The great 2020 election thread....

[Yukaphile]

Just stating the truth.

[Admiral X]

The "truth" as you see it anyway. But then, you're already doing mental gymnastics by blaming Sanders for Clinton's election loss.

It's funny, because it's like some people don't understand why someone could defend someone else without being a supporter of them. Which is why not that terribly long ago I was repeatedly being accused of being a Trump backer. And now I'm being accused of supporting Sanders. Much like the accusation that I'm a Lakota white nationalist, I find the accusation that a libertarian would back a commie pretty damn funny.

[Yukaphile]

I don't blame him entirely. I just think he and his cult followers are absolving his role to make themselves feel better. Elections are very complex things, and even Clinton accepted her role in her loss. Sanders refuses to because he gets so triggered and defensive and full of himself. That said, what killed the election for her? Herself, by not visiting traditional blue states. And her choice of VP, imo, personally. That was kind of how she was thinking more in terms of the job to do once she'd won rather than who would appeal (I personally think she asked Warren, who said no). Sanders, naturally, for his own stubborn unwillingness to concede or campaign vigorously to bring over his supporters, because of the rampant purity politics he caters to that the left engages in. Comey, for his seemingly last-minute "endorsement" of the GOP candidate, that flat-out broke election rules and yeah, glad he was fired, even if it was for all the wrong reasons. His family were Clinton supporters, so I can't imagine they'd ever let him live it down, which I can't help feeling amused by. Nuff said. Obama, for not telling us what we needed to know going on behind the scenes. And Putin, for his election hacking meddling, even if Trump wasn't proven to know. And the media, for painting the perception, just assuming it was a done deal. Hell, if anything, I'd say past being her adversary, on a pure opposition standpoint, Trump is least responsible, ironically.

[Yukaphile]

Trump says we should leave the Kurds to ISIS, and that if they do escape, it's "Europe's problem." AND YOU GUYS WONDER WHY I BLAME SANDERS SO MUCH?! I hate his voters. He knuckled down into stubborn intransigence and REFUSED to passionately and whole-heartedly support Clinton in the election because that kind of empathy and support to any cause but his own holy crusade to make himself feel important is beyond him. His voters were emotional, not thinking right. He had a duty to bring them on board, and he failed. Many of them were flat-out accelerationists who wanted the system to burn down, so fed up with capitalism they think it would lead to enough violent destabilization we could build a new, better system... and since the Kurds are mostly women, now we're about to see the worst case of mass rapes unleashed since WWII... OMG...

[Robovski]

As usual, I regret clicking to see what Yuka said.

[Yukaphile]

I mean, I've talked to many of his voters. They flat-out felt Trump winning might be a good thing, because they were predisposed towards their common rhetoric that the "system is rigged," and thus were accelerationists who hated the whole damn thing and wanted to burn it down, felt anything that forms would be better than what we have now. This is what they have got. A man who is breaking all our promises overseas and is about to let a whole group of mostly women freedom fighters get descended upon by a horde of cruel savages... I mean, I feel sorry for and horrified for those women now. And he claims it's "Europe's problem?" THE FUCK?! I thought his base were the ones so upset that Muslims are "invading" Europe? Then WHY do they give a fuck if it's their problem, not ours to deal with? I mean, sneer at me all you want. I found this deeply horrifying... the only reasons people could accept Sanders or Trump in this era is because they are "fed up with the status quo," mostly ignorant younger people (or older people who are nostalgia to those older days of similar bombastic rhetoric), and think this is just part of the usual political bullshit that goes with civic affairs. It just feels... not.

[CmdrKing]

“The system is rigged, therefor I shall vote for the rapist criminal with a long string of business failures and bankruptcies who somehow is still a billionaire, which he has surely maintained through legitimate means.”

The typical Trump voter knows what they were voting for and is getting what they wanted: America First, Now Now Now*

*turns out unilateral selfishness and isolationism looks okay from the outside for a few months then starts being visibly broken inside a couple years.

[Yukaphile]

So do Sanders voters. Really, I just see accelerationists who hate either the corporations or the government and want to burn either one or both down thinking it will mistakenly lead to "paradise."

[ProfessorDetective]

Why must it ALWAYS be 'raze it to the ground and start over'? That kind of thing takes DECADES and rarely leads to a positive outcome, as all of the Third World has shown. But they want radical change YESTERDAY, often even if it's worse for everyone, because they know it isn't working now (at least for them) but can't see HOW it doesn't work. Pulling a freaking Leeroy Jenkins into the future, dragging us all along with them into the flames.

We need to MODIFY the current system. It's not the machine, it's the operators. But that machine needs fuel and the current drivers have all of the gas money and won't listen to anyone telling them that the bridge is out and they should HIT THE BREAKS! No, wait. They just bailed out, locked all the doors, and put a brick on the accelerator! Now, they're counting the cash from our stolen wallets and laughing at us.

We are so doomed...

[Darth Wedgius]

The Trump voters I know basically voted against Hillary Clinton because they didn't trust her. That said, I want the U.S. president to put America and Americans first. I've always had a strong isolationist bent, and not without reason. Our economy has grown a lot but jobs have moved out, and now business ties with China have encroached upon the free speech of U.S. businesses.
I'm not against ties to other countries, but I don't have what I see as a reflexive appreciation of multilateralism for it's own sake on the part of the left. Which might be my imagination, or not.