The 2016 Presidential Election Trainwreck

[Omaha 680]

So when this election turns out terrifyingly close (or god forbid Trump wins) will the left share a fraction of the blame for creating this mess? Hear me out for a minute. First they spent the last couple decades calling every Republican right of center a fascist who wants to eat minority babies. So now when a real, live psychopath rises up and grabs the nomination in a fractured GOP, a lot of less-informed people are desensitized to the warnings. They feel the warnings about Trump have been said about every candidate the GOP has nominated in his supporters' lifetimes so they dismiss it. Even with that backdrop, all the left had to do was nominate someone who is not the poster child for government corruption and repulsive to a majority of the electorate. Do that and Trump still gets buried early.

I am not saying it is not primarily the GOP's (and in particular moron Trump supporters') fault. The worst part about a Trump victory to me would not be a debacle of a Trump presidency (which would be bad but I am hopeful the damage could be minimized by opposition from both parties in Congress). The worst part is Trump's political brand won't be immediately tossed into the dustbin of history on Nov. 9th and his supporters permanently cowed or run out of the party.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Like I said before: The fact that Anthony Weiner is still drawing breath (allegedly) makes any Clinton hit list completely unbelievable.

[Moliere]

. I shouldn't bother with Topper. He gets apoplectic at the mention of the name Hillary and ignores all of Trump's skeletons, including the story that broke about him having a long history of illegally hiding or destroying documents and evidence. He offers passing criticism of Trump and goes back to stewing about Hillary.

I know this won't help my false image of being a Trump supporter, but that story was ludicrous. My company systematically deletes all emails over 6 months old unless they are specifically sent to designated inboxes that aren't set to delete. It's normal business practice to not retain documents longer than legally necessary. In fact, my company is in the middle of moving everything to some system that has deletion protocol set specifically for each type of document so, when the time comes, the documents are automatically deleted by the system. When I worked for an audit firm, we had to archive our audit workpapers within 30 days after filing the report. Before the files are archived, all other documents (includes electronic docs, printed docs, memos, emails, anything on thumb drives, etc.) had to be deleted and we had to sign off that they were deleted.

There's a stark difference between deleting corporate emails and deleting government emails from your private home server after receiving a subpeona.

[imanihonjin]

So when this election turns out terrifyingly close (or god forbid Trump wins) will the left share a fraction of the blame for creating this mess?

This likely depends on who is assigning the blame. The left certainly won't think they are to blame.

[creekster]

I know this won't help my false image of being a Trump supporter, but that story was ludicrous. My company systematically deletes all emails over 6 months old unless they are specifically sent to designated inboxes that aren't set to delete. It's normal business practice to not retain documents longer than legally necessary. In fact, my company is in the middle of moving everything to some system that has deletion protocol set specifically for each type of document so, when the time comes, the documents are automatically deleted by the system. When I worked for an audit firm, we had to archive our audit workpapers within 30 days after filing the report. Before the files are archived, all other documents (includes electronic docs, printed docs, memos, emails, anything on thumb drives, etc.) had to be deleted and we had to sign off that they were deleted.

There's a stark difference between deleting corporate emails and deleting government emails from your private home server after receiving a subpeona.

nice post, you trump supporter.

[Applejack]

So when this election turns out terrifyingly close (or god forbid Trump wins) will the left share a fraction of the blame for creating this mess? Hear me out for a minute. First they spent the last couple decades calling every Republican right of center a fascist who wants to eat minority babies. So now when a real, live psychopath rises up and grabs the nomination in a fractured GOP, a lot of less-informed people are desensitized to the warnings. They feel the warnings about Trump have been said about every candidate the GOP has nominated in his supporters' lifetimes so they dismiss it. Even with that backdrop, all the left had to do was nominate someone who is not the poster child for government corruption and repulsive to a majority of the electorate. Do that and Trump still gets buried early.

I am not saying it is not primarily the GOP's (and in particular moron Trump supporters') fault. The worst part about a Trump victory to me would not be a debacle of a Trump presidency (which would be bad but I am hopeful the damage could be minimized by opposition from both parties in Congress). The worst part is Trump's political brand won't be immediately tossed into the dustbin of history on Nov. 9th and his supporters permanently cowed or run out of the party.

I love these "blame the liberals" posts. If we elect a orange demagogue, it will be the fault of those that voted for him, not those that oppose him. It is really not that difficult of a concept to understand.

[Northwestcoug]

So when this election turns out terrifyingly close (or god forbid Trump wins) will the left share a fraction of the blame for creating this mess? Hear me out for a minute. First they spent the last couple decades calling every Republican right of center a fascist who wants to eat minority babies. So now when a real, live psychopath rises up and grabs the nomination in a fractured GOP, a lot of less-informed people are desensitized to the warnings. They feel the warnings about Trump have been said about every candidate the GOP has nominated in his supporters' lifetimes so they dismiss it. Even with that backdrop, all the left had to do was nominate someone who is not the poster child for government corruption and repulsive to a majority of the electorate. Do that and Trump still gets buried early.

I am not saying it is not primarily the GOP's (and in particular moron Trump supporters') fault. The worst part about a Trump victory to me would not be a debacle of a Trump presidency (which would be bad but I am hopeful the damage could be minimized by opposition from both parties in Congress). The worst part is Trump's political brand won't be immediately tossed into the dustbin of history on Nov. 9th and his supporters permanently cowed or run out of the party.

I have said this before, but IMO the blame for a Trump candidacy (and god forbid a presidency) lays squarely at the feet of right-wing media. We are dealing with a generation of right-wing voters who treat conservative talk-show hosts as respected journalists. They have been consistently beating the anti-immigration drum for years, not to mention the rabid Clinton hate ever since Rush started broadcasting. There is no way Trump wins the republican nomination without the huge support of the anti-immigration faction. There really is nothing else that propelled him to the front of the pack. The recent This American Life podcast does a good job describing this faction.

That's not to say that there aren't those on the left who treat every republican as a fascist misogynist. And some republican circles might have become desensitized to it. But that doesn't explain why Trump would win the nomination over true conservatives like Cruz or Rubio. If anything, a republican voter retrenches to a true conservative if they're densensitized to the constant 'fascist!' argument.

[Uncle Ted]

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Too bad this is the fake clint eastwood.

[Topper]

. I shouldn't bother with Topper. He gets apoplectic at the mention of the name Hillary and ignores all of Trump's skeletons, including the story that broke about him having a long history of illegally hiding or destroying documents and evidence. He offers passing criticism of Trump and goes back to stewing about Hillary.

Trump won't win. If he did, which he won't, he would become embroiled in numerous problems, but I am not rooting for the demise of the GOP. I am rooting for nothing but pain and anguish for the Democratic Party. It has brought nothing but pain and anguish to the recent US political scene and offers no tangible benefits. The GOP is close behind.

Trump is history by November 9, 2016. Good riddance.

Hillary is President and so we should wish her nothing but pain and anguish.

[Uncle Ted]

I have said this before, but IMO the blame for a Trump candidacy (and god forbid a presidency) lays squarely at the feet of right-wing media. We are dealing with a generation of right-wing voters who treat conservative talk-show hosts as respected journalists. They have been consistently beating the anti-immigration drum for years, not to mention the rabid Clinton hate ever since Rush started broadcasting. There is no way Trump wins the republican nomination without the huge support of the anti-immigration faction. There really is nothing else that propelled him to the front of the pack. The recent This American Life podcast does a good job describing this faction.

That's not to say that there aren't those on the left who treat every republican as a fascist misogynist. And some republican circles might have become desensitized to it. But that doesn't explain why Trump would win the nomination over true conservatives like Cruz or Rubio. If anything, a republican voter retrenches to a true conservative if they're densensitized to the constant 'fascist!' argument.

I think the blame is with both parties and anyone that is sane should be running from them like rats from sinking ships.

[imanihonjin]

I have said this before, but IMO the blame for a Trump candidacy (and god forbid a presidency) lays squarely at the feet of right-wing media. We are dealing with a generation of right-wing voters who treat conservative talk-show hosts as respected journalists. They have been consistently beating the anti-immigration drum for years, not to mention the rabid Clinton hate ever since Rush started broadcasting. There is no way Trump wins the republican nomination without the huge support of the anti-immigration faction. There really is nothing else that propelled him to the front of the pack. The recent This American Life podcast does a good job describing this faction.

That's not to say that there aren't those on the left who treat every republican as a fascist misogynist. And some republican circles might have become desensitized to it. But that doesn't explain why Trump would win the nomination over true conservatives like Cruz or Rubio. If anything, a republican voter retrenches to a true conservative if they're densensitized to the constant 'fascist!' argument.

This explanation doesn't do it for me. Other than Hannity, none of the right wing talk show hosts wanted Trump to win the Republican nomination. So how can they have so much effect to cause Trump's nomination, but yet not enough effect to prevent Trump's nomination? It doesn't make sense. Beck, Levin, Rush and the myriad other right wingers would have been much happier with Cruz, who is nothing like Trump.

[Topper]

I have said this before, but IMO the blame for a Trump candidacy (and god forbid a presidency) lays squarely at the feet of right-wing media. We are dealing with a generation of right-wing voters who treat conservative talk-show hosts as respected journalists. They have been consistently beating the anti-immigration drum for years, not to mention the rabid Clinton hate ever since Rush started broadcasting. There is no way Trump wins the republican nomination without the huge support of the anti-immigration faction. There really is nothing else that propelled him to the front of the pack. The recent This American Life podcast does a good job describing this faction.

That's not to say that there aren't those on the left who treat every republican as a fascist misogynist. And some republican circles might have become desensitized to it. But that doesn't explain why Trump would win the nomination over true conservatives like Cruz or Rubio. If anything, a republican voter retrenches to a true conservative if they're densensitized to the constant 'fascist!' argument.

The blame for Trump should be shared all around.

Democratic blame rests with the post-Reagan era by trying to not reach across the aisle to find common ground. Bush 1 knew how to do that to some extent, but Clinton has forced to do so after his first mid-term elections and Gingrich rose in power. Since that time, the left has been less skilled at working within the legislature.

This is due to the fact that Obama was inexperienced. He served a time in the state legislature and as a one term Senator. He never rose to Senate Majority or Minority leader, so he did not acquire the broker skills necessary to achieve bi-partisanship. He thereafter sought to ram his key legislative agenda down the throats of opponents.

This came at a time when coalitions on the right and within the GOP were less familiar with the legislative process and were easily swayed or dismayed by the heavy-handedness of Obama.

The fractures within the GOP coupled with the failure of establishment leadership to usher out the numerous candidates who could not win led to a perfect storm of the outsider not being taken seriously.

Everybody is to blame. Obama, through legislative inexperience and heavy-handedness, the GOP through fractures within its coalition of voters and in the GOP leadership by failing to control the primary process and to successfully convince the multitude of candidates to step aside. It is a perfect cluster--- befitting the American political scene. But the Left's refusal to play by old rules contributed significantly to shitstorm that has happened.

[Uncle Ted]

Johnson can't even secure the confidence or full support of his own running mate. He isn't going to carry New Mexico.

It seems that Hillary can't even secure her running mate's home state...

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[creekster]

I don't think the blame springs primarily from party politics. I think it springs from a systemic failure to address the needs of a substantial portion of the electorate. I have spoken to a couple of people who plan to vote for Trump and it is my impression that they are not voting for Trump nearly as much as they are voting against the system. When I ask them why they are voting for him they most often talk about what he is not as opposed to what he is or what he will do.

[Sleeping in EQ]

I have said this before, but IMO the blame for a Trump candidacy (and god forbid a presidency) lays squarely at the feet of right-wing media. We are dealing with a generation of right-wing voters who treat conservative talk-show hosts as respected journalists. They have been consistently beating the anti-immigration drum for years, not to mention the rabid Clinton hate ever since Rush started broadcasting. There is no way Trump wins the republican nomination without the huge support of the anti-immigration faction. There really is nothing else that propelled him to the front of the pack. The recent This American Life podcast does a good job describing this faction.

That's not to say that there aren't those on the left who treat every republican as a fascist misogynist. And some republican circles might have become desensitized to it. But that doesn't explain why Trump would win the nomination over true conservatives like Cruz or Rubio. If anything, a republican voter retrenches to a true conservative if they're densensitized to the constant 'fascist!' argument.

I agree with much of this. I'll add that the media in general having zero credibility because of their car-chasing mentality, endless hyperbole, willingness to sensationalize, polls-for ratings, and the-facts-be-damned forgetfulness magnify these problems.

I'm frustrated with those on both the left and the right who are astonishingly hypersensitive and insensitive at the same time. Culturally, it's like we punch the "Other" in the face while screaming about how that person is hurting us. At the extremes, these are people who present themselves as "Social Justice Warriors" and as "Real Americans," and they are inevitably total asses.