I’m not saying she doesn’t have an intense view on applying pressure with military force, but she also has some interesting times where she brings in people whose efforts are directly opposite of that. Episode 9 did give me a different perspective pointing out that she hired a guy that almost got Bergdahl home much earlier without the lopsided deal the US agreed to and it was the military that killed it along with Richard Holbrooke who she selected to make the deal dying.
It made me relook at what I thought of her foreign policy when I listened to it, even if I still don’t agree with what she campaigns on.
I’m pretty sure Clinton is going to win this, even with a contested convention because I’m pretty sure that nobody ever ran against a soup can like Trump before.
Having said that, four years of Trump couldn’t be that bad. None of his real crazy stuff is going to get traction, we would just look dumb to the rest of the world for a while. Frankly we could use that kind of humbling.
Shit would be measurably worse for some folks, and just maybe the liberal Democratic base would restructure and the next president could be a real progressive and a world leader that heads a social change that offsets the four years of Trum badness.
I think that is pretty risky thinking. Yes, some things he wouldn’t be able to do without congressional buy in. I don’t have a lot of faith in a republican led congress to put the brakes on a Trump presidency, but we can hope. But there is a ton of stuff the president can do that nobody can stop him.
Order military action up to the point where they are so illegal the armed forces refuses to obey them, at which point all our other problems seem inconsequential.
Fairly wide latitude to direct executive agencies. He can’t change all executive agency regulations by executive order, but he can do a lot to fuck them up.
Cause a showdown with the judiciary by refusing to cooperate, or ordering cabinet members to not cooperate with the judicial branch or to abide by judicial rulings.
Refuse to sign critical bills such as budgets or spending measures, placing the US in default, and causing dramatic economic repercussions.
Commit overt criminal acts while abroad, say assaulting a member of the foreign press or the daughter of a foreign dignitary.
Do I know that 4 years of Trump would be catastrophic? No. It could be OK, it could be terrible. But making Trump president is like giving a 6 year old who has been playing cops and robbers with a squirt gun an automatic pistol. It could end very, very badly.
The damage goes beyond what he could or couldn’t accomplish legislatively. Even as a candidate his outspoken bigotry, sexism and xenophobia have caused very real damage. When the supposed leader of the free world publicly declares that he shouldn’t have to answer to judges of certain races and retweets Mussolini and says disgusting things about women it legitimizes some of the worst aspects of our society.
Here’s the thing about that. If Trump wins then we either the majority of the body politic is at least passively racist. So we’d deserve the ridicule, and shame. And if the majority of us aren’t bigots, then why did we let this happen? We’d deserve all that shame and more.
Beyond some argument just desserts we needed to have this shit exposed as blatantly as possible.
Tear it all down until the rot is exposed and then burn it away.
The racists are certainly there whether Trump wins or not, but we still have a collective responsibility to make sure outspoken racism doesn’t become socially acceptable in mainstream politics again. The leaders we elect help set the tone for public discourse, and that has real tangible consequences.
That’s like saying “we should just put that Mussolini guy in charge because he’s bringing it all out in the open.” It may be true, but that doesn’t make it a constructive approach.
Maybe I lack the verbiage to put this across, but the sentiment is if he wins then “shut up we had it coming. take your lumps like the rest of us for failing and maybe you’ll work harder next time.”
or
If Hillary loses to Trump she deserves to lose and we deserve Trump.
If Trump is elected then some people will suffer more than others. It’s not the people who made his rise to power possible who will get the short end of the stick, it’s minorities and immigrants and Muslims and anyone who doesn’t have a white penis. They don’t “deserve” what will happen if Trump is foisted on them.
Are you going to feel good when Hillary wins? Are you going to feel like you’re a part of that, that you contributed to that?
If you’re part of the team you get to enjoy the victories, hell even benc warmers get a ring. Well lets fucking own that full, ok. If we lose then we failed. You’re trying to deflect that by pointing to some people suffering disproportionately. Do you think I’m saying those without a franchise should take responsibility? I’m not. Now that that is clear. A failure belongs to the whole team, even the people on the team who get fucked by the failure more. If that bothers you, it should, then do better.
But saying “an America that puts Trump in office deserves what it gets” is no more constructive than saying “an Italy that puts Mussolini in office deserves what it gets.” It’s a bad outcome for everyone, and pretty poor consolation for those who will get fucked over the most. (A group that probably won’t include you or me, at least if you look anything like your avatar).
Maybe not for you. You don’t appear to be black, latino, or a woman, you’re unlikely to be muslim, you’re probably not gay or trans, and maybe you’re poor but you’re likely not. A Trump presidency and more importantly the republican dominance of the entire government structure will result in an utter disaster for minority groups. All the gains made within the last 8 years will be reversed.
But you’re ignoring what he can do with executive orders, which is an awful lot.
If Trump wins, the racists will probably decide “we’re in charge now” and start openly working to reverse the gains in civil rights made in the last century (as opposed to the plausibly deniable way they’re doing it now).
Do the children who can’t vote yet deserve Trump? Does the rest of the world deserve Trump?
Look, I get your point. Maybe Germany in the 1930s “deserved” Hitler. Maybe the Chinese “deserved” Mao. Maybe Russia “deserved” Stalin.
Maybe they deserved these catastrophic leaders because they weren’t strong enough to stop them.
I dunno. Taking a page from the Republican fringe and advocating a ‘second amendment solution’ looks more and more appealing the more I think about a President Trump.
If you think you’ll be in bad shape, what do you think a Trump Presidency would mean for a black Muslim woman who depends on Obamacare?
If you’re a white male you’re not anywhere near the top of the “most likely to get fucked over by a Trump Presidency” list. Bonus points if you happen to be straight and/or able-bodied.
I’m enjoying you’re efforts at making someone who is advocating the need to feel bad feel bad.
Maybe you think convincing me alter the way I feel is going to have an effect on something, but I doubt it. I suspect you just really need someone who for all intents and purposes is a practical ally to fully embrace your own feelings on this matter.
You’ll just have to accept that I want good things to happen, and that I’ll continue to feel bad for people who suffer, both those complicit and not in their suffering.
Probably not—the country’s longstanding impossibilist party, the World Socialist Party, isn’t running any candidates in this election. Even so, I’m not sure it makes much sense for an impossibilist to run for a position in the executive branch, at least at this point in time. Executive positions, as the name suggests, are concerned largely with executing the laws, and as long as those laws are avowedly capitalist, why would a socialist (in the Marxian sense of the word) bother? I suppose an impossibilist president with a capitalist-majority legislature could take up a sort of abstentionist or obstructionist position. But I think that would be an effective strategy only when there is already a large minority of socialist legislators. Perhaps the only current benefit of a socialist impossibilist running for president now would be some very small degree of media exposure.
The thing is, when you write stuff like “four years of Trump couldn’t be that bad” or “shut up we had it coming” it rather sounds like you’re embracing the suck before all else has failed, and downplaying it to boot.
