Well, for sure the people who voted for him because he’s going to magically bring back mining, agricultural, and manufacturing jobs are going to be real disappointed when, you know, no force on Earth can make that happen.
I mean honestly, who thinks that this shitnugget can get anything done?
He is all talk.
But, I don’t know if that doesn’t keep him president for 8 years. Ron motherfucking Johnson won in Wisconsin, despite being a clueless outsider. Russ Feingold, the least establishment politician you could find, was labeled a political insider twice, and lost because of it.
This election is proof that people don’t give two shits about facts. Facts don’t matter. That is it, plain and simple, facts don’t matter anymore.
One good thing out of this… I learned the word Weltschmerz.
Well we can finally do that sneak attack into Mosul in January.
Optimism … ummm … yeah, sign me up. Didn’t sleep a wink. I’m heart sick.
Let’s see…
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The opposition (remaining Democrats) aren’t going to be invested in failure like the ®’s were after Obama was elected (and what would have continued with Clinton). Not obstruction for obstruction’s sake. Some ugly compromises, perhaps, and an opportunity to work with moderate Republicans. Maybe some legislating will happen. Maybe it all won’t be objectively awful.
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On that note, we don’t have to endure endless Benghazi and email and who-knows-what-else hearings for the next 4 years. Seriously, that shit was going to be awful.
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Democrats were poised, with a Clinton win, to suffer some big losses in 2018 and 2020. This perhaps flips the narrative, and creates some opportunities for longer-term wins vs a rough and ultimately unsuccessful one-term presidency for Clinton
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A learning moment for Democrats/Progressives for sure.
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RBG will hang in there!
(related: I really need to check out of Politics in general for a while for my own sanity, but love QT3 as a mostly-lurker. I tried muting Politics and Religion but it still shows up in latest. Am I doing something wrong? I am weak and will be tempted to jump into threads such as this one, despite the fact that my heart can’t take it right now)
I don’t know about muting the forum, but it’s easy enough to mute individual threads. P&R has a pretty low volume of new threads.
It’s been absolutely huge for reducing the time I waste on the Internet. Muting is the best part of Discourse by far.
Keeping it positive:
The U.S. dollar has been too strong for too long. Having the dollar drop will increase profits for U.S. based companies with offshore components. Apple and Alphabet both reported significant impacts to income due to the strong dollar. The company I work for reported a $230-ish million reduction in profits due to “unfavorable exchange rates”.
We’re unlikely to get in to any new wars and will probably be out of Syria quickly. The recent wars have been about the U.S. trying to usher in regime change for countries in mid-rebellion, which Trump just doesn’t seem the least bit interested in. He’ll let those countries work it out themselves.
Certain countries may stop some of the saber rattling for fear of incurring the Wrath of Trump. He’s already seen as unstable and has voiced that he would like to bomb the hell out of places. North Korea in particular will probably chill out in the near-term until they figure out if he’s the nutjob he appears to be or is all talk
We don’t have to worry about 4 years of BS about the Supreme Court. The GOP is unlikely to obstruct a Trump nomination, and the Dems can’t play spoiler for 4 years without seeming like hypocrits. They will make sure the judge is qualified, but they can’t just say “no one is getting in there” like the GOP was threatening to do.
Lastly, we still have checks and balances. Sure, the GOP tends to be more united than the Dems when it comes to policy message. However, now that they are in charge of almost everything, they have to start actually thinking about what they are doing instead of bitching against the proposals of the other side. Because right now, there is no other side. They control it all.
I expect that the climate here in northern Europe will become warmer with Trump than it would have been with Clinton. It was cold here today, so that’s at least something.
More upsides:
- This will usher in a new golden age for comedians.
- Dozens of poli sci graduate students now have a dissertation topic.
- Rick Pearlstein now has material for another book or ten.
- Millions of people will see a boost to their self-esteem because they were right and the so-called experts were wrong.
- Countless young people will be inspired as they realize that you don’t need to give up on your dream of becoming President just because you don’t work hard, learn things, or lead a virtuous life.
- The Donald will be surrounded by nerds talking to him nonstop about complicated issues he doesn’t care about or understand for the next four years, which is probably a form of hell for him.
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
It is productive because if we try to do the same thing in 4, or even 8, years, it will be the same result. We as democrats need to learn from history so we don’t repeat it.
Or I suppose we could just tank the government completely and on purpose, blame it on republicans and then get a sweeping victory.
This also may help repudiate the Establishment a bit. I know everyone on this forum would’ve preferred the middle finger be attached to Bernie Sanders, but at least it’s something.
Yeah, we showed the Establishment all right! We elected a Manhattan billionaire who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth!
It’s not about how much money they have. That’s a limited worldview. It’s about picking a predictable stand-in (with limited range of allowable beliefs) to keep the state chugging along roughly the same way regardless of party affiliation.
Meh, not trying to side track the optimism. You guys are doing great!
I heard part of Trump’s victory speech on the NPR Politics Podcast and it was shockingly conciliatory. It actually gave me a slight glimmer of hope.
You do realize Trump is just going to turn everything over to Mike Pence and then go golfing, right?
That’s the best case scenario.
However, and this is IMO, the USA has always been a rough elephant in a china store cowboy. You know, not exactly a cultured, refined gentleman, but means well. A good guy. As a Scottish English professor I talked with once said “Not an asshole, unlike those damn English”.
Hah.
I’m never going to be allowed into the USA again, am I? And I actually liked the little I saw of Winsconsin and Indiana (Gencon / Origins)…
Maybe Elon Musk will run in 2020.
Trump will cement Obama’s legacy as one of the greatest presidents of all time.