2016 US Presidential Elections

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Boqurant
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I know we are a year out, but everyone is campaigning, (or they have been) and thought it would be nice to get some discussion started.

Will the Democrats keep control in the executive branch? Or will the Republicans storm back and control the entire governmental structure?
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Dayvan Cowboy
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I figured it was about time!

I don't have many dogs in this race (at least as few as you can have being a citizen of the nation, anyway..), so I feel like I can say this with relative neutrality:

I don't really see a Democrat winning this election.

Hillary Clinton has enough controversy surrounding her, even if most of the outcry is only coming from one side of the political spectrum. Bernie has enough work cut out for him. His fundraising just can't shake a stick at superPACs, so it will likely mean Hillary gets the nomination.

I imagine the whole Trump thing is a flash in pan like we seem to get every cycle. I have my doubts he'll be taken seriously whatsoever this time next year.. or even by February.

EDIT: I think the legislative branch will prove to have an interesting election, though.. I see it as a toss-up.

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Boqurant
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Waterbagel wrote:I figured it was about time!

I don't have many dogs in this race (at least as few as you can have being a citizen of the nation, anyway..), so I feel like I can say this with relative neutrality:

I don't really see a Democrat winning this election.

Hillary Clinton has enough controversy surrounding her, even if most of the outcry is only coming from one side of the political spectrum. Bernie has enough work cut out for him. His fundraising just can't shake a stick at superPACs, so it will likely mean Hillary gets the nomination.

I imagine the whole Trump thing is a flash in pan like we seem to get every cycle. I have my doubts he'll be taken seriously whatsoever this time next year.. or even by February.


I think Bernie has the best platform by far and it is expanding. He is the only legit challenger in the Democratic race if Biden decides not to jump in.

On the Republican side, I feel it's going to come down to Bush and Rubio. But I won't be surprised if Trump continues, a lot of the things they are saying about him now were the same things they said about Reagan before he became president.
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Sherbet Head
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I think Donal Trump is just a little diversion for now. There's no way he's getting very far. But this election is looking to be even more horrible than usual. It's just a bunch of creepy nutjobs all over the place, we may as well have Richard D. James running. It would really be amusing to see the U.S. populace elect another Bush or another Clinton, proving themselves to be submissive little bitches to their old masters.

Actually, there doesn't seem to be any possible ending that won't be amusing, except maybe Rubio. Who knows, maybe people on both ends will finally just give up and agree on Ron Paul. There's no way I'll be voting, though, so it doesn't bother me.
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Dayvan Cowboy
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I'm not sure amusing is the right word. It's an old joke, like Beats headphones or Carrot Top.
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Happy Cycler
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Front row seat to the freak show.

This video should solve the problem.
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Moderator
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drillkicker wrote:I think Donal Trump is just a little diversion for now.

Do other countries do the diversion thing? The U.S. seems to do a really good job at it sometimes.

It's terrifying to me how many people I've spoken to like Donald. For eight years, I hear "that Obama doesn't have enough experience," but yet here they are, knitting their Donald2016 sweaters....the king of inexperience in politics, and screaming at me again for digging underneath the Donald Circus to try and find out what all of the other candidates are doing.
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Telepath
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So its pretty much either democratic or republican eah? I'd vote anarchy.

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Dayvan Cowboy
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Cupz wrote:So its pretty much either democratic or republican eah? I'd vote anarchy.

Unfortunately, if the public did vote for such a thing, the state system might show some slight resistance against it's own dismantling lol.
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I really really really do not want Trump to represent my country. pls noo
they tryna be crate

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Dayvan Cowboy
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I want to say it could never happen, even (or especially) after Reagan. Bernie Sanders is having an interesting campaign if only for the fact he's detoxifying the word 'socialist' to the Americans who'd been throwing it round at anybody (Obama ffs) with holdover red-scare panic or an indefinable perjorative word for anyone even remotely left of slightly right.

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Dayvan Cowboy
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MrMessiah wrote:I want to say it could never happen, even (or especially) after Reagan. Bernie Sanders is having an interesting campaign if only for the fact he's detoxifying the word 'socialist' to the Americans who'd been throwing it round at anybody (Obama ffs) with holdover red-scare panic or an indefinable perjorative word for anyone even remotely left of slightly right.

The issue is that even detoxified, the word doesn't mean anything concrete in that culture, as far as I can tell. It's a vacuum in politics caused by an intentional narrowing of the spectrum over the decades. It's actually quite brilliant and calls to mind (without trying to sound like a sixth form philosophy student) 1984 a bit, in the fact that they have avoided what they call radical thought by eliminating the concepts themselves from the language, or at the very least replacing their meaning.
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Sherbet Head
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I don't really care who wins the election. It can't possibly get any worse (or better) than it already is, so it doesn't make a difference either way.
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Happy Cycler
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lol
Okay...now...wait for fog machine.

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Dayvan Cowboy
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Apathetic (read: lazy!!!) disenchantment is the only thing that will certainly result in maintaining the status quo. Don't 'choose not to play' under the guise of some smarter-than-the-rest attitude because you know it's rigged.\

(this isn't necessarily directed at anyone, just a sentiment that I've grown tired of)

In the wise words of Neil Peart:

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!

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Dayvan Cowboy
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But that position you reference is based on the idea that the decision involved when you take part isn't a real decision, because neither party has anything to offer over the other.

And from my admittedly more limited view of American politics as an outsider, I certainly see why that might be true.
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Happy Cycler
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Waterbagel wrote:Apathetic (read: lazy!!!) disenchantment is the only thing that will certainly result in maintaining the status quo. Don't 'choose not to play' under the guise of some smarter-than-the-rest attitude because you know it's rigged.\

(this isn't necessarily directed at anyone, just a sentiment that I've grown tired of)

In the wise words of Neil Peart:

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!


How about this:

I - we the lazy (myself and Drillkicker it looks like - don't know it's "rigged". I myself am like most everyone else. I know nothing. I know too little to vote correctly for the representatives that will hopefully act in favor of the state I reside in. In "choosing not to play", I choose to refrain from submitting my stupidity and naivety in the form of a ballot, something others seem to have no problem doing on a regular basis. It just so happens those others tend to display that "smarter-than-the-rest attitude" you speak of far more often in my experience, and believe me, I hate it as much as you do. What good can come of that? Hmm? They have no humility. I would at least like to try and be humble by acknowledging that I am too delusional to properly assess American politics. Anything I might comment on regarding the existence of redundancies in the system that prove to be true is then purely coincidental. AND ANYONE trying to maintain or break the 'status quo' is wasting their time. That's something that you can perhaps call my attitude out on. That's certainly a subjective statement, but I can't see for the life of me why someone would waste what little life they have left trying to accomplish either in an environment like this.

Also, Neil Peart does not make a choice regarding the decision to breath autonomously 99% of the time. My sixty year old mother made no choice in regards to deciding whether or not she wanted to become blinded in her only good eye early this year. That's something that just happened, both the action and the response. I know this is different, but given the quote, I don't feel a completely proper analogy is necessary. Why not just tell me that not voting is a vote for [x]? At least I don't have to contemplate exactly where that one falls apart.
Okay...now...wait for fog machine.

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Sherbet Head
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The reason I'm not voting is not because I am lazy, but because no politician has opinions. A republic ensures that only people who have no opinions of their own will have power. They cannot possibly do anything that benefits their country, because they only do whatever will benefit their public image (which is never anything good).

I do have opinions on the state of humanity and what can be done to solve the many problems associated with it, but for that to be possible, humans will have to miraculously turn into completely logical beings with no sentimental feelings and a ready acceptance of rapid and total change for the good of the whole. That simply isn't possible, so there is no point in even entertaining my opinions on the matter. Therefore the only thing I care about is death, because it's the only thing that really matters.
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Friendly Stranger
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I didn't vote in 2012 and I wasn't going to vote 2016 either (hadn't even renewed my voter registration) until I learned that Bernie was running. Bernie is the first glimmer of optimism I've had about politics in 8 years (and I was only optimistic in '08 because I was naive and not yet exposed to things like the work of Chomsky). His positions are genuine and he legitimately is what he claims to be. His record shows it, as does the fact that he's not for sale (much unlike Obama).

Keep in mind that Bernie is really an Independent, not a Dem. That's partly why this isn't the same old story of lies, false promises and a "two"-party puppet show where both candidates are really the same. If Bernie gets elected, there will be about as much change as a president can produce (whereas nothing changed under Obama except that the US shifted more toward fascism and oligarchy while continuing to be evil internationally).

Of course, all these things I'm saying are the very reason he's unlikely to win. But he certainly has more chance if non-brainwashed people can wake up from their apathy for just this one election.

Also, Hillary is hardly any better than any of the GOP candidates. She is not leftist at all and if she tries to say otherwise during the campaign, it will all be lies. So the primary is very important. If Hillary wins the primary, say hello to another 4 years of Obama (and Obama was in turn another 8 years of Bush Jr if not worse).
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Dayvan Cowboy
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Bernie is burning shit to the ground. Its unbelievable.

In case you missed it:

http://www.c-span.org/

Hosts everything considerable this election cycle. Streaming archives.

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