US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Rusty Shackleford]

I'm from the mid west. Central Indiana...This is one of hundreds of cities that in the 50s-90s were booming from all the factories. People going straight from high school into 25 year careers with great benefits and pay. And then, in the 90s, when jobs started going to Mexico or China, these cities literally started dying.

I don't want to take issue with the sentiment of this post but it's important to note that the timing here is off. Manufacturing's share of employment and relative wages in the Rust Belt declined throughout the entire post-war period (cf. here). The starkest drop is after 1980. The narrative that privileges NAFTA and other free trade agreements elides the fact that US manufacturing was declining well before they were put in place, to say nothing of their negligible overall impact on the US labor market.

I suppose I say NAFTA because I'm recalling my own experience with it. I have family all along Lake Michigan and Lake Erie and I distinctly recall a somewhat-specialized manufacturing plant closing and being sent to Mexico. I guess "globalization" would be a better phrase to use.

[benjipwns]

Hey guys, remember when Jeb! kicked this campaign season off by saying in retrospect we still should have invaded and occupied Iraq? And then changing his answer. And then changing it back. And then getting mushy until Trump insulted his brother WHO KEPT US SAFE.

good times

[El Babua]

Trump owning Jeb! in that exchange was probably the only good thing he did this election.

[jakefromstatefarm]

I'm from the mid west. Central Indiana...This is one of hundreds of cities that in the 50s-90s were booming from all the factories. People going straight from high school into 25 year careers with great benefits and pay. And then, in the 90s, when jobs started going to Mexico or China, these cities literally started dying.

I don't want to take issue with the sentiment of this post but it's important to note that the timing here is off. Manufacturing's share of employment and relative wages in the Rust Belt declined throughout the entire post-war period (cf. here). The starkest drop is after 1980. The narrative that privileges NAFTA and other free trade agreements elides the fact that US manufacturing was declining well before they were put in place, to say nothing of their negligible overall impact on the US labor market.

Yes, but most of the jobs that were left were taken out, key example just this year:

NAFTA was a cry from Trump because the remaining jobs from the post-war boom that weren't already gone are going. That's why those folks in those areas are really pissed.

I don't think we disagree about much here. The only things I'd point out are: a) there was no "post-war boom" wrt to manufacturing in the Rust Belt; by any metric you use, it starts declining at 1950 and b) NAFTA was as much a cry as a convenience for Trump, he neatly got to pin his blue-collar constituency's opprobrium onto the wife of the man who happened to sign it into law.

I suppose I say NAFTA because I'm recalling my own experience with it. I have family all along Lake Michigan and Lake Erie and I distinctly recall a somewhat-specialized manufacturing plant closing and being sent to Mexico. I guess "globalization" would be a better phrase to use.

Absolutely. I'm not at all equipped to talk with authority on macro-trade but growth in developing economies is the chief reason jobs in secondary sectors in first world countries are being displaced (a lack of growth at home is also a factor, as that Alder, et al. paper claims). It's also completely impossible to prevent -FTA or no FTA- no matter what your elected protectionist legislator claims. The services put in place to compensate those offset workers can also be hilariously ineffectual.

[benjipwns]

Trump destroying Jeb! with the lamest insults ever, and Rubio setting Christie up for that one complete annihilation were two of my favorite moments. That was the dangerous Chris Christie people used to fear, everyone else zoned out not paying attention and he picks up on the one thing he can just totally destroy someone with. That's what he did to all those terrible (as in, the worst person to have the position) union spokespeople that made him a GOP star in the first place.

Rand had a couple that I liked, as a minor fanboi, his interview with Colbert because they both seemed to like each other and did a fun bit. And then one that he "lost" fighting with Trump in a debate.

[benjipwns]

I loved this because it was Trump's first debate IIRC:


But apparently this is the one you're supposed to love based on Rand posting it to his account but I can't support it, for one thing, THE MOUSE CURSOR:


Colbert:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I assume it was a reference to this being the only question he got:

[close]

[benjipwns]

oh simpler times

lol rand led in the GOP national polls for like a month, i almost got deluded into believing it

[Great Rumbler]

Rand Paul was always the cheaper, less exciting version of his father, though, if we're being honest.

[Kara]

lmao @ Randroid trying to appeal to rank and file Republican voters by claiming that we'll have to exit the Geneva Convention if we followed president elect Trump's foreign policy proposals.

[Trent Dole]

Will Hillary leave the country before Drumpf is inaugurated?

I'm curious if Drumpf will really follow up on the whole "Lock her up" bullshit with some petty lawsuits. I'm convinced he's in this, moreso than your usual politician, to service his ego and line his pockets and that it's not in his interest to shake down the whole establishment to do so or to tear the whole country apart... but really, who can tell with him ? And he must keep at all costs some veneer of being the outsider, the maverick. And to do so he must give bones to his base.

I guess you could extend the question to most of the crazy policies he spouted about : I certainly expect a lot more fences along the southern border, more stringent immigration laws, more deportations but not the full blown million wide "Operation Wetback and Radical Moozlims II". Or so I hope.

Are you kidding me? You libtards will be glad to push Clinton into a fire now, lol.

Dude, we wanted to during the primaries. #feelthebern :^ But yeah, gtfo of the public stage for fucking ever Hillary.

[benjipwns]

Rand Paul was always the cheaper, less exciting version of his father, though, if we're being honest.

He tried to pander too hard on religious stuff over the prior year which hurt him with his dad's base and it didn't work and you can tell he was angry about the whole stupid thing especially when Trump started dominating. They claim otherwise, but I always assume that's why he bolted after Iowa despite not finishing poorly and still polling well in NH. Felt like he was all fuck this.

He's so punching down in that Senate debate video of his, like it was all the general election Presidential debate material he never got to use.

I think he comes off better in like that Colbert stuff when he's not trying so hard to be a SERIOUS POLITICIAN. Because like, dude, you're not. Accept it like your dad did.

[benjipwns]

Okay. I have a plan for the mid-terms, to the point where I may make a thread and gauge interest/ideas on it. It's related to what Shinra said above.

There's lots of reasons why the Republican base came out - NeverHillary, DraintheSwamp, implicit or explicit sexism against Hillary, coupled with people liking what he was saying about groping women and the Hispanics. All that, and then the issues of jobs, economy, and WWC feeling left out. And the protest vote.

So. Idea:

Explicitly non-partisan GOTV company in rural and Rust Belt areas, based around holding the government to account. Trump said he was going to #draintheswamp - yet Wall Street banker as Treasury. Trump said he'd got jobs back to the US, yet he hasn't done it (*assumption that he won't*).

Co-opt every single message and hashtag the Trump campaign used, and flip it against him. But don't argue for voting for Democrats. Run on a #NeverRepublican message, because (by the time mid-terms hit) it'll be two years of corruption, and lobbying, with continued unemployment in the heartland, and no retraining.

Done right (in my head) it could enthuse a large majority of people, from all walks of life - the Bernie Supporters, the WWC, the abortion-rights people, everyone. Because - done right - it would be entirely non-partisan. Literally say to the voter, "We don't care who you vote for, as long as it is against the Republican's who lied to you and are taking Wall Street money. Trump said he'd Drain the Swamp, and he hasn't. Hold his government accountable."

It'd have to be a very flexible message depending upon voter - point-up stop-and-frisk if you come across an AA Trump supporter, but don't mention race if you're in the Panhandle, for instance. And co-opt Trump's core message - because in two years, if nothing is better, people will want to "Make America Great Again". And that message could be spread to the LGBTQ voters, the environment campaigners, the anti-corruption campaigners.

Thoughts?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

yeah it's from gaf

[close]

[Kara]

*assumption that he won't*

[Bebpo]

Jesus christ @ the anecdotal hate crime violence I'm seeing everywhere today.  Seems like "you're gonna be deported" is going to be the anyone not-white insult of racists motherfuckers for the next year.  Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

[benjipwns]

Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

You have more people in general, that means more assholes in general. Also more eyes and attention.

Plus, actual minorities and stuff to harass.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I've never seen anyone who less wanted to be president than Jeb! It's like he was doing it because that's one of the developmental milestones of a Bush male. YOU'RE NOT LEAVING THE TABLE UNTIL YOU FINISH ALL THE PRESIDENCY ON YOUR PLATE, YOUNG MAN!

[benjipwns]

Jeb! was supposed to be the Presidential one, George W. was the fuckup who would never get close. Then Jeb! lost a winnable race in 1994 while George shocked everyone and beat Ann Richards.

EDIT: Jeb actually did like all the grunt work in the Florida GOP and stuff, got elected to lower positions, etc. while George was fucking up the Rangers and then decided he wanted to run for Governor.

[OnlyRegret]

Jesus christ @ the anecdotal hate crime violence I'm seeing everywhere today.  Seems like "you're gonna be deported" is going to be the anyone not-white insult of racists motherfuckers for the next year.  Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

"B-b-but the real bad guys are you for hurting my fragile fee fees by implying Trump voters and racism were connected"
/you-know-what

[Rusty Shackleford]

A Trump victory was inevitably going to bring out the scumbags like this. But it's absolutely impossible that all 63m+ Trump voters are racist as declared in a certain other forum.

As I said earlier today, Trump's coalition is not durable. But it could be viable for another 10-20 years. Trying to lure swing Trump voters is good strategy. Shaming *all* Trump voters as racist, continuing Dem condescension to flyover country plus more meh candidates will make things bumpy for them.

[benjipwns]

I hate the whole cycles and history says and so on for predictions. But there has been a twelve year cycle to this "Reagan Democrats" white bloc ditching the D's for another candidate on roughly the same issues going back to 1968. 1968 (Wallace which encouraged Nixon's LAW AND ORDER campaigning)-1980 (Reagan...inflation/Japan/MAGA)-1992 (Perot...trade/immigration)-2004 (slight exception due to 9/11 and Iraq)-2016.

1968 and 1980 also had major internal Democratic fighting targeting the sitting President of their own party and a presumptive nominee.

Yeah yeah, these parallels are dumb and coincidental and all that. But it amuses me.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I thought it was mostly a brief return of white folks in 2006 for Senate handover and then again in 2008 for Obama. 2010 saw major reversals. Is there really a pattern in recent history? I'm probably missing something.

[the freakin woz]

Also poor folks with clinton, richer folks with Trump if you're still stupid enough to think this was about the economy.

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/796334319132352512

https://twitter.com/ryanlcooper/status/796483224016920576

[Cerveza mas fina]

Jesus christ @ the anecdotal hate crime violence I'm seeing everywhere today.  Seems like "you're gonna be deported" is going to be the anyone not-white insult of racists motherfuckers for the next year.  Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

it was the same after the brexit vote

just a few zanies that think they have the mandate to do that now

[VomKriege]

Jesus christ @ the anecdotal hate crime violence I'm seeing everywhere today.  Seems like "you're gonna be deported" is going to be the anyone not-white insult of racists motherfuckers for the next year.  Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

Yeah the real nasty fuckers were always gonna feel empowered by a win. Unless Trump goes the Biff Tannen route, White Supremacists are probably gonna be disillusioned soon enough but there's no doubt that there will be an uptake in abuse, agressions and maybe hate crimes.

[Oblivion]

What's a "swing Trump voter"?

[VomKriege]

What's a "swing Trump voter"?

I'd guess Trump voters who previously voted D.

[Oblivion]

What's a "swing Trump voter"?

I'd guess Trump voters who previously voted D.

Right, but what kind of person is that exactly? What demographic?

[benjipwns]

midwestern white union workers

[VomKriege]

That's the assumption yeah. Same in Europe.

Am listening to the Keepin' it 1600 podcast and as you would expect (those are former Obama, 08 Clinton, 04 Kerry etc... team members, speech writers etc... that were as blindsided as you would expect) it's soul searching and autocritique time.

One interesting remark from someone is that Dems have a tendency to approach candidate selection as a bulletpoint list or Lego construction (needs to be white to appeal to demographic X & Y, from the South to appeal to... etc) instead of choosing actual persons. Barack Obama didn't tick all of the boxes and yet...

EDIT : And read on GAF - Donald Trump, possibly atheist president ? Progress works in mysterious ways...

[Oblivion]

midwestern white union workers

I see.

[VomKriege]

Help us obstructionist Republican crusty assholes in parliament, you're our only hope (?) 
We can hope Trump is an hot air balloon after all, but Paul Ryan gonna have a field day slashing "entitlement culture".

I hope that civil society will come together and do its best to mitigate it.

[Himu]

Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha Bebpo you sweet summer child

Thank goodness I'm learning bjj. I know I know, running is the best self defense. But there's something pleasing, and gives you lots of confidence in yourself in knowing that you can put some fucker to sleep who puts their hands on you in under ten seconds and you train to do this to someone four fucking times a week. If any cac tries this with me or anyone I know and love, they are getting choked out or your arm twisted and popped off.

[Phoenix Dark]

Legit hope Andrex is doing ok

[daemon]

Help us obstructionist Republican crusty assholes in parliament, you're our only hope (?) 
We can hope Trump is an hot air balloon after all, but Paul Ryan gonna have a field day slashing "entitlement culture".

I hope that civil society will come together and do its best to mitigate it.

If civil society chooses well and mobilizes for the good reasons, it will. If they try to protest every single thing, the message will be lost in a sea of tears.

[WanderingWind]

The bannings have started. The breach in the echo chamber has been sealed. All is well. Nothing went wrong. Except everything. Not our faults. Never that.

[Take My Breh Away]

Jesus christ @ the anecdotal hate crime violence I'm seeing everywhere today.  Seems like "you're gonna be deported" is going to be the anyone not-white insult of racists motherfuckers for the next year.  Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

Yeah the real nasty fuckers were always gonna feel empowered by a win. Unless Trump goes the Biff Tannen route, White Supremacists are probably gonna be disillusioned soon enough but there's no doubt that there will be an uptake in abuse, agressions and maybe hate crimes.

Someone pointed out to me recently that apparently Trump is the first openly Atheist president and tweeted about it many times, so it's going to be interesting to see how Republicans handle that flip flop if he decides to stay Atheist or he suddenly converts. I can see a lot of self-identifying "Deplorables" getting very upset he's not enacting the things he wants because they aren't feasible or it turns out that he was saying shit to get elected (To the shock of no one)

[benjipwns]

Legit hope Andrex is doing ok

He posted in the fuck millennials thread yesterday. He's not dumb so he's probably taking better than GAFfers.

[WanderingWind]

Jesus christ @ the anecdotal hate crime violence I'm seeing everywhere today.  Seems like "you're gonna be deported" is going to be the anyone not-white insult of racists motherfuckers for the next year.  Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

Yeah the real nasty fuckers were always gonna feel empowered by a win. Unless Trump goes the Biff Tannen route, White Supremacists are probably gonna be disillusioned soon enough but there's no doubt that there will be an uptake in abuse, agressions and maybe hate crimes.

Someone pointed out to me recently that apparently Trump is the first openly Atheist president and tweeted about it many times, so it's going to be interesting to see how Republicans handle that flip flop if he decides to stay Athiest or he suddenly converts. I can see a lot of self-identifying "Deplorables" getting very upset he's not enacting the things he wants because they aren't feasable or it turns out that he was saying shit to get elected (To the shock of no one)

The religious right voted for an atheist.
The military voted for a four time draft dodger who called POWs weak.
A not-ignorable segment of minorities voted for a guy who threatened to depot them.
Poor people voted for the guy born with a silver spoon in both hands.

[octopushover]

lol you guys what the hell

[Trent Dole]

Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha Bebpo you sweet summer child

Thank goodness I'm learning bjj. I know I know, running is the best self defense. But there's something pleasing, and gives you lots of confidence in yourself in knowing that you can put some fucker to sleep who puts their hands on you in under ten seconds and you train to do this to someone four fucking times a week. If any cac tries this with me or anyone I know and love, they are getting choked out or your arm twisted and popped off.

I've been advising every non cac i know to join an mma gym and get themselves a piece, you're already ahead of the game here. Stay safe.

[benjipwns]

Poor people voted for the guy born with a silver spoon in both hands.

how big were these hands

[Mupepe]

Which is still better than the stories of people threatening to kill minorities or beating the shit out of LBTQ people.  Here I thought California would be safe from this shit, but I'm reading some bad accounts of stuff happening in LA of all places (LA surprises me since it's such a melting pot city).

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha Bebpo you sweet summer child

Thank goodness I'm learning bjj. I know I know, running is the best self defense. But there's something pleasing, and gives you lots of confidence in yourself in knowing that you can put some fucker to sleep who puts their hands on you in under ten seconds and you train to do this to someone four fucking times a week. If any cac tries this with me or anyone I know and love, they are getting choked out or your arm twisted and popped off.

I've been advising every non cac i know to join an mma gym and get themselves a piece, you're already ahead of the game here. Stay safe.

Let's go to the shooting range, Himu.

[Brehvolution]

A lot of trump voters are going to lose their health insurance and be confused as to why.

[VomKriege]

There's a couple of trite points I'd like to add :

While I am deeply convinced that the left has fucked itself when they abdicated an alternative economic model and accepted the narrative that the Western working class was on its way to extinction, there's no easy solution to bring back some of that people into the fold and it's harder than to just have some economic proposals to appeal to them. IIRC, Hillary promised a subtantial raise in the federal minimum wage. I suspect some didn't want to hear or believe it because the distrust for politics and establishment (which Clinton, rightly or wrongly, embodied) is just overriding everything. Justified or not, a lot of those people feel completely alienated and reaching out to them is hard, in part -yes- because it means challenging abhorrent views and prejudices for at least some of them. And so far no one has found the magic solution to do so, because otherwise we wouldn't have that massive far right problem in the western world.

Also it's not the be all and end all of this election, Clinton could have won if a fraction more of urban demographic X or Y didn't slack off that day. It's maybe not essential to focus on that demographic (though considering the USA has been, in hindsight, trending towards the GOP holding all the power with Obama's popularity an outlier...) but it is the correct thing to do. For political expediency, as building a larger voting base help wins elections and pushing the greater good agenda (I mean, nobody would care to collectively label those far away unknowns if 50k of them of them had voted Dem instead of GOP in WI, MI and PA whatever their individual prejudices might be). Out of principle, because public government and a just society cannot abandon some areas or populations to their sake (be it Rust Belt whites of disinfranchised blacks) and all citizens are entitled to the same rights and protections. Out of ideology because being a leftist means you believe those issues are systemic and that individuals have to be helped to elevate themselves over it.

EDIT : Though you can also hope that those people, now that they got their Trump wish, will come around in 4 years if they realize they've been played for dunces. Still the Dems will have to provide some incentive to go vote.

[thisismyusername]

I'm from the mid west. Central Indiana...This is one of hundreds of cities that in the 50s-90s were booming from all the factories. People going straight from high school into 25 year careers with great benefits and pay. And then, in the 90s, when jobs started going to Mexico or China, these cities literally started dying.

I don't want to take issue with the sentiment of this post but it's important to note that the timing here is off. Manufacturing's share of employment and relative wages in the Rust Belt declined throughout the entire post-war period (cf. here). The starkest drop is after 1980. The narrative that privileges NAFTA and other free trade agreements elides the fact that US manufacturing was declining well before they were put in place, to say nothing of their negligible overall impact on the US labor market.

Yes, but most of the jobs that were left were taken out, key example just this year:

NAFTA was a cry from Trump because the remaining jobs from the post-war boom that weren't already gone are going. That's why those folks in those areas are really pissed.

I don't think we disagree about much here. The only things I'd point out are: a) there was no "post-war boom" wrt to manufacturing in the Rust Belt; by any metric you use, it starts declining at 1950 and b) NAFTA was as much a cry as a convenience for Trump, he neatly got to pin his blue-collar constituency's opprobrium onto the wife of the man who happened to sign it into law.

I should've phrased that better. But yes. What I mean is the post-war "boom" of jobs were starting to die out post-WW2 but there was still enough manufacturing and stuff going on that for the most part people weren't "threatened" by job loss and globalization or down-sizing or automation or whatever you want to blame for job loss.

And yes, it was a cry of convenience, but I mean if it's there why not use it? Clinton didn't appeal to them, that cry appealed. Boom, instant support, right?

[VomKriege]

The Impossible Mission Force :



Flynn is the first living dead defense secretary, apparently. #Trumptherealprogressive

[james]

Having a stable of veterans doesn't necessarily help, though, just look at what happened to the GOP.

The deepest fucking bench!

Dems need to abandon NY area.

Trump
Clinton
Cuomo
Weiner
Booker
Christie
Schumer

All piles of NY garbage

Its time for the west coast revolution.

[james]

I feel like HRC's team should have picked up waaaaaaay earlier on the fact that nothing was going to dissuade most Trump voters, focus less on him as an awful person and instead focus on the parts of the country where his trade talk was well received.

Of course, being married to the guy who signed NAFTA was probably always going to work against her in those regions.

The best ads for Obama were the ones hitting how Romney and his cronies destroyed the middle of the country

Hillarys team were incompetent fucks.

It was ad after ad of Trump saying his garbage

But guess what? EVERYONE HAD SEEN IT ALREADY. Every news report had covered it. Thry wasted millions on old news.

Why not a scary ad about how Trump destroyed Atlantic City?

Ads about Trump fucking over contractors?

Why NOTHING reminding people that the GOP shut down the government? NOTHING about Trumps statements on global warming? NOTHING reminding voters of what happened during Bush?

And maybe an ad or two about how Hillary would make things better?

IM WITH HER says nothing!

What about "Heres my 5 point plan to bring jobs to Scranton"

Idiot campaign full of idiots.

[agrajag]

I feel like HRC's team should have picked up waaaaaaay earlier on the fact that nothing was going to dissuade most Trump voters, focus less on him as an awful person and instead focus on the parts of the country where his trade talk was well received.

Of course, being married to the guy who signed NAFTA was probably always going to work against her in those regions.

The best ads for Obama were the ones hitting how Romney and his cronies destroyed the middle of the country

Hillarys team were incompetent fucks.

It was ad after ad of Trump saying his garbage

But guess what? EVERYONE HAD SEEN IT ALREADY. Every news report had covered it. Thry wasted millions on old news.

Why not a scary ad about how Trump destroyed Atlantic City?

Ads about Trump fucking over contractors?

Why NOTHING reminding people that the GOP shut down the government? NOTHING about Trumps statements on global warming? NOTHING reminding voters of what happened during Bush?

And maybe an ad or two about how Hillary would make things better?

IM WITH HER says nothing!

What about "Heres my 5 point plan to bring jobs to Scranton"

Idiot campaign full of idiots.

Yep. The scandalous shit had diminishing returns. It reached critical mass and I think at some point people started getting annoyed about it. Whether it was the Trump campaign's excellent deflection tactics, or inherent rape culture, people got grossed out by this, but not in the way Clinton's campaign wanted them too. "I'm sick of going through dirty laundry, I why aren't se talking about issues" is how it got framed.

[Kara]

The claim that these places voted primarily for Trump because their communities have been economically left behind and he promised to stop that would be easier to believe if they hadn't been electing pro-deregulation, personal responsibility touting Republicans for decades. The economic consensus in national politics wouldn't exist if a party could gain power arguing otherwise.

Those principles are easy to extol when urban communities are thrown off public employment or assistance but not so much when the chickens come home to roost from having perhaps the dumbest  societal structure under capitalism (being dependent on one employer forevermore).

[Mupepe]

The negativity created a tune out effect I think.  I was tired of both campaigns and onslaught of articles of "A Hillary email had this" or "The Clinton Foundation once did this" along with "Trump once said some really outrageous shit".  It was exhausting.

[VomKriege]

The white working class is maybe inexact, but who knows ?
Ultimately, beyond the question of demographics, an alternative to the current economic paradigms is needed.

[VomKriege]

Far-right Israeli politician Bayit Yehudi and Education Minister Naftali Bennett issued a joint statement congratulating Trump and saying, “the era of a Palestinian state is over.”

http://warontherocks.com/2016/11/the-world-reacts-to-president-elect-trump-live-updated/

OK then. Guess at least it's upfront.

“I’m the catalyst for the downfall of the Blairites, the Clintonites, the Bushites, and all these dreadful people who work hand in glove with Goldman Sachs and everybody else, have made themselves rich, and ruined our countries,” Farage replied. “I couldn’t be happier.”

Farage continued: “That Obama creature – loathsome individual – he couldn’t stand our country. He said we’d be at the back of the queue, didn’t he?”

(...)

Farage then joked about Trump meeting May, saying, “don’t touch her for goodness sake”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/10/nigel-farage-jokes-about-trumps-alleged-sexual-assaults

 

[Great Rumbler]

Farage continued: “That Obama creature – loathsome individual – he couldn’t stand our country. He said we’d be at the back of the queue, didn’t he?”

 

[VomKriege]

http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=223956123&postcount=76

It's pretty amazing just how much of an house of cards the Clinton campaign now appears, even if there's a lot of confirmation bias at work. Slogan analysis for instance is a bit of a futile exercice in projection, had Hillary won (which came down to 100k votes over three states, even if by all means it being a close race was already a problem) we would read lyrical pieces about how those were great slogans and how the Dems were right to endorse optimism in their convention against the Trump negative messaging that the country was broken...

Also Bill Clinton confirmed alt right minority hater by trying to reach poor whites.

[Take My Breh Away]

Farage continued: “That Obama creature – loathsome individual – he couldn’t stand our country. He said we’d be at the back of the queue, didn’t he?”

 

That also ignores that Obama was the first nominee in history to make a European tour to assure everyone he wasn't Dubya and his first port of call was Britain claiming he would keep up close trade links.

Who knew notorious Tax Dodgers like Trump and Farage look out for each other

[curly]

http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=223956123&postcount=76

From that nytimes article:

Mrs. Clinton had planned to conclude her 19-month campaign with an elaborate victory celebration on Tuesday night, complete with confetti shaped like glass shards that would fall from the glass ceiling of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Midtown Manhattan — an extravagant production to mark the history of the evening.

 

[Tasty]

Legit hope Andrex is doing ok

Aww. 

I'm fine. America has weathered Nixon and W, we can handle four years of Trump (providing he doesn't go nuke-crazy.) His worse legacy will be in climate and energy - we've hurt the Earth so much, I can only hope it'll hang on a bit longer. Hopefully there's technological innovations in the next couple years that'll offset whatever terrible policies Trump enacts.

I don't see LGBT protections rolled back, but they won't expand. More worrying is the anti-queer attitude a Trump presidency will allow to flourish, so we'll need to be careful and continue to work at expanding social acceptance, as well as rights on a local level.

My one consolation is that MA, CT and ME all went blue, which means the few people I know who voted for Trump (or didn't vote) didn't affect the electoral results. Small victories.

No rest for the weary. No time to whine. Only through diligence and hard work can we make an America that we want. It's clear we didn't work hard enough this time. Let's change that.

[benjipwns]

"ahh! oh god no! this was just supposed to be shaped like glass shards!!!! agh! argh!"

[Tasty]

Legit hope Andrex is doing ok

He posted in the fuck millennials thread yesterday. He's not dumb so he's probably taking better than GAFfers.

I had a good cry the night of but a lot of it was the alcohol and sheer shock of the moment. The next day I woke up, dusted myself off and went back to work.