I believe this with roughly the same intensity with which I believe geocentrism.Report
Sanders is a stalking horse for Clinton. She’s actually in the freaking race, after all.Report
I think Trump is the Huey Long or George Wallace of our time.
Which is to say, even if he doesn’t need to be taken seriously, the millions who would vote for him do.
Even if he were to withdraw tomorrow, those people are going to still be here.Report
Well at least he isn’t the Huey Lewis of our time.Report
Yeah, there’s a bit of an odd desire to say “Trump’s just a grandstander, nobody REALLY believes that stuff”.
Well, first off I suppose one can say the 15% or so of GOP primary voters currently backing him are gullible fools, or gadlfies, or whatever. A bit insulting and the sort of the sneering condescending attitude I’ve always been told is bad, but okay.
But you’ve still got to face up to the fact that he’s said and done all this stuff, and 15% or so of the GOP primary base is still willing to admit supporting him. Apparently nothing he’s said has crossed any sort of personal line.Report
I think it’s a comprehensible attitude for those on this site – I doubt any of us (except perhaps Kim…) know any genuine Trump supporters. Certainly we may know people who favor one or another candidate to the right of Sanders, but we don’t have a model for “normal, sane person who supports The Donald”. And thus, support of The Donald appears absurd, despite the fact that 15% of the relevant sub-subgroup evidently do prefer him to their current alternatives.Report
15% is about the level of idiocy any option gets. It’s HARD to get below that. Some people simply select the weird option…
(and no, I don’t know Trump supporters — Trump’s too unimportant to troll, anyway)Report
Actually, I had a conversation with a co-worker, who I would have (prior to the conversation) described as “normal and sane” who asked me what I thought of Trump. I was noticeably horrified (remarked upon by the other co-worker in the conversation) to find out that he was dead serious in his support for Trump. He acknowledges that Trump is uncouth and blustering, but admires his business acumen and feels he is discussing important issues that would otherwise be ignored.
Either I am a terrible judge of character, or there are real, sober, sane people who like what Trump is doing and believe he’d be a good president.Report
@gingergene
Did you correct him on Trump’s business acumen?Report
I tried. I pointed out that he’d declared bankruptcy multiple times, but to this guy’s way of thinking, it’s just smart business to play the system, and big returns require big risks. It was unfathomable to me. The only thing we agreed on is that he isn’t likely to win the nomination.Report
My understanding is that Trump has never declared personal bankruptcy. Corporation he’s owned have declared bankruptcy several times, generally resulting in Trump’s trading equity for debt relief, which is playing the system intelligently.Report
Yeah, that was this guy’s thinking: the system allows you to wipe the slate clean and start over; why wouldn’t you do that if it made business sense? And actually, I don’t entirely disagree that it’s smart for Trump, but I would never in a million years invest with him, since it’s clear that he’s only looking out for #1 and has a history of doing so at others’ expense (literally).
Even if you think that Good Business Sense is a desirable trait in a president (I’m of the opinion that CEO and POTUS require two very different skill sets), if you apply Trump’s history to him in the White House, you’d expect that at some point he’ll screw up so badly that the US has to declare bankruptcy while he walks away to be president of a new country (probably Mexico 🙂
ETA: Oh, and once he’s POTUS, he’ll change the country’s name to something like The United States of TRUMP or TRUMPICA, and probably put TRUMP in bright neon letters running down the Washington Monument.Report
How could Trump bankrupt this country? High school civics teaches us that the congress controls the purse strings not the pres.Report
War’s a great big bloody nuisance, but it also does tend to cut into those powers of the legislature.
At least our currently constructed view of “the President may declare war as he pleases”Report
Humor, satire, sarcasm and hyperbole aren’t your strong suits, are they? I’m glad that you at least recognize that it is physically possible to mount letters on the Washington Monument.Report
Actually they are. However, scarcasm etc. isn’t always as clear in written form as it is in face to face communications. That being said, you should trademark TRUMPICA in case he wins.Report
Still won’t be as bad as if Palin had won (by poison, you know McCain had a heart condition…)…Report
Even if you think that Good Business Sense is a desirable trait in a president
Remember all the great things expected from our first MBA president?Report
I didn’t realize that his MBA created great expectations. It certianly wasn’t the reason why i voted for him.Report
Huh. I thought the collective bubble here was smaller than that.
(not that I thought it was small, mind you – just that it didn’t extend so far Trump-ward)Report
Co-workers, like family, are not entirely yours to choose, so there is definitely a different cross-section of political views at work than in my chosen social circle. Additionally, I work in a pretty conservative-leaning field in a very conservative part of the country. Even if I wanted to, it would be pretty much impossible to put myself in some kind of liberal bubble.
As I said, this caught me off-guard: I thought Trump’s support was support for the idea of Trump: the issues he talks about, his blustery, filter-less style, and most importantly, that he pisses off all the right people. I didn’t think many people support Trump the actual candidate, but I now know that at least one person does.Report
Long and Wallace were brilliant politicians whose extreme positions were purely tactical. (Wallace was notably race-blind as a judge, before he entered partisan politics.) Trump is a blowhard who loves attention.Report
I don’t get the title?Report
Seriously?Report
Seriously. In my defense, I am ill.Report
Nickleback is the ultimate white mans overbite band. Nothing special, but I hope you feel better soon.Report
Ah. I always thought overbite was associated with lame dancing and risible attempts to get “funky”.
I think of Nickelback more as “clenched-fist grimacing”, to convey deeply-felt emotion.Report
I read today an interesting commentary suggesting that Sanders and Trump were stalking horses. Sanders for Eliz Warren and Trump for Cruz.
Hmm interesting.Report
I believe this with roughly the same intensity with which I believe geocentrism.Report
Sanders is a stalking horse for Clinton. She’s actually in the freaking race, after all.Report
I think Trump is the Huey Long or George Wallace of our time.
Which is to say, even if he doesn’t need to be taken seriously, the millions who would vote for him do.
Even if he were to withdraw tomorrow, those people are going to still be here.Report
Well at least he isn’t the Huey Lewis of our time.Report
He’s old news.Report
Yeah, there’s a bit of an odd desire to say “Trump’s just a grandstander, nobody REALLY believes that stuff”.
Well, first off I suppose one can say the 15% or so of GOP primary voters currently backing him are gullible fools, or gadlfies, or whatever. A bit insulting and the sort of the sneering condescending attitude I’ve always been told is bad, but okay.
But you’ve still got to face up to the fact that he’s said and done all this stuff, and 15% or so of the GOP primary base is still willing to admit supporting him. Apparently nothing he’s said has crossed any sort of personal line.Report
I think it’s a comprehensible attitude for those on this site – I doubt any of us (except perhaps Kim…) know any genuine Trump supporters. Certainly we may know people who favor one or another candidate to the right of Sanders, but we don’t have a model for “normal, sane person who supports The Donald”. And thus, support of The Donald appears absurd, despite the fact that 15% of the relevant sub-subgroup evidently do prefer him to their current alternatives.Report
15% is about the level of idiocy any option gets. It’s HARD to get below that. Some people simply select the weird option…
(and no, I don’t know Trump supporters — Trump’s too unimportant to troll, anyway)Report
Actually, I had a conversation with a co-worker, who I would have (prior to the conversation) described as “normal and sane” who asked me what I thought of Trump. I was noticeably horrified (remarked upon by the other co-worker in the conversation) to find out that he was dead serious in his support for Trump. He acknowledges that Trump is uncouth and blustering, but admires his business acumen and feels he is discussing important issues that would otherwise be ignored.
Either I am a terrible judge of character, or there are real, sober, sane people who like what Trump is doing and believe he’d be a good president.Report
@gingergene
Did you correct him on Trump’s business acumen?Report
I tried. I pointed out that he’d declared bankruptcy multiple times, but to this guy’s way of thinking, it’s just smart business to play the system, and big returns require big risks. It was unfathomable to me. The only thing we agreed on is that he isn’t likely to win the nomination.Report
My understanding is that Trump has never declared personal bankruptcy. Corporation he’s owned have declared bankruptcy several times, generally resulting in Trump’s trading equity for debt relief, which is playing the system intelligently.Report
Yeah, that was this guy’s thinking: the system allows you to wipe the slate clean and start over; why wouldn’t you do that if it made business sense? And actually, I don’t entirely disagree that it’s smart for Trump, but I would never in a million years invest with him, since it’s clear that he’s only looking out for #1 and has a history of doing so at others’ expense (literally).
Even if you think that Good Business Sense is a desirable trait in a president (I’m of the opinion that CEO and POTUS require two very different skill sets), if you apply Trump’s history to him in the White House, you’d expect that at some point he’ll screw up so badly that the US has to declare bankruptcy while he walks away to be president of a new country (probably Mexico 🙂
ETA: Oh, and once he’s POTUS, he’ll change the country’s name to something like The United States of TRUMP or TRUMPICA, and probably put TRUMP in bright neon letters running down the Washington Monument.Report
How could Trump bankrupt this country? High school civics teaches us that the congress controls the purse strings not the pres.Report
War’s a great big bloody nuisance, but it also does tend to cut into those powers of the legislature.
At least our currently constructed view of “the President may declare war as he pleases”Report
Humor, satire, sarcasm and hyperbole aren’t your strong suits, are they? I’m glad that you at least recognize that it is physically possible to mount letters on the Washington Monument.Report
Actually they are. However, scarcasm etc. isn’t always as clear in written form as it is in face to face communications. That being said, you should trademark TRUMPICA in case he wins.Report
Still won’t be as bad as if Palin had won (by poison, you know McCain had a heart condition…)…Report
Even if you think that Good Business Sense is a desirable trait in a president
Remember all the great things expected from our first MBA president?Report
I didn’t realize that his MBA created great expectations. It certianly wasn’t the reason why i voted for him.Report
Huh. I thought the collective bubble here was smaller than that.
(not that I thought it was small, mind you – just that it didn’t extend so far Trump-ward)Report
Co-workers, like family, are not entirely yours to choose, so there is definitely a different cross-section of political views at work than in my chosen social circle. Additionally, I work in a pretty conservative-leaning field in a very conservative part of the country. Even if I wanted to, it would be pretty much impossible to put myself in some kind of liberal bubble.
As I said, this caught me off-guard: I thought Trump’s support was support for the idea of Trump: the issues he talks about, his blustery, filter-less style, and most importantly, that he pisses off all the right people. I didn’t think many people support Trump the actual candidate, but I now know that at least one person does.Report
Long and Wallace were brilliant politicians whose extreme positions were purely tactical. (Wallace was notably race-blind as a judge, before he entered partisan politics.) Trump is a blowhard who loves attention.Report