crap got to fall in place before that happens. Even if he does, most likely it will end up in this royal stand off that has been going on for the past eight years and if it goes worse maybe it will give a shot to flush out this right wing lunacy for a couple of decades. As weird and fucted up this election cycle has become at least so far, it's nowhere near as wild and crazy as '68. And while it really hasn't happened until 68 or 72, it's not completely unusual before that time for a nomination race to go into the convention without the party nominee decided.

But still I do imagine a theoretical conversation between an American Democrat and a Syrian refugee in which the Syrian is saying, "Yes, please, tell me again about how you want to leave your country because you don't like the president."

cos everybody living in the US is a spoiled middle-class baby and there are no life-damaging consequences for anybody based on who the Prez is?

clinton will save the day

Democrats are not the people wanting to persecute Muslims and deny asylum to refugees.
`

I suppose I'm flashing back too hard to the haze after the 2000 election when there was a sizable consensus that "well, maybe GWB won't fuck things up too bad." How would President Trump handle the next 9/11-sized event?

By eating a Mentos

He would be shocked into humility, realizing for the first time that some things are Too Big to handle alone

Tearful interview with Anderson Cooper etc