Trump, Sanders US Pres Election
 

This forum is for any subject (per description). You are all very bright, thought I'd see what some of you were thinking. What's some of your general thoughts?

As a social scientist, especially for political science and history, this US Presidential election is quite fascinating. A Trump Vs Sanders general election would be a political scientist's dream election -- I'm mean for political entertainment, not necessarily for outcome.

Trump
I really don't think Trump is racist. I just think he's after their copious amount of votes. And by extension, he has no moral encumbrance against stoking those fires, knowing people could get killed and maimed as a result. It's called 'the end justifies the means'. As many have, Trump is using the general propagandas of 19th century fascism.

Trump's mannerisms, surface personality and image presentation is very similar to Mussolini. I do not think he's anywhere as gravely immoral as Il Duce. The strongman restoring national greatness -- old routine, very mixed and potent results.

How would you see a Trump presidency go?

Sanders
Really pushing the wealth and income distribution inequalities -- of which have never been so sharply concentrated. I think most scholars projected a modern United States would become less concentrated.

Along with Trump, Sanders has bashed the trade deals that have, perhaps, hastened loss of manufacturing and stagnated employee incomes.

What would a Sanders presidency look like?

Hillary/Sanders/Superdelegates:
Have you seen these Democratic Superdelegate situation?

Candidate/Delegates/(Superdelegates)/Vote
Clinton: 766 (465) 4,952,159
Sanders: 576 (25) 3,305,930

95% of superdelegates going to Clinton

Superdelegates = how D Party elites press their thumb on the scales. Seems to act only on voter perceptions going into the polls: "Clinton's leading in delegates, so vote for the winner, it feels better". Some argue they put in the work of party affairs, shouldn't they get more influence? But most suggest if Sanders wins popular vote, superdelegates will change to reflect it.

Trump reminds me of the politician in Stephen King's "The Dead Zone". Insane and dangerous.

I hate politics and prefer to stay as far away from them as possible. We're fucked in the end no matter who is voted in. ...If you even want to call it that. The people's choice matters very little in the end really. If the government wants a certain candidate in office, they'll make it happen no matter what we want.

That's just my two bits though. The most entertaining thing I've come to hear out of all this so far is speculation over Trump being the anti-Christ. I honestly don't know how to react to that.

Trump scares the shit out of me. And, it's terrifying how he's brought out all this hate in people. Shows just how horrible MOST Americans are. I figured it was there, but I had hope that we had progressed as a nation, and as humans. I would prefer Sanders as president, but, if it comes down to Trump vs. Clinton, I'll vote for Clinton.

While a) I'm Canadian and b) I don't claim to know much about politics, I must say this is the first election I've ever been interested in following.

There are three things I've learned never to discuss with people. Religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.

~ Linus Van Pelt ~

Yeah, I have to agree with the religion and politics part.

Unless they put the Easter bunny on the poll, I'm not fuckin voting!! I'm sick of all the people and bullshit.....the end.

Trump is far from crazy, I mean legitimately he is quite brilliant and he is running an incredibly effective campaign that will probably go down in history, whether that be a good thing or not. I honestly believe he has a chance to win. More than likely it will be a Clinton v Trump bill. There are a large amount of Bernie supporters (I think the number is 33%) that wont show up to vote at all if he isn't in the election. That said, a huge chunk of the democratic vote will go untallied. Its almost scary how easy I think Trump could walk away with this election.

I was more of a Rand Paul kind of guy, but he never had a chance. I have a hard time getting behind Trump because of all of the controversy. But in the end, if it is a Trump v Clinton ticket, I vote Trump all day long. I think Clinton would be a travesty.

Ya, some of Sander supporters will stay home, and some Sanders' populist, anti-corp/elite/establishment will vote for Trump, as he speaks against the trade deals (NAFTA, etc) described to have lead to companies/manufacturing/jobs going overseas and worker wages stagnating for 30 years; and both speaking against corp tax havens.

Curious, would you give the three biggest reasons you think a H. Clinton presidency would be a travesty?

I have spoken to a cadre of Sanders supporters who say they will vote Trump out of spite. Socialists believe capitalism must get WORSE before things get BETTER.

There are a number of reasons, but I would say the largest is that absolutely nothing would get done. The country is heavily divided (Dem, Rep) and there is no way Republicans would allow anything to come of another Clinton presidency. Just out of sheer hatred and spite, even if she could pull off a decent run, there would be absolutely no way. That said, I personally believe she is unfit for the job, she has little political success to ride on and she has shown a lot of weakness when shit gets real. I don't think she would be able to hold it together for an entire term. She is currently just saying anything to pull Bernie supporters but she doesn't seem to have a legitimate means to actually accomplish anything. I think once the field is narrowed to her and Trump, she will fall apart and Trump will take it with a landslide. It would be much more interesting if it was Trump and Sanders.

Oh that's fantastic. Because America learned from that SO WELL with voting for Obama because he was black. I'm not racist, but you have to be pretty fucking stupid to vote for someone solely on the color of their skin. If you ask me that's just as racist as not voting for someone because they are black. Same goes for sex. I hear women wanting to vote for Clinton just because she's female. What?! I may not know politics very well but dammit even I known that's a recipe for disaster! If you're voting because of one factor like color, gender, or spite, then you have no right to vote. Period.

Jake, I fear this may be moot: Trump says his sources tell him Hillary may be indicted and not allowed to run in the general.

I don't know man. I honestly don't think the powers that be would allow that to happen. There is a reason why she holds so many Super Delegates.

Being indited doesn't prevent one for running for pres, only conviction. Secondly, NPR sources say, to date, no emails contained classified info at the time they were sent (which is required for indictment). I don't see an indictment coming. You really don't think Trump is a valid source on this issue, do you?

From what I hear, Trump is in touch daily with the good, smart people.

Unfortunately, Trump proved to us he doesn't listen to (or ask) the experts for critical things (sometimes). The proof was the "Two Corinthians Incident". You know about this?

While running for the Republican Party for president, he went to Liberty University, a christian college (including Divinity degrees) -- the one reason to do this was convince christians he was one of them. And when he quoted the Bible he mispronounced the book... there convincing christians of the US he wasn't one.

How important was it for Trump to simply run this quotation by one of the 210 million chritians all around him (70% of US voters) before he gave this speech? He didn't. Wow.

Here's a little clip of the incident, given some perspective by christian Stephen Colbert:

I'm new here but would like to say I think at the very last it is refreshing that someone outside the political arena is putting their money where their mouth is. That is to say all the bitching people do about politicians, punk rock bands sing songs, people protest in the streets etc there is Trump thumbing his nose at everyone. Is it is real or not? We will have to see. I actually like Kasich. But we live in PA and have seen changes in OHIO over the years. It is getting better. Clinton would just be Obama's third term.

I prefer Kaisch and Sanders. I voted for socialist grandpa in the Democratic Primary.

Trump is just trying to get attention and build his brand. There's no subsidence to his policy. He will never be President, and I believe he knows it.