11-11-2016, 02:59
(This post was last modified: 11-11-2016, 03:06 by St Charles Owl.)
To answer your question about whether he truly is a fascist or not - my honest answer is I don't know!! The guy is an entertainer and a businessman, in the past he hasn't had to worry so much about public opinion, in fact being a bit controversial probably just ends up being good publicity for him!!! I always got the feeling he was in it for the publicity and to shake things up a bit, never truly thinking himself that he would ever get this far.
Saw an interesting piece yesterday where previous presidents senior aides going back to Reagan were interviewed about the aura of the White House and what it was like for guys when they first stepped into the Oval Office. All of them said that it was a very sobering event for the presidents, it presented a huge amount of sudden realism about the importance of the job ahead and the lives now in their hands. To a man they all pointed out that all of them seemed to move politically towards the middle after that. The hardest part for them was the security briefings. Trump got his first full one today, the same one Obama got, and these aides said that usually completely shocked the new guys, from both the dangers posed, the in depth nature, the things they simply didn't know behind the scenes and the volumes of intelligence that never gets to the media!! Again, suddenly the new presidents were quiet, less boisterous, even in some cases at times of tension less gung-ho!!! I am truly hoping the reality of the office, the enormity of the task ahead of him and the seriousness of security and international relations will allow us to see a different side of him.
I still think a lot of what he said in the past was rhetoric, sure it was crass a lot of the time but I get the feeling he knew what to say to give him the best chance of being elected. The groups he pissed off in reality were groups that were never going to vote for him anyway, and at the moment its all words not actions. Its very noticable that his policies were either sensational but probably unachievable and the rest were very vague. He cannot build a wall physically, he cannot logistically deport 11m Mexicans and he cannot disband NATO. Words like this through appealed to the lowest educated part of the electorate, a group that he managed to become invigorated and determined to vote. If there is one thing all politicians should learn from him its that getting someone to support you is one thing, getting all of them to actually vote is another. I reckon just about every person who would want to vote for Trump, actually did, whereas potentially millions of Hillary supporters simply were not enthused enough to vote or thought she would win without their vote anyway. Look at Wisconsin, solid blue state since the 80s, she didn't go there once during the campaign, trump went a few times and held large rallies, and he took that state and its 10 votes fairly easily!! Big mistake!!!
Its not a compromise card I am playing, its a reality one. He won the election fair and square, he will be President whether we like it or not and no amount of protests will change that, nor should it. If he has any sense he will take notice of the protests, but thats about all we can hope for. He has a clear mandate, he has full control of the political landscape, its up to all of us to make sure he is kept in check and even if we do not fully like what he does he has the right to do it. All the democrats can do is try o keep him honest and stick together because most things he wants to push through will require 60% for it to get it through the House and Senate, and that means some democrats will have to vote yes, they can stop things but it will be tough to stop everything. They should also start preparing now for 2020, they need to keep the youth of the country involved and they need to get out the black and hispanic vote in larger numbers than ever before, but most of all they need to find a proper, quality candidate, one that isn't as tainted as Hillary was from the very start, one that wouldn't have to spend a huge chunk of campaign time answering questions about issues surrounding her rather than combating her opponent. A good, clean (ish) experienced Democrat should have beaten trump easily, Hillary wasn't that!!!!
Saw an interesting piece yesterday where previous presidents senior aides going back to Reagan were interviewed about the aura of the White House and what it was like for guys when they first stepped into the Oval Office. All of them said that it was a very sobering event for the presidents, it presented a huge amount of sudden realism about the importance of the job ahead and the lives now in their hands. To a man they all pointed out that all of them seemed to move politically towards the middle after that. The hardest part for them was the security briefings. Trump got his first full one today, the same one Obama got, and these aides said that usually completely shocked the new guys, from both the dangers posed, the in depth nature, the things they simply didn't know behind the scenes and the volumes of intelligence that never gets to the media!! Again, suddenly the new presidents were quiet, less boisterous, even in some cases at times of tension less gung-ho!!! I am truly hoping the reality of the office, the enormity of the task ahead of him and the seriousness of security and international relations will allow us to see a different side of him.
I still think a lot of what he said in the past was rhetoric, sure it was crass a lot of the time but I get the feeling he knew what to say to give him the best chance of being elected. The groups he pissed off in reality were groups that were never going to vote for him anyway, and at the moment its all words not actions. Its very noticable that his policies were either sensational but probably unachievable and the rest were very vague. He cannot build a wall physically, he cannot logistically deport 11m Mexicans and he cannot disband NATO. Words like this through appealed to the lowest educated part of the electorate, a group that he managed to become invigorated and determined to vote. If there is one thing all politicians should learn from him its that getting someone to support you is one thing, getting all of them to actually vote is another. I reckon just about every person who would want to vote for Trump, actually did, whereas potentially millions of Hillary supporters simply were not enthused enough to vote or thought she would win without their vote anyway. Look at Wisconsin, solid blue state since the 80s, she didn't go there once during the campaign, trump went a few times and held large rallies, and he took that state and its 10 votes fairly easily!! Big mistake!!!
Its not a compromise card I am playing, its a reality one. He won the election fair and square, he will be President whether we like it or not and no amount of protests will change that, nor should it. If he has any sense he will take notice of the protests, but thats about all we can hope for. He has a clear mandate, he has full control of the political landscape, its up to all of us to make sure he is kept in check and even if we do not fully like what he does he has the right to do it. All the democrats can do is try o keep him honest and stick together because most things he wants to push through will require 60% for it to get it through the House and Senate, and that means some democrats will have to vote yes, they can stop things but it will be tough to stop everything. They should also start preparing now for 2020, they need to keep the youth of the country involved and they need to get out the black and hispanic vote in larger numbers than ever before, but most of all they need to find a proper, quality candidate, one that isn't as tainted as Hillary was from the very start, one that wouldn't have to spend a huge chunk of campaign time answering questions about issues surrounding her rather than combating her opponent. A good, clean (ish) experienced Democrat should have beaten trump easily, Hillary wasn't that!!!!