President Trump Optimism thread

[ineffablebob]

Probably a better thread for this but I didn’t find a recent one with a quick search so screw it, this will do. It’s a rare decent move from this administration.

FCC to consider making text messaging an information service, denying Twilio...

Of course, this doesn’t make Pai any less a creature of the big telecoms. Just means in this case their interests align with the consumer.

[Djscman]

@Djscman

• I think this will be invigorating for grassroot-level Democrats, who become indolent in eras of success and fiery in eras of opposition. Would President Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign been so successful after eight years of President Gore? Start the countdown for the 2018 midterm elections, if the country is still standing by then.
• I’m hoping that the 19 percent of the US population that voted for Hillary will be able to make inroads to the 19 percent of the US population that voted for Trump, and possibly the other 60 percent that didn’t vote for either for whatever reason. Perhaps that means carefully explaining the basics of civics, of science, of history, of journalism, in simple but non-condescending terms. I’m thinking about my Facebook friends and coworkers that in a breath go from complaining about the lizard people that rule our flat earth to saying that even though it doesn’t matter because the Illuminati rule everything anyway but they believe that Trump will do a better job than Clinton. Maybe it’s impossible, but even the folks who say that x is the most corrupt y in history could stand to learn a little bit more about what corruption is.
• I’ve always thought that it would be cool, or fun, to try pistol shooting. Not only that, but I bet if I start prepping for a civic apocalypse, I’ll probably get in better physical shape as a byproduct.

More upsides:

This will usher in a new golden age for comedians.

• I hope that will hold for music too. Maybe some kind of neo-punk or third wave grunge or something. Give the kids some way to articulate their despair.

My predictions found mixed success. Democrats became more fiery and successful in Congress and won the Presidency, but failed to secure a Senate majority. Outreach and voting turnout increased, but for both sides. Misinformation dug in and spread on the other side. On the bright side, I did not do a great job becoming a doomsday prepper and never fired a pistol in the last four years, not even when riots tore through my city. HumanTon was right in that comedians had to step up, though at some point all they could do was make exaggerated gestures at what was happening. If grunge did make a comeback I wasn’t hip enough to hear it.

This was a good idea for a thread. It’s a shame that Trump let it down, even before he was inaugurated.

[Scotch_Lufkin]

Fitting that the Trump Optimism Thread went over two years without a bump.

[Djscman]

@Scotch_Lufkin

Fitting that the Trump Optimism Thread went over two years without a bump.

Now we can be optimistic that maybe he’ll go to prison.

[Gordon_Cameron]

@Gordon_Cameron

I do find it strange that people still console themselves with the idea that Trump is too stupid, too lazy, whatever.

This man just made himself President of the United States. There’s literally no telling what he’ll do next with a servile and spineless Republican Congress at his back.

I guess I wasn’t brimming over with optimism.

[ravenight]

@Djscman

failed to secure a Senate majority.

They… have the Senate majority.

[ravenight]

Here was mine:

@ravenight

Positives:

1. No “the election was rigged” riots
2. The GOP now has to figure what they actually want to do other than oppose Obama, which will be a shit show because they really don’t agree about it. Hopefully Dems will only stick their noses in when absolutely necessary.
3. I think he genuinely plans to invest in infrastructure and attempt to improve trade deals
4. I don’t think he will put much weight behind social oppression (except for immigration), and perhaps racial justice tempers will cool like they did under Nixon. Not great for the people who are angry for good reason, but perhaps useful as a way to move forward without violence.
5. He is not at all beholden to the GOP establishment, so perhaps he really will be able to create a shake that realigns the parties with how the country actually thinks.
6. Maybe we’ve really all been in a partisan bubble and he’s not that bad, his deplorable supporters are not really that numerous, and his crazier tendencies were either bluster or things that really will be reigned in by other powers.

Couple related points:

1. He’s not lazy in the strict sense, even if he’s prone to reject experts and believe conspiracies. He will not give up all the governing to Pence, but he will probably listen to advisers and make calls from what they say. If those advisers are all terrible people, that’s not much consolation.
2. The GOP establishment will not be completely servile. They may get a lot worse if Ryan steps down, but they have their own plans and they will want to push them.

So, perhaps he will not try or will find it very difficult to upend the system and become a dictator. He’s getting older, he mostly wanted to win, and the job of POTUS is prestigious and complex enough that overturning democracy itself may not really be that appealing to him (though I do think he will at least try to bend many constitutional protections to do the things he clearly favors like limit freedom of the press). He said 8 years in his victory speech, and I have no doubt he runs in 2020, but I also doubt he’ll be able to refuse to step down when his term (or gulp terms) is up. Hard to claim the vote is rigged when you control the government.

Holy shit lol at #3. I will say that the jury’s still out on #5, #1 was true for one cycle, #2 was broadly correct and led to little being done and the GOP losing both houses, and #4 was correct as worded, but vastly underestimated how oppressive he could make immigration-related racist policies. Overall, though, wow was this overly optimistic.

[Zylon]

@ravenight

@Djscman

failed to secure a Senate majority.

They… have the Senate majority.

Only procedurally. Numerically, it’s a precise 50:50 split.

[scottagibson]

@Zylon

Only procedurally. Numerically, it’s a precise 50:50 split.

No, it’s a precise 51:50 split.

[Gordon_Cameron]

[HumanTon]

@Zylon

Only procedurally. Numerically, it’s a precise 50:50 split.

The Constitution is law, not a technicality.

[justkevin]

Four years ago I was pessimistic about a Trump administration.

If you had described the actual last year of his term to me, I would have dismissed it as ludicrous apocalyptic fanfic.

[KevinC]

I know what you mean. There were some screenshots of WaPo headlines from some of the last few weeks. If you had shown them to me in 2016 I’d never have believed it to be real, not even as pessimistic as I was about a Trump administration.

That’s one thing I can say about Trump: Despite me thinking it wasn’t possible, he continuously figured out ways to sink to new lows throughout all four years of his term.

[Woolen_Horde]

This was just two weeks in January.

[Zylon]

@HumanTon

The Constitution is law, not a technicality.

I’m sure this means something to you.

[HumanTon]

@Zylon

I’m sure this means something to you.

There’s no reason to asterisk the 51st vote. It’s not some fluke or ephemeral rule: it’s hard-coded into the Constitution.

[arrendek]

Seriously arguing there’s no majority because the Constitution only barely says they have one in this scenario is pretty funny.

[scottagibson]

The shenanigans the other party can get up to when you have a 51-49 majority are exactly the same ones they can get up to when you have a 51-50 majority. The Dems won the senate, full stop.

[HideousRex]

“Shenanigans” is soooo 2020. “Malarkey” is the new hotness.

[Calelari]

Consarn it! You wisenheimers are going to get a knuckle sandwich if you don’t it knock off with the fiddle-faddle.