The 2016 US Presidential Election

So...

...that did not go as expected.

Comments

[Judoon_Warrior]

I'm not even from America and I'm scared

[JMP]

This is what I was hoping for: images-2.discordapp.net/.eJwNyVEOgyAMANC7cAA6UCn1NgQJmikltMaPZXff3u_7mHucZjW7apcVYDsk89isKI9Ui63M9SypH2IzX5BUU96v0lTATdEhhUD-FSL5ZUbw84LoJkcYI4X_erjbu_HTbG_VfH8LhCMB.m-MVfjrdZVSuGztUaQl2VLZKGBc

Not this: cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/138179669206892547/245791053599342592/unknown.png

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Well.. this is bad.

[Andy Soshal]

Ain't over yet, Double-D!

#maga

[Kupe Akemi Navigator]

good bye America... and welcome your new overlord/Emperor...

[RainbowDoubleDash]

About the only good news out of a Hillary loss is that it won't be by a landslide. If we call the election right now, it's likely to be 313-225, which is narrower than Obama in 2012. The country may have elected Trump, but not by a huge margin.

[InsertAuthorHere]

I wish I was dead.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

4291564
No you don't. Worst-case scenario, you need to find a new job, but you've basically got months or more of warning - Obamacare can't just be "shut down", repealing it will take some time to go through Congress.

You can do it.

[Ether Echoes]

It's pretty nightmarish.

[thatguyvex]

I guess we'll see how things go. I've never been too politically inclined, and I can't remember the country ever having a president that was completely backed by everyone. Whatever goes down, I figure the country can survive it.

[Lurks-no-More]

Yeah, WTF. I... I think I'll quit internet for the rest of the day.

[ShadowLDrago]

So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.

[Kichi]

Sigh, and like this the U.S.A is going down, down down... Did Donal Duck put some drugs in the water?

[GreyGuardPony]

I've had this running theory for a bit now that a good slice of the world has been moving more reactionary in general over the last few years. And that was combining with there being enough distance from our last big right wing reactionary fuck ups in history to create a kind of perfect storm of the world going more brutally right wing.

So far, I kind of feel like my theory is playing out and that things aren't going to start reversing themselves till we have another big WWII situation with a whole lot of dead people involved.

Just....fuck.

[punzil504]

I was pleasantly surprised.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

4291917
In fairness, he's slated to lose the popular vote.

4292145
I rather hope not. I guess we're going to find out what a Trump presidency is like.

4292219
The man has once that I am aware of called for insurrection (back in 2012 when it became obvious that Obama was going to beat Romney, he said that "we should go to DC and put a stop to this"); once that I am aware of obliquely suggested that Hillary, if President, should be assassinated were she to put a liberal judge on the Supreme Court; and once that I am aware of outright stated that if Russia were to interfere in the election, they would be rewarded.

His supporters have said that they like his "honesty" and yet he is factually a greater liar than Clinton ever was on her worst days.

His economic plans are considered certain for failure by every economist; he's promised to repeal Obamacare despite not having revealed in the slightest what he plans to do with it. He plans to back out of the nuclear deal with Iran due to it being "lopsided" but, hey, if he does that, Iran both can and has incentive to develop nuclear weapons. And let's not even get into the inanity of having a "secret plan to fight ISIS".

The great bulk of his rhetoric was built around fear of illegal immigration from Latin America despite 1) there being, at most, only 9 million Hispanic illegal immigrants in the country, 2) this number is down from 2015 and has been trending downwards generally; and 3) having no practical plan to put a stop to it; the "wall" he wants to build is not something Mexico would ever pay for, and there is no way to force Mexico to pay unless his plan is to get into a shooting war with the country, which is, by the way, our third-largest trading partner, as well as our largest source of legal immigration.

He has stated a willingness to use nuclear weapons in a first-strike capacity, as well as a willingness to start wars over mean words (i.e., when he learned that some Iranian sailors jeered at a US ship, he said he would have sunk the Iranians)

And the man is a misogynist; there are no two ways about it, and trying to claim otherwise is an indefensible position.

There is absolutely nothing to recommend the man. He is a demagogue, a man who appealed to popular desires, prejudices, and fear, rather than advancing any reasonable or logical arguments. He is, in fact, exactly what the Electoral College is supposed to protect us against: the entire reason why we have the College and not a direct popular vote (which Trump is likely to lose anyway) is because the Founding Fathers intended for the Electoral College to go against the will of the people when the masses were trying to elect a demagogue. In a perfect world, or at least a world that ran as the Founding Fathers intended, the Electoral College would elect someone else to be President.

But that's not going to happen. So instead we're going to have a reactionary, lying, misogynist, racist man with no workable plans who intends to alienate our largest trading partners as our President; and even more frightening, he's going to have a House and Senate who back him up and will likely rubber-stamp everything he does.

At this point the only hope for the country is that in four years time, his inevitable screwups aren't too bad and we can elect someone saner. Assuming he even does give up the Presidency...demagogues don't generally believe in petty things like "term limits".

[Captain Snark]

4292265
Don't forget his comment from a couple weeks ago about how they should just cancel the election and give it to him. Or his constant assertions that it was rigged. Of course he never said who it was rigged for, so that might explain things.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

4292810
In a perfect world, or at least one that functioned as the Founding Fathers intended, the Electors in a week's time would vote for someone else besides Trump. The entire reason we have an Electoral College and not a direct popular vote (which, by the by, Hillary would win, it seems) is so that the Electors can go against the popular vote or the apparent will of the states so as to prevent a demagogue coming to power due to mob mentality. While 29 states have laws that criminalize Electors going against their pledge, the Supreme Court case Ray v. Blair ruled that it is unconstitutional for a State to require its Electors to vote in any given way. That is to say, States can require Electors to pledge but not cast their vote a certain way, and can punish Electors who break a pledge but not change how the Elector voted (and maybe not even punish them; whether or not that is Constitutional has never come before the Supreme Court).

But that won't happen.

[Dream Volt]

4292855 The way this election has been going the only reason that's unlikely is Clinton quit. In fact I wouldn't be too shocked if suddenly a majority voted for the secretary of Agriculture or something along those lines. I'm frankly amazed Florida as close as it was didn't turn into a mess this time again.

[swicked]

4292855
...I was under the impression that there was a different reason why the electoral college voted rather than a popular vote. Namely that we are a union of states and if a direct popular vote decided the presidency then states like California would pretty much choose election winners and all the more sparsely populated states in the middle of America would never really get any representation.
An electoral college might devalue the votes of the big states, but it ensures every state counts and that none can really afford to be ignored.
I mean, every state gets two senators no matter its size. Every state has at least one representative regardless of population. Having an electoral college to ensure each state has a real impact on the election follows this strategy of adequate representation of every state.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

4301517
That's part of the reason, but it's more the job of the Senate than the Electors. To quote Alexander Hamilton, the idea was for "A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated [tasks]."

[DILLYbOd]

I voted for Trump to watch the Left and Right lose their shit and burn to the ground. Constitutionalist 2020. PEPE 2020.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

4513266
You and I both know that's not going to happen. The only time third parties have ever managed to ascend in the American election system is when they were the direct successors to collapsed first parties. The Republican Party is mostly the Whigs with a new coat of paint, for example.

Also, you just make a habit of going through old blog posts and dropping comments, or...?

[DILLYbOd]

4513999 One day third parties will get a chance, if the right and left keep what they are doing... and yes I drop in old post like its hot.