2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumTrump is not a choice for change. He is a choice for chaos.
Whatever your economic situation, Trump threatens it.
For the wealthy business elite, he threatens to destabilize the existing global economy and create economic chaos. Those folks don't want chaos. They want to continue their own greedy methods without disruption. Many do business with countries Trump will openly insult and sanction, in one way or another. Trump is a debt-monger, and will bring his own calamitous business methods to the national economy. He knows no other way.
For the rest of us, economically, Trump also promises chaos. He will decimate any gains we have achieved under the Obama administration and replace those gains with lower wages, no healthcare coverage and much, much worse. For those who are minorities, immigrants (legal or otherwise) or women, his bigotry and elitist attitudes will make things clearly worse following his election. He has routinely stiffed small businesses, hired low-wage foreign workers, and has no concern whatever for consumer-related issues or for the health and welfare of women. He will destroy regulations that help keep us safe and demolish agencies we rely on for education, food and drug safety, labor equity and many other areas.
The only people who will see benefits from Donald Trump are those who hate. He will legitimize their hatred and bigotry, and enable them in their quest to put down any group that does not resemble them. Trump wants a nation of "one God" and "one color" and "one language." He has zero interest in minority groups except as a source of cheap, acquiescent labor.
Trump is a danger to everyone. That is Trump's chaotic threat. He must not be allowed to move into the White House as our nation's chief executive. That must not be allowed to happen. Anyone who can think beyond the end of next week should be able to see that with crystal clarity.
GOTV for Hillary, folks! Chaos sucks!
Jade Fox
(10,030 posts)Look how much of the world's time, energy, attention, and money he has already eaten up!
Trump gives nothing, takes everything, without a thought to his impact on others.
Trump is truly a narcissistic monster.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)You are correct.
BumRushDaShow
(129,096 posts)More and more I am thinking that many of them have always operated independently in their own worlds within their small towns and basically focused more on "local" versus "national" issues... except for the occasional hurling of insults at "the government" as part of an expected routine. And Trump is their outlet to do that.
Anyone who travels around the U.S. away from the cities can see how people can easily tune out what goes on in D.C., because it is so "far away" (both literally and figuratively) from anything that they deal with or see in their own lives.
In fact, I was looking at the now-disgraced Gallup (notice you have heard little or nothing from them outside of Presidential "Job Approval" polls and maybe a few others), and I saw a telling, but not unexpected one here -
How closely are you following the news about the 2016 presidential election campaign -- very closely, somewhat closely, not too closely or not at all?
% Very closely
.......................U.S. adults%......Republicans/Lean Rep%........Democrats/Lean Dem%
Aug 15-16, 2016.......39..........................46....................................36
Jul 15-16, 2016.........41..........................47....................................42
Jun 14-15, 2016........40..........................47....................................40
May 13-15, 2016.......40..........................47....................................39
Apr 15-17, 2016........37..........................48....................................34
Mar 16-17, 2016........40..........................49....................................38
Feb 15-16, 2016........34..........................44....................................33
Jan 15-16, 2016........31..........................40....................................30
Gallup
http://www.gallup.com/poll/189299/presidential-election-2016-key-indicators.aspx?g_source=ELECTION_2016&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles#pcf-news
So basically, you have 60% of adults mostly tuning this all out.
Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)is by way of nihilism from the 4chan board /pol/.
They used to affect neo-nazi personae in there as a way to maximize their offensiveness.
I think some of them have incorporated that into their identity, and some are still just being nihilists.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,735 posts)On today's op-ed page was the most appalling opinion (by the rather deplorable Stephen B. Young, whom I've always regarded as a right-wing dingbat but I never realized he was this bad) in which he argues that a Trump presidency could be a good thing because it would be a defeat for the "elites" like Hillary Clinton, whom he gleefully slanders. A few excerpts:
Fourth, in giving African-Americans a fair stake in our society, Trump will start a jarring but more honest conversation about what to do. He will break with the elite conventions, entrenched on the left since the end of the civil-rights movement. He will table for our serious consideration the personal goals of self-discipline in education and work that have done so much for Asians, recent African immigrants, Hispanics and those whose ancestors came from Europe.
Fifth, in foreign policy, Trump as president would counter the rising global attraction to tribalism with a more muscular nationalism of our own, responding in kind to the new circumstances in the flows of ideology, power and interest now shaping our security and prosperity.
Finally, in the economy, he will experiment to get growth going again, just as Franklin Roosevelt did during the Great Depression. Risky, yes. But our elites, from the Federal Reserve to Harvards Faculty of Economics and Business School, have no good ideas about what we should do to restore growth and prosperity for the middle class, which is the bedrock of our democracy.
The rest here: http://www.startribune.com/the-case-for-trump/393785771/
When I read this I started writing a scathing rebuttal in my head but I think you've already done it. Seriously, is this guy nuts? He doesn't even mention the fact that Trump is an unabashed and unrepentant racist, misogynist and xenophobe who delights in punching down; about Trump's constantly deplorable behavior he says only this: "Trump is crude, ungracious, vulgar in his tastes. He is a social upstart, a parvenu. He is the guest who dominates the social gathering with his insistent and off-color prejudices. But let us not forget Chairman Maos insight that a revolution is not a dinner party."
Insistent and off-color prejudices? Is that what you call it? If the KKK and David Duke and the alt-right white supremacist trolls on the Internet are among Trump's most ardent supporters, what does that say about his other supporters? You're known by the company you keep, is what I'd tell Mr. Young. I'd love it if you'd send your comments to the Strib about Trump as creating nothing but chaos, because that's exactly right. I thought conservatives didn't like chaos...
wiggs
(7,814 posts)upset the apple cart and abandon the strategies, relationships, and mechanisms that got you there. When you have a big lead, as the US does with respect to influence over much of the world's dynamics, you don't decide to take the big risk of changing everything, ESPECIALLY NOT WITH SOMEONE WITHOUT THE TOOLS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED, HOW, AND TO WHAT EFFECT IN THE LONG RUN.
Trump does not represent smart, surgical, forward-thinking change. As you say, he represents chaos, unpredictability, ignorance, and instability.