News Donald Trump's Popularity To Date

[Ed Norton]

What I really wanna say to Trump

Link Removed

@Simply Simon I did it lol!

 

[hodge]

Lol, Ed.

 

[Kintsugi]

Lmao @Ed Norton. Now I have that clip archived if I ever need to deploy it. :hilarious:

Sadly, @Justmehere, I think violence has been slowly fermenting among the people of the US for a long time now. If you add up the wealth divide, continuing institutional racism, unemployment rates, and the outrageous obstacles that must be overcome to even be securely within the middle class, then shake the mixture up with Trump's seemingly imminent nomination... I'm surprised we aren't seeing widespread riots across the country right now.

We have a people who is poor, struggling, and disempowered in a country that--from Southern California to Flint Michigan--is unable to protect its citizens from being poisoned by far more powerful entities than the average citizen, a country that is enormously struggling to even have a conversation about institutional racism, a country that remains so fragmented on issues long since supposedly put to bed. Yet--what? Our country is supposedly wealthy and built on the principles of unity and equality? I really am shocked more cities aren't ablaze with physical conflict. Maybe we're all just tired enough from stuggling against the tide of bills and debt and under-employment that we just don't have the energy to riot, because I've been waiting for this entire country to see extreme rioting for a couple of years now.

I'm not saying that violence is the answer, especially for the populations who are already painted as being violent and stupid (minorities, Southerners), but when I have arguments with people I know intimately and who I have known intimately for a majority of my life saying that the federal minimum wage is enough to live on in my area because the cost of living is so low, I can't help but utterly explode. I have worked 40 hours a week for minimum wage and struggled to feed myself. I have been told dozens of times to apply for foodstamps while working fulltime. There is a dissonance of experience in this country that is difficult to address without violence looking attractive to those who have lost all hope of clawing themselves or their families out of the hell that is welfare and under employment. And unfortunately, while I have the cultural experience of being able to advocate for change in a manner seen as acceptable and smart, most of my disenfranchised comrades here in the South don't know how to effect change, not in the minds of our more privileged fellow citizens and certainly not in the system itself.

I'm not sure how much sense this rant will make to others, because I have trouble elocuting the major trouble I see brewing day in and day out in my own community, but maybe someone will read this and get what I mean when I say I'm surprised we aren't seeing more of this behavior across the country. And forgive me if this is seen as off-topic, although I don't think it is, because these powerful social currents are most definitely fueling the anger on both sides of the Trump argument.

 

[Stickler]

while I have the cultural experience of being able to advocate for change in a manner seen as acceptable and smart, most of my disenfranchised comrades here in the South don't know how to effect change, not in the minds of our more privileged fellow citizens and certainly not in the syst

The thing is, would acceptable and smart work? Will ANYTHING work?

A certain demographic of people are being very deliberately misled about what the problems are, what might fix those problems, and who is to blame for creating those problems. They have been for a LONG time. Think Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, Alex Jones...
( not to say the other major news outlets are great...)
Otherwise, why on Earth would they approve of Trump? About the only thing Trump wants to do to help poor Americans is to impose tariffs and restore industries to America.
That would help some...though of course a lot of those factories are going to be very much more automated than factories used to be.

The rest of what he would do? He's going to nail minimum wage to the floor? Gutting what healthcare reform we have been able to get but not replacing it with something better? Building a big wall along the border? Hmm, yanno, Britain has a 20-mile channel protecting its' coastline and still has lots of illegal immigrants...but you go on and build that wall, Donald! Bless your heart!
Keep all those Muslim doctors...nurses...scientists...college students...our soldiers serving overseas...yeah, don't let them in...riiiiight.
And who wouldn't Trump bomb...while NOT RAISING TAXES ON THE RICH! Uh...hello! Wars are expensive! Forget about the fact that they are also mass-murder. The Iraq war is why we have a huge budget deficit.
...Trump shows every sign of running the country off a cliff if he gets into office, while inciting racial and xenophobic hatred...'Mericuh! :banghead:

Yes, I am really angry. People ( like my friend )are being allowed to die on Medicaid and being blamed for our national debt, when it was running a war of choice on debt that caused the country to owe a ton of money. I worked full time the whole time but haven't really been able to pay my own way since I became chronically ill in 2002...
I am someone else's idea of excess population. Chronically ill and working poor. Disposable human.
A lot of people are angry. We're being encouraged to blame the wrong people.

Blaming one party or the other for the generally horrible way the country is being run is over simplistic. True...but both are both almost totally compromised. There are some individuals of integrity in there...but they kind of are not the ones in charge.

They are the right and left wings of the Billionaire party. That's a huge problem.

 

[Stickler]

Ok, time for a politics break for me, it's too depressing. I started crying when I wrote the above.

 

[hodge]

You wrote good, Stickler. Take a break. No one can deal with this stuff for very long at a time.

 

[Ed Norton]

We are all expendable, those posting here. I know how they think

 

[hodge]

Yep, you're right, Ed.

Reminds me of the senior Bushes. There were their friends and everyone else was "the help." God, only Trump could make W look half good.

 

[Queen Boudica]

Brilliant Take down of Trump by Matt Haig http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/en...us_56e52302e4b0860f99d94d5e?section=australia

 

[scout86]

Remember Goodwin's Law? Where if you compared someone or something to Hitler and the Nazi's to make a point, you automatically lost the debate?

I'd never heard of it before, so I looked it up. What I found that it says is that "the longer a discussion goes on on the internet, the more likely it is someone will compare someone else to Hitler or the Nazis." It doesn't actually comment on the potential accuracy of the comparison or the outcome of the debate.

I'm going to go all "conspiracy theory" on you AND draw a comparison to Hitler.

If you want to have an excuse to create a "security force" first you need a perceived threat. If there isn't one, you COULD create your own. And I think "The Donald" is quite capable of arranging to have "protesters" show up at his meetings just so he has something to react to. And, at some point down the road, it wouldn't surprise me if he feels the need to have his OWN people doing "security". And I'll bet they have uniforms. Do I think ALL the protesters and violence that's cropping up is stuff he organized? No, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that some of it is and that it started with him.

Now, anyone who's interested and hasn't already read up on it, go look at the tactics Hitler used in the first part of his rise to power. It will seem alarmingly familiar, I think.

 

[scout86]

A certain demographic of people are being very deliberately misled about what the problems are, what might fix those problems,

I just started reading a book called "Dog Whistle Politics". I heard the author interviewed one day and was interested enough to track the book down. I recommend it. It's about exactly what you're talking about and his theory is this stuff really hasn't happened by accident. (More conspiracy theories? But maybe not.)

 

[Justmehere]

You all have such good comments and posts. I typed a more specific response, but I got all teary and couldn't quite finish

we are indeed in a time in the US that mirrors history. We have not learned it's lessons.

Churchill was a man that saw the dangers of the rise of Hilter long before others did, and he once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried." - Winston Churchill.

Right now, where we are at, people who support Trump don't even care that he is acting like Hilter. That is how deep the anger goes and how powerful the cult of personality can be. (http://www.businessinsider.com/watc...ers-agree-with-hitler-quotes-2016-3?r=UK&IR=T)

The video of Trump almost being attacked yeserday is also another sign of where we are headed. Yes, it's scary how close the guy got to Trump. I think Trump needs to be arrested for inciting violence, but hurting or killing Trump isn't a good solution to anything, and somehow, someone almost got close to doing him great harm...

But what is even more striking to me is how angry the crowd was, and how the angrily supported him even more when faced with the threat of violence against their leader, their idol, Trump. It is exactly what @scout86 istalking about. Bring violent opposition against Trump, and his supporters will grow in number and power.

This is the video and you can see how the crowd reacts:

I am very surprised this has not gotten more out of hand already, and I do agree that this anger and violence has been building for a long time. I really get the anger. People feel so betrayed by our government on both sides. I really get the anger.

This anger and the chaos and violence beginning to happen will likely get worse before it gets better.

And DAMN do the secret service have one hell of a tough job right now.

Thank you to all of you for this thoughtful discussion on this phenomenon, the popularity of Trump, that we are watching happen in the US. It if wasn't specifically Trump, I believe it would have been some other similar person filling the role Trump is in, because it's the time of history and society that we are in that someone like Trump would become popular - and this violence against him will grow his power.

What is spurring people on to seek out a leader like Trump is the real pain and struggle people are facing. That needs to be addressed. Ignoring it or misusing that pain is what got us here in the first place - a government that has betrayed the people and a people who are PISSED and fed up and will resort to whatever it takes for change to happen.

Whatever it takes.

Don't lose hope that we are stuck in the same fate Germany and other countries have faced when they got swept up in a personailty cult when they were desperate for change and action.

There are examples in history of this pattern shifting. They are not many, but it has happened.

"The Americans will always do the right thing… after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives.” - Winston Churchill