US General Election 2016

Everything that needs to be said about Trump, has been said.

I honestly find Trump less frightening and repulsive than the true believers of movement conservatism that you find in certain corners of the Review and similar publications. They're on some real 19th century Poor Laws shit.

{{{Give me a libertarian over either of them any day. I don't agree with them that their economic ideology would be great for most people, but they aren't motivated by naked disdain for whole demographic categories of people.}}}

I don't know. For me to think like that I would have to accept that Trump is putting on a show. (Which he probably is.) But how else do you judge a politician, but by his words and actions? (All the while he's probably lying and doing the things he feels will win him votes.)

Still, the blatant racism, sexism, disableism of Trump.. I don't see how anyone could accept that. This is the guy proposing war crimes on national television.

That article you posted though.. Wow.

I think the article does make good points, though. No matter how you structure government financial support, it has often failed to avoid producing dependency.

We've learned some things, like the way to get homeless off the street is to focus on true housing first, then jobs. Sound almost obvious, but the normal approach is to try to get them jobs so they afford housing: the real need is housing so they can afford to look for jobs. But that's only part of the puzzle, and much of this learning has not transitioned to practice.

That is not all the point the article is making, though. To Buckleyites, giving housing to homeless people is just going to give them even less motivation to work. "Government assistance = bad" is an article of faith for them almost as strong as it is with Randians.

One section from what happens to be a beautiful article from MSBN about Marco Rubio "letting his campaign die with dignity".

"Breaking from the rigidly disciplined and unflappable style that’s characterized his campaign until now, Rubio has used his final days to offer an elegiac and nuanced critique of America in the age of Trump.

“My whole life I’ve been told being humble is a virtue, and now being humble is a weakness and being vain and self-absorbed is somehow a virtue,” Rubio told an audience of 1,200 in West Palm Beach on Monday evening. “My whole life I have been told no matter how you may feel about someone, you respect everyone because we are all children of the same God. Now being respectful to one another is considered political correctness.”

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/marco-rubio-makes-sure-his-campaign-dies-dignity

cross post.

Eldorian wrote:That is not all the point the article is making, though. To Buckleyites, giving housing to homeless people is just going to give them even less motivation to work. "Government assistance = bad" is an article of faith for them almost as strong as it is with Randians.

I'm not saying the New Republic article was saying the welfare system needs to be fixed (rather than gotten rid of), but the reasons they want to get rid of it is because it's not serving its purpose correctly.  If we could find a way to make it work correctly, I think it wouldn't be attacked or seen as something to be eliminated completely.

Going back to this:

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/marco-rubio-makes-sure-his-campaign-dies-dignity

Reading the article again, I would sincerely hope this last speech of his gets broadcast across Florida.  If it does, and Rubio wins Florida on the strength of it, then we're back to having the America I want to be a part of. It's really an extraordinary speech, and I'd like to find the full text or video of it.

Eldorion wrote:
Buckley would be proud (no really, he probably would be).

Nope! Not enough words over 5 syllables.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:

At least with Cruz I think he is nuts, but he clearly believes in it all and has stuck to his personal red lines. }}}

yeah Cruz believes in it all. Bombing abortion clinics, probably.

I just realized Trump probably went to the Republican party because there are no superdelegates to stop him. Funny that the democrats would be more of an old-boy network than the republicans, but they essentially make it impossible for Bernie Sanders to get nominated.

Rubio is out of the race.

It's disheartening to see how close Cruz is to Trump in many of the southern states. Of course this is kind of like cheering on a wart over a boil, but Cruz seems more and more like Voldemort to me.

Trump and Hillary rolling over the competition. 8 months before the general election, and already I can't stand the suspense.

Rubio's concession speech, about where he came from and what a democracy like America can offer, was rather better than I'd heard so far from any of the Republicans. Then he got into all that Christian drivel, which turned me off again. Kasich appears still to me to be the best (and most moderate) of the Republicans. Trump becomes ever more clear as a quasi-Republican, quasi-Democrat, a mega-businessman, someone who'll probably go all the way, and someone I really despise for a multitude of social reasons; sexism, racism, fascism and greed to name a few. The American Majority voter seems hellbent on having him, but will the Republicans and Democrats in Washington allow him to do anything he wants without major concessions made by him? A lame duck President? A hobbled President? A achieve very little President? I hope do. Doing nothing is sometimes better than doing what your Narcissistic-populist ego wants you to do, what....

Good analysis Orwell, but I doubt Trump will do so well if/when he gets to the general election against either Hillary or Bernie. He's built too much animosity among the ethnic communities and among women to have much of a chance once he escapes from the GOP monkey cage.

I'm afraid I've never followed an Ozhobbit election. Do you have loony tune candidates like the rest of us seem to? If so, have you got any pointers on how to deal with them? It appears we can use all the help we can get this year.....

So long to Rubio.

Hard to see Trump not winning a majority of delegates at this point. Worth remembering though that he's still only winning pluralities, and also that the entirety of GOP primary voters are themselves only a fraction of the country as a whole.

Dave, we have our loonies and some get into our Senate (Upper House, or House of Review)' where Senators can get elected with as little as 0.51% of the vote!!!!!

Our Lower House (the Legislature) gets it's share of occasional loonies but they will rarely have much power, except in a 'hung parliament', even then, the Majority party (whether Liberal or Labor) will be reasonably sensible even when their government is being propped up by an 'independent' looney - taking into account they're keeping their own lunatics generally in line as much as they can if and when they are acting up!

Our Prime Minister is selected by his own elected Members of Parliment, not directly by the voter. This is why we've had three recent Prime Ministers removed by their own parties - which hasn't happened much in our history but is becoming a bit of a trend of late. Mind you, only one of the three was removed without my blessing, the other two were egomaniacs. Our Prime Minister Rudd reminds me a bit of Trump. Our Abbott was a Right wing dickhead. Our first female Prime Minister, Gillard, never stood a chance because substantially, in my humble opinion, she was a woman. The current (Liberal) Prime Minister, Turnbull, is doing reasonably well in my opinion and is Progressive enough and steady enough and intelligent enough for my liking - what with Tolkien not being available.

Btw our Liberals are split between Conservatives (Republicans?) and small l liberals (Democrats?) Turbull is small l. Think Stuart Mill. The Labor Party are Right wing Socialists, and Socialists and Communists. Turbull is also what I'd call a Moderate. He could easily have been a Right wing Labor man if he wasn't a Left wing Liberal.

An oversimplification, of course, and definitely my peculiar opinion of how politics go here.

I am a swinging voter. Whoever seems the most Moderate, Socially Inclusive and Pragmatic but genuinely Fair, usually gets my vote. Actually, in theory I should vote for the Green Party (and have occasionally), but too often they seem too Idealistic about things for my liking; seeming to think the Public Purse is bottomless. Labor are a bit too Greek in their economics for my nerves at the moment - spend, spend, send, doesn't necessarily do it for me.

Incidentally, Moderate Socialists are not generally accused of being the Sons and Daughters of Satan here, except by Right wingers (and small l Liberal Party members for purely rhetorical reasons).

My mind boggles when I try to imagine a contested Republican National Convention in July.
( Remember it's going to be held in Cleveland, and Ohio is an open-carry state which theoretically means that assault weapons are OK. )

Thanks for the synopsis Orwell! It's comforting to know that we don't hold a monopoly on loonies. Of course yours probably don't go on long rants about building walls along your boarders, because that would just be silly!

Only can agree, Blue. Apparently, they add cellulose as a preservative to shredded cheese!!!! Keep it fresh! Keep your wrists exercised! (Exercised grating, that is... )

Dave, providing loonies can't get guns, should be right... Oh that's right, everyone carries guns in America!

I make sure to grate every day.. (err.. in the figurative sense, obviously.)