2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumI'm scared
When he announced his candidacy last year, I laughed. Stupid, waste of money, total joke, he'll never get anywhere. That's what I thought. I also thought he didn't even really mean it. It was just another PR stunt.
And then he started plucking off the other 17 thugs one by one.
I couldn't believe it.
Still, I assured myself, he was never going to clinch the nomination. He's done and said so much terrible and completely abhorrent stuff. I figured when he said McCain wasn't a war hero the thugs wouldn't tolerate it, especially from someone who took so many deferments.
Not only did they take it, they celebrated him.
And his numbers grew.
He plowed through the primary race like it was tissue paper, all while being rude, crude and divisive.
Now he's got these nuts screaming lock her up and one of his advisors is on record as saying she should be tried and set before a firing squad.
What
The
Hell?
These people are rabid. I'm seeing posts on Facebook by people I *thought* had brains and it makes me sick. They're so hardcore in their hate of her and their defense of him, it's unreal.
I can't imagine a country with him at the helm. What I can imagine is him getting us all fucking nuked pretty damn quick. This man is an unstable psychopathic liar and people are lining up to vote for him.
So yeah. I'm scared. It's like he's unstoppable. And I just don't get it.
On edit: I'm not trying to be doom and gloom at all. This post is down to the past three days and watching these people chant and applaud like lunatics. I'm really starting to fear how rabid they are. How violent. How blood thirsty.
He's bringing out the worst in people and it's scary as hell.
bullimiami
(13,103 posts)wallyworld2
(375 posts)And the Hillary hate fest is just beginning and will only be one of many parts of his hate fest
TheCowsCameHome
(40,168 posts)This is big trouble. Make no mistake about it.
liberal N proud
(60,344 posts)Get involved locally, find a Hillary or Democratic campaign headquarters near you and let them know you are willing to help. They will find something for you to do.
From entering data to making phone calls and canvasing neighborhoods. Registering voters and just doing everything you can to get people to vote for Hillary.
This is how we beat Trump and his crazy band of morons.
GET OUT THE VOTE
cilla4progress
(24,766 posts)I am! It helps, but still scared. For our kids especially.
LibraLiz1973
(8,197 posts)This convention shit is still scary. These aren't rational or normal people.
liberal N proud
(60,344 posts)Being involved is the only way we beat them.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)cilla4progress
(24,766 posts)In fact, I woke up at 4 am and said those exact words to my husband. He said, "why?" I said, "Trump."
LibraLiz1973
(8,197 posts)We thought bush was bad but Trump I think is pure evil. He makes Bush look like a choir boy. Hell, he makes Cheney look warm and fuzzy.
Trump doesn't give a bakers fuck about our children, the economy (except as it relates to him) the environment or anything else I consider high priority. Truthfully I think he's insane. He should never ever have gotten this far. The fact that he has says A LOT about what kind of craziness lurks in our neighbors.
BobbyDrake
(2,542 posts)Concernucopia!
LibraLiz1973
(8,197 posts)He's not fit to lead. He just isn't.
Her Sister
(6,444 posts)If we are not serious about this guy the joke will be on us! We need to eradicate him in November! make him a lesson to any and all crazy wannabes! He needs to not only lose the election but also his reputation.
Always Randy
(1,060 posts)the GOP is more splintered now than ever before---we should be thankful for Trump putting a few more nails in the coffin. There is no pathway for Trump to win the electoral college (EV) --TV and the media have to keep the game alive to sell advertising, if they say that HRC is going to win right now they lose advertising revenue--watch the EV ---that is what it is all about --
kairos12
(12,872 posts)The Wielding Truth
(11,415 posts)Silent3
(15,265 posts)...and couldn't get back to sleep thinking about this.
I was more angry and annoyed than scared, however, angry that it's so damned obvious that the Republicans are acting like Nazis (with actually self-declared Nazis and white supremacist groups in attendance, cheering Trump on), yet most people are barely moved by it, with only a few of us are gasping in horror while this blatant nightmare unfolds before our eyes.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)He's fired up all the ugly shit that boils under the lid of the US. The media was complicit in giving him attention, but he's definitely got a base too.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)& (ir)responsible media.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)check ur pulse!
N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,775 posts)I mean he's even scaring some republicans. That's scary!
apcalc
(4,465 posts)Ivana said he kept a book of Hitler's speeches in a cabinet by his bed.
I believe he is getting his cues from the Furher, 'following his recipe' , as author Steven Rosenfeld has written.
See the article here....please read it everyone...
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/donald-trump-getting-his-cues-hitler-how-gop-leader-following-fuhrers-recipe
SheriffBob
(552 posts)Great article, thanks.
yuiyoshida
(41,861 posts)about and written by Adolf Hitler. Its almost like he really wants to be him. Imaging after all these years, where the American and Allied Forces defeated Nazi Germany and Nationalistic Japan, people in this country want now to be just like facists of the 1930s.
Many years ago, my family saw the Winds of Change and moved to Hawaii ...and I can only imagine what they thought when our very Ancestors declared war on the United States with the attack on Pearl Harbor.. the horror of suddenly being in the middle of that mess.
Now what do we have? A guy who probably would prefer to be a strong man dictator than a Constitutionally elected President of the United States. Put Trump in power, and watch how our own world burns.
sarae
(3,284 posts)http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2015/07/donald-ivana-trump-divorce-prenup-marie-brenner
Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitlers collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitlers speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.
Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches? I asked Trump.
Trump hesitated. Who told you that?
I dont remember, I said.
Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and hes a Jew. (I did give him a book about Hitler, Marty Davis said. But it was My New Order, Hitlers speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but Im not Jewish.)
wildeyed
(11,243 posts)Look at the crowd in the arena. Does that look like America? No. The demographics of the GE electorate is profoundly different from the demographics of the GOP. He is completely stoppable because math. He gets like zero percentage of black voters in many swing states in many current polls. You can win some of those states with way less than a majority of blacks, but you cannot win with zero. Also, he scares the pee out of many moderate Republicans. They are not posting loud and proud on social media, but many will either vote for Clinton or stay home in November. Trust me. I know a few well enough that they confide in me.
So don't be scared (it's what the GOP wants!). It's good right now for Dems. We are winning.
kairos12
(12,872 posts)65 million votes to win the General Election across an electoral block of States that he has 0 chance of winning.
The Rethugs are inducing the Great Fear across the land. That's all they got.
AllyCat
(16,222 posts)many states have GOP governors and state houses that have pushed through divisive Jim Crow voting barriers. I'm worried many Americans who think rationally about this, won't get to vote.
wildeyed
(11,243 posts)And a voter ID law in Texas got struck down yesterday too, I believe. Haven't read the details yet, but I think it was invalidated based on Voting Rights Act. So all of that is pretty fluid right now. I would recommend worrying less about these laws and working more against them. There is still plenty of time on the clock
monmouth4
(9,709 posts)tallahasseedem
(6,716 posts)He's scared, I understand...a lot of us are. But if we do what I know we can do, we've got this.
Chiyo-chichi
(3,586 posts)mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)But, to be truthful, I'm scared too. He never should have gotten this far. It's also scary how deep the hatred is for Hillary. I'm pushing Gary Johnson to my Republican friends who won't vote for Trump or Hillary. He's wrong, but he's not a lunatic.
tallahasseedem
(6,716 posts)Every bit helps.
Our fear will help her win in a landslide. We just have to be vigilant!
moonscape
(4,673 posts)about how responsive so many in our country are to hatred and crazy. We see it elsewhere, but I've had a naivete that our system (and people) would not allow something like this to get so far. At least in my lifetime.
Once Trump is defeated, and I have to believe there will be enough terror that he will be, what then? What about the hatred he has fertilized? He has so lowered the bar that I fear it will take a calamity for his voters to snap out of it enough to make more rational decisions. In the meantime, they'll be taking us, and the world, on a dangerous ride.
CanonRay
(14,113 posts)He doesn't really mean it. He really does not want to be President. He wants to ride on Air Force One and have a retinue of Secret Service agents following his limo and big splashy bill signings and ribbon cuttings then off to golf in Scotland or Abu Dubai or wherever the fuck. Then a phone call: Hey VP, take care of those riots in LA!
onecent
(6,096 posts)hamsterjill
(15,224 posts)The hate. The vengeance. The lack of reason. The lies. The distortion. The ineptitude.
And his base doesn't give a shit as long as it's entertaining. With all of them shouting from the rooftops what wonderful Christians they are.
My Jesus is weeping. This is not Him.
gg4usa
(83 posts)Says it around 10:00
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)"Fear this man, or he could win!"
If we sit at home, complacent or pissed off because our candidate didn't win - just know, the Trump voter will not be sitting at home.
"It's a movement!"
Kilgore
(1,733 posts)Have been saying it since day one. This guy is ruthless, has the fire in the belly, and is just nuts enough to do it. This coupled with anger and complacency in the electorate might get him elected.
asjr
(10,479 posts)simply brain-dead.
Kilgore
(1,733 posts)They are just low information individuals
SheriffBob
(552 posts)is scared of being elected president because of the never ending scrutiny that goes with the job.
Trump has a lot of skeletons in his closets.
I'll bet he will refuse to release his tax returns before or after the election.
He's also a full blown sexual pervert.
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)pissed that so many are willing to try and get Trump into the Whitehouse and are enthusiastically trying hard. Fucking idiots.
I am confident that many more would rather have Hillary in the Whitehouse. There are many, many more people that are voting FOR Hillary Clinton and a whole bunch more voting AGAINST Donald Trump. No complacency here, just making sure that the word gets out that every vote counts!!
gg4usa
(83 posts)if only they knew how much contempt and utter lack of respect I have for them. They are brain-dead and there's no hope for them, so no point in trying to reason with them (just pisses me off when I try).
LWolf
(46,179 posts)Don't engage in fear.
In the 90 seconds I spent watching last night, some guy giving a speech was saying something about how scared we all are and how we need Trump to protect us.
Don't feed that shit.
dobleremolque
(492 posts)G. O. T. & V.
I'm blessed enough to be bilingual English/Spanish and I am working to get 4 Hispanics registered and to the polls for every wretched R I see foaming at the mouth.
(Just an aside, and favorite object lesson on bilingualism in the U.S. ...
I'm an old Anglo white guy, and people point and me and say, "Oh, he's bilingual; fluent in English AND Spanish!"
My Mexican/Latino friends, who also speak fluent English/Spanish get the following reaction: "Yeah, well he should speak English. This here is 'Murica!" )
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)I am more afraid of the Bernie supporters making a scene, or Bernie himself doing something like what Cruz did, even though he came out in favor of Secretary Clinton a week or so ago. I know some Bernie people who are so angry they are talking about driving to Cleveland to "protest the unethical process" in any way necessary (including that "fart a thon" or whatever it is they call it). Don't dismiss these supporters, they are rabid in ways that frighten me. The corporate media will have a field day if this happens.
This party needs to look totally professional and together next week, a party worthy of leading the country.
We need to "keep our eyes on the prize", we have to show up, get our friends to show up, and never let down until the day after the election. We have to work for down ballot candidates, including the young Bernie supporters who are running down ticket.
Bernie got much of what he wanted with the platform, more than I ever thought he would. Now, lets get busy and elect a bunch of Democrats to straighten out this mess and bring some sanity back to the country after this awful election cycle from hell.
bekkilyn
(454 posts)Bernie supporters (and I am one) making a scene seems likely. I was reading an article last night about something with the RNC on a liberal site (Alternet maybe) and was reading some of the comments and they were nearly as scary as comments from Trump supporters. Most of them would rather see the whole country burn and hand the election over to Trump rather than vote for Hillary as they believe she is just as bad as he is. There was one rational person in the bunch who was trying to explain how millions of people would suffer under a Trump presidency (minority races, LGBT, women, etc.) but they didn't care. As long as they had theirs, who cares about anyone else? Sounded just like a mirror image of the very worst of the republican party. I love Bernie, but I really don't want to have anything to do with those people.
I do believe that Bernie will conduct himself with grace and integrity as he's always done. Too bad many of his followers don't follow his example.
Despite any faults (and I don't agree with her about everything), supporting Hillary right now seems to be the only chance we have for a more progressive agenda rather than setting the country backwards another 40 or more years.
I'd probably be enjoying this circus if there wasn't so much of terrible consequence at stake for so many people. It's horrifying.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)I would have supported Bernie if he were the nominee. I agree with much of what he says, but I just felt Hillary was more electable. It never dawned on me that a Democrat, no matter how Progressive, would allow Trump and his ilk to pick the next majority on the supreme court and be in charge of the codes to start a war to end all wars.
I do have to say, some, but not all, of the young people I have dealt with in the past 10 years have a really strong "me , me, me" streak. Very self absorbed. Of course every generation has them, but they are a large group and very vocal in this generation. To be willing to damage the country to make a point is ignorant at best.
I think we are both right. Thank you for supporting the nominee....
kimbutgar
(21,188 posts)Who they are going to vote for and they all said Cheeto scared the crap out of me.
I just hope the media start to really expose him in the upcoming months because he is a threat to them if elected.
tomg
(2,574 posts)until last night about the presidential. Cruz' speech in positioning himself for 2016 was a conscious attempt to sandbag Trump. The Vampire knows that Frankenstein's monster will either go down in a landslide ( most likely) or win and be such a disaster - not simply on policy but in basic competence - that the Republican ticket is toast for years. Cruz just gave cover to all of those who can't vote for Trump ( a few minor twists and it is an implied endorsement of Gary Johnson). If Trump loses, but they can keep obstructing, but and they keep the house and jam HRC they way they jammed President Obama, then Cruz (and Kasich) get to ride in in 2020 ( a census year), point to HRC's "failures." I am not worried about the Presidential, but the down ticket is beyond crucial. Win it all - top to bottom.
I hate Cruz even more than Trump, but he is playing his cards brilliantly.
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)most disdainful way.
auntpurl
(4,311 posts)but I don't think it's the whole reason. Cruz is a slimy shitweasel, but he's not stupid. I think he knows Trump is going down in November and he's positioning himself for 2020. He's reading the political map, like the OP should do. There are so few paths to victory in the EC for Trump, and so many for Hillary.
We will win. But we can't be complacent.
tomg
(2,574 posts)and, I think, it is those kinds of acts that we can identify with that make him even more dangerous. It adds to his aura of "authenticity" of belief. Credit where credit is due
Thrill
(19,178 posts)You should know never to take any candidate likely. It's not a joke
woodsprite
(11,924 posts)The Presidency and leading our country and military is no joking matter. That totally drove me nuts before with Palin, and it was worse this election cycle with Trump leading the pack. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
I was just longing for the Repubs to put up someone who would be competent if elected and not sink the ship, just in case the Dems didn't win. But NO, none of their top runners could be called that, and out of starting pack of 16, they went for the looniest one in the bunch. And I hate Pence - His looks, his policies, etc. His creepy in more ways than can be counted. My friend said the best thing about him being the VP nominee is that he's not in the race for Governor.
I'm a Bernie person (yes, still am - haven't taken down my yard sign --- not until after the convention). Let's get through the convention, then I want Hillary lamblasting Trump loud and clear (she's doing a great job so far), I hope Warren is her VP, and I hope Bernie hits the campaign trail with her and Warren (or whomever ends up VP) to get his Bernie or Die supporters to shift to her. We have to make sure Trump (or Pence) doesn't win this by consolidating all the scared Repubs, Indies, Progressives, and Dems of both flavors.
thucythucy
(8,086 posts)People should remember that Hitler was considered a joke almost right up until he seized power. And that he was granted power, not by a coup, but by a democratic process in which conservatives backed him under the illusion that he was a laughable dunce they could easily control.
People may accuse me of hyperbole in comparing Trump to Hitler, but I'm stone cold deadly serious.
And yes, I'm scared shitless. Hillary HAS to win this, and anybody who doesn't see that and work for that or at least vote for that is enabling a blatant fascist and the supporter of militant racists to seize power.
I voted for Bernie in the primary. But I am a thousand percent behind Hillary now.
asiliveandbreathe
(8,203 posts)no other in my lifetime..and I have been voting as an Independent since 1968 - until 2008...when I changed to the Democratic Party - I saw how right the country was going and had to move further left, just to walk upright!!!!
We can do this - see you Monday night....for some positive messages and policies....and people...and have some fun - these dark days of hateful rhetoric are behind us..yes, there will be continued attacks..but we have pushed back on much worse over the course of the last 8 years..
Hopefully msm will turn the corner and do what is right for the American people and tell it like it is...love is stronger than hate - and there are more of us than of them - if dumpster gets more than 40% in Nov. I'll be very surprised....this is why we "get out the vote"...be well..
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)How much would that cost? Who would pay?
asiliveandbreathe
(8,203 posts)dark days - I don't have the depression or WW11 as a reference point - although I have read about those difficult times, and my Mom would tell us stories of having to ration gas and make sure the lights on at home could not be seen from the outside at night- they used blackout curtains,,she work for the signal corp during the war (WW11)- all hands on deck so to speak..and all men were drafted, with their draft papers indicating no end in sight using the term "indefinitely" (I have my dad's WW11 draft papers)
Siren towers were erected to warn of nuclear attack..they were tested periodically - my school bus ride went past a tower everyday - we were instructed to hide under our desks at school..the whole time our mom was our buffer..never showed fear..
I do believe this country has not forgotten the eight years of GWB and I would never minimize the threat this trump person demonstrates - the rhetoric of hate and fear is at an all time high...and we must remain ever vigilant - your emotions are spot on...but,
A very wise man FDR - said "we have nothing to fear except fear itself...."
Get out the vote is imperative - make sure you and your family are registered CORRECTLY, and you know your states voter ID laws - (such as they are)....friends, neighbors, this truly is a time for ALL of us to unite..the future of our country and countrymen and women depend on it....
I'm so glad you can turn to hubby with your concerns, that is very important - there are so many who are alone and in fear - those are the people we need to hear from and listen to....be well..
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)back in a box in November . I also fear retaliation if he loses via possible violence that is all they have. Mob yelling possibly violent outbursts . I hope I am wrong . Maybe they will walk back with their tail between their legs and lie down for a nap that would be nice
Martin Eden
(12,875 posts)... then we do indeed live in scary times.
Javaman
(62,534 posts)this is the sum accumulation of the repuke parties complete slide into insanity.
they chose to double down, in fact, triple down on their rhetoric, because they know their message has been so far skewed to the outer limits of both sanity and civility, that they had to come up with a trump like candidate. he fit their model. it just so happened that trump was there at the right time and the right place in history.
and that era of republican history has a name: stupidity at all costs.
never every underestimate the awesome power of stupidity. you do so at your own peril.
onecaliberal
(32,894 posts)The hate on display. It's hard to believe we're in America. I will be making a donation today as well.
greymattermom
(5,754 posts)wallyworld2
(375 posts)coming up this month.
If your state does too make sure to vote for the most progressive Democratic candidate.
Vote
Vote
Vote
True Dough
(17,320 posts)But you think that sort of thing couldn't happen in the U.S. Then dangerous Donald comes along and proves it's not just a phenomenon that's occurring overseas. There is a substantial population of ugly and hateful people in America, and most of them are white men.
no_hypocrisy
(46,182 posts)They will survive without their leader.
I wondered what happened to all the Nazis once Hitler committed suicide, Germany lost WWII, and the Nuremberg Trials. Did they "wake up", realize what happened, felt remorse, and repented? Not exactly. I stayed in homes in Germany of middle aged and older Germans. I attended a Jaeger Party, isolated in the woods. The hunters sang lustily in German what could be characterized as German Hitler "fight songs". I was shown Nazi artifacts like daggers, belt buckles, pistols replete with swastikas that are hidden in their home basements. They may not be actively Nazi, but they see that period as the good ole days.
It's like the segregationists/Dixicrats from the Plessy tradition in this country. They resent the Brown decision and the Civil Rights Act. They can't do much about it but they haven't necessarily changed their positions.
We're going to have a time keeping this country together even with a democrat in the White House who is offering them prosperity and hope. They don't want the prosperity and hope unless it's being doled out by Donald Trump or another demagogue.
Moostache
(9,897 posts)Laura Ingraham actually flashed a Hitler salute last night. She did that. On national TV. And her career is not only NOT OVER, she is a bigger star today than yesterday.
The chants of "lock her up" are twice as odious as "drill, baby drill" and equally inane.
The rabid hate from the stage, from the pundits, from the crowds....its stomach turning and visceral in a way that I feared when it became obvious that Hillary was going to be the nominee sometime around last January.
Those people are horribly ginned up, completely mislead and utterly impervious to reason. How the hell do you compromise or find common ground with people who cheer for a man that claims Hillary Clinton is in league with Lucifer? For fuck's sake, that kind of divorce from reason and sanity is more than frightening, it is downright terrifying.
The "base" has accepted a philandering, talking Yam - and overlooks all of his flip-flops and infidelities and completely non-Christian behavior like it is nothing, like those so-called "firmly held religious beliefs" they tout are as transient as a fart in the wind. They are selling out what they profess to be core values without batting an eye...THAT is terrifying.
For people who have spent decades telling everyone how much their CHristian beliefs mean to them, and why they are so central to their lives that those same beliefs compel them to oppose gay rights and to endorse hateful policies like conversion therapy and refusal to even treat LGBT people as having equal HUMAN rights....for those same people to now be on TV slobbering and screaming "lock her up"? THAT is mortifying.
They are selling their souls to the service of a strong-man dictator figure and they are ravenously applauding the opportunity. WHo does THAT? What kind of craven, hateful imbeciles are these people?
It is utter madness - and the theory that the 'press is cheering it on and celebrating the horse-race aspect for ratings' is supposed to allay my fears? I reject that completely.
Donald Trump is by far the most dangerous candidate for President in the history of the Republic; and I do not think that is hyperbole at all...he is an existential threat to the United States and utterly unfit for office of any kind down to and including dog catcher!
I am stuck in Red State hell here in East Kansas and the hate here is intense and growing hotter...the swing states of PA, OH, VA, FL and maybe NC are where this is won or lost IMO come Nov. We will see how much the campaign and GOTV effort can succeed there...I am planning a trip to my parents' place in FL to volunteer in October. We are going to need everything in the tank to prevent this calamity, and anyone NOT scared right now, better get there fast because this hatefest is not going to calm down....look at how McCain's campaign spiralled out of control in October '08....I was afraid then that someone was going to try to kill President (then candidate) Obama....this year? I am more afraid than I was then for Mrs. Clinton.
okieinpain
(9,397 posts)His biggest weapon.
Wednesdays
(17,408 posts)the little Austrian corporal with the Charlie Chaplin mustache.
WiffenPoof
(2,404 posts)First of all, the way you are feeling is in some ways a result of watching the Republican Convention. Remember that we have our convention coming up in just a few days. Believe me, you will feel a lot better watching sane people discuss the real issues of our day.
Stop and think about who IS NOT supporting Trump. The numbers are striking. Something like 94% of all African Americans do not support Trump and will NOT be voting for him. Women...I think that the current polling shows that a full 70% of all women will not support Trump in November. Those are horrible numbers for Trump. The Hispanic population has no interest whatsoever in supporting Trump. When you add all of this up, the chances of Trump becoming President is pretty slim.
I understand your fear. So far, nothing has made sense about this election. This makes for uneasy feelings among Democrats and those who know Trump is totally unqualified to be President.
Remember that the polls being taken now are very very early and probably do not reflect what is actually going on out there.
I would wait until it is much closer to November before you start freaking out. Them, if things are just as crazy, I will join you.
-Paige
Kablooie
(18,641 posts)I think there is a strong chance he will win.
I it will be very difficult to counteract his fantasy message with one based on realty.