Was a mayor to be fair, not prime minister.
Also, of Toronto. Toronto is an odd place.
a Trump vs Clinton United States Presidential Election in 2016
- Thread starter Charlie Don't Surf
- Start date
Also, of Toronto. Toronto is an odd place.
As Rob Ford would've told ya, though, more people voted him into office than have ever voted in a Prime Minister. That means more people love Rob Ford than will ever love any Trudeau.
(Though the Trudeaus win the all important competition. Everyone wants to sleep with them, Rob Ford could only get the fatty lovers and necrophiliacs.)
And probably only the necrophiliac fatty lovers.
I, uh, don't know why I posted this.
Sorry, my reply to your post was poorly written. I wasn't telling you to vote for Stein (I wouldn't tell anyone to vote for Stein, though I support their right to vote for her), and you certainly don't have to defend your support of the Democratic platform. I was trying to make a point that other people use those same issues (and others) to decide to vote Green (as an example, since they tend to align closest with the Democrats) and then get berated for it and (potentially) blamed for Clinton not getting elected, as if they owe the Democrats votes because some of their platform align.
Really, how long until someone finds something to suggest her team was also somehow behind arranging things so her opponent ended up being someone that was a poison pill?
I'm not saying it'll be believable, either, just that someone will proudly Trumpet (heh) I KNEW IT ALL ALONG.
--Patrick
I can tell you that most of my extended family supported Trump during primaries, but I really don't know why. My mom didn't like him, but will vote for him anyways, because my family has this idea that only Republicans have their best interest at heart, even though they couldn't tell you a single reason why other than taxes.
I seriously have relatives who think Sarah Palin is awesome. :/
I seriously have relatives who think Sarah Palin is awesome. :/
I've seen things like that for months.[DOUBLEPOST=1470076924,1470076682][/DOUBLEPOST]
And I was explaining my reasons for thinking that while Jill Stein and the Green Party are technically an alternative, they are by no means a *better* or even a *viable* option.
I have a few friends who went deep into the non-profit policy activism scene after college, and while they are all Bernie supporters who are grumpy at Clinton and DWS, they're all very ambivalent about most 3rd-parties on the left.
To hear them tell it, 3rd-parties, even the Greens, just don't really show up except for "major" elections. It's not enough to write someone onto the ballot, they don't really organize, their goals seem to focus on elections instead of the policy-making in between elections, they don't go up against non-challenged incumbents, they don't try and form coalitions with other progressive organizations or parties, they basically don't do the actual work of trying to change things that doesn't involve megaphone protests or voting in Presidential years.
To hear them tell it, 3rd-parties, even the Greens, just don't really show up except for "major" elections. It's not enough to write someone onto the ballot, they don't really organize, their goals seem to focus on elections instead of the policy-making in between elections, they don't go up against non-challenged incumbents, they don't try and form coalitions with other progressive organizations or parties, they basically don't do the actual work of trying to change things that doesn't involve megaphone protests or voting in Presidential years.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...54/?siteID=je6NUbpObpQ-AKhy0lYxpID5Tv5F1uapDQ
Yikes. Trump says that women should quit their jobs and find something else if they find themselves targeted by sexual harassment.
Yikes. Trump says that women should quit their jobs and find something else if they find themselves targeted by sexual harassment.
Nothing like giving the harasser even more influence over their target's life, right?
GasBandit
Staff member
I think it speaks more to his disconnectedness from the common man (or woman in this case). It doesn't even occur to him that employment is anything other than what you choose to do to while away the time, and if you don't like your situation, you find something else to do you like better. He has never wanted for anything, never had to make a hard personal financial decision, or had to put up with something he hated with all his heart because to do otherwise would mean being homeless or starving. To him, every bad situation is rectified by following in Bender's example: "Screw you guys, I'll go make my own whatever-it-is, with blackjack! And hookers!"
Nice post. I think you've hit it on the head really well. When the Canadians here (and especially those from Ontario) understand why Rob Ford WON multiple times over, then you can understand why Trump has support at all. If you only concentrate on why he shouldn't have won, then you're missing it.
Just for clarity, Rob Ford only won one mayoral election. He was likely to win the next but dropped out of that race because of cancer. He did win multiple (3) elections for city councillor.
One of the reasons he won those elections is because he liked doing constituent work. Answering calls about it potholes and lost dogs and all the little every day problems that people called him up about. He liked helping people that way, and is one of the major reasons people voted for him. And it's a good reason to have voted for. For city councillor, at least.
He kept doing it as mayor, instead of doing the executive work, the work of leading council and the city. As mayor, it just kept looking like he was in over his head and feel back on councillor work because it's what he knew and could do. But that's another people were gonna vote him back in as mayor; he still working hard on the little things. Not such a good reason to vote for him for mayor. Not mayor of a major city.
There's more to it than that, of course, but I'm not @steinman, and this was a fundamental part from what I saw.
So, I do have an understanding of why Rob won, a complimentary understanding of the man, not a bemoaning of the idiocy of the populace.
He was a horrible mayor, though. Again, in over his head. I wonder what President Trump will actually be like.[DOUBLEPOST=1470109263,1470109229][/DOUBLEPOST]@steinwoman[DOUBLEPOST=1470109298][/DOUBLEPOST]@mugman[DOUBLEPOST=1470109330][/DOUBLEPOST]@morman[DOUBLEPOST=1470109364][/DOUBLEPOST]@thatlongwindedman[DOUBLEPOST=1470109405][/DOUBLEPOST]@youknowwhoImean[DOUBLEPOST=1470109452][/DOUBLEPOST]@GasBandit, Help!
On a scale of 1 to Rob Ford, what's the concentration of substances in your bloodstream right now?
We don't need the drunk wagon, we need the coroner.
Rep. Richard Hanna is the first Republican member of Congress to publicly disavow Trump. Albeit a retiring Congressman. He's not facing reelection. That'll be the key. If they start going "election be damned, I can't support this nutter," then it's all but over.
Unless someone really serious suddenly decides to run as a third party Republicans could stand behind, saying "I can't support Trump" is pretty much equal to saying "I want Hillary for president", due to the flaws in the US presidential election system. With the current complete breakdown in middle ground and possible consensus - "Trump is the Devil", "Lock Her Up", "They're traitors", "So are they!", .... It doesn't seem likely for any Republican who needs or wants re-election to risk saying "we're better off with 4 more years of Democrats in the WH than with Trump".
It won't be over until all the ballots are counted. Established politicians didn't win the nomination for Trump, and they aren't the key to him winning the presidency. If anything, them pulling their support will help him by giving him something else to rally against.
While a limited sample, my husband is military--a strongly Republican/conservative group--and he knows of only one person in his squadron who supports Trump. The Trump hate is strong there and he's been amazed at the amount of support for Gary Johnson that's been showing up in his Facebook feed from fellow military members. They see in Trump a person with complete disregard for the military and what its members go through (see: his shitty comments about John McCain and the Khans) and someone who will throw them into a meat grinder with no regard simply because it's good for business.
And from various readings on the internet, it seems the attitude of the #NeverTrump crowd is to resign themselves to four years of Hillary--even voting for her--because as much as they don't like her she's still better than Trump, and focus on keeping Congress majority Republican to keep her in check.
I wonder who's biggest - Bernie's Boys, or #NeverTrump. Both sides didn't dare/couldn't come out as a third/fourth party, but it'd have been so much fun if they had!
GasBandit
Staff member
I think, for all its foibles, the DNC did a better job at massaging the Bernie crowd back into the fold than the RNC did with their NeverTrumps. I think most of the new people talking Johnson are disgruntled Republicans and not disgruntled Democrats - and Stein barely gets a footnote mention even in comparison to Johnson.
Like I said weeks ago, I'm pretty sure this election is now Hillary's to lose, barring an October Surprise.
Kind of funny comeuppance then for Trump.
Trump's already whining that the election is "gonna be rigged." So I'll ask the question I asked before. Will we get an October Surprise or a Reichstag Fire?[DOUBLEPOST=1470152403,1470152345][/DOUBLEPOST]
We haven't heard from Orly Taitz in a while. Whatever happened to her?
GasBandit
Staff member
At this point, I'm not sure all of us would consider it to be a bad thing if the capitol burned to the ground. Preferably with as many congressmen and senators still inside as possible.
Still carrying Trump's water, but nobody pays attention to her any more.
Dave
Staff member
I disagree. I the case of the birthers it was nothing but race-baiting. In the case of Trump's taxes it's to specifically refute and to show his followers that he's not the business genius he says he is. I guarantee if he was as good as he likes people to think he is he would have trotted them bad boys out right away to say, "See how great as business I am? I have the best business and people love my business."
As it stands he's most likely lying about that as well. Like he does pretty much everything else.
Yeah, I have to say, there's a difference. Though there are comparisons - it's partly a witch hunt - tax returns actually contain, you know, useful information.
OTOH, I don't see how releasing them might help him, other than PR wise.
If he's got low income: he's not as big a businessman as he claims to be.
High income: he's a rich man who doesn't understand normal people (admittedly, we already know that)
Low taxes: see, he doesn't pay anything himself
High taxes: he's a bad businessman
OTOH, I don't see how releasing them might help him, other than PR wise.
If he's got low income: he's not as big a businessman as he claims to be.
High income: he's a rich man who doesn't understand normal people (admittedly, we already know that)
Low taxes: see, he doesn't pay anything himself
High taxes: he's a bad businessman
Like that $3 return on investment he got his backers for the USFL?
A tax break he shouldn't have qualified for: felony tax evasion
But didn't Obama have to provide proof of eligibility to some sort of electoral committee before ever being placed on a ballot? Or at least before taking office?
Or is your system so fucked up that I actually could become President of the United States of America? (Oh man, if so, singing Megadeth's Peace Sells will be just a little more fun since I won't feel compelled to mutter that line because I feel silly saying it)
Dave
Staff member
But the birthers were crazy people from the start. everyone - including the high-profile members of their own party - acknowledged that Obama was born in the US. The birthers were about race and that's all there was to it. Saying anything else is bullshit. These are the same people who didn't give two shits about McCain being born in Panama or Ted Cruz being born in Canada. They are both eligible because of their parents, but so was Obama. Even if he HAD been born in Kenya he'd have been an American citizen and able to run for President. The whole thing was racially motivated.
Obama being elected didn't solve racism in the US, it showed us all how much there really was. Just like Hillary will show us how much misogyny there is. Which is too bad because there's so many legitimate reasons to hate her.
I think it's important for all candidates to disclose their sources of income, as they might indicate conflicts of interest. Is that not a valid reason?