Mad_Machine76
Mad_Machine76's JournalWe seem to constantly go through a succession of "annointed saviors"
I don't blame us for being hungry for a (much) better President than what we have now in 2020 but we have to keep somewhat grounded in our expectations of any said Presidential candidate as:
A.) Nobody we elect President is going to solve all problems and meet all of our expectations even if they get a full 8 year term. Presidents can do a lot and who is in the WH is incredibly important to the future direction of our country but there ARE limitations to their power and what they can do, especially with an insane(ly) mobilized and intransigent opposition.
B.) We need to keep our eyes more on what is happening now and during the next stop in the road, which are the 2018 midterms, which will decide who will control Congress for the next two years of (presumably) of Donald Trump's Presidency.
Nobody has even seriously announced for 2020 but we will know- all in good time- who is running in 2020 and have an opportunity to thoroughly evaluate everybody. Right now, lets focus on taking one or both chambers of Congress or, at the very least, narrowing the "numerical window" Trump/GOP have to operate under legislatively.
This is indeed a frightening statement- if you read between the lines
I'm afraid that a lot of people might hear this and have it seem to make sense on the surface. After all, why not reward "good workers" and get rid of "bad workers". Republicans have been using this to attack Teachers and Unions for years. However, for those of us whom are rightly suspicious of anything Trump/GOP says, here's what we are hearing:
"Good Workers"= Trump syncophants
"Bad Workers"= Everybody else, especially those with the spine to tell him "no".
Be afraid. Be very afraid.....
BTW was there a lot of applause to this line (for those watching)?
How?
Besides, if Trump were to actually admit that the Russians interfered with the elections in 2016- to the extent that he believed our only recourse is to cancel the 2018 elections (and possibly 2020 as well), they cast aspersions on his own legitimacy (which is shaky at best). They'd also call into question the Republicans' legitimacy as well. There's not an argument in the world that they could muster where foreign interference in an election is sufficient reason to shut down our democracy. As for recent historical references, there *was* some "loose talk" back among some pundits and politicians during George W. Bush's "reign of error" that we could be "one terrorist attack away" from the imposition of some kind of martial law and Rudy Guiliani made a brief grab to stay in office longer, immediately following 9/11
States handle elections also, so how would Trump be able to order them shutdown? His order would (presumably) be shot down in court so fast it'd make his head spin.
What I have been most afraid of with Trump in terms of voting and election was his "voter fraud" commission, which I felt was going to be much more dangerous in terms of figuring out ways to further their already pretty effective voter suppression/disenfranchisement methods.
Too bad
they couldn't have framed their coverage of him being "bizarre" as a BAD thing and a DISQUALIFICATION for the office of POTUS. Hillary was, objectively speaking, the most qualified for the position but the MSM gets bored of politicians like H. Clinton and Gore, whom were intelligent, qualified, and capable candiates and keep wanting to push "exciting" and "new" candidates like Bush Jr. and Trump, regardless of their intelligence, competence, etc. even when all signs point to a trainwreck waiting to happen.
Right
Unless you're a pollster, nobody really "knows" what most Americans think about any given thing. Republicans doing it drives me up the f**king wall!
The "Messaging" thing really irks me
Republicans ALWAYS have it easier in terms of their "messaging", because their voters- and a good chunk of the rest of the public- are less informed about politics than us, spend less time than us keeping up with what is actually going on unless it immediately affects us and thus makes it easier for Republicans to lie to them, and thus seem to be more responsive to Republican messaging (i.e. catchphrases) than Democratic messaging (which tends to be less succint and nuanced- IOW "reality"
. That all being said, polls indicate that the public is generally favorable towards Democrats in terms of support for our policies, so, at least in the abstract, our messaging seems to be getting through to most people. The bigger problem as I see it is that support for Democratic policies doesn't always translate into votes for Democratic candidates when the time comes. They don't always translate into movements. Why is that? I think that most Democrats and Democratic-leaning people aren't as vocal and obnoxious as Republicans and don't vote as reliably as Republicans. Why that is and what we can do to energize and active people to GOTV is the challenge that the Democratic Party needs to focus on, including helping removing barriers to people voting, especially those inclined to vote for us.
He is obsessed with her
He knows that, even though he won the Presidency (most likely benefited by foreign and other illicit sources), most people don't like (or love) him and that more people voted for Hillary overall- even though he and his accomplices dragged her name and reputation through the mud for years and years. And that's not something he can manage to get over.
No thanks
The "Tea Party" has not been a good thing for the Republican Party. Oh, sure, it won them seats and helped them "re-brand" their party after the Bush II fiasco but as the last 7-8 years have demonstrated, it's made the Republicans in Congress a jumbled, hot mess when it comes to governance and turned the Republican Party into a hotbed of extremists and malcontents whom would gladly burn it all down if they could. Don't want THAT to happen to our party.
I agree
Probably the best we can do for now. No matter what, Trump comes out of all of this looking like the incompetent and unstable twit we already known he is. The lights are on but nobody's home at the Trump WH and this shutdown showed it. And that's not even my opinion, that's his (from 2013)
+1
I feel like I always need to do a double-take on a lot of these things because, unfortunately, Bernie is not always Democrats' best friend and goes "off the reservation" even though he caucuses with us.
Profile Information
Name: Mara Alis ButlerGender: Female
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home country: USA
Current location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Member since: Sat Feb 28, 2004, 01:13 AM
Number of posts: 24,406
