The nation may survive, but the wound to hope and order will never fully heal - US elections 2016: the october surprises

I'm sure it doesn't matter in any official capacity, but I think it's the unofficial capacity that people outside of the more crazed members of his flock are concerned about.

Him not conceding implies to me that he will lead some sort of revolution against the government, whether that is a peaceful if belligerent protest (hmmm), or a violent one (whatever degree that may be is legit horrifying)

Choices choices

https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/789174109745721344

actually in a weird way i want him to contest it just to cement himself as a total loser crybaby, all his wealth is going to evaporate now that he can't trade on his toxic name

If you want a reason to be worried, ask yourself why the mainstream media is so keen on framing the election as “not rigged.” The message I’m getting from them, collectively, is that they think it will be. (Because it will be.) We just don’t know how much the rigging will matter.

Why do I say it will be rigged? Because whenever humans have motive, opportunity, a high upside gain, and low odds of detection, shenanigans happen 100% of the time. Our vote-counting systems have plenty of weak spots. Rigging (to some degree) is a near guarantee.

did you guys post the Cracked thing already? i know, Cracked.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/

― scott seward, Thursday, October 20, 2016 12:27 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Regarding the Cracked thing, I have been thinking about starting a separate thread specifically based around the idea of trying to reconcile with these vast swaths of America that have drifted further and further to the right, sometimes against their own self-interest and pretty much always against the interests of humankind, as far as I'm concerned. Someone shared that Cracked article on fb the other day and while I thought some of it was a bunch of baloney, the basic idea that in order to fix America, we're going to need to understand and engage with these people is pretty important.

I'm in the middle of reading Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild, which offers a more in-depth approach to a similar topic. I was going to wait to start engaging ilx with this topic until after the election had settled down (and I had finished the book), but I do want to learn more about problems faced by rural/red state citizens and what we can do to help them and keep our country from falling apart.

Uh, that "separate thread" should have been italics, not url code.

A couple of my white conservative-leaning friends were making a similar argument the other day, which effectively boiled down to "it is your responsibility as an educated black man to go befriend racist white people and make them non-racist". I decided not to engage.

Speaking of there ought to be a new thread with some catchy, refusing to concede style title for the final stretch imo

the basic idea that in order to fix America, we're going to need to understand and engage with these people is pretty important.

No we don't.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2016/10/yeah-sorry-but-fuck-donald-trumps.html

http://i.imgur.com/MhpVB.gif

100% agreement with TOMBOT

also lol nomar

Since when has it been necessary in any democracy to "understand and engage" with people who lose three elections in a row? That's just illustrating what Ta-nehisi and others have already said repeatedly - that all white grievance in the US is automatically treated as valid and important. We don't need to go out there and discover what makes these people tick. They live in dying communities, they don't want to change and they are terrified of black and brown people. They don't want any help. They hate us. The end.

It's not just that, but as how's life says, they're 'red state citizens', so the idea that they're the responsibility of Democrats and their constituents is ridiculous. Especially because so many of them are state righters as well. There's almost nothing to do for them, because they refuse to engage with anyone. They complain there's a health crisis, but vote for governors who withhold medicare expansion for them. What on earth are anyone supposed to do?

yep. the last two paragraphs of your link sum it up nicely

Why all this hate, huh? Why can't I just be a nice, empathetic liberal? Because we're no longer dealing with anything approaching a rational opponent. Today, John McCain said in an interview that Republicans in the Senate would block any Supreme Court nominee from a President Hillary Clinton. "I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up," McCain really did say.

So we're facing a party that is trying to prevent people from voting, with a nominee that is actively inciting people to possible violence in order to undermine the very democracy that got him this goddamn far, and has elected officials who have made it their jobs to simply undo the will of the majority of Americans. I ain't playing nice with shitheels and ratfuckers, and I won't abide pompous blowhards and the fools who follow them.

No we don't.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2016/10/yeah-sorry-but-fuck-donald-trumps.html

― El Tomboto, Thursday, October 20, 2016 3:01 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good link

politically suppressing/oppressing minorities is wrong but these people aren't oppressed in any meaningful sense of the term. they get to vote, they have free speech, they receive the benefits of civil society - they are fully integrated into the American political landscape. acting like somehow we are obliged to get along with them is ridiculous.

xp

Well, I think there are people who are in pain who are just fucking morons. I'm not talking about Trump himself or the die-hards who are still cleaving to him, but the people who regularly vote Republican because that's the Christian party or because "jobs". I would like to think we can do things to help them and change their minds without compromising our own progressive direction. Maybe we just haven't thought of what to do yet. Like I said, I don't personally know what to do but I'm eager to learn more. Democrats are the party of helping people through government, right?

btw
"I will keep you in suspense" - US Elections 2016: the Final Thread