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My Election Thoughts
9 years ago
Glimpse The Thoughts of Jack the Beaver
As an anarchist I despise...pretty much everything about our current political system. Not the system itself mind you but the fact it seems to attract ego maniacs driven by nothing more than a desire to increase their own power or prestige. And in this election we had a candidate who I thought personified that more than ever before. I am of course talking about the one, the only, Donald Trump.
I rarely vote in elections. I don't like lending my support to political parties and I don't want to seem to be participating in a system I think is corrupt. But this year I did it. I actually voted against Donald Trump. Not for Hillary Clinton (this will be important), but specifically against Donald Trump.
The way I figured it was he would never get elected. The people just couldn't be that stupid. Hillary Clinton had the bigger political machine. She had celebrities endorsing her. She had Republicans endorsing her. How could she lose to Donald Trump? Well she did. And if I had pulled my head out of my ass for five seconds, I would have seen why.
When Trump was elected I was horrified. I ended up getting into an argument with my friend
born2beagator, and I am sincerely sorry that I did. I didn't want four minutes under Trump much less four years. But it happened, it happened even though I couldn't understand why. So after some time reflecting, and a long shift at work, I started looking to find out why.
I went looking for Trump supporters online and I spoke to a few at work trying to find out what they wanted. Did they want this racist misogynist in the White House? Surprisingly the most common answer I got was no, they didn't. What they wanted were better jobs and a President who didn't insult them and expect their votes.
Possibly the stupidest thing Hillary Clinton said during her doomed campaign was calling Trump supporters "a basket of deplorables". Most of the Trump voters I spoke to kept coming back to that statement and how much it pissed them off. Many of them thought that the Democrats viewed them as rednecks or idiots, to be ignored and forgotten about. Many of them didn't like that celebrities endorsed Hillary. They didn't care that Lebron James thought she was a good candidate, they wanted to know they'd be able to find work.
And this is what I missed and what so many others missed. Hillary Clinton went about this election like it was already in the bag. She didn't try to appeal to the people of Michigan or Wisconsin, she figured they ideologically supported her. Most people though aren't motivated by ideology, they're motivated by wanting a better life.
What probably surprised me the most when I started looking into Trump supporters was how many supported Obama. They supported him because he was going to fix the economy! And he...failed pretty miserably there. He focused on health care, which at least two of the people I spoke to said just made their financial situation worse. Hillary Clinton promised to be more of the same. They didn't want more of the same, they wanted something to change.
Another common thing I noticed was how out of touch they thought the Democrats were. Apparently to the Democrats the US is made up of two coasts with maybe a few cities between them. The rest of the country was filled with racists and homophobes who wanted things to go back to how they were in the 50s. Except again several of the people I spoke to were none of those things. They weren't racist, they weren't scared of gay people, they were broke. They wanted someone to sympathize with them.
Secondly, Hillary didn't do much to inspire people. As I mentioned I didn't vote for her but against Donald Trump. I read stories in my home state of Hillary supporters choosing not to vote because the lines were long. In contrast Trump supporters got out there and they cast their votes. Trump, whatever his faults, inspired people to vote for him. Hillary didn't.
Then you get Hillary Clinton being endorsed by people like Lena Dunham who declares everyone who wont support Hillary is a backwards caveman who we'll be better off without. Boy that's a sound strategy: "You're all racist, vote for me!". During the election I didn't see the problem in stuff like that. I bought into the narrative too, I figured Trump supporters were all racist.
So why did Hillary lose? She forgot about half of the country. She appealed to the limousine liberals and was quick to insult anyone who would support Trump. And people like me missed it because we went along with it. That's what makes me the most sad.
As a Christian I am supposed to love all people as God loves me. And this election made me realize boy oh BOY have I failed miserably at that. The Democrats in general have as well, but I can't control that. I can control what I do. And I need to start remembering people out there have feelings and worries. They can't just be classified as white trash and be pushed aside. We need to remember them. If we don't, this will keep happening again and again.
Unfortunatly since the election I've gotten to see articles like this (https://www.yahoo.com/style/dont-ag.....164149299.html) asking why they should care about Trump supporters? They're all racists and homophobes. Except as I mentioned, they aren't. They're people who are angry at being forgotten. Deciding you don't have to care about them makes everything worse. If you ignore them then...then I hope you like candidates like Trump because you'll be getting more of them.
I think David Wong of Cracked.com summarized it best. Many Trump supporters believed Washington didn't give a shit about them, and they're correct. They only cared about their vote, nothing else. If we don't start caring though, this is going to happen again. And we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. For the Democrats I suggest you do what one twitter poster said, find a tactic besides having wealthy celebrities mug at the camera about how dumb the GOP is.
I don't think Donald Trump will do a good job. I think he'll get himself impeached. But it doesn't matter what I think, he won! He is going to be President. That's why when I hear about people petitioning the Electoral college to vote for Hillary, all I can do is scream at how asinine that is. This is when you need to be showing all the people you forgot that you do care about them. Your way of doing that is to cheat their candidate out of the election he legitimately won? Yeah that won't cause any problems.
To all the celebrities out there threatening to leave the US now that Donald Trump won, let me just say this: Please leave. I will donate money if you will leave. I want you to go and I even know where I want you to go. I want you to go to Juarez Mexico. Because after listening to people claiming that Trump will end Obamacare, like it's the end of the world, I them to get some fucking perspective on what an actual difficult life is like.
I believe Donald Trump will go down as our worst President and most likely get himself impeached. I'd love to be wrong though. I never want anything to be terrible, not even his Presidency. Ultimately no one knows what'll happen besides God. The rest of us just have to wait and see.
I rarely vote in elections. I don't like lending my support to political parties and I don't want to seem to be participating in a system I think is corrupt. But this year I did it. I actually voted against Donald Trump. Not for Hillary Clinton (this will be important), but specifically against Donald Trump.
The way I figured it was he would never get elected. The people just couldn't be that stupid. Hillary Clinton had the bigger political machine. She had celebrities endorsing her. She had Republicans endorsing her. How could she lose to Donald Trump? Well she did. And if I had pulled my head out of my ass for five seconds, I would have seen why.
When Trump was elected I was horrified. I ended up getting into an argument with my friend
born2beagator, and I am sincerely sorry that I did. I didn't want four minutes under Trump much less four years. But it happened, it happened even though I couldn't understand why. So after some time reflecting, and a long shift at work, I started looking to find out why.I went looking for Trump supporters online and I spoke to a few at work trying to find out what they wanted. Did they want this racist misogynist in the White House? Surprisingly the most common answer I got was no, they didn't. What they wanted were better jobs and a President who didn't insult them and expect their votes.
Possibly the stupidest thing Hillary Clinton said during her doomed campaign was calling Trump supporters "a basket of deplorables". Most of the Trump voters I spoke to kept coming back to that statement and how much it pissed them off. Many of them thought that the Democrats viewed them as rednecks or idiots, to be ignored and forgotten about. Many of them didn't like that celebrities endorsed Hillary. They didn't care that Lebron James thought she was a good candidate, they wanted to know they'd be able to find work.
And this is what I missed and what so many others missed. Hillary Clinton went about this election like it was already in the bag. She didn't try to appeal to the people of Michigan or Wisconsin, she figured they ideologically supported her. Most people though aren't motivated by ideology, they're motivated by wanting a better life.
What probably surprised me the most when I started looking into Trump supporters was how many supported Obama. They supported him because he was going to fix the economy! And he...failed pretty miserably there. He focused on health care, which at least two of the people I spoke to said just made their financial situation worse. Hillary Clinton promised to be more of the same. They didn't want more of the same, they wanted something to change.
Another common thing I noticed was how out of touch they thought the Democrats were. Apparently to the Democrats the US is made up of two coasts with maybe a few cities between them. The rest of the country was filled with racists and homophobes who wanted things to go back to how they were in the 50s. Except again several of the people I spoke to were none of those things. They weren't racist, they weren't scared of gay people, they were broke. They wanted someone to sympathize with them.
Secondly, Hillary didn't do much to inspire people. As I mentioned I didn't vote for her but against Donald Trump. I read stories in my home state of Hillary supporters choosing not to vote because the lines were long. In contrast Trump supporters got out there and they cast their votes. Trump, whatever his faults, inspired people to vote for him. Hillary didn't.
Then you get Hillary Clinton being endorsed by people like Lena Dunham who declares everyone who wont support Hillary is a backwards caveman who we'll be better off without. Boy that's a sound strategy: "You're all racist, vote for me!". During the election I didn't see the problem in stuff like that. I bought into the narrative too, I figured Trump supporters were all racist.
So why did Hillary lose? She forgot about half of the country. She appealed to the limousine liberals and was quick to insult anyone who would support Trump. And people like me missed it because we went along with it. That's what makes me the most sad.
As a Christian I am supposed to love all people as God loves me. And this election made me realize boy oh BOY have I failed miserably at that. The Democrats in general have as well, but I can't control that. I can control what I do. And I need to start remembering people out there have feelings and worries. They can't just be classified as white trash and be pushed aside. We need to remember them. If we don't, this will keep happening again and again.
Unfortunatly since the election I've gotten to see articles like this (https://www.yahoo.com/style/dont-ag.....164149299.html) asking why they should care about Trump supporters? They're all racists and homophobes. Except as I mentioned, they aren't. They're people who are angry at being forgotten. Deciding you don't have to care about them makes everything worse. If you ignore them then...then I hope you like candidates like Trump because you'll be getting more of them.
I think David Wong of Cracked.com summarized it best. Many Trump supporters believed Washington didn't give a shit about them, and they're correct. They only cared about their vote, nothing else. If we don't start caring though, this is going to happen again. And we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. For the Democrats I suggest you do what one twitter poster said, find a tactic besides having wealthy celebrities mug at the camera about how dumb the GOP is.
I don't think Donald Trump will do a good job. I think he'll get himself impeached. But it doesn't matter what I think, he won! He is going to be President. That's why when I hear about people petitioning the Electoral college to vote for Hillary, all I can do is scream at how asinine that is. This is when you need to be showing all the people you forgot that you do care about them. Your way of doing that is to cheat their candidate out of the election he legitimately won? Yeah that won't cause any problems.
To all the celebrities out there threatening to leave the US now that Donald Trump won, let me just say this: Please leave. I will donate money if you will leave. I want you to go and I even know where I want you to go. I want you to go to Juarez Mexico. Because after listening to people claiming that Trump will end Obamacare, like it's the end of the world, I them to get some fucking perspective on what an actual difficult life is like.
I believe Donald Trump will go down as our worst President and most likely get himself impeached. I'd love to be wrong though. I never want anything to be terrible, not even his Presidency. Ultimately no one knows what'll happen besides God. The rest of us just have to wait and see.
I doubt Trump will get impeached since our government isn't a non-partisan government. Meaning the Democratic party owns and operates the majority of the the government agencies and departments. Trump can't ask the IRS to profile enemies and he can't ask the FBI to give him a pass if he does something illegal. So he has no chance of committing a scandal that's impeachment worthy.
How Trump won exactly is something for historians to muse over. I thought for sure he would lose with so many dumb things he said but apparently there's some major missing factors the media hasn't accounted for. I can only make guesses myself.
Check your yahoo link, it didn't go anywhere for me.
I voted for the first time in my life this year and find myself wishing I hadn't bothered. Half the LGBT community are scared shitless and destroying friendships because of political views.
I've spent the last three months keeping my mouth shut and I will continue to do so. My friends are more important to me than politics.
My view is that no matter what we think we need to start treating people like people. If we do, then we'll be okay. We need to quit acting like people who don't agree with us are morally wrong. You don't do that Noir, which I've always admired. I hope the rest of us learn that.
I voted for trump almost specifically because he didn't give a crap what people thought of him. I think we need that right now. Hillary on the other hand is on record as not being able to take criticism.
As for Trump getting impeached...I somehow doubt it myself, but maybe it will not be intentionally, but rather by accident. Since he has not held any office, he has political experience, he could by accident break a law he had no idea that existed. Like, I dunno, the Logan act of 1799, that ''forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments having a dispute with the U.S.'' *shrugs* Like trying to negotiate a secret deal with China or Russia, without notifying congress.
But I dunno if that would good either if he gets impeached and his VP gets president, from what I heard he is a pretty damn conservative right wing Christian, like pulling off funds for AIDS prevention campaings and instead supporting gay conversion camps (I dunno how true that is, I would need more research on that, just stuff that I read about his VP) .
So...yeah, the entire political scenery around the planet is shaken, and who knows where we will be in 2020 when his first (and hopefully only) term will end.
The republicans have ultra-libertarians, christian traditionalist, wallstreet business man and a military (tax supported) block.
Those are in some cases united but not in all.
The supporters of the Wallstreet in the democrate party (Bill clintons de-regulation of the fiscal sector brought the bank crisis+thousands losing their homes) didn't support Obama at all.
Now Trump was elected by the betrayed middle class of the destructive globalization within the USA. (Where he also made his caps outside the usa)
Also, who lost their homes, and the self-supporters in the middle east anyway (the red states).
Factual the public results were:
https://twitter.com/Arokh74/status/.....32397774942209
Consider that evangelicals came out to support Trump in record numbers giving him a larger percentage of their vote than previous Republican presidents (81 percent) including George W. Bush who was an evangelical himself. Bill Maher had a good insight on this: The left and the Democratic party made white people feel like a marginalized minority and so they came out and voted like one.
Personally I think Trump is going to surprise a lot of people and would advise people to give him a chance instead of writing him off right now. As to the things he has said....Well to that I say IDGAF. If he fixes our economy he can be as insensitive as he wants. Personally I think people need to get thicker skin.
I hope Trump will be a good President and now wait to see how he actually performs.
Dominus tecum
Dominus tecum