Curious....what's the difference between a flip flop or being flexible?

[a kennedy]

When I was watching the last repub debate Megan vs tRump she had asked him about something he said, and just a few months later he had changed his stance on whatever it was, saying "I'm flexible". Sorry I can't remember what specifically it was he had changed on but, to me clearly it was a flip flop, and he's calling it being flexible. Now come on.....what is the difference???

[Hoyt]

1. If your candidate does it, it's being "flexible." The other candidate, flip-flop.

[LiberalElite]

2. Semantics.

Flip flop has a bad connotation. Flexible good.

[gcomeau]

3. Flexible people...

...have rationally justifiable reasons for changing their mind or compromising on a position.

Flip floppers just switch on a dime based on what they think people want to hear or what they think personally benefits them at the moment they're speaking.


That is the difference.

[peacebird]

4. If Hillary or Trump change positions they are flexible/evolving. Anyone else would be flipflopping.

With those two it matters not how often they flexibly evolve back & forth either, apparently.

[PatrickforO]

5. For any other candidate it is a 'flip flop'

For Trump it is 'being flexible' because his supporters are heavily armed, violent and may beat up the reporter.

Heartbreakingly, this ISN'T facetious. It is painfully real. We've got to beat Trump.

[Fearless]

6. What's the difference between Monday and Tuesday?

[KentuckyWoman]

7. There's an old political cartoon from the 60's

I can't even remember who drew it or who it was trashing. Joke is whatever politician is changing positions all the time.

"you ask him today what day it is and he says Monday - ask him tomorrow and he changes his mind and says it's Tuesday. Man can make up his mind. Ask him next week and you get a different answer."

[Fearless]

8. Exactly. And someone does that in this campaign.

[elleng]

9. THANK YOU!

[bemildred]

10. It's subjective.

One person's flip-flop, inconsistency, unreliability, vacillation is another person's flexibility, agility, maturity, reponsible behavior. It all depends. There's no objective difference.

[pampango]

11. When a candidates come around to your way of thinking, they are being flexible.

When they abandon your beliefs they are flip-flopping.

[Major Nikon]

12. Changing positions within one's ideology is being flexible

Changing positions outside one's ideology is flip-flopping.

There is simply no way anyone can cover all the subjects that might come up during a presidency. So the idea is to vote for a candidate whose ideology most closely aligns with yours with the trust they will be true to it. Someone who alters their positions outside of their ideology based on public opinion is about as trustworthy as which direction the wind might be blowing next month.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. I am flexible, you keep changing your mind, he is a flip-flopper. N.T.

[lame54]

14. time