2016 Election Thread

[LaBombo]

Wisconsin in the Trump column. Off tomorrow but this is way past my bedtime even though it's not a 'school night'. Time to hang it up. One last .jpg to put a bow on the night...

 

[Craig Arko]

Here's another parable. Sauron has been handed the ring.

[gunnarthor]

Not winning the Senate hurts a lot.

[stringer bell]

 

Maybe we need to hit bottom before we can get better over the long run.

I think we're there.

[stringer bell]

 

That's probably a bit too conspiracy-theoryish for me, but I hear what you're saying.  The gerrymandering thing is absolutely right, the House is pretty much locked in for the Republicans for as long as we can foresee.

The timing for the Democrats in 2020 might help them with their gerrymander problems. If, as I expect, a Trump presidency is an abject failure (perhaps with a lot of scandals), 2020 might be a year like 2010 was for the Repubs, plus there will be a presidential election that year. If people in this country still think Congress sucks and that the country is headed in the wrong direction, the entire mess would have to be laid at the Republicans' feet.

[DaveW]

In better news?

 

Cavs win championship

Cubs win championship

Trump wins championship

Vikings win championship?

[stringer bell]

FWIW, Clinton just pulled ahead in the popular vote. I've got to go to work.

[diehardtwinsfan]

You liberals are funny.  This is what happens when you vote for the lesser of two evils... You get two really really really really really terrible choices.  I just don't think the left realizes just how bad of a candidate Hillary actually was, not that Trump was a good one either, but as long as we continue with this charade, we're going to keep getting candidates like Trump and Hillary. 

[Badsmerf]

Holy ****. I'm embarrassed to be an American this morning. Now, with Republican held offices.... this might get scary. Not to mention we're again going to get a ****ing conservative in the supreme court. That is the biggest disappointment to me. I have to take a break from the thread for a while. I'm really upset right now.

[DaveW]

You liberals are funny. This is what happens when you vote for the lesser of two evils... You get two really really really really really terrible choices. I just don't think the left realizes just how bad of a candidate Hillary actually was, not that Trump was a good one either, but as long as we continue with this charade, we're going to keep getting candidates like Trump and Hillary.

Neat

 

The reality is it's nearly impossible for one party to win the White House for 12 straight years.

 

Hillary won the popular vote, but trump got his base of white, uneducated and racist men to the polls. I don't think the problem was Hillary to be honest...

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

You liberals are funny.  This is what happens when you vote for the lesser of two evils... You get two really really really really really terrible choices.  I just don't think the left realizes just how bad of a candidate Hillary actually was, not that Trump was a good one either, but as long as we continue with this charade, we're going to keep getting candidates like Trump and Hillary. 

You may find it funny but there are literally millions of Americans who are scared ****less that open season has been declared on their existence.

 

Personally, I don't find that that least bit ****ing funny.

[twinsnorth49]

Spare me the dramatics.

 

It sucks, it really does, Trump is a vile piece of ****, and likely the worst POTUS we have seen in quite a long time, but it's America, we are a democracy and aren't a dictatorship, I disagree with a lot of my GOP brethren on a lot of issues, but the POTUS only has so much power, the more reasonable ones won't let Trump screw up things...to much, right? And the best part? We can vote his ass out in 4 years anyways!

If anyone could find a way to screw this up worse, it would be America.

 

Vote his ass out in 4 years? This from the country who voted for 2 terms of Dubya. I didn't think you could get any lower than that, man was I wrong.

 

Spare the dramatics? Look what America just decided it stood for.

Wow.

[nicksaviking]

So do the Dems overcompensate and use Trump's game plan in 2020? Do they find a non-traditional candidate? It's probably the wrong move but I could see it happening. Looking at you Jon Stewart. The Dems need to do better with the Hispanic vote, they need to start grooming an answer to Marco Rubio I think.

 

Also, what are the odds that in four years a sitting president doesn't get his own parties nomination? I think it's decent.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Neat

The reality is it's nearly impossible for one party to win the White House for 12 straight years.

Hillary won the popular vote, but trump got his base of white, uneducated and racist men to the polls. I don't think the problem was Hillary to be honest...

 

You don't get it.  Neither did most of the left-wing or the Democratic party and that's why you're sitting here trying to make the best out of the ash heap that was last night.  You haven't had even the slightest clue, from the get go, what was going on.  And the worst part is, if you go with that last line and think that's the answer out of this, you're only going to make it worse.

 

I've said it a dozen times - this isn't going away.  Trump won not just the uneducated, he won the majority of white educated as well.  This isn't "black lash".  This isn't gender inequity.  It's none of that easy crap.  If you fall back on those kinds of explanations you're going to do exactly what the Republicans did when Obama mopped the floor with them - you're going to go down a much darker, more insulated path that will only further drive the wedge.  They blamed angry black voters drummed up by the Dems.  They didn't take a good, long look at themselves, they just played politics with the results, embraced the worst of themselves, and doubled down on the same mistakes.  

 

You know how Obama got elected?  Much the same way Trump did.  People are sick of the same crap in Washington.  The same names, the same policies, the same glad handing and back patting.  Obama was an outsider.  Bernie was an outsider.  Trump was an outsider.  People are desperately trying to send the message of "enough!" and both parties seem to take that message as: "Gee, I must be doing things right.  It's the other party pandering to X group.  Well we won't stand for that, we got it right!  They're just a bunch of *fill in easy cop out insult here*"

 

Except neither side has it right.  Neither side really gives a rip about the black voters that Obama brought out.  Neither side gives a rip about the white voters that flowed out last night to vote for Trump.  The greedy rich right wingers don't.  The snooty urban liberals don't.  And this election, like the ones before it, shows that people KNOW that they don't care.  How many more open rejections will there have to be until one of the losers takes a good, long look in the mirror and tries to reach for sanity and healing rather than blame?

[Mike Sixel]

 

I still think it's a fruitless battle in the long run, evolution is inevitable even if Conservatives try to drag their feet. People are flocking to liberal metro areas like Denver, Portland, Seattle and Las Vegas. Rust Belt states and rural areas are losing population/electoral votes (sadly) to these progressive areas like never before. This is a step back but we will get back on track.

Or maybe I'm just an optimist.

 

In the meantime, education, EPA, national parks....all destroyed. You think teaching people creationismn and christianity is going to make this country smart again? No chance. This has literally been a long term plan on the GOP's part for over two decades, maybe three. Make them dumb, rule them.

[TheLeviathan]

 

In the meantime, education, EPA, national parks....all destroyed. You think teaching people creationismn and christianity is going to make this country smart again? No chance. This has literally been a long term plan on the GOP's part for over two decades, maybe three. Make them dumb, rule them.

 

Here's a question I have to push back on this just a bit Mike.....if this is all part of some decade long scheme.....you think this is the guy they planned to prop up to rule them?

 

I don't disagree that there is a concerted effort by the GOP to suppress a lot of things, but Donald Trump doesn't strike me as the culmination of any master plans.

[TheLeviathan]

 

So do the Dems overcompensate and use Trump's game plan in 2020? Do they find a non-traditional candidate? It's probably the wrong move but I could see it happening. Looking at you Jon Stewart. The Dems need to do better with the Hispanic vote, they need to start grooming an answer to Marco Rubio I think.

 

Also, what are the odds that in four years a sitting president doesn't get his own parties nomination? I think it's decent.

 

We're also in for four years of the Dems being those same "obstructionists" that the Republicans were accused of.  The hypocrisy is going to be really, really thick on both sides.

[Squirrel]

We're also in for four years of the Dems being those same "obstructionists" that the Republicans were accused of. The hypocrisy is going to be really, really thick on both sides.

Without control of the House or the Senate, just how exactly will the Dems be obstructionists? And soon the make up of the courts will also go down a path that won't be changed for a generation to come. There are no checks and balances left here, so I'm not sure how the Dems could be obstructionists.

[ashbury]

but Donald Trump doesn't strike me as the culmination of any master plans.

Correct. We haven't seen the culmination yet. 2020 or 2024 will bring a more conventional fascist.

[ashbury]

We're also in for four years of the Dems being those same "obstructionists" that the Republicans were accused of.  The hypocrisy is going to be really, really thick on both sides.

It's not a symmetric playing field, somehow. The Democrats will be punished for such obstruction. The Republicans 2011-2016 never were.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Here's a question I have to push back on this just a bit Mike.....if this is all part of some decade long scheme.....you think this is the guy they planned to prop up to rule them?

 

I don't disagree that there is a concerted effort by the GOP to suppress a lot of things, but Donald Trump doesn't strike me as the culmination of any master plans.

 

No, that part of the plan went off the rails. Law of unintended consequences:

 

make them dumb

rip on government

 

This was the natural outcome.....they didn't do this last part right. 

 

Obama looks like an aberration. This nation is swinging further and further right. Our Democratic "leaders" are right of the right wing candidates in some parts of Europe. I had hoped, like Nick, that demographics were in our favor. I admit, I have other stuff going on in my life right now that is clouding my outlook....so my lens is a bit off right now....but I have been telling my father and others this was coming for several years now. 

[twinsnorth49]

Neat

 

 

 

Hillary won the popular vote, but trump got his base of white, uneducated and racist men to the polls. I don't think the problem was Hillary to be honest...

This.

 

The charade is believing a huge section of America has any respect for women.

 

Rich white guy wins election over woman, news at 11:00.

 

Two terrible, terrible choices, and you still choose the most terrible one, because, woman.

[Squirrel]

Here's a question I have to push back on this just a bit Mike.....if this is all part of some decade long scheme.....you think this is the guy they planned to prop up to rule them?

 

I don't disagree that there is a concerted effort by the GOP to suppress a lot of things, but Donald Trump doesn't strike me as the culmination of any master plans.

No, not Trump, but Pence does fit that mold. He's the next step and a heartbeat away.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Without control of the House or the Senate, just how exactly will the Dems be obstructionists? And soon the make up of the courts will also go down a path that won't be changed for a generation to come. There are no checks and balances left here, so I'm not sure how the Dems could be obstructionists.

 

They'll be obstructing whatever Trump and the Republican controlled Congress wants to do.  I'm in favor of them doing it, but it's exactly a flip of where we were 8 years ago with the "Party of No" and all that.

 

But as ash said, the Dems will pay much more harshly for it I'm sure.  But it's their only recourse after this drubbing.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Correct. We haven't seen the culmination yet. 2020 or 2024 will bring a more conventional fascist.

 

Perhaps.  

 

The optimist in me hopes the Democrats look internally and see how they've largely ignored, and had outright contempt, for so many middle Americans that they'll change who they are to better represent the populace.  Which is the exact opposite of what the Republicans did after they took their butt kicking 8 years ago.

 

The realist in me is worried we've only seen the beginning of this.  And many of the talking heads out there right now are confirming those fears.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Perhaps.  

 

The optimist in me hopes the Democrats look internally and see how they've largely ignored, and had outright contempt, for so many middle Americans that they'll change who they are to better represent the populace.  Which is the exact opposite of what the Republicans did after they took their butt kicking 8 years ago.

 

The realist in me is worried we've only seen the beginning of this.  And many of the talking heads out there right now are confirming those fears.

 

Who is going to do that? That's not how parties work.....

[Squirrel]

They'll be obstructing whatever Trump and the Republican controlled Congress wants to do.  I'm in favor of them doing it, but it's exactly a flip of where we were 8 years ago with the "Party of No" and all that.

 

But as ash said, the Dems will pay much more harshly for it I'm sure.  But it's their only recourse after this drubbing.

Again, how will they obstruct? They don't have the votes to obstruct.

[Vanimal46]

Well, the sun rose this morning. I'm at my job... Hopefully you are too! And zero intention of moving out of this country. It's time to accept, move on, and try to unite the gap between all of us. 

[TheLeviathan]

 

Again, how will they obstruct? They don't have the votes to obstruct.

 

The Republicans were in bad shape a few years ago too, they found creative ways.  The Dems will have to as well.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Who is going to do that? That's not how parties work.....

 

Someone is going to have to or this is just going to get whackier.