That one is fairly easy, at least among African-Americans. The first ever African-American President wasn’t on the ballot this time. It’s not that hard to increase support among minority voters when the initial number voting for your party is miniscule.
1 Like
You do understand that for some people, suppression of their vote means they either didn’t know how to get re-registered or were blatantly lied to about the fact that their provisional ballot being counted. It’s not all laziness.
3 Likes
Put it on a weekend. Let people vote early/by post. Make it compulsory.
It won’t fix America, because it’s pretty damn fucking broken, but it’d be a start.
5 Likes
Hmmm…
Surveys showed that 59% percent of Trump supporters believed Obama wasn’t American, 31% supported banning gay people from entering the US, 20% disagreed that Lincoln should have freed the slaves, and so on. You can find other numbers for yourself.
So is it that Hillary was wrong because—depending on the right way to interpret the data—it was actually, say, 62% of Trump supporters or maybe only… 43% of Trump supporters who belonged in the “basket of deplorables”?
13 Likes
The “deplorables” comment was a huge tactical mistake but each passing day makes me more and more confident that Trump and his supporters have earned the moniker.
15 Likes
This thread is a circular firing squad. The adversary is not the olds, or the youngs, or the sanders supporters, or the clinton supporters, or the greens, or the stay-at-homes. The adversary is the GOP and more specifically, Trump. Pointing fingers at who is to blame doesn’t do much good at this point, because we have way bigger fish to fry for the next 4 years.
8 Likes
Strategically? Probably.
Factually? No. They’re fascists.
Every single Trump voter is either a fascist or someone willing to elect a fascist for other reasons. It was not an ethically neutral act.
10 Likes
Yes. If Trump was the demon we were made to think he was, pointing fingers is
counterproductive.
Here’s a caveat: I did not vote for Trump. I never would have voted for Trump. I am disgusted with the way American politics have devolved to the point that Trump became electable.
That said, it is absurd to relegate every Trump voter into the Fascist camp. There are many people who could no longer tolerate the status quo. They don’t clap their hands in anticipation of a Mussolini style America. Some do, a lot don’t realize that’s a possibility. It isn’t much different however from the corporate/Wall Street alliance that the Democratic party has made. Hillary’s platform was more Wall Street, more NeoCon saber rattling, and more of the same.
Why is there such a sympathetic outpouring for HIllary Clinton? She established herself as opposed to gay marriage until there was a groundswell that could no longer be ignored. She is absolutely a military interventionist. She is extremely pro finance sector, pro corporate, and pays lip service to working class concerns while acting against their interests over and over.
I am baffled as to what Hillary’s supporters hang their hats on.
5 Likes
So people don’t understand race-based internment camps, openly racist or sexist remarks, claiming to want to use nukes and increase the world’s supply in other nations, etc. but they did understand progressive complaints about the rise of neoliberalism over the past 25 years?
If anyone thinks informed progressive voters are the reason Hillary lost, then they really need to rethink that. The only politics to carry elections has been right of center, and the only one to significantly change the EC map has been Obama.
10 Likes
Disagree. As I said upthread, this was a replay of 2000 where the Left let their disappointment with the centrist Dem candidate diminish their support. If we forget history we’re condemned to repeat it, AGAIN! People need to realize that YES, THERE’S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MAINSTREAM PARTIES!
Nevermind the next 4 or 8 years of orange mayhem. We’ll be paying for generations in SCOTUS for the petulance and indifference of those who did not turn out for Clinton. I’m single issue voter, I vote for the viable candidate that will nominate SC Justices that best reflect my beliefs. Anything else is gravy. By my count Bill was a great president, NAFTA notwithstanding.
3 Likes
I’m reminded of the Republican reaction to the 2012 election.
Well, until the race-based internment camps show up, I’m not going to assume they are a fact.
Openly racist and sexist remarks are true. That isn’t what I think a good portion of people voted for/against. I think it was their economic interests, which have been outrageously distorted for a good long time.
The nuke thing you attribute to Trump is B.S. though: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/05/25/479498018/obamas-nuclear-paradox-pushing-for-cuts-agreeing-to-upgrades
The Democrat establishment love nukes, they love war, they love the military industrial complex, and they LOVE upward redistribution of wealth.
I don’t think you realize that the Democrats are not the progressives. Trump and the Republicans aren’t either, but nobody falsely thinks they are.
3 Likes
Which is why I was careful not to do that.
Incidentally, I have no interest in defending HRC. If I were emperor of the world, 90% of politicians from both sides would be spending their lives in prison.
8 Likes
Eta: added word missing from quote
13 Likes
As will calling the people who disagree with you trollies.
4 Likes
i also think her public supporters did too much waffling about things which weren’t crimes or even scandal and instead did a lot of tut-tutting about the private server (which previous cabinet officers had done) and the fact that donors to the clinton foundation pestered her staff for facetime with her which they only granted if they were heads of state and/or people with serious business with her like muhammed yunus who won the nobel prize for creating microcredit. everyone else got turned down. those accusations should have been thrown back into the faces of the accusers with a demand they get their facts straight.
7 Likes
“Every single Trump voter is either a fascist or someone willing to elect a fascist for other reasons”.[quote=“Wanderfound, post:156, topic:92510”]
Which is why I was careful not to do that.
[/quote]
Not to be a gotcha ahole, but being a gotcha ahole…
Still, I would vote for you to be emperor of the world just on your platform.
2 Likes
I feel like things would be a lot simpler and more reliable if we:
- Abolished the electoral college.
- Switched to instant-runoff voting so people can vote for their actual choice rather than just who they think is most likely to win.
- Switched to mail-in ballots. No electronic voting machines, no having to get time off work or even leave home to vote, and a paper trail for every vote.
It seems like that would go a long, long way towards solving the problems of voter suppression, hacked or stolen votes, people feeling like their vote doesn’t matter, people voting out of fear, and candidates who win the popular vote not actually being elected.
Are there any major downsides to these ideas?
7 Likes
