And then there were two. Now that the Democrats have a Presumptive Nominee of their own, I’m thinking we could use an open thread to talk about Hillary’s big win, Bernie’s future, and how to derail the Trump Train (figuratively speaking).
Also, Little Green Footballs has a nice little Trump poster generator. Check it out.
Here are a couple of mine, all of them making use of Trump’s actual words. Post your own! Let’s have a little meme contest or something!
Trump is straight up human garbage so while I preferred Sanders I’ll vote Clinton with confidence.
David Rutten,
I think Clinton will almost certainly lose the white male vote. But then again, so did Obama. Trump has extremely high negatives with women. Can’t imagine why! I think moderate Republican women will switch sides and vote for Clinton, although many will keep that quiet. Just a hunch. My 90 year old grandmother typically votes Republican, but she’s voting for Clinton. She actually used the word “evil” to describe Trump. I doubt she’s the only one who feels this way. I also remember reading a story about couple of months ago about how new voter registrations have skyrocketed among Hispanics thanks to Trump’s racism motivating them to vote against him. Clinton also does well with black voters.
No such thing as a sure thing, but the demographics are against Trump.
Trump: Making Everyone Else Look Better Since 2015!
Is there anyone here who’s considering supporting Jill Stein or Gary Johnson for president?
Johnson in particular has a chance of at least making it to the TV debates (some of the polls have him near the inclusion threshold).
@dslucia
Fucking! Yes!
1)left and right are meaningless terms
2)in so much as they have any meaning, it’s in relative terms
3)why is it always relative to fuckin Switzerland?
Clinton, and Obama before her, are low key social democrats, who advocate for the rights of the underprivileged and profess a foreign policy (more to it than war) based on diplomacy. Left
@Dan
Obama did more than break the ceiling. Black people have not exactly been the biggest boosters of gay rights historically. Then Obama ‘came out’ as a supporter, and the polls started changing literally overnight. His voice means something. We’ll have to wait and see what her voice can do
@guest
High 5! I didn’t vote for Obama last time either (solid red state, disillusionment). I’m voting Hill this time, cos ‘solid red’ is looking less and less solid everyday, and I’d like to be part of an eventual swing purple *shrugs*
@weirwoodtreehugger
My sister’s friend/ex-roommate is Miss Young Republican but is openly planning to vote for Hillary because Trump is that gross.
@Icthyic: what do you consider an acceptable casuality rate should the US people “burn it to the ground”? And are you so sure that the ones who will start it over won’t be more like Cliven Bundy and his Y’all-Queda?
Ichthyic,
I also left the US (just over 1 year ago, after lengthy planning). I now live in Uruguay, an actual progressive socialist country (in stark contrast to most of the rest of South America), and it baffled me that people were buying the brand of socialism BS was trying to sell – A white, Denmarkian utopia when he’s really much closer to being a Chilean style (and points to Castro and Putin as great men and actually supported Communist ideals like the government taking over public radio and censoring it – I still can’t believe that didn’t get more attention.)
David, I think HRC will actually swing far more Republicans than people realize – people are already fleeing the monstrosity that is Trump.
I’m more worried about the GOP ditching the Cheeto and putting Paul Ryan in.
People keep asking why I left the US, and then they want to know why I follow the election cycle so closely – I’m like, I may not plan on going back but I still have family there I care about! Female family, gay family, plenty of people who are in danger still from regressive “conservatism”.
Here in UY women’s reproductive rights are a no-brainer, gay marriage has been around long enough that a whole generation has grown up with it being no big deal, gay adoption is A-OK, and what, you’re transsexual? Let’s get the birth certificate fixed right now… oh, and there’s actual separation of church and state that is ENFORCED. A local teacher I know forced into retirement this month due to failing sight has a real social safety net and won’t lack for anything.
But in the US my sister can still be forced to carry a pregnancy that could kill her, my gay brother will only be able to adopt if he’s living in the right place and gets a favorable judge, my daughter’s old school still has a world history teacher that starts EVERY DAMN CLASS PERIOD with a rant against godless heathens, Obummer, abortion and lack of morals (girl, put this sweat-shirt on, your bare shoulder is making my dick hard and I can’t concentrate, slut). Oh, and I STILL can’t get married HERE because the State of New York refuses to release my partners’ original birth certificate to her (adopted, name change).
I’m ecstatic over the country’s choice of liberal candidate. I may not live there any more, but I KNOW the US will continue to move forward under HRC.
@ Ichthyic
Equating Hillary to Trump is generally a good sign you’ve been suckered by Fox News. And thinking that “voted for Iraq, therefore invalid” is actually a good metric is a good sign someone does not understand how people work, especially when it comes to groupthink endorsed by the President at the time.
It’s a sign the system works that Bernie, mealy-mouthed, egotistical hypocrite that he is, did not get in. Yes, hypocrite. Isn’t it interesting how superdelegates suddenly became the sole refuge of democracy as soon as his opponent started raking in the normal delegates?
(I used to support Bernie. Then the later part of the race happened. Suffice to say, I think he’s the would-be Democratic Trump, and it’s a sign our party has a clue that he didn’t get in).
EDIT: Also, I have my suspicions about his more rabid supporters, which Lauren here says better than me: https://medium.com/@laurenbesser/had-bernie-been-bernadette-the-heartbreaking-truth-about-american-patriarchy-ea29caf04331#.20g0v3jid
On the subject of Trump’s campaign: I’ve found it really interesting how, this past week or so, Trump’s campaign seems to have hit a major snag with the whole Trump University court case and his subsequent racist comments about the judge. It’s interesting because out of all the awful things that Trump has said and done, it seems a bit strange that this scandal would be perhaps the most damaging to him so far. My theory is that two things are happening:
1) Of course, Trump is now in a position of having to appeal to the general electorate, which is far less keen on white supremacy than his hard-right base, but, more than that, I think the main reason is…
2) That Trump’s schtick is really just starting to get kinda boring. We’ve seen it all before and, even among his fans, his self-aggrandizing rants aren’t wild and entertaining anymore: we’ve been exposed to so much of him in the media that we now know what to expect from his statements, and they’re predictable and dull. He still has plenty of die-hard supporters, of course, but I think that a lot of his initial appeal was in his entertaining persona (he’s best known as a reality-TV star, after all) – if he stops being entertaining, well, what is he then?
Oh and like people here are saying: voted for Bernie, wish he’d have won, but he didn’t and I’m gonna vote for Clinton come November. Onward.
Not quite true. While a presidential candidate can’t steer the party hard away from its core platform, the presidential candidate does have a lot of power to set the agenda. Which is why I prefer Clinton over Sanders. Sanders’ agenda is the agenda of socioeconomically depressed white men. His message is socioeconomic inequality and effectively nothing else. That’s what white men care about the most, because that’s the axis of privilege that most of them do not possess.
Other axes of privilege exist, ones that affect non-white non-men far more heavily than socioeconomic inequality. Sanders has no answer for this, which is why he lost categorically among non-whites. Clinton is multifaceted and cares about socioeconomic inequality, but she cares about other axes of oppression just as much or more, which white people (especially white men) don’t like. White people (and especially white men) who are accustomed to having their needs and problems elevated above the needs and problems of every other social demographic aren’t pleased when someone tells them to sit down because other problems are more pressing.
I am happy that Clinton will be setting the agenda, because I’m confident her agenda will include more than the problems of white men.
I like Sanders, and I think that his focus on electoral reform and getting money out of politics is hugely important, for every issue facing the United States. Lobbyists are what tie up pretty much every bill that isn’t pro-business.
But I’ve also been a member of an electoral reform movement for years now (and I’m not even American, I just want to help you guys out!). Ya don’t need Bernie to do it.
Clinton’s had some terrible voting records in the past, and she has to play the lobbyist game – and she’s good at that game. She has to consider the desires of the lobbyists, while still trying to push through what progressive things she can. I worry about whether the cart is pushing the horse at this point, frankly.
But ya don’t need Bernie, and Hillary won’t push against the electorate – she listens to people. She is willing to change when the populace wants something. Some people call that flip-flopping. I call it representing the people.
@WWTH is right, as always. It’s not about the person wearing the big hat. Bernie organized a strong movement that wants to push for free and fair democracy in the USA. Vote against the potato-with-cotton-candy-hair, put Hillary in. Stay organized, and push Hillary to hold to the things that Bernie wanted. Join http://www.wolf-pac.com/, or something like it.
You can fix it! Go get’em, America!
Sanders lost. I’m depressed.
But I hope that a new movement will come of the Sanders campaign.
ETA: Scildfreja, thanks for the shot in the arm (as always)!
I am delighted that Hillary is the nominee. I can’t wait to see her shred the Vulgar Talking Yam on live television.
POM said
Yeah, I knew this about him and voted for him anyway (in CA, by mail, a couple of weeks ago) even though I knew he had already (in all probability) lost the nomination.
I did it because I was heartened by the fact that he demonstrated that someone could be a serious presidential contender without using the usual suspects to fund his campaign. I believe this is a powerful message that can (hopefully, very hopefully) begin to change the way we conduct elections.
I’ll be voting for Hillary because the thought of Trump just make me flee to Youtube to find NOPE videos. Nope llama, take me away!!
@Kat, it doesn’t have to go away. Sanders is free to do and say whatever he wants now. He isn’t going to poof into dust at Philadelphia, and neither are you! Sure, it sucks to lose, but the writing has been on the wall a long time now. Organize. You can still get what you want – at the same time as the Hillary supporters will be getting what they want. Keep the momentum going. Like Bernie said last night – The Struggle Continues.
along with @Hippodameia, I suggest that we only talk about The Moldy Cheeto in hilarious metaphor from now on, don’t mention him by name. I’m pretty sure you can earn misandry points that way.
Here you go Hambeast
http://i.imgur.com/xR505FA.gif
BONUS:
@Scildfreja – great idea!
The Urnch Gasbag
The Bamboozling Bankrupt
The Hard-Haired Asshat
The Orange Onion of Awfulness.
@Tory
Gary Johnson supports a flat tax and “slashes” (his terminology) to social programs. Nope
The Green Party explicitly has homeopathy on the platform, even tho (I hope it’s not because) their candidate is a doctor. Nope
I hope they do well, BTW. Send a message maybe. So long as they don’t split the Dem vote. I just can’t, in good conscience, support them
#UniteBlue
An old friend of mine with whom I keep in touch via FB recently re-registered Democratic (from Green) solely to vote for Sanders. In response to one of his increasingly emphatic posts, I mentioned that he probably would not describe a male candidate as ‘screeching’ – he scolded me for making it a gender issue.
The impression I get is also of people who are usually somewhat detached from the established political process, who have discovered that people who have been working with and volunteering for a major political party for years or decades are not uncritically grateful for the influx of enthusiastic but uninformed newbies. I mentioned the election of ’00 to several people online and oh! what an unfair and impolite subject THAT was to bring up.
My favorite Trump metaphor is from Jezebel:
bargain bin full of yellowing Jean Claude Damme movies
I’m also rather partial to “orange malware”. The Republican Party can’t figure out how to delete him off their hard drive. He keeps redirecting their browser to Stormfront.
Sanders was my first choice, Clinton was my at-least-it’s-not-Trump choice. I was glad to see that Sanders won my state, hinting where it leans, but in the end it wasn’t enough.
Seconding kupo who said not to throw away your vote in a temper tantrum no one will hear.
And I used to laugh at jokes about Trump being orange, but a website that showed how terrifying he would look without that coloring stopped me. The orange tint actually helps!
by saying they both suck, does not mean they are both the same.
I did not say that.
but you really are having to choose between two very poor candidates.
one certainly worse than the other… but that’s not the point.
aren’t you tired of seeing the US spiral down the fucking drain, as all the money gets stolen?
if you are… voting for either one of these clowns is not going to help.
frankly, voting for BERNIE would not even have helped.
you need to burn this system down, and build it back up, from the ground, and this time EVERYONE needs to be involved. make it a goddamn real democracy, instead of a failed republic.
Should I email David about Mr Revolutionary up there?