The Goat Pen

This is who we are as a country.


What do you mean? Who were we in 2008 and 2012?

You guys should do a Trump search on this thread and go back to about April and read forward. Its interesting to see how Trump evolved.

A Dewey defeats Truman moment

Ohh, I want one. That's like having a Dewey defeats Truman paper.

It's going to be interesting. Trump was basically a democrat until a few years ago and I truly believe he's more liberal than the average republican, but he's going to be beholden to all the tea party types that got him elected, to say nothing of the fact that he's going to surround himself with Newt Gingrich/Rudy Guliani types (and already has Pence as his VP, although I don't put much stock in any VP's actual influence, save Dick Cheney). OTOH, Trump is clearly not one to let himself be bossed around, so it'll be interesting to see how his natural liberal-ish leanings are going to shake out with the aforementioned "influences" on him. The worst note for me is that the Supreme Court is definitely going to be more conservative than I would have hoped for pretty much the rest of my life, esp. if Ginsburg retires, but like I said yesterday, as long as he doesn't try to push some 70+ year old geezer in there, I think the republic will survive...

I think he'll do OK with the supremes.

Guns and Abortion are safe IMO.

As for the rest of what he does as president, he'll make some noise but remember that congress basically re-elected and no one aside from Jeff Sessions backed Trump so the even though the repubs have the Senate and House, they ain't gonna line up to back anything radical Trump pushes. He's going to have the same level of push back as Obama, maybe more.

That said, I think Obamacare is toast.

Pence will be the most powerful Veep ever. Trump isn't in to overseeing the political sausage being made. He has said as much, and his managerial style over the past 30 years supports that. He will spend his time applying leverage to key facets of his larger projects and setting a general direction.

I understand not being thrilled about this election, but I follow a lot of artist/creative types on twitter and the type of stuff they were posting is kinda worrisome. Like they were all spreading information on suicide hotlines and urging people to get help. Seriously?

Germany

Because they were triggered and can't find their safe space ATM. They don't know how to handle disappointment and not getting things their way. They can't see another viewpoint no matter what.

Fuck'em. Thin the herd.

Toemeesleather wrote:This is who we are as a country.


What do you mean? Who were we in 2008 and 2012?

I mean every election tells us in popular vote and Electoral math who we are. So, yeah, everything said by and about Obama leading up to the elections informed on who we were as voters. Everything said by and about Trump leading up to this election (and it was A LOT...much more than any other national politician in my lifetime) informs on who we are as a nation, because we elected him.

Take that for what it's worth. I didn't support Trump. I didn't see anything in his business dealings that made me respect him. An overwhelming majority of his public pronouncements made me not respect him. Because I have a wife and a daughter and a son with a visible handicap, I didn't respect him. Because I like concrete plans in lieu of platitudes, I did not support him. So, yeah, all of it gets me to realize more about who we are as a country.

I get the populism nature of Trumpism. I posted about that here, too, with the story on the factory worker in Indiana and the Atlantic article about the amount of Americans living under financial insecurity (almost 70% of all Americans would not be able to self fund an unexpected $3,000 expense). I think if a politician really cared about income inequality and the lack of jobs providing living wages (which essentially means the government covers the remaining needs via Medicaid or other social programs) then I would be all for them. I just don't think Donald Trump is that guy. There is nothing in his behavior that shows me that he is. He has the keys now, so let's see. At the end of the day, if I am thinking selfishly, I will be fine no matter who is running the country by and large. So, if his promises turn out to be lies, my family will be okay...women, girls and special needs included.

The people in Ohio, Michigan, PA, Wisconsin and Indiana have seemingly voted for a set of promises that I doubt Trump (or any politician) can deliver...and these people will continue to swap out higher paying manufacturing jobs for lower paying service jobs that will require government support to just make ends meet...unless Trump knows something he has never said or shown in his life prior.

Personally, the ending of DFA and ObamaCare add to my possibilities of greater returns...I just always look at my life larger than what I can make financially.

aTm wrote:I understand not being thrilled about this election, but I follow a lot of artist/creative types on twitter and the type of stuff they were posting is kinda worrisome. Like they were all spreading information on suicide hotlines and urging people to get help. Seriously?

I've seen a bunch of these as well. Ridiculously melodramatic. The results of this election are a fucking disgrace but nobody is killing himself over it.

People went to work, kids went to school. Even the stock market is up.

I expect the capital markets to be volatile for a bit.

For their sake, i'm glad the Clintons have made as much as they had because I have a feeling the speaking fees aren't going to be as high any more.

And maybe no more gaping pie hole grin.

Hillary is/was pretty class in her concession speech

Yeah, she was. I expected so...and, tbh, I expected it to be generally the same if Trump lost.

I suspect all show.