Manifestly Unfit

[NatMorton]

This is the problem with demonizing the opposition to the degree the far left does. It creates incredibly awkward moments like where voters look at your candidate, and then they look at "Hitler," and then they chose "Hitler." There's just no way for the fringes of the American left to process that.

 

[Bok Tuklo]

This is the problem with demonizing the opposition to the degree the far left does. It creates incredibly awkward moments like where voters look at your candidate, and then they look at "Hitler," and then they chose "Hitler." There's just no way for the fringes of the American left to process that.

The demonization of center and left of center individuals by Republicans hasn’t seemed to have hurt them. Perhaps your thesis, that sharp criticism of your political opponents is self defeating, needs to be reassessed.

 

[reflechissez]

That's nice.

My larger point stands. You're making a mistake when you think the only reason Trump won is voter stupidity.

For some reason, you don’t want to discuss the OP, so you’re deflecting to the election. Why is that?

 

[Lisa]

I think you're asking the wrong question. You should be asking why those voters prefer Trump 2.0 to your candidates and your policies.

Because they are stupid and racist enough to fall for Trumps constant lies.

 

[Minerva]

There is something inherently flawed in our political system when the choice given us by the two major parties for our nation's leadership are of the caliber we were just offered.
I don't see how it will ever be changed.
I would like to see the primary system done differently, instead of having state vie for the right to be first, maybe a national primary day. I dunnow....

 

[Bok Tuklo]

There is something inherently flawed in our political system when the choice given us by the two major parties for our nation's leadership are of the caliber we were just offered.
I don't see how it will ever be changed.
I would like to see the primary system done differently, instead of having state vie for the right to be first, maybe a national primary day. I dunnow....

I say we go back to basics and genuinely choose Electors who vote however the **** they want. There are no presidential candidates. There are only Electoral College candidates.

If we are going to keep this shitty, anachronistic system, at least use it as intended.

 

[Minerva]

I say we go back to basics and genuinely choose Electors who vote however the **** they want. There are no presidential candidates. There are only Electoral College candidates.

If we are going to keep this shitty, anachronistic system, at least use it as intended.

If we are to overhaul it, let's overhaul it and bring it into this century.
The electors had their purpose when news and travel took so long and people dying young and unexpectedly was much more common.

 

[NatMorton]

Because they are stupid and racist enough to fall for Trumps constant lies.

^^^ Why the far left will never learn.

 

[Lisa]

^^^ Why the far left will never learn.

Maybe you can claim its a religious belief?

 

[Helix]

How unfit are the American people that they would vote for Trump 2.0?

Yep, that's still stunning to me.

 

[Peacenik]

Let's start with definitions:
Manifestly: "show something clearly, through signs or actions", plain, obvious;
unfit: "not of the necessary quality or standard to meet a particular purpose," not qualified, incapable, incompetent.

I do this to set the parameters for my next statement: we are choosing leadership that is manifestly unfit. To wit: Donald Trump, JD Vance, Mike Johnson, much of the judiciary and virtually every cabinet nominee - Gaetz, Bondi, Hegseth, Kennedy, Patel, the list is long. This is not hyperbole. They are not even close calls, nuanced or debateable.

Trump is, among many things, a felon, a rapist, a failed businessman, an adjudicated frauster, and incompetent in a vast array of fields, from economics to science, and just basic logic. Even many of his supporters acknowledge this (but don't care). JD Vance is a failed attorney who was recruited and propped up as a "venture capitalist" by an ambitios billionaire for middling venture firm that has seen little success. Mike Johnson, everyone's last choice, is the most incompetent Speaker in decades, unable to even count votes. The cabinet choices Trump has made are a who's who of crackpots, schemers, and outright frauds with no relevant experience for their nominated positions.

In any other era, none of these individuals would have survived the multitudinous scandals they each bring to consideration, because, until recently, competence and good character were expected of authorities in our government. It wasn't that long ago that the Kennedy administration was described as "the best and the brightest", scientists were considered heroes, and academic success was lauded. Whatever happened to "standards"? Why are we, as a society, sanguine about this condition?

Trump's strategy, as always, is to "flood the zone" in the hope (apparently not forlorn) that not all of them will be rejected. But they should be. Because they are "manifestly unfit".

It would be hard to imagine a less qualified group. It seems he is using government resentment to rip apart government in hopes of causing a recession (to be blamed on Democrats) for the purpose of increasing the relative wealth of the richest by cutting everyone else back.

 

[NWRatCon]

A few things here. Trump had 4 years of campaigning along with 4 years of allied media pushing his BS. Harris had just 100 days, was a black woman and for the most part unknown. She had no time to get a decent message going. Trump barely won with 1.5% of the popular vote. The only people he ever beat were two women, which have inherently been handicapped in American presidential politics.

So how well did Trump actually do?

Actually, poorly. Like 2016 (and 2020), he didn't get the majority of the votes. If non- Trump voters had turned out, as they did in 2020, the election would have been reverse, and the country would have avoided this coming disaster.

Quality no longer has a quality or its own, but quantity is proving to create unprecedented chaos. Democrats, meanwhile, are honing their skills. They, as a legislative party, are dedicated. Jeffries is impressive. The press, on the other hand, has changed so little. They still haven't figured Trump out. They still chase their tails. He gets unbounded free press to spread the most outrageous mendacity.

But this is not JUST about Trump. The GOP continues to field, and elevate, the most incompetent boobs imaginable. Thune may, or may not, prove an exception, but name a Republican legislator, judge or official who actually garners respect. I'd have identified Wray, but he, too, surrendered in anticipation. This tendency toward cowardice is frightening to me. No one will stand up to the incompetence and blatant corruption in their ranks and at the top. Where are the principles that once guided the past of quality and competence? It's simply gone.

It doesn't happen overnight. It's been advancing for decades, corrupting and debilitating the party.

 

[NWRatCon]

For some reason, you don’t want to discuss the OP, so you’re deflecting to the election. Why is that?

He has nothing to add to the topic?

 

[tshade]

A few things here. Trump had 4 years of campaigning along with 4 years of allied media pushing his BS. Harris had just 100 days, was a black woman and for the most part unknown. She had no time to get a decent message going. Trump barely won with 1.5% of the popular vote. The only people he ever beat were two women, which have inherently been handicapped in American presidential politics.

So how well did Trump actually do?

51% of voters did not vote Trump-------not that well.

 

[Gaius46]

A few things here. Trump had 4 years of campaigning along with 4 years of allied media pushing his BS. Harris had just 100 days, was a black woman and for the most part unknown. She had no time to get a decent message going. Trump barely won with 1.5% of the popular vote. The only people he ever beat were two women, which have inherently been handicapped in American presidential politics.

So how well did Trump actually do?

It should not have been close. Harris should have wiped the floor with Trump. Losing by 1.5% to someone as spectacularly bad as Trump IS a landslide.

She started well totally dominating him in the debate but it was downhill from there. Part of that is her fault for running a crappy campaign but a big part of it is the perception that democrats cater to the fringe left and not the mainstream. A perception the democrats completely failed to counter.

 

[Gaius46]

Actually, poorly. Like 2016 (and 2020), he didn't get the majority of the votes. If non- Trump voters had turned out, as they did in 2020, the election would have been reverse, and the country would have avoided this coming disaster.

Quality no longer has a quality or its own, but quantity is proving to create unprecedented chaos. Democrats, meanwhile, are honing their skills. They, as a legislative party, are dedicated. Jeffries is impressive. The press, on the other hand, has changed so little. They still haven't figured Trump out. They still chase their tails. He gets unbounded free press to spread the most outrageous mendacity.

But this is not JUST about Trump. The GOP continues to field, and elevate, the most incompetent boobs imaginable. Thune may, or may not, prove an exception, but name a Republican legislator, judge or official who actually garners respect. I'd have identified Wray, but he, too, surrendered in anticipation. This tendency toward cowardice is frightening to me. No one will stand up to the incompetence and blatant corruption in their ranks and at the top. Where are the principles that once guided the past of quality and competence? It's simply gone.

It doesn't happen overnight. It's been advancing for decades, corrupting and debilitating the party.

Any Republican worth a damn - Cheney, Kinzinger etc - has been ostracized by the party. It's now no more than a cult of personality for Trump and I fear it'll stay that for the foreseeable future.

 

[ElChupacabra]

I agree Trump is unfit for office, but just how bad are the Democrats at this point that they would lose so comprehensively to someone like that?

There's that question, but it's also about the pushback against incumbents all over the world that factors in as well. We've seen election results throwing out incumbents across the world, so it has to be part of the conversation. The real question here is why the change agent people voted for was the same person voted out prior, which says a bit about the bad choices here.

 

[Brack]

She started well totally dominating him in the debate but it was downhill from there. Part of that is her fault for running a crappy campaign but a big part of it is the perception that democrats cater to the fringe left and not the mainstream. A perception the democrats completely failed to counter.

I don't think Harris ran that bad of a campaign. The biggest mistake that I think her campaign made is having over emphasized on the issue of abortion. I think that her campaign needed to emphasized the most on was with Trump's plan with regards to tariffs. A lot of Americans voted for Trump not really knowing what tariffs do.

 

[Bodi]

Let's start with definitions:
Manifestly: "show something clearly, through signs or actions", plain, obvious;
unfit: "not of the necessary quality or standard to meet a particular purpose," not qualified, incapable, incompetent.

I do this to set the parameters for my next statement: we are choosing leadership that is manifestly unfit. To wit: Donald Trump, JD Vance, Mike Johnson, much of the judiciary and virtually every cabinet nominee - Gaetz, Bondi, Hegseth, Kennedy, Patel, the list is long. This is not hyperbole. They are not even close calls, nuanced or debateable.

Trump is, among many things, a felon, a rapist, a failed businessman, an adjudicated frauster, and incompetent in a vast array of fields, from economics to science, and just basic logic. Even many of his supporters acknowledge this (but don't care). JD Vance is a failed attorney who was recruited and propped up as a "venture capitalist" by an ambitios billionaire for middling venture firm that has seen little success. Mike Johnson, everyone's last choice, is the most incompetent Speaker in decades, unable to even count votes. The cabinet choices Trump has made are a who's who of crackpots, schemers, and outright frauds with no relevant experience for their nominated positions.

In any other era, none of these individuals would have survived the multitudinous scandals they each bring to consideration, because, until recently, competence and good character were expected of authorities in our government. It wasn't that long ago that the Kennedy administration was described as "the best and the brightest", scientists were considered heroes, and academic success was lauded. Whatever happened to "standards"? Why are we, as a society, sanguine about this condition?

Trump's strategy, as always, is to "flood the zone" in the hope (apparently not forlorn) that not all of them will be rejected. But they should be. Because they are "manifestly unfit".

I assumed you were going to be talking about Biden and then Harris...

 

[Brack]

Actually, poorly. Like 2016 (and 2020), he didn't get the majority of the votes. If non- Trump voters had turned out, as they did in 2020, the election would have been reverse, and the country would have avoided this coming disaster.

I don't think so. While voter turnout nationally was a bit lower in 2024 from 2020, voter turnout was a bit higher within all of the seven battleground states in 2024 from 2020.

 

[Gaius46]

I don't think Harris ran that bad of a campaign. The biggest mistake that I think her campaign made is having over emphasized on the issue of abortion. I think that her campaign needed to emphasized the most on was with Trump's plan with regards to tariffs. A lot of Americans voted for Trump not really knowing what tariffs do.

I agree with you on both and that to me means she ran a poor campaign. She overemphasized an important but not vital to everyone issue and didn't adequately address a completely vital one.

 

[AZRWinger]

The demonization of center and left of center individuals by Republicans hasn’t seemed to have hurt them. Perhaps your thesis, that sharp criticism of your political opponents is self defeating, needs to be reassessed.

Based on Biden/Harris rhetoric in the 2024 campaign the so-called Democrat center preached Trump was a dictator itching to open concentration camps that would make FDR'S detention centers look like a summer at Martha's Vineyard for rich non-immigrants alongside copying a Handmaids Tale regulations. It is you who needs to reexamine your thesis. The collapse of Roevember ought to be a clue.

 

[Captain Adverse]

I agree Trump is unfit for office, but just how bad are the Democrats at this point that they would lose so comprehensively to someone like that?

I disagree with the bolded.

Biden was unfit for office, yet the propaganda organs of both the MSM and the Left-controlled Social Media (this was prior to Musk buying Twitter now known as "X") turned a barely functional partisan hack, whose political history was spotted with racist political action, lies, and damn lies, into some kind of paragon of virtue compared to Trump.

Meanwhile with Trump they pushed Russian Collusion, that he said Neo-Nazi's and White Supremacists were "very fine people," and so on. When Hillary was caught with secret documents on a home computer, and then sought to destroy evidence, Director Comey of the FBI said it was no big deal. With Trump, covered by the Presidential Records Act (created after Bill Clinton was found with "secret" documents in a home desk drawer), having some classified documents in boxes at Mar-a-Lago they STILL tried to bring criminal charges against him. But with BIDEN found having boxes of classified documents acquired as a Senator he shared with an autobiographer, with no right to keep or share them, DOJ found reasons NOT to charge him.

Then there were the 51 former intelligence officials who asserted the Hunter Biden Laptop was Russian disinformation during the 2020 election. I could go on and on, but it would not matter to TDS sufferers who think Trump is either the Devil, or any number of other canards (Nazi, White Supremacist, traitor, etc., etc., etc.)

The point remains that Trump IS fit for office, as 77.3 million people recently voted to elect him to. Despite the "lawfare" created for the purpose of derailing his election, damaging his image, and possibly incarcerating him.

 

[NWRatCon]

I don't think so. While voter turnout nationally was a bit lower in 2024 from 2020, voter turnout was a bit higher within all of the seven battleground states in 2024 from 2020.

But lower than it should have been, statistically. In some cases (NC, GA, AZ), Republican voter suppression efforts were successful. I don't know if that would have changed the result, but given the closeness, it is possible. On that basis alone, the party should be routinely rejected.

 

[jmotivator]

I disagree with the bolded.

Biden was unfit for office, yet the propaganda organs of both the MSM and the Left-controlled Social Media (this was prior to Musk buying Twitter now known as "X") turned a barely functional partisan hack, whose political history was spotted with racist political action, lies, and damn lies, into some kind of paragon of virtue compared to Trump.

Meanwhile with Trump they pushed Russian Collusion, that he said Neo-Nazi's and White Supremacists were "very fine people," and so on. When Hillary was caught with secret documents on a home computer, and then sought to destroy evidence, Director Comey of the FBI said it was no big deal. With Trump, covered by the Presidential Records Act (created after Bill Clinton was found with "secret" documents in a home desk drawer), having some classified documents in boxes at Mar-a-Lago they STILL tried to bring criminal charges against him. But with BIDEN found having boxes of classified documents acquired as a Senator he shared with an autobiographer, with no right to keep or share them, DOJ found reasons NOT to charge him.

Then there were the 51 former intelligence officials who asserted the Hunter Biden Laptop was Russian disinformation during the 2020 election. I could go on and on, but it would not matter to TDS sufferers who think Trump is either the Devil, or any number of other canards (Nazi, White Supremacist, traitor, etc., etc., etc.)

The point remains that Trump IS fit for office, as 77.3 million people recently voted to elect him to. Despite the "lawfare" created for the purpose of derailing his election, damaging his image, and possibly incarcerating him.

It's amazing that they still call Trump a rapist when he just won a defamation suit against ABC for them calling him a rapist...